Help in building an Exploiter Wizard


Advice


Dear all,

i have retired my old character in the Shackled City campaign and i would like to play something that was painfully missing the whole time we played this campaign: A loremaster and arcane caster.
So because I dislike the Vancian slotsystem I thought about an Arcanist because he has more freedom in what he can cast, paired with more spells known as a sorcerer. But because of the limited spell progression I shifted my focus to an Exploiter Wizard (in combination with the Quick Study exploit). As always, my time and abilities to burrow through all the material that can be used to build a good character is severely limited and I like to fall back on your immense expertise again :)

The character will be level 9 and is planned mostly as a buffer and battlefield controller.

At the moment my draft was this (Point buy 25):

STR 7
DEX 14 (16) +2 Belt
CON 14 (16) +2 Belt
INT 18 (26) +2 Human, +4 Headband, +2 Level
WIS 12
CHA 10

Starting Money is 46k so I thought about the following items:

Headband of Int + 4 16000 (Skills: Diplomacy, Sense Motive because he is a mercenary)
Belt Dex/Con+2 10000
Ring of Sustenance 2500
Lesser Metamagic Rod Merciful 1700
Lesser Metamagic Rod Elemental Spell (Acid) 3000
Goggles Perception +5 2500
Handy Haversack 2000

= 37700, 8300 left

For the Exploits I planned “Quick Study”, “Dimensional Slide”, “Potent Magic” and “Metamixing” (maybe).

Traits: Magical Lineage, 1 left to fill

For my 6 feats I’m not really sure yet. I need “Extra Exploit” once because I gain only 3 exploits for my level, but there are still 5 feats left. “Craft Wondrous Items” (Bonus feat at level 5) and “Combat Casting” are obvious choices.
Going summoner might be powerful, but it will take a lot of feats to get competent as a summoner.
My primary goal is to be as versatile and flexible as possible in regards of spell access and knowledge. I pushed all relevant knowledge skills to 15+

It would be great if you could help me in filling the gaps. If you think summoner is the way to go because a few powerful battlefield control spells are conjuration as well, please suggest a good build. In addition, the race is not fixed as well. If you think Samsaran, Elf or an Aasimar-subrace would be better, please suggest it.

Thank you in advance!

Silver Crusade

Potent Magic is the be all and end all for an Exploiter Wizard.

They also might need a way to fill the Arcane Reservoir, they can't consume spells as Arcanist can, so consider the consume items exploit.

On the other hand... you are playing an Exploiter Wizard with an Int of 26 and you have clearly looked up the optimized stuff so there isn't much advice you need. Don't overshadow the rest of the party? Play nice?

You have a lot of leeway in feats so consider Additional Traits. One will get you Diplomacy as a class skill and you already have it maxed, or you can make it run off Int making your Diplomacy bonus +17 or more. You might have Reactionary, it's boring and played out, but +2 Initiative never gets old. Or you might consider the Deific/Celestial Obedience feat. You will already have the Religion ranks just to identify undead and as you are starting at level 9 you will soon get the weird bonus SLAs. Think about personality.

Other than that, just take the hyper Wizard stuff like Spell Penetration and think about Spell Perfection.


Do you have a particular empyreal lord in mind?
There are over 40 and i don't own the book in which they are described, with their obedience rituals and boons etc.
If i know specifics, i could investigate :)


Potent Magic is a good choice, but it's at its best at low level when one more caster level can make a big difference. Fortunately, the +1 to DC stays good for the entire life of the character.

I'm not sure if the exploiter wizard qualifies for the extra arcanist exploit feat, since its class feature is called exploiter exploit, not arcanist exploit. I'd probably allow it in a home game, but you may want to check with your DM about that.

Silver Crusade

Soralyon, Shei, Zohls, Eretrice are pretty easy to do and fine for Wizards. Of the main gods, Irori and Nethys are most directly for a Wizard.

But it's more about flavour here, because you don't explicitly need the mechanical effect. Shelyn makes you arty and your Craft better, Iomedae makes you more of a crusader with +4 Diplomacy and Shield of Faith.

As I say, it doesn't really matter, but because you have spare feats and you are a megawizard, you can be a bit more whimsical with some choices rather than needing everything like an archer for example.


For items, you will also still want to go after the big defences. A ring of protection, amulet of natural armor and cloak of resistance should come in useful.


@0o0o0 O 0o0o0

How can i make Diplomacy using the Int bonus instead?


Brakiri wrote:

@0o0o0 O 0o0o0

How can i make Diplomacy using the Int bonus instead?

There is a trait Student-of-Philosophy that let's a character use Int instead of cha for certain uses of diplomacy: to persuade others.


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Combat Casting is a wasted feat at that level. You've scaled your Int high enough that it's irrelevant. You already have a +17 concentration without any CL boosts or other shenanigans, meaning you auto-succeed and have a relatively low failure rate on 2nd-5th. In general, the higher you go, the less useful Combat Casting is. You get the most value out of it from 1-5.

Items - generically, cloak +2, an Extend Rod or 2, and a pile of situational scrolls (comp lang, tongues, endure elements, etc.) are good choices. If you find something more appropriate for the character, by all means. If you take Consume Magic Item as an exploit for your pool, consider getting a Staff of Swarming Insects as soon as possible - each charge you consume is worth 2 reservoir points and it's only 22,800 gp.

Traits: Clever Wordplay (Diplomacy) will replace Cha with Int for Diplomacy. That's a +8 bonus on something you've already decided to invest in.

General feat advice:
Extra Reservoir is good. At your level, you'll have a max pool of 12 and a daily pool of 7. You have no way to recharge unless you rest for the night or take an exploit to do so. You want virtually every offensive spell you put out to have Potent Spell attached for +2 DC or CL. If you do not grab the Consume Magic Items exploit, make sure you grab this once to dramatically increase your staying power. It's worth noting that Consume Magic Items is a weak choice if you keep your CHA at 10. You need at least CHA 14 to make it work well, as you will otherwise only have 1 daily use.

Improved Initiative, Spell Penetration, and Greater Spell Penetration should all be on your short list for feats. Initiative is super powerful and Spell Pen is essential for later encounters in most adventures as SR becomes very common at 9+.

Look for relevant metamagic feats for what you want to accomplish. If your character cares about undead, Ectoplasmic Spell is incredibly helpful. Reach Spell is generically good. Quicken Spell is just starting to see its uses at 9, as it can be combo'd with a few important spells. If you take the Quick Study exploit (which you should!), these become much more important for situational encounters. Taking metamagics now allows you to set yourself up for Spell Perfection at 15, assuming you get there.

Craft Staff is useful in a campaign where you can craft, though you can't grab it until 11. If you have Consume Magic Items, you can use this to get better staves faster, such as the Staff of Passage, which will get you 5 points back from 1 charge (YAY PASSWALL!). Staves begin to be relevant at level 11 anyway, so it's good to plan whether this will be part of your character. The unfortunate truth, though, is that most magic item crafting will take a terrifyingly long amount of time that you may not have in some campaigns.


Thank you for the tipps.

@Serisan: I took Extra Reservoir and Clever Wordplay..good tipps, thanks!

@all

What do you think about the following:

Change race to Elf:
Feat: Breadth of Experience, +2 to all knowledge Skills

Or:

Change race to Samsaran:
Mystic Past Life (Su) You can add spells from another spellcasting class to the spell list of your current spellcasting class.

I could take bard spells that have a lower spell level. Haste etc.

I also took a Lamellar Cuirass+1 (Mithril): No spell failure and +3 AC.
Or how about Arcane Armor Training and buying a +1 Mithril chainshirt for 5 AC?

I'm not sure when the next offtime will be in the campaign but i'm actually thinking about keeping half of the money and craft most of the stuff myself in the campaigns off-time. It's painful to buy this stuff at full price while the char took Craft Wondrous Items at level 5.


Arcane Armor Training is a trap. Avoid at all costs. Quicken is an essential swift action at higher levels and there are items you'll come across that take your swift, as well. IMO, at your level, you have to make the conscious choice to either forsake armor (not a bad plan in most games) or really focus on it. Mage Armor is a good choice for AC to prevent iteratives from connecting at your level, but much more investment takes gold away from more important purchase options (rods, more spells in your book, etc. If you're dead set on armor, Darkleaf Leather is your best bet - no ASF, +2 base AC.

I'm not really a fan of elves or samsarans due to the Con penalty, particularly if you're a d6 hp class. If you want Mystic Past Life, make sure you discuss with your GM so you know what their stance is on it. I've heard various rulings on how that ability works when trying to grab lower level versions of spells on your list. Breadth of Experience can be handy, but I think there are better uses for the feat. The best thing elves offer is +2 on caster level checks vs SR.


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Serisan wrote:
Arcane Armor Training is a trap. Avoid at all costs.

That's a little incomplete. For a single-classed sorcerer, witch, or wizard, it's probably not worth it (as the character needs to use a feat on Armor Proficiency, as well, or deal with ACP). It's more efficient to invest in a haramaki and/or mithral buckler (a +1 haramaki and +1 mithral buckler provide +2 armor and +2 shield bonus to AC for 1,153 gp + 2,505 gp with no ACP or arcane spell failure).

Arcane Armor Training can be useful for a character that has proficiency in armor from 3rd level until gaining 5th-level spells (depending on the progression, that's usually around 10th-13th level; normally, this is for a multi-classed arcane full-caster seeking to increase combat survivability: going into arcane archer, arcane trickster, dragon disciple, eldritch knight, Hellknight signifer, etc.) and the WBL can support other methods of gaining better AC than mage armor. At that point, it should be retrained into Quicken Spell.

Serisan wrote:
If you're dead set on armor, Darkleaf Leather is your best bet - no ASF, +2 base AC.

Incorrect on the spell failure.

Ultimate Equipment wrote:
Spell failure chances for armors made from darkleaf cloth decrease by 10% (to a minimum of 5%)


Ahh, I never bother to push ASF down to 0% on characters, so I missed that entirely. Thanks Dragonchess Player


Maybe you could help me out on another question: Defense

As my AC will suck and i'm really vulnerable in combat, can you give me some advice on defense to survive in hairy situations?

My top contenders would be: Vanish (because it's cheap), regular Invisibility/Improved Invisibility, Mirror Image, Dimensional Slide (to get out of reach) and fly.

Any tactics and spells you can think of that reduces the chars chances for being a contender for the "endangered animals list"?

Thanks!


Addendum:

As i will be using multiple rods:
Can you think of a way to use them quickly without the need of using up a move action?
The only thing i could find is the Springloaded Wristsheath, but i don't know if the rods aren't to big for those.
Is there a rod-sash (like for throwing daggers) or something like that?


Flying is another good way to stay out of reach in many situations.

If you're an elf then Blend is something you might cast in advance - not as good as Vanish but it lasts much longer.

I think rods are definitely too big for a wrist sheath. OTOH they can be weapons (a light mace usually) which means that Quick Draw works on them.


How about finding an armour that protects with 4 AC but don't apply ACP?
While Mage Armor is good, it eats a slot every day and there are times i'm not prepared and need to use one standard action to cast it.
A Mithril Lamellar Cuirass should do the trick. At +1 it provides +3 AC and it's not THAT expensive. Plus i can fool the enemy (for 1 or 2 rounds anyway) by posing as a fighter, because most wizards don't wear metal armor ;)

Quick Draw is a good idea, thanks.


Brakiri wrote:

How about finding an armour that protects with 4 AC but don't apply ACP?

While Mage Armor is good, it eats a slot every day and there are times i'm not prepared and need to use one standard action to cast it.
A Mithril Lamellar Cuirass should do the trick. At +1 it provides +3 AC and it's not THAT expensive. Plus i can fool the enemy (for 1 or 2 rounds anyway) by posing as a fighter, because most wizards don't wear metal armor ;)

Quick Draw is a good idea, thanks.

I have been using mage armor on my arcanist. It has not been that bad at level 4. I am planning on going evangelist, so at level 8 it will become a sla


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

One note on armor: There is no such item as a mithral lamellar cuirass.

Ultimate Equipment wrote:

LAMELLAR CUIRASS

Price 15 gp
Armor Bonus +2
This armor consists of a light breastplate and shoulder guards made from lacquered leather plates bound together and fitted over a silk shirt.

Because the armor is made of leather, not metal, there is no mithral version. "Items not primarily of metal are not meaningfully affected by being partially made of mithral."

For armor that provides +4 AC without ACP, there are the mithral chain shirt, darkleaf cloth hide (medium armor, so reduces speed), and mithral kikko (provides +5 AC). All impose a 10% chance of arcane spell failure, though.


Dragonchess Player wrote:

One note on armor: There is no such item as a mithral lamellar cuirass.

Ultimate Equipment wrote:

LAMELLAR CUIRASS

Price 15 gp
Armor Bonus +2
This armor consists of a light breastplate and shoulder guards made from lacquered leather plates bound together and fitted over a silk shirt.

I think this is debatable, because if you look at this description in the PFSRD (below), BUT the lamellar with steel is a heavy armor, so technically you are correct.

Quote:


Lamellar Armor

Lamellar is a type of armor in which small plates of various types of materials are strung together in parallel rows using fine cord. Lamellar plates can be constructed from lacquered leather, horn, or even stone, though steel and heavier iron are most common. Lamellar armor can be crafted into various shapes, including partial pieces such as breastplates, greaves, or even entire coats. The properties of specific suits and pieces of lamellar armor are determined by their material.


The lamellar cuirass is leather. There is a lamellar(steel), but that's a medium armor.

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