Building Tonks (Harry Potter)

[Loki_42]

I'm helping someone new to the game build her first character. Asking her what she wanted to do, she said she'd be interested in trying to build Nymphadora Tonks, from Harry Potter. Hence the thread title. If you don't know, Tonks' main thing is being able to change her appearance at will. I already suggested Changeling for a race, because she doesn't seem to want much more than disguise self anyway, and now we're trying to decide on a class. She's knew, having only played some of the new Gamma World, so I'd like to not overload her on cheese and difficult classes. I was thinking of suggesting Warlock to her, because it feels at least a little Harry Potter-y, and is relatively easy for newbies. If she did that, though, I wouldn't know the best invocations to recommend her, having never played a Warlock. There might also be other classes, but I'd prefer not to recommend her something op and difficult.

TL;DR: How do you build the character Tonks, from Harry Potter, in a way that isn't difficult to play for someone new, and how do you do it without undue amounts of cheese?

[Meleemancer]

Dfa might be a good choice if you re-flavor it. It would be more mechanically sound than the Warlock at least (not that I have a problem with Warlocks). I know when I was starting out I went straight to the casters, if she has a good head for numbers and can pick a good spell selection then I think Sorcerer would be best. If she understands the maneuver system from TOB then Swordsage might be a good option, especially with some of the homebrew disciplines. Lemme see if I can find the one that deals with shapechanging.

[Loki_42]

I don't think she would be good as an out and out spellcaster. The few times she's played Gamma World, she had to be reminded when to use anything other than basic attacks, and has literally just gotten around to understanding At-wills. She can learn, but I don't think she'd want to have all of the work of a full caster.

[The Glyphstone]

Warlock is a good choice.

[Loki_42]

Since I'm just looking to give her options, what book is DFA in?

Edit: Nevermind, found it.

[Zonugal]

Looking at Tonks her primary abilities seem to be blasting, deception & dispelling. Build-wise you could always have her stay with a straight warlock or, to get a better idea of the character, perhaps steer her (when she is ready) into Arcane Trickster.

Invocations that might be useful are:
Least
Eldritch Spear
Beguiling Influence
Entropic Warding
Lesser
Charm
Voracious Dispelling
Walk Unseen

[Eldariel]

How about Wildshape Ranger? I mean, is she interested in combat through her various forms? That would give her that (though obviously, it'd also require stat blocks of the creatures she commonly turns into, but it shouldn't be hard to just write short cheat sheet for the forms she uses and actual combat with Wildshape as is as straightforward as all get-go). Ranger-spells would give her the access to the lesser spells she uses outside her specialty as desired but they don't require overtly much emphasis nor attention; she can even forget they're there for anything but when actually necessary.

[Loki_42]

She doesn't really want full on shapechanging, disguise self is perfect for her. That's why she already decided on changeling. I'll give her the options though.

[Coidzor]

Quasilycanthrope (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/20040721a) would give similar disguise self abilities, though they are LA+1 and have a form of tell about the animal they're connected to. The srength of the tell being, well, dependent upon DM choice.

Get some nice DR though.

[Malimar]

I'd say a sorcerer with the Face-Changer reserve feat (Complete Mage). I think that approximates Tonks's ability fairly precisely.

[Loki_42]

She decided on a Changeling Warlock as the simplest. Do you have any good recommendations on PrCs(Don't know that she wants one of these. She might just want to keep it simple), feats, invocations?

[Jack_Simth]

She decided on a Changeling Warlock as the simplest. Do you have any good recommendations on PrCs(Don't know that she wants one of these. She might just want to keep it simple), feats, invocations?Warlocks... fit Harry Potter reasonably well, oddly enough. For most of them, they've got a handful of effects that they use essentially at will, and they also act very much as enchanters. Warlock, picking up item crafting feats, will do quite handily.

[Cerlis]

I think straight warlock might be best, Exept maybe the "redeemed" warlock PrC in Comp mage, most have to infernal abilities. Perhaps there is a PrC that requires caster level and not spell slots she could qualify for ? (since a warlock can qualify for those PrCs)

[Zonugal]

She decided on a Changeling Warlock as the simplest. Do you have any good recommendations on PrCs(Don't know that she wants one of these. She might just want to keep it simple), feats, invocations?

Here we go again (I felt all of these hit on your questions)


Looking at Tonks her primary abilities seem to be blasting, deception & dispelling. Build-wise you could always have her stay with a straight warlock or, to get a better idea of the character, perhaps steer her (when she is ready) into Arcane Trickster.

Invocations that might be useful are:
Least
Eldritch Spear
Beguiling Influence
Entropic Warding
Lesser
Charm
Voracious Dispelling
Walk Unseen

[Shpadoinkle]

Looking at Tonks her primary abilities seem to be blasting, deception & dispelling. Build-wise you could always have her stay with a straight warlock or, to get a better idea of the character, perhaps steer her (when she is ready) into Arcane Trickster.

Invocations that might be useful are:
Least
Eldritch Spear
Beguiling Influence
Entropic Warding
Lesser
Charm
Voracious Dispelling
Walk Unseen

Eldtrich Spear seems like it would be a great ability... but REALLY THINK how often you've ever wanted to start combat from 250 feet away with a clear line of sight to your enemies. Does it come up THAT often? Really?

This isn't to say Eldtrich Spear is totally useless. I'm sure with some planning and ingenuity you can make use of it... but making regular use of it is going to be pretty hard.

Granted it doesn't really fit the Harry Potter theme Loki_42 is shooting for (at east as far as I can recall right offhand), but I really think Eldtrich Glaive is a much better blast shape choice.

[Zonugal]

Eldtrich Spear seems like it would be a great ability... but REALLY THINK how often you've ever wanted to start combat from 250 feet away with a clear line of sight to your enemies. Does it come up THAT often? Really?

This isn't to say Eldtrich Spear is totally useless. I'm sure with some planning and ingenuity you can make use of it... but making regular use of it is going to be pretty hard.

Granted it doesn't really fit the Harry Potter theme Loki_42 is shooting for (at east as far as I can recall right offhand), but I really think Eldtrich Glaive is a much better blast shape choice.

I honestly don't have too much familiarity with Harry Potter so I figured maybe Tonks fought in huge, scale mage duels (and thus having such range might be nice). But if she fought in melee with magic than Eldritch Glaive is such a nive invocation to pick up.

[Shpadoinkle]

I honestly don't have too much familiarity with Harry Potter so I figured maybe Tonks fought in huge, scale mage duels (and thus having such range might be nice). But if she fought in melee with magic than Eldritch Glaive is such a nive invocation to pick up.

Well, unless Loki_42 is going to be throwing his players into stuff like that, Eldtrich Spear is going to pretty hard to get any use out of. If he is, then yeah, it could be a viable choice, but for almost anything else the character is probably going to have a hard time finding an opportunity to use it.

[Machinekng]

She decided on a Changeling Warlock as the simplest. Do you have any good recommendations on PrCs(Don't know that she wants one of these. She might just want to keep it simple), feats, invocations?

Here's a Warlock Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=2915.0)for ya.

[Coidzor]

She decided on a Changeling Warlock as the simplest. Do you have any good recommendations on PrCs(Don't know that she wants one of these. She might just want to keep it simple), feats, invocations?

Eldritch Disciple is a great PrC, all it costs is a single level in like, Cloistered Cleric, IIRC, which is a great dip, or so I've heard (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=2773.0).

[Analytica]

For a changeling warlock, if the campaign goes on long enough, consider taking two levels in the Chameleon prestige class from Races of Destiny. Why? Because it gives you a feat which can be changed every day, meaning that if the player when having learned more of the system finds invocations, feats or options that they want to try instead, they can pull something new out of their hat daily if they want. Hardly unbalanced, but fun. Only thing required is being human or changeling, take a feat you should have anyway, and some skills.

[lianightdemon]

Changling warlock works, She may want to make custom invocations that duplicate the Harry potter spells.

If I had the magic in Harry I would spam the same spell over and over again until it worked.

[HunterOfJello]

Warlock sounds smart.

If she really gets into the game later on, then she could go into a Warlock/Binder/Hellfire Warlock build and get an improved version of Disguise Self from the Naberius vestige that is constantly used for that build.

~

Sorcerer could also be fun.

Changelings can go into an amazing prestige class called the Recaster and gain a lot of benefits and options when using metamagic. She wouldn't be able to enter the PrC until level 7 and the class is a bit easier to get in to for wizards, but it's very cool to get in to if she's learned enough about magic, metamagic and the game by that level.

[Socratov]

warlock would work perfectly, but indeed go a 2 lvl dip in chameleon, however, if she wants to blast harder, go a 1 lvl dip in binder and go into hellfire warlock (so much blasty goodness), else enleightened spirit might be a choice, (less invocations and easier class abilities, but more focused on the blasty goodness that is warlock).

also, eldritch spear is nto that good, you'd rather get eldritch chain or something, or another utility invocation, like beguiling influence or something like that (dark one's own luck is great too for the saves). For the fluff you could revamp the invocations to spells... (i do that to invocations with a wind theme for my next character).