The void school is an interesting choice for a wizard, and I've been wondering about building one . So I have a few questions.
1) What opposition school do you think would be best (IE air, water, earth or fire)?
2) What familiar/summons would fit the theme?
3) With "guidance" on the void school list of spells, can I actually use it?
The void school is an interesting choice for a wizard, and I've been wondering about building one . So I have a few questions.
1) What opposition school do you think would be best (IE air, water, earth or fire)?
2) What familiar/summons would fit the theme?
3) With "guidance" on the void school list of spells, can I actually use it?
Played a Void Mage in 2nd Darkness. Only Wizard I ever liked.
First off, I recommend elf to maximize how often you can use yReveal Weakness and to help overcome spell resistance. If you go that route might want to consider Spellbinder as well.
I tried to use spells that mimicked the Void - Suffocation was my perfected spell. I'd name Earth as your opposition school.
The void school list is an absolute mess. It needs to be overhauled. I have a copy of what we came up with around here somewhere.
Why wouldn't you be able to use Guidance?
One thing that the elemental schools have going for them is that you only have on opposition school; if you really wanted to at level 9 you could pick up Opposition Research and not have to worry about it all anymore.
Wiggz, Guidance isn't on the Wizard/Sorc spell list normally. Seems that Void School overrides that restriction though.
Call the Void is a really cool spell and seems as though it could be super handy if you cast it on an Improved Familiar that had at-will Invisibility. I always liked Cacodaemon (at-will invis and can consume souls) and Ratling (can use any scroll and has some nice SLAs) out of the improved familiar list and both seem like they could be fitting; Cacodaemon is a soul devouring monstrosity and Ratlings live for forbidden arcane lore. It's all very Lovecraftian.
I'm still not an evil dude by nature, so I might not want to go cacodaemon or ratling. However, I was thinking I might go void school/shadowcaster, MAYBE with eldritch heritage, not sure. Probably go human if that were the case, I'm not a fan of elves.
I probably would take opposition research too, but I would still have a long time without, so the opposition school needs to be chosen wisely.
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As Wiggz said, the Void School list kind of sucks, in spite of having a few good spells. The big advantage of being an Elf, in this case, is you can take the Elf-exclusive Spellbinder Archetype, which would allow you to cannibalize School spells you'd otherwise be stuck with whether they were useful or not.
As for appropriate summons, the three words you're looking for are "bizarre," "otherworldly," and "Lovecraftian" - the base summon monster list only has so much to offer in this regard, but some of the expansions you'll see there offer some good ones, like Amphisbaena, Gibbering Mouthers, Cloakers, and my hands-down favorite, Mothmen.
Well, I've got a basic build. Some things might shift around, but this is the general gist:
Race: Human (focused study)
Class: Wizard (shadowcaster (MOAR SPELL SLOTS)), Void school (opposition:?)
Stats (20 pts)
Str: 8 Dex: 14 Con: 14 Int: 17 Wis: 12 Cha: 13;
1 Defensive combat training; skill focus (K: arcana)
2
3 Eldritch Heritage (arcane)
4
5 Craft wondrous items
6
7 Great Fortitude
8 Skill focus (spellcraft)
9 Opposition Research
10
11 Improved Familiar
12
13 Quicken spell
I like the shadowcaster archetype, despite the lost feats it's interesting to boost one's shadows ? get a bunch of extra spell slots. Plus it allows me to take EH (arcane) since it isnt arcane bond, and thus still get the familiar (or bonded item, should I feel like it). I'll build it fully later tonight.Any ideas ?
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Actually, Improved Initiative could be a good choice for a Void Wizard, since it makes you better able to do your Reveal Weakness thing near the beginning so the rest of your party can take the best advantage of it.
As for Great Fortitude, if you've already got 14 Dexterity and Constitution, I'd look elsewhere. If you're going to dig yourself a secret passageway to an Arcane Bond (and if you choose a Familiar), might I suggest, since you have just enough Charisma for it, the Evolved Familiar feat? You could also take your Improved Familiar at that level, for that matter - unless your DM is offering something special, 7th level is high enough that all the options I can think of are available to you. If you still want better saving throws, you could do worse than applying permanency to resistance once you make 9th level.
Actually, I cant take "imp familiar" before level 9, since my bond level is char-2 (bacause of eld heritage). Imp initiative would be a good choice. However, I wont abandon greater fortitude off the bat, if only because I dont like relying on buffs, and my standards are to have at least saves=level at the minimum (and lately, play has shown me that even that can be rather unreliable). Items can help, but in a limited form. Permanency of resistance seems unnecessary, since a mere cloak is so cheap to craft.
I might remove defensive combat training in favor of imp initiative, but I'm not 100% set yet. I'll at least do martlin's switcheroo, but I dont want to be screwed because of too low CMD.
If you're going the Shadowcaster route, a fun combo is the following:
Buy a Dull Gray Ioun Stone
Then cast an Arcane Mark with Umbral Spell on it.
You now have a permanent darkness globe that orbits you. Do the same trick on a copper piece, throw them or have your familiar drop them on people.
Thank you cubic prism, that is AWESOME. But I'll need a rod of it, cause it costs too many feats... AHHH it sounds so cool but costs too many feats... Now i want to fit this but it wont work... whaaa. Sigh. But tenebrous & umbral would not be bad metamagic choices. Hm. Decisions to make.
Ok, so I reordered some ideas, I'm going to have to try to live with low CMD. I'm also taking the ITEM arcane bond, to get even more casty goodness.
Now:
1 Great fort; SF (K: arcana)
2
3 Eld H (arcane)
4
5 Craft Wond. Item
6
7 Tenebrous Spell
8
9 Umbrall Spell
10
11 Opposition Research
12
13 Quicken spell OR Shadow grasp
If I ever manage to play this dude, I'll fluff that all my shadows look like they have tiny stars shining out of them (I like the combo of shadow/void).
I don't think you can get Umbral Spell on a Rod. I don't see it on the d20 site. Glad you like the combo. Shadow Grasp on the Umbral Spelled coins is a pretty nasty combo.
I know it looks nasty... imagine, a fireball that coats the enemies in shadows that constrains them... nasty stuff. However, I think I will get more use out of tenebrous spell, since it's basically +1 DC & CL on all shadow spells. With your trick, I wont have any trouble.
Ok, so I've worked out the basic build. Havent accounted for al the skills yet, as well as all the spells, bu this should more or les functional. It also has an additional 14 spell slots (shadowcasting+amulet of spell cunning+robe of runes) that it can cast per day, on top of the arcane bond item. Shouldnt be too bad, but it will have a massive weakness defensively. Great fort & lightning reflexes will becomes important.
I called her Selena (from a root of the name of the greek goddess of the moon) Starmantle. It would be weird mix between the shadow & the void, who would live in semi-permanent darkness.
But she's just sooo fragile... Any ideas to make her tougher? Maybe some more ioun stones would do some good. She really isnt one of my best builds unfortunately.
bump.
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Interesting seeing someone opt for the Focused Study alternate racial ability (see if you can't talk your DM into saying it replaces the Skilled ability rather than the Bonus Feat ability, since that's more in the spirit of the thing as described) - but if I were you, I would put my 1st-level Skill Focus bonus toward Spellcraft rather than Knowledge (Arcana). Especially since you've gone moderate on your Intelligence, you want to avoid failing rolls to learn spells as much as you can. This becomes less of a concern with levels (achieve a Spellcraft bonus of +23, and short of your game reaching and using epic-level magic, you never have to worry about rolls for this purpose again), but at the beginning it will probably really help.
Also: For a Wizard, she's not fragile at all - you're too worried by half. I have an Alchemist, Monk, and Witch who all have Constitutions of 8 (granted, the Monk has the Toughness feat), and they've all survived at least past 5th level - and of course, as a Wizard, your power will skyrocket once you get past low levels.
You know, I've yet to have a GM that actually makes us roll spellcraft to learn spells... hadnt realized it was a thing.
As for "moderate intelligence", I rarely put a single stat above 17, since it allow me to shore up my saves & have a bit more flexibility with the character.