Dawn Under Union of Darkness: characters

[Jarval]

My spellbook as it currently stands:

1-Charm Person, Comprehend Languages, Feather Fall, Identify, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Shield, True Strike;
2-Melf's Acid Arrow, Resist Elements, See Invisibility, Web;
3-Fireball, Greater Magic Weapon, Magic Circle against Evil, Summon Monster III, Tongues;
4-Dimensional Anchor, Improved Invisibility, Polymorph Other, Scrying;
5-Contact Other Plane, Dominate Person, Permanency, Teleport;
6-Disintegrate, Planar Binding, Summon Monster VI, True Seeing

trimeulose, how many spells should I start with in my spellbook? This is one area where DMs seem to vary quite a lot.

I'm also thinking of ditching the Bracers of Armor, and replacing them with a Portable Hole, containing a mirror for my scrying, and maybe some item to boost my Concentration checks.

 

[Thomas Hobbes]

Another possible trick- I'm not familair (no pun intended) with wizards, but the pseudonatural template gives True Strike 1/day, correct? And Familiars can hit enemies with touch spells, correct? Even better if ranged touch is included too (I don't think it is), but never-miss disintegrates would be cool.

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

Starting my munching work again!

Jarval:

If you want, you can make your character middle age for that 24 in int (-1 to all phys stats, +1 to all mental), might give some more flavor too.

This may be a matter of taste, but you really don't need Quicken Spell as it is very expensive to use at this level with +4 levels. If you like quickened spells, consider picking up Simbul's spell sequencer and similar spells, especially with your ring of healing (so the hp loss doesn't hurt much), instead you can bump up extend spell in its place (from your 3rd level feat) to get something else, such as spell penetration or magical artisan (craft wondrous item)-if you want to focus in the item creation area or Spell Girding (to make your spells harder to dispel).

Instead of casting permancy yourself, spend gold from the start to let your character get those spells via an NPC (5 gold per xp cost)

Memorizing a mass haste or two would make you one of the party's best friends.

Don't forget the usefulness of a contingency spell

Many useful spells from Magic of Faerun, depending on your character's style you may wish to pick up Mestil's Acid Sheathe, Firebrand, Kiss of the Vampire, Simbul's Spell matrix, and/or Fiendform.

Out of Tome and Blood: Arcane Sight (can be permanencied), Mordekainen's Private Sanctum, Ghostform, and Imbue Familiar with Spell-like ability.

Consider spending money on a +1 weapon of spell blade (greater dispel magic and maybe dispel magic)

Flavor-pick a fun (outer-planar) evil deity (Elder one, perhaps?)

If you want to focus on summoning a bit (if trimeulose allows BoEM stuff):

Red Ring of the Conjurer gives +2 deflection bonus to ac, +2 con to all summoned creatures, Market Price: 14k, (spells to make): endurance, protection from chaos/evil/good/law

Blue Ring of the Conjurer gives summoned creatures +4 deflection bonus to ac, +4 to con (effectively +2 fort saves, +2/hd hp), +2 bonus to strength (effective +1 to melee attack and damage rolls), Market Price: 42k, (spells to make): bull's strength, endurance, protection from chaos/evil/good/law

I can also allow you to become undead after you die via Undeath After Death, of course, that relies upon you "selling your soul"

Edit-Pick Up Create Magic Tattoo as a second level spell (from FRCS), a *must have* at higher levels since you can get up to 3 extra caster levels for purposes of penetrating SR, duration, range, etc...

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

For your spellbook Jarval, its (I think) all cantrips, 2+int mod for 1st level spells at first level, and then +2 spells for every level after that (of any level that you can cast), so, ideally, you could have 4+int mod 1st level spells, and then 4 spells per spell level after that. Since you're a wizard you can also purchase scrolls and scribe them in (I suggest getting a Boccob's Blessed Book) pre-game to expand your list.

 

[Jarval]

Thomas Hobbes: Like the familiar idea a lot Part of the reason for the Quicken Spell feat is for Quickened True Strikes. The familiar works just as well.


Sollir: The middle age idea is interesting, I'll have a think about that.

Quicken Spell is something I'm having a job deciding over. One the one hand, it is very expensive when I've only got 6th level spells available, but OTOH, the Quickened True Strike + Disintegrate is very tempting, not least because of the shot duration of higher level combats. On yet another hand (Aggh! Three hands... ) Spell Penetration could be very useful. You might have gathered that I'm a touch undecided on this one...

It's partly due to shortness of gold that I'm casting the permanent spells on myself. I've not got a huge amount of cash to throw around.

Mass haste is another good idea, and one I'll add to my spell list.

Contingency is very very useful, but has a focus cost of 1500 gp, which is quite hefty. This is less of an issue if the DM isn't enforcing material component and focus costs too firmly

Magic of Faerun is a bit out of the equation for me, as I don't have it.

Arcane Sight , Mordekainen's Private Sanctum, and Imbue Familiar with Spell-like ability are all on my list of spells to add, so if I get myself a Boccob's Blessed Book, I'll have those.

What book is the spell blade weapon property from? I don't recognise it off hand.

On the deity idea, my character isn't one for gods. Or any power other than himself, really...

The BoEM ideas are good, I'll take a look into those. I'd also like to hold on to my soul, at least for the moment

Boccob's Blessed Book sounds good. I'll have to re-jig my equipment somewhat, but it's worth it

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

Sorry, Spell Blade is from Magic of Faerun as well.

I'll email you a few things right now from that book.

Edit-With haste up, you can do true strke then distentigrate as well, although I'm emailing you the simbul's spell sequencer spell as well so you may want to check that you.

 

[GoldenEagle]

WOW you guys are good. Do you see anything I might change before we get started here?

I can't wait!!

GE

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

If you really want...Golden Eagle

First thing, your AC is 4 points too high since you count the Mobility bonus (+4 AC vs. AoOs) in there, and that's really just circumstantial.

Not sure on this, but I don't think you can use a buckler efficiantly (don't think you have shield prof), you can sack the gold there to buy other items (such as, but not limited to, Headband of intellect, amulet of health, item with improved invisibility 1/day).

Consider making your rapier Keen to take advantage of its natural crit enhancement (with curved it should crit 14-20 I think)

Possibly consider picking up a level in Duelist, you do lose alot but it can be helpful (+5 bonus to AC with headband of intellect +2).

To further help where you want to go with this, what do you want to do in a battle with your character?

Up close and fighting I would suggest go two-weapons, ranged attacks from far away isn't a bad strategy, hanging back being invisible and observing before making a death attack could work with a single weapon, even a range one, and using poison in combat may be an area you want to step in to (and several other non-standard tactics), so tell me how would you like to fight...

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

Food for Thought (for Goldeneye):

Combat Archetypes-

Close Up Melee: 2 +1 Ghost Touch Daggers (Curved, Serrated), Ring of Blinking, Weapon Finesse: Dagger, Ambidexterity, Two Weapon Fighting, Improved Two Weapon Fighting, Expert Tactician. (get hasted and then use that extra partial action to move up so you can do 5 attacks, all gain sneak attack damage, and attacks on you have 50% chance of failing), perhaps add on a Minor Cloak of Displacement so your enemies have another 20% chance of missing you after that. Don't worry about strength here as you can rely upon sneak attack damage and bleeding to finish off your opponents with them having a near-impossible time of hitting you.

Death Attack: Item with improved invisibility 2/day (or even invisibility if you're going for just one attack), headband of intellect +2 or +4, Weapon Finesse and Dodge->Spring Attack line (Unless using a range weapon, then use Point Blank Shot/Weapon Focus and similar feats), single weapon is fine for here (con damage poison might be nice as well). I can see a Death Attack of at least DC 24 if you focus mainly on Int. Basic tactic would just be to hang back in battle focusing on a single target at a time, waiting for the right moment to strike (bad thing: waiting 3 rounds is harsh at high levels)

Duelist+Assassin: +2 Keen Rapier (Curved, Serrated), Headband of Intellect +2, items with mage armor/shield a certain number of times per day, Weapon finesse and aiming for improved critical. You would forsake your armor and buckler, and you can dump those items into cash for other nice items like Ring of Blinking or more items with extra spells on them. 3 levels of Duelist for Enhanced Mobility gives you a very nice AC when considering AoOs and you have little to fear from charging at someone to attack, so maybe consider Power Lunge if you boost your strength up a little.

Roguish Tricks:
Ring of Blinking and Expert Tactician allow you constantly to have an extra attack at your highest bonus (or you can use that action for other things), the ring also lets you constantly sneak attack each round, but you suffer a 20% miss chance unless you have a ghost touch weapon.

If you really want to cripple your opponent, take the first combo above, and add on the Hamstring feat and also use a Tanglefoot bag with your extra allowed action from Expert Tactician, after 2 rounds of making 9 melee attacks and throwing 1 Tanglefoot bag, your opponent can take as much as 90 points of bleeding damage while being reduced to 1/4 movement or less (so you can move on to a new opponent farther away and leave him to die)

Or you could use a tangle foot bag with your haste action, then spring attack back and forth with no mercy.

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

Jarval, if your pressed for gold perhaps you should get rid of the Staff of Fire or reduce it to half charges, that should free up your assets quite a bit. Honestly it isn't that great, fireballs it has are 8d6 damage and reflex save of DC 14 assures that most of the time opponents will make the save, wall of fire I suppose is decent and burning hands is practically useless.

Consider getting a Bracelet of Friends (I would, but I'm completely out of cash, though I'll see if I can free up some stuff tomorrow), and if you feel in a generous mood, an item with Mordekainen's Mansion 1/day since we need a generous defense at night when our...infamy...grows