3-man balanced party & original setting

[bendking]

I am not a big D&D veteran, though I played for a couple of years and DM'd mabye two sessions.
I want to make a more "private" adventure, for 3 people, and I'm looking for some original classes and an interesting fresh (yet not hard to DM) world.
So what I need are suggestions for some unique none-core classes if possible (though not a must) and a cool world (like ravenloft, just not as hard to DM).
The party I have in mind right now is a Bard, something rogue-ish, and a good beef-cake head-on warrior.
So a buffer-healer-caster, skill monkey and a big stupid fighter.
If you guys have better suggestions (or more original, yet party-wise balanced suggestions) it would also be great.
EDIT: It seems like we have a Fighter who focuses on bows and ranged attacks, and a bard, so I need to fill in the last slot with something good for close ranged I believe - mabye a Dusk-blade?

Thanks ahead,
Ben.

[Angelalex242]

Cleric, Druid, Wizard.

They're Tier 1 for a good reason.

[bendking]

Cleric, Druid, Wizard.

They're Tier 1 for a good reason.
"EDIT: It seems like we have a Fighter who focuses on bows and ranged attacks, and a bard, so I need to fill in the last slot with something good for close ranged I believe - mabye a Dusk-blade?"
I need something to fill in the third slot: Bard, Fighter (focus on long-bow), ???

[DMVerdandi]

You really should have that last person be a caster.
I would suggest an Archivist since you only have a bard as a buffer, and an archer.

Archivists gain cleric spells like a wizard, and can learn divine spells off of other lists by making them into scrolls and adding them to their prayer books. Good thing is MOST DIVINE CLASSES KNOW ALL OF THEIR SPELLS. Domains will be hardish to get, everything else is cake. Hire someone to help scribe scrolls. Profit.

If you truly don't want a caster (foolish. The spell system is far easier to learn than how to properly DM a group with no dedicated spellcaster), then I guess something like a Factotum 1/(lionspirittotem)Barbarian 1/Fighter 1/warblade 2/ Chameleon 10/Warblade 5
Idk,man...

It be funny to throw a level of totemist in there, but it's complicated enough.:smalltongue:

[bendking]

You really should have that last person be a caster.
I would suggest an Archivist since you only have a bard as a buffer, and an archer.

Archivists gain cleric spells like a wizard, and can learn divine spells off of other lists by making them into scrolls and adding them to their prayer books. Good thing is MOST DIVINE CLASSES KNOW ALL OF THEIR SPELLS. Domains will be hardish to get, everything else is cake. Hire someone to help scribe scrolls. Profit.

If you truly don't want a caster (foolish. The spell system is far easier to learn than how to properly DM a group with no dedicated spellcaster), then I guess something like a Factotum 1/(lionspirittotem)Barbarian 1/Fighter 1/warblade 2/ Chameleon 10/Warblade 5
Idk,man...

It be funny to throw a level of totemist in there, but it's complicated enough.:smalltongue:
Are there any simpler alternatives to the Archvisit? Or is does it just sound kind of complicated to play/learn?
Sounds to me it's just a Divine Wizard kind of class, so does it mean he can heal and support like a Cleric? Anyways, would you mind explaining to me how learning divine spells works as an Archivist, what do you mean by getting domains, and what would hiring someone to scribe scrolls would help? Sorry for the noob-ish questions, I just want to make sure I can broadcast to my player how to play this class properly since we never dealt with it.
EDIT: Would a Favoured Soul work as well?

[Kazudo]

The Archivist pretty much IS the Divine version of the Wizard.

Favored Soul is a pretty big trade in. Yeah, the spontaneous casting is pretty good, but you don't get Turn Undead for Divine Metamagic, you have a REALLY limited spell list compared to the entire rest of the Divine Casting world, and you don't get any domains.

Now, that being said, if you're looking for a reined in Divine Caster, that would be the way to go, and you can get Turn Undead and Domains through clever use of PrCs later on in the game.

[Gildedragon]

For a caster...
Prestige paladin wouldn't be bad ontop of an [any spellcasting class] chassis as paladins have a nice number of buffs.
You might need to tinker with the prereqs... What level are ya?

Actually: talking PRC classes
Prestige bard is a not bad option for the bard player if you starting ~6th level
Slap it ontop a more spells total type (go divine bard ontop cleric?) for a more limited (than cleric) and broader (than bard) caster

[bendking]

OK, right now I just need a bit of help on DM'ing an Archivist, since we're pretty much set on it.

[Gildedragon]

Make a list of a few cool non cleric divine spells; set a few stelae around places for them to learn new odd-job spells, or things they might have overlooked.

If they might need fly in a dungeon: grant them the spell on some stone.

Make personal spells apply to touch
(To increase the number of buffs)

[bendking]

Make a list of a few cool non cleric divine spells; set a few stelae around places for them to learn new odd-job spells, or things they might have overlooked.

If they might need fly in a dungeon: grant them the spell on some stone.

Make personal spells apply to touch
(To increase the number of buffs)

What kind of odd-job spells and often overlooked spells might you offer? Also, should I let the Archivist learn tomes from libraries and magic know-how dudes in the cities?
And what do you mean by making personal spells apply to touch?

[Kazudo]

Certain metamagic feats require spells with a fixed range. There is some contention as to whether a touch spell has fixed range or not. As a DM in a position where the rules are partially or wholly ambiguous, you'd need to be the one to decide that. If you decide that touch spells have a fixed range, then Divine Metamagic: Persist (I believe) would work on better buffs.

[Gildedragon]

What kind of odd-job spells and often overlooked spells might you offer? Also, should I let the Archivist learn tomes from libraries and magic know-how dudes in the cities?
And what do you mean by making personal spells apply to touch?
Goodberry, wall of thorns, call lightning, trance, commune with spirit... Eyeball some spell lists. An alternative is letting them scribe metamagicked spells (on some stela a chained maximized cure moderate wounds is inscribed, etc...) if they don't spend lots of feats on metamagic. Lowering the cost of some of these in lieu of them using DMM is not terrible (also you control which spells get what mms)

Yes, provided they are divine casters. Follow same guidelines as with wizards

A lot of good buffs are self-only sorta deals. Making it so the caster can bestow them to others makes the casting of said spells more of a team booster

[bendking]

Goodberry, wall of thorns, call lightning, trance, commune with spirit... Eyeball some spell lists. An alternative is letting them scribe metamagicked spells (on some stela a chained maximized cure moderate wounds is inscribed, etc...) if they don't spend lots of feats on metamagic. Lowering the cost of some of these in lieu of them using DMM is not terrible (also you control which spells get what mms)

Yes, provided they are divine casters. Follow same guidelines as with wizards

A lot of good buffs are self-only sorta deals. Making it so the caster can bestow them to others makes the casting of said spells more of a team booster

OK, I understand the last part of that comment...