I want to set people on fire.

[jrients]

I need to come up with a second Living Greyhawk character. I want to burninate my foes with my kewl arcane powers, but I have no experience playing a spellcaster in 3.5 D&D. Should I take a wizard or sorcerer? Any tips for feat selection, race choice, skills?

 

[vince33]

i like being a sorcerer mostly

 

[Thanee]

Human Sorcerer

Skills: Concentration and Spellcraft, plus whatever you like.

Feats: probably Spell Focus (Evocation), Greater Spell Focus (Evocation)

Later... Empower Spell, Sudden Maximize [Complete Arcane].

Spells: 0 - Detect Magic, plus some others you like; 1st - Burning Hands or Lesser Orb of Fire [Complete Arcane], plus one other you like and which will be useful at higher levels, too, i.e. Mage Armor or Shield or Ray of Enfeeblement or Magic Missile.

Later... 2nd - Scorching Ray; 3rd - Fireball. Other spell choices should offer some good utility and give you a broad range of abilities.

You could go for the Elemental Savant PrC in Complete Arcane.

Bye
Thanee

 

[MichaelH]

Later... 2nd - Scorching Ray

For burning stuff, it's hard to beat flaming sphere as a 2nd level spell.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I don't know living greyhawk, but if psionics is allowed, aim to get into Pyrokineticist prestige class ASAP.

Otherwise Sorcerer is my favourite. Strangely many fire spells don't set people alight (I think burning hands may still do so). Useful feats that are probably unavailable to you include clinging spell (a spell variant of clinging breath from draconomicon) and the searing spell (name?) from Sandstorm which allows fire spells to affect creatures with fire resistance or immunity.

n.b. burning hands text, my emphasis. Still your best bet for setting light to people.

A cone of searing flame shoots from your fingertips. Any creature in the area of the flames takes 1d4 points of fire damage per caster level (maximum 5d4). Flammable materials burn if the flames touch them. A character can extinguish burning items as a full-round action.

Flaming sphere is a useful 2nd level spell that can set light to flammable things it touches.

A Wall of Fire can probably set people alight since it isn't an instantaneous burst like a fireball, but it isn't stated in the spell description so the DM may not allow it.



Of course, another interesting alternative might be a firebombing rogue - lob alchemists fire and get flaming sneak attack damage (I think that is allowed, better check!) and it will set people alight. Get a Hewards Handy Haversack or similar cheap CRPG-style item as soon as possible to carry them safely!

Druid is another possibility, with produce flame, flaming sword, flaming sphere, flame strike and summon natures ally - from 3rd level onwards you can be summoning small fire elementals to ignite people, and ultimately you can turn into a fire elemental yourself. Cool eh?

Cheers

 

[Particle_Man]

Can you play Warlocks from Complete Arcane? They can get a modifier to their Eldritch Blast that does fire damage and makes their target save or be set on fire (Brimstone Blast, I believe it is called).

 

[moritheil]

Warmage or Warlock, I think. Then, go for Elemental Savant: Fire.

 

[Testament]

Woohoo, another Greyhawker! Go for Sorceror, second level spell should be Scorching Ray. Empower Spell is a must, Maxmize later. Grab an Empower rod ASAP, there's a lot of them out there. Empowered Maximised Scorching rays are just...wrong. The other option is of course, Warmage, now that they're legal. Nothing better for burnination then that! In which was Extra Edge is too good to pass up. Either way, I consider Energy Sub a must.

Wizards are good, but there simply isn't enough gold or spellbooks found in LG for it to be a really successful build. Not unless you've got some kickin' metaorgs in your region and/or you regularly play with wizards.

Out of curiosity, what region and metaregion are you in?

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

For burning stuff, it's hard to beat flaming sphere as a 2nd level spell.

It gives a save and its duration is too short. If you are high enough level for this to be a good spell Scorching Ray will be a better choice. Pyrotechnics is better, too.

 

[Staffan]

It gives a save and its duration is too short. If you are high enough level for this to be a good spell Scorching Ray will be a better choice. Pyrotechnics is better, too.

I think both have their place. Flaming Sphere gives 2d6 damage per level, spread over 1 round per level and with a save to negate each round. Scorching Ray does between level-2 and level+1 d6es damage, with attack rolls to hit with each 4d6. Scorching Ray does more damage at once, but Flaming Sphere has a greater damage potential, and works better when there are multiple mooks around.