Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 jonofthefunk Feb 27, 2012 3:27:51	About 2 months ago, I, a noob of DND 3.5, started my very first campaign with the most unlikely of starting classes...a wizard. That's right, not a fighter, not a barbarian, but a wizard. Anyway, the campaign itself is 'sky pirate themed', with special rules for magic classes like me. For instance, there is a large mana tempest covering all the world's oceans called the Bloo Stormur. If you fail a concetration check for a lvl3 spell or up while inside the Bloo Stormur, you get struck by lightning for 1d6 damage per caster level. Also, Concetration is no longer a skill, and all concetration checks are a d20 roll in order to prevent easy spellcasting by maxing out your concetration skill. Anyway, we're about halfway through the second battle in the campaign so far, and it's about this time I start thinking about how to build my character for the future. My character is a level 2 generalist wizard, and I was planning to have him be based on this build that involved the Loremaster prestige class. However, looking over the requirements, I noticed one of them is to have 3 metamagic feats...neither of my 3 feats right now are metamagic. See, the build I found requires me to switch to loremaster at level 7, but you gain a feat every 3 levels. As such, I'd have to wait until level 9 instead to be ready for the switch. So my question is, with the way I've set my character up, have I potentially screwed up any chance of having a good build for my character? I really need the expert advice here, cause a noobie needs some help here. I wanna know what potential builds I could do with my current setup, what I can look into in the long term. I really wanna make my first character in my first DND 3.5 experence a long lasting one, you know?   www.dndonlinegames.com/profiler/view.php... <---- (Link to the character sheet)
#2 Unahim Feb 27, 2012 11:20:54	Well, I don't know much about the Loremaster prestige class, but wizards are one of the 5 strongest classes in the entire game. At higher levels, they can easily fight a part of 4 fighters(or more) of equal level and defeat them all while remaining virtually unscathed. Because of this, I very much doubt you'll get into trouble for entering a prestige class 2 levels late.
#3 Tempest_Stormwind Feb 27, 2012 13:17:50	About 2 months ago, I, a noob of DND 3.5, started my very first campaign with the most unlikely of starting classes...a wizard. That's right, not a fighter, not a barbarian, but a wizard. Anyway, the campaign itself is 'sky pirate themed', with special rules for magic classes like me. For instance, there is a large mana tempest covering all the world's oceans called the Bloo Stormur. If you fail a concetration check for a lvl3 spell or up while inside the Bloo Stormur, you get struck by lightning for 1d6 damage per caster level. Also, Concetration is no longer a skill, and all concetration checks are a d20 roll in order to prevent easy spellcasting by maxing out your concetration skill. Anyway, we're about halfway through the second battle in the campaign so far, and it's about this time I start thinking about how to build my character for the future. My character is a level 2 generalist wizard, and I was planning to have him be based on this build that involved the Loremaster prestige class. However, looking over the requirements, I noticed one of them is to have 3 metamagic feats...neither of my 3 feats right now are metamagic. See, the build I found requires me to switch to loremaster at level 7, but you gain a feat every 3 levels. As such, I'd have to wait until level 9 instead to be ready for the switch. So my question is, with the way I've set my character up, have I potentially screwed up any chance of having a good build for my character? I really need the expert advice here, cause a noobie needs some help here. I wanna know what potential builds I could do with my current setup, what I can look into in the long term. I really wanna make my first character in my first DND 3.5 experence a long lasting one, you know?   www.dndonlinegames.com/profiler/view.php...  I can't view the character sheet, but I wouldn't think you're "screwed".  You see, even with the Concentration limiter, wizards are amazingly strong - but they grow in power geometrically, rather than linearly. You'll come into your own soon enough. The loremaster isn't really all that hot - it's not bad, and in core it's probably the best overall option, but there are better options. (Really, there's a plethora of them: what matters is why you're choosing loremaster.) So while, as Mage-Hand notes, you can easily still qualify, you can also enter other prestige classes instead.  In order to help with your build specifically, though, we'll need more than just this - at the bare minimum, what books are still allowed, and is retraining an option? Likewise, what's your fellow party members' composition? You wouldn't want to directly overshadow another teammate when you can easily be built to complement them.
#4 jonofthefunk Feb 27, 2012 13:40:40	I can't view the character sheet, but I wouldn't think you're "screwed".  You see, even with the Concentration limiter, wizards are amazingly strong - but they grow in power geometrically, rather than linearly. You'll come into your own soon enough. The loremaster isn't really all that hot - it's not bad, and in core it's probably the best overall option, but there are better options. (Really, there's a plethora of them: what matters is why you're choosing loremaster.) So while, as Mage-Hand notes, you can easily still qualify, you can also enter other prestige classes instead.  In order to help with your build specifically, though, we'll need more than just this - at the bare minimum, what books are still allowed, and is retraining an option? Likewise, what's your fellow party members' composition? You wouldn't want to directly overshadow another teammate when you can easily be built to complement them.  Crap >< forgot to mention my party. Well, as it stands right now, the rest of the party is a Half-Orc Barbarian, a Human Ranger, a Kobald Bard, a Satyr Swashbuckler, and a Aasimar Marshall. As for books, I'm assuming at this point in time that all books are game, so I can get the most suggestions possible. That way, when I talk to my DM about it, and plan A is prohibited, I'd have 20'000 other plans to check if they are allowed as well.
#5 The_Fred Feb 29, 2012 9:58:30	You really should be fine. Entering Loremaster a bit late will not kill you. Some things to think about: This concentration thing. Does this mean you make a pure d20 when making checks vs e.g. damage? Can you cast defensively? Also, what about feats and PrCs and so forth which require Concentration? This could make things tough on a caster and you might want to look at ways around it. Can you still take Skill Focus (Concentration)? I imagine not if it's not a skill. How about Combat Casting? I'm just thinking that if you fail a check, get hit by lightning and then lose the spell, that's going to be pretty tough (though some lightning resistance and/or immunity should be feasible at higher levels). The Bloo Stormur doesn't affect L0-2 spells? It sounds like having some useful L2 spells will be a good idea, though they will get less so at higher levels. An example of a way to make use of this might be the Nightmare Spinner from Complete Mage, a class which I quite like. A single level nets you immunity to fear and an extra spell slot per level to use on illusion spells, at the cost of a caster level. A fair trade IMO, but it would let you cast more L2 spells instead of L3 spells. It probably needs to be built around, though - the skills are tough to get, and you won't want to be relying on L2 spells for long. Just remember that if you wind up in a sticky situation, having something you can use which doesn't risk you getting zapped is a good thing.
#6 jonofthefunk Mar 01, 2012 3:57:14	You really should be fine. Entering Loremaster a bit late will not kill you. Some things to think about: This concentration thing. Does this mean you make a pure d20 when making checks vs e.g. damage? Can you cast defensively? Also, what about feats and PrCs and so forth which require Concentration? This could make things tough on a caster and you might want to look at ways around it. Can you still take Skill Focus (Concentration)? I imagine not if it's not a skill. How about Combat Casting? I'm just thinking that if you fail a check, get hit by lightning and then lose the spell, that's going to be pretty tough (though some lightning resistance and/or immunity should be feasible at higher levels). The Bloo Stormur doesn't affect L0-2 spells? It sounds like having some useful L2 spells will be a good idea, though they will get less so at higher levels. An example of a way to make use of this might be the Nightmare Spinner from Complete Mage, a class which I quite like. A single level nets you immunity to fear and an extra spell slot per level to use on illusion spells, at the cost of a caster level. A fair trade IMO, but it would let you cast more L2 spells instead of L3 spells. It probably needs to be built around, though - the skills are tough to get, and you won't want to be relying on L2 spells for long. Just remember that if you wind up in a sticky situation, having something you can use which doesn't risk you getting zapped is a good thing. To answer your questions on the concetration checks, I don't know what e.g. dmanage is, I'm sure I can cast defensively but I haven't been in a situation where I need to yet, and I did take Combat Casting and it does give me a +4 on the concetration check when I'm casting.
#7 jonofthefunk Mar 01, 2012 6:07:52	Well, since people are requesting statistics since the link to the character sheet doesn't work, I'll post the basic stats here. Level 2 Human Generalist Wizard HP:8 AC:10 Str: 8 Dex: 11 Con: 12 Int: 18 Wis: 10 Cha: 8 Fortitude Safe: 1 Reflex Save: 0 Will Save: 3 Speed: 30 Melee: 0 Grapple: 0 Ranged: 1 Level 0 Spells: *have all by default* Level 1 Spells: Magic Misslie, Charm Person, Ray of Emfeblement, Sleep, Expeditious Retreat, Shield, Mage Armor, Grease, Burning Hands, Magic Weapon, Feather Fall Feats: Combat Casting, Spell Mastery x1 (Sleep, Mage Armor, Grease, Expeditious Retreat), Scribe Scroll
#8 awaken_D_M_golem Mar 02, 2012 14:46:52	Almost everything looks fine. Combat Casting feat is a good idea, even without the houserule y'all are using. Wizard is not an easy class to de-noob yourself. Consider memorizing (really!) this link ... Logic Ninja's Guide To Being Batman www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t...
#9 The_Fred Mar 03, 2012 13:21:38	To answer your questions on the concetration checks, I don't know what e.g. dmanage is, I'm sure I can cast defensively but I haven't been in a situation where I need to yet, and I did take Combat Casting and it does give me a +4 on the concetration check when I'm casting. What I mean is, in the standard rules on typically has to make a Concentration check either to cast defensively, or to keep casting if you take damage whilst mid-spell. The question is, have those been replaced with plain old d20 checks too? Since that would make it very hard to keep spells (all a foe would need to do would be to ready an action to attack you once you start casting). There are other uses for Concentration, too, like casting whilst grappled. If these have all been replaced with unmodified d20 rolls, you are going to have to play quite differently from the norm, and probably far more defensively (not getting hit will be even more important if it means you're sure to lose your spells).