Consolidated Binder Handbook (3.5e Guide)/Combos

Vestige Combination Synergies

I've decided to add a descriptor in front of each combo depending on what level it can be achieved, so the bolded numbers are the numbers that the particular combo can be achieved at. An entry with more than one number indicates that the main combo can go off early, but fully blossoms at the later level(s). Since there's no 2 vestige combos before 8th, there's very few before that: for low-levels, please check out "Low-level Binder Advancement" in the 2nd post. Also, I've started adding descriptors for what each combo is, essentially, so you could search for battlefield control, for example, and get all those combos, etc. I've moved a few combos around: assasination is under miscellaneous; several combos looked like non-combat caster related.

Combat

Old Combos (from previous handbooks)

Movement

2 [Savnok]+Summon Creature/Elemental/Undead: You summon a monster in a hard to get place and then use Savnok's move ally ability to switch with the summoned monster. It's possible to accomplish this feat at 2nd level, making it possibly the lowest level teleportation combo ever. (You need one level of binder, improved binder feat, and a level in druid/cleric/sor/wiz.) You can switch places with Malphus's bird, past 8th.

Pouncers

10 Anima Mage + [Chupoclops] + [Ipos] + Shape Soulmeld [Girillon's Arms] + Open Chakra (arcane version) + Wraithstrike: Pounce, rend when all claw attacks hit for double damage and if 2 or more claws hit you deal an extra double damage. Polymorph you can metamorph into a cave troll to pick up a third rend attack and rake attacks. High level trick, as Ipos is a 6th level vestige. Wraithstrike ameliorates your low base attack. This is one of those OMG PWNZoRZ!!!1!! kinda things... parental guidance is suggested.

Skirmisher:duel

10 Scout + [Paimon] + Dervish and Champion of CL: Between dervish dances, Paimon's death dance, +4 unnamed bonuses to dexterity, tumble and dance bonuses, and uncanny dodge this is just a solid choice all around.

Touch Attacks (Otiax based):monk

10, 15 [Otiax] + [Malphas] + [Andromelius]: Use air blasts to deliver your sneak/sudden-strikes with greater accuracy as they require only melee TOUCH attacks. You also have reach. The air blast is really only functional for those characters who can add non-strength based damage. Three levels of swashbuckler might add to this combo nicely. RAW, I think you can get Power Attack on, too: talk w/ your DM.

10, 15, 20 Neraph Charge (Planar Handbook) + Power Attack + [Otiax] + [Malphus] + [Chupoclops] + [Andromalius]: Charging activates Neraph Charge which renders opponents flat-footed at the end of a charge, deliver touch attacks with Sudden Strike, Sneak Attack, and Power Attack damage, and get a full attack thanks to Pounce. Malphus' Invisibility and Chupoclops' Ethereal Watcher ability set up pouncing the following rounds.

New Combos (not in the old Handbooks, but maybe are in the threads)

Skirmisher:duel

3 [Paimon] + any horse mount: Again, Dance of Death just requires movement around the opponent, so for a great low-level option, just ride a horse around your opponent. You'll probably get +1 for attacking on higher ground, and the horse will have a higher movement rate.

8, 10, 15 [Paimon] + [Malphus] + [Haures] + [Geryon]: Use Bird's Eye Viewing to scout ahead of the party, and before you get into the encounter, go Invisible. You use Haures to move right through opponents, as they're flatfooted as you attack all of them, getting all the sudden strike in the world: even if they get AoO's, they have 50% miss chance (against AoO's only). Geryon allows you to use Swift Flight, getting an additional +2 to hit from being on higher ground (on top of +2 from weapon finesse and the dex bonus from Paimon), and adds 2d6 acid gaze damage to all those opponents. Obviously, the main combo is just Paimon + Malphus, but the others are nice.

Sniper:elf

8, 10, 15, 20 [triad] + [Paimon] + [Leraje] + [Haures]: Become a ranged weapon deity. Get a Greatbow w/ Ricochet shot, Precise Shot, +4 Hide, +4 Dex, and Low-light Vision makes for a pretty neat Sniper. Any of the sneak attack/death attack/sudden strike vestiges make it that much better, too. Haures makes a Major Image, which you DONT need to concentrate on, that you can fire from behind.

Sunder

9 [Aym] + Combat Brute: Not so great for PC's, but awesome for NPC's. Its simple: use Sundering Cleave w/ Aym's double damage on a Sunder. So freaking effective, it makes me guilty to mention it.

10 [triad] + [Aym] + Goliath Warhammer = some serious Sundering damage.

Disarm

10 [triad] + [Andras] + Flindbar = free disarm when you roll a natural 17 or higher, which is nice.

Anti-lawful / chaotic

11 [Eurynome] + [Primus] after 11th: Deal an extra 2d6 damage to lawful enemies, and extra d6 against chaotic enemies.

Ability Buffs

15 [Andras] or [Paimon] + [Abysm]: Up to +8 to Str or Dex (4 unnamed, 4 enhancement), for BL rounds, usble a few times daily.

Anti-Undead

15, 20 Kas + Tenebrous + Acererak and/or Andras and/or Andromalius: The Undead Killer combo. You can crit undead (and have a chance to blind them when you do), can't be critted by undead, bypass all undead damage reduction, can turn undead, detect undead, hide from undead and can speak with dead ...and beyond that you're healed by negative energy, immune to cold & electricity and can toss some added cold damage on your melee attacks ...and more. Toss in Andras and you can Smite Evil and crit more often (you can crit undead with Kas, so why not crit them more often... and possibly blind them in the process). Toss in Andromalius and remind those undead what a sneak attack feels like (again: thanks to Kas).

Heavy Cavalry:fight!

10, 15, 20 [Andras] + [Chupoclops] + [Eligor] + [Balam] + Shocktrooper + Imp. Buckler Defense: The ultimate in damage dealing potential. Pounce = full attack after charging; Lance = double damage after charging while mounted; Andras = free horsie, smite attack (which will be doubled on a charge w/ a lance), and Imp. Crit.; Eligor = +4 Str, natural armor, and a couple of great mounted feats, AND heavy armor prof; Balam = reroll 1 / 5 rounds, more AC, and 2d6 cold damage once per round; Shocktrooper = full 2 handed Power Attack damage to all the lance attacks, doubled, w/ no penalty to hit. Consider a BAB 16 character (KoSS 5 / Binder 15): 4 attacks per round, attack bonus of +20 w/o further Str or magic weapon mods, and 2d8 + 40 (smite) + 4 (str), + 64 (power attack, 2H, doubled due to lance) per smite hit (2d8 + 108 damage), -40 for the follow-up attacks, if the weapon has the valorous enchantment, thats 4d8 + 216 damage, (triple that on a crit), plus another 2d6 cold damage every round; AC could be a 45, w/o ring of deflection (+8 armor, +5 enhancement, +5 natural, +4 cover using the horse, +2 Dex, +1 shield, +5 enhancement, +5 insight), or 29 on a full-on Shocktrooper run. THAT'S what I think of when I think Fighter.

Pouncer (variant of above)

10, 15, 20 [Chupoclops] + [Ipos] + [Amon] + [Ronove] + Ignore Special Requirements + Shocktrooper + Leap Attack + (Binder 15 / KoSS 5): You use Jump to get a full doubling of your PA damage from Leap Attack and Shocktrooper w/o losing your BAB, as normal. The main advantage is that on top of 4 natural attacks (2 claws, 1 headbutt, 1 bite), you also get to add iterative attacks from unarmed strikes using a monk's damage. At 20th, this combo gives 8 attacks at +18 / +13 / +13 / +13 / +13 / +13 / +8 / +3, at 2d10 / d4 / d6 + d8 / d6 / d6 / 2d10 / 2d10 / 2d10, and all these attacks get an additional +32 damage each (plus Str, some at 1.5 some at 1). Plus rend, plus soulsense, pluse ethereal watcher, plus darkvision, plus a swift action mage hand (carry Cure Serious Potions w/ it, to save time). Wicked damage

Caster-Related Combos

Old Combos (from previous handbooks)

These are both splashes of binders w/ other classes; not true binders, necessarily.

Truespeach

8 EBL 8 + Improved Binding + [Balam] + any Truespeaking class: Re-roll a Truespeak skill check every 5 rounds (or every 4 if you include Favored Vestige and Rapid Recovery).

Metamagic Specialist

9 Anima Mage + Vestige Metamagic + Extend + Persistant + Improved Binder: You don't even need to try to abuse this one. Persistant magic available at 9th level, with minimal effort. Use the build: Binder 1/Wizard 3/Anima Mage 5 for a quick and fully legal entry. By 10th level you can persist draconic polymorph. YEAH BABY!

Direct Damage:mage

8, 15, 20 [Geryon] + [Balam] + [Fogolar] + [Amon]: It's almost guaranteed damage, one way or another - you've got 2 X 2d6 area effect gaze attacks which need not be activated, lightning strike every round for 3d6 + [(BL - 5) / 3] X d6, and a fiery blast for BL X d6 every 5 rounds. Balam's Cunning is useful in any build and Fogalor's Sadness is neat too, particularly since you'll want to be in the center of the enemy when you bind the gaze attack vestiges. Switching out Cabiri w/ Geryon or Balam gives you a 3/day Fireball, and Divination as the spell every round, making for some nice caster-emulating ability, and the 1/2 Vile damage (although better on NPCs) combined with the Divination abilities lets you know if you are going to face an enemy Cleric anytime soon.

10 [Geryon] and/or [Balam's] + Shape Soulmeld (Necrocarnum Shroud): Necro Shroud gives +1 profane to hit and damage if anything gets damaged while adjacent to you for 1 round, and both gaze attacks give continuous damage. Great if you have essentia to increase the radius of the Necro Shroud. And guess what: the profane bonus to attack and damage applies to any attack, and you can focus your gaze (which does not deactivate the area effect damage RAW) to immediately get that bonus off without additional vestiges or attacks.

New Combos (not in the old Handbooks, but maybe are in the threads)

Item Creation:$$

5+ [Astaroth] + [Karsus]: Now, you are capable of not only making almost every magic item in the game, but you also can use them as well. Karsus not only grants you +2 to the save DC's, but also allows you to use items as a Wizard of your level. Thus, if you make staffs when you get to 12th level, you start using your Binder level and your Int for the saves. Sure, you still have to pay for someone to cast the spell, but its so worth it for most items. Astaroth's +4 to all craft skills could be useful (make a Fabricate staff, then use Karsus to make poisons, etc).

Healing Battery

8, 15 [Ashardalon] + [Buer] + [Arete] + Expel Vestige or Vestige Phylactery: Ash gives an extra 2 temporary HP / level, which is a minimum of 30 when you get access. When you expel him, or force him out b/c of the phylactery, they go away, but rebinding will get you the extra HP again, reset to maximum. In the meantime, you have fast healing 3, DR 5/-, DR 10/cold iron, and other abilities relating to healing as well, making you a veritable troll. Combine w/ UMD and a wand of Shield Other and you just became a HP battery. (Arete is probably unessecary if you went KoSS 5 by this point.)

Knowledge / Divination-like

7, 10, 15, 20 [The Triad] + [Dantalion] + [Naberius] + [Desharis] + [Cabiri]: Bardic Knowledge equal to binder level, +8 on Knowledge checks (RAW, should stack, but talk to your DM), and +5 from Call to Mind, for a minimum of +23 on all Knowledge checks (you can't take 10 or 20, though). Use Naberius's Skills to get Knowledge:Local for any place in existence, and Knowledge:Nobility&Royalty, to learn everything about that location (even planar cities! :lop:): Desharis gets you another +6 on Kn:Local, for a +29 modifier. "Yes, I know the answer, even though I know not the question, nor have I ever been there." Cabiri is a one-vestige Divination MACHINE: Divination, as the spell, every round. Borderline Broken.

Battlefield Control

10, 15, 20 [Desharis] + [Zagan] + [Haures] + [Halphax]: Another battlefield control combo: grapple a "softie", use aversion on a "meatie", make walls and summon buildings to block pathways, make a major image every once and a while, and animate a ton of small, adamantine objects, just to trip and attack creatures, never letting your initially grappled guy go (unless you decide to use imprisonment on him, and decide to grapple someone else). You also have DR 10 / adamantine, Mindblank, Incorporeal Movement, and the Infinite Doors ability for non-aversion defense, and a smite attack against most natural creatures, a limited Toungues ability, and Bardic Knowledge. This combo pwns in a big fight.

13, 15, 20 Zagan + Haures + Halphax + Ashardalon: First, lay down a field of illusory snakes all around your opponent, then use the Aversion power to make the opponent move as far away from the snakes as possible. Make giant circles of dead snakes around the opponent, and confine them to a 5' square! Add on Halphax and Ashardalon, and you are an awesome battlefield controller (use the Fear effect of Ash, the walls, Imprison, and Secure Shelter abilities of Halphax to block off whichever areas you want). You could also, instead of using Haures, just have the Wizard cast low-level summon monster spells for snakes (or, using Karsus, you use wands instead), or even just have snake corpses or zombie snakes (courtesy of Tenebrous's Rebuke undead). Don't forget you have Improved Grapple plus, to deal with any of the high-will squishy opponents.

15 [Halphax] + [Haures] + [Ashardalon]: A Binder's version of battlefield control. You have Fear as the spell every 5 rounds, Major Image every 5 rounds to screw w/ the opponents, a summonable Iron Wall, Imprisonment, and a summonable 20' square stone building to block holes in your defense. Tenebrous adds Deeper Darkness that you can make really, really big before even starting combat, and that doesn't affect you.

Maximizing Fear Effects / Battlefield Control

15, 20 [Ashardalon] + [Chupoclops] + [Fogalar] + [Eligor]. You start out charging w/ a full attack, and the following round use the Fear effect. They'll be at -4 to their save already, but even if they make they'll be at -6 to most of their stuff as long as they're around you. The other abilities from these vestiges are really good, as well, for combat and as a general debuff as well. Stacking Fear's Shaken effect on a successful save w/ a maxed out Intimidate is a good idea.

Tactical Nuke

1 [Amon] + Dragonborn (Heart aspect) + metabreath feats: Many DMs don't allow players to select feats based on temporarily gained prerequisites. Being a Dragonborn allows you to pick up a natural breath weapon and qualify for the metabreath feats. My picks would be Shape Breath, Clinging Breath, Quicken Breath, and Maximize Breath (Heighten Breath, while good, is overkill, imo). Entangling Exhalation is nice to use on your Dragonborn Breath Weapon. A single level of Dragonfire Adept can grant your party immunity to your breath weapon (and give ANOTHER breath weapon). Combining with Anima Mage can get you some very nice breath weapon requiring spells. Also, RAW, the metabreath feats say that you add rounds until your next breath weapon attack, but it doesn't say WHICH breath weapon (add the rounds to your weakest breath weapon ).

Miscellaneous Combos

Old Combos (from previous handbooks)

Diplomonster

1 [Naberius] + Exemplar + Marshal: You are able to preform diplomacy checks without penalty as as STANDARD ACTION and you can TAKE TEN!!! Diplomancers just got way more powerful. Add in other PrC dips as you desire, but as a full-binder you really only need to dip outside the binder class for two levels (one for exemplar and one for marshal). Only go for exemplar if your DM does not allow custom items to boost skills.

Assasination

8, 15 [Malphas] + [Andromelius] + [Marchosias]: Sneak attack + sudden strike both progressing off the same thing: your binder level. Never shalt thou see a more beautiful and simple combination. Many other binds also exist which add even more extra dice to your attacks. edit: Marchosias adds a TON of stealth ability, and death attack.

10, 15 [Marchosias] + [Chupoclops] + [Focalor]: Another rogue-like combination with at twist: death attack. Use Chupoclops's ethereal watcher to gain your three rounds of observance and then strike with Marchosias's death attack for nasty effect. You'll also have aura of despair and sadness active giving your target a -4 on the death effect save! I also recommend taking ability focus (death attack). edit: accorrding to CustServ, you still need a source of Sneak Attack.

10, 15, 20 [Focalor or Ipos] + [Chupoclops] + [Haures] + Ability Focus (Phantasmal Killer) + Favored Vestige (Haures) + Favored Vestige Focus (Haures) + Rapid Recovery (Haures) + Improved Binding: Use incorporeal movement + tumble to avoid any enemies in your way and then deliver the death attack to end all death attacks to your enemy. Due to aura of sadness and despair he takes a -4 to his saves and your DC is increased by 3 from feats. Throw on a decent charisma (say 30) and 20 BL and we're looking at a death attack with a save of 33 (don't forget that the enemy must make his saves at a -4 penalty). If Ipos is used the DC increases by 2, but you lose aura of sadness. The net effect is the same, but Ipos also gives you rending and claws.

New Combos (not in the old Handbooks, but maybe are in the threads)

Diplomonster, Part 2

10 [The Triad] + [Naberius] + maxed Diplomacy: Will make for an auto-check of 28 at 10th, plus your Cha. Thats a nice number to work from when you don't have to invest any levels or feats into it. You also get +5 Sense Motive, Empathy, and Detect Hostile Intent, making it a decent high level social/interaction Vestige. Add Naberius, and Naberius's Skills for Knowledge: Local, and you can become a kingpin, even during planar travel, buying and selling secrets for favors, money, or anything else you desire.

Trapfinding

15 [Ashardalon] + Able Learner + search as a class skill + Trapfinding (either through a Rogue level, Theft Gloves, or anything else): Become the Searching GOD. With a 1st level dip in Rogue, and the investment of 1 rank per level, when you get to bind Ashardalon, you'll have a +33 to search, w/ no magic items (which could boost it up to 70 or higher: +30 item, +2 MW item, +5 Magnifying Glass, +Int items). With magic items, you auto-find magical auras, too, hitting the Epic Search skill DC. edit: With such a ridiculous search modifier, you should consider adding the new Dungeonscape feat that allows an auto-search for many traps when you get w/in 5' of it.

Assasination

13, 15 [Andras] + [Marchosias] + [Malphus]: Sneak up on your enemies, staying hidden, then use the confound ability on them, whittling down their HP. After 3 rounds, go ahead and attack one of the "softies" using the death attack, then use Malphus's Invisibility to sneak away, setting it up again.

8, 15, 20 [Acerak] + [Malphus] + [Chupoclops] + [Focolor]: Sneak up on your enemies, invisible, then hit the opponent with Paralyzing Touch, while they have the -4 to their saves. They'll be paralyzed and helpless, allowing a Coup-de-Grace the following round. This combo is much more friendly to random combat than the Marchosias combos, as you need not wait 3 rounds to activate the ability, and have pounce, bite attacks, and lightening strikes that all can be used while waiting to "recharge".

Scouting

10 [Chupoclops] + [Malphus]: Basically, you activate invisibility, then scout around. One round before invisibility becomes deactivated, you activate Ethereal Watcher and do nothing. After 5 rounds, you go invisible again (and return to the Material). Voila, you are invisible as long as you want!