[Tome of Magic] Tell me about the Binder!

[Nifft]

I've decided that Orly a "planar bigot" and believes that elementals and outsiders are meant to be enslaved by superior intellects such as his own (of course). After all, planar binding is proof that demons are supposed to be slaves of wizards, right? Similarly, he views his binding of vestiges as enslaving them (even though they evidently get some mysterious benefit out of being bound).

He should quote liberally from a (fake) planar-fantasy version of L'Histoire d'O about how extraplanar entities "blossom in slavery" and "find their true place, their true joy, their true destiny when bound to the will of another".

He can use Vestiges and groveling demons as examples. "See? They like it."

Very evil.

Cheers, -- N

 

[catsclaw227]

Okay, consider this: you can swap out one vestige for another at any time, but doing so costs you one of your Pact Augmentations. So, starting at 2nd level, you can swap out a Vestage 1/day, losing your one and only Augmentation when you do so. At 20th level, you could swap five times.

The Expel Vestige feat would allow you to do two expulsions per day for free (costing no Augmentations), and could be taken multiple times (it would stack with itself).

Additional feat: Extra Augmentation (requires Pact Augmentation class feature). Could be taken once, because it makes me nervous to think of someone taking it six times, or more, if you allow it as a Binder bonus feat.

This is a nice house rule. I may offer this up to the player wanting to play a binder as an "incentive". I give a free feat at 1st level for all PCs so I may just say that Expel Vestige is his "free" feat.

 

[lukelightning]

There are a lot of sneaky tricks with vestiges. With Naberius you can speak any language, since you can choose some skills to use even untrained, and speaking languages is a skill. You can combine Paimon and Otiax to do a whirlwind touch attack with 10' reach. Eurynome's hammer does 2d6 damage regardless of the binders size, so a halfling or gnome binder can run around with this ginormous hammer in one hand like a cartoon character. Buer is just plain great for any character...the "do over" once every five rounds is great.

Regarding the idea of a "free expel" for any binders; since I play an anima mage, I don't worry about it, since he's still focusing on spells and his bound vestige is only icing on the cake (with his build he only loses one level of casting but can bind as a binder of 3 levels lower than his character level). But if I was a straight binder I'd probably invest in expel vestige.

 

[Nifft]

Buer is just plain great for any character...the "do over" once every five rounds is great.

Balam is do-over. Buer is free healing.

C, -- N

 

[lukelightning]

Balam is do-over. Buer is free healing.

C, -- N

Some binder I am! I'd totally suck as a binder, evidently. Could you imagine that, calling the wrong vestige? "Mighty Buer, give me your power of do-overing!" Buer: "Uh, sure, whatever, just bind me first and I'll give you all my powers over that thing you just said..."

 

[catsclaw227]

I'm having a blast with Orly Yarly, my gnome anima mage (binder 1/wizard 3/anima mage 6). He's neutral evil but, like most evil people, doesn't think of himself as evil. I don't plan on doing many evil acts (I don't want to be a pain for the rest of the party), but making sure that he does things for selfish purposes and maintains a superior attitude.

This sounds really cool!

Just curious, I thought that the anima mage required the ability to bind 2nd level vestiges (and would require a 3rd level binder for that)

 

[Nifft]

Just curious, I thought that the anima mage required the ability to bind 2nd level vestiges (and would require a 3rd level binder for that)

Take a look at the Improved Binding feat. Your typical Anima Mage has a high Int bonus, and therefore takes his class levels like this:

1/ Binder 1 (4 ranks of Intimidate) -- Improved Binding, any Metamagic feat (because those do not actually have any caster level requirements)
2/ Wizard 1 -- [Scribe Scroll]
3/ Wizard 2 -- Skilled Pact Making
4/ Wizard 3
5/ Anima Mage 1
6/ Anima Mage 2 -- Craft Wondrous Item (to make yourself some Implements of Binding and Vestige Phylacteries)
... etc.


Cheers, -- N

PS: It could be argued that Sorcerer gives more ability synergy with Binder, but the Wizard offers such flexibility and quick entry, it's hard to give that up.

 

[catsclaw227]

Take a look at the Improved Binding feat.

Yes, I see. I am currently entering all the Binder information in DM Genie since one of my players will start tomorrow as a 4th level PC and he's gonna be a binder.

 

[catsclaw227]

Okay, consider this: you can swap out one vestige for another at any time, but doing so costs you one of your Pact Augmentations. So, starting at 2nd level, you can swap out a Vestage 1/day, losing your one and only Augmentation when you do so. At 20th level, you could swap five times.

The Expel Vestige feat would allow you to do two expulsions per day for free (costing no Augmentations), and could be taken multiple times (it would stack with itself).

I just wrote up the first ability you mentioned above:

Revise Pact (Ex)

At 2nd level or higher, you can swap out a vestige for another, but doing so requires spending one of your Pact Augmentations. As you gain higher levels, the number of times you may do this increases as the number of Pact Augmentations you gain increase. You gain one additional pact revision at 5th, 10th, 16th and 20th level (to a maximum of five revisions at 20th level).

Revise Pact works just like Expel Vestige, but you must bind another vestige immediately after expelling the first vestige (i.e. you must draw the seal of the original vestige and succeed on a binding check to expel it, and then rebind another vestige at -10 on the binding check.) At the time you start binding the second vestige, you determine which Pact Augmentation you will sacrifice.