[3.5]Help me build a Favored Soul, again.

[Lendário]

In a nutshell;

- I'm new to D&D
- I made a thread looking for a Tripper, limited book acess, you helped.
- Things changed, the group needed a divine caster, limited book acess still. I made another thread, you helped.
- Now things changed AGAIN, but for the better. DM increased book acess alot, so i'm making another thread.
- I'm sorry, if things change again i'm kicking the DM in the neck.


So, i need a build and/or Feats suggestions.

Human Favored Soul.
30 Point Buy.
Allowed Books: PHB, DMG, Complete Divine, Complete Warrior, Complete Arcane, Complete Adventurer and Players guide to Faerun.
House Rules: Changed Knowledge: Arcana to > Knowledge: Religion, DMM:Persist is very much banned and i can only choose a PHB deity.
Intent of the build: Hit stuff while buffing and healing myself and allies.


And again, i'm sorry.
I swear to make my DM pay for this.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

What level are you beginning play at, and what level do you reasonably expect to reach?

You can use PGtF, so begin play with Mercantile Background. If the party would sell loot for half value, offer to sell it through your connections for 10% more. Sell the loot for 75% of its value, keep 15% of the loot's value for yourself and split the remaining 60% of its value with the rest of the party.

If you want to deal melee damage, pick Kord for a Greatsword, and plan to pick up Power Attack.

For prestige classes, consider going Favored Soul 6/ Divine Oracle 4/ Contemplative 10, and always start combat by casting Divine Power.

With that selection of books, you would really be better off picking Cleric or Druid over Favored Soul, simply because none of the books with feats that bring spontaneous casting up to par are present. Complete Mage has Rapid Metamagic and reserve feats, and Races of the Dragon has Versatile Spellcaster, just to name a few. Druid would actually be spectacular by comparison, mostly because of Complete Divine versions of certain spells are significantly more powerful than the newer versions in Spell Compendium, such as Spikes and Quill Blast (Empower it), not to mention it also gives you access to Creeping Cold (Lesser Rod of Extend it).

[Lendário]

We are starting at 1, going all the way to 20.
And no, i'm avoiding Cleric and Druid like the plague. They are receiving some nerfs by DM.

[Warrnan]

If you feel like you want turn undead for divine feats you can grab it from the sacred exorcist class at level 8.

Ddm might be off the table but there are many other good uses for turn undead.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

What kind of nerfs are Druid and Cleric receiving?

[Lendário]

What kind of nerfs are Druid and Cleric receiving?

I have no idea.
But that is irrelevant, i'm playing FS.

[Nifft]

What's your goal with this character?

What do you want to be able to ~do~?

What party role(s) do you want the character to be able to handle?

[Lendário]

What's your goal with this character?

What do you want to be able to ~do~?

What party role(s) do you want the character to be able to handle?

Like i said, killing things and buff and heal myself and the party.

[Curmudgeon]

Are you going for high STR or high DEX? If STR, pick Kord and the greatsword. If DEX, pick Ehlonna and the longbow.

[Lendário]

Are you going for high STR or high DEX? If STR, pick Kord and the greatsword. If DEX, pick Ehlonna and the longbow.

I'm waiting for suggestions on that actually.
Meele has power attack, ranged is safer and the extra AC from dex is nice.
But, if i'm not mistaken, Cleric buffs work better at meele. So Greatsword is my first pick.

[Nifft]

Archery Clerics can be very strong, so I presume Archery Favored Souls are also strong. Divine Favor and Greater Magic Weapon stack very nicely with the many Rapid Shot Full-Attacks worth of arrows you can send down range. Since you're stationary, you get a lot more full attacks than a melee guy would; but you don't Charge.

EDIT: Luckily, Ehlona has Longbow as her favored weapon. So pick her. Even if you're stuck in Favored Soul right through level 20, having Weapon Spec: Longbow is much nicer than most weapons, thanks to your large number of attacks.

L1 feat: Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot
L3 feat: Weapon Finesse (just in case you can't avoid melee for some reason)

L1 spells:
- Lesser Vigor (C.Divine)
- Command (PHB)
- Bless? Bane?
- You'll want Divine Favor eventually, but it's not worth casting until level 3, and it only gets better from there. Take it at level 3, 5 or 7.

L2 spells:
- Lesser Restoration or Healing Lorecall (C.Adv) - depends if your DM likes ability damage or negative conditions more; eventually you might want both
- Curse of Ill Fortune (C.Div) - major single-target debuff
- Silence
- Shield Other - more useful if you are NOT on the front line, plus good synergy with Vigor spells

L3 spells:
- Blindsight (PGtF)
- Briar Web (C.Div)
- Dispel Magic
- Prayer or Mass Lesser Vigor (C.Div)
- Vigor (C.Div)

[Troacctid]

You should try and haggle the DM up to Player's Handbook II. That Deity's Favor variant is clutch. :smallwink:


Unfortunately, there's no PHB deity with Longbow as a favored weapon.
Ehlonna's favored weapon is the longbow.

[Nifft]

Ehlonna's favored weapon is the longbow.

Oh, nice. That saves a feat. Thanks for the catch.

Complete Divine lists her as favoring Longsword, but I suppose that's just a misprint. The PHB itself agrees with Longbow.

[Curmudgeon]

Are you going for high STR or high DEX? If STR, pick Kord and the greatsword. If DEX, pick Ehlonna and the longbow.
It's often helpful to read previous posts.

Oh, nice. That saves a feat. Thanks for the catch.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Don't bother with Divine Favor, it caps at +3 at 9th level thanks to the PHB errata, you can't quicken it as a spontaneous caster (and you don't have MIC for Circlet of Rapid Casting or CM for Rapid Metamagic), and you don't want to spend two rounds buffing. Those last two reasons are also going to make it not even worth taking nearly every buff except Divine Power that doesn't last an hour/level or longer. Seriously, a Cleric would normally use Quickened Divine Favor or Quickened Shield of Faith along with Divine Power if he can't get DMM: Persistent, but without books that fix spontaneous casting, I just don't see this working for a Favored Soul mechanically.

If this were my character, my first choice would be to switch it to Spirit Shaman with a club that has Unguent of Timelessness on it and cast Shillelagh and Spikes, and use Sleet Storm and (Lesser Rod of) Extended Creeping Cold as backup options. You wouldn't have Divine Power, but you would have Longstrider, Barkskin (10 min/level means it lasts a few fights), your one-handed damage would be just as good as the Favored Soul's Greatsword, and since your buffs last so long you can instead start combat by crowd controlling multiple opponents to keep them out of the fight while your party focuses on eliminating what targets are still able to act.

You seem to be insistent on making Favored Soul work, so here's what I would do with that:

Human, Favored Soul 8/ Sacred Exorcist 2/ Contemplative 1/ Favored Soul 9; Mercantile Background (PGtF), Armor Proficiency (Heavy), Power Attack, Craft Wondrous Item or Craft Magic Arms/Armor, Divine Might (CW), Extend Spell, Persistent Spell, and Craft Contingent Spell.

Spells Known (crossed out spells are taken early but traded out for later choices in the higher levels), get the Luck domain at Contemplative 1:
1st: Lesser Vigor, Bless, Shield of Faith, Magic Weapon, Endure Elements, Bless Water, Protection from Evil, Omen of Peril, Divine Favor (once you can make it Persistent)
2nd: Bull's Strength, Hold Person, Lesser Restoration, Cure Moderate Wounds, Silence, Consecrate, Delay Poison, Align Weapon
3rd: Dispel Magic, Searing Light, Magic Vestment, Mass Resist Energy (CA), Meld Into Stone, Daylight, Mass Lesser Vigor (once you can make it Persistent)
4th: Divine Power, Dismissal, Wall of Sand (PGtF), Greater Magic Weapon, Death Ward, Freedom of Movement
5th: Flame Strike, Mass Cure Light Wounds*, True Seeing, Wall of Stone, Raise Dead, Plane Shift
6th: Cometfall (CD), Heal, Mislead (Domain), Greater Dispel Magic, Heroes' Feast, Word of Recall
7th: Destruction, Greater Restoration, Summon Monster VII, Spell Turning (Domain), Ethereal Jaunt, Holy Word
8th: Death Pact (CD), Stormrage (CD), Moment of Prescience (Domain), Dimensional Lock, Greater Planar Ally
9th: Miracle, Gate, Astral Projection, Mass Heal

*Note the targeting on Mass Cure Light Wounds, and compare it to the targeting of spells like Horrid Wilting (a specified number of targets within an area versus any number of creatures within an area), and consider that Energy Missile (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/energyMissile.htm) which specifically states that the same target cannot be hit multiple times, and that Mass Cure Light Wounds lacks that wording. Also consider that Mass Cure Critical Wounds heals for no more than +40, which is outlandishly high for a core spell unless your caster level bonus can be applied to a given creature multiple times because you select them as a target multiple times. So at 10th level when you get Mass Cure Light Wounds, it heals 1d8+10 damage ten times, if you target a creature twice they're healed 2d8+20, if you target a creature three times they're healed 3d8+25 (because it caps at +25), if you target a creature four times they're healed 4d8+25, etc.

Get a standard Strand of Prayer Beads that's had the Bead of Smiting removed as early as possible, DMG pricing puts that at only 9,000 gp and you need the Bead of Healing to fix certain conditions that you're not spending spells known on. You'll need to (get the party to) buy a few Scrolls of Remove Curse just in case. I've included heavy armor proficiency so you don't need to put more than a 12 on Dex, since FS casting is so MAD. Also try to get a Greater Metamagic Rod of Chain Spell (CA) by the time you get 7th level spells to use it with Destruction, and note that secondary targets won't get a reduced DC for that since the spell deals damage.

Start each fight with a buff (Bless or Shield of Faith, then Bull's Strength or Shield of Faith, then Divine Power every time), then full attack to your heart's content or throw out an offensive spell when necessary. That list includes Magic Weapon in the low levels and then Greater Magic Weapon, along with Align Weapon, so DR shouldn't be much of a problem for you. Wall of Sand is Shapeable (S) (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/spellDescriptions.htm#area) so you can fill a room or hallway with it and cast it on occupied squares to crowd control opponents. You can ready an action to cast Silence on a point in space when an enemy spellcaster is casting a spell with a verbal component, and it will automatically interrupt their casting with no saving throw or SR allowed.

[J-H]

My DuckDuckGoFu says this may be helpful:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?217247-Favored-Soul-Handbook

[Lendário]

Archery Clerics can be very strong, so I presume Archery Favored Souls are also strong. Divine Favor and Greater Magic Weapon stack very nicely with the many Rapid Shot Full-Attacks worth of arrows you can send down range. Since you're stationary, you get a lot more full attacks than a melee guy would; but you don't Charge.

EDIT: Luckily, Ehlona has Longbow as her favored weapon. So pick her. Even if you're stuck in Favored Soul right through level 20, having Weapon Spec: Longbow is much nicer than most weapons, thanks to your large number of attacks.

L1 feat: Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot
L3 feat: Weapon Finesse (just in case you can't avoid melee for some reason)

L1 spells:
- Lesser Vigor (C.Divine)
- Command (PHB)
- Bless? Bane?
- You'll want Divine Favor eventually, but it's not worth casting until level 3, and it only gets better from there. Take it at level 3, 5 or 7.

L2 spells:
- Lesser Restoration or Healing Lorecall (C.Adv) - depends if your DM likes ability damage or negative conditions more; eventually you might want both
- Curse of Ill Fortune (C.Div) - major single-target debuff
- Silence
- Shield Other - more useful if you are NOT on the front line, plus good synergy with Vigor spells

L3 spells:
- Blindsight (PGtF)
- Briar Web (C.Div)
- Dispel Magic
- Prayer or Mass Lesser Vigor (C.Div)
- Vigor (C.Div)


This is interesting indeed.

[Lendário]

Don't bother with Divine Favor, it caps at +3 at 9th level thanks to the PHB errata, you can't quicken it as a spontaneous caster (and you don't have MIC for Circlet of Rapid Casting or CM for Rapid Metamagic), and you don't want to spend two rounds buffing. Those last two reasons are also going to make it not even worth taking nearly every buff except Divine Power that doesn't last an hour/level or longer. Seriously, a Cleric would normally use Quickened Divine Favor or Quickened Shield of Faith along with Divine Power if he can't get DMM: Persistent, but without books that fix spontaneous casting, I just don't see this working for a Favored Soul mechanically.

If this were my character, my first choice would be to switch it to Spirit Shaman with a club that has Unguent of Timelessness on it and cast Shillelagh and Spikes, and use Sleet Storm and (Lesser Rod of) Extended Creeping Cold as backup options. You wouldn't have Divine Power, but you would have Longstrider, Barkskin (10 min/level means it lasts a few fights), your one-handed damage would be just as good as the Favored Soul's Greatsword, and since your buffs last so long you can instead start combat by crowd controlling multiple opponents to keep them out of the fight while your party focuses on eliminating what targets are still able to act.

You seem to be insistent on making Favored Soul work, so here's what I would do with that:

Human, Favored Soul 8/ Sacred Exorcist 2/ Contemplative 1/ Favored Soul 9; Mercantile Background (PGtF), Armor Proficiency (Heavy), Power Attack, Craft Wondrous Item or Craft Magic Arms/Armor, Divine Might (CW), Extend Spell, Persistent Spell, and Craft Contingent Spell.

Spells Known (crossed out spells are taken early but traded out for later choices in the higher levels), get the Luck domain at Contemplative 1:
1st: Lesser Vigor, Bless, Shield of Faith, Magic Weapon, Endure Elements, Bless Water, Protection from Evil, Omen of Peril, Divine Favor (once you can make it Persistent)
2nd: Bull's Strength, Hold Person, Lesser Restoration, Cure Moderate Wounds, Silence, Consecrate, Delay Poison, Align Weapon
3rd: Dispel Magic, Searing Light, Magic Vestment, Mass Resist Energy (CA), Meld Into Stone, Daylight, Mass Lesser Vigor (once you can make it Persistent)
4th: Divine Power, Dismissal, Wall of Sand (PGtF), Greater Magic Weapon, Death Ward, Freedom of Movement
5th: Flame Strike, Mass Cure Light Wounds*, True Seeing, Wall of Stone, Raise Dead, Plane Shift
6th: Cometfall (CD), Heal, Mislead (Domain), Greater Dispel Magic, Heroes' Feast, Word of Recall
7th: Destruction, Greater Restoration, Summon Monster VII, Spell Turning (Domain), Ethereal Jaunt, Holy Word
8th: Death Pact (CD), Stormrage (CD), Moment of Prescience (Domain), Dimensional Lock, Greater Planar Ally
9th: Miracle, Gate, Astral Projection, Mass Heal

*Note the targeting on Mass Cure Light Wounds, and compare it to the targeting of spells like Horrid Wilting (a specified number of targets within an area versus any number of creatures within an area), and consider that Energy Missile (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/energyMissile.htm) which specifically states that the same target cannot be hit multiple times, and that Mass Cure Light Wounds lacks that wording. Also consider that Mass Cure Critical Wounds heals for no more than +40, which is outlandishly high for a core spell unless your caster level bonus can be applied to a given creature multiple times because you select them as a target multiple times. So at 10th level when you get Mass Cure Light Wounds, it heals 1d8+10 damage ten times, if you target a creature twice they're healed 2d8+20, if you target a creature three times they're healed 3d8+25 (because it caps at +25), if you target a creature four times they're healed 4d8+25, etc.

Get a standard Strand of Prayer Beads that's had the Bead of Smiting removed as early as possible, DMG pricing puts that at only 9,000 gp and you need the Bead of Healing to fix certain conditions that you're not spending spells known on. You'll need to (get the party to) buy a few Scrolls of Remove Curse just in case. I've included heavy armor proficiency so you don't need to put more than a 12 on Dex, since FS casting is so MAD. Also try to get a Greater Metamagic Rod of Chain Spell (CA) by the time you get 7th level spells to use it with Destruction, and note that secondary targets won't get a reduced DC for that since the spell deals damage.

Start each fight with a buff (Bless or Shield of Faith, then Bull's Strength or Shield of Faith, then Divine Power every time), then full attack to your heart's content or throw out an offensive spell when necessary. That list includes Magic Weapon in the low levels and then Greater Magic Weapon, along with Align Weapon, so DR shouldn't be much of a problem for you. Wall of Sand is Shapeable (S) (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/spellDescriptions.htm#area) so you can fill a room or hallway with it and cast it on occupied squares to crowd control opponents. You can ready an action to cast Silence on a point in space when an enemy spellcaster is casting a spell with a verbal component, and it will automatically interrupt their casting with no saving throw or SR allowed.

Thank you for putting this much effort in this post.
I like the idea of the Favored Soul alot, thats why i'm so adamant.
Also i can use Divine Favor no problem. We play as printed on the book.

About the Heavy Armor, i'd have to pass on that.
My DM does not like background/flaws rules that give you stuff.
And getting so few lvls of Favored Soul makes me miss the flavorful stuff.
For that reason, staying at range with the long bow like the other gentleman suggested is a good idea.

What do you think?
Also, since DMM:Persist is banned, what should i Lookout for to increase my buffs duration a bit?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Thank you for putting this much effort in this post.
I like the idea of the Favored Soul alot, thats why i'm so adamant.
Also i can use Divine Favor no problem. We play as printed on the book.

About the Heavy Armor, i'd have to pass on that.
My DM does not like background/flaws rules that give you stuff.
And getting so few lvls of Favored Soul makes me miss the flavorful stuff.
For that reason, staying at range with the long bow like the other gentleman suggested is a good idea.

What do you think?
Also, since DMM:Persist is banned, what should i Lookout for to increase my buffs duration a bit?

I didn't include any flaws, and Mercantile Background is a feat in Player's Guide to Faerun, it's a regional feat, but if anyone else is using a regional feat from that book then you should be allowed to take it.

The build I proposed has seventeen levels of Favored Soul.

You'll get a lot more damage output in melee.

(Lesser, Greater) Metamagic Rods of Extend are useful for making your buffs last longer. When you activate the Bead of Karma from the Strand of Prayer Beads that I suggested, it gives you +4 caster level for 10 minutes, so your hour/level buffs like Magic Vestment and Greater Magic Weapon last an extra four (eight extended) hours, and those particular spells get an additional +1 to the bonus they grant. You can use Persistent Spell normally at a +6 metamagic cost, so one you can cast 7th level spells you can use Persistent Divine Favor.

[Lendário]

I didn't include any flaws, and Mercantile Background is a feat in Player's Guide to Faerun, it's a regional feat, but if anyone else is using a regional feat from that book then you should be allowed to take it.

The build I proposed has seventeen levels of Favored Soul.

You'll get a lot more damage output in melee.

(Lesser, Greater) Metamagic Rods of Extend are useful for making your buffs last longer. When you activate the Bead of Karma from the Strand of Prayer Beads that I suggested, it gives you +4 caster level for 10 minutes, so your hour/level buffs like Magic Vestment and Greater Magic Weapon last an extra four (eight extended) hours, and those particular spells get an additional +1 to the bonus they grant. You can use Persistent Spell normally at a +6 metamagic cost, so one you can cast 7th level spells you can use Persistent Divine Favor.

Ok, cool.
I won't be able to use regional feats through. Is the build viable even without the heavy armor?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Ok, cool.
I won't be able to use regional feats through. Is the build viable even without the heavy armor?

Yes, it should work fine with just medium armor, but you'll want to put a higher stat on Dex and that may cause your other ability scores to be lower.

Since you're able to use Player's Guide to Faerun, can you use the Lesser Planetouched variant on page 191? If so, you can make your character a Lesser Aasimar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/planetouched.htm#aasimar) and get everything but the Outsider creature type for a +0 LA. The Lesser Planetouched variant says you're susceptible to effects that can target both Humanoids and Outsiders, such as Banishment, but that targets extraplanar creatures regardless of creature type, not Outsiders specifically. The writers were still holding onto their 3.0 creature type interactions, there's actually no drawback to switching it to Humanoid other than losing the Outsider traits.

[Lendário]

Yes, it should work fine with just medium armor, but you'll want to put a higher stat on Dex and that may cause your other ability scores to be lower.

Since you're able to use Player's Guide to Faerun, can you use the Lesser Planetouched variant on page 191? If so, you can make your character a Lesser Aasimar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/planetouched.htm#aasimar) and get everything but the Outsider creature type for a +0 LA. The Lesser Planetouched variant says you're susceptible to effects that can target both Humanoids and Outsiders, such as Banishment, but that targets extraplanar creatures regardless of creature type, not Outsiders specifically. The writers were still holding onto their 3.0 creature type interactions, there's actually no drawback to switching it to Humanoid other than losing the Outsider traits.

Yep. I'm considering Lesser Aasimar.
The extra Human feat is sweet through.