I couldn't find anything in the Surrealdex, but the idea looked promising to me. After all, 9th level casting in 9 levels is what all the cool kids do, right?
[spoiler=advantages and disadvantages]
Blighter Advantages:
- 9th level spells in 9 class levels
- None of the usual Druid drawbacks regarding metal armor or that silliness
- Wildshape, although its a lot weaker than a Druid's
- Some cool flavorful class abilities
- Very easy to qualify for: BAB +4 and must be an ex-druid capable of casting 3rd level Druid spells
Blighter Disadvantages:
- Lose Druidic spellcasting (a big deal)
- Standard entry means 5 Druid levels totally lost forever (also a big deal; 5 dead levels sucks)
- A very limited spell list (although there are quite a few really great spells on that list)
- Lower caster level (=Blighter + Dead Druid levels)
- A very NPC-unfriendly mechanic for gaining daily spells (deforestation)
Main Prerequisites:
- Druid 1
- Casting 3rd level Druid spells (straight Druid would work, but I'm not excited about it since I'd lose a lot).
So, there's not much we can do about a lot of this. One way to help it, though, is to keep the minimum number of Druid levels and actual Blighter levels (as deforestation is based on Blighter levels). Of course, this also hurts the caster level issue, but there's ways around that (although a bit convoluted).[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Spell List]
Just to take a closer look at the spell list, here's some that I thought noteworthy. The main thing here is to keep an eye out for self-buffing and no-SR spells, since the caster level is going to suck:
- 0 Detect Magic
- 1 Bane, Ray of Enfeeblement,
- 2 Resist Elements, Chill Metal
- 3 Desecrate
- 4 Animate Dead, Unhallow, Mud -> Rock and vice versa
- 5 Forbidance, Create Undead, Antilife Shell
- 6 Acid Fog, Harm, Fireseeds
- 7 Control Weather, Repel Metal or Stone, Repulsion
- 8 Mindblank, Shambler
- 9 Foresight
So, you can see that there's duds and awesomeness. If you can trick up your caster level, or have Assay Spell Resistance, for example, its quite reasonable to focus on some of the save or sucks on the list. Most of the spells require a save and/or SR.
One thing to keep in mind: not only to Blighters get both Desecrate AND Animate Dead (and Create Undead), but they also have a built-in no material component Animation ability for animals. So, they make decent (if not the most prolific) necro-masters.
The spell list, other than the very few gems that I've "blued", is very weak. I think its necessary to add spells to it to leverage some advantage out of the fast advancement, or to use / exploit Versatile Spellcasting to cross-class cast spells in theurgic builds. [/spoiler]
[spoiler=Early Entry Tricks to Minimize Lost Druid Levels]
Early Entry Tricks for the latter prerequisite:
Heighten + Earth Spell + Sanctum Spell - turns a L1 spell into a L3 spell. CAN be retrained, since you only need to have PREVIOUSLY been able to cast the 3rd level Druid spell. <-does not work, due to the spell level you generate.
- Archivist 5 - As stated previously, the spell only needs to be a Druid spell. Does the Archivist's mechanics change the source of the spell? I don't know... I don't think so, though.
- Cleric - DMM: Heighten Spell. Not as abusive, assuming that DMM is allowed. Fulfills the Summon Monster requirements of Nar Demonbinder. Can be as simple as Druid 1 / Cleric 7. But... at that point I might as well just play a dang Cleric and forget this nonsense...
- Illumian Naenhoon - OK, so this can be used with Heighten spell to boost up some stuff. Primarily useful with a Cleric... or Dread Necromancer (which is cooler, imo)...
- Versatile Spellcaster + Heighten Spell - From Anklebite (not the originator, though) - Any spontaneous caster that has 2nd level spellslots can spend 2 of those slots to cast any 3rd level spell they know. Of course, a Heightened spell is a spell of that level, so you can get into Blighter with just 4 levels of Bard or 6 levels of any other spontaneous caster and 1 level of Druid (which you have to lose).
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Building Up Casting]
Ways to Help Out the limited spell list:
- Contemplative - bonus domains can be added to your Blighter spell list. Unfortunately, you only get 1 per day of each level, but having multiple choices can work great
- Necrotic Cyst - limited addition, but not limited by number per day
- Corrupt Arcana - from HoH. Use Natural Spell, Undead Wild Shape (which changes your type to undead!), and use the ability-damaging spells to your heart's content! Make sure you keep your Spellcraft up to use a book of these spells when prepping.
- Extra Spell - lame, but mentioned for completeness
- Arcane Disciple - if you take Versatile Spellcaster, you should be able to use spell slots from either side to fuel the opposite, probably getting around the 1/day limit
- Get into MotAO - its THE PrC for gaining lots of access, but you'd have to do some pretty fancy finagling to use Blighter casting to cast these (Versatile Spellcaster, again, is a direct way, but the wording is tricky)
- theres a few other methods, but I'm trying to keep it on the simple side
Building Casting rapidly: (to overcome the lost Druid casting)
- Blighter
- Nar-Demonbinder
- Mystic Theurge
- Sublime Chord
- Beholder Mage <-I'm not familiar enough to make this work.
[/spoiler]
BuildsIllumian (Naenhoon)Druid 1 / Dread Necromancer 8 / Blighter 1 / Mystic Theurge 10.
Gets 9th level Blighter Spells, 9th level DN spells, and the cooler abilities of the DN. Also, feels flavorful (if I could fit in the Undead Wildshape in, that would be totally awesome, but I think I lose too much then).
Anklebite - not race-specific:
Dread Necromancer 6 / Druid 1 / Blighter 1 / Mystic Theurge 10 / any that advances arcane 2.
Using Versatile Spellcaster and Heighten Spell, a DN can spend 2 second level slots to cast any "3rd level spell they know". Since a Druid knows all the spells on their spell list, and they have Heighten spell, they can cast a 3rd level Druid spell.
Variant on Anklebite's idea:
Bard 4 / Druid 1 / Blighter 2 / Mystic Theurge 3 / Sublime Chord 1 / Mystic Theurge +7 / Sublime Chord +2
Gets lots of goodies :). Tough to do, skill-wise (mainly b/c of SC). Also, some may not be OK with switching the MT advanced classes midway (I don't know if that's RAW or not).
Straw-Man's Divine Bard suggestion led me to:
Divine Bard 4 / Druid 1 / Blighter 4 / Contemplative 10
Great for low-point buy games! One stat casting, L9 Blighter spells and L8 Bard spells, and lots of extra domains to add to your Blighter spell list.
Bardic Musings also led me to:
Bard 4 / Druid 1 / Blighter 4 / Nar Demonbinder 1 / Mystic Theurge 6 / anything 4 (Sublime Chord???)
This one feels cool, to me. Kind of a singing monster of doom. Full Blighter casting, full Nar Demonbinder casting, and 4(!) free levels to do anything with. Still, two stat dependent, but otherwise it feels like a really nice build!
I'll keep this post updated.
Anybody have thoughts on this?