Greetings, all!
Our small group is playing the Shackled City campaign for D&D 3.5. All 3.5 sources are allowed including homebrew, and this campaign is meant to be 'tough, but fair.' Our GM has generally been lenient with allowing homebrew and rules changes if we all agree we want something changed.
We are angels of Pelor (and I at least am well aware of the
Burning Hate controversy) given mortal bodies to aid in Cauldron and judge whether this plane should be destroyed to remove the righteous with the wicked or spared.
Our group is ECL4ish now and near the end of the second chapter of The Shackled City, Drakthar's Way. My in-character brother is a Half-Celestial Gith Druid3 going Planar Shepherd of a plane to be announced ||
Tome Monk. (He is WIS-based.) I am a Magic-Blooded Divine Mnion of Thoth (reflavored to be of Pelor) Cloistered Cleric3 going for a modified Hathran and
Manyfold Summoner (and possibly other divine casting PrCs) ||
Fun, Powerful Sorcerer3 intending to go 20+ in this class. My domains are Dragon Below and Kobold (though I intend to switch Dragon Below for Time due to it being better overall). (I am CHA-based with Cloistered Cleric-based casting being house ruled to be CHA- instead of WIS-based.) The GM has said that our main characters are exceptionally powerful and occasionally rule-breaking: We are probably the only gestalt characters in this game world and we were each built on a 40 point buy. In my character's case, he got some domains not normally part of Pelor's list/portfolio. The GM also houseruled our level adjustments so each of us only has a total LA of 1, regardless of the default rules.
We have with us a GMPC named Kristof, a Human Cleric of Pelor3 or 4 with the Strength and Sun domains going for Radiant Servant of Pelor, Contemplative, and Divine Metamagic (Persistent buffs). He's meant to represent the common folk and we have adopted him as our apprentice because, in and out of character, we want to have him thrive. He was the only remaining priest in Cauldron at the start of the adventure He was built with the equivalent of a 19 point buy. (He has 10 STR/10 DEX/12 CON/10 INT/15 WIS/9 CHA.) He has no traits nor flaws for feats as per GM instructions. So far, he's been only minorly useful, occasionally hitting with his longsword (a GM-granted weapon and proficiency), occasionally buffing, sometimes summoning, and rarely healing since our team has rarely gotten hurt enough to warrant that. I've been holding out for him to increase in levels so he can get more useful spells, including direct damage ones like
searing light and crowd control ones like
haboob. Once he gets level 4 spells,
lesser holy transformation changes his type to Outsider, and
polymorph from my character can make him even more uber via
forms like these.
This Bard4 cohort is likely to be built using Kristof as a standard once my character reaches level 6. This means it's her job primarily to make the rest of the group awesome as the church's music director. (I'm aware of
optimizing Inspire Courage and
JoshuaD's Bard Handbook.) Her planned build is NG Silverbrow Human (with the Magic-Blooded template if allowed) Bard9/Lyric Thaumaturge1/Sublime Chord2Lyric Thaumaturge+X, (The assumption is Lyric Thaumaturge advances Bardic Music as a full Bard. This is our game, and even if this isn't RAW, this is how we intend to play.)
Thus, what feats, stats, skills, items, and otherwise do you most recommend for a buffing, casting-heavy Bard who intends also to melee once she's properly
polymorphed considering her stats? Should she start at middle age?
Thankee!
