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View Full Version : Witchborn Binder (Incarnum) Cohort optimization/advice



Yogibear41
2018-11-20, 03:54 AM
Working on a possible Cohort for an Incarnum themed party/character. Idea I have is for a Witchborn Binder/Incarnate to act as the "anti-magic" guy, vs typical arcane/divine caster enemies.

The Witchborn binder has plenty of anti-magic abilities, but the main ability I want to focus on for this thread is the Word of Abrogation ability to essentially counterspell at will.

Basically these are the numbers I have on it:

Level 14 character with a level 12 cohort (The witchborn)
Level 12 being the lowest level it can use the ability, by entering as Incarnate 6/Witchborn Binder 6.

With this set up the character will have an effective Meldshaper level of 9th. The ability in question works like dispel magic making a caster level check with a bonus based on essentia vs a DC of 11+enemy caster level.

Now assuming the "main character" is level 14, I will assume enemies are level 14 which would give a DC of 25 most of the time.

With an essentia cap of 3 at level 12, my check would basically be 1d20+12 vs DC 25 to counterspell.

What I am looking for are ways to boost this roll so I can more easily counterspell enemies. Something like Practiced Spellcaster would be useful since WB Binder loses 4 meldshaper levels over its 10 levels, but I'm not sure on the legality of the feat with incarnum.

I would also like to throw in the feat Arcane mastery so I can take 10 on these caster level checks, but to do that I need to find a way to boost the check by at least 3 to be able to counter 1 spell every round without fail vs level 14 enemies.

WhamBamSam
2018-11-20, 12:06 PM
Witchborn Binder is a really bad class, but as a consequence of that it had an Iron Chef (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?382632-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXIII) round, which I judged. Vedo D'Nigh (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18441673&postcount=142) seems to basically do what you want, including considerably boosting dispel checks.

If you want to avoid the Cleric dip, you can get the Inquisition Domain granted power from Planar Touchstone (Catalogues of Enlightenment) and can increase dispel checks by 2 with Elven Spell Lore.

Ursus Spelaeus
2018-11-20, 12:17 PM
It's 3.0 content, but you could use the Supernatural Transformation feat from Savage Species to convert Word of Abrogation into a supernatural ability with an effective caster level equal to your hit dice. If I were DM'ing though, I would be inclined to ban everything from Savage Species, though.

ottdmk
2018-11-20, 02:42 PM
I'd talk to your GM. Given the existence of Practiced Spellcaster, I can't see how any reasonable GM could object to a Practiced Meldshaper feat. Especially as Meldshaper Level matters a lot less than Spellcaster Level most of the time.

Yogibear41
2018-11-20, 03:37 PM
Witchborn Binder is a really bad class, but as a consequence of that it had an Iron Chef (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?382632-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXIII) round, which I judged. Vedo D'Nigh (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18441673&postcount=142) seems to basically do what you want, including considerably boosting dispel checks.

If you want to avoid the Cleric dip, you can get the Inquisition Domain granted power from Planar Touchstone (Catalogues of Enlightenment) and can increase dispel checks by 2 with Elven Spell Lore.

Technically speaking the Word of Abrogation never says it is a "dispel" effect only that it is a counterspell effect so one could argue most of those abilities don't actually boost it. Even thought it works exactly like dispel magic in counter spelling which is a Dispel Effect.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, its not a duck according to raw.
:smallsmile:

Nifft
2018-11-20, 03:55 PM
As others have said it's a terrible class.

You could take its features and build a decent class around them, but as-written it's just not that good.