Feats and Vestiges for a Utility Binder?

[Nettlekid]

Hey all, just wanted to get some input here. In a low-Epic (level 21) game that my friend is starting in the fall, one of my fellow party members is planning to go straight Binder 21. He's not a heavy optimizer by any means (I, being an optimizer, was suggesting builds involving Warlock and Anima Mage to get 20th level Binding and 21st level Warlock powers (abusing bloodlines and PrCs which boost a base class by the PrC level)) but he prefers simplicity. He also doesn't really like the spotlight, and just wants to be a utility character filling in the roles in the party. That's part of what attracted him to Binder. Now, what I want to know is, how do you go about making a Binder versatile? I know there's Zceryll, the Summon Monster vestige, but I think that's too complicated and troublesome for this player's style. He'll probably bind the same few vestiges each day, with a couple more in Vestige Phylacteries, and just roll with it. So what feats and vestiges would be good, flexible enough to cover multiple roles, and still be pretty good at doing so?

[The Viscount]

One useful feat for binders if you have a slot open is Ignore Special Requirement. Most vestiges with requirements are pretty mild, half of them are mostly fluff. It is useful for more irksome requirements like Balam requiring you deal 1 point of damage to a sentient creature, Desharis requiring to be bound inside a city, and Amon and Arete not being bound with several other vestiges.

As for utility vestiges, Balam's reroll once every 5 rounds is lovely. Karsus' ability to activate wands and the like as a wizard of your EBL makes you very useful. Buer lets you heal yourself and others infinitely, though by level 21 you likely have reliable healing. Malphas makes for very good scouting.

[Psyren]

Focalor is one of the best for a pure binder, because when you have nothing better to do you can just spam lightning every round.

Binders are an odd animal - they have a lot they can do, but you really have to plan in advance because changing vestiges is so hard and changing feats/ability scores is even harder. Your friend should ideally choose whether he wants to be a caster or non-caster binder, and if the latter, what kind of melee he wants to do whether it is sneaky flanking or frontline bruising. There are vestiges for any of these approaches but none for all of them.

[Nettlekid]

Yeah, it's because it's so hard to pick good, universally useful feats that I'm trying to narrow it down here. I'm pushing really hard for a two-level-dip into Chameleon, so he'll be able to change a feat every day depending on what he wants. Being a spy? Darkstalker. Being an archer? Distant Shot (we are Epic after all). So yeah, that might be useful. But we'll see.

I'm sure he doesn't plan to be castery. I think he wants to do usually ranged, support stuff. His last two characters have been Scout and Warlock, where he's done just that.

[cagemarrow]

I know you said that summoning might be too complicated but I'd still have them take a look through the following handbook and make that decision themselves. My favorite character ever was a Neutral Diplomacy build favoring Zceryll and it was awesome. He survived the entirety of the Red Hand of Doom and ended up the Lord of his own city at the end, using his summons to rebuild the city for free.

There is an Epic Feat that allows for more bound Vestiges so dedicating one to Zceryll still leaves 3 or more to bind to other focuses. I liked using Orthos for the Displacement 50% and Whirlwind Breath to do damage and knock people around. Haures for the Mindblank and the at will, no concentration, Major Image Illusions, and finally Desharis for the Tongues, Skills, and Animate Objects at will.

Have them pick a few common summons and then just focus on the Diplomacy aspect of being a world renowned Diplomat. I liked using the Deva's to have a few attractive angels at Jacob's beck and call when dealing with Good aligned beings. Or a few Devils or Demons when dealing with Evil ones. Then having a Djinni able to call forth food and wine at will was hilarious. Not to mention at will 9th level summons gives you at-will Heal spells.

The Binder’s Summon List and Spellbook (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=9094.0)

Leadership - the small city/nation that you're a Diplomat from
Mindsight

Favored Vestige - Zceryll
Improved Favored Vestige - Zceryll - to use your summons every 4 rounds instead of every 5
Improved Summoning - get it from a dip into cloistered cleric and the Dragon Below Domain

[Nettlekid]

I promise they don't want to summon. This guy turned down Leadership because he didn't want to build another character. There's no way he wants to keep track of tons of different monsters' HPs and abilities.

[cagemarrow]

I'd suggest going for an assassin's build then.

Andras + Andromalias + Malphus + Marchosis = Smite good or evil & Improved Crit plus sneak attack with at will Invisibility and Bird's Eye viewing & Sudden Strike + Death attack

Then take the feats crossbow sniper and EWP: Great Crossbow

Crit on a roll of 15 or higher and do a death attack all from invisibility within 60ft. Use the raven or dove to locate your target and get the 3 rounds of studying while getting ready to fire the crossbow. Add Leraj if you get another bind to be able to apply the attack to an adjacent opponent to the target with ricochet as well.

[Chronos]

One useful trick is to bind Tenebrous, and then take divine feats that you can use your every-five-rounds Turn Undead on. Divine Vigor is a useful self-buff, and the Complete Divine version of Sacred Healing gives you infinite out-of-combat healing (you can get that from Buer, too, of course, but that's pretty much all Buer gives you. Tenebrous also has other options).