Bogdanov89 wrote...
About Dwarven Defenders, how should one actually use this class without crippling damage output?
The defensive bonuses/feats it gives seem good, but having too many levels in Dwarven Defender seems to greatly lower your damage output when compared to a fighter of the same level.
Any tips on making DDefender work without losing so much damage output?
Levels in Dwarven Defender don't reduce your damage output whatsoever -- why would you think they do?
Hell, something like a 14 Fighter/26 Dwarven Defender has the EXACT same offense (potentially slightly better when in Defensive Stance) compared to a 40 Fighter. The difference is the fighter probably has 48 more HP while the Dwarven Defender is immune to Sneak Attacks and ignores 18 damage per melee hit (which is far more valuable than 48 HP).
Bogdanov89 wrote...
About Bards - they seem to be very fragile, due to no armor (arcane spell failure) and low health gain per level.
But they also have a decent attack bonus per level, same as cleric.
So how do i actually make my Bard efficient at combat?
Which weapons and feats can provide Bard with the needed damage output?
The simple answer? Go strength bard in full plate. Easiest if you take a fighter level or three but not necessary (just means you need to take Heavy Armor Proficiency manuall). A level 20 strength Bard will beat a level 20 Fighter in a straight up fight if the Bard uses Bard Song and Curse Song. If the Bard is allowed to use Improved Invisibility, War Cry, and potentially some other spells then the Bard is even better off. You don't even really need new weapon feats -- just focus on the Morningstar which is a really good generic (and Simple) weapon. You may want Still Spell for this to be able to cast spells while in armor -- otherwise just take off your armor, buff up, and put it back on.
If you don't like the idea of a Bard with high strength in full plate, you could also go Bard with high Dexterity and pick up Weapon Finesse. Eventually you'll wind up with more AC and possibly an extra AB or two but his damage per hit will be much less.
Bogdanov89 wrote...
Sorcerers can only change their spells at level up, which to me seems like a MAJOR negative flaw.
What do sorcerers have to compensate for this immense draw back, when compared to Wizards?
They can freely choose what spells to cast.
Let's say a Wizard knows Interposing Hand (enemy suffers AB penalty), Cone of Cold (cold damage), Energy Buffer (protects against elemental damage), Firebrand (fire damage), Mestil's Acid Sheath (defensive shield), Lesser Mind Blank (mind spell immunity), Lesser Spell Mantle (protects against spells), and Summon Creature V (summons a bear).
Our wizard gets to memorize 8 of these spells so he decides to memorize 1 Interposing Hand, 1 Cone of Cold, 2 Energy Buffers, 2 Firebrands, 1 Lesser Spell Mantle, and 1 Summon Creature V. Now he finds himself facing a really tough Fire Giant! What can he do?
Well, the enemy's AB is too high for Interposing Hand to do much, so that's kind of worthless. The Energy Buffers don't protect against the hits from the Fire Giant's sword. The giant is immune to Firebrands. The giant doesn't cast spells so Lesser Spell Mantle is worthless. So that leaves 1 Cone of Cold and 1 Summon Creature V.
The wizard tries summoning the bear and then hits the giant with a Cone of Cold. While the Cone of Cold does a lot of damage it takes more than just one to seriously hurt the giant and the bear quickly gets killed. Now we have an angry giant chasing the wizard who has 6 remaining spells which are all useless. Bad news!
Now let's consider a sorcerer! He's only allowed to know 4 spells, so he picks Cone of Cold, Firebrand, Mestil's Acid Sheath, and Summon Creature V. He also gets 9 casts per day (sorcerers get 1 more cast per day, 2 if wizards don't specialize). But he can cast any spell he wants while he still has spells remaining!
So he sees the Fire Giant and realizes Cone of Cold and Summon Creature V will be useful. He summons a bear. 8 spells remaining. He hits the giant with a Cone of Cold. 7 spells remaining. He decides to use another Cone of Cold. 6 spells remaining. Giant is nearly dead but kills the bear now. No problem, sorcerer summons another -- 5 spells remaining. Sorcerer uses one last Cone of Cold and the giant dies with 4 out of the 9 spells still left -- and the sorcerer still had 4 more Cone of Colds or bears total if he needed them!
That's the advantage of sorcerers -- you can adapt your spells on the fly and adjust spells to unexpected situations. A wizard would literally have to say "Okay, I will memorize 6 Cone of Colds and 3 bears EXACTLY" and then he'd be screwed if he met a Frost Giant instead of a Fire Giant -- while the sorcerer can easily handle both. And if the sorcerer winds up wanting a 4th bear, he can summon one -- while the wizard only memorized 3 and is limited to that number.
