D&D 3E/3.5 (3.5) Pyromaniac

[HoboGod]

First, some background:
Okay, so I'm DMing a game-on-the-side with my girlfriend and her best friend. There's no way for them to fill all the necessary roles in the group, so they are gestalt characters. However, I still feel a party of two would be much too dangerous (if the non-healer falls unconscious, the healer has no support while healing, if the healer falls unconscious, the non-healer is pretty much screwed), so I'm trying have an NPC with them at almost all times. Normally, I hate having NPCs filling roles in the party because I don't like stealing the spotlight from my players, but we're playing a Mercenary Campaign so I can keep shuffling through the same 3-6 NPCs to accompany them and they seem more like reoccurring characters rather than the main protagonists.

Where I need help:
One of the NPCs I've developed a Kobold Sorcerer who's an impulsive firebug, but when I designed him I only had Sorcerer in mind. My campaign is gestalt and I have no idea what else fits the theme of a pyromaniac to fill the other half of gestalt. I'm restricting my NPCs to only sources I approve for their use (all official books, excluding any magazine source). What other classes often like to play with fire, but wouldn't care if they burned down a forest? PLEASE HELP!

 

[FEADIN]

Cleric of a fire or destruction god.

 

[Persiflage]

For stat and flavour synergy, a Favored Soul of a fire or destruction god might be better than a cleric. Other suggestions: Hellfire Warlock, or a Wilder that favours burning things with his mind. If you've got two decent stats, maybe a Wu Jen heading for Elemental Mastery (fire) and/or (if you allow PrC's with gestalt classes) Elemental Savant.

Of course, all of this is overlooking... Dragonfire Adept! At-will breath weapon for infinite fiery goodness, all day long

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

There is the Pyrokineticist PrCl in the XPH, which, BTW, you can qualify for without taking a psionic class- all you need (psionically speaking) is the Wild Talent feat.

If, OTOH, you do want a full Psi class, take Wilder. It fits thematically (their powers and emotions are closely linked) and mechanically (its a Cha based class, just like Sorcerer), and you'd draw powers from the Psion list, which includes a bunch of energy powers.

Furthermore, if you take BattleSorc instead of Sorc and combo this with Wilder, you'll have no issues with wearing armor...

 

[HoboGod]

Thanks for the ideas all around! I've gone from almost no choices, to a bunch of great ideas to which I'm torn between. A divine caster with Fire Domain sounds wonderful, not only am I burning down the world even faster (UE recharge magic variant), but I can command fire elementals and whatnot. On the other hand, Dragonfire Adept sounds like a sweet option, too; a pyromaniac that breathes fire and believes fanatically that he's a dragon? sign me up! But then there's warlock, the fun of breathing fire compared to the fun of just launching it from my hands, then getting a prestige class to shoot his flames to burn so hot that even red dragons must feel it? there's a megalomaniac inside this one, you know. And then Wilder? WILDER? setting things on fire with your mind is the holy grail of a pyromaniac. SO MANY CHOICES!

And to think, all I could think of before was a swordsage that uses a lot of desert wind maneuvers/stances.

 

[roushguy]

What about a Shugenja? They can pick from the four classical elements... Earth, Water, Air, and FIRE. They act somewhat like a cleric, with "order" spells, etc. Even their main stat is the same, IIRC.

 

[Dandu]

Hellfire Warlock.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well, if you want to breathe fire, have your Sorc (or BattleSorc) take the Draconic Heritage and Draconic Breath feats. The downside is that you can't use the Metabreath feats with that form of breath, and it channels spell energy.

OTOH, the upside is that its a AoE attack that is a supernatural ability that you can use 1/round as long as you have spells, can be used when bound or in plate, etc.