Is there any way to make a viable enchanter?

[Terath Ninir]

I've never played an enchanter in any version of D&D. Spells that have no effect on a save are, in my opinion, useless -- especially with all the DMs I've had over the years whose NPCs make their saving throws suspiciously often.

But I've been vaguely wondering -- is there any way to make a character that using enchantment spells and have them be a viable character in 3e? The best thing I've come up with so far is to start off with a cleric with the Domination (from Complete Divine) and Tyranny (from Complete Warrior) domains. You get Spell Focus (Enchantment) for free (which is good, because it's not worth a feat slot) and a +1 save DC on all (cleric) compulsion spells you cast.

After that, I'm stuck. Obviously, you'd want Greater Spell Focus, but your save DCs will still be pathetically weak. I have no idea where to go from there, though. And no clue how to do an arcane version.

My munchkin skills are of no use on this one -- possible because I'm so biased against the concept. Help!

 

[Demoquin]

A Sorcerer could be nice with all the extra spells and starting off with a HIGH CHA for the social skills (which could enhance your role as being an enchanter, not using a lot of spells. A simple look here or a smile there could go a long way instead of a Charm Person)

Other than that i hear the Beguiler is pretty good as well.

 

[lukelightning]

Be a beguiler from Players' Handbook 2.

 

[Darklone]

Hmm. I had an enchanter once in the group, as well as an enchanting psion. First thing they did was to take a feat that allowed them to choose a number of skills according to hit INT bonus as class skills. Diplomacy, Intimidate, Bluff... you can imagine. With these skills maxxed they went ahead and used magic if their skills didn't work. That increased their success rate enormously.

Second: Get a class with Int +2 (or CHA if that's your main attribute for spellcasting, better for the skills anyhow). Gray elf or something similar. Perhaps in one of your allowed books you'll even find a gnome class that favors enchanters over illusionists and gives the +1 DC bonus as well as an INT +2. I thought there was something similar somewhere.

Well... then there are many third party books with additional DC increasing feats. Or variant rules for specialists (DC +1 for your specialised school, DC -1 for all others). Putting all available money into your main attribute helps as well, taking Craft feats to heap on all different kinds of bonuses helps a lot in that regard...

 

[Terath Ninir]

I don't seem to have any of the mythical huge number of 3rd party books with +DC feats. As a matter of fact, I've had trouble finding *any* abilities that boost spell DCs. That's one of the things I hated about the Spell Focus nerfs in 3.5 -- I've never seen "all these abilities" that increase spell DCs...

Ahem. Sorry about the rant. Pet peeve of mine.

 

[Darklone]

I don't seem to have any of the mythical huge number of 3rd party books with +DC feats. As a matter of fact, I've had trouble finding *any* abilities that boost spell DCs. That's one of the things I hated about the Spell Focus nerfs in 3.5 -- I've never seen "all these abilities" that increase spell DCs...

Ahem. Sorry about the rant. Pet peeve of mine.

Most 3.5 changes erased all possible DC boosts since there were too many.

 

[szilard]

The Beguiler (PHBII) works well. Some of its abilities boost DC and bypass SR. I has a set list of spells, but it casts spontaneously from it - so you can switch back and forth between enchantment spells and the other stuff on the list (some illusion and divination, a few general use spells and buffs) at will. Casting is Int based and you get 6+Int skills/level, so the class is a skillmonkey as well.

You get a lot of versatile Enchantment spells as a Beguiler (some of which are only in the PHBII), so spell focus is totally worth it.

-Stuart

 

[Vuron]

Even with just core spells the enchanter has several spells that are pretty powerful. Charm Person at low levels can net the party a decent humanoid to supplement the party tank. Tasha's Hideous Laughter is an excellent spell for knocking low will save opponents out of a fight.

Once Charm Monster and Dominate Person become available the enchanter becomes extremely effective battlefield commander as he can use charmed monsters and dominated humanoids in much the same way as a conjurer would. Mass Charm Monster and Dominate monsters are merely icing on the cake.

Assuming that you have good supplemental spells from your non-prohibited schools you can end up as a quite powerful class.

As for increasing your Save DCs High Int + Spell Focus + Greater Spell Focus generally should be good to take out most non-clerics

 

[Shadeus]

The Beguiler (PHBII) works well. Some of its abilities boost DC and bypass SR. I has a set list of spells, but it casts spontaneously from it - so you can switch back and forth between enchantment spells and the other stuff on the list (some illusion and divination, a few general use spells and buffs) at will. Casting is Int based and you get 6+Int skills/level, so the class is a skillmonkey as well.

You get a lot of versatile Enchantment spells as a Beguiler (some of which are only in the PHBII), so spell focus is totally worth it.

-Stuart

Yep, also their "spell sneak attack" ability is really good for this. Basically if you catch your foe flatfooted, you get bonuses to spell penetration (which you cannot fail at level 20) and bonuses to the spell DC. All the power words are enchantment too.

Enchanters are great until you get to high levels (say level 15 or so). As soon as Mind Blank becomes common, just retire. Mind Blanks counters just about every enchantment spell.

 

[Victim]

Group effecting enchantments are the win. Unless the enemies are immune, virtually immune, or very lucky, someone is going to fail. Even if some or even most of the baddies make the save, you'll still get some effect with something like Confusion or Mass Suggestion.

Single target enchantments are somewhat unreliable and should probably be used sparingly in combat. Even if the DM isn't going to fudge the dice, the fact that you're going to bombing on the enemy's Will means that there's a pressure to find ways to increase so that the enemy provides the desired level of challenge.

As always, appropriate target selection is a must. Throwing Will stuff at a cleric or druid is usually going to be a waste. It's good to have the ability to attack all saves, plus some no save stuff - a multithreat offense. Enchantment alone is going to provide pretty only Will stuff, plus a handful of buffs. You can use enchantments effectively, but probably not only enchantments. Even evocation provides a wider range of threats, since each energy type needs its own defense, plus it has battlefield control stuff. It's important to have enough other combat stuff (besides self defenses) to meaningfully contribute when the enemies are immune or resistant to your mind stuff - it also makes you less predictable.

Social skills are good have when actually casting stuff is too high risk or resource intensive, but even wizards can do a decent job if you crossclass.

As far as specific classes go, one level of mind bender is good for telepathy (making language dependent effects much less of a problem). Master specialist is good for a wizard. How attractive Beguiler is depends on how many other non-core spells you use (and what else is in the party).