Need a Blaster and Balance Advice.

[Seatbelt]

I'm running Expedition to Castle Ravenloft and using a fair amount of material from the Ravenloft campaign setting books and such. I need to make a blaster elf wizard for a new player without making a Mailman build. Ravenloft is a challenging module and I'd like to keep it that so I'd like to avoid overpowered builds.

Party Details:

I'm going to be running Expedition to Castle Ravenloft for three players this Tuesday. One of them is playing a Cleric, he actually knows how to make a good character - knows why a monk is bad, why losing caster levels is terrible, and why a fighter sucks. He's also the most experienced of my players and is making his character to help keep the group alive.

The next thinks he has some system mastery but is missing some of the big picture. Seems he has largely only played Epic, thinks True Necromancer is an awesome necromancer class, and thinks among other things that fighter bonus feats are a pretty good class feature and that 50 AC at level 15 is extremely high (or that AC is worth investing in at that point). He was toying with building a Scout-Dervish to use his AC to "protect the party." Now he wants to make a Greatsword wielding fighter (still going in to Dervish I think). I have tried to steer him towards Warblade but we'll see how it goes.

The third player has played a little 4.0 but never 3.5. She wants to make an Elf Wizard focusing on blasting. She says she has "done battle field control, and done party buffing, now I want to blast." She's coming over early on Tuesday before the game so I can help her make her character. But I've never made a blaster wizard before. In truth I've only ever actually played two wizards ever - one was a Gish I played in one session and one was a summoner who didn't live to see level 7. So while I'm familiar with blaster wizards in theory (liek for example conjuration > evocation for blasting) I've never actually built one. I'd like to make her a character that is capable of contributing to the party and can nuke things without making a mail man type character. I suggested Sorcerer might be better for her and she seemed to consider the idea. So I think when she says wizard she just means "mage." I am therefore open to other suggestions for building a blasty-type character.

Thanks in advance. :)

[Flickerdart]

Ravenloft is fairly low level, where the standard blaster recourse of metamagic abuse or Hellfire doesn't hit its stride yet. Her best course of action is jacking up CL as high as possible - and for the sake of a new player, without using things that have limited uses per day. A 3rd level Human Evoker (or 6th level Evoker of another race, or also 3rd if using flaws) with Fiery Burst, Bloodline of Fire, Spellgifted (Evocation) trait, Energy Affinity (Fire) variant class feature, and Elemental Spellcasting adds +6 to her CL when casting Evocation (Fire) spells, meaning that her blasts are quite formidable and can deal with SR, without needing to make modifications to them. A Sorcerer can't use Energy Affinity, but they can use Draconic Power (trading out their familiar for Draconic Heritage, if I remember correctly), which costs them an extra feat but gives them better DCs for the trouble, and doesn't tie them down to Evocation - so if she goes Human, this is actually a better option. A pair of Arcanist's Gloves (MIC) will give another +2 to 1st level spells 2/day, ensuring that if she accidentally blows all of her high level slots, her low level blasts remain useful.

[Seatbelt]

Where can I find the traits and such you speak of? Which books?

[killem2]

Where can I find the traits and such you speak of? Which books?

Traits are in Unearthed Arcana. If there are more traits I'd love to see them too :)

My evoker has spellgifted from UA.

[ericgrau]

A focused blaster needs fireball. Orb of X are nice against foes with SR but fireball is your bread and butter as you do the most damage by hitting multiple targets in a large area at once. Wizard is probably better because damage is very level dependent unlike battlefield control. And for quicken. And because a sorcerer shouldn't put all her spells known into the same thing. Counter-intuitive as it may be, sorcerer is good if she actually wants a split focus with some known spells for blasting and some for whatever else. Or if she needs to last through several encounters per day.

Ways to change energy types is good, be it energy substitution or simply a backup spell (spell compendium may be good there). Excluding allies is good, whether it be shaping a blast or giving them energy protection buffs.

At higher levels you don't use higher level spells you add metmagic for maximum damage. E.g., empowered fireball for 5th level. The other damage spells are instead good for special situations, such as chain lightning for mass scattered foes or orb of X for SR, but in general you use fireball and more fireball whenever the enemy doesn't have something that stops it.

While she might not take feats and so on to focus on it, she shouldn't feel like she can't continue to use bread and butter spells like haste. And some battlefield control like the invulnerable evard's black tentacles combine well with blasting.

For 3rd-4th level before 3rd level spells come in try flaming sphere for good damage over time or spell compendium might have some good damage options, but the player's handbook doesn't have much for spell levels 1 and 2. The flammable web spell might be another good low level control-blasting combo. I mean magic missile is good for foes that are hard to hit but it's hardly something you want to do every round.

[killem2]

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19869246/Treantmonks_guide_to_Evocation_Spells:_Gods_tools


this is a decent guide, maybe not for advice over all for each spell, as I can't really comment, but it highlight spells for me to find.

[Flickerdart]

Where can I find the traits and such you speak of? Which books?
Spellgifted is UA and SRD: +1 CL with one school, -1CL with all others. Not that much of a problem for a blaster, whose other spells will probably not care about CL too much.
The others are from all over the place. Fiery Burst is CMage, Bloodline of Fire is PGtF/FRCS, Energy Affinity is also UA/SRD, Elemental Spellcasting is PlH, and Draconic Power is Complete Arcane. Most of them just give you +1 CL for a thing: Fiery Burst is to Fire spells, Energy Affinity is for an element, Bloodline of Fire is +2 to fire, Elemental Spellcasting is +1 to all elemental spells, Draconic Power is +1 to all and also +1 DC to spells from your heritage's type. Fiery Burst also gives her an at-will burst for a bit of damage, which is nice if she doesn't get to rest often.

[Shyftir]

You said they were familiar with 4e? I'd suggest at least one of the Reserve Feats from Complete Mage. This will give her an "at-will" as long as she keeps one high level spell ready. 4e mages throw magic every round all day long, this will keep that option on the table.

[Flickerdart]

Reserve feats are pretty mediocre though - it is extremely difficult to build a character that is based around using them. They are adjuncts to shore up existing abilities rather than centerpieces of a build.

That does remind me of an interesting idea though - a Spellwarp Sniper (or other class that combined spells with a source of bonus damage) might be a fun way of making this work.

[Seatbelt]

Spellwarp Sniper is a good option I had forgotten about

[Vortling]

If your player is looking for "class that can blast" rather than a wizard specifically you might want to check out the psion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/classes/psion.htm). It only takes a few powers to cover blasting (energy missile, energy current). Psionics has energy switching built into the powers themselves. After that you've got all the rest of your powers for anything else you might want to try. You'll want to look into the various metapsionic tricks with empower and psychic meditation. Even before that comes online the psion base powers blast well without a whole lot of optimization. Addtionally check out the anarchic initiate in complete psionic

[Lateral]

Agreed. Short of going Mailman, a Psion/Anarchic Initiate is probably the most efficient blaster out there.

[Leon]

" Now he wants to make a Greatsword wielding fighter (still going in to Dervish I think). I have tried to steer him towards Warblade but we'll see how it goes.


Let him play what he wants, if he enjoys it then all is good other wise let him change to a new PC if he so desires.

[Psyren]

If your player is looking for "class that can blast" rather than a wizard specifically you might want to check out the psion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/classes/psion.htm). It only takes a few powers to cover blasting (energy missile, energy current). Psionics has energy switching built into the powers themselves. After that you've got all the rest of your powers for anything else you might want to try. You'll want to look into the various metapsionic tricks with empower and psychic meditation. Even before that comes online the psion base powers blast well without a whole lot of optimization. Addtionally check out the anarchic initiate in complete psionic

Don't forget some crystal powers (for enemies with SR/immunity/resistance) and force powers (for incorporeals.) I recommend Swarm of Crystals (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/swarmofCrystals.htm) and Concussion Blast. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/concussionBlast.htm)

With your blasting needs taken care of, the rest of your powers can go to control, summoning, utility etc.

[Incanur]

A 3rd level Human Evoker (or 6th level Evoker of another race, or also 3rd if using flaws) with Fiery Burst, Bloodline of Fire, Spellgifted (Evocation) trait, Energy Affinity (Fire) variant class feature, and Elemental Spellcasting adds +6 to her CL when casting Evocation (Fire) spells, meaning that her blasts are quite formidable and can deal with SR, without needing to make modifications to them.

This would certainly get the job done, but this could be an example of excessive specialization. Spellgifted and Elemental Spellcasting seem rather expensive for what they do.

My favorite evoker build involves taking advantage of Metamagic School Focus, Arcane Thesis (Combust), and Ocular Spell, but that's more of a nova trick.

[Randomguy]

There's always warmage, for blaster in a can, but that's a bad class overall.

For an out of the box alternative, there's noctumancer. Shadowcasters are a terrible class (With awesome fluff) but if they often take killing shadows (d8 damage, cone attack, untyped damage, will half, no SR at higher levels, can't be counterspelled at higher levels, doesn't provoke attack of opportunity at higher levels) they can make good blasters.

The build would be: Sorcerer (or wizard, but sorcerer would mean higher DC's for both classes) 1/shadowcaster 3/noctumancer 10/mystic theurge 6.

You get in using precocious apprentice (which also gets you another spell known and another spell slot). Shadowcasters can explicitly qualify for mystic theurge (see page 117 of ToM).

That gets you 9th level mysteries and 8th level spells (9th if you use wizard).

Get the favoured mystery feat for killing shadows, which will be your bread and butter blasting spell, if it's not already a supernatural ability.
Get blasting spells that do what killing shadows can't, so maybe a damage over time spell like vortex of teeth, a few long ranged spells, fireball (in case you face trolls) and maybe another spell that targets reflex, scorching ray for a good single target spell and moonbow, since it's awesome.
Use your leftover spells on utility, buffs, debuffs and battlefield control.

Take killing shadows at least 3 times. You don't need versatility, you get that from your other casting class.

If you're a wizard, don't ban evocation. It has too many blasting spells. Ban enchantment and necromancy.

Get runestaffs for really good blasting spells if you're a wizard, or for spells you didn't have room for if you're a sorcerer, and if there are some mysteries you want to be able to cast, but didn't take.

If you want to go spellwarp sniper, then take a level of spellthief (It's probably the best way to get the sneak attack requirement for casters), the master spellthief feat and the split ray metamagic feat, which can be applied to area spells now. Then take the skillgish PrC of your choice.