How to ensure a Beguiler's survivability?

[Aus_Snow]

Like it says on the tin.

I'm making one at the moment, but as I"m neither familiar with the Beguiler in actual play nor currently/recently very D&D-savvy in a broader sense, things could certainly be clearer.

The character is for, as I understand it, 'reasonably standard' published adventure(s) use or abuse, hence the emphasis on survivability.

If anyone has experience with the class, as a player or even as the DM, and has some advice to give, I would be grateful indeed.

Thanks.


edit --- Oh, and assume no levels beyond 6th, for this purpose. Refer to E6, if that appears to be 'muh?' territory.

 

[Runestar]

It replaces the party rogue/face, so be sure to guard against unnecessary duplication of party roles.

I am guessing its primary tactic in combat is to cast sleep or colour spray on the greatest concentration of foes. You may also need to familiarize yourself with how the various illusion spells work, and tie down with the DM just how much leeway you get with regards to running illusions (eg: will the opponents be fooled if I use silent image to create the illusion of a pit in the middle of the room?).

 

[Jack Simth]

Playing a Beguiler...

1) Know your spell list, inside and out.
You have access to any spell on your list at any time - remember that. At 1st, Color Spray and Sleep are your combat Bread and Butter. At 4th, that's Glitterdust. At 6th, Suggestion, Slow, and Haste are your buddies.

2) Remember - you get light armor; use it.
Like the Bard, you don't suffer ASF for Light armors. Get yourself a chain shirt ASAP, and get it enchanted when you can (you can even make it yourself, as you eventually qualify for Craft Magic Arms and Armor). If you can swing it, also pick up a Mithral Buckler - you are subject to ASF for shields, but Mithral reduces a Buckler's ASF to 0%. If you can't get a Chain Shirt, at least you get Mage Armor on your spell list.

3) If they can't see you, they can't target you.
You have Hide and Move Silently as class skills - use them. A Lot. Especially seeing as how you also have spells that grant concealment (Obscurring Mist, Fog Cloud), and outright invisibility (Invisibility, Invisibility Sphere).

 

[roguerouge]

The number one issue to Beguiler survivability is... does the DM regard enchantments and illusions to bypass encounters an activity to be thwarted at every turn? If your DM can't think on his feet and be flexible, you're better off just playing a warmage and blowing stuff up.

The number two issue to Beguiler survivability is... are the players on board? Or is the player playing the barbarian going to ruin every chance for your diplomacy to work, force new saves from your charmed people, and generally ruin every stratagem that doesn't require his skill at smashing stuff? In addition, be careful to note whether your beguiler is surrounded by tin cans, as the armored people and blasters are going to be a drag when you want to try to stealth the enemy.

Make a list of your spells sorted by the saving throw type. Use will save spells on the fighters, reflex saves on the clerics, and fort saves on the casters.

Some feats to consider... reserve feats are not a bad idea as you have a lot of spells of a lot of different schools. Also, Daredevil Athlete gives you +5 3/day on a wide variety of physical skills. If your campaign is likely to be skill-heavy, that one feat maximizes your survivability on a lot of rough terrain and allows you to focus your skill points elsewhere.

 

[Dragonwriter]

What some people don't seem to be mentioning is be sure you know what your spells affect. Sadly, a great number of Beguiler spells are useless against undead (and anything else that is "mindless"). And undead are certainly a common enemy...

When facing humanoids, you are very good, in or out of combat. Stay as far away as you can from front-line fighting is my biggest suggestion. Pump your Dex and spellcasting stat (I think it's Int... Can't remember and book isn't here) and pick up Improved Initiative to give you the best Init possible.

If you insist on going into combat, the mithril chain shirt is excellent along with the mithril buckler. And you would suffer no armor check penalty from them while sneaking about. Your friend in combat would be surprise casting. Sadly, it's only useful when the opponent doesn't have their Dex bonus, meaning winnning Initiative and feinting are your only options. I know, feinting is tough since opponents get to add their base attack to the check, but you should be able to pull it off sometimes.

 

[Runestar]

Dragonwriter reminded me of a very important point - make sure you go through the list of illusions and take note of which affect mindless creatures. And make sure your DM knows of this as well! It is a common misconception that undead and constructs are virtually immune, which is untrue - they are only affected by mind-affecting illusions. Glamers such as silent image will still have full effect (and may be especially effective against mindless foes, since they do not have any skills, and thus cannot interact with the illusion in any meaningful manner).

 

[Aus_Snow]

Thanks, guys! Great stuff.

She'll be a first level human, by the way. But I don't think that really warrants a change in perspective (indeed, isn't it the default assumption?). . .

I went with Int, Dex, Con, then everything else in no particular order (12s, all three!) This was before starting this thread. I think it's still a solid plan.

 

[green slime]

The key to surviving as a beguiler is not to get involved in fights. You want other people to do your fighting for you. charm X is your friend.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

1) Feats: take a look in CompArc for the one that lets you cast in a heavier class of armor and use heavier armor.

2) Optimize your PC a bit for ranged combat. Not only will high Dex make you a formidable artillerist, it will boost your AC. In addition, certain alchemical and magic items will boost your overall effectiveness- a smoke bomb of some kind can conceal your casting as well as improve the believability of your illusion.

3) There are oddball race/feat/PrCl combos out there that can fill some holes in the Beguiler's game, giving you both surprise value and some actual punch.

In FR, you can go with Spellfire, gaining a modicum of magical defense as well as a nifty attack power.

Similarly, Wild Talent or a psionic race qualifies you for one of the Kineticist classes- being able to produce an energy missile at will, sheathe your weapon in energy and other abilities can give you some nice tricks up your sleeve.

Another tack to take is a level in Sorc (or a Sorc variant- Sorc 1 is a prereq) to qualify for the Draconic or Infernal heritage BW feats- those breath weapons are not overwhelmingly powerful, but they ARE supernatural abilities that aren't affected by ASF, SR, have an area of effect that can hit multiple targets, and could be handy against those pesky undead...and work with ALL of a PC's arcane spells.

Multiclassing in Artificer can get you items that improve your viability.

 

[Runestar]

Another tip is to take 1 lv of mindbender at 6th lv. No only do you get telepathy, but the real draw is that you get to delay advanced learning by 1 lv, which in turn allows you to learn spells 1 lv higher than what you normally could access (check the advancement table if you don't believe me).

Try picking up the shadow evocation/conjuration line of spells. They should add a lot more versatility to the beguiler.