Planar Sorc/Wiz that uses a faerie cohort - Help

[Mieko]

Hey everybody,

for an upcoming game I want to play what I'll describe in a moment. The game starts with lvl 1 so not that much for me to worry about yet, but I'd like to plan a bit ahead.
I want to play either a planar sorc or planar wiz, lesser aasimar, and take the Nymph's Kiss feat, and have that faerie be a nymph fitting the name of the feat. Don't really care about optimization and actually want to rather be a GOD supporter and not be stronger than the (mostly lower tier) rest of the party, I just want to build the fluff nicely and be merrily playing.

- I want to eventually have the nymph be able to travel with the caster by having the water of her home pond carried in a magical bag of some kind. Is there one that would be able to hold lots of water? Maybe even one the faerie can survive and have it cozy in, or rather maybe some kind of mini- or demiplane I can carry with me?

- I thought about making the nymph companion via leadership at lvl 6, is that a good way or are there better ways to pull that off?

- I want to make a bit of a minion master in that for example my character just supports the nymph and the rest of the group and the nymph fights for him, which would be good ways/spells to 'buff' the nymph to create some synergy between faerie and caster?

- The other way around the nymph could possibly support the caster out of combat, maybe by casting a spell that helps the caster in social situations, maybe similarly 'buffs' them for that, or for exploring or anything.

- What spells would fit the planar caster theme well? Contact other plane, plane shift, demiplane, ...? Would a planar sorc or wiz be better for that char, and why?


I'm aware that's a lot of questions, only really looking for tips, advice and inspiration for the long run, and I'm grateful for any advice and help I get! I've gotten a bit rusty with my 3.5 knowledge.

[tiercel]

Good news: a nymph isn’t necessarily bound to a specific location (“she often has a place she holds sacred and defends against all intrusion”), unlike a dryad.

Bad news: a nymph has 6HD and LA+7, so unless your DM really tweaks something, ECL 13 is a long time coming for Leadership.

———

As for your planar caster, while there are substitution levels for both Sor and Wis in the Planar Handbook, they depend on you taking levels of the base class rather than PrCs, so probably the question comes down to your playstyle: do you want be Batman, always striving to pull the right spell out of your Bat Utility Belt, or do you want to be “when what you have is a hammer, the whole Great Wheel looks like a nail”?

Are you a planar scholar? A planar bon vivant? What role do you want in the party - I don’t know if there is a single “support” PrC per se, but if you want to be a buffer, War Weaver (Heroes of Battle) is an option you might strongly consider if possible.

[Mr Adventurer]

An alternative way to model the nymph would be to just take an Elf or a LA+0 Fey race and give it Sorcerer, Warlock, or Beguiler levels.

[Fizban]

- I want to eventually have the nymph be able to travel with the caster by having the water of her home pond carried in a magical bag of some kind. Is there one that would be able to hold lots of water? Maybe even one the faerie can survive and have it cozy in, or rather maybe some kind of mini- or demiplane I can carry with me?
Leaving aside that 3.5 Nymphs don't work that way (that'd be a Rusalka from Frostburn), would you want your significant other carrying you around in a bag all the time? Sitting in a portable hole all day is not very nature spirit.

- I thought about making the nymph companion via leadership at lvl 6, is that a good way or are there better ways to pull that off?
Creatures bound to a location rarely if ever have a given Level Adjustment, because it's impossible to actually play one as a character, or have it follow you around as a cohort. Of course unless they have some significant buff spells, carrying a creature around in a bag with you doesn't actually make you better in combat, so it shouldn't require a feat in the first place, it's just roleplaying stuff. A Nymph has a massive listed level adjustment, and with 6 HD and 7th level spellcasting on top of their Blinding Beauty and Stunning Glance (passive and at-will use save-or-lose abilities), I don't see one counting as less than 10th level unless your DM intends to use so many immune foes that those abilities don't matter.

- I want to make a bit of a minion master in that for example my character just supports the nymph and the rest of the group and the nymph fights for him, which would be good ways/spells to 'buff' the nymph to create some synergy between faerie and caster?
Nymphs, and fey in general are not combat creatures. They have bad hit dice, low hit points, and in combat it would be them supporting a buff PC, not the other way around. Cohorts are a minimum of two levels lower than your level, not counting the fact that LA tends to make monster characters even more fragile. Having a fey monster cohort do your fighting is just going to get them killed, no matter what synergy you try to come up with.

- The other way around the nymph could possibly support the caster out of combat, maybe by casting a spell that helps the caster in social situations, maybe similarly 'buffs' them for that, or for exploring or anything.
A Nymph has access to the whole druid list.

- What spells would fit the planar caster theme well? Contact other plane, plane shift, demiplane, ...? Would a planar sorc or wiz be better for that char, and why?
Contact Other Plane is a bad idea for sorcerers, because the risks are far too great to cast the spell every day, and you have barely any spells known (and the risk is even greater than for wizards because of the int-based check. Nor do you really want to spend your spells known on the planar survival spells, or Plane Shift at 7th level when the Cleric had it back on 5th.

The Planar Sorcerer substitution levels in Planar Handbook are mixed.
-Force-charged Energy, aside from referencing "force" damage (which does not exist, the proper term is untyped damage with the [force] descriptor), is one of the better ways to get some "energy" damage past resistance, and the fact that it doesn't work on your highest spell level doesn't matter when you should be using an Empowered spell of two levels below your top (because you only have one top level spell known anyway).
-Extraplanar Spell Penetration is very situational: if you fight many extraplanar foes, than the bonus you can get there is higher than Spell Penetration, and you can recover the lost 4th level spell with a feat (at 12th), but if not then you're better off keeping your spell known and just taking Spell Penetration and other universal SR stuff.
-Spontaneous Planar Summoning gives you Summon Monster at every level, but only part of it, and by the time you can get it the Summon Monster spell is generally considered better for the specific non-templated creatures and elementals. The arbitrary nature of the alignments and templates on the SM table basically means that Celestial or Fiendish will be very limited, but since Elementals are an option, it's a fine enough choice. They're also a lot more nature spirit themed than random celestial animals.


For planar themed spells, there are several already canned, mostly from Planar Handbook and/or collated in Spell Compendium. Light of Lunia/Mercuria/Venya are powerful against evil outsiders and undead when first gained and can be fired from inside a grapple, but must be pre-cast or waste combat turns, and the healing on Venya is either bad or terrible depending on which book you use. Devil Blight and Demon Dirge are okay, but far too specific for a sorcerer to take (even the Lights were too specific). Corporeal Instability is a grotesque but effective fort-or-lose spell based on the Chaos Beast, but has Touch range. False Gravity is more interesting but less effective than Fly. Call Zelekut/Kolyarut/Marut are pretty obvious and let you get minions without arguing about Planar Binding, and Unyielding Form of Inevitable Death (Complete Mage) turns you into a Marut to smash things.

There's more options if you consider light and shadow: all the Shadow Conjuration/Evocation spells draw on the plane of shadow, as do all other illusion [shadow] spells, while [light] attack spells such as Lucent Lance and Radiant Assault can be themed as drawing on the positive energy plane. Bolt of Glory in particular can be accessed by an Exalted Arcanist. Prismatic effects have also been thematically linked to the positive plane by the Prismatic Golem (which must be crafted on the positive plane), and the spells Rainbow Beam and Rainbow Blast are basically lower level prismatic effects. Force-Charged Energy again goes particularly well with these rainbow effects, making the lack of control less risky, and it can be used on all of the rainbow/prismatic spells. Energy Spheres is a particularly unique spell that can deal a flat amount of damage split between all energy types, but also functions as energy resistance- and FCE can once again let you make use of spheres that would normally fail.

Teleportation is pretty obvious: Blink, Benign Transposition, Baleful Transposition, Translocation Trick, Greater Dimension Door and from PHB2 Dimension Hop, Step, Shuffle, and Regroup, or from Complete Mage, Dimension Jumper, Tactical Teleport, just a dizzying array of fine variations to choose from in declaring yourself a master of space.

In terms of buffs, from Complete Mage the Heart of X spells are the go-to power moves for lol caster unkillable, but more interestingly consider Energy Absorbtion. Same level as Energy Immunity, but it gives wide spectrum resistance like many outsiders, and the target can trigger it in response to an incoming attack for immunity and healing. Much more versatile, and a spell not on the Cleric list so you're not a chump for taking it (but still use cheaper Resist/Protection when you do know what you're facing).

Scorching Ray is (sadly) used by a number of outsiders, not that it's unique. So are Stinking Cloud, Chain Lightning, and a bunch of other core spells. More interestingly, there are the walls. Wall of Fire, Wall of Stone, -Wall of Sand, Wall of Magma, Wall of Water, which depending on which books you read are very different. There's also a Wall of Good if you're into that sort of thing. Dispel Magic/Greater is always useful, though Slashing Dispel or Reciprocal Gyre could be moreso against outsiders that like to buff.