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The Spell Sage is a really interesting Wizard archetype that has never gotten much attention or love. I'd like to write a guide on it, but I could use some help.
The Spell Sage is an archetype that sacrifices two of the Wizard's best class features -- Arcane Bond and Arcane School -- in return for two completely *different* class features, Focused Spell and Spell Study. Here's the complete description:
Quote: Focused Spells (Su)
At 1st level, once per day the spell sage's understanding of spells allows him to increase his caster level by 4 for a single spell cast. He can do this twice per day at 8th level, and three times per day at 16th level.
This ability replaces arcane bond.
So, in return for giving up arcane bond, you get the ability to occasionally overclock and cast a spell at +4 ECL. ECL affects a variety of different things, but mostly it's about spell duration; dice of damage on blasts; and spell penetration against spell resistance. For the first, duration is usually pretty minor and not worth blowing your daily Focus. At first level you can cast Mage Armor for five hours, or Vanish or Summon Monster I for five rounds. That's nice, but not really worth the sacrifice of arcane bond. (You could perhaps get some interesting synergies with Extend Spell -- for instance, at 8th level you could burn a second level spell slot and walk around with Mage Armor all day long.)
For the second, though -- ah, now we're talking. 5d4 damage from Burning Hands at 1st level will drop most nonboss opponents. 9d6 damage from Fireball at 5th level is very strong too. And that's before you start piling on more dice with Spell Specialization, Pyromaniac, etc. etc.
As to SR, being able to increase your roll to overcome it is pretty handy at higher levels -- although you can get the same effect by investing in a metamagic rod of Piercing Spell, so it's not *that* great. And finally, let's note that if you can cast Gate, this will give you another four dice of powerful outsider. Again, there are other ways to accomplish this, but it's still nice.
Okay, so Crowdsource Question #1: Besides the obvious ones mentioned above, what are some good spells for leveraging that +4 ECL?
Quote: Spell Study (Su)At 2nd level, the sage's understanding of the spells of bards, clerics, and druids is so great that he can use his own magic in an inefficient, roundabout way to duplicate those classes' spells. Once per day, a spell sage can spontaneously cast any spell on the bard, cleric, or druid spell list as if it were a wizard spell he knew and had prepared. Casting the spell requires the spell sage to spend 1 full round per spell level of the desired spell (if the spell is on multiple spell lists indicated above, using the lowest level from among those lists) and requires expending two prepared spells of that spell level or higher; if the spell's casting time is normally 1 full round or longer, this is added to the spell sage's casting time. For example, if a spell sage wants to use spell study to cast cure light wounds (cleric spell level 1st), he must spend 2 full rounds casting and expend two prepared wizard spells of 1st level or higher.
At 6th level and every 5 levels thereafter, a spell sage can use this ability an additional time per day (to a maximum of four times per day at 16th level).
This ability replaces arcane school.
This is a super interesting ability. It sort of makes the Spell Sage into the anti-sorceror. The sorceror has a limited list of spells, but in combat he can switch among them freely. The Spell Sage has the biggest list of spells in the game -- bigger than the Mystic Theurge -- but the doubled slot cost makes him conservative, and the increased casting time means he can't ever use them in combat. But he's an incredibly flexible tool for everything outside of combat, and sometimes for avoiding combat too. Some examples:
-- The entrance to the fey kingdom is between two gigantic oak trees, but the gateway won't open unless you speak the password phrase. The Spell Sage casts Speak With Plants and asks the oak trees what the pass phrase is.
-- The orcs have thrown you in a dungeon and taken all your stuff. The Spell Sage casts Animal Messenger to use a rat to go for help.
-- The biggest treasure in the dungeon is a statue that's worth several thousand gold pieces. Unfortunately, it weighs 800 lbs. The Spell Sage casts Ant Haul on the party fighter. (Note that Ant Haul is a bard spell *and* a wizard spell -- the Spell Sage gets access to it by the back door, as it were.
-- Area of dense magical darkness ahead, darkvision doesn't work, and you're pretty sure the DM has put something nasty in there? Cast Echolocation on the party tank and have him lead you through.
-- Someone got zapped with a curse, and the cleric doesn't have Remove Curse prepped. Exit the dungeon and wait for a day... or just have the Spell Sage cast it. Blindness, deafness, diseases, poison and ability drain, same-same.
You get the idea. Not only do you have access to a huge mass of utility spells, but you also can access all those weird, super-situational spells that nobody ever uses. No wizard is going to memorize Soothe Construct, but if you're trapped in a room with the berserk golem bashing down the door, suddenly you've got it. Need to solve a murder mystery, fast? You have access to Red Hand of the Killer. Dungeon turns out to be unexpectedly full of bugs? Repel Vermin.
(Note that a few bard/cleric/ druid spells -- Scry, Enter Image, Remove Curse, Tongues -- are lower level than their wizard equivalent. So the Spell Sage can cast Remove Curse at 5th level, instead of waiting for 7th.)
Anyway -- Crowdsource question #2: what are some spells that are particularly likely to be useful?
Thanks in advance,
Doug M.
Just off the top of my head, Battering Blast is always a fun one to max your CL off on.
Plain old Resist Energy gets a lot better (10 more energy resistance, max 30) each 4 CL.
Most spells which do combat maneuvers will get a +4 bonus.
Make Whole can repair better magic items.
Dispel Magic gets a +4 on checks to dispel, including counterspell checks.
For #1.
Greater Dispel Magic for removing more spells when cast upon a single target and having a better chance at succeeding at all.
Black Tentacles and Greater Black Tentacles. These spells will receive a +4 bonus on their grapple checks.
For #2.
If you choose to play your spell sage as a control type wizard and you do not have a cleric then Freedom of Movement when combined with a Goz Mask will allow your fighter to fight at his full potential inside a Solid fog that also has a focused spell Greater Black Tentacles inside of it.
So fun spells I would suggest using before combat.
Barkskin,
Freedom of movement,
Death Ward.
After Combat.
Reincarnate, (can potentially be cast with Blood Money for free res.)
Raise dead and the higher level versions,
Restoration (Blood Money works well here)
Something else you can use this class feature for (I suggest mentioning such alternate uses of this class feature in the guide).
Lesser Planar Ally to qualify for Diabolist or similar earlier than you would otherwise. You then have to decide when to do this. At level 8 which would be the earliest? Or at level 9 which will give you an other use per day of Focused Spells.
Black tentacles is fine, but I really prefer Hungry Earth. It's a little messed up... But definitely a show-stopper. Suffocation or Greater Suffocation for the same reason.
MageHunter wrote: Black tentacles is fine, but I really prefer Hungry Earth. It's a little messed up... But definitely a show-stopper. Suffocation or Greater Suffocation for the same reason. These two are good picks, because they're not obvious blasty dice/level spells.
Others? More? Spells where the ECL bump helps in ways that are more sophisticated than "more dice on the fireball"?
Doug M.
Possess Object- get a gargantuan object at twelfth. Stack with the Dhampir alternate FCB to boost Necromancy CL and get it at tenth.
Expect thrown books.
Phantom steed gives additional speed and abilities to cross terrain at higher caster levels.
Permanency has a whole lot of effects gated by higher caster levels. You may not be able to easily afford the material components at lower levels of course.
You may want to add a caveat that at level 1, a spell sage wizard is strictly worse than every other wizard-- no extra school slot, no school abilities, and nothing to show for it (aside from Focused Spells, for which he gave up his arcane bond). This drawback reveals itself again at level 8, when he also doesn't get his second school ability. I've never played one, but it seems to me that a spell sage's "sweet spots" of competence are around levels 5-7 and beyond 13 or so, when his lack of a specialty school is the least glaring.
SodiumTelluride wrote: You may want to add a caveat that at level 1, a spell sage wizard is strictly worse than every other wizard-- no extra school slot, no school abilities, and nothing to show for it (aside from Focused Spells, for which he gave up his arcane bond). No question, at Levels 1 and 2 the Spell Sage is weak weak weak. This is especially true if you have a point build and throw everything at Int -- which you should, because you need the extra spell slot and the +1 DC. You don't start to catch up until 3rd level and you're still relatively underpowered until 7th or so.
Mind, for some people this might be a feature rather than a bug. Do you like Old School Gaming? Do you miss First Edition, when your wizard started with 3 hit points and could cast exactly one spell per day? Do you want to play a hardscrabble game where your low-level character must carefully make the best of his very limited resources?
Quote: This drawback reveals itself again at level 8, when he also doesn't get his second school ability. Eh, it depends. Some of the 8th level school abilities are bloody amazing, but OTOH many of them are junk.
Quote: I've never played one, but it seems to me that a spell sage's "sweet spots" of competence are around levels 5-7 and beyond 13 or so, when his lack of a specialty school is the least glaring. Here I would disagree. I think the Spell Sage is very weak at levels 1-2, still pretty weak at 3-6, then catches up fast. At 8th level you're getting both your specials twice/day, which really makes a huge difference. By 9th you have enough spell slots and other resources that you're really caught up with the other wizards. By 13th I would say that you're pulling ahead -- the game is now moving into Rocket Tag territory, where the ability to hit first and hit hard is becoming ever more important. The Spell Sage's ability to overclock, combined with his access to all the weird situational spells, make him a very attractive choice at high levels. In fact, I'd say that by 20th level the Spell Sage would be absolutely terrifying. At that point he'd probably win a fair fight with almost any other wizard school or archetype. (Excepting the specialist Diviner, of course. It's pretty hard to beat "automatically always win initiative -- Time Stop!")
Thinking about it, the Spell Sage really is the most Old School sort of wizard you can play. He's likely to be a weak, clumsy nerd who has thrown everything else overboard to gain the biggest brain possible. And he starts off really feeble, and at low levels he struggles simply to survive. But he climbs the steepest possible power curve, eventually ascending to AWESOME ARCANE POWER with ALL THE SPELLS.
Doug M.
QuidEst wrote: Possess Object- get a gargantuan object at twelfth. Stack with the Dhampir alternate FCB to boost Necromancy CL and get it at tenth.
Expect thrown books.
Oh yeah, that's a good one. It's slightly nerfed by the fact that a Gargantuan object probably can't go down a dungeon. But you can have a 12' tall suit of armor or something built for special occasions. At 12th level and up, an Extended version of this spell will last 24 hours, so you can clank around like a mecha all day long.
(Actually, now that I think about it, you could probably put your comatose body inside the armor. As safe as anywhere, and if you need to swap back, why, the armor just goes "dead" for a round. Then you climb out the hatch in the back and start blasting.)
Doug M.
Dhampir FCB: that's an interesting one. On one hand, the Dhampir isn't a great race for a Spell Sage -- you want a boost to Int, not Cha, and the -2 Con is painful. But OTOH, being able to crank your ECL up over the moon is pretty sweet, even if it does just apply to necromancy. And there are a number of necromancy spells that benefit from increased ECL: Boneshaker, Boneshatter, Blight, Ray of Enfeeblement, Defending Bone, Vampiric Touch, Vampiric Shadow Shield, Animate Dead. -- Oh, gosh, Animate Dead is 4th level for most wizards, but since it's a 3rd level clerical spell a Spell Sage can access it at 5th level! And at, let's say, 8th level a plain vanilla wizard could have 16 HD of zombies following him around. The Spell Sage would have 24 HD, or 28 if a dhampir. That's two dead frost giants.
-- Of course, you can gain the same effect by casting Deathwine... a spell that, let's note, you can access at 3rd level, because it's just 2nd level for clerics. By midlevels a scroll of this spell, along with a Cure Serious Wounds potion, should be a permanent part of your equipment.
-- Huh: Create Undead goes from a stupid spell that exists to explain why the evil temple is guarded by ghouls to a spell that suddenly sparkles with the potential for abuse! An 11th level Spell Sage with a Cure Serious Wounds potion can cast like she's 17th level, creating CR 6 to 8 creatures like mummies, dullahans, crypt things, phantom lancers and mohrgs. Okay, on one hand, they're not automatically under your control. But on the other, they cost almost nothing and hang around forever.
Doug M.
-- Oh gosh, the contingency spell.
Normally you can only place a contingency spell that's a wizard spell, and the limit is level/3, rounded down. But the Spell Sage? On his first day off after hitting 11th level, he casts Contingency at 15th level followed by Breath of Life. Boom -- any time he's killed, a round later he recovers 5d8+15 hit points and bounces back to life. He's still vulnerable to death effects and truly massive damage, and there are situations (swallowed whole by a purple worm, dropped into a lava pit) where this may not save him. Still: a nice little insurance policy.
Doug M.
Undeath Ward: you cast this before entering the Undead-Themed Dungeon. Two 5th level spell slots is a lot, but "no undead can touch you" is pretty powerful. Sadly, it doesn't protect against spells and SLAs, but OTOH you can use it tactically -- your melee brute can stand just inside and hack at the enemy, and they won't be able to hit back.
Doug M.
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