Cohort suggestions in RttToEE?

[jaults]

We are playing RttToEE right now. My character just reached 12th level, and plans to take Leadership. Currently, the party is made up of the following characters:

1. Cleric 7/Auspician 5 (Me): Domains of Luck and Earth. Default party leader, focuses on buffing the other party members. Typically avoids melee.
2. Monk 11/Ftr 1: Glaive wielding combat monster. Does most of the damage, and usually does it with much style and panache.
3. Ftr 4/Wiz 4/(Modified) Arcane Archer 4: Ranged combat monster. Usually kills those the monk doesn't get to first. Casts as a 6th level caster, but won't get to 7th level caster till character level 14 because of the staggered caster level increase from the modified PrC.
4. Druid 12 (NPC): Does significant damage between Flame Strike and rhino charges. Likes fire. A lot. Also just got Leadership, and upgraded his animal companion (Fifi, the Wonder Poodle of Doooooom) to an awakend cohort using DM's house rules. She hasn't seen play yet, but the new and improved Fifi should be nasty.
5. Rogue 10/Druid 1 (NPC): fairly standard rogue, stays out of melee, mostly disarms traps and finds treasure.

My character qualifies for a 10th level cohort. I think we need to shore up our lack of higher level arcane magic, so I am looking at a Bard or Wizard. The idea of a Wizard/Loremaster is interesting to me. The cohort will be built using 32 point buy, and will start with standard NPC gear for a 10th level character. Any suggestions on general things to look at or specific builds?

Thanks,
Jason

 

[Mal Malenkirk]

We are playing RttToEE right now. My character just reached 12th level, and plans to take Leadership. Currently, the party is made up of the following characters:

1. Monk 11/Ftr 1: Glaive wielding combat monster. Does most of the damage, and usually does it with much style and panache.

1. 
   
   Well, given your list, I would have recommended a tank fighter or a barbarian but you're saying your Monk 11/ftr 1 fighting with a glaive (of all things) is doing that job.
   
   Personnally, I fail to see how this character is better than a 12th level Monk fighting with monk's weapons or his fist. And I really don't see how he can be called a combat monster when compared with a 12th level fighter who'd have greater weapon specialization at that level.
   
   I mean, this character can't even use flurry of blow with his weapon of choice!
   
   
   11th level Monk/ 1st Fighter (With Weapon focus in Glaive)
   +10/+5
   Glaive Damage 1D10 + 1.5*STR + Magic
   
   12th level Monk basic full attack (with weapon focus):
   +10/+10/+10/+5
   Unarmed Damage 2D6 + STR + Magic
   
   12th level Fighter basic full attack (With greater weapon focus and greater specialization)
   +14/+9/+4
   Great Sword Damage 2D6 + 4 + 1.5*STR + magic
   
   So... WTF?
   
   Unless you are using a legion of houserule I'm not aware of, your team doesn't have a real combat monster so I say you should get one. (In fact I'm a little amazed at how light your front line is if you also tell me that the cleric doesn't pull much front line duty).

 

[Stalker0]

a cleric, you can never have too many clerics.... and get fire, earth, wind, water domains anyway you can

 

[jaults]

Unless you are using a legion of houserule I'm not aware of, your team doesn't have a real combat monster so I say you should get one. (In fact I'm a little amazed at how light your front line is if you also tell me that the cleric doesn't pull much front line duty).

To give some additional background on our party:

Sorry for the confusion... Our Monk/Ftr only uses the glaive when he can't hit things with his fists. But the combination of a reach weapon, an unarmed attack and combat reflexes is pretty effective. Between his Monk's Belt, his flaming +1 Ki Straps, and judicious use of Enlarge Person, he does quite a bit of damage and hits the vast majority of the time. Between my cleric and the druid, the monk often has Cat's Grace (he has Weapon Finesse), Bull's Strength, Bear's Endurance, Prayer, Recitation (a higher level Prayer-like spell from DotF), Greater Magic Fang, Bless, Stoneskin, Mage Armor, Shield of Faith and Barkskin before going into any battle we know about (and we make sure we know about things before we go into them). He just picked up Improved Natural Weapon (from the MM, upgrades a natural weapon one damage step) at 12th level.

The monk usually ends up with an AC in the low to mid 30s and somewhere around +20-22 on his first set of attacks. With this new level, I think he will be doing 3d8+1d6(fire)+7, or 4d8+1d6(fire)+8 Enlarged. We used to have a Paladin/Ftr, and he did more damage than the monk at the time, but now, I am not sure if he would or not.

The archer hits just about everything he shoots at, and is good at staying out of melee with his Slippers of Spider Climbing. If I recall, with Rapid Shot and Point Blank Shot, he gets around +22/+22/+17 for 1d8+1d6(frost)+8 damage, and crits on 19-20.

The Druid (and Fifi) do just fine for themselves. Flame Strike, Ice Storm, Animal Growth, Greater Magic Fang, a freakin' biiig Earth Elemental (Summon Nature's Ally VI), and a charging rhino will at least slow most things down for a few minutes.

My cleric has high saves (+20 Will, +17 Fort, +12 Ref) and a high AC (28, non buffed, usually around 35 when buffed). What he doesn't have is melee hitting power. With a 10 Str, and a +1 mace, he doesn't even try to hit things, usually. Sometimes, he'll put himself in front of the bad guys (since they have a hard time hitting him) so the archer can take shots at them without fear of retaliation.

I feel that the party fights very tactically. We use some combination of silence and invisibility (from a wand) when we are approaching the bad guys, and use the druid's Cape of the Mountebank and more recently, Word of Recall to escape when things go badly. We have learned the effectiveness of preparing 5 slots worth of Dispel Magic to debuff the bad guys.

So, anyway, sorry for the long winded response. We don't really think we need a tank. We miss our paladin, but not so much that we want to get a tank cohort.

Other suggestions?

Thanks,

Jason

 

[Diirk]

Improved Natural Attack is for natural weapons, not monk unarmed strikes.

 

[jaults]

From the SRD:

A monk's unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons.

 

[shilsen]

With your party's composition, I'd suggest a single-classed wizard.

 

[Diirk]

Improved Natural Attack isn't a spell or effect.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

A Feat counts as an effect.

 

[Diirk]

IMPROVED NATURAL ATTACK [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Natural weapon, base attack bonus +4.
Benefit: Choose one of the creature’s natural attack forms. The damage for this natural weapon increases by one step, as if the creature’s size had increased by one category: 1d2, 1d3, 1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 2d6, 3d6, 4d6, 6d6, 8d6, 12d6.
A weapon or attack that deals 1d10 points of damage increases as follows: 1d10, 2d8, 3d8, 4d8, 6d8, 8d8, 12d8.

He doesn't meet the prerequisite (counting as a natural weapon for some purposes is not the same as having one). There's a reason why this is in the monster section and not in the players handbook.