Good Freeport/Savage Tide characters?

[Ambrus]

As per the title. My DM is planning to start a combined Freeport / Savage Tide adventure path campaign set in Mystara. From what I gather it involves a mix of urban, maritime and jungle-based adventuring. Since plenty of people here are familiar with the Savage Tide A.P. I figured I'd ask for some suggestions as to the types of characters (i.e. race, class, prestige class and theme) which you'd believe would fit in well in such a campaign. Please no spoilers.

 

[Wycen]

Hmm. No spoilers?

Well, at various times in the adventure you'll probably regret being a certain type of character. Or if you prefer, you'd wish you were something else.

Uh, how or what do you define as a spoiler?

I can tell you, our druid was a life saver, literally at a certain point. Well, ok, she was a life restorer, though with some changes in race.

The party loves my cleric. Or to be accurate, they love the wand of cure light wounds he was weilding.

We've never once uttered the phrase "Dang, I wish we had a paladin".

I wonder how a winged race would work...probably useful.

So, no spoilers?

 

[Arnwyn]

Simple answer: Cleric or Druid (or "CoDzilla", if you're down with how the kids talk on the internet).

(Of course, this answer will apply to pretty much every published adventure... but there you go.)

Oh... and you'd probably do better if you, um..., don't specialize against any undead.

 

[Voadam]

Freeport, Island trade city of pirates gone legit, with evil undercurrents constantly at work beneath the surface.

Stonegod had a great concept in our Savage Tide game that worked well, a sailor turned half mad archivist (the divine class from Heroes of Horror that mechanically learns divine spells like a wizard) who after a traumatic experience at sea knew too much about evil dangerous cults and follows up (like a typical Call of Cthulhu character). His paranoia and self created false leads of occult threats led to great in-game stuff.

Plenty of room for swashbuckling heroes as well.

 

[Ambrus]

So, no spoilers?

Well, no spoilers within reason I suppose. Though I don't need all the details, a hint that a ranger with Aberrations as his favored enemy would do well or that a rogue character will suffer due to significant lack of sneak-attackable enemies or that the ability to swim will prove invaluable would be helpful to know.

Oh... and you'd probably do better if you, um..., don't specialize against any undead.

See; that's helpful. Now I can cross undead slayer off my character concept list.

 

[Voadam]

There are a wide range of challenges, so more specialized classes can feel there are times when their abilities are significantly sidelined.

For instance rogue sneak attack does not affect constructs, undead, plants, elementals, oozes, fortification equipped foes, high level rogues, and high level barbarians. Beguilers don't do so well against vermin, constructs, undead, plants, oozes, and often high SR outsiders.

I had great fun as a gray elven beguiler in our ST game, but the class specialization weakness was significantly noticeable at times.

 

[Pramas]

You may want to take a look at the d20 Freeport Companion, the 3.5 rules sourcebook for Freeport. It's got several alternate core classes, including the corsair, assassin, monster hunter, noble, and survivor, as well as prestige classes like musketeer, witch hunter, and sea dog. Lots of flavorful feats and spells as well.

http://www.greenronin.com/Merchant2...ode=1001&Product_Code=grr1906&Category_Code=2

 

[Voadam]

Well, no spoilers within reason or that the ability to swim will prove invaluable would be helpful to know.

Savage Tide set in a semi-tropical island trade city where there are lots of pirate and merchant ships.

These are the elements I would think about in making a character theme that fits in well.

Where in Mystara has the DM placed freeport?

With the trade angle you can get a character from pretty much any country background.

 

[Ambrus]

Where in Mystara has the DM placed freeport?

The Minrothad Guilds

 

[Set]

For my Freeport games the Fighter and the Druid have been MVPs. The Transmutation specialist Wizard, not so much.

Depending on the group size, a Bard, Marshall or Archivist could be good, to grant bonuses to everyone else. For a smaller group, these options are much less exciting. On the other hand, a Cleric can mimic some of that with judicious use of Bless, Prayer, Recitation, etc. type group buffs.