D&D 3E/3.5 Questions for a Conjurer (3.5)

[Greyfeld]

I'm building a Conjurer specialized Wizard, with an emphasis on summoning spells. I'm having a hard time finding the answers to a few questions I had, however, and I was hoping the community could help me out.

1. For a summoning-specialized spellcaster, is there a benefit to increasing my character's Conjuration caster level, aside from making it harder to dispel my summons?

2. If I use the Extend Spell metamagic feat in conjunction with the Extended Summoning class ability from the Thaumaturgist prestige class, will my summons last 3x longer than usual, or 4x longer than usual?

3. If the same character is really physically weak and prone to get 1-shot if he gets caught in combat, what are some good feats/spells to supplement his defensive abilities without straying too far from the whole "specialize in summoning" concept?

I'd planned on locking out the Necromancy and Illusionist schools. And yes, I'm aware that the best save-or-suck spells, as well as a plethora of defensive options are Illusionist spells, but I'd like to see what I can come up with that doesn't fall back on the standard "I must take these, because they're the best spells" routine.

 

[xigbar]

Your summons can be used a smeat shields, just place them in front of you. Augment Summoning, is a must to make them last longer, obviously. Take the PHB2 ACF for Abrupt Jaunt. Why do you want to band Necromany? Enchantment is next to worthless, unless you have flavor reasons.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

1. Conjuration has a lot of offensive spells besides summoning, many that don't allow SR.

2. Any spell that gives you a miss chance or decoys is helpful. Straight AC boosts are nice, but ideally you want both, and if you can't have high AC and miss chances, the latter will give you greater benefit. Look at Blur, Mirror Image, Displacement, (Greater) Blink. Wind Wall often singlehandedly rapes the entire field of archery. Invisibility, etherealness, etc... are also helpful. As is flying to avoid melee brutes altogether. Dimension Door and other Verbal components only teleportation spells are useful to get out of grapples.
Not much for feats...I like Minor Shapechange reserve feat from C.Mage, though. As long as you have an unused polymorph spell of level 5+ remaining, you can use a swift action to give yourself CL hit points. Unlimited times per day. As in, keep replenishing it every time a monster tears through it.

Illusion is a good spell, but far from the best. Those are Conjuration and Transmutation. It does have a lot of good defensive spells, though.

 

[parinho7]

2 i think not

 

[Greyfeld]

2 i think not

From the Dungeon Master's Guide:

At 3rd level and higher, all spells from the summoning subschool that the thaumaturgist casts have their durations doubled, as if the Extend Spell feat had been applied to them. The levels of the summoning spells don't change however. This ability stacks with the effect of the Extend Spell feat, which does change the spell's level.

Bolded for emphasis. My question isn't whether or not they stack, my question is what the multiplier is when both effects are applied.

Your summons can be used a smeat shields, just place them in front of you. Augment Summoning, is a must to make them last longer, obviously. Take the PHB2 ACF for Abrupt Jaunt. Why do you want to band Necromany? Enchantment is next to worthless, unless you have flavor reasons.

To be honest, I just chose Necromancy as a throw-away school. I didn't feel that the feel of necromatic spells meshed well with the character concept, even if there are some good spells within the school. But if you have a good in-character reason why I should reconsider, I'll gladly listen.

As far as enhancement goes, I figured that I could use Enhancement spells to increase the effectiveness of my summons, as well as increasing my character's in-combat durability when/if necessary.

I'm going to be picking up Augment Summoning as a free feat when I get my second level in Thaumaturgist, so I'm foregoing picking it up myself (otherwise I'd pick up the Enhanced Summoning variant from Unearthed Arcana). Unfortunately, since I'm already taking the Rapid Summoning variant (also from UA), I can't take the Immediate Magic variant, since I'm already giving up my familiar.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

1. Gah, you changed your numbered questions after the fact!

2. It's Enchantment, not Enhancement.

3. Unfortunately, Abrupt Jaunt is so stupidly, brokenly good, that if you have a DM that allows it, there's no logical reason not to take it, no matter what your wizard concept. The only real reason to not take it is simply to purposely choose not to be cheesy. Which is perfectly valid, I do that all the time with decisions. But there is no reason to give it up just to summon stuff a little faster, mechanically, if that was your reasoning. Really bad trade.

 

[Greenfield]

You get triple duration when you stack Extend effects, not quadruple. That's the way multipliers work in D&D.

 

[Dandu]

To be honest, I just chose Necromancy as a throw-away school. I didn't feel that the feel of necromatic spells meshed well with the character concept, even if there are some good spells within the school. But if you have a good in-character reason why I should reconsider, I'll gladly listen.

Necromancy has some great debuffs. Enchantment does too, but they tend to be [Mind Affecting] and that becomes less useful at higher levels.

 

[Greyfeld]

3. Unfortunately, Abrupt Jaunt is so stupidly, brokenly good, that if you have a DM that allows it, there's no logical reason not to take it, no matter what your wizard concept. The only real reason to not take it is simply to purposely choose not to be cheesy. Which is perfectly valid, I do that all the time with decisions. But there is no reason to give it up just to summon stuff a little faster, mechanically, if that was your reasoning. Really bad trade.

While I see the benefits to Abrupt Jaunt, I don't think changing his summoning spells from a full round action to a standard action is anything to scoff at. Action economy is one of the most precious resources in D&D, so I don't see why giving myself an occasional free move action is a bad thing, especially since it fits with my character concept.

 

[xigbar]

While I see the benefits to Abrupt Jaunt, I don't think changing his summoning spells from a full round action to a standard action is anything to scoff at. Action economy is one of the most precious resources in D&D, so I don't see why giving myself an occasional free move action is a bad thing, especially since it fits with my character concept.

If you elaborate on the concept a bit more, someone might be able to recommend some flavor complementing feats/spells/PrCs.