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View Full Version : A Challenge (because I can't do it myself) - Blaster Magician, SRD-only



Thexare Blademoon
2007-01-03, 10:05 PM
I've seen plenty of "control is better"-style posts about wizards. This is all well and good, but sometimes I just want to kill it with fire.

So, SRD material only, I'd like to see a blaster arcanist. That means no Psions, no Clerics, just Wizards, Sorcerers, or *snicker* Bards. With all the anti-blaster remarks I've seen, I'm genuinely interested in seeing what a good blaster looks like - because a good controller's been done so many times that I've gotten tired of seeing it, honestly. :smallsigh:

And just to point this out, I'm not saying "you only think blasters suck because you can't make a good one". Actually, I'm much closer to saying "help me because I can't make a good one".

Seffbasilisk
2007-01-03, 10:20 PM
Battle Sorcerer.
Some use activated items that cast spells and wands of blasting spells.
Decent armor.
Robes of displacement, minor.

Demented
2007-01-03, 10:53 PM
A wizard who spends his time making Necklaces of Fireballs and using them as projectile weapons.

Or is that more of a "Walking Inferno Trap" character?

Seffbasilisk
2007-01-03, 10:59 PM
That's a walking Inferno Trap character.

True 'blast' mage. Crafts/buys lots of necklace of fireballs. Buys few Helms of Brilliance. Takes the 'leadership' feat. Gets the lowest level flunky to carry them all into a white dragon's lair with a small wooden box. In the wooden box have time-stopped and dropped as many delayed blast fireballs as you can. (if you have a psionicist, have him quintessance them too) and have the lacky run them all in. Full speed. Right at the white dragon.

Cast 'Teleport'. Get far away.

icedrake
2007-01-03, 11:11 PM
Though wizards might be the archetypal blaster, I'm not sure it suites them very well. Given their highly limited number of spell slots per day, you want them tor eally count, one spell incapastitying one monster indefinitely for the party to own, buff your own party for lots of pwnage or crowd control a large group of baddies at once. Every single spell prepared for combat should be brutal, a fireball doesn't really cut it when you've got a 5 person party with two melee guys and maybe an archer. Drop a haste and each person's getting an extra attack on a full attack and a large boost to ther manuverability. I wish the sorc had better class features (ie some more than just the familar...) because they mage hot blasters. Pick up a few choice spells and fire and forget. Give them some wands for buffs or non-saving throw spells and they are good to go.

Gurgeh
2007-01-03, 11:28 PM
Yeah, blasting is one of the few areas where the sorcerer overshadows the wizard. And the OP isn't trying to argue that blasting is better than control, he's just saying that he wants to play as a blaster and could use some advice for making it semi-decent. After all, the control arguments never really won by proving that blasting was weak, they just pointed out that control is so good that there's no point blasting (unless, of course, blasting is what you want to do :P).

Deathcow
2007-01-04, 12:10 AM
Sorcerer for sure, stock up on spells like magic missile, fireball, lightning bolt, cone of cold, chain lightning, etc. Feats like Empower Spell and Maximize Spell come recommended.

Edit: And Disintegrate. Good grief, I forgot Disintegrate.

Gurgeh
2007-01-04, 12:19 AM
Don't forget Horrid Wilting, either. That one always gives me a chuckle, even though it's not "Abi-Dalzim's" anymore. ;)

Thexare Blademoon
2007-01-04, 01:50 AM
That's a walking Inferno Trap character.

True 'blast' mage. Crafts/buys lots of necklace of fireballs. Buys few Helms of Brilliance. Takes the 'leadership' feat. Gets the lowest level flunky to carry them all into a white dragon's lair with a small wooden box. In the wooden box have time-stopped and dropped as many delayed blast fireballs as you can. (if you have a psionicist, have him quintessance them too) and have the lacky run them all in. Full speed. Right at the white dragon.

Cast 'Teleport'. Get far away.If I come out of this thread with nothing else, it's laughs from this post. :smallamused:

And yeah, Gurgeh's got the right idea here. I know control's better from a mechanical standpoint, I just prefer blowing things up. Nothing says "I don't like you" quite the same way as a fireball to the face.

Devils_Advocate
2007-01-04, 03:41 AM
Heh heh. I remember reading about the effects of that magic item on one gaminig session... I think the poster said something like "My group has concluded that Helms of Brilliance are the tactical nuclear weapons of D&D. You don't even need to actually use one, just prove to your enemy that you have one."

I gather that sorcerers are the traditional blasters. "Chaotic Neutral pyromaniac sorcerer" is a pretty classic character archetype, I think. The choices for damage dealing spells generally seem pretty obvious - the real question is what other spells and feats best round out the character. Fly, for example, lets you rain death on your enemies from above, greater invisibility helps to keep them from figuring out where your attacks are coming from, etc.

Toliudar
2007-01-04, 05:20 AM
Battle sorcerer's great, but the domain wizard variant with the cold, fire or storm domains is also fun.

Archmage with any of the Arcane Fire, Mastery of Elements or (especially) Mastery of Shaping powers.

Spell focus in Evocation and Conjuration, I'd say, although a lot of Conjurations don't have saves.

amanodel
2007-01-04, 08:35 AM
Blast spells are for the sorceror IMO. The CN pyromaniac archetype is just too much fun to resist. Sure an evoker's got better saves, but the sorcerer can do it 1.5x more.

The way I prefer it is to have a decent rooting spell (tentacles, web & friends), then nuke 'em with a couple of maximized empowered fireball. Tell the fighter to wait at your web's end, and chop down anyone who can get out somehow. Tell the cleric to stand near the fighter in case your fireball comes a bit closer.

Also, don't forget to have some magic missile in hand. When your party members run into meelee, you might not want to try the previous option.

Or, when facing many targets, a good thing is to force 'em in a line with well-placed walls of force, and zap the bastards with lightning.

Thinking of it, an incendiary clouds and various cloud spells provide useful.

As a sorcerer you don't have to learn many spells, just use metamagic blatantly.

MrNexx
2007-01-04, 09:23 AM
After all, the control arguments never really won by proving that blasting was weak, they just pointed out that control is so good that there's no point blasting (unless, of course, blasting is what you want to do :P).

Actually, I have argued in the past that blasting has been significantly nerfed from previous editions; it will still kill most things of equal HD within 3 hits (assuming they don't have Mettle or Evasion-like abilities), but the empowering of lower ability scores (>11) and the general improvements in character ability means that blasting is less effective than it was in editions prior to 3.0.

SMEE
2007-01-04, 11:28 AM
For blasting, Wizards are so so. Sure, you'll get plenty of wands, scrolls and other stuff to blow up things with, but those have limitations and won't help you when you need to break that SR.

A sorceror is a better choice. Maximize Spell and Empower Spell are must have feats. You'll want to dip a few levels of ArchMage for energy substitution, as sometimes that fireball won't cut it, but an ICY fireball will do wonder.

Also, try to diversify the type of your AOE spells. Focus on having at least one cone, one blast, one line AOE spell in your repertorie, no matter what is their element.
And always save a few spell slots for the ever useful Scorching Ray. Being a sorceror means you can spill it out with a level 9 spell slot if need be.
Don't be ashamed to waste higher level spell slots with minor ones like Magic Missile, Scorching Ray or an Acid Arrow. You have lots of spell slots for this very reason.

Since you'll be using lots of ranged touch spells, a high dex (ie. 14) will be needed to help your hitting odds.

That's the advice I can give for now.

Godhand
2007-01-04, 11:55 AM
If your looking for a straight blaster, go with a Warmage from Complete Arcane. Along with being able to wear some armor, those guys can add their intelligence bonus on to damage for every spell. Sure they suffer from MAD and so-so class abilities, but if your looking for a blaster, those guys are the way to go since.

Awetugiw
2007-01-04, 12:53 PM
What level are we thinking here?

High level sorcerer with archmage Mastery of Elements, Mastery of Shaping and, since you're a sorcerer maybe Mastery of Counterspelling...

Ooohhhh... Blasting fun for all!

Fax Celestis
2007-01-04, 01:31 PM
Battle Sorceror with the Metamagic Specialist variant, with Widen, Empower, and Heighten metamagics.

Branching out of the SRD, Chain and Smiting metamagics are good, especially if you plan on being a Gishblaster. Dip into Incantatrix for Easy Metamagic.

Felan
2007-01-04, 02:16 PM
You might think about taking 1 or 2 of the reserve feats from complete mage. With a sorceror, leaving 1 spell slot unused may qualify you for a few of the reserve feats at once, and allow you to blast things every round, even if it is only a level 1 kobold.

edit:
never mind, you said SRD only. It's right there in your post... egad...

Roderick_BR
2007-01-04, 03:00 PM
If you want to be a good blaster, some points:
Get some meat shields. And be sure to don't hit them.
Variate: Get Fireballs, Lightning Bolts, and some ice damage spells, just in case. Acid is good too, with a few sonic ones around.
Amunition: Get wands. know when to use them wisely, since they can be costy.
Personal Spells: The usual: Mage armor, Shield, Expeditious Retreat, Blink, and for the love of Bockob, memorize Protection from Arrows, and USE it, unless you want to become a Mlood Magus..
Some mundane equip: Flash stones, entangling bag things (dont remember the name), caltrops, rope (it's never too much to have a escape route)
And never underestimate the usefulness of slow level spells. When you can deal 5d4+5 damage with Magic Missile, it's good to hit lone targets. Leave the are spells for stronger enemies, or big groups. A Grease spell will greatly reduce a target's Save rolls, and Obscuring Mist and others effects makes it hard for someone to target you, but still allows you to area blast... ;)

Ah, an interesting tool: Staffs. If you have a staff that has a higher caster level than you, you can use it to power your own spells, without wasting the staff's charges.
For example: You cast fireballs at a 6th caster level. The staff casts Fireballs at 8th caster level, at cost of 2 charges. If you have Fireballs memorized (or is a sorcerer that learned Fireball, and has available slots), you can "burn" one of your own spells, and the staff will cast it as a 8th caster, but you won't spend any of the staff's charge.

icedrake
2007-01-05, 03:39 AM
Get wands of scorching ray with a higher claster level than normal, you don't want wands that have a save for half damage becuase its 10 + spell level. Staves on the other hand, I believe use all of your casting statitisics to determine the save and caster level of the spell used.

I'd also concur with a previous poster's thought on laying down some crowd control to keep people bunched up, either Evard's tenicles or Solid Fog. I think Solid Fog's one of my new fav spells.

Picking up a few reserve feats would also help, they would let you blast lightly with a decent save for decent damage.

JaronK
2007-01-05, 03:59 AM
EDIT: Drat, just realized it's SRD only. Nevermind. But this is still a fun solution, even though it grabs from Dragon (Easy Metamagic), Races of Stone (SCM, Earth Sense, Earth Spell), PHBII (Arcane Thesis), and Complete Mage (Residual Metamagic). Oopsie!

Gnome Wizard15/Shadowcraft Mage, taking the racial substitution levels and the following feats (assuming you jet into SCM at level 8, then finish up wizard later):

1: Spell Focus: Illusion 3: Earth Sense 5: Heighten Spell 6: Earth Spell 9: Easy Metamagic (Heighten Spell) 12: Residual Metamagic 15: Fell Weaken, Arcane Thesis (Silent Image) 18: Quicken Spell

Now this is some serious blasting power. You're doing simulated spells using Silent Image and the SCM 3rd level ability, heightening Silent Image from level 0 (from the racial sub level) straight up to one less than the actual level of the spell, and gaining +1 Caster Level for each level you heighten, plus one. Result?

Let's say I want to launch a meteor shower at something. I cast it using Silent Image, Heightening it to 9th level. Because of Easy Metamagic, it takes an 8th level slot. Because of Earth Spell, it counts as a 10th level spell with +9CL. It's got another +1CL because you're a gnome and a further +2 from Arcane Thesis, for a rather impressive +12CL (and yes, you can do this at level 15!). Without changing level, the effects of Fell Weaken and Silent Spell are both thrown into the mix (feel free to cast in silence!). Boom. But wait, there's more... next round use Residual Metamagic to launch an identical spell (or any other 9th level evocation, conjuration (summoning), or conjuration (creation) spell of your choice) with a 0 level spell slot. That's right, you can Cantrip Meteor Swarm at +12CL.

For giggles, throw in an item that generates a planar bubble of your native plane around you, plus the item from Tome of Magic that gives the dark template... now all your shadow nukes are automatically maximized for extra fun.

Now THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is why plan B should always stand for Boom.

JaronK