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Beelzebub1111
2010-07-03, 08:34 AM
I'm making a shadowcaster when my DM upgrades to 3.5 edition (from second) and was thinking about builds. What're some good feats to take? and some fundamentals? I think that I will probably be the only arcane caster, though. I think I've got my Mysteries, though.

1: Mesmerizing Shade
2: Life Fades
3: Thought of Shadow
4: Flesh Fails
5: Afraid of the Dark
6: Bend Perspective
7: Aura of Shade
8: Warp Spell
9: Dark Air or Water
10: Echo Spell
11: Shadow Storm
12: Bolster
13: Prison of Night
14: Summon Umbral Servant
15: Tomb of Night
16: Shadow Plague
17: Consume Essence.

Morph Bark
2010-07-03, 09:22 AM
While the Shadowcaster is generally considered one of the weaker caster type classes, if you are the only "arcane" one in the party, that offsets it some, at least if you don't have a divine caster at the level of Druids or Clerics in the party.

If you want to consider something else, you could try going for Warlock or Dragonfire Adept. That is the only advice I can give though, I haven't really looked into the Shadowcaster as I thought it was the least likeable magic system in Tome of Magic, and least original.

Gametime
2010-07-03, 11:32 AM
I can't offer any advice on specifics, but you should check out the fix posted by Ari Marmell (the author of the shadowcasting section) online. Searching "Ari Marmell shadowcaster fix" should turn up some results, and the tweaks he suggests do a lot to improve the shadowcaster's versatility and longevity.

gbprime
2010-07-03, 12:13 PM
The best thing you can do with Shadowcaster is to take 1 level of wizard with Precocious Apprentice and then take the Noctomancer PrC. The end result is Shadowcaster 19 / Wizard 11, which allows you to focus on mysteries while giving you the wizard magic for utility and extra battery life.

Kaiyanwang
2010-07-03, 12:26 PM
OP: Maybe you already signed some of them in the build, I'm AFB and I can't check..

Do you know that there are more mysteries in the cityscape web enhancement, downloadable for free from the wotc forum?

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Additionally, a player of mine played a shadowcaster. These are feats he loved:

Enlarge Mistery, Extend Mistery, Line of Shadow, Maximize Mistery, Quicken Mistery, Shadow Cast.

Used with these mysteries:

1)Carpet of Shadow, Bend Perspective
2) Black Fire, Piercing Sight
3) Clinging Darkness, Killing Shadow
4)Shadow Vision, Aura of Shade
5)Dark Air or Water, Curtain of Shadows
6)Shadow Storm, Unveil
7)Prison of Night, Life Fades (Greater)

Of course, it depends from the campaign - and other things, this shadowcaster was Gestaletd with a Shugenja (yes, you can gestalt without powergame). But take a look, maybe you find some interesting, useful mistery.

Danin
2010-07-03, 01:32 PM
Carpet of Shadows is fantastic. Absolutely fantastic.

Flicker, while a fantastic spell, requires too much of an investment spell wise to get traditionally, but if you can get an item to cast it on yourself I recommend it highly.

Levels 1 -4 you are more or less useless beyond using a crossbow. I really advocate knowledge devotion (complete champion) for an extra source of damage. Levels 5 and 6 you'll still lag behind, but start to be more enjoyable. Level 7 is a major power break seeing as you essentially double your spells per day. If you're starting a level 1 you have a long road ahead of you as the rest of the party gets a sore back from carrying you so much.

gorfnab
2010-07-03, 02:29 PM
The best thing you can do with Shadowcaster is to take 1 level of wizard with Precocious Apprentice and then take the Noctomancer PrC. The end result is Shadowcaster 19 / Wizard 11, which allows you to focus on mysteries while giving you the wizard magic for utility and extra battery life.
You can do better than that actually because shadowcaster can work on either side of mystic theurge casting.
Wizard 1 (Precocious Apprentice)/ Shadowcaster 3/ Noctumancer 10/ Mystic Theurge 6 - gets you 9th level arcane spells and 9th level mysteries
A different route that I've taken with shadowcaster is to take rogue at first level and the feat Craven from Champions of Ruin. The extra sneak attack damage is great for Arrow of Dusk and Umbral Touch. Umbral Touch is just awesome since it is untyped damage and is great with the Reach Mystery feat.
Whisper Gnome from Races of Stone is a decent race for shadowcaster. Take the feat Magic in the Blood from Players Guide to Faerun for more versatility at lower levels. This also combos nicely with a level of rogue and the Silencing Strike feat from Races of Stone.

Beelzebub1111
2010-07-03, 06:17 PM
Thanks for the tips, but I think that I want to stick with straight shadowcaster. My DM isn't very receptive to builds like those described...The ones that break the concept of the class.

gorfnab
2010-07-04, 12:13 AM
Here are some nice homebrew options for shadowcaster, if your DM will allow it.
Descent of Shadows (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74519)

Beelzebub1111
2010-07-04, 12:15 AM
Here are some nice homebrew options for shadowcaster, if your DM will allow it.
Descent of Shadows (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74519)

I doubt it. He's not big on homebrew stuff.

Zaq
2010-07-04, 12:20 AM
What level are you? If you're below 10 or so, you'll really want something to extend your longevity. It's very easy to run out of useful juice on a Shadowcaster (this, more than anything, is their biggest weakness). The PrC Master of Shadow is a decent work-around (you lose a single caster level, but in exchange you get a pet Shadow Elemental to boss around, who can do the heavy lifting when you don't want to burn a mystery), or asking your GM to let you qualify for reserve feats (RAW you don't qualify, but honestly, it would break absolutely nothing for you to have them, and you'd likely have more fun at the table).

At higher levels, you can buy wands and staves of mysteries. Do so.

wizuriel
2010-07-04, 09:15 AM
Yeah definitely use the fixes suggested by the author. Complete a set then for a bonus feat and pickup a dark familiar, then get improved familiar to have a dark air elemental (it is an amazing scout).

favored mystery is an amazing feat. It makes a mystery easier to cast (from spell to spell like to supernatural). The key thing with shadowcasters is the amount they cast the spell depends on what type of spell it is.

metashadow feats are interesting. While they are only once per day there are no cons to them. Can quicken a 9th level mystery.