lightning caster

[Rickshaw]

some time ago I was attempting to build a true lightning caster, unfortunately I can't seem to find a good class for it. evocation specialist is all well and good, but many of the best spells are druid or cleric only, and frankly if your going to play a wizard, evocation is hardly the best choice. when I delved into PrCs to find some fun flavor, the closest thing I found was a weak class called "stormlord" that specialized in making people carry around umbrellas because it rained a lot. I was wondering if the playground might be able to help me find a class that cast thunderbolts with ease and disdain, without all the extra stuff.

[INoKnowNames]

Couldn't you take Energy Substitution and make all your energy based attacks Lightning Style?

Lightning Fireball! Lightning Scorching Ray! Lightning Shocking Grasp!

[Rickshaw]

that was sort of my plan. energy substitution+born of three thunders struck me as a very fun pair of metamagics (yes I know it's not one of the more popular choices, but I enjoy the flavor) and maybe play a half-dragon or something with a lightning breath attack.

[Ardantis]

Stormlord is kind of weak, yeah. Druid is the natural choice, because you'll have that outdoorsy flavor.

Consider using summons and forms that allow you access to even more lightning. I believe there is a feat to allow you to take air elementals as companions, and there may be wild shape feats to give you access to thunder-and-lightning themed creatures.

Born of Three Thunders is even more effective when you have allies and combat skills to take advantage of the stun.

[DoctorGlock]

War Mage from Dragonlance: Age of Mortals is good. It is less lightning focused and more blasting focused but can add an additional 3 damage per die on evocation.

[HunterColt22]

Stormlord is kind of weak, yeah. Druid is the natural choice, because you'll have that outdoorsy flavor.

Consider using summons and forms that allow you access to even more lightning. I believe there is a feat to allow you to take air elementals as companions, and there may be wild shape feats to give you access to thunder-and-lightning themed creatures.

Born of Three Thunders is even more effective when you have allies and combat skills to take advantage of the stun.

You are thinking of the ACF in the complete Mage that allows you to take on an elemental companion rather than a normal animal. It is somewhat passable considering you can choose when his hd advance, if he grows bigger, or remains the same size, but gets better boosts to his stats. Have you tried looking in Stormwrack yet? Considering it is about water and pretty much making sure you dont get deep fried in a storm. Other than that, I think elemental savant may be what you are looking for.

[Flickerdart]

You may be better off with psionics. Energy Current is a super-sweet power for a lightning mage, because you can cast it once and then concentrate on it for the rest of the encounter (or use Solicit Psicrystal to get two going at once).

[Rickshaw]

I actually did some looking at psionics, but aside from a few spectacular powers like energy current, it doesn't seem like there is very many lightning based powers. that's actually where I looked first, because I only just recently figured out how psionics works (and honestly once you know the system, its easier than arcane or divine, at least for me.)

[eggs]

Stormcaster from Stormwrack sounds very appropriate. It's not a power-play option (lost caster level in exchange for a bunch of minor wind and lightning-related abilities), but it comes with some nifty powers like Immediate Action wind wall, ignoring wind conditions, and a stunning rider effect on blasting spells.

It's best suited to Archivists and Druids, but Spontaneous Cleric/Stormcaster can be a solid mid-power option that can still use DMM to pack a considerable punch, and which can still use the Substitute Domain spell to adjust its spells known when it needs to.

[Talionis]

Out of the box, what about Bard? Stormsinger from Frostburn allows you to do some pretty cool lighting damage with your music uses. Perform is pretty easy to optimize to a crazy number. Plus you can still do a lot of the casting things you could do with some of the other classes.

[HunterOfJello]

Pure Artificer

grab:
Energy Substitution (Electricity)
Born of Three Thunders
Quick Recovery (LoM)

You can now act as a powerful and impressive Lightning based Evocation Monster.

[Spuddles]

You may be better off with psionics. Energy Current is a super-sweet power for a lightning mage, because you can cast it once and then concentrate on it for the rest of the encounter (or use Solicit Psicrystal to get two going at once).

I was thinking the same thing. Can a schism take over a concentration power?

Overchanneled energy current- bleeding from your eyes as a massive surge of lightning arcs from you through your foes.

[Flickerdart]

I was thinking the same thing. Can a schism take over a concentration power?

Overchanneled energy current- bleeding from your eyes as a massive surge of lightning arcs from you through your foes.
Schism can normally do it, but Energy Current is an exception in that it requires a full round action to concentrate.

It's a lot easier to stack concentrations for spellcasters though - Sonorous Hum does it as many times as you want, so long as you can keep casting it. So if there's anything like Energy Current for arcanists, they're well set.

[Feralventas]

Are you working on pure 3.5 or would you consider PF content?

If you're allowed or will use PF, there's the Sorcerer (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/sorcerer) base class with the Elemental Bloodline (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/sorcerer/bloodlines/bloodlines-from-paizo/elemental-bloodline) or the Stormborn Bloodline (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/sorcerer/bloodlines/bloodlines-from-paizo/stormborn-bloodline).


On their own, the bloodlines should make the sorcerer a decent storm'caster. If not, there's the Storm Kindler (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/other-paizo/s-z/storm-kindler).

[Magic Myrmidon]

Well, there's Elemental Savant in Complete Arcane. Just use electricity for the energy substitution and everything. It is a little generic, though.

I think there's a storm elemental in a Monster Manual somewhere. III, maybe? If your DM says that you have to meet an elemental of the element you want to use.

[VGLordR2]

You could also look into the Spell Thematics (http://dndtools.eu/feats/players-guide-to-faerun--22/spell-thematics--2714/) feat. You get to choose one spell per spell level, and refluff it. This feat is frequently used with themed casters.

[Diovid]

Taking 5 levels of Stormcaster and then going into Elemental Savant is fine. Just beg your DM for a Electricity version of the Searing Spell feat (Sandstorm).

[tyckspoon]

You could also look into the Spell Thematics (http://dndtools.eu/feats/players-guide-to-faerun--22/spell-thematics--2714/) feat. You get to choose one spell per spell level, and refluff it. This feat is frequently used with themed casters.

It's also horribly unnecessary if you're only taking it for the fluff, since you can do that *anyway*. The CL boost it provides for your 'thematic' spell choices can be useful if you've already used most of the better ways to get improved CLs, and there are corner cases where the increased Spellcraft difficulty to ID your spells could be useful.. but for the most part it's a terrible waste of a feat choice.

[Rickshaw]

Are you working on pure 3.5 or would you consider PF content?.

in fact, this character will be played in a mostly PF friendly world, and is very possibly going to be gestalt as well. also storm kindler is just the PF version of stormlord. not super great.

[Feralventas]

Good gracious you should have an easy time of things then. One side Sorc with Storm Singer while you take Bard on the other side to qualify and go into the energy variant Pyrokineticist for electrical whips, blasts, bolts, and buffs. One side for local, proximity effects, then Sorc spells for big ones like Control Water, Control Weather and the like.

Of course this presumes that you're allowed to take two PrC's at the same time which I don't know if basic Gestalt allows, but I digress.