[3.5] Fire/Ice mage

[RFLS]

Hey, Playground - I have an optimization challenge for you. Before we start, some disclaimers:


I know blasting is "bad." I don't care.
I know fire and cold damage are commonly resisted. Still don't care.
I'm aware that there are better things a wizard or sorcerer can be doing with his time. See points 1 and 2 for my opinion here.
I'd like this to be mostly playable in a ~T3 game from level 1.


Okay, with that all said, here's the question: How do I go about making an arcane caster that focuses on tossing out fire and cold spells all day, every day? Things that are already on my shopping list include Searing Spell, Snowcasting, Lord of the Uttercold, Energy Substitution, Energy Admixture, Wall of Ice/Wall of Fire, the Orb line of spells, and...I think that's it. So. Suggestions? General blastiness appreciated, looking for spells, feats, and solid Prestige Classes.

[Kuulvheysoon]

Don't forget the Piercing Cold feat.

If you can, try and be a [dragonblood] creature to grab the feat Draconic Aura, and nab either Cold or Fire to add a stacking bonus to the DC of said spells.

[Dusk Eclipse]

I'm thinking that going Elven Generalist into Incantatrix (droping Enchantment) and maybe grabbing Elven Spell lore for a spell with a neat rider effect (not sure which one, cause Orb of Fire has the best rider already).

[Vhaidara]

If your statblock allows it, I would suggest Sor with the Spontaneous Metamagic from PH2. You trade familiar for metamagic without cast time increase 3+INT modifier/day. And then you also have Sor spells/day.


My other suggestion would be Warlock, then grab up Hellrime and Brimstone blasts. With a few tweaks from online, warlocks become such utterly beautiful blasters.

[Xuldarinar]

Not necessarily the most thought out or thoroughly optimized, but this is what I got off the top of my head.

Wizard 4/Cleric 1/Frost Mage 1/Silver Pyromancer 5/Frost Mage +9

Substitution and admixture towards both fire and cold would be greatly beneficial. Arctic Priest would allow for spontaneously casting certain spells, my advice would be to making your environment as cold as possible via control weather, which would result in a +1 or even +2 to CL to your cold spells, which also can be fire spells, that means up to CL 22 just between the Pyromancy class feature and the Frozen Magic feat. Cold Spell Specialization adds damage to your cold spells at a rate of +1 per die (below 40F) or +2 per die (below -20F).

All in all the build, or at least the idea behind it, is wrapped around casting spells that are both (fire) and (cold). Eschew materials should make it so you can add (cold) to your fire spells for free, and then just make sure conditions are optimal to boosting DCs, CL, ect. for (cold) spells.

If it were not for alignment conflicts, I'd suggest Winterhaunt of Iborighu instead of Frost Mage

[Socratov]

So you wanna play Richard? (http://lookingforgroup.wikia.com/wiki/Richard)

Well, you could start with becoming a necropolitan, be CE, and the rest you fill in with the dreaded mailman build (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1765181).

[Ruethgar]

Since you are already going dual focus on your spells, I would suggest the Wizard of Sun and Moon ACF. Prepare fire spells for the day and cold for the night.

[Deox]

The Energy Gestalt tactical feat could be really fun here.

[Piggy Knowles]

You know, a funny thing about fire and cold is that, while on their own they are pretty awful energy types, together they're actually pretty great. They have a lot of feat and spell support in the game, and while fire or cold resistance is fairly common, very few creatures actually resist both elements.

In any case, Ultimate Magus always makes a fun blaster (see the Nuker (http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3451291) for an example).

Alternatively...

Silverbrow Human, Simple Wizard (Focused Specialist Conjurer) 3/Master Specialist 2/Ruathar 3/Wizard +2/Unseen Seer 10

For feats, make sure you take Draconic Aura as Kuulvheysoon suggested for that meaty +4 to the DC of your fire/cold spells. The levels are timed so that you can take Martial Stance at level 10 for Assassin's Stance, giving you sneak attack to progress with Unseen Seer (the Simple Wizard variant lets you take fighter feats instead of metamagic feats). Ruathar gives you all the skills needed to get into Unseen Seer.

With Snowcasting, Piercing Cold/Searing Spell and Energy Admixture, you'll be firing off supercharged Orbs of Fire with a crazy high daze DC thanks to Draconic Aura, and dealing sneak attack damage (preferably boosted with Hunter's Eye) to boot. You should be able to do this more or less all day with Focused Specialist spell slots and twenty levels of straight casting...

[Gwendol]

Warmage, with said metamagic feats. That way you can blast away without spending another thought on spell selection. You could boost WIS and pick up the cold domain spells through arcane disciple (looks like most fire domain spells are on the warmage list anyway).
Not the most powerful choice by far, but simple and straightforward.

[Feint's End]

What about a sorceror using the Words of Power alternative Magic System from Pathfinder? Just load up on the effects you like an combine them to different forms of elemental damage in any size and shape.

[Kane0]

I'd second warlock with Brimstone and Hellrime blasts. Take Hellfire warlock too of course. If you are allowed homebrew then even better.

A warmage might also work for you if you can pick up the spells you want.

[Ruethgar]

With hellfire warlock remember uncanny trickster and legacy champion, they are your friends.

[Socratov]

With hellfire warlock remember uncanny trickster and legacy champion, they are your friends.

be careful though and pick up the protection from books spell...

[herrhauptmann]

Two of the Iron Chef competitions delved into this.
If you check both the pyro- and cryo- kineticist threads, you'll find characters that did the fire/ice thing. I think both were specifically psionics rather than arcane, but it's another option for you.

[RFLS]

Not necessarily the most thought out or thoroughly optimized, but this is what I got off the top of my head.

Wizard 4/Cleric 1/Frost Mage 1/Silver Pyromancer 5/Frost Mage +9

Substitution and admixture towards both fire and cold would be greatly beneficial. Arctic Priest would allow for spontaneously casting certain spells, my advice would be to making your environment as cold as possible via control weather, which would result in a +1 or even +2 to CL to your cold spells, which also can be fire spells, that means up to CL 22 just between the Pyromancy class feature and the Frozen Magic feat. Cold Spell Specialization adds damage to your cold spells at a rate of +1 per die (below 40F) or +2 per die (below -20F).

All in all the build, or at least the idea behind it, is wrapped around casting spells that are both (fire) and (cold). Eschew materials should make it so you can add (cold) to your fire spells for free, and then just make sure conditions are optimal to boosting DCs, CL, ect. for (cold) spells.

If it were not for alignment conflicts, I'd suggest Winterhaunt of Iborighu instead of Frost Mage


You know, a funny thing about fire and cold is that, while on their own they are pretty awful energy types, together they're actually pretty great. They have a lot of feat and spell support in the game, and while fire or cold resistance is fairly common, very few creatures actually resist both elements.

In any case, Ultimate Magus always makes a fun blaster (see the Nuker (http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3451291) for an example).

Alternatively...

Silverbrow Human, Simple Wizard (Focused Specialist Conjurer) 3/Master Specialist 2/Ruathar 3/Wizard +2/Unseen Seer 10

For feats, make sure you take Draconic Aura as Kuulvheysoon suggested for that meaty +4 to the DC of your fire/cold spells. The levels are timed so that you can take Martial Stance at level 10 for Assassin's Stance, giving you sneak attack to progress with Unseen Seer (the Simple Wizard variant lets you take fighter feats instead of metamagic feats). Ruathar gives you all the skills needed to get into Unseen Seer.

With Snowcasting, Piercing Cold/Searing Spell and Energy Admixture, you'll be firing off supercharged Orbs of Fire with a crazy high daze DC thanks to Draconic Aura, and dealing sneak attack damage (preferably boosted with Hunter's Eye) to boot. You should be able to do this more or less all day with Focused Specialist spell slots and twenty levels of straight casting...

These two are great - I really like these suggestions. Also, thank you for linking the Nuker. Not only did I enjoy that build, but I went to one of the others in that series, and found a fun gish build that I'd been unaware of, too.