Draconic Aura assistance requested.

[Nicholas Vanderbilt]

My Druid12/Scout5 character is preparing to defend 3 countries against a horde of undead that has been being prepared by a lich for roughly 2,000 years. Our DM is allowing him to take a feat (which I can't recall the name of) which allows the level restriction below the leader level to be 1 lvl below mine as opposed to the normal 2 lvls below. I'm swapping out my old cohort (a scruffy old guy named Grit who was more or less an NPC who was a captain of our boat) to replace it with a 16th lvl character of my choosing.
After looking over various options and how our party is setup I decided I wanted a character who could provide continuous buffing while able to cast various support spells and combat the undead well. So naturally I looked toward Turning and Auras.
Utilizing the 28 point buy system we have in place for the campaign, I got her to Str 8 Dex 10 Con 10 Int 10 Wis 16 and Cha 18. I chose to make her an Aasimar character, granting her a +2 racial bonus to both Wis and Cha making her Wis 18 and Cha 20. From there I planned to make her 4 Ability Score Increases go towards Cha so that her Cha mod would be a +7 (to grant a nice benefit to both Turning checks and the Dragon Shaman class' Touch of Vitality class feature)

From the Aasimar's level adjustment +1 I planned to giver her 8 levels as Cleric followed by 6 levels of Dragon Shaman (for the Touch of Vitality) and lastly 1 level of Dragon Lord (to grant an easy bonus of Draconic Aura +1)

While looking through the Dragon Blood book to read up on the details of Double Draconic Aura feat I saw the Draconic Aura feat option. I saw that it only had a Prereq of Character Level 3rd. The benefit grants the use of a Draconic Aura and sets your Draconic Aura +# at a +1. Reading further on it I noticed it saying that as long as the character had the Dragonblood subtype, easily attained by her via the Dragontouched feat, you could enhance the aura's bonus based on your class level (granting her a +2 at class level 7, which at this point would be her Cleric level 7)

So my question to those of you here, since you probably have a far more in depth knowledge of the rules on such a case than me, is this: Would the +'s stack together, granting her Draconic Aura +2 by Cleric 7, Draconic Aura +4 by Dragon Shaman 5, and a total of Draconic Aura +5 by Dragon Lord 1?

Any information on why this would or would not work would be greatly appreciated.

Also I'd like to maximize the potential of her auras in this specific build. I obviously intend to take the Double Draconic Aura feat and I know of a feat (Dilate Aura or something like that) which allows me to temporarily double the range of her auras, so I intend to take that as well, however I would be most appreciative if anyone could suggest any further aura enhancing feats that might combo to her set build, since I've yet to see any.

Thanks again in advance.
Nicholas

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I chose to make her an Aasimar character, granting her a +2 racial bonus to both Wis and Cha making her Wis 18 and Cha 20. From there I planned to make her 4 Ability Score Increases go towards Cha so that her Cha mod would be a +7

Ability boosts are based on character level, not ECL. So an aasimar with 15 class levels (ECL 16) only has 3 ability bumps.

I can't really help with the other stuff, as I don't have my books available.

 

[Nicholas Vanderbilt]

Anyone have any ideas as to whether or not the Auras would stack?

 

[moritheil]

So my question to those of you here, since you probably have a far more in depth knowledge of the rules on such a case than me, is this: Would the +'s stack together, granting her Draconic Aura +2 by Cleric 7, Draconic Aura +4 by Dragon Shaman 5, and a total of Draconic Aura +5 by Dragon Lord 1?

Any information on why this would or would not work would be greatly appreciated.

I don't see why not, unless they are named bonuses of the same type (which in general do not stack.)

Also I'd like to maximize the potential of her auras in this specific build. I obviously intend to take the Double Draconic Aura feat and I know of a feat (Dilate Aura or something like that) which allows me to temporarily double the range of her auras, so I intend to take that as well, however I would be most appreciative if anyone could suggest any further aura enhancing feats that might combo to her set build, since I've yet to see any.

Sounds like it will all work smoothly (I haven't the books with me to check wording) but let me ask you this: what are you accomplishing that is superior to a straight cleric build? Take cleric 5, then 10 levels of a prestige class suitable for dealing with undead. Everybody's favorite, the Radiant Servant of Pelor, would work here. So would Morninglord of Lathander or any of a number of other classes. The auras you have set up are powerful, but are they more powerful than full cleric spellcasting?

 

[Nicholas Vanderbilt]

I already cleared the stacking with the DM so that's all good lol

As for why I did this instead of going straight Clr/Clr PrC it's because of versatility. The character is opposed to undead but isn't planned out to be strictly a cleric. She's primarily a support class with the ability to just destroy several undead on sight. She's designed around a high charisma for both her class powers and for her social skill interaction. (Basically allowing me to use her instead of my own character when dealing with a social interaction portion of the game.)
Her charisma modifier with the gear I've gotten her is a +12 which works for her in several ways:
She has 3 Extra Turning Feats (making her Turns per day cap at 29)
With access to the Glory Domain she effectively (along with some gear) has a turn check of 1d20 + 22 (making up for her lower levels in the case of high HD undead and makes her Turning Damage 3d6 + 20
She has a feat called Sacred Healing (which is why I gave her so many Turns per day) allowing her to expend one of her Turns per day to make a 60 foot burst of living creatures have Fast Healing 3 (which is an incredibly effective way of healing injured townspeople, adventurers, or just the party itself) for a number of rounds equal to 1 + her charisma modifier.
And lastly with the level 6 Dragon Shaman ability Touch of Vitality she's able to touch to heal (in a day up to a max of) 2 x DraShaman lvl x Cha Mod for her totaling out to 144 damage able to be healed.

Slap onto that her various Draconic Auras known (7 Draconic Auras) the ability to have 2 active at once (with the affects of each being mulitplied by 5 from the +5 rank) and the Dilate allowing for a 60ft range on those auras temporarily. I think it goes without saying that the benefit of auras like that (which only go down when you deactivate them or when you fall unconcious) are an immense benefit to any character.

 

[moritheil]

As for why I did this instead of going straight Clr/Clr PrC it's because of versatility.

Okay, I'm not saying you're not right, just that I'm automatically skeptical because few things are more versatile than full cleric spellcasting. So let's look at the details:

She has 3 Extra Turning Feats (making her Turns per day cap at 29)
With access to the Glory Domain she effectively (along with some gear) has a turn check of 1d20 + 22 (making up for her lower levels in the case of high HD undead and makes her Turning Damage 3d6 + 20

I get it, but her actual turning level is low, because she's not really a full cleric (or a Cleric/PrC that advances turning.) She'll be fine at nuking disposable undead, but unlikely to affect anything you really care about (i.e. a threat at your level - which will be much higher level than her cleric level, and have turn resistance.) And if she WERE a full cleric, she could use that higher level turning and use some of those high-level slots she'd be getting instead to summon monsters which could wipe out those low-leveled undead for you. Or, you know, cast some of those undead-destroying spells clerics get.

She has a feat called Sacred Healing . . . and the level 6 Dragon Shaman ability Touch of Vitality she's able to touch to heal (in a day up to a max of) 2 x DraShaman lvl x Cha Mod for her totaling out to 144 damage able to be healed.

I use this feat in my own builds. I'm familiar with it. It's awesome at low levels. The problem here is that you're giving up casting to focus on this. Is this feat better than Heal, for when you want someone healed right away in the middle of combat, and they've also maybe been poisoned/infected or they've lost some abillity points due to an allip or something? I think Heal is superior. You say you can heal 144 damage with a touch? Great. One casting of heal heals 150 damage, and also fixes status effects. You want to heal townsfolk? Mass lesser vigor has you covered - heal 25 hit points of damage to all your nearby allies with just one 3rd level spell. She'd have a couple extra slots for it if she were a full clerical caster.

Slap onto that her various Draconic Auras known (7 Draconic Auras) the ability to have 2 active at once (with the affects of each being mulitplied by 5 from the +5 rank) and the Dilate allowing for a 60ft range on those auras temporarily. I think it goes without saying that the benefit of auras like that (which only go down when you deactivate them or when you fall unconcious) are an immense benefit to any character.

I don't argue that they aren't helpful, just that I don't know if they're worth giving up that much spellcasting. Couldn't you use Planar Ally and get one of those singing lillends to act as a party bard for tough fights and give you similar boosts? You might be a little behind the auras there, true, but you've got full casting in addition to the other stuff. You can cast mass aid and other buffs to fill in the gap.

Basically my point is, anything you're trying to do with assorted aura bonuses, I can duplicate with full casting, and I can also have the option to throw off powerful effects like heal, high-level summon monster, etc. Auras are great, but so are spells like Hallow and Disrupting Weapon (all undead you hit save or die - wouldn't that be nice against an undead boss?) You won't get them if you cut off your cleric level at 8, and you don't need to cut your cleric level off just to boost the party.