Advice for a halfling

[EndocrineBandit]

I want to make a halfling whistler. Base class is likely going to be a healer from the miniatures handbook. I'm looking for some build advice. He is going to use skip rocks and a yo-yo for weapons, mostly avoiding actual combat unless he has to. Role play perspective I think he is going to be a doctor who hands out toys and spreads joy to the north lands.


Anyways. I'm looking to boost his healing, any probably help his storm whistle out. Maybe enhance his unicorn. I'm not sure. I'm allowed a 28 point build, so stat wise he won't be optimized. I plan on taking skill focus (heal) at first level so I can grab magic of the land at level two,weapon familiarity will be another thing that he needs.

[noce]

Mastery of Day and Night allows you to automatically maximize all your healing spells.

For your build, maybe you should also consider Yondalla's Sense, that adds Wis to Initiative in addition to Dex. Though, if you have less than 18 Wis, Improved Initiative is better.

[Dagroth]

Mastery of Day and Night allows you to automatically maximize all your healing spells.

For your build, maybe you should also consider Yondalla's Sense, that adds Wis to Initiative in addition to Dex. Though, if you have less than 18 Wis, Improved Initiative is better.

Agreed on the Yondalla's Sense... though if your DM allows for retraining you might switch Improved Initiative to it in the future.

Don't forget to get the Touch of Healing Reserve Feat at level 6.

At higher levels, get Evil Outsider & Undead Bane on your Yo-Yo... and get a Wizard to cast Greater Mighty Wallop on it for extra hilarity. For even more fun, make it Holy! Holy Undead Bane Yo-Yo's Batman!

Can those be dual wielded? :smallbiggrin:

[EndocrineBandit]

We are using a modified gnome quick razor for the yoyo, so I don't see why they can't be dual wielded. Hm. Mastery of sun and moon looks great. I had planned on taking improved initiative and yondalla's sense just to ensure he goes first as often as possible.

[jdizzlean]

i love fun halfling builds, please post your char sheet when its built so all may enjoy it as well :)

[EndocrineBandit]

I just love fun builds, especially tasty things with lots of flavor. I'll try to remember to update this once the character is made and running. Maybe keep an adventuring log on here. hmmm.

[weckar]

This doesn't seem to have a lot of flavor :smallconfused:
We know who he is and what he does, but there is no sense of story or motivation whatsoever. No character beyond direct actions...

[EndocrineBandit]

That's because he's not a character yet. Simply ideas bouncing around my head.


He will be hailing from Vaasa or Damara, aims to travel the frontier lands helping out the villages of little folk scattered about with his medical skills, dispersing 'toys' among the children to spread joy and hope. (The yo-yo is an archaic halfling weapon according to forgotten realms lore) He is going to surreptitiously militarize the halfling communities while practicing medicine. Some of the details are still fuzzy, but like I said I'm mostly bouncing around ideas at this point. I know the what, the why will come to me.

[Pugwampy]

Mastery of Day and Night allows you to automatically maximize all your healing spells.


Oohh thats a good one .

[noce]

Oohh thats a good one .

Not really. Healing is one of the worst things to do in combat.

At level 7, a healer casting mass cure light wounds heals for 11.5 on average. Maximized, it's 15.
Two feats and your heals are just as crappy as before.

(I know the feat was suggested by ME, it's just that a good feat cannot make a bad tactic become a good one)

[Klassik]

several have said it but... This sounds like a super fun build. Id love to see what you end up with!

[Pugwampy]

(I know the feat was suggested by ME, it's just that a good feat cannot make a bad tactic become a good one)

Its a great tactic if your healing exceeds enemy damage .

Your players will totally have a freak attack if DM has a cleric hiding behind a bruiser healing him . Go ahead try it .

I have played specialist healers twice . I got my kicks from healing anything and everyone in the middle of combat.

[noce]

Its a great tactic if your healing exceeds enemy damage .

Your players will totally have a freak attack if DM has a cleric hiding behind a bruiser healing him . Go ahead try it .

I have played specialist healers twice . I got my kicks from healing anything and everyone in the middle of combat.

If the enemy deals less than 15 damage per round at level 7, then you could take a walk while useful players do their job, and heal them at the end of combat without losing spell slots. And this is with a dedicated healer and two feats.

A dedicated healer is not always a waste of party space, but it's almost always better to play something else, unless other party members and enemies have very low optimization.

At least, this is my opinion.

[Coventry]

Consider tracking down a pair of Goggles of the Golden Sun (Magic Item Compendium page 205) for when he gets really angry. For 4000 gold, up to three times per day you may convert a prepared spell or spell slot of 3rd level or higher into Fireball. Treat it like you would a Metamagic Rod - it is simply an option you have available.

[EndocrineBandit]

This character isn't about being a badass, by any means. The party is far from optimized, I'm the most experienced player at our table and really hate 'stealing the spotlight' from the rest of the group. My last character was supposed to be support/background but ended up being the star of the show. The halfling in question is rolling with a paladin, a barbarian, a spellthief, and a druid. Barbar is going Runescarred, druid wants to do a MoMF, the Paladin has never played before. I figured what the party needed was a constant source of the heals, and I've been wanting to make a Halfling Whistler for a long while, thought this might be a good opportunity to do so.

For the most part I don't see myself having much control over the items that I get, I can talk to the DM about things that will help make the character work out better but for the most part it comes down to the roll of the die.

I'm fully aware this isn't going to be an optimal build, for really anything. Being a healer isn't the best of options in combat, but.. He's not intended to be much of a combatant past being a pain in the ass and making sure his wards don't stay down. So, We've got Magic of the Land and Mastery of Sun and Moon, might take the draconic aura feat and snag vigor (DM already said that it was kosher, we've had discussions about how the draconic aura feat is a grey area RAW) But, Maybe I should shoot for auras that provide other boosts? I'm also thinking of picking up the Wild Cohort feat and making the chittering animal or songbird that I have to befriend be my cohort. DM might homebrew him a Jackalope for his pet, too.

[Dagroth]

If you've got a really good Charisma, a level of Marshal isn't a bad idea. Marshal auras can be pretty awesome.

[EndocrineBandit]

I was thinking about a level or two dip in Marshal, I was actually thinking of making him one to begin with but noticed that the party would have poop for heals and that's just a bad idea in the campaign the DM is wanting to run. Hmmm. There is a feat for an extra Marshal aura, isn't there?

[Pugwampy]

A dedicated healer is not always a waste of party space, but it's almost always better to play something else, unless other party members and enemies have very low optimization.

I think some sort of a healer is a must have class . As long as there is a good healer , the rest of the players can fuff around , be what they want and do what they like .

[Zaq]

It's a choice you make in play rather than while building the character, but the standard way to add a little kick to a Healer is to remember that they have access to Sanctified spells (the majority of which are in BoED). They're worse at it than a Cleric, but they still have access to the whole pile of them. It won't turn you into a crazy powerhouse or anything, but it will give you a few options that you wouldn't have had by just looking at the spell list in the Miniatures Handbook.

I don't know how tight your spell slots will be, but you may end up investing in a magic item to help with the sacrifice costs (Orb of Mental Renewal and Rod of Bodily Restoration are the nice long-term ones, because they have charges that renew every day, or you can go for a wand of Lesser Restoration for a slightly lower initial cost) if you don't want to devote lots of slots to Lesser Restoration.

[EndocrineBandit]

Sanctified spells are something that I have looked into. The Healer gets a decent amount of spell slots per day, nothing overly impressive but enough of them. The build itself will be a little feat starved, but that's alright. I think I'll make it work. Hmm.. Does anyone know if there are stats for a yo-yo anywhere? Pathfinder and AEG stuff is totally acceptable.

[weckar]

I think some sort of a healer is a must have class . As long as there is a good healer , the rest of the players can fuff around , be what they want and do what they like .
Well, not a must-have, but some players seem to think they are actually FUN to play - go figure. Efficiency is for work, fun is for play :P

[Dagroth]

Sanctified spells are something that I have looked into. The Healer gets a decent amount of spell slots per day, nothing overly impressive but enough of them. The build itself will be a little feat starved, but that's alright. I think I'll make it work. Hmm.. Does anyone know if there are stats for a yo-yo anywhere? Pathfinder and AEG stuff is totally acceptable.

You could always just use the rules for a Meteor Hammer (from Dragon Magazine #319). If you've seen a video of it, it's pretty-much exactly what you're looking for in a combat "Yo-Yo".

Or you could look for "Master of the Flying Guillotine"! :smallbiggrin:

[Pugwampy]

I'm the most experienced player at our table and really hate 'stealing the spotlight' from the rest of the group. My last character was supposed to be support/background but ended up being the star of the show.

If you make an awesome healer dude and you run around healing in the middle of combat , you will steal the show . :smallbiggrin:

Not a bad thing .

If you wanted a low profile , use the PHB only .

[ATHATH]

If you don't mind becoming an ex-Healer for a level or two to qualify for it, Nosomatic Chirurgeon might be an interesting dip or splash for you.

Actually, I just noticed: the Healer ethos doesn't mention remaining Good. As long as you start Good and then end up Neutral or something, you could progress in non-Good prestige classes and such without issue and cast Corrupt spells in addition to Sanctified ones.

The fifth level of Combat Medic is nice, but you're already feat-starved and taking another 10-level PrC, so it might not be worth it.

A dip into Sand Shaper grants you a nice selection of spells. Cerebrosis (which you can get without spending a feat slot by taking a permanent 1 point hit to CON and paying a few thousand GP) and Mother Cyst also grant you more spells, but many of those spells are [Evil] (interestingly, I see nothing in the Healer class that restricts Healers from casting spells that are opposed to their alignments like Clerics and Druids are).

If you're short on magic items, encounter a creature from the Far Realms and make a (reasonably difficult) Knowledge (The Planes) check, as detailed in the same Dragon Magazine issue that Cerebrosis is from (Dragon #330). If you succeed, you can go to sleep while under the effects of some expensive incenses, have a really weird dream, then wake up with a "key", one of the three magical items presented in the article. Keys let you cast some spells from the article as SLAs, but take up the bracers slot, IIRC.

[EndocrineBandit]

Level-dips in classes are frowned upon by my DM, typically prestige classes have to have a thematic motivation to the character, or at least something fitting. As it stands he is a Strongheart Halfling Healer, Second level will likely also be healer and the third will be marshal. I intend to take at least two marshal levels, but I might progress further. He is going to prestige into the Halfling Whistler prestige class, this thing is a definite must.. And the odds of us actually hitting level twenty are pretty slim. Our DM is kind of intimidated by epic levels and none of us are wanting to force him into anything he isn't cool with, that kinda **** will end up resulting in spoiled fun for everyone. At this point I'm not too concerned with stealing the spotlight, everyone has their characters made. The party is consisting of an Aasimar Paladin of Lathander, a Goliath Barbarian (That think's the halfling is his older brother for some reason unknown to me) A Jotunbrud Spellthief, A Halfling Healer with a pet Jackalope, A Samurai/Wujen that's found his way over the mountain, and possibly a Warlock of unknown origin. The Halfling is definitely going to be more of a side kick than the one running the show. Might be pulling some strings behind the scenes, but, That's less important than the main stage.

[ATHATH]

Level-dips in classes are frowned upon by my DM, typically prestige classes have to have a thematic motivation to the character, or at least something fitting. As it stands he is a Strongheart Halfling Healer, Second level will likely also be healer and the third will be marshal. I intend to take at least two marshal levels, but I might progress further. He is going to prestige into the Halfling Whistler prestige class, this thing is a definite must.. And the odds of us actually hitting level twenty are pretty slim. Our DM is kind of intimidated by epic levels and none of us are wanting to force him into anything he isn't cool with, that kinda **** will end up resulting in spoiled fun for everyone. At this point I'm not too concerned with stealing the spotlight, everyone has their characters made. The party is consisting of an Aasimar Paladin of Lathander, a Goliath Barbarian (That think's the halfling is his older brother for some reason unknown to me) A Jotunbrud Spellthief, A Halfling Healer with a pet Jackalope, A Samurai/Wujen that's found his way over the mountain, and possibly a Warlock of unknown origin. The Halfling is definitely going to be more of a side kick than the one running the show. Might be pulling some strings behind the scenes, but, That's less important than the main stage.
You... you're sacrificing two levels of spell progression for some Marshal auras? That's... an interesting decision, especially since the spells that you're missing out on will help you more than your auras ever could. Then again, not everyone wants a fully-optimized build, so I should shut up now.

The Nosomatic Chirurgeon thing could reasonably come from a "crisis of faith" subplot, which might be fun and give your character extra personality. At worst, even if it does "steal the show", it'll only do so for a few levels at most.

[Dagroth]

You... you're sacrificing two levels of spell progression for some Marshal auras? That's... an interesting decision, especially since the spells that you're missing out on will help you more than your auras ever could. Then again, not everyone wants a fully-optimized build, so I should shut up now.

The Nosomatic Chirurgeon thing could reasonably come from a "crisis of faith" subplot, which might be fun and give your character extra personality. At worst, even if it does "steal the show", it'll only do so for a few levels at most.

Given a party with 3 melee characters in it, Marshall could prove to be a huge benefit.

[EndocrineBandit]

Dagroth, That's precisely why I'm sacrificing a couple of spell levels for Auras. With his high CHA the minor auras will be pretty useful, and the major aura/draconic auras seem like they would be pretty useful even if they are +1 bonuses