[Tome of Magic] Tell me about the Binder!

[Pants]

Okay... for those who think the Binder is a little too weak, what kind of fixes would you suggest (honestly curious)?

 

[catsclaw227]

(BTW Mouseferatu, your 'unofficial' fixes to the shadowcaster moved it from #2 in my book to #1. Thanks for the original class and thanks for continuing to think about it even after publication).

Where can we find these "unofficial" fixes?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Yes, links please! I'm considering using ToM in my next campaign.

 

[Nightfall]

I like Binders, just wish a) there was a way for Death Masters to only take feats so they can bind Tenebrous and b) there were more powerful visages too.

Cats,

You can always blame me for making you read SL stuff first.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Where can we find these "unofficial" fixes?

http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=2957649&postcount=76

 

[Nightfall]

Thanks Ari!

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Thanks Ari!

Indeed, many thanks!

 

[lukelightning]

Okay... for those who think the Binder is a little too weak, what kind of fixes would you suggest (honestly curious)?

They should make it easier to swap out vestiges; perhaps making "expel vestige" free at 1st level. A binder is supposed to be about versatility, but if you need to wait 24 hours to change your vestige you're not really that versatile.

 

[lukelightning]

PS: My favorite PrC would be the Anima Mage. Too bad about the "any non-Good" thing, but hey, I can be Evil for the sake of cool.

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.

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? Is the adventure about stoping some devil lord's sinister plot? Orly will make an extra effort to thwart those evil plans, because we gotta show those devils who's boss! Similarly, he views his binding of vestiges as enslaving them (even though they evidently get some mysterious benefit out of being bound).

So far I've only bound Malphas, to make use of his bird scout ability and invisibility. I can't wait til next level so I can bind two vestiges; that'll totally rock!

 

[Nifft]

Okay... for those who think the Binder is a little too weak, what kind of fixes would you suggest (honestly curious)?

Yeah, better would be switching more frequently (but still a fixed number of times each day, or with a penalty of some kind).

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 one case where IMHO it's okay to fix a class with feats, mainly because the class gets bonus feats.)

Thoughts?

Thanks, -- N