Alright hivemind, I’m starting a campaign for a different group than my regular group, and we had 4 PC’s + me as DM. They’re all buddies from work who have never played before (1 guy has experience in D&D but not Pathfinder), and we already had our zero sesh and we’re ready to start, but we had 1 guy bail on us because of shift change.
Anywho, I’m contemplating making a DMNPC for at least the first few levels, maybe longer, just to help shore up the group a bit. I’m thinking he’ll hang around til maybe around lvl4-7ish, or whenever I think the floaties can come off.
Group is Android URogue, Gathlain Fey Bloodline Sorcerer, Elven Singer of Blades archetype Magus, and we’re starting at level 1. I’d like to have a DMNPC who 1) doesn’t steal the show (none of these guys are minmaxed), 2) doesn’t require a lot of thought/upkeep (I already have enough to do), and 3) Isn’t a 4/4 martial like paladin, barb, or fighter.
All 3pp content is available. What class would you recommend? I was batting around a Kitsune Bard, Reach Cleric, or maybe Oracle of Battle. Someone who can buff and have noticeable but not stellar combat prowess.
Kobold Cleric focused on Aid Another with Dazing Channel as a "get out of jail free" card...
I named mine Hbob, he was gestalt with Sacled Fist UnMonk, and was a fan-favorite for the first ~9 levels of my Kingmaker campaign.
From your suggestion Oracle of Battle seems like the best choice. It fills the spot your group is not already covering and it will require less bookkeeping than the rest of your ideas. Bard has a few perfomance to keep track off, cleric must prepare spell each days. Battle Oracle just has like 2 spells + cure wounds and that's it, you can pick Skills at arm at 1st level and weapon mastery at second level and you're set until level 7.
For race, it really depends on the tone you want to give to your game and at that level of optimisation i don't think it really matter. Rather think of a way to make the NPC compelling without making it look too much like a snowflake. Unless your group is into that which is fine, i just personally find it a tad annoying.
Kobold Cleric focused on Aid Another with Dazing Channel as a "get out of jail free" card...
I named mine Hbob, he was gestalt with Sacled Fist UnMonk, and was a fan-favorite for the first ~9 levels of my Kingmaker campaign.
How are you doing the Dazing Channel? Is that Rulership Variant Channeling?
Yes, it was via Variant Channeling [rulership]... worshipped Ra, I believe, or some other Orision deity with rulership in their portfolio.
Had the trait to raise my channeling DC's, and was gestalt'ed with the Charisma-focused UnMonk... Hbob kept his Wisdom exactly where it had to be in order to keep up with his Cleric casting, but was otherwise almost completely focused on Charisma... so me Dazing Channel was potent AF, on the rare occasion I ever used it.
Someone at the table had to leave early in the campaign, because life happens. So we got a replacement, and life goes on... it was this aforementioned replacement's second session with the group... still early enough in the campaign Hbob was palling around with the party (so before level 9), and bandits were still a thing the party was hunting with extreme prejustice.
The party (and Hbob) was crossing some open ground, and the Inquisitor (keen Perception) spotted bandits in the treeline. On this rare occasion, the party decided to open with Hbob's Dazing Channel... my Fast Movement was just enough to make me a good "welcoming party" for the, umm, party. Anyways, I run up there and blast these fools in the treeline, as per our plan.
Now, the replacement was playing a Kineticist (gestalt with something I cannot remember), and apparently did not pay attention to the party's plan. When Hbob ran up and blasted those guys in the treeline, the replacement took it upon herself to attack Hbob... hit me with some plasma blast or whatever that would have killed any lesser Kobold.
In her [the replacement's] defense, the bandits in the treeline were not dressed as your typical bandits, so it did kind of appear Hbob just split from the group to go attack random people "over there"... except the whole party planning to reverse the ambush, and telling Hbob to go nuke the b@st@rds in the bushes thing... and she was excellently roleplaying her character's do-good alignment (and weird racism towards dragonfolk/reptiles).
When the table reacted to what the replacement did, she realized her mistake and quit out of... embarassment? I don't know. As the GM, I even optioned to ignore it like it never happened, to allow her to redo her turn. She didn't say a word the rest of the session, and didn't return any communications afterwards.
Not that any of that is actually relevant, just shows some of the shenanigans GMNPC's can get into.
From your suggestion Oracle of Battle seems like the best choice. It fills the spot your group is not already covering and it will require less bookkeeping than the rest of your ideas. Bard has a few perfomance to keep track off, cleric must prepare spell each days. Battle Oracle just has like 2 spells + cure wounds and that's it, you can pick Skills at arm at 1st level and weapon mastery at second level and you're set until level 7.
For race, it really depends on the tone you want to give to your game and at that level of optimisation i don't think it really matter. Rather think of a way to make the NPC compelling without making it look too much like a snowflake. Unless your group is into that which is fine, i just personally find it a tad annoying.
Oracle of Battle might be a good fit... still though, I wouldn't mind a Reach Cleric or Bard. I don't find these classes to be a lot of bookkeeping, and choosing spells each day isn't hard. Cleric/Oracle and Bard both have a short list of decent go-to spells for daily usage and easily navigable action economy, so this is the "minimal thought" that I'm looking for (combat is easy-- Move Action Standard Action No Swift-- and my options for Standard are: attack, cast a spell, or channel/performance). When I say classes with a lot of thought/upkeep, I'm thinking of classes with a heavy reliance on summons or item creation, like Druids, Summoners, Alchemists, and Wizards, where there is a decent amount of time spent out-of-sesh to do it right and you have 1000 options in combat, or classes that have a metric butt-ton of class abilities and a literal swamp of thought towards action economy, like Warpriest.
Yes, it was via Variant Channeling [rulership]... worshipped Ra, I believe, or some other Orision deity with rulership in their portfolio.
Had the trait to raise my channeling DC's, and was gestalt'ed with the Charisma-focused UnMonk... Hbob kept his Wisdom exactly where it had to be in order to keep up with his Cleric casting, but was otherwise almost completely focused on Charisma... so me Dazing Channel was potent AF, on the rare occasion I ever used it.
Someone at the table had to leave early in the campaign, because life happens. So we got a replacement, and life goes on... it was this aforementioned replacement's second session with the group... still early enough in the campaign Hbob was palling around with the party (so before level 9), and bandits were still a thing the party was hunting with extreme prejustice.
The party (and Hbob) was crossing some open ground, and the Inquisitor (keen Perception) spotted bandits in the treeline. On this rare occasion, the party decided to open with Hbob's Dazing Channel... my Fast Movement was just enough to make me a good "welcoming party" for the, umm, party. Anyways, I run up there and blast these fools in the treeline, as per our plan.
Now, the replacement was playing a Kineticist (gestalt with something I cannot remember), and apparently did not pay attention to the party's plan. When Hbob ran up and blasted those guys in the treeline, the replacement took it upon herself to attack Hbob... hit me with some plasma blast or whatever that would have killed any lesser Kobold.
In her [the replacement's] defense, the bandits in the treeline were not dressed as your typical bandits, so it did kind of appear Hbob just split from the group to go attack random people "over there"... except the whole party planning to reverse the ambush, and telling Hbob to go nuke the b@st@rds in the bushes thing... and she was excellently roleplaying her character's do-good alignment (and weird racism towards dragonfolk/reptiles).
When the table reacted to what...
That does sound pretty interesting.... maybe Reach Cleric w/ Dazing Channel O.o
Oracle of Battle might be a good fit... still though, I wouldn't mind a Reach Cleric or Bard. I don't find these classes to be a lot of bookkeeping, and choosing spells each day isn't hard. Cleric/Oracle and Bard both have a short list of decent go-to spells for daily usage and easily navigable action economy, so this is the "minimal thought" that I'm looking for (combat is easy-- Move Action Standard Action No Swift-- and my options for Standard are: attack, cast a spell, or channel/performance). When I say classes with a lot of thought/upkeep, I'm thinking of classes with a heavy reliance on summons or item creation, like Druids, Summoners, Alchemists, and Wizards, where there is a decent amount of time spent out-of-sesh to do it right and you have 1000 options in combat, or classes that have a metric butt-ton of class abilities and a literal swamp of thought towards action economy, like Warpriest.
Fair enough, if you think you can handle the other option, then the reach cleric build with Dazing channel sounds kinda cool too.
I just find that with prepared spell caster it takes a bit more time to play out their turn because they tend to have a lot of option and it's easy to get lost when you're already playing ennemies which might have prepared spell caster as well.
In my current campaign my group is accompagnied by an Archivist (basically a cleric with a spellbook) and i find that i use too much time and brainpower on her turn. I've had to ask a player to run initiative because i was getting lost at moment when fatigue kicked in. It's not too bad, but i think i would have been a better idea to make her an oracle instead.
I'm sure you're an experienced DM and probably can handle it well, but i like to think of myself as an experienced DM as well (been doing that over 12 years) and sometimes going simpler, even though we can handle it, let us focus energy else were.
Oh if you're deadset on Reach Cleric, you could also go Reach Life Oracle with channel, you'd basically accomplish the same thing as a cleric, but again, simpler.
