Book Club: Player's Handbook II

[pabelfly]

Chapter II: Expanded Classes

I’m not going to comment on every ACF, merely the ones I find interesting or might use in a potential build

Bardic Knack – this gives you a lot more breadth in your skill list, while Bardic Knowledge is geared towards boosting Knowledge checks. Very nice option for a skillmonkey build, and would consider on a Bard over Bardic Knowledge.

Cleric, Spontaneous Domain Casting – spontaneously being able to cast domain spells is an interesting option over Cure spells. If I was going to use prepared Cleric I’d definitely consider this.

Favored Soul, Deity’s Favor – if you don’t want to use a martial weapon, getting temp HP from your buff spells, including on yourself, is a good possible alternative. Cleric is the better buffer due to Divine Metamagic, but if you insist on using Favored Soul instead for some reason, I could see this option being useful.

Fighter, Overpowering Attack – six levels of Fighter before you can use this is fairly rough. Monk gets a better version of this with just one level.

Hexblade, Dark Companion – a -2 to the saves and AC of any enemy it stands next to, no save? That’s (roughly) a 10% higher chance to hit with your preferred spell. A very good alternative to an Animal Companion.

Monk, Decisive Strike – this is something I didn’t know existed and I really like it. Extremely similar to the Fighter’s Overpowering Attack ACF earlier, but you get it at level 1, and it only applies to Monk weapons. I’d optimize it exactly how I would with the Fighter’s Overpowering Attack ACF – Combat Reflexes, Rolibar’s Gambit and Karmic Strike, firstly. Second, large monsters with high STR and Power Attack.

Paladin, Charging Smite – two points of smite damage per Paladin level on a charging attack? I want to combine this with something like Anthro Lion just to get Pounce combined with this and get it on every attack while racking up Paladin levels.

Ranger, Distracting Attack – if you don’t want an animal companion, helping with flanking is not bad.

Rogue, Disruptive Attack – one of my constant criticisms of Rogue has been that unlike other martial builds, there are some builds that it is nearly completely ineffective against. Disruptive Attack lets you instead reduce AC on those enemies. That makes it easier for others to land their hits, including mages targeting touch AC. I’d prefer it if they could do the job themselves, but making it easier for their ally by a significant margin is a good plan B and does make Rogues much more well-rounded.

Scout, Dungeon Specialist – climb speed is nice, so is AC when next to a wall. Not a bad trade.

Sorcerer, Metamagic Specialist – add metamagic to Sorcerer spells without increasing casting time? Amazing option, I use this in most of my Sorcerer builds.

Swashbuckler – this replaces bonus AC that only targets one enemy for a stronger AC bonus that works against all enemies. I’d still not want to do Swashbuckler build though.

Warlock – trade temporary fast healing to damage melee attackers is a nice trade.

Warmage, Eclectic Learning – You get to expand your spell list, which gives you quite a few options, but the spell you get is a higher spell level than normal, so it doesn’t replace Advanced Learning. This is at a really good balance for an ACF. Different, but not markedly better or worse than the original.

Wizard – Trade away your familiar but you get immediate action options, some of which are really good. Urgent Shield, Abrupt Jaunt, Glimpse Peril are my \favourites. Instant Daze is the worst, the enemies you’d want to use it on the most will have more HD than you, so you can only use it on the chaff instead.

Overall, a lot of solid options, but little that's overpowered. I really liked them.