Planar Binding : what to bind ?

[Yorkblack]

Hello everyone,

My wizard recently got access to lvl 6 spells, and I took planar binding; because it seemed very interesting. I read a little about it on the internet, and I think I have pretty much everything to get started and bind some outsiders, but the thing is, I don't really know what to bind.

I don't want something good for combat : my DM is already struggling to make the fights challenging to us, and it's mostly because of me. Yeah, I know, what a surprise, the wizard is the broken one in the group !

So, what I want is outsiders with utilities, rather than combat skill (spellcasting included). I read a guide on the evil stuff, but it's just that, evil, and it was pretty hard finding what's really useful, because he seems to focus more on the combat, and uses all the books, when I have access only the monsters manual I.

So, I'm open to suggestions ! Good, evil, elementals, whatever seems useful, and fun to play !

Thanks a lot in advance ;)

[Crake]

Movanic devas are great utility binds, they can commune with good gods on your behalf, as well as raise people from the dead for free (as the raise dead spell), and also come with a bunch of nice SLAs, including heals and various status removals (disease, poison, fear, curses). They can also consecrate and hallow, as well as plane shift you to wherever you may need to go. You can travel around with one without much issue, since they can change shape into any small or medium humanoid as well.

You can bind those with lesser planar binding though, so you could have been doing that at least 2 levels ago :smalltongue:

For something more current in power level, ghaele eladrin are 10 HD, with 14th level cleric casting, meaning they can cast 7th level spells for you, including resurrection in the event that a movanic deva's raise dead doesn't meet your needs. This also gives them access to regenerate, if your limbs have been lost, or whatever else you may need from the cleric list up to 7th level. Note that that's actual casting, so they do need to provide material and XP components, unlike the movanic deva's SLAs, which are completely free.

Astral devas come with some of the same nice goodies as a movanic deva, but they also come with at will dispel magic, which can make them excellent summons to neutralize enemy mages, readying counterspells every round. If you can convince your DM to allow you to learn of, and find an astra deva who's specialized in dispeling, with something like planar touchstone for the inquisition domain, and a few other means of increasing dispel checks, plus arcane mastery, then you could ahve someone able to auto-counter every spell an enemy mage throws at you, letting you completely remove an enemy spellcaster from the field

[Dagroth]

letting you completely remove an enemy spellcaster from the field

Which won't make the DM's job of creating challenging encounters any harder!

[Yorkblack]

Thanks, those are pretty interesting !



Which won't make the DM's job of creating challenging encounters any harder!
Exactly my thought ! Ennemy spellcasters are pretty much the only thing that can pose a real threat in combat, so I would try to avoid that. I mean, it's fun to think about the possibilities, and how to make your group win every encounter without a scratch, but it gets pretty boring in game :p

[Crake]

Which won't make the DM's job of creating challenging encounters any harder!

Well, in my experience, not every fight is going to have a spellcaster, and you can't counter SLAs, even with dispel magic, so it'll only be useful every few fights, and even then the spellcaster can mitigate it, for example by getting cover between him and the astral deva. It just adds another layer to the combat, but outside of combat, it can be used to dispel enchantments on enemy fortifications, spam enough dispel magics at a high enough bonus can you can even dispel CL20 fortified permanency spells.

[Yorkblack]

outside of combat, it can be used to dispel enchantments on enemy fortifications, spam enough dispel magics at a high enough bonus can you can even dispel CL20 fortified permanency spells.

That's more the kind of thing I had in mind, yes :)

Though I like these ideas, if anyone has some others, I'm all ears !

[Bullet06320]

look for creatures that have casting you want or need, SLAs or unique utility abilities
there's always the old bind a djinni for wishes reutine to brake the game even more

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?444042-Legal-3-5-Summonable-Monster-List
post 4 has a good list to start wit

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?498825-the-Conjurer-s-Handbook&highlight=conjuration%20handbook
post 5 has a lot of relavent links you might find handy

[Yorkblack]

Thanks for the links !

I was wondering when the free wish trick was going to come up :p as you can imagine, that's a bit too OP for me

[Bullet06320]

isn't that the first thing everyone does once they get planar binding?
lol

[Andezzar]

Thanks for the links !

I was wondering when the free wish trick was going to come up :p as you can imagine, that's a bit too OP for meYou can bind noble djinn and efreeti with planar binding (10 HD), but that might not be the greatest idea
Once the requested service is completed, the creature need only so inform you to be instantly sent back whence it came. The creature might later seek revenge..

The more reliable trick is to change into a Zodar to get Wish as a Supernatural ability. Since Shapechange is a 9th level spell you usually cannot do that before 17 wizard levels. Gating one in won't work earlier either.

[Yorkblack]

He can take revenge, but if you're smart, there's no reason he will. You can just negotiate with him, offering to give him one wish if he gives you two, since he can't use wish on himself (or trade with other efretti). So he comes, it takes 5 minutes of his time, and he comes back with one wish. It only took him a few minutes of his time, seems like a pretty good deal to me.

But as I said I would like to avoid things like that because it gets very cheesy, and the DM (who is beginning at DMing) has a hard time trying to keep up with the group, and with me in particular, so I'd like to stay reasonable. One could argue that magic is made to be unreasonable, but if the DM has to try too hard to make an encounter challenging, and even the rest of the group seems weak in comparison to one of the PCs, it's not very fun. I think I'm the one with the most experience in 3.5/Pathfinder in the group, and I very often go on the internet for informations, advices, etc, when the rest of the group is just made of beginners, so even though I would love to go on a power trip and use everything I can to be completly OP, that would only be fun if the group did the same and the DM was experienced enough to handle it. Here, it's not the case. So yeah, let's be reasonable :p