Advise on spells - Off limits for my DM

[Thespianus]

I need to ask a few questions concerning spell selection for an Arcane Rogue.

You will be stunned at the sad levels of optimization. You will be horrified and roll your eyes, and you will mock me. That is to be expected. ;)

However, I need some spell advice.

My build is based upon a few poorly thought out ideas: I thought divination spells were cool, and the Unseen Seer PrC is a cool PrC for Diviners, so I became a Focused Specialist Diviner after taking 3 levels of Rogue and 1 level of Fighter.

*pause for snickering and giggles*

So, I just turned level 10, and my character is Rogue 3/Fighter 1/Focused Diviner 2/Unseen Seer 4 with a BAB of +7/+2 (no fractional BABs are used)

The Good:
- Dex of 20 (Base 18 + Item 2) w. Weapon Finesse and TWF (w. ITWF for free)
- Int of 18 (Base 16 + Item 2)
- With Hunter's Eye and Craven, I can deliver decent (+7D6+10) Sneak Attack damage against meatpuppet types of monsters.

The Weird:
- Extend Spell and Arcane Thesis(Hunter's Eye) makes my Hunter's Eye last longer for "free". Very suboptimal use of two feats, but sometimes fun.
- Banned Necromancy and Enchantment schools. ( I know Evocation < Necromancy)


The Bad:
- Focused Diviner leaves me with a pretty lousy selection of spells.
Level 1: 3 "normal" spells, 3 divination spells
Level 2: 3 "normal" spells, 3 divination spells
Level 3: 2 "normal" spells, 3 divination spells.

This is really suboptimal. While I can have some fun with Hunter's Eye at times, and Ferocity of Sanguine Rage is the best combat oriented lvl 3 spell I've found, I am severely lacking in the "normal" spell school department.

The only "normal" 3rd level spell I have at the moment (haven't picked my new spells this level) is Fly, which is really good, ofcourse.

But I need help picking out 2 new spells this level.

As you can imagine, I'm not the primary caster, so our Haste needs are taken care of by a decent Sorcerer/Heartwarder. However, I'd really like to have some kind of party boosting spell to bring to the table as well. Any suggestions?

I will also grab either Benign Transposition(lvl 1) or Baleful Transposition(lvl 2), which will help, but I'm at a loss when it comes to 3rd level spells.

Before gaining the new level, I was stuck in Evard's Black Tentacles for almost the entire BBEG-fight, and that left me very disappointed in my lack of options when Grappled like that. It made me think of Benign or Baleful Transposition.

I also want to buy Anklets of Translocation, but we're running in a world where the Magic Marts are few and far between, at least for the time being.

So, there you have it, Playgrounders. Please help me distangle myself from this mess.

Suggestions of "retrain" or "Play an Unarmed Swordsage" will be ignored. ;)

[Aricandor]

Out of core it's hard to go wrong with Displacement or Major Image, both of which are personal favourites of mine. The latter is always subject to the whims of vindictive GMs though, so if we're to be really cold and calculating it may not always be a great option, no matter how creative and clever you are.
Invisibility Sphere can also be fun, but is significantly more narrow, especially if the rest of your party is noisy.
Protection from Energy is also a bit niche, but when it comes in useful it's great.
Tongues and Clairaudience/Clairvoyance are both occasionally handy as well if you need a divination spell.

Lesser Telepathic Bond and Unluck are from the Spell Compendium and are both rather nifty utilitarian effects and of the Divination school, both of which I'm also quite fond if. :smallsmile:
In there can also be found Greater Mage Armor and Spiderskin, both being fairly decent armor buffs until magic items start covering up, but I very much prefer Displacement over either both in the short and long run.

[Lateral]

Nothing wrong with a build like this unless the party's at a high optimization level, and even then you're just digging your own grave. Not really a problem. :smallconfused:

On topic, Dispel Magic is useful, as is Major Image. Shrink Item is nothing if not awesome. Displacement is a nice defensive spell.

[Thespianus]

Not a bad idea with the Major Image spell. One thing I forgot to mention is that my character has a background in the theater world, and has pretty high ranks in Perform(Acting). That ought to help in keeping the Major Image convincing enough to fool an observer. I haven't used illusions before in the game, so I would love advice on how to make that effective. Thanks, both of you! :)

I'm already using Mirror Image to make hitting me more difficult, so Displacement might not be optimal. I'll look into Unluck, but I think it will be hard for me to push the DC of the Will save high enough to make it a spell to lean against.

When it comes to Dispelling, our Cleric has a +4 on the check from a Domain power, and she's a proper full caster, so she does it a lot better than I ever could. Illusion(Figment) spells seem to be just right for my guy. ;)

[Thespianus]

Major Image.... oooorrr Legion of Sentinels.

Major Image seems more versatile, but.. Legion of Sentinels just seem FUN! :)

A little less varied, perhaps, and it would have been awesome to be able to move the Legion around the battlefield, but..well, it seems very cool, indeed. :smallsmile:

Does anyone have any experience with the spell Legion of Sentinels (PHBII) ?

[Keld Denar]

Legion of Sentinals is the best. It is seriously...AMAZING. Last time I cast it, my DM was like "...wtf? Oh...wtf? Oh...wtf? Oh...wtf? Thats dumb!" Combine it with something that further restricts mobility like a Solid Fog or Entangle or Web for maximum hillarity.

[Thespianus]

Legion of Sentinals is the best. It is seriously...AMAZING. Last time I cast it, my DM was like "...wtf? Oh...wtf? Oh...wtf? Oh...wtf? Thats dumb!" Combine it with something that further restricts mobility like a Solid Fog or Entangle or Web for maximum hillarity.

Haha, this is awesome. The main caster of my party will be picking up Evard's Black Tentacles for his next Sorcerer spell. Seems like those two should work great together. ;)

EDIT: Well, not so great, maybe. Being in a grapple doesn't provoke AoO, right? I had some kind of vision of a small Legion of Sentinels continuously chopping up the Grappled BBEG in the field of tentacles. ;)

Is there any easy way to "force" an enemy to provoke an attack of opportunity? I guess Bull Rushing him inside the Legion would do the trick...