What's a good core class for a Naval officer?

[sabelo2000]

An infantry or cavalry officer is pretty obvious; a Fighter or Paladin could easily fill those roles. But what about a Naval officer? Not a pirate captain, but a no-kidding commissioned Captain in an established royal Navy.

I briefly kicked around Rogue anyway, due to the many kill points and the good selection of Dex-based skills useful on ship, but it doesn't fit the flavor of someone who takes time to progress through an established rank structure.

Likewise a Bard, who benefits from a high Charisma useful for leading a crew, and has many of the same skill benefits; but Bards also don't fit well in rigid Lawful organizations and besides, who wants the ship's Captain to start playing a harp in the middle of a battle?

I'm leaning toward Ranger. It has a good selection of Dex skills that can be used on ship, works well with light weapons and armor such as can be found among sailors, and thematically supports the idea of an experienced sailor who understands the nuances and vagaries of the sea.

Thoughts?

[eggs]

Knowledge + Water domain Cleric has the divinations and knowledge to know what's what, and the powers to be outright scary/effective in an aquatic environment. I'd go with that.

[Fearan]

How about Marshal? It better fits the organisation then a bard, while keeping the buffing up theme.

[Empedocles]

How about Marshal? It better fits the organisation then a bard, while keeping the buffing up theme.

Core.

I'd go with a ranger, probably with archery.

[Waker]

Well, what aspects of an officer do you want to emphasize?

While your point about Bard's alignment is somewhat accurate (stupid alignment restriction), you have other options for performance. You could instead use Oratory for a more commanding type of inspiration. You might like the Half-Elf Bard acf from Races of Destiny.
Rogue can do just fine. While the class is usually type-cast as a thief and criminal, there is nothing restricting the class mechanically from being an officer.
Marshal is another class well suited to leading a group of military members. A number of skill, decent combatant and some excellent auras.

[Invader]

Druid with an aquatic AC, aquatic wildshapes and control weather type spells and other spells refluffed to work better in an aquatic environment.

[Dr.Epic]

Paladin, druid, or ranger.

[sabelo2000]

I had considered Cleric, especially since Control winds/water/weather is so useful, but for thematic and storyline reasons that won't work in this particular case. Besides, it's entirely in character for a Navy to have such a cleric stationed on each ship subordinate to the Captain. Much like a modern chaplain or doctor... which the Cleric also fills. So, we've established that any ship of sufficient size and standing to support a 13th-level PC (i.e., flagship) will have a cleric to cast control spells.

I'll look into the Marshal class, which splatbook does that come from?

[Waker]

Marshal is from Miniatures Handbook.

[Anderlith]

I would recommend the Swashbuckler class heavily but if you are reduced to core I'd go Ranger with a variant for water or a cleric of the sea (Not a cleric of a sea god) Just a guy who worships the sea as a whole. After that I'd say go with Sorcerer & look at Stormwrack

[Little Brother]

Air/Water Cleric would be best. If can dip out of core, a level in Divine Oracle would help...

Is UA core for you? SRD?

If so, Cloistered Cleric with Air and Water domains would be flavorful and useful-ish. Otherwise, Druid could work.

Sorcerer or Wizard could work, too. Need to be higher level, but a cunning military leader wizard, or the charismatic captain Sorcerer. Mailman-ish would be useful, to crush the opposing navy, and they still do get Control Weather. Plus, divination/summoning are both very useful.

[sabelo2000]

Thanks, all. You've given me some good suggestions, I'll play with stats and see what works out.

[Seharvepernfan]

I see that you're not looking for any more suggestions, but I just want to add that I think ranger would be best.

A few reasons:

-combat ability: Full bab, broad proficiencies, bonus feats
-survivability: d8, good fort and ref, eventual evasion
-"outside" skills: stealth, perception, knowledge, athletics, tracking
-nature abilities: animal companion (a bird or sea creature would be useful), nature related spells

[bigstipidfighte]

"Ex-Bards
A bard who becomes lawful in alignment cannot progress in levels as a bard, though he retains all his bard abilities."

I suggest Bardblade, it' my go to officer build and with Song of the White Rven you never need to go back to bard. This allows for a well rounded education and general worldlyness coupled with great party buffing a more than enough combat ability to lead from the front.

Starting as a neutral or chaotic bard and shifting to lawful makes sense if you picture the character's younger self as a alpha male natural leader that learned discipline in the military.

[Eldariel]

Classes' default alignment is hardly the way to go. Hell, even in cities I'd be more inclined to look at Rangers and Rogues because of the relevant skills than Fighters and Paladins for officers. Same for the navy. Those are really the only martial classes with enough skill points and good enough skill lists to be any characters of relevance anywhere.

[Talionis]

Ranger is fine if only option is core. If other base classes are available,

Factotem is interesting for a character that might need to use a lot of different skills, and would make you less MAD. It also has access to spells that are utility appropriate.

Archivist would get you the cleric spells you want as well as a lot of the natural spells you'd want from Druid and Ranger.

as much as I hate to say it another PHB choice is fighter, the extra feats can be used in a lot of different ways.

[dspeyer]

I'll put in another vote for rogue. It's a very flexible class for what it represents in-story. There's nothing wrong with a rogue in a navy.

Unearthed Arcana has a variant where a rogue can trade away sneak attack for fighter bonus feats. That might be good. Alternatively, see if your DM will let you trade sneak attack for bardic music (oratory for pre-battle speeches, or singing for inspire competence). It seems about balanced.