Savage Tide Advice - Please no spoilers.

[Sigurd]

I'm starting into the Savage Tide path and I think the party is going to be restricted to 4 characters. My pleasure would be to be a Shoal Halfling Diviner (actually The Le's Wyrd One - Variant Wizard).

I like the class a lot but I'm worried that with only 4 players picking a diviner will rob the party of punch. Also I'm painfully aware that specializing in divination makes me give up a school of magic and I cant choose. If I'm everything but combat I'm thinking evocation but I come back to the loss of punch.


Without Savage Tide specifics I'm not supposed to know!

Any advice would be appreciated.


Sigurd

 

[shilsen]

Personally, I think an intelligently run diviner is at least as effective as any other specialist, if not more. Forewarning about what you're facing can make all the difference between a tough fight and an easy one. And dropping evocation is hardly going to make you ineffectual in combat, especially if you use non-PHB spells. That's my no.1 school to drop if I'm specializing.

In short, go for it.

 

[Cutty Sark]

I'm playing in Savage Tide right now and I think you should go for it, too. Go ahead and give up evocation, too, if that's the character you want to play. Let the rest of the party worry about doing damage. I would, as a courtesy, make sure that you and your DM are on the same page about which spells you might cast - the answers to some divinations later on might be difficult, since the whole adventure path hasn't been printed yet.

 

[MerricB]

Be aware that Savage Tide is combat-heavy. If you want to play a combat-incapable PC, expect your group to hate you.

You must design a PC that can hold up in combat.

The top school to give up for a diviner is Necromancy, IMO.

A good combat mage will use a combination of conjuration and evocation spells to deal damage; evocation tends to be better at dealing mass damage, and conjuration to single opponents (especially getting past SR). In a party, the arcane caster is normally the only one that can deal a significant amount of damage to several opponents at once, and you don't want to lose that ability.

Note that the idea of a non-combat diviner is one that would work great in a DM-created campaign, but Savage Tide assumes a standard D&D method of play; i.e. combat.

Cheers!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Any advice would be appreciated.

Watch out for scurvy.

 

[Nightfall]

And big nasty things with sharp pointy teeth!

But if you do go diviner, keep Evocation, Conjuration, Transmutation and Abjuration. Necromancy, Illusion, or Enchantment are decent enough choices. If I had to get rid of one, Necromancy and Illusion would be my choice. Also consider Master Specialist for your Diviner.

 

[Wycen]

I'm playing a cleric in the Savage Tide and we are still in the 2nd adventure and have gone through 1 and a half wands of cure light wounds.

A wizard without attack spells would probably be a bad idea in a meat grinder like Savage Tide.

 

[Nightfall]

Wycen,

It's better than a fighter that takes Vow of Non-violence.

 

[Hammerhead]

Evocation as a school is highly overrated (I'm assuming you're using Spell Compendium. If not, my advice is still true, just less so). A few buffs for the fighters (Haste, Heroism, Enlarge Person), spells like Slow, Confusion, and Ray of Enfeeblement, and you'll be kicking a metric ton of monster rear end without doing a single point of damage. Furthermore, Conjuration gives you many other damaging spells, most of which ignore SR.

Master Specialist is a poor choice for a Diviner, since so very few diviniations require saves, and almost none used in combat (although Unluck does come to mind). Thus, the Spell Foci are wasted feats. Loremaster might be a stronger choice, and fit better thematically as a prestige class.

In other words, please be ready to make a huge distinction between combat effectiveness and the ability to do damage. Fighters can do damage. It's the wizard's job to win the fight, by carefully picking the right spell that paves the way for victory.

 

[Victim]

I agree that a diviner with barred evocation need hardly be a non combat PC.

With non core spells, you can get good single target damage and a few area attacks with other schools. Even without orb spells and such, there are plenty of other spells to take fights apart. Fireball isn't always the best move, and it's probably used simply by default too often. That being said, sometimes it is the best way to solve an encounter, but you can usually get by with other tricks - especially if other members of the party know to be able to handle those situations. While ordinary a crowd of weak foes might be blast fodder, you might be able to quickly mow them by Enlarging a fighter type with Great Cleave so he can many enemies each round.