[3.5]Havoc Mage

[Thurbane]

The Havoc Mage (MH) is a gish PrC that is, quite frankly, not very good. Medium BAB and 3/5 casting level increases is pretty underwhelming.

However, it's gimmick, Battlecast (Ex), is fairly unique. You can cast spells, up to a certain level, and attack as a full round action - these spells do not provoke an AoO, nor require a free hand for somatic components.

A havoc mage gains the ability to cast spells of a certain level or lower while making a weapon attack. He may take a full-round action to attack and cast a spell.

Ignoring the shortcomings of the class for a moment - is Battlecast any good? Is there any exploits a gish could use this with?

Cheers - T

[tyckspoon]

You have a chance to use your full-round action, and you are *not* Full Attacking. You need something pretty dang good to make that a decent option on a melee character.. which means the spell you're casting needs to be worth casting on its own, and if it's worth casting on its own it's probably a better choice to just cast it and have your Move action still available instead of locking yourself into a Full Round to get one extra attack... and then you're functioning as a primary spellcaster, not a gish, so why the heck are you taking Havoc Mage with its dropped spell levels?

If it were a full attack+ a spell, it'd be something; the prereqs are easy enough, and full-attack channeling is good enough to give a spell advancement or two if you're looking for a little lower-power gish (after all, it's basicallly the Duskblade.. only Havoc Mage's battlecast wouldn't be restricted to the fairly short list of Duskblade-channelable spells.) But with what it is, it's pretty crappy.

[Andion Isurand]

If you don't need to move, or are mounted....

It might be nice to combine casting a spell with using a defending weapon, fighting defensively (with full tumble synergy), Combat Expertise, Improved Combat Expertise, Allied Defense (to protect mount) and what else you might want to take.

[Thurbane]

Would it work with strikes from ToB?

[Demons_eye]

Would it work with strikes from ToB?

No because strikes are standard actions. This ability is a full round action.

[eggs]

I used it once in an AoO-focused gish. My thought was that if I could only get one attack in my turn... The build worked pretty well, but it wasn't the Havoc Mage that carried the weight.

The Battlecast ability is frankly pretty dry - it has the mobility problems of normal melee, and doesn't open any unique tactical options like the Spellsword's Targeted AMFs or the Enlightened Fist's charge-held rays.

If you want to focus on that ability, you'll want to specifically cherrypick character abilities that pump one attack per round, but that only use an attack action to deliver that attack. Unfortunately, there aren't many of those - Master of Poisons and possibly Jade Phoenix Mage are the only two I'd bother with (for swift-activated poison use and single-attack-focused arcane strike abilities, respectively). Getting Turn Undead for Travel Devotion would be similarly beneficial.

Something like Crusader 1/Dread Necromancer 5/JPM 4/Abjurant Champion 5/Havoc Mage 5 would be able to capitalize on the Havoc Mage's abilities, overcome its main weaknesses and get by in most groups (assuming that optimization is low enough that ToB classes are able to contribute). But even there, Havoc Mage isn't going to be the strongest option available.

[Mickey Williams]

You could cast a spell and fire a bow. Maybe havoc mage would work ok with arcane archer

[Uncle Pine]

Considering Battlecast restricts you to spells with a casting time of 1 standard action or less (thus axing the option of using it to cast impractical spells like Ghoul Glyph), whether it's worth or not boils down to the following question: is a single attack better than a move action and access to an extra level of spells? In my opinion, it is not.

[noce]

Compare this with quicken spell.

With quicken spell, you combine a spell with a full attack or a charge or whatever.
Yes, quicken spell has costs, but there are many ways to reduce them, including several prestige classes.

So if I were to invest class levels in classes that don't advance (primary) spellcasting, I'd rather take Anima Mage, Dweomerkeeper or the full-casting Escalation Mage instead of Havoc Mage.

[daremetoidareyo]

It might be pretty formidable on an arcane swordsage, if the sword Sage itself is counted as casting the spell rather than having an SLA. It also might be pretty good on a gnome Illusionist seeing as how they get certain spells early. I think what this can do is get your Buffs up as you attack, especially against the DM who does area dispells

[mabriss lethe]

I think you might be able to do something hilarious with...say... snap kick, the poison spell feat, and chill touch.

edit to add: but now that I think about it just having full CL of chill touch would be about the same.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Effects that only affect a single attack--such as true strike or Aura of Perfect Order--synergize well enough with Battlecast. You can also use your melee attack to initiate a trip or grapple, and hopefully reduce your target's defences against your spells... maybe an anthropomorphic giant constrictor using Improved Grab + Constrict followed by touch attack spells?