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The Pressman
2010-03-25, 01:58 AM
I'm fairly new to the game, and I play a dwarven archivist in a campaign. I was wondering if there was any helpful advice, both on the game and the class, that could be wafted my way...

sonofzeal
2010-03-25, 02:01 AM
The Archivist's main strength is being able to pull spells from a wide variety of sources. Check out all the Domain spell lists and mine those for options, and there's also the Divine Bard which opens up all Bard spells for you to steal from, too.

Kosjsjach
2010-03-25, 02:12 AM
Archivist Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3545.0)!

First in? Not likely.

Thurbane
2010-03-25, 02:17 AM
Are you dedicated to using a dwarf? If you go with gnome, you can use the Trivial Knowledge (RoS) feat to roll twice and take the best result for all Knowledge checks - works great with Dark Knowledge.

Hawk7915
2010-03-25, 02:54 AM
Depending on level, you have a few basic roles you can fill...of course, the nice thing about an archivist is that you can fill all of these roles simultaneously!

- The Heal-bot: Keep the whole party topped off and buffed with Dark Knowledge and the Imbued Healing magic.
Spells: Get all the cure spells, and Lesser Vigor.
Feats: Snag Touch of Healing, and try to get Imbued Healing and Reach Spell as well. Spontaneous Healing might be worth it.
Gear:Get a Wand of Lesser Vigor.

- The Archivist-zilla: Be a serious melee threat
Spells: Try to learn Divine Power, Divine Favor, Barkskin, Enlarge Person, Righteous Might, Greater Magic Weapon, Heroism, Haste, and other cool buffs.
Feats: Extend Spell is nice. Chain Spell can be good. Power Attack is probably worth it if you have the strength. Heavy Armor proficiency isn't bad either. Knowledge Devotion is a must.
Gear: A solid +1 <insert random bonuses here> weapon, so that you can throw GMW weapon at it.

- The Batman: Control the Battlefield
Spells: Entangle and other debuff or AoE damage spells. Anything that takes people out of the fight or does a ton of damage in a radius.
Feats: Empower, Repeat, Heighten, and Sculpt Spell are all nice. Improved Initiative is good for any character but is especially good here.

- If you are in a campaign where you keep hitting enemies you can't dark knowledge, check the Heroes of Horror feats that expand your knowledge options. Quicken Spell is great on any caster. Extra Spell and Extra Slot are okay as usual.

The Pressman
2010-03-25, 03:30 AM
are you dedicated to using a dwarf?

yeah, the DM has locked in everything and I don't think he'd take kindly to last minute changes.

Thanks for the advice. From what I've seen here and otherwhere, Knowledge Devotion is a must.

Also, taking into consideration that the campaign starts out with PCs as lvl 1, is there anything at such a low level that I should plan for?

Eldariel
2010-03-25, 08:20 AM
Well, you'll want solid offensive casting on level 1. Cleric spells lag a bit behind offensively on this level (being single-target weakish SoS-effects or minor buffs), but you can get Entangle (from Plant-domain or Druid), Enlarge Person (from Strength-domain), Sleep (from Dream-domain), Silent Image (e.g. from Illusion-domain) and Grease (from Slime-domain) to help with that. Particularly Sleep, Entangle and Grease are excellent with Enlarge Person being very useful if you have some warriors that would like the extra reach and combat maneuver bonus.

There's also crap like level 1 Haste and Dispel Magic from like Trapsmith, but that's just wrong so I suggest against that. Those are totally busted at this point in game.