Any Transformation builds?

[Syrius Black]

d20pfsrd.com wrote:

TRANSFORMATION

School transmutation; Level alchemist 6, magus 6, sorcerer/wizard 6, witch 6; Bloodline abyssal 6

CASTING
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (a potion of bull's strength, which you drink and whose effects are subsumed by the spell effects)

EFFECT
Range personal
Target you
Duration 1 round/level

DESCRIPTION
You become a fighting machine - stronger, tougher, faster, and more skilled in combat. Your mindset changes so that you relish combat and you can't cast spells, even from magic items.

You gain a +4 enhancement bonus to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution, a +4 natural armor bonus to AC, a +5 competence bonus on Fortitude saves, and proficiency with all simple and martial weapons. Your base attack bonus equals your character level (which may give you multiple attacks).

You lose your spellcasting ability, including your ability to use spell activation or spell completion magic items, just as if the spells were no longer on your class list.

Is it just me or is this spell underwhelming? I want to use it in play, but I can’t bring myself to. Has anyone used this effectively in play? Anyone ever make a build based on Transformation? I’m wondering if it’s possible to make a pure caster who uses this spell in combat effectively.

I'm not sure what feats would be helpful beyond something like Power Attack, or if there is any gear that could make this more viable.

I searched the forum but wasn’t able to locate anything.
Maybe it’s just that lame?

[Kydeem de'Morcaine]

Don't know about a pure caster, doesn't seem worth it unless desparate.
Or maybe special situations like if dueling is common whever you are based.

But for the various dragons disciple builds seems like it could be worth it after you are done buffing.

[Rory]

Syrius Black wrote:

Is it just me or is this spell underwhelming? I want to use it in play, but I can’t bring myself to. Has anyone used this effectively in play? Anyone ever make a build based on Transformation? I’m wondering if it’s possible to make a pure caster who uses this spell in combat effectively.

I'm not sure what feats would be helpful beyond something like Power Attack, or if there is any gear that could make this more viable.

I posted this build a couple of hours ago that leads into it for someone that wanted to make a "butt-kickin'" wizard...

S: 17 D: 14: C: 14 I: 15 W: 7 Ch: 10 (20 pt buy)

Half-Orc Wizard Transmuter (w/Arcane Bond: Falchion, anti-Div, anti-Enchant)

(W) Scribe Scroll
(1) Toughness (you need all the hitpoints you can get)
(3) Weapon Focus (Falchion) <-- or Great Axe
(5) Power Attack
(W) Extend Spell
(7) Furious Focus
(9) Quicken Spell

At 1st level, you'll have 12 hitpoints, +4 to hit, and will do 2d4+6 damage (18 strength with Transmutation +1). Use spells for defense as your offense is pretty high. Enlarge Person makes a great offense spell (get a wand of it when you can).

At 3rd level, you'll be +6 to hit and will still be doing 2d4+6 damage, not that bad. Use spells for defense (False Life saves on action economy, which will be important), but you can pop a Bull's Strength for a really nice melee boost.

At 5th level, you'll be +8 to hit and 2d4+11 damage (20 str = +1 strength @ 4th and now +2 strength as transmuter, and you can enchant your arcane bond to +1, and power attack). Spells should be highly defensive (False Life for more hitpoints, Mirror Image for melee impunity, etc.) and can now start casting Haste as well. Keen Edge is fun!

At 7th level, you'll be +11 to hit and 2d4+12 damage (arcane bond is at +2, power attack w/ furious focus). Stoneskin is a good defense spell, and Greater Invis is good offense and defense.

At 9th level, you'll be +13 to hit and 2d6+18 damage (+3 arcane bond and 22 str, w/ power attack). You now hit the point of Quickened spell boosts. Quickened Enlarge Person is nice.

The build is fairly butt kickin' from levels 1-5 but starts to fall after that against single targets. You can keep up for a few more levels if you have rounds of combat prep using spells.

In the 6-8 range, your 1 melee attack wanes against the 2 of the warriors (haste helps!), but you probably have the best damage against more than one foe via area spells. Beast form may be a method to add multiple attacks, but your combat buff options will eat into your action economy. This is probably the hardest level range.

In the 9-10 range, you start to quicken add buffs to maintain relative parity. Your options outside of the melee attack grow nicely.

At level 11+, Transformation with Quicken buff spells ahead of time is pretty nice. It does require a combat action to get it cast, but it goes far to bring you up to par in the butt-kickin' scale. Combine that with the alternative ability to drop some nice spells for control and area damage and you come to the fight bearing multiple boots to kick-butt.

[Nemitri]

Hate to burst your bubble, but you cannot quicken enlarge person, due to it being a 1 round cast time now...

[skrahen]

Nemitri wrote:

Hate to burst your bubble, but you cannot quicken enlarge person, due to it being a 1 round cast time now...

Wrong

Re-read quicken spell. You can't quicken a spell with more than a one round casting time.
Bubble remains unburst.

[Umbral Reaver]

Transformation would be so much better if it had a duration of '1 round/level (D)'. Unfortunately, it's just '1 round/level' so it locks you into a noncasting approach even if the situation changes and you want to do something else.

[skrahen]

You can still cast....
Just have a wand of dispel magic handy if you want to stop the spell.
The last line actually qualifies why the spell casting loss occurs. So you could still use use Magic device.

[Umbral Reaver]

So, you make dispel attempts using the caster level of the wand, to beat your transformation.

At 225 gp (minimum) per attempt.

I suppose you could cast transformation at CL 11th (or 12th if you're a sorcerer) to increase your chances.

[skrahen]

Umbral Reaver wrote:

So, you make dispel attempts using the caster level of the wand, to beat your transformation.

At 225 gp (minimum) per attempt.

I suppose you could cast transformation at CL 11th (or 12th if you're a sorcerer) to increase your chances.

You automatically succeed on dispel attempts against your own spells.

Edit: it's right before the counter spell blurb in the dispel magic description.

[Umbral Reaver]

Ah yes, I see that.

Hmm. In this case, are you making the dispel check or is the wand?

[skrahen]

Umbral Reaver wrote:

Ah yes, I see that.

Hmm. In this case, are you making the dispel check or is the wand?

Numerical variables may be determined by specific object rules depending on what is being used but the. Caster. Is still the caster.

Edit: especially since the wording of you cast yourself is clear and undisputed when it comes to the transformation. And the wording prior to that of you automatically succeed on your dispel check is also clear. The wand is not asked to roll a check, you the caster are.