Beguiler way to go?

[afata5]

Hey all,

I am going to start playing a beguiler lvl 1. (Probably Whisper Gnome Beguiler, Hurray!!! )

Now my past characters have not been thought out as much as they should be, and therefore this time i'd like to make it a little different. The players i'm with are all a little bit tweakers, and i'm not really.

so to get to the point (since i don't know as much about DND/Multiclassing/Prc etc..). what do you recommend?

Straight Beguiler? what feats? What skills do you recommend i focus on?
Beguiler/Sorc?
Beguiler/Prc?

I know that there isn't much in this post by any help would be greatly appreciated.

We are using a 25 Point Buy system to make the characters

Thanks,

Al

 

[Mistwell]

I think Whisper Gnome is a good combination with Beguiler. Obviously, you will want to focus on some of the more Rogue-ish aspects of the Beguiler because the Whisper Gnome plays quite well to those tactics with their bonuses to hide and move silently.

The extra silence feat that only Whisper Gnomes can take is a pretty good choice.

A level of Rogue, for the sneak attack, might not be a bad idea. Being able to silence a creature on a sneak attack with a supernatural ability (at least I think that is what it is) rather than a spell can be quite useful, particularly at higher levels when things often have spell immunity and resistance.

 

[afata5]

I think that part rogue is a good way to go aswell...actually, upon reading the description of the Beguiler, it mentions that it seems that way. But upon looking at the rogue's abilities i noticed that it will pretty much just give me a sneak attack. But it takes 4 levels to get to second level castings so i find 1 whole level is expensive to pay for only a 1d6 attack.

As per the Extra Silence feat, definetly, especially with the silent spell feat. Definetally something interesting

But i'm confused as to what to do. Since its only a 25 point buy system that we are using, the points are worth alot Obviously i need a high int. A good cha is also needed for the bluff checks. But then again, i get a -2 to strenght, and since i will have to get into melee to use certain traights of the beguiler i fear that I am going ot have to invest more in strenght.


This is what I thought of doing for the points:

Normal Racial Mods
Str 9 7
Dex 12 14
Con 12 14
Int 16 16
Wis 9 9
Cha 13 11

What do you guys think?

Thanks,

Al

 

[szilard]

I wouldn't bother with Rogue unless you are going for Arcane Trickster.

Charisma is good for a Beguiler, but remember that you do have access to Glibness.

-Stuart

 

[afata5]

Just to know, whats Glibness ? lol! And does it look ok for the stats?

Thanks,

Al

 

[szilard]

Glibness is a spell that gives you a massive Bluff bonus.

Normal Racial Mods
Str 8 6
Dex 12 14
Con 10 12
Int 16 16
Wis 10 10
Cha 12 10


This gives you three more points to play with. Options:
1. Raise Con, Cha, Wis, or Str by 2 and one of the others by 1.
2. Raise Int by 1.

I wouldn't worry about Str too much, myself. If you're in melee as a Beguiler, you are probably doing something wrong.

-Stuart

 

[pawsplay]

But it takes 4 levels to get to second level castings so i find 1 whole level is expensive to pay for only a 1d6 attack.

Another way to look at it would be giving up 1/4 of a level of spells to get a sneak attack bonus you will use nearly combat in some fashion.

 

[brehobit]

D&D 3.5 general rule:

"Multi-class not your spellcaster, for it will have much suckage."

There are certainly potential execptions to this. But they are rare.

Mark

 

[Shaele]

Beguiler build

Hi,

I'm playing a Whisper Gnome beguiler (level 2 currently), and really enjoy him. He's a great blend of rogue abilities and very focussed spellcasting.

My suggestion would be to to focus on your spellcasting abilities, and treat your rogue abilities as a nice "perk". You won't ever be the combat-menace that a rogue will be (since you don't get sneak attack damage), but you can be a very effective spellcaster. Treat a beguiler like a specialized sorcerer, and he appears to be pretty potent. (Feats like Spell Focus:Enchantment really help here).

IMHO, it's not worth diluting your spellcasting progression by multiclassing with anything that doesn't give you a 1:1 spellcasting advancement. You get a huge number of spells, but you're on the same progression chart as a sorcerer (in terms of when you gain those spells), so you want to try and avoid reducing your progression any further.

My plan currently is to multiclass into the Shadowcaster Mage PRC from Races of Stone; it's a gnome-specific PRC that gives you the ability to duplicate evocation and conjuration spells using shadow-magic. This greatly increases your versatility... even if your evocations are partly illusory, it gives you something else to fall back on (plus, your illusions, shadow-conjurations and shadow-evocations all use the illusion-specific feats. Spell focus: illusion will benefit all of these spells). It also has a number of nice abilities that suit a whisper-gnome beguiler: automatically silenced illusion spells, bonuses to hide etc.

Another useful PRC could be the Mindbender from CA, which would increase your social skills, and increase the effectiveness of your enchantment spells even further. I haven't tried it, but thought about it briefly

Barring that, you can always try and build up your melee effectiveness. Take Combat Expertise to make the best use of your ability to bluff, beef up your Concentration skill for casting defensively, and boost your Tumble skill to move around without provoking AoEs. With the Arcane Strike feat, and a few melee-oriented spells (as your bonus spells), you could probably make a decent smacky-beguiler as well

Shaele

 

[afata5]

Well this is interesting! Alright, I agree with Pawsplay about anything that does not give any full spell progression, so that is not a road I want to take

As for the point buy, thanks for the update!

I think that :
Str 8 6
Dex 12 14
Con 12 14
Int 16 16
Wis 10 10
Cha 13 11

is the way to go in that case As for Glibness, omg, thats fantastic Oh yeah, I can feel the manitulative powers coming now!

Shaele, I am glad to know that someone else is playing the same type of build that I am making and to hear that there is enjoyment playing such character

I think that Spell focus :Enchantment is very important for this character so i'm pretty sure i'm going with that first As for the shadow mage, it seems to add a nice flavor to the character..less dependant on the current spell list I'll take a look at it when i get home

I was thinking about the melee option due to some of the feats I get are only usefull in melee...but with the prc mabey i don't need those feats as much.. i'll see the prc first

It shoudl be interesting playing this type of Character...like Iskaral Pust from the book series "A tale of the malazan book of the fallen" by Steven Erikson. For those who know the book, that i can see you saying "oh god" in your heads...and those who don't know... heavily suggest reading the books

Thanks!

Al