Author Topic: The Marvelous Marshal Handbook Discussion  (Read 19630 times)

Offline xaotiq1

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Re: The Marvelous Marshal Handbook Discussion
« Reply #20 on: March 04, 2012, 06:01:56 PM »
Sadly, you are correct. Why did they give the cool names to the bad abilities?  :bigeyes

Don't you always use the tastiest bait for your traps?  :)
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Offline SleepyShadow

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Re: The Marvelous Marshal Handbook Discussion
« Reply #21 on: March 04, 2012, 06:05:04 PM »
Sadly, you are correct. Why did they give the cool names to the bad abilities?  :bigeyes

Don't you always use the tastiest bait for your traps?  :)

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Offline StreamOfTheSky

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Re: The Marvelous Marshal Handbook Discussion
« Reply #22 on: March 05, 2012, 05:53:20 PM »
Ok, some other things I'd like to add.

Motivate Care: I know the boards like to say "AC is worthless, just get miss chance."  But for a lot of groups and IME, AC is useful.  You rate motivate attack highly, but for a party with typicla role variance, there will only be a few melee attackers, possibly a ranged, and some casters who may or may not melee at all.  Motivate Care buffs everyone in the group constantly.  And as an untyped AC bonus it should add to touch AC, which is always nice.  It's my favorite major aura.

Feats: I like Daunting Presence a lot.  It's an at will ranged fear effect with min/level duration that you can fear stack with intimidation.  Combat Panache isn't hard to qualify for and lets you debuff a foe's attacks against you by your charisma modifier.  Nymph's Kiss gives +2 to all cha-based checks (or just skill checks, I forget) along with bonus skill points and a small save bonus.  Force of Personality also bears mentioning, though it only boosts will saves against mind-affecting.

Classes: Warblade is synergistic for the same reasons Crusader is (White Raven stuff) and also brings IH Surge to the table, to shrug off effects that would keep your troops from benefiting from your command voice, plus has Diamond Mind save counters, too.  Both classes work really well for a charge-based Marshal.

Prestige Classes: Outcast Champion (Races of Destiny) gives a will save bonus aura, makes aid another grant a +4, and at 5th level gives you the ability to impart a rage-like effect on a whole group.  It's only a 5 level class.  Menacing Brute from the same book fits with the Dread Pirate / Scarlet Corsair type builds for intimidating, nothing to really boost the group, though.  At the 5th and final level, you get an area effect cower everytime you drop a foe, though the DC is a little low (fixed at 15 + cha; +4 if the felling blow was a crit).

Offline Amechra

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Re: The Marvelous Marshal Handbook Discussion
« Reply #23 on: March 05, 2012, 08:51:08 PM »
With Master of Tactics (I think that's the name...), you get your Charisma to Damage while flanking...

Bring on TWF or a bajillion Natural Attacks!
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Offline SleepyShadow

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Re: The Marvelous Marshal Handbook Discussion
« Reply #24 on: March 05, 2012, 10:09:54 PM »
Ok, some other things I'd like to add.

Motivate Care: I know the boards like to say "AC is worthless, just get miss chance."  But for a lot of groups and IME, AC is useful.  You rate motivate attack highly, but for a party with typicla role variance, there will only be a few melee attackers, possibly a ranged, and some casters who may or may not melee at all.  Motivate Care buffs everyone in the group constantly.  And as an untyped AC bonus it should add to touch AC, which is always nice.  It's my favorite major aura.

Feats: I like Daunting Presence a lot.  It's an at will ranged fear effect with min/level duration that you can fear stack with intimidation.  Combat Panache isn't hard to qualify for and lets you debuff a foe's attacks against you by your charisma modifier.  Nymph's Kiss gives +2 to all cha-based checks (or just skill checks, I forget) along with bonus skill points and a small save bonus.  Force of Personality also bears mentioning, though it only boosts will saves against mind-affecting.

Classes: Warblade is synergistic for the same reasons Crusader is (White Raven stuff) and also brings IH Surge to the table, to shrug off effects that would keep your troops from benefiting from your command voice, plus has Diamond Mind save counters, too.  Both classes work really well for a charge-based Marshal.

Prestige Classes: Outcast Champion (Races of Destiny) gives a will save bonus aura, makes aid another grant a +4, and at 5th level gives you the ability to impart a rage-like effect on a whole group.  It's only a 5 level class.  Menacing Brute from the same book fits with the Dread Pirate / Scarlet Corsair type builds for intimidating, nothing to really boost the group, though.  At the 5th and final level, you get an area effect cower everytime you drop a foe, though the DC is a little low (fixed at 15 + cha; +4 if the felling blow was a crit).

I agree with you that I find AC important. It has been my gaming experience that you need AC to live long enough to get miss chance items. However, I ranked Motivate Care low because of the very small AC bonus it provides. However, I will make a note that it should apply to touch AC.

Thanks for the feats, I'll be sure to list them.

I hadn't really thought of a charger Marshal, I'll make a note of using the Warblade for that. Thank you.

I don't have Races of Destiny, so I had no idea those prestige classes existed. Thank you  :D

Offline abstruse

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Re: The Marvelous Marshal Handbook Discussion
« Reply #25 on: March 06, 2012, 01:27:52 AM »
Small nitpick:
Motivate Care: I know the boards like to say "AC is worthless, just get miss chance."  But for a lot of groups and IME, AC is useful.  You rate motivate attack highly, but for a party with typicla role variance, there will only be a few melee attackers, possibly a ranged, and some casters who may or may not melee at all.  Motivate Care buffs everyone in the group constantly.  And as an untyped AC bonus it should add to touch AC, which is always nice.  It's my favorite major aura.

On page 13 of the Miniatures Handbook it states "All bonuses granted by a marshal's aura's are circumstance bonuses that do not stack with each other."
That said, it being a circumstance bonus it would stack with any other bonus including other circumstance bonuses to AC (providing they are not from another marshal with the same aura).  So it should apply to overall, touch, and flat-footed AC
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Offline StreamOfTheSky

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Re: The Marvelous Marshal Handbook Discussion
« Reply #26 on: March 06, 2012, 03:54:21 PM »
Ah, didn't realize that, sorry.  In any case, much as I like being credited for things, I think the OP should stop doing it so much.  At the rate it's going, there's going to be block quotes after every 5 lines of text. :)

I personally consider readability and presentation / oraganization of information the most important things in a hand book.  Not saying your handbook is unreadable, just that...don't go overboard.

(And please don't quote this in your hand book  :p )

Offline SleepyShadow

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Re: The Marvelous Marshal Handbook Discussion
« Reply #27 on: March 06, 2012, 10:57:50 PM »
Ehh, it's my second handbook, and the first one that's received any real amount of help. I'll rework it  :D

Offline Solo

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Re: The Marvelous Marshal Handbook Discussion
« Reply #28 on: March 15, 2012, 10:01:53 PM »
Have you considered listing ways to become Dragonblooded so the Draconic Auras will scale with your class level? Also, listing which draconic auras would be good for a Marshal seems like a nice feature.
« Last Edit: March 15, 2012, 10:47:41 PM by Solo »
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Offline Azoriel

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Re: The Marvelous Marshal Handbook Discussion
« Reply #29 on: May 19, 2012, 02:46:37 PM »
Some thoughts of my own...

Half-elves can actually make extremely effective marshals, particularly if you intend on using diplomacy a lot; the Sociable Personality feat (half-elves only) gives you re-rolls on any diplomacy or gather information checks.  (Given that marshals also have gather information on their class list, it's useful for that reason as well.)

Dwarves can make passable marshals as well, just so long as you don't take a dwarf sub-race with a charisma penalty; gold dwarves from Forgotten Realms, for example, take a penalty to dex instead, giving you a higher charisma score.

Of the minor auras, I consider motivate charisma to be the most useful, mostly because it lets you double-up the stat bonus on any charisma-based skill checks.  This could even have utility in combat, especially if you rely on Imperious Command, Smooth Talk, or turning attempts (which can be acquired without multi-classing via a cleric domain from the planar touchstone feat).  Maybe this is fairly obvious, but I thought it was worth special mention.
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Offline Vampireshado

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Re: The Marvelous Marshal Handbook Discussion
« Reply #30 on: June 16, 2012, 08:43:55 PM »
Interesting tamplate ideas are Magic Blooded (+2 cha, -2 another ability score, plus some other minor bonuses for +0LA) and Unseelie Fey (+2 cha and loads of other goodies including a fly speed for +0LA) both from Dragon Magazines.

Dreadmaster (from Faiths and Pantheons) would be a ROCKIN prestige class for a multiclass marshal. You have to be an evil Tyrant, but you get some really good abilities and full spellcasting progression.
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Offline Thurbane

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Re: The Marvelous Marshal Handbook Discussion
« Reply #31 on: June 18, 2012, 10:33:47 PM »
It is worth mentioning PrCs that advance Auras in the handbook (unless you already did and I missed it)?

AFAIK, the only one that specifically does so is Mythic Exemplar. Uncanny Trickster and Legcacy Champion do so by virtue of their "+1 features of any class" ability.

I'm not too sure on how Bloodlines work, but they might advance Auras too...


Never mind...I'd already mentioned these and forgotten about it.  :blush
« Last Edit: June 18, 2012, 10:41:24 PM by Thurbane »

Offline Amechra

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Re: The Marvelous Marshal Handbook Discussion
« Reply #32 on: June 19, 2012, 12:14:16 PM »
Marshals can do TWF; Master of Tactics adds your Charisma to damage while flanking, so grab a little flankin' buddy, and you can dish out some hurt (TWF is still weak in this case, but with a pumped up Charisma, you should be dealing at least 10 extra damage each hit.

And, well, if your flanking buddy is a Rogue... that's your Charisma to all their damage rolls. Combo with being the party face, and you have a decent half-Bard type deal-y.)
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Offline Jackinthegreen

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Re: The Marvelous Marshal Handbook Discussion
« Reply #33 on: September 06, 2012, 09:07:28 PM »
I'd recommend mentioning that Force of Personality only swaps your will saves to charisma for mind-affecting stuff.  It'll still be black of course, but the player really needs to think about whether his charisma is good enough to go for the mind-affecting defenses.

By the way, Hexblades are an interesting multiclass option since they're powered by charisma but focus more on debuffing.  Combining them might prove rather effective.

Offline carnivore

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Re: The Marvelous Marshal Handbook Discussion
« Reply #34 on: September 06, 2012, 09:20:14 PM »
should have posted here first .... been away a while:

Marshal 20 build

 :D

Offline SleepyShadow

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Re: The Marvelous Marshal Handbook Discussion
« Reply #35 on: September 08, 2012, 05:43:01 PM »
Anyone know how to remove posts from the guide?  :???

Offline SleepyShadow

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Re: The Marvelous Marshal Handbook Discussion
« Reply #36 on: June 18, 2015, 12:20:07 PM »
Just added Evangelist to the list of prestige class options. I like what it does, but cross class ranks in Perform makes it a bit rough to get into.

Offline Solo

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Re: The Marvelous Marshal Handbook Discussion
« Reply #37 on: June 18, 2015, 02:03:14 PM »
Well, levels in Bard aren't out of the question.
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