Restrictions: This has to stay at least 50% Shadowcaster as published, setting specific books are out (though some note of the utility would be very nice), and UA rules besides alt class features are out. Lets work with a 28 point buy.
Here's what I've come up with so far:
Shadowcaster 20 (no race selected!)
Str 8, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 8, Cha 16
Level bumps to Cha, items to Int & Cha.
1. Extend Mystery, Bend Perspective, Arrow of Dusk, Caul of Shadow, Umbral Hand
2.b Empower Mystery, Quicker Than the Eye
3. Shadow Familiar, Piercing Sight
4. Trail of Haze, Mystic Reflections
5. Killing Shadows
6. Improved Familiar, Umbral Touch
7. Shadow Evocation
8.b Empower Mystery, Warp Spell, Black Candle
9. Sudden Ability Focus, Feign Life
10. Echo Spell
11. Shadow Evocation, Greater
12. Favored Mystery: Greater Shadow Evocation, Bolstor, Sight Obscurred
13.b Empower Mystery, Dark Soul
14. Ephemeral Image
15. Favored Mystery: Soul Puppet, Soul Puppet (now 3/day!)
16. Umbral Body, Liquid Night
17.b Path Focus: Body and Soul, Shadow Time
18 Greater Path Focus: Body and Soul, Grasping Shadows
19.b Favored Mystery: Grasping Shadows (now 2/day!) relearn: Greater Shadow Evocation (now 6/day!)
20 relearn: Soul Puppet (now 6/day!), Widened Eyes
Summary of Abilities in decreasing coolness:
The main thing here is that Greater Shadow Evocation emulates L6 and below evocations from a Shadowcaster, and is gained at L11. Crappy school or not, I'll take it! While I'm at it, I'll take 3 Empowers too! I've been thinking about relearning Greater Shadow Evocation a couple of times, too (as per ToM, you "gain a new set of uses", which thanks to Favored Mystery, means 3 more per day each time). Favored Mystery doesn't increases your uses per day, but your Mysteries and Paths feature does when it becomes a Sp or Su.
Soul Puppet is the main save-or-die, and the DC is enhanced. Will is easier to target than Fort on most monsters at high levels.
It has spellcaster manipulation with Echo and Warp Spell (edit: these might not be worth it).
It has some nuking action with Killing Shadows (I'm actually considering relearning Killing Shadows, which would effectively increase the number per day from 3 to 6, as per the ToM "gain a new set of daily uses").
Feign Life and Shadow Familiar act the role of summon spells. Shadow Elementals suck in general, so I'm avoiding them like the plague.
My Final Thoughts
Overall, the uses per day isn't going to start being really good until you hit L7, and then the utility literally explodes thanks to the shadow evocations, but 3/day free fireballs and the like still are pretty neat.
Of course this isn't going to be good as a Sorcerer, but I am so sick of standard spellcasters that I'd rather play a commoner than another caster. It has a ton of flavor, and its an almost ignored class (the Samurai gets more posts, for crissakes). It feels like another version of a Warlock, actually...
edit: I have to adjust the bonus feats a bit, since I've messed with the powers a bit.
Nice going though. Shadowcasters have several strong options in their mysteries.
The author of the class posted some non-official errata somewhere to try and make the shadowcaster a bit more up to par, you might want to check that out.
I know about that one; I meant to put in that I wanted to use the class as published; edited that tidbit in.
Human
Swordsage 1 / Shadowcrafter 4 / Duskblade 1 / Swordsage +1 / Jade Phoenix Mage 1 / Teflammer Shadowlord 4 / Jade Phoenix Mage +8
Dodge, Mobility, Blind-Fight, Spring Attack, TWF, iTWF, Practiced Spellcaster, Adaptive Style, BAB +16, Shadowcasting as a 11th level Shadowcrafter.
Uses Flicker for extreme prejudice ("Attack me? OK... Flicker... full attack on enemy... My turn, full attack on enemy, they attack... Flicker... full attack on enemy..." repeat, etc). Also, Shadow Jaunt, etc, but Flicker is SO much better... Still, you need some of both just in case.
(I do like some of the Mysteries found in the Cityscape Web Enhancement. Black Labyrinth is ridiculous for a BBEG, and Grasping Shadows and Umbral Fist are both pretty good, too. Note that Grasping Shadows tries to regrapple escaped victims, which Evard's tentacles doesn't do. I've got a controller build around someplace.)
There are a couple of PrCs in Complete Champion that would advance mysteries, per the Shadowcaster's bizarro requirements.
Night's Long Fingers
1 Quicker than the Eye: Gain bonus on Sleight of Hand checks; use Sleight of Hand at a distance.
2 Trail of Haze: Touched target emits a trail of shadowy mist only you can see.
3 Umbral Fist: Make special attacks at a distance.
(these I can easily replace all three Ebon Whispers for; no problem)
Darkened Alleys
4 Fearful Gloom: Area of shadow causes fear in all who enter.
(not sure what to give up; Bolster seems so freakin' useful to me)
Shadowscape
7 Grasping Shadows: Tendrils grapple foes and cause blindness.
(I think dumping Summon Umbral Servant would be ok here)
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=611162
I'll break down what the level-by-level breakdown would look like.
A dark familiar is an excellent scout.
You have to rely on Arrow of Dusk and Caul of Shadow for quite a while, but maxing Hide and Move Silently lets you
do some scouting. Quicker than the Eye, maxed Hide, and Umbral Hand combine VERY well: you get to sneak into enemy areas and potentially steal all their valuable loot before they can do anything about it. Piercing Sight and Bend
Perspective allow you to play a decent scout, but Wis is a dump stat, typically, so it may not be that effective. The
Familiar can be the target of Piercing Sight and Bend Perspective: use it as such! You can stand back with Arrow
of Dusk, and let your familiar scout for you.
@ 7th:
Blasting has become viable, with Killing Shadows and Shadow Evocation, but Umbral Touch makes you a decent battlefield controller as well; 2/day for these abilities. Amazingly, you can share it with your familiar, so you can Trip/Bull Rush/Disarm two enemies per turn! Pretty wicked. Your familiar should be a very powerful creature at this point (my all time favorite is the Quasit, but the Blink Dog is a very powerful option at this level: remember,
if you just let your familiar be the target of a Personal range spell without sharing, it doesn't need to stay w/in 5' of you.
@ 12th:
Favored Mystery is weirdly worded, but even though the feat doesn't give you extra uses, your Mystery and Path class ability does! So you have twice per day Greater Shadow Evocation, and Bolster. The combination I was thinking of was Empowered Thunderlance combined with Extended Bolster to melee it up a bit (and Howling Chain). This is the one reason I could think of to play with Power Attack... but its just so hard to get the MAD right... We could dump Con a bit, and get an eternal wand of both Heroics and Bull Strength, I guess. Dragon's Breath would be fun, too, I think. Greater Floating Disk gives you flight, sort of, and Contingency is possible now too.
Spellcaster mitigation has also become possible with Warp Spell, Echo Spell (does anyone know if these affect spell-likes as well?); I'm not convinced I need to keep these, and there's some really nice abilities from the RoD Webbie I might take.
Feign Life is the only summon-like ability in the current incarnation, and should be used when convenient.
@ 15th:
At this point, we've started down the controller-route. Ephemeral Image is Project Image, essentially, which means that you can be 250' away from battle as you cast your mysteries. In particular, Soul Puppet can be used twice per day, and has an extremely long duration... nothing says you can't stand far, far away from the enemy and gain control: do so!
Also, at this point, you can blast much more effectively, as Greater Shadow Evocation and Killing Shadows are 3/day each. Arrow of Dusk is unlimited, but not really worth it.
Heh, and if you want to get tricky, you have a +15 Sleight of Hand (enhancement), which could be made really high with items. Don't be afraid to use Umbral Touch at these levels: it all depends on the creature's size mods.
@ 18th:
Firmly commited to being a controller at this point, we've got bonuses to the DCs and durations of the Will save mysteries. I've avoided Shadow Surge b/c of the crappy 1 round duration, but am quite happy with Soul Puppet, being a level lower than one usually gets Dominate Monster. Having it as a Favored Mystery gives me an extra use per day, too, which means (@18th, with the Path Foci), I can have as many as 40 creatures under my direct control. The DC for it is at +2, too
@ 20th:
We've added a save-or-die, and some temporary enemy sequestration effects, but I'm not really satisfied with the last three levels; these all allow SR and Saves,and some allow multiple saves. Consume Essence is freakin' good, but I'm just not convinced it will succeed often enough.
What I may end up doing is replacing all three with relearnings of a few key mysteries. Relearning gives you a new set of daily uses: if its a Su ability, as in Greater Shadow Evocation, that would give me another 3 daily. If I took it again, the wording is vague enough to possibly allow for 6 more daily alotments... but more likely I'll relearn Greater Shadow Evocation, Soul Puppet, and learn the Grasping Shadows.
Anyways, I'm not really satisfied with the 9th level mysteries. They all look great on paper, but I just don't think they're all that good.
Oh, and Shadow Elementals suck.
...this is starting to feel a lot like a Warlock with different flavor...
Anyways, I'm not really satisfied with the 9th level mysteries. They all look great on paper, but I just don't think they're all that good...
The only one I really like is Shadow Time, as Time Stop is still Time Stop. Maybe that's an on-paper thing, though; not sure whether a standard arcanist would be able to throw down better stuff during his free rounds.
The only one I really like is Shadow Time, as Time Stop is still Time Stop. Maybe that's an on-paper thing, though; not sure whether a standard arcanist would be able to throw down better stuff during his free rounds.
I don't think Time Stop is that good on a mystery user... What can they do with the extra rounds, besides escape? I mean, there's some summoning, but they kind of suck. Also, it would normally only be twice a day (with a feat), and I'm not convinced its worth it (if I really geared this guy to be a summoner / battlefield controller, then, yeah, I could see the utility, but it doesn't seem that good with this subset of mysteries). I mean, there's no Delay Mystery, ya know?
I've also been considering taking Quicken SLA (which isn't excluded), and Sudden Ability Focus, but I'm just not sure yet.
I really like the idea of using Shadow Evocation for Dragon's Breath... I dunno why... it just really, really appeals to me...
edit: there's enough stuff to self-buff with to add Shadow Time... I'm going to remove some of the high-level abilities.
Does anyone have a good suggestion for race? Right now, I'm kind of leaning towards an elf race, just for the bonus weapon proficiencies...
Does anyone have a good suggestion for race? Right now, I'm kind of leaning towards an elf race, just for the bonus weapon proficiencies...
Depends on if you want Irony points.
Because the Asherti (SP?) from Sandstorm glow in the dark.
Depends on if you want Irony points.
Because the Asherti (SP?) from Sandstorm glow in the dark.
HAH! Cookie 4 u!
Edit: How about a Shadowcaster Walker in the Waste? Talk about BBEG potential!
And, while at it, Shadowcaster / Archivist / Walker in the Waste / Mystic Theurge? Talk about funky! Something like:
Shadowcaster 2 / Archivist 3 / Walker 10 / Mystic Theurge 5?
HAH! Cookie 4 u!
Yes!
Depends on if you want Irony points.
At first glance I thought you said irony pants...
At first glance I thought you said irony pants...
Wow. Just...Wow. That was good Surreal. I tip my hat to you.
I like your interpretation of Favored Mystery better but I'm pretty sure that "does not otherwise increase the number of times per day" line was specifically put in there to disallow that. Still even if I'm right, and I certainly would like to be proven wrong in this case, you could take Favored Mystery(Greater Shadow Evocation) a second time to gain the extra usage ad then "relearn" the mystery for 3 more uses/day. Definitely not as feat efficient though.
Just out of curiosity why do you not want to use the unofficial errata? Just to see if it's really as bad as everyone thinks?
Nice, I've always liked the Shadowcaster's flavor but always found it too weak. Still, you've reinspired me to take another look at it. Are there any other extra mysteries or the like besides the ones in the Cityscape web enhancement? You mentioned RoD in one of your posts but I didn't find any there.
Thats just the web enhancement.
I like your interpretation of Favored Mystery better but I'm pretty sure that "does not otherwise increase the number of times per day" line was specifically put in there to disallow that. Still even if I'm right, and I certainly would like to be proven wrong in this case, you could take Favored Mystery(Greater Shadow Evocation) a second time to gain the extra usage ad then "relearn" the mystery for 3 more uses/day. Definitely not as feat efficient though.
"You cast that mystery as a Su instead of spell like, or spell like instead of as a spell. If you choose a mystery that you cast as a Su, or if you later gain the ability to cast it as a Su, you gain an extra use per day. This feat doesn't otherwise increase the number of times per day."
OK, the feat can't otherwise increase # of times per day you use the mystery. That's fine, b/c the class ability says:
"You can use each mystery you know a certain number of times per day depending on whether it is cast as a spell, Sp, or Su. Given on table."
Text trumps table, of course, so the minute you cast any mystery as a Sp or Su you gain extra uses (you might be able to use Supernatural Transformation the same way).
I like to think of the feat as:
You increase the mystery to the next bracket. You gain extra uses per day based on your class ability. If you have the ability to use it as an Su already, you get an extra daily use.
Its not perfectly clear, though.
Just out of curiosity why do you not want to use the unofficial errata? Just to see if it's really as bad as everyone thinks?
Yep. I don't think it is. It isn't as good as a straight caster, still, but I think its more fair to compare them to a Warlock.
You're probably right, though I'll push for the errata anyways :P Although the dual casting stat is one of the things that irks me the most and he still refused to change that.
Yea, I'm just not sure. If I was DMing I'd allow it, hopefully if I try to play one the DM will do the same.
You're probably right, though I'll push for the errata anyways :P Although the dual casting stat is one of the things that irks me the most and he still refused to change that.
Oh, in a game I'd allow it -- sorry, I was in c/o-board mode there.
I agree, it's nowhere near as bad as advertised, and I'd prefer playing one to a warlock, I think. I still have to find that controller -- I was considering one for the World's Largest Dungeon.
Oh, in a game I'd allow it -- sorry, I was in c/o-board mode there.
I agree, it's nowhere near as bad as advertised, and I'd prefer playing one to a warlock, I think. I still have to find that controller -- I was considering one for the World's Largest Dungeon.
Hrm... VoP Shadowcaster?
I think they could make reasonable single classed gishes, actually.
Bolster,
Umbral Body,
Shadow Evocations for the weapon-like spells,
Shadow Skin,
Steel Shadows...
Heck, that's a 50% miss chance for the enemies (if they even HAVE magical attacks), ChaMod+10 AC, +75 HP...
If you took Quicken SLA for Bolster at 18th (when its a SLA), then that helps out a lot, and Quicken Mystery for another buff the following round would work, too. (Its odd to me that they banned Empower SLA and Ability Focus, but not the other SLA-feats or Sudden Ability Focus, even though that was in the same book.)
Bolster just seems INSANE... False Life on crack cocaine...
I think they could make reasonable single classed gishes, actually.
And just like that, I'm inspired to try to pull a decent gish build out of this. I'll look into it and post if I find anything particularly exciting.
Edit: Upon further looking, the usual gish options aren't for this class, given how it multiclasses. With that said, you don't really lose much for losing a few shadowcaster levels, not like when playing a real caster. Perhaps the trick would be to just climb shadowcaster to 17+ then stick in a few full BAB levels in a frontloaded class. Shadowcaster 18/Pal (of X) 2 would be one way, and it has some nice Cha synergy. You'd obviously want to grab one of those caster twinked armors (twilight mithril etc. etc.), keep your int just high enough to cast your mysteries, and push your Cha up as high as possible. There's probably more that can be done with it. Hexblade 3 or blackguard 2 also work. If you were really feeling crazy, throw all three into the build and go Shadowcaster 13/hex 3/pal of tyranny 2/blackguard 2. Cha to saves 3x and mettle. You can just ignore the ASF, since you'll only have 1 mystery that can be used 1x/day for that to be an issue. Concentrate on mobility, buffs, and debuffs, and be the shockingly mobile guy wearing a bunch of metal. I'm not sure it's worth it though.
Greater Shadow Evocation emulates L7 and below evocations from a Shadowcaster, and is gained at L11. Are you kidding me? 7th level spells at L11???
Does this work? The Greater Shadow Evocation mystery says that it mimics spells of lower than 7th level -- instead of 7th level or lower, as the spell.
Does this work? The Greater Shadow Evocation mystery says that it mimics spells of lower than 7th level -- instead of 7th level or lower, as the spell.
Yeah, I misread it. Still, L6 and lower isn't bad.
Edit: Ninja'd
Edit #2: Perhaps a Shadowcaster 10/Ur-Priest 2/Mystic Theurge 8 build? Skills would be a pain, but you get 9th level divine and 9th level mysteries.
Oh crap, just realized you can't take Soul Puppet unless you have Dark Soul (unless you use the fix :P) so never mind.
Flood of Shadows does seem like a worthwhile investment over Empower Mystery though, spend one round setting it up and then you get as many empowers as you want. Still it might be worthwhile to keep one Empower for when you need it without having time to set up. Also, your other party members might get pretty annoyed with you if they keep failing their spells (but man it would be ridiculous if you had a Shadowcraft mage with you)!
Also is there anyway besides Reach Mystery to use all the various touch mysteries at range? For reason I thought there was a self-buff mystery that allowed this but now I can't find it.
Also is there anyway besides Reach Mystery to use all the various touch mysteries at range? For reason I thought there was a self-buff mystery that allowed this but now I can't find it.
I'm not sure, but I don't use that many (any) touch offensive effects.
I'm torn on flood of shadows vs. Empower Mystery... A standard action in combat isn't always that good, no matter the effect. Also, Empower from L2 is pretty sweet, considering a lot of the options are all blasting. On the other hand, Greater Shadow Evocation: Contingency might (w/ DM fiat) be used with Flood of Shadow... not sure...
What would Empower Mystery do to Umbral Touch? Do I roll the bull rush/trip/disarm, then apply 1.5 times the roll?
I think it'd take a pretty lenient DM to allow Flood of Shadows to work with contingency so good luck with that ;) Also, you wouldn't be able to "contingent" a 6th level mystery like FoS till 18th level.
Man--Quicker Than The Eye plus Umbral Hand is great. Sleight of Hand checks at a huge bonus from Medium range (helloooo, Spot penalties)? Just swipe things off people who are off in the distance.
Absolutely! I think this along with Flicker could make the Shadowcaster, even as is, really awesome in an urban-based loose-story game.
What's Flicker? I'm not very familiar with Shadowcasters.
Flicker is freakin' nuts! I first noticed it with Binders (Tenebrous gets it 1/day w/ a bind, 2/day at 14th, 3/day later).
Basically, immediate action casting, 1 round / CL duration. When you cast, and as an immediate action for the duration, you can Dimension Door 5' / 2 CL. If you cast in response to an attack, they have a 50% miss chance... but you don't cast in response to an attack: you cast in response to movement instead!
You don't get hit, for CL rounds, in 90% of combats. I've been thinking about Shadowcaster/ShadowPouncers for abusing this (2 full attacks per round), but the details are slightly alluding me (plus, I'm not in a Faerun game right now, anyways).
. Having to play the class as published + the web enhancement?What path would you suggest?
What if you couldn't use any of the fixes
What path would you suggest?
The web enhancement lower level one is really good.
Other than that, the Shadow Evocation one is nice, and I like the Umbral Touch one.
Kind of depends how you want to build, though... I like the Shadowcaster as a blaster, personally.
edit: You could build towards these four ends easily, I think:
blaster (low to mid level) - Killing Shadows, evocation line (empower / maximize a few times, favored mystery too)
debuffer (low and high level) - Flesh Fails, Afraid of the Shadows, etc. (use familiar to deliver)
controller (high level) - Soul Puppet ftw
battlefield control & transportation (low to mid level) - BC isn't great for a SC but its relatively low level, and the shadow jaunt stuff is mid level and pretty great (see below).
On "Pass into Shadow"
One thing I've decided is that Pass into Shadow and the one before it is wicked good. Use it twice, and its plane shift (once to get to the Shadow Plane, then once to go anywhere else, as per the text). While on the Shadow Plane, you've got the following:
In addition to this, its a save-or-suck. Cast it on an unwilling enemy to dry-gulch them in the Plane of Shadow (then deal with them later if you so desire, with enhanced damage).
Enhanced magic. Spells with the shadow descriptor are enhanced on the Plane of Shadow. Such spells are cast as though they were prepared with the Maximize Spell feat, though they don’t require the higher spell slots.
Furthermore, specific spells become more powerful on the Plane of Shadow. Shadow conjuration and shadow evocation spells are 30% as powerful as the conjurations and evocations they mimic (as opposed to 20%). Greater shadow conjuration and greater shadow evocation are 70% as powerful (not 60%), and a shades spell conjures at 90% of the power of the original (not 80%).
Impeded magic. Spells that use or generate light or fire may fizzle when cast on the Plane of Shadow. A spellcaster attempting a spell with the light or fire descriptor must succeed on a Spellcraft check (DC 20 + the level of the spell). Spells that produce light are less effective in general, because all light sources have their ranges halved on the Plane of Shadow.
In addition to this, its a save-or-suck. Cast it on an unwilling enemy to dry-gulch them in the Plane of Shadow (then deal with them later if you so desire, with enhanced damage).
Illumian/Dark Creature Template (+1 lvl adjustment from ToM)
Shadowcaster5/Warmage4(?)/Noctumancer6 (party lvl average was 15)
The concept goes like this: Being a Dark Creature, he can Hide in Plain Sight as long as the area has some shadowy illumination. PERFECT for dungeon crawl-heavy adventures. Max out ranks in Hide/Move Silently (with a nice hefty bonus from Dark Creature, along with other assorted mysteries, items, feats, etc.) and hide til your hearts content. Then, when in position, hop out and blast the enemy with maximized area effect spells and/or Killing Shadows. After the blast, hide again. Sure, you'll take a -20 penalty to your Hide check, but by that point your bonus should be so frakin high you'll still beat most Spot checks. Mine was a +43 (I cant remember what in all I had going). So, even with a -20 I still had a +23, which is way higher than most enemies Spot check.
As an Illumian, I chose most of the Sigils that upped my caster level and allowed me to swap out spell slots for other abilities.
So, to put it in plain english; hide, nuke, repeat. I called him "The Nuclear Whack-A-Mole". Most of the enemies in the campaign couldn't spot me if they tried, and See Invisibilty doesn't even work because your not invisible, just REALLY freakin' hard to spot!
OK, I'm finally going to play this guy in a game; I'm starting at L18. Wanted some advice... any equipment suggestions? Also, when I use Extend Mystery + Shadow Time, I'm looking at having minimum 10 rounds. What does one do w/ a minute w/o Delay Spell?
Resurrection!
OK, I'm finally going to play this guy in a game; I'm starting at L18. Wanted some advice... any equipment suggestions? Also, when I use Extend Mystery + Shadow Time, I'm looking at having minimum 10 rounds. What does one do w/ a minute w/o Delay Spell?
Did this ever happen? I'm considering playing a level 1 shadowcaster...but maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment. :embarrass
Don't play a Shadowcaster from L1. I repeat: DON'T play a Shadowcaster from L1. Play a Sorcerer instead, and focus on similar spells. Your party will be greatful. The minimum level I'd start a Shadowcrafter at is L5... and even then only if the party is well-rounded. You just don't have enough to do at L1... unless its a very unoptimized group. Then, you'd fit right in.
Don't play a Shadowcaster from L1. I repeat: DON'T play a Shadowcaster from L1. Play a Sorcerer instead, and focus on similar spells.
Well, as you said earlier, I'm tired of the same old caster classes. My idea of an erudite got shot down because "psionics are teh broken".
My thought was that I could try to focus on UMD and play it more like a bard.
(And, for the record, the other players are not very optimized.)
Bard style doesn't really work well, as there aren't enough "buffs" at low level. My suggestion is to focus on debuffing instead. The Touch of Twilight line is actually decent; the second path is totally up to you (although I really like the web enhancement one).
Do you have to play with the Shadowcaster as is or can you use the author's suggested mods?
UMD could work... if you had it on your skill list...
*plonk* O.K., I'll just stick with a necromancer, I guess.
Man...what a crying shame. The Tome of Magic took two interesting ideas (shadow magic & truename magic) and botched the implementation.
Also 1 level of rogue mixed in with shadowcaster and the craven feat means that your Arrows of Dusk would then deal 2d4 +1d6 +level non-lethal damage which is still not too shabby. Rogue will also get you needed skills such as UMD and light armor prof (take still mystery). So a low level build like Whispergnome rogue 1/ shadowcaster 2 with the feats Magic in the Blood, Craven, and Still Mystery is viable for the most part, if you can pick up Weapon Finesse and Darkstalker even better.
So you used Magic in the Blood to apply to your cantrips??? Or just the Whispergnome SLAs?
Don't play a Shadowcaster from L1. I repeat: DON'T play a Shadowcaster from L1. Play a Sorcerer instead, and focus on similar spells. Your party will be greatful. The minimum level I'd start a Shadowcrafter at is L5... and even then only if the party is well-rounded. You just don't have enough to do at L1... unless its a very unoptimized group. Then, you'd fit right in.
Well, as you said earlier, I'm tired of the same old caster classes. My idea of an erudite got shot down because "psionics are teh broken".
My thought was that I could try to focus on UMD and play it more like a bard.
(And, for the record, the other players are not very optimized.)
If you're starting at level 1 you could always play a Sor for levels 1-4 then at level 5 take a level of Shadowcaster...
Remeber Shadowcaster has the the ability to overwrite previous spell caster levels.
So once you hit 5th level you'll be Sor 3 / SC 2.
6th level you'll be Sor 2 / SC 4.
7th level you'll be Sor 1 / SC 6.
8th level you'll be Shadowcaster 8.
Not quite the same as simply starting at 5th level but you have your options.
Are you still using the implied fix by the class's author or are you going with the Class as-is from ToM, James?
Good call on the insidious darkness option or whatever-its-called; that's a DM option, though, so be weary. There's some weirdness if you do that and the noctomancer PrC... You could end up as a Shadowcaster 10 / Noctomancer 10 with spellcasting of a 10th level Sorcerer (and almost all the bennies of a full-Shadowcaster).
Hrm... that's a bit confusing...
So you used Magic in the Blood to apply to your cantrips??? Or just the Whispergnome SLAs?
It applies to just the racial SLAs which is still awesome since that brings the total from 4 racial SLAs 1/day to 4 racial SLAs 3/day
It applies to just the racial SLAs which is still awesome since that brings the total from 4 racial SLAs 1/day to 4 racial SLAs 3/day
Well that's definitely worth it for a single feat, I think. It probably would combine with bloodline feats, too...
Fey Heritage, Fey Presence, Fey Legacy, Whispergnome, Magic in the Blood, and bamf, there's 30 SLAs per day (some of which are really good, too, like the Confuse, Charm, and Dim Door, but they all could work out)... Also, can be combined with any weird Draconic Heritage feats, as that's not a bloodline feat (although should be)...
And just like that I'm off to make a Binder Whispergnome dude...
Good call on the insidious darkness option or whatever-its-called; that's a DM option, though, so be weary. There's some weirdness if you do that and the noctomancer PrC... You could end up as a Shadowcaster 10 / Noctomancer 10 with spellcasting of a 10th level Sorcerer (and almost all the bennies of a full-Shadowcaster).
Hmm, trying to squeeze in Sublime Chord and getting rid of any base class except Shadowcaster...
ecl 9: Wizard 3/Shadowcaster 3/Noctumancer 2/Prestige Bard 1
ecl 10: Wizard 2/Shadowcaster 5/Noctumancer 2/Prestige Bard 1
ecl 19: Wizard 2/Shadowcaster 5/Noctumancer 2/Prestige Bard 1/Sublime Chord 1/Noctumancer +8
ecl 20: Wizard 1/Shadowcaster 7/Noctumancer 2/PrB 1/SC 1/Noctumancer +8
Bah, almost. Probably doable with an early entry trick.
edit: also, I'm not sure if you can get Shadowcaster 10/Noctumancer 10 using a sorcerer base...
ecl 17: Sorc 4/Shadow 3/Noctumancer 10... take three more levels of Shadowcaster and trade away three sorcerer...
ecl 20: Sorc 1/Shadow 9/Noctumancer 10
Hmm, trying to squeeze in Sublime Chord and getting rid of any base class except Shadowcaster...
ecl 9: Wizard 3/Shadowcaster 3/Noctumancer 2/Prestige Bard 1
ecl 10: Wizard 2/Shadowcaster 5/Noctumancer 2/Prestige Bard 1
ecl 19: Wizard 2/Shadowcaster 5/Noctumancer 2/Prestige Bard 1/Sublime Chord 1/Noctumancer +8
ecl 20: Wizard 1/Shadowcaster 7/Noctumancer 2/PrB 1/SC 1/Noctumancer +8
Bah, almost. Probably doable with an early entry trick.
edit: also, I'm not sure if you can get Shadowcaster 10/Noctumancer 10 using a sorcerer base...
ecl 17: Sorc 4/Shadow 3/Noctumancer 10... take three more levels of Shadowcaster and trade away three sorcerer...
ecl 20: Sorc 1/Shadow 9/Noctumancer 10
What about:
Sorcerer 4 -> becomes Shadowcaster +4 (eventually), Heighten Spell + Earth Spell + Sanctum Spell
Shadowcaster 3
Prestige Bard 1
Noctumancer 1
Shadowcaster +1
Sublime Chord 2 / Noctomancer +8
Ends up: Shadowcaster 8 / PrB 1 / Noctomancer 2 (advancing Sorc) / SC 2 / Noctomancer 8 (advancing SC)
For 10 levels of SC casting, 3 levels of Sorc casting, 19 levels of Shadowcasting...
I haven't checked the legality of it. It seems like the biggest trick is keeping 3rd level spells for the Sublime Chord (although skills would be a beyotch too).
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Maybe a Fochlucan Lyricist Shadowcaster?
Naenhoon + Heighten?
I dunno... A simple melee-style PrC might be good enough to gish it up w/ even 9 levels of Shadowcasting.
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For the Noctumancer 10 / SC 10, I was thinking that the character would definitely use an early entry trick for the extra level, but even then, Sorc 2 / Noctu 10 / SC 8 isn't bad.
Flicker is freakin' nuts! I first noticed it with Binders (Tenebrous gets it 1/day w/ a bind, 2/day at 14th, 3/day later).
Basically, immediate action casting, 1 round / CL duration. When you cast, and as an immediate action for the duration, you can Dimension Door 5' / 2 CL. If you cast in response to an attack, they have a 50% miss chance... but you don't cast in response to an attack: you cast in response to movement instead!
You don't get hit, for CL rounds, in 90% of combats. I've been thinking about Shadowcaster/ShadowPouncers for abusing this (2 full attacks per round), but the details are slightly alluding me (plus, I'm not in a Faerun game right now, anyways).
Wait... so Flicker is an immediate action to cast? I thought maybe it was a Std action to cast it, and then immediate to dimension door every round afterwards. If it's also an immediate action to cast, then yeah, that's freakin' crazy good.
And is that 50% for each time you jump to avoid an attack, or only when you first cast it? The way this thing is worded seems confusing...
Wait... so Flicker is an immediate action to cast? I thought maybe it was a Std action to cast it, and then immediate to dimension door every round afterwards. If it's also an immediate action to cast, then yeah, that's freakin' crazy good.
And is that 50% for each time you jump to avoid an attack, or only when you first cast it? The way this thing is worded seems confusing...
Yes, its immediate action to use. Even Tenebrous grants the immediate action usage.
Its 50% miss if you use it to jump from an attack (thus, my usage is to activate it after the opponent moves but before he gets w/in melee for 100%).