What sould I be?

[_Puppetmaster_]

Hi, I would like some help picking what character class I should be. My race will be Tinker Gnome, and we have 40 point buy.

The other people in my party be either a dread necromancer or a shadowcaster and either a wizard or a fighter.

I know that the plot of the campaign will be a lot like Alien vs Predator 2, with creatures from the far realm instead of aliens and no predator.

I'm thinking of being an artificer.

[Chosen_of_Vecna]

Advise them to be the Dread Necromancer and the Wizard, then be a Cleric/Druid/Archivist. Artificer is also acceptable, but they are more straight up calculation and book diving then any other class, so go for it if you are willing to do that, otherwise don't.

[_Puppetmaster_]

I am willing to do calculations and things, and I dislike clerics and druids.

What is an archivist?

[Chronos]

An archivist is a divine caster that's based mostly on Int instead of Wis. He prepares his spells out of a book, like a wizard, instead of just praying for them like the Cleric. The biggest advantage of the archivist is that he can put any divine spell at all in his book, so long as he can get a scroll or other source for it, so he can end up with spells from the druid list, or domain spells, or what-not, and he can get some spells at lower level than normal, by getting them from classes like ranger or paladin (for instance, lesser restoration is a 1st-level paladin spell, so if an archivist gets that spell from a paladin, it's a first-level spell for him). They also have an ability that lets them use Knowledge checks to give their party various bonuses against "unnatural" enemies (aberrations, undead, etc.), which would be useful in a Far Realm invasion campaign.

[_Puppetmaster_]

Where can I find this class?

[Keld Denar]

Where can I find this class?

Hero's of Horror, but there is a web enhancement that has just about everything you need on the wizards site.

[MorkaisChosen]

Heroes of Horror, but definitely not this Wizards of the Coast preview, ehich totally doesn't include fgull rules for the class. Honest.

[_Puppetmaster_]

Cool. I'll check it out.

EDIT: Thanks, I think I'll go with the archivist.

Thanks again!

[Moff Chumley]

You try to sneak Pun-Pun past your DM.

[_Puppetmaster_]

Nah. I don't have serpent kingdoms.

[CASTLEMIKE]

If you can get the Precocious Apprentice feat trick to work for an Archivist. Taking a level in Binder at second level and going Anima Mage for 4 levels before hitting other PRCs. Take a flaw at second level for the Improved Binding feat.

[Nebo_]

Take a flaw at second level for the Improved Binding feat.

Flaws can only be taken at first level.

[Chronos]

And Anima Mage is arcane-only, and Archivist is divine. And Precocious Apprentice is also arcane-only, and is probably only allowed in the first place by rules-literalist DMs.

[_Puppetmaster_]

And Anima Mage is arcane-only, and Archivist is divine. And Precocious Apprentice is also arcane-only, and is probably only allowed in the first place by rules-literalist DMs.

Bold: Actaully, no it isn't.
Underlined: My DM allows it.

EDIT: Ignore the above statement. I had confused it with Praticed Spellcaster

[Chronos]

Precocious Apprentice:

Prerequisite: Spellcasting ability (Int or Cha) 15, arcane caster level 1st.

Strictly speaking, I suppose that if you somehow made a character with a divine casting class who had an arcane caster level at 1st level, you could use the feat to get a second-level divine spell. But you're going to have a tough time pulling that off.