[3.X] How to: Wizard Blaster.

[Yael]

So, I'm asking for tips and help, not for guides.

A friend of mine wants to build an arcane caster (maybe a wizard) focusing on the Evocation school, taking the role of the party's blaster. I have no real experience on blasters, so I could use some help. He's trying to specialize in a certain type of energy (cold I think), so I recommended him the Frost Mage and the Elemental Savant PrC's, also the Metaphysical Spellshaper and the Incantatrix combo. But I could use some help. I think that Evocation is not the only way to blast, but don't know which other way could he take. Also, we're using any 3.0 to 3.5 campaigns, Dragon Magazine allowed, campaigns from Eberron, FR, Rokugan, DragonLance allowed.
No Pathfinder.

[Lord_Gareth]

Generally speaking, Conjuration makes for better blasting than Evocation. Take Energy Substitution (Cold) to turn non-Cold blasting spells into cold ones, and look into the Frostburn supplement to be able to pierce cold immunity.

[Flickerdart]

Evocation can work, even if it isn't the strongest school. It has many damage spells to choose from (as opposed to Conjuration which basically just has Orbs), and a good number of multi-threat spells that deal damage and toss on a little extra. Rock the Spellwarp Sniper and suddenly Reflex saves aren't a big deal. Quickened Spellwarped Frost Breath is a no-save daze. For extra fun, Split Ray and/or Twin it (I'm assuming some kind of metamagic abuse here).

[Tysis]

link to a sorc guide focused on direct damage
http://http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1765181

also fell drain + easy metamagic can let you start throwing out negative levels at lvl 1, though you may cause a wightpocalypse.

[Lactantius]

Blasting is pretty straightforward and just needs some benefits, so as feats.
Blasting works very well, especially in pre-made adventures where the enemiers aren't optimized too much.
Note: some people may claim that blasting is a sub-par choice for a wizard.
Although it is correct that a wizard can do much moer versatile and effective stuff than blasting, I would say that a wizard should be able to deal with obstacles and foes alone sometimes.
A good rule of thumb is to build a wizard not only as a party member of an adventuring group (also called the "God Wizard" or "Batman"), but instead build him as a single individual which should be able to deal with most problem alone. If you portay a wizard as a classic NPC or BBEG, you are on the correct route. Those wizards are built to deal with the problem alone, too (most of the times rivaling adventuring groups).

Back to the tips:

- Take the metamagic feat piercing cold (Frostburn) to deal with opponent's resistances and immunites vs. your dedicated energy type (here: cold).

- May add energy substitution or elven spell lore to give another energy-based spell the cold descriptor.

- The metamagic feats empower spell and split ray work very fine with energy based attacks. Note that the Orbs need Twin Spell instead of Split Ray since those orbs are not rays.
If you substitute the energy type, scorching ray is a good spell to empower and split ray.

- Use Imarvin's spell database with the search variables sorc/wiz spells and cold descriptor and you get nearly all available cold spells.

- If you aim for the archmage prestige class at higher levels, the High Arcanas help, especially Mastery of Elements and Arcane Reach.

[Thanatosia]

Searing Spell from Sandstorm is pretty much flat-out superior to Frostburn's Piercing Cold in that spells that deal fire damage are much more common (likely negating the need to waste a feat on energy substitution), and that Searing Spells even work on creatures of the Fire Subtype (Piercing Cold gets thwarted by Cold Subtype).

I'd also suggest taking a Reserve feat to let you blast away on fights that are not important enough to actualy spend spell slots on.

[Radar]

Aside from Piercing Cold, there is the Searing Spell (from Sandstorm), which is basicaly the same thing but for [Fire] spells.

Born of Three Thunders does something similar by making your [Electricity] spells half [Sonic] and it adds the possibility to stun all your enemies and even make them prone. The downside is, you'll need to find immunity to daze for yourself.

That being said, in order to efficiently deal enough damage, you have to resort to heavy metamagic stacking, so Incantatrix and/or an Arcane Thesis on your favorite blasting spell are quite important. Otherwise, you will be blowing through your spellslots way too fast.

Metamagic to consider: Twin Spell (double the fun), Empower Spell (50% more fun), Maximize Spell (more consistent fun; does not work on the boost from Empower Spell as far as I remember), Split Ray (only for single-ray spells - not as hot on Scorching Ray for example), Energy Admixture (double the fun again; requires Energy Substitution, which you will probably have anyway) and if you go with Incantatrix, it's good to have a handful of +0 metamagic to lower the overal cost.

It is usualy good to add some more fun onto your blasting spells (unless you kill everything in one shot), so things like Blistering Spell (which also adds little damage) or the aforementioned Born of Three Thunders might be of interest.

[G.Cube]

If there's a couple melee members in your group you may want to pick up the feat spell sculpt as well, as it helps you hit those you want and miss those you dont!

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Consider the Warmage class in Complete Arcane, or a Psion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/classes/psion.htm) (Kineticist). Druid and Spirit Shaman (CD) are also good for blasting with cold spells, as well as a Cleric with the Cold domain and the spontaneous domain casting ACF in PH2 for that.

Warmage is a Cha-based caster that adds its Int bonus to the damage of the spells it casts. Its spell list is almost entirely made up of evocations and blasting spells. Energy Substitution: Cold would be necessary to be a cold-based blaster.

Psion gets to choose between Cold, Fire, Electricity, and Sonic every time he manifests a power. He can favor cold, but will have the option of using any of the others if it would be more appropriate.

Druid and Spirit Shaman get spells like (Extended) Creeping Cold, Icelance, Sleet/Ice Storm, Call Avalanche, etc. for harming and hindering opponents. Spirit Shaman is like a divine Sorcerer that casts from the Druid spell list.

A Cleric with the Cold domain and spontaneous domain casting for it can convert prepared spells into the spells from that domain. Clerics also get access to the first level spell Ice Slick from Frostburn, which is like an upgraded version of Grease, plus Ice Axe in SC and a few others.

[Lactantius]

- why do some playgrounders recommend searing spell or born of the three thunders if the OP wants to create a cold-focused mage?

- empower and maximize work both on one spell, but the empower effect won't empower the maximized effect. Instead, you must roll the damage and apply empower spell to it and then, add the maximized damage. With enough metamagic reducers and free feats, this is a viable choice, especially if you reach epic levels. Then, you qualify for the epic metamagic feat Intensify Spell.
Source: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/feats.htm#intensifySpell

- I see no rule why split ray and scorching ray would not stack. The rules for split ray says that you can "cause any ray to fire one additional ray."
So, scorching ray would gain +1 ray (not doubled ray, but +1 is fine enough).

- After all, it depends on how hardcore your player (and your group) want to optimize. With Incantatrix, you would reach a high opt level.
But beware, this PrC can - together with some metamagic reducers like arcane thesis - break the balance and make the game into a wizard one-man-show.
I recommend to stick to a medium opt level and deliberately not use all options available.

[visigani]

Focused Evocation Specialist Red Wizard of Thay. Give up Necromancy, Enchantment, Illusion and probably Conjuration. This will leave you with Evocation, Abjuration, Transmutation, and Divination.

He'll gain an addititional +3 Evocation spells per level (A net gain of 2 spells per level which is pretty significant when you think about it... a wizard with forty intelligence gets 2 bonus 9th level spells from intelligence, and 4 spells from being a high level wizard... this means he'd have a 25% increase to 9th level spells for being a focused specialist).

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Focused Evocation Specialist Red Wizard of Thay. Give up Necromancy, Enchantment, Illusion and probably Conjuration. This will leave you with Evocation, Abjuration, Transmutation, and Divination.

Always ban Abjuration before Conjuration. Abjuration spells can easily be made up for by the rest of the party, such as Dispel and Mass Resist Energy and Mind Blank. Plus you can get the Magic domain power instead of your Wizard 5 bonus feat and still use wands and staffs of prohibited schools. Conjuration is just too good to give up.

Get Energy Affinity (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/specialistWizardVariants.htm#evokerVariants) for Cold in place of a familiar.

[visigani]

Always ban Abjuration before Conjuration. Abjuration spells can easily be made up for by the rest of the party, such as Dispel and Mass Resist Energy and Mind Blank. Plus you can get the Magic domain power instead of your Wizard 5 bonus feat and still use wands and staffs of prohibited schools. Conjuration is just too good to give up.

Get Energy Affinity (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/specialistWizardVariants.htm#evokerVariants) for Cold in place of a familiar.

Don't other spell casters also have access to Conjuration? More to the point the player wants to play an evoker. This means he wants flashy stuff, he wants to blow things up and zap them with lightning bolts.

He might get off on spending his first round summoning whatever with his precious few non-evoker slots... but i suspect he'd probably be happy chucking a fireball instead.

[Gavinfoxx]

Never ban conjuration or transmutation. If you only have two schools, they should be conjuration and transmutation...

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Don't other spell casters also have access to Conjuration? More to the point the player wants to play an evoker. This means he wants flashy stuff, he wants to blow things up and zap them with lightning bolts.

He might get off on spending his first round summoning whatever with his precious few non-evoker slots... but i suspect he'd probably be happy chucking a fireball instead.

Conjuration is almost never for summoning anything. It's for teleporting, and for creating things like Grease, Wall of Smoke, Blockade (5 ft. cube of solid wood), Web, Glitterdust, Stinking Cloud, Phantom Steed, Black Tentacles, Wall of Sand, Magnificent Mansion, etc. Conjuration shapes the battlefield and ensures that the opponents don't scatter so you're able to catch them all in your explosions.

Conjuration has more than its fair share of flashy damage spells, all of which completely ignores spell resistance. Lesser Orb of Acid/Fire/Force/etc., Icelance, Arc of Lightning, Acid Breath, Orb of Electricity/Cold/etc. Conjuration is actually better at blasting than Evocation!

Most classes don't get access to Teleportation spells like Benign Transposition, Dimension Step, Dimension Door, Teleport, Greater Teleport, Plane Shift, etc., but nearly every caster gets the Abjuration spells that a party needs, like Dispel Magic and Remove Curse. If there's no other Wizard or Sorcerer in the party, your party needs you to have the Conjuration school. The same cannot be said of the Abjuration school as long as there's at least one other spellcaster of just about any class in the party. Divine casters even get some of those Abjurations at a lower level than a Wizard (Mass Resist Energy, Energy Immunity) and are better suited to provide them to the party.

[Kane0]

Drop Polar ray by a spell level or two so its actually worth using. Compare with disintegrate if you aren't sure.
Then apply metamagic to taste.

[ArcturusV]

Well, advice I can give, one is for the player, one is for the DM.

DM:

Your player wants to play a fun, flavorful thing. This means she/he is excited for the game, and really into this concept and wants to see it in action. This is a good thing, and your first reaction shouldn't be the softball it (Suddenly make a lot of encounters vulnerable to cold, or shift your entire campaign suddenly to a frostfell setting to power up the caster) nor to hammer it down with throwing immunities and such at them. Plus side is that Cold is a somewhat rarer immunity, so you generally have to go out of your way to put that out there.

But read up on environmental effects, give some leeway for the Rule of Cool, and remind your player, if she/he needs it, that they can do things other than just pure HP damage to an enemy with their blast if they get a little creative. For example: Yes, burning hands could do 1d4/CL damage to a couple of enemies. Or it could set the grass on fire, start a blaze that whips across the battlefield (Grass fires move FAAAAAST), and deals 1d6 across a much wider area, smoke gives concealment, etc. Just the sort of things you should do and allow. Not because they are 'gimped' by being an evoker so much as feeding in on their excitement for the concept and opening up their options for more fun.

Player:

On top of feeding into the DM suggestion of being open to non-standard ideas and trying out things because they're cool, rather than just shaving off pure HP damage, remember that you probably wanted to play this concept for something more than just HP damage. If it was just HP damage, you wouldn't have specialized in some element. You chose Ice and Cold for a reason. Try to play up that angle. Yes, be aware of going overboard, no one likes it when the Death Cleric for example starts going into full brooding mode about the ennui of existence for 15 minutes. But try to keep the focus on why you wanted Ice in mind. Ask your DM if you can do Deathblows and such because that will get you more into the game. e.g.: When you kill a target with your Cone of Cold, don't just have the DM say "And they're dead" but throw out a short little 2 minute description of how the targets freeze, how their blood turns to slush, their eyes become ice crystals, they fall to the ground, an arm shattering off as the brittle ice snaps, etc.

You got a fun concept... play it up. All the feat, build, etc, advice won't mean jack if you get so focused on the mechanics you forget why you wanted to play it in the first place. Much less resist the urge to try to put a veneer over something else. It might be more effective to be a conjurer throwing off a Freezing Fog, summoning ice beasts, and finishing off with Orbs if you need to... but if that's not what you signed on for? You'll realize it. You won't be as into it, and eventually you'll probably start thinking of a way to kill off this character and become something else. Yes, be open to advice about how to do things better... just don't betray the concept that made you come this way to be better.

[Craft (Cheese)]

But read up on environmental effects, give some leeway for the Rule of Cool, and remind your player, if she/he needs it, that they can do things other than just pure HP damage to an enemy with their blast if they get a little creative. For example: Yes, burning hands could do 1d4/CL damage to a couple of enemies. Or it could set the grass on fire, start a blaze that whips across the battlefield (Grass fires move FAAAAAST), and deals 1d6 across a much wider area, smoke gives concealment, etc. Just the sort of things you should do and allow. Not because they are 'gimped' by being an evoker so much as feeding in on their excitement for the concept and opening up their options for more fun.

Reason I hate D&D's magic system #4534: Every creative use you can think up for a blasting spell is already covered by a conjuration/transmutation spell of the same level or lower that will be much more potent than whatever your DM thinks up on the spot to cover your creative blast usage.

[Yael]

Thank you for your advice! :elan:

My friend got interesteed in the conjurer path, how could he build it?
Specializing?
Using UA's variant?
PrC's?

[Radar]

Well, the most renown blaster build is probably The Mailman (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1765181). It is based on a sorcerer, but you can easily substitute a specialist wizard in the build. You might even consider a focused specialist (a variant from PHBII giving even more spell slot as well as a nifty class ability at a cost of yet another school droped). As for the droped schools, I'd probably go with Enchantment, Necromancy and for a blaster wizard probably Transmutation (in case of the focused specialist). It's one of those cases, where Evocation has something interesting to offer and schools like Illusion and Abjuration have too many vital defences to be droped easily.

Straight out of the box, spells don't deal that much damage, so metamagic is generaly your way to go - that's the reason Mailman goes into Incantatrix as soon as possible. After taking full 10 levels in it, you can spend the last 4 on pretty much any fullcasting PrC you wish. Archmage or Loremaster are the most universal ones, but I'm sure there is some decend elemenatal-based class somewhere.

As someone already mentioned, it would be good to take a Reserve Feat (from Complete Mage): in the case of cold-themed wizard it would be Winter's Blast. It basicaly gives an unlimited blasting spell-like ability as long as you have a cold-based spell memorised. It scales with level, since its power is proportional to the highest level cold-based spell, you have memorised.

Conjuration based blasting most likely will focus on the Orb of choose your element and its lesser version. Single target, no save, no SR and decent base damage. In general you have to have one spell for each of a few situations:
1. The target has high SR or spell immunity - you need a spell that ignores this.
2. The target has high touch AC - you need a spell, that you don't have to roll an attack for.
3. The target has high saves - you need a spell, that doesn't allow a save or targets that one weak save.
4. You are in a target-rich enviroment - you need a spell, that hits a lot of enemies at once.
5. The target is immune or highly resistant to your type of damage - you either need a variety of elements or a feat like Piercing Cold.

For example Orb of choose your element covers situation 1 and 3, but would not work in situations 2 and 4. On the other hand, the fameous Fireball covers situation 2 and 4, but is not so hot in case of situation 1 and 3.

If you use any area spells, your allies woud be thankful, if you took Sculpt Spell and probably Selective Spell as well (friendly fire - isn't).

[Lactantius]

If you want a more consistent magic system (means: nerfing conjuration), you could do so and be even on a quasi-official rules-as-written route.

First: the legendary orb spells, always referred to as THE magic damage spells which justify conjuration (vs. evocation) was in 3.0 - guess what? - an evocation spell.
Yes, WotC failed with the release of Complete Arcane - the update of 3.0's Tome & Blood. The Designers came to the strange conclusion that the orbs shouldn't stay in the evocation school any longer.
Anticipate the old path. Undo the 3.5 update and simply put the orbs back into the evocation school, again.
The major change is that the orbs will have SR: Yes, since it is not a conjured element, but an invoked magic out of nothing (which, honestly, is way more plausible than a elemental ball with 15d6 damage since a conjured element would have way less energy capacity).

Second: trade all teleportation spells in 3.0E mode, too. Teleports and its similiar friends were Transmutation spells, indeed.
Again, WotC failed wholly as the powered up conjuration (even more).

Third: tweak mage armor / greater mage armor back to AD&D mode.
Usually, mage armor should be an abjuration spell.
WotC unintentionally admitted that mage armor should still be an abjuration spell in the first place. Source? Check the abjurant champion PrC (Completer Mage) and the ability "abjurant armor."


If you so so, you will still have a powerful conjuration school, but it is focused on its prime functions: summoning, calling, battlefield control and some utility.

I have done so and I find it very refreshing since it is a minor, but nice step to balance out the magic schools.
Choosing a conjurer leads to the point that you choose this specialist just because you want to get better in the disciplines of summoning and calling (and not just get plain better in anything).
It also hurts focused conjurer a bit - which is good.
It strengthens evokers since they are the unique class which can mage magic to damage.

[Thanatosia]

- why do some playgrounders recommend searing spell or born of the three thunders if the OP wants to create a cold-focused mage?
I dunno, maybe cuz

He's trying to specialize in a certain type of energy (cold I think)
DOes'nt sound particularly commited to the frost mage concept and is still open to suggestions if there's a better way to go about it maybe. The OP diffinately did not make it sound at all like the cold-concept is a high priority to the build, or even a locked in concept at all.

I would personally suggest Fire as a focus over Ice, just because as I said, there are more fire spells to build around, and Searing Spell will hit past almost all forms of immunity while it's cold counterpart can still be completely shut down by any creature with the cold subtype. I also think the Reserve feat for fire spells is superior to the ice version which is a short range cone that requires getting up close to the target.

There is a certain counterargument that fire resistance is more common then Cold Resistance, but I dont think it is to that great an extent... I think the most likely case to see frequent play is that Devils are immune to fire but only have resistance to cold (demons have resistance to both). At lower levels Skeletons (very common undead enemy in almost every campaign i've played in) have Immunity to cold but nothing vs Fire.

[koboldish]

Not entirely based on evocation, but I've recently been really into launch bolt chaingun builds. It seems like a pretty cool type of blaster wizard, although you would need to ask someone else about some of the rules interpretations (RAW has problems, go figure).

[Yael]

Not entirely based on evocation, but I've recently been really into launch bolt chaingun builds. It seems like a pretty cool type of blaster wizard, although you would need to ask someone else about some of the rules interpretations (RAW has problems, go figure).

Interesting (for myself), how does this work?

[Captnq]

Well, I would direct you to my sig file. There you will find The Spellbook. It has everything you want to know about spells.

I suggest reading the section on Metamagic. It should clarify much.

As for specific examples. the first thing you should pick up is Energy Substitution (cold). This is the easiest way to make a cold mage. Because then you can get a fire spell, put searing on it, then turn the whole thing to cold.

Again, as for picking classes, HERE (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=5044.msg73050#msg73050) is the list of every spellcasting class availible.

Sorcerer, Spellcaster, Warmage, Wizard, and Wu Jen are all good choices for a starting base elementalist.

However, if he just wants to blast things all day, May I suggest a warlock with Hellrime Blast? That's a whole lot of Cold damage, my friend and it's really simple.

(RANGED TOUCH ATTACK. RANGED TOUCH ATTACK. RANGED TOUCH ATTACK. Repeat until target is dead.)

In fact, he can become an eldritch theurge and advance as both, blasting and spellcasting at a whim.

Otherwise, PrCs that stand out are:
Elemental Archon, Elemental Savant, Frost Mage, Incantatrix, Master Specialist, Rimefire witch, Ultimate Magus, and War Wizard of Cormyr

Do note, this is simply the list of ones to LOOK at, given what you have stated you were interested. Some, if not most, shall prove useless. I leave it up to you to seperate the wheat from the chafe.

And look into Alternate Class features.The Domain Wizard (cold) for example. Evoker substitution levels might help.

[Captnq]

Interesting (for myself), how does this work?

By RAW, it doesn't.

You chain spell a Launch Bolt cantrip. Except that launching bolts is like firing a crossbow without the crossbow. You still make a to to hit roll. Which means you are limited by your BAB as to how many you can fire a round. So I chain launch bolt at 13 bolts, but I still can only shoot two of them.

Some DMs over look this and allow you to fire all of them.



- why do some playgrounders recommend searing spell or born of the three thunders if the OP wants to create a cold-focused mage?


Because Energy Substitution (cold) can be applied in any order. Before or after you apply fire specific Metamagic feats.

For example, the spell Acid Sheath grants you +2 damage per die for all acid spells. Apply Energy Substitution (cold) and now its all cold spells.



- empower and maximize work both on one spell, but the empower effect won't empower the maximized effect. Instead, you must roll the damage and apply empower spell to it and then, add the maximized damage. With enough metamagic reducers and free feats, this is a viable choice, especially if you reach epic levels.


Uh. No. It specificially states under maximize that you can do this.



An empowered, maximized spell gains the separate benefits of each feat: the maximum result plus one-half the normally rolled result.


I don't know how much more clear it can be then that.

[CyberThread]

I would like to bring up the old trusty feat, if your in a city. It is called city dust ( or something like city magic) , it does half the damage of the spell as [city] type damage, ( which like nothing is immune to ), the best part about it, is that it does not change the level of the spell, it is a free add on .

[Thanatosia]

Originally Posted by Lactantius
- empower and maximize work both on one spell, but the empower effect won't empower the maximized effect. Instead, you must roll the damage and apply empower spell to it and then, add the maximized damage. With enough metamagic reducers and free feats, this is a viable choice, especially if you reach epic levels.
Uh. No. It specificially states under maximize that you can do this.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PHB: MAXIMIZE SPELL
An empowered, maximized spell gains the separate benefits of each feat: the maximum result plus one-half the normally rolled result.
I don't know how much more clear it can be then that.
Today 12:10 AM
Um, I think La****us is right (probably) he just did a bad job of stating it that made it technically wrong. What he's technically saying is (roll Damge) x 1.5 + Maximized Damage, I think what he ment to say is ((Roll Damage) x 1.5) - Roll Damage) + Maximize Damage.

So if you have a spell that does 4d6 damage and you apply both, you roll the dice. For the sake of the example lets say you roll a 2, 2, 3, and 5. The total of the roll is 12, So you do

((12*1.5)-12)+(4*6) =
(18-12)+24 =
6+24 =
30 damage

[koboldish]

By RAW, it doesn't.

You chain spell a Launch Bolt cantrip. Except that launching bolts is like firing a crossbow without the crossbow. You still make a to to hit roll. Which means you are limited by your BAB as to how many you can fire a round. So I chain launch bolt at 13 bolts, but I still can only shoot two of them.

Some DMs over look this and allow you to fire all of them.


Once again, forgive me if I'm wrong here, but I think the part where reach spell says that the spell becomes a ray allows you fire multiple bolts as if you were chaining any other ray spell. Perhaps someone could clarify?