3.5 SRD Only - DM Advice

[Lothalis]

Hello,

My friends and I are going to be running a series of adventures shortly and I am in need of some advice. The rules for this are No monsters as races and SRD only, we are starting at level 3.

The party currently has:

Human Bard - Focusing on Healing, knowledge and social situations
Elf Necromancer Variant Wizard ( http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/specialistWizardVariants.htm#necromancerVariants )
Half-elf Fighter (I know...he has a "plan")

My role in this in the beginning is to be the DM, we have already ran through a "test run" of sorts for the 3 players to get them used to playing 3.5 again and overall it went rather well.

However for the actual adventure I was going to provide them with a NPC played by myself to help move the story along and provide a character with some local knowledge as the adventure just brought them to a new island.

Originally I was going to provide them with an Expert NPC, however they have all mentioned that they would all like turns DMing different parts of the stories as they have tales to tell as well. This would mean I should of course play a PC class.

Looking at the party I want to fill a needed gap, however not one that would be overly unbalancing in the beginning of the adventure for the first few adventures as I do not want to overshadow the PC's, however I want to still be useful in later missions.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

~Lothalis

[Red Fel]

How about a buff-oriented Cloistered Cleric (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#clericVariantCloistere dCleric)? Lower BAB and HD, lighter armor proficiency, means that he won't outperform melee on base abilities. Specialized spell list offers useful utilities, such as Tongues and Identify. Knowledge Domain (need not be switched out for Knowledge Devotion) gives all Knowledge skills, meaning he can be your walking Pokedex as needed. And by focusing him on buffs, he can keep your Fighter relevant. You can also equip him with wands for cost-effective healing outside of combat, and spontaneous heal spells for emergency triage while in combat.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Well, the obvious choices are Cleric and Rogue. I'd advise against rogue; too many of their niches are spotlight-grabbing (sneaking, trapfinding, lock picking, bluffing, etc... they're all little "solo" activities) and that's the last thing you want a DMPC to be doing regularly.
Cleric can be a good DMPC if he sticks to buffing and healing (tip: the bard is not going to cut it for the in-battle healing that a "healer" role, unnecessary as it is already, is actually important for), and since he knows his entire spell list and can change it daily, you can switch him to CoDzilla mode when it's your turn to be a player if you want. I suggest Cleric. Or Druid, same largely applies.


Half-elf Fighter (I know...he has a "plan")

Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the face.

This guy's going to need some/major help. The sooner it gets houseruled in, the easier it'll be to get accepted by the rest of the group. At the very least, give him 4+int skill points with some good added class skills and maybe a good will save progression. Filling in those 9 empty levels would be a good idea, too. Consider showing him the Martial Rogue (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#rogue) and see if he likes that. You can bump the Rogue to d8 HD if he/you is worried about survivability and it wouldn't break anything. (Note Martial Rogue gets feats as a Fighter, *not* in place of his SA levels. So he gets it at 1, 2, 4, etc..., not 1, 3, 5, etc... I made that mistake at first).

[Lothalis]

That is a great idea, only the "Walking Pokedex" what was what the Bard wanted to be (I had considered that for a while before the Bard told me about his Loremaster plans)

Keeping with that feel though how viable do you feel an Adept would be in this situation. I know with proper Opt they are about a Tier 4; however only running SRD, can they still hold their own properly with the PCs?

EDIT: I can see that the best choice here would be a Healer of some sort to take the pressure off the Bard; however I don't want to...interfere too much with the Necromancer and his pets.

[Red Fel]

I would avoid using NPC classes; you don't need to cut yourself off at the knees just to avoid overshadowing the players. The nice thing about a class like Cleric (or Druid, for that matter) is that they have the capacity to be exceptionally powerful, or simply a strong support, depending on how they are played. As a bonus, a Cloistered Cleric will not be expected to be CoDzilla; you can sit back and buff.

An Adept basically ties your hands; you will quickly be outstripped by the rest of the party, and likely unable to properly keep up. You can do a better job of keeping up as a Cleric, and simply make a conscious effort to prepare utility spells, rather than pewpewery.

If you don't want to be the "Walking Pokedex," you don't have to be; switch out Knowledge Domain for Knowledge Devotion and be unexpectedly good in melee if an emergency arises; given your lower BAB, HD and armor, that won't be very often, but it will be entertaining if your nervous bookworm suddenly clocks a guy.

Additionally, your buffs may help the Necromancer and his minions, as well; and won't he be happy when his minions are that much stronger?

[BowStreetRunner]

...switch out Knowledge Domain for Knowledge Devotion...

The OP did state SRD only.

[Red Fel]

The OP did state SRD only.

Whoops, duh.

Well, build is still nice, even without Devotion feats.

[nedz]

I'm not sure you need a DMPC, they seem to have most roles covered.

Just drop them a Wand of Curing at some point, or allow them to buy one, and don't use too many traps.

[Red Fel]

I'm not sure you need a DMPC, they seem to have most roles covered.

Just drop them a Wand of Curing at some point, or allow them to buy one, and don't use too many traps.

I think he wanted a DMPC in part because the other players would like to DM at some point.

Given that, I think that a proper, functional PC class is a solid choice. And as long as you're taking one anyway, and the party is lacking a specific healer/buffer, that's a fine support role.

[Regis_is_a_bro]

Cleric would definitely help you out here. They're both great and can be extremely fun to role-play. If your campaign is religiously focused, maybe the Cleric would have some inside info or something that would help keep the story moving along.

[Rejusu]

What you've got to keep in mind is that when they DM their character is going to be a DMPC. You've got the right idea that if you have a DMPC it should stay in the background but you can't be sure the other PCs will do the same with their characters when they DM. Plus when it's no longer a DMPC and is a regular PC you're going to want to take the foreground.

My advice is that if DM rotation is going to be regular rotate your PCs in and out of the party. Advance them while they're not there and say they went on a solo adventure.

[nedz]

What you've got to keep in mind is that when they DM their character is going to be a DMPC. You've got the right idea that if you have a DMPC it should stay in the background but you can't be sure the other PCs will do the same with their characters when they DM. Plus when it's no longer a DMPC and is a regular PC you're going to want to take the foreground.

My advice is that DM rotation is going to be regular rotate your PCs in and out of the party. Advance them while they're not there and say they went on a solo adventure.

I agree with this approach, it's what we do in the game where we have rotating DMs. It does mean that the party will not always be balanced, unless everyone has multi-threat builds.

[Amphetryon]

It's neither easy nor necessarily ideal, but you could consider a Maenad Wilder or Psion. Nab a Psicrystal and Share Pain with it ASAP to alleviate some of the healing duties; pick and choose from the Psion/Wilder Powers list to emphasize this role to the extent you prefer.