More on Pathfinder
Observations
Character 1) Summoner / Sorcerer: This character's actually pretty interesting. Having summons that last minutes rather than rounds is cool, and backing it up with a few sorcerer spells adds icing to the cake. The eidolon is a nice 'bodyguard' for the sorcerer to let you get things done without worrying about being hit. The player needs to think about using the eidolon as a bodyguard though, she's not clued into just how squishy she is. Mind you, the d8 HP per Level for being a summoner's pretty nice as a buff.
Character 2) Ranger (Shapeshifter) / Rogue (Scout): Having the ability to grow claws (shapeshifter) and having the dedicated enemy works well with the scout's ability to do "backstab" via charge attacks. Rush in with your claws, do some ferocious strikes, and inflict bleeding using the Rogue Talent (bleeding strike) is a pretty vicious combo. She doesn't have the bleeding hits yet, she opted for something else, but as she goes up levels she'll become more and more vicious. She just picked up a jaguar as her ranger animal companion, which is a nice back-up to give her a hand as well. I'm going to allow an optional Feat which will give the animal companion levels based on her full Ranger level, rather than Ranger - 3.
Character 3) Fighter / Monk: An uber beatstick. To be expected really, Fighter Feats every even level, and Level Feats every odd level, combined with the monk's bonus feats means that this character's pretty vicious. Just picked up some monk gauntlets, making him do d10s for unarmed strikes. This is our front-line warrior in the party, and I'm actually pretty interested in seeing how the player progresses the character. He has a decent AC, and it's going to just get better and better, making him a whirling dervish of destruction.
NPCs
Character 4) Gunslinger / Cleric: The character's a cleric of The Twins, the god and goddess of Luck. He's chosen the Luck and Freedom Domains to draw from, which has made him pretty interesting. The thing is, these two classes don't compliment each other too well yet. He's got his channel to heal people as a burst, and he's got his guns for doing ranged damage, but overall, a cleric's either a support or smite, and neither actually works with the gunslinger class (if he's casting, he's not shooting, and vice-versa). I've been sort of plotting out some ideas to make the classes blend better -- he's currently picked up a Feat which allows him to specifically channel his positive energy channels through his guns (allowing him to do an extra 2d6 to undead when he pulls the trigger). This is a start, but I'm thinking that as he progresses, he may work towards a prestige class geared on fusing these two classes. I'm trying to decide how to do this, and I'm sort of stumped.
Character 5) Luckbringer / Taskshaper: I'm having fun with this character -- more so than with my initial NPC (the one above). Specifically, this character is patterned off of an earlier concept - a servant of The Twins, who was cursed not to have his own shape. For this, I've played with it some - instead of giving him an ability, the Taskshaper class allows him to do his shape shifting a lot more naturally as class features. And as a servant of the Twins, the Luckbringer class makes perfect sense. He's got a handful of luck based powers (allowing friends to re-roll failed checks, and to make 'accidents' happen through raw luck). Everything seems to have fallen into place with this guy, and I like it. Funny thing -- the PC party got blasted with a lightning bolt last session, and then he got hit by three magic missiles -- and his Spell Resistance meant nothing happened. :D As far as anyone else is concerned, it was his luck saving his bacon. On top of that, the PCs chose him to roll dice with the twilight elves to see if they were allowed to pass peacefully, or if there'd be a fight. The bad guys rolled 6, and 6 on 2d6, and he lucked it -- making it shift to 2, 2, which he was able to roll over. Lucky break. :) It's just amusing as hell to watch.
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So, as far as I can see, everyone except my gunslinger is doing well, I'm going to have to really think on how to tweak him to be a bit more 'together'.
Character 1) Summoner / Sorcerer: This character's actually pretty interesting. Having summons that last minutes rather than rounds is cool, and backing it up with a few sorcerer spells adds icing to the cake. The eidolon is a nice 'bodyguard' for the sorcerer to let you get things done without worrying about being hit. The player needs to think about using the eidolon as a bodyguard though, she's not clued into just how squishy she is. Mind you, the d8 HP per Level for being a summoner's pretty nice as a buff.
Character 2) Ranger (Shapeshifter) / Rogue (Scout): Having the ability to grow claws (shapeshifter) and having the dedicated enemy works well with the scout's ability to do "backstab" via charge attacks. Rush in with your claws, do some ferocious strikes, and inflict bleeding using the Rogue Talent (bleeding strike) is a pretty vicious combo. She doesn't have the bleeding hits yet, she opted for something else, but as she goes up levels she'll become more and more vicious. She just picked up a jaguar as her ranger animal companion, which is a nice back-up to give her a hand as well. I'm going to allow an optional Feat which will give the animal companion levels based on her full Ranger level, rather than Ranger - 3.
Character 3) Fighter / Monk: An uber beatstick. To be expected really, Fighter Feats every even level, and Level Feats every odd level, combined with the monk's bonus feats means that this character's pretty vicious. Just picked up some monk gauntlets, making him do d10s for unarmed strikes. This is our front-line warrior in the party, and I'm actually pretty interested in seeing how the player progresses the character. He has a decent AC, and it's going to just get better and better, making him a whirling dervish of destruction.
NPCs
Character 4) Gunslinger / Cleric: The character's a cleric of The Twins, the god and goddess of Luck. He's chosen the Luck and Freedom Domains to draw from, which has made him pretty interesting. The thing is, these two classes don't compliment each other too well yet. He's got his channel to heal people as a burst, and he's got his guns for doing ranged damage, but overall, a cleric's either a support or smite, and neither actually works with the gunslinger class (if he's casting, he's not shooting, and vice-versa). I've been sort of plotting out some ideas to make the classes blend better -- he's currently picked up a Feat which allows him to specifically channel his positive energy channels through his guns (allowing him to do an extra 2d6 to undead when he pulls the trigger). This is a start, but I'm thinking that as he progresses, he may work towards a prestige class geared on fusing these two classes. I'm trying to decide how to do this, and I'm sort of stumped.
Character 5) Luckbringer / Taskshaper: I'm having fun with this character -- more so than with my initial NPC (the one above). Specifically, this character is patterned off of an earlier concept - a servant of The Twins, who was cursed not to have his own shape. For this, I've played with it some - instead of giving him an ability, the Taskshaper class allows him to do his shape shifting a lot more naturally as class features. And as a servant of the Twins, the Luckbringer class makes perfect sense. He's got a handful of luck based powers (allowing friends to re-roll failed checks, and to make 'accidents' happen through raw luck). Everything seems to have fallen into place with this guy, and I like it. Funny thing -- the PC party got blasted with a lightning bolt last session, and then he got hit by three magic missiles -- and his Spell Resistance meant nothing happened. :D As far as anyone else is concerned, it was his luck saving his bacon. On top of that, the PCs chose him to roll dice with the twilight elves to see if they were allowed to pass peacefully, or if there'd be a fight. The bad guys rolled 6, and 6 on 2d6, and he lucked it -- making it shift to 2, 2, which he was able to roll over. Lucky break. :) It's just amusing as hell to watch.
---
So, as far as I can see, everyone except my gunslinger is doing well, I'm going to have to really think on how to tweak him to be a bit more 'together'.