I'm building a new character for Rise of the Runelords. Dm is making us go with core rulebook classes only (all archetypes should be available) and core races with only 15 points to play with and he says he's going to go hard on us. Knowing my group I'll probably have to provide healing, but as our groups tend to be martial heavy, I may also need to provide blasting and controlling. Does anyone have any good ideas on how I can go about this? I'm thinking druid might be good since it can handle all those spell roles and the ac won't be affected by my low ability scores.
Druid is a good class and can be blasty (especially if you pick an elemental domain instead of animal companion - since you're already martial heavy the AC might be overboard). However they are actually very poor healers, except for around 3rd-5th level when you can stock up goodberries.
Cleric is an easy choice of course. Dwarf Cleric of Torag with Earth Domain for Acid Dart is pretty darn effective. Sarenrae with Fire domain also nice.
If you don't already have one, Bards make excellent healers as spontaneous casters (whereas Druids have to memorize cures). Not strong blasters, except for sound burst, but you'll probably have trouble with forcing Fortitude saves. With a high enough UMD you could use blasty wands - there's a few that pop up throughout the AP.
Don't fear the 15 point-pool - just spread them around to get maximum effectiveness and you'll be fine.
My favorite blend of arcane and divine roles is always the witch. They aren't as blasty, of course, but I find them better at covering both roles than almost any other character.
Wizard is your best choice if you're limited to CRB classes only, but with all archetypes available. Get the Exploiter Wizard archetype from the new Advanced Class Guide if you can, otherwise go with Conjuration (Teleportation) or Divination (Foresight).
This AP has some especially good RP potential for a Wizard, and I can see the Counterspell exploits really coming in handy, especially later on.
Yeah, it's only core. If it was more I'd probably go shaman or oracle. I did do a work up of a dwarf theologian earth cleric w/ stonesinging and I may go with that. I also want to look through the druid archetypes.
Str 12, Dex 12, Con 15, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 9
Enough Str to carry your gear, deal some damage.
Enough Dex for full plate if you want to get it, and to aim Acid Darts.
Enough Con, boostable.
Enough Int to spread some points around
Enough Wis to cast spells for nearly the whole AP
Low Cha, boostable if you want.
Life Subschool wizard can be interesting too.
My idea for a cleric was similar, but I had a higher charisma by tanking int so I could selectively channel. I'll check out the life subschool.
With a strong martial group, you don't usually need in-combat healing, but a higher charisma can still give lots more channeling.
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I recommend a evanglist cleric if all the archetypes are available.
Your group tends to be melee heavy. Giving them b ardic performance will push them further.
you can heal as a cleric. Buy a wand and prep a couple you should be fine. Ignore channel energy feats...
You want to be a full caster for this campaign.
Druid isn't the best pick for this campaign compared to the other full caster. That all being said this is a great campaign for wizard, cleric, and paladin. Also druid requires a good point buy.
I'll take a look at Evangelist. I'm really looking forward to this ap.