Truly optimizing the rainbow warmage

[Anklebite]

Now, as we all know, the Warmage is a poor excuse for a sub-par class.

That being said, we all also know that the class gains a whole new dimension of usefulness when rainbow servant is added.
 (assuming RS is counted as a 10/10 casting class, and not a 6/10 one)
however, Looking into the rainbow servant pre-reqs, the only ones that require mentioning are "4 ranks knowledge(arcana)" and "able to cast third level arcane spells"...

so, shouldn't we be able to qualify as a first level human(or strongheart halfing) Warmage with two flaws, taking the feats of earth sense, heighten spell, earth spell and versatile caster? this gives us a progression of, so far, warmage1/rainbow servant10 with many possibilities.  most likely, the optimal progression involves sacred exorcist+contemplative, and retraining our early entry feats to extra turnings.... but how can we optimize this?

can we make this better than a cleric20? or a wiz20? or hell, even sorceror20?

[woodenbandman]

Well, having at-will cleric casting is already stronger than a cleric 20. You can get turn undead as a 1 level dip into Sacred Exorcist. So at level 12 you're more powerful than a straight cleric. At level 12. Before that you're just a clown with some domains.

[Rebel7284]

An Illumian saves a feat.

edit: but loses a feat due to no longer being human so eh? :\

edit2: but at least doesn't have to worry about being on solid ground all the time.

[Chemus]

An Illumian saves a feat.

edit: but loses a feat due to no longer being human so eh? :\

edit2: but at least doesn't have to worry about being on solid ground all the time.

+1

And Good Thought Anklebite! You get (AFB) 11th level casting at 11th, and have all cleric spells at your beck and call. Some DM's will not allow retraining of those qualification feats (Recursion is not 'good eats'), but the RAW DM does allow it, IIRC.

Gaining Domains? Hey, why not? Why not go for Mystic Theurge? You get both divine and arcane casting from the same class, so it should double your progression, no?

[Straw_Man]

An Illumian saves a feat.

edit: but loses a feat due to no longer being human so eh? :\

edit2: but at least doesn't have to worry about being on solid ground all the time.

+1

And Good Thought Anklebite! You get (AFB) 11th level casting at 11th, and have all cleric spells at your beck and call. Some DM's will not allow retraining of those qualification feats (Recursion is not 'good eats'), but the RAW DM does allow it, IIRC.

Gaining Domains? Hey, why not? Why not go for Mystic Theurge? You get both divine and arcane casting from the same class, so it should double your progression, no?

  IIRC you don't have cleric casting, you have all cleric spells added to your arcane casting. So Mystic Theurge gives you nothing, in fact you wouldn't even qualify for it.

[Chemus]

Able to cast 2nd-level divine spells and 2nd-level arcane spells

Any spells that are uniquely divine are divine spells after RS 10, aren't they?

[The_Mad_Linguist]

I believe so...


Anyway, as a complete aside, a blue mage10/Rainbow servant10 is the least optimal build I've seen.  You level up and immediately explode.

[PhaedrusXY]

Well, having at-will cleric casting is already stronger than a cleric 20.

Well, you don't get the domains or DMM (at least not at level 1), which is where alot of the cleric cheese is. But yeah, it's still probably stronger than cleric 20, but not by as much as you'd think, at least not without PrCing to get those things.

[Chemus]

If I'm correct, you get 29th level warmage casting by level 20 via Wm1/RS10/MT9. With a level of Sacred Exorcist that goes down to 28th level casting at level 20.

[ChristopherGroves]

How a dual-casting advancer works with a Rainbow Warmage is not something there is clear guidance on.

And yes, early entry is fun.  You should be able to get in at 4th without too much cheese (ie, a practical optimization and not theorhetical).  Getting in at 1st is technically possible, but likely not usable in most serious games.

[JaronK]

Hmm, can you get Silent Image on your spell list as a Warmage?  It's not a Cleric spell so that won't work, and Arcane Disciple (Illusion) only gives it to you once per day.  But if you could do it, Warmage 1/Rainbow Servant 10/Shadowcraft Mage 5 would give you the ability to spontaneously cast an insane variety of spells... and Earth Spell is a good feat for SCMs anyway, so retraining becomes far less of an issue.  Might as well throw in Earth Dreamer 4 for fun at the end, since Earth Sense is the main prerequisite.

JaronK

[woodenbandman]

Is there a domain? I think there's the Shadow Domain from either Eberron or Forgotten Realms.

[PhaedrusXY]

Hmm, can you get Silent Image on your spell list as a Warmage?  It's not a Cleric spell so that won't work, and Arcane Disciple (Illusion) only gives it to you once per day.  But if you could do it, Warmage 1/Rainbow Servant 10/Shadowcraft Mage 5 would give you the ability to spontaneously cast an insane variety of spells... and Earth Spell is a good feat for SCMs anyway, so retraining becomes far less of an issue.  Might as well throw in Earth Dreamer 4 for fun at the end, since Earth Sense is the main prerequisite.

JaronK

Sacred Exorcist (or a dip into cloistered cleric or something) could let you use the Domain Spontaneity feat to get more castings per day, but that's still not exactly optimal.

[woodenbandman]

I believe that a character with a spontaneous cast mechanic can cast the spell from a domain as many times as he/she wants. Also, eclectic learning?

[Anklebite]

according to complete divine, the extra domains are sort of added to your *spell list*, aka Warmage glee. if i recall, you get good domain then at level two (first RS), thus expanding your bag of tricks rather quickly.

 ecentric learning is gained at warmage levels, so is sort of unoptimized. 

as for MT, this is really shaky ground. anyone have some sort of proof or RAW that shows whether or not this works?

as for adding silent image, this can probably be done via a obscure feat, or a draconic sorcerer one.  however, even with two flaws, this build requires using a race with a bonus feat (which gnomes are not), so we cannot easily go for SCM without wasting three levels on stoneblessed.

[The_Mad_Linguist]

Knowstones, man.  Add a spell to your list as a spontaneous caster.  From Dragon, don't remember the issue number

[PhaedrusXY]

Knowstones, man.  Add a spell to your list as a spontaneous caster.  From Dragon, don't remember the issue number

Don't those just add to your spells known, not to your spell list? Can you can pick a spell outside your spell list with those?

[carnivore]

[Anklebite]

getting silent image on your list isn't the problem....

the problem is counting as a gnome without stoneblessed as the early entry trick requires two flaws AND human in order to make it work, and I' rather not have the character depend on embrace/shun dark chaos feat swap at first level.

[carnivore]

whats wrong with this:

Gnome

Warmage 4/ Rainbow Servant 10/ Shadowcraft mage 5/ Archmage 1


feats needed:

Versatile Caster..... allows Warmage to cast 3rd lvl spells @ 4th lvl