Changeling Beguiler

[drexes]

Ok, I'm taking a break from Dming soon and my group will be playing a low-level game, probably starting at first level, I have settled on playing a changeling beguiler. It just struck me as fun for a change of pace. Any advice on tweaking him would be helpful. Gonna be a charm person fiend!

 

[MarkB]

A couple of the Beguiler's abilities - most notably Surprise Casting - suggest melee combat as a viable role for them. I'd suggest avoiding that route - they don't have the AC or the BAB for it. Choose a ranged build, and use your spells to deny opponents their Dex bonus. Leave the feinting for when you find yourself unavoidably in close combat.

The character building section at the back of the book has some decent feat progressions for Beguilers (page 209). Spell Focus in either illusion or enchantment spells is good.

You've got lots of skill points, but also lots to spend them on. You'll probably want to cover both the standard arcane caster skills (Concentration, Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft) and also whatever range of rogue skills you favour. That means you may still need to make some hard choices, or else spread your skill points thinly (though I suggest keeping Concentration maxed, at least).

For Advanced Learning, there are some decent choices in the Spell Compendium. For a 7th-level Beguiler I made recently, I went with distract assailant and ray of dizziness. Just for future reference, one exploit some optimisers use is to take a single level of a PrC that allows full spellcaster progression at some point before your 7th level of Beguiler, as that means you'll gain access to 4th level spells by the time you take your second Advanced Learning class feature. A good choice at 4th level is shadow conjuration.

 

[Rystil Arden]

A couple of the Beguiler's abilities - most notably Surprise Casting - suggest melee combat as a viable role for them. I'd suggest avoiding that route - they don't have the AC or the BAB for it. Choose a ranged build, and use your spells to deny opponents their Dex bonus. Leave the feinting for when you find yourself unavoidably in close combat.

That's interesting. I just built my first Beguiler a little while ago and found myself pushed into the role of party tank! (we also have an Unfettered/Duskblade, Spirit Shaman, Spellthief, Hexblade, and Warmage). I was not expecting that.