Core-Only Advice

[questbreaker]

Greetings EnWorlders,

once again i come seeking advice. next weekend i have a game coming up and i could use your advice since it will be a core-only game, to which i am not used to. normally when i make a character i know just what to get from what book, and hardly any of it comes from core, and now i must pick only from core. here are the details:

level 10
3.5 core only
3-4 episode campaign where the PCs must prevent a brewing war from happening by infiltrating enemy lines and killing the enemy leaders. there will be some form of geas placed on us, and our mobility will be limited to portals that we cannot come back through until the quest is completed.

as soon as i found out it would be core only my first thought was to be a druid, but that may be very difficult since most of the action will probably take place in a city-type setting. we will more than likely already have a wizard or two and a rogue, and possibly a fighter. i was thinking of going in as a cleric, and being the typical 'buff and wade into battle' kind of cleric. i could do a barbarian, rogue, or fighter just fine. what i dont want to become is a one-trick pony, so i am leading towards rogue.

any thoughts or advice? i havent done 'core-only' in forever.

 

[nittanytbone]

Cleric or Druid.

You already have a wizard, a rogue, and likely a fighter, so that's the obvious gap. Plus, clerics are VERY versatile -- given an hour to prep spells, you can do pretty much anything.

If you want to focus on skills, a cloistered cleric (its in the SRD...) with the Trickery domain could be quite effective in an urban game. Once you hit level 7, the poor BAB is irrelevant with the advent of Divine Power.

In core only I'm not a big fan of pumping CHA on my clerics as there's nothing else to burn turn undead attempts on, so a meaty smack-down melee cleric would also work just fine.

 

[Nifft]

Clerics are awesome, particularly in an infiltration game. Why? One word: silence.

If possible, play a Cloistered Cleric with the Trickery domain.

Druids are also awesome. Nothing wrong with playing a Druid in an urban setting. You'll be powerful enough.

Cheers, -- N

 

[irdeggman]

City type setting for most of the activity ehh.

Go bard - impossible to be a one-trick pony with that class since they are jack-of-all-trades by design.

Gnome gets a lot of racial benefits that mesh well with the class.

Half-elf gets some interaction benefits that mesh well with the class.

Human gets more skill points and that first level feat shouldn't be forgotten.

 

[rserio]

You could go Cleric-3/Wizard-3/Mystic Theurge-4 for maximum spell versatility.

 

[avr]

Core-only, infiltration in a near war zone? Try a ranger. Tracking and sneaking will be useful - you can use both in a city, not just the wilderness - and in a city you may actually get some benefit from using the 2-weapon style (concealable weapons). Their spell list includes some useful though not great ones - alarm, jump, longstrider, cat's grace.

Alternately, if your PC is being geased to do this anyway, maybe an assassin? Rogue 5/Assassin 5 is something of a sweet spot with +6 BAB and +6d6 sneak attack, and spells up to 3rd level.

 

[nittanytbone]

You could go Cleric-3/Wizard-3/Mystic Theurge-4 for maximum spell versatility.

In the immortal words of Admiral Ackbar: Its a trap!

IMHO, you are FAR better off going with a pure spellcaster. Mystic theurge combines all of the liablities of the wizard (no armor, poor bab, poor saves) with all of the liabilities of the cleric (poor skill points, even worse MAD, and making Turn Undead even less useful).

 

[mvincent]

If you want to focus on skills, a cloistered cleric (its in the SRD...) with the Trickery domain could be quite effective in an urban game. Once you hit level 7, the poor BAB is irrelevant with the advent of Divine Power.

While that is on d20srd.org (in the variant rules section), it is not part of WotC's SRD, and is not core.

 

[mvincent]

any thoughts or advice?

If you're familiar with the spells, Clerics are handy. The best domains tend to be magic and travelling. Since this is a short campaign, you might as well make heavy use of expendable items (scrolls, wands, etc.)... a Candle of Invocation is especially powerful.

 

[Hammerhead]

Druids are the best in a core-only game. Turn into some small, innocuous animal for infiltration.