Caster that kills things himself?


Advice


So, I'm new to pathfinder and DnD in general (read the core books a dozen times and made a bunch of characters but could never find a group) and I finally found one. I decided I wanted to be the caster and I did a little bit of looking around on the internet for tips. This caused me to run into the guide for 'being a god' as a wizard, which was very discouraging. I had a character planned out who specialized in killing things himself, but according to this guide by a player who obviously has much more experience than myself this is an extremely weak way to play a wizard. I'm just curious if there's a different pure caster class that's better at nuking things or turning them to stone or whatever than wizard, or perhaps a way to build a wizard where this is at least close to as effective as 'god mode' wizard?

Thanks a lot!


Blasting will never be as good for a caster as buffing/controlling. It's definitely more optimal.

However, that doesn't mean blasting is INEFFECTIVE, just that it's NOT AS effective.

Personally I think the Sorcerer makes a better blaster simply because of the extra spells he gets coupled with not having to prepare them, and Bloodlines that increase blasting power.

A sort of caster build could be made with the Alchemist. He gets utility extracts and then can do all sorts of things with his bombs. As a bonus, if you take the right Discoveries you can carpet bomb an area AND do decent battlefield control, since things like Stink Bomb (nauseates everyone and obscures vision) do not replace the Bomb damage, so they take damage AND are debilitated. However, that's only really good for a straight damage. Though Alchemist also makes a good skill monkey for out of combat, and can serve as an effective replacement Rogue for any party.

As a side note, I don't believe this is the right forum. Beginner Box is only for the Beginner Box itself (a product), not for "Hi I'm new" sorts of things. Kinda confusing yes, but whatever.


A couple of things:

- Treantmonk's Guide is just that - a guide that focuses on the most effective way(in his opinion, although I agree pretty much completely) to use the wizard. It's a coldly rational appraisal of the class, and doesn't take into account anything but what's effective.

- His guide also promotes a certain philosophy, one aspect of which is that the whole (party) is greater than the sum of its parts (PCs). Martials are generally the damage dealers, and the wizard's role is to make that job easier for them. This is mainly a combat-based perspective, but also the god wizard makes his fellow players happy as well, by letting them do what they do.

- Blasting isn't all that bad, it just takes a bit more planning and specialisation. The main down side to blasting is that you must overcome your enemies' defences when attacking them directly, or the spell is largely wasted. Treantmonk's god wizard tends to use buffs, spells that target areas (battlefield control), summoning, utility spells, and some debuffs and the occasional blast. The debuffs and blasts usually have to overcome saves or they waste an action, whereas a fog/cloud or other similar area targeting spell just works - yes, creatures that enter get a save, but if they make it the spell's effect is still there.

- You have to make a character you enjoy. Yes, you should make it as effective as you can given your concept, but if the characters's main schtick strikes you as boring (as the god wizard seems to), there's no point.

In conclusion, don't feel that you have to strive to be as powerful or effective as a Treantmonk god wizard. Make what you want, and there's certainly ways to make it effective. I've never actually made a blaster wizard before, but I'm sure you'll get plenty of advice on how to make a good one in no time.


Well, if you want to smell the tang of ozone over the bloody bodies of your foes there's the magus, which is like a fighter/wizard. they do some pretty sick damage, especially at the lower levels.

They not strictly as effective as a god mode wizard but they are a lot of fun.


The blaster wizard is at a optimization deficit compared to other wizards, but it really doesn't matter in my opinion because they still compare favourably to other classes in relative power.


also, you could go with a sorc, which has many similarities, but in general, is more designed on blast.


Yup build as you like and don't sweat about optimization too much. Especially when playing a home game.

Can you tell us more about your concept?

Also check out the evocation optimization thread for a nice blaster caster build advice.

Though that is again very specialized. You could also simply combine Treantmonks advice (battlefield control) with a few choice damage or save or die spells. Necromancer or Transmuters also lend themselves to damage dealing.


I will add though that you shouldn't be trying to actually kill things with spells until 3rd level or so,as it is not really effective until Magic missile gets a second missile, and you pick up scorching ray and flaming sphere. Sleep, enlarge person and such-like should be your bread and butter until then.

Wizards are my favourite and most played class. Blasting get really fun when you get to the point where you can drop chain lightning and then clean up with a maximized fireball quickened with a intermediate rod of metamagic. and as a Wizard you don't even need a special build to do that.


Yes, I think sorcerers make good blasters too.

As mentioned, a mix of blasting and other types of spells is not a bad way to go.


Evocation wizard with a 1 level dip of crossblooded sorceror (picking two arcanas that each give +1 damage/die to spells of a certain element) is a decent way to ramp up the damage of your evocation spells a bit.

This way of doing it actually still gets you new spells faster than just being a crossblooded sorceror, funnily enough, but you can also go the pure sorceror route if you're like me and love spontaneous casting. The delayed spell access of the crossblooded archetype is also a Little less painful for the blaster since you'll probable be using lots of metamagic and can thus still utilize the slots you get at even levels, even if you don't get actual new spells.


The guides revolve around 'optimization,' i.e., crunching the numbers to gain the most combat efficiency with zero regard for anything else. Some players like that kinda stuff.

Others are roleplayers, who are interested in things like personal style, characterization, and fun. Give that a try.


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Calybos1 wrote:

The guides revolve around 'optimization,' i.e., crunching the numbers to gain the most combat efficiency with zero regard for anything else. Some players like that kinda stuff.

Others are roleplayers, who are interested in things like personal style, characterization, and fun. Give that a try.

That old routine? Really? Please don't corrupt the newbie, the best optimizers I've ever personally encountered Have also been among the best roleplayers I've encountered. Also, some people find playing useful characters fun.


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There's no reason that just about any roleplaying concept can't be at least reasonably effective.


I think the Dazing Spell feat invalidates the whole thesis of the Treantmonk guide.

That feat is broken. There isn't too much that is immune to dazing, and there are all kinds of neat tricks to do with it with the different feats and traits to pump up one spell.

Do a search on the board for builds using this. I'd say the best "control" wizard is a 1 Sorcerer (Crossblooded Orc/Something probably Draconic, since you won't be advancing in Sorcerer the Crossblooded won't hurt you), 19 Admixture Wizard.

A blaster is a controller now. Plus you can take all the utility spells anyway.


I really like sorcerer for damage because of the flexibility that you might know some utility spells, but since you cast based on spells per day, it doesn't have to take away spell slots from your blasting. Plus a lot of bloodlines have some associated attacks that are decent for low level.

Silver Crusade

TheOneHawk wrote:

perhaps a way to build a wizard where this is at least close to as effective as 'god mode' wizard?

Just because a choice is "less effective" does not mean you will not be effective. For a new player a blaster wizard is actually a good choice because blasting type spells are quite simple compared to many spells.

Blasting is super fun and if that is what you want to do the game supports it. You need to make certain that your knowledge skills that ID creatures are maxed so you know what kind of energy to use. Once you know that then Boom Baby Boom! I am the Midnight Blaster what bombs at midnight.

I encourage you to go the blasting route. Be warned that it takes a lot of feats to keep up with enemy hit points and immunities. I am sure other posters can recommend the right options for a blaster wizard.

Sovereign Court

The Treantmonk guide was written based only on the Core Rule Book. Since then, blasting has gotten better.

I'm currently raising an Earth wizard with Calcific Touch, Magical Lineage, Reach Spell; the idea is to eventually petrify most dragons in two rounds flat. But these are all non-CRB things I'm using.


North Star wrote:
Also, some people find playing useful characters fun.

For those new to the terminology, 'useful' is not equal to 'optimized.' Number-crunchers who worry about optimization go WAY beyond considerations of mere usefulness.


Calybos1 wrote:
North Star wrote:
Also, some people find playing useful characters fun.

For those new to the terminology, 'useful' is not equal to 'optimized.' Number-crunchers who worry about optimization go WAY beyond considerations of mere usefulness.

Actually, usefulness is equal to optimization, It's just that optimization involves a lot more than math, contrary to the popular misconception. Optimization also includes tactics, strategy, and creativeness, System mastery represents the fundamentals of optimization and therefore figures very highly in it. Number crunching is handy, but not even necessary to optimization.

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Here's what was worked out on the boards to be an optimal Paizo Caster Blaster build. I don't claim credit, I just keep record.

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2nn33&page=3?Evocation-optimization#144

Because the question comes up a lot.

Don't worry what optimizers say about blasters. They are ignoring the heart and soul of a blaster.

1) Non-blaster wizards are not effective blasters. It takes a lot of investment to become a blaster. Non-blaster spellcasters can't simply memorize a spell and become effective blasters. It just doesn't work.

2) Blaster wizards can be perfectly effective at ALL the other jobs of a wizard...all they have to do is memorize other spells. The power of a blaster comes from archetype and feat/bloodline selection. The power of a God Wizard comes from spells. (i) At any time, you can be a God Wizard by changing your spells. The God Wizard cannot become a Blaster Caster by doing the same. (/i)

3) Blasting Solves Problems. You've a big hammer, and every enemy is a nail. When you are dealing enough damage, DD and AoE's become save or dies, or saves and really suck. Generally speaking, a high level blaster opening up with a salvo can weaken the enemy so tremendously that the other members of the party might be able to finish wiping them in one round, if he doesn't kill them outright.

4) With the introduction of Dazing Spell and other MM feats, high saves do double duty for Evokers...save or take tons of damage, and save again or sucketh ye.

With Specialized spell giving a low level caster bonus, Blaster Casters can do quite well from level 1. Stay away from Magic Missile as a spec spell, it doesn't advance in damage fast enough. You're going to have to use Burning Hands, which means getting fairly close to enemies...but your damage should ramp up pretty fast. Magic Missile is a fine back up for incorporeals, however.

Blast away, and have fun. Even if you don't kill stuff, if you can wound large amounts so your melee or archer can one-hit them, that's fine...that's battlefield control of an entirely different sort. AN optimizer might poo-poo it since if you don't kill them, they can attack...but if you can get them close enough to death that the rest of the party can finish the job, and maybe wipe a bunch of mooks, you're good.

==+Aelryinth


Another thing about blasting -- it tends to work better in situations where there are lots of low-level minions rather than One Big Enemy. Fireball doesn't do that much more damage than scorching ray, but it does it to lots and lots of targets.

Effectiveness of any particular build is campaign-dependent.


If your team utilizes tactics that optimize your blasting you can enjoy all the smoking ozone-oozing corpses you want.

Treantmonk's guides are years out of date. They were good when they were created, but they are mostly based only on the CRB and even then people have learned ways to build other effective options.

My druid is one of the best characters I've ever played, and according to Treantmonk, she should totally and utterly suck.

She rocks.


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It's a two-step process:

1. Decide what would be fun to play.

2. Figure out how to optimize it to make it useful.

If Evocation Wizards exist in the game, then they were meant to be played. The party should adjust to having an Evocation Wizard, rather than expecting the Evoker to do the job of an Abjurer or Transmuter. You might not be effective in the traditional Wizard role, but as long as you're effective in *some* role, you're pulling your weight in the party.


littlehewy wrote:
There's no reason that just about any roleplaying concept can't be at least reasonably effective.

"I hate magic (and therefore never cast spells, have allies cast spells on me, or use magic items)."

See how long you remain relevant in a system like Pathfinder with your magicphobe. As great as the Superstition rage power is, actually trying to roleplay that sort of thing quickly leaves you utterly worthless.


Note that while I did say wizard in my original post I am not opposed to any other caster class. If sorcerer is the best at blasting and turning things to stone with a touch of battlefield control, then by all means I'll play a sorcerer.

I do, however, have a hard time seeing that build shown above as legit. What sorcerer would, with his natural easy power, stop working on that and go to the massive trouble of learning to be a wizard? I get that the bonus's are good this way but it just doesn't seem to make sense to me very much. What makes this build stronger than purely one class or the other being maxed into blasting?

Thank you everyone for your quick and helpful replies!


Heh. Didn't think you'd delete the other thread. Mods would've eventually moved it over here.

In any case, I'll go ahead and repost what I put before:

Quote:

Personally I think the Sorcerer makes a better blaster simply because of the extra spells he gets coupled with not having to prepare them, and Bloodlines that increase blasting power.

A sort of caster build could be made with the Alchemist. He gets utility extracts and then can do all sorts of things with his bombs. As a bonus, if you take the right Discoveries you can carpet bomb an area AND do decent battlefield control, since things like Stink Bomb (nauseates everyone and obscures vision) do not replace the Bomb damage, so they take damage AND are debilitated. However, that's only really good for a straight damage. Though Alchemist also makes a good skill monkey for out of combat, and can serve as an effective replacement Rogue for any party.

An interesting one might be Druid. They don' get very MANY blasty spells, but they get some INTERESTING ones, plus you can shapeshift into a lion and pretend you're a Pokemon or something just for the lulz of it.


Roberta Yang wrote:
littlehewy wrote:
There's no reason that just about any roleplaying concept can't be at least reasonably effective.

"I hate magic (and therefore never cast spells, have allies cast spells on me, or use magic items)."

See how long you remain relevant in a system like Pathfinder with your magicphobe. As great as the Superstition rage power is, actually trying to roleplay that sort of thing quickly leaves you utterly worthless.

Well, how does this magicphobe define "magic"? Is he cool with divine blessings? How about an inspiring soundtrack to his ass-kicking?

Also, why are we assuming that this roleplay-oriented character is incapable of developing greater nuance over time? He might start out obstinately refusing all magical aid...then sometime around level 3, he gets poisoned and nearly dies...while he's unconscious, that witch that he's been barely tolerating saves his life. Now he's got a dilemma on his hands...he hates magic, but can he really bring himself to harm a person that violated his wishes to save his life?


My favorite and most powerful "destructive" character is an Evocation Red Wizard, although in most cases I soften them up and let my Warrior companion knock'em out. Even though I'm an Envoker I do pick some other types of spells to control the battlefield. I do blow a lot of things up and it's a lot more fun throwing fireballs around atleast more than most of the other wizard jobs.

Digital Products Assistant

Merged threads.


One piece of advice: I think the Admixture school is a better choice than the baseline Evocation school. The damage loss is relatively minor, and what you gain in vesatility is well worth in the mid to late game when you start encountering elemental immunities.

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The above build I linked to is used because you lose no casting power or blasting power, and gain tons of wizardly versatility.

With Spell spec, you can pick a theme spell at early levels, and upgrade it as you go along. That's important. The caster level bonus means you can do decent damage early. But a blaster build really has to focus on one good spell, and get maximum usage out of that spell, because Spell Mastery at 15 can only focus on one spell.

So, your build at all levels is simply to choose the best spell for that level, bend it to your will, and buff and meta the heck out of it. With spell spec, you can do this by ditching other spells, OR by simply memorizing a meta'd version of it.

A blaster needs spell spec, caster levels boosts, metas and class abilities to succeed...no other wizard build is so intensive, because all their baseline spells do the job. Once you have them, however, you can do things blasting no other wizard can do...and you can still Summon VI if you need to.

The reason to go wizard over sorc is because you still get that versatility. In addition, wizards have a slight edge in feats, a definite edge in skill points, and admixture's ability to change the element of blasty spells on demand is priceless.

In addition, you are going to be throwing a LOT of meta'd spells. A wizard does not have to take those as full round actions...although he can. With bonus evoc spells, he can load all his slots with meta'd spells without fail, and still has the option of trashing unused spells and meta'ing them up like the sorc.

It's just more versatile, all around.

As for theme...the character already has two bloodlines. Admixture represents mastery of all the blasting elements. With dragon and orc blood in him, being master of every blasty spell under the sun sounds like a great theme for any Blaster Caster.

==Aelryinth


As a counter point, a blaster sorcerer (draconic bloodline and tatooed for example) is still quite effective. Compared to the wizard, they can cast any spell in their arsenal until they run out of slots, so if you're fighting a big nasty boss you weren't expecting, you can flip over and fire off 5 or so enervations in rapid succession, and then resume fireballing the peons.

A sorcerer will be a face character instead of a skill monkey, but if you're taking spell specialization, then you didn't dump int and will still have some skills. If you already have a rogue or alchemist in the party, this may be better for party makeup.

Crossblooded sorcerers and optimal blast wizards also still take a -2 penalty to will saves which may not be best.

Wizards also have dependency on spellbooks. Sorcerers just wake up ready to rock.

There is a feat (spontaneous metafocus) that pairs up nicely with spell perfection to remove the full action casting problem.

Having a few spells known that are always available requires much less bookkeeping than a spellbook, so may be more enjoyable to a novice to the system.

The Paizo iconic miniature for the sorcerer is way hotter than the one for the wizard.

Basically, sorcerers are viable and may be just as good as a wizard depending on party makeup due to their unique traits.

Anyway, here are some feats that any blaster caster may want to look at:
spell focus: +1DC to one school
spell specialization: +2CL to once spell, can change spells
spell penetration: +2 vs spell resistance
greater spell focus: +1DC to one school
greater spell specialization or preferred spell (wizard only): spontaneous casting one spell
greater spell penetration:+2 vs spell resistance
spontaneous metafocus (sorcerer only): standard action metamagic one spell only
dazing spell: take damage and fail save makes enemy dazed (sits there)
empower spell: +50% more dice and numeric effects on damage
quicken spell: cast as a swift action
intensify spell: +5 dice level cap (10d6 max becomes 15d6 max)
heighten spell or persistant spell (boost save DCs or roll twice for saves)
SPELL PERFECTION!!: Multiple powerful boosts on one spell
Improved initiative: +4 initiative = blast sooner
mage's (varisian) tattoo (non core): +1 caster level to one school
-traits-
magical lineage: -1 spell level cost of metamagic on one spell

favorite blasty spells:
burning hands
scorching ray
fireball
ball lightning
fire snake
chain lightning

I went with the sorcerer over the wizard in my current campaign, and the fighter and I are trashing all the encounters while everybody else is not being terribly effective at the moment.

Also, don't count out burning hands at low level as a blaster. Most guides rate it as worthless, but at low level, you are basically the orkin man with burning hands vs swarms.

Finally, boosting caster level at low levels really ups the damage dice out of the box. It also helps with beating spell resistance. Boost save DC's next to make sure the spell effects stick. boost spell penetration at later levels when enemies with spell resistance become more common. Add metamagic from the mid levels on to further increase the nastiness of your spells. Try to pick your favorite spell at the beginning so that you can have magical lineage, spell specialization, spell perfection, and spontaneous metafocus all on your favorite goto spell

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Burning Hands is the first blasty spell a blaster should own. With a caster level bonus and such, you can be doing 3d6+6 dmg at level 1 in a nice short cone...which is plenty of hurty-hurt.

Being a successful high level blaster requires the use of metafeats. Maximize and empower are important that way, and so is Quicken. Dazing and such are more control effects then pure damage, although still useful.

Fire Snake is considered the highest viable blaster spell, because you can Quicken it freely with Spell Perfection, and you can't do that with Chain Lightning. It also Intensifies to 20d6,and once Perfected, you're at max damage at level 15, in plenty of time to take on the local big bads with 250+ AoE dmg/rd. Sure, Disintegrate has a higher cap, but if you wanted single shots, you wouldn't be throwing around fireballs for fun, would you?

===Aelryinth


Hey! Burning hands is only a Xd4 spell.
mage's tattoo (if the tattooed sorcerer archtype is allowed in your game) at level 1 makes burning hands hit for 4d4+4 (or 8 if cross blooded).

If you do the DPR optimization math there, it comes out really close to a level 1 barbarian with a great sword. But it is an AoE.

My blaster has that and mount for spells at level 1. Mount is super useful but I might soon be facing the divine ire of the horse god at the rate I'm burning through them.

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About Mages in Pathfinder
Mages in Pathfinder/D&D are generally adept at using their magic to control the world to their will. In the flavor of the fantasy world, it's more efficient to put a bunch of people to sleep so you can easily slit their throats than it is to blast them with fire.

Class Recommendations
I recommend Sorcerer, Wizard, and Alchemist (technically not a spellcaster). Sorcerers have limited amount of spells known, but they have more spell slots than wizards. Alchemists get bombs to throw. Magus is also a melee fighter mage that channels spells through his weapon.

About Treatmonk's Guide
There's one damage-dealing build that even Treatmonk likes: specialize in summoning. Summoning allows you to deal damage through creatures and serves as area control. Plus, any damage dealt to the summon is damage that isn't dealt to your allies. It's very weak at level 1, but it gets very powerful very quickly.

Builds
Since you're new, I recommend just avoiding complicated builds and be a vanilla spellcaster.

If you're a sorcerer, make Charisma your highest stat, followed by Dexterity, and Constitution. Elemental Bloodline is pretty cool for blasting (recommend electricity) or just pick any other bloodline that looks fun and doesn't have melee touch attack abilities.

If you're a wizard, make Intelligence your highest stat, followed by Dexterity. Conjuration and Evocation are good damage schools. I personally recommend familiar as your arcane bond. If you lose your bonded item, it's bad news for you.

If you're an alchemist, I recommend looking at the Dr. Strangelob guide.

In all cases, Improved Initiative is extremely powerful. Your AoEs are most useful when you get to go first, allowing you to nuke enemies when they're still bunched up.

Burning Hands (1st level), Snowball (1st level), Scorching Ray (2nd level), Fireball (3rd) are all good blasting spells. Magic missile is pretty bad, but gets very good later.

Other Thoughts
Keep in mind that Pathfinder isn't like MMORPGs. In video games, you're encouraged into extreme specialization, which is fine because you generally only do one thing in MMORPGs anyway (combat). In Pathfinder, you do more than fight. You socialize with NPCs, spy, steal, solve puzzles, disable traps, and other good stuff. If you make a character that's only good for killing things, you're going to be bored whenever your party is doing something that doesn't involve combat. It's much worse when you specialize in killing things in a very specific way.


Roberta Yang wrote:
littlehewy wrote:
There's no reason that just about any roleplaying concept can't be at least reasonably effective.

"I hate magic (and therefore never cast spells, have allies cast spells on me, or use magic items)."

See how long you remain relevant in a system like Pathfinder with your magicphobe. As great as the Superstition rage power is, actually trying to roleplay that sort of thing quickly leaves you utterly worthless.

Lol well, you might have me there. Lucky I included the "just about" backdoor in my statement. As has been mentioned though, you can certainly start with that concept and alter it through character development before it hamstrings you too much.


One drawback of the summoning wizard that treatmonk likes now is that his work predates the introduction of the summoner base class. Not only do they summon as well as wizards, but they get a wad of buff spells in their lists and a big, weird, otherworldly buddy with terribly complicated creation rules to follow them around.

If I were recommending a caster class to a novice, I think I would not recommend god wizards or summoners. If you don't know all the ins and outs of your control spells and summons, it is very easy to screw the party over or just take forever on your turn and bog the game down. They may be super effective if played right, but if played wrong, they're just a game snarling waste of space with the ability to accidentally destroy the party in hard to notice ways, like blocking all the charge lanes for your guys with ineffective groups of low level summons while leaving the enemy casters to attack with impunity, shielded by your own monsters.

I am fondly thinking back to our last game where a novice wizard with a god build kept accidentally splitting the party instead of the monsters with his battlefield control, and tended to always cast the least effective spell on his list at the most critical times. Example: casting create pit on the fast zombies between the party and the barbarian that was out in front, then watching helplessly while the barbarian was beaten down out of range of his scorching rays. I was DM and had to fight to keep my mouth shut often. Now create is usually a good spell, but used poorly and your party fighter gets to sit the battle out at the bottom of a hole, which also happened.


bfobar wrote:

If I were recommending a caster class to a novice, I think I would not recommend god wizards or summoners. If you don't know all the ins and outs of your control spells and summons, it is very easy to screw the party over or just take forever on your turn and bog the game down. They may be super effective if played right, but if played wrong, they're just a game snarling waste of space with the ability to accidentally destroy the party in hard to notice ways, like blocking all the charge lanes for your guys with ineffective groups of low level summons while leaving the enemy casters to attack with impunity, shielded by your own monsters.

I am fondly thinking back to our last game where a novice wizard with a god build kept accidentally splitting the party instead of the monsters with his battlefield control, and tended to always cast the least effective spell on his list at the most critical times. Example: casting create pit on the fast zombies between the party and the barbarian that was out in front, then watching helplessly while the barbarian was beaten down out of range of his scorching rays. I was DM and had to fight to keep my mouth shut often. Now create is usually a good spell, but used poorly and your party fighter gets to sit the battle out at the bottom of a hole, which also happened.

Novice doesn't mean incompetent. Summoning may require some knowledge of the bestiary, but battlefield control is very similar between games and turns up in many.


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Just as a side point that nobody has mentioned at any point, is Psionic at all a viable blaster? I haven't looked at them much but it is an option in the campaign. Do they work?

Is it worth it to take the metamagic feats or is it better to simply use the rods? Rods don't increase the spell slot used, do they?

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TheOneHawk wrote:

Just as a side point that nobody has mentioned at any point, is Psionic at all a viable blaster? I haven't looked at them much but it is an option in the campaign. Do they work?

Is it worth it to take the metamagic feats or is it better to simply use the rods? Rods don't increase the spell slot used, do they?

Metamagic feats are worth it if the effect is good and you expect to use it frequently. Rods don't increase spell slot usage, but they have limited use, require the rod in hand, and they can't be used in combination. Also, depending on the campaign, you might not always be able to get metamagic rods.

Psionics are 3rd-party material, so I can't comment on that.

This expanded wizard guide might be useful
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dCrQZIdtOEkKUZCC_lGgucgHSghCHysg6N0pAOi 1vaY/mobilebasic


Yeah, rods are good for those weird days. A fire blaster would probably want a rod of lesser elemental metamagic keyed to cold to make frost balls instead of fireballs every once and a while. Another good rod is piercing spell, for those occasional monsters that you really want to make sure you beat the spell resistance on. Selective spell would be another good one. Silent spell too. Heck, get a golf bag full of em.

Things like that.

Lantern Lodge

TheOneHawk wrote:

Just as a side point that nobody has mentioned at any point, is Psionic at all a viable blaster? I haven't looked at them much but it is an option in the campaign. Do they work?

Is it worth it to take the metamagic feats or is it better to simply use the rods? Rods don't increase the spell slot used, do they?

The thing is most people dont play with Psionics and is not PFS legal material so that is why it is not mentioned.

Psionic classes like Psion for example are great blasters primarily because they run off a Power Point system instead of a spell slot system. A pp system is pretty much the equivalent of a mana bar since u just take the number of points used for the ability and subtract it from the total amount of points available to u which then recharges back to full once u rest.

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Cyrad wrote:

I will say that a Blaster Caster is the ultimate multi-purpose DD dealer.

A fighter concentrated on DPR is a killing machine. A Blaster Caster focused on DPR is one night's blinky-wake away from a new set of spells and a new lease on life as a charmer, spy, pet salesman, master of undead, shapechanger, and entertainer of the masses.

==Aelryinth

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