Need character advice for Curse of the Crimson Throne

[Brakiri]

Dear all,

we will start the above mentioned campaign tomorrow and i'm still at odds with myself what to play.

I'm one of those players who like to be useful in as many situations as possible. So i like to play spellcasters, the "face" (Bards) and so on.
But i also like playing martial characters from time to time because i can also drool about me making ludicrous amounts of damage. ;)

The main problem is, that martial characters often lack other strengths and that they are less useful in most other situations besides combat than other classes.
What i'm trying to say is, that it would be hard for me to play the whole campaign with a martial character.

So i need a little advice from players and GMs who already played this campaign.

For information, the other characters are:
Barbarian, Magus, some oracle/something hybrid and my humble self.

So in effect we lack a full spellcaster, either wizard or cleric (and a face). Problem with a cleric is, its really hard to do anything else besides healing and buffing, but playing a wizard makes us short on healing powers.

In effect i had two ideas:

1. an aasimar evangelist cleric of Erastil with an animal companion later and sacred summons for support.

2. a samsaran exploiter wizard with mythic past life as trait and 3 healing spells from the bard list (CLW, CMW and CSW).

I would be very grateful if you could point me in the right direction, which would be more helpful or even better: more fun, while considering the whole campaign.

If you have other character ideas, please feel free to offer them.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I know that there are other threads asking for advice about this, but i wanted to ask from my personal perspective of RPG-"needs" and also from the perspective of playing the whole campaign with one character.

[Eltacolibre]

If you want to do summons on cleric, better to play Herald Caller quite honestly so you can be angel summoner.

My personal concept (Which I will probably never plays...I'm mostly the GM in my group): Half-elf Streets Mystery oracle with the covetous curse, essentially a greedy guy who is chosen by the streets. Streets Mystery works perfectly in an urban environment...and curse of the crimson throne is an urban campaign. It's flavorful and useful at the same time.

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

Have you considered playing a Skald? It's a good mix of Martial/Magical, lets you be the face because they're Charisma based, and still smash pretty hard. Your Barbarian will be happy for the free rage, and even your Magus might be happy to save spells occasionally by succumbing to the raging song on occasion.

[avr]

A wizard with use magic device, the pragmatic activator trait and a few scrolls and wands can handle a certain amount of healing over and above what your second plan would manage. Actually, an exploiter wizard is going to have trouble sparing the spell slots for healing with no school spell slots.

On the other hand it is possible to make a cleric, oracle or shaman (or a witch with the healing patron) which can do a certain amount of battlefield control. For a cleric either variant channeling or the channeling variance feat can do so if you're willing to channel negative energy, or there are fear-based spells, or toppling spell + spiritual weapon/ally, the spell burst of radiance to blind enemies, and more besides.

If it's something else you're concerned with (some sort of utility perhaps?) there's probably still a way to do it with a cleric. They're more flexible than you seem to think.

Edit: due to wands and the infernal healing spell, my own definition of a healer is 'someone with restoration on their spell list'. It's expensive to replicate with items and covers a number of important effects.

[tonyz]

A witch can handle healing (to some extent; pick the right patrons) and be a full arcane spellcaster.

You could go Eldritch Knight or Dragon Disciple and have considerable arcane power as well as your martial proclivities, though you'd effectively be a martial character at low levels.

A ranger gives you good martial stuff, light healing, and lots of skills (which could come in handy).

[Brakiri]

Man this is hard.

Witch seems ok, but lacks a lot of the battlefield control spells like the create pit series of spells, haste can only be obtained via patron etc.

Hmm..but because i was thinking about playing a samsaran anyway i could take these spells via the mythic past life trait....

The skald is nice, but the problem is that i think we need at least one full caster to prevail.

@Herald Caller.
The concept for the Evangelist was to be able to heal while filling the bard/face-part as well AND, in combination with the animal domain, Boon Companion and Sacred Summons, would also be able to provide melee support if needed.

Please keep it coming :)

[tonyz]

Witches don't really do battlefield control as much as they do debuffing. I'd definitely look at a wizard/sorceror if you wanted the full range of control spells -- a conjuror, maybe with the Acadaemae Graduate feat, would certainly fit Korvosa thematically.

[Brakiri]

You are right, but i don't want to play a specialist wizard. My GM told me that this rule from the academy cannot be broken so i'm "out" ;)
Summon should only be one part of the concept, so i can't invest too much of my feats into it.

I thought about using this concept (see link) which i found really appealing. Guess i have to shelf my wizard fantasies for a while ;)

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2sv67?Advice-for-creating-a-Mystic-Theurge#20

[Gulthor]

It'd be interesting to know more about the "Oracle something hybrid". What's the hybrid? VMC? If so, you still have a full divine caster.

Oracle/Paladin? That gives you three melee frontliners, so archer bard or Half-Orc Skald VMC Cavalier (Amplified Rage at 11) could be quite enticing.

Personally, I find the 6-level casters to be very effective, so I'd personally be looking in that area for myself. Maybe an Occultist or Alchemist.

I find I'm hanging on that Oracle before I'm able to make a solid suggestion, though.

[VampByDay]

I'm pretty partial to occultists. A melee-centered occultist has super-high umd, a high int for a decent skill set, and with the transmutation implement can give themselves a bonus to strength and can enchant their sword with just about any power. At level six, using bane, they can effectively turn a +2 weapon into a +5 weapon. With the conjuration impliment they can do some off-heals. . . Seems like everything you want.

[taks]

UMD, ability to fight, lots of skills... seems like either a bard (archaeologist or detective) or an investigator (empiricist) to me. They are both a little greedy in terms of buff capability, but they contribute to the party substantially overall.

The investigator is my favorite and is probably better in combat. Extend, enhance, and eventually, eternal potion talents are ridiculous, too.

[Davic The Grey]

The party I ran through Curse of the Crimson Throne had no full casters in it. Worked out fine for them. Investigator or inquisitor are both really strong choices for what you're looking for.

[Dave Justus]

Personally I wouldn't worry to much about the healing. At a minimum your oracle hybrid should be able to use wands and that can take care of out of combat healing and some emergencies.

That being said, given your group I think your first thought of the evangelist cleric is probably the strongest option. You have at least 2 strikers in the group already (barbarian and magus) and possibly a 3rd, depending on what the oracle hybrid is, and that means that some good old fashioned bardsong will go over really nice.

It will also give you the ability to play either controller or support, and even the ability to do both in one turn (move action or faster bardsong + a controller spell). I'd probably focus on summon monster for my control, not so much as attackers but for blocking charge lanes, creating flanks, and stuff like that. Obviously you will have plenty of emergency healing as well. And if the oracle-hybrid ends up being either a support or control build, you can focus more on the other without having to make any real changes to your character.

I'd definitely take the feather subdomain. I probably wouldn't use my AC for a combatant, but instead use it as a mount for mobility (being able to start up inspire courage, cast a spell and reposition all in one round is pretty huge. I'd go with a mounted reach concept, and probably take an axe-beak as my AC to match the feather domain and have matching reach. Starting Wis at a 16 would be plenty, leaving room for other stats to be decent.

[Brakiri]

@Dave Justus

thank you for the tipp. I think i will try the evangelist. And nice idea with the axe beak, i will try that.

@all:

Thank you all for your tipps and insights, i think i will try the evangelist, but i will keep this thread in mind, in case i need to change the character.

Best to you and good gaming!