[3.5e] Character Creation Help

[Tarmikos]

Hello All. I'm new to this forum, but everyone seems pretty knowledgeable, so I was hoping I could get some help creating a character for a campaign I'm joining. The info for it is as follows:

First and foremost it's a gestalt character, starting at level 2, with 900 gold.
The party already has three fighter/rogues and a psion/rogue, as well as possibly a bard/barbarian, so melee is covered pretty well. I was thinking I would like to create a character that revolves around casting, and I would like it to be a caster that works with the "save or die/suck" type of spells I hear so much about. I realize at level two it's not likely to be effective at that, but I can work towards it.

For races, the standard starting races are allowed, and because it takes place in Eberron, those races are allowed as well.

Class wise, I believe anything goes, including psionic ones.

The abilities are done on the 30 point buy system.


Basically, I'm asking for help taking the above info and making a pretty good char that uses arcane or divine magic, or psionics, or a combination. I'd also like guidance on what to plan for in the future, for feats, spells, etc etc, if that's ok. Splatbooks are allowed, subject to DM approval, however I ask anything pulled from splatbooks have info describing it, as I don't have any books on me, and have been pulling info from the SRD.

Thanks for any help that anyone can offer! :smallsmile:

[Vorpal word]

If you want something with save or <bad stuff happens> try necromancer or enchanter. I don't know much about psionic classes so I can't help you there, but spells like circle of death are good (and raising their DC is a good idea).

You could also maybe multiclass into assassin, but judging by your party that's too many rogues. :)

[Random NPC]

Warforged Wizard//Archivist.

My favorite character right there. His name is Codex and can find any little musing about anything, ever. The healing spells can help, but the Archivist has some nasties in there.

[Keld Denar]

Wizard//Archivist.

+1...nearly completely Int SAD, and able to cast every spell ever printed in any book anywhere in the world (no joke).

Stick with Archivist20 on that side, and PrC your Wizard side with any full caster PrC after 5. Incantrix is commonly cited, though a little abusive. Loremaster would be in character, and Archmage is almost a shoe-in. Specialize to taste, if desired, although probably not neccesary due to the high spell volume.

[Flickerdart]

+1...nearly completely Int SAD, and able to cast every spell ever printed in any book anywhere in the world (no joke).

Stick with Archivist20 on that side, and PrC your Wizard side with any full caster PrC after 5. Incantrix is commonly cited, though a little abusive. Loremaster would be in character, and Archmage is almost a shoe-in. Specialize to taste, if desired, although probably not neccesary due to the high spell volume.
I can do you one better. Elan Erudite//Factotum with Spell to Power. Cast any spell ever printed, any power ever printed and combine that with sexy factotum abilities that also trigger off INT.

[Tarmikos]

Hmm, ok, I'm really liking the idea of the wizard/archivist, and I think that's what I will be using.

Can I ask why the warforged as race though? I'll admit I'm not familiar with the race, so I don't know. Also, are there any other good choices for race? Being limited to the standard races, races of Eberron, and psionic standards

[Nohwl]

what splat books do you have access to? you could drop the wizard for something else because archivist would allow you to cast most if not all of the spells(depending on what your dm allows).

an archivst can cast any divine spell. if you bring in masters of the wild(3.0) [for the hexer prestige class, it opens up all wizard spells],dragon magic has a favored soul variant that adds wizard spells to your list(3.5) [in case hexer isnt allowed, you have access to all level 6 or lower thanks to it), and there's a cleric variant that gives access to a few wizard schools. if you look in unearthed arcana, you can get all bard spells because of the divine bard variant, and then you have adept spells, druid spells, paladin spells and ranger spells, along with the domain spells, and the cleric spell list. shugenja has some spells that are normally arcane only too. you could look through all of the divine prestige classes to find more spells if hexer isn't allowed.

i would replace wizard with warlock so you can get any spell you want.

[tyckspoon]

Hmm, ok, I'm really liking the idea of the wizard/archivist, and I think that's what I will be using.

Can I ask why the warforged as race though? I'll admit I'm not familiar with the race, so I don't know. Also, are there any other good choices for race? Being limited to the standard races, races of Eberron, and psionic standards

Because Warforged Are Awesome. (They're also a fairly strong race, although not primarily designed for spellcasting.) That's really basically it. If you want the most mechanical benefit from your racial choice, that would be Grey Elf for the +Int or any other LA 0 +Int race that fits the allowed sources. I don't think there are any others, tho. If you can't think of anything else, you can never go wrong with Human.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

One of the issues with Wizard//Archivist is while you are Int-SAD and have more spell slots than a Sorcerer, you still only get one set of actions with one set of stats. Wizard//Factorum, however, gives you Int to everything, and casting off of the strongest spell list(instead of all:smallfrown:), as well as boosting BAB, HP, and getting you a host of fun abilities that culminates in EXTRA ACTIONS(in other words free free-action Quicken for all your spells).

[Zincorium]

If you are going wizard//archivist, you should strongly consider the Geomancer PrC. It's terrible outside gestalt, but if you're gestalting arcane and divine, it's absurdly good, as it allows you to use every trick in the book for both classes with everything you get. Adamantine body + all spells cast as divine = good.

Alternately, Duskblade//Archivist.

[Chronos]

A wizard//archivist can't quite cast every spell in the game. There are still a few that are exclusive to Wu Jen, Assassin, or (if there's no Divine Bards in your game) Bard. Still, you get pretty much everything you'll ever think of.

Archivist has the additional benefit that he can give his allies some nice bonuses in melee with his Dark Knowledge ability. It looks like your party-mates are fond of melee, so that should come in handy.

Factotum goes well with any Int-based caster in Gestalt, but you've got plenty of skillmonkeys already. I wouldn't bother with it (though you might recommend one of the other players use Factotum instead of Rogue, and possibly Warblade instead of Fighter if you use Tome of Battle).

And if you want to go Warforged, I'd take Artificer on the other side, rather than Wizard. Wizard would be competing for actions with Archivist, but you'd mostly be using your Artificer abilities outside combat and between adventures (but the items you make can be useful all the time).


One caveat, though, about Archivist. Make sure to run the class by your DM, and find out what he thinks of it. The existence of archivists puts DMs in an awkward situation, since he has to decide what spells and spellcasters to give you access to. Too few, and the class is basically just another cleric, but too many, and it can become horrendously overpowered. Your DM might not appreciate trying to walk that line.

[Random NPC]

Hmm, ok, I'm really liking the idea of the wizard/archivist, and I think that's what I will be using.

Can I ask why the warforged as race though? I'll admit I'm not familiar with the race, so I don't know. Also, are there any other good choices for race? Being limited to the standard races, races of Eberron, and psionic standards

They are awesome in terms of RP.

Also, they are +2 Con, -2 Wis/Cha, but they have armor. They come with an attached +2 armor that you can enchant further, with only 5% arcane failure. They are quite solid race for wizards, actually.

And since they were MADE for WAR as WARRIORS, the whole being a scribe and a non-combatant is so freaking awesome, I can't stress this enough.