Help pick a feat for my soon to be level 18 wizard

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Corsair

First Post

• Nov 25, 2008

• #1

I will soon be hitting level 18. I will likely only be playing this character for a few more sessions (5-8 at most) so I need something that pays off in the short term.

Here is the character I'm currently playing:

Middle Aged Grey Elf Wizard 7 / Loremaster 7 / Archmage 3
Elf Generalist substitution level
High Arcana:
--Spell power
--Spell Like Ability: Polymorph Any Object
--Spell Like Ability: Shapechange

Feats:
Scribe Scroll (Bonus)
Spell Focus: Enchantment
Spell Focus: Transmutation
Craft Wondrous Item
Empower Spell
Skill Focus: Spellcraft
Skill Focus: Knowledge (Planes)
Minor Shapeshift
Dimensional Jaunt


The rest of the party:

Grey Elf Conjuration Specialist (Master Specialist/Archmage)
Gnome Warlock
Pixie Rogue 1 / Diviner 5 / Unseen Seer 1 / Arcane Trickster 7
-- Cohort: Human Druid 16
Human Barbarian 1 / Fighter 17
NPC: Human Paladin X / Pious Templar Y (ECL 17 total)

 

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R

Rackhir

Explorer

• Nov 25, 2008

• #2

Corsair said:

I will soon be hitting level 18. I will likely only be playing this character for a few more sessions (5-8 at most) so I need something that pays off in the short term.

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Well it does depend on what you expect to be doing I guess.

If you are fighting armies or anything like that, widen spell is massively useful and can be quite nice in other situations as well. Especially with battlefield control spells.

Maximize is always nice (though in 3.5 a maximized empowered spell just does max + 1/2 ROLLED damage, not max * 1.5). It does effectively double your damage off of most direct damage spells. It can be particularly effective with higher damage die spells like Reciprocal Gyre (d12/spell on the target) and spells with a higher damage cap, but restricted targets (like the orb spells).

Quicken and Extend spell are always useful.

 

StreamOfTheSky

Adventurer

• Nov 25, 2008

• #3

Do you use Poly Any Object and Shapechange to beat things up personally? If so, perhaps Knowledge Devotion from CChampion would be good. It lets you make a knowledge check against any enemy you're facing at the start of combat (free action), check type determined as normal (dragons are arcana, humans are local, etc...). Depending on your result, you get as much as a +5 bonus to attack and damage versus them for the entire combat! The bare minimum you can get is +1, so it's never a waste.

 

C

Corsair

First Post

• Nov 26, 2008

• #4

StreamOfTheSky said:

Do you use Poly Any Object and Shapechange to beat things up personally? If so, perhaps Knowledge Devotion from CChampion would be good. It lets you make a knowledge check against any enemy you're facing at the start of combat (free action), check type determined as normal (dragons are arcana, humans are local, etc...). Depending on your result, you get as much as a +5 bonus to attack and damage versus them for the entire combat! The bare minimum you can get is +1, so it's never a waste.

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Knowledge devotion would pretty much always give me +5, but I generally don't wade into combat myself. (I didn't want to take away from the schtick of the fighter, paladin, and druid) I tend to use Shapechange mostly for defenses (AC, DR, regen, movement, true seeing) or utility uses (beholder disintegrate rays, phoenix planar travel, archon teleporting, etc).

 

A

Asha'man

First Post

• Nov 26, 2008

• #5

This is really a no-brainer, unless you have a really strange campaign or you DM has banned it: Quicken Spell. You should have taken it 6 levels ago at the latest. It will nearly double your effectiveness in many fights and massively increase your tactical versatility. And you'll notice the difference in the very next fight, and probably almost every fight from now on. Quicken Spell is seriously almost as essential to a wizard as Natural Spell to a druid or Adaptive Style to a swordsage.

 

Thanee

First Post

• Nov 26, 2008

• #6

Yeah, Quicken Spell is a very good choice.

I would also consider Arcane Strike, if you use your shapeshifting spells for combat.

Bye
Thanee

 

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roguerouge

First Post

• Nov 26, 2008

• #7

Quicken Spell. Accept no substitutes. I see it every round in the game that I'm playing in levels 20+.

 

R

Runestar

First Post

• Nov 26, 2008

• #8

What's so good about quicken spell? Generally, I find that 1 solid spell each round more than suffices. Quickening uses up precious higher lv slots as well...

 

R

Rackhir

Explorer

• Nov 26, 2008

• #9

Runestar said:

What's so good about quicken spell? Generally, I find that 1 solid spell each round more than suffices. Quickening uses up precious higher lv slots as well...

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Well it lets you do stuff like True Strike in the same round you toss off your touch spell, so it minimizes the chance you waste that polar ray, vampiric touch or disintegrate.

It's good for synergistic spells like that.

It can give you the opportunity to respond to get up a protective spell without having to waste a round doing nothing but that. So you can protect yourself against the breath weapon of that dragon that was pretending to be a different color. Quickened Dimention Door is always useful. Quickened Glitterdust is great for revealing the invisible creature to the fighters in the party.

Basically, it can let you maximize your ability to respond and make your actions more flexible.

 

C

Corsair

First Post

• Nov 27, 2008

• #10

Runestar said:

What's so good about quicken spell? Generally, I find that 1 solid spell each round more than suffices. Quickening uses up precious higher lv slots as well...

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I've always sort of felt this way. That +4 levels is pretty painful.