Author Topic: The Archivist Handbook v2  (Read 45847 times)

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Mooncrow

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Re: The Archivist Handbook v2
« Reply #20 on: October 23, 2011, 12:01:42 AM »
Build #1 - The Summoner (non-Malconvoker)

Archivist 7/Sacred Exorcist 1/Thaumaturgist 4/Archivist +1/Holt Warden 1/Contemplative 1/Archivist +3/Paragnostic Apostle 2

Race: Human
Feats
Human - Academic Priest
1st - Spell Focus: Conjuration
3rd - Rapid Spell
6th - Twin Spell
9th - Divine Metamagic: Twin Spell
12th - Metamagic School Focus: Conjuration
15th - Rashemi Elemental Summoning
Archivist Bonus - Quicken Spell
18th - Divine Metamagic Quicken

Playing:
One of the nice things about a summoner build is that it takes relatively few spells to make work, and having the options of both the summon monster and the summon nature's ally lines makes the archivist summoner a powerful, versatile force even before adding in the other powers of the build.

Level 1-3: the painful levels.  Break out the light crossbow and stay out of the way.  Use Dark Knowledge and party-wide buffs like bless to make your teammates more effective, and use battlefield controls like entangle and sleep to divide and conquer.
4-8: by this point, your summons stick around long enough to be useful.  For now, mostly stick to the SNA lines, since it offers the superior combatants, and the summon monster spells don't have anything to make up for their poorer choices. 
9-13: this is where the build really comes online.  With Twin Spell and then Contingent Conjuration (I like to just key mine to a command phrase) you can open combat with up to three summons in the first round.  Pouncers really become a strong option with Dark Knowledge: Foe adding 2-3d6 to every attack's damage.  And with buffs like animal growth available, you can really sit back and let your summons take care of the combat, while you focus on battlefield control.
14-18: Now we start to add a little more diversity into the mix.  By picking up domain spell slots and an actual domain, now we can play shenanigans with spells like substitute domain and anyspell to diversify the options.  Summoning-wise, elementals begin to really shine for combat, and the summon monster line starts to bring really useful SLA's to the table. 
19+: at this point, your archivist should really be able to do anything.

Mooncrow

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Re: The Archivist Handbook v2
« Reply #21 on: October 24, 2011, 02:50:44 PM »
Build #2 - The Dweomerkeeper

Archivist 5/Dread Necromancer 1/Holt Warden 1/Singer of Concordance 2/Dweomerkeeper 10/Sacred Exorcist 1

If your DM lets you count the effects of anyspell as arcane spells (which really, he should) then you can skip the Dread Necromancer level.  Though, as it gains you a pool for DMM, it's not all bad.

Race: Spellscale
Feats:
1st: Academic Priest
3rd: Extend Spell
6th: Persist Spell
9th: DMM Persist
12th: Twin Spell
15th: DMM Twin Spell
18th: Quicken Spell

The master of divine metamagics, you're all about persisting insanely powerful buffs, and using potent Save or Lose spells.  Cast them as SLAs against enemies with SR, or Twin Spell against anyone else.

Mooncrow

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Re: The Archivist Handbook v2
« Reply #22 on: October 24, 2011, 06:43:05 PM »
Build #3 The Malconvoker

Archivist 5/Malconvoker 5/Thuamaturgist 4/Archivist +6

Race: Human
Feats
Human: Academic Priest
1st: Spell Focus: Conjuration
3rd: Augment Summoning (if retraining is allowed, retrain this after getting it from Thaumaturgist)
6th: Practiced Spellcaster
9th: Rapid Spell
12th: Metamagic School Focus: Conjuration
12th: Retrain Augment -> Leadership
15th: Summon Elemental (Reserve)
18th: Planar Touchstone
Archivist Bonus: Sudden Maximize

This is my usual build when I can't play with divine metamagic.  It plays very similarly to Build #1, bu you have to be more careful with money, since you rely more on magic items to apply non-level adjusting metamagic.

sirpercival

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Re: The Archivist Handbook v2
« Reply #23 on: October 24, 2011, 07:33:34 PM »
I like Archivist 11/Thaumaturgist 3/Malconvoker 5/Paragnostic Apostle 1.  If you take Thaum first you can just get Augment Summoning from that, and you get fast healing on all your summons.
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Hitoshura

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Re: The Archivist Handbook v2
« Reply #24 on: October 24, 2011, 08:21:12 PM »
The Dweomerkeeper's double pool trick won't work...

Dread Necromancer must be "non-good" while Sacred Exorcist is "any good"

Mooncrow

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Re: The Archivist Handbook v2
« Reply #25 on: October 25, 2011, 03:25:52 AM »
The Dweomerkeeper's double pool trick won't work...

Dread Necromancer must be "non-good" while Sacred Exorcist is "any good"

Bah, I specifically looked for that too, and didn't see it.  Back to the drawing board.

I like Archivist 11/Thaumaturgist 3/Malconvoker 5/Paragnostic Apostle 1.  If you take Thaum first you can just get Augment Summoning from that, and you get fast healing on all your summons.

It's ok if you're doing a level 20 build, otherwise, that's a really long time to wait for the main goodies to come online^^  But I do agree, if retraining isn't allowed, it's probably worth waiting to start Malconvoker until after Thaum.  The Fast Healing 7 is nice, but it's hard to drop Thaum 4 for it; starting almost every fight with an extra summon in play has always been really handy.
« Last Edit: October 25, 2011, 05:40:24 AM by Mooncrow »

Wilb

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Re: The Archivist Handbook v2
« Reply #26 on: October 25, 2011, 10:36:13 AM »
In the Dweomerkeeper Build, if the DM allows anyspell's effects to count as arcane you could substitute the Dread Necromancer dip for a Cloistered Cleric one, using the Rebuke Dragons ACF from Dragon Magic, which specifically counts for activating divine feats, as well as getting some tasty devotion feats and ending the alignment problem.

Mooncrow

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Re: The Archivist Handbook v2
« Reply #27 on: October 25, 2011, 01:54:25 PM »
In the Dweomerkeeper Build, if the DM allows anyspell's effects to count as arcane you could substitute the Dread Necromancer dip for a Cloistered Cleric one, using the Rebuke Dragons ACF from Dragon Magic, which specifically counts for activating divine feats, as well as getting some tasty devotion feats and ending the alignment problem.

Hmm, that's worth thinking about.  Of course, if your DM decides that anyspell spells count as divine instead of arcane, you win that way too.  Congratulations, all sorc/wiz spells 1-5 just got added to the "learnable" pile.

JaronK

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Re: The Archivist Handbook v2
« Reply #28 on: October 25, 2011, 06:45:24 PM »
Pretty much the most powerful build I know of with absolutely no questionable interpretations or infinite loops or similar features the Archivist.  It's Binder 1/Archivist 3/Anima Mage 10/Tainted Sorcerer 1/Tenebrous Apostate 5, using the divine adaptation of Anima Mage.  19th level casting, 17th level binding, endless all day metamagic, insane caster level, insane number of bonus spells... it's just unstoppable.

JaronK

Mooncrow

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Re: The Archivist Handbook v2
« Reply #29 on: October 25, 2011, 06:51:02 PM »
Pretty much the most powerful build I know of with absolutely no questionable interpretations or infinite loops or similar features the Archivist.  It's Binder 1/Archivist 3/Anima Mage 10/Tainted Sorcerer 1/Tenebrous Apostate 5, using the divine adaptation of Anima Mage.  19th level casting, 17th level binding, endless all day metamagic, insane caster level, insane number of bonus spells... it's just unstoppable.

JaronK

Yes, that is a sick, sick build.  Tainted Sorcerer + Naberius bound by itself is crazy good.  I wish there was a better way to finish it off then Tenebrous Apostate though =/ 

JaronK

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Re: The Archivist Handbook v2
« Reply #30 on: October 25, 2011, 06:55:44 PM »
Not without losing binding levels.  And with Zceryll in action, you want all the binding you can get.

JaronK

Mooncrow

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Re: The Archivist Handbook v2
« Reply #31 on: October 25, 2011, 07:08:45 PM »
Not without losing binding levels.  And with Zceryll in action, you want all the binding you can get.

JaronK

Yeah, I was more bemoaning the lack of good binder prestige class options in general.  It's basically "go anima mage or go home".  That, and all of the good ones require massive re-writing to not be completely evil. I have a re-fluffed version of this build (-tainted sorc) that I'm going to try to sell one of my DMs on when our next campaign rolls around.