Help me pick a character!

[Imdadanman]

So when I head back to school I will be dming the rest of a campaign I had been running for about a year. When the campaign comes to an end my friend will be taking over and hat means I can finally play a character again! I'd been dm long before the campaign that is coming to an end and so for the first time in about 3 years I can have a character that will last more than a game or two.

But I have an affliction.

I have character ADD. I can't help but want to play tons of different characters all the time. So I need your help picking something out. Here are some pointers as to what I'm into.

- casters: I love being able to cast spells and be a controller.
- support: whether I'm healing or buffing I really love to be a true team player.
- flavor: what good is a character without a personality and a feel? I love a character with story and a real voice that speaks when I play it.

I was looking into these classes:
-paladin: I have always loved the roleplaying feel of a paladin and all the benefits of being one. The ability to be a tank, deal damage and be the face of a group rules. Plus I was considering maybe becoming a Blackguard later down the road; some awful mishap occurs that makes the paladin lose his faith and a dark voice beckons from somewhere below asking for the paladin to join a powerful force of evil.

-dread necromancer: I love the feel of a dread necromancer. The neutral alignment added to one would be fun because he would be a misunderstood and darkness obsessed hero who controls the dead. The spell limitations is kinda yucky but sacrifices for flavor can be made

Specialist wizard: I love wizards. A lot. The idea of playing a wizard with an affinity for one school can add a ton of flavor. A stunningly beautiful elven Enchantress? A quirky gnome illusionist? A strange and mildy insane diviner? I wonder if there Are any cool ideas for specialist wizards out there that you guys have.

Barbarian: Playing a barbarian sounds rather boring unless you love cliché warriors who yell a lot. I want to playing a quiet and reserved barbarian named Raven who is vigilant and stern. When his brother died when they were both just boys everything changed; Raven died his hair black and rarely spoke a word. Why a child would be killed for no reason other than wealth and to gain respect was beyond him. Cursed with a borderline split personality, Raven has a ferocious side to him. His ferocious side is a nearly insane, blood thirsty, and quite brutal warrior. I was considering that this character could be a Fighter instead so that I could gather all those feats and maybe prestige into something interesting. Or I could become a frenzied berzerker up the barbarian path.

Cleric: playing a dark cleric who worships a demon prince would be fun. Praising evil powers or perhaps keeping my praise to myself and stay nice and smug about it all.

I'd like to keep the books used to the basics and a few others.

Keep in mind I'm not worried about min maxing or anything I just want a really fun character to play as.

Thanks for reading and thanks for helping!

[Hazrond]

if you go wizard you could go with the Focused Specialist, then the Eidetic Wizard ACF (i believe thats what its called, DragMag #357) lets you smoke a pipe to learn spells and have them in your mind instead of a spellbook

[mr_odd]

I have character ADD. I can't help but want to play tons of different characters all the time. So I need your help picking something out. Here are some pointers as to what I'm into.

- casters: I love being able to cast spells and be a controller.
- support: whether I'm healing or buffing I really love to be a true team player.
- flavor: what good is a character without a personality and a feel? I love a character with story and a real voice that speaks when I play it.

My vote is for bard. Now, hear me out here, bards can fill all three of the above wants. You could play a typical bard, or you could make it interesting. A good backstory and unique character trait can add loads of flavor to a character, on top of any bard feats or prestige classes.

A "jack of all trades" bard could really be your thing. You could be crucial at using skills, buffing teammates, and dealing decent damage if optimized correctly.

[Aegis013]

If you want to play all of the characters, why not play them all at the same time?
Factotum/Chameleon may be the build for you. Load up on Font of Inspiration feats and do all of the things.

[Vhaidara]

If you want to go for paladin, I recommend either Grod the Giant's Paladin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?221312-A-hero-is-a-man-too-stubborn-to-die-a-3-5-Paladin-fix-%28PEACH%29&p=12150015#post12150015) or T.G. Oskar's Project Hereticas Paladin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?193554-Project-Heretica-not-just-a-Paladin-retooling).

Grod's fix turns you into a self sacrificing tank. You literally throw yourself in the way to block attacks, moving yourself to an ally's square and moving them out of it to intercept.

Project Heretica is a bigger overhaul, but is a fair bit stronger. You don't get the active interventions of Grod's fix, but you get a lot of other very fitting bonuses, like extra buffs when using a shield, auras that empower your allies, and smites with debuffing riders on them. Probably my favorite part of this is the replacement for Aura of Courage (you know, the thing that remove the flight from fight or flight): Divine Courage.
At 3rd level, whenever a paladin is subject to a fear effect, she draws from her reserves of courage and faces it. A shaken paladin negates the penalties and actually gains a +2 bonus on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks and ability checks against the source of fear; a frightened paladin furthermore ignores the compulsion to run away and ignores difficult terrain and other natural impediments when drawing near the enemy; a panicked paladin gains a +2 bonus to Armor Class and never cowers (thus, it may act even if there is no chance to escape, but may only target or act against the source of her fear). Penalties to attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks and ability checks still apply on the paladin for any creature of object that is not the source of fear (except for cowering). If the paladin manages to defeat or destroy the source of fear, she is healed from the condition.

Also, Oskar includes notes as to why he made the changes he did and why he gave abilities at a given level. Grod doesn't have those, but I'm sure if you PMed him, he would respond. He's a cool guy.

[Demidos]

As a player in a group that currently boasts a Factotum Chameleon, they're fairly powerful, though they don't have the raw power a high-op campaign will likely require until you hit ~level 13 (double focus), assuming you focus chameleon.

A straight factotum can work just as well, though they lose ground in the upper middle levels to a well built Fatotum/chameleon.

[DMVerdandi]

All things pointing to...
Either archivist or cleric.
Now, cleric gets a ton of spells, can fight better than barbarian and paladin, and is probably the best necromancer class around, PERHAPS short of dread necromancer.

Archivist gets all that good casting, AND can learn spells off of every other divine list (which most other classes all natively have, so just find any random divine spell caster, use scribe scroll jointly, and viola).
The only potential moment of suck comes from them requiring spell books.

If you can somehow ask your DM to homebrew a method for eidetic spell caster onto your Archivist, then you are SOOOO good. Either that, or make a 5 level prestige class that gives you what you want. Or maybe even 3.
Either way, try your best to do away with the spell book, and you are good.
Those other spells that you can get are FANTASTIC.

Hell, just putting cleric and druid list together rocks. But the others are Icing on the cake.

Do something to get turn undead. Boom.

[FidgetySquirrel]

My vote is for bard. Now, hear me out here, bards can fill all three of the above wants. You could play a typical bard, or you could make it interesting. A good backstory and unique character trait can add loads of flavor to a character, on top of any bard feats or prestige classes.

A "jack of all trades" bard could really be your thing. You could be crucial at using skills, buffing teammates, and dealing decent damage if optimized correctly.Seconded. The bard can't always do things as well as a more specialized PC, but it does a lot pretty well anyway. Bards can have great flavor, and are fun to roleplay.

Personally, I do love playing paladins, but can't suggest it in good faith unless you play low-op.

[paperarmor]

Thirding Bard, Go Sublime Chord and get the 4-9ths off the wiz/sor spell lists.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Cleric: Use Snow Elf from Frostburn, and make a Cloistered Cleric (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#clericVariantCloistere dCleric) of Levistus (BoVD, FCII). Take the Cold and Trickery domains, use spontaneous domain casting in PH2 for Cold, and trade your free Knowledge domain for Knowledge Devotion. Light armor and a rapier are perfectly fitting for a worshiper of Levistus, and those domains will give you a lot of battlefield control and other useful tricks. Be sure to get Lesser Metamagic Rods of Extend to use with Sleet Storm and various buffs.


Wizard: Go with a Transmutation or Conjuration specialist, get War Weaver and possibly Master Specialist, along with Paragnostic Apostle and maybe Spellguard of Silverymoon. Be sure to pick up the feat Ability Enhancer from Dragon Compendium and use Animalistic Power in PH2 with War Weaver to buff the whole party at once.


Paladin: This Paladin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?275093-its-a-villain-sort-of#5), though falling to Blackguard would be nothing but a waste. If you do go that route, wait until level 21 and trade all your paladin levels for Blackguard and Epic Blackguard levels. You'll still be able to get Divine Counterspell from that and you should be fine, but I wouldn't start playing that type of character planning on turning evil.

Alternatively, go Paladin 4/ Bone Knight 4/ Divine Crusader 1/ Bone Knight 6/ Contemplative 1/ Seeker of the Misty Isle 1/ etc., choosing the Wrath domain for Divine Crusader and advancing its spellcasting with every prestige class level gained afterward.


Dread Necromancer: Be a Necropolitan, preferably one who was created by someone with all the right feats and class levels to get +12 HP/level, +4 Str, +4 Dex, +4 initiative, +10 ft. movement, +2 turn resistance, etc. Otherwise take Tomb-Tainted Soul so you can heal yourself with your negative energy touch. Also get Versatile Spellcaster and make sure to get the Ghostly Visage for a familiar. Always have it possessing and it can manifest over your face in combat to use its paralyzing gaze attack.


Barbarian: Grab Intimidating Rage in CW and check out the Fear Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3809). You generally want to trade Rage for Whirling Frenzy (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/classFeatureVariants.htm#rageVariantWhirlingFrenzy ), and if you're only going to dip Barbarian consider using the Wolf Totem (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#wolfTotemClassFeatures ) variant and get Knock-Down (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/divineAbilitiesFeats.htm#knockDown) at 3rd level.