Help with a Gnome Illusionist

[El Magnifeco]

Hey guys, I hope I'm posting this in the right place, if not sorry, could you direct me to where it should go?

For my next character I'm looking to play a Gnome Illusionist and need some help in working out the right way to go about it. All books are allowed, but no homebrew, starting at level 1 but I'm working out the full build. Theres no fluff to it yet, I'm just working on the mechanics.

I was thinking of mixing together levels of the Gnome Illusionist specialist class, probably with the racial substitution levels, with both the Master Specialist Prc and the Shadowcraft Mage Prc. I was hoping you could help me understand how the abilities of these classes would work together and point out any places where they wouldn't work together.

Any advice on feats and any other classes would be much appreicated too, thanks in advance. 

PS not looking to make it broken in any way, just looking for a good build

[PhaedrusXY]

I haven't looked at the Master Specialist all that much, but as a SCM, you can definitely afford to be a Focused Specialist, as you can emulate Conjuration and Evocation. So you could afford to drop either of those. I'd probably drop Evocation, Enchantment, and Necromancy.

I'd consider a way to ignore metamagic costs at least a few times per day, but that's just me. Incantatrix, Anima Mage, and Magical Trickster can all do it.

You definitely want Earth Spell and Residual Magic for feats, and since you're taking Master Specialist levels, consider dipping into Shadowcrafter for a boost to the reality of your shadow spells. Get SCM 3 as fast as possible, though.

Here is a crazy build that you might pare down and/or use parts of.

[spoiler]
Gnome Wizard 1/Binder 1/Anima Mage 10/Shadocraft Mage 5/Magical Trickster3

I'd suggest taking the gnomish illusionist sub-level at 1st to get Silent Image as a cantrip, and also consider making this a Focused Specialist (Illusionist). You can emulate Conjuration and Evocation, so you could drop both if you want, and then either Enchantment or Necromancy (or both of the latter, and Evocation). The build requires two feats at first, so you either need to use one Flaw, or the non-gnome adaptation of SCM.

The trick: use Vestige Metamagic to Heighten Silent Image for free to 10th level with Earth Spell to cast 9th level conjuration/evocation spells as early as 10th level (Bind1/Wiz1/AM5/SCM3).

Add on Residual Metamagic, and you can emulate a 2nd 9th level spell using a Silent Image for free on the next round. Finally, combine this with the Magical Trickster's Tricky Metamagic to also apply Repeat Spell to the first one, and you could cast three 9th level spells using two cantrips in two rounds once per day, and ultimately get a total of seven 9th level spells per day cast from 0th/1st level slots...

Progression:
1 Focused Illusionist 1 Precocious Apprentice, Toughness
2 Binder 1 [Retrain Toughness to Improved Binding]
3 Anima Mage 1 Heighten Spell
4 AM 2 [Retrain Prec. App. to Earth Sense]
5 AM 3
6 AM 4 Earth Spell
7 SCM 1
8 SCM 2
9 SCM 3 Residual Magic, [Shadow Illusion]
10 AM 5 [Vestige Metamagic]
11 AM 6
12 AM 7 Repeat Spell, [Vestige Metamagic x2]
13 AM 8
14 AM 9 [Vestige Metamagic x3]
15 AM 10 Chain Spell
16 MT 1
17 MT 2
18 MT 3 [tricky Metamagic], Feat?
19 SCM 4
20 SCM 5 [/spoiler]Definitely check this out if you haven't, also. http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=655556

[Caedrus]

May I suggest a dip into Nightmare Spinner for extra illusions?

The 'Nadia' build from my Fear Handbook may be os fome assistance.

C.

[sonofzeal]

I've looked into a Master Specialist / Shadocraft Mage, and it works.  A lot of the benefits kind of overlap, but being able to enter the PrC at lvl3 makes it worthwhile, and it gives you some nice things for minimal investment.  I'd definitely take Master Specialist to fill in any levels betwen 3 and whenever you're gaining access to your more important PrCs, and then pick it back up if/when those other PrCs finish.  Other than that, it's a fairly low priority.

And Focussed Specialist is definitely the right path to go here.

[woodenbandman]

Don't forget earth spell. Ever. It will give your silent image (a level 1 spell) a +8 CL boost when heightened to a 9th level spell. Use it in conjunction with Holy Word for fun and profit.

[PhaedrusXY]

Don't forget earth spell. Ever. It will give your silent image (a level 1 spell) a +8 CL boost when heightened to a 9th level spell. Use it in conjunction with Holy Word for fun and profit.

It will be a cantrip going to 9th, so a +10 CL boost, since he's using the gnome illusionist sub-level.

[woodenbandman]

Is there a cantrip that works with Shadow Illusion?

[PhaedrusXY]

Is there a cantrip that works with Shadow Illusion?

The gnome illusionist sub-level lets you cast Silent Image as a cantrip.

[El Magnifeco]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies, I'll read through them propery and take a look at all the things you suggested and get back to you with with my any descisions later. Again, thanks for the help.


EDIT: After some thought, I'm so far pretty sure on Gnome Illusionist1(with Chains of Disbelief and Illusion Mastery)/Illusionist2/Master Specialist4/Shadowcraft Mage5, after that I'm not really sure what to take to best cmplete it, so any advice on that would be great.

EDIT 2: After looking at it, I think I'll add in some Shadowcrafter levels as well, not sure how many though. Nightmare Spinner looks interesting as well, but the lack of spell casting improvement on the first level is a bit annoying.

Thanks guys.

[Rebel7284]

Paragnotic Apostle? Archmage? Finish master specialist? Perhaps also take one of those setting specific PrCs that push the reality of your illusions to 100% and beyond.

[El Magnifeco]

I never heard of the Paragnotic Apostle, wheres it from?

[Rebel7284]

Complete Champion.  Generally considered a reasonable filler PrC, Although not as powerful as Master Specialist 10 or Archmage in my opinion.

[PhaedrusXY]

Meh. I've never understood the love for Archmage. It's ok if for some reason you are already forced to take some of those crappy prereqs (Incantatrix, etc), but not worth taking them just for itself in most cases, IMO.

[Rebel7284]

Meh. I've never understood the love for Archmage. It's ok if for some reason you are already forced to take some of those crappy prereqs (Incantatrix, etc), but not worth taking them just for itself in most cases, IMO.

Master specialist already gives you Skill Focus (Spellcraft).  Basically you have to take two spell focuses and you get Arcane Reach and Mastery of Shaping back.  After that, you can get spell likes which are quite nice.

[El Magnifeco]

Paragnotic Apostle doesn't really seem like my thing, and I too have never really had much love for the Archmage, dunno why really, also doesn't really seem to fit in this case.

So far I've got Gnome Illusionist1(with Chains of Disbelief and Illusion Mastery)/Illusionist2/Master Specialist4/Shadowcraft Mage5/Shadowcrafter8 (unless there are any other classes I want to include or want to finish Master Specialist).

[Rebel7284]

There is also wizard 5/Incantatrix 3/Shadowcraft mage 5/Incantatrix 7 but that's kinda broken.

[PhaedrusXY]

Meh. I've never understood the love for Archmage. It's ok if for some reason you are already forced to take some of those crappy prereqs (Incantatrix, etc), but not worth taking them just for itself in most cases, IMO.

Master specialist already gives you Skill Focus (Spellcraft).  Basically you have to take two spell focuses and you get Arcane Reach and Mastery of Shaping back.  After that, you can get spell likes which are quite nice.

Ah, I'm not that familiar with MS. Yeah, since SCM requires SF:Illusion , and MS gives Skill Focus: Spellcraft, then picking up another SF for Archmage is probably worth it. Nab Iron Will from the Otyugh Hole, and you're ready for Incantatrix, also.

[El Magnifeco]

I think I'll steer clear of Archmage and Incantrix for this build, Archmage because I honestly don't see iot as being fitting for the character and Incantrix because, well, I just don't feel like using it. I can always change my mind later, we won't be starting playing for a couple of weeks yet anyway.