Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 elementary May 26, 2008 17:55:28	Hello. I've not yet played in Living Greyhawk, and would like to start up on June 6th (the next available date at my local gaming store). Here is the build I was thinking of starting: Human Rogue-1 / Wizard-5 / Unseen Seer-4 / Arcane Trickster-4 / Spellwarp Sniper-1 Str 10; Dex 16; Con 14; Int 16; Wis 8; Cha 8 1) Rog1: Empower Spell; Sculpt Spell 2) Rog1/Wiz1 (Conjuration Specialist) 3) Rog1/Wiz2: Metamagic School Focus (Conjuration) 4) Rog1/Wiz3: Int 17 5) Rog1/Wiz4 6) Rog1/Wiz4/US1: Craft Wondrous Item 7) Rog1/Wiz4/US2: Advanced Learning: Hunter’s Eye 8) Rog1/Wiz5/US2: Int 18; Practiced Spellcaster 9) Rog1/Wiz5/US3: Reach Spell 10) Rog1/Wiz5/US4 11) Rog1/Wiz5/US4/AT1 12) Rog1/Wiz5/US4/AT2 13) Rog1/Wiz5/US4/AT3 14) Rog1/Wiz5/US4/AT4 15) Rog1/Wiz5/US4/AT4/SS1 The idea is to sneak attack with orb spells and, at 10th level, with vampiric touch. I'd also be able to throw down sculpted grease & glitterdust relatively early on. Any recommendations on this build would be greatly appreciated. I have a few reservations, however. If I start playing now, and play every other week, will my character even get to mid levels before the end of the Living Greyhawk campaign? Should I just play a simple character instead? What are the mortality rates at first level? Thanks for any help!
#2 umiskatonic May 26, 2008 21:15:06	Overall, looks just fine. No problems. Here's what I see: 1) You'll probably want all of the archery feats early on, or at least the first two. While Empower and Sculpt are really nice for level 10, you have to play through a LOT of mods to get there. 2) If you take Point Blank and Precise at first, you'll be an acceptible archer and alchemical item thrower for quite a while. It's also a great back-up plan for foes with SR. 3) As you gain more spells, and need the bow less and less, you can throw it in a Heward's and forget about it, about level 5-6. 4) Later on, retrain those feats if you want to, over to Empower and Sculpt. 5) I'd consider getting to Wiz 5 earlier, for the bonus feat. 6) Overall, you'll level slowly. It's two-three games to 2nd level, and then 5-6 games for each level after that. 7) Mortality rates are generally low, but death is a possibility. ---------------------------------------------------------- Overall, if you really want to sneak attack with rays, then you're in great shape. If you want to empower and sculpt stuff that needs high DCs, drop your Dex to 14, and forget about being a rogue. Just lead with the good stuff at first level.
#3 copperwyrmling May 26, 2008 22:16:27	As UMiskatonic said, you level fairly slowly in LG. There are about 30 weeks left in the year, so if you play one game every second week you'll play about 15 games in total. If those are regular scenarios, as opposed to Core Specials, two-round mods or Adapteds, that will get you to partway through L4. If you want to get to L10 in that timeframe, consider trying to play a lot of Adapted mods (Scourge of the Howling Horde, Barrow of the Forgotten King, Red Hand of Doom, etc). Attending conventions can also help level a character quickly, as they tend to squeeze a lot of games into a single weekend. My experience has been that L1 characters don't die very often at all (I think I've witnessed one death at L1). Around L6 is actually the most dangerous from what I've seen: that's the point where casters are meant to have L3 spells and melee types are meant to have iterative attacks, and a lot of mutt builds that were okay at lower levels start falling badly behind the curve. (Of course, my two PC deaths were both at L15, but those deaths didn't really reflect the difficulty of the game at those levels: one was an arithmetic error and the other involved trying to solo an EL 20 optional encounter. Four of the six PCs I've killed as a GM were playing APL 6.) Note also that Hunter's Eye is not an Open spell: you'd need to find an Adventure Record granting you special access to it.
#4 hariman May 27, 2008 0:22:34	Hello. I've not yet played in Living Greyhawk, and would like to start up on June 6th (the next available date at my local gaming store). Here is the build I was thinking of starting: Human Rogue-1 / Wizard-5 / Unseen Seer-4 / Arcane Trickster-4 / Spellwarp Sniper-1 Str 10; Dex 16; Con 14; Int 16; Wis 8; Cha 8 1) Rog1: Empower Spell; Sculpt Spell 2) Rog1/Wiz1 (Conjuration Specialist) 3) Rog1/Wiz2: Metamagic School Focus (Conjuration) 4) Rog1/Wiz3: Int 17 5) Rog1/Wiz4 6) Rog1/Wiz4/US1: Craft Wondrous Item 7) Rog1/Wiz4/US2: Advanced Learning: Hunter’s Eye 8) Rog1/Wiz5/US2: Int 18; Practiced Spellcaster 9) Rog1/Wiz5/US3: Reach Spell 10) Rog1/Wiz5/US4 11) Rog1/Wiz5/US4/AT1 12) Rog1/Wiz5/US4/AT2 13) Rog1/Wiz5/US4/AT3 14) Rog1/Wiz5/US4/AT4 15) Rog1/Wiz5/US4/AT4/SS1 The idea is to sneak attack with orb spells and, at 10th level, with vampiric touch. I'd also be able to throw down sculpted grease & glitterdust relatively early on. Any recommendations on this build would be greatly appreciated. I have a few reservations, however. If I start playing now, and play every other week, will my character even get to mid levels before the end of the Living Greyhawk campaign? Should I just play a simple character instead? What are the mortality rates at first level? Thanks for any help! It looks good, except for one thing. I don't recommend playing a human for this character. Sacrifice a feat and play a Halfling. I have had experience with a Rogue/Wizard who started as human, got reincarnated as a halfling, then reincarnated again as a human. Said rogue wizard was far better when he was a halfling because Halfling size bonuses synergize so well with the rogue/wizard abilities. Not to mention theat the bonus to Dexterity won't hurt either. And I second the recommendation of Point Blank and Precise Shot. Having those two feats is often a +5 to your ranged attacks.
#5 elementary May 27, 2008 1:32:47	Wow, you guys are awesome! Thank you very much. I've only played in home campaigns, and we've never allowed retraining, so I'd never even considered it. That will be very helpful. Also, good call on Hunter's Eye not being open. That's unfortunate, as the build was sort of designed around that spell. I avoided going into Wiz5 (for the bonus feat) until 8th level just to get to Hunter's Eye more quickly. I also opted to be human for the same reason...to get Hunter's Eye at level 7. But it looks like I probably won't even make it to level 7 before the campaign ends, so I'll just go ahead and make the point-blank, precise-shot Halfling rogue1/wiz5 and see how far I get. Thanks again!
#6 mwao_dup May 27, 2008 8:45:19	If you're playing every other week, you're probably going to get to somewhere around 6th level, not much higher than that. Even adaptables only go so far. I'd recommend playing a Beguiler - you get roughly the same benefits, but you're not sacrificing all your skill points for a benefit you won't really get a lot out of...
#7 magebeast May 27, 2008 17:02:39	Wow, you guys are awesome! Thank you very much. I've only played in home campaigns, and we've never allowed retraining, so I'd never even considered it. That will be very helpful. Also, good call on Hunter's Eye not being open. That's unfortunate, as the build was sort of designed around that spell. I avoided going into Wiz5 (for the bonus feat) until 8th level just to get to Hunter's Eye more quickly. I also opted to be human for the same reason...to get Hunter's Eye at level 7. But it looks like I probably won't even make it to level 7 before the campaign ends, so I'll just go ahead and make the point-blank, precise-shot Halfling rogue1/wiz5 and see how far I get. Thanks again! If you're only going to get to 6, I'd consider dropping the rogue level altogether. Just be a rayist wizard - the extra spell level will make up the loss of 1d6 sneak attack.
#8 elementary May 27, 2008 19:20:13	I agree wholeheartedly. I'll opt for either straight wizard or straight beguiler. Thanks again everyone!