3.5 Adept

[Rock of the Fraternity]

I think this NPC class gets an undeservedly bad rep., really. Sure, it doesn't get the high spell slots, but with a few little tricks, you can make an Adept pretty playable.

Feat selection:

Augment Healing: - If you're a backup healer, or a healer to a rough-'n-ready community, make sure you're good at it. Make up for less slots a day by adding as much punch to your Cure spells as you can, and consider Empowering or Maximizing them as soon as you can.

Craft Wand - So you don't get a lot of spell slots? Make a habit of regularly crafting wands! You get a reasonably nice selection of spells, so with this feat, you can cast each one of them 50 times before you absolutely need to make a new wand or tap into your own daily spell slots.

Double Wand Wielder: - This feat does pre-require two other feats, but for a caster with limited spell slots and a fairly wide spell selection, it can be amazingly useful! Make sure to craft wands with both helpful and offensive spells, and keep sets ready for different occasions.

Empower & Sudden Empower Spell: - Fairly obvious; put a little extra kick in your healing and damage-dealing spells. Sudden Empower allows you to do this to spells of any level, even your eventual 5th-level spells, and has the advantage of being usable on the fly. Casters who prepare their spells (like the Adept) can always use a trick like this if they can't get their hands on metamagic rods.

Improved Counterspell: - Not the most ideal feat, unless you make a habit of counterspelling foes. In which case, I'd recommend taking this as soon as possible.

Improved Familiar: - People sometimes overlook the advantages of a good familiar. You can use the little guys to set up a spy network by having them chat with their natural kindred, and with Improved Familiar you get access to a whole range of creatures with increased abilities that allow them to play bodyguard to you.

Mobile Spellcasting: - If you're fragile and you know it, clap your hands! Keep your Concentration skill topped up, and this feat allows you to perform hit-and-run tactics, using cover to prevent enemies from targeting you after you've hit them.

Spontaneous Healer: - Clerics may look down their nose at you for your lack of turning ability, but with this feat, you can match them in healing power for as long as your spell slots last. Heal is a class skill, so you can already select this feat at 1st level! Spontaneous Wounder may not be in the cards, but you can provide healing to your comrades when the chips are down, without having to prepare healing spells during your daily meditation.
Keeping your ranks in Heal topped up to maximum or near-maximum isn't a bad idea, either, for when the healing spells run out. But I'm sure you already knew that.

Sudden Maximize: - Maximize Spell will eventually allow you to pack maximum punch in your 2nd and 3rd-level spells, but with Sudden Maximize, any spell of any level you can cast becomes customizable. The 1/day usage is unfortunate, but you can surprise your enemies with the best of them.

Track: - Survival is one of your class skills, so use it. A team can always use a bonus tracker, in case the Barbarian, Druid or Ranger is unavailable or needs a bit of help. Also consider the advantage to a spellcaster who can track enemies down without help, or who can find their friends back after they've become separated by a trap.



Skills to consider:

Conccntration, Heal, Knowledge, Spellcraft and Survival, in my opinion.
Concentration because sooner or later, there is always a fight and you will always need to be able to keep a cool head. Also useful to get your hands on the Mobile Spellcasting feat as soon as Adeptly possible.
Heal - see the Spontaneous Healer feat. Also consider that there are times where healing spells don't work, for instance if you need to find out what exactly is wrong with someone.
Knowledge - know what you're dealing with.
Spellcraft - know what the other guy is casting at you so you can figure out what you should do about it.
Survival - see the Track feat.


These have been my opinions. I await your responses...

[alhoon]

Personally I break down the adept to two classes:
The wannabe-cleric and the wannabe-sorcerer. The Adept has access to all cleric spells (not domains) and the wannabe sorcerer has access to all wizard spells, again not domains.
I also slower the class' caster level progression. IMO a 6th lvl adept should be considered 4th caster level cleric, not 6th.

As for maximize... meh.
A maximized cure light wounds is a 4th lvl spell and cures an astonishing -13- hp, while a CSW spell would cure more at the level the adept is able to use maximized clw.

Also the heal skill is quite over-rated. What's the benefit between heal+8 and heal+12? Rarely you would need it. Not to mention that with cure disease and slow poison it becomes even less necessary. Sure it might be very helpful to have +12 a couple of times you're level 6+; might be. And once or twice. Meanwhile, knowledges will be useful in almost any adventure.
You really feel insecure about it and you're 6th lvl? Create magical bandages that give a +4 to heal and be done with it.
I would go on the contrary: Get your bonus of heal to +5 or +6 and forget it.

IMO the most useful feat for an adept would be create wondrous items followed by create wands. Create wands not so much to create wands as much as to create charged items and items that uses 2charges/day. Cuts the price quite much and in effect is as if you've prepared the spell twice.

[Panurg]

I think all NPC classes should be options in a ravenloft campaign. But as statet in the DMG these classes are weaker than actual player classes. So if players want to play such a class I give them bonus feats to balance it. Fe: In my opinion an aristocrat with bonus feats on every 4th level equals an actual player class. For the adept in my it's more difficult in my opinion. But I guess letting them have access to more spells like Alhoon suggested would be an opinion.

[ScS of the Fraternity]

I concur. NPCs get the short end of the stick; an aristocrat can only be as good at diplomacy as a bard, who by definition splits his or her time with singing and spellcasting.
I figure that if an Expert character could get a skill focus feats every three levels, then that too could be a viable character class. It would definitely bring home the nature of an expert, one who specializes on a particular skill set.
Of course, a high level NPC is slightly ridiculous. A person with that much experience must surely have branched out in some manner - even if only by taking levels in another NPC class.
EX: A peasant (Com), becomes a merchant (Exp), learns a touch of magic along the way (Adp) and finally becomes burgomaster of his town (Arst).
A very experienced warrior is either a fighter or some other class. It’s just not likely that someone would be excellent at mediocrity. If they were so bland, they would never have reached above 5th level. Although, nothing says that a fighter cannot devote of his or her feats to toughness and run-of-the-mill feats.

[Panurg]

I would agree with that. But I would make an exception for the Commoner Class. It's the only one I find in one way plausible to level in. Because it represents a person that never visited a shool (though they aren't illiterate as a barbarian, that's strange) and is never very ambitious. On the other hand why level at all if you are not ambitious? So I also have a hard time imagining a really high level commoner.
In my campaign there is a little hamlet near Mordentshire where a certain clan is predominant. Their elder is a commoner lvl9 which in my opinion could be derived from his experience with his work as the owner of the mill and his age. Which means I think as an NPC class there should be optional rules for gaining experience. Via profession for example. Like adventurers can gain their first experience points for doing small jobs in a city without overcoming enemies. There must be some university professors who have never encountered dire rats in the library and be of high level.

The proposal to let the classes develop in each other is quite fascinating and works best with NPC classes i guess. And it would amend the suggestion made in the DMG that you can only be born as Aristocrat which is quite arbitrary considering that all your class skills can be learned and trainend normally. (As opposed to Sorcerer who needs Dargonblood or something like that which qualifies as "born with status".) It seems like designers in that case fell for an argument derived from a feudal political background.

Last I would like to state, that in my opinion the NPC classes a vital for balancing the Ravenloft Setting. For other Campaignworlds (like Forgotten Realms, which I also like very much) they are not a bit that important. And I always feel kind of strange seeing a high level NPC in Ravenloft without a NPC class. Especially some really high fantasy (fe Dragonlance) seeming Charakters like Viktor Helsinger or Rodjan Dilisnya from Legacy of the Blood. (But this sentiment might be a remnant of my first Ravenloft Campaign which started in 2nd edition. And in my fascination with Ravenloft back then was that it seemed more focused on story than on power levels.) I mean some of the most badass lords were around 3rd level or 3 HD. Not to say that the new concept doesn't have its own charm and is in a way more structured and logical in itself.

[alhoon]

I cap commoner class at 3rd lvl. If you have accumulated enough XP to be 4th lvl... then you're not a commoner. Just a very good smith/farmer/hunter? Warrior or expert levels.

And I usually cap NPC levels soon too, for the same reason. The town guard that is a veteran of 6 wars... that's a fighter guys, not a 7th lvl warrior. I would say Fighter 4/warrior 2 or something.

[Panurg]

I never thought about it that way. But that's a good advice. Earning a real player class through a NPC class. But I think you should leave the option to do that also to the live a single person lives. In my opinion the story arc for each individuals determines which class they "earn". So the warrior going through six wars can become a fighter, but only if he learns the necessary discipline and training technics. Though I have to admit some canonical fighters stories don't offer the best example for my theory.

[MichaelTumey]

In my Kaidan adventures, Curse of the Golden Spear, there are rather many NPCs that look like Expert 2/Rogue 4 or Aristocrat 2/Samurai 6. The lowest end NPCs are strictly NPC classes, but many of the higher level guys are NPC/PC mix classes. I didn't think that was a rare way to handle it (I've always done it this way in games, and now I do it this way for publications.)

[ScS of the Fraternity]

And I usually cap NPC levels soon too, for the same reason. The town guard that is a veteran of 6 wars... that's a fighter guys, not a 7th lvl warrior. I would say Fighter 4/warrior 2 or something.

A good idea.
For Expert, Aristocrat and Adept, it gets dicier.
Experts don't make an easy transition into rogues, nor do aristocrats easily become bards. As for adepts, they combine the elements of wizard, cleric, and druid without adding the specializations that make those PC classes unique.

[alhoon]

For Expert, Aristocrat and Adept, it gets dicier.
Experts don't make an easy transition into rogues, nor do aristocrats easily become bards

Nope. But Aristocrats can get fighter levels, that's what I do for "knights". The King? Well, he's aristocrat 10 or aristo 6/exp 4 or something. True. I don't say I hold all the answers.
For experts I usually go rogue, wizard or bard depending on the NPC. The high-learned sage is a bard... without music. The reclusive dude that knows a GREAT deal of astronomy, astrology, prophecies? Well, either bard again (without music) or wizard.

As for adepts, they combine the elements of wizard, cleric, and druid without adding the specializations that make those PC classes unique.

Weeeeeell... check my first post in this thread. I don't play adepts that way. I give them only cleric spells.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

For Aristocrats, I'd suggest using the Noble class from the Dragonlance setting. It's quite good.

[alhoon]

There are various noble classes out there, many of them good enough.

[Jester of the FoS]

For Aristocrats, I'd suggest using the Noble class from the Dragonlance setting. It's quite good.

I'd disagree with this statement. The idea and foundation is good, but the execution is weak.

For my forthcoming Ravenloft game I am starting the players as NPCs using the basic stat array and NPC classes, and not all are created equal. Compared to the expert and warrior the commoner is really weak. They really are peasants. The aristocrat is so-so, but the extra money is really their only benefit.

[Alastor]

Experts don't make an easy transition into rogues

If you have the War of the Lance supplement, the Master class is a fair translation of the Expert.

[Jimsolo]

I frequently use the NPC classes for NPC's. The idea I always took from NPC classes were that they were supposed to represent 'generic' equivalents of the PC classes. Jason is a high level fighter, the Argonauts are high level warriors. In practice, since they have more HD than their CR would indicate, which means they get more HP than a PC class would. That translates into them having a little more staying power than one of the PHB classes. Sometimes I find that useful.