I think this is a great idea, and I would like someone more experienced than I suggest something, because I like the flavor of this.
One of my players made simple 16 level build like this, i'll see if he can post it on here
Hmm nope; can't find it, sorry
Frostburn is your book. Cryokineticist is the psionic version and can do pretty much everything you want. It's a psychic warrior prestige class, and if I remember rightly, you get an at will ray attack that will freeze an amount of water dependent on your class level, you can turn your fists into iceblocks for punching, you get some other random ranged cold attack 3/day I think, you can make your weapon frosty for extra damage, you can create a wall of ice, and one/day you can deal a lot of cold damage all around you.
If you really must be a caster, I think there's another prestige class called Frost Mage... take sorcerer levels up to it, probably. I seem to remember it being kind of boring, though. And I think there's a feat for clerics with a Cold domain that gives them more cold-focused spells, but I don't remember anything about it.
Look this topics:
community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...
community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...
community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...
P.S. Few very interesting magic items for "iceman":
www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/200...
Frostburn is your book. Cryokineticist is the psionic version and can do pretty much everything you want. It's a psychic warrior prestige class, and if I remember rightly, you get an at will ray attack that will freeze an amount of water dependent on your class level, you can turn your fists into iceblocks for punching, you get some other random ranged cold attack 3/day I think, you can make your weapon frosty for extra damage, you can create a wall of ice, and one/day you can deal a lot of cold damage all around you.
Cryokinetecist is a trap. It's harder to get into than it's firey counterpart (you need at minimum 5 levels in a manifesting class and have to survive an icestorm relatively unprotected as opposed to having power points and burning something) and is strictly worse with the abilities. If you want to do a psionic iceman, see if your DM will allow the variant here -> www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20...
Frost Mage is a good one for an arcane ice-based caster. The cleric PrC's depend on you worshipping one of two deities, but they both give you some decent abilities (including one of them granting automatic Piercing Cold on all of your spells and transforming you into an elemental)
Frostburn is your book. Cryokineticist is the psionic version and can do pretty much everything you want. It's a psychic warrior prestige class, and if I remember rightly, you get an at will ray attack that will freeze an amount of water dependent on your class level, you can turn your fists into iceblocks for punching, you get some other random ranged cold attack 3/day I think, you can make your weapon frosty for extra damage, you can create a wall of ice, and one/day you can deal a lot of cold damage all around you.
Cryokinetecist is a trap. It's harder to get into than it's firey counterpart (you need at minimum 5 levels in a manifesting class and have to survive an icestorm relatively unprotected as opposed to having power points and burning something) and is strictly worse with the abilities. If you want to do a psionic iceman, see if your DM will allow the variant here -> www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20...
Heh... I didn't say it was good, just that it does what he wants.
Dude.
first, if don care about my bad english (cause im brazilian) i can give u a sweet.
i have a build exactly like u want. i could't test yet, cause im always mastering, never player =/
but i hope to play with.
so, i can give you my build, i just ask you to message me sometimes, telling about ur progress and the effect of the build, if you choose to use it, off course.
ok?
it uses some house hules from complete mage and unhearted arcana, if ur DM can't allow it, you will have to do some changes.
well will tipe now...
Race: Human
Stats (32 points buy)
STR 8
DEX 14
CON 14
INT 18
WIS 12
CHA 8
Class: Specialized wizard (evocation)
prohibited schools: illusion/enchantament
House Rules:
-energy affinity
change your familiar for +1 CL on cold spells (unhearted arcana pg62)
-Focused especialist
one more prohibited scholl(NECRO) and loses 1 spell per day per lvl, to gain an add of 2 spells per dar per lvl of your choosen scholl.
flaws/traits
-non combatent (-2 on melle attacks) for a bonus feat
-murky eyed (must win twice on tests to beat camouflage or like this)
-agressive trait (-1Ac, +2 initiative)
TAG SKILLS
-spellcraft
-arcana knowledge
-survival
-knowledge planes
-?
_________________________
Class progression
wizard 5/ frost mage10/wizard 5
___________________
before go to feat selection, must explain somethings. murky eyed is explaned because he expended alot time in ice zones. his eyes dryed, the icestorm had affected his vision.
as the storms and the lacking of supplies made him weak causing his bad melle aspect(-2melee)
his blood "turned" cold. his cruel and impetuous (i suggest TRUE NEUTRAL), he dont asks twice. he ask and hit only. (agressive trait)
Feats:
lvl1 (human)frozen magic
lvl1(lvl) snowcasting
lvl1 (flaw) cold specialization
lvl1(flaw) improved initiative
lvl3 winter's blast
lvl5(bonus wizard feat) empower spell
lvl6 cold focus
lvl9 metamagic scholl
lvl12 quicken spell
lvl15 twin spell
lvl18 energy substituction
lvl 20(wizard bonus) energy admisture
______________________________________
hints:
darson's chilling chamb er driops the temperature to extreme cold, giving you +2 on CL to cold spells. snowcasting gives +1CL to already Cold spells, or adds to any spell the cold descriptor.
cold specialization gives +2 damage per dice on any cold spell per dice of spell's damage (it means any spell, because snowcasting). Control temperature also works like darsons chilling chamber.
you have greater ice spells, like iceberg, frostfell, polar ray, animate ice, summon ice beast, wall of ice, and alot of spells for control. u can drops the temperature, take a pounch of snow from the darson's seplls to your pocket to use on your snowcasting.
also a archmage works well on the last 5 lvls, with a pumping on yur CL, some quicken spells and the shape mastering to exclude your partners from your cold zones.
i dont know if it works, but i would like to play with. i think like you, i dun care about if this build works or not.
If you're interested in spells that deal damage, wings of flurry (Races of the Dragon) is a 4th level sorcerer exclusive spell that deals uncapped damage, rendering higher level damage dealing spells obsolete. Also, supposing Dragonlance is allowed, War Mage (Age of Mortals) is 5 levels long and adds +3 damage per die to your spells.
While I agree, the cheesy sorcerer wing spells rock, they aren't really what he's looking for y'know. Maybe there is an icy variant somewhere, but I highly doubt it. Even if you just want frost spells I would still get Wings of Cover, immediate action that lets you not take any damge from one attack, or something of the like.
Eherronfrostsoul's build looks pretty good for what you want. I'd also suggest adding Eschew Materials (so you don't actually need snow to benefit from Snowcasting) and/or a suit of Ice Armor.
Phaedrus, i wases looking about eschew materials. i Found that any effect that excludes materials dont works to snowcasting. u can't exclude optional material. if u do that u got no effect.
anyway, u must remenber that u can't add snow on quickened spells too. So, use quicken on already ice spells.
with the winter's blast (reserve feat) u can hit on minor encounters, keeping ur spells to kick the named npcs, winter blasts will hit 1d4 per lvl of ur highter ice spell memorized. and also can fatigue the target for 1 round. oh, and also adds+1 CL on ur cold spells. (total +4CL on cold spells or +3 on non-cold). and is a cone. its so better than a pure wizard with any weapon with his crap BAB.
U will have vulnerability to fire when u reach the 10° frost mage lvl. make sure to alays have a good fire protection, like protection from elements any time and a fire shield on combats.
polar ray is a ray(duh) that causes 1d6 per lvl (max 25). so, on lvl 16 u can cause 20d6+40 with this. and is a easy spell to be empowered, giving 50% damage, also even with a classic quick fireball, u will cause 20d6+40+50% +10d6 on the same turn. (potentially 180 damage).
frostfell makes all turn ice. and who passes on save, still takes 20d6+40 sweet ist?
flesh to ice is funny if u have a shatter too. ^^
and remenber. this build is a funny blaster. but theres more than this. u can freeze a zone, and animate the snow making a huge snow construct. if u dun care about expend xp, sometimes sleep on a ice castle is fun alot too. an animated ice wall would be nice too, since u can animate any snow, magic or not. ice beasts are weak, but will help ur partners to make some enemies flat footed. also, u can smash someone with a brutal iceberg (20d6+40 huge area) and then, animate him giving to the construct a free grab, since he will be on the enemy.
twin spell will work nice too. a twin polar ray and a quickened-empowered fireball will end the npc's turn before the DM would like.
so, there alot u can do. just depends on ur imagination.
Phaedrus, i wases looking about eschew materials. i Found that any effect that excludes materials dont works to snowcasting. u can't exclude optional material. if u do that u got no effect.
Where is this rule stated? I see people suggesting taking Snow Casting + Eschew Materials all the time on here. I was just repeating it.
i dunno dude. i thogh about this combo wen i made this build, a long time, but me and my pals found that it could't works.
anyway, u must agree with me that any master with a good "comon sense" would't allow it.
cos if u have to add ice/snow to make the effect, u must add. if u eschew materials, will be like the normal spell, and theres no logic point. like a Dm i would't allow it.
anyway, if u wanna make all spells turn to cold, u can take archmage lvls to get his energy subs. and the good shape masterie, and reach or a good CL pump.
So, my good use to this build is start the combate with a darson's chilling chamber (turn temperature to extreme cold, and creates a ice environament. also hurts who is in area". take a pounch of ice on ur belt's pocket. i prefer it quickened.
so, levitate or fly 18 feet up or some like it, to stay away from the barbarians or other melee based enemies. next turn a good protection from magic and a wind all to keep arrows away.
and now, is only fun. chill ur enemies like i said before. metamagic polar rays, frostfells, ice storms.
remenber that depending the lvl u have good metamagic feats. like energy substituction and admixture, twin spells. and keep one or two good ice spell to make "piercing" with the frost mage bonus feat. A couple of animated ice contructs and ice beats to add more fun, keep ur enemies busy and flank with ur partners.
during minor encounters, use ur winter's blast. keep the spells for the bosses and named npcs.
people think that a evoker sux. but with this guy here, i can take a whole party. with strategies like a said here. effects, field control and a really alot of damage.
remenber that in extreme cold temperature, a desintegrate with a pound of ice turns a lethal weapon giving 2d6+4 per caster lvl. if u empower it, u kill something that moves.
lvl17:
(34d6 + 68) x 1,5
it likes around 102 +68 = 170 + 85 = kill anything with less than 255 hp.
forget craps like eschew materials. u can do anything.
Actually, no, that doesn't make sense to me... the whole point of Eschew Materials is that you can do things without needing stuff that you usually would need to do those things. Snowcasting seems pretty basic as far as that goes... you usually need snow, Eschew Materials lets you do it without the actual snow.
I guess I always played it like Eschew Materials was you training yourself to do the magic without needing the material to focus your power a particular direction, which would make Snowcasting a basic example.
Two pieces of advice you may want to follow. First, don't trade your familar - +1 DC isn't worth losing it.
Second, don't take murky eyed - concealment is not hard to come across at all, and since you are a blaster your rays will get nerfed by a lot.
Just my 2 cp.
Two pieces of advice you may want to follow. First, don't trade your familar - +1 DC isn't worth losing it.
Lose the familiar. Half your levels don't advance it anyway, so it's a liability or useless at best. If you really think you need the benefit of a familiar, you can just grab the Obtain Familiar feat and get one that boosts with all your PrC's as well, wether they specifically mention advancing familiar abilities or not.
Eschew Materials says anything that casts 1gp or less isn't needed so, snow wouldn't necessarily fall into that however, I'm 90% sure I'm not playing this character in Frostfell so snow is most likely not going to be overly abundant. Hopefully he'll allow Eschew Materials to work. Thanks for all the ideas. O and there is no way I would take murky eyed, that is by far one of the worst flaws, I'd rather take shaky and non-combatant and take my chances with a -2 on all my attacks.
Take Hot or Cold blooded. Preferablt Cold. It's just plain cheesy :P
Lose the familiar. Half your levels don't advance it anyway, so it's a liability or useless at best.If you really think you need the benefit of a familiar, you can just grab the Obtain Familiar feat and get one that boosts with all your PrC's as well, wether they specifically mention advancing familiar abilities or not.
Look at what you actually lose. This is blatantly not true. You get all the best stuff in the first 5 levels. After that, all you get is a bigger XP penalty loss if it dies. You're literally better off having a normal familiar as a wiz5/prcX character than the one you get with Obtain Familiar.
Eschew Materials says anything that casts 1gp or less isn't needed so, snow wouldn't necessarily fall into that however, I'm 90% sure I'm not playing this character in Frostfell so snow is most likely not going to be overly abundant. Hopefully he'll allow Eschew Materials to work. Thanks for all the ideas. O and there is no way I would take murky eyed, that is by far one of the worst flaws, I'd rather take shaky and non-combatant and take my chances with a -2 on all my attacks.
What are you talking about? Snow falls from the sky. It is obviously free. Or at least as free as bat guano. You can charge money for anything if it is rare enough in a certain region. Do you think fireballs stop working in areas where bats are rare?
Also, you're burning up two feats to get the benefit of Snowcasting all the time without the hassle of actually carrying around snow. I don't see how that is broken over overpowered. You freakin' paid for it, dearly. Feats are very valuable.
On the familiar, I must comment that Phaedrus is right - and for early game the hawk or owl's +16 on spot is godlike. Plus it's more favourful and fun :p
Yes, snow falls from the sky but, I don't think my characters backpack can sustain a constant 32 degrees to carry around snow in the spring. Also if my DM wanted to be a douche the only thing he'd have to say to make Eschew Materials not work is "your character tought himself how to make either the air colder or his body colder in order to cast ice spells without materials? Well, judging by spells he'd need a block of ice (or something like that) to cast a spell that changes the temperature and if his body temperature is 32 degrees he's likely dead."
I don't think my DM will be that much of a douche but, there's an example of why Eschew Materials might not work.
in the "murky eye" flaw, i sugestted this, because can be explained.
u guys know what is see to snow on a shiny day right? and the weather and storms off course would produce vision damage. In case like this, when im DMing, i always ask a explanation about flaws, traits or another things that cames from your character's history.
whatever, for a wizard, murky eye is not the bad flaw, since u dun have to hit always. the enemie have concealment? nice. send a iceberg on the top of him. the enemie is invisible? duh. u can choose for a see invisibility, arcana "sigh", glitterdust. u dun have to care about this.
he is bliking. oh crap u will have to expend a dispel. oh no!
off course u have ray spells and will need to hit with an RTA. but have sure to not do on this situation right? and if u dunno abot enemy's location, forget it. just use a frostfell with a huge area and later u will c a nice ice statue that will show the exactly location of were he WAS.
get the point?
non combatent is nice, since u will never hit with crap weapons. u have a winter's blast to hit any time in a cone, causing 1d4 ~9d4 (depends ur high ice spell lvl memorized) and fatigues.
-2 on range attack seems to be a lot worst than murky eye. sice u will have to hit RTA sometimes, and unlikes murky eye, u can't overcome it. unless u will expend all ur first lvl spells on "true strikes".
Yes, snow falls from the sky but, I don't think my characters backpack can sustain a constant 32 degrees to carry around snow in the spring. Also if my DM wanted to be a douche the only thing he'd have to say to make Eschew Materials not work is "your character tought himself how to make either the air colder or his body colder in order to cast ice spells without materials? Well, judging by spells he'd need a block of ice (or something like that) to cast a spell that changes the temperature and if his body temperature is 32 degrees he's likely dead."
I don't think my DM will be that much of a douche but, there's an example of why Eschew Materials might not work.
That's an example of a DM making a house rule, not how the rules actually say it works. I'm not arguing that your DM should allow it, or that it was intended to work that way. I'm arguing that it is 100% legal, per the rules as written (RAW, as it is often abbreviated).
If you don't want to use it, don't. I don't really give a crap. It was just a suggestion. But don't say it isn't legal, and use examples that have nothing at all do to with the rules to try and prove it. You should learn the difference between RAW and RAI if you're going to post on this board much. Otherwise there will always be stupid fights you'll get drawn into for no reason at all.
Just say "My DM wouldn't allow that" and move on. We all understand that, but that's very different from "that's not possible". The second answer, as it relates to this board, means that the rules don't allow something. That clearly is not the case here.
Well stated.
I didn't say it wasn't legal. I said that if a DM didn't want it to work they could. Ya, it's house rules but, according to the PHB, DMG and most books, what the DM says goes. I realize this is supposed to be a RAW forum or whatever you want to call it but, fact of the matter is that the DM has complete control and can just say "I do what I want." I wasn't trying to start an argument over something stupid, I was pointing out how it could be turned either way.
I think you missed the point. Yes, the DM can say "No, it doesn't work like that." The DM doesn't even need a reason to say so beyond "I am the DM." We don't question that, so there's no reason for you to attempt to prove that it is so. For the purpose of maintaining functionality on this board, however, we assume that your DM operates under the Rules As Written, and that you will notify us if the DM has any stated house rules or rulings that will affect your build.
If your DM has issued a ruling on the question, let us know. Speculation that your DM may or may not allow Eschew Materials to affect Snowcasting is pointless and does not further the purpose of the thread.
Additionally, to address the murky-eyed flaw issue... I agree that there may be a good story reason to take the flaw. However, this is the optimization board. Read what the FAQ sticky says re: the nature of min/max. It's about math, not story. And murky-eyed, from a mathematical perspective, would be a stupid flaw to take. (Additionally, most of us realized a long time ago that a story can be written to explain anything you feel like explaining when it comes to build components.)
Sorry I didn't mean to come off trolly but, I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in there about the Eschew Materials thing because everyelse seemed to think it was necessary. I agree about the murky eyed thing. It's not hard to think of a story behind a flaw. You take frail, I'm skinny. You take weak will, I'm easily taken advantage of and so on. No offense to the guy that suggested it, I just really don't like the flaw.
where do the spells "Ice to flesh" and "Flesh to ice" come from? I really want to know. Frostburn?
It seems like it would be really strange to use...couldn't you use Ice to Flesh on a glass statue to turn it into a person? O.o
A flesh golem seems more likely. Or a boring sack of meat.
where do the spells "Ice to flesh" and "Flesh to ice" come from? I really want to know. Frostburn?
It seems like it would be really strange to use...couldn't you use Ice to Flesh on a glass statue to turn it into a person? O.o
Have you read the Stone to Flesh spell? It specifically says if you use it on a statue, it creates a corpse. Not an inert lump of flesh, but a corpse.
It's also pretty funny when you use it to get out of a cave-in. 
Also, what does glass have to do with ice?
Im sorry, I meant to put "Ice Statue" but I guess my visualization threw me off a bit. Because y'know, Ice statues look like glass ones kinda....
Ya they're in Frostburn. Is there a spell like stone walk for ice or snow? Does anyone know? O! I don't remember the spells name but, it lets you freeze an amount of water according to your level or something. Could you freeze the blood (or water in the blood) in someones body? Sorry that's just a random thought I had
Classes like ranger or monk might also work if you wanted more of a gish character (frost mages do get natural armor which might help with that).
Going human is necessary for the bonus feat at first level and auto favored class sorcerer and going red wizard
.
1st level: Stalwart Sorcerer (for hitpoints at first level and to get Draconic feats)
2-6 levels: Wizard and specialize in Evocation
**FEATS**
Human - Draconic Heritage (any dragon with cold subtype) This is for Draconic power.
1st - Flash Frost (Metamagic feat that adds 2 dmg to any cold spell per spell level, also prereq for Energy Sub.)
3rd - Tattoo Focus - +1 DC to all evocation spells (and prereq for red wizard)
Wizard Bonus Feat - Energy Substitution (cold) - Makes spell cold damage and thus cold subtype.
6th - Draconic Power - All spells of dragon's energy subtype (in this case cold) are +1 caster level
9th - Snowcasting - Gives all spells cold subtype and spells that are already cold (which is ALL of them because of energy substitution) are +1 effective spell level thus upping the DC but not making it so you can't cast your highest spell because it doesn't actually make the spell higher level, just the effective level for DC purposes (on TOP of draconic power).
SO now all your spells are dealing cold damage and at +2 DC above you actual caster level.
Technically if you cast "locate city" and flash frost it (because all your spells are now cold) you could deal 2 damage (cause it's a 1st level spell) to everyone within range of the spell which is like....10 mile PER LEVEL radius. Lolocaust.
Then go into Red wizard and focus on pumping the evocation spells since most damage dealing spells are evocation. Boo yah.
If you take flaws this process gets sped up a little.
If your DM is being a little beatch about snowcasting actually needing snow for a material component you can alter the wonderous item: bottle of endless sand in Sandstorm to be:
Telchur's Bag of Endless Snow: This rustic leather bag has the symbol of Telchur embroidered on its front in fine golden thread. If the cord of the bag is untied and the bag is poured, an amount of fine snow sifts out. If turned completely upside down, the bag pours out 1 cubic foot per round. If the embroidered symbol is destroyed in any fashion this bag is rendered inert and becomes a tiny sack. Moderate conjuration; CL 2nd; Craft Wondrous Item, ice slick, Price 3,000 gp; Weight 2 lb.
ALSO you can take feats like Energy Admixture (cold) to double all your energy damage spells...this can also be achieved through metamagic staves/rods.
The possibilities......