Molding a Malconvoker

[L41n]

Hello, everyone!

I'm getting into DnD for the first time ever, and was told that our group needed a magic user. I thought I'd play summoner at first because - hey- conjuring up armies to fight for me seems like fun! It worked in that old HP video game FATE, so why not in DnD?

I did some research and asked around and was told that - given our group's schematics (we start at level 8, it's 3.5 edition and the DM is a pretty flexible and easygoing guy), a prestige class called the malconvoker is very solid. The problem is, I'm easily confused by some of the acronyms people use (RAW, PrC, etc. I've figured out some, but trying to google what CR means on a creature makes brings up stock markets and models of cars more than anything)

So far, I've work out this much, but I can't figure out how to fine-tune things, so to speak. I don't know whether I'm min-maxing or not (I just followed the advice I was given), but I'm not sure how to implement things to make this guy "work". Any insights would be really appreciated

Basics
Human - Wizard (level 5) /Malconvoker (level 3) (is this how you do a prestige class split?
Level 8

Neutral Good (My guy - so far nameless - became a Malconvoker because he likes practical jokes and feels that the best way to fight evil it to be an internet troll to it. He either worships Garl Glittergold or Baravar Cloakshadow)

Stats
STR 11
DEX 14
CON 14
INT 17
WIS 13
CHA 16

48 HP

Skills & ranks (Listed as BaseScore (Ability Modifyer)
Bluff - 8 (3)
Concentration - 6 (2)
Handle Animal - 6 (30 - (Don't know if this is good or not, given that,a according to the rules, summons obey me naturally anyhow
Knowledge Arcana - 5 (3)
Knowledge Nature - 2 (3) - A(gain, I don't know about this. it seems like knowing about animals would be a Good Thing, but I don't know if I'd be dealing with mundane wildlife or exotic magical stuff more)
Knowledge Planes - 4 (3) - (No brainer here!)
Listen - 3 (1) - (because it's a good utility skill)
Move Silently - 2 (2) - (Same as Listen)
Spellcraft - 8 (3) - Again, par for the course of a magic user
Spot - 3 (1) - Bread & butter of not dying to commonsense problems


Languages
Common
Gnomic (I was going to make my guy raised in a community with a lot of gnomes, making him familair with (and eventually partial to) Garl Glittergold, God of Good Trickers. Knowing gnomish seems only a natural offshoot of this.)
Celestial
Infenral (both this and the above are vital to being a Malconvoker0
Draconic (Players handbook says my guy should know this. So he knows it now!)
Aquan
Ignan
Terran (Planar languages are useful for summons, IIRC)

Weapons - Light Crossbow and Mace (should I make this a holy mace?)

Items
Tinder twig - (fire is fun!)
Ring of Store Spell Minor (I was told this with Feather Fall, Mass Mage Armor and Summon Monster 1 were amazingly useful. Do I need to know these spells to put them into the ring?)
Robe of Useful Items (because everyone loves having a dagger, rope, and lord knows what else in a garment)
4 vials of holy water - just in a summoning goes wrong

Spell Focuses/ ingredients
Tiny bag
candle
Empty Cucoons (For polymorph. Too bad I don't know how to use this!)
Spell Book - so I can keep track f my old spells and record new ones

Feats
Spell Focus (Conjuror) - (Basic part of the Prestige Class)
Augment Summoning - (Ditto Spell Focus)
Mobile Spellcaster - (My groups says this is good, I think I should agree to this)
Improved Initiative - (Apparently a godsend regardless of class)
Rapid Summoning Variant / Focused Specialist Conjuration - (More advice I got. Apparently Rapid Summoning is excellent for avoiding becoming Fire Giant meat by avoiding getting distracted by being pummeled. Focuses specialist conjuration is also good for reasons I don't completely grasp. I think I can only have 5 feats at level 8, so I'm not sure which one should stay or which one should go. Any pointers?)

Spells

Level 0
Acid Splash - (Hey, let's melt through these chains! Bondage should be between consenting adults, Mister Goblin Slaver!)
Daze - (I'm going to be running away a lot, so this is supposed to help)
Mage Hand - (Apparently telekinesis is handy, if you'll excuse the pun)
Detect magic - (another staple I was told to include no matter what)
Caltrops - (The ability to produce small sharp objects? Hello, combat toys!)
Arcane mark - (Good for marking trails, or proving to people that a familair is really mine)

Level 1
Summon Monster 1 - (Yay! Dudes! Have fun fighting for me, guys! I'm not sure whether this limits me to strictly summoning critters from the basic list, or whether ANY level 1 monster in the game can be called on)
Wall of Smoke - (Effects like this are supposedly good. I hide behind the smoke, my beasties leap out and eat baddies for lunch. It sounds legit to me!)
Featherfall - (So basically this is like Halo when I sue this - No fall damage for me? WHOO!)
True Strike - (My guy is an archer. Sniping monsters while they're distracted by my guys and aiding party members in distress? Sounds okay to me!)
Benign Transposition - (Apparently this is fun. My enemies play whack-a-mole with my party! "IMMA KILL YOU! Oh, wait, I hit a dire rat!")
Enlarge person - (I make a party member big. We don't need to disturb the sleeping giant to open the huge door, we do it ourselves!)
Protection from Evil - (in case a summoning goes south and I have ghoulie hungry for my face)

Level 2
Summon Monster 2
Summon Swarm - (Apparently this is the Wicker man remake. NOT THE BEES. Another useful escape spell)
Arcane Lock - (I can sleep in peace without fearing someone stealing my stuff from the hotel - or worse, killing me in my sleep because I'm anti-human sacrifice)
Web - (In case the other guy casts Summon Swarm)
Touch of Idiocy - (apparently this is good against spellcasters)
Spider Climb - (To make the party rogue fall in love with me)

Level 3

Summon Monster 3
Mass Mage Armour - (I make friends with my party members. I can also buff my summons. Win/win, eh?)
Chain of Eyes - (apparently this is great to put on a fmailiar or cheap summon - they play as scout!)
Fireball - (As one guy said - if diplomacy fals, you always have plan B)
Blacklight - (Apparently this is good with spiders or bats - they can see in the dark, but a baddie can't. I can hide in this and let my minions have fun)
Haste - (Make my guys faster. Holy crap, my infernal rats are now zerglings! KEKEKEKEKE!)
Fly - (This is useful, or so I heard. it reminds me of the abiltiy Flying on magic cards, so this strikes me as a Good Thing)

Level 4
Summon Monster 4
Polymorph - (I can have fun with this, or so I heard. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to use this.
Blood Star - (This and tigers are supposed to be good.)

I'm torn for what to have for a familiar. I heard steam mephits are good because they can brew the morning coffee as well as fight, with the added bonus of not making forests burn down should we spend a night with a druid. However, I heard either an imp or quaslit familiar is better for fighting (they can turn invisible and stab people), plus, being a malconvoker, they fit thematically.

My guy is essentially a good internet troll who wants to overcome the forces of darkness by goading them. Having a browbeaten imp with holy symbols Arcane marked onto his face would be too funny for words. Plus the holy symbols might help me be able to dissuade any zealous paladins from smiting my guy's tush.

Anything else I should know and/or do?

[DragoonWraith]

The problem is, I'm easily confused by some of the acronyms people use
There's a thread somewhere with all of them explained, but...


RAW
Rules As Written. The actual meaning of the rules as Wizards printed them, avoiding (if possible) any form of interpretation. Important for internet discussions so that we're working off of the same material, but houserules appear in pretty much every game, and for good reason (there are a lot of really dumb rules).


PrC
Prestige Class.


CR
Challenge Rating. In theory, a 1v1 fight of a level X PC and a CR X monster should be a "very challenging fight" without being impossible.


Basics
Human - Wizard (level 5) /Malconvoker (level 3) (is this how you do a prestige class split?
Level 8
Usually you'd just write "Wizard 5/Malconvoker 3" for brevity. On this, if you have Complete Mage, do Wizard 3/Master Specialist 2/Malconvoker 3 instead - Master Specialist is perfect for you. Also, you do want to specialize in Conjuration, even without Master Specialist (so you might say "Conjurer 5/Malconvoker 3" or "Conjurer 3/Master Conjurer 2/Malconvoker 3").

Also, if you have Complete Mage, you should also take the Focused Specialist variant. Enchantment, Evocation, and, if a Focused Specialist, (Abjuration or Illusion or Necromancy) are the usual suggestions for banned schools - Abjuration is a great school, but if you have a Cleric in the party he can cover it, if not, one of the other two - both have their advantages though.


Neutral Good (My guy - so far nameless - became a Malconvoker because he likes practical jokes and feels that the best way to fight evil it to be an internet troll to it. He either worships Garl Glittergold or Baravar Cloakshadow)
Awesome flavor, dunno anything about Cloakshadow but Glittergold fits perfectly. There's a pretty good Malconvoker feat that requires Non-Good, but with Unrestricted Conjuration you might convince your DM to waive that requirement.


Stats
STR 11
DEX 14
CON 14
INT 17
WIS 13
CHA 16
Rolled or point-buy? The allocation's right, but all of the odd numbers really sucks.


Handle Animal - 6 (30 - (Don't know if this is good or not, given that,a according to the rules, summons obey me naturally anyhow
Not worth it at all.


Knowledge Nature - 2 (3) - A(gain, I don't know about this. it seems like knowing about animals would be a Good Thing, but I don't know if I'd be dealing with mundane wildlife or exotic magical stuff more)
Decent but not really necessary. Nature's a decent Knowledge skill, since you'll run into a fair number of Animals and Magical Beasts and this will let you know what they can do in-character.


Move Silently - 2 (2) - (Same as Listen)
Personally, I doubt you'll be doing much sneaking, but it's not a bad choice. You're a Wizard, so you should have a lot of skill points to throw around so it's OK.


Languages
Common
Gnomic (I was going to make my guy raised in a community with a lot of gnomes, making him familair with (and eventually partial to) Garl Glittergold, God of Good Trickers. Knowing gnomish seems only a natural offshoot of this.)
Celestial
Infenral (both this and the above are vital to being a Malconvoker0
Draconic (Players handbook says my guy should know this. So he knows it now!)
Aquan
Ignan
Terran (Planar languages are useful for summons, IIRC)
Uhhh... you need Abyssal and Auran. Especially Abyssal, since roughly half the monsters you summon are going to be Demons and speak Abyssal and not Infernal. Gnomish you need for fluff reasons, so I won't question that (hell, I have a character who speaks 19 different languages for no real reason), but I don't think there's really anything special about Draconic. Dragons almost always speak Common anyway, and Kobolds... well, they're Kobolds, they're not really talking to you so much as plotting your destruction...


Ring of Store Spell Minor (I was told this with Feather Fall, Mass Mage Armor and Summon Monster 1 were amazingly useful. Do I need to know these spells to put them into the ring?)
You need someone to cast them, either yourself or someone else. Never really used these much, but then I don't put a lot of thought into items. But you're a Wizard, just put them in your Spellbook. You should put basically everything you can in your Spellbook. Get a Blessed Book, they're awesome.


Spell Focuses/ ingredients
Tiny bag
candle
Empty Cucoons (For polymorph. Too bad I don't know how to use this!)
Spell Book - so I can keep track f my old spells and record new ones
You don't need these, just buy a Spell Component Pouch, and you're done. The only ones you actually need separately are the ones that have a specific cost listed.


Mobile Spellcaster - (My groups says this is good, I think I should agree to this)
Never heard of it, kind of doubt it.


Improved Initiative - (Apparently a godsend regardless of class)
Godsend, not really, but never a bad choice either.


Rapid Summoning Variant / Focused Specialist Conjuration
These are not Feats, they're "Alternate Class Features". Rapid Summoning Variant means you don't get a Familiar but you can cast your Summon Monster spells as a Standard Action instead of 1 Round - this is why you are playing a Wizard and not a Sorcerer or Cleric. Definitely have that.

And Focused Specialist requires you to ban a 3rd school (talked about it some above), but it bumps up yours Spells per Day quite a lot, so yes, this is absolutely worth it. For you. Other Wizards who do not focus so exclusively on one school aren't going to like it as much, but a Malconvoker is going to prepare Summon Monster in most of his spell slots anyway.


Level 0
You get every Sor/Wiz Cantrip in your Spellbook for free, by default.


True Strike - (My guy is an archer. Sniping monsters while they're distracted by my guys and aiding party members in distress? Sounds okay to me!)
Totally agree with the rest, but this probably won't get used very much. You're a summoner first, the crossbow's really just something to keep you amused while your fiends tear things to shreds.


Summon Swarm - (Apparently this is the Wicker man remake. NOT THE BEES. Another useful escape spell)
Escape?

Be careful with that one, though. You can't control the Swarm, so you need to make sure you don't have any friendlies (that you care about; you might not care about your summons too much) nearby.


Haste - (Make my guys faster. Holy crap, my infernal rats are now zerglings! KEKEKEKEKE!)
Incredibly good spell... I'm skipping a lot of spells cuz they look fine, but I just felt the need to comment how good this is.


Polymorph - (I can have fun with this, or so I heard. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to use this.
Honestly, you probably won't much. One, you're a summoner, why do the work yourself when you have a ton of summons to do it for you? Two, you're not really going to be built for it - not that it would entirely stop you, but you could use this better if you weren't focusing on summoning. Three, Polymorph is disgusting cheese, and using it too much is bad for you.


I'm torn for what to have for a familiar. I heard steam mephits are good because they can brew the morning coffee as well as fight, with the added bonus of not making forests burn down should we spend a night with a druid. However, I heard either an imp or quaslit familiar is better for fighting (they can turn invisible and stab people), plus, being a malconvoker, they fit thematically.
You're not getting a Familiar (you gave it up for the Rapid Summoning ability, which you really, really want), unless you take the Obtain Familiar feat (which is not a bad idea at all). Mephits require Improved Familiar, IIRC, which can be worth it but I'm not sure you'll really need it - you'll have plenty of pets as it is.


My guy is essentially a good internet troll who wants to overcome the forces of darkness by goading them. Having a browbeaten imp with holy symbols Arcane marked onto his face would be too funny for words. Plus the holy symbols might help me be able to dissuade any zealous paladins from smiting my guy's tush.
Hehe, this is awesome.


Anything else I should know and/or do?
Make sure you read Mastering the Malconvoker (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=289.0), since it will tell you who, how, and when to summon things. It's excellent.

[Thrice Dead Cat]

Basically, what DragonWraith said and then some. This is also a pretty good wizarding guide by the same person who made the Malconvoker guide. (http://coboard.wikia.com/wiki/Treantmonk%27s_guide_to_wizards:_Being_a_God)

[Private-Prinny]

A couple of quick things to point out.

Stats: Put the two points you get from level ups to 8 into INT. Both of them. You need all the help you can get there.

Languages: I would pick up all of the Planar languages, and stop there. Planar languages are Infernal, Abyssal, Ignan, Auran, Aquan, Terran, and Celestial. You need to pick up Abyssal and Auran, but you can afford to drop Draconic.

Spells: Replace Touch of Idiocy with Ray of Stupidity. Snag Glitterdust and Grease, since they are 2 of the best low level BFC spells, and both conjuration. Polymorph reaches the most fun when you can summon a 12 HD centipede with SM VI. Hello Mr. Hydra, how are you today?

Feats: Take the Wizard ACF that lets you take Augment Summoning in place of Scribe Scroll. Replace Mobile Spellcaster with Cloudy Conjuration, since you won't be moving much anyway. Improved Initiative is always a good choice. And finally, take the Summon Elemental reserve feat next level. The handbook that DW linked to shows just how much of a godsend it is.

[L41n]

Thanks so much!

I rolled the stats. I felt awkward (wisdom should be higher, IMO) but tht's how my DM rolls, so to speak (pun intended)

SHould I get more spells, such as Summon Greater Elemental or Summon Undead?

[Private-Prinny]

Stick to Summon Monster spells and Planar Binding. The Summon Undead line is pretty much universally agreed to suck, and anything you could possibly need an elemental for is covered. Out of combat utility is covered by the reserve feat, and in combat, the Fiendish creatures are much more powerful, seeing as you get two of them to apply a multitude of bonuses to.

[L41n]

Planar binding - I get those spells naturally as a Malconvoker, right?

Also: should I invest in any armor? Amulet of Armor? Or will mage Armor be enough?

[Riva]

Go for miss chance.

[Thrice Dead Cat]

I'm of the opinion that if you need to worry about AC as a wizard, you're either in a one on one duel or you've already failed.

[Private-Prinny]

I'm of the opinion that if you need to worry about AC as a wizard, you're either in a one on one duel or you've already failed.

But as a Malconvoker, if you're in a 1 on 1, you outnumber them. :smallbiggrin:

[Thrice Dead Cat]

But as a Malconvoker, if you're in a 1 on 1, you outnumber them. :smallbiggrin:

Would you believe that that thought never crossed my mind when I made that post?:smallredface: I have to say, well played. Consider yourself owed one cookie or similar internet based reward item here.

[L41n]

Ignore armor? I was afraid of eating a stray arrow in the midst of a heavy battle.

[Mongoose87]

Ignore armor? I was afraid of eating a stray arrow in the midst of a heavy battle.

That's what miss chance is for.

[Greenish]

I rolled the stats. I felt awkward (wisdom should be higher, IMO) but tht's how my DM rolls, so to speak (pun intended)Don't worry, your stats are fine, and wisdom isn't very important for wizards.

As for defences, Mirror Image, Blink and other spells that cause enemies to have a miss change are easier to push up than AC. Simple Invisibility will serve you on lower levels, since casting summons won't break it.

[Akal Saris]

Your character looks perfectly fine to me, L41n.

Just as a word of warning though, you're taking on one of the hardest classes for your first one. Not difficult in strategy so much as book-keeping.

Some advice for a 1st time player:
Keep a folder for your conjurer, even if everyone else just throws their sheets into a pile. In that folder, keep:
- Your character sheet
-A separate sheet with names of people you met and a one line description. Like this: "Lord Zulgey White-something. He wanted me to say hi to his sister Marge if I met her." Do the same for places or gods that sound vaguely important to you.
- Flash cards/sheets for 1 monster you want to summon from each line of Summon Monster. Celestial Dog (I), Fiendish Wolf (II), Fiendish Centipede (III), Fiendish Dire Wolf (IV), Fiendish Dire Tiger (V) were my defaults. Each cheat sheet should have the following information: hit points , attack bonus, attack damage, Armor class. This is important - it saves a ton of time looking up the monster each time you summon it. Don't forget infernal summons and augment summoning change the stats!
- A "cheat sheet" with a list of the monsters you can summon from each SM so you don't have to flip through your books to know if you can summon a dire badger when you need one.
- Finally, a rules cheat sheet. Remember: Standard, move, swift, immediate. Try to use a Standard, move, swift action each and every round of combat, and try to make your monsters do the same (most won't have any swift actions). Note down any other fiddly rules or abilities you forget.
-Scratch paper. I use it to mark off current spell durations and other crud.

Yes, that's a lot of paper. But it's all prep - once you have the big stuff written down the actual game will go so much more smoothly and there will be a lot less information that you will have to keep track of in midgame.

Good luck and have fun! I love my own conjurer =)

Oh, and also:

http://mxyzplk.wordpress.com/session-summaries/rise-of-the-runelords/

This is a session-by-session record by a malconvoker player. He has a really fun group and you can get a good idea of what it's like playing a malconvoker by reading this.