Help me build a Conjurer
- Thread starter Felnar
- Start date
Obvious choices: Spell Focus - Conjuration and Augment Summoning.
Don't waste your time with - Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration. As a conjurer most of your attack spells bypass spell resistance, as do your summoned monsters.
Don't overlook - protection from XYZ spells, on the other guys. Be ready to remove them with a dispel so your monsters can chew up the bad guys, or scour your monster lists for those things you can summon that have ranged attacks (lantern archons, for example). Also don't forget the other abilities of your summons (special movement modes, protection from evil auras, and so forth).
For getting your summons off successfully, I really like Rapid Spell (get your summons off without waiting to be disrupted). I'm also a big fan of metamagic rods of Empower or Maximize to get more monsters out of your summon spells (the 1d3 or 1d4+1 smaller monsters are often a great deal, and if you can empower or maximize the number, so much the better).
If you're not going to make extensive use of Rapid Spell, do not give up illusion. Greater Invisibility is your friend. Or any other method to avoid getting disrupted during your summoning.
As a Chaotic Neutral summoner, you should look into the Alienist prestige class from Complete Arcane, if you haven't done so already.
Since you're sinking a feat into spell focus - conjuration, you can take advantage of it by using other conjuration spells that actually have saves, such as grease, glitterdust, or blast of flame. In particular, if you're starting at first level, grease should probably be your 1st level conjuration, not summon monster I. You can also look at taking the archmage prestige class at high levels, since you're already on the path of the qualifications.
Learn languages so you can communicate with the things you summon. Celestial, Infernal, Abyssal, Auran, Aquan, Terran, and Ignan.
Finally, there will be times when you're going to want to do damage directly rather than with monsters - that may be fairly often, or it may be rare depending on your character's mindset. If it's going to be often, consider sinking resources into ranged attacks with a good dexterity score and perhaps point blank and precise shot. The conjuration attack spells include a lot of ranged touch spells (and making good use of those make evocation a good barred school).
Don't waste your time with - Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration. As a conjurer most of your attack spells bypass spell resistance, as do your summoned monsters.
Don't overlook - protection from XYZ spells, on the other guys. Be ready to remove them with a dispel so your monsters can chew up the bad guys, or scour your monster lists for those things you can summon that have ranged attacks (lantern archons, for example). Also don't forget the other abilities of your summons (special movement modes, protection from evil auras, and so forth).
For getting your summons off successfully, I really like Rapid Spell (get your summons off without waiting to be disrupted). I'm also a big fan of metamagic rods of Empower or Maximize to get more monsters out of your summon spells (the 1d3 or 1d4+1 smaller monsters are often a great deal, and if you can empower or maximize the number, so much the better).
If you're not going to make extensive use of Rapid Spell, do not give up illusion. Greater Invisibility is your friend. Or any other method to avoid getting disrupted during your summoning.
As a Chaotic Neutral summoner, you should look into the Alienist prestige class from Complete Arcane, if you haven't done so already.
Since you're sinking a feat into spell focus - conjuration, you can take advantage of it by using other conjuration spells that actually have saves, such as grease, glitterdust, or blast of flame. In particular, if you're starting at first level, grease should probably be your 1st level conjuration, not summon monster I. You can also look at taking the archmage prestige class at high levels, since you're already on the path of the qualifications.
Learn languages so you can communicate with the things you summon. Celestial, Infernal, Abyssal, Auran, Aquan, Terran, and Ignan.
Finally, there will be times when you're going to want to do damage directly rather than with monsters - that may be fairly often, or it may be rare depending on your character's mindset. If it's going to be often, consider sinking resources into ranged attacks with a good dexterity score and perhaps point blank and precise shot. The conjuration attack spells include a lot of ranged touch spells (and making good use of those make evocation a good barred school).
dungeon blaster
First Post
Take the Augment Summoning feat, it will give your monsters a +4 to Str and Con. Have dispel magics ready to dispel protection from good/evil/chaos/law.
Nail
First Post
The best advice is this: Write up the stat blocks of ALL the monsters you're liable to summon.
ALL of them. That way the other players won't strangle you for bogging down combat.
(As an aside, I've already done that for SM I - VII, with Augment summoning feat. I play a Clr 14 that summons....alot.
)
ALL of them. That way the other players won't strangle you for bogging down combat.
(As an aside, I've already done that for SM I - VII, with Augment summoning feat. I play a Clr 14 that summons....alot.
)
Felnar
First Post
thanks for the advice
i'll look into the alienist.
the Mindbender PrC was looking interesting
with its telepathy (good for summons) , eternal charm, and thrall
(it loses a some caster level tho)
so far necromancy is a prohibited school, can't decide on a second yet
the base character idea was a wizard who summons/controls a small horde
any other advice or good combos along those lines?
thanks,
Felnar
i'll look into the alienist.
the Mindbender PrC was looking interesting
with its telepathy (good for summons) , eternal charm, and thrall
(it loses a some caster level tho)
so far necromancy is a prohibited school, can't decide on a second yet
the base character idea was a wizard who summons/controls a small horde
any other advice or good combos along those lines?
thanks,
Felnar
Terath Ninir
Yog Sothoth loves you
If your DM will let you use Unearthed Arcana, do so! On page 60 are two abilities you want to swap for. First, dump your familiar in exchange for Rapid Summoning -- then they only take 1 round to summon.
Second, dump you Scribe Scroll and bonus feats for Enhanced Summoning. It gives Augmented Summoning free at 1st level, which means you don't have to waste a feat on Spell Focus (Conjuration). It also gives further bonuses at 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th level, but those are minor in comparison.
Another tack to take if you can't use Arcana Unearthed: If your GM will let you use Complete Divine, as well as the expanded Greyhawk gods in there, choose to worship Trithereon (he's CG, you're CN, close enough!), take the Arcane Disciple feat, and choose the Summoning domain from that book. It will add Lesser Planar Ally, Planar Ally, and Greater Planar Ally to your spell list. Then you can take the Thaumaturgist prestige class from the DMG (and SRD). Extended summoning is pretty darn cool.
Note that both suggestions aren't optimal if you use them together. Thaumaturgist requires Spell Focus (conjuration) and gives Augment Summoning as a bonus feat. But you're slightly more likely to get your DM to go along with it, so it's not a bad fallback position. Not to mention that the Ally spells can be a lot more useful than the Binding spells, as long as you can afford the return favour.
Second, dump you Scribe Scroll and bonus feats for Enhanced Summoning. It gives Augmented Summoning free at 1st level, which means you don't have to waste a feat on Spell Focus (Conjuration). It also gives further bonuses at 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th level, but those are minor in comparison.
Another tack to take if you can't use Arcana Unearthed: If your GM will let you use Complete Divine, as well as the expanded Greyhawk gods in there, choose to worship Trithereon (he's CG, you're CN, close enough!), take the Arcane Disciple feat, and choose the Summoning domain from that book. It will add Lesser Planar Ally, Planar Ally, and Greater Planar Ally to your spell list. Then you can take the Thaumaturgist prestige class from the DMG (and SRD). Extended summoning is pretty darn cool.
Note that both suggestions aren't optimal if you use them together. Thaumaturgist requires Spell Focus (conjuration) and gives Augment Summoning as a bonus feat. But you're slightly more likely to get your DM to go along with it, so it's not a bad fallback position. Not to mention that the Ally spells can be a lot more useful than the Binding spells, as long as you can afford the return favour.
Prism
Explorer
Summon monster II - a lemure has DR5/good or silver which is great at level 3 against numerous low damage dealing creatures
Summon monster III - celestial bison gets 37hp and DR5/magic plus a nice 1d8+9 damage. A celestial dire badger (or fiendish wolverine) gets an effective 6hp boost due to its rage (34hp) and does 1d4+4/1d4+4/1d6+2 damage
Summon monster IV - celestial lion and let it charge and rake and grapple enemy wizards etc
Summon monster III - celestial bison gets 37hp and DR5/magic plus a nice 1d8+9 damage. A celestial dire badger (or fiendish wolverine) gets an effective 6hp boost due to its rage (34hp) and does 1d4+4/1d4+4/1d6+2 damage
Summon monster IV - celestial lion and let it charge and rake and grapple enemy wizards etc
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