Need help helping my party

[bigbaddragon]

Hi all,

I've started a campaign (as a player) with a group that is fairly inexperienced with 3.5 edition. I'm playing human cloistered cleric focused on knowledge skills and protection and buffing of the party. Now, the DM has allowed up to two flaws and now we have the situation that after 4-5 sessions more than half of the party didn't select all of the feats for their characters. Naturally all of them turn to me for advice but I barely have the time to keep up my own character (work, sometimes overtime work, sometimes more overtime work .... life :)) and don't have enough time to look into all of their builds. Some of them that have characters similar to the ones I've built before I already helped but for the others I turn to you guys and girls for help. The party is:

1) Human druid lvl 1: already spent one feat on Track and one on Spontaneous Healer, has two feats open

2) Dwarf fighter lvl 2: took Power Attack, Weapon Focus (Greataxe) and maybe Combat Expertize I'm not sure. He doesn't want to take Improved Trip because one member has already taken it and will probably get Improved disarm. Also he doesn't have enough wisdom to take combat form feats so that option is out. Has one or two feats open currently

3) Human rogue lvl 1: took Iron Will and TWF so far and will multiclass with Swashbuckler next level so he doesn't need to spend a feat on Weapon Finesse. Has two open feats ATM and is probably going for Avenger PrC.

4) Human Duskblade: took Power Attack so far only.

The ones left are human knight and me but we're good.

The way things stand we could use some advice on the feat choice for the first couple of levels until other players get a hold of 3.5. I would also ask of you to name you sources. We have pretty much everything except eberron and ToB books available.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions you make. Cheers

[Kurald Galain]

You didn't specify which sourcebooks were allowed.

Druid: consider Augment Summoning, and metamagic.
Fighter: if allowed, retrain weapon focus. Retraining is in the PHB2, just like the duskblade is. Suggest improved-anything, plus tactical feats from the later handbooks, and things like shock trooper. Some of that is long-term planning.
Rogue: if allowed, retrain iron will. Suggest improved initiative, and combat reflexes.
Duskblade: consider Arcane Strike, Obtain Familiar

If any of the characters does archery, I'd also recommend point blank shot and rapid shot.

[bigbaddragon]

You didn't specify which sourcebooks were allowed.


We have pretty much everything except eberron and ToB books available.

I should have put that somewhere near the top I guess :smallsmile:

[Leicontis]

For the druid:
Spell Focus: Conjuration followed by Augment Summoning

For the fighter:
A few possibilities - Improved Buckler Defense (CWar) (it'd be -1 to attack to wear a buckler, but could provide some serious benefits), Flay (CWar) (useless against armored enemies, but enough creatures go unarmored that he'd be forcing a LOT of Fort saves), or maybe Improved Bull Rush into Cometary Collision (CWar) if you don't like getting charged.

For the rogue:
Two-Weapon Defense and Deadly Defense (CSco)- if he's going to be fighting w/ two weapons, 2WD will give him a good shield bonus to AC when he fights defensively (on top of a dodge bonus that should get boosted next level when he hits 5 ranks of Tumble), and Deadly Defense will add an extra 1d6 to all his attacks when he fights defensively. Also, depending on how much of each class he's looking to take, the Daring Outlaw (CSco) feat could be VERY nice when he meets the prereqs.

For the duskblade:
Weapon Focus and/or Weapon Finesse (depending on his stats and weapon preferences) could help - duskblades can dish out a lot of damage when they hit. He's a little low level for most of the tastier metamagics, so maybe just look for ways to boost his attack bonus (and thus, indirectly, his Power Attack damage)