Battering Blaster Build

[Meirril]

So, looking to abuse Battering Blaster at 18th level to basically 1 shot the BBG without making the entire character suck before he reaches the end. Asking if anyone has suggestions on how to improve this build:

Sorcerer, Orc Bloodline, Human.

20 pt buy for stats. str 7 dex 12 con 10 int 14 wis 10 cha 20.

Traits: Accelerated Drinker, Outlander (Lore Seeker) +1 CL Snowball, Dispel Magic, Battering Blast.

1st: Spell focus (evocation), Varissian Tattoo (evocation), Blood Havoc
2nd:
3rd: Fearless, Intensify Spell
4th: (first 2nd level spell: cat's grace)
5th: Spell Specialization: Snowball
6th: get Fireball, switch Spell Spec to Fireball
7th: Widen Spell(blood), Extra Traits: Magic Lineage: Fireball, Wayang Spellhunter: Fireball, (pick up fly for 2nd 3rd level spell)
8th:
9th: Empower Spell, strength of Beasts (blood) (finally pick up Battering Blast)
10th:
11th:Craft Wonderous Item
12th: retrain Extra Traits to Maxamize Spell, retrain Craft:WI to Extra Traits: Same as before, but change to Battering Blast. Can wait to do this till 15th level. Anytime after we're done crafting.
13th: Quicken Spell, Toughness (blood)
14th: change Spell Spec. to Battering Blast (could do this at 12th)
15th: Spell Perfection: Battering Blast, Blood Intensity (I think this can be done?)

Once you can Craft Wonderous Items need to make 1 Orange Prism Ioun Stone (+1 CL, 30,000gp), 1 cracked Orange Prism Ioun Stone (Guidence, 1,000gp), 1 Strand of Prayer Beads: Just the Karma Bead (+4 CL for 10 min, 20,000gp). Of course we're also interested in a headband to boost charisma, and a belt to boost dex, plus anything that might raise our chance to hit with Battering Blast...not that I can think of anything.

The cracked stone lets us sneak a zero level divine spell on to our spells known. That should allow us to use the strand of Prayer Beads. At 15 when we pick up Spell Perfection this should give us +8 CL constantly and another +4 CL for 10 min each day.

So any suggestions to further push CL or boost the chance to hit with ranged touch spells? This character depends on Snowball and Burning Hands below 6th, and then graduates to fireball till about 12th level when he starts using Battering Blast for 3rd level spells. At 15th level he'll start throwing 2 Battering Blasts per round eating through his 3rd and 4th level spell slots. Quickened Intensified B.B. is 8th level with a 3rd level slot. Intensified Maximized Empowered is a 9th level spell cast with a 4th level slot (and a full round action).

[FangDragon]

You could try a blood arcanist.

[avr]

A mage's crossbow is another item you may want. And a supply of dweomer's essence to ensure you beat SR. Even with caster level boosts you're not guaranteed to beat a BBEG's SR, 11 + CR might be 15 higher than your caster level.

Not that long ago I advised someone on a battering blast based build, and I suggested getting point blank shot and precise shot early. It does make a difference when you're using ranged touch attacks a lot.

[Meirril]

FangDragon wrote:

You could try a blood arcanist.

It is an interesting idea. Not using full round casting for meta magic spells is a big advantage. However, I really don't like the build for a few reasons.

First: the feats are in a really awkward progression. 3rd level is the first time you boost your damage and you immediately cap the spell selected. You can't go beyond that cap till 7th level and by then you've moved on to fireball/battering blast which isn't bad but its a long time to wait to get a real benefit from the build.

Second: the extra +1 damage from Blood Havoc adds up. It actually makes Empowered preferred to Maxamized. Maxamized would be 8 damage per d6, while Empowered would average 5.5x1.5=8.25 damage per d6.

third: Blood Intensity would be able to boost the output of a battering blast/fireball by 9d6 instead of the 5d6 from intensify by 15th level. 10d6 by 16th level. This does assume a +6 headband.

fourth: The sorcerer is a one stat build. Charisma is the only headband you need. Int is only 13+ because of Spell Specialization.

fifth: I really question the usefulness of Heighten Spell. At most you'll get +1 DC out of it. And a lot of the time, you won't get that much.

The Arcanist has a lot of advantages over a Sorcerer. Just being able to change spells and have a full spellbook is huge. But for a dedicated blaster...I think the sorcerer build is a little more tempting.

[Meirril]

avr wrote:

A mage's crossbow is another item you may want. And a supply of dweomer's essence to ensure you beat SR. Even with caster level boosts you're not guaranteed to beat a BBEG's SR, 11 + CR might be 15 higher than your caster level.

Not that long ago I advised someone on a battering blast based build, and I suggested getting point blank shot and precise shot early. It does make a difference when you're using ranged touch attacks a lot.

Ah! That crossbow would definitely be a major asset. Just the +2 to hit and damage would be good enough. The extra penetration vs SR takes the cake.

I'd like to do a bit more about SR but...the only 2 things the build can drop is a metamagic feat, or Extra Trait feat. Dropping extra Trait means sticking the 2 metamagic reducers at 1st level and dropping the +1CL to Battering Blast, Snowball and Dispel Magic. Oh, and faster potion consumption. I was planning on trying to stock up on Potions of Channel the Gift in case of a really Long Day.

Same thing for Point Blank and precise shot. Hmmm...wonder if I could add Training to the Crossbow?

[avr]

You don't necessarily want to spend any feats on spell penetration or piercing spell - I wasn't kidding about using dweomer's essence.

Training looks possible. A mage's crossbow looks like its special effects are priced as a +1 equivalent, so adding training would cost 14K. You could only get one feat that way & it can't be used as a prereq so you'd need to get point blank shot as a normal feat. Or just buy extra enhancement bonus and write off the possibility of those feats; a mage's crossbow rewards getting extra enhancement bonus.

[JohnHawkins]

For beating SR as a sorceror a limited number of times per day look at Bloodline mutations one of them allows you to reduce SR by your charisma modifier a limited number of times

[Chromantic Durgon <3]

You've also got to consider with the Arcanist that blood Havoc says it effects Sorcerer and Bloodrager spells so arguably wouldn't work on spells from the Arcanists spell slots.

[Meirril]

JohnHawkins wrote:

For beating SR as a sorceror a limited number of times per day look at Bloodline mutations one of them allows you to reduce SR by your charisma modifier a limited number of times

Yeah, I know. But giving up either of the 2 remaining blood powers wasn't something I wanted to do. Fearless is kind of a must stay. Mainly because it gets rid of Light Susceptibility, but also you get immunity to fear effects. Getting any kind of immunity is a rare thing, and fear is an uncommon effect. Not rare, not common. So I won't get rid of it.

Strength of Beasts...I wanted to keep it for stupid reasons. The strength boost takes care of the early character deficit. And that is it. It doesn't add to the build in any significant way. So giving it up to add the last Blood Mutation isn't a bad trade. Though one thing to say it the character with the crossbow and orange ioun stone will already be +11 CL vs SR constantly, another +4 for 10 min if he pops the karma bead. +5 for burning a Dweomer's Essence. That is CL 35 at level 15! Blood Piercing would be another +9 (+10 at level 16).

By level 18 assuming you made a bunch of wishes or miracles Blood Piercing would go to +12, and your base CL would go up by 3, so if you went after the boss in the first round: Dispel Magic targeted at Spell Immunity (CL 24 = 18 level + 1 trait + 1 ioun + 4 karma bead), followed by Quickened (perfection), Maxamized (lesser rod), Empowered (trait x2) Battering Blast with Blood Intensity and Blood Piercing. Battering Blast would be CL 30 ( = 18 level +4 spec +2 tattoo +1 trait +1 ioun +4 karma). So 6 balls at 15d6 (the max is actually 17d6, but you don't have the CL to reach it) plus 7d6 from Empowered. Each ball will do (8x15 + 7d6 + 14) 134 + 7d6 damage, which averages to 158 damage per ball that hits, and you get to throw 2 or 3 extra damage from the crossbow on top. I think the crossbow damage add is once per spell, not per ball. Assuming everything hits that is 948 + 2 or 3 damage. If the BBG has SR (and what BBG doesn't?) your CL to overcome it would be 30 + 12 (blood piercing) + 5 (Dweomer's Essence) = 47.

All of this with 2 3rd level slots.