For those of you unsure of what Fiendbinder is, it's Tome of Magic's attempt at the archetype that WotC keeps trying to have, and failing. Someone who summons and uses demons/devils.
Requirements:Alignment: Any nongood
Skills: Knowledge(the planes) 10, Truespeak 10 ranks, Speak Language(Infernal, abyssal)
Spells: Ability to cast summon monster IV
The languages are easy enough. Unless your group is strict about starter languages, just have an inteligence of 14. Otherwise, you are spending 4 skill points to learn Abyssal and Infernal.
Knowledge(the planes) comes with most(but not all) casters. If the class of choice doesn't get it, either Human Paragon(see below) or the feat Educated(Players Guide to Faerun I believe).
Here is the fun one, Truespeak 10 ranks. Two ways to go about it are either 1 level of Human Paragon for Adaptive Learning(Truespeak). Since human paragon gets any 10 class skills they want as class skills, just grab Truespeak. As a caster, if you have taken 1 level of Human Paragon, grab the other two for +2 caster level, +2 to a stat, and a bonus feat.
The other more obvious way of getting Truespeak as a class skill without multiclassing Truespeaker is from Tome of Battle: Truename Training.
To get Summon Monster IV you have quite a few options. Either level 7 prepared caster, or 8th level spontaneous caster. Cleric, Wizard, Sorcerer, and Archivist are all decent choices. One more obscure way is to go Warlock 5
Master of Masks 4 as an entrance.
So, now you are in the PrC, so what?
The So What?: Why take FiendbinderFiendbinder is perhaps not the most powerful choice of PrC ever, but not all PrCs can be Incantrix. Fiendbinder has it's own set of negatives and positives:
Positives:-d6 HD: Better than Wiz/Sorc normally.
-Powerful Demons(See Below).
-No limit(besides skill check) Summon demon/devil from Call Forth Fiend
-Swift Die Hard feat(Bind Tormented Soul) 1/day
-Standard Action: Baatezu Traits or Tanar'ri Traits. DR, immunities and resistances. Lasts up to 10 minutes.
-Double Command at 9th level. Command 2 fiends or give one two orders.
- +5 Cha-based skills with fiends
-Summon Fiends: At 10th level, summon either Baatezu legion(1d6 bone devils or 1d4 barbed devils) or Tanar'ri horde(1d6 vrocks or 1d4 hezrous) as a full-round 1/day. It doesn't state how long they stay out.
Negatives:-d6 HD: Worst if you were a cleric before
-1/2 BAB: No biggie for Wiz/Sorc, but Cleric loses out a bit.
-Skill focused even though only 2+int. Have to do Truespeak checks to order fiends
-Lose of 3 caster levels. 4 if you used Human Paragon to get Truespeak.
-Every demon costs 10% of starting gold for that level.
Demons/Devils per ECL(assuming Wiz/Cleric/Archivist, +1 for Sorc)Babou Demon CR: 8 at ECL 8
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At-will darkness, see invis, and dispel magic.
Slime destroys items, particilarly non-magical ones.
Sneak Attack +2d6.
My Opinion: Decent for a rogue-type. Early level dispell magic battery. One of the few with CR=ECL.
Succubus CR: 7 ECL 9
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Spell-likes with DCs in the 20s. Most Charm/Suggestion based.
Energy Drain-but requires grapple
Alternate form- easier to take her into city settings. Surely some abuse can be found here(check out all the alter self threads)
Tongues- can be used as translater
My Opinion: While cool, not the most optimized. She's not bad when you get her, but she has no reuse at higher levels, since her spell-likes and energy drain DCs aren't going up.
Hellcat devil CR: 7 ECL 10
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Wow, decent one.
Pounce: We all know how much fun this is.
Invisible in Light: Automatically invisible as long as it's not total darkness. Great for survivability. Cannot hit what they cannot see.
Track: Who needs a dog when you have a demon?
My Opinion: While rather powerful for a long time, it's +13 to attack might be a hinderance as you get higher level. Even then, it's still a decent scout for you.
Vrock demon CR: 9 ECL 11
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Decent fighter
Mirror Image and Telekinesis. 1/day Heroism
Spores: Auto-damage over time.
Screech: Decent, however it effects you and your allies as well.
My Opinion:Decent fighter addition. Telekinesis can be used to pretty good effect. Again, like with the hellcat, +15 to attack at this level is good, later it might not be as good. NOTE: Buy 3 of them. Have them do their dance. Using non-spell-likes isn't on the list of commands, but if your DM allows it, this is a decent choice.
Cauchemar nightmare CR:11 ECL 12
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Mount-flying. Nuff said.
Decent fighter-better attacks than Vrock, but no DR or anything like that.
Smoke: Used wisely this can be a powerful tool.
My Opinion: VERY good choice. Never hurts to have a flying mount, especially one that can make smoke screens and fight well. What? A caster-mount build? NEVER!
Retriever demon CR:11 ECL 13
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Eye Rays: 12d6 Reflex half. Either Electricity, Fire or Cold. Pretrify on fort fail.
Find Target: Find any creature/item on any plane. It has to have an item of the creature or seen/touched creature/item. Better than Hellcat if already seen target.
Construct: No DR, construct immunities. Good to stop demon killers. Also note: no evil subtype. Oh yea, no need to breathe/eat.
Improved Grab
My Opinion:
Decent to grab, if nothing else than not putting all your eggs in one basket. Magic Circle Against Evil doesn't effect this guy. The Rays are good, and Find Target is decent as well. Worth the money, IMHO.
Hezrou demon CR: 11 ECL 14
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Spell-likes and Stench DCs 18-21s.
Melee-focus
My Opinion:
Been there done that. DCs and melee don't scale well. Decent at their level, but we are thinking ahead, aren't we?
Barbed Devil CR: 11 ECL 15
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Good HP
Mediocre Melee
Barbed Defense-when attacked, does damage to attacker!
Scorching Ray at will. Only 2 rays, but still. Extra artilary when they cannot get up into melee.
Impale if manage a grapple.
My Opinion:
One of the better melee-ist fiends. Scorching Ray at will is one of it's saving graces, as is barbed defence. Even if it has problems hitting higher level stuff(+14 attack) it still can do damage by them hitting it. "Tank" pet.
Ice devil CR: 13 ECL 16
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Large Size:longer reach is never a bad idea
Fear/Slow: Decent abilities. DCs in the 21-22 range.
Good spell-likes: At will—cone of cold (DC 20), fly, ice storm (DC 19), greater teleport (self plus 50 pounds of objects only), persistent image (DC 20), unholy aura (DC 23), wall of ice (DC 19)
Telepathy, SR, REGENERATION
My Opinion: One of the first truely amazing choices. With +20 melee hit, they are decent in combat, and have larger reach from being large size. With Fly at will, no one in your party will ever have to buy boots of flight again. Persistent Image and wall of ice at will are also great things for battlefield control. Added Regeneration 5 is just even better.
Marilith demon CR: 17 ECL 17
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Large Size- again, reach
True Seeing- always on? Sweet.
Improved Grab- Except she will probably actually be able to do it since she has +29 on her grapple check.
Constrict- see above. 4d6+13 damage, and Fort or go unconscious
Good Melee- +25 on main attack, over 200 HP, and AC 29(mleh)
Spell-likes: Including but not limited to: align weapon, blade barrier (DC 23), magic weapon, project image (DC 23), see invisibility, telekinesis (DC 22).
My Opinion: Great. Simply amazing. You went thorugh 10 levels for this baby, bind her with great pleasure. Then, grab a few more. Crowd control, small buffs(see invis, magic weapons, align weapon) combined with amazing melee and true-seeing make this an excelent pet. Even when it's melee tappers off(aka mid to high level Epic), it's still a good one for it's spell-likes.
Cover Your Weaknesses:Magic Circle Against Evil: If your DM considers your "pets" "ongood summoned creatures" then make sure you have at least one Retriever, since it's not evil(at least not the subtype). Another idea would just have your Babau spamming Dispel Magic until it goes away.
Silence: Silence would stop your ordering of your troops. Tough one. Bard spell level 1 Amplify cancels it, as does your Babou spamming Dispel Magic. Or just take Mindbender level 1 for 100ft Telepathy.
Melee: A lot of your fiends are melee based, so their useful-ness goes away REALLY quickly. Grab cheap Belt of Strength to help up their damage/attacks. Another option is enchanting their items stronger.
DCs: A lot of your fiends have low DCs on their spells/abilities. However, grabbing Cloaks of Charisma or Periapts of Wisdoms can help up these DCs, since most are Cha-based spell-like users and most other abilities use Con. And Con will up their HP as well.
Anything else anyone can think of discussing on this? Any other abilities of the fiends I missed that are worth mentioning?
