Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 meep_war_bunny Oct 03, 2009 11:20:06	Hey optimizers,   I'm currently deployed in Iraq, and therefore away from books.  In addition, I haven't played any D&D in about a year.  However, I have been kicking around some ideas.  One of which is building a mage hunting sniper.  I would like my theme to be quasi-rogue and wizard blend with assassin style.  The two things that seem most complimentary for whacking wizards are sneak attack and debilitating effects.  So here is my plan:   Whisper Gnome (for early sneakiness, small size, movement, and stats) 1: Spellthief 1 (Rapid Shot) 2: Wizard 1 (Focused Specialist ??? I need help here) 3: Wizard 2 (Master Spellthief) 4: Wizard 3 5: Wizard 4 6: Wizard 5 (Metamagic Focus ???, Split Ray) 7: Spellwarp Sniper 1 8: Spellwarp Sniper 2 9: Spellwarp Sniper 3 (Twin Spell) 10: Spellwarp Sniper 4 11: Spellwarp Sniper 5 12-20: Arcane Trickster 1-8   The problems I'm having are:   1) The school of focus.  It seems Abjuration, Divination, Illusion, Necromancy, Conjuration, and Transmutation all have spells that go well with both the focus on rays and the ability to combat or incapacitate magic users.    2) Arcane Trickster seems to really fit well with the theme.  I don't really need BAB as ranged touch and invisibility get me to "anything but a 1" on attack rolls.  On the other hand, how much sneak attack is really necessary?  The skills and the class theme of Arcane Trickster are enticing, but I am very open to suggestions.    Thanks everyone for your help.  Would you include brief descriptions of any suggestions you have?  Like I said, I'm not exactly current.   (Books typically allowed are the completes, the compendiums, the races, and most anything else with solid justification, including setting specific.  Magazines are typically out, as they are very tough to reference, but everything is negotiable.)
#2 j2.504 Oct 03, 2009 14:36:04	Here's a hodgepodge of miscellaneous things that might help, rather than actual optimization.  I can't remember if you posted what level(s) you'd be playing, so these are general in nature.  Also, AFB - these are off the top of my head, so use with that grain of salt: 1)  Greater Manyshot feat tree.  Feat intensive, so might require flaws, magical locations + chaos swap, etc. to get yourself additional feats (while keeping the wiz related feats you want).  Greater Manyshot let's all of your shots (fired at the same time) have precision applied, rather than just the first ranged hit.  This can substantially increase your damage output.  Not sure if this will help your build, but it's an idea.  The feat tree will help you at earlier levels, or any levels when you use mundane bow/crossbow (as well as ray spells), etc.  It might also help with twinned/split, etc.? 2)  Unseen Seer.  Can be used in place of, or in conjunction with Arcane Trickster.  The anti-divination ability might help with your hunting of mages. 3)  Anything (feats, etc.) that will help you get more instances of sneak attack will be helpful, so maybe one of the hide-in-plain-site prc's might be worth a dip (along with the typical methods of grease, greater invisibility, etc.).  I believe there's also a magic item that accomplishes this (collar of umbral metamorphasis or something along those lines). 4)  As far as specialist is concerned:  The abrupt jaunt swap for a familiar (PHII?) would probably be especially useful for this type of character, by enabling you to avoid many mage attacks/traps.  I personally like to keep the familiar, and do generalist wizard with elven substitution, or domain wizard with a custom domain (UA).  But, for a mage hunting rogue/wiz type, the abrupt jaunt could really pay off, if you choose to specialize in that direction. 5)  Probably counter optimizing on this board (due to loss of one caster level), but you might consider a 1 level early dip into cloistered cleric (at level two?).  This is primarily to help at early levels, but... it adds some power by giving you access to divine metamagic (persist, etc.), some 1st level cleric spells and spontaneous healing, knowledge devotion (to increase your combat effectiveness), and also 2 domain granted powers.  Off the top of my head, I don't remember which domains I use for the sneaky types, but here's a couple that are very useful:  A) planning, B) There's one that grants +10' to your base speed (very useful at low levels), C) There's one that auto heals & stabilizes you if you go between -9 and 0 hp (great for sneak/solo type characters), etc.  I also like travel devotion for the extra action (useful for sniping with a move/full round attack I believe). 6)  If you're doing any solo adventuring (as scouts/sneaks often do), craft contingency/contingent spells can be life savers.  There's also probably a ton that would be especially useful for a mage hunting sniper (such as quick teleport/escape, or dispelling/globe type spells). 7)  Practiced spellcaster feat to increase CL.
#3 gorfnad_the_shiznit Oct 04, 2009 2:41:26	2)  Unseen Seer.  Can be used in place of, or in conjunction with Arcane Trickster.  The anti-divination ability might help with your hunting of mages.   Second level of Unseen Seer gets you Advanced Learning which when set to the Hunters Eye (PHBII) spell will add 1d6/3CL sneak attack damage. Add the Craven (CoR) for some more sneak attack damage as well.
#4 Endarire Oct 15, 2009 23:32:36	The feat Practiced Spellcaster (Complete Arcane/Divine 82) to keep your CL at least equal to your HD.