Putting together a support character for a friend

[Natael]

I'm helping a friend out with a character for a 3.5 game we're about to play, and he is not too system savvy, so I figured I'd help him out a bit and just wanted a bit of help as I'm not used to playing Clerics.

His main focus is being a warforged combat support/buffer, with some strong survivability. I directed him to cleric as it seems to fulfill those requirements. He went with St. Cuthbert. I understand the inherent stat penalty/class incompatibility, but the race is pretty non-negotiable and it is nowhere near the Tippy-verse.

The first question I'm posing is: Am I correct in leading him to a cleric, and is there another class that perhaps we should also look into (I've not yet brought up bard, but might)?

Second question: For someone that is new to the game, would giving him DMM Persist be over powered, or probably a decent balancing point for giving him some extra mileage (as he'll most likely use it to give himself defenses)?

Third and final: Are there any good prestige classes or non-night stick (already going to get him one) mechanisms of obtaining more turns per day?

Thank you.

[LordBlades]

If he wants to play a support character, then I'd advise a Dragonborn Warforged Warblade/Bard/Sublime Chord with Dragonfire Inspiration, Song of the White Raven Words of Creation and the like.

[McSmack]

If he wants to play a support character, then I'd advise a Dragonborn Warforged Warblade/Bard/Sublime Chord with Dragonfire Inspiration, Song of the White Raven Words of Creation and the like.

I think he'd end up destroying the party through sheer badassery

Cleric is a fine choice, though I'd check with the DM about Nightsticking and DMM ahead of time just to make sure it's okay.

Bard is also a great choice. My wife made a warforged bard/crusader who would record her songs on those embedded component disks from ECS. Then she'd insert them when battle started and the music would play out of her chest-speakers.

Yeah, I married a winner!

[Natael]

I'm not so sure he wants to be draconic, or how much the GM would really like everyone's melee damage quadrupling from extra fiery d6's.

DMM Pers probably wouldent be an issue as long as he sticks with defensive spells. He's not intending to be a melee brute, so going to avoid things like power attack as well.

Ohh, also, he was concerned about low reflex save, any way to mitigate that other than cloak of resist and him trying to take lightning refl?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

The Reliquary Holy Symbol in MIC should give him 2 or 3 extra turn attempts, and it's only 1,000 gp. He could always just spend a feat on Extra Turning, too.

St. Cuthbert isn't the best choice for a support role, though if he's going the DMM route he could say he was originally LN and channels negative energy, but he's since switched to LG. That way he can take Sacred Exorcist and have both Rebuke Undead and Turn Undead, each of which would be usable 3+Cha/day, and each of which would gain +4 per Extra Turning or Night Stick, etc.

Have him get Adamantine Body and use a shield. Get a Lesser Rod of Extend for Magic Vestment on both, and get a standard Strand of Prayer Beads as soon as he can afford it (use DMG pricing instead of SRD). Use DMM: Persist for Ice Axe and Mass Lesser Vigor. Use the Spontaneous Domain Casting ACF in PH2 if he has a domain with useful spells, since it will still be more useful than spontaneously casting Inflict spells.

Edit: He can cast Greater Resistance (4th) or Superior Resistance (6th) every day to get a +3 or +6 bonus to his saving throws for 24 hours, better than buying a cloak. He can get Divine Oracle 4+ to have Evasion and Uncanny Dodge, he can say he visited the Frog God's Fane detailed in Complete Scoundrel to get its feat prerequisite for 2,000 gp without having to spend a feat on it.

[LordBlades]

Ohh, also, he was concerned about low reflex save, any way to mitigate that other than cloak of resist and him trying to take lightning refl?

It's much easier to mitigate the consequences of failed Ref saves than to increase the Ref save itself.

Most things that require Ref saves are either elemental damage effects (like fireball) against which the Resist Energy Line helps a lot or movement impairing effects like Entangle, against which Freedom of Movement(or even an Anklet of Translocation) helps a lot

[101jir]

Outside of anything supermagical (like wizard or sorcerer) that requires adequete knowledge of the system, I would say any class can be used or abused. Bard and cleric are bad if you are not the type to stay out of the way. Fighter/barbarian are bad if you aren't good at fighting. You kindof have to know what a person is like to know what classes they are more likely to mess up or not mess up. I would say use what you know about him/her.