Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Victim" data-source="post: 3203271" data-attributes="member: 78">Haha, that's pretty funny.  In many cases, our group has been considering spells that weren't buffs to a waste of slot.  Even on a one round basis, Haste is going to compare favorably to Fireball in many situations (few targets, or high saves/energy resistance) - especially in a large party.  And then it lasts for several more rounds.  A group buff can be huge in a large party.  I think the power of buffing spells stands on its own in both practice and theory.  If you added up all the bonus damage and extra hits generated (or extra power attack), my bard would probably do the most damage in the party.Granted, Bard, Dragon Shaman and the Marshall have a problem.  They aren't really all that great at buffing in most cases.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" />  It's the jack of all trades thing again; it's hard to compete with a pure caster specializing in buffs.  The Dragon Shaman's auras in particular are pretty weak after low levels, since they can only do thing at a time, the bonus scales very slowly, and they have nothing that adds to attack.  Maybe Dragon Magic helps a bit in that regard, I know it had some support for draconic aura classes.  Remember that these characters shouldn't just be applying buffs.  A bit of strategic multiclassing can really help these support characters.  The Dragon Shaman has a good HD and natural armor bonus; it can hang out in the thick of things to support allies and chip away with its breath weapon.  But add a level of barbarian and the character has the proficiencies to use good weapons, an improved attack bonus, and rage (which helps his breath weapon attack too!).  The auras largely take care of themselves, leaving the shaman free to apply greatsword.  Also, the dragon worshiping barbarians in Eberron have created a link in my mind between the two classes.  Similarly, Bards are free to attack once they boot up their song, so they can take advantage of the effects themselves.  A bard can actually hit fairly decently with their bard songs and other self buffs - although they tend to be a bit squishy.  IIRC, Marshals are also free to attack and such while providing their auras.</blockquote>

Verification