So, I was just checking out the thread on Spontaneous vs Prepared casters and someone commented saying that Socerers made the best illusionist. He, in particuliar, focused on the Arcane bloodline. So my challange to you is, who is the best illusionist? A wizard? A Socerer? Or something else?
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So, I was just checking out the thread on Spontaneous vs Prepared casters and someone commented saying that Socerers made the best illusionist. He, in particuliar, focused on the Arcane bloodline. So my challange to you is, who is the best socerer? A wizard? A Socerer? Or something else?
I'd have to say that sorcerers make the best sorcerers.
FIX'd
Whatever it is its probably a gnome.
Or a wayang or drow specialized for shadow spells. They can be pretty handy, but admittedly more because they can use illusions to cast non-illusion spells. I assume OP is asking about illusions for illusion's sake, so... probably a wizard. Illusions are already flexible enough that sorcerer's lower spells/day hurt more than their versatility helps.
I'd say a Shadowcaster and a Sorcerer can rival each other pretty well. The main difference is between quicker access to "more real" shadows vs. spontaneous access to the right illusion at the right time.
A wizard will be a stronger utility character all around since, other than casting illusions, he's also a wizard with a massive list of options, whereas the Sorcerer will be better at illusions (can choose whichever one they need on the fly), but have much weaker utility.
There's also something to be said for a Heaven's Oracle taking advantage of Color Spray well into the teens.
An arcane gnome illusionist gets +5 to the DC on illusion spells by the end.
Assuming they start at 20 cha, a gnome illusionist by the end of his career will have 36 cha so a 9th level spell like weird or shades or heightened X would have a DC of 10 + 13cha + 2ft + 1racial + 2 bloodline + 9th lvl spell = 37.
A truly skilled illusionist would never have an opponent roll their save, but it never hurts to have high DCs anyways.
Gnome sorcerer's seconded. They're naturally good at it, and there's good feats to help make even your average illusion spell awesome (see Effortless Illision, and Threatening Illusion).
I Would like to point out also that if are an arcane sorcerer, everytime you metamagic a spell it's DC increases by 1. Additionally, if you use Tenebrous Spell on a spell in dim light (not that hard, just cast darkness first) the spell's DC increases by +1. If the spell has the [Darkness] or [Shadow] descriptors or is of Illusion[Shadow] subschool, it does not use up a higher spell slot. So with that you could cast a shades spell with a DC of 10+13Cha+2ft+1racial+2bloodline+1Bloodlinearcana+9thlevel spell+1 Tenebrous Spell= 39. (assuming using Marthkus' gnome).
Yar!
Another thing to consider is the PrC Veiled Illusionist.
This PrC has some seriously awesome buffs to Illusion magic, including giving you a chance to foil an enemies Spellcraft check so that they identify a spell of your choice instead of the illusion you're actually casting (seriously, the spellcraft check to identify a spell you can see being cast has foiled more Illusion spells than the save to disbelieve it does, in my experience at least), maintaining your illusions via Concentration as a Swift action instead of a Standard action, making those who disbelieve your illusions have to do so twice, etc. (All a limited number of times, but at least this actually gives you the option to do so at all).
In addition to the Tenebrous metamagic feat, I'm a big fan of the feat Shadow Gambit, but maybe that's just me.
~P
