War Mage - Complete Arcane

[CrimsonScribe]

My existing character managed to die twice in last night's session (as well as stopping at -9 another time) so I feel it's time to create a new character.

Our party is sorely lacking in the arcane spell-flinging department (we had a 5th level bard and a 1st level sorcerer) so I was looking through the various supplements and the War Mage caught my eye.

I've taken the time to search the forums but couldn't find any threads that dealt with building CA War Mage so figured I'd ask for some input.

He is human, has 7 levels of War Mage and his stats are: Str 11, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 16, Wis 12, Cha 18. He has 19,080gp with which to equip himself. Books available are PHB, DMG, CW, CD, CA, UA, LM & RoS. I am intending to take at least 1 flaw from UA, possibly 2 in order to gain some extra feats. His prime focus will be on metamagic, but the only feat that I am mandating is Improved Toughness which is taken in the 6th level slot. Ranged weaponry and/or long spears would be his "fall back" if his spell slots are ever expended.

So, anyone want to help me build this rampaging spell slinger?

 

[Thanee]

What you need to keep in mind is, that the War Mage isn't like a regular spellcaster, but rather like a spell-slinging warrior.

Much like the fighter, you'll have to rely on magic items to protect you and to do any utility stuff. You only do not need to worry about offense, that's more than covered (well, if you can get them, metamagic rods are obviously good).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Gort]

Spell Penetration, Greater Spell Penetration, Spell Focus Evocation, Greater Spell Focus Evocation, in that order. It's the absolute pits not being able to harm something due to its SR being too high.

 

[FireLance]

I suggest Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot since many Warmage spells are ranged touch attacks. Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration are not as useful because you can always cast a Warmage spell that ignores spell resistance (e.g. the various Lesser orbs of [energy]).

From Complete Arcane, Extra Edge would allow you to add +2 damage to all your spells, +3 at 8th level. Unfortunately, you can only fill it with your 6th level slot, and you've already planned to take Improved Toughness. One way to get around that is to take Sudden Extend or Sudden Widen and Sudden Empower. Then you can take Extra Edge in place of Sudden Empower at 7th level.

For future development, you might want to take one more level of Warmage to get Armored Caster (medium), then one level of Fighter at 9th level and take Battle Caster with your 9th level feat. This will enable you to cast spells in heavy armor. The level of Fighter also qualifies you for the Eldritch Knight PrC, which gives +10 BAB and +9 spellcaster levels over 10 levels.

 

[DM_Matt]

Not sure what impact this has on your buying decisions now, but as soon as you level up to 8th you are going to need to buy the best mitheril plate you can. 7th is kind of an annoying level to buy strating eq at with a warmage.

You should consider getting an Energy Substitutin feat and going Elemental Savant after you get your 8th level of Warmage. Its got 8/10 caster level, DC and penetration boosts that stack with the feats, good immunities over time, and some other goodies depending on what element type.

 

[Judas]

First off, Mithral Breastplate is your best choice for armor. Mithral changes the armor to light category from medium. One level of Fighter would be good for BAB, Fort, HD and an extra Feat. I personally have a Warmage2/Ranger5 and will be taking him to Rgr6, then raising warmage for awhile.

 

[Thanee]

I'm not sure Elemental Savant is so good, as one will only be able to cast elemental spells from a single element then.

Also, I don't think Mithril Full Plate is the best way to go. Mithril Breastplate will allow more Dex to AC and you probably want a decent Dex, anyways (and improve upon it later with items), because of the ranged touch attacks.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Liquidsabre]

I'm not sure Elemental Savant is so good, as one will only be able to cast elemental spells from a single element then.

Right, the only way to make the elemental savant work well is to take a feat from Frostburn, I forget what it is called, but it allows the casting of cold spells that bypass cold resistance and deals half damage to creatures with cold immunity. Creatures with fire immunity take double damage (not +50%). Nice feat for a cold elemental savant focused on casting only that element. Don't know why this sort of feat wasn't made a class ability for the PrC...

 

[Gez]

A single level of sorcerer could be useful to be able to use spell-trigger and spell-completion items of spells that aren't on your spell limited spell-list.

But keeping a single-classed warmage is not a bad choice either -- WotC made of effort of giving new class features often enough to make PrC or multiclassing not that appealing.

 

[Romnipotent]

a 10ft spell storing pole
weapon focus (ray)
Sudden "Annihilate vecinity"