Mystic Theurge Sorcerer/Cleric Dragon Wrought Kobold build

[angry_bear]

Wow, longer title than I expected. Anyway, partially for flavour, partially for the fun of it, I'm going to try the build in the title. Kind of undecided on what exactly I want to do with it, seeing as metamagic works for both, I might try for a part mailman, part buffer/debuffer, or focus purely on damage... Which granted, is not 100% optimal, but is still pretty fun.

For the cleric side of things, I'm looking at Bahamut, with the domains being either, good and luck, or luck and dragon. They all have some fun spells, and reasonable domain abilities attached.

I'm not sure if I want to go with the Kobold sorcerer acf, or if there's another one available that might be better. As it is, I'm leaning towards core sorcerer, and maybe taking the dragon familiar, or improved familiar feat down the line. As it is, a basic familiar isn't going to be all that great with the Theurge build.

So, any tips on spell selection, or acf suggestions would be appreciated. :smallsmile:

[Spuddles]

You'll want this:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060420a

Slight build is awesome for low level hide checks, as effectively being cat sized means +8 to hiding from size alone. Throw in a MW tool, a +5 competence item, and a dex of 14, and you're looking at +17 to hide with no ranks. There's a first level spell in Magic of Eberron, Distracting Shadows, that gives everything in an area -5 to spot/search checks, and anyone looking into the area gain the same penalties. It lasts 24hrs, and targets objects. Put it on a ring or other small, easily held item. Take it out when you need to sneak around, then hide it when you want to make search checks.

I would recommend cloistered cleric1/sorc1 for the first 2 levels, if you have to play from first. Either way, cloistered cleric 1 for oodles of skill points.

I wouldn't bother trading out the knowledge domain for knowledge devotion, as that will lose you all your knowledge skills, and really, the bonus to hit/damage is pretty trivial. Small size, a dex bonus, and no aging penalties means your to hit with ranged touch attacks should be pretty decent.

You might want to consider jungle kobold:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/environmentalRacialVariants.htm#jungleKobolds

No con penalty, and using climb checks with dex is pretty helpful.

I would definitely use an early entry method for Mystic Theurge- versatile spellcaster & heighten spell is definitely the best method. That's only if you're using flaws, of course.

If you want more spells known, Apprentice (DMG2) and either Mother Cyst (LM) or a Bloodline feat (dragon magazine) will get you 2 bonus 1st level spells known and a bonus spell known of every level to 9th.

[angry_bear]

The web enhancement page has a lot of nice things, thanks. Slight build and the greater draconic right of passage look very useful. I'd like to go with cloistered cleric at level 1, but for storytelling reasons I'm starting as a level 3 sorcerer. And no flaws, so pretty sure I'm stuck going with the regular level progression unfortunately...

The main thing I'm unsure about is which spells to select for my sorcerer advancement. My main experience lies with wizards and druids, so the idea of being... basically stuck with a limited number of spells is a bit daunting to me. Still, for storytelling, and for something new, I'm sticking with sorcerer.

Forgot to mention my stats in my last post too... My bad.

Str: 6
Dex: 16
Con: 12
Int: 12
Wis: 16
Cha: 18

To my knowledge, I won't get anything beyond 7th level spells pre epic, but kind of cool with that... The high level spells are great, but level 7 spells and below should work fine for the character... Hopefully. lol

[Spuddles]

Do you know who else will be in your party? If there's a rogue that TWFs, facilitating sneak attacks can be super helpful. Sculpt Spell metamagic (complete arcane) will help you get a ton of mileage out of low level control spells. Don't get stuff that relies on saves or CL unless you plan on building around that. Don't pick up spells that are on both lists. But I am gonna break a few of these rules, discussion on why at bottom.

Here's what would make my short list for the first 4 or 5 levels of spells:

1. Grease, Mage Armor (best if there's a druid or something in the party, to put on their animal companion and when they wild shape), Grease, Unseen Servant, Benign Transposition, Nerveskitter (better as the SLA you get from your draconic rites of passage)

2. Command Undead, Ray of Stupidity (spell compendium), wings of cover (Races of the Dragon), Glitterdust, Invisibility, Alter Self

3. Shrink Item, Haste, Greater Magic Weapon

4. Celerity (PHB2), Black Tentacles, Stoneskin, Solid Fog, Improved Invisibility, Polymorph

5. Teleport, Fabricate


I would pick these spells because they give you access to truly unique, exceptionally powerful and useful abilities. Grease forces balance checks, which works on a lot of monster types. Command Undead is no save vs., say, a skeletal T Rex. Ray of stupid kills giants when empowered, and auto-kills animals & many monstrous beasts. Glitterdust can blind, but also outlines stuff, including things with ridiculous hide checks. Shrink Item and a couple unseen servants can deliver things like shrunken lava to enemy locations. Unseen Servant lasts hr/lvl, which means they follow you around all day. Very useful, especially since you're a small creature with 6 strength. Greater Magic Weapon will only be useful if you have a TWF rogue and a fighter or melee cleric. It's worth getting if you can enchant 3 or more weapons with it. Polymorph can be really abusive. War Troll form on the Monk? Dear lord.

Alter Self gets you a bunch of dragon forms. Wyrmling white dragon is probably best, with climb, fly, and burrow speeds. Burrow is amazing Outside, and need to retreat? Withdraw action underground.

Celerity is borderline abusve, but a great way to get an action when you need it. As long as you aren't circumventing the daze, I think it's a fair spell, as far as spells can be 'fair'.

Black Tentacles is only good if you can keep your CL up, otherwise you may find the grapple check lackluster. In which case, go with Solid Fog. Hallway full of monsters? Cast two sculpted solid fogs of 120 ft lines. Total lock down. Take them out one at a time.

Improved Invis is a great way to avoid being targeted by enemy mooks who lack see invis, like most giant types and fighter type humanoids/monstrous humanoids.

Teleport and Fabricate are honestly the best 5th level spells because they let you approach problems from totally crazy angles. I consider those two spells to be the apotheosis of arcane might.

Benign transposition puts friends in safe places, out of pit traps, get you out of melee, etc. Works especially well with a flying familiar and hard to reach places/enemies.

Wings of Cover is an immediate action spell that blocks a single attack (melee, spell, whatever) or gives you a bonus to saves vs. an aoe spell. REally incredible.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it's what I would be looking at for a theurge with no early entry or casting tricks.

I would avoid damage, but with all your slots available, damage can be ok. Only if you maintain caster level. Practiced Spellcaster (complete arcane) is a must, in that case.

Depending on what you fight, I would look at the following damaging spells:

1. magic missile, hail of stone

3. fireball

4. orb of fire, wings of flurry

Magic missile is pretty amazing vs. incorporeal undead on a sorcerer. Spam a few of those and you can take out most CR equivalent ghosts or whatever. Nice because you can empower it with a lesser rod for quite cheap.

Hail of Stone can be pretty terrific if you sculpt it. No save, no SR, up to 5d4 damage. Easy to empower, too. Only useful vs. groups of enemies, though.

Fireball is only worthwhile if you can a) empower it, b) cast it at CL = your level +2 or more, and it hits more than 3 enemies with a cast. Otherwise never get it. If you don't often fight a lot of enemies who are spread out, it's not worth it.

Orb of Fire is considered the premier damage spell. Nice damage cap, no SR or save vs. damage. Daze is a good rider effect. It has a ****ty range, though. Again, only good if you can get your CL up. Don't forget, shooting into melee has a -4 penalty, which can really suck with multiclassing poor BAB without using fractional advancement. Ranged touch attacks for damage, in general, is kinda bad. Most enemies with low touch AC have so many HP, shooting them isn't worth it.

Wings of Flurry is amazing- +1 CL for being a dragon, uncapped AoE force damage, no friendly fire, save vs stun. Only downside is the range. You have to be really close to use it.

I wouldn't go for damage, but if you feel like you must have a damaging spell, magic missile or hail of stone would be my picks.

On the cleric side, I would just prepare like x2 abjurations- protection from energy, dispels, etc.

[Splendor]

Greater draconic right of passage gets you in a level early, since it give you an additional level in sorcerer.

I second cloistered cleric. Cloistered Cleric 3/Sorcerer 3/Theurge 3

Spells (as 3rd level sorcerer/3rd level theurge)
0: 7 Acid Splash, Launch Item, Open/Close, Caltrops, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Detect Magic
1: Magic Missile, Power Word: Pain (d6/rd no save), Mord's Buzzing Bee -10 MS, target must make concentration check DC 15+SL to cast spells), Mage Armor
2: Alter Self, Scorching Ray
3: Power Word: Sickened (-2 to everything, no save)

Cleric (Luck, Protection, Knowledge)
0: Amanuensis, Read Magic x2, Purify Food and Drink, Mending
1: Bless, Protection from Evil, Obscuring Mist, Unseen servant, Detect Secret Doors
2: Delay Poison, Remove Paralysis, Lesser Restoration, Silence, Aid
3: Vigor (Mass Lesser), Dispel Magic, Bestow Curse, Protection from Energy

Feats
1st: Versatile Spellcaster (Trade up spells)
3rd: Fiery Burst (always have an attack for 2d6 fire)
6th: Draconic Reservoir (extra level in sorcerer)
9th: Retrieve Spell (Recall spells and convert to healing)

I would also drop your familiar and take Divine Companion from the complete champions pg 51.

[Zanfire]

Its probably even more cheese than loredrake (but if that flies theres also spellhoarding & riddled), and is also subject to wether or not you consider venerable greater Draconic rite Dragonwrought kobalds true dragons, but after you take the first lvs of sorcerer and cloistered cleric, you can then take the highest Dragonblooded substitution levels for both (5th iirc) as being a true dragon allows you to ignore any other prerequisites for something that requires Dragonblooded

And desert kobald is also a good variant