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EnnPeeCee
2009-09-10, 10:32 PM
So, just as a quick question; why is it that I never see the Stormlord PrC mentioned on these forums? It could just be my familiarity with Neverwinter, and how popular it is in builds on there, but I just never see it here. I realize it has some unfortunate feat requirements, but it seems to me that the abilities would outweigh that.

Also, if you were to make a Stormlord build, how would you go about it? The difficulty I'm having is getting a high BAB while also achieving the req. casting 3rd level divine spells.

Pharaoh's Fist
2009-09-10, 10:33 PM
It's ok in 3.5

Makes me think of the D2 Javazon.

Toliudar
2009-09-10, 10:37 PM
I'm guessing you're looking for a more complicated response than Cleric+Stormlord+Divine Power?

Zaq
2009-09-10, 10:37 PM
The problem with Stormlord is that it has some seriously useless feat requirements, and doesn't gain anything that impressive. Cool, yes, but not that mechanically powerful, at least not enough to justify lighting three feats on fire (ok, ok, "throwing three feats to the wind," happy?)

Also, you're pretty much better off just casting spells than you are chucking your javelins. Sure, it's COOL to get the equivalent of a +3 or +4 weapon for 1 gp (or however much javvies cost), but it's hard to justify using them when you have spells you could be casting. (My roommate once played a Stormlord from around level 7 to level 9... he threw ONE javelin in that entire time. It missed.) I guess there's something to be said for making a DMM persist cleric and giving them stormlord abilities, but DMM persist is crazy feat intensive, so you can't really meet the prereqs.

It's still a 10/10 casting class, so you're still better off than just about any non-full-caster, but... yeah, it's just not that powerful. You won't be terrible with it just because, when all is said and done, you're still a full caster... but there's not much point to it, mechanically.

Tavar
2009-09-10, 10:37 PM
The Class advances Casting, right? If it does, Divine Power should do wonders for your BaB.

You might also want to look up the Prestige Paladin (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/prestigiousCharacterClasses.htm#prestigePaladin).

Pharaoh's Fist
2009-09-10, 10:38 PM
Having a god of the War domain helps with one feat. Great Fortitude is a poor feat, as is Endurance, but it does open the door to Poison Healer, which lets you use alcohol as healing potions.

EnnPeeCee
2009-09-10, 10:44 PM
Ok, Divine Power would get me there. Guess I should be kicking myself for not thinking about the divine spells I'd be able to cast as a divine caster.

And, yeah, I can see that a fully focused caster would fare better. However, in the group I play with (very little optimization), I can see this being a nice addition to the party.

As for the feats, yeah they can hurt, but coming from a previously core-only group, I'm not used to there being much to choose from. =P

Quietus
2009-09-10, 10:48 PM
It's ok in 3.5

Makes me think of the D2 Javazon.

Oh man. I loved D2.


Also, what's this about poison healer? Where's that from?

Pharaoh's Fist
2009-09-10, 10:49 PM
Fiendish Codex 1. It's the one that lets you heal 5 + Con mod when you resist the effects of a poison.

Alcohol is a poison as defined in the Arms and Equipment Guide.

Vizzerdrix
2009-09-10, 10:56 PM
What about the Mystic Ranger variant? How would that work out, I wonder?

EnnPeeCee
2009-09-10, 10:58 PM
What about the Mystic Ranger variant? How would that work out, I wonder?

Probably well. I don't use any Dragon Magazine stuff though... unless it has appeared somewhere else?

OracleofWuffing
2009-09-10, 11:05 PM
It's not anywhere near good optimization, but one of the players in my currently-running campaign (http://pifro.com/pro/view.php?id=2765) is a Stormlord. The "Talos" part needed to be waved away for party character issues, though.

Obviously, it doesn't overshadow a Druidzilla that could have been made, but it adds a very nice non-zilla complement to the character's abilities when she's in situations where the DM is a jerk and has made casting spells difficult or unfavorable... At least as far as things go in this one single specific campaign that doesn't epresent anything statistics-wise. She's been doing well with steady support and steady damage, nothing too fancy. The thing that is biting her, though, is that since Stormlords get bonuses on spears and javelins, she forgot to pack a secondary weapon, and kinda gets locked down on anything that resists piercing. That, however, isn't really an issue with the class itself.

EnnPeeCee
2009-09-10, 11:18 PM
Hmm, so then comes the question, what base class to use...
Cleric, druid, favored soul, divine bard, anything else?

Oh, I had a somewhat related question. I know you can't use multiple class variants on one class, but what about taking racial levels on a variant, does that work?

Kylarra
2009-09-10, 11:21 PM
Can't really go wrong with a normal cleric.

rezplz
2009-09-10, 11:24 PM
But stormlord gets COOL AWESOME JAVELIN POWERS.

Can't go wrong with rule of cool. ;D

Kylarra
2009-09-10, 11:27 PM
But stormlord gets COOL AWESOME JAVELIN POWERS.

Can't go wrong with rule of cool. ;DI was responding to the question of which base class to use, but thank you for your stunning rebuttal.

:smallwink:

rezplz
2009-09-10, 11:31 PM
...

...


I knew that. >_>

But yeah in that case, cleric should work fine. Clerics are cool. But then again, I could see a druid being a stormlord really well. Using the storms and javelins for the awesome force of nature. 8) So yeah, I'd say druid, really.



*note that I know nothing about the mechanics of the class and I'm just thinking of random stuff that sounds cool*

Zaq
2009-09-10, 11:42 PM
My roommate played the Stormlord using Spirit Shaman as a base. It worked pretty well. His logic was that he wanted to be a weather-focused caster, and the best weather spells are on the Druid list, but Druids are silly and broken, so he used the next best thing, which is the Spirit Shaman (getting the Druid spells without the Druid).

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-09-10, 11:56 PM
My roommate played the Stormlord using Spirit Shaman as a base. It worked pretty well. His logic was that he wanted to be a weather-focused caster, and the best weather spells are on the Druid list, but Druids are silly and broken, so he used the next best thing, which is the Spirit Shaman (getting the Druid spells without the Druid).It shouldn't be hard to houserule Druid to be balanced. What you have to do is break it into 3 classes:
Beastmaster-Ranger, but with full Animal Companion progression and no Favored Enemy
Shaper-Full BAB, gets Wildshape and all the benefits of the MoMF and Warshaper classes over 20 levels.
Spirit Shaman

EnnPeeCee
2009-09-11, 12:03 AM
I was considering using the druid variant from UA where you get the monk armor bonus and speed, and the ranger favored enemies and tracking instead of wildshape. I wouldn't be wildshaping anyway, since bears can't exactly throw javelins very well.

The only downside I see with druid is the loss of divine power. Any way to add that to a druid's spell list?

PId6
2009-09-11, 12:09 AM
Beastmaster-Ranger, but with full Animal Companion progression and no Favored Enemy
Eh, why nerf rangers? Full AC progressions is a fairly common houserule, and it's still not enough to make rangers so powerful that they need to lose Favored Enemy for it.

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-09-11, 12:16 AM
Eh, why nerf rangers? Full AC progressions is a fairly common houserule, and it's still not enough to make rangers so powerful that they need to lose Favored Enemy for it.Thematic more than anything. I want it to be the AC that's doing most of the work. You could probably boost them to Bard-progression spells, though, off of the Ranger and Druid lists. Give them Natural Bond, too, and a second companion at level-3 at 10th.

KillianHawkeye
2009-09-11, 06:30 PM
I know you can't use multiple class variants on one class

Sure you can, as long as you don't trade away the same class features more than once.

Grumman
2009-09-11, 07:06 PM
Storm Walk + Control Winds/Sandstorm + Pandemonic silver great falchion + enemy army = hours of amusement for a NE Wasteland Druid.