Dm has been pretty generous with starting equipment and has given me the following:
Ring of protection +2
Amulet of natural armor +2
Robe of Arcane Might: conjuration (+4 armor bonus, +1 CL for conj spells)
** other misc equipment that doesn't contribute to my defenses.
Obviously the usual mage armor / greater mage armor and shield spell would be typical for spells known in case i lose my fancy defensive items. Other then those specific defensive spells, i'd like to focus on direct damage spells. I have taken the following feats as well:
Enhanced Power Sigils
Versatile Spellcaster
Point Blank Shot
Precise Shot
Invisible Needle
Due to the last feat i need to keep a force spell in my highest spell slot at all times to keep up an infinite 3d4 force damage every round if i choose, and the first feat will cause ALL my spells to be cast at a +2 caster level.
Okay, I've given all the info i can... All books are open except for campaign world specific (i.e. no FR, Eberron, etc). Most spells would be from the Spell Compendium and PHB but welcome all options. Oh and no Book of Vile Darkness or 9 Sword cheese.
THANKS!
I'm also curious as to how he could possible exploit strips of paper with Explosive Runes on them in combat by reading them to damage opponents. I remember seeing a post around here that did that as his only was of causing damage. Turned out to be ungodly effective but i see no way to avoid the damage.
http://forums.gleemax.com/showpost.php?p=14495012&postcount=1009
Other strong spells to consider would be the following, and if you can't find the spell, google it to learn what book it's in. But note that direct HP damage is generally a poor route to take, so be aware of that... I'm including nice attack spells that don't deal HP damage. Also note that you don't need a whole bunch of different blast spells that do the same thing with a different name. You want as much variety in your spells known as you can get. Just blast away with one blast spell and keep the other spells available.
Glitterdust - VERY useful attack spell, this will be your go to attack for a long time to come. Ignores SR, targets will, incredibly effective debuff that also lets your Rogue hit harder, finds invisible targets, and if you hit the wrong person with it you can't kill them... plus if your tank gets a Blindfold of True Darkness you can land it right on him without caring.
Grease - Another great one, this spell makes enemies flat footed (since you're always flat footed if you are making Balance checks and you don't have 5 ranks in Balance... and have you ever seen an enemy that did?). If your tank can get a few Balance ranks, awesome. But generally, it helps the Rogues a lot, plus it targets Reflex saves.
Alter Self - INSANE flexibility. For 10 minutes per level, gain any of the following effects: 40' swim speed (Aquatic Elf), 10' burrow speed (Earth Mephling), 10' perfect fly speed (Air Mephling), +8 Natural Armor (Crucian), +6 Natural Armor and two claw attacks (Troglodite, IIRC), large bonuses to hide and move silently (Skulk), or a number of other handy effects. Google "Alter Self Forms" to get a complete list, and just google each of the listed creatures to find out where they're from. Suffice to say, this is just about the ultimate mobility and defense buff, or skill buff. Your choice. But it beats the heck out of Shield, that's for sure. Also consider Mirror Image for defense.
Shrink Item - All kinds of hilarity. Shrink objects and drop them on people (while flying, thank you Alter Self) for massive damage. Steal very large and expensive scenery pieces and sell them for profit. Conceal large weapons for your tanks in social situations. The fun never stops.
Ghoul Glyph - A great spell for spontaneous casters. This paralyzes enemies with no save... it's a save or suck without the save. Also, you can spam it on stuff at the end of the day to prevent getting ambushed at night... or to prepare for an ambush the next day. That's the joy of no cost long duration spells on a spontaneous caster... you were going to waste those extra slots anyway.
Shivering Touch - Just in case you see a dragon. No save touch attack 3d6 dex damage is VERY nice, and a lot of enemies will drop instantly to a maximized version of this... and a Lesser Rod of Maximize will do that without increased spell levels. Combos well with Spectral Hand, so consider taking that spell if you take this. Then go find a dragon, or other enemy with a poor touch AC, low Dex, and high treasure. It's direct damage that targets something other than HP, which is important.
Ray of Enervation - With some metamagic, this will kill VERY quickly. Maximize it, Empower it, and thank your lucky stars that Lesser Metamagic Rods exist.
Wings of Flurry - One of the few Sorcerer only spells, this does uncapped area damage, and it's force damage so few things resist it. Very handy. And of course it's a traditional blast spell, one of the few actually good ones. But this should qualify for your force requirement, though Explosive Runes does too.
JaronK
Krau(magic): +1 caster level on all spells & spell-like abilities (up to your character level)
Vaul(soul): +N on Charisma checks & Charisma-based skill checks
Vaulkrau :
Expend a spell slot (but not one holding a prepared spell) as an Immediate Action to gain an Insight bonus equal to the spell level on your next saving throw. Must be used before the start of your next turn. Usable 2/day.
Feat: Improved Sigil(Krau) [General](RoD p153)req:Illumian,Krau power sigils
Choose a number of spell with verbal components that you can cast equal to the number of power sigils you have. When you cast one of these spells, its effective spell level is increased by 1. Whenever you gain the ability to cast a new level of spells, you may reassign the spells affected by this feat. If you cast one of the chosen spells with the Silent Spell feat, this feat has no effect.
but i would suggest these feats instead of your picks:
Enhanced Power Sigils
Versatile Spellcaster
Improved Sigil(Krau)
Heighten Spell
Invisible Needle
if you use 2 3rd lvl slots , you could cast a Heightened Magic Missile to 4th lvl(which would function as a 5th lvl Spell, due to Imp Sigil) ... thus you gain 5d4 Invisible Needle damage .....
:D
L'Avantgarde Noire
If you did take those, there's a few tricks that you can use at higher level that make them really powerful (see the Shadowcraft Mage Handbook to get a feel for it). One thing to remember is that Plane Shift can be used offensively on the enemy... so... when in doubt, Plane Shift the enemy (using your familiar) to the Plane of Shadow, then go meet him, and enjoy free maximized spell effects from your Shadow spells.
In addition to direct damage, you could (should) also pick up several debuff spells (your party seems a bit light on them). JaronK mentioned some great ones that I currently have on my Sorcerer, actually, but in addition to that:
Ray of Enfeeblement - No save, probably maxed out at your level, and due to the low level spell can easily be metamagiced up with Empower at very low level for an average of 12.5 Str penalty to an opponent (or, typically, -6 to attacks and damage: no other debuff will be able to more efficiently take down an opponent's stats for the spell slot, although you will need others at high levels for "massive one-round debuff" effects, as this spell doesn't stack with itself, unlike Enervation).
Ray of Exhaustion: Stacks with above. Make sure to take Touch of Fatigue as well.
Cloudkill: Your Wizard will likely have Solid Fog and Grease (or Sleet Storm, Evard's Black Tentacles) to massive effect - basically, opponents can't move, and end up taking d4 Con damage per round (every round they fail their save). It ends up doing on average about 15 damage per round, but also reduces their Con quite a bit. Centering the spell correctly is important, as it'll move quite a bit. Consider the spell Battering Ram or Telekinesis just to keep opponents in it longer.
Contagion / Deafness/Blindness / Crushing Despair / Curse / Greater Curse: All awesome single enemy-specific debuffs that'll get you far, although you only want a couple of these, as overkill makes you very vulnerable to crowds (whose easy defeat, supposedly, are one of the Sorcerer's strengths).
Focused Conjurer: he's probably very effective at battlefield control, right? Leave it to him. Let him be focused. Don't take spells that are strong in the abstract but which duplicate his abilities. There's no need: you're wasting a valuable slot because this guy casts the same spell Sculpted with a higher DC.
Favored Soul: also a spontaneous caster, and there are a lot of ways to go with this. I would think for a long time about what this character has and what he plans to have. Is he running summoning? Buff? Damage?
Cleric: this one could also be doing a bunch of different things, clerics have some pretty strong debuffs, some attack damage spells depending on the books allowed, and some control spells depending on how liberal the DM is towards divine magic.
You only have one real, honest beater (bless him) and two glass cannons (the rogue and the soulknife), so someone is going to have to be summoning meat shields. The cleric may be a tank depending, again, on build and DM liberality; and in any case the Favored Soul and the Cleric might have this covered. Then again, think what would happen if the four of you (while invisible or otherwise protected) summoned at the same time. Chaos, that's what would happen. Chaos!
The only real hole I see is the big time debuff role. If the party as written took on a really, really tough bunch of monsters, with all kinds of immunities and big saves, the Conjurer might find his DCs too low, and the rogue/soulknife might wind up in near-death range really quickly. If the barbarian is unable to hit, neutralized, or outmaneuvered, the divine casters will find it's all they can do to slow the onslaught but not alter the outcome.
Now if you come in there, though, dropping Enfeeblments and Exhaustions and Enervations and what have you, the outcome might be different. You'd enable all the other characters, while protecting them at the same time. After the battle, you'd be a star. They would all say, "Wow, we need you. We could not have won that without you at all."
And isn't being a star what sorcery is all about?
As a side note, there are some decent combination debuff/damage spells out there. And you can avoid the overpowering whiffs of cheese that come from character sheets bearing the words, "Wings of Flurry."
Also, I'd consider:
Ruin Delver's Fortune (SpC)
Nerveskitter
Dispel Magic
All three wizard guides here at gleemax provide very solid spell recommendations, so have a look at the handbooks!
here's the link to the explosive runes trick,... still confused:
http://forums.gleemax.com/showpost.php?p=14495012&postcount=1009
For the sake of the dim-witted, could some one spell out how the "explosive runes trick" works. I looked at the link, can see that it was used to demonstrate the power of casters, but don't quite get how it works. Thanks.
Purify Spell[Metamagic](BoED p44)req: Good alignment,+1 spell level adjust
1. The spell gains the [good] subtype.
2. Neutral creatures take ½ damage.
3. Good creatures take no damage.
4. Evil Outsiders have the die size of the damage dice increased by one category (i.e.,
1d6 becomes a 1d8, a 1d8 becomes 2d6, etc.)
thus you can read Explosive Runes all day.... if they were cast with Purify Spell and you have a Good Alignment..... but others around you will take damage(even more if Evil)
:D
On that line of thought, Wings of Flurry is also a good sorcerer spell, along with all the Arcane Fusion mojo. That's [Force] as well.
I also highly recommend Spell Theft as your first or second choice for 5th level slot (when you get there). It's a targeted Dispel (+15 to check), that, with no save and no SR allows you first to know EVERY buff (including Permanent buffs and buffs from items/SLA's) active on the target, then you get to make your dispel roll versus each, and if you succeed, the buff (including permanent buffs and buffs from items/SLAs) rolls over to you. You can choose not to dispel a specific spell (such as a debuff one of your compatriots cast) at your discretion. It's a very over powered spell for the spell level. Even at 20th, you should have a ~25% chance to steal spell buffs from enemy casters, all other things being equal.
My list would be
1-enlarge person, charm person (if there's a lot of humanoids you interact with), ray of enfeeblement, silent image
2-alter self, shatter
3-haste or ray of exhaustion
thus you can read Explosive Runes all day.... if they were cast with Purify Spell and you have a Good Alignment..... but others around you will take damage(even more if Evil)
Is this just done for style purpose? because I'm assuming that reading the runes is a standard action. Even maximized, 36dmg a round (72 if the familiar is doing it too) seems okay at best. Am I missing something?
Is this just done for style purpose? because I'm assuming that reading the runes is a standard action. Even maximized, 36dmg a round (72 if the familiar is doing it too) seems okay at best. Am I missing something?
works great for a 6th lvl character.... but the nice thing is that the Runes can be made when you have some downtime and are Permanent until read... and they dont cost any XP
:D
Illumian Sorcerer, level 6.
Feats:
Enhanced Power Sigils
Versatile Spellcaster
Improved Sigil(Krau)
Heighten Spell
Invisible Needle
with this party:
Focused Conjurer specialist
favored soul
cleric
rogue
soulknife
fighter / barbarian
:D
Is this just done for style purpose? because I'm assuming that reading the runes is a standard action. Even maximized, 36dmg a round (72 if the familiar is doing it too) seems okay at best. Am I missing something?
It's technically not an action to read explosive runes, even purposely, as it's the trap that's actually triggering against you and not vice versa. Reading (non-scrolls) isn't listed as an action in any of the tables I can find. While I would assume that a sane DM would place limits on it as a houserule, by RAW, you can technically (as far as I can tell), set off thousands of them at once.
Even if put into a standard action, it's still a PBAoE that deals decent force damage for the level that (as carnivore describes) can be done over and over again via prep during down time. (which is how I've always used the spell).
Read a scroll = Standard Action
Decipher Script = 1 page of Script takes 10 Full round actions.... not really applicable
since Explosive Runes requires that you "read" some of the Runes.... then it explodes it would be reasonable to use a Standard Action.... since that is all it would take to trigger this type of trap..... if you allow them to be read as a Swift action... they become far Stronger
:D
works great for a 6th lvl character.... but the nice thing is that the Runes can be made when you have some downtime and are Permanent until read... and they dont cost any XP
:D
AAAAAAaaaaaaahh... zomg that's awesome @_@
If i remember right my fella has with bonus spell slots... 8 / 6 / 4 / 3 currently. So when we're resting in the town's inn for 2 days ...
three 3rd = 3
four 2nd = 2 more
six 1st = 3 more
totals out to 8 castings of explosive runes... x 2 days = 16 nifty little strips of paper.
Carnivore --- I'm looking forward to the list you come up with and thank you in advance!
1)Good Alignment
2)Feat: Purify Spell[Metamagic](BoED p44)req: Good alignment,+1 spell level adjust[indent]
1. The spell gains the [good] subtype.
2. Neutral creatures take ½ damage.
3. Good creatures take no damage.
4. Evil Outsiders have the die size of the damage dice increased by one category (i.e.,
1d6 becomes a 1d8, a 1d8 becomes 2d6, etc.)[/indent]
so this is not really the direction you have your character going... ... try this:
Illumian
Sorceror 6
Sigils:
Krau(magic): +1 caster level on all spells & spell-like abilities (up to your character level)
Vaul(soul): +N on Charisma checks & Charisma-based skill checks
Vaulkrau :
Expend a spell slot (but not one holding a prepared spell) as an Immediate Action to gain an Insight bonus equal to the spell level on your next saving throw. Must be used before the start of your next turn. Usable 2/day.
Improved Sigil(Krau)
Improved Sigil(Krau) [General](RoD p153)req:Illumian,Krau power sigils
Choose a number of spell with verbal components that you can cast equal to the number of power sigils you have. When you cast one of these spells, its effective spell level is increased by 1. Whenever you gain the ability to cast a new level of spells, you may reassign the spells affected by this feat. If you cast one of the chosen spells with the Silent Spell feat, this feat has no effect.
Improved Sigil(Krau) [General](RoD p153)req:Illumian,Krau power sigils
Choose a number of spell with verbal components that you can cast equal to the number of power sigils you have. When you cast one of these spells, its effective spell level is increased by 1. Whenever you gain the ability to cast a new level of spells, you may reassign the spells affected by this feat. If you cast one of the chosen spells with the Silent Spell feat, this feat has no effect.
the rules that would have bearing...
Read a scroll = Standard Action
Decipher Script = 1 page of Script takes 10 Full round actions.... not really applicable
since Explosive Runes requires that you "read" some of the Runes.... then it explodes it would be reasonable to use a Standard Action.... since that is all it would take to trigger this type of trap..... if you allow them to be read as a Swift action... they become far Stronger
:D
Right, but 'Speak' is a free action (though most DM's limit to 1 or 2 words/rd), and there's nothing that says you can't have your explosive runes just say 'boom' (which is what I generally do).
Explosive runes does not, by raw, require an action to set them off. It isn't the equivalent of reading a scroll or trying to decipher script (unless you are making your explosive runes into a bunch of archaic, arcane, or foreign symbols). It's the equivalent of glancing at a stop sign and knowing that it says stop (that's 'reading').
While I would agree, as a DM, that it would be 'reasonable' to assign it a standard action (or limit it the same way you handle speech), it's normally a non-action, the same as saying 'boom' would be.
:D
But even so the suggestions are quite helpful
A: heighten spell can't be prepared ahead of time sinc sorcerer's apply them at the time of casting, thus .... i don't see how Sonic Snap (level 0) can fill a higher level spell slot at all times during the day.
B: at 6th level he can only cast level 3 spells, even if he has bonus spell slots up to 5th level due to high Cha it specifically states he must be able to cast a spell of the specified level in able to make use of the bonus spell slot. There for using sonic snap + heighten spell to have a 5th level spell slot wouldn't work due to point mentioned in A and B.
If you could please explain how to make that work it'd be awesome, because i think i'm just not seeing how it works.
Thanks Friend!
Carnivore .... that build is awesome and i love it but i see 2 problems with it.
A: heighten spell can't be prepared ahead of time sinc sorcerer's apply them at the time of casting, thus .... i don't see how Sonic Snap (level 0) can fill a higher level spell slot at all times during the day.
A sorcerer doesn't really "fill" any slots; he just has the ability to cast a (metamagicked) force spell of that level (e.g. a heightened Magic Missile).
If you don't think that's enough for your DM, you could always take the feat Arcane Preparation from Complete Arcane to prove that you have the proper slot "filled".
B: at 6th level he can only cast level 3 spells, even if he has bonus spell slots up to 5th level due to high Cha it specifically states he must be able to cast a spell of the specified level in able to make use of the bonus spell slot. There for using sonic snap + heighten spell to have a 5th level spell slot wouldn't work due to point mentioned in A and B.
I gather that the illumian's Improved Sigil(Krau) feat increases the amount that he can use Heighten Spell. So using that feat and Heighten Spell he could cast a level 4 Magic Missile.