What's a good class for a lantern archon?

[troqdor1316]

One of my players took Leadership almost an entire level ago, and seems to expect me to come up with a cohort for him to have instead of giving me any ideas of what he wants. So, I'm going to give his character (an ECL 7 Bard) a Lantern Archon that loves to be told stories as a cohort. However, I have no idea what class levels to give it, since I want it to be ECL 5 when I'm done building it.

I should note that I don't want the archon to be all that useful in combat, since my player's character is himself more of a moral mediator in the party (he talks much more than he fights), so I would stray away from obvious choices like wizard or sorceror.

[Sallera]

Lantern archons make great scouts thanks to their at-will teleport; perhaps something that would improve their information-gathering abilities? I can imagine a diplomatic sort of bard benefiting greatly from improved access to others' conversations and available forces. If you don't want a spellcaster, then even something like Rogue would probably work fine, but access to Invisibility through one spell list or another (Beguiler, maybe) would fit well.

[Urpriest]

If you want it to be ECL 5 then it won't have any class levels to start out: a Lantern Archon's base ECL is 5 as per Book of Exalted Deeds.

It will eventually take class levels, though. It's not got any particularly impressive stats, so as long as you avoid something Int or Str-based it's all pretty equal. Rogue might work, though it's a tad combat-focused. I could potentially see it taking Bard levels in emulation of its master, but that might be a bit redundant. If you want something fairly passive, how about Marshal?

[Phelix-Mu]

*air guitar*

Dragonfire Adept Lantern Archon! YEAAAAH!

*air guitar*

[enderlord99]

I don't know about class, but I do know that you should make a houserule (or something) that lets you trade in a bonus language for learning how to say a single, short phrase in every language in the campaign.

Have the archon yell "HEY! LISTEN!" in the native language of whoever the bard is trying to talk to.:smallwink:

[Taffimai]

How about factotum? Just pick utility spells for it instead of combat spells.

[Segev]

How about Incarnate? Flavor-wise, the stories his Leader PC is telling him inspire him to tap his inner spirit for the strength of heroes and legends, which manifest as phantasmal equipment which grants real powers.

Mechanically, the cohort can shift around what skills to which it has bonuses and can be kitted out for a variety of missions, whether aiding directly, scouting, or doing other specialized things.

[Dorian Gray]

You could give it ranks in healer- the class is really weak, but the thing's a cohort anyway, and you shouldn't let the extra character get too strong.
I do have to wonder why a (presumably) chaotic good bard has a lawful good companion. After all, the CG/LG rivalry is just as strong as the LG/LE rivalry.

[Urpriest]

How about factotum? Just pick utility spells for it instead of combat spells.

Int is it's one bad stat.


You could give it ranks in healer- the class is really weak, but the thing's a cohort anyway, and you shouldn't let the extra character get too strong.
I do have to wonder why a (presumably) chaotic good bard has a lawful good companion. After all, the CG/LG rivalry is just as strong as the LG/LE rivalry.

I wouldn't give it a caster class, with four or five levels down (depending on whether it can trade in its one hit die) it's just going to be awkward.

I'm trying to think of a sneaky class that's more of a spy than a combatant, and not based on Int like the Factotum. A Spellthief might be kind of amusing.

[HammeredWharf]

How about Warlock? You can refluff it to be good, it has decent stealth capabilities and eldritch blasts could be the light rays lantern archons normally shoot. Having at-will Invisibility (in time) will make it a better scout than it would be with its few hit dice and poor dexterity. Still, I don't know how well it'll be able to hide even with Invisibility, because it's a ball of light.

[Ashtagon]

Shadowcaster, for the irony value.

[Urpriest]

Shadowcaster, for the irony value.

Actually, if it weren't for the Int-dependence Shadowcaster would be a great choice for a low-powered Scout-type.

[Cirrylius]

Take Fighter or Ranger classes until it digivolves into a Hound Archon at... level 6?

[Lightlawbliss]

commoner
expert
outsider (outsider hd are not the worst choice)

[Chronos]

Quoth Dorian Gray:

After all, the CG/LG rivalry is just as strong as the LG/LE rivalry.
This is completely contradicted by the books.

Anyway, my suggestion would be something that gives it Mage Hand, or some similar ability. Being weak is one thing, but being completely unable to manipulate anything at all is quite another.

[Gildedragon]

Binder refluffed to channeling more powerful good-aligned outsiders; swordsage to go into shadowsun ninja for sillyness?

Nvm that: artificer! Sure it won't be stellar but it can enchant the bard's stuff.

[VoxRationis]

Perfect flying and a native ranged touch attack that bypasses DR synergizes well with the scout's skirmish ability, although that's pretty much the only thing that it synergizes well with.

[John Longarrow]

I hate to say this, but both Psudodragon and Petal would work better as the cohort for a bard. Both seem much more... fun... for a story telling songster than a floating ball of light that does stage illumination.

That being said, sorcerer with an emphasis on illusion/glamor would be complimentary for a Bard. He performs, his friend puts on a light show!

[Deadline]

A Lantern Archon backed up by a bard that can do Inspire Courage well is a frightening opponent all on its own.

[Prime32]

Perfect flying and a native ranged touch attack that bypasses DR synergizes well with the scout's skirmish ability, although that's pretty much the only thing that it synergizes well with.I'd suggest ToB, but you'd need to use homebrew disciplines.

[Baroknik]

Though it is technically a caster, what about ardent with a custom mantle? If you could buff its Wis (just assign it a PB with racial stat mods of: -10/0/0/-4/0/0 -- it is a cohort not a typical lantern archon). The max level power known is determined by HD for ardents, iirc.

[Dorian Gray]

This is completely contradicted by the books.

I don't mean that they're going to war, but the archons and the devils form alliances sometimes too, and the archons and eladrins are normally less than friendly towards each other.

[troqdor1316]

You could give it ranks in healer- the class is really weak, but the thing's a cohort anyway, and you shouldn't let the extra character get too strong.
I do have to wonder why a (presumably) chaotic good bard has a lawful good companion. After all, the CG/LG rivalry is just as strong as the LG/LE rivalry.

The character was Lawful Neutral before he died (as an irda (my campaign is set in the Dragonlance Campaign Setting)) and was resurrected by Mishakal (goddess of healing) and Chemosh (god of undeath) as a half-vampire elf. The resurrection cost him half of his soul, which is now stuck in a corrupted artifact the party is currently on the way to cleanse at a magical fountain in Nordmaar, and indebted the character to Chemosh, who is enjoying having sway over an important ECL 8 character. It also forced him to shift his alignment to CN. My idea was that Mishakal would have sent the Lantern Archon as an attempt to guide the character back towards the concepts of law and order.

By the way, the archon ended up having an INT score of 11 and a STR of 6 after rolling and applying the racial negatives. So probably not gonna want to base a build off of those scores.