Fun Opt "Tagteam" - Dual Cast + Familiar, oh my! - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 flay_crimsonwind Mar 25, 2008 18:55:31	So, my DM is still kinda new and wants to have a nice game where I don't own the melee with some sort of tank (bad FB, no cookie!), so I really should be dumbing myself down, whilst staying useful. How do I know to do that? I've decided that I will remake an old RP character idea that I had. A double caster that relies of summoning and his familiar (really, he likes his pets and wants to create a utopia for animals and creatures, one preferably without humans. He fancies himself a god, thus all the magic he could want). So, double caster with an emphasis on summoning and familiar buffing. So far... The Build So Far Ophion Eurynome - Human True Neutral Wizard 3 / Druid 3 / Arcane Hierophant 10 / Mystic Theurge 4? Int - Wis - Con - Cha - Dex - Str (1) Spell Focus (conjuration) (H) Augment Summoning (W) Scribe Scroll (3) Nexus Method (6) Ashbound (9) Natural Spell (12) Summon Elemental (15) (18)
#2 andyjames Mar 25, 2008 20:11:11	Wizard 3/Druid 3/Beastmaster 1/Arcane Hierophant 10/MT 3 (1) Nexus Method (W) Augment Summoning (H) Natural Bond (3) Skill Focus: Handle Animal (6) Ashbound (9) Natural Spell (12) Summon Elemental For Wizard, be a Conjurer. Take Focused Specialist variant, Rapid Summoning Variant and Enhanced Summoning (free Aug Summoning) variant (they all work together). Rapid Summoning and Enhanced Summoning is from Unearthed Arcana. I don't know what are the pre-requisites of some of your feats there (Nexus, Ashbound, etc.), so re-arrange as needed. Improved Familiar doesn't stack, so it is useless. Also, you don't need a Familiar to trigger the AH ability. It just say all arcane caster levels stack to determine ability. Doesn't say you need to have a Familiar to begin with. The AH companion familiar benefits from all Familiar and Animal Companion spells. Yes, Augment Familiar (the one with the +2 unnamed bonus to just about everything and lasts 1hr/level) is nasty on the thing. For feats, Arcane Thesis (PHB2) Enervation, Empower Spell, and Split Ray makes for a terrifying debuff trick. Nail the BBEG with a couple of those and let your friend maul him to bits.
#3 flay_crimsonwind Mar 25, 2008 20:20:43	I LIKE the build, but what you're giving up is 9th level spellcasting for wild empathy (which you already have from druid) and an extra level for animal companion (which soon wont really matter). Granted, it's BAB Fort and Ref are nice, but not enough to balance out 9th level casting pre-epic. I'm thinking that, if nothing else fills those slots, that I suppose I'll have to buff up my debuffs, but I'd like to make sure I'm not overlooking anything. But thank you for that wiz variant, I'll look more into that and see if it flies.
#4 andyjames Mar 25, 2008 20:30:34	I LIKE the build, but what you're giving up is 9th level spellcasting for wild empathy (which you already have from druid) and an extra level for animal companion (which soon wont really matter). Granted, it's BAB Fort and Ref are nice, but not enough to balance out 9th level casting pre-epic. I'm thinking that, if nothing else fills those slots, that I suppose I'll have to buff up my debuffs, but I'd like to make sure I'm not overlooking anything. But thank you for that wiz variant, I'll look more into that and see if it flies. It gives another 3 levels. You have an effective druid level of 20 for your Companion Familiar. However, you are right. You don't get 9th level spells with that build (unless you want to do funky things like Improved Sigil Krau, which allows you to go MT for levels 4-6). However, IME, you rarely get to 9th level spells when you got D3/W3/MT2/AH10/MT2 anyway. Most campaigns end before level 20. In fact, an inordinate amount of people play in the 1-10 range and decry anything above that as overpowered and "stupid".
#5 flay_crimsonwind Mar 27, 2008 2:40:02	Final bump, no obvious (or not, I've never really done dual casters OR familiar builds OR summoners) tricks I'm missing to fill those two slots with? Any items that are must haves?
#6 andyjames Mar 27, 2008 2:47:46	Lesser Rod of Extend is a must have for almost any caster build. Practiced Spellcaster?
#7 ChristopherGroves Mar 27, 2008 8:05:27	Devotion and/or reserve feats?

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

flay_crimsonwind

Mar 25, 2008 18:55:31

So, my DM is still kinda new and wants to have a nice game where I don't own the melee with some sort of tank (bad FB, no cookie!), so I really should be dumbing myself down, whilst staying useful. How do I know to do that? I've decided that I will remake an old RP character idea that I had. A double caster that relies of summoning and his familiar (really, he likes his pets and wants to create a utopia for animals and creatures, one preferably without humans. He fancies himself a god, thus all the magic he could want).

So, double caster with an emphasis on summoning and familiar buffing. So far...

The Build So Far

Ophion Eurynome - Human True Neutral
Wizard 3 / Druid 3 / Arcane Hierophant 10 / Mystic Theurge 4?
Int - Wis - Con - Cha - Dex - Str
(1) Spell Focus (conjuration)
(H) Augment Summoning
(W) Scribe Scroll
(3) Nexus Method
(6) Ashbound
(9) Natural Spell
(12) Summon Elemental
(15)
(18)

andyjames

Mar 25, 2008 20:11:11

Wizard 3/Druid 3/Beastmaster 1/Arcane Hierophant 10/MT 3

(1) Nexus Method
(W) Augment Summoning
(H) Natural Bond
(3) Skill Focus: Handle Animal
(6) Ashbound
(9) Natural Spell
(12) Summon Elemental

For Wizard, be a Conjurer. Take Focused Specialist variant, Rapid Summoning Variant and Enhanced Summoning (free Aug Summoning) variant (they all work together).

Rapid Summoning and Enhanced Summoning is from Unearthed Arcana.

I don't know what are the pre-requisites of some of your feats there (Nexus, Ashbound, etc.), so re-arrange as needed.

Improved Familiar doesn't stack, so it is useless. Also, you don't need a Familiar to trigger the AH ability. It just say all arcane caster levels stack to determine ability. Doesn't say you need to have a Familiar to begin with.

The AH companion familiar benefits from all Familiar and Animal Companion spells. Yes, Augment Familiar (the one with the +2 unnamed bonus to just about everything and lasts 1hr/level) is nasty on the thing.

For feats, Arcane Thesis (PHB2) Enervation, Empower Spell, and Split Ray makes for a terrifying debuff trick. Nail the BBEG with a couple of those and let your friend maul him to bits.

flay_crimsonwind

Mar 25, 2008 20:20:43

I LIKE the build, but what you're giving up is 9th level spellcasting for wild empathy (which you already have from druid) and an extra level for animal companion (which soon wont really matter). Granted, it's BAB Fort and Ref are nice, but not enough to balance out 9th level casting pre-epic.

I'm thinking that, if nothing else fills those slots, that I suppose I'll have to buff up my debuffs, but I'd like to make sure I'm not overlooking anything. But thank you for that wiz variant, I'll look more into that and see if it flies.

andyjames

Mar 25, 2008 20:30:34

I LIKE the build, but what you're giving up is 9th level spellcasting for wild empathy (which you already have from druid) and an extra level for animal companion (which soon wont really matter). Granted, it's BAB Fort and Ref are nice, but not enough to balance out 9th level casting pre-epic.

I'm thinking that, if nothing else fills those slots, that I suppose I'll have to buff up my debuffs, but I'd like to make sure I'm not overlooking anything. But thank you for that wiz variant, I'll look more into that and see if it flies.

It gives another 3 levels. You have an effective druid level of 20 for your Companion Familiar. However, you are right. You don't get 9th level spells with that build (unless you want to do funky things like Improved Sigil Krau, which allows you to go MT for levels 4-6).

However, IME, you rarely get to 9th level spells when you got D3/W3/MT2/AH10/MT2 anyway. Most campaigns end before level 20. In fact, an inordinate amount of people play in the 1-10 range and decry anything above that as overpowered and "stupid".

flay_crimsonwind

Mar 27, 2008 2:40:02

Final bump, no obvious (or not, I've never really done dual casters OR familiar builds OR summoners) tricks I'm missing to fill those two slots with?

Any items that are must haves?

andyjames

Mar 27, 2008 2:47:46

Lesser Rod of Extend is a must have for almost any caster build.

Practiced Spellcaster?

ChristopherGroves

Mar 27, 2008 8:05:27

Devotion and/or reserve feats?