Need a Wizard Prestige Class, hard restrictions

[Clumsyninja23]

I really don't want to just take wizard to 20. Others in the group already have prestiges planned, and I want to come up with one. The main problem is that the campaign is going to put many restrictions on me.

Campaign is Ravenloft. Please, for the love of all that is holy, no evil prestiges, no prestiges that make me insane or do questionable things of morality, things like that.

Right now I'm Wizard (Transmuter) 2, so I have some wiggle room here to get prereqs. Neutral Good.

-Banned: Evocation, Necromancy because, well, Evocation.

-I'm the only Arcane caster in the party. I want to give up as little flexibility as possible. I also don't want to give up caster levels.

-Because of story reasons, I have to be human, I have no extra languages, and I can't have setting specific prestiges that aren't from Ravenloft. Things like Mage of the Arcane Order are out, because, well, no Arcane Order here I would think.

-I want to focus on battlefield control, buffs/debuffs, utility, etc.

-Checked out Incantratix, looks nice but man, I don't want to give up that extra school. :/

-Probably go Archmage once my level is high enough. Unless something better is brought up?

-Wayfarer is not a good idea, because the DM already hinted that teleportation spells are controlled by the Dark Lords and they control where I would end up. T_T

-Fatespinner looks attainable and not bad.

What do you people think? Anything that I might pick up? Or am I screwed?

[Carth]

Have you considered unseen seer?

[Averis Vol]

You could go with Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil. Requires 12 ranks in some skills you should be maxing anyways and greater/ normal spell focus in abjuration along with skill focus spellcraft, but the benefits are more then worth the feat tax. Its in Complete Arcane.

[Clumsyninja23]

Have you considered unseen seer?

I looked it up after your suggestion. It's interesting. Benefits rogues with the sneak attack increase, which I don't have. A lot of nice benifits from this prestige. The spell caster level drop in spells that aren't divination hurts though. I'll consider that one.


You could go with Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil. Requires 12 ranks in some skills you should be maxing anyways and greater/ normal spell focus in abjuration along with skill focus spellcraft, but the benefits are more then worth the feat tax. Its in Complete Arcane.

I briefly skimmed over that in my searches, and thought meh, doesn't look that great.

With your suggestion, I went back and actually read it thoroughly.

...

Yeah.

Lots of battlefield control. I'll be taking this. Thank you very much.

[Hand_of_Vecna]

First for the record, Incantrix is generally considered to be one of the best if not the best Wizard PrC. It's just crazy good and you get to keep any spells you already know when you drop the school, dropping say enchantment after you have charm monster isn't so bad. It's not like you were going to get a ton of mileage out of dominate person and mindrape.

Master Specialist is generally considered to be Wizard+ and you may as well take it from level 4 through qualifying for a better class. Alternatively take 1-3 at character levels 6-8 this let;s you get the Wiz 5 feat and gets you greater spell focus at 8, transmutation's esoterica are pretty lame.

Geometer is generically good, Geometer 2 for book of geometry could be very useful if your always on the move as is often the case in Ravenloft.

Initiate of the Seven Fold Veil is very very strong, up there with Incantrix. It's requirment of Greater Spell Focus Abjuration is a steep price, but Master specialist gets you Skill Focus (Spellcraft) for free lessening the PrC's feat tax.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Master Specialist (CM) is decent just for filler. Paragnostic Apostle (CC) is fairly ideal for general use/filler. Ruather (RotW) is pretty good for a few levels of filler. Since you still have Enchantment, consider dipping a single level of Mindbender (CA), especially if you can pick up the feat Mindsight (LoM).

Halruuan Elder (Shining South) is a suitable substitute for Incantatrix, if you would be able to take it. Possibly point out that you wouldn't be able to use the Circle Magic ability, which is apparently the only purpose of the 'special' prerequisite.

Divine Oracle (CD) is actually quite good for any caster, as is Sacred Exorcist (CD). You can even get the feat prerequisite for Divine Oracle from the Frog God's Fane detailed in Complete Scoundrel without having to spend a feat on it.

[Clumsyninja23]

Alright, let me think outloud here.

Transmuter 3, qualifies for Master Specialist.
Master specialist for 10 levels puts me at 14th level.

Initiate reqs:
Knowledge Arcana 12 ranks (check, easy)
Knowledge nature 4 ranks (check, easy)
Spellcraft 12 ranks (check, easy)
Spell focuses, level 6 feat, level 9 feat. (Check)
Skill focus: Spellcraft (check, Master Specialist)
5 Abjuration spells, (check, easy)

7 levels of this puts me at... 21 levels. Hm.

Seems strong and interesting for what I want. Great suggestions. Anything I should change here? Drop a level of master specialist for last level of Initiate, or what?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Master Specialist itself isn't really worth taking more than four levels of with a Transmuter. The point of filler classes is to only take enough levels in them to get you to the more important class, in this case Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil.

Wizard 3/ Master Specialist 4/ Paragnostic Apostle 2/ Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 7/ Archmage 4. You'll already have all the Archmage prerequisites by the time you hit 10th level anyway.

[Venger]

Alright, let me think outloud here.

Transmuter 3, qualifies for Master Specialist.
Master specialist for 10 levels puts me at 14th level.

Initiate reqs:
Knowledge Arcana 12 ranks (check, easy)
Knowledge nature 4 ranks (check, easy)
Spellcraft 12 ranks (check, easy)
Spell focuses, level 6 feat, level 9 feat. (Check)
Skill focus: Spellcraft (check, Master Specialist)
5 Abjuration spells, (check, easy)

7 levels of this puts me at... 21 levels. Hm.

Seems strong and interesting for what I want. Great suggestions. Anything I should change here? Drop a level of master specialist for last level of Initiate, or what?

no contest, the last level of initiate is much better than master specialist's last level. compare their respective capstones:

initiate:
kaleidoscopic doom (free GDM against an enemy plus trigger a bunch of veils against him) and the violet veil that disintegrates your enemies

versus master specialist's major esoterica

if your enemy saves vs a trans spell, he takes the spell lvl hp damage. deal between 1-9 points of damage. at level 20.

the other 9 lvls of MS are pretty solid though. you might consider putting initiate first though:

transmuter 3/MS6/initiate 7/MS 9 is also only 19 levels. 3+10=13, not 14, so you don't even have to choose if you really want MS's major school esoterica, but it's not that great, so you may well dip something else at some time in your build.

[Hand_of_Vecna]

Especially on Transmuter, it's esoterica are weak. Master Specialist is generall about 3 levels long netting you Greater spell focus, a free known spell and Skill Focus (Spell Focus) which is good if you happen to need it as a prereq.

[Randomguy]

Master Specialist itself isn't really worth taking more than four levels of with a Transmuter. The point of filler classes is to only take enough levels in them to get you to the more important class, in this case Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil.

Wizard 3/ Master Specialist 4/ Paragnostic Apostle 2/ Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 7/ Archmage 4. You'll already have all the Archmage prerequisites by the time you hit 10th level anyway.

Paragnotic apostle requires membership in an organisation that might not exist in Ravenloft.

I'd go Wizard 3/Master Specialist 4/ Wiz 2/ Iot7fV 7/Archamge 4.

Taking 5 levels of wizard instead of just 3 opens up either a bonus feat or all sorts of cool ACF's. My personal favourite is Spontaneous Divination.

[Carth]

I looked it up after your suggestion. It's interesting. Benefits rogues with the sneak attack increase, which I don't have. A lot of nice benifits from this prestige. The spell caster level drop in spells that aren't divination hurts though. I'll consider that one.

Practiced spellcaster gets you back the caster levels, if it matters. Without a rogue dip or similar at first level though, yeah, it hurts. My favored build entry for unseen seer is ranger1/wizard2/thug SA fighter1/ranger2. Add 10 levels of unseen seer and 5 levels of abjurant champion and you come out with BAB 16 and 9th level spells, plus a very good amount of skill points. There's a swift action divination spell that you can use with advanced learning that grants you CL/3 additional sneak attack dice, which is very nice for rays.