Battlefield manipulator or area effect specialist

[tecnowraith]

I have been thinking of doing a character that focus not on damge spells in the battlefield but more of Manipulating the Battlefield with spells like changing or modifying the area with earthquakes, entangle or something like that. The problem I am having now is which class would work best that can both have a good spells list and casting those spells during a day. any ideas?

 

[the_mighty_agrippa]

A druid or elementalist would be good. An argent savant would be good as well.

 

[Drowbane]

Mid-High level Warlock looks like it would be useful for battlefiend manipulation. Wall of Fire, E.B.T...

I think Druid wins in this venue though.

 

[Tonguez]

Its Druid - entangle is THE battlefeild spell for low levels and once you get to high levels a Druid can drop all kind of nastiness - and do it all from long range.

I played a Level 18 Druid in a 'War Game' once and the ability to drop Earthquakes, Elemental Swarms, Chain Lightning, Raise Water, and a Storm of Vengenace from a mile away was just too good

 

[shilsen]

Druids are good but are partly dependent on terrain and whether in the wilderness or not, even though some of their spells (Wall of Thorns, for an especially nasty example) can ignore that.

But for battlefield control versatility that applies anywhere, nothing beats a wizard. Consider the different cloud and wall spells, just for a starter.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

It is difficult to top Force wall effects in tight quarters like dungeon crawls. There are very limited ways of dealing with them.

That said, the nice thing about the Druid is that you can prep up lots of those area control spells and spontaneous casts SNA. Gives you good flexibility.

The Druid class has always been the most efficient class when it comes to wide open spaces and large scale combats. The Wizard can keep up only by really burning through those valuable spell slots.

The Wizards rules down at the level of the Web and the Wall of Force. These spells are damn good against most anything until you hit very high levels. The Druid for bigger battles. Other than some walls, the Cleric has trouble with spellbattles at long range.

 

[tecnowraith]

Hmm ok thanks for the feedback. Thinking of mutliclassing druid and wizard for this and was wondering what are some of the good prestige classes for this concept?

 

[MarkB]

Hmm ok thanks for the feedback. Thinking of mutliclassing druid and wizard for this and was wondering what are some of the good prestige classes for this concept?

Well, if you're dead-set on multiclassing, Mystic Theurge is the obvious choice, and the only way to gain access to the high-level battlefield control spells as a multiclass character.

Otherwise, I'd strongly recommend sticking with one or the other - too many of the best battlefield control spells are high level for you to be diluting your level progression with multiclassing.