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Rasman
2009-10-13, 06:58 AM
I'm looking to roll a bard in a campaign my friend has already started, his DM is really good about "writing in" new people, and I've been playing around with wanting the Leadership feat, but I'm having a hard time deciding on what to do with my Cohort.

TBH, I'm really new to the game, so other than my cohort having to be 2 levels lower than me, I don't really know what my limitations are either.

To give you an idea of what I'm probably going to be working with, spell wise, I'm looking at having Dancing Lights, Ghost Sound, Mage Hand, Charm Person, Charm Monster, Summon Monster I, Silent Image, Enthrall, Summon Monster II and Suggestion as my spells at level 6, + my regular Bardic abilities, of course, at level 6, which is when I can pick up the Leadership feat. (and yes, I know I'm short all my spells, but this is just the basics that I've already decided on)

So as you can see, essentially, I want a bardic summoner with his languages being Common, Aquan, Ignan and Auran, so I can, once I have Summon Monster III, summon Elementals and Charm them to fight for me.

But the cohort is where I'm not sure about what I want because I don't understand what all the other classes can achieve. So if you can give me any advice whatsoever, I'd greatly appreciate it.

So basically

HCL
2009-10-13, 07:28 AM
First off I wouldnt bother with bard summoning unless you are using it to qualify for a prestige class (Skypledged?). Get buff spells.

Generally you can't go wrong with a Diviner or a Cleric for a cohort.

PinkysBrain
2009-10-13, 07:41 AM
So as you can see, essentially, I want a bardic summoner with his languages being Common, Aquan, Ignan and Auran, so I can, once I have Summon Monster III, summon Elementals and Charm them to fight for me.
Summoned monsters don't have to be charmed ... and the summon monster list is already far enough behind the power curve as it is (ie. their attack bonuses will have a lot of trouble with ACs of level appropriate encounters) without trying to do this with the slower bard spell progression.

But the cohort is where I'm not sure about what I want because I don't understand what all the other classes can achieve. So if you can give me any advice whatsoever, I'd greatly appreciate it.
What are the existing PCs and their level of optimization? (Making a PC look bad with a cohort is a really bad idea.)

Another_Poet
2009-10-13, 11:34 AM
Yeah, it does depend a lot on what the party already has. A classic party should fill the roles of wizard, cleric, fighter and rogue - if youer party doesn't have one of those slots filled, that is the best choice for a cohort.

Although not the most powerful choice, having a wizard who focuses on blasting spells (evocation specialist?) can be a fun cohort. Since they are behind the party level, it shouldn't detract from your PC wizard's duties. The cohort is just backup artillery. For more diverse options, go with a conjuration specialist. Their summoning spells will be better than your bard's, so you get to do your summoning thing through them and at the same time you can choose a better selection of spells for your main character.

If your bard likes to foolishly wade into melee, consider a martial character (perhaps a Barbarian, whose life you once saved, and now follows you loyally?). Your own personal meat shield is a nice option, and the party tank no longer complains that (s)he's always saving your butt. When your butt doesn't need saving, have your barbarian provide the rogue with flank instead. You will be popular.

As stated above, the sure-fire always-welcome cohort is a cleric. They make a nice healing dispenser, freeing up the party cleric to do things that are actually interesting. However, people barely treat a PC cleric as anything more than a med kit, and a cleric with NPC status will be used almost like a potion dispenser rather than an actual character with a personality. Be prepared to either not RP your cohort much, or to work very hard to make them memorable, if you go this route.

For more flexibility consider Favored Soul. Their lack of class abilities (compared to clerics) doesn't hurt nearly so much when they're a cohort (assuming your party has a cleric PC already).

If you can get your DM to agree, it's very fun to have some kind of animal or magical beast as a cohort. Some DM's will flat out refuse this, but if you can agree on a level-approrpriate critter it will be balanced and lots of fun.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

paddyfool
2009-10-13, 12:25 PM
As you're just beginning, the ideal for you should be to go for a meatshield as a cohort, since they involve the least paperwork and complex decisions. Having a cohort risks making your play take up too much time at table, which can inspire resentment in your fellow players, so best to keep it as simple as possible. Also, it's easy to mess up multiclassing the first time without a lot of help and advice, so I'd say go for a straight class and have fun with it. Barbarian is probably simplest, but Knight (if you're neutral on the law/chaos axis), Fighter, or Paladin of Freedom (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#paladinVariantsFreedom SlaughterAndTyranny) (if you're CG), could all be fun. Depends on what sort of character your concept is likely to get on with. However, as pointed out before, the party's needs come first. If there's a hole to be plugged, consider picking a character to match. Maybe a spellcaster specialising in the Wizard's forbidden schools, definitely a Cleric if you don't have one, and it's always useful to have a Rogue along.

Also, check whether your DM's happy with you building the cohort yourself; some DMs like instead to arrange a meeting with a character of their devising, and some ban the Leadership feat entirely.

Superglucose
2009-10-13, 12:32 PM
However, people barely treat a PC cleric as anything more than a med kit,
:smallconfused:

Cleric as nothing more than a medkit?

I remember one assassins campaign where I played a full-plate wearing cleric. "You can't be sneaky!" silence. "You don't have any heals prepared? Worst cleric ever!" At that point I proceeded to solo the encounter. Solo. By myself.

The next assassins campaign was very similar when I introduced the party to batman. "Glitterdust, grease. Ok, he's blind and flat on his back, what are you guys waiting for?" It was epic because the guy playing a monk thought he was the greatest character ever because he was able to deal so much damage... because I'd blinded and made prone all the enemies :smallbiggrin:

Rasman
2009-10-13, 07:40 PM
First off I wouldnt bother with bard summoning unless you are using it to qualify for a prestige class (Skypledged?). Get buff spells.

Generally you can't go wrong with a Diviner or a Cleric for a cohort.

Because summoning a fire elemental to burn a pack of raging treants amuses me.


Summoned monsters don't have to be charmed ... and the summon monster list is already far enough behind the power curve as it is (ie. their attack bonuses will have a lot of trouble with ACs of level appropriate encounters) without trying to do this with the slower bard spell progression.

What are the existing PCs and their level of optimization? (Making a PC look bad with a cohort is a really bad idea.)

ah, I must have confused Summon Monster with Summon Swarm, I just asumed that I wouldn't initially have control over them

The Current Party is kind of...oddly mixed...currently there are 3 rogues, a wizard and a cleric, so that sort of makes a Fighter, Barbarian, Palidan look apealing. But, as it strikes me, what if I went with a "buffer" class that could improve my summons so they could be a meat shield in their place.

Thurbane
2009-10-13, 09:38 PM
A Marshal (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20030906b) cohort can use his auras to boost CHA checks, caster checks to overcome SR as well as a lot of other stuff. He's also good for a little extra muscle, and can be a flanking buddy for yourself or others in the party.

Claudius Maximus
2009-10-13, 09:43 PM
You can't charm a swarm, and you control it by virtue of summoning it anyway. Only spells like Planar Binding don't give you control over your called creature.

Draz74
2009-10-13, 10:38 PM
Off-topic, but the Title of this thread has definitely inspired me to make a character someday who invites potential love interests to come along on dungeon crawls as dates ... LOL!

I could base the character rather nicely on my old roommate, actually. He liked to see how girls reacted in rather unusual date settings.

Of course, if your date dies while dungeoncrawling with you, a Good character would have some rather interesting guilt issues ...

Lycanthromancer
2009-10-13, 11:41 PM
Make an artificer for some magic item creation shenanigans? Just have it dual-wield some wands of cure light wounds and maybe a few minor battlefield-control spells.