Illusion spellcaster

[Katz]

I'm considering making an illusion-based spellcaster for an upcoming game, based around using illusions to disrupt the enemy team, and picking up the Shadow Gambit feat to help with a bit of damage output. I'm currently considering either a Shadowcaster Wizard, or a Shadow-Bloodline (possibly Umbral Wild-Blooded) Sorcerer. Are illusions impractical to specialize in? Any advice or tips?

[Aldarionn]

Well it depends on a few things. How high level is this campaign likely to reach? How are you handling stats? Is it a monster manual campaign or is the DM likely to include a bunch of NPC characters?

There are a few things that can screw up an illusion based caster, primarily the use of True Seeing by NPC's or monsters that have it as a constant ability. For lower levels this doesn't matter but at higher levels it basically wrecks illusion magic if your DM decides to include it. Also, for an illusionist to be successful he needs to have reasonably high DC's since Shadow Evocation/Shadow Conjuration spells allow both a will save and a save for whatever spell they are mimicking if applicable.

Those are the big pitfalls. If you can get around them, an illusionist can be an excellent character. Others may have some additional pitfalls to watch out for.

[tonyz]

Most important tip: make sure you and your GM are on the same wavelength with how illusions work, what can and can't be done, and how enemies will react.

[Katz]

The campaign could be anywhere from a single session that never gets followed up on (unfortunate, but common with my GM), to level twenty; Stats are done with the standard 4d6 drop the lowest method, the GM likes to use a mix of monsters and NPCs.

For getting high DC's, what are the methods available, beyond Spell Focus and raising casting stats?

And I do plan on talking to him about how he runs illusions

[Jen the GM]

Remember illusion is much more expansive than just illusion. There are lots of nice control spells that are illusion. Also, Gnomes have neat traits that benefit illusion.

[Thaliak]

The Arcane Bloodline has two ways to boost DCs. The first is the bloodline power, which increases the DC of any spell modified by a metamagic feat other than Heighten Spell. The second is the Level 15 bloodline power, which increases the DC of a given school by 2 and stacks with Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus. You can't access to the Bloodline Arcana unless you're an Arcane Sorcerer or a cross-blooded Sorcerer, but you can access the 15th level power through Greater Eldritch Heritage.

Gnomes get a +1 bonus to the DCs of illusion spells.

Heighten Spell can increase spell DCs.

The metamagic feat Persistent Spell can force an enemy who succeeds on a save to reroll it. It increases the spell level by 2, but it can increase the chance of the spell succeeding as much as 25 percent, so it's often more efficient than Heighten Spell.

Spell Perfection doubles the bonus granted by Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus and allows you to apply one metamagic for free. It isn't available until level 15 and only applies to one spell, but if you find yourself casting a spell frequently, it's great.

The Outlander trait allows you to pick three arcane spells and increase their caster level and DC by 1. However, it's campaign specific.

I'm told there's an Eastern Mysteries trait that allows you to increase the DC of a spell by 2 once per day.

The Bard-only spell Arcane Concordance increases the DC of all arcane spells cast within 10 feet of you by 1. If you can afford a wand and you have a familiar capable of casting it, you could do that (though I suspect a debuff like Evil Eye would be more effective).

I'm sure there are other ways to optimize DCs, but remember, if you go too far, your DM will likely raise the enemies' saves, which will make your investment pointless and reduce the effectiveness of your allies' save-dependent spells.

By the way, consider taking the feat Effortless Trickery, which allows you to maintain concentration on illusion spells as a swift action. I've had a lot of fun using it with my bard. It's gnome only, but if you're human, you can get access to it with Racial Heritage. Aasimar can also get it through Racial Heritage if they take the Scion of Humanity alternate racial trait.