Making a diabolist

[williamoak]

So, with the new diabolist guide that just came out, thought I would try to make my own. As for character concept, I'm going for "lawful but insane". One one shoulder, an imp. On the other, an angel. And it's tearing him apart.

Race: human (eye for talent)
Class: sorcerer (arcane bloodline) 7/diabolist 10;
Alignement (LN)
1 Defensive combat training
2
3 Spell focus (conjuration)
4
5 Mage's tattoo
6
7 Improved familiar (cassian)
8
9 Great fortitude
10
11 Boon companion
...
So basically, this guy will have a near-full familiar, and a full imp companion. Focus on conjuration (mostly for battlefield control).

Any other ideas?

[Douglas Muir 406]

Is this a character you might actually play, or theorycrafting?

Anyway, a couple of thoughts. Don't dump Int below 10, you'll need the skill ranks. Being a sorceror lets you pile everything on Cha, which is great -- invest in Cha boosting items early. Your 9th level feat should be Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration should come no later than 13th. SP is a decent feat in and of itself -- trust me, you'll feel it the first time you come up against something with SR -- but it's really a must-have for a diabolist.

The poor angel will have his work cut out for him, keeping you from tumbling down to the dark side. He'll need that +2 stat boost!

Doug M.

[williamoak]

Does the +2 stat boost go to only one creature? You are getting to things that qualify (familiar & companion) and the wording suggest that each companion you get gets a +2... then again, this isnt exactly a common case. (Note: the pic for the chracter will be homer simpson with an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other.)

BTW, this is pure theorycrafting. For the heck of it. Boon companion can easily come later. I've been working on boosting the imp, and I'm able to get him up to almost 30 dex at level 13 (HD 11), before "beast shape". I'm definitly thinking of having the character take good polymorphs (beat shape, elemental form (fire & air)) to boost it's power.

I'm questioning the need for spell penetration, I'm not understanding it. I thought the diabolist was more summon-focused. I'm quite unsure what channel hellfire is supposed to do.

[Douglas Muir 406]

Channel hellfire lets you swap hellfire for another energy type. Hellfire is here:

Quote:

Hellfire is treated as normal fire, but deals half fire damage and half damage from unholy energy. Damage dealt by hellfire is known as hellfire damage. Evil-aligned creatures and creatures with the evil subtype take no damage from the unholy energy, but good-aligned beings and those with the good subtype take double the normal damage from it. Creatures under the effects of spells like protection from evil are unaffected by this unholy energy, though they may still take fire damage.

Got that? So let's say your 6th level sorceror is fighting some good-aligned creatures. You could hit them with a fireball for 6d6, sure. Or you can channel hellfire, and now your fireball does 3d6 of fire and 3d6 of unholy damage -- which gets doubled against good-aligned creatures! So the good guys now take 9d6 instead of 6d6. Boom, a 50% damage bonus. And you can do this with any spell that deals energy damage. You do have to watch out for that dang protection from evil spell... but against good-aligned opponents who aren't prepared for it, Hellfire spells can be really devastating.

You need spell penetration for your Planar Binding spells. If you don't understand how those work, take a few minutes and read them (and Magic Circle against Evil, too). These spells let you conjure up potentially unlimited numbers of powerful outsiders, and with a time limit of potentially DAYS instead of rounds. Obviously there are some strings attached! But trust me, if you have a diabolist who uses those spells a lot (and he should), you'll want Spell Penetration.

Doug M.

[Cubic Prism]

Wizard is the more flexible option, unless you're going Human/Half Elf, then paragon surge makes a sorc pretty solid. If you're doing a sorc, you need to decide if you're going summons, charm/compulsion, or damage and pick your bloodlines accordingly.

[Hogeyhead]

You don't need boon companion. The familiar scales with character level, not class level, your imp does not need it either.

[Xanzal]

Dotting. This idea amuses me greatly.

[williamoak]

The familiar is iffy. While HD scales, intelligence & natural armor does not.

As for paragon surge, I find it's kind of a cheap tactic.