This will be a new character for an existing home-brew campaign. Any non-world specific WotC book is allowed. He will start at 12th or 13th level, with no particular end-level in sight. 4d6 rolls for stats, with a generous re-roll policy, so assume any necessary stats are available.
The basic build I am considering is a LN human Sorcerer 5/Frost Mage 5/Fiend-Blooded 10. Beyond that, I am running into problems, primarily with selecting feats beyond the (admittedly many) prerequisites. I would like to stay mostly in theme, with the majority of the feats being cold- or fiend-related without gimping the character, if that is even possible.
With that, I humbly prostrate myself before the gods of CharOp, asking for the gift of their wisdom while simultaneously hoping I have not somehow inadvertently offended the mighty PhoenixInferno. Thank you.
In the way of classes, there's nothing else you could really do without losing out on your 2 PrCs. The Elemental Savant (CompArc) focuses on an energy type; the various Shadow PrCs in Tome of Magic are cold-ish but only secondary to their shadow focus.
In regard to feats: Energy Sub (Cold) and Energy Admix (Cold) are good thematic choices. Whichever feat it is that lets you ignore some/all cold resistance and immunity is an absolute must (it's also in Frostburn, I believe). You could also take the various Draconic Heritage feats picking a dragon that gives cold breath, cold resistance, etc. and reflavor it to be a fiendish gift.
Otherwise, your build is pretty solid. Unfortunately there's not much you can do for a full-casting PrC to take up sorcerer levels 2-5. Hope that helps some.
Lord of the Uttercold (Complete Arcane) is another option - it makes half of the spell's damage negative energy. If you've got skeletal minions, you can even heal them this way.
Piercing Cold is the Frostburn feat which ignores cold resistance - it is a +1 level metamagic, though.
Thanks. I'm not surprised someone with "Ice" in their SN would know that. ;)
Even though it's a +1, if you're going to be doing the every-spell-does-cold-damage routine you'd better get it, or you'll be screwed by cold-resistant enemies. It's still a last-resort thing, though.
With that, I humbly prostrate myself before the gods of CharOp, asking for the gift of their wisdom while simultaneously hoping I have not somehow inadvertently offended the mighty PhoenixInferno. Thank you.
That's the funniest thing I've read on the boards in a while...I'm in the middle of a pretty boring paper right now, I needed that. Thanks man.
I haven't seen PI around in a while, is he still here?
And unfortunately, my experience with casters is limited and hasn't traditionally been effective, I have nothing constructive to add. Unless you want to hear about the resource curse and its affects on Nigeria...
Thanks. I'm not surprised someone with "Ice" in their SN would know that. ;)
Even though it's a +1, if you're going to be doing the every-spell-does-cold-damage routine you'd better get it, or you'll be screwed by cold-resistant enemies. It's still a last-resort thing, though.
I believe, Frost Mage 4 nets you that said metamagic feat for free as well as an added bonus where it ignores any immunities or resistance due to magic items or spells.
I built a similar build before but with a lot less levels of Fiend-Blooded. The other prestige class that I took was Incantatrix. My main focus was 2 spells. Lesser Orb of Cold and Arcane Fusion.
My build was Sorcerer 5 / Frost Mage 4 / Fiend Blooded 2 / Incantatrix 9. I could not get the last level of Incantatrix although that would be awesome.
Other than the prereq (4 feats!!), my feats were used for Arcane Thesis (Lesser Orb of Cold) and Arcane Thesis (Arcane Fusion). The rest of the feats i used to reduce my metamagic cost for Twin Spell, Fell Drain and Empower Spell using Practical Metamagic. I also took Rapid Metamagic feat so that I do not have to worry about casting metamagicked spells. (I got Eschew Materials for free at first level to balance off the Sorc so I had a free feat slot)
I loved Fiendish Sorcery as it managed to net me the Necromancy spell from the Paladin spell list, Favor of the Martyr, which lets you be immune to daze for 1min / lvl which is useful with celerity.
Hence, my attack sequence goes like this, I cast a greater arcane fusion (GAF1), which allows me to cast a level 7 and lvl 4 spell. For the lvl 7 spell, I cast a twinned arcane fusion which lets me then cast 2 lvl 1 spells and 2 lvl 4 spells in any order. The two lvl 1 spells would be my Lesser Orb of Cold (Fell Drained, Empowered, Piercing Cold). The two lvl 4 spells would be first Farvor of the Martyr and then Celerity which will net me another standard action. I use the standard to cast another greater arcane fusion (GAF2) and cast 2 more lvl 1 orbs and a twinned, fell drained, cold piercing, empowered orb (lvl 3 spell) and another celerity or orb depending on the situation. If celerity is chosen, repeat the steps again. After that, the remaining lvl 4 spell from the Greater Arcane Fusions, i either throw more orbs or buff myself or celerity again to continue the cycle.
With this, I was able to cast quite a lot of orbs in just 1 round. Do take note that Arcane Fusion and Greater Arcane Fusion do not use up the spell slots of the 2 spells that you choose. You just simply use a lvl 5 or 8 slot to cast a 1 & 4 or 4 & 7 respectively.
Of course this is just your attack routine. You could use the arcane fusion to buff your allies as well. I understand that this does not sound fiendish thematically, but i hope my experience in building a similar character could instill more ideas into your spell selection for fiendish sorcery or perhaps a few ideas in terms on how to attack your enemies with your orbs/cold spells.
I believe, Frost Mage 4 nets you that said metamagic feat for free as well as an added bonus where it ignores any immunities or resistance due to magic items or spells.
Really? Interesting--I've never really looked at the Frostburn PrCs before, but the Frost Mage is looking better and better.
It's quite nice, tbh, but some of the prerequisites are... tricky. Surviving a blizzard without any (magical) protection might take DM help - or quite a bit of luck. I'm not too thrilled by the feats you need to get, either. Still, it is quite an interesting PrC.
Yeah, the prereqs are why I pretty much passed them up, although like I said I'd have to look back and see if any are actually worth it.
1: Blood Calls to Blood, Snowcasting
3: Frozen Magic
6: Energy Substitution (cold)
9: Eschew Materials, Piercing Cold [bonus feat from Frost Mage]
12: Frostfell Prodigy [Frostburn]
15: ?
18: ?
The plan would be to keep control temperature up and running at all times, so the Frostfell Prodigy feat would always be in effect, granting extra spell slots. The only thing I have to do is figure out how to do this without killing the rest of the party...
I'm also wondering if anyone has any opinions of whether I'm better off taking the Metamagic Specialist alternate class feature [PHB2], or the Rapid Metamagic feat [CMage] so I can still take advantage of the Fiend-Blooded's fiendish companion feature? I was also thinking of adding in the Dragon Familiar feat [Draconomicon] to get a fiendish wyrmling white dragon familiar, but I'm quickly running out of feats! I don't know if I would be better off just taking Cold Focus and Greater Cold Focus [both Frostburn] for my last two feats.
Too many options, not enough feats!
Thanks for the arctic kobold suggestion, PhaedrusXY. I'll add it to my box of dirty DM tricks, but I won't use it in this campaign. The other players are already complaining about how "overpowered" my current tiefling fighter/swashbuckler/dervish/tempest is...
And thanks to d3f4ult for the spell advice. I'd love to play with an incantatar, but it's from the Realms.