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<blockquote data-quote="Dozen" data-source="post: 6098691" data-attributes="member: 6698275"><p>Hey now, my favourite build is a Barbarian gish. With an extensive and sensible backstory, I might add. Still, you use swear words and your views on Evocation are as they should be. I for one welcome you to the Arcane caster club. </p><p>The first lesson you should remember is, you're not a cleric, nor a gish, but a d4 swordbait. You have no business within 30 feet of anything hostile and noncaster, not even with a positive Con modifier, which you probably already know. But it also means you need a selection of spells to neutralize(you may realize I didn't say kill) anything your party members(who are henceforth regarded to be utterly unreliable by definition for safety purposes) let get close you. And you may need either Enchantment or Illusion for that.</p><p> The best Will debuffs are crammed into those two schools. You should choose one or the other, so long you don't want to become a caster-on-a-stick. One one hand, your Charisma is handy to a few yet very useful Enchantments which use it regardless of you base stat and doesn't explicitly need feats to function reliably like Illusions do. On the other, as sh*tty and unclearly described as most Figments and Glamers are, Shadows and Phantasms beat every other school to Will-save-or-lose any day of the week. If you <em>absolutely </em>feel the need to ban schools, ban Evocation and one of the above. There are plenty Conjuration, Illusion, Necromancy and Transmutation Direct Damage spells, some of which bypass SR. Magic Missile is good, but doesn't worth your trouble. </p><p></p><p>Now onto your... Spell Selection! I'm going out on a limb and assume you're Good aligned.</p><p></p><p><strong>Abjuration</strong></p><p>This one is tricky, as it depends heavily on what you're up against, and if all else fails, the DM can still dump City damage, Neutronium, Kobold caster squads, Truenamers or some other unpredictable silliness on you. Yet, banning it is essentially a suicide attempt. I wouldn't say what to pick from this school until you tell us more, lest I'd sound stupid. There are a few universal picks though.</p><p>Alarm: Very, very practical when you have the hit point total of a commoner and spend one third of a day in one place. May work out with an item instead of a spellslot?</p><p>Banishment: Unless your Divine takes care of it.</p><p>(Greater) Dispel Magic: I don't think I have to tell you why.</p><p>Disobedience: Good spell for gishes. For you, not so much. Against a main antagonist, maybe. Or if you somehow managed to have a bad will save with four caster classes and a good Wisdom score.</p><p>Mage Armor: Complements Shield and stacks with Enchantment bonuses. Full casters love Mage Armor. Don't waste items on Armor bonus.</p><p>Maw of Chaos: What is this doing in the Abjuration school? Pure, chaotic murder. Warning, 3.5 is in the SpC.</p><p>Ray Deflection: Scroll down to the Necromancy spells to see why you absolutely need Ray Deflection. You'll beg your DM for this thing.</p><p>Reverse Arrows: Archers? What archers? Same level as Wind Wall, and not Evocation.</p><p>Reaving Dispel: Steal spells, without Spellthief levels. </p><p>Spiderskin: It's a Barkskin ripoff for sure. There is a point when style ceases to matter.</p><p></p><p><strong>Conjuration</strong></p><p>A whole bunch of reliable spells. Don't ban it unless you know what you're doing, or are a good illusionist.</p><p>Dimension Door: Combine with Illusions for max efficiency.</p><p>Glitterdust: At early levels, not a lot better than throwing sand around. Later, it wins you an encounter per casting. Just make sure your friends are out of range.</p><p>Orb of (insert energy type here): These? These are the reason you don't need Evocation. At all. No SR, no save. </p><p>Phantom Steed: Top speed, and flies. Better to cast with Shadow Conjuration instead of actually learning it.</p><p>Secret Chest: For those of you poor schmucks who do not own a Bag of Holding.</p><p>Summon Monster: You are familiar with Summons, I believe.</p><p>Web: A guaranteed entangle, possibly more.</p><p></p><p><strong>Divination</strong></p><p>A party can't survive without Divinations, but broadening it bites you in the ass. Either focus on it or leave most of it to your Divine caster, they are better at it anyway.</p><p>Detect Thoughts: I always have it on an item. You should, too.</p><p>Listening Lorecall: For Gishes, mostly, as it synergizes with your ranks in Listen.</p><p>Path of The Exalted: Talk to your patron Deity. </p><p>Telepathic Bond: Since your Divine Caster can't, you must. A shame to miss out on.</p><p>True Seeing: Fantastic spell blah blah Utility blah. I personally consider it cheap. Poor Glamers can't get a break.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong> Enchantment</strong></p><p>Getting your enemies to work for you shifts the tide of battle more often than not, and the buffs are okay too, I guess. The debuffs are not as good as Necromancy's, and the boosts are far behind Transmutations, you don't need a lot of these. Most of the best are also Cleric spells, so don't expect new faces.</p><p>Charm Monster: One failed save, and now you're best buds!</p><p>Confusion: Really messes your enemies up. Worth preparing twice over.</p><p>Dominate Monster: Hollywood Mind Control. Proceed.</p><p>Elation: Extra speed and a small stat boost to the whole party. Not bad.</p><p>Feeblemind: Reverse Russian rulette. Other casters will hate you for using Feeblemind. Mind-Affecting, obviously, and much to our dismay. </p><p>Geas: More of a roleplaying choice. Helps convert some villains in the long term, if you're careful.</p><p>Mind Fog: Unless you lived under a rock, you know this all too well. Best debuff in the school.</p><p>Suggestion: Depending on how creative you are, this spell can win you a roleplaying campaign. Yours isn't one, however, and dominate is far more superior in combat. Still, worthy of a mention.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Illusion</strong></p><p>Half the school is useless in comparison, but No creature with bad Will saves can take you on if you cherry pick, and should you sacrifice some feats, it's a reliable specialization, while far from the best.</p><p>Illusory Script: Against a single target, it's the Poor Man's Suggestion, but hoo boy, put it in the right place, and suddenly every second mook in the dungeon is on your string for at least half an hour. Good to protect your spellbook, as well.</p><p>Legion of Sentinels: 'Legion' is a bit of an exaggeration. It correlates with how awesome it is however.</p><p>Nightmare Terrain: If any of your party members has Tremorsense, Blindsight or Blindsense, this is a must-have. If you have a good Hide check, double must-have. At worst it still entangles, and the best mist spell there is. No wind or True Seeing ruins this baby. </p><p>Shadow Binding: Good when the opponents are trying to be funny, and unlike most entanglers, it's a Will save. Why would a caster chase you in the first place?</p><p>Shadow Conjuration: The more powerful your Book Mastery, the more useful it becomes. </p><p>Shadow Evocation: Good backup in case you don't have the right Orb.</p><p>Phantasmal Strangler: May be a Fear spell, but on the occassions it works, you'll love it.</p><p>Phantasmal Messenger: Talk without opening your mouth for a 0th level spellslot. Short range, but fair trade until you get Telepathic Bond.</p><p>Vision of Entropy: A low level fear spell actually worth preparing without optimizing the Lower Planes out of the descriptor. Hell, it knocks the target out cold. What else do you need? </p><p></p><p><strong>Necromancy</strong></p><p>You may or may not like Undead, but Negative Energy spells and curses are always welcome against anything but the aforementioned creature type. A fine spec all around.</p><p>Affliction: The Good-Aligned Contagion. Debuffs like you've never seen.</p><p>Bonefiddle: Casterbane. Gross, but in a good way.</p><p>Bestow Curse: Possibly your Butter. The straightforward uses are more than okay, get creative for real drawbacks.</p><p>Energy Drain/Enervation: Tasty, tasty life essence.</p><p>Negative Energy Ray: Normally good, but not for you unless you animate some dead. Skip.</p><p>Ray of Enfeeblement/Clumsiness: Deal Strenght and Dexterity penalty, respectively, and don't allow for a save. Get a Maximizing Rod, and you pretty much beat a Dragon in two rounds, just make sure it doesn't have Dispel on hand by flinging something else first, if you have the time.</p><p>Ray of Exhaustion: I'd cast a spell just to Fatigue someone when I'm pushed. Our Ray here does that at it's worst. </p><p>Ray of Stupidity: This deals Int damage. Yes, damage. No save.</p><p>Touch of Idiocy: Wrecks all mental stats, no save. Problematic, but once you've done it, Casters become easy kills to your buds, and a dumped Fighter can easily fall unconscious, too.</p><p>Spectral Hand: Your familiar will thank you for casting this instead of sending him around from time to time.</p><p></p><p><strong>Transmutation</strong></p><p>Good gods, you're gonna love this. If you have any doubt on what school you should rely on the most, roll Spot checks no more, this has a +200 size penalty to Hide.</p><p>(Insert Animal Name here)'s (Insert positive trait here): Kinda given, though at higher levels some replacements are hidden here and there, to be fair, usually with material costs.</p><p>Alter Self: The only spell from the Polymorph subschool you can use with good conscience. Don't miss the opporturnity!</p><p>Bestow Wound: When you're low on cash, and your healer can't do his job, a Bestow Wound prepared can save your life. Target a caster and steal some sweet hit points. Better yet, use it on a plant or a bug. No need otherwise.</p><p>Celerity: Breaks Initiative rules into tiny, painful pieces. Don't even touch it unless you hate your DM with a passion.</p><p>Enlarge Person: Helps your party's overall damage output more than any Evocation of it's level. Low ceilings hurt badly.</p><p>Expeditous Retreat: Not only to retreat.</p><p>Fly or Overland Flight: Saves you a lot of trouble, this one does.</p><p>Grease: Almost broken. Use with care if your DM has a temper.</p><p>Halt: Gives a one-turn timeout for a target. You can cast it on anyone's turn. </p><p>Mnemonic Enhancer: Free spell slots. Why are you still standing here?</p><p>Move Earth: Campaign-dependent goodness.</p><p>Shatter: And you'd get away with every melee fight if not for those meddling Monks! Umm... Sorry, I just had to. My bad.</p><p>Slow: Classic and practical.</p><p>Spell Matrix: The name is self-explanatory.</p><p>Time Stop:<em> Stops time.</em></p><p></p><p>These are, of course, mostly combat spells. Utility spells are yours to pick, depending on what you really need.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dozen, post: 6098691, member: 6698275"] Hey now, my favourite build is a Barbarian gish. With an extensive and sensible backstory, I might add. Still, you use swear words and your views on Evocation are as they should be. I for one welcome you to the Arcane caster club. The first lesson you should remember is, you're not a cleric, nor a gish, but a d4 swordbait. You have no business within 30 feet of anything hostile and noncaster, not even with a positive Con modifier, which you probably already know. But it also means you need a selection of spells to neutralize(you may realize I didn't say kill) anything your party members(who are henceforth regarded to be utterly unreliable by definition for safety purposes) let get close you. And you may need either Enchantment or Illusion for that. The best Will debuffs are crammed into those two schools. You should choose one or the other, so long you don't want to become a caster-on-a-stick. One one hand, your Charisma is handy to a few yet very useful Enchantments which use it regardless of you base stat and doesn't explicitly need feats to function reliably like Illusions do. On the other, as sh*tty and unclearly described as most Figments and Glamers are, Shadows and Phantasms beat every other school to Will-save-or-lose any day of the week. If you [I]absolutely [/I]feel the need to ban schools, ban Evocation and one of the above. There are plenty Conjuration, Illusion, Necromancy and Transmutation Direct Damage spells, some of which bypass SR. Magic Missile is good, but doesn't worth your trouble. Now onto your... Spell Selection! I'm going out on a limb and assume you're Good aligned. [B]Abjuration[/B] This one is tricky, as it depends heavily on what you're up against, and if all else fails, the DM can still dump City damage, Neutronium, Kobold caster squads, Truenamers or some other unpredictable silliness on you. Yet, banning it is essentially a suicide attempt. I wouldn't say what to pick from this school until you tell us more, lest I'd sound stupid. There are a few universal picks though. Alarm: Very, very practical when you have the hit point total of a commoner and spend one third of a day in one place. May work out with an item instead of a spellslot? Banishment: Unless your Divine takes care of it. (Greater) Dispel Magic: I don't think I have to tell you why. Disobedience: Good spell for gishes. For you, not so much. Against a main antagonist, maybe. Or if you somehow managed to have a bad will save with four caster classes and a good Wisdom score. Mage Armor: Complements Shield and stacks with Enchantment bonuses. Full casters love Mage Armor. Don't waste items on Armor bonus. Maw of Chaos: What is this doing in the Abjuration school? Pure, chaotic murder. Warning, 3.5 is in the SpC. Ray Deflection: Scroll down to the Necromancy spells to see why you absolutely need Ray Deflection. You'll beg your DM for this thing. Reverse Arrows: Archers? What archers? Same level as Wind Wall, and not Evocation. Reaving Dispel: Steal spells, without Spellthief levels. Spiderskin: It's a Barkskin ripoff for sure. There is a point when style ceases to matter. [B]Conjuration[/B] A whole bunch of reliable spells. Don't ban it unless you know what you're doing, or are a good illusionist. Dimension Door: Combine with Illusions for max efficiency. Glitterdust: At early levels, not a lot better than throwing sand around. Later, it wins you an encounter per casting. Just make sure your friends are out of range. Orb of (insert energy type here): These? These are the reason you don't need Evocation. At all. No SR, no save. Phantom Steed: Top speed, and flies. Better to cast with Shadow Conjuration instead of actually learning it. Secret Chest: For those of you poor schmucks who do not own a Bag of Holding. Summon Monster: You are familiar with Summons, I believe. Web: A guaranteed entangle, possibly more. [B]Divination[/B] A party can't survive without Divinations, but broadening it bites you in the ass. Either focus on it or leave most of it to your Divine caster, they are better at it anyway. Detect Thoughts: I always have it on an item. You should, too. Listening Lorecall: For Gishes, mostly, as it synergizes with your ranks in Listen. Path of The Exalted: Talk to your patron Deity. Telepathic Bond: Since your Divine Caster can't, you must. A shame to miss out on. True Seeing: Fantastic spell blah blah Utility blah. I personally consider it cheap. Poor Glamers can't get a break. [B] Enchantment[/B] Getting your enemies to work for you shifts the tide of battle more often than not, and the buffs are okay too, I guess. The debuffs are not as good as Necromancy's, and the boosts are far behind Transmutations, you don't need a lot of these. Most of the best are also Cleric spells, so don't expect new faces. Charm Monster: One failed save, and now you're best buds! Confusion: Really messes your enemies up. Worth preparing twice over. Dominate Monster: Hollywood Mind Control. Proceed. Elation: Extra speed and a small stat boost to the whole party. Not bad. Feeblemind: Reverse Russian rulette. Other casters will hate you for using Feeblemind. Mind-Affecting, obviously, and much to our dismay. Geas: More of a roleplaying choice. Helps convert some villains in the long term, if you're careful. Mind Fog: Unless you lived under a rock, you know this all too well. Best debuff in the school. Suggestion: Depending on how creative you are, this spell can win you a roleplaying campaign. Yours isn't one, however, and dominate is far more superior in combat. Still, worthy of a mention. [B]Illusion[/B] Half the school is useless in comparison, but No creature with bad Will saves can take you on if you cherry pick, and should you sacrifice some feats, it's a reliable specialization, while far from the best. Illusory Script: Against a single target, it's the Poor Man's Suggestion, but hoo boy, put it in the right place, and suddenly every second mook in the dungeon is on your string for at least half an hour. Good to protect your spellbook, as well. Legion of Sentinels: 'Legion' is a bit of an exaggeration. It correlates with how awesome it is however. Nightmare Terrain: If any of your party members has Tremorsense, Blindsight or Blindsense, this is a must-have. If you have a good Hide check, double must-have. At worst it still entangles, and the best mist spell there is. No wind or True Seeing ruins this baby. Shadow Binding: Good when the opponents are trying to be funny, and unlike most entanglers, it's a Will save. Why would a caster chase you in the first place? Shadow Conjuration: The more powerful your Book Mastery, the more useful it becomes. Shadow Evocation: Good backup in case you don't have the right Orb. Phantasmal Strangler: May be a Fear spell, but on the occassions it works, you'll love it. Phantasmal Messenger: Talk without opening your mouth for a 0th level spellslot. Short range, but fair trade until you get Telepathic Bond. Vision of Entropy: A low level fear spell actually worth preparing without optimizing the Lower Planes out of the descriptor. Hell, it knocks the target out cold. What else do you need? [B]Necromancy[/B] You may or may not like Undead, but Negative Energy spells and curses are always welcome against anything but the aforementioned creature type. A fine spec all around. Affliction: The Good-Aligned Contagion. Debuffs like you've never seen. Bonefiddle: Casterbane. Gross, but in a good way. Bestow Curse: Possibly your Butter. The straightforward uses are more than okay, get creative for real drawbacks. Energy Drain/Enervation: Tasty, tasty life essence. Negative Energy Ray: Normally good, but not for you unless you animate some dead. Skip. Ray of Enfeeblement/Clumsiness: Deal Strenght and Dexterity penalty, respectively, and don't allow for a save. Get a Maximizing Rod, and you pretty much beat a Dragon in two rounds, just make sure it doesn't have Dispel on hand by flinging something else first, if you have the time. Ray of Exhaustion: I'd cast a spell just to Fatigue someone when I'm pushed. Our Ray here does that at it's worst. Ray of Stupidity: This deals Int damage. Yes, damage. No save. Touch of Idiocy: Wrecks all mental stats, no save. Problematic, but once you've done it, Casters become easy kills to your buds, and a dumped Fighter can easily fall unconscious, too. Spectral Hand: Your familiar will thank you for casting this instead of sending him around from time to time. [B]Transmutation[/B] Good gods, you're gonna love this. If you have any doubt on what school you should rely on the most, roll Spot checks no more, this has a +200 size penalty to Hide. (Insert Animal Name here)'s (Insert positive trait here): Kinda given, though at higher levels some replacements are hidden here and there, to be fair, usually with material costs. Alter Self: The only spell from the Polymorph subschool you can use with good conscience. Don't miss the opporturnity! Bestow Wound: When you're low on cash, and your healer can't do his job, a Bestow Wound prepared can save your life. Target a caster and steal some sweet hit points. Better yet, use it on a plant or a bug. No need otherwise. Celerity: Breaks Initiative rules into tiny, painful pieces. Don't even touch it unless you hate your DM with a passion. Enlarge Person: Helps your party's overall damage output more than any Evocation of it's level. Low ceilings hurt badly. Expeditous Retreat: Not only to retreat. Fly or Overland Flight: Saves you a lot of trouble, this one does. Grease: Almost broken. Use with care if your DM has a temper. Halt: Gives a one-turn timeout for a target. You can cast it on anyone's turn. Mnemonic Enhancer: Free spell slots. Why are you still standing here? Move Earth: Campaign-dependent goodness. Shatter: And you'd get away with every melee fight if not for those meddling Monks! Umm... Sorry, I just had to. My bad. Slow: Classic and practical. Spell Matrix: The name is self-explanatory. Time Stop:[I] Stops time.[/I] These are, of course, mostly combat spells. Utility spells are yours to pick, depending on what you really need. [/QUOTE]
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