Effective party of Eberron PCs?

[RichGreen]

Hi,

I'd like to have a stab at building a party of four PCs for a new 1st level Eberron campaign. It would be good to try out some of the new race and class options -- I'm keen to have a warforged (fighter?) and an artficer in the party. Does the artificer replace the rogue or the wizard/sorceror? Any suggestions? This isn't really about power play, just making sure the party doesn't get wiped out at the first opportunity.

Cheers


Richard

 

[lp]

Well this is just my take on things, but here goes:

First off, artificers are much more useful if there is a warforged in the party. An artificer is a good addition to a party as they can a) buff up people (especially warforged), b) play with lots of magic items, c) take a bit of pressure of a rogue (they can disable device and open locks, so rogues don't need to do it)

I think a good party to get that eberron flair would be:

Warforged artificer (self-buff, heal itself, lots of fun)
Changeling rogue (a bit diplomatic too)
Shifter barbarian (raging + shifting = pain)
Human cleric (uuh.. healing)

I'm sure someone else with more sleep and sense will come around soon.

 

[Kabol]

Artificers can fill roll of most classes. Need a nuker? scrolls and wands galore! - need a healer? ...scrolls and wands galore! - Need a Buffer? ... you get the point

One of my players, a devout wizzard decided to try out Arti for the Eberron game im running, and hes Loving it. Hes a planner - so he has a scroll for bout every spell in the game, and wands/wonderous items for spells he usualy uses mulitpule times per day. I have heard nothing but good things from him about the class - and its great as a DM to know that .. in any situation he has a spell for the ocassion. Plus Hemoculus ( never will spell it right ) are a blast, hes got a messanger one so far, but plans on making one of each and then some - and its a Huge boost in character power so far.

I have noticed though - that our 'Forged tank is having a lil issue with healing. And as much as I love the race, that lack of heals makes is hard to be a frount line melee. If you have a Artificer in group its not such slump - but it splits the healer role between 2 players and can get difficult. If i was to put together a "good" group it prob be somethin like.

Human Artificer < with Iron defender or 2 to help with dmg/tanking >
Human Psychic Warrior
Human Cleric < I like soverign host - but silver flame has a cool PrC >
Human Marshal < DnD Mini's Book Class ( I think ) - a passive buffer with cleric BAB >

PW can tank easly as well as a Fighter, if not better - Artificer covers all your utility needs in spells, items, traps. - Cleric, covers Heals and Buffs and helps with the Dmg role. - Marshal, Love the class. Offers excelent passive group buffs and can keep em up while in combat.

But - agian any group can suceed in DnD. Just have to alter tatics - I always want people to jsut play what is fun for them, the rest can be easly fixed.

 

[Nifft]

It seems to me that one Artificer + one Ranger can handle all the skill tricks that a Rogue usually requires, and a Rogue1/RangerX could find any trap in the game.

My party of choice would be:

Halfling Rogue1 (then Ranger, Archery path)
Warforged Artificer
Human Psychic Warrior (spiked chain route)
Elf Bard (buffer, 2nd string archer, party face)

Mostly generalists, some overlap, lots of skill points to go around. Very flexible.

-- N

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Like the others, I find the artificer to be very useful and flexible. We have one in our party and, in our first adventure, he was pretty useful. Overall, I'd say an ideal party would have an artificer, fighter type, sorcerer or wizard and cleric.

 

[Sorren]

My group currently consists of:

Human Wizard (Dragonmarked of House Deneith)
Warforged Barbarian/Artificer
Dwarf Cleric of Dol Dorn
Changeling Ranger/Rogue

 

[Sorren]

Overall, I'd say an ideal party would have an artificer, fighter type, sorcerer or wizard and cleric.

I've found that if you have an artificer and a ranger (or monk), you don't need a fighter or rogue.

An artificer's buffs on a ranger (or monk) can result in a fighter type.
The artificer has trap related skills and the ranger has sneaky stuff so a rogue isn't required.

An artificer can do a little healing as well, but he really sucks at it until about 3rd level. Of course, he'll never be a cleric, but it helps. I love the artificer. It's a cool class that does a great job of filling in the gaps.

 

[staz100]

RIght now I'm running a game for 6 players in Eberron. It started out with four, but more have joined. The original four were:

Human Artificer
Warforged Fighter
Shifter Rogue
Human Cleric of Sovereign Host (House Deneith Dragonmarked)

They handled everything pretty well. They seemed to want a "blasty" type arcane spellcaster, but I could see the artificer and cleric overlapping to cover that need at higher levels. Just recently joined:

Human Soul-knife
Human Conjurer

The original party didn't get the blaster they wanted, but the conjurer is not prohibited from evocation spells.

The artificer's player keeps saying he is having difficulty with the class because he doesn't know which direction he should take the character. He can go crazy with wands and scrolls and other magic items (wizard and/or cleric replacement), or he can go skill crazy (rogue fill in with Search and Disable Device as class skills - he does complain about having too few skill points, however). From his various diatribes concerning the class, I get the impression that the artificer can fill in almost any gap the party has, but he needs to make that decision fairly early on in his adventuring career.

 

[VorpalBunny]

The group I'm running consists of:

Warforged Fighter
Shifter Ranger
Human Cloistered Cleric (from Unearthed Arcana) of Arawai
Elf Wizard

They managed to handle things pretty well. The Warforged was the "blunt instrument" they used to in combat, while the ranger was the more stealthy fighter. The Cloistered Cleric has excellent knowledge skills in addition to divine spells and healing, and the wizard rounds out the party nicely. The Ranger will probably multi-class to rogue at some point so that takes care of traps.

 

[starkad]

Regarding the Warforged healing...

Have the Artificer make Oils of Repair Damage (Oil of Repair Moderate Damage, etc). They work just like potions, and are just dandy.

As for group makeup:
Dwarf Artificer
Warforged Fighter
Changeling Rogue
Shifter arcane caster