Gm to player, been a long time, need some help

[Brian8812]

Evening all
Recently I just finished running my groups pathfinder games, and have passed the touch on. We have a game starting in the near future, and our new Gm has asked for us to start conception of characters. Now all the other players have come up with some pretty neat characters, but unfortunately I've got nothing, or rather very little. I blame the fact I haven't been a player in about 3-4 years now, and it feels as if my brain has been hardwired of GMing only. However I want to make the absolute best of this chance. Our gm has given approval on all base races and base classes(Core+Advanced players). So far the party is a monk(Ki Mystic,HealingHand,Lotus)/Ex-Paladin, a Gunslinger/wizard(leading into arcane archer), and a Fire elemental sorcerer.We should be starting at lvl 2-3. I've brain stormed a bunch of character idea's and posted them below, for commentary. But with that as our current party build, what should i look into playing? Also if you were in this situation what would you play? Thanks in advanced


1.Poison based Alchemist(20lvls)
2. Oracle(life)(5lvls)/Inquisitor(5lvls)/Holy Vindicator(10lvls)
3.Oracle(heavens)(5lvls)/Sorcerer(star soul)(5lvls)/Mystic Theurge(10lvls)
4.Rogue(swashbuckler)(10lvls)/Shadowdancer(10lvls)
5.Oracle(lore)(10lvls)/Loremaster(10lvls)
6.Bard(arcane duelist)(10lvls)/Duelist(10lvls)
7.Monk(hungry ghost)(15lvls)/(? what sure what to do once get quivering palm)
8.Ranger(Shapeshifter/Skirmisher)(20lvls)
9.Rogue(spy)(10lvls)/Master spy(10lvls)
10.wizards(life school)(20lvls)
11.Barbarian(Totem Warrior)(5lvls)/Oracle(battle)(5lvls)/Rage prophet(10lvls)
12.witch(10lvls)/[Harrower(10lvls) if allowed otherwise full 20 in witch]
13.Summoner(20lvls)


p.s. sorry I'm new to the forum

 

[Glade Riven]

Meat Shield/Tank. Either a straight militant cleric build (CoD ZILLA!!!) or a paladin, because healing will be needed, too. The party already has plenty of nuking and striking capability. #11 might work for that, too.

 

[paradox42]

Agree with Transbot, assuming a fairly standard campaign. That party is short on tankage, so #11 (of the ideas listed) is unquestionably the best choice. Oracle can be a healer too, albeit not as good as a Cleric, so that could be enough- depending on what your adventures do for and to you.

Idea #2 could possibly work, too, if you start as Inquisitor and do melee built for serious battle. But that's not as good for tanking as #11. It'll cover the healing angle better than any of the rest, though, hands down- Oracles of Life are really good at that.

A well-built Eidolon could fulfill the Tank role if you go with #13, but then the party is woefully short on healing. And Summoners are a tough nut to crack, so if you didn't use them as a GM I'd advise staying away as a player for this first new character.

If the campaign will be heavy on politics and social interactions, #9 might be a decent choice, but again- you'll be light on healing.

I myself ran a 9 1/2 year game that ended on January 30th, 2010, and after a six-month sabbatical from any RP at all I came back in and joined a Pathfinder game run by one of my former players. It was tough to get back into the swing of things as a player- I particularly had to watch my desire to argue rulings with the GM- but it turned out well. We're now into a second campaign in his world (first one, sadly, ended in a TPK at 10th level), and I've got my game back on. In the background I've been converting my old 3.X setting to Pathfinder and thoroughly enjoying having it as a background activity.

So, whatever you decide to do, good luck!

 

[Brian8812]

Wow a wonderfully long Gming period you had, and just the same I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things. I have the feeling the game will be more standard dungeons and environment/monster hazards so little political interaction. I see theimportance of a strong melee combant, and a healer, but what about skills? is the group able to handle various situations that will require skills, i get the feeling spells are going to be the answer to most problems, but spells are a limited resource even sorcerer run out. so hows the group on spells? I'm leaning towards #2 as it does have better healing power, channel energy being quite powerful, and it does seem front line capable.

 

[Volaran]

I've recently done this as well. It might be an odd situation, but I would suggest taking the opportunity to not plan your 'build' to far in advance.

As a GM, I find you have to be fairly mechanically minded, as well as needing to come up with a 'complete' character when building an NPC.

It may help you get into a player mentality if you build your PC for 2nd-3rd level if that's where you're starting, rather than planning ahead to level 20. Think about what will be interesting to start, and then adjust your character to the game. I find it helps prevent players from getting stuck in the "I'm going to be so interesting 10 levels from now" rut.

That said, I've had a lot of fun with oracles lately, so I'd certainly suggest giving them a try if you have not yet done so.

 

[Dingo333]

You don't have a paladin or a druid on that list.

Both could fill/help fill the missing roles you have in the group

The Druid can use it's animal summons and wild shape to cover melee (wild shape is not as crazy, but it is still effective) and has the cure spells on its list at only a slight delay (light is 1st all the others are pushed back by 1 level)

Paladin is effective melee with the lay on hands helping in healing, (Cure spells on its list when it gets there)

 

[paradox42]

Having seen one in action until 10th level (in the game that ended in TPK), I can state categorically that Oracles of Battle are very Paladin-like when it comes to tanking. That guy was also going for Rage Prophet, but he didn't go 5 and 5 on the Oracle/Barb split- he was mostly Oracle, and only took 1 Barbarian level (at 8th, IIRC) to get Rage and Moment of Clarity. Honestly, given a round or two to buff, he was more effective a tank than our party's single-classed Fighter- scarily effective in combat.

Take Skill at Arms as your first Revelation and you'll see what I mean. Oracles of Battle can use Heavy Armor like old-school CoDZilla, and they're spontaneous casters (rather than prepared). Try it, you'll like it.

Regarding the OP's group as-is, spells should not be a problem with a single-classed Fire Sorcerer and a Wizard (I must say, going for Arcane Archer using Gunslinger is a very interesting choice- I may want to try that myself someday). Skills are not as big a factor in PF as they were in 3.X, thanks to the cross-class change- having a class skill just gets you a +3 bump now. That's big at low levels, but not huge later on, and if the party coordinates skills somewhat, it shouldn't be a problem. Sorcerer should be able to act as party Face, people can split up Knowledges to cover monster types and such, and spells can probably cover you on traps in most dungeon environments.

 

[Brian8812]

hmm okay I see what you mean, so the real issue is "tanking" and healing. We had an oracle in a previous game, who played rather subpar (rather then choose any useful spells for combat or socail encounter, he choose spells that would isolate himself. Then casted create water, even in combat, all the time. I feel the oracle needs some redeeming in our group. So battle oracle is an obvious winner here, but would a heavens oracle work in a similar way, lower Ac but would have some rather powerful cc abilities. Could even take a lvl in barbarain to get armor and weapon proficiency and head into rage prophet, any thoughts?