Archivist Handbook

[IsaiahOs]

Best PRc for an Archivist is the Loremaster.

[JaronK]

Tainted Sorcerer, for certain.  Since you have spells that lower taint, you can regulate your taint score perfectly.  Just take that item that gives you one Diamond Mind manuever, and take Moment of Perfect Mind... now you never need more than a one level dip to gain real ultimate power.  Of course, the DM must be willing to use the taint mechanic.  Still, it's just perfect and grants all the metamagic you'd ever need.  Combine it with a level of Binder to heal the con damage, and use the divine adaptation of Anima Mage to really go nuts.

Consider Binder 1/Archivist 3/Anima Mage 10/Tainted Sorcerer 1/Tenebrous Apostate 5.  Take the Tainted Sorcerer level as soon as you've got a way to be sure you never fail the save when leveling up.  You get endless metamagic, 19 levels of casting, 16 levels of binding (with access to 9th level vestiges), free material components, amazing undead boosting abilities, and a host of other goodies. 

JaronK

[paqqy]

Is this dead? Or still in progress? I'm going to be playing an Archivist soon and would certainly contribute if this project is ongoing....

[raith0]

so i have to ask this question to see what if i am reading things right. 
sword of the arcane order gives paladins/rangers a tie to arcane magic and lets them prepare arcane spells from the wizard/sorcerer list.  thus giving archivist the abbility to cast arcane spells of 4th level and lower. 
using this an archivist can then enter prcs that require the abbility to cast x level of arcane spells as long as x is => 4

ron

[KellKheraptis]

so i have to ask this question to see what if i am reading things right. 
sword of the arcane order gives paladins/rangers a tie to arcane magic and lets them prepare arcane spells from the wizard/sorcerer list.  thus giving archivist the abbility to cast arcane spells of 4th level and lower. 
using this an archivist can then enter prcs that require the abbility to cast x level of arcane spells as long as x is => 4

ron

Ranger slots go as high as you want them to, same with paladin if you have a source of extra feats.  Stock 5th level even for Ranger.  You would be getting 9th level arcane spells from the feat, if you have 9th level spells available to the progression SotAO is tacked onto.

[raith0]

okay thats what i thought kell but i was trying to make sure i was reading everything the right way and didnt miss an errata or something

[Agita]

I don't think you would be able to qualify for an arcane PrC. The spells an Archivist casts are still divine, no matter where you got them from.

[KellKheraptis]

I don't think you would be able to qualify for an arcane PrC. The spells an Archivist casts are still divine, no matter where you got them from.

As for this part, I'd have to have CV in front of me to verify, but until I do, consider this truth.  I know I've gotten it to work on both an Archivist and an Ur-Priest, so it is possible, but I was probably using trickery

[Agita]

I don't think you would be able to qualify for an arcane PrC. The spells an Archivist casts are still divine, no matter where you got them from.

As for this part, I'd have to have CV in front of me to verify, but until I do, consider this truth.  I know I've gotten it to work on both an Archivist and an Ur-Priest, so it is possible, but I was probably using trickery

You can use Alternate Source Spell or Southern Magician trickery, or a Dragonsblood Pool if the requirement is level 3 or below. Other than that, and possibly Geomancer, I can't think of a way to do that.
However, all of those work even if you have nothing but Cleric spells in your prayerbook.

[ksbsnowowl]

[ksbsnowowl]

9TH-LEVEL
Abyssal Army
Astral Projection
Energy Drain
Etherealness
Gate
Implosion
Miracle
Soul Bind
Storm of Vengeance
Summon Monster IX
True Resurrection

NON- CORE CLERICOTHER

[deuxhero]

so i have to ask this question to see what if i am reading things right. 
sword of the arcane order gives paladins/rangers a tie to arcane magic and lets them prepare arcane spells from the wizard/sorcerer list.  thus giving archivist the abbility to cast arcane spells of 4th level and lower. 
using this an archivist can then enter prcs that require the abbility to cast x level of arcane spells as long as x is => 4

ron

Ranger slots go as high as you want them to, same with paladin if you have a source of extra feats.  Stock 5th level even for Ranger.  You would be getting 9th level arcane spells from the feat, if you have 9th level spells available to the progression SotAO is tacked onto.

Mystic Ranger gets you 5th level spells (and cantrips).

[pfooti]

so i have to ask this question to see what if i am reading things right. 
sword of the arcane order gives paladins/rangers a tie to arcane magic and lets them prepare arcane spells from the wizard/sorcerer list.  thus giving archivist the abbility to cast arcane spells of 4th level and lower. 
using this an archivist can then enter prcs that require the abbility to cast x level of arcane spells as long as x is => 4

ron

Ranger slots go as high as you want them to, same with paladin if you have a source of extra feats.  Stock 5th level even for Ranger.  You would be getting 9th level arcane spells from the feat, if you have 9th level spells available to the progression SotAO is tacked onto.

Mystic Ranger gets you 5th level spells (and cantrips).

None of that really helps the Archivist. Mystic Rangers cast 5th level spells, yeah, but they're not particularly interesting. And Sword of the Arcane Order requires 4 levels of ranger or paladin. 

[Ivory Knight]

I know, Unearthed Arcana won't be used(or even allowed) by erevy DM, but assuming it will:
- Archivist 8/ Sacred Exorcist 1(any PrC that gives Turning before ECL 9?) can get into Prestige Paladin himself.
also
- Archivist 8 or Archivist 6/Fighter 1(not recommended, as it sucks for spellprogression: Archivist 4/Fighter 2) could get into Prestige Ranger.

How many Levels of Prestige-Paladin or -Ranger would be required?
I checked for Paladin here:
Mystic Fire Knight would replace Levels 1,2 & 4, so IMHO SotAO could be taken with the first Level in Prestige Paladin.

[pfooti]

Mystic Fire Knight would replace Levels 1,2 & 4, so IMHO SotAO could be taken with the first Level in Prestige Paladin.

Unless you're using a different version of SotAO from me, you can't take that with the first level of prestige paladin. You've got the first problem of: Prestige Paladin != Paladin, requiring a DM intervention. The second problem is: SotAO requires you to have 4 levels of ranger or paladin, so even if you were allowed the prestige version, it'd be PP4- which is another 2 levels of spells lost. It's even worded in SotAO that you use your *paladin or ranger* spell slots to prepare the arcane spells, of which you have none (again requiring DM intervention to turn your prestige paladin's archivist slots into ersatz paladin slots).

The final problem is: why are you doing this? The beauty of the Archivist is that nearly every single useful sor/wiz spell can be found on an obscure domain list somewhere. You can just roll up Archivist 20 and go to town; if there's one or two spells you absolutely *must* have, check out the Hexer PrC. It's unreconstructed 3.0 material, but since it was never replaced it's just about as "technically valid" as your dodgy use of the prestige paladin. Plus, Hexers kick butt- full BAB, gaze attack, 5 sor/wiz spells added to your list (creating all sorts of confusing results- could you learn a divine-ified sor/wiz spell from an NPC hexer?) There's also Divine Bards who can provide you with the entire Bard spell list.

The final trick is that it is also theoretically possible to create a divine-sourced scroll of any arcane spell, using an Artificer (or, IIRC, a Warlock) to create it. Such a scroll would only be a curiosity in a normal game- the only way to use it is via UMD. But to an archivist, it could maybe count as a divine scroll that you could learn from.

But even without those funky tricks, you can get plenty of spells to cast on your own. Check out the domain list in the PHB and SpC for all sorts of goodies- haste is in the time domain, teleport, grease, even Evard's Tentacles. Heck, you can get Identify as a lev1 spell (oracle domain), and when cast by a divine caster, it has no 100 gp pearl cost.

As an aside, I just created a new Archivist for a game (my Totemist died ignobly), and will probably follow up to this thread with an analysis of useful spells in the next few days.

[Ivory Knight]

@pfooti:
This led me to believe, you were searching for a way to get SotAO with the Archivist:

None of that really helps the Archivist. Mystic Rangers cast 5th level spells, yeah, but they're not particularly interesting. And Sword of the Arcane Order requires 4 levels of ranger or paladin. 

Where the Prestige-Variants are used, the "normal" Bard, Paladin and Ranger do not exist.
Therefore Prestige Paladin = Paladin, or the DM shouldn't have allowed the usage of UA-Rules in the first place

I once allowed a Cleric/ Prestige Paladin to use the Feat from Complete Champion, that quickens all Paladin Spells on his Cleric-Spellslots, but only with Spells, that came from the Paladin Spelllist
Didn't break my game, didn't piss off the other Players

I also know what the Archivist can do from Level 1 to 8(I was the DM, Campaign ended at ECL 9 and the Player wanted to try something more Melee).

regards


Robert

[pfooti]

@pfooti:
This led me to believe, you were searching for a way to get SotAO with the Archivist:

Aha, yeah, it's one of those quote-attribution things. I was mainly just responding to that post about using SotAO and Mystic Knight in an archivist build- what would and wouldn't work. I think the original idea was to use SotAO to get access to some degree of 1-4 arcane spells, which is a pretty noble goal, but I'm pretty sure is mechanically at least difficult given the wording of the feat.

[Optimator]

A Warlock would make the dubious scrolls but an Artificer couldn't since they are Artificer scrolls and require a UMD to use.

[Phaxi]

Updated ^^

Totally forgotten I even posted this. Even more surprised to see it having active discussions.

Feats, Spells, and Races sections improved and removed some broken links.

edit: also fixed the title image.

[deuxhero]

so i have to ask this question to see what if i am reading things right. 
sword of the arcane order gives paladins/rangers a tie to arcane magic and lets them prepare arcane spells from the wizard/sorcerer list.  thus giving archivist the abbility to cast arcane spells of 4th level and lower. 
using this an archivist can then enter prcs that require the abbility to cast x level of arcane spells as long as x is => 4

ron

Ranger slots go as high as you want them to, same with paladin if you have a source of extra feats.  Stock 5th level even for Ranger.  You would be getting 9th level arcane spells from the feat, if you have 9th level spells available to the progression SotAO is tacked onto.

Mystic Ranger gets you 5th level spells (and cantrips).

None of that really helps the Archivist. Mystic Rangers cast 5th level spells, yeah, but they're not particularly interesting. And Sword of the Arcane Order requires 4 levels of ranger or paladin. 

*sigh*

The Mystic Ranger uses Sword of the Arcane order, (not you) to get 5th level wizard spells as divine, then you get scrolls of them.