Author Topic: Ultimate Magus spells  (Read 4173 times)

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psyx

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Ultimate Magus spells
« on: June 29, 2011, 01:11:59 PM »
Well, while I'm here, I thought that I might throw this open.

Any good suggestions for Sorc spells (and new wizard spells for spellbook... currently after 2x4th or below) for an ultimate magus?

Banned wizard schools are necro, charm, illusion. Specialised in evoc (yes: I know. I just wanted to, ok?). Cannot cast Divination spells as either sorc or wiz.

What load-out would you go for? I've deliberately only taken one spell from RoDr, because it's pure cheese. I'm avoiding any horribly broken and abusive spells. Caster is LN, but avoiding all evil spells.

Currently I'm sitting on:
Sorc 0   Amanuensis, Silent portal, Prestigitation, Ghost sounds, Disrupt undead, Caltrops, Launch    object
Sorc 1   Magic missile, Featherfall, Protection from evil, Ray of enfeeblement, Ebon eyes, Silent image
Sorc 2   False life, Levitation, Spectral hand, Wings of cover
Sorc 3   Fireball, Manyjaws, Primal instinct
Sorc 4   Improved mirror image

As far as wizard spells go, my next two are likely to be Sword of Deception and Heart of Earth... although I'm pondering Haste or Dimension Door instead.

What sorc load-out would you go for?

KellKheraptis

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Re: Ultimate Magus spells
« Reply #1 on: June 29, 2011, 02:29:47 PM »
Why in the green hell are you not using Divination?
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psyx

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Re: Ultimate Magus spells
« Reply #2 on: June 29, 2011, 02:37:12 PM »
Due to a ring of the Arcane Elite (Dragon magazine somewhere...). Adds CL as additional levels of spells per day, but at the cost of another school of magic, which was randomly determined to be Divination.

It's not a school I'd *choose* to drop, but it does make things very interesting.

rot42

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Re: Ultimate Magus spells
« Reply #3 on: June 29, 2011, 04:25:17 PM »
It also means you can no longer read magic ... but different and fun, I can buy that. Gives the character a bit of a bull in a china shop feel, maybe - great cosmic blasting power without a chisel. Treantmonk's guide to Evokers, in case you have not read it - http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=394.msg8049#msg8049.

Are you feeding your Wizard spells to metamagic the Sorcerer side, vice versa, or going the endurance route?

My experience with spells like Blade of Deception is that there are usually better things to do with your action. If all you need is a flanking buddy for your Rogue, there are lower level spells (that are more easily Quickened). It certainly is not worth the damage. The save debuff is nice, but even with the caster level bumps from Ultimate Magus you are probably only getting -1 most rounds, and almost never -3 (it does not add your Intelligence modifier to attack, so as a quick approximation it should hit about as often as a 3/4 BAB melee character). If a fight lasts long enough to build up to -5, you probably could have ended it earlier by casting a different spell. It is nice that it works on anything that is subject to curses, but imposing a Sickened condition is strictly better in most cases (try Finger of Agony (Complete Mage 104) on your Sorcerer side for Sickened for three rounds on a *failed* Fortitude save). It also gets Dispelled by high level spell resistance. edit: Woudja lookit that - the version in Spell Compendium is a level lower for twice the effect. Round one cast (-2), round two wait for it to hit (-4) then cast a save-or-suck - that actually looks like a solid choice for certain battles. Also explains my confusion regarding what level of spell you were wanting - some of the below are 5th level./edit

Benign Transposition is more fun than Dimension Door (depending on your party), but you do need some battlefield teleportation available. Players' Handbook II has several, and I believe that they are all verbal only. Lightning Leap (Complete Mage 109) seems on-theme for this character. Speaking of escaping an inconvenient grapple, discharging Heart of Water for one round of Freedom of Movement is solid gold. If Heart of Earth fits your play style better, though, it is also on the short list of very good but not game-breaking spells.

In terms of sheer damage output, Haste outperforms everything as long as you have a couple party members who can put the extra attack to good use. Even if your party would be using it just for the mobility it is still handy enough to cast most combats.

Primal Instinct is great, but as a Personal range 24 hour buff it always hurts versatility to know. See if you can make a 1/day item of it (2/day if you are worried about Dispel Magic) and swap it out. Too bad the spell exchange ability of Ultimate Magus only works for adding to the spontaneous side.

Greater Blink + Greater Mirror Image would be hilarious, but spending the first two rounds of combat just making yourself unhittable is silly.

Voice of the Dragon (Spell Compendium 232) is Transmutation but can be discharged for a Suggestion effect, which helps cover the hole left by losing Enchantment.

Spell Enhancer (Spell Compendium 198) helps cover the hole left by Assay Spell Resistance being Divination, and you have several CL-dependent and save-dependent effects that it also helps. As an enhancing effect rather than direct effect, you may want to hold off on learning that one until it is no longer burning a highest level slot, though. The orb spells in Spell Compendium are fun to spam and do not allow spell resistance.

You are getting high enough level that you are going to want more flying than just Levitation. Overland Flight on the Wizard side would be my preference.

Some battlefield control spells would not go amiss if you are not already covered with your spellbook. Solid Fog, Evard's Black Tentacles, and Caustic Mire (Complete Mage 98; slows land movement, deals damage, and adds 28% to your Fireball) are all 4th level.

Since you presumably have a good Charisma, Ruin Delver's Fortune (Spell Compendium 178) can significantly reduce your chances of failing a save.
« Last Edit: June 29, 2011, 04:34:34 PM by rot42 »

Hitoshura

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Re: Ultimate Magus spells
« Reply #4 on: June 29, 2011, 07:34:40 PM »
Where's this Ring of Arcane Elite from?

psyx

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Re: Ultimate Magus spells
« Reply #5 on: June 30, 2011, 08:28:28 AM »
Where's this Ring of Arcane Elite from?

A Dragon Magazine, somewhere. I believe that the 'banned' school is randomly determined, and can be changed once per week... so in theory I could mess around for a month until I had a banned school that was the least bother. But Divination was where the dice initially landed, and I decided to just roll with it, rather than metagame it for advantage.

psyx

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Re: Ultimate Magus spells
« Reply #6 on: June 30, 2011, 09:04:21 AM »
It also means you can no longer read magic ... but different and fun, I can buy that. Gives the character a bit of a bull in a china shop feel, maybe - great cosmic blasting power without a chisel. Treantmonk's guide to Evokers, in case you have not read it - http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=394.msg8049#msg8049.

That was pretty much the idea: A straight out evoker-blaster, with a real penchant for fire spells (I must say: Combust combined with spectral hand is a great single target blast!). The fire theme is enhanced with the Calishite Spellcaster feat (or whatever it's called), which ensure that my fireballs go all the way up to 11(d6).  :lmao  It's very thematic, and it's been great fun playing a traditional fireball toting mage, and managing to make it work well.

Yup. Already had a look at the guide. It's good stuff.

I'm predominantly burning sorc spells for metamagic, although I'm being fairly restrained and attempting to make 'em last rather than metamagic-ing every spell, due to the nature of the campaign at present and my hatred for 15-minute-working-days. Impromptu metamagic (Dragon magazine) is essentially giving me three free Empowers per day, and Searing Spell sees a lot of use. I've just picked up Twin spell, but not used it yet. The Spellshield sorc class feature is also powered by sorc spells. The common theme at the moment is for my 1st and 2nd Sorc slots to be mainly used for metamagic and spell-shield, while my 3rd level sorcs seem to be getting used for 'many jaws' a lot.

Caster level on Evocation spells is through the roof at present (about 20), thanks to Theurgic Specialist (My GM has a big wodge of Dragon magazines...), which stacks my Sorc and Wiz levels on my specialist school. So Blade of Deception seemed like a good plan, thanks to the huge CL for both the attack bonus and cutting through SR and the great way that it scales with level. And it's not a spell that I've used before, which is always interesting.

I actually had Benign Transposition memorised for the first time in ages last night and it proved its worth and right to remain on my list forever more. And yes: I had Heart of Water running. :) Brilliant combination for bailing out grappled party members. Lightning Leap looks interesting and quite fun. It might work well with a twinned greater fireburst, if I can get my hands on that one, too.

I'm praying for Haste to turn up in scroll format soon. Especially now that we've got three melee types in a four-man party [having had a couple of deaths a couple of sessions ago]. I'm very sorely temped to take it as a level spell, but the character is pretty selfish, so Heart of Earth would likely feature first.

I hear you on the spell exchange for primal instincts! It does seem a heck of a waste to use a known slot for such a spell, but that +5 Initiative is solid gold, and I tend to use fireball and many jaws excessively, so it's less of a problem. An item of it would be a great idea. One for the top of the list, as soon as we get out of Ravenloft! Primal senses is great, too... but I don't even know where to start with my other 4th level sorc spells... Enervation obviously...

Greater Blink looks to be a nice one. Certainly a potential for a level 5 sorc spell known... although I think I may end up with only two of those, and because I really want to give Arcane Fusion a try, I need to think *very* carefully about the other one. What would you go for?

I believe that improved mirror image is a swift-cast, which is one of the main reasons I selected it: Awesome defensive buff, which doesn't delay the smack-down! I was pondering the potential of wasting a feat on Conbat Caster at 15th and dabbling in Abjurant Champion, just to get my low-level defensive buffs up faster.

Voice of the Dragon looks very solid, especially as I'm the party's diplomat. It might be of limited use in Ravenloft though, but I'd rather like to pick that one up later when we're somewhere more civilised, and most things aren't undead.

Spell enhancer looks great, but is a bit high-slot, as you say. Spell resistance has only been an issue on non-evocation spells such as ray of enfeeblement, so the orb spells are loosing perhaps their greatest advantage. Still: Massive single target damage and a daze effect is good stuff. I do seem to be rather struggling recently against single targets, due to their sheer number of HP. Empowered Searing Combust does a great job, but I struggle to hit some targets, and Spectral Hand takes a round to get running.

Caustic Mire looks good, especially with the fire bonus. For battlefield control I currently tend to load up a Glitterdust, a Grease, a Wall of Fire and a couple of Frost Breaths. The Grease doesn't tend to see much use and often gets burned to empower a sorc many-jaws. I also tend to load up a Storm Mote for delivering steady damage to casters and screwing them over a bit. I don't think I'd be bothering with wall of fire were it not for my high CL and the double damage against undead. It mainly seems to sit there in order to power Fiery Bursts after I've spammed all my explosive cascades!

How the hell had I missed Ruin Delver's Fortune?!! Amazing spell. I must have just scrolled by it, assuming it to be Divination.  :clap



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Re: Ultimate Magus spells
« Reply #7 on: July 01, 2011, 06:58:17 PM »
Lesser Orb of Fire is the workhorse spell for my Magus, maximized and amped by Mark of the Enlightened Soul (Dragon Magic p70).

Bright Worms (PHB2) is also an amusing spell, but needs a bit of amping up. I like area spells that are selective, but it only really comes into it's own if you can bottle the enemies into it, otherwise it just becomes area denial with a bit of damage. It's great for getting past someone who needs to defend a door or altar or something though.

All of the Heart Of X spells (Complete Mage) are worth looking at, esp. Earth and Water. Phantom Steed is excellent for travelling. Web and Alter Self are always fun. See Invisibility and Ebon Eyes are good sorc spells, as is Dispel Magic if you have your CL up.

Ans yes, Greater Mirror Image is the bomb.

Your biggest frustration is going to be the fact that damn near every spell in existence caps at 10d6 (Orb of X goes to 15d6). Maximize/Empower/Twin get a workout mainly because it is the only reliable way to squeeze more damage out of your area spells.