(3.5) Cohort Design Help

[Phelix-Mu]

Alright, so for an epic campaign with all 3.5 sources allowed (plus liberal houserules and homebrew), one of my players has Leadership, and the party just lost its dedicated tank to IRL issues for the foreseeable future. Level is 25, and I will likely houserule away the effective cap on Leadership to allow one up to 23rd level, to compensate for the lack of meatshield.

Party composition is a VoP spellscale cleric/rimefire witch/psionic homebrew, drow warlock/sor/eldritch theurge, elf clawlock (with some homebrew), and an itinerant druid that won't be around all of the time.

Anyway, something tanky with some kind of holy theme, since it is the Exalted spellscale cleric that has the Leadership.

So, basically, I am looking for something not a crusader, and not a paladin. Neither of those is suitable for reasons beyond my control, so I'm looking for more unusual ideas.

I usually present the player character with three or so recruits eager to join their cause, designed by me after the theme/party role the player wants. It's low-to-mid op, so don't go too crazy.

Standing Ideas are

1.) Tanky Binder PrC into something else. Currently sounds good.

2.) Holy-seeming barbarian. Really not an expert in this arena, beyond Champ of That-Gwyn-Lady.

3.) Something else???

Anyway, this is basically just a brainstorm. Any ideas would be helpful, and I am really good at refluffing, so feel free to repurpose stuff or propose weird combos.

Afterthought: Long lifespan considered a plus. I ruled the Fey Apotheosis got rid of the spellscale's age categories, so he doesn't age and could live indefinitely in theory. So longevity would be a big plus for his cohort (to reduce turnover due to aging out).

[OldTrees1]

At your table, does the Tank need to prevent their allies from being attacked or merely be able to survive a lot of punishment? If the former, what ways have you allowed for the tank to do so?

[Kelb_Panthera]

Have you considered a knight (PHB2)? They're pretty tough and can draw enemy fire with their knight's challenge.

[Phelix-Mu]

At your table, does the Tank need to prevent their allies from being attacked or merely be able to survive a lot of punishment? If the former, what ways have you allowed for the tank to do so?

Really, I guess I mainly mean someone with hp/otherwise durability to man the front line. As I mentioned before, the druid isn't reliable in this respect (she's as often an npc as an actual contributor to battle), and the clawlock, while fast and fairly tough, will wilt under sustained melee pressure.

As far as drawing aggro, I'm aware that methods for this are scarce in D&D, and lockdown outside of ToB or spellcasting is not particularly easy to come by either. I'd be fine with some ToB dips that were mechanics-lite, but a dedicated maneuver-user is not what I'm looking for (the VoP player has his hands full with a tier 1 already, and only knows a little of how ToB works).

Mainly, in the past, I've had builds that run around and soak damage while being big, juicy targets for suckers to go for. Doesn't work with smarter enemies, but it's a thing, and something to give the spellcasters a round or two to beat the truly dangerous enemies to paste before mopping up.


Have you considered a knight (PHB2)? They're pretty tough and can draw enemy fire with their knight's challenge.

Hmm. I'll have to look at knight again. I have at least 20, possibly 23 levels to work with, so knight might well be in there, if only for the decent chassis and early abilities. Scalable abilities are key here, though, since it will often be fighting creatures with more HD than it (HD bloat in epic is hideous). I might have to houserule a feat or two or something to compensate, perhaps.

Anyway, keep the suggestions coming. I hope to have a tanky-ish binder/something/something together later today, so any tips on vestiges decent in combat are most welcome.

[OldTrees1]

Ah so a resilience kind of tank.

Well at high levels resilience takes the form of high health, high saves, and lots of immunities.

Knight's Test of Mettle ability would still target the enemy in epic levels(it is based on CR) but with the HD bloat I think the save would quickly fall behind(since it scales by 1/2 class level vs 1/2 HD). However Loyal beyond death for up to 1/2 class level + Cha rounds per day is pretty nice.

Having it be undead would deal with(ignore) the low fortitude and grant a bunch of immunities (but add a Turning weakness).

Having a single level of Warblade would pick up recharging Iron Heart Surge(to deal with pesky conditions) and White Raven Tactics(for the occasional extra ally action). This is fairly mechanics light.

[Phelix-Mu]

Alright, so one of the other players was spitballing ideas with me, and just happened to say "how about a dragon?"

And I lol'd. So obvious and elegant, yet appropriately epic. And the character with Leadership is even a spellscale, and the 1-20 campaign went into some depth as to his heritage and dragon ancestry (crystal dragon, now tied to the psionic homebrew epic PrC that he's in).

So, any advice on a dragon cohort? I'm allowing characters up to +5 LA buyoff, so I'd probably allow the cohort a similar discount to ECL, but maybe only -2 or -3. This will make the ECL a bit easier to stomach, but the tables available for dragon cohorts are pretty wishy-washy or incomplete. Anyone know a better source?

I'll probably make another thread for this, in any case, but thought I'd ask here first.

[OldTrees1]

Have a Handbook: Dragon Characters (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?303204-The-Truest-of-the-True-A-Handbook-to-non-Kobold-Dragons-(WIP))

I think the trick would be finding a good Dragon that also comes in a size that the PC can ride(that is why it came up right?).

[Phelix-Mu]

Have a Handbook: Dragon Characters (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?303204-The-Truest-of-the-True-A-Handbook-to-non-Kobold-Dragons-(WIP))

I think the trick would be finding a good Dragon that also comes in a size that the PC can ride(that is why it came up right?).

Hmm, no actually, I don't think he'd ride it in combat, and can move himself around just fine otherwise. That would be cool visuals, no doubt, but it's mainly suitable because we need a tank, and it's harder to get much tankier than a properly decked out dragon. It would definitely satisfy the whole "battlefield presence" issue.

Thanks for the linky, btw.

[OldTrees1]

Hmm, no actually, I don't think he'd ride it in combat, and can move himself around just fine otherwise. That would be cool visuals, no doubt, but it's mainly suitable because we need a tank, and it's harder to get much tankier than a properly decked out dragon. It would definitely satisfy the whole "battlefield presence" issue.

Thanks for the linky, btw.

Oh in that case then there is no problem with a Steel or Mercury Dragon.

[Phelix-Mu]

Oh in that case then there is no problem with a Steel or Mercury Dragon.

Are steel dragons also from Dragon Magz? Did either of these show up in the Compendium? Cause I'd pretty much need a solid source to reproduce it for a character sheet. Steel sounds more on-target, from what I recall, though I am a bit tempted to heavily retrofit a song dragon into the role.

[OldTrees1]

Are steel dragons also from Dragon Magz? Did either of these show up in the Compendium? Cause I'd pretty much need a solid source to reproduce it for a character sheet. Steel sounds more on-target, from what I recall, though I am a bit tempted to heavily retrofit a song dragon into the role.

I found both of those in DoF(Dragons of Faerun)