[3.p] Pimp my gnome (Or keeping illusionists relevant)

[wintersjackson]

One of my players with little prior experience is wanting to play an archetypal Illusionist in our upcoming campaign. Now, i'm fine with that, but taking a look at the illusion school's abilities, there doesn't appear to be anything that useful. I mean, couple of good effect spells and lots of illusions.

Any advice (For me or for him) for giving him more of a contribution to combat? So far I've given him knowledge devotion to make use of the stupid-high intelligence, but i'm betting you guys can come up with better than that. No cheese, relatively low-op, and preferably sticking to the "Illusionist" theme.

Starting level 6.

[koboldish]

If you take the Gnome Illusionist substitution levels as well as heighten and earth spell, you can get into Shadowcraft Mage pretty early. His DCs will probably be high enough that spamming Color Spray still does stuff. After he gets Shadow Conjuration/Evocation as a class feature, he'll be able to do much more with his illusions. From there, he can either focus on raising his DCs or raising how real his illusions are. Shadowcraft Mages have a ton of usefulness in combat, and have ridiculous amounts of utility. There's a great guide somewhere on the internet.

[DMJeff]

CON> At the very least perhaps he will find his own way. Illusion and enchantment can be a great support character. Picking on humanoids for quite a few levels to come. And maybe remind the new player. Lower will's are usually on the fighter types. And the caster types usually have the best chance to save.

[nedz]

Played well: an Illusionist can dominate combat, played poorly: the room will have some nice wall paper. The former does rely on the opponents not all having true sight up, but that should be OK at level 6.

[Yuki Akuma]

Gnome Illusionist 3/Master Specialist (Illusionist) 4/Shadowcraft Mage x is fairly solid. You won't be able to get into Shadowcraft Mage right away, obviously (you need to be able to cast 4th level spells first), but it's something to aim for.

As for tactics to employ... well, check out shadow spells, for a start. They can do things like disabling and battlefield control, and actually have real effects. You also have a lot of good defensive spells, especially ones that grant miss chances.

[gorfnab]

This may be of some use: Shadowcraft Mage Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=5638.0)

[purpenflurb]

Knowledge devotion won't be that useful if he is a caster, in most cases using a sword will be the worst of his options. As previously stated, you can do a lot with illusions if you are creative. And past there, shadow evocation/conjuration or shadowcraft mage make illusions extremely potent.

[wintersjackson]

Oops. First read had me thinking Knowledge devotion applied to party members. Some great advice though, should work a treat. :smallsmile:

EDIT: Wait, how are you supposed to get into Master Specialist level 4? You need 5 ranks in each of the skills. Screw it, got it written up now, it can stay =/