Need advice on prohibited schools.

[Paradoxrifts]

Hello Playgrounders! This is my first post, and surprise surprise I'm in here with my begging bowl asking for sage counsel.

Please be gentle.:smalltongue:

What magic schools do you think a Conjurer/Archivist gestalt should give up if they want to eventually max out the Malconvoker prestige class, and then regularly mess around with with planar binding spells? I need to balance getting enough bonuses to reliably win those all important opposed charisma checks, while simultaneously trading away as little of my versatility as possible. My CG summoner won't be above negotiating the sweet, ever-living tar out of the evil outsiders that are unlucky enough to fall into his clutches.

Would it be feasible to trade in the arcane abjuration school with the belief that my access to clerical divine abjuration will cover all my bases in that area?

[Emperor Tippy]

None. Giving up schools really isn't worth it as a general statement. If you absolutely have to give one up, Illusion, Enchantment, and Necromancy tend to be the best choices.

[CyberThread]

If you are doing conjurer give up ..


WAIIt your an archivist, why in the world are you doing another casting class? You get all your spells already for both sides with an arch , why do something with some HP or skillpoints?

[Paradoxrifts]

Truly, you can never have enough spells so I doubled down on spell flinging.

And my DM and I have a less generous understanding of the rules than you do, CyberDrag. To get arcane spells from my spell book into my archivist prayer book I would have to find someone or something that can cast them as divine spells. It's easier said than done.

I would've preferred not being a specialist conjurer, but the ability to cast summon monster spells as a standard action from 1st level rather than a full-round action was just too good to pass up.

[Dusk Eclipse]

If you are planning on using Planar binding, I am not sure you should drop any schools, Enchantment and Necromancy have some powerful debuffs that make the charisma check a forgone conclusion in most cases.

[CyberThread]

Hmm, well you said you want malconvoker, and you get those spells from a divine route, not an arcane one. At the same time, you prefer not to be conjur focused, so that means your spells are going to be divine + something else.


I would actually maybe suggested, a serious rethink.


Consider maybe a beguiler/archivist, and see if that might fit your tone.

[Paradoxrifts]

Definitely not playing a beguiler.

I would of course much prefer to play as a domain wizard from Unearthed Arcana, but then I'd have to put up with my Summon Monster spells being cast as full-round actions. Throwing down my highest level Summon Monster as a standard action is just too good to pass up and I can always dip into my Archivist spell slots to throw down more monsters. Taking the Academic Priest feat allows me to treat Intelligence as Wisdom in all respects but my save DCs including bonus spell slots. The low DCs would be a problem except that Archivists run their DCs off their intelligence scores anyway. All this combined with Spellcasting Prodigy gives me +4 1st level spell slots and +2 spell slot thereafter all the way up to level 5 at 1st level.

Malconvoker is a nine level prestige class, although a player can break at level five if they're only interested in casting really good Summon Monster spells. This commitment pushes out the only real option that could possibly make a specialist wizard better than a domain wizard, which is access to the Master Specialist prestige class. Master Specialist (Conjurer) has a pretty epic capstone ability at 10th level, but everything else in the class is kind of uninspired in my opinion.

Are there any divine spells without the evil descriptor that I could be casting that could help me win those opposed charisma checks?

[AmberVael]

Are there any divine spells without the evil descriptor that I could be casting that could help me win those opposed charisma checks?

Surge of Fortune from Complete Champion?
Auto 20s are nice.

[Paradoxrifts]

Surge of Fortune from Complete Champion?
Auto 20s are nice.

Thank you, AmberVael. :smallsmile: That will work brilliantly because both Surge of Fortune and Planar Binding, Lesser are 5th level spells. They'll both come online at the same time.