Melamoto
2010-01-23, 12:50 PM
The Shadowcaster: A long misunderstood class, left at the bottom of the pile when it comes to casters, being considered by some to be the worst full-caster you can get. And they're mostly right.
But there is one combination that actually works very well. It uses a little mystery known as Umbral Touch. This is a touch attack that deals 5d6 damage and can slow an enemy, a number of times equal to your caster level. Nothing too spectacular, a decent damage attack for low level characters. But this neat mystery is also an apprentice mystery, meaning that at Shadowcaster level 13, it counts as a Supernatural Ability. That makes it practically a mundane attack, unable to be Counterspelled, Dispelled, no Somatic Components, no ASF, and no Spell Resistance. It can only be stopped by an AMF. But it's still just a melee touch attack with 5d6 damage, I hear you say. Just hold on. You only have to be a:
Shadowcaster 5/Assassin 5/Arcane Trickster 9/Fighter 1
Firstly, you take the 5 Shadowcaster levels. Hide and Move Silently are class skills for you, so you are ok to take Assassin at level 5. Arcane Trickster, regrettably, requires 3rd level arcane spells and mage hand to take, but it advances any spellcasting class. So you gain 3rd level spells from Assassin and Mage Hand from the Spell Hand feat (CArc). After that, you take Arcane Trickster to 19, advancing Shadowcasting to 14. The important thing about this is that it gives 7d6 Sneak Attack damage as well.
Pick up the Two-Weapon Fighting tree. The level of fighter is there to provide you with the feat at level 20. If you have another means of receiving Greater TWF at level 20, then I'd be glad to hear of it to improve the build. This gives you 6 attacks.
Finally, you take Reach Mystery multiple times, or buy up some lesser reach metamystery rods. This gives your Umbral Touch the ability to use all of its attacks at a 30' range.
The end result of this is that in any situation where you can sneak attack, you can make 6 Umbral Touch attacks for 12d6 damage each. Assuming optimized enough attacks to always hit with a ranged touch attack when the enemy has no dex bonus, that means 72d6 damage, an average of 252, splittable among 6 enemies, with a save vs Slow on each just to add insult to injury. This is a 30' ranged touch attack, which can almost never be stopped. On top of that, you have the rest of your 14th level Shadowcasting, 5th level Assassin casting, and excellent sneaking.
This is not a cheesy build; if it was then it would easily be dealing more than 1000 damage. It is simply a way to add effectiveness to an otherwise underpowered class. You get to deal great damage, act as a group scout, and have a set of utilities, which include 7th level Greater Shadow Evocation, and some nice travel mysteries. All in all, very playable.
Any questions, opinions, improvements to the build, or reasons why
it doesn't work?
But there is one combination that actually works very well. It uses a little mystery known as Umbral Touch. This is a touch attack that deals 5d6 damage and can slow an enemy, a number of times equal to your caster level. Nothing too spectacular, a decent damage attack for low level characters. But this neat mystery is also an apprentice mystery, meaning that at Shadowcaster level 13, it counts as a Supernatural Ability. That makes it practically a mundane attack, unable to be Counterspelled, Dispelled, no Somatic Components, no ASF, and no Spell Resistance. It can only be stopped by an AMF. But it's still just a melee touch attack with 5d6 damage, I hear you say. Just hold on. You only have to be a:
Shadowcaster 5/Assassin 5/Arcane Trickster 9/Fighter 1
Firstly, you take the 5 Shadowcaster levels. Hide and Move Silently are class skills for you, so you are ok to take Assassin at level 5. Arcane Trickster, regrettably, requires 3rd level arcane spells and mage hand to take, but it advances any spellcasting class. So you gain 3rd level spells from Assassin and Mage Hand from the Spell Hand feat (CArc). After that, you take Arcane Trickster to 19, advancing Shadowcasting to 14. The important thing about this is that it gives 7d6 Sneak Attack damage as well.
Pick up the Two-Weapon Fighting tree. The level of fighter is there to provide you with the feat at level 20. If you have another means of receiving Greater TWF at level 20, then I'd be glad to hear of it to improve the build. This gives you 6 attacks.
Finally, you take Reach Mystery multiple times, or buy up some lesser reach metamystery rods. This gives your Umbral Touch the ability to use all of its attacks at a 30' range.
The end result of this is that in any situation where you can sneak attack, you can make 6 Umbral Touch attacks for 12d6 damage each. Assuming optimized enough attacks to always hit with a ranged touch attack when the enemy has no dex bonus, that means 72d6 damage, an average of 252, splittable among 6 enemies, with a save vs Slow on each just to add insult to injury. This is a 30' ranged touch attack, which can almost never be stopped. On top of that, you have the rest of your 14th level Shadowcasting, 5th level Assassin casting, and excellent sneaking.
This is not a cheesy build; if it was then it would easily be dealing more than 1000 damage. It is simply a way to add effectiveness to an otherwise underpowered class. You get to deal great damage, act as a group scout, and have a set of utilities, which include 7th level Greater Shadow Evocation, and some nice travel mysteries. All in all, very playable.
Any questions, opinions, improvements to the build, or reasons why
it doesn't work?