Suggestion for nonstandard party

[Thurbane]

I can't help but notice noone has mentioned the Dread Necromancer. Aren't they very good? Or are they just too specialized?

 

[szilard]

To me, the question is beguiler or no beguiler... and that depends on your players and your play style. If you have a player who is good at coming up with creative solutions and you as a DM are comfortable with being flexible about them, then give that player a Beguiler. It will be a lot of fun. If either of those things aren't going to work out, then don't use a Beguiler.

Party with beguiler

Dragon Shaman (human or halfling) - healer, buffs, ranged (make sure it has a decent Cha)
Beguiler (human or gnome) - traps, utility spells, trickery, skills
Warlock (human) - blaster, UMD (take extra invocations for flexibility)
Knight (human or dwarf) - tank
(if you want more melee, you can sub a Duskblade for the Warlock. You could also sub a favored soul in for the Dragon Shaman)


Without a beguiler, you'll want a flexible caster, a skill-based PC, and a trapfinder. A spellthief could work - as long as there are ample things around for it to steal from (you'd probably want another caster in the group, at least). A scout could help, but you'd want to replace the Dragon Shaman with an Archivist or Favored Soul... or something like that.


-Stuart

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Nifft, you and I differ in our assessments of the classes, so I will say only this- a Lawful Good Soulborn is one of only a handful of classes that can qualify for Kensai (one of my favorite PrCls) in only 5 levels- the others being the Paladin, the Hexblade, the Crusader and the OA and CW versions of the Samurai.

Make that handful +1.

 

[Nifft]

Nifft, you and I differ in our assessments of the classes, so I will say only this- a Lawful Good Soulborn is one of only a handful of classes that can qualify for Kensai (one of my favorite PrCls) in only 5 levels

The Kensai is cool, and if you're constrained by both low level and low wealth I can see that getting in might be worth taking a sub-optimal class just to do so quickly -- but that's irrelevant for the purpose of this thread, since Thurbane isn't multi-classing or using prestige classes. The Soulborn would have to stand on his own. And IMHO, he doesn't do that very well.

IMHO, the Incarnate is brilliant for dipping, and decent on its own, but really wants access to Necrocarnum -- and that means Evil, or Lawful / Chaotic plus a Feat.

The Totemist is fine. Great for dipping, pretty darn good all on his own.

Cheers, -- N