[PF/3.X] 3 person teams of casters

[The Insanity]

For my setting I'm creating an academy which is training casters for war. They are being set up as teams of 3, with each caster specializing in a different role useful on the battlefield. I'm looking for suggestions on what roles could the 3 team members consist of.
My own idea is that one of the casters would be the buffer and would most probably be the leader, while the second caster would be the artillery. I guess the third caster could be the support (healing and utility).

[Fouredged Sword]

Battle field control / Disabling / Counter-mage

One alters the battlefield, one alters the enemies (into a state unable to fightback) and the last tries to prevent the other team's mages from doing stuff.

[Red Fel]

Divination, alteration, blasting. One caster is the scout - he sees and understands everything happening on the battlefield, and has plans for every eventuality. One caster is the alterer - he buffs and debuffs, controls the battlefield, and basically changes circumstances in the team's favor. And one caster is the artillery - he makey da boom. With one to plan ahead, one to change the situation in the party's favor, and one to clean up the mess, they're more or less prepared for every eventuality.

[Necrovosh]

Divination, alteration, blasting. One caster is the scout - he sees and understands everything happening on the battlefield, and has plans for every eventuality. One caster is the alterer - he buffs and debuffs, controls the battlefield, and basically changes circumstances in the team's favor. And one caster is the artillery - he makey da boom. With one to plan ahead, one to change the situation in the party's favor, and one to clean up the mess, they're more or less prepared for every eventuality.

This, but the divination specialist adds illusion to his stable of powers, with the intent of both better scouting and confusing opposed diviners/scouts. The alterer should focus on battlefield shaping and summoning; debuffs are great, but most casters can't afford to down one guy at a time on the battlefield, and debuffs at low-mid levels are area deficient. The artillery, on the other hand, uses things like cloudkill or word of chaos in addition to his fireballs: the little mooks may dodge, but they drop like flies when exposed to to the magic RAID that is cloudkill. His actions are best spent setting up for the summons sharp teeth or meaty fists, because spells are more limited than summon actions.

This is assuming un-optimized but well trained battle mages. If optimization is a factor, my skills are way below those of the sages on this forum.

[Thrice Dead Cat]

I like the current suggestions, but may I ask if these casters are acting as three-person armies or are they supporting troops of mundanes? If the former, I'd probably go with a conjurer for the combination battlefield control and artillery via Malconvoker summons, Cloudy Conjuration, and maybe the occasional (war) orb of whatever.

The scout would be either an archivist, cleric, or diviner focused on information gathering pre-fight and debuffs when engaging the enemy. If this caster is divine in nature, healing would be done via wands of lesser vigor or persisted lesser vigor via DMM.

The last one largely depends on if the team is supporting an army or not. If they are, War Weaver into Spellguard of Silverymoon to slap as many personal only buffs onto the noncasters as possible. Solid choices in bulk include things like bladeweave (SpC) for nearly free dazes, polymorph, Divine Power via arcane discipline, and greater luminous armor (BoED).

If they are just threw lone casters versus the world, I'd still be tempted to take the war weaver for the instant canned gish, but an illusionist Shadowcraft Mage as back-up artillery and debuffer would also be nice.

EDIT: One of the three should also have tools to both dispel or prevent dispelling. As such, the cleric or archivist would likely have the tools to both increase their dispel checks beyond the usual (Inquisition domain power, at least two different spells from SpC, Dragon Magic, and Complete Mage).

[Elricaltovilla]

For my setting I'm creating an academy which is training casters for war. They are being set up as teams of 3, with each caster specializing in a different role useful on the battlefield. I'm looking for suggestions on what roles could the 3 team members consist of.
My own idea is that one of the casters would be the buffer and would most probably be the leader, while the second caster would be the artillery. I guess the third caster could be the support (healing and utility).

Are these strictly arcane casters? Full Casters? What material is allowed?

[(Un)Inspired]

Diviner, teleporter, slayer.

The diviner finds important enemy generals, field commanders, admirals, kings etcetera; the teleporter teleports the team directly in front of the target; the slayer delivers the mail.

[Forrestfire]

A special ops assassination/rescue/kindnapping team


Getting there: Conjuration Specialist Wizard, with scrying spells and Teleport/Greater Teleport. His job is to scout and get the party to their location. He also lays down battlefield control and summons allies if the job doesn't go smooth.
Doing the deed: Bard n/Hexblade 4 with Doomspeak and Dark Companion. This guy's job is to lay down his two debuffs on the extraction target. -12 penalty to saves. Make him an Unseelie Fey with a Binder dip for even more, if you want.
Getting out: Cleric, with Divine Metamagic (Chain) and Divine Metamagic (Reach). His job is to cast a Chain Reach Plane Shift to get the party and their unfortunate victim out. With something between a -12 and a -20 penalty on saving throws, the target is almost guaranteed to fail his save. In addition, every member of the party will prepare Alter Fortune, to make the target reroll their save if they get a 20.


The team spends time scrying and preparing, then teleports in as a group, right next to the target, and in a single surprise round, a Standard Action from each, they're out again, with someone (or multiple someones) in tow. The ultimate gank squad.

[The Insanity]

I like the current suggestions, but may I ask if these casters are acting as three-person armies or are they supporting troops of mundanes?
They're basically trained to be officers, so yeah, supporting the army.


Are these strictly arcane casters? Full Casters? What material is allowed?
Any classes, although I had full casters more in mind. PF and 3.X official material is allowed, 3rd party material I can also look at.

[DMVerdandi]

Oh I LOVE this.
Heroes of battle does a really good job of explaining how to play with modern military command structure, using the fantasy classes.




Personally, I think the best 3 you could ask for is

PF Cleric with access to 3.5 spells
Arcanist
Spirit Shaman

The cleric acts as Team Leader/Melee/Medic.
Arcanist acts as Grenadier/Engineer/Controller
Spirit Shaman acts as scout/support/rifleman-bowman


All three communicate through a Permanent Rary's telepathic bond.
The Cleric casts low level buffs and is aware of everyone's health and such through Greater status.
The name of the game in this is buffing and divination. It keeps the team strong and knowledgable. Load up on "mass" spells, long duration buffs, etc.

Have the cleric assume primary melee, the other two playing back-up.
Pick up reserve feats for everyone.
Have arcanist eventually ditch most of his spell book using spell mastery (it's half wizard so it qualifies)

[Elricaltovilla]

Any classes, although I had full casters more in mind. PF and 3.X official material is allowed, 3rd party material I can also look at.

:smallamused:

Archivist 4/ Warder (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/classes/warder) 2/ Battle Templar (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/prestige-classes/battle-templar) 8/ Archivist 6, swap a discipline for Silver Crane (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/disciplines-and-maneuvers/silver-crane-maneuvers) for in combat healing maneuvers, he's your healer/tank. 9th level spells and 9th level maneuvers.

[PF] Sorcerer 6/ Warlord (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/classes/warlord) 1/Bladecaster (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/prestige-classes/bladecaster) 7/ Sorcerer 6. Gives 9th level spells, 7th level maneuvers. Martial Counterspell is good for anti-casting, bladecaster gives pseudo magus spellstriking.

Eldritch Scion (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/magus/archetypes/paizo---magus-archetypes/eldritch-scion) Magus (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/magus) 2/Steelfist Commando Warlord 3/Mage Hunter (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/prestige-classes/mage-hunter) 10/ Magus 4/Warlord 1. Gives 9th level maneuvers, 6th level casting. Trade a discipline for Veiled Moon, and punch spells out of existence while spellstriking with your own spells and strikes at the same time.

What? full casters are boring.:smalltongue: