I'm making an emergency back-up to my NG hill dwarf acolyte Life cleric of Desna 13 in a RotRL 5th Edition conversion.
He's going to be a CN dark elf criminal college of lore bard 11/Great Old One-pact warlock 2.
I want him to primarily be a buffer and de-buffer, with some healing and battlefield control, and of course ranged striking via eldritch blast.
My warlock spells will dissonant whispers, hellish rebuke, and hex.
What are some good non-Concentration spells to select?
I already plan on gaining bless, counterspell, Evard's black tentacles, and mass healing word via Magical Secrets. The first 2 I'm definitely getting. I'm also considering circle of power.
Any suggestions?
AC 15, 81 hp, 8 16 13 10 12 20.
Thanks!
Sleep has been effective for my Bard levels 1-6, not sure about lvl 13.
I know this is the kind of advice a lot of people don't like, but are you sure you want to grab Bless? It's a great spell, but you'll find your gameplay very similar to your Cleric's. Bards have some very fun concentration spells to play with (like Greater Invisibility and Polymorph).
My bard's showstoppers are Polymorph and Conjure Animals (the latter taken with secrets, he's level 8). The non-concentration bard stuff is generally pretty conditional.
I have a bard who has started greater invisibility-ing our monk and he's suddenly very popular. Bane is a good debuff if you have other casters in the party.
We're probably finishing up RotRL tomorrow, but I want a backup in case my cleric dies again. Or gets petrified again.
His story is that he was a bard, but then got his throat slit, and turned to the Great Old Ones to give him his "voice" back. He's going to use creepy open-mouthed hisses to communicate, plus telepathy.
The BBEG is a spellcaster, so I think I'll definitely take circle of power.
In another campaign, the monk is a Halfling, and being able to re-roll 1s on flurries is amazing!
Here's what I went with:
0: blade ward, eldritch blast, minor illusion, prestidigitation, true strike, vicious mockery
1: bane, bless, dissonant whispers, healing word, hellish rebuke, hex, sleep
2: crown of madness, heat metal, shatter
3: counterspell, mass healing word, stinking cloud
4: confusion, greater invisibility
5: circle of power, hold person
6: true seeing
What do you think?
My DM said I could have 3 rare or uncommon items and 3 common items, so I went with:
1. Cloak of Displacement
2, Ring of Protection
3. Rod of the Pact Keeper +2
2 potions of healing
1 potion of spider climbing
Game is in an hour, so I hope these work out OK. Or even better, my main PC doesn't die and I don't have to use this fellow.
Tonight I didn't die--I had all my class features stolen from me.
It was in Rise of the Rune Lords.
A BBEG had a prisoner of my cleric's religion. We had nearly wiped out all the BBEG's minions, so she said she would kill the prisoner if we didn't stop fighting. She didn't seem trustworthy, so we didn't stop fighting. The BBEG killed prisoner. Then my goddess abandoned me. Which made me unable to heal my allies or raise the prisoner.
Why is acceptable to arbitrarily remove the powers of divine casters, but no other class?
Rant to follow, probably in a more appropriate thread/forum.
Tonight I didn't die--I had all my class features stolen from me.
It was in Rise of the Rune Lords.
<Snip>
Why is acceptable to arbitrarily remove the powers of divine casters, but no other class?
On the whole, it isn't. It's possible that your GM was attempting to throw in a moral quandary, but as you've described it they were basically being a jerk.
For what it's worth the rules as written state that cleric powers come from their devotion to their god, not the god's attitude towards the cleric, in part because there are settings (Eberron) where there aren't manifest deities whom can actually demonstrate such opinions. Even following the philosophy of "Your god can take away your class abilities if you displease them", you should still need to break the tenets of your faith, and unless said tenets include "Thou shalt lay down your arms if a villain threatens an innocent" then despite Hollywood loving it, it is a horrible choice as it not only permits the BBEG to (probably) escape justice but empowers him to capture/terrorize/oppress/slaughter even more people, starting with the PCs.
As a (probably redundant) FYI: None of the BBEGs from that AP (by my recollection) were written as using human shield tactics. Pretty sure that was your GMs creation.
Time to become an anti-class and go on a crusade against the evil God who tricked you to believing she was actually good - because no good god would abandon their follower for the evil actions of another.
That's what happens when you follow the deity of cinema but refuse to respect its tropes.
Seems like a mismatch in game expectations, the GM should discuss with you guys if he wants classic heroics. Likewise, taking powers isn't cool, there could be more natural repercussions to not trying to find the better way (ex. guilt, ex. NPC had an important job to do but now won't come back from heaven after being executed).
Is it time to ask whether or not Warlocks are the new 3.5 Ranger in that it's good for a dip and not much else?
We only play about once a month, otherwise I would have tried a warlock out. One of our players plays one in our non-main campaign. She finds it a little monotonous, but she likes her familiar. Her husband is going to be playing one in our next main campaign, too, probably.
I like how a lot of the Charisma-based classes are kind of dippable.
Then he lied about that.
He specifically said that the encounter was supposed to be customized to match any clerics in the party.
WTF???
I haven't played the AP, but I assume "customized to match any clerics in the party" means "worships the same god as any clerics in the party." Ergo, the level loss seems like a bit of a dick move.
Exactly.
No, it just sucks and destroys any trust between the player and the DM.
It's also not fun.
You know, you should have an open and honest talk with your GM about this. Maybe your GM thinks it's a good story arc, but doesn't realize the importance of talking to the player about it first. Maybe your GM has plans to make it quickly come back or for you to join a different good deity (and again, didn't realize that he should have talked to you first).
Let's try and assume a simple mistake before we assume melevolence.
You could find out that your GM has no idea about morality and philosophy and is the kind of person who vaguely blames the good guys for not stopping the bad guys soon enough. Maybe he just doesn't think deeply in that area of knowledge and wasn't prepared for your emotions regarding it.
And then you could find out that the GM has a power trip or is a jerk, and got mad at you because you didn't play out his story exactly as he was expecting, turning the game into a player vs GM game.
I have a player who used to be a GM like that (would get mad that you foiled his plan or story and turn t into player vs GM), and the more we talked about it openly and honestly, and the more he GM'd, the more he learned that it was a bad style of GMing. Now, he's a great GM. Sometimes people just need to make mistakes and learn.
We're doing the final chapter of the Rise of the Rune Lords Adventure Path, so there is no time in the campaign for that "plot" or "story line."
Last night was supposed to be the campaign's finale. For really personal reasons, the gaming hosts will be unavailable for at least a few months, so we were trying to wrap things up.
Instead, the DM pulled this crap. It was mean to me, really insensitive to our hosts needs, and now we might not get a chance to finish a campaign we have been playing for over a year.
Another point of interest is that we took a 3 or 4 month break from the RotRL AP when the DM was incommunicado for a while.
It is a crappy way to end a campaign.
Yeah. I'm not even sure I want to finish it any more.
But I don't want to ruin it for everybody else, either.
The DM may have also thought you wanted an excuse to play the new character you made.
Sometimes, you just have to suck it up and be the better person for the betterment of everyone else. You may have to be that person this time so everyone else can enjoy the finale. Then wash your hands of that GM and be on your marry way. Heck, you may even give a good impression to everyone else that they'll be a part of your next game (or invite you to the next one, but not that GM).
Being the better person leaves strong impression on decent people. That may come back to help you some day. It happened to my father, 20 years later when he got laid off, an old manager from when he was a teenager remembered his good work ethics and good character, hired him and paid for his education in a field he had no knowledge on. But he remembered my father, and based on the impression my father left, that man was willing to take the risk. Gave my dad a job for the next five years at a time when he was out of work and was worried we'd have to sell the house.
And while you're busy being the better person to them, feel free to vent to us. We'll be your friend here. :)
The DM may have also thought you wanted an excuse to play the new character you made.
If that was the case, he would have killed off the character, not cripple it.
Granted, the encounter began with a Charisma save, that, if you failed, you began killing yourself. You made a Death Save at the beginning of your save, and a Charisma save to end the effect. 3 failed Death Saves meant you died.
So maybe he wanted me to kill myself? But that's a bizarre and extreme reaction to expect of me.
There's also just retiring from the adventuring life >_>
In the (pen)ultimate episode of an epic quest that has been going on for almost 2 years?
If he planned to make me angry, he has succeeded.
The DM owns all the AP material.
So we're stuck with him.
Hopefully I can endure one more session.
It's a trap!