Favoured Soul!

[sammyp03]

Need help optimizing my 5th level favored soul. I am in a party of 6 with a wizard, beguiler, rogue, paladin, and duskblade. I am looking towards a more melee approach but would also consider strong spell casting. Spell suggestions and PrC's are welcome.
Tome of Battle, Alternate campaign setting, book of erotic fantasy, homebrew sollections,oriental adventures, song and silence,sword and fist, are all off limits.

[nedz]

Have you considered Spontaneous Cleric (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/spontaneousDivineCasters.htm) ?
It's also Tier 2 but depends on only one casting stat and gets TU as well as domains.

Whether you need to or not depends upon how good the Wizard player is — FS is already stronger than every other character.

[Thurbane]

Your best option is to PrC out ASAP. Knight of the Raven is good, if it's allowed.

Most will need Knowledge Religion, which you can get with the Knowledge Devotion feat (which is a decent feat for any melee type), or by using this method (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cwc/20070227x).

Also, look into ACFs (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1151316)...most are better than default class features.

[sammyp03]

Wizard is very good. Does alot of battle field control.

[Mr.Kraken]

Your best option is to PrC out ASAP. Knight of the Raven is good, if it's allowed.

Most will need Knowledge Religion, which you can get with the Knowledge Devotion feat (which is a decent feat for any melee type), or by using this method (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cwc/20070227x).

Also, look into ACFs (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1151316)...most are better than default class features.

Seconded. Contemplative or Divine Oracle are good options, if you don't want to go melee much.

[sammyp03]

I was thinking fist of raziel or ordained champion maybe?

[Elric VIII]

Your best option is to PrC out ASAP. Knight of the Raven is good, if it's allowed.

Most will need Knowledge Religion, which you can get with the Knowledge Devotion feat (which is a decent feat for any melee type), or by using this method (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cwc/20070227x).

Also, look into ACFs (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1151316)...most are better than default class features.


In the article about dead levels (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cwc/20070227x) you have the option to give a FS either K (arcana) or K (religion) at first level.

I'm always a fan of Church Inquisitor. It is a very solid class that, while it does not strictly make you better at fighting, makes you harder to mess with mentally. Sacred Exorcist is another great option since it gives you TU. Both also provide full casting.

[Firechanter]

Okay, Favoured Soul... here's the deal:
Forget about strong offensive spellcasting. FS has split stat casting, meaning that you would have to push WIS and CHA for DCs and bonus spells, so in the end you lose out to, say, a Cleric who just pumps WIS and ends up with higher DCs and Spells per Day.

I'd use my Spells Known exclusively for Buffs and certain Restorative spells, dump WIS, and focus on CHA instead, with STR secondary.

Trick:
Dip a single level of Cleric; preferrable Cloistered Cleric. Choose Domains that give you free feats or powers that don't scale with Cleric level or WIS; or trade Domains for Devotion Feats.
So this single Cleric level can net you 3 free feats plus Turn Undead.
What stat is Turn Undead keyed off?
And what is your primary stat?
Exactly!

A FS can get _piles_ of TU attempts, and use them to power Devotion feats or Divine Metamagic.
That's basically all you need to know. ;)

If you don't mind losing a few more Caster Levels, because the rest of your party isn't that competitive in the casting department anyway, you might also dip 2 levels of Paladin, to get your huge CHA bonus to all your Saves. Combine with Evasion from some source to just wade through all kinds of AoEs with impunity.

The only problem is that you will make the Paladin feel completely redundant, unless the player _really_ knows what he's doing.

[sammyp03]

I like the divine metamagic. Persisted divine power? yes please

[sammyp03]

A FS can get _piles_ of TU attempts, and use them to power Devotion feats or Divine Metamagic.
That's basically all you need to know. ;)
.

How do FS get you a ton of TU attempts other than high CHA?

[Thurbane]

Okay, Favoured Soul... here's the deal:
Forget about strong offensive spellcasting. FS has split stat casting, meaning that you would have to push WIS and CHA for DCs and bonus spells, so in the end you lose out to, say, a Cleric who just pumps WIS and ends up with higher DCs and Spells per Day.

I'd use my Spells Known exclusively for Buffs and certain Restorative spells, dump WIS, and focus on CHA instead, with STR secondary.

I recently played a FS in RhOD, and used WIS as a dump stat so I could do exactly this.

I found only buffing and curing pretty boring, and also having a Cleric in the group made my character a definite second stringer. :smallfrown:

...to be fair, I was limited to core + Complete Divine as sources, so I couldn't pull off a lot of op tricks that would have made the character better.

[Firechanter]

Well, High Cha is what I was referring to -- after all, a regular Cleric will usually only have mediocre Cha since it's kind of a quaternary stat for him.
When dipping, you might also take the Undeath domain for a free Extra Turning feat.

Of course there are piles of increasingly cheesy ways to pump your TUs through the roof, including highly questionable stuff like Nightstick Stacking or plain cheese like having a Cohort that invests all their feats in Extra Turning and an extra option to bestow those TUs to you, but I suppose any sane DM will put the kibosh on those anyway.

[Firechanter]

I found only buffing and curing pretty boring, and also having a Cleric in the group made my character a definite second stringer. :smallfrown:


Well, there's your problem -- a FS will usually pale in comparison to a Cleric of the same op level; that's what the Tier difference tells you already.
Curing should be just a sideline for you anyway, and the buffs should mostly go on _yourself_. The idea is to turn yourself into a combat monster with excellent defenses and resilience.

[Thurbane]

Well, there's your problem -- a FS will usually pale in comparison to a Cleric of the same op level; that's what the Tier difference tells you already.
Curing should be just a sideline for you anyway, and the buffs should mostly go on _yourself_. The idea is to turn yourself into a combat monster with excellent defenses and resilience.

True - the main reason I took a FS was that the DM was trying to encourage us to move away from the character classes we play 90% of the time, but someone else decided to play a Cleric at the last minute after my character was already made.