So I'm building a cleric cohort for my Wrath of the righteous character and I've been looking over several guides but want to ensure I'm not overlooking something new that these guides aren't covering. First a few basics of the what and how
•I'm not going to be bringing her into combat; being non mythic and 2 levels short, she's going to stay back in our stronghold
•Her main combat contribution will be pre buffing NPC combatants before they fast strike in using teleportation magic
•Her primary role will be organising and directing our NPCs while we're out doing things, also some item creation would be nice to fit in but is secondary to the above roles.
Thanks in advance all :)
So...what assistance did you want? And what level would she be? You want a full 20 level build? Also you might want to say what religion you and the rest of the party are and/or what you hope the cleric would be. Or at least any religion or alignment you want to avoid.
Oh, actually its important what your alignment is since there is a penalty if it doesn't match yours. Also any budget in GP you'd look at for helping her with equipment and/or anything special you happen to have lying around that she could use.
Meirril wrote: So...what assistance did you want? And what level would she be? You want a full 20 level build? Also you might want to say what religion you and the rest of the party are and/or what you hope the cleric would be. Or at least any religion or alignment you want to avoid.
Oh, actually its important what your alignment is since there is a penalty if it doesn't match yours. Also any budget in GP you'd look at for helping her with equipment and/or anything special you happen to have lying around that she could use.
Looking for build advice, such as suggested feats for the roles
Currently level 7
My character took beyond morality so I'd like her to be attempting to emulate that, but no penalties regardless
Gear is basically in the suggestion box stage at this point, anything to enhance the given roles, even if unaffordable now.
Administration and prebuffing, and a little magic item crafting scarcely requires a build. The glory/heroism subdomain and the encouraging spell metamagic feat might help with buffing, skill focus (spellcraft), craft wondrous item and craft magic arms and armor cover making equipment reliably. If glory/heroism doesn't fit the concept don't worry, a cleric is good enough at buffing and it frees a feat up for extend spell or something.
Encouraging spell, that's one I hadn't seen, thanks.
That's the kind of thing I want to make sure I don't miss, so why I posted
Boren wrote: So I'm building a cleric cohort for my Wrath of the righteous character and I've been looking over several guides but want to ensure I'm not overlooking something new that these guides aren't covering. First a few basics of the what and how
•I'm not going to be bringing her into combat; being non mythic and 2 levels short, she's going to stay back in our stronghold
This causes your cohort to not gain any XP. Then when you level, they do not. Tht is a problem with the leadership feat.
Boren wrote: •Her main combat contribution will be pre buffing NPC combatants before they fast strike in using teleportation magic This might be sufficient to count for some XP, but check with the GM.
Boren wrote: •Her primary role will be organising and directing our NPCs while we're out doing things, also some item creation would be nice to fit in but is secondary to the above roles.
Thanks in advance all :)
Being 2 levels lower just means they annot go into the heat of the battle. Providing support spells, buffs, and some battlefield control, however, can be achieved at a distance.
Heck, I had my cohort witch land Blindness on a dragon of at least APL CR.
/cevah
Cevah the bigger issue is the non mythic part, many mythic monsters have powers with no save if you're non mythic so trying to bring her anywhere near a real fight for us is just short of a certain death sentence. Plus our group is kinda over the top for direct combat power, so the role that most needs filling in the party is an admin role lol
I've spoken with my DM and we've agreed on them mostly focusing on side quests and things that don't warrant the parties attention but will be helpful to us or the friendly NPCs in the city. This is also partly because while my DM agrees I should have leadership for story reasons he's not so keen in adding another body in the combat rotation, and I agree it's simply not needed.
This is another reason I'm looking for advice as all the standard advice assumes a standard "with the full party" setup.
Thanks
That still leaves the XP problem, Without a way to have the cohort gain XP, they will never level. If you can get the GM to level the cohort without the XP, then it can work.
/cevah
The cohort could use downtime rules to catch-up.
Cevah wrote: That still leaves the XP problem, Without a way to have the cohort gain XP, they will never level. If you can get the GM to level the cohort without the XP, then it can work.
/cevah
My DM and I have already agreed on this, and my cohort will level from her own actions independent of the party. Kinda like a mission system from a few RPGs that have come out. Sorry if that wasn't clear in my last post.
Cevah wrote: That still leaves the XP problem, Without a way to have the cohort gain XP, they will never level. If you can get the GM to level the cohort without the XP, then it can work.
/cevah
And where do you get this from?
Leadership says "A cohort does not count as a party member when determining the party's XP. Instead, divide the cohort's level by your level. Multiply this result by the total XP awarded to you, then add that number of experience points to the cohort's total."
Which means the Cohort gains xp from the player's activities. It doesn't say anything about them not getting xp just because they aren't present. It also says they don't gain a share of xp from the party. The inference is that they don't gain xp based on their own actions, but are dependent on the Leader for xp.
Awarding Experience
Quote: At the end of each session, award XP to each PC that participated. If a PC is not with the party, they get no XP.
You think a cohort that is not with the party should get XP? That means a cohort gets XP for not doing the adventure. I don't think so.
/cevah
Cevah and Meirril
Please do not turn this into a debate on how cohorts gain experience. That has already been settled with my DM and is not relevant to the question at hand. If you both wish to discuss the issue further please create a new thread.
Thank you
Boren wrote: Cevah and Meirril
Please do not turn this into a debate on how cohorts gain experience. That has already been settled with my DM and is not relevant to the question at hand. If you both wish to discuss the issue further please create a new thread.
Thank you
You know, while some of us are providing our time and experience to help you with your question and concerns, this thread isn't just for you. People look at threads like this one because they have similar interests and concerns.
This thread will more than likely come up in future searches. If you didn't do a search on this topic yourself, you might want to do that before starting a new thread in the future to see if anyone already posted a similar thread that would provide you with what you are seeking.
Regardless of your personal feelings on this, there is value in having this discussion that is pertinent to the subject in hand even if your GM has already decided on how it will play out in your game.
Cevah wrote: Awarding Experience
Quote: At the end of each session, award XP to each PC that participated. If a PC is not with the party, they get no XP.
You think a cohort that is not with the party should get XP? That means a cohort gets XP for not doing the adventure. I don't think so.
/cevah
You are absolutely correct in that Players earn XP. Actually NPCs don't earn xp. Familiars don't earn XP. Eidolons don't earn xp. Animal Companions and Mounts do not gain xp. There are very few rules where NPCs earn xp. What rules do that? Cohorts.
No where in the Cohort rules does it say they gain xp for their own actions. Actually it says the very opposite. They gain xp from the actions of the PC. Those are the advancement rules that cohorts have. All other abilities that grant a NPC to a PC give advancement rules that are strictly tied to the character's level. Cohorts don't earn xp, Leadership advances cohorts to keep pace with the player without directly referencing level because cohorts can be more than 2 levels behind the PC when gained but are expected to catch up to 2 levels below the PC and remain there.
Once again, the Cohort doesn't earn xp. Not for its own actions, not for participating in adventures. Not for participating in downtime activities. It only receives xp when the player earns xp. At no point does anything say the Cohort needs to be present. This is just a personal judgement on Cevah's part.
You don't want to see it in your game? Sure. GM's prerogative. You want to discourage this in other people's games? Fine. I perfectly understand how you could find that sort of thing distasteful. But don't pretend its against the rules. It definitely isn't against RAW and in my personal opinion it isn't against RAI either.
When we were running the Kingmaker AP almost everybody had Leadership. None of our cohorts came with the party but they all instead held important positions in the government. Even in a situations where you normally have a cohort with you, if you come across a village being terrorized by a pack of monsters a player shouldn't be penalized for leaving their cohort to guard the village while the party tracks down the monsters. And there is a very long tradition in D&D of leaving cohorts and mounts at the entrance to a dungeon while the party delves. Or should we depend on 1st level hirelings to stand in front of the Temple of Elemental Evil and watch the Paladin's mount?
Actually it's called thread hijacking and it's very rude especially after the original poster asked you to stop.
Boren wrote: Actually it's called thread hijacking and it's very rude especially after the original poster asked you to stop. It was not my intent. Meirril asked my rules source. I like to provide rules based opinions, so I quoted my source.
I do agree with him that these threads get looked at later, and so having the relevant quotes is not a bad thing.
As you have the XP issue covered, I see no problem with your proposed use of a cohort.
/cevah
Cevah wrote: Boren wrote: Actually it's called thread hijacking and it's very rude especially after the original poster asked you to stop. It was not my intent. Meirril asked my rules source. I like to provide rules based opinions, so I quoted my source.
I do agree with him that these threads get looked at later, and so having the relevant quotes is not a bad thing.
As you have the XP issue covered, I see no problem with your proposed use of a cohort.
/cevah I have no issue with this being brought up and pointed out as a possible concern I simply did not want this to become a back and fourth about a topic that deserves it's own thread in the rules section for proper debate. Thank you for understanding.
All that said any further suggestions? Right now leaning towards a Glory domain with heavy use of extend spell to pre buff NPCs and occasionally the party before making 'deep strike' moves anything anyone can think of that I'm missing?
The eclisietheurge (or however I am mispelling it) or evangelist archetypes could do some nice things here. I don't know the mythic rules well at all, but I am currently playing an alchemist and noticed several alchemic items that have mythic uses, so maybe alchemy skill could be nice?
Edit: also the feat 'bless equipment' could be real nice if you have a situation where the short duration can be utilized.
Java Man wrote: The eclisietheurge (or however I am mispelling it) or evangelist archetypes could do some nice things here. I don't know the mythic rules well at all, but I am currently playing an alchemist and noticed several alchemic items that have mythic uses, so maybe alchemy skill could be nice?
Edit: also the feat 'bless equipment' could be real nice if you have a situation where the short duration can be utilized.
Evangelist is never a bad idea, but holy crap Bless Equipment Bane would get ridiculous as they should always know what they're going to fight before they go; I thought they learned from the Ebberon Artifacer about giving flexible bane abilities but guess not.
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