Need Advice

[Stryyke]

Sadly, the pseudodragon experiment didn't pan out in this particular game. I am mildly useful, but not in a terribly fun way. But that's only because we only get 1 1/2 levels a year. Progression is too slow, and I don't want to wait for 2 more years for my character to come into his own. Oh well. We never know unless we try, right.

I know there are 10 billion sorcerer handbooks on the internet, and I've read them all. Before I actually create the character, I wanted to get some opinions. I like the advice I get from here. So here we go.

No need to itemize what spells are good. No real need to differentiate the difference between Wizard and Sorcerer, I get the difference. My question is, given our group composition, what do you feel we need the most. You guys are light years beyond me in terms of D&D knowledge. You guys always seem to come up with an idea I had never thought of, or couldn't because of my ignorance. Here is the group composition:

Troll Fighter
Bugbear Barbarian
Half-fiend Bard
A stinky Cleric

I am thinking sorcerer, since I could then take my previous character (the pseudo dragon) as my familiar. And my DM is fine with it. Should I do an evocation focused sorcerer, or an eclectic wizard. I want to stay away from polymorph and morphing in general. My GM said he's essentially going to make it obnoxiously hard for me to get new forms. Or is there something obvious that the group needs but doesn't have? We don't have a skill monkey, I guess, as the Bard is combat focused. I love skill monkey's, but I really want to keep my pseudo dragon.

Anyway . . . Thoughts? 3.5 All 1st party sources (that aren't broken), and I can present other sources on a case by case basis.

[Venger]

Sadly, the pseudodragon experiment didn't pan out in this particular game. I am mildly useful, but not in a terribly fun way. But that's only because we only get 1 1/2 levels a year. Progression is too slow, and I don't want to wait for 2 more years for my character to come into his own. Oh well. We never know unless we try, right.
that's weird. do you guys not play that often, or does your gm just not know how to calculate xp?

there's one online (http://www.d20srd.org/extras/d20encountercalculator/) he can use. or does he do ad hoc and not give you any xp for stuff you guys do that isn't killing people?

anyway, if he refuses to do xp correctly (or if you guys just play once every few months or what have you) and your level is static, it would be helpful for us to know what exact level you're stuck at so we can give a build that's already online and able to do cool things at that point.



Troll Fighter
Bugbear Barbarian
Half-fiend Bard
A stinky Cleric
I assume the cleric is some kind of normal la0 humanoid race.

That's a really weird party. does your gm give you some amount of free LA/RHD to encourage people to play monsters, or are people actually paying for these things? if the former, grab something with racial sorcerer or wizard casting, such as an aranea. if the latter, just roll a normal character and actually have class levels.


I am thinking sorcerer, since I could then take my previous character (the pseudo dragon) as my familiar. And my DM is fine with it. Should I do an evocation focused sorcerer, or an eclectic wizard. I want to stay away from polymorph and morphing in general. My GM said he's essentially going to make it obnoxiously hard for me to get new forms. Or is there something obvious that the group needs but doesn't have? We don't have a skill monkey, I guess, as the Bard is combat focused. I love skill monkey's, but I really want to keep my pseudo dragon.

Anyway . . . Thoughts? 3.5 All 1st party sources (that aren't broken), and I can present other sources on a case by case basis.
if you like sorcerer better, that's okay, but wizards can also have familiars, so I'm not sure why you're implying otherwise. is there a houserule to that effect in play?

what is an "eclectic wizard?" is that an acf from someplace?

don't focus in evocation, it's not good and you'll just step on the toes of your party's brutes. your resources are best invested elsewhere.

if you want to be a caster and also a skillmonkey, you might consider beguiler.

you can roll whatever class you want and just grab improved familiar if you're dead-set on having a pseudodragon.

[Stryyke]

that's weird. do you guys not play that often, or does your gm just not know how to calculate xp?

there's one online (http://www.d20srd.org/extras/d20encountercalculator/) he can use. or does he do ad hoc and not give you any xp for stuff you guys do that isn't killing people?

anyway, if he refuses to do xp correctly (or if you guys just play once every few months or what have you) and your level is static, it would be helpful for us to know what exact level you're stuck at so we can give a build that's already online and able to do cool things at that point.


We have 4 la, and are class level 4. However I've talked my GM into allowing me to use those 4 LA for caster levels. Our encounters are ECL 8-13, and a lvl 4 arcane caster is pretty much useless. So if I use an LA 0 race, I can go all the way up to caster level 8.

I'm not sure why it takes so long for us to get xp. We play every other Monday, so 26 sessions a year. He does have an annoying habit of waiting until after the entire current questline before giving xp. For instance, we haven't gotten any experience in 2 1/2 months, but we'll get it all after we finish. It doesn't really bother me too much. I don't mind going slow. Just that particular build wouldn't become useful for years under the current xp rate.




I assume the cleric is some kind of normal la0 humanoid race.

That's a really weird party. does your gm give you some amount of free LA/RHD to encourage people to play monsters, or are people actually paying for these things? if the former, grab something with racial sorcerer or wizard casting, such as an aranea. if the latter, just roll a normal character and actually have class levels.

The cleric is some race that is stinky. I can't remember what it's called, but it gets stinky when under duress.

I proposed sylph to my gm, based on a conversation I had here last week. He didn't bite. He doesn't like the idea of perpetually invisible characters, and no characters that cannot communicate normally. Sadly, human is out too. In this particular setting, I would get killed or enslaved on sight.



if you like sorcerer better, that's okay, but wizards can also have familiars, so I'm not sure why you're implying otherwise. is there a houserule to that effect in play?

what is an "eclectic wizard?" is that an acf from someplace?

don't focus in evocation, it's not good and you'll just step on the toes of your party's brutes. your resources are best invested elsewhere.

if you want to be a caster and also a skillmonkey, you might consider beguiler.

you can roll whatever class you want and just grab improved familiar if you're dead-set on having a pseudodragon.

Any class can have a familiar with the feat? Interesting. That may be the answer. Do a skill monkey with a pseudodragon familiar. Interesting.

[Venger]

We have 4 la, and are class level 4. However I've talked my GM into allowing me to use those 4 LA for caster levels. Our encounters are ECL 8-13, and a lvl 4 arcane caster is pretty much useless. So if I use an LA 0 race, I can go all the way up to caster level 8.
Ok. I assume by "caster level" you mean "character level" so you can have (for example) 8 levels of sorcerer. is that correct? caster level is something different.

then you're looking for a fun build that's useful at lvl 8


I'm not sure why it takes so long for us to get xp. We play every other Monday, so 26 sessions a year. He does have an annoying habit of waiting until after the entire current questline before giving xp. For instance, we haven't gotten any experience in 2 1/2 months, but we'll get it all after we finish. It doesn't really bother me too much. I don't mind going slow. Just that particular build wouldn't become useful for years under the current xp rate.
That explains that. I've played under gms that do this as well. it's largely for expediency of bookkeeping. When running through a tightly packed lump of encounters I've been known to do it myself, but never for whole arcs.

Have you tried talking to him about it and asking if it would be possible to tabulate xp, if not after every encounter, then at least after every session? two weeks is plenty of time to figure that out.

a strategy I like to use when I run is after we call the game, I'll make a note of what encounters the party has overcome and give them the xp then. in that instance, in case someone levels up, they have until next session to deal with it so it doesn't disrupt play.

if it doesn't work, so be it, but it probably couldn't hurt.


The cleric is some race that is stinky. I can't remember what it's called, but it gets stinky when under duress.

I proposed sylph to my gm, based on a conversation I had here last week. He didn't bite. He doesn't like the idea of perpetually invisible characters, and no characters that cannot communicate normally. Sadly, human is out too. In this particular setting, I would get killed or enslaved on sight.
I assume he's a trogolodyte. ok. this kind of information is good to have in advance before we recommend races.


Any class can have a familiar with the feat? Interesting. That may be the answer. Do a skill monkey with a pseudodragon familiar. Interesting.
yes. if you have an arcane caster level of 3+ and don't normally have the obtain familiar class feature, any class such as factotum or beguiler can have a familiar.

if you go beguiler, take obtain then improved and you can get a pseudodragon by level 8, or if you want to do a sorcerer chassis, just take improved familiar and you can have one.

if you want an improved familiar, a skillful class such as beguiler will contribute a bit more, since your familiar has all your ranks in stuff and beguiler actually has umd, it can do things like use wands, since it can speak and has thumbs.

[Stryyke]

Do you have a source for beguiler?

[Venger]

Do you have a source for beguiler?

beguiler is a base class from the player's handbook II. if you are considering beguiler, the most popular build by far is going into rainbow servant, but if you're not likely to level up for a really long time (assuming your GM won't amend how he doles out xp) then playing beguiler straight through 20 (with a 1 level dip in the mindbender prc from complete arcane at 6 and taking the mindsight feat from lords of madness) is a very viable option.

for race, go whisper gnome from races of stone.

further reading: gnowhere gnome (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?471355-Weekly-Optimization-Showcase-Gnowhere-Gnome-(Tempest_Stormwind))

and the beguiler handbook (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=363.0) to get you acquainted with the basics.

[Stryyke]

Thanks I'll take a look at those.