Your Experiences with Non Core Characters

[Shadeydm]

My newest game (which hasn't actually started yet has an interesting mix of characters and will be a nice test drive for some of the non-core classes. In a five Player party we will have a Knight (first look for me), a Hexblade/Favored Soul mulitclass (first look x2) and a Scout/Ranger (first look at the scout), along with a standard Cleric and a standard Wizard all using a 32 point buy. I am quite excited about seeing these classes in play.

When I first read about the Knight I was put off by what I would call computer game like mechanics but in the end I can see a real value for the party and I really want to see it play out. I suspect with good roleplaying the mechanics of the class won't seem too bad.

The Hexblade/Favored Soul sounds like a potent combination and should be able to be a real impact character in melee.

I expect that the Ranger/Scout will have a nice synergy to it.

I am seriously thinking about treating party as being one level higher for CR purposes.

 

[Voadam]

As a player I've done:

Giant from Arcana Unearthed, fun stuff, I like the culture and getting bigger. Worked well in a greyhawk game for a human cursed while in the womb by a hexblade.

Beguiler from PHII, fun social face mage, wierd that they get d6 hd, light armor, and mage armor on their spell list. Really have nothing when facing mind immune foes (vermin, undead, constructs, plants, oozes)

Dragonfire Adept from the web excerpt for Dragon Magic, just starting a PC with this but they have a good skill list and I like the mechanics of always available slightly weaker magic. I love the no resource tracking magic.

Soulknife from XPH, played a couple of these, I love the class, always available magic sword powers, no resource tracking, woohoo! A little weak for a combat class but multiclasses well with a tank class.

Psion from XPH, was fine for the short game I played one in. I like the psionic focus mechanics of psionic feats a lot.

Warmain from Arcana Unearthed, out tanks the fighter, went well with giant.

Noble from Dragonlance Campaign Setting, went well as a social oriented mercenary who had favors he could call in. I played one who was the bastard kid of nobility and it worked well.

Hexblade from Complete Warrior, oozes cool flavor though a little weak mechanically.

I really like the variants from Unearthed Arcana and Player's Handbook II, lots of good options that I've enjoyed playing like spontaneous divine spellcasting, ditching ranger animal companion for another power, etc.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

I played a beguiler and it quickly replaced rogue as my favored character class. I liked the fact that I can use magic to increase my stealthiness and charm although a lot of people don't like the class since he isn't as combat effective as a rogue. There are so many creatures in a campaign that can avoid a rogue's sneak attack ability at higher levels that I didn't feel I was missing out on much.

 

[Graybeard]

I have played both a Dragon Shaman and a Duskblade. The Duskblade was nice because it gives you some minor spellcasting ability to combine with weapon proficiency. The Dragon Shaman was a lot of fun in the Savage Tide adventure. You get some really useful abilities like the auras and a breath weapon.

 

[WayneLigon]

Having purchased the Tome of Magic some time ago, I decided to give the Binder a drive around the block.

I can't say I've ever even looked at it closely. I might have to give that a try sometime. Your experienced makes it sound very interesting.

 

[Nifft]

My experience as a Binder: it's fun, but a bit on the weak side. You have nice strategic flexibility, but not much tactical flexibility until you can afford a stack of Vestige Phylacteries.

If used optimally, Anima Mage is not weak at all, and allows you to add a little Binder flavor to a primary caster.

Cheers, -- N

 

[blargney the second]

We've seen a hell of a lot of non-core PCs. They're all pretty cool in their own way. Some reward focus (hexblade & knight) while others are best as dip classes (swashbuckler & marshal).

I think swordsage is my favourite right now - lots of style and plenty useful.

 

[takasi]

I'm currently playing:

Archivist (Heroes of Horror)
An extremely versatile spellcaster. Better than a wizard in many cases, IMNSHO.

Beguiler (PHB 2)
Finally, a favored class for gnomes. Very fun so far, especially if you like illusion spells. Shadow conjuration/evocation are especially useful.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I've played:

Warmage: Fire, fire, FIRE!!!! Absurdly fun, all you have to worry about is what to do when you're not in rounds. First caster I ever enjoyed playing.

Psion: Also quite fun. I didn't notice my being more powerful than the straight wizard or the paladin/cleric/Fist of Raziel.

Warlock: Kinda fun, but not as fun as I'd hoped. It gets a bit repetitive, especially if you choose self-buffing invocations. Currently playing this, fixing to head into Hellfire Warlock from FC2.

Brad

 

[drothgery]

Archivist from Heroes of Horror -- I'm running one in a PBP, and she's a lot of fun, though most of that would be there if she were a wizard with Arcande Disciple or a cloistered cleric, I'd bet. Still, it's a non-warrior divine caster with lots of awesome.

Artificer from the Eberron Campaign Setting -- ran a warforged artificer in a tabletop game for a while as a melee/buffer guy. 'Twas a lot of fun.

Psion from the XPH -- was definitely high-powered in a low-magic Dark Sun game, which made him a bit less fun than he could have been, but I think it'd fair better in a standard magic game.

Scout from CAdv -- was fun, though the character died relatively early in the game, and even though I was pretty good about getting skirmish damage in, it didn't seem like I was doing a lot in combat.

Warmage from CArc -- simple to play, and I love my blaster casters, but I think if I redid the class I'd ditch all the bonus sudden metamagics and give an Eclectic Learning every other level; four non-warmage spells by level 16 doesn't offer a lot of versatility