Help me optimize this Core Illusionist

[Kerilstrasz]

As i said, im starting as a player on a friends 3,5 campaign..
its a 25point buy , and we have access ONLY on PhB 1...
we start at lvl 1 with NO equipment..

so.. i decide to roll a gnome illusionist..
my final abilities are

Str ___ 5
Dex __ 14
Con __ 14
Int ___ 16
Wis __ 10
Cha __ 10

those came up considering the gnome racial plus the middle age effect.
Wis 10 to keep a decent will,cha 10 for the spelllike abils..

For feat i choose Eschew Mats cause our Dm is a bit scholastic about having the mats for each spell so i took the easy way out...

prohibited schools: Necromancy(i ll miss that blind/deaf i know..) and enchantment (after a hint from Dm chants will be hard to land at 90% of the cases)

Goin to use Alcemy for prophit at any chance (low wealth/treasure campaign) and thinkin Craft Wondrous and Wands at lvl 5 and prolly silent spell at lvl 3...

About Spells...
1)Mage Armor
2)Magic Missile
3)Color Spray
4)Silent Image
5)...
6)...

5 & 6 ?? Im thinking stmhing from the following:
Disquise Self, Summon Monster I, Obscuring Mist, Grease, Feather Fall, Reduce Person <-- Imagine that cast on my gnome ... its a nice escape tactic to fit almost through anythin as tiny... even into a tiny rock made with Silent image :P

anyways ... i ll be checking this like every 2 hours cause we start playing this saturday...
after saturday consider this thread locked..

thnx all

[Pilo]

Str: 8-2(Rac)(0pts) -> Str 6
Dex: 14 (6pts) -> Dex 14
Con: 13+2(Rac)(5pts) -> Con 15
Int: 16: (10pts) -> Int 16
Wis: 10 (2pts) -> Wis 10
Cha: 10 (2pts) -> Cha 10

With no aging effect, you get better stats, i don't think you should age.

Spells:
1: Mage Armor
2: magic missile
3: Silent image
4: Color spray (Must have)
5: Grease
6: Reduce person (for fun)

Forget about summon monster 1, it is too weak.
Forget about echew materials, many of your spell does not require material components and many of the other's component are simple to find.

Familiar: Raven so he can speak for your illusions of people.

Feat: Spell Focus(illusion)

If your statistics can go under 8 to get more point, lower strenght of 1 to increase you constitution.

[Kerilstrasz]

Str: 8-2(Rac)(0pts) -> Str 6
Dex: 14 (6pts) -> Dex 14
Con: 13+2(Rac)(5pts) -> Con 15
Int: 16: (10pts) -> Int 16
Wis: 10 (2pts) -> Wis 10
Cha: 10 (2pts) -> Cha 10

Yes those are nice :) i ll stick on those :)


Spells:
1: Mage Armor
2: magic missile
3: Silent image
4: Color spray (Must have)
5: Grease
6: Reduce person (for fun)

Agree :)


Forget about echew materials, many of your spell does not require material components and many of the other's component are simple to find.

Let me stick on this cause i know this DM :) if i need a chickens feather i will never find a chicken.. if i need ashes i wont be able to lit a fire... if i need air..he will have me live bellow water :P


Familiar: Raven so he can speak for your illusions of people.

I was thinking Raven too, but ... what you mean to speak for my illusions??? an example plz???

[Gandariel]

I think he means:
1) Raven can speak Common.
2) Silent image is.. well, Silent.
PROBLEM SOLVED! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_AzEeIGznU)

Basically you create an illusion of a man, and have the raven be hidden near it, and have it speak as the illusion only pretends to speak.

[Devils_Advocate]

we start at lvl 1 with NO equipment..
Spell Mastery might be better than Eschew Materials if you don't even get a spellbook... :smalleek:


With no aging effect, you get better stats, i don't think you should age.
Plus, what sort of chump isn't level 2 by the time he's 100?

I'd go with 16 Int, 16 Con, 14 Dex, 10 cha, 8 Wis, 7 Str. Your Will save should be good enough as a Wizard; boosting your hit points and Fort save is probably more important. And low encumbrance can be pretty annoying, assuming that you're actually tracking that. Besides, what sort of gnome has average Wisdom? :smalltongue:

You might want to drop Evocation instead of Necromancy. Partly because "Save-or-dies and debuffs rule, direct damage spells drool, looool", as they say, but also because Shadow Evocation and Greater Shadow Evocation are spells in your specialized school, so Evocation really does work well as a barred school for an Illusionist in particular. (Then again, this won't be relevant for 8 more levels...) Enchantment does too because Illusion has its own Will save spells, so that's good.

If you do keep Necromancy instead of Evocation, you could replace Magic Missile with Ray of Enfeeblement. Grease is a versatile classic. Reduce Person sounds good; not only can it help you to fit through small spaces and gain cover if cast on yourself, but it increases your AC and ranged attack rolls by 2 as well. And of course it can also reduce the reach of a Small or Large foe. (But not a Medium one, due to the wackiness of how size categories work. Oh well!)

I'd favor a cute bunny familiar if I knew where to find proper stats for one. (Rabbits are burrowing mammals, right?)

[Pilo]

Regarding echew material:
Silent image: no material
Magic missile: no material
Magic armor: a piece of leather: i'm sure your enemies will have armors or bags or ...
Reduce person: a pinch of powderer iron: you wanna be alchemist, you should be able to craft/buy it
Color spray: A pinch each of powder or sand that is colored red, yellow, and blue. Same as reduce person or you can get red from clay, yellow from sand, blue from slate.
Grease: pork rind or butter. Buy ham to eat or steal a pig from a farmer and kill it

Regarding raven:

Someone explain it, you put it in your illusion of balor, giant, ... and it speaks from the inside. Make them believe, do it for real.

[Kerilstrasz]

Spell Mastery might be better than Eschew Materials if you don't even get a spellbook... :smalleek:


nuh.. spellbooks are there from the begining..



You might want to drop Evocation instead of Necromancy.

I ll think of that...



I'd favor a cute bunny familiar if I knew where to find proper stats for one. (Rabbits are burrowing mammals, right?)

so i can speak with it 1/day? i can speak with raven whenever..
also im pretty sure that our -2wis,-2int Barbarian will be hunting out the bunny all day "just to have a snack" :P

[Tyndmyr]

Spell Focus is particularly useful for illusionists. Most of your spells do not have a partial effect on a passed safe, and worse, one person passing the save can alert the others, granting them a substantial bonus.

[Bahamut Omega]

I dunno if I recommend trying to use alchemy to profit unless your DM's clear that he'll allow you the downtime to make the stuff and actually sell it. Assuming your intelligence, max ranks, and racial bonus, your starting check will be +9, so you'll only be able to reliably create acid by taking 10. You'll be close enough that it may be worth the risk to attempt rolling the craft check to make alchemist's fire or smokesticks.

Our DM, to avoid the headache of the crafting rules, just deemed that all items were created sort of immediately once I bought the raw materials since I'd spent the ranks in crafting. It actually very helpful on a few occasions as I kept a variety of items on hand at all times such as tanglefoot bags for stopping a charging enemy, smokesticks for getting out of an ambush, and alchemist's fire because setting things on fire is hilarious to him.

In short, use alchemy for the money if it's clear that will be allowed, otherwise, use it for the lulz.