Rilor's page

I know that this is not a new topic but I think I am missing something.

I know that surprise spells is a totally separate ability that I am not talking about.

I was thinking of making an arcane trickster and wanted to see what spells I could apply sneak attack damage to, if any. Under sneak attack it says "attack" or "ranged attack". "Ranged attack" is specifically projectile weapons (bow, thrown etc). In aiming spells in the core rulebook it says that, "You aim a ray as if using a ranged weapon" So I guess that you could apply sneak attack damage to it, but then again it is not technically a ranged weapon, you are just aiming it like it was one.

So, a spell like acid splash can not sneak attack since its effect is "one missile of acid" hence it does not qualify as a "ranged attack" or being aimed like a "ranged attack". A Ray of frost could since its effect is "ray". Thoughts?

Good point Phasics, maybe one Leadership Feat and some henchmen.

in that case, consider a class that can have a swarm of allies through summons or animal companion, maybe a skeletal army, and spells like charm person

with just 2 players, a horde of bodyguards is very helpful, be sure to also take Leadership

All good advice. I am trying to avoid all of that though. We are just finishing up Serpent Skull where we had an evil party of a Wizard, Cleric, Druid and Rogue. There was liberal use of animate dead and summon monster/natures ally going on.

The other player is going to be a Paladin. Yeah, my DM is not going to scale anything back so if we live we will be a bit higher level then normal, and richer!

15th level is very near the endgame I am guessing. I have some nasty combos for lower levels. I might spend my magic lineage on stinking cloud. Make that persistent and make sure that we are both equipped with Fog-Cutter lenses and necklaces of adaptation.

Yeah, the anniversary edition.

Yeah that is potent. Unfortunately my GM will not allow 3rd party material. As a side note, I am trying to develop a powerful sorcerer for the new Runelords AP, since our party size will be 2!

Yeah I like acid arrow too. No spell resistance, longer range, save every round. The only problem is that if they have any kind of acid resist then they will likely not take damage. Also you have to hit.

The spell clearly states DR applies so if the target DR absorbs all the damage then the Dazing effect won't trigger as you didn't cause damage.

And if it's one thing Golems have its DR ;)

You can bypass silver, cold iron or adamantine DR using material components. But that does not even matter. Let's take the CR 19 Adamantine Golem. It has a ref save +9 which means that it has to roll a 19 or 20 Twice, thus it will fail it's save and take full damage -15 for it's dr and be dazed for 3 rounds.

The evasion can neutralize it but again need to make a second save if you make the first.

I think it's a very nasty combination.

Let's say LVL 15 Arcane Bloodline Sorcerer

Magic Lineage Trait: Pellet Blast
Spell Focus: Conjuration
Greater Spell Focus: Conjuration
School Power: Conjuration
Spell Perfection feat: Pellet Blast

Dazing, persistent, pellet blast (uses a lvl 7 slot)
DC: 10 + 8 (stat) + 3 (spell level) +4 (spell perfection doubling focus feats)+ 2(school power) + 1 (using meta-magic)=28 reflex save, roll again if you succeed.

No spell resistance
It will do damage (even to a golem)
Daze will effect anything

You could have it use just a 4th lvl slot making the Dazing free with spell perfection

Or throw in a free heighten to increase the DC or Selective so you can blast through your friends.

Is there anything wrong with this set up?

I am gearing up to play the new Rise of the Runelords Reboot, with just one other player character in our party (probably a paladin) and no npc cohorts. This necessity has inspired me to create a Sorcerer build that is highly optimized and focused around save or suck/die and Battlefield control. One Battlefield control trick that I am counting on having great success with at level 8 is:

Stinking Cloud DC 23 (28 Int (sage bloodline), +1 to dc for arcane bloodline using metamagic=23)
Metamagic Persistent
Magical Lineage Trait to reduce the spell level cost to just +1

Also for both my character and the Paladin:

Goggles of Fogcutting
Necklace of Adaptation

This creates a zone of nasty, that we can see and walk through while the enemy can't see and is probably restricted to single move actions. The Paladin can wade in with total/partial concealment and do his thing. I will be spamming pits, slow and grease on runners.