Putting together a pivital character => Dracolexi Lich.

[Red_Dog]

Hello all. First things first, if you are in my campaign [you know who you are], stay OUT. Don't spoil cool scenes for yourself ^^

Now...

My players are about to encounter one of the most important characters in the campaign. I think I have mentioned him before in "undead legion" thread. But I digress => The character is a Human Lich with levels of
5 Sorc[PHBII variant]/10 Dracolexi/5 Nightmare Spinner in that order. This is not planned to be a combat encounter, but I do want him fully done for a number of reasons [showcasing or even potential fight?]

Small "description" => He likes and knows how to use illusions. He learned secrets of Power Words from a Dragon and studied under him. He dabbled in necromancy first as a curiosity but with events thickening around him mastered it and finally when everything went down escaped and made himself a Lich in order to be able to exact his vengeance. With this in mind... The help I need is to make an effective yet flavorful list. I have most of its down, but I have spots "left" so to speak. Also doubts about some choices.

So...

First Feats=>
Can have 8 feats=> Skill Knowledge[Oratory] (I can cross class it, but I though should take for flavor?), Still Spell, Split Ray. The rest is negotiable? 5 feats left. I was definitely thinking Heightened spell to uber boost low level save or die on the fly with no issues. Quicken is also awesome on the fly.

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Now spells...
*(B) means bonus, also see extra on power words at the bottom*

LvL1 => Power Word Sicken(100Hp)(B), Power Word Pain(100Hp), Ray of Enfeeblement, True Strike, Nerveskitter, Residues Tar(or Grease)
=>No room left, but any swaps that should be done?

LvL2=> Phantasmal Assailants(8Wiz&Dex dmg), Arcane Turmoil, Tasha’s Laughter (75ft, Will, 21r), Mirror Image, Command Undead
=>Again no room. Perhaps a swap of sorts? like Command Undead? He creates intelligent undead and usually negotiates with them so they would join

LvL3=>Power Word Distract(150Hp)(B), Suggestion(B), Thunder-Bolt, Slow, Major Image, Mage Armor Greater
=>Again no room. A hard level to swap. I wanted to have at least one dmg spell, hence the old T-Bolt. This is a very tight level.

LvL4=>Power Word Nauseate(150Hp)(B), Dimension Anchor, Animate Dead, Enervation, Assay Spell Resistance
=>Enervation is amazing with slit ray and etc. Animate Dead could go away potentially? As he doesn't use it much at all. Assay stays for obvious reasons. Its just too amazing.

LvL5=>Lesser Gease(B), Arcane Fusion, False Vision, Teleport
=>This is an odd level. Teleport and Fusion are staying. But what can I get instead of False Vision?O_o

LvL6=>Suggestion Mass, Disintegrate, Permanent Image
=>Again suggestion mass is out of place so to speak as a normal suggestion could be heightened. The remaining two are amazing.

LvL7=>Power Words Petrify(100Hp) & Stun(150Hp), Project Image
=>Flavor level with Project Image obviously rockin'. Yes PWs are sub par, but again - Flavor

LvL8=>Greater Arcane Fusion, Create Greater Undead
=>Not much can be on here. One is a nuclear grade shot gun, the other is a key to creating an Army of Shades.

LvL9=>Shades
=>Sweet and simple. Knowing a giant portion of conjuration school is incredible. Plus I can always heighten something into higher levels like this.
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Power words. First a main question=> They can be cast with Silent Spell can't they?
Second, Dracolexi explains very weirdly about how ou add spells. It is my understanding that you get to do both of these every time you get that class feature=>
=>Knock one PW spell down a level in your list (say Petrify from 8 to 7?)
=>Add a PW spell to spells known.
or if you know a PW spell, instead of second one, you get to
=>knock it down a level and add any spell you could add of that level to the list.

Am I correct? I chose to knock down Petrify, Stun, & Nauseate on every time I had the feature. Than I chose to learn Sicken before lvl8(CL7) and than knock it down to lvl1. By lvl11(CL10) I learned Distract and come lvl11 I knocked it down to lvl3. By lvl14(CL13) I already knocked nauseate once to lvl5 learned it, and come lvl14 I knocked it again down to lvl4
So was I correct in these calcs? ^^

So... it was a long post and I thank you for reading if you did ^^
Hopefully someone has suggestions of stuff I probably missed ^^

[gbprime]

The ability is meant to give you a power word spell that is one level cheaper than normal. I don't see how you could read that to mean that your existing spells keep reducing in level.

You don't need both Arcane Fusion and Greater Arcane Fusion. So dump the first one and add Wings of Flurry. This gives you the ability to use GReater Arcane Fusion to cast both Wings of Flurry and Power Word Stun in a single action!

Likewise, you don't need Animate Dead when you have the Greater version. Dump it for something like Evard's Black Tentacles.

[Red_Dog]

Thanks for reply ^^ Now on to question I suppose

=>Dracolexi quote out of RotD

At 3rd level, you can select any single power word spell and add it to the spell list of any one spontaneous arcane spellcasting class that you have, treating it as a spell of one level lower than normal.

Are you telling me that only, say bards, can benefit from this and this just straight up does not effect sorcs?
This also means that the only powerword that could be moved at least twice in levels would be Power Word blind? First to 6, than to 5?O_o

Now on to second part

Furthermore, if you are (or become) capable of casting spells of that level, you can also add the power word spell to your list of spells known. If you already know the selected power word spell, you can move that spell to one level lower on your class spell list and also add any spell of the power word spell’s original level to your spell list.
Does this means that one can do it with the same power word right?
I guess one wouldn't want to, but just checking.

Further more, what Power Words would you suggest?

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Arcane fusion was suppose to be for Ray of Enfeeblement + Enervation. I though this would be a powerful combo?

Wings of Flurry are amazing... I must get them in somewhere there.

Yeah, I will dump animate dead. In my campaign he could use it to animate 40HD of human sekeletons/zombies and combine it in a "mob unit" using cityscape template... But its one unit only... The campaign scale is a Bit larger than that...

What about mass suggestion? should that be tossed? What would be great instead?

Thanks for comment man ^^ I hope to see more help, as its one complex character ^^

[gbprime]

At 3rd level, you can select any single power word spell and add it to the spell list of any one spontaneous arcane spellcasting class that you have, treating it as a spell of one level lower than normal.
This means that you add it to your spells known. So a Sorcerer gets a bonus spell, and a Bard gets a bonus spell that otherwise might not be on his list of available choices.


Furthermore, if you are (or become) capable of casting spells of that level, you can also add the power word spell to your list of spells known. If you already know the selected power word spell, you can move that spell to one level lower on your class spell list and also add any spell of the power word spell’s original level to your spell list.

I see what you're saying here, but I don't believe that you can keep selecting the same spell over and over to reduce it's level by more than 1. More power to you if you can convince your DM to do it that way, but I'm pretty sure that's not Rule As Intended.


The Power Word spells that are your heavy hitters are (in order):

Power Word Nauseate - pretty good as a 6th level spell, AWESOME as a 5th.
Power Word Stun - the classic
Power Word Blind - useful because it has a 200hp cap, allowing you to affect more critters
Power Word Pain - get it if you can't get a 5th level spell with your free Power Word Spell. It's nasty if you Extend it, and Warmage Edge makes it actually deadly if you happen to be nothing but a cannon...
Power Word Distract - Only worth it if you have one or more high-sneak attack characters working with you.

Honestly, the rest of the Power Word spells are pretty worthless. There are better ways of doing what they do.

Combining a blasting spell with a Power Word spell using Greater Arcane Fusion is an excellent way to make sure the target is under the hit point cap for the Power Word Spell.

And no, don't dump Mass Suggestion. It's one of the more powerful combat spells there is, plus it has awesome non-combat usefulness.