Another Wizard/X thread

[Lynnalynna]

Ok, so here is the situation. I am currently playing a campaign that is more story driven than mechanic driven, so optimization is the last thing on my mind. But I don't want to completely turn away from the rules still. So here is the situation.

My Focused Transmuter comes from a tribe where magic is looked down upon (though not banned), her only reason for her seeking out the exiled mage was to find a way to compensate for her lack of strength (the tribe is a barbaric tribe mind you). Being blamed for a rash amount of deaths in the villages livestock (which was actually due to raiders who were weakening the town before an attack) she was imprisoned by her own people. Before her final trial, the raiders took her and the rest of the small village as slaves. Escaping once, she was recaptured only to be released at the beginning of the campaign (our campaign began on a slave ship)

Now due to the background and events within the campaign, she is going to be multiclassing. But how the events were, it leads to an interesting set of restricted events to her multiclass:

1) It can't be anything taught - She is out in the desert with the party, if something will appear it will be awakened in her or a divine calling of sorts, not something she has to learn at first

2) She is Devoted to Khord as is her whole tribe, and the awakening probably will be related to this fact - She seeks strength, the event that is leading to her second class is due to her being unable to protect everyone in the party against odds, even if she is just a lone mage (mind you, CG alignment)...aka, her strength alone wasn't enough. How the situation was portrayed, a spiritual strength is awakening in her.

3) She was showing the want to be more physical - Currently she is a Focused Transmuter (with a few alternate class features as well to make her seem more specialized), but the events shown her wanting to lead the charge to the point where she acted as bait to pull all the enemies off of her allies (leading to her dropping, though we did have a quasi-medic on the team to stabilize her). Her goal is to find strength enough to save the villagers, no matter what they did to her in the past. So her search is for strength.

Now the armor thing isn't a concern to me, because I am approaching the character out of the norm anyways (when the other players first met her she was wearing rags and broken shackles - beyond the slavers shackles - this was by design not due to the situation, she isn't the classic mage from the academy mage, but instead was trained by an exilee within the swamps of her homeland), and probably, if taking the most thought of route, would be the equivalent of a farmer taking up the holy call.

So that leads to the second class options, both pros and cons of them as well:

a) A Paladin of Khord: We would be using the Paladin of Freedom alternate class rules from UA with a few other possible alternate class features to make it more fit her character. This option right now is the most flavorful to what is going on, and fills in (kinda) a role we are missing (currently our party features a rogue focused on swindling, a half-elf ranger who is focused on the heal skill and manhunting, a Chaos Incarnate, a Lurk with amnesia, and this character), all of us are of a Chaotic alignment of one or another. My concern was with the Rogue, which is CE. The DM was saying he would allow me to remove the requirement to not party with an opposite alignment character as long as (not annoyingly) I was trying to convert him to the path of good (the rogue is the DM's side character that he uses to guide us when needed...a trick he learned from me way back in the day when we used to have rotating GM's every few weeks)

b) A divine based or exalted Barbarian: This option is secondary but just as thought out. The situation that lead to the possible multiclass would fit a barbarian with a divine call as well, this is more if I was focusing on the human aspect of it rather than the divine aspect. But if this option I would need some guidance to what alt features would make it more fit the character...but then again a Rage Mage would be fun to play.

c) Some Kind of Divine Caster: Probably not a cleric, but that is due to this would be a spontaneous learning, the character is trapped in the desert with her party, there is no way that she would gain religious teachings and studies immediately. I thought of Favored Soul, but it seems kind of convoluted with her race as is (she is using the Spartes race from RR:Olympus, but we changed the greek gods in that book to the dnd gods for simplicity sake - her homeland is more greek based than the main continent, each continent has a cultural feel to it in our campaign. One is arabic in feel, one is arthurian stylized, one is oriental, and one is germanic/nordic in feel)

-her stats aren't going to matter for story sake, I know mechanically it could cripple her, but story>mechanics in our campaigns, so even with her low strength, a melee option is plausible, though not as beneficial

Stats are Str:9, Dex:10, Con:16, Int:18, Wis:10, Cha:17. These were achieved by a strict straight 3D6 roll. In this group, experienced players have to take the blunt of the blow by doing straight rolls as the newbies get to use a grid system of rolling.

As said, all this is story based, so optimization isn't even a thought, Should I go with A or B? Or any suggestions for C? And if A, any suggestions? I've been playing since ADD and never once played a Paladin, always had kinda one planned, but never really leveled one, with this set up, what kind of feats should I take to soften the blow of a poor class combination?

[Nettlekid]

Let's see...What level are you? I'm assuming you aren't looking for Prestige Classes. Because if you were, then based on the Kord-loving, Sanctified One of Kord from Complete Champion is thematically perfect. It's basically a near-divine connection with a character's god (there's examples for Kord, Ehlonna, Olidammara, and Wee Jas) and you can pick abilities from it. The most popular one for Kord is Divine Fire, which turns Fire spells into divine energy. Pretty cool.

Similarly, though it would be a bit tricky to qualify for, the Swiftblade PrC is a warrior/caster which revolves around using Haste. Between the charging into battle and acting as bait, your character seems rather hasty. Kind of a "No time to think about it, we gotta go now!" class, you gain the ability to move faster with Haste, cast it as Quickened, and at high levels take extra actions. Good for an impatient kind of character.

Because your Wizard decided to pursue learning magic despite the dislike of magic in the tribe, that suggests a level of discipline and dedication to personal ideals to me. Free spirit is different than unchained, and for that reason I think that multiclassing into Barbarian just doesn't fit that well. I don't see this character as the type to lose control in a wild frenzy.

Have you considered maybe a Ranger? As a result of living in the desert, not to mention with the barbarian tribe, your skill at survival in the wild and natural world has been honed. You train with your fellow barbarians, learning combat technique (BAB) but you can't quite lose yourself in the same Rage that they do. Instead, being as clever as you are, you know how to beat a foe by combination of strength and cunning, picking out weak points (Favored Enemy) and using your expertise where a lesser warrior would use brute strength (Combat Styles). Since you already have a Ranger, you could be "taught" by that Ranger on how the class works, and customize yourself differently (take the opposite Combat Style, take different skills, etc. Two Rangers can be very different characters).

And similarly, a class which is always good for multiclassing, Factotum. Because you're not as buff as your allies, you rely on being clever and tactful. You appreciate the power of knowledge, as evidenced by your learning of magic, but sometimes you can't be bothered with fancy hocus-pocus and a dash of impulsive inspiration will have to do in a pinch.

Or maybe Swordsage. The Desert Wind and Shadow Hand schools have a magical feel to them anyway, perhaps you learned how to blend the arcane teachings you practiced with the martial ability of your tribe, and blend them into a martial art that defies reality by teleporting through shadow and coating your blade with fire.

I hope any of those ideas appeal to you, but you seem to have a good handle on the character idea and you'll find something you like, I'm sure.

[Waker]

Totemist works if you are looking for a quasi-divine class with a hint tribalism, focuses mostly on enhancing your physical abilities and senses. It would also mesh fairly well with Transmuter. You can mix the classes together using Soul Caster. You've already gotten some exposure to Incarnum from the Incarnate in your party, so it wouldn't be introducing a new system to the party, but still prove unique enough.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

c) For divine casting, something Cha-based like Divine Crusader or Favored Soul into Mystic Theurge would be ideal. Alternatively, Archivist (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20051007a&page=3) is an Int-based divine caster that's basically a divine wizard, but it's 100% taught. Maybe retrain your Wizard levels to Archivist and say the power of her magic came from devotion and faith all along. Maybe she figures out how to apply the same things she's learned to be a Wizard to divine magic and easily picks up some Archivist levels.

b) Barbarian into Rage Mage would work a lot better once you get Polymorph, mechanically speaking. I'd go for Whirling Frenzy (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/classFeatureVariants.htm#rageVariantWhirlingFrenzy ), and definitely pick up Arcane Strike (CW) and Minor Shapeshift (CM).

a) Going Wizard 4/ Paladin 2/ Spellsword 1/ Abjurant Champion 5/ Eldritch Knight or Sacred Exorcist 8 would make an extremely strong frontliner later on. Use (Greater) Luminous Armor and Shield for AC, (Draconic) Polymorph for physical stats, and as above get Arcane Strike and Minor Shapeshift. I think this would actually be your best choice.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I'd recommend either Paladin or Favored Soul.

Paladin fits the fluff better, and it sounds like you were leaning that way to start. You won't be able to do much with the spells, but it'll let you make good use of that Charisma of yours, and it doesn't sound like your DM is going to be obnoxious about the code. See if you can take a feat or something to get the spells based off Charisma-- it's a common homebrew boost. If you do, the feat Battle Blessing is a godsend at 6th level, letting you cast paladin spells as swift actions. You might also look at Divine feats, since you'll have Turn attempts to burn.

A related option, if the Tome of Battle is allowed, you might look at Crusader. It's thematically almost identical to a paladin, getting granted martial skill from the gods, but it's much more mechanically effective-- especially if you don't have the Wisdom to use paladin spells. As a bonus, it lets you later advance into Jade Pheonix Mage, which is a pretty solid gish PrC that advances maneuvers and casting alike. It's also desert-y, which fits some of your history.

[Lynnalynna]

All of these are pretty sound actually, but mind you the history is in the grecianesk continent, the desert is where our party was sold to. We pretty much have an open book on which books we can use as long as they don't break lore or the world too bad. I am unable to do ranger due to the one main mechanical rule is not to step on others toes, though the totemist did cross my mind actually. We are extremely low level currently, usually I don't jump to "Character changing moments" but the event highly spoke this as a defining moment in the characters development.

EDIT: Ok, officially read through crusader, and now it is down to Paladin of Kord or Crusader of Kord!