Help Me With My New Group

[Aries_Omega]

Thank you all in advance for coming to my aid. I have a new group I am running in my homebrew game. Great party actually...no complains. I am using some of the optional rules from Unearthed Arcana as the big ones of note are:

spell points
weapon group proficiencies
armor as DC
prestige bard, ranger, paladin (including the paladin variants)
vitality points instead of hit points
test-based prerequisites for prestige classes and top end feats

The Setting (abbreviated version): The nation they are in are is very human heavy. On one border is the high elf empire and the other is wild lands that use to be the orc empire now given to barbarians as spoils of war. The human nation use to be very predjudice against non-humans to the point that the state religion said that only humans had a soul. Due to the help of elves, dwarves, halflings and the like they now say that they do have them...orcs and evil baddies don't. The ones that do have one...but don't get to go the same "heaven" that humans go to. Also the nation's ruler is missing...has been for 5 years. There is a really convluted reason why there isn't a new ruler but the cliff notes version is that the church who validates the new boss won't, the nobles don't like their pick for ruler and the "overlord" the guy who is 2nd in command has pulled a "Palpatine" and declared that he is using emergency powers until threats to the realm are quelled.

The party (all are human unless noted):

A knight (Fighter 3) who is part of an order organized by the queen to enact her missing husbands dictates, keep the overlord in line when they can and to quest for the ruler. It is well known that he is alive...magical doohickey says so.

A page and court helper (Rogue 3) that everyone things is a young boy but is a woman actually. She picked the pocket of the knight. The law says nobles can kill anyone who is not a noble that does this but have to pay the family a life wage (oooooh....10 GP) to do so. He did not...instead took her/him on as a page and as a person to be in his entorage at court. Sings, dances, sneaky and well spoken.

A oddity dwarf. He has always casted spells without training (Sorcerer 2/Fighter 1) and that put him kinda as unpopular with his clansmen. In an effort to understand himself better (I am not broken! Moradain doesn't not make broken things and I am a child of Moradain!) he left his home...mama still loves him....dad wants him "to try not to be a mage" and now travels the human lands selling song birds he traps and trains and alchemy items.

The laconic and deadly druid of Solonor Theldaria. Very solo, lives by himself...kinda hateful. Hired by the party to be a hazardous duty pay guide in the area that they are going to be adventuring in. He is in it for the money and to keep them from doing stupid things in the forest.

Lastly....this is the one I and the player need help with. We are still making him up. He is a cleric...the knights confessor. Every knight needs a confessor right? Anyhow he is a cleric of a martyr god...think of Ilmatar from Forgotten Realms. He starts with Basic Weapon Group and any two others he wants. Armor proficiency doesn't change from a core cleric. The question is....WHAT WEAPONS SHOULD HE CHOOSE? He wants to take monk later and prestige paladin after that. What should he do?

Thanks
Aries

 

[BiggusGeekus]

A wepon for a cleric/monk/paladin.

I dunno. A staff maybe?

Clerics and monks are two classes that shine the further advanced they go in their own class. Its a character build that's great for roleplay, but it's going to fall apart for tactical/powergaming purposes. He may as well pick greatsword. Honestly, once he picks up that first level of monk it won't matter all that much.

Happy gaming!

 

[Aries_Omega]

Greatsword

Its a character build that's great for roleplay, but it's going to fall apart for tactical/powergaming purposes. He may as well pick greatsword. Honestly, once he picks up that first level of monk it won't matter all that much.

Agreed...normally. I allow monks to multiclass if they join certain orders and such; kinda how they do in Forgotten Realms. All that aside though what weapons do you see used? He is the party confessor...at least thats why he was sent with the knight. He says he wants to play him as a "more martial brother" of his order. He wants monk mostly for the combat prowess to be a paladin (remember it's a prestige class in this campaign) at later date. I mean...he is proficent with all the armor normal every day clerics start with. He was joking about polearm (keep the flurbs away) and claw weapons (to hit them when they get to close). He is also a Amtgard/Darkon fighter and was thinking the tactical too. He wants to think long term.e

What armor do you see him with also. I was thinking staff too to be honsest...or a double mace for some reason...don't know why though. I think all clerics should learn a blunt weapon of some kind since many undead are only damaged fully by them.

Aries

 

[BiggusGeekus]

The problem with double weapons is that the guys really isn't going to have the feats to pull off the extra attack unless he really focuses on it. Not that he needs much in the way of feats to support this build.

A double mace might be the way to go. It'll be special and that's clearly what the player wants to be. When he's about to pick up that first level of paladin, you could send him on a quest for a +1 holy/+1 holy double mace. That'd be a nice introduction to the paladin class and it'd be a bit of a needed power boost for the guy.

Incidentally, this character is going to have some killer saving throws once he gets the second level of paladin.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Oh, and I don't have any armor reccomendations.

I've never played with armor as DR and this guy is going from heavy to none back to heavy. So who knows what's a good idea? In a "normal" game, I once kicked around the idea of a monk-4/pally-x. I simply gave up on the idea of not using any armor and just wore the heavy stuff. Essentially all I got from the monk levels was great saving throws, the ability to fall 20' gracefully, and a smug attitutde.

 

[Aries_Omega]

Update

The guy playing the 3rd level cleric brought up a good idea. A new weapon...a buffed up quarterstaff. One with metal studds and all in it. This weapon...we are going to call a "warstaff". It costs...okay...haven't figured the cost yet...figure around 10 GP or so. It has the same stats and abilities of a quarterstaff except it does d8' (d6's if made as a small weapon) and weighs about 8 lbs. Sound okay? Not overbalanced? He is going with this weapon, light armor and going to choose the Healing domain and Suffering domain. His deity allows him to muliclass as a monk as long as his monk levels are larger then his cleric levels. So when he becomes a monk...he needs to stay monk until he is 5th level monk. Then he can take another level of cleric.

Now the big question. What should I have them do? I have a couple ideas but I want to hear what you all have to say. The are going to go from a civilized area. Think the stero typical fantasy AD&D area of castles and all. The area they are going to is a wild forested area. A region known for rangers, wild elves, unsettled lands. Think of it like the wild west. The fighter, cleric and rogue knows each other andhave a backstory. The dwarf travels the area and the wild elf druid (of Solonor Theledaria...and is allowed to use bows) is native to the valley they are adventuring in. So whatcha ya all got? Ask me anything you want about the backstory and I'll let you know. Go to this web link to get my email http://profiles.yahoo.com/MarsAlpha

Thank You All
AriesOmega

 

[Torm]

It has the same stats and abilities of a quarterstaff except it does d8' (d6's if made as a small weapon) and weighs about 8 lbs. Sound okay? Not overbalanced?

Needs to be a trade off, or why would anyone use a regular quarterstaff?

Reducing crit range would be my first choice, but a quarterstaff is already at minimum, so now I'm thinking it requires a Exotic Weapon Feat, and I even know WHY it would: those metal studs that provide the extra damage would also require extra training for the wielder to avoid putting his hand down on one while maneuvering it about. Alternately, you could just make that the automatic result of a critical fumble roll, and set a certain amount of damage that it does to the wielder (probably 1d3+Str?) when that happens.

 

[Arrgh! Mark!]

Cleric.

Add a brown robe. Shave off a patch of his hair. Arm him with a staff and two weapon fighting. Whats that? Enlarge? Ooooh! Whats that, Enlarge, bulls strength, holy weapon?

He's a monk. So what if he isn't a fist-flying arse-kicking (relatively, anyway) monk? He's a monk. A staff isn't actually a bad weapon at all.

Just let him go strait cleric. If he's after power in any way, shape or form - Cleric or druid are the ways to go. Put him in chainmail and he's not going to be too far behind you sword-and-shield knight. If he prepares right, he's going to be better.

Don't make some stupid weapon up for him. A staff did Friar Tuck!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

RE: the Warstaff...make it a Martial weapon instead of a Simple Weapon. That, plus high weight should do the trick for game balance- after all, the Tetsubo is an Eastern weapon that is essentially the same as a Warstaff- and is considered exotic ONLY because it is from an Eastern Culture.

 

[Torm]

RE: the Warstaff...make it a Martial weapon instead of a Simple Weapon. That, plus high weight should do the trick for game balance- after all, the Tetsubo is an Eastern weapon that is essentially the same as a Warstaff- and is considered exotic ONLY because it is from an Eastern Culture.

Yeah. That could work, too. Although I still like the critical fumble idea, for flavor.