Update: Sorcerer/MotAO/ES (Air) for RttToEE.

[Elder-Basilisk]

Corwin, your new draft looks better but it still has a problem: you don't have any summoning spells and consequently aren't qualified for Elemental Savant.

As far as peaceful contact with an outsider goes, don't bother with buying a scroll of summon monster X. Instead, wait until 10th level and use the spell pool to pull up a Lesser Planar Binding spell. Call the creature, have a nice chat and pay them well so they're not too ticked off. Heck, you might do it twice--on the first day, call a flunky of the creature you want to talk to and tell it to ask if the creature would be amenable to summoning and compacting. On the second day--now that you have permission--call it up.

Feat Choice: 1st level Quicken spell--talk about long term planning! You won't use it until 10th level. Still, it's a metamagic feat and if you think it'll be more useful than extend spell go for it.

Spell Choice:
1st level: I'd drop Flare for Dancing Lights. Flare doesn't do a whole lot--enemies get a small penalty to attack if they fail an easy save. Dancing Lights, on the other hand, is a torchbearer extraordinaire. If your camp is attacked at night, dancing lights can illuminate your enemies (100ft./round movement). If you open a door into an unilluminated cavern, dancing lights can go explore the other end--allowing you to see the ambush before it's sprung. Etc.

5th level: Ice Knife--I wouldn't bother with this one--it's not really a very good spell. In general, you'll do more damage with magic missile and two points of dexterity damage isn't much. As an area effect, it pales next to glitterdust and sculpted burning hands. It looks like you've got it because it's a cold spell and it's a fort save. The problem is that, if you elemental substitute it to something else, it still doesn't do much damage. And if the opponent blows the fort save it's still no big deal. I'd pick up See Invisibility instead. That way, you don't have to guess where to put the glitterdust.

7th level: Negative Energy Ray, Flaming Sphere: Neither of these are much good at this level.
Negative energy ray has one advantage over lesser electric orb--it's not elemental. But you already have Magic Missile for when you need non-elemental damage. It also has one advantage over magic missile--it's not blocked by Shield but you already have Lesser Electric Orb for non-elemental damage. I'd pick up Summon Monster I (sure it sucks but you need a summon spell to qualify for Elemental Savant), Mage Armor, Feather Fall (if you need it, you won't have time to prepare it), or Grease (no spell resistance, good for disarming fighters and clerics, etc).

Instead of Flaming Sphere--at 7th level, 2d6 isn't much damage and the reflex save avoids all of it--I'd pick Web, Mirror Image, or Blindness/Deafness (you wanted a fort save. . .)

9th level: Fireball is a bit redundant when you already have lightning bolt which can be changed to lightning ball with sculpt spell (if necessary) and sonic bolt/ball with elemental substitution. I'd pick up Fly, Stinking Cloud, Displacement, Blink (cheap transport--lets you walk through thin walls, etc--also a good defensive spell), suggestion, or hold person instead.

 

[Legildur]

Gaiden wrote:

Since I have written this much I might as well go all the way. RttToEE is the toughest module I have every played in (almost 10 years of gaming time) EVER. It is literally ridiculous. My advice is to min/max the shiz out of everything and everyone. If you don't, your party will die. There is simply no way around it.

LOL! I concur with most of this. Except that Tomb of Horrors probably ranks as my 'worst' module (20 years gaming) and Rappan Athuk is causing us a fairly high mortality rate during the last while.

Why has no one suggested a specialised Wizard? You get almost as many spells as a Sorceror and greater utility.

I played an elven Wizard6/Monk1 to good effect before a total party kill was effected (we bit off more than we could chew in Rappan Athuk .

Good AC, good skills and saves, Evasion, improved unarmed strike, stunning fist, and elven bow and longsword proficiency made him quite survivable. Oh yeah, with Toad familiar (in magical Familiar Pocket most of the time) to offset the elven Con penalty.

And he was a specialist Invoker with feats of Improved Initiative (always nice to go first), Spell Focus (envocation) and Greater Spell Focus (envocation). His DC for invocation spells was quite high - fireball was 21 at one stage. Invokers get more than 'fire based' spells so their utility remains high. Just try and pick a range of spells that require different save types.

 

[Caliber]

Your plan looks pretty good but here are a few things:

1) To qualify for Elemental Savant you must be able to cast a Summon spell. Your DM might allow you to use the Spellpool from Mage of the Arcane Order but I would check first.

2) You would only be able to use Quicken Spell when used in conjunction with Arcane Preparation (seeing as all spontaneously cast metamagic spells are full-round actions.)

3) Item creation feats ARE nice, but not every campaign will allow you enough time to craft items. Check with your DM on that. More over, you are going to be hard pressed for feats since you are trying to meet the prereqs on two Prestige Classes.

4) The actualy legalness of Potions of True Strike is a much debated topic. I don't want to devolve this thread into a debate about them, but this is another talk to the DM area IMO.

5) While Quicken Spell can be damn useful, I would suggest Extend Spell instead. Use your Spellpool access to get some nice utility/buff spells, Extend them and have them last all day. Mucho useful.

Just some suggestions.

 

[Celtavian]

Re

I am currently playing a sorcerer in the same module. My sorcerer is Sorcerer 6/Elemental Savant (Air) 6.

Suffice it to say he is the most feared member of our group. Everytime we enter battle I am the target of various horrible spells of death cast by various priests. I have severely decimated almost every enemy group we have fought.

I say play the sorcerer. There will be times when you seem like a gimp because you aren't very versatile, but the pain will pass as you destroy more and more enemies.

Choose your spells wisely because they are unchangeable.

One last note of advice:
1. Make sure you obtain the sheild spell. Probably one of the best first level spells even as you level up.

2. Remember death ward at higher level. Those priests don't like you and if you don't have a death ward up, you probably aren't going to live long.

 

[bret]

2ND DRAFT
Str 13
Dex 14
Con 16
Int 15
Wis 13
Cha 18
I think I will wait for an Improved Familiar even though they do not seem too much better.

I would swap Dex and Int. You aren't getting any bonus from an odd Int. If you get the Cat's Grace spell, you could get up to an effective Dex of 20 about 25% of the time.

You can most likely pull a Cat's Grace from the spellpool.

1st Lvl Sorc1
0th Lvl Spell: Det Magic, Read Magic, Ray of Frost, Flare
1st Lvl Spell: Magic Missle, Shield
Feat: Arcane Preparation, Quicken Spell

I wouldn't ever take Flare. Ray of Frost is at least useful to allow you to get to higher levels as well as providing one more elemental attack.

Quicken Spell is only useful if you use Arcane Preparation, and even then it isn't useful until 9th level. Wait until 9th level to take this feat.

I would take Enlarge Spell (for use with your Burning Hands) instead. You still wouldn't use this much until 3rd level, but all the feats you want require 1 metamagic feat.

2nd Lvl Sorc2
0th Lvl Spell: Disrupt Undead

3rd Lvl Sorc3
1st Lvl Spell: Burning Hands (Refl Sv ½)
Feat: Sculpt Spell

4th Lvl Sorc4
0th Lvl Spell: Light
2nd Lvl Spell: Glitterdust (Will Sv)
Ability +1 Charisma

5th Lvl Sorc5
1st Lvl Spell: Lesser Electric Orb (Fort Sv ½)
2nd Lvl Spell: Ice Knife (Fort Sv)

You don't need the additional elemental attack here. I would drop Ice Knife.

I would take See Invisible, just because invisibility is so annoying otherwise. If you don't want that, maybe think about Protection from Arrows or Blur.

If you want an attack spell with Fort Save, look at Choke [T&B]. It doesn't have a good range, but it is very effective against spellcasters.

6th Lvl Sorc6
0th Lvl Spell: Prestidigitation
3rd Lvl Spell: Lightening Bolt (Ref Sv)
Feat: Cooperative Spell

7th Lvl Sorc6/MotAO1
1st Lvl Spell: Negative Energy Ray (Will Sv 1/2)
2nd Lvl Spell: Flaming Sphere (Ref Negs)
3rd Lvl Spell: Slow

You are getting really heavy in the attack spells. The only defensive spell I've seen yet is shield.

Considering how many attack spells you already have, you may want to reconsider Negative Energy Ray and/or Flaming Sphere.

8th Lvl Sorc6/MotAO2
4th Lvl Spell: Electric Orb (Fort Sv ½)
Ability +1 Charisma
Feat: Energy Substitution: Electricity

I would take one of the other Orbs and then substitute to Electricity when you want an electrical attack.

The other thing is take Summon Monster IV here, so you finally get your summoning spell.

9th Lvl Sorc6/MotAO3
3rd Lvl Spell: Fireball (Ref Sv 1/2)
4th Lvl Spell: Enervation (No Sv)
Feat: Energy Substitution: Sonic

Cant? I just purchase a Summon Monster X to have a peaceful contact with a monster of Subtype Air?

Don't forgot to take Auran as one of your beginning languages. Tough to talk to an elemental if you can't understand them.

Have you thought about what diety you will worship? Obad-Hai has Air as a domain. Talking to one of his priests may provide you an opportunity to make peaceful contact with an elemental. It is also about the only diety that covers all the elements.

I think your spell list is pretty heavily laden with attack spells. I know you can draw from the spellpool for many spells, but I wouldn't want to depend on it for everything.

Hope my comments are helpful.

 

[Corwin the Confused]

Re: Re

Choose your spells wisely because they are unchangeable.

Well, you see them, I tried to choose them wisely

One last note of advice:
1. Make sure you obtain the sheild spell. Probably one of the best first level spells even as you level up.

I did.

2. Remember death ward at higher level. Those priests don't like you and if you don't have a death ward up, you probably aren't going to live long.

Isn't that a cleric spell?

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

Pick whatever class, spells, feats you want. None of it will help you...your blood will spill on the cold stone and life will slip away from you...your character is truly doomed.

 

[HeavyG]

In the RttToEE I DM, there is an Elemental Savant. She's a wizard, though. She has an intelligence around 20, spell focus and greater spell focus (evocation) and prepares nothing but ice spells.

I have to tell you, as DM, that those saving throw DCs are ungodly. Something like 23 for a cold-element fireball, at 9th level. She's something of a one-trick pony, though. If the party meets undead, for example, the cleric of Pelor has to take over.


As far as elemental type goes, the only one not to take really is fire. That's because it's the only element that is also an energy type. For example, the Elemental Savant class says that the element of Water is associated with cold spells, but water elementals aren't immune to cold spells like fire elementals are immune to fire spells. But fire elementals do take double damage from cold, however.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

I'd really sugest taking extend spell, and then persistent spell at 9th. (one of my favorite uses is a perssitent shield, and eventually a persistent blink, and if you choose your spells right even more fun can be had)

quicken spell is cool since you have to take arcane prep anyways, but you are looking ahead a lot here(and i think quicken is a bit sub-par that 4 level hit isn't worth it in my mind, while peristents 4 level hit is well worth it when cast on spells that lasts mere rounds or minutes)

My feat progression would be
arcane prep, extend spell
scult spell
cooperative spell
subt electricity
perssitent spell
subt sonic

(actually I just wouldn't bother with going for 2 pretige classes so my feat selection would be)

1. arcane prep, extend spell
3. scult spell
6.cooperative spell
8. empower
9. persistent
12. chain spell

 

[Corwin the Confused]

(actually I just wouldn't bother with going for 2 pretige classes so my feat selection would be)

1. arcane prep, extend spell
3. scult spell
6.cooperative spell
8. empower
9. persistent
12. chain spell

Shard O'Glase

I like your suggestions. I think that I will stay with Sorc/MotAO. To me it seem like it makes a more focused character. I will work on my new spells and feats and post them ASAP.

Thank you all for all the help!

You guys and gals are great!