Ghaele as a greater planar helper

[jasin]

My AoW wizard will soon be getting 8th-level spells and I'm planning to take greater planar binding.

There's a ghaele I've bound previously with which we've parted on relatively friendly terms (considering I trapped her and forced her to do my bidding), and I'm hoping I could work with the DM to advance her to a level appropriate for greater planar binding.

I'm also hoping not to add too much to his workload, so I turn to EN World.

How would you advance a ghaele for greater planar binding? The most obvious way is to add cleric level (since she already gets Clr casting) up to the HD limit. This is just plain ed, because this leaves her with Clr22 casting.

The other obvious way folows this reasoning: planar bidning can get a ghaele: 10 HD, Clr14 casting, CR 13. Greater planar binding can get a planetar: 14 HD, Clr17 casting, CR 16. Giving the ghaele 3 cleric levels gets her up to 13 HD, Clr17 casting, CR 16, pretty close to the planetar.

But here I'm worried about ripping myself off: the planetar's AC is higher, SR is slightly better, his spell-likes are probably better, he gets regeneration 10 (even though the ghaele has better DR)...

Of course, levels in other classes would boost her a bit, but not as much as cleric, so that's one way to do fine tuning, but now things are getting really tricky to judge...

Obviously, there is no one correct answer, but I'd like to hear thoughts and suggestions which could help me to figure out something fair, with which both I and the DM will be happy.

 

[RangerWickett]

You could ring a bell and say that the Ghaele got its wings and became a Planetar.

 

[jasin]

I would probably be happier with an advanced ghaele: I like tinkering with characters and this is a rare opportunity to work on a ghaele as a player, and even though the planetar is obviously more powerful, it's missing some interesting abilities which made me pick a ghaele over the more durable trumpet archon in the first place (like teleport at will, CLW at will, incorporeality...).

But I suppose the ghaele's advancement would always remain suspicious. In any given fight, if she's useless it will seem weak, if she's too useful it will seem we twinked her out too much. Possibly too much spotlight on something that is ultimately just a spell effect.

So we might very well end up just promoting the ghaele to a planetar. You really can't beat it for simplicity and fairness while still keeping the NPC's personality.