I've decided to finish a project that I had thought up a little while ago. Basically it's a full party of characters that are all half-siblings.
I currently have a human cavalier, a half-drow monk, and a half-orc inquisitor that's ranged focused. Leaving an elf, half-elf, drow, and orc to be created. And DPS is taken care of so I'm looking to fill the other roles that would be needed.
I'm thinking that it would be really funny to make the orc be a bard. Just imagine this big old ugly orc come lumbering up. But instead of smashing you, he whips out a guitar and starts singing a ballad! And he's all sweet and funny until the inquisitor gets hurt. And then he's more "Did you just mess with my baby sister?"
I know orcs aren't really suited to being bards, but it's just such a funny image in my head that I really want to do it.
I think the drow could be a cleric. I was wondering if it could be to a demon lord of some kind. That would make for fun rp between him and the half-drow monk as she has one level of cleric of the Green Faith. Although I don't want him to be completely stuck with using Negative Energy, because that would make it a little hard for him to do any in-combat healing.
That leaves the elf and half-elf to figure out.
A Witch and a Witchguard Ranger...?
I was going the easy route first, with straight half-human races and their full non-human counterparts. Once I get them taken care of, I might look at those other races. Make it a BIG family.
I've got 3 characters on damage output. Two are melee and one is ranged. So I think that's covered for the most part. And even a support focused bard can pull out a shortsword and stab someone with it if needed.
Divine spells seem fairly covered between the cleric and inquisitor. And even the monk has a level of cleric and bards have the Cure spells, so basic healing is fully taken care of.
The bard has some arcane magic, and can double as the face or skill monkey. Even if he's an orc. Plus has support buffing and debuffing down.
I suppose the only traditional roles left are battlefield control arcane caster and sneaky trap finder. I could go sorcerer and have a second character that could act as a face. Or wizard who could also act as skill monkey. Rogues are the classic sneaky trap finder and can be a face or skill monkey depending on which stat you put more into.
But I think I want a little more pop in what classes I take than just traditional role coverage. Nothing wrong with them, I just like looking at all my options.
Ninjas could be sneak trap finding skill monkeys. Though are they really that different from rogues? And wow, that's a short archetype list.
As for a caster, there aren't that many full arcane casters, it seems. I might go for sorcerer and be a second face alongside the bard.
Apparently ninjas don't get trapfinding. So if I really want that class feature, I have to go with either classic rogue or investigator. If I don't need it, I could still go with ninja or have something else to cover a sneaky guy.
Not everyone is related to everyone, but they are all related to someone. The human-blooded characters all have the same father while each half-human shares a mother with their full-blooded counterpart. So the full orc will only be related to the half-orc. But the half-orc will be related to the human, half-elf, and half-drow. Same for the full elf and full drow.
Oh hey, there's a sorcerer archetype that gets a trapfinding-like ability. That covers that feature as well as arcane magic and being a second face.
So I can go ahead with ninja for being a sneaky skill monkey. Or really any class that gets stealth as a class skill and a good amount of skill ranks.
Or I can go with another martial class and make sure nothing can get to the squishy mages. Maybe a slayer?
Witchguard Ranger VMC Witch can be wonderfully flavorful, and combined with an actual Witch, you can fill a large range of utility.
Not really a fan of VMC. Losing half your feats to get half the features of a second class? No thank you. I'd rather just regular multi-class.
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If you don't like VMC, that is understandable.
As for losing half your feats, though, Ranger puts you in a relatively unique position to make up for the lost feats with Ranger Combat Style feats that skip prerequisites. You get a Familiar, some Patron Spells, a couple Hexes (you can Coven with the Witch you are guarding), a Cantrip...
The Plague Patron gets you access to Agent of the Grave as a Ranger. Lol.
I will think about it.
There has to be at least a little bit of irony in a party that includes a witch and an inquisitor.
Especially when you consider that one of them will be part orc and the other part elf.
If you don't like VMC, that is understandable.
As for losing half your feats, though, Ranger puts you in a relatively unique position to make up for the lost feats with Ranger Combat Style feats that skip prerequisites. You get a Familiar, some Patron Spells, a couple Hexes (you can Coven with the Witch you are guarding), a Cantrip...
The Plague Patron gets you access to Agent of the Grave as a Ranger. Lol.
What Patrons are the most interesting for this archetype?
Someone suggested Arrowsong Minstrel for the orc bard. It looks interesting and goes well with both orc characters being focused on bows. He could have been the one to teach his sister how to shoot.
What Patrons are the most interesting for this archetype?If you don't like VMC, that is understandable.
As for losing half your feats, though, Ranger puts you in a relatively unique position to make up for the lost feats with Ranger Combat Style feats that skip prerequisites. You get a Familiar, some Patron Spells, a couple Hexes (you can Coven with the Witch you are guarding), a Cantrip...
The Plague Patron gets you access to Agent of the Grave as a Ranger. Lol.
Depends which Patron Spells you want, honestly. Do you want Haste? Do you want Animate Dead?
Outside of the spells gained, I don't see which Witch Patron you choose making much, if any, mechanical difference.
So, I think that's everyone covered. Got a human cavalier, elf sorcerer, drow cleric, half-drow monk, orc bard, half-orc inquisitor, and half-elf slayer. Unless I want to do a pair of characters with my homebrew elf-orc race, I think I can get started on specific builds.
The cavalier, monk, and inquisitor were completed previously. So just gotta build the rest. I'm going to start with the bard.
The Half-Elf Slayer could be a Vanguard Slayer to hand out teamwork feats via Tactician. This will help spread out the uses per day between the Human Cavalier and the Slayer. Or provide Tactician for the family, if the Cavalier is of an archetype that trades theirs away.
I really like to take VMC Cavalier with Vanguard Slayer. You can get more Sneak Attack with the Order of the Blossom, or Aid Allies from Order of the Dragon. You also get more Tactician/teamwork feats.
I'll look at that archetype.
Ooh, idea. I could add my homebrew race that's a hybrid of elf and orc to the family. I wonder what class would be good for that. They have 2 different stat boosts. The first is +2 Con, +2 Int, -2 Cha. The alternate is +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Int. I admit it's a little bit of a stereotype of pretty but dumb and ugly but smart. But I was trying to figure out a good balance of what the child could have inherited from its parents.
For whatever reason, I associate the two separate stat blocks available with being the result of a loving relationship between the parents, and, umm, a not so loving relationship between the parents. I really don't mean to start the whole Half-Orc origins nonsense... but it feels that each of those stat blocks may associate with different alternative racial features, possibly related to one's backstory/parents/origins...
The version with the Constitution boost is a product of chaos, mayhem, war... their origins hardens them, but makes them cold/calculating and unrelatable.
The version with the Charisma boost is the product of love and diversity. Beauty in all things. Family dinners. All that BS. Victory has robbed them and left them dumb/weak.
That's a nice way of thinking it.
For an Orc-Elf with the +2 Con, +2 Int... I vote Magus, possibly Eldritch Archer with an Orc HornBow (depending how many archers the family has). Eldritch Knight or Arcane Archer makes sense, as well.
For an Elf-Orc with the +2 Cha, +2 Dex... I would probably build an Intimidation focused build. Possibly UnRogue to pick up Trapfinding (the family seems to be lacking).
But the Orc-Elf could be an Investigator just as easily. Effortless Aid is always nice to have.
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It's kinda funny. The elf archer has been a fantasy classic ever since Tolkien but here I am giving all the bows to the orcs.
Here's the link to the elf-orc info if anyone wants to take a look at it. Link I guess it could still use a little work, but just picking out a class or two for the big family can still be done.
You could easily make an Elf-Orc Arrowsong Minstrel 10/Arcane Archer 10.. Arcane Strike and the Gloves of Arcane Striking, turns your arrows into splash weapons. Dervish Sikke can bump your Bard stuffs during the prestige class.
That would leave the Orc-Elf to be a Holomog Demolitionist Investigator, playing Sunder games with a Butchering Axe. Effortless Aid is always good to have, and it would give you Trapfinding.
I don't think I want two arrowsong minstrels since that's what I'm going with the full orc. But maybe an archer from a different class. A Zen Archer or Eldritch Archer.
Arrow Champion Swashbuckler... take advantage of the Charisma. It's also a great Phalanx Fighter/Hooded Champion Ranger multiclass if you want to worship Shelyn and switch hitter Bladed Brush with a Glaive...
If the Drow Cleric is an Evangelist [archetype], they can pick up some of the Bard stuffs, if/when the Orc Arrowsong Minstrel goes into Arcane Archer. It is a family, after all. The Evangelist Cleric has Combat Reflexes, Longspear, Flagbearer, Banner of Ancient Kings...
There's an archer swash? I will take a look at it.
A backup. It's always good to make sure multiple people have a way to solve a problem.
Taking the Orc Arrowsong Minstrel into Arcane Archer is pretty legit. Going ten and ten, you end with a +17 BAB (full BAB for combat feat prerquisites), CL 17, and +8/+12/+10 base saves. You do lose out on the Arrowsong Minstrel's 18th level multi-target ranged Spellstrike, and three free Sorcerer spells, though. And your Bardic Performance stuffs ends at ten... a Dervish Sikke can help some, but it is still something to consider. Hopefully the extra BAB and all the Enhance/Imbue Arrow stuffs makes up for it. That is up for you to decide.
Without an Evangelist Cleric or Sensei Monk or Exemplar Brawler to pick up the slack, losing that Inspire Courage could be too painful for Arcane Archer to be worth it. But, if that Drow Cleric wants to buff all those spiders they are summoning...
*shudder* Spiders..... I'll look at the prc, though if my elf-orc goes into a magical archer class, he could probably end up going into Arcane Archer himself.
Ok, so if I go into another archer build for an elf-orc, what would be decent? I don't want to double up on any classes. Zen Archer Monk seems nice, but it's incompatible with unchained monk. So no ki powers, style strikes, and a penalty when flurrying.
Eldritch Archer Magus is a thing. Then of course there's always good old Ranger. And Fighters get a feat every level so there's plenty of room to build there.
Besides the classes you've named slayers make good archers, as do warpriests. Hunters can be interesting with ranger archery spells (aspect of the falcon & named bullet/greater, mainly) on a 6-level caster. Play against type and you can make a useful if not great archer from any class at all. I put together a sorcerer archer once, someone else played it and reportedly it worked well enough.
I see. Well, I'll keep building the other characters for now. I'm sure that'll bring up some ideas for another archery build.