Axebeard
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I'm looking a few levels ahead for a wizard I'm currently playing, and was trying to figure out a way to use Spell Perfection that was effective without breaking the game. Here's what I came up with:
Spell Focus (Transmutation) @ 11
Greater Spell Focus (Transmutation) @ 13
Spell Perfection (Slow) @ 15
Currently, this wizard is level 10, with focus and greater focus in conjuration, wielding battlefield control and haste.
So, casting Quickened Persistent Slow in a 5th level slot at a level 7 save DC, and haste on the party in the same round. My question is that if that's too one-trick pony or not. I'm basically wondering if there's something else worth spending the feats on instead, or if that's too much, or if it's just not worth it. One nice thing about transmutation is that it includes some spells like Flesh to Stone, which is a great anti-wizard spray should some pesky arcanist decide to rain on our parade. He'll qualify for Loremaster at level 11, and I intend to take him into that for flavor reasons.
Anyways, current/prospective feat build for this elven wizard, conjuration/teleportation subspecialist:
1) Improved Initiative
3) Spell Focus (Conjuration)
5) Greater Spell Focus (Conjuration)
5) Persistent Spell
7) Dimensional agility (ruled to work with Shift!)
9) Skill Focus (Knowledge (Dungeoneering))
10) Quicken Spell
Begin loremaster at 11
11) Spell Penetration, Spell Focus (Transmutation) from secret
13) Greater Spell Focus (Transmutation), Toughness from secret
15) Spell Perfection (Slow), +2 fortitude saves from secret
--I don't expect the campaign to make it to 20, but...--
17) undecided feat, +2 will saves from secret
19) undecided feat, +2 reflex saves from secret
So, what would YOU take from 11 and up? I want something powerful, but within the limits of keeping it fun for everyone else. The rest of the party is composed of fighters and clerics, basically.
| Corlindale |
You don't seem to qualify for Loremaster at level 11, since you only have two metamagic feats. Maybe get Heighten for Slow so you can heighten AND persist it against high-save enemies.
Spell Perfection: Slow is pretty cool, since hardly anything is immune to slow. SF: Transmutation will also help you with the de facto save or die spells, like Baleful Polymorph and Polymorph Any Object (the latter works on almost everything).
| Khrysaor |
Also a good thing for mitigating damage if you like reduce person vs large or bigger humanoid creatures. I'm always a fan of combining echoing spell in with my metamagics for spell perfection since you can effectively double your spells.
Round starts cast an echoing perfected spell followed up by a quickened version of the same spell for the price of one slot. Coupled with various rods you can have great options or just get the echoing rod.
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Axebeard
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You don't seem to qualify for Loremaster at level 11, since you only have two metamagic feats. Maybe get Heighten for Slow so you can heighten AND persist it against high-save enemies.
Spell Perfection: Slow is pretty cool, since hardly anything is immune to slow. SF: Transmutation will also help you with the de facto save or die spells, like Baleful Polymorph and Polymorph Any Object (the latter works on almost everything).
Wizards get Scribe Scroll at level 1, meaning that you only need 2 metamagic feats to qualify. I forgot to list it.
That thing you mentioned about how hardly anything is immune to slow was part of my thinking: I wanted something that would be frequently-applicable and powerful without being TOO powerful. It's mostly the high-DC multisave slow on the enemies and haste on the party combined that I'm worried about being too powerful of an effect, as I want to preserve balance. I'm glad to hear that the spell focus won't go wasted when not considering slow, though. I'm not sure just HOW many feats I want to spend on a single spell.
My favorite balance-wrecking Spell Perfection usage is Spell Focus/Greater Spell Focus/Elemental focus/Greater elemental focus/Dazing Spell+spell perfection to do a Dazing Chain Lightning at DC 24+int mod. Hardly anything is immune to daze. But, needless to say, that's not a very interesting character to play.
EDIT: I forgot that Spell Perfection requires a third metamagic feat.
I've seen one vote for Echoing Spell, but any other ideas?
| Corlindale |
"Wizards get Scribe Scroll at level 1, meaning that you only need 2 metamagic feats to qualify. I forgot to list it. "
That's awesome, I totally overlooked that. That will make my own wizard-going-loremaster very happy indeed, his low-level feats are less tied up now.
I still think Heighten would be a decent MM if you're going to base your build on a spell with as low a base level as Slow - of course it's mathematically less powerful than Persistent Spell, but you can use them together for greater effect. It also qualifies you for Preferred Spell, if you feel like having the power to spontaneously cast slow.
Focused Spell would also work with slow, but since it's only slightly better than heighten for DC increase and has serious drawbacks I doubt it would be a powerful choice.
I don't think the haste-slow combo is brokenly powerful, Slow is a good debuff but it doesn't exactly eliminate all opposition, and spellcasters are somewhat less hurt by it than melee types. But it's a useful spell. Only worry is that you could get bored of casting it all the time - but I guess you'll only use it once per encounter in any case.
The Dazing Spell + DC stacking is a little over-the-top, though :-) And I agree that it would probably get boring to play.