Brilliant Gameologists Forum
The Thinktank => Min/Max It! => : studderingdave July 18, 2011, 09:40:35 PM
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primarily I am a 2nd line fighter/archer/ranger player. I enjoy surviving in wilderness conditions and aiding the party as mentioned previously, but now I want to play something a bit different. I want to make a blasty sort of spellcaster. I have very little experience with arcane anything, minus a few gnome illusionists in 2e, so bear with me.
Human Warmage lvl 7
CG
Str 12
Dex 15
Con 12
Int 17
Wis 13
Cha 17
chain shirt
light shield
common, orc, gobbo, elf
spear/dagger
feats
extra edge
ranged spell specialization
ranged spell focus
energy substitution
sudden empower
i am open to any and all changes, including class, to attain a powerful "blasty" type. Character is 7th level with 35k in godl to spend on items.
thoughts?
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I would suggest one of two options:
Option One: Somebody has to make a delivery. Who's gonna brave rain, sleet, and hail just to be certain the mob gets a face full of fire? The Mailman. (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19868534/The_Mailman:_A_Direct_Damage_Sorcerer) Sorcerer/Incantatrix focusing on Orb spells.
Option Two: Who read one too many Sci Fi books and now knows magic science? Who can build it IN A CAVE, WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872330/Artificer_Handbook_(rough_draft))? The Blastificer. (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=5929.0) Crafting dozens of wands, scrolls, and staves and using metamagic effects to create Gundam-level beamspam. Why not make a suit of sentient armor while you're at it?
Basically to be a successful blaster you're gonna need to use heavy Metamagic. There are two optimal ways of doing that, Incantatrix and Artificer's Metamagic Spell Trigger abilities.
Unfortunately, Warmage Edge doesn't really cut it above level 5 or so.
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Look into the incantatrix PrC, Players Guide to Faerun, to stack metamagics on your favorite nuke spell and deal tons of damage.
There is also the War Mage PrC which is fromm Dragonlance Age of Mortals which adds +3 to every damage die you roll.
Sorceror would be better than warmage for this, IMO, due to the Wings of Flurry spell in Races of the Dragon (uncapped CL damage).
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Look into Reserves of Strength (Dragonlance campaign setting) for a bit more bang for your buck.
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thanks for all the replies. my access to books is rather limited but i will do my best to locate the above mentioned information.
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Look into the incantatrix PrC, Players Guide to Faerun, to stack metamagics on your favorite nuke spell and deal tons of damage.
There is also the War Mage PrC which is fromm Dragonlance Age of Mortals which adds +3 to every damage die you roll.
Sorceror would be better than warmage for this, IMO, due to the Wings of Flurry spell in Races of the Dragon (uncapped CL damage).
Wings is CL uncapped, yeah which is nice, but it's also SR: Yes and Ref half. Evasion can make your day a lot less pleasant.
I prefer ranged touch attacks. Orb of Force is a fun one, it works on pretty much everything pre-epic. And even in Epic it's just Force Dragons.
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Swap your Con and Int scores. Warmage's Edge sucks.
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Be a sorcerer, and take the 5th Planar Substitution level (Force-charged energy) from the Planar Handbook (p. 35). You can make any energy spell that's at least 1 below your max spell level do half force damage. You also lose a second level spell known, and add Knowledge (the Planes) as a class skill at 5th level. Sorcerer is a lot better class than warmage, even at blasting.
I also like this substitution level, from Races of the Dragon (one of the best books for a sorcerer, especially if you can use the web enhancement, and play a kobold...):
Dragonblood Sorcerer Substitution Levels (RDr, p 107): lose craft and profession, gain UMD
4th level: +2 insight on Know: Arcana, Spell-Like Ability (X as a SLA 3xday. Lose a spell per day at X and X+1. CL = sorc level.)
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War Mage instead of Warmage ;) +3 damage/die and Cha to saves that way.
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Swap your Con and Int scores. Warmage's Edge sucks.
It's good if you go the hybrid Damage/CC route. Spells like Acid Arrow, Acid Fog, Black Tentacles, and Wall of Fire all add Warmage Edge damage to each target affected by them every round, turning their damage output from inconsequential to somewhat useful. There's also Mass Fire Shield that applies the bonus damage on every hit a shielded target takes. That said, the best spells to do this with are pretty much all low-level stuff, and Warmage class features are shit, so you want to minimize the number of Warmage levels you're required to take.
Basic Build: Wizard* 5/Warmage 1/Ultimate Magus 10/[Full Caster] 4
*Should be a specialist Wizard prohibiting Evocation.
A good class to end this all with would be Archmage. Few of the abilities are that useful, but Spell Power can net you an extra +4 CL to both sides of the build, which is important for blasters. Some good spells to add to your Warmage spell list via Ultimate Magus are Power Word: Pain, Kelgore's Grave Mist, Haste, and anything else you will conceivably be casting repeatedly.
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No one yet mentioned the Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=2816.0)?
If you can get your DM to allow early entry into PrC with Versatile Spellcaster, you can get into
- Rainbow Servant with only 4 levels of Warmage
- Mage of the Arcane Order with 5(in human), or 6 levels of Warmage
Both broaden your spell list considerably, but come with drawbacks:
- Rainbow Servant gets the best ability as a capstone, at or after ECL 14
- Mage of the Arcane Order needs Arcane Preparation, also you need to later "pay back" the spells you took out of the spellpool
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In my lowly opinion what is less of a headache and more versatile?, Artificer? possibly. Sorcerer? Maybe. But I was reading threw my Spell compendium book and such looking for spells I could use as a blaster and such and even though this class has alot of spells, its low on blasty type spells, But what spells it does have kicks butt and are very versatile :), im Talking about the Druid. But If you want blaster, I suggest Artificer or Druid. Both offer great versatility.
If you go Artificer, try a Warforged Artificer and hide behind a big shield, then take 2 lvls of rogue. Then grab 18 lvls of Artificer, that way you can make use of the wonderful Warforged components and your on watch all the time :). But the thing is that if your DM imposes level penalties, then go with Warforged Scout from MM3.
Go with Wand of Orb of Force, make a few of them and stick it in the wand sheath that Warforges enjoy. Then just hide behind a heavy metal shield (Incase your GM likes destroying things). There is a Barricade Shield (I think thats the name) from Magic Item Compendium.
Also metamagic up, as a orb of force thats maximized, twinned, repeat, empower, Admixture, can take down a TON! of bad guys with little to no difficulties, sense the orb of force doesnt require you to have a SR or Reflex for the bad guy :). Sense Artificers have metamagic spell trigger, you can boost up a orb of force to insane damage at the cost of additional charges.
You can also take your first lvl feat and put it into something besides Armor feat. There are some Warforged sub lvls that may help you out, I just cant remember where they are but they do grant you Dark vision and such which makes going on watch Tons easier. Also consider a Robe of the Artificer AKA Mage. Do something like that later to boost your saves, and the like. If you have a high Dex consider taking Crossbow Sniper and get the attachment for your hand later on :). Theres pretty good enchantments for a crossbow weilder. The Extra sneak attack from your Rogue 2 lvls may help too specially when you use your crossbow, and your spells, D6 may not look like alot but it is in the long run of things.
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No one yet mentioned the Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=2816.0)?
Thing is, right out of that handbook: "I can't stress this enough ... your strength at mid- upper-levels is NOT BLASTING. It is your ability to Swiss-army-knife the right spell out of your massive list. Because your class features aren't awesome, you're not tied to a specific theme or set of spells. If you find you want to snipe or blast a sorcerer does this MUCH BETTER."
Which is what OP was looking for.
Artificer or Sorcerer/Incantatrix is your best bet. There is a handbook on Metamagic (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=9876.0)
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If you can get your DM to allow early entry into PrC with Versatile Spellcaster, you can get into
- Rainbow Servant with only 4 levels of Warmage
This is a commonly perpetuated myth that, honestly, I'm tired of hearing.When a warmage gains access to a new level of spells, he automatically knows all the spells for that level listed on the warmage’s spell list.
Warmages don't know any 3rd-level spells until 6th level. Beguilers and Dread Necromancers have similar boilerplates. Also, I'm not an advocate of trying to rules-lawyer 10/10 Rainbow Servants into games, especially not without a backup plan if the DM rules against you.
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If you can get your DM to allow early entry into PrC with Versatile Spellcaster, you can get into
- Rainbow Servant with only 4 levels of Warmage
This is a commonly perpetuated myth that, honestly, I'm tired of hearing.When a warmage gains access to a new level of spells, he automatically knows all the spells for that level listed on the warmage’s spell list.
Warmages don't know any 3rd-level spells until 6th level. Beguilers and Dread Necromancers have similar boilerplates. Also, I'm not an advocate of trying to rules-lawyer 10/10 Rainbow Servants into games, especially not without a backup plan if the DM rules against you.
I'm of the opinion that if you're willing to suffer through 14 levels of warmage casting with an otherwise crappy PrC... you deserve those cleric spells. :D
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thanks for all the replies. my access to books is rather limited but i will do my best to locate the above mentioned information.
http://www.4shared.com/
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If you can get your DM to allow early entry into PrC with Versatile Spellcaster, you can get into
- Rainbow Servant with only 4 levels of Warmage
This is a commonly perpetuated myth that, honestly, I'm tired of hearing.When a warmage gains access to a new level of spells, he automatically knows all the spells for that level listed on the warmage’s spell list.
Warmages don't know any 3rd-level spells until 6th level. Beguilers and Dread Necromancers have similar boilerplates. Also, I'm not an advocate of trying to rules-lawyer 10/10 Rainbow Servants into games, especially not without a backup plan if the DM rules against you.
I'm of the opinion that if you're willing to suffer through 14 levels of warmage casting with an otherwise crappy PrC... you deserve those cleric spells. :D
Meh, with one of the many feats that boosts your CL with Fire spells, you get a 2d8+3 or 4 damage ranged touch attack with lesser orb of fire, which is far from terrible. That also translates into a great amount of damage output at 4th level when you can fire off two Scorching Rays per casting, and also have Dawnburst, Pyrotechnics, and Shatter if you want some versatility. I'll admit that their 3rd-level selection is pretty bad, given that they only get Stinking Cloud and Fireball as notable spells (yeah, I know, but Fireball still has it's uses), but after that you should have some sort of shtick expanding your spell list (MotAO comes up very soon, and Rainbow Servant gives some solid domain spells before the big capstone).
*link*
Please do not link file sharing sites on this forum.
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My bad.
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turns out the campaign i am about to enter is Core only, which actually suits me better. so the warmage is out, i think i am going to make a druid.
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Well, that should certainly put a crimp in your power. :lol
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not so much. I am not very familiar with the rules from the non-core books, so i cannot miss what i did not know.
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not so much. I am not very familiar with the rules from the non-core books, so i cannot miss what i did not know.
It was sarcastic, in that druids are one of the very best classes, and warmages are among the worst casters.
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oh, i totally missed your sarcasm, but yeah i see now that druids are very solid compared to warmages. i also learned the dangers of multiclassing if i was interested in maximizing the druid's spellcasting ability, especially if other classes dont augment my spell levels.
thanks for the help
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oh, i totally missed your sarcasm, but yeah i see now that druids are very solid compared to warmages. i also learned the dangers of multiclassing if i was interested in maximizing the druid's spellcasting ability, especially if other classes dont augment my spell levels.
thanks for the help
Yeah, there is no reason to multiclass with a core druid at all. The only exception might be if you're starting out in a very low level game. Then adding a level of monk (at 1st or 2nd) might be a decent idea. Any multiclassing will only make you weaker.