Hello there masters of wizardry!
I am going to play RotR soon and I have to admit I'm really struggeling. But lets start with what's cut in stone:
I want to play a diviner, schroedinger style. I want him to be versatile, always having a trick up his sleeve, subtile most of the time and making use of interesting spell combinations (e.g. using blood money). Also - and thats what I picked the diviner - I want so survive. I don't want to dominate all combats especially not by myself. I want to control pace and intensity of the fight but in a subtile way that lets my party shine as well. He will adventure along a shamen, an investigator, a dwarven slayer and probably a monk (hopefully unchained...). Also I want to be able to summon but not focus on summon spells as those tend to slow down the game most of the time.
The character is actually a historian (focused on Thassilion) from Magnimar who was once asked to help the cyphermages in Riddleport where he got to know a wizard who convinced him to give the arcane arts a try. So when the game starts he will already be some older investigating sandpoints ruins acompanied by a scorpion familiar which disgusts him.
His stats will be: 7/14/12/20/14/8
Where I need help now is feats and traits. This is giving me a surprisingly hard time, especially because I kinda want to have both: broad versitality and a focus on some kind of "preferred spell" which could be used to fill those subpar divination slots.
What I came up with so far:
1 Improved Initiative, Additional Traits (human), Scribe Scroll (bonus)
2
3 Craft Wodrous Items
4
5 Heighten Spell, Preferred Spell (Battering Blast)
6
7 Improved Familiar
8
9 Persistent Spell
10 Craft Rod (bonus)
11 Quicken Spell
I took Preferred Spell (Battering Blast) because I think the spell is versatile for a blast, its pretty powerful and has a thassilion offspring which makes it fit perfectly in the character design.
But I have some doubts on whether this is actually a good idea. I did not focus heavily in increasing CL which usually is the way to make Battering Blast so good and I dont want to spend all my feats in doing so. Right now I'm afraid I will have a hard time hitting, overcoming SR and making the maneuver because I did not invest much in these areas. Also the metamagic feats I picked synergize not that amazing with the spell. Highten Spell is a feat tax, Persistent Spell is okay but more usefull on area spells or SoS's. Quicken is cool later though.
In short: I just dnt know whether picking Battering Blast as preferred spell is a great choice at all.
I wanted to focus more on conjuration spells which is why I thought about changing battering blast to ice spears and getting spell focus conjuration in there somehow... but yeah... I just dont find myself able to make a destinct decision.
The feats I considered in addition to those mentioned above are:
- Spell Focus, Spell Spec. and Greater Spell Spec.
But those have three problems: First it takes 3 slots, second I had to increase casting time to buff my spell with metamagic and third, I would need to pick spell focus evocation if I wanted to sick to battering blast - a school I did not plan to utilize much (other than conjuration).
- Reach Spell
I love reach spell as you wont get all its awesomeness out of a rod. It just doesnt fit in.
- Dazing Spell
I am kinda afraid it might be too powerful. As I said - I dont want to dominate encouters all by myself and this feat is definitly in danger of doing so.
- Craft Wand
Just in order to provide my improved familiar with ammunition!
- Spell Penetration
For obvious reasons
- Opposition Research
Because The only school I really dont want is enchantment... and even there I'm gonna miss Confusion.
For traits I considered:
- Outlander (Lore Seeker)
This offers my preferred spell and two more +1 DC/CL. Most non-blast-spells only profit from one of those bonusses which makes it hard to actually pick spells here...
- Reactionary
Again - obvious reasons
- Seeker
Having perception as class skill is just wonderful
- Magic Lineage
In case I stick to some kind of preferred spell I'd be stupid not to pick this trait
- Scholar of the Ancients
This fits perfectly to my background and being able to read and write thassilon seems to be pretty sweet in this campaign.
So for now I'd really appreciate to get some help. I know this is just about some details but somehow its giving me a hard time. I'm open to anykind of idea or critique - I just really want to make tgis well rounded character thats powerful on one hand and merges well into the campaign on the other.
Thank you in advance for taking the time of reading this, thank you even more for taking your time to reply!
Wasum :)
Well if I was running the campaign you can forget having Blood Money in your spell list...
I'd tell you why but...Spoilers!
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Well if I was running the campaign you can forget having Blood Money in your spell list...
I'd tell you why but...Spoilers!
At least till book 4 when you're given access to it via an item.
Now as for the OP:
I do not believe you will have time to craft more than +1 Rods in this campaign. At several points in the books, you are put on a tight time schedule. And between Rods, scrolls and Wondrous both taking your time. Your familiar can help but you can only work on 1 item a day and the higher level you get the more days you will be committing to a single item.
Enchantment- This school actually does very well in this campaign as the enemies you will be facing will have lower Reflex and Will saves than Fort saves. I do not recommend a Summoning focus as in the last book your summons become utterly useless. No player likes when the spell list they have becomes un-useable.
Battering Blast- If you're not taking the meta magics to make this good then it is not worth it. The blasts will just be softening up targets. You can always grab an AoE spell for controlling groups. Or you can prefer Emergency Force Sphere and have a "Not today" button on demand. (What do we say to death? Not today!)
Traits:
Outlander- Lore Seeker- I loved this trait. Plenty of things to pump up. Glitterdust with your Greater spell focus Conjuration will make it a brutal spell, all campaign long. Fireball/Lightning Bolt or a favorite blast spell is nice to pick for both DC and CL. Really it is hard to mess this trait up.
Reactionary- Going first is more important than Perception. Make your Headband of Vast INT give you Perception as your first skill.
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Well if I was running the campaign you can forget having Blood Money in your spell list...
I'd tell you why but...Spoilers!
Really, no one should be allowed Blood Money unless they're playing this AP. And only at the appropriate time.
Really, no one should be allowed Blood Money unless they're playing this AP. And only at the appropriate time.
100% Agree.
|
I would second Louise Bishop's advice regarding Battering Blast.
Also consider getting Wayang Spellhunter and Magical Lineage for Glitterdust. And then get Persistent spell at level 3.
This should be you helping your team finish encounters not you finishing them yourself.
If you wish to get summoning as one of your "things" then take Acadamae Graduate and find a way to be immune to the Fatigued condition.
My favorite is the Cord of Stubborn Resolve.
If you have a GM that is allowing Blood Money you might also be allowed to take Sacred Geometry. This would allow for subtly boosting your spells in a way that screams "scholar" while leaving enough room in the action economy to allow the rest of the team to do their thing. I've never used it myself, but to me it seems like a good fit esp. if you don't combine it with quicken spell.
Thank you for those ideas, that actually helped me a lot!
I followed your advice and just kept craft wondrous (as RotR wont offer that many opportunities to craft anyway) - my setup so far is:
1 Imp. Ini, Spell Focus (Conjuration)
2
3 Craft Wondrous Items
4
5 Spell Specialization (Ice Spears), Persistent Spell
6
7 Improved Familiar (Larakien or Faerie Dragon, dunno)
8
9 Greater Spell Specialization (Ice Spears)
10 Opposition Research (Necromancy)
11 Quicken Spell
I wanted to pick greater spell spec. in order to use my divination slots with useful spells just in case - I even thought about picking a second spell spec.
Ice Spears therefore is going to be my primary offensive spell. Sadly I cannot fit in reach or rime spell and have to fall back on rods for those. It will be difficult to find a slot for a third metamagic feat to qualify for spell perfection in general...
Now the other thing is - I picked two traits only, outlander and magic lineage because Im starving for feats. Thats why I dont know whether the investment in Ice Spears is really worth it. But right now I'm thinking about what to do with magic lineage and I see two options:
i) Pick Ice Spears as well and apply quicken and persistent.
ii) Pick Glitterdust in order to throw out persistent Glitterdust pretty early. Using outlander and spellfocus it should have a fairly high DC.
Thing is - I dont know whether Glitterdust is a great spell for spell perfection later. But I couldn't think of something that will find use on most enemies I expect to meet. Slow has been another contender but to be a good choice for spell perfection I wanted the spell to be useful more than once per combat.
That is why Ice Spears sounds pretty good - I'd be able to spontaneously cast it and therefore was able to abuse the feat constantly. On the other hand I did not want to focus that badly on a spell that will be useless against flying enemies. And I didnt find a way around that...
I also considered chains of light - thanks for the hint! Using Spell Perfection I would be able to quicken CoL (as long as I have Magic Lineage as well) and cast another persistent one. But that would come online really, really late...
Oh and I picked Foresight as my subschool because prescience will enable me to pick those spells requiring a d20 right when I know I will land them.
What do you think so far?
I do not want to be too spoiler-y.
Ice Spear will be good until I would say Book 3. But after that 80% of the enemies you encounter will either be Large sized (Or bigger) and/or Flying. Since it is a spell that uses CMB I feel it will be harder to land the longer the campaign goes on the less reliable it will be.
Glitterdust is a great option IMHO as it works on everything I can think of in the campaign. There are only a handful of Flying creatures that I can think of. Early Game I know Pit spells would get you through the first 4 books with very little problems.
I do play a LOT of prepared casters and Quicken is amazing but I find on Prepared Casters that the sweet spot for Quicken tends to be Levels 13+. on all my builds I take it at 13. This gives you 3rd level quicken spells like Haste/Slow, Dispel Magic, Fireball/Lightning Bolt, Displacement, hold person (followed by Coup), Stinking Cloud (pair with a standard Black Tentacle for a Brutal combo), Greater stunning barrier. 11 is doable for PFS but It really shines 13+ (especially 15 with Perfection).
You dont think the +10 bonus for each additional spear would be enough to succeed the trip maneuver? At 9th level I should be able to trip large+ creatures with a cmb of ~+40 (20 for the additional spears, 9 CL, 3 feats and traits and then hopefully +7 int)
I wanted to have quicken at 11 to quicken mirror image - but yeah, in case I find a better feat I can delay quicken two levels. I will need another metamagic feat somewhere anyway...
My only comcern with Glitterdust is that its a fairly small area and does not do much for controlling the battlefield.
glitterdust is for disabling big nasty melee enemies, especially ones with spell resistance which this campaign features in spades. It doubles up with see invisibility to give your adventuring buddies a lit target upon which to beat up/stab/shoot/skewer/etc.
Remember, Spell Specialization you can change out every so often as you advance in level. Heighten Spell lets you slot glitterdust into higher level spell slots to incrementally improve its save DC further. Widen Spell I think will work with glitterdust, taking a 5th level spell slot to prepare, results in a 'glitterball' of blinding, sparkly malevolence. For Widened glitterball stacking two traits to reduce the metamagic level increase from +3 to +1 lets you pick up Widen Spell at 5th level, casting it from 3rd level spell slots instead of 5th and you can go to town applying the Lore Seeker Outlander campaign trait to bump its CL up by +1 on top of Spell Specialization's +2 and Varisian Tattoo/Mage's Tattoo (Conjuration). i.e., at 5th level your glitterdust spells are cast at CL 9th with these feats.
Your challenge is going to be surviving until 3rd level when glitterdust comes along for free from level advancement.
Feats recommendation
1st - Spell Focus (Conjuration), Varisian Tattoo (Conjuration), Scribe Scroll if you can't swap it out for a 1st level eligible Arcane Discovery. Knowledge is Power is super-sweet as it stacks your Int bonus onto your CMD and CMB.
3rd - Spell Specialization (glitterdust) - at this level, with no traits, glitterdust is CL 6th. Invest traits to reduce metamagic cost of glitterdust. If you get campaign trait plus two traits, also snag Lore Seeker Outlander for another +1 CL to glitterdust.
5th - Widen Spell (Wizard bonus), Persistent Spell.
Now, what you have available at this point is the option to prepare two versions of glitterdust in 3rd level spell slots: one Persistent (save twice, suckers), one Widened (gotta glitter 'em all!). If you've picked up the three recommended traits, your glitterdust is now CL 9th, 8th if you only got the metamagic cost reduction traits, which are more important for glitterdust.
After 5th, you're only 1 metamagic feat away from Spell Perfection, if you so choose.
Actually that doesnt sound too bad - but why do I need CL for Glitterdust?
You dont think the +10 bonus for each additional spear would be enough to succeed the trip maneuver? At 9th level I should be able to trip large+ creatures with a cmb of ~+40 (20 for the additional spears, 9 CL, 3 feats and traits and then hopefully +7 int)
I wanted to have quicken at 11 to quicken mirror image - but yeah, in case I find a better feat I can delay quicken two levels. I will need another metamagic feat somewhere anyway...
My only comcern with Glitterdust is that its a fairly small area and does not do much for controlling the battlefield.
Well, that is 2 rounds to trip a target. Do you really want 2 rounds or 2 Spears per target?
Lesser Extended rod + Mirror Image? By that point, it is 22 minutes and should be cast Before combat is to be expected. Even tho I prepare Mirror Image I always have a Quicked Displacement or a Greater Invisibility prepared. You never know when you will be Debuffed or a critter with 5+ attacks goes HAM on you and tears off all your Images.
Glitterdust might be 10ft radius, yes but you can clip 2+ creatures with it by proper targeting. It also does a lot for other things. Negates invisibility, Blinds a target (Sneak attackers love you), gets around SR, and it is a spell that can deal the Golems since they can be blinded by Glitterdust. Sometimes Blinding 1 enemy is enough as well to turn a battle. If a wizard can not target they have a hard time doing much of anything.
Actually that doesnt sound too bad - but why do I need CL for Glitterdust?
the amount of Rounds they stay blinded
Okay - I'm sold on Glitterdust, I'll pick it for my spell perfection!
I still think two spears to trip a large/huge enemy doesnt sound too bad - I love the versatility to be able to either do that or to just target each creature with a single spear.
I just dont think it's necessary to increase CL there as combats won't last that long... unless you meant to pick it up at 3 in order to switch spell spec to ice spears afterwards.
Or do you think I should forget about Ice Spears completely....?
Actually that doesnt sound too bad - but why do I need CL for Glitterdust?
duration and range
Okay - I'm sold on Glitterdust, I'll pick it for my spell perfection!
I still think two spears to trip a large/huge enemy doesn't sound too bad - I love the versatility to be able to either do that or to just target each creature with a single spear.
I just don't think it's necessary to increase CL there as combats won't last that long... unless you meant to pick it up at 3 in order to switch spell spec to ice spears afterwards.
Or do you think I should forget about Ice Spears completely....?
ice spears has its uses, but glitterdust only cares about range to target and how good their Will save bonus is. It ignores spell resistance and - as an area of effect spell - spell turning won't rebound it back on you when you least expect it during the latter stages of the campaign.
ice spears requires a bit of set-up to make it shine and - if I remember right - can impede your buddies' ability to hack/shoot/stab your victim(s) into chunky salsa. The upside to it might well be mid-campaign when you can tandem it with black tentacles. It won't do so well in the later stretches against the enormous enemies, but it'll do pretty well in that combination with keeping Large and maybe some of the earlier Huge foes impeded and penalized. Half of ice spears' damage output is [cold], which is the second-most common energy type in the game after [fire]. If you can strap on the spell-whose-name-I-can't-recall that creates an icy sheet that enhances cold damage spells atop it, you're in good shape. Downside is that it's a 3-round set-up, so you're needing initiative and surprise to really make it shine.
I've been in and run plenty of fights where duration matters. If they flee, the duration they're all glowing-in-the-dark comes in handy.
For RotRL and some other campaigns, Reach Spell via lesser metamagic rod is going to come in handy for dealing with pesky Long Range engagements. There aren't many of 'em, but they can and do happen.
If your glitterdust goes off swimmingly (blinding the enemies), you can let the rest of the group dispatch those foes while you keep your eyes peeled for other threats and/or munch popcorn.
On a side note, if at all possible it looks like your group is going to be Stealth capable. Play to that strength for all it's worth, especially come Chapters 2 onward.
I feel like picking glitterdust as your perfect spell is going to yield some fairly low DCs on a signature move
although I suppose you could heighten it, how does heighten work with perfect spell?
I feel like picking glitterdust as your perfect spell is going to yield some fairly low DCs on a signature move
although I suppose you could heighten it, how does heighten work with perfect spell?
You would heighten it and add another meta magic for free increasing the DC.