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So, I am loving the idea of a blaster wizard based on Brewers guide. I will run a savage elf with the magical lineage trait: Fireball, School: admixture.
A little background, I am new to pathfinder although I played d and d from 1980-1998. I had to move due to a job and yadda yadda yadda. I found my way back home only to discover my beloved game has changed significantly.
Ok, change is inevitable right.
The last game I played was with a 2E Maxed out barbarian, So upon my return my friends preroll me a half orc-barbarian just to reintergrate me into the game. It's cool and all but I love spellcasters and have a halfling master summoner prepared.
And before I get all the hatemail I mean prepared I have all my SPA and spells already on 3 X 5 cards. so as not to slow combat down to much.
I recently read "Brewers guide" and am totally digging the idea. So much so that I might ditch the the idea of battle field controller summoner
So the question put before you is this what is the the feat tree you would choose to lay out uber fireballs. With the caveat that I DO NOT WANT TO "DIP and/or multiclass"
Oh yeah, here re my base stats
S 11
D 17
C 16
I 12
W 13
CH 18
These were my halfling MS stats before adding in racial bonuses. You can switch the stats however you want.
If you have further questions feel free to ask.
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Take a single level of Crossblooded Sorcerer to gain the Orc and Draconic Bloodlines. The comb will add +2 damage per dice on all of your offensive spells that match your Draconic bloodline and +1 on all other damage spells. I though personally dis-advise fire spells since it is the most common resistance/immunity in the game.
Savage Elves give up Elven Magic, you should consider that before making a blaster. I would recommend Fleet-Footed or Arcane Focus alternate racial traits.
Blaster evoker wizard focusing on fireball happens to be one of the best characters I have ever ran, and I would gladly share some advice with you.
STATS (after racial mods)
S 11
D 19
C 14
I 20
W 13
C 12
Feats and Spells widely vary based on the game that you are playing and they style of play (basically how much of a d*ck your DM is); how closely will your DM pay attention to your spellbook(s); how much will he charge you, and will he let you tear out pages of a spellbook to use as scrolls? These are all very important questions that can make subpar and mediocre feats bomb-freaking-tastic.
This feat for example can be such a feat. It effectively halves the cost of increasing your spellbook's contents, or doubles the amount of spells you can have according to WBL, depending on how you look at it. Can you rip pages out of your spellbook(s) and use them as scrolls? Guess what, it's a lot cheaper to copy spells into your book and then rip them out, especially with this feat. Buy a bunch of cheap, throwaway spellbooks and fill them up with utility spells and anything else that you wouldn't want to waste a spell slot on. This is another good feat depending solely on playstyle. Does the DM keep track of how many hours you can travel in a day? It's possible to have a journey extended in game by a whole day due to the extra time for spell preparation which may make the difference between success and failure.
Improved Initiative, Spell Focus, Mage's Tatoo, Greater Spell Focus, Spell Specialization, Spell Penetration, and Spell Perfection are all extremely important feats to pick up. Metamagic feats are also important. Personally, I would avoid Item Creation feats if at all possible, since they really take away from your options to blow things up in different ways.
Eldritch Researcher is another amazing feat to pick up if you can convince your DM to either give you a free trait (from the rules in Ultimate Campaign) or retrain your metamagic trait also using the Ultimate Campaign book to create a spell even better than any fireball you could throw out there. This one requires a lot of DM cooperation.
Good metamagic feats to pick up are Heighten Spell, Dazing Spell, Intensified Spell, Empower Spell, Quicken Spell, and I personally like Rime Spell for it's application early in game. Making a good blaster wizard is about doing more than just damage. Rime Spell also makes you favor [cold] spells more than others, making Elemental Focus [cold] and its Greater viable feats. Picking up a Rod of it can be done early as it only costs 3000 gp and it will always work on your fireballs unless you heighten them.
I could go either way on giving up Scribe Scroll for Spell Focus, if you can use pages from your spellbook, then 100% give it up, if not then it's not a bad feat, especially at the end of the day and you need a Rope Trick or a Mage's Mansion to sleep in.
If you are building this guy for damage, then make a sorcerer, and make him well using a draconic bloodline for extra damage. The level dip does you no good when you could just make a sorcerer who gets more spells all at the same levels as your cross class wizard thanks to cross classing.
Arcane Bond: pick a familiar, get a dodo, or compsognathus, or a greensting scorpion. Your most important stat when it comes to combat (aside from your DCs) is your initiative modifer. You always want to go first so you can get the buffs going, or the area spell thrown before your allies go into combat, so that way they don't have to delay their own initiative or worse, skip their first turn, just to get into fighting shape. The +2 on perception thanks to a free Alertness feat is also nice.
Opposition Schools: Choose Enchantment and Necromancy. Period. Necromancy is a different kind of offense that you won't be using because you're a blaster and your feats and spells are dedicated to blasting. Same thing for enchantments. Illusion is too good to give up thanks to color spray and invisibility, as well as displacement. Never give up Conjuration, Divination, or Abjuration. They are all too important.
Traits: You definitely wanna pick up Magical Lineage or Wayang Spell Hunter/Metamagic master and put it on fireball, because you do. Period. You also should wanna pick up Reactionary, Paragon of Speed, or Warrior of Old for the boost to Initiative. If you are allowed to have shenanigans with Eldritch Researcher, you may consider taking the Additional Traits feat to pick up either Wayang Spell Hunter/Metamagic Master or Magical Lineage, whichever one you didn't take at level 1.
All things considered your initiative should be at +16 at level one, which means you go 1st, pretty much always, which is how you like it, and if you play it right your friends will like it too. Remember that Haste is your favorite spell next to fireball, and also remember that you can prepare lower level spells in higher level slots, but they will still count as their actual level for things like DCs and use of metamagic rods.
Figure out how the game is going to played and any house rules that may apply, I've found that silly things like these can make or break character concepts, once you figure that out you can make yourself a decent build.
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Thank you for the very detailed review.
When I say savage elf I was thinking not of a specific racial build but more of a flavor element for a background story. I was picturing the valley elves from greyhawk circa 1E.
My DM and I have been gaming since the 80's so their is no worries about him being a douche.( Don't tell him that though). Generally we do not use 3rd party stuff
I will be doing the admixture school with magical lineage(fireball)and am definitely going for the greensting scorpion familiar. opposition schools enchantment and necromancy.
Stats Weird we have the exact same ones! Our group rolls 4D6 9 times in groups of 3, Basically until we have a great starting character.
Feats
1.spell focus(evocation), spell specialization(burning hands
3. Varasian tattoo
5. Intensify Spell, Greater spell focus
7. Empower Spell
9. Spell Penetration
10. Dazing Spell
11. Improved Initiative
13. Greater Spell Penetration
15.(The Sweet Spot)Quicken Spell and Spell Perfection(Fireball)
17. Greater Spell Specialization
19. ?
I would take Improved Initiative at lvl 1, and put off Intensified Spell since it won't matter to you until later on when you actually have sufficient CL to go over the spell's level cap, I would take Spell Specialization at this level instead.
Quicken I would like to see at lvl 13, and Greater Spell Pen at level 15.
Basically, I like all your feats, but personally would do them in a different order, but if you start the game at a high enough level to where that doesn't matter, then disregard this post up to this point.
Other good feats to look at at those later levels include Combat Casting, Additional Traits, or an Arcane Discovery.
At level 20, you should always select Immortality, then Gate yourself to a plane with crazy shortened time, age yourself to venerable, then Gate yourself back for a free +3 INT.
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I am starting at level 1.
OK so we are talking,
1. Spell focus, I. Initiative
3. Mage Tattoo
5. Spell Specialization/Greater Spell Focus
7. Empower Spell
9. Spell Penetration
10. Dazing Spell
11. Intensify Spell
13. Quicken
15. Greater Spell Pen/Spell Perfecto
Hmmm. The only problem I see with this is a weakness at early levels, what am I doing at levels 1-4. Brewers plan was burning hands that due to admixture could be changed to 1 of 4 energy types.
I am starting at level 1.
OK so we are talking,
1. Spell focus, I. Initiative
3. Mage Tattoo
5. Spell Specialization/Greater Spell Focus
7. Empower Spell
9. Spell Penetration
10. Dazing Spell
11. Intensify Spell
13. Quicken
15. Greater Spell Pen/Spell PerfectoHmmm. The only problem I see with this is a weakness at early levels, what am I doing at levels 1-4. Brewers plan was burning hands that due to admixture could be changed to 1 of 4 energy types.
Burning Hands is a tactical trap, it forces you to put yourself in front of the enemy and you can only do minimal damage with it. For levels 1-2 you should avoid direct combat, unless you are throwing out a color spray, which is the best offensive spell you have. Ear Piercing Scream is another good one. Don't forget you have that Magic Missile spell. Between Color Spray being obviously better, Ear Piercing Scream doing more damage that won't get resisted anyway, and Magic Missile being Magic Missle, you simply won't need Burning Hands. Drawing attention to yourself with a blast like a Burning Hands is how a lot of level 1 blaster wizards die. Grease and Obscuring Mist are also solid spells for you to use at lvl 1. Remember your wizard has a 20 INT, he should know better than to walk out there with only 8 HP and draw attention to himself with what most CR1 monsters will think is a gigantic threat. Another thing to consider, what DM is gonna throw monsters at you at lvl 1 that have energy resistances that you need to admix to get around? I would also have an Enlarge Person prepared for your BDF friend.
Levels 3 & 4 you should focus on using Scorching Ray.
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I too have concerns about burning hands and the whole 15' thing and my 6 HP, but it is consistent with background story I am working on. MM I could justify as well as flaming sphere, but sleep or color spray? yeah they are great spells but don't fit my character concept.
This character really starts at level 5 when fireball becomes available and pretty much peaks at 15 or 18 when I fire off a maxed out fireball followed by meteor swarm..man that sounds like fun
Where is this Wayang spell hunter trait?
Are you using both traits?
Wayang Spell Hunter plus Magical Lineage is a good way to have empowered fireballs at 5th level.My build in Pathfinder Society:
Wizard, evoker, admixture subschool
Traits
Magical Lineage (fireball), Wayang Spellhunter (fireball)
Feats:
1-Spell Focus Evocation, Spell Specialization(Burning Hands)
3-Varisian Tattoo(Evocation)
4-switch Spell Specialization to Fireball.
5-Empower Spell
7-Intensify Spell
9-Quicken Spell
10-Maximize SpellKey items to consider:
Metamagic Rod, Selective Spell, Lesser
Metamagic Rod, Maximize Spell, Lesser
Metamagic Rod, Empower Spell, Lesser
Headband of IntBoom spells: (YMMV based on campaign, wealth, item availability, etc.)
1-2 Burning hands
3-4 Burning Hands plus Flaming Sphere
5-7 Empowered Fireball(use with Selective Rod as needed)
8 Empowered Intensified Fireball(use with Selective Rod as needed)
9 Quickened Fireball plus Empowered Intensified. (use with Maximize Rod)
10 Quickened Intensified plus Maximized Intensified Fireball (use with Empower Rod)
So in PFS they do let wayang spell hunter and magical lineage stack? I was under the impression that this was not the case.
Well for that matter, it's totally worth it to take Additional Traits just to pick up the traits that are so good for wizards.