What is a good prestige class for a warmage?

[Yig]

Yeahhhh, that's true, but thanks for all the morale support and the enthusiasm. I just like how I can do 15 damage with a level one spell I guess and still have 16 hit points at first level. Oh, and also having a 16 AC instead of like, 13.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but you are indeed a terrible melee fighter You are much much better doing range touch attacks.

And if you ever need to swing your weapon, you're pretty much dead anyway

I'm speaking from experience, I'm playing a level 21 warmage.

Just curious, how did you end up with 16 HP at level 1 ?

If you don't mind, a few tips:

- Max your Tumble skill. Since you can wear armor you can flank.

- Wear a mithral breastplate when you can afford it. Note: at level 8 you can cast spells in medium armor but you are NOT proeficient with them. Mithral breastplate is light so you're ok.

- Wear a buckler and a Defending weapon. You're not gonna use that weapon anyway so you might as well use it to bump your AC. You can cast spells with the buckler.

- Get an item that boost your Int.

- Take the Improved Warmage Edge feat. With my Int bonus and that feat I do +12.

- Empower is your friend.

FYI, at level 21 my AC is 40.

It's a fun class to play. But you're only good in combat. Period.

 

[henk-thokk]

Thanks for all the tips. I hope one day to be like you. I am not really sure how I got 16 hit points. My DM likes to have me roll my stats and then he makes the rest of the character, and I choose my skill ranks and feats and so on. I calculated it all up, 6 for hit dice, 3 for toughness, and 5 for a con of 20. All together that makes 14 not 16. Anyhow, I highly appreciate it. My whole character is messed up that way. I sometimes worry about my DM, specially because he's my brother. About the fighting part, I know you guys are all right. And, I mean, it's not like I was just going to run straight at some Ogre Mage like some Barbarian, or Fighter . I would never do that, seeing as my spells do more damage than my spear could ever do. By the way, what is Mithral Breastplate, could I find it in the PHB or what? I have 1050 gp, would that be enough to afford it? but again, thanx for all the tips. About maxing tumble to flank, why would I do that if I can just shoot orbs at people? Flanking means I have to get close and I'm not like a fighter or anything D) I would just get myself killed if I just tried to walk up to something just to make it easier to hit him.

 

[henk-thokk]

What would you suggest as a defending weapon? I have a spear right now.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

- Wear a mithral breastplate when you can afford it. Note: at level 8 you can cast spells in medium armor but you are NOT proeficient with them. Mithral breastplate is light so you're ok.

Check out Complete Arcane again. Warmages do get proficiency in Medium Armors at 8th level, at the same time as the second Armored Mage ability comes in.

Time to switch up to Mithral Full Plate?

- Get an item that boost your Int.

- Take the Improved Warmage Edge feat. With my Int bonus and that feat I do +12.

- Empower is your friend.

Heck, yeah, to all three. If absolutely NOTHING else, make sure you take Extra Edge and plan to have your Warmage levels divisible by four.

A few other good PrCs for Warmages are from Magic of Faerun and Player's Guide to Faerun: The Arcane Devotee (first level) and War Wizard of Cormyr (all 5). Arcane Devotee uses the same feat that War Wizard requires, and gets you free Enlarges at first level, along with the save bonuses. War Wizard requires Enlarge and Widen Spell, but gives free Widens and also a pair of bonus metamagic feats. It also has good Fort and Will saves, and I think gives medium BAB, though that's not exactly something to shout about.

Also something to consider is Archmage. You can actually qualify, around the time you get 7th or 8th-level spells. Unfortunately, you have to choke down Skill Focus (Spellcraft), but the two Spell Focus feats you have to take can easily be Evocation and Conjuration. The nice thing with Archmage is that you can get free energy substitution and shaping, which kinda makes me wish I'd been able to squeeze my character into it.

And never, EVER get into melee if you can help it. You'll last a tad longer than a regular wizard or sorcerer, and you can make it unpleasant to attack you (Fire Shield and Ring of Blades!), but you won't be able to pump out nearly as much damage, and if that's the best thing you can do at that time, running should be considered.

Brad

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

The thing about the warmage class is that, despite some apparent advantages for fighter/mage type builds (higher HD, cast in armor, etc), its spell list is far too limited to make such multi-class builds effective. Warmages lack nearly all of the spells that are bread and butter for a fighter/mage--ray of enfeeblement, shield, wraithstrike (CV), bladeweave (CV), heroism, greater magic weapon, blink, improved blink, contingency, etc.

Warmages also lack the ability to use quickened spells which is important for characters who will be making full attacks if they want to do anything with those 7th level spell slots they gave up 3 points of BAB and a bunch of hit points to get.

What they do have is a lot of flexibility in how they do the few things they do do. They have any energy type at their fingertips unlike say, an artillery sorceror or wizard who will ususally have to pick and choose his energy damage types. And they have a wide variety of spells known in their highest castable level, unlike a sorcerer who only knows one or two spells of the highest level he can cast.

All those features make warmages artillery mages rather than candidates for a fighter/mage build. If you want a prestige class, you should be looking at spellcasting focussed ones, not melee focussed classes.

 

[Shin Okada]

Inspired by this thread, now I am toying with an idea of Fighter Mage build based on Warmage,

Human, 32 point-buy. Str 14,Dex 14, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 14.
Continue to raise Str when advancing. Buy ability score enhancing items such as Belt of Giant Strength, Cloak of Charisma, or Belt of Magnificence whenever possible.

Start from Paladin 2. Then take 4 levels of Warmage. Then take 1 each levels of Spellsword and Dragonslayer. After that, take Eldritch Knight.

For example, at 10th level, this character may have BAB of +8 & Spell Casting Ability of 7th-level Warmage (CL 10 with Practiced Spellcaster Feat). And his saves are really good. By taking Battlecaster Feat from Complete Arcane, he can wear Mithral Full-Plate without problem. Take Arcane Strike feat definitely (at 9th level). Maybe he can take Arcane Disciple feat if there is an appropriate deity for him.

Or, he can substitute Paladin levels with Hexblade levels.

It is an quite aggressive build. He does not now much of situation solving spells. But he is really good at hurling damage spells. He can start the battle by casting ranged damaging spells. Then use a spell or two which are good for melee combatants (True Strike, Blade of Fire, Fireburst, Whirling Blade, Ring of Blades, Fire Shield, etc. etc.). Then can use Arcane Strike to cut opponents down.

 

[Jdvn1]

Probably better to substitute Warmage with Warlock. Still blasting-type, but better BAB.

 

[Shin Okada]

Probably better to substitute Warmage with Warlock. Still blasting-type, but better BAB.

Warlock can't qualify the requirements of either Spellsword nor Eldritch Knight. At this moment, there is no good fighter mage type prestige class for Warlock.

Edit: Also, Practiced Spellcaster feat does not work for Warlock. This is big.

 

[Beholder Bob]

....Warmages lack nearly all of the spells that are bread and butter for a fighter/mage--ray of enfeeblement, shield, wraithstrike (CV), bladeweave (CV), heroism, greater magic weapon, blink, improved blink, contingency, etc.....

Just a thought I've been tinkering with....

Per the PGoF, they add feats for clerics of specific gods that grant a special ability and extra spells known/castable. What about a series of feats for a warmage - say war college majors:

Front line artillery: blink, blur, improved blink - - prereq: ??? perhaps leadership - fighting from the front of battle as a bastion of arcane badness

War collegiate duelist: bull strength, stone skin, heroism - - prereq: weapon focus

Sniper School: Invis, improved Invis, Diminsion door - - 6 ranks move silent

etc.

I like the artillery function of the warmage, but the limited selection stifles creativity and makes them all pretty much cookie cutter copies. ....oh no, its the bad guys from the war of the clones!

Just a thought.

BB

 

[Storyteller01]

The artillerist is listed (look under the ARRGGHH!! heading)> Let me know what you think.

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