Superglucose
2008-12-20, 04:22 AM
Ok, so we're in a core D&D 3.x hybrid game, and I chose to play an illusionist because as per one of our weird house rules the only school I have to ban is evocation. It seemed like a really (REALLY) sweet deal for me.
I have been spending feats to qualify for the Loremaster and Archmage prestige classes, and we started with the elite array. I was convinced into playing a tiefling, and only after we'd gone through the first session did I remember the first rule of optimization and that I had broken it. I'm at level 6 in a post-apocalyptic wasteland (shopping cap is 27 gp in this setting)
After adjustments,
STR: 8
DEX: 16
CON: 13
INT: 18
WIS: 12
CHA: 8
Spells known:
1st:
Shield
Grease
Mage Armor
Mount
Identify
True Strike
Color Spray
Disguise Self
Silent Image
Ray of Enfeeblement
Enlarge Person
Magic Weapon
2nd:
Glitterdust
See Invisibility
Hideous Laughter
Blur
Hypnotic Pattern
Fox's Cunning
Rope Trick
3rd:
Dispel Magic
Displacement
Gear: Intellect +2 item, Pearl of Power lvl 1, assorted crap (I started with 5400 gp of items), lots of magical components to make magic items for myself (I'm eyeing a +6 int item in a couple levels), and a heap of scrolls/wands that we've found (all level 1 or 2 spells).
Raven Familiar, because even though familiars aren't great, I love having them.
Feats:
Scribe Scroll (1st level, and it's an item creation feat so it applies to Loremaster. I'm apparently a pretty funny guy, so I pick up what my GM calls "lulz points" and what I call "scroll XP" with witty observations and remarks. Haven't had to make any yet.)
Craft Wondrous Items (5th level, since we have to make our own enchanted item I went for this over any of the other metamagic/craft feats as a) it was a prereq for Loremaster and b) there are lots of nifty wondrous items for crafting, such as a +6 int item, or a cloak of resistance)
Spell Focus: Conjuration (Archmage prereq, plus the additional 5% chance of my spells actually affecting their targets seemed like a good idea)
Spell Focus: Illusion (GM mandated I had to take this as my first spell focus as I was a specialist, but it counts as one of the two towards Archmage)
Skill Focus: Knowledge Arcana (Loremaster prereq)
Part of the problem is that one of the players is using a homebrew sorceror variant that trades the familiar for his caster level in spell level's worth of auto-quickened ray spells (Ray of Enfeeblement, for instance, also some homebrew 'elemental shot' spell that deals caster level/2 d8 as a ray).
Another part is our GM doesn't run encounters well at all. Today we faced a juvenile blue dragon that just jumped in front of the party on a mountain and breathed twice before getting Ray of Enfeeblement pwned. It just sat still rather than strafing us.
Plus we just seem to play mostly random encounters (and let me say, the table is horrible) which means a large amount of creatures, usually in a wide and open place seeing as most of the times we're in the plains.
Still, it's a little annoying to be outclassed in combat by a ranger/sorceror multiclass, and was wondering if this is a function of my low level, or if there was something horribly wrong I was doing.
I have been spending feats to qualify for the Loremaster and Archmage prestige classes, and we started with the elite array. I was convinced into playing a tiefling, and only after we'd gone through the first session did I remember the first rule of optimization and that I had broken it. I'm at level 6 in a post-apocalyptic wasteland (shopping cap is 27 gp in this setting)
After adjustments,
STR: 8
DEX: 16
CON: 13
INT: 18
WIS: 12
CHA: 8
Spells known:
1st:
Shield
Grease
Mage Armor
Mount
Identify
True Strike
Color Spray
Disguise Self
Silent Image
Ray of Enfeeblement
Enlarge Person
Magic Weapon
2nd:
Glitterdust
See Invisibility
Hideous Laughter
Blur
Hypnotic Pattern
Fox's Cunning
Rope Trick
3rd:
Dispel Magic
Displacement
Gear: Intellect +2 item, Pearl of Power lvl 1, assorted crap (I started with 5400 gp of items), lots of magical components to make magic items for myself (I'm eyeing a +6 int item in a couple levels), and a heap of scrolls/wands that we've found (all level 1 or 2 spells).
Raven Familiar, because even though familiars aren't great, I love having them.
Feats:
Scribe Scroll (1st level, and it's an item creation feat so it applies to Loremaster. I'm apparently a pretty funny guy, so I pick up what my GM calls "lulz points" and what I call "scroll XP" with witty observations and remarks. Haven't had to make any yet.)
Craft Wondrous Items (5th level, since we have to make our own enchanted item I went for this over any of the other metamagic/craft feats as a) it was a prereq for Loremaster and b) there are lots of nifty wondrous items for crafting, such as a +6 int item, or a cloak of resistance)
Spell Focus: Conjuration (Archmage prereq, plus the additional 5% chance of my spells actually affecting their targets seemed like a good idea)
Spell Focus: Illusion (GM mandated I had to take this as my first spell focus as I was a specialist, but it counts as one of the two towards Archmage)
Skill Focus: Knowledge Arcana (Loremaster prereq)
Part of the problem is that one of the players is using a homebrew sorceror variant that trades the familiar for his caster level in spell level's worth of auto-quickened ray spells (Ray of Enfeeblement, for instance, also some homebrew 'elemental shot' spell that deals caster level/2 d8 as a ray).
Another part is our GM doesn't run encounters well at all. Today we faced a juvenile blue dragon that just jumped in front of the party on a mountain and breathed twice before getting Ray of Enfeeblement pwned. It just sat still rather than strafing us.
Plus we just seem to play mostly random encounters (and let me say, the table is horrible) which means a large amount of creatures, usually in a wide and open place seeing as most of the times we're in the plains.
Still, it's a little annoying to be outclassed in combat by a ranger/sorceror multiclass, and was wondering if this is a function of my low level, or if there was something horribly wrong I was doing.