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Hello everyone,
I am soon going to play a construct-crafter Wizard in Kingmaker, and I've decided to give the PrC Arclord of Nex a chance. I have already read Williamoak's mini-guide, but apart from stating the obvious, it didn't help much.
You can find my initial thread about the options and the campaign rules here. Specifically, we get a free Story feat at level 1, which in my case is Protector of the People.
This character will start at level 4 as a Human with the Racial Heritage [Dwarf] feat for background reasons (her father is a Dwarf, and will be her cohort later on, and will handle Craft Arms and Armors and Rings [the GM is fine with this]). The Dwarf Wizard FCB is nice, but won't be gamebreaking given the fact that she'll stay Wizard for only 5 levels, and it will probably be added to Craft Wondrous Items for an extra 1000gp total worth of crafting per day.
After the first 5 Wizard levels, she'll go at least 4 levels of AoN to unlock Arcane Architect.
Her bonded object will obviously be a Valet Familiar, probably an Arctic Hare or a Compsognatus, for the +4 Initiative.
Regarding the Arcane School, although AoN encourages going Universalist, I will probably select a specialised school anyway. I was thinking about Divination [Foresight] or Void.
The build so far is:
1 Wiz, Improved Initiative, Racial Heritage [Dwarf], Scribe Scroll, Protector of the People
2 Wiz,
3 Wiz, Craft Wondrous Items
4 Wiz,
5 Wiz, Eye of the Arclord, Arcane Builder [Craft Constructs]
6 AoN,
7 AoN, Leadership
8 AoN,
9 AoN, Craft Rods
My questions are:
1) Is this PrC actually worth the effort? The PrC itself requires to burn one feat for Eye of the Arclord, plus one (or more, depending on the PrC levels) Wizard Bonus feat I won't be getting. Not to mention the loss of known spells and Wizard levels for the purposes of Wizard Discoveries, Familiar's abilities and Arcane School powers progression. Plus, it locks me into having to choose an Arcane School, which precludes me some powerful archetypes such as Exploiter Wizard.
If the answer to question 1) is "Yes" (or at least "Meh, it's worth a shot"):
2) Which Arcane School should I choose? Both Divination [Foresight] and Void come with useful School active and passive powers (+2 to Initiative or +2 to saves over 5 Wizard levels respectively). Overall it seems to me that Divination has better/more spells to fill the bonus slots, while Void has a more limited spell selection, but requires only one Elemental opposition school. That being said...
3) Which Opposition School(s) should I choose? As a crafter, this is important as the Spellcraft DC to craft an item with an opposed spell in the requirements is increased by 4. For Divination, I was thinking about Illusion/Evocation (Necromancy has Magic Jar, that I'll abuse to buff my constructs, Abjuration has Dispel Magic, Enchantment has Geas/Quest which is a requirement for many constructs, Transmutation has Fly, while Conjuration is, well, Conjuration). Void would only require one Opposed School, but they all seem to include quite important spells (Fire maybe?). And unfortunately, because of the PrC, Opposition Research does not come online before 13th level.
4) How should I modify the build? Would Extend Spell be better instead of Improved Initiative, given the benefits of Arcane Architect? Is there any Wizard archetype worth to be considered that doesn't remove Arcane School and lets me have a Familiar? Should I get more AoN levels after 9th? How should I continue the build?
Regarding the Arcane School, although AoN encourages going Universalist, I will probably select a specialised school anyway.
Good call. I dislike the Arclord of Nex for that very reason, because it leads new players to make a very bad decision. Fulfilling the "two of every school" requirement is easy even for your opposition schools. Any specialization is better than being a universalist.
Anyways:
1) You don't lose any spellcasting progression with this prestige class, so it works just fine. If you like the abilities or flavor, then go for it!
2) Divination [Foresight] and Void are both exceptional school choices. Nothing wrong with other staples like Conjuration [Teleportation] or Transmutation, either. Wood is another weird one that gets some pretty amazing spells.
3) Illusion/Evocation is a fine opposition combo if that's what you want to do. I wouldn't worry about opposing Enchantment, however; most of the time you'll be expending spell slots for crafting on your downtime, so it's a non-issue just to pay two slots for an opposition spell. If you don't plan on using any other enchantment, opposing it is a good idea.
4) Yes, the combo with Arcane Architect is worth taking Extend Spell. Improved Initiative is still very good, and wizard more than any other class wants to go first due to his ability to control the flow of combat, but you can live without it just fine.
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Thank you for the input, just a quick reply:
2) While Wood would be really thematic for this character (she's a sculptress and woodworker!), the spells are weirdly enough almost completely uncorrelated to wood, and overall a bit underwhelming (apart from Sirocco gained as a 4th level spell instead of 6th of course). Plus, while the +2 enhancement bonus to one physical stat is indeed useful, the Splintered Spear power gets old quite soon. The main problem is however that I automatically get Metal as opposed school, which has LOTS of useful spells: Glitterdust, Make Whole, Rapid Repair and others.
3) The main problem of Opposition Schools is not only the fact that you need 2 slots to prepare opposed spells, but also the fact that you get -4 to your Spellcraft check when crafting items with an opposed spell within the prerequisites. So, in case of Enchantment, it means that I'll get automatically -4 on Spellcraft while crafting many constructs, as many of them have Geas/Quest among the prerequisites (on top of any other penalty due to low caster level and missing spells [such as Animate Object])
4) How about after 9th level? I was thinking of getting maybe another level, to be able to activate Eye of the Arclord as a move action. The next milestone would be at PrC's 8th level, when I would be able to call my constructs from anywhere as a 7th level spell with no material components, but it doesn't seem worth it.
As per Extend Spell, I really would like to get it, but I fail to see any Conjuration [Creation] spell that would really benefit from it at that level (8th). Spells like Mage Armor already last the whole adventuring day, so having them last 16h rather than 8h doesn't make much difference. Similarly, spells with duration of rnd/level would already last long enough to cover a whole encounter, while gaining no benefit from lasting a minute more.
Open to more suggestions and feedback.
2) All fair enough reasons not to take it. Just putting the option out there.
3) Crafting skills are intelligence-based, and you're a wizard. You can eat more than a few penalties before it becomes a problem. I'd do a quick check of the DC's of the constructs you want to craft and see if the penalty is actually a problem for you.
4) Entirely you're call; long duration can be very useful when you're trying to avoid a fight. An extended stinking cloud may be a little too long for a single encounter, but works great if you're trying to prevent reinforcements from following after you while you storm the evil duke's keep or something like that.