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Hello all,
Since I will only have 6 levels of wizard, high level school powers will not come into play. This is for a Kingmaker campaign.
Looking it seems that Divination is probably the best specialization. I was thinking of opposed schools of Evocation and Necromancy. If I chose a different specialization I would likely go evocation and divination as my opposed.
My thinking was that the ability to act in the surprise round and a +3 to initiative would mean that I am rarely going to be surprised and easily killed.
I figure as I will do damage with my swords, doing it with fireballs is less important ( and I still have conjuration, and perhaps wands/staffs ). Necromancy....well I will miss some rays...but the undead focused powers I will not use.
Opinions?
Necromancy actually does blasting better than evocation does -- it is a school I wouldn't want to lose as an EK. It has some nice buffs, wonderful debuffs and helps you avoid the MAD problems that EK has.
Enchantment is a much easier school for an EK to give up -- it is much more situational to use, has a higher failure rate and less overall application.
Divination is not a bad school to specialize in -- teleportation would be a good choice as well and admixture isn't bad either.
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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Specialize in Necromancy. You're going to be in melee often anyway and there's a lot of really nice touch spells in that school that are normally not recommended for traditional wizard use (ghoul touch, vampiric touch, touch of fatigue, bestow curse, contagion, etc. etc. etc.).
I'd take Evocation and Divination as your prohibited schools. Blasting isn't a very efficient use of spell slots, especially since your caster level is going to be a couple levels behind your HD, and with the exception of true strike, foresight and a couple others, Divination isn't going to do you a whole lot of good.
yeah I would give up enchanment over necro
Because you can still learn and prepare (using 2 spell slots instead of 1) spells of your opposition schools in Pathfinder RPG, you should look over what spells you will want to have readily available and/or wish to take advantage of a higher CL; these spells are candidates for your prepared slots while other spells can be scribed on scrolls or placed in wands. You should choose your opposition schools so that you will mainly be "casting" their spells using scrolls and/or wands.
That said, Evocation and Necromancy are pretty decent choices as opposition schools for an eldritch knight. A couple scrolls of false life (easily replaced) as well as a wand of enfeeblement and a wand of scorching ray (can be readily replaced if you have the Craft Wand feat) can provide you with some of the utility of those scools. Do not give up the Enchantment school, since heroism (+2 on attack rolls, saves, skill checks, lasts 10 min/level) should be one of your staple spells as an eldritch knight, unless you will be constantly scribing multiple scolls of it for each adventuring day.
You can probably survive without Divination if you have another caster within the group. Otherwise, I'd go with Illusion as my second prohibited school. As an Eldritch Knight, fleeting tricks probably less appeal to you than lasting devastation and enhancements.
Divination specialty all the way! Who cares what the spells do, the abilities are so good...
And Necromancy, IMO, would NOT be good as an opposed school. I think Enchanment WOULD be a good opposed school...
If you are using traits, you might want to look at Magical Knack. It will allow you have a +2 trait bonus to caster level, up to your character level. This will take care of the martial level and the first EK level.
My current EK is a conjurer, teleportation subschool - the shift ability is wonderful, and with 6 levels of conjurer, you can shift 15' (3+int bonus times a day).
Opposition is enchantment and divination.
How often are you going to cast True Strike? I have found that Vanish is much more useful than True Strike - you become invisible for caster rounds (max 5) - which allows you to cast other spells, move out of the way, set up flanking, cast Vampiric Touch, etc..
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I can understand the idea that necromancy is superior to Enchantment....but this is Kingmaker. A lot of social settings, enchantment might come in very handy. I do agree a necro based ray fighter is very deadly.
But I will look over that. I considered going air elementalist, but the ability to act in the surprise round will likely save my life vs an assassination attempt which I am likely to face at least once in the campaign
PS mistwalker, I did take magic knack
I can understand the idea that necromancy is superior to Enchantment....but this is Kingmaker. A lot of social settings, enchantment might come in very handy. I do agree a necro based ray fighter is very deadly.
But I will look over that. I considered going air elementalist, but the ability to act in the surprise round will likely save my life vs an assassination attempt which I am likely to face at least once in the campaign
PS mistwalker, I did take magic knack
If you are the only caster, then I suggest not specializing for obvious reasons. Otherwise, I like conjuration (teleportaion) for the reasons already discussed, or the classic EK specialty transmutation. Prohibited schools for me would be enchantment and either divination or evocation it is a coint toss, and would be dependent on the other classes in my party.
Good Luck
Divination is a great idea for an EK for its school ability.
Necromancy is actually a good one for an EK because of the strong debuffs Necromancy has (ray of enfeeblement, the various fatigue and exhaustion spells, etc.).
However, remember that in Pathfinder, you are not prohibited from casting spells from a restricted school, they just cost double slots. So if there's that ONE spell you want from a school you know you wouldn't otherwise use (hypothetical example... say you like Heroism the Enchantment spell, but aren't interested in the charm subtype of spells, you could prohibit Enchantment and then just double block Heroism when you think you really need it).
Were this going to go to very high levels, I would suggest Universalist. Beyond not worrying about restricting schools, the metamagic mastery ability would allow the EK to apply still spell without cost to a spell he wanted to cast with Critical Strike so as not to worry about Arcane Armor Failure (since that will otherwise kick in since Critical Strike costs a swift action as does Arcane Armor Mastery).
I've actually had a decent experience picking abjuration as an opposition school for an EK. It hurts a bit at the lowest levels with missing Shield, but after that, Mirror Image/Blur/Greater Invisibility can be much better options. And if you're an EK, your AC is not going to be great, so I figured it was better to just not worry about it and focus on other defenses.
At level 6 now and the only spells that I've missed having easy access to are Protection from Evil and Dispel Magic, but since there is another wizard in the party, it's not a big deal.
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I've actually had a decent experience picking abjuration as an opposition school for an EK. It hurts a bit at the lowest levels with missing Shield, but after that, Mirror Image/Blur/Greater Invisibility can be much better options. And if you're an EK, your AC is not going to be great, so I figured it was better to just not worry about it and focus on other defenses.
Actually mirror image works better now with higher AC so shield REALLY helps out until mid levels. Unless your using a sword and board EK.
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But I will look over that. I considered going air elementalist, but the ability to act in the surprise round will likely save my life vs an assassination attempt which I am likely to face at least once in the campaign
Umm air specialist get no such ability. They have a bonus to fly and can do lightning damage + dazzle.
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Umm air specialist get no such ability. They have a bonus to fly and can do lightning damage + dazzle.
But I will look over that. I considered going air elementalist, but the ability to act in the surprise round will likely save my life vs an assassination attempt which I am likely to face at least once in the campaign
True divination gets that. And a great bonus to init...a diviner basically always get to go first.
To be more precice what I meant to say was an air elementalist gived up only one school...earth elemental...and the list of lost spells in not a great loss
However the school power is also underwhelming ( basically will amount to featherfall/levitate at will and bonus to fly checks )
I'd give up enchantment...but in a social campaign it is extremely valuable. Evocation is easy to give up as all I really want is Contingency...and I can still cast that. If school powers didn't come into play my second choice for opposed would be divination....
I'd give up enchantment...but in a social campaign it is extremely valuable. Evocation is easy to give up as all I really want is Contingency...and I can still cast that. If school powers didn't come into play my second choice for opposed would be divination....
I'm not so sure that enchantment would be all that useful. It allows too many save throws and too many types are really good against mind affecting spells. I would be more keen to having decent skills than to rely on the hit and miss nature of magic (especially when I'm not really focused on casting spells of this type) -- it seems more likely to be a liability to me than it would be a boon.
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True divination gets that. And a great bonus to init...a diviner basically always get to go first.
To be more precice what I meant to say was an air elementalist gived up only one school...earth elemental...and the list of lost spells in not a great loss
However the school power is also underwhelming ( basically will amount to featherfall/levitate at will and bonus to fly checks )
Well yes diviner gets a very nice school ability.
Over the air one, water is better. It staggers...which is quite nice. And the only spell worth lamenting over in fire is fireshield...and even then, I'd rather just not be hit most of the time.
If your having problems picking opposing schools, there is always universalist. While they have a weak ability, it is also a very fitting one for an EK. I do it all the time for EKs.