Magical Knack doesn't stack with anything else that increases caster level if the combo would bring your caster level above character level.
Yes, your burning hands will be 3d4 at sor1 and sor1/wiz1 assuming you can start with spell specialization.
Personally, I like keeping magical lineage on fireball. That base spell level 3 lets you get pretty insane with the metamagic. To paraphrase the Blockbuster's Guide to Blaster Wizards, "At 15th level, with spell perfection, you could be tossing a maximized empowered fireball from a 3rd level spell slot." And it lets you get your thing 4 levels faster than waiting for fire snake.
Intensify and Empowered get applied separately to a spell. So if you have a CL of 15+ and you cast an Intensified Empowered Fireball you'll do 10d6 (base) + 5d6 (Intensified allows +5 CL to the damage) + 5d6 (Empowered applied to the base Fireball).
This is incorrect. Empower spell does not add additional dice, it acts as a multiplier for the final result of the dice roll. You would get 15d6 = N -> N x 1.5 = damage.
If you further Maximize the spell the Maximized is only applied to the base spell, for a result of 10d6 +60 damage (plus other adjustments not discussed in this example).
Again, incorrect. The two would stack, so you would maximize 15d6 for 90 damage.
Empower and maximize do apply separately from each other. If you were to maximize, empower, and intensify the fireball, you'd have 90 + (15d6)/2 damage.
First of all, Empower Spell does not add any additional dice. It never has in any edition of 3.X. It acts as a multiplier to the result of the dice rolled.
Second, see This FAQ that shows that not only is empower a multiplier, it does in fact apply to the flat bonuses added to the spell's dice roll.
Third, Maximize Spell calls out not stacking with Empower specifically because they are meant not to combine. There are no such callouts not FAQs for Intensify Spell.
Finally, it's "Maximize", not "Maxamize".
One quick note on bloodline mutations: they only work for Sorcerer spells, so they aren't useful for someone dipping crossblooded.
Bloodline mutations don’t stack with crossblooded because they both alter bloodline powers.
Preferred spell is so much better than greater spell specialization, even with the heighten tax.
Bloodline mutations don’t stack with crossblooded because they both alter bloodline powers.
You can still take it as a bloodline feat, though. While that's another strike against the one-level dip, it's just a minor delay for a single-class crossblooded sorcerer.
@Grimniir, I've used a similar build before and it's really powerful. Get Pearls of Power asap. Caveat though... your GM is going to hate you and seriously consider nuking you from orbit every session.
GM: <Creates awesome encounter where fire, ice and acid effects don't work>
Admixture Blasting Wizard: <casts invisibility and stealths into the encounter> <Surprise Round: Kamehamehas the entire room with an Intensified Maximized Empowered Perfected lvl8 slot Firesnake that deals electricity damage>
GM: <flips table and becomes even more pro-gun>
.
Moral of the story: be nice to your GM if you're going to make a character that deals 300 dmg of any damage type to everything in the room.
It is a weaker wizard. Blaster wizards don't really break anything--outside of mythic games, anyway, and everything's broken in those.
@Grimniir, I've used a similar build before and it's really powerful. Get Pearls of Power asap. Caveat though... your GM is going to hate you and seriously consider nuking you from orbit every session.
Moral of the story: be nice to your GM if you're going to make a character that deals 300 dmg of any damage type to everything in the room.
I always read that it is a weaker wizard?
I'll follow your advice and talk to my GM, of course.
Preferred spell is a good tip, and comes into play earlier, I think, than Greater Spell Spec.
Thansk for all the good feedback! This will be blast to play. :-D
Wizards are a Utility class, so if you structure a Wizard as a blaster then you're taking away from the utility and therefore yes it's a weaker build (personally, my favorite Wizard is Divination). As a blaster build, you're going to be filling your prepared spell slots with different versions of your blaster spell with the different MM feats you have, so this takes away from how many Utility spells you can have in a day. So if you take Preferred Spell for one or two of your primary blasting spells, then you gain MUCH more flexibility; you can prepare nothing but Utility spells every day, and then trash the utility spells for your blaster spells as needed (and with Preferred Spell you can pump MM feats into your blaster spells on the fly, and without increasing your casting time). This can make you a little more useful because normally a blaster wizard has to rely on scrolls to shore up his utility to the group.
I'd make your first Preferred Spell Fireball and consider getting a second Preferred Spell as Firesnake. Preferred Spell is better than Greater Spell Spec imo because GSS increases the casting time when you add MM feats while Preferred Spell does not increase the casting time.
The awesome part about using Preferred Spell is you can get some of your utility back. Fill your daily spell slots with any utility spells you think you might need for that day, then when crap hits the fan, trash a spell you don't think you'll need, pump as many MM feats into the blaster spell as that spell slot will allow, and cook the room.
The weaker wizards are still wizards, though. As long as you're leaving a few spell slots open, you should still be able to bring the utility while adventuring.
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Saying that blaster wizards are weaker wizards is a bit of a fallacy. It assumes the different paths are mutally exclusive, when they are not.
Battlefield control, save or die, and utlity wizards (among others) only need the right spells to be effective. Beyond spell selection, there's really no real investment necessary.
Blaster wizards are the only ones that need significant investment to be effective.
These paths, since many requre little to no resource investment and one does, are not mutally exclusive!
You can be an amazing blaster wizard who also has lots of battlefield control, save or die effects, and utility spells in his repetoire.
If anything, that makes the blasting wizard MORE powerful when done right, since they can use battlefield control, save or die, utility OR blast well, as the situation demands. They are potent AND versatile as a result.
Saying that blaster wizards are weaker wizards is a bit of a fallacy. It assumes the different paths are mutally exclusive, when they are not.
Battlefield control, save or die, and utlity wizards (among others) only need the right spells to be effective. Beyond spell selection, there's really no real investment necessary.
Blaster wizards are the only ones that need significant investment to be effective.
These paths, since many requre little to no resource investment and one does, are not mutally exclusive!
You can be an amazing blaster wizard who also has lots of battlefield control, save or die effects, and utility spells in his repetoire.
If anything, that makes the blasting wizard MORE powerful when done right, since they can use battlefield control, save or die, utility OR blast well, as the situation demands. They are potent AND versatile as a result.
I'm not sure I entirely agree with this. You aren't wrong in that any Wizard is going to be competent at all of these, but a blaster wizard who spends resources on blasting (particularly a level or sorcerer) isn't going to be as good as another wizard at control. They don't have feats to make the saves harder or abilities to enhance summons or tons of other stuff, since they spent everything they have on blasting. They also don't have as many slots available for that role, it they fill up with blasting slots. (note: dazing spells are control, with some blast attached and a good daze blaster is incredible control.)
More to the point, the action economy is what matters. If you are doing control, you aren't blasting (daze excepted) and if you are blasting you aren't control. If you spend your first round or two in a combat, establishing control by the time it comes to blast there usually isn't any point, wasting your entire blasting build.
Pretty much every character can damage the enemy. Wizard can do so much more, that other characters struggle too do. When it comes to party synergy, it is a rare blasting wizard that is anywhere near as effective as a build that focuses on the unique strengths of a wizard.
Take Magical Lineage with an instance of Additional Traits rather than as your two "locked in" freebies at character creation. --Why? ...because feats, but not traits, can be retrained. So pay some small coin every now and then to upgrade your Magical Linneage to a better associated spell.
It's the only way to get around RAW regarding traits in PFS.