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I'm attempting to make a Gnome Illusionist for a Jade Regent game and I was hoping I could get some help from the much more knowledgeable people here. So far, this is what I've got:
Tani Briarfliff: Female Gnome Wizard (Illusion) 1
Attributes (20 point buy)
STR 8
DEX 10
CON 12
INT 18
WIS 8
CHA 16
(An alternate attribute spread would likely be: STR 8, DEX 14, CON 12, INT 17, WIS 10, and CHA 14)
Taking the 'Eternal Hope' alternate racial trait as it makes more sense for this character (who is very chipper and upbeat and optimistic).
Traits: Trickster, Best Friend (Sandru)
Feats: Effortless Trickery, Scribe Scroll
Opposed Schools: Necromancy & Divination
Arcane Bond: Wand
Known Spells:
1st - Charm Person, Color Spray, Magic Missile, Obscuring Mist, Silent Image, Sleep, Vanish (Probably with Color Spray, Magic Missile, and Vanish prepared).
I'll pick up Spell Focus (Illusion) later obviously, probably Threatening Illusion, and possibly Arcane School Spirit.
I'm not sure what the rest of the party is going to be yet.
So, what do you all think? Good? Horrible? Any advice on how to make improvements?
I'd drop sleep in favor of mage armor or shield. Not to prepare them, but to create some quick-and-easy scrolls.
I'd say color spray is a much better spell and serves a similar function. Also, sleep loses relevance pretty quickly (with the HD cap and all).
Aside from that, she looks great.
Edit: Before you play a gnome, know the risks! There is nothing more frustrating as a player than having your character picked up or grappled against his/her will (by fellow party members no less). Happened with multiple characters of mine. True story.
So, check and make sure you're not playing with chaotic-stupid/evil jack-asses :]
Opposed Schools: Necromancy & Divination
Necromancy makes sense, but divination, while an inferior school, has some very essential spells; Namely read magic and detect magic, two very useful spells that I doubt you want to use too many extra slots for.
Arcane Bond: Wand
Why a wand? Is this for flavor reasons? If not, I would suggest having a ring or amulet as your arcane bond instead. Those items don't depend upon you having an item held in your hand and are virtually impossible to disarm, sunder or steal.
Known Spells:
1st - Charm Person, Color Spray, Magic Missile, Obscuring Mist, Silent Image, Sleep, Vanish (Probably with Color Spray, Magic Missile, and Vanish prepared).
I suggest not preparing magic missile at 1st level. 1d4 + 1 damage is insignificant, even at that level. Since you have Sleep, I'd suggest perparing that instead. Sleep is godly until after 5th level, so enjoy it while it lasts!
I also highly recommend Silent Image. At the very least, always keep a few scrolls of it handy, as it is an amazingly useful spell. It can do everything from create fake creature images for your foes to waste attacks on to creating illusionary walls, terrain and other objects to hide behind or trick your enemies. It also has alot of roleplaying uses. For example, I once used a combination of that spell and ghost sound to make someone believe that they were visited by the ghost of a dead loved one.
probably Threatening Illusion, and possibly Arcane School Spirit.
I am not familiar with these feats. Where can they be found?
Dexterity is low, charisma is too high, you don't need high cha to roleplay an upbeat gnome, since they get an inherent cha bonus, that will suffice.
Spell focus (Illusions) stacks with the gnome's illusion DC bonus, sleep has 1 round casting and is an enchantment, color spray is an illusion and has a standard casting time, silent image would be fun with a gnome, since they tend to be creative enough.
I recommend that you put 8 to charisma and the gnome bonus bumps it to 10, I like tens, no bonus, yet no penalty. Also please bump constitution, and especially dex, casters are squishy as they are.
Necromancy makes sense, but divination, while an inferior school, has some very essential spells; Namely read magic and detect magic, two very useful spells that I doubt you want to use too many extra slots for.
Opposed Schools: Necromancy & Divination
Party composition is key (for me at least) when thinking about taking divination as an opposed school. There are critical spells in there, but how many people in the party need to have Detect magic memorized? It's on everyone's list. And you can always buy/make a wand/scroll to keep on hand for the times when you personally need to cast it. 0-level spell items are cheep.
What would you suggest I take instead?
From a purely conceptual perspective, I'd be a fan of dropping Evocation: you're going to blow [up] their minds, not melt their faces.
Mechanically, I'd say Enchantment since both schools primarily affect the mind, and you'll be far better with your Illusions than any Enchantments.
Actually a gnome illusionist isn't going to be incredibly charismatic. Typically there aren't a lot of charismatic gnomish illusionist wizards -- they tend to be crazy and eccentric over personable or attractive. There's also very little mechanical benefit about having a high Charisma score as an illusion-focused wizard.
I'd do (20 point buy):
STR 8 (0) (-2 racial)
DEX 14 (5)
CON 16 (5) (+2 racial)
INT 17 (13)
WIS 8 (-2)
CHA 11 (-1) (+2 racial)
Eternal Hope is a fine alternative racial trait.
Traits: the best friend trait is campaign specific, but is there a better mechanical choice? It seems extremely lame for this particular character.
Feat: I would do the opposite of what you're proposing -- I'd take the (Greater) Spell Focus: Illusion feats first and take the Effortless Trickery feat at 5th level. The reason is color spray. You want your color spray to be as effective as possible in the early game. The Effortless Trickery mechanic is good (particularly with major image, which you get at 5th level), but it's not worth short-changing your color spray when you need it most.
Opposed Schools: I'd do enchantment and necromancy myself. You already have strong will save based spells with illusions. Necromancy and Enchantment have a lot of will save spells. They also tend to focus on what illusion does anyway (battlefield control). A lot of people want to drop evocation here, but resist that urge; there are a lot of good evocation spells you don't want to make harder to have access to.
Arcane Bond: Most new players pick the item and not the familiar because there are a lot more rules for the familiar. . . so I get that. Just realize the familiar is a stronger overall option in terms of strategy and effectiveness of what a familiar can do.
Known Spells:
1st - Charm Person, Color Spray, Magic Missile, Obscuring Mist, Silent Image, Sleep, Vanish (Probably with Color Spray, Magic Missile, and Vanish prepared).
Initial Spells Known: vanish, silent image, color spray, and obscuring mist are all fine choices. Sleep/magic missile/charm person are not wrong choices, but they are a bit questionable.
Some other fine choices:
* grease (This spell is very strong during early levels for disarming tough melee bad guys and/or controlling their movement on the battlefield.)
* protection from evil (This is very good for use on a scroll. A timely scroll of protection from evil can make a combat easy.)
* mage armor (Taking this spell this early is good for situations where other party members -- or their pets -- can benefit from an armor bonus. The key is to make numerous cheap scrolls out of it and bestow them frequently to non-armored teammates as well as yourself. The 1 hour duration is long enough to cover many multiple combat situations. Animal companions, monks, eidolons, and other casters will thank you.)
Dexterity is low, charisma is too high, you don't need high cha to roleplay an upbeat gnome, since they get an inherent cha bonus, that will suffice.
Since an illusionist doesn't have to aim spells, Dexterity is less important. It still governs Reflex, but who are we kidding: a wizard is never going to have high Reflex. All that leaves is AC, which a wizard doesn't really need. Not when they can cast spells like blink and mirror image. Also, they've got other ways to bump their AC if they feel the need (mage armor, shield and the like).
Having a high Charisma isn't going to be a tremendous help, but it will boost skills. Even though she could cast charm person, an illusionist might not wish to cast the spell when she could just as easily preserve a spell slot and roll a Diplomacy check. Just because you can dump Charisma doesn't mean you should. High Charisma is fun to play (though, it isn't necessary for roleplay; it helps).
Anyways, your illusionist's ability scores look fine.