Is Jaethal useless, or am I just doing something wrong?

[BlackDragon]

I finally managed to pull together the entire 'original party', rescuing Jaethal from the depths below the Sycamore... but... well... she's COOL, no question. I mean, an undead, scythe-wielding Elven Inquisitor? Badass! And her abilities are potent too. However... how the heck are you supposed to keep her ALIVE? Or... undead, I suppose. Healing-potions hurt her, healing-spells hurt her, and she doesn't even recover from REST! Only way to heal her is, apparently, spells like 'Inflict Light/Medium Wounds', which are REALLY HARD TO COME BY this early in the game. So I'm basically finding myself forced to rest in order to recover her and Harrim's spells, so that they can use those to repair HER, and then rest AGAIN so I don't go back into the dungeon with empty spell-slots... what an utter pain in the undead behind!

Or is there some other way to handle her Undead status that I'm just not seeing? >_>

[Kexin]

The best way to heal Jaehal is with those negative energy AoE spell. Having a pallie main make this a plus, not just for Jaethal, but for healing in general.

[BlackDragon]

Yeah, I assume those will become available at some later point, and by then I'll probably have enough level 1 and 2 spell-slots to reliably keep her healed with basic Inflict Wounds spell too. But when your party's only just reached Level 3... well...

[Balkoth]

You can buy inflict potions from Bokken I believe.

She has a judgement that gives her Fast Healing 1, so she can heal in combat that way.

Best use for her is to give her a longbow though.

[ELVIS]

1. When you find Tartuccio in the Ancient Tomb get Jaethal to join your party, not Harim.

2. Liberate the Temple of the Elk ASAP. Tristian is a much better cleric than Harim.

3. Have Jaethal wear a breastplate and wield a masterwork or magical one-handed weapon and a heavy shield. She'll take less damage if she's harder to hit. In Pathfinder Armor Class is more important than Hit Points.

4. Jaethal can heal herself after the few (because of high AC) times she gets hit using Inflict Light Wounds. Tristian can also learn Inflict Light Wounds to heal her and he can transform those Inflict spells to Cure Light Wounds at will if he needs to (which is rare since he can use Channel Energy to heal himself and his partymates all in one go).

5. Jaethal is one of the best party members because she's immune to mind-affecting spells and all spells that require a Fortitude save. She's also immune to Fatigue, Exhaustion and poison. Have her learn spells like Boneshaker.

[Pink Eye]

Originally posted by ELVIS:

1. When you find Tartuccio in the Ancient Tomb get Jaethal to join your party, not Harim.

2. Liberate the Temple of the Elk ASAP. Tristian is a much better cleric than Harim.

3. Have Jaethal wear a breastplate and wield a masterwork or magical one-handed weapon and a heavy shield. She'll take less damage if she's harder to hit. In Pathfinder Armor Class is more important than Hit Points.

4. Jaethal can heal herself after the few (because of high AC) times she gets hit using Inflict Light Wounds. Tristian can also learn Inflict Light Wounds to heal her and he can transform those Inflict spells to Cure Light Wounds at will if he needs to (which is rare since he can use Channel Energy to heal himself and his partymates all in one go).

5. Jaethal is one of the best party members because she's immune to mind-affecting spells and all spells that require a Fortitude save. She's also immune to Fatigue, Exhaustion and poison. Have her learn spells like Boneshaker.

Another thing to add, she is undead, therefore she can't die. This in turn makes her a solid front liner. Consider dipping her into the fighter class.

[1ttffsse]

valid builds for J are 3 Inq/17cleric with a reach weapon like a fauchard so she stays behind the main tanks. she can replace tristian this way as the party cleric.

i do not recommend going full inq on her as base inquisitor is one of the more underwhelming classes. monster tactitian and sacred huntsmaster is where it's at.

otherwise the sword/shield build is something like 6 inq/ 2 barb (for uncanny dodge)/ 8 vivesectionist/ 4 freebooter - there you go sword and shield (fauchard+revanna's oath) take shield bash/ shield master. it is even better if you change her to lawful evil, take 1 level monk dip in scaled or traditional and in the end use robes that give -6 constitution but immune to critical hits (con does not matter on undead). you get sneak attack dice and displacement through alchmenist + feral wings/ mutagen. 12 levels of vivesectionist could get you greater mutagen and even more rogue like attacks, but 8viv/4booter is slightly better for the party as booter makes everyone better with flank attack boni.

her stats are so nice you can go to a charisma build too take 2 archeologist bard, 4 dragon dis, and go into eldritch knight to get mirror image and displacement.

lots of options on this toon. if you want extra pet mad dog barb with 1 level of two-handed fighter for better armor is good too.

[Drivol]

Damn I never really thought about it but making her a cleric with negative channel would be sweet. She could heal herself but also help out with AOE damage.

[BlackDragon]

Hmm... I rather like that idea! 'Evil Cleric', I mean. I'm opposed to anything that would require her to give up her Scythe, since... come on, SCYTHE-WIELDING UNDEAD ELF! It's too awesome to replace with yet another sword-and-board type. But switching her to Cleric wouldn't necessarily require her to switch to a Reach-weapon, really, would it? Just the fact that she'd have way more options for healing herself, including Channel Negative, would help a lot with keeping her alive.

[1ttffsse]

Originally posted by BlackDragon:

Hmm... I rather like that idea! 'Evil Cleric', I mean. I'm opposed to anything that would require her to give up her Scythe, since... come on, SCYTHE-WIELDING UNDEAD ELF! It's too awesome to replace with yet another sword-and-board type. But switching her to Cleric wouldn't necessarily require her to switch to a Reach-weapon, really, would it? Just the fact that she'd have way more options for healing herself, including Channel Negative, would help a lot with keeping her alive.

I believe scythe range is 2feet while glaive/fauchard is 6feet....on hard+ it will be difficult to keep her up without the long reach weapon or swordNboard. you can use scythe on cleric it is just safer standing 6ft away from enemy rather than 2ft.

clerics can wear heavy armor and cast their spells, but you need to take a level of generic fighter to get the armor proficiency.

there is a scythe midgame that deals negative energy aoe on crit that also heals her...specifically designed for J. by then you can cast displacement and greater invis on her and she will be fine with the scythe. it is just early game have Val pull aggro first and then send J in.

As cleric J becomes really good necromancer though so you can take spell foci necro and all the harm/destroy touch spells. If you decide to encourage her evil ways in her quest she gets bonuses to necromancy.

[New Willinium]

Also just as a small hint, because Jaethal's class is rather interesting this way, you REALLY want to give her as MANY Teamwork feats as possible. This can and will make her into a Murder-Monster.

[BlackDragon]

Yes, I noticed that - presumably, that's why you'd want to take her to at least Level 3 as Inquisitor before switching over to something else. I nabbed 'Allied Spellcaster' there, which will hopefully be just as handy for a Cleric...

Anyway, I can live with her not being a first-rate frontliner for the first half of the game. And it's not like the early game is exactly aflood with Glaives and Fauchards either... :P

[superlovi]

Glaives and fauchard are 2 h , can't use them with a shield

[New Willinium]

Originally posted by InEffect:

who cares? clerics are made of paper no matter what.

This is not true especially with their buff spells.

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by BlackDragon:

Or is there some other way to handle her Undead status that I'm just not seeing? >_>

Play an evil cleric main char.... and heal her while damaging everyone else around you with your channel negative energy.

She is a companion for an evil party.

[BlackDragon]

A question about 'Channel Negative Energy'... how exactly are you supposed to damage enemies and heal Jeathal at the same time, regardless of whether it's her casting it or not? I mean, from what I can see, you have to use your available negative energy to EITHER heal undead OR damage the living... like with good clerics and their choice between healing the party or damaging undead.

(Which, of course, brings up another disadvantage of having Jeathal around: She doesn't benefit from Channel Positive heal, and if you use it to damage undead enemies, you'll be hitting her too... it'd be different if you could have a whole party of undead, of course, but...)