What style of character do you see yourself playing? Are you a tank, caster, perimeter lurker, etc? Is there something in general that seems interesting in those three? In 3.0, you start with a base class, standard PHB character or base character from some where else, but I have several resources with base characters, so if I know what tempts you, I can suggest characters to choose from. Then, each character can choose a special direction for that character, which 3.0 models with prestige classes (forgive me if you already know this). So, along with general type of character, think of any special traits that would be interesting for you and I can help with the prestige class suggestions.

Oh, and if you're the type of player that likes to provide balance to a group, we have pure caster (Shugenja, base character from Oriental Adventures) and a caster that can also become a tank (druid). If that doesn't matter because you're not the balancer of a group, then just ignore this paragraph. You only have an obligation to play something you want. Obvious, but worth saying.

I've mostly been rogues / rangers / fighters for 3.5 though most of my groups tend to fizzle out so I've played 1-5 a million times, but never got much past 10.

I dont have any experience with spellcasters, but completely willing to learn. Just started my first 4E cleric, might consider running a 3E one to see what they were like.

Clerics are great characters, I love them. Solid defense/attack, decent caster, and a healer is NEVER bad, but they have a bad rap because people hate being stuck as the healing spam-bot. I personally love the Bard myself for similar reasons, hybrid characters are very versatile. Maybe at higher levels, the Tier concept can take over, but I personally don't care too much about sheer power levels. I like the hybrids and tanks, who tend to not do so well in the Tier ranks.

I'm inexperienced as far as higher level stuff goes. And so that any other players are aware I'm here to have fun and to roleplay with the character, and not worry about squeezing out every drop of min/maxing. I much prefer playing a character, than playing an excel spreadsheet that just happens to look like a dwarf. Haha.

I'll start poking around in the cleric-ish regions. But I'm flipping through various Forgotten Realms books at the moment just soaking stuff in. I know FR geography wise, and I know a bit about things along the sword coast and the moonsea areas, but pretty much in the dark out side those regions. I know you mentioned it elsewhere, but where are we starting and whats the "story" to our into?

Lothar - Human Cleric




That is literally the best character roll I have ever gotten. Ever.

Holy crap!

I bet I'm going to get hosed on the HP rolls. But two 17s and an 18...with no negatives. Mmmmmmm

I'm liking the sound of a cleric, but as mentioned I've never dabbled in 3E spell casters. Sifting through the pantheon right now as I've been in 4E most recently so got to rewind a bit. Begin my diety and my race that will help knock out a huge chunk of my backstory stuff. But I also like tying in my story with the other characters, unless we're clearly starting from a point of having never met before. Gonna get around to cooking my, now long over due, dinner and keep reading through Defenders of Faith.

Possible Deities
-Gond
-Lathandar
-Torm
-Tyr
-

I'll confirm the 3.0 SRD and the 3.0 PHB are equivalent. There's some 3.0 errata that has made it into the SRD, but nothing 3.5 is in 3.0's SRD.

As for what we have/what we need:

I'm a Shugenja, which functions as a bit of a jack-of-all-casters; I can heal in a pinch, and I can burn things down in a pinch, and I can be a bit tricky with illusions, and I've got some control powers. None of my spells are "weak," per se (they're all good spells at the right levels for them), I just don't have a strong focus. My strongest focus is Divination and Scrying, thanks to the prestige class. I'm a Divine spellcaster, but I cast like a Sorcerer. I'm rather squishy, another reason I've chosen the prestige class that I have.

Since Tequila is a Druid, he's also got his choice of what he wants to do. Though Druids tend to be best when they do specialize. It's a very strong class in 3.0, as is Cleric.

But basically, I'm a glass wildcard; and until Tequila decides how his character is going to flesh out, we don't have anyone dedicated to anything, really. So, you've got your pick.

For Arcane_Archer
I'm working on my sheet via Myth Weavers, it's not complete by any means yet, but it's getting fleshed out. I do have a question for you, though. Since there weren't any "Spells Known" divine casters like Shugenja when Defenders of the Faith was published, how do you want to handle access and use of the spells within the Divination domain granted to me by my Prestige Class?

Do you want me to know them as extra spells I know; do you want me to know them as extra spells I know, but can only cast once each per day (closest to the way a Cleric would handle an additional Domain); do you want me to have to pick them as spells known; do you want me to know them, but be required to prepare them, unlike my other spells; or do you have some other solution in mind?

Here's my sheet now; I'll be working on it intermittently while I'm out of state this week.
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=672730

@ Bounty Hunter: So I've been looking through Defenders of the Faith and other books. There are several prestige classes that give some interesting flavor for a good story hook.
1. Consecrated Harrier - A holy bounty hunter, the consecrated harrier is assigned a mark for some egregious offense against your church. Doesn't have to be related to this adventure. Maybe you're just hitching a ride, so you serve on the crew in the meantime while you travel from port to port, or maybe you got a hit on a location, and you're headed to Waterdeep to look. Whatever, but they're going to be mobile. The character doesn't get many spells in these levels, but gains bonuses in many social skills, detection, and stealth.
2. Holy Liberator - Just what it sounds like, they fight tyranny, slavery, powerful evil. The moderate qualifications for the class means you could have two levels presently. They don't gain much in magic power, but are great for non-holy character classes to add positive energy powers to their character. A cleric would add some abilities that Paladins have, which would be a different sort of holy warrior without feeling the need to be lawful stupid. Chaotic good clerics are often drawn to the class.
3. Hunter of the Dead - Hates undead, hunts undead, gets really good at it. Enough said. At your present levels, you could gain two levels as a cleric base class. Doesn't really gain much additional spell ability.
4. Sacred Exorcist - Same idea as Hunter of the Dead, but adds hunting/dispatching outsiders to their bag of tricks. You have to be exemplary in your faith and devotion, morality, and be sponsored by a specific church. Sacred Exorcists continue to advance in spellcasting as normal.
5. A great Faerun-style class is Morninglord of Lathandar from Player's Guide to Faerun. They get most of the goodies that a cleric archtypically gets, but some additional specified coolness in the form of powers related to Lathandar, such as light abilities and greater turning power. It's fairly easy to qualify for, too, which would allow you to have four levels in it at 9th level, while still casting spells as a 9th level divine spellcaster and spells per day as a 9th level divine spellcaster. Very mobile, expeditionary priesthood to spread the news of their god, Lathandar. Can be any good, which could work better in this adventure than a LG character. A ship hunting pirates could present some challenges that would really test the rigid alignment view of Paladins and other LG characters, as a lot of stuff may be happening outside of the law to hunt and destroy piracy.

Or, you can stick to a vanilla cleric, which believe me is no pushover. I played one in a different Forgotten Realms PBP adventure, and had a blast. Would have smashed the end villain, too, saved the day, had I swung first on initiative because he had been sufficiently weakened (largely by me). But he got me...we won't go into what specifically happened, but it didn't end well for the party.

I was looking at either bland ol cleric, or the Morninglord. Both of them seem to have the wandering-ness that would allow them to be a mobile adventurer, without being so righteous as to be narrow in both RP and in mechanics as far as the game goes. Dont want to go making an undead obliterator then not ever see a single zombie. Gonna take the plunge and start throwing things at a character sheet and see how I feel about it. If all else fails I'll just stick to being a rogue

I have to compare the mechanics of each class as it relates to the designed use, which is Cleric and Druid. Clerics get a domain spell slot per level unique to their class, druids do not. So while both get to have access to ALL spells in the Domains and divine spell lists that they have access to (ie. they don't have to "learn" spells), they aren't treated exactly the same.

Now we get to the Shugenja. Edit: I'm tired, and re-thinking what I typed, so check back here once I've worked through the extra issues I uncovered after tying the original response. You sure picked an interesting conundrum, involving several spellcaster class rules.

Yeah, that can be a risk with a specialized priest. A single adventure might not see a lot of undead, or it might see oodles, but usually works out over a campaign. Since this is a single adventure, at sea, there might not be much obliteration chances. Since the Morninglord is 3.5, do you have the Player's Guide to Faerun to work your character sheet if you go that way? If not, I can step you through the specifics of the class, along with a straight cleric if needed, to help you make the choice.



If you decide to go Rogue, a fun Rogue-ish class is the 3.0 Bard. Divine spells, Arcane spells, decent melee, and a chance to really RP the spit out of your character, if a straight thief is old hat. He's usually the 2nd best wizard, the 2nd best cleric, 2nd best fighter, and 2nd best thief, all in one. Bards are actually my mostest favoritest PC.

Yeah, a Druid would be most like the third option I posted (know them, but need to prepare them, but don't get any kind of extra spell slot per day to do so). And yes, I realize I wound up with something rather unique -- I pretty sure this will be the only "weird" question I ask, though.

@PlaneShaper: OK, I've thought about it and I'm glad I did. After reading the domain rules VERY carefully multiple times, it's evident to me that it is intended for non-clerics to gain a spell slot at each level for the domain spell, and they do not have to learn each domain spell at each level. The cleric-specific domain slots are treated as if the caster is a cleric. For classes like the Bard and Shugenja, therefore, your spells are separated between the two classes.

You can't spam domain spells unless you learn it in your base class as a spells known chosen spell and is in the list of Shugenja spells. Domain spells are prepared in accordance with cleric rules, so you are now a hybrid caster, even more than a Shugenja is normally. Shugenja spells don't have to be prepared in advance, but Domain spells do. You can spam Shugenja spells, but not Domain spells. It's worth noting with only one domain that you actually don't have a choice what spell goes in each level's domain slot, unless you use a higher level domain slot to prepare a lower level domain spell.

So in the lower levels, you don't get a radical bump in power, and that works for me. You'd have to advance pretty high for that to really pay off. But since this allows me to adjudicate ALL non-cleric classes in the same manner, I think I'll allow this in all of my future games...it just makes sense.

Does it make sense to you?

As a reminder to become a Morninglord of Lathander I need access to Improved Turning feat.

I'm pretty flexible, and your reasoning definitely makes sense. To rephrase, just so I'm sure I'm following your ruling correctly:

I will get an extra spell per day as well as an extra spell known. (Per spell level). The extra spell known is the applicable domain spell.
The extra spell per day is only able to be used for a domain spell of equal or lower spell level. (I am not able to cast non-domain spells with it).
I must prepare any domain spells as a Cleric would.
I can't prepare the domain spells into any of my other spells per day; they can only be prepared into the one extra spell per day per spell level that are specifically for a domain spell.
If I also otherwise know a domain spell in my normal spells known list, I would be able to cast it in my other spell slots as normal.

It's very similar to how this other 3.5 Variant Rule — Druid Domain functions.

Exactly. I will add that your overall added Divine caster levels determines how high your domain slots go, so Shugenja + Divine Oracle levels, divided by 2, round up = Domain level. 4th Level Shugenja and 3rd level Divine Oracle would result in 4th level domain spell, and 4th level Shugenja spells. Makes sense to me, and the language of the prestige class backs that up.

And remember that even though your Domain slots are rigid, you can cast any of your Shugenja list spells as many times as you have applicable Shugenja slots (what I call spamming), because you don"t prepare them in advance just like sorcs and bards.

OK, here's the synopsis. A ship called the Sea Dragon is advertising for new crew members in the city state of Southport, a very large city state on the southeast part of the northern half of a continent west of Faerun, roughly due west of Evermeet, and north of Maztica You are starting at a tavern/inn called the Drunken Lemming. (Don't ask, it's a long story). Your quest will lead you to join the crew as they sweep east across the sea, past the Moonshae Isles and the Nelanther Isles, and then up the Sword Coast to Waterdeep, following currents and the trade lanes. You are hunting pirates. The Sea Dragon is known in all of the Trackless Sea ports (both sides of the sea) and Inner-Sea trading lanes for both its captain and track record at sinking or capturing pirates. Your characters do not know why exactly such a notorious ship is advertising for crew far from its home port in Waterdeep, but you've heard quiet rumors locally that they got hammered in a recent battle somehow and have to recoup serious losses to return home. To give you much more would rob you of some of the plot.

I personally don't care if you guys know each other or not. Your characters can come from almost anywhere that hails friendly faces, certainly any place in Western Faerun, but you could be from the Unapproachable East, or the Great Rift, or other far-flung parts of Faerun, even the snowy north (often Silverymoon). The only character I know so far where they are coming from, is Planeshaper's Shugenja from the lands far, far to the east of Thay and Mulhorand.

Some of the backstory for this western continent is that there were very nasty wars going on stemming from a mass-release of demons into the Forgotten Realms that ended up embroiling this western continent in a full on war. The war is over, Southport is repairing damages to the city state, and it's not uncommon to see mercenaries from other lands starting to head back through trade lanes to Faerun. Whether you were a war privateer, or on a holy quest or other secret matter is really up to you, since your character is 9th level, but you all find yourselves across the Trackless Sea, far from your places of origin.

Rough draft character sheet : Lothar

Stats and skills are theoretically done. Need to finish Equipment and Spells... and of course story. I'm considering hailing from Waterdeep, its nice and easy.

Level 5 Cleric, Level 4 MorningLord.

Please pick through it and call out any mistakes.

Thanks in advance.

Alright, so as a Shugenja 7 and a Divine Oracle 2, I will know my 5th level domain spell with the slot to prepare it into, while I will still only have 4th level Shugenja spells.

ceil((7+2)/2) = 5
floor((7+2)/2) = 4

I'll add that to my sheet.