Quick Wizardly question.

[tadkins]

I came up with a Diviner/Loremaster wizard character concept that I plan on trying out in my next game. Basically your ultimate know-it-all type, focusing on knowledge skills and making sure the party is properly prepared for what is to come. Beyond that though I'm not sure what I'll be doing. I know Knowledge Devotion will likely be a must, but truth be told I'm not sure what I could do with that as a wizard.

Any ideas/suggestions that could help me expand on this? Assume most books save Dragon Magazine stuff available.

Edit: For RP purposes I plan on investing in a few things that might seem sub-optimal. The character I had in mind is a traveling merchant with ranks in Craft (Alchemy) and Profession (Gemcutting), with Forge Ring and Brew Potion as feats. Beyond that though I'm open to any other optimization ideas.

[Zanos]

With all knowledge skills as class skills, you can use spells that hit lots of times to do a lot of extra of damage. With a max Knowledge Devotion check, each magic missile suddenly does 1d4+6 damage. Your DM might hit you for that, though. More reasonably is that ray attacks become pretty awesome, because you're potentially getting a +5 to hit with your ranged touch attacks.

The spontaneous divination class feature may be of use to you. It's in complete champion on page 52. It allows you to trade prepared spells for spontaneous casting of divination spells, which is awesome if you have tons of divination spells known. You have trade your wizard bonus feat at level 5 to get it.

Also from complete champion is the REDACTED, which flavorwise might be good to fill out your build. It's a five level prestige class with knowledge themes that has a set of abilities you can pick one of at every level, some of which are fairly nice.

[tadkins]

Interesting, thanks. :) So I'm looking at Diviner 5/Loremaster 10/Paragnostic Apostle 5 so far, grabbing the Spontaneous Divination feature at level 5 along with a bit of stat investment in Dex for ranged touch attacking?

If I wanted to add a touch of dark to the character, would it work if I turned to the Necromancy school and used those Knowledge checks to blast people with Enervation spells along with missiles/rays?

[KillianHawkeye]

So I'm looking at Diviner 5/Loremaster 10/Paragnostic Apostle 5 so far

Better check your prereqs. Can't get into Loremaster until 8th level at the earliest.

[nedz]

Knowledge Devotion would add it's bonus to hit and damage to any weapon like spells.

So a roll of 20 on the relevant Knowledge skill would get you +2 to hit with your Enervation, and do 2 points of negative energy damage. This is normal HP damage, albeit typed, not +2 negative levels.

[tadkins]

Better check your prereqs. Can't get into Loremaster until 8th level at the earliest.

Ah sorry. I didn't mean that's the exact order of the progression, just the overall total of what levels of each class there'd be. I'd figure out the actual order when I built the character.


Knowledge Devotion would add it's bonus to hit and damage to any weapon like spells.

So a roll of 20 on the relevant Knowledge skill would get you +2 to hit with your Enervation, and do 2 points of negative energy damage. This is normal HP damage, albeit typed, not +2 negative levels.

Ah, thanks. So I'd be better off focusing more on damaging spells than debuffing with a build like this?

[Zanos]

Knowledge Devotion would add it's bonus to hit and damage to any weapon like spells.

So a roll of 20 on the relevant Knowledge skill would get you +2 to hit with your Enervation, and do 2 points of negative energy damage. This is normal HP damage, albeit typed, not +2 negative levels.

Ennervation has no damage roll, and therefore receives no benefit, damage wise, form knowledge devotion. Sneak attack would add bonus damage in this case, but knowledge devotion would not.

Moreover, Kn Devotion applies to all damage roles, and is not only limited to weapon-like spells.

[Psyren]

I recommend Master Specialist from Complete Mage. The abilities it gives Diviners are pretty nice, and you can even qualify at 3rd-level, squeezing a few more levels into your build.

[tadkins]

I recommend Master Specialist from Complete Mage. The abilities it gives Diviners are pretty nice, and you can even qualify at 3rd-level, squeezing a few more levels into your build.

Ooh, interesting. Those are pretty good abilities, thanks for the suggestion. :)

Tough choice now, debating which combination I want to go with.

[Slipperychicken]

I came up with a Diviner/Loremaster wizard character concept that I plan on trying out in my next game. Basically your ultimate know-it-all type, focusing on knowledge skills and making sure the party is properly prepared for what is to come.


Finally, a character for whom the fluff of Uncanny Forethought (Exemplars of Evil pg 26) actually makes sense. Basically, it means that your character is so paranoid and well-prepared that you can basically pull spells out of your *** and say he prepared them in advance. (EDIT: As expected, it's incredibly overpowered. Remember the prerequisite of spell mastery).


[We can link to dndtools without getting mod-rage now? I remember getting a warning for that a year or two ago. Something about linking to copyrighted content.]

[Zanos]

Finally, a character for whom the fluff of Uncanny Forethought (Exemplars of Evil pg 26) actually makes sense. Basically, it means that your character is so paranoid and well-prepared that you can basically pull spells out of your *** and say he prepared them in advance. (EDIT: As expected, it's incredibly overpowered. Remember the prerequisite of spell mastery).


[We can link to dndtools without getting mod-rage now? I remember getting a warning for that a year or two ago. Something about linking to copyrighted content.]
I've posted a couple links without getting modded, although I am still rather new. I'll axe the link to be safe.