Tricked Out Warmage Build?

[Moorcrys]

Hey brilliant Enworld minds...

I'm currently in a Living Greyhawk game with a bunch of guys who are really... really good at tricking out their characters. We're starting Greyhawk Ruins soon and starting up at level 1, and I think I'm playing a warmage. Does anyone on here have some good/interesting/nasty warmage progression builds from 1-15?

I'd like to play a human. Character concept isn't as important right now as effectiveness in his warmage role, so any interesting builds I would love to see. As I said it's living greyhawk if you know it... pretty much core plus the complete books and a number of prestige classes are available but not all (like abjurant champion).

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[WarlockLord]

Warmage 5/Rainbow Servant 10. Get full casting, the Good, Air, and Law domains, and all cleric spells added to your warmage list.

Let's not have a big rules argument, because I really don't feel like arguing over whether the French version of Complete Divine is valid.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Warmage 5/Rainbow Servant 10. Get full casting, the Good, Air, and Law domains, and all cleric spells added to your warmage list.

Let's not have a big rules argument, because I really don't feel like arguing over whether the French version of Complete Divine is valid.

I'm not sure what difference the French version might have, but my copy of Complete Divine doesn't give rainbow servants full casting. They lose three levels.

 

[Gorok]

Plus, the warmage would have to be level 6 before qualifying for the Rainbow Servant PrC. They must be able to cast 3rd level arcane spells, and warmages do not get their 3rd level spells until they are 6th level.

I have a LG warmage character myself, and I just kept his levels of warmage going. He's 10th level now, and he is quite a powerful battlefield caster. I picked feats of Sculpt Spell and Energy Substitution: Acid to vary damage types and area of effects. I also picked up mithril full plate (since he has a 0% arcane failure while wearing medium armor), and flies about on a flying carpet to keep up his speed with the other PC's.

 

[Felon]

I considered playing a warmage for a long time. I eventually realized that their spell list is just too limited, and they get too few instances of Advanced Learning with which to beef it up. An evoker or conjurer Master Specialist is such a better option for somebody who has full access to Spell Compendium, PHB II, and Complete Mage that it's not even a close contest.

 

[Rystil Arden]

I'm not sure what difference the French version might have, but my copy of Complete Divine doesn't give rainbow servants full casting. They lose three levels.

It's in the American version too. The chart says they lose three levels, but the text says they don't, and text trumps chart. The intention is clearly to have them lose the levels, but by RAW it appears not. It should really be errataed.

 

[Sejs]

Warmage 5/Rainbow Servant 10. Get full casting, the Good, Air, and Law domains, and all cleric spells added to your warmage list.

Let's not have a big rules argument, because I really don't feel like arguing over whether the French version of Complete Divine is valid.

I don't think I could make the ideological shift from being a mage that specializes in blowing stuff up to being a mage that serves rainbows.

I don't care if they're actually coatl. I don't care if it's chock full of oodles of noodles of power. I just can't bring myself to do it.

 

[Mouseferatu]

It's in the American version too. The chart says they lose three levels, but the text says they don't, and text trumps chart. The intention is clearly to have them lose the levels, but by RAW it appears not. It should really be errataed.

Well, I'll be... I'd never noticed that.

I agree with you, given the other benefits of the class, the table is clearly correct in this instance. I'm stunned this wasn't included in the CD errata. :\

 

[Rystil Arden]

Well, I'll be... I'd never noticed that.

I agree with you, given the other benefits of the class, the table is clearly correct in this instance. I'm stunned this wasn't included in the CD errata. :\

I'm not stunned given WotC's sloppy overall record on issuing errata, but yeah, the class's power is high enough that the missing levels are obviously intended. However, until such time as it is errataed, there's nothing beyond Rule 0 to stop others from abusing it. And once we start taking table entries that look more reasonable than the full text write-up, we open a can of worms that includes Shadow Blade from Bo9S (far more reasonable in the table where it replaces Str with Dex to damage rather than in the text where it gives you both at once).

 

[Trouvere]

The table I'm looking at says the Rainbow Servant loses four levels - which just so happen by purest coincidence to be those at which the three Domains and the full clerical spell access are obtained.
I'm not familiar at all with the Shadow Blade situation, but the Rainbow Servant case surely should be one where, even though text trumps table, maximum parsimony trumps text!