Heart of Winter

[ILM]

I'm looking for ways to drop the temperature into sub-sub-sub-freezing numbers with minimal investment, and have that area constantly follow a character.

According to the tables in Frostburn, there 9 temperature bands; the highest is 140°F or more, the lowest is -50°F. I've found 3 relevant spells so far:
- Cold Snap (SpC) drops the temperature by 5°F/CL in a 1-mile radius centered on you. A very nice start, but it can only drop the temperature by 50°F max and can't take it lower than -20°F. Lasts 2d4 hours, so enough to last you a day with the right metamagic and maybe one recast.
- Control Temperature (Frostburn) drops the temperature by one band per 5 caster levels; unfortunately I find myself having trouble jacking up my caster level enough. 25 is tough but almost doable (arcane caster here, so no ankh/karma), and 30 is totally out of reach without getting a really specific build going. So let's assume 4 bands.
- Frostfell (Frostburn) is totally awesome and drops the temperature by another 3 bands, and stacks with itself. Unfortunately, it doesn't follow you around. SADFACE.

The two first spells cast in the morning allow me to walk around with a zone of cold that'll instantly drop the temperature from arbitrarily high to a chilly 10°F, give or take. I guess in a pinch I can drop a Frostfell, but I'd really like to be able to put up an ongoing effect in the morning and be done with it. I need to shave off either 3 temperature bands of 60°F. I have next to no wiggle room as far as levels or feats go, but I do have upwards of 300,000 gp left.

Any ideas?

[Fouredged Sword]

maybe a custom item of continuous control tempeture to start off with. A custom item of continuous frostfell could also be used to drag the area effect around with you.

Put them in a bag of holding when you don't want to use them.

[ILM]

How would a custom item of continuous Frostfell work, since you have to specify upon casting which 10-ft squares are affected?

Also, a custom item of Control Temperature with a very high CL would be both difficult to procure and prohibitively expensive.

[Eurus]

It's not going to be 140 degrees Fahrenheit very often, keep in mind. You can probably ignore a few of the highest temp bands.

[Fouredged Sword]

Then maybe a custom item of coldsnap shouldn't be too expensive. Something to start you off and get you in the right direction.

If you can cast a CL20 control tempeture, you just need a level 3 crafting mage to help you make it. Remember one spellcaster can supply the spell and caster level needed for another spellcaster to craft an item.

[Urpriest]

Once you've layered on Cold Snap and/or Control Temperature, you've made the climate of the region you're in temporarily Winter-like, which should be enough to use the Frigid Cold option from Control Weather (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/controlWeather.htm). There isn't a definition of Frigid Cold in the DMG, but if we assume it refers to the worst category that means temperature below -20.

[hamishspence]

For temperatures below -50 F there isn't much in the way of detail.

Some Outer Planes do cold damage (3d10 cold damage per round for Caina, or 3d12 cold damage per round for Auril's home, in Player's Guide to Faerun).

So a case could be made that these effects could be gained by dropping temperatures low enough.

[Urpriest]

Not quite what you're looking for, but a Major Iceheart will cast Fimbulwinter 1/day at sunset automatically if you don't use it earlier.

Incidentally, I've been thinking about building a character along a similar vein as a divine caster, maybe a Winterhaunt of Iborighu. Currently I can't decide between Cleric, Druid, Spirit Shaman, and Archivist. Cleric gets all the right class skills and has stat synergy, but doesn't get quite a few of the nicer frostfell-themed spells. Druid loses a lot by PrCing and loses it's SAD with the Cha-stuff in Winterhaunt, plus it feels like overkill. Spirit Shaman has a hard time getting in without flaws, and has native MAD, but at least the Cha focus overlaps with Winterhaunt. I feel like the limits on spells retrieved would be annoying though. Archivist can get almost all of the cool frost-themed spells and gets the requisite skills easily, but gets increasingly MAD and feels like an odd thematic fit.

Thoughts?

[Greenish]

Incidentally, I've been thinking about building a character along a similar vein as a divine caster, maybe a Winterhaunt of Iborighu.You could go druid with the UA variants to get rid of Wildshape and Animal Companion.

[ILM]

Not quite what you're looking for, but a Major Iceheart will cast Fimbulwinter 1/day at sunset automatically if you don't use it earlier.
Are you kidding? It's exactly what I'm looking for. I don't think anyone sane could argue that the weather's any higher than the cold band in a Fimbulwinter, which means my above two-spell combo is more than enough to drop the local freeze into the near absolute-zero range (or more relevantly, below -50°F).


Incidentally, I've been thinking about building a character along a similar vein as a divine caster, maybe a Winterhaunt of Iborighu. Currently I can't decide between Cleric, Druid, Spirit Shaman, and Archivist. Cleric gets all the right class skills and has stat synergy, but doesn't get quite a few of the nicer frostfell-themed spells. Druid loses a lot by PrCing and loses it's SAD with the Cha-stuff in Winterhaunt, plus it feels like overkill. Spirit Shaman has a hard time getting in without flaws, and has native MAD, but at least the Cha focus overlaps with Winterhaunt. I feel like the limits on spells retrieved would be annoying though. Archivist can get almost all of the cool frost-themed spells and gets the requisite skills easily, but gets increasingly MAD and feels like an odd thematic fit.

Thoughts?
Can't help you all that much here since I don't really like divine casters in general, and I totally cheated out with my (arcane) build, using a homebrew Warmage and the Academy Sorcerer from Dragonlance AoM, which is technically third-party (or at least second-party).

Still, I think the best fit for a divine caster is Druid. You lose the usual stuff by PrCing but you've got all the right spells and honestly there's not much Cha-based stuff in there. Winterhaunt seems more of a blaster anyway, with its +xd6 to cold damage and low BAB. IT's not like you're very likely to need that Str and Dex.

On the other hand, I should point out that 1st level divine spells is a 1 level dip (or less - Southern Magician is such a great feat) and the PrC advances any casting, not just divine. You can still pull off a Sorc-based Winterhaunt.