advice on creating a "mind bender"

[snwatson]

Dear All,
I am building a gnome enchanter at level 1 for a game. So appart from the CC skills eating up your skill points and the Enchantment spells being very limited and the fact that I have chosen evocation as my fobiden school does any one have any advice on feats? familiars? spell selecton etc?

thanks

 

[Shard O'Glase]

Dear All,
I am building a gnome enchanter at level 1 for a game. So appart from the CC skills eating up your skill points and the Enchantment spells being very limited and the fact that I have chosen evocation as my fobiden school does any one have any advice on feats? familiars? spell selecton etc?

thanks

You might want to look toward T&B and the mindbender prestige class. Personally I wouldn't go for all its levels since it stops you from getting 9th level spells, but the telepathy ability, and a couple +6 skill boosts would be really cool.(the problem with all these presitge claases with special abiliites is they give you a charm, but its DC is flat and basicaly sucks as much as an items save DC, not something you'd want to give up spell levels for IMO)

Other than that focus, greater spell focus enchantment, extended spell(increase duration of domiates, holds, and charms) chain spell make your enchantments effect lots of epole instead of the usual one(the saves can be a problem but with focus, greater focus it balances out a bit)

Without ways to blast foes(evocation is gone) I'd take every alteration attack I could fine(burning hands, melfs acid arrow) so if i bump into undead I could do something. Also SM, while basically weak for fights brining in a goon to fight for you seems appropriate to me, and it gives an additional target and can physicalyattack things for those immune to enchantments types.

Also just a note, be careful in how many people you charm/dominate. A single dispel magic could double your foes if you have to many charmed goons on hand.

 

[Mr Fidgit]

as far as feats, i would start concentrating on either 1) the ranged feat chain

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29081

to keep your effectiveness in combat (and help with the ray and ranged touch attack spells you'll be using from Necromancy, Conjuration, etc.), OR 2) spell focus, greater spell focus, spell penetration and greater spell penetration


not all Mind-Affecting spells are Language-Dependent

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=446369#post446369

but at some point you'll want to invest in an item or the spells to let you communicate in different languages. (a charm only goes so far when you can't tell people what to do...)

 

[Shard O'Glase]

as far as feats, i would start concentrating on either 1) the ranged feat chain

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29081

to keep your effectiveness in combat (and help with the ray and ranged touch attack spells you'll be using from Necromancy, Conjuration, etc.), OR 2) spell focus, greater spell focus, spell penetration and greater spell penetration

I've seen that theory a lot, I just never understood it. A wizards ranged combat ability sucks it will always suck no matter what you do with feats. I'd much rather boost my primary abilities from kick butt too grind your bones to dust than boost my suck abilities to a little less sucky but still sucky. I guess if you bust rays left and right that +1 to hit comes in handy, but there aren't enough ray spells and the few ray spells out there too few of them are attractive enough to me for me to ever go this way.(enervation is about the only really good one)

 

[perivas]

Sorcerers tend to compliment the enchantment school better than wizards due to their naturally high charisma. You may also want to look into the Book of Eldritch Might, which holds the very important Greater Sleep spell. You'll find that the enchantment school tends to blow at certain levels (e.g., level 2) without additional spells available. I would work with your DM to try to round out the school better. You don't always need to blast your enemies to death; using a sorceror emphasizing enchantment spells, you may want to consider the interesting transmutation spells, such as blindness and deafness, which IMO compliment an enchanter concept very well.

 

[mzsylver]

if you dont mind losing a casting level, i recommend taking bard as your 1st level - you can pick up your skill requirements and a few side benefits (bard music, reflex save, etc).

then go straight sorcerer until you hit mindbender (which i recommend one level of for telepathy).

 

[Spatula]

I am currently playing a human enchanter (evocation barred) that's heading towards the Diplomancer PrC (from BoEM 2). The biggest problem in a standard campaign would be facing constructs and undead, so be sure to pick up some combat spells from the alteration and conjuration schools - either direct spells like melf's acid arrow or indirect ones like summon monster.

As mentioned earlier, there's no good 2nd level enchantment spells. I typically use a silenced charm person for my 2nd-lvl bonus slot.

If you want to have good social skills, consider taking a level of bard or rogue in order to make those skills class skills. It won't make it any cheaper to buy ranks when you increase your wizard level, but it will raise your maximum possible rank.

Feats: spell focus and greater spell focus of course. Extend spell looks really attractive when you're low level but by the time you're ready to use it your spell durations will be long enough for most purposes.

 

[Mistwell]

Call him Mentok the Mind-Taker.

He does not lease, sell, borrow, ask for, or request your mind. He Takes it. Hence the name...

Sorry, I've been watching too many Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law episodes.

 

[snwatson]

thanks for the input

thanks for the imput guys

yeah I noticed that the mindbender's DC were fixed - that does suck. However I will try to pick up a few levels of it for some of the cool powers - telepathy and skill bost - yeah losing your 9th level spells is a bummer - but i dont think our game will ever reach that high, but I guess we will see

I have not played a DnD caster much before so yes the hint about using a slienced 1st level spell in the 2nd level slot was a good one thanks.

Also the tips on using alteration and conjuration as attack spells - although that was my plan it does bear repeating cos its important - thanks

 

[Shard O'Glase]

Re: thanks for the input

thanks for the imput guys

yeah I noticed that the mindbender's DC were fixed - that does suck. However I will try to pick up a few levels of it for some of the cool powers - telepathy and skill bost - yeah losing your 9th level spells is a bummer - but i dont think our game will ever reach that high, but I guess we will see

It's not just 9th level spells though. When another caster would have 5th level spell your stuck with 4th. So you've delayed geting dominatefor 2 levels so you could what, get another +6 bonus to bluff, or does your crap DC charm person ability go up to 2 times per day. Really about the only thing I'd go for is the telepathy ability which since its at will is actually really useful(and absurdly cool)

Oh side note if you are using the psychic handbook, a telepath might be the way to go. CHR is the main attribute, and you actually have on point class skills with 4 skil points a level. On top of that you get the enchantment abilities on average one level earlier than a wiz/sor would. Psions are a tad weak, but the telepath is the ebst of them and with the mids eye stuff on the wizards web site they stack up really well.