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Quirp
2010-09-08, 12:25 PM
List of Vestiges

The binder is a class from WotCīs Tome of Magic. Pact Magic is widely regarded as the best concept from this book. The binder is very versertile and can fill many roles in a party. Since he can bind different vestiges each day his role can change from day to day. More vestiges can be found online (even epic ones) and in dragon magazines. I tried to make a list of the ToM vestiges and to evaluate their abilities.

Acererak Lv.5

Detect Undead: If you have to find out who the vampire is in a big room full of people this is really good. In the standard adventuring day ™ this can only be used to get information about the type of enemy you are facing – and a knowledge check from your resident cleric can do the same and give you more information.
Hide from Undead: Getting past undead (especially the mindless variety, since those get no save) can save you from some trouble, but since it affects only you this ability wonīt be terribly useful when you are adventuring in a group.
Lichīs Energy Immunities: The first really good ability. Being immune to two energy types is pretty cool. With the binderīs pact augmentations this can make you nearly immune to all sorts of energy attacks.
Paralyzing Touch: This ability seems to be OK, but it is only usable every five rounds and allows a save every round. A weak Save or Lose, but when it works it can be devestating (unlikely).
Speak with Dead: Like Detect Undead and (to a lesser degree) Hide from Undead this can be useful in a mystery/“detective story“ kind of game. If you ask the bodies of the guys you just killed you might find out some interesting details about the next room in the dungeon. This ability can be nice to have in any game, but really shines in a few situations (when you have to find your keys for example).
Undead Healing: This ability is good. Like the immunities you already got this can make for a real surprise for enemies. If you have a Dread Necromancer in your group you are a lucky guy, because free healing is something everybody wants.

Acererak is a vestige that gives you some immunities and one nice divination. The other abilities are really situational. Nice as an addition to other vestiges, but not a good vestige all by itself.

Agares Lv.4

Earth and Air mastery: The bonus is not high enough to be meaningful.
Earthshaking Step: A nice ability in melee combat. Many warriors have a bad reflex save and when you are not good enough to trip them this can give you an edge. Making a dragon fall on his knees before you is always a good thing, except when he survives the battle. This hits your friends, too, so be careful.
Elemental Companion: At least it can carry your stuff. Too weak for combat.
Fear Immunity: Immunities are a good thing. Fear is not that unusual, so this is a good immunity to have. Some binder levels give you the same though, so this is not that good.
True Speech: A limited tongues. Nice when you have to listen to guys, who speak other languages.

Agares has only one really useful abilies. Thatīs not good. When you are first able to bind him you will not be able to bind more vestiges. One ability for the whole day is not enough to make binding this guy worth your time.


Amon Lv.1

Darkvision: You get darkvision. Nothing special here.
Fire Breath: A nice breath weapon that scales well. Fire damage is often resisted though, but especially at low levels this ability can seriously damage your oponents. At higher levels it is a nice filler during your other „once every five rounds“ abilities.
Ram Attack: A good ability for early level charges. Later this is not that strong, especially since the damage doesnīt scale.

Amon has really few abilities. Darkvision can be useful , if you donīt have it already and the fire breath is a nicely scaling attack, but that is not enough at higher levels.


Andras Lv.4

Weapon Proficiency: You are able to use some nice weapons, but you donīt get them. At middle to high levels getting appropriate weapons can be really expensive. Either you choose one of these weapons and always bind Andras or you use a weapon you are already proficient with.
Mount: Wizards get to summon a horse as a first level spell. Yours is better, but not much.
Saddle Sure: Wow, you can ride your horse now.
Smite Good or Evil: A good smite attack usable every five rounds. This makes for a good attack against many enemies for a melee orientaded binder.
Sow Discord: This is not nice, but you donīt want to be nice to your enemies. Nothing is funnier than seeing the face of a wizard when his meat shield hits him in the face. Using this on enemy rogues is especially effective.
Sure Blows: A useful bonus feat for any melee character. This one is versertile, too, so this is good.

Andras can be useful for melee characters. His 5-round-abilities are good and he has more good and some mediocre abilities. This guy can be worth it, if you are a focused melee fighter.


Andromalius Lv.3

Jesterīs Mirth: Itīs worse than Acererakīs paralyzing touch and therefor most often not worth your time.
Locate Item: If you want to know in which direction the thief with the red shoes has run this is helpful. Otherwise itīs nothing really useful. It is a free action to use though, so it doesnīt cut into your actions per round.
See the Unseen: Seeing invisible things is good. Doing it all day long is better.
Sense Trickery: If your DM likes to rob your characters blind he will do it with or without this ability. This can be useful in the right kind of game with the right DM.
Sneak Attack: More damage is always nice. This wonīt make you a really good „assasin“, but by using Assasins Stance and perhaps Craven you could pile up a nice amount of precision damage

Andromalius needs the right kind of binder to be useful, but since you get so few skill points the role of the skill monkey is not really yours.


Aym Lv.1

Dwarfen Step: If you want to run around in armor heavier than light this is good for you. I like it especially when combined with Savnokīs armor.
Halo of Fire: Nice if you want to set something on fire, pretty useless otherwise.
Improved Sunder: Not the most useful feat all around.
Medium armor proficiency: If you always wanted to fight in this mithral full plate this is for you.
Resistance to Fire: We like free resistances, although this one is pretty low.
Ruinous Attack: With this you wonīt need an adamantine tool to break through walls. Everybody loves to do that and being able to do it with your spoon is even better.

Aym is a nice low level vestige and can be nice to give some passive boni, when you want to use heavy armor.


Balam Lv.5

Balamīs Cunning: I hope you like rerolls. This gives you enough, all day long. A really nice „canīt hurt me“ button.
Icy Glare: I donīt think this gaze attack is meaningful when you get it. If you often fight really tough monsters over a long time this attack can contribute.
Prescience: A nice passive boost to some important things. Insight boni are sometimes hard to come by so this is nice.
Weapon Finesse: Itīs a free feat. If you have a high dexterity you might want to take ths feat anyway.

Balam is a nice defensive vestige. You might want to look elsewhere for some active powers for your binder to focus on. If you have a slot free, bind Balam.


Buer Lv.4

Buerīs Knowledge: The bonus is too small to be really meaningful, but a free knowledge check is OK if you want to help the resident sage.
Buerīs Purity: Immunities are good. These ones are situational very useful, but there are not so many monsters that use poisons and diseases (ask your DM if this applies to ravages and afflictions).
Delay Diseases and Poisons: If your group is hit with these attacks they donīt suffer the drawbacks until you are in a safe place. This can be a life saver, but wonīt come up that often.
Fast Healing: Out of combat healing. Everybody wants it, you get it for free. Not the worst method to aquire it.
Healing Gift: Not only are your healing needs already covered, but you can cover the needs of your allies, too. Not the fastest healing ability, but faster than mass lesser vigor on small groups. This is good to have, but when you want to cover the role of a healer one of your vestige slots canīt be used for things that are less useful in combat.
Track: The skill bonus you get is not high enough to make a good tracker, but at least you can assist your groupīs tracker.

Buer is a good way to aquire out of combat healing, but since you can bind only a limited number of vestiges you wonīt have the room for this one. If you have the slot free (or your group is lacking a healer), take Buer.


Chupoclops Lv.6

Aura of Despair: There is a reason optimizers like some levels of hexblade and paladin of tyranny in some builds. Reducing the saves of your enemies is a good thing to do, at least a part of your group will love you for it.
Ethereal Watcher: This ability greatly enhances your mobility. Walking through the castles wall, remanifesting and killing the captain of the guard can be very effective. Remember that you can see on the material plane while you are ethereal.
Ghost Touch: This is a free +1 bonus on all your weapons and situational really useful.
Poison Bite: I really donīt know where the poison in the name comes from. This is not a strong extra attack, but it is a free attack on a full attack.
Pounce: Every melee wants pounce and there is a reason for it. You want this.
Soulsense: This would be a good ability, if the range wasnīt so low.

Chupoclops: Melee binders take this. Pounce, a nice aura, an extra attack and ethereal watcher makes for a good all around package.


Dahlver-Nar Lv.2

Mad Soul: The immunities this grants are hard to come by, but rarely useful. If you often fight enchanters this can save you, perhaps. When you donīt get confused, but the party fighter does and hits you this doesnīt really help.
Maddening Moan: Every five rounds one round of daze. Daze is a strong condition, one round is often too short.
Natural Armor: If you have a high constitution score this can be really good. Armor class is not the best thing you can get though. The dragon will probably still hit you.
Shield Self: This ability is strong. If you can make the squishie caster in the enemyīs team fail his save against this he is probably dead.

Dahlver-Nar is a mediocre low level vestige. At later levels you will probably have better vestiges to bind.


Dantalion Lv.5

Awe of Dantalion: If the big giant in front of you canīt full attack you this can be a good thing. If your wizard is hiding behind your back you should probably take the hit. And donīt forget that your target shouldnīt survive the round or he will still come for you.
Dantalion Knows: This is a boon for every knowledge monkey. Put a point in every knowledge skill and suddenly you know something about everything.
Read Thoughts: This can be useful, but probably wonīt be it in many situations. One full round is simply too much.
Thought Travel: Teleportation effects are often very good. This one is pretty limited, but still useful if you find yourself bound and in other situations.

Dantalion can be nice to have because of his bonus to knowledge skills and his teleportation ability. All by himself he is pretty limited, so always bind a more „active“ vestige with him.


Eligor Lv.7

Chromatic Strike: A versertile source of low bonus damage. Nothing special here.
Eligorīs Skill in the Saddle: Two bonus feats and if you want to fight while mounted they are good.
Eligorīs Strength: A +4 untyped bonus to strength is really good for any melee fighter.
Eligorīs Resilience: A bonus to your natural armor is OK, but at this level you should probably want something more special.
Heavy Armor Proficiency: Armor is expensive at this level, if it shall be useful.

Eligor is only useful to a few specific builds and the abilities he grants are not good enough for a seventh level vestige.


Eurynome Lv.4

Animal Friend: Useful in any situation where you have to deal with animals. This is nice to have if you want to calm an angry guard dog, a deinonychus or a dire bear.
Damage Reduction: This is not high enough to rely on in combat, but at least it protects you from caltrops.
Eurynomeīs Maul: You can summon and use a huge warhammer. If you are small or smaller this ability is hilarious. The warhammer is OK and in settings where it is hard to get a magic weapon this is really good.
Poison Blood: This poison deals hit point damage and isnīt useful (you normally donīt want to be swallowed or bitten).
Water Dancing: You can walk on water. Thatīs cool, but rarely useful.

Eurynome is one of the vestiges that makes the binder a good candidate for VoP-builds. Otherwise she grants mediocre abilities. Animal Friend can be really good, but especially at higher levels you donīt meet many animals.


Focalor Lv.3

Aura of Sadness: A nice aura although the range is really limited.
Focalorīs Breath: A very limited ability. Blindness for one round is not enough for a once-every-five-rounds ability.
Lightning Strike: A nice ability. The damage isnīt very high, but being able to use this all day long is good. Use it to break down doors or as a filler between your stronger abilities. This can become your standard attack in not too hard fights.
Water Breathing: Situational useful, but can be a real life saver.

Focalor is solid for a third level vestige. Some of his abilities are still useful at higher levels, but you should try to get some stronger 1/5 rounds abilities.


Geryon Lv.5

Acidic Gaze: This ability deals not enough damage to be good against strong foes. If you have to kill a group of mooks though this can be good.
All-Around Vision: Useful if you fight many rogues. Boni on spot and search are always welcome.
See in Darkness: A really good kind of darkvision since it has no range limit.
Swift Flight: A bit too limited to be of great use against flying foes, but still useful. This can easily save you in several situations. Remember that you can run whyle flying or at least take a double move.

Geryon can be nice to supplement your other vestiges, but all by himself he isnīt that good.


Haagenti Lv.2

Confusing Touch: This is a strong ability. Getting an 8th level spell from a 2nd level vestige is good. The confusion has a scaling duration so this is OK.
Immunity to Transformation: Few monsters and even fewer PCs get this ability. If it comes up this is really the best thing to have and there are many transmutation spells out there that want to hurt you.
Shield Proficiency: Free proficiencies are nothing great, but usable.
Weapon Proficiency: Proficiency with some axes.....

Haagenti starts strong, but one good and one situational useful ability donīt make this vestige a top choice.


Halphax Lv.8

Damage Reduction: An actually useful amount of DR. Few monsters use adamantine weapons, but beware of high level NPCs and binders that bound Aym.
Halphaxīs Knowledge: A huge boos t to two skills. Knowledge is always good and when you have to attack a stronghold a siege weapon can be useful.
Imprison: This can easily reduce the number of enemies you have to face at once, but at this level many enemies have really high fortitude saves.
Iron Wall: Battlefield control. Everybody likes it.
Secure Shelter: Block of passages and sleep in security. More battlefield control and useful out of combat.

Halphax is a good choice for many binders. His DR improves the odds of survival and his other abilities let you control most fights. Plus now you can not only bind a halfling to a beholder, but also bind a gnome to your soul.


Haures Lv.6

Inaccessible Mind: A strong immunity that is often useful to have.
Incorporeal Movement: If you have ever walked through the conjurerīs summons to hit him on the head you know this is good. Sadly it does not enough to improve the other abilities of this vestige.
Major Image: There is no situation where an illusion is not useful. Creative binders can have lots of fun with this ability.
Phantasmal Killer: A SoD usable every five rounds. This is not the best one around, but can still be useful.

Haures is good for a mage-like binder. Two 1/5 rounds abilities one of which is really good start to fiil downtime in combat. The Inaccessible Mind feature is of no use at really high binder levels, but those who took levels in KotSS will enjoy it their entire career.


Ipos Lv.6

Cold Iron Claws: A nice natural weapon, but when you use those you canīt use a handheld weapon. Perhaps good if you specialize on natural weapons.
Flash of Insight: True seeing is good, but the duration is really limited. This can still be good.
Iposīs Influence: If many of your abilities allow a save this improves the DC. As a binder you should be happy to get this.
Planar Attenuation: If you travel to other planes of excistance you probably have the means to protect yourself. Still situational useful.
Rend: Some extra damage with your claws. This is OK, but not great.

Ipos has a strange mixture of abilities. He grants things that allow you to fight in melee, but improves the special abilities of other vestiges. He is usable with most other vestiges, but there will often be better choices that specialize on one way to deal with problems.


Karsus Lv.3

Heavy Magic: This is not really great, since the save Dcs of most magic items are so bad that this wonīt save them.
Karsusīs Senses: A fast detect magic effect is nothing to sneeze at, but still nothing great.
Karsusīs Touch: A touch range dispel can often be useful, although some range would have been nice.
Karsusīs Will: Everybody loves UMD and now you donīt have to make a check. Sadly some of the best spells for wands are not on the Sor/Wiz spell list.

Karsus grants some abilities that rely heavily on magic items and not everybody has those. He can still make for a fine trap monkey against magical traps and provide your group with some arcane spells if they lack a dedicated arcanist.


Leraje Lv.1

Hide Bonus: This is not great. Perhaps useful at first level.
Low-Light Vision: I havenīt seen this come up that often. Elves are still not considered good although they have this.
Precise Shot: Every Archer wants this feat. Not having to spend a prechious feat on this is a good thing.
Ricochet: Perhaps you can kill two mooks at first level now. Later this is just not good enough.
Weapon Proficiency: You can use a bow now.

Leraje might be OK for a first level binder who wants to fight with a bow, but not otherwise.


Malphas Lv.2

Birdīs Eye Viewing: A really good power to scout ahead. On your free days you can use it to learn more about the country/your surroundings.
Invisibility: A good ability to remain hidden. Since this is also usable in combat at later levels you not only see everything, but are not seen yourself, too.
Poison Use: If you really want to use poison this ability is good. Few people want to use poison though, so this ability is most often useless.
Sudden Strike: Not the best version of precision damage and a small amount of it, too, so this is a little bit extra, but you shouldnīt rely on it.

Malphas is a nice vestige at low levels and even at later levels at least his two good abilities remain useful.


Marchosias Lv.7

Death Attack: This ability isnīt useful when an assasin gets it and it isnīt useful when you get it.
Fiery Retribution: This ability is really limited. If you have to kill all members of a thieves guild though this is a great thing to have.
Smoke Form: This can be useful to escape from some nasty situations.
Silent and Sure: A meaningful bonus to two skills. If this wasnīt a competence bonus it would create some scary stalkers.

Marchosias grants some nice abilities, but since he is a seventh level vestige they could be better. Some of the lower level vestiges grant better abilities.


Naberius Lv.1

Disguise Self: At least you can have some fun with this ability or hide the signs of your vestiges.
Faster Ability Healing: An important part of most hellfire warlock builds. This ability makes ability damage much less scary.
Naberiusīs Skills: Since you get no boni to the chosen skills they will probably of no great use. You can still get some important skills like tumble and at least try to use them.
Persuasive Words: This ability is mediocre. The improvement makes it much better, but comes really late.
Silver Tongue: A part of many Diplomancer builds this ability is nice to have if you are the party face.

Naberius has several abilities that are useful for many nonbinders. He is good vestige to bind, if you only dipped into the class. For a full binder he is slightly less impressive.


Orthos Lv.8

Blindsight: A good ability that greatly enhances your senses in combat. The range is quite low though.
Displacement: Stacking miss chances is considered a good thing and 50 % are a good amount of it.
Whirlwind Breath: One of the best breath weapons you can get as a PC.
Whispering Wind: …..whatever. This ability is pretty weak at this level, but the rest easily makes up for it.

Orthos is a strong vestige and is useful for almost any binder. Just take him and profit.


Otiax Lv.5

Air Blast: Good if you have many sources of extra damage like sneak attack, too weak otherwise.
Combat Reflexes: A free feat and it is a good one, if you have a good dexterity score.
Concealing Mist: 20 % miss chance is good enough for me. Itīs nothing great, but useful in every combat.
Open Portal: Weird, but I like this free cantrip. If you have nothing elsse to do with your swift action.....
Unlock: Now you can get past som of the locks a wizard would have to cast knock at. Still an adamantine hammer could prove as useful.

Otiax has some strange powers, but together with some other vestiges you can build a pretty nice rogue with him.


Paimon Lv.3

Dance of Death: A nice ability for a dexterous melee fighter. It would be even better, when you had a source of skirmish (gestalt?).
Paimonīs Blade: Weapon proficiencies and weapon finesse with these weapons. If you have a high dexterity and want to use Paimon most of the time the investment into a magic rapier could be worthwhile.
Paimonīs Dexterity: A +4 untyped bonus to the stat you rely on, when you use this vestige. This is good.
Paimonīs Skills: Together with the dexterity bonus the skill bonus on tumble is usable. Perform (dance) is not that useful.
Uncanny Dodge: This is useful.
Whirlwind Attack: Not the best feat in the game, but useful if you fight large amounts of mooks.

Paimon grants six abilities. Thatīs more than many other vestiges and some of them are quite good. Sadly non of the abilities scale, so they are a bit less effective at later levels. Paimon is still a solid vestige for any melee binder.


Ronove Lv.1

Cold Iron and Magic Attacks: This might sometimes be useful to overcome DR.
Far Hand: When the strength of this wasnīt so low it could be useful.
Feather Fall: I love this ability, but it is only situational useful.
Ronoveīs Fist: Fighting unarmed, while you could use an enchanted weapon is not the best idea. Usable for style reasons at first level.
Sprint: More speed is good, but nothing too special.

Ronove could be a nice first level vestige, if the strength of far hand would at least start at 10. At least you can fall better than a 20th level monk with a level 1 vestige.


Savnok Lv.2

Call Armor: Those who like heavy armor will always find use for this vestige. The enchantments are not bad. Since this power is attainable with two feats the best use is on big T. Full plate for everyone!
Heavy Armor Proficiency: This is necessary to use the armor you can summon to full effect.
Move Ally: Benign Transposition is considered a good thing and you can do it all day long.
Savnokīs Armor: The DR is not enough to really be useful against big bruisers, but it might add up, when you have many fights per day and limited healing capability.

Savnok is easily accesible and remains useful over a long time. His call armor ability says nothing about what happens, when you remove it, so sell as many as you want.


Shax Lv.6

Freedom of Movement: A strong ability that makes grapplers almost useless, unless they know that you get this ability only once every five rounds.
Immunity to Electricity: That blue dragon looks much less scary now. A good ability.
Storm Strike: Some extra damage on one melee attack is welcome, but only if you have no other use for your swift action.
Swim Speed: If you are in a water based campaign this is useful.

Shax can be useful in the right environment and freedom of movement is good, but Acererak grants more immunities and comes earlier.


Tenebrous Lv.4

Deeper Darkness: Good for hiding purposes, but in many situations a big globe of darkness will be easily spottable.
See in Darkness: The best darkvision available and without a range limit.
Touch of the Void: A nice source of bonus damage, but only accessible every five rounds.
Turn/Rebuke Undead: Not the best ability around, but turning undead all day is OK.
Vessel of Emptiness: This is a good ability. Imidiate teleportation is nice.

Tenebrous is good for your security, but has only limited offensive capabilities.


Zagan Lv.6

Aversion: This is a good ability to keep some heavy hitters at bay.
Improved Grapple: The size increase is the big point here. Now you can outgrapple the fighter.
Scent: A nice ability, but quite short ranged.
Constrict: Now you can even deal respectable damage with a grapple check.
Snake Bane: Very situational. If you lead a raid against the resident Yuan-Ti cultists this is good.

Zagan transforms you into a respectable grappler and grants some nice abilities. In conjunction with other vestiges he can be quite effective.

Yorrin
2010-09-08, 02:02 PM
Dont forget Kas and Primus from Dragon341 and Ansitif, Astaroth, and Cabiri from Dragon357.

Quirp
2010-09-08, 02:05 PM
Sorry, but I donīt have access to dragon magazine. Perhaps I will add the vestiges on the WotC website.

Yorrin
2010-09-08, 02:07 PM
Sorry, but I donīt have access to dragon magazine. Perhaps I will add the vestiges on the WotC website.

Fair enough, though if you plan to have this be a comprehensive guide you might as well acknowledge their presence in your opening post.

Best of luck, btw. I really wish there was better info out there on how to play a good binder (the existing handbooks just don't cut it for me).

Quirp
2010-09-08, 02:13 PM
Fair enough, though if you plan to have this be a comprehensive guide you might as well acknowledge their presence in your opening post.

Best of luck, btw. I really wish there was better info out there on how to play a good binder (the existing handbooks just don't cut it for me).

Edited it in.

I also think that the guide I have seen is not the best one ever made. Maybe I will add more things to this later.

Zaydos
2010-09-08, 02:28 PM
This is nice, so I just wanted to say thanks for posting it.