Optimize a Blaster with Seven Spare Feats?

[Lonely Tylenol]

Hello everyone!

I'm currently playing a Wizard in a 3.5 game with a group of friends from the college. It's a pretty huge party (the core of the party is a Fighter, Scout, Cleric, Druid, Bardbarian and myself, but there are cameo appearances from other players from time to time), and it's fairly sandbox-ish due to most of the people (myself included) being new, so I've wound up fitting comfortably into the role of blaster caster. It was kind of an unexpected shift (I originally wanted to be something akin to a Planeswalker, but DM restrictions on the world forbid long-range teleportation and most planar travel), but I'm okay with it, because a fire-themed blaster comes with tons of flavor (which is cooked to perfection).

Anyway, I've decided on Wizard 5/Incantatrix 10/Archmage 5. I just hit level 5, so I have my first metamagic feat at the ready. I want to quasi-optimize my feat progression from here, but am not sure what to do!

Currently I have:
Level 1 - Iron Will (Incantatar prereq)
Level 1 (Human bonus) - Skill Focus (Spellcraft) (Archmage prereq)
Level 3 - Fiery Burst (laugh all you want; a reserve feat isn't huge at level 15, but when dungeons are 25 rooms long at level 3 and you would normally fizzle out after 3 or 4, this is a lifesaver)
Level 5 (Metamagic bonus) - ???
Level 6 - ???
Level 6 (Metamagic bonus) - ???
Level 9 - Spell Focus (Conjuration)
Level 9 (Metamagic bonus) - ???
Level 12 - Spell Focus (Evocation)
Level 12 (Metamagic bonus) - ???
Level 15 - Arcane Thesis (???)
Level 15 (Metamagic bonus) - ???
Level 18 - ???

I will be taking Arcane Reach at level 16.

The spells that I am focusing on for the purposes of blasting are Scorching Ray, Lesser Orb of [Element] (the DM ruled early that by taking one Lesser Orb, I have all of them available to me), Orb of Cold, Cone of Cold, Arc Lightning, Polar Ray, and Enervation (if I don't drop Necromancy). One of these (most likely Orb of Cold or Polar Ray) will be Arcane Thesis'd. I'd like feats that apply to as many of these as possible without being too narrow.

The spells that I am focusing on for the purposes of buffing are Haste, Heroism (or Greater), Mage Armor (Greater), Shield, Bull's Strength/Cat's Grace, etc. Debuffs are Slow, Ray of Stupidity, Ray of Dizziness, Ray of Exhaustion and Enervation (I'm not specialized, but when I do, I will be dropping Enchantment, Necromancy or both; however, because of the wording of the Incantatar 1 specialization, I can still cast any spells I grab before choosing forbidden schools, so I can use anything but Enervation even if I declare them as forbidden schools).

I was thinking of using the following metamagic feats:

Level 5 - Fiery Spell
Level 6 - Blistering Spell/Searing Spell, Energy Substitution
Level 9 - Energy Admixture
Level 12 - Maximize Spell
Level 15 - Chain Spell OR Split Ray
Level 18 - Quicken Spell

The reason for Fiery and Blistering/Searing is that, with Incantatrix, these become +0 feats--and with Energy Substitution and, say, Maximize, I can have maximized damage with bonus damage (or a guarantee of damage) for a net +1, meaning I can prepare my low-level slots to do a high base damage against the unwashed masses and mix a few good blasts in with the buffs and debuffs. I'm still uncertain about them, though.

Gunning for an Empower rod.

With only six or seven spare feats, how would you optimize a blaster without making it a TOTAL one-trick pony?

Alternately, I could grab Reach Spell as opposed to Spell Focus and just skip Archmage, which would free up two more metamagic spots (the second Spell Focus and the metamagic feat I would get for progressing in something else with bonus feats, or even just Wizard), but I quite like Archmage... Anyway. Thoughts?

[Lonely Tylenol]

Mini-bump.

Will somebody help me if I say "pretty pretty please"?

[Hida Reju]

Have you looked up "the Mailman"?

It pretty much maxes your idea out.

[Dralnu]

Your idea is pretty much maxed out for a wizard. Slap Arcane Thesis on an Orb spell, an AOE spell, and whatever else after. Go crazy with as many metmagic feats you can muster, which you did. I think you're mixing Ocular Spell or whatever it is from LoM, that turns your spells into eyebeam rays pewpew so you can then do split ray shenanigans for double damage.

Watch as you deal leaps and bounds more damage than anyone else in the party while still retaining the ability to defeat any obstacle the DM throws at you and snap his campaign in half at your whim. Okay, maybe a charge build will keep up with you, against things his singular tactic actually works against.

If you want to take it a step further then you'd need to be sorcerer for Wings of Flurry and some other silly uncapped damage spell that I don't remember.

[Lonely Tylenol]

Have you looked up "the Mailman"?

It pretty much maxes your idea out.

I actually hadn't heard of the Mailman build.

Checked it out, though. A lot of it doesn't apply to me, unfortunately (Force of Personality is Sorceror-specific, Enlarge Spell won't help much since most battles are in small dungeon rooms, and obviously anything CHA-based or Sorceror-based doesn't apply to me), but it does raise a question I've been meaning to ask: Practical Metamagic or Arcane Thesis? On one hand, Arcane Thesis can break any single spell, but on the other, Practical Metamagic can make using things like Maximize better for a large number of spells (which can mean level 2 Maximized Lesser Orbs, in a pinch).


Your idea is pretty much maxed out for a wizard. Slap Arcane Thesis on an Orb spell, an AOE spell, and whatever else after. Go crazy with as many metmagic feats you can muster, which you did. I think you're mixing Ocular Spell or whatever it is from LoM, that turns your spells into eyebeam rays pewpew so you can then do split ray shenanigans for double damage.

Watch as you deal leaps and bounds more damage than anyone else in the party while still retaining the ability to defeat any obstacle the DM throws at you and snap his campaign in half at your whim. Okay, maybe a charge build will keep up with you, against things his singular tactic actually works against.

If you want to take it a step further then you'd need to be sorcerer for Wings of Flurry and some other silly uncapped damage spell that I don't remember.

Ocular Ray looks really interesting, particularly because it means I can Split Ray Orb of Cold and the like; I guess it's contingent on whether or not I go to Chain Spell for buffing and Orb abuse or not.

As far as uncapped damage: Polar Ray caps at level 25 (or 22 with Thesis and Fiery Burst), which is as closed to energy typed (for Admixture) uncapped damage as you can really get, since I won't reach the cap until epic levels. I'm still not sure if I want to use Polar Ray, though.

I'll have to look at Ocular Spell... And also, would it be good of me to replace Blistering/Searing with Empower, since it's the same metamagic cost for non-Thesis'd spells, and opt for a Blistering or Searing rod for emergency purposes?

[JohnDaBarr]

Check the Spellwarp Sniper class from Complete Scoundrel (you only need 4 lvl of him so you can use Orb of ..... spell)

1Rogue/5Wiz/4Spellwarp dude and rest Incantatrix (if you like to do ridiculous amount of dmg or need more feats XD) or Unseen Seer (you get better HD and more skill points + extra spell choice)

so orb of something+spellwarp into ray+Arcane thesis+split ray+Energy Substitution+etc= on lvl 10 (caster lvl 9) you make 22d6 dmg no save no SR just need to hit touch AC witch is easy if you have a descent dex.

later that goes on max 30d6 you can maximize, empower, twin and quicken

soo we are talking about something that can instantly kill everything you come across

[ericgrau]

A rod of empower isn't the worst deal in the world, but the thing with empower is you want to apply it to your strongest spells and go boom as hard as you can. Especially if playing a wizard blaster. If you want to go all day and easily switch back and forth between a fixed set of spells, without losing them, which you can power adjust on the fly, then go sorcerer. By the time you spend half your money on a lesser rod of empower you'll be 2 levels away from needing a normal rod. By the time you can afford that it'll already be obsolete. I'd make your first "???" feat empower spell. Maximize can wait until incantatrix 8 when you can apply both empower and maximize. Changing energy types can wait until at least level 7, if not 9 or later. Outside of elementals and baby dragons or the rare high CR BBEG there aren't many things resistant until then.

I thought incantatrix can't reduce a feat below +1. Unless you're using some kind of liberal interpretation to take that to mean +1 total from multiple feats?

Your conjuration blasties don't have saves, so I wouldn't bother with spell focus on them.



The spells that I am focusing on for the purposes of buffing are Haste, Heroism (or Greater), Mage Armor (Greater), Shield, Bull's Strength/Cat's Grace, etc. Debuffs are Slow, Ray of Stupidity, Ray of Dizziness, Ray of Exhaustion and Enervation (I'm not specialized, but when I do, I will be dropping Enchantment, Necromancy or both; however, because of the wording of the Incantatar 1 specialization, I can still cast any spells I grab before choosing forbidden schools, so I can use anything but Enervation even if I declare them as forbidden schools).
Most spells listed are pretty good. Bull's strength / cat's grace are pretty lousy except in very long fights for the damage to add up. Ray of exhaustion only hits a single target and he gets a save, meaning half the time he's fatigued. Even exhaustion isn't so hot; an empowered ray of enfeeblement for a no-save big strength penalty is usually better. I prefer heroism over the greater version b/c it lasts longer and can be cast before a fight. Just 1 or 2 copies of greater heroism might be nice in case you get a pre-combat buffing round though.

I assume leaving fireball off the blasty list was an error? 90% of the time it'll deal the most damage and hit the most targets; 95% in your case thanks to energy substitution. The other 5% of the time you cast something else.

[myancey]

Blasters are already uber powerful in terms of actual damage. What gives you the edge is the ability to go first and hit the bad guys while they're flatfooted. Buff up your initiative. With items/feats, you can legitimately increase your initiative modifier to +28 by level 10.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

First of all, Iron Will should never cost you a feat. If you started higher than 1st level, say your character visited the Otyugh Hole detailed in Complete Scoundrel, and pay 3,000 gp, and you can get Iron Will without wasting a feat on it.

Consider using the Martial Wizard (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#wizard), get Improved Initiative in place of Scribe Scroll, and take one of the Complete Champion ACFs instead of the Wizard 5 bonus feat. Spontaneous Divination could be useful, but the Domain Power can be just amazing. Good domain choices include Travel, Celerity, Inquisition, Time, Planning, Fate, Pride, and I'm sure there are some that I've missed. Even if you don't go Martial Wizard, you can get Improved Initiative via the Time domain in place of your Wizard 5 bonus feat.

Are you a specialist Wizard, or a generalist? What race are you using? Ideally you should use Grey Elf, and use the Elf Wizard substitution levels in Races of the Wild. That gets you extra spells known at each level, an extra spell slot of your highest level available, and at Wizard 3 you double the benefit of your familiar. You should get a Hummingbird familiar detailed in Dragon magazine issue 323, which gives you +4 initiative and has the stats of a Thrush (DMG). That Elf Wizard 3 substitution level doubles that bonus to +8 initiative.

That's +12 initiative already without taking Dex into consideration. You can cast Nerveskitter at the start of combat to get another +5 initiative, you could only prepare it once and get 4-6 1st level Pearls of Power, depending on how many encounters you expect each day. Assuming Dex 14, +2 for Elf, that's a +20 initiative without really making any sacrifices. Take the Aggressive trait (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterTraits.htm#aggressive) for another +2 initiative. You could spend two more feats on Blooded and Quick Reconnoiter for another +4 initiative, though I wouldn't recommend those.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

Searing Spell is your most important feat, bar none. If you're going Incantatrix, Ocular Spell has its uses, too.

Step 0: Arcane thesis your favorite fire spell, for example Orb of Fire.
Step 0a: Pump your spellcraft check to the high heavens.
Step 1: Cast Ocular Searing Orb of Fire.
Step 2: Use Metamagic Effect to add a damage-increasing metamagic feat to your Ocular Searing Orb of Fire, such as Empower Spell, Maximize Spell, and even Split Ray, since ocular spells are rays.
Step 3: Repeat step 2 with different metamagic feats until you can no longer succeed on the spellcraft check by taking 10.
Step 4: Repeat steps 1-3 for your other eye.
Step 5: Find BBEG
Step 6: Remove BBEG
Step 7: ...
Step 8: Profit!

[Lonely Tylenol]

So, I hadn't seen that this thread was posted in again until today. My bad.


Check the Spellwarp Sniper class from Complete Scoundrel (you only need 4 lvl of him so you can use Orb of ..... spell)

1Rogue/5Wiz/4Spellwarp dude and rest Incantatrix (if you like to do ridiculous amount of dmg or need more feats XD) or Unseen Seer (you get better HD and more skill points + extra spell choice)

so orb of something+spellwarp into ray+Arcane thesis+split ray+Energy Substitution+etc= on lvl 10 (caster lvl 9) you make 22d6 dmg no save no SR just need to hit touch AC witch is easy if you have a descent dex.

later that goes on max 30d6 you can maximize, empower, twin and quicken

I don't have Complete Scoundrel, so maybe I'm missing something on Spellwarp Sniper, but... Waiting until 20 for the big payoff on Incantatrix doesn't really seem like a good idea, especially because level 20 isn't going to come around until the very, very end.


soo we are talking about something that can instantly kill everything you come across

I get that anyway, though...


A rod of empower isn't the worst deal in the world, but the thing with empower is you want to apply it to your strongest spells and go boom as hard as you can. Especially if playing a wizard blaster. If you want to go all day and easily switch back and forth between a fixed set of spells, without losing them, which you can power adjust on the fly, then go sorcerer. By the time you spend half your money on a lesser rod of empower you'll be 2 levels away from needing a normal rod. By the time you can afford that it'll already be obsolete. I'd make your first "???" feat empower spell. Maximize can wait until incantatrix 8 when you can apply both empower and maximize. Changing energy types can wait until at least level 7, if not 9 or later. Outside of elementals and baby dragons or the rare high CR BBEG there aren't many things resistant until then.

Yeah, I've replaced Blistering Spell with Empower Spell, deciding that +2/spell level doesn't hold a candle to spell-and-a-half for the same cost on most spells, even with the debuff it gives. I'll skip Blistering entirely and just get a Searing rod, for those situations where I run into Fire-immune things. I will be learning Empower at level 6 along with Energy Substitution (Fire), so I can have Empowered Fire-Substituted Fiery Orbs of Cold almost as soon as I can get them (I've decided not to be stupid about this and spend my level 9 feat on Arcane Thesis as opposed to level 9). I was going to get Admixture at level 9, but I've decided to get Maximize instead, so I can use fifth-level spell slots on Maximized Fire-Substituted Fiery Orbs of Cold along with fourth-level spells slots on Empowered Fire-Substituted Fiery Orbs of Cold.


I thought incantatrix can't reduce a feat below +1. Unless you're using some kind of liberal interpretation to take that to mean +1 total from multiple feats?

No, you're right. I was thinking about Arcane Thesis on the free Metamagic applications. Sometimes (often, in fact) I simply type faster than I think.


Your conjuration blasties don't have saves, so I wouldn't bother with spell focus on them.

Actually, they have saves to avoid the debuffs (just not the damage), but it's not really contingent on anything

That said, what would you use Spell Focus on? I more or less just want it for the Archmage prerequisite, since I don't really use any spells that hinge on a save (there's actually an Illusionist in the party for that, who we thought was going gish but isn't, and is now, once again, an Illusionist).


Most spells listed are pretty good. Bull's strength / cat's grace are pretty lousy except in very long fights for the damage to add up. Ray of exhaustion only hits a single target and he gets a save, meaning half the time he's fatigued. Even exhaustion isn't so hot; an empowered ray of enfeeblement for a no-save big strength penalty is usually better. I prefer heroism over the greater version b/c it lasts longer and can be cast before a fight. Just 1 or 2 copies of greater heroism might be nice in case you get a pre-combat buffing round though.

My DM loves big boss fights, so Bull's Strength/Cat's Grace will probably get some mileage in the end. I already have Cat's Grace, so no sense worrying about that one now, at least.

Ray of Exhaustion can go, I suppose; it's just that Ray Enfeeblement can't reduce a Strength or Dexterity score below zero, but I imagine exhaustion can (which is a boon for both creatures that aren't strong, due to Ray of Enfeeblement, and creatures that aren't dextrous, due to the Illusionist's Phantasmal Assailants). If I'm wrong, it's useless to me.


I assume leaving fireball off the blasty list was an error? 90% of the time it'll deal the most damage and hit the most targets; 95% in your case thanks to energy substitution. The other 5% of the time you cast something else.

Since our party almost always fights in confined spaces, Fireball is just as likely (if not more likely) to deal more damage to any of the three melee characters (four if you count the Druid's animal companion) that tend toward melee than the enemies I'm fighting. Targeted spells are always going to be better in the environment I'm fighting in, at least until I get the Sculpt ability from Archmage or burn a feat on it.


Blasters are already uber powerful in terms of actual damage. What gives you the edge is the ability to go first and hit the bad guys while they're flatfooted. Buff up your initiative. With items/feats, you can legitimately increase your initiative modifier to +28 by level 10.

I will be tending toward items for that, but probably not feats (as burning a feat on Improved Initiative isn't quite as effective as free Metamagic, so I will always tend toward free Metamagic if possible).

What items would you suggest?


First of all, Iron Will should never cost you a feat. If you started higher than 1st level, say your character visited the Otyugh Hole detailed in Complete Scoundrel, and pay 3,000 gp, and you can get Iron Will without wasting a feat on it.

I started at level 1. We're level 5 now, and we've yet to see 3,000 GP, total. What's more, this is a world invented by my DM, not a typical campaign setting--which means that he'd need a reason for an Otyugh Hole to be in his world, and available to me by the next level, beyond "I want to ret-con my character to replace his level 1 Iron Will feat with something more metagame-y".


Consider using the Martial Wizard (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#wizard), get Improved Initiative in place of Scribe Scroll, and take one of the Complete Champion ACFs instead of the Wizard 5 bonus feat. Spontaneous Divination could be useful, but the Domain Power can be just amazing. Good domain choices include Travel, Celerity, Inquisition, Time, Planning, Fate, Pride, and I'm sure there are some that I've missed. Even if you don't go Martial Wizard, you can get Improved Initiative via the Time domain in place of your Wizard 5 bonus feat.

Martial Wizard sounds like something I would have loved to have--if I had known about it at level 1.


Are you a specialist Wizard, or a generalist? What race are you using? Ideally you should use Grey Elf, and use the Elf Wizard substitution levels in Races of the Wild. That gets you extra spells known at each level, an extra spell slot of your highest level available, and at Wizard 3 you double the benefit of your familiar. You should get a Hummingbird familiar detailed in Dragon magazine issue 323, which gives you +4 initiative and has the stats of a Thrush (DMG). That Elf Wizard 3 substitution level doubles that bonus to +8 initiative.

I'm human, generalist, and five levels into the campaign, which thus far rules out specializing, race changes, and class variants.


That's +12 initiative already without taking Dex into consideration. You can cast Nerveskitter at the start of combat to get another +5 initiative, you could only prepare it once and get 4-6 1st level Pearls of Power, depending on how many encounters you expect each day. Assuming Dex 14, +2 for Elf, that's a +20 initiative without really making any sacrifices. Take the Aggressive trait (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterTraits.htm#aggressive) for another +2 initiative. You could spend two more feats on Blooded and Quick Reconnoiter for another +4 initiative, though I wouldn't recommend those.

Unfortunately, I can't use much of this because too many things are set in stone, but they're things I will take into consideration later.