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I don't know if this has been mentioned but I think there's a feat (that grants a spell) that REALLY helps cleric malconvokers out alot. In "Races of Destiny" there's an initiate feat called "whispered secrets". Basically you got to worship Vecna and be a level 1 cleric, it adds a few class skills to your list and spells that you can cast to you spell list. One of the spells that the feat grants you is "glibness" :

Your speech becomes fluent and more believable. You gain a +30 bonus on Bluff checks made to convince another of the truth of your words.

Call me crazy, but wouldn't this be AWESOME with the "deceitful bargaining" malconvoker class ability?

hey awesome guide it has given me so many tips and tricks that i'm a lot more confident about living through the whole campaign my DM has set up :D

one thing i did when i first made him before i saw this guide is gave him the cosmopolitan feat from forgotten realms which makes it a class skill no matter what leaving me a bunch of skills still for KNOW. arcana, spellcraft ...etc and you get a permanent + 2 in bluff which is the most useful part in my opinion

also i was looking at the archmage for later on and was wondering how it would work if you took things like greater planar binding as a spell like ability
would that work?

Seems to me that the SRD is not the official rules. I am AFB, but does the MM have a stat block for a fiendish monster at all, or is it just something the SRD has? The guy who did the SRD did a lot of good work, but he could very easily have forgotten about the int giving feats.

I've reread the relevant text in MM -

Pg 316: (regarding vermin type)

Skill points equal to (2 + Int modifier, minimum 1) per Hit Die with quadruple skill points for the first hit die, if the vermin has an intellegence score. However, most vermin are mindless and gain no skill points or feats.

Pg 293: (regarding adding a template)

Since most templates do not change the number of hit dice a creature has, a template will not change the number of feats a creature has. Some templates grant one or more bonus feats.

Pg 296: (regarding Vermin type)

Vermin have average combat ability and hit points and poor saving throws, but are often mindless and therefore have immunity to mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects). Use this type for giant bugs and other mindless invertebrates. If your creature has an Intelligence score and you've considered the vermin type, it's probably a magical beast or an aberration instead.

The first quote makes it crystal clear why mindless creatures alone do not have skills or feats. A template that grants the mindless creature any Int score should eliminate the "mindless" trait by principle (though I do not think it is specifically covered in the rules) - and therefore the suppressed Feats and skills should then instead follow "normal" progression.

However, the second quote would indicate that a template will not normally add feats. However, the text clearly indicates that the reason would be that "normal" feat progression is unchanged with a template that does not add HD. The "mindless" trait is a special condition of the vermin type - where Feats are not gained in the "normal" rate - it would not be the addition of the template "per-se" that means a Fiendish Centipede should get feats, but instead the change of the Vermin type to Magical beast type.

The third quote explains the "mindless" condition. It gives certain advantages and disadvantages to the vermin. It also makes it clear that the mindless condition is the distinction between a vermin and a magical beast.

I remain reasonably convinced that a Fiendish Template on vermin would remove the "mindless" condition (by changing Int 0 to Int 3), and that the "mindless" condition is the only reason they do not have feats and skills.

I believe the "fiendish" templates added by SRD was for the purpose of making it easier for summoners to have the templated stats - and the removal of the mindless conditions effect on Feats/Skills was simply missed. This mistake would be extremely easy to make!

After all, by simply applying the template - skills and feats remain empty. Only by referring to why those feats/skills do not exist do we determine that the reasoning no longer holds when the Int is raised to 3.

However, as always when the rules are murky - check with your DM and go with their interpretation.

Fiendish Codex I Report For Malconvokers

I got to the level where I'm Planar Binding and am crawling all the sourcebooks as usual. A lot of the monsters in FCI are generally undesirable for general use because they have abilities that cause everyone who sees them to freak out, but there are some nice ones.

Monsters to Planar Bind:
Armanite - 9 HD, CR7, CHA 13 - centaurey, unexceptional.
Bar-Lgura - 6 HD, CR5, CHA 12 - orangutangey, spell-likes, abduction. Has a combat and spell-like edge over the bearded devil and is a good choice for Lesser Planar Binding. Also, can teleport party members around all day (one at a time).
Broodswarm - swarm, don't think it's eligible.
Bulezau - 10 HD, CR8, CHA 10 - goat-head heavy infantry, spell-likes - it's good for its HD but the break points of the Planar Binding spells make it problematic.
Chasme - 9 HD, CR10, CHA 14 - flylike, great spell-likes, several auras are bad for all around though.
Dybbuk - takes over corpses, bleh.
Ekolid - ant that drives everyone around crazy, not good.
Goristro - too high (24 HD).
Guecubu - (4 HD, CR7, CHA 17) - a great scout and infiltrator. Besides being invisible and flying, it can possess people and use telekinesis/telepathy. As with lots of these you'll need to tell them what abilities not to use on you, but if you want to have it possess some guard who goes in and causes a hellacious disturbance, it's cool.
Lilitu - 14 HD, CR12, CHA 30 - an uber succubus. If you could pull off the CHA check it would be like having a succubus++!
Mane - too low (1 HD)
Molydeus - 19 HD, CR19, CHA 28 - a super badass at the high end. Comparable to the balor.
Nabassu - gargoyle with level drain gaze attack that probably affects everyone.
Rutterkin - a little low (5 HD, CR 3).
Sibriex - again, drives everyone around crazy.
Yochlol - 10 HD, CR8, CHA 20 - good infiltrators, but binding one may **** off Lolth.

You know, Juiblex himself is only 21 HD. If you got some other boost you could bind him! He only has a CHA of 18. I suspect this would end poorly but it would be entertaining while it lasted.

Best Feats:
The Demon Mastery feat gives +2 on CHA checks for bindings and +1 CL when summoning demons. You can follow that up with Extract Demonic Essence to get the XP for crafting items.

Hey, so do you think you could bind demon lord aspects, like those from the FC1 Web Enhancement? They're mostly 8-10 HD which puts them in a bad middle ground between LPB and PB but some of them are pretty cool.