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View Full Version : Sorcerer-8/Monk-2 Spells and equipment, help (3.5)



evisiron
2009-05-14, 06:06 PM
Hello.

In an upcoming campaign, I will be playing a monk sorcerer hybrid.

Character explanation and details:
Hi.

Character:

The idea is an arrogant son of a noble who happens to develop sorcerer powers. With his natural over confidence and charisma on his side, everything in his life comes extremely easily. So, in an attempt to help before its too late, his father sends him to a semi distant monastery to become a monk and learn the nature of hard work and patience.

The son arrives, learns to fight, gets bored and skips out to try his hand elsewhere in the world.


Mechanically, I was going to go with 2 levels in Monk and the rest in Sorcerer. Now, I am not much for power gaming here, but combining the weakest melee class with the weakest magic class (speaking core and purely opinion here) might make him a bit too underpowered. I still want to be a useful member of the group.

I would like to keep the character focus on blasting and a bit of utility magic, with a bit of "just in case" punching/kicking power.

While I have gamed for a fair bit, this is actually my first try at an arcane caster, and so I am at a loss for spell choice and equipment purchases.

For equipment, I would like to keep the focus on the sorcerer, with maybe a few cheap items to help punching power out, and should be running on 10th level standard wealth (by level).

EDIT: I have access to PHB 1 and 2, DMG, Complete Scoundrel, Complete Warrior, Complete Adventurer and I think the DM has Complete Mage. I may get Tome of Battle before it starts.
Feel free to mention advice from other books, but involving these would be the most useful. :smallbiggrin:

Does anyone have any advice on either or both of these topics?

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2009-05-14, 06:56 PM
You should change that to Monk 1/ Sorcerer 4/ Enlightened Fist 5, then take Master of the East Wind (http://crystalkeep.com/d20/rules/DnD3.5Index-Classes-Prestige.pdf) for ten levels. MotEW gives 3/4 BAB, good Will save, 4 skill points/level, d6 HP, and 10/10 spellcasting with 10/10 Monk abilities, along with the Air domain at the 6th or 7th level. At level 20 that will have 18th level Sorcerer spellcasting and 16th level Monk abilities, not even counting Practiced Spellcaster or a Monk's Belt or Monk's Tattoo. Another option would be to replace Monk with Unarmed Swordsage and go into Jade Phoenix Mage.

Wraithstrike is a must-have. Mage Armor, Shield, maybe Enlarge Person, and a +4 stat buffs would also be good to have. A Lesser Metamagic Rod of Extend can be used on Wraithstrike, and it won't even increase the casting time since that rule only applies to spells with a normal casting time of a standard action or longer. I'd probably include Draconic Heritage and Draconic Breath, so you won't really need to worry about offensive spells. Blinding Breath is a great spell to get with that. Polymorph is a powerful spell, especially since in most of the better humanoid-shaped combat forms you'll still be able to use all of your class features including spells and unarmed strikes. You want to spend as few rounds buffing as possible, so get Swift spells and spells that are worth the time spent casting them, such as Greater Mirror Image. Maybe even pick up Rapid Metamagic and Quicken Spell, or possibly Extend and Persistent Spell which can make Shield, Wraithstrike, and Displacement last all day. Get a few strong ranged disable/attack spells, such as Web, Ray of Stupidity, and maybe one of the Orb spells. Shivering Touch in Frostburn is an overpowered spell that can add 3d6 Dex damage to all of your unarmed strikes for one round per caster level. If that would be too much then Chill Touch is also good to have.

Gorbash
2009-05-14, 07:37 PM
Shivering Touch in Frostburn is an overpowered spell that can add 3d6 Dex damage to all of your unarmed strikes for one round per caster level.

It doesn't really work that way and nowhere in the spell description does it say that it works like that.

All it does is lets you make touch attacks that deal 3d6 Dex damage. Every spell that allows you to make multiple touch attacks specifically says so in the description of the spell (by FAQ), so as written, Shivering Touch allows you to make 1 touch attack per round that deals 3d6 damage, which is still pretty powerful.

ShneekeyTheLost
2009-05-14, 08:14 PM
Hello.

In an upcoming campaign, I will be playing a monk sorcerer hybrid.

Character explanation and details:
Hi.

Character:

The idea is an arrogant son of a noble who happens to develop sorcerer powers. With his natural over confidence and charisma on his side, everything in his life comes extremely easily. So, in an attempt to help before its too late, his father sends him to a semi distant monastery to become a monk and learn the nature of hard work and patience.

The son arrives, learns to fight, gets bored and skips out to try his hand elsewhere in the world.


Mechanically, I was going to go with 2 levels in Monk and the rest in Sorcerer. Now, I am not much for power gaming here, but combining the weakest melee class with the weakest magic class (speaking core and purely opinion here) might make him a bit too underpowered. I still want to be a useful member of the group.

I would like to keep the character focus on blasting and a bit of utility magic, with a bit of "just in case" punching/kicking power.

While I have gamed for a fair bit, this is actually my first try at an arcane caster, and so I am at a loss for spell choice and equipment purchases.

For equipment, I would like to keep the focus on the sorcerer, with maybe a few cheap items to help punching power out, and should be running on 10th level standard wealth (by level).

EDIT: I have access to PHB 1 and 2, DMG, Complete Scoundrel, Complete Warrior, Complete Adventurer and I think the DM has Complete Mage. I may get Tome of Battle before it starts.
Feel free to mention advice from other books, but involving these would be the most useful. :smallbiggrin:

Does anyone have any advice on either or both of these topics?

Feats: The Monk/Sorcerer feat that lets you use your Charisma for your unarmed AC bonus. Ascetic Mage, I think it's called. Other than that, Empower Spell is always handy for Enervation or Shivering Touch. Split Ray if you plan on using a lot of rays. Heighten Spell is going to be vital to keep up your DC's.

If you don't want to trade in your familiar for the PhB II variant to be able to cast Metamagic without extra time a number of times per day, pick up the feat Rapid Metamagic (at 9th level, because it requires Spellcraft 12 ranks) and not worry about limitations on it. This lets you do things like Quicken.

Spells: So you want to be blastomancy? Well, most people consider it to be 'sub-par', but it can be done properly. The key is the feat Energy Substitution: Acid. Now you can either chunk whatever flavor you want, or you can chunk acid. Since few things are immune to acid, it's a fairly safe element to throw around.

Now then, your problems with blasting are as follows: 1) Evasion sucks, 2) dishing out enough damage to be worth it, 3) dealing with Spell Resistance.

So, with this in mind, you want to pick up the following spells:

Lesser Sonic Orb, and Orb of Sound. These are your single-target blastomancy that ignores SR and has almost NOTHING that is immune or resistant to it.

Scorching Ray. Sub Acid if you run into fire-immune. Ends up doing more damage, but requires three separate attack rolls.

The feat Shape Spell. This lets you shift your blasting around to different shapes, limiting the number of spells you 'have' to get to make the most of your blasting

You'll still want at least one blaster of each flavor. I'd suggest Lightning Bolt and Cone of Cold, personally. Maybe Delayed Blast Fireball as well. That takes care of your basic elements right there, and you can always sub out Acid if you want.

Equipment:

Cloak of Charisma +6 runs you 36k. Get this.

Gloves of Dexterity +6 run you another 36k, may or may not be worth it, depending on your current Dex score, and if you are wearing any armor or not. Remember, Dex is both your to-hit with ranged attacks (including rays), and your AC.

Ring of Freedom of Movement is 40k... need I say more?

Ring of Sustenance. For 2,500 you get the ability to recover spells in 2 hours (which counts as 8 hours of rest), and never need to eat.

Necklace of Adaptation. For 9,000 this item is a steal. Immunity to inhaled toxins, including Stinking Cloud and Cloudkill? Yes, please!

Bracers of Armor +6 cost you 36k. If you aren't going to be using Mage Armor, these are pretty good. Otherwise, don't bother.

Wands. You can't know every spell, so make sure you get some spells in Wand form so you don't have to learn them. This goes for Knock, but others are also useful.

Scrolls. When you don't need 50 of them, but it might save the party to have one or two, Scroll it.

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2009-05-14, 08:47 PM
Produce Flame allows you to make touch attacks for its full duration, though it does include a clause that reduces the remaining duration per attack delivered. Shivering Touch lasts one round per caster level, and deals dex damage per touch. Damage, whether HP damage or ability damage, is always an instantaneous effect that remains until healed normally or magically even long after the spell's duration ends. If the spell is capable of only delivering one touch, then the duration serves no function and may as well be instantaneous. One conclusion is that the spell's effect can be delivered multiple times during that duration, and there is nothing in the spell's description to suggest otherwise.

Keld Denar
2009-05-14, 08:58 PM
Or that the devs were idiots when they wrote the spell and they only intended the damage to persist for a short duration, similar to the way that a negative level bestowed by Enervation doesn't last for 24 hours before being removed like a normal negative level. Most touch spells can be held indefinitely until discharged, or until the wielder casts another spell which causes the held touch spell to discharge harmlessly. That makes the duration on ST indicative of the length the effect lasts, rather than the length of time that the charge can be held, and that you only get 1 touch with it (unless you are multichanneling it as a Duskblade).

Regardless, I recommend staying away from Shivering Touch (and Ray of Stupidity) because they are most likely to frustrate your DM into throwing something rediculously rediculous at you because you are 1-shotting every monster he throws at you. Just say no!