Save my dex-based eldritch knight! (Core Only)

[RoboEmperor]

I've been brainstorming all day with my new dex-based eldritch knight, and it's making me crazy! Please either settle my worries that it won't be worthless baggage in a campaign or put me out of my misery and just shoot it down. Core only by the way, my DM is a bit of a mad dictator :(

32 point buy
STR: 8
DEX: 16
CON: 8
INT: 14
WIS: 8
CHA: 18

Progression is:
Fighter 1, Sorcerer 6, Eldritch knight 10, Sorcerer 3.

Feats
1- Dodge, Eschewed Materials, Weapon Finesse
3- Silent Spell
6- Empower Spell
8- Improved Initiative
9- Maximize Spell
12- Craft Arms and Armor
15- Craft Wondrous Item
18- Quicken Spell (for automatic quicken spell at epic levels)

The PLAN
1. Get to level 7 via bows and spells. Only behind 1 spellcasting level in exchange for bow-ability.
a. Should I use enlarge person? (str mod becomes 0, 1d8 bow becomes 1d12, but I lose 1AB, 1AC and 2 dex, resulting in a loss of 2 AB and 2AC for +3damage)

2. For levels 7-11 use Flame Arrow to double my bow DPS

3. Level 10, grab a polymorph spell (or 11? is stoneskin better?) and melee when need be. With eschewed materials, I can practically cast most of my spells polymorphed given that my new form can talk and have hands. I should have decent AC from mage armor + shield.
a. Can anyone recommend a particular form or forms?

3. Level 12, craft a +1 bow of flaming, frost, and shocking to quadruple my bow dps (double my dps from #2)

4. Level 14, craft a +1 Kukri of flaming, icy, shocking burst, and thundering, make it keen via keen edge (not gonna make the weapon keen because it's already too expensive), cast reduce person (most of my damage is from elemental damage and criticals anyways), and switch between spells, arrows, and melee

5. End game, I'll be mainly blasting empowered/maximized scorching rays and disintegrates, baleful polymorph/PaO, hold monster, and dominate person for my save or die spells, moment of prescience and enervation to make it easier

btw I'll have a ton of buffs on at all times like heroism/greater heroism, cat's grace, haste, etc.

So what do you guys think? This viable? Should I change my ability score? Like lower my DEX or CHA for higher STR and CON? Should I just scrap weapon finesse and go 14str, 14dex, grab a two-handed weapon and power attack? Honestly though, I don't want to put too much in my physical stats because I can cast most of my spells polymorphed.

[Xerlith]

Grab Slippers of Battledancing.

A dip in Spelldancer lets you persist Haste.
If you go Swiftblade instead of Eldritch Knight, you might enjoy the gishy abilities more than the plain chassis of EK.
In any case, maybe swap the Fighter level for a Warblade level.
Take a look at the Abjurant Champion - it's better than returning to Sorcerer.

A dip in Cleric gives Travel Devotion and any other Devotion feat or Domain power you choose - aim for something that gives a non-scalling power. War is an example of this. A free weapon proficiency and weapon focus in the chosen weapon.

Scrap the Eschew Materials feat. Spell Component pouch costs 5gp and ends all your component problems.

Sorcerer6/Swiftblade1/Spelldancer1/Warblade1/Swiftblade+8/Abjurant Champion 3 nets 16 BAB, 8th level spells (at 16th CL), free persisting spells, Iron Heart Surge to deal with Fatigue, the feat Bind Vestige nets you Naberius to deal with ability damage.

If you prefer,

Sorcerer6/Swiftblade3/Spelldancer1/Swiftblade+6/Abjurant Champion 4 gives you almost the same, but with a level faster spell progression, but you need to grab your fatigue negation somewhere else.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Eldritch Knight is filler, it's not something to base an entire character on. Use a respectable gish build, such as Paladin or Fighter 2/ Sorcerer 4/ Spellsword 1/ Abjurant Champion 5/ Sacred Exorcist 8. That gets 9th level spells and a +16 BAB at 20th level. It's necessary to be good aligned with a Sorcerer-based gish due to Sacred Exorcist and Ancestral Relic for this trick (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=267805#4), plus (Greater) Luminous Armor in BoED benefits from Abjurant Champion, you'll need to take Arcane Preparation or put it on your Runestaff.

You cannot have a respectable gish without Power Attack due to (Lesser Rod of Extended/Persistent) Wraithstrike. Polymorph gives you forms like War Troll, so going two-handed high-Str is your best course of action.

If you want to be blasting and using ray spells, change your build completely and forget about Eldritch Knight. Go Spellthief 1/ Sorcerer 4/ Unseen Seer 2/ Spellwarp Sniper 5/ Unseen Seer 2/ Arcane Trickster 6. The Rules Compendium clarified that volley spells such as Scorching Ray that take a full-round action to cast will deal precision damage such as Sneak Attack on every shot, so take Invisible Spell and all your Scorching Rays are a full-round action for no level increase, plus nobody will see where the shots are coming from. You can get the Acidic Splatter reserve feat and always have a ranged touch attack to use. Still get Ancestral Relic for a custom Runestaff, you can also still use (Greater) Luminous Armor with Invisible Spell so nobody will see it. Take Versatile Spellcaster and put Acid Arrow 1/day on your Runestaff so as long as you have two 1st level or one 2nd level spell slot available you can use Acidic Splatter. Get a +1 Ring of Protection and take Item Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/itemFamiliars.htm) for it, upgrade it yourself to a Ring of Invisibility with a +1 Deflection bonus to AC added per MIC p234, you'll only pay the crafting cost of the Ring of Invisibility. An item familiar is an intelligent item which is regarded as a construct, which has many benefits including being able to take actions in combat. After you cast your spell for the round the ring can activate its own invisibility effect on you before you move, making it so you're always invisible when casting your next spell so you'll always get sneak attack damage.

[RoboEmperor]

Ah I forgot to mention to try and keep it to core only. My DM is literally a mad dictator against most expansions, saying that they lead to all kinds of abuses. Not even magic compendium or CA are allowed saying runestaves and thought bottles are broken. Thanks for the great advices btw! I'll be sure to use those gishes with another DM

[Vhaidara]

If you're grabbing this many metamagics, I would recommend (especially in Core only) grabbing Still Spell. It will let you cast in armor.

[RoboEmperor]

If you're grabbing this many metamagics, I would recommend (especially in Core only) grabbing Still Spell. It will let you cast in armor.

I had a two-handed STR/CON based EK build with still spell, but then I learned that mage armor and full plate do not stack... neither does mithral chain and mage armor, which is one of the reasons why I'm trying to go a dex build XD. The 4 AC I get from Fullplate is not worth the 25% ASF (mithral) that comes with it IMO. Is that many metamagics bad? I am going EK solely for the end-game and epic level BAB bonus.



You cannot have a respectable gish without Power Attack due to (Lesser Rod of Extended/Persistent) Wraithstrike. Polymorph gives you forms like War Troll, so going two-handed high-Str is your best course of action.


Ok I'll swap out improved initiative for power attack, I didn't think about using power attack while polymorphed, but how can you go tw-handed high-str with polymorph? Doesn't your weapon meld into your newform and therefore is unusable?

[Vhaidara]

You don't qualify for Power Attack. Str 13.

When a sorcerer uses a metamagic feat, it makes the spell take a full round action to cast. So I don't think they can even quicken.

[RoboEmperor]

You don't qualify for Power Attack. Str 13.

When a sorcerer uses a metamagic feat, it makes the spell take a full round action to cast. So I don't think they can even quicken.

Right, right, no power attack. Oh well, most my damage is from my elemental enchantments anyways. I know DEX EK is not optimal, but my question is: is it viable? Like... "Good enough" or "it'll work".

The quicken spell is solely for epic levels, specifically automatic quicken spell. That's why I get it last. I get it pre-epic because I don't want to waste an epic feat on a pre-epic.

[Vhaidara]

Honestly, it depends. If the rest of your group is a cleric, a wizard, and a druid (all assuming optimization), you're irrelevant unless you are also a full caster. But if you have a healbot cleric, a utility (stealth and traps) rogue, and a fighter going with feats like Weapon Spec you'll be fine. These forums tend to assume high levels of optimization, where the game is kind of pointless once 4th level spells come into play.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Ah I forgot to mention to try and keep it to core only. My DM is literally a mad dictator against most expansions, saying that they lead to all kinds of abuses. Not even magic compendium or CA are allowed saying runestaves and thought bottles are broken. Thanks for the great advices btw! I'll be sure to use those gishes with another DM

In that case, just make a single-classed Druid with Natural Spell for now. Show him that Core contains some of the most unbalanced stuff, and that limiting sourcebooks only restricts creativity and fun.

[RoboEmperor]

So from what I've read so far:
1. STR build is superior than DEX due to two-handed power attack
2. Full caster > Gish in core only because game ends with level 4 spells

and what I already know is:
1. Two-handed > all other weapons (ranged, two weapon, shield and sword)

So a valid question would be:
If I were the only arcane caster in my group, are we screwed? Because:
1. I'm not a wizard
2. I use a bow instead of two-handed weapon
3. I am 2 levels behind a true sorcerer, and the advantage of higher AC, and shooting flame-arrowed bow attacks (thus allowing me to contribute to kill mobs without wasting spells on them) is nowhere near comparable to the higher spell level?

[Vhaidara]

Again, it depends on your group and your GM. You can still fill your role. My concern was if someone else in the group was going to fill your role, but better than you (possibly the worst feeling in DnD). As far as your questions

1. Because you're not a wizard: not at all. Wizards are not necessary for fun or success.
2. Because you're using a bow not a 2HW: not unless you're the only arcane caster AND you're supposed to be the frontline. In which case, of course you're screwed, you're using a bow when you're supposed to be the frontline!
3. Again, unless your group is optimized, it isn't a problem at all. Will you be weaker than someone who is powerbuilding? Yes. Will you be useless? no. I'm in a campaign with a sorcerer who dropped a level of casting early (we're ECL 6, so he still lacks 3rd level spells), and he's doing fine.

One thing you may want to consider since you're not overly concerned with power (as far as I can tell) is, instead of a level of fighter, 2 levels of paladin might be better (Cha to saves). Yes, you will not get 9ths by 20, but you clearly plan to go into epic, and you can still level Sorcerer there to get 9s.

[RoboEmperor]

Again, it depends on your group and your GM. You can still fill your role. My concern was if someone else in the group was going to fill your role, but better than you (possibly the worst feeling in DnD). As far as your questions

1. Because you're not a wizard: not at all. Wizards are not necessary for fun or success.
2. Because you're using a bow not a 2HW: not unless you're the only arcane caster AND you're supposed to be the frontline. In which case, of course you're screwed, you're using a bow when you're supposed to be the frontline!
3. Again, unless your group is optimized, it isn't a problem at all. Will you be weaker than someone who is powerbuilding? Yes. Will you be useless? no. I'm in a campaign with a sorcerer who dropped a level of casting early (we're ECL 6, so he still lacks 3rd level spells), and he's doing fine.

One thing you may want to consider since you're not overly concerned with power (as far as I can tell) is, instead of a level of fighter, 2 levels of paladin might be better (Cha to saves). Yes, you will not get 9ths by 20, but you clearly plan to go into epic, and you can still level Sorcerer there to get 9s.

Thanks, no my sorcerer is not the frontline, she is the sole arcane caster though. The reason why I didn't go the 2 paladin route was because my char is nowhere near lawful good. She's either true neutral or neutral evil. That and I don't want her to be dependent on some deity.

So you're saying it's ok to use a bow with 8str, 16dex, and 8con? Will the two 8's be an issue as my role as the caster? (at least until level 10, which then I become a polymorphed caster)

Anyways, you've been most helpful!

[Vhaidara]

You should be fine. The Con is a bit worrying, but I have paranoid flashes about any character with a Con below 14 (I ended up with a 12th level scout who had less than 40HP last time I did that). The Str stops you from grabbing a composite bow with extra damage, so if you could swap it with you Int (I understand skill points then become a problem), that could be a thing.

[RoboEmperor]

You should be fine. The Con is a bit worrying, but I have paranoid flashes about any character with a Con below 14 (I ended up with a 12th level scout who had less than 40HP last time I did that). The Str stops you from grabbing a composite bow with extra damage, so if you could swap it with you Int (I understand skill points then become a problem), that could be a thing.

How devastating would it be for me to lower my CHA to 16 and raise my CON to 14? It seems plausible to trade 5% more success rate for +3hp per level. The high int is for:
1. Concentration
2. Spellcraft
3. Knowledge: Arcane
-These three are non-negotiable
4. Move silently (don't need hide thanks to greater invisibility, but still need move silent)
5. Craft weapon and bowmaking, all maxed out at 14. I plan on using fabricate to craft my masterwork component, so greater heroism + int mod + 14 = 20. I need a masterwork bow by level 12, and masterwork kukri by 14, so I'll probably max those two first and then up move-silently.

This char will be assassin-y, sneaking around, scouting, assassinating via moment of prescience maximized disintegrate, and using blade and bow whenever spell fails or not worth it. But due to constraints, she will just be a plain archer/caster until higher levels, specifically until she hits 14. Thats when she can craft the kukri and get disintegrate though maximized scorching ray is a fine substitute early levels, though it would only start shining at level 9

[Vhaidara]

Well, especially if you're taking silent spell, you could just cast Silence on yourself instead of MS.

The loss of Cha wouldn't be crippling, but it is better to have the higher stat. Like I said, I happen to be paranoid about low Con scores. If you were starting at level 1 as Sorcerer, I'd be more concerned, but Fighter will give you a HP base so you won't die to a stray shuriken.

[RoboEmperor]

Well, especially if you're taking silent spell, you could just cast Silence on yourself instead of MS.

The loss of Cha wouldn't be crippling, but it is better to have the higher stat. Like I said, I happen to be paranoid about low Con scores. If you were starting at level 1 as Sorcerer, I'd be more concerned, but Fighter will give you a HP base so you won't die to a stray shuriken.

Silence spell! How did I miss that! Now I gotta spend the next few hours mulling over move silently v.s. silence.
On one hand, silence would make me absolutely deadly to any caster without see invisibility or true sight, and 100% success v.s. any listener, even epic levels.
On the other hand, i have to spend full-round actions for all of my spellcasting for the duration and burn a level 2 slot for it.

Hmm... I will probably go with silence

Wow! You have been extremely, extremely helpful! Thank you!

And I think i can get away with the low CON. Like you said I got a fighter base, and EK has higher hit die, and call me crazy but I kind of want the low CON score. Makes me play her less fighter like and more stealthy like.

[Svata]

What race are you?
Nevermind, looked closer, saw 3 feats at first level, gotta be human.

[Sian]

Silence spell! How did I miss that! Now I gotta spend the next few hours mulling over move silently v.s. silence.
On one hand, silence would make me absolutely deadly to any caster without see invisibility or true sight, and 100% success v.s. any listener, even epic levels.

Not allways ... if in natural settings they might notice the lack of noise :smalltongue:

[RoboEmperor]

Not allways ... if in natural settings they might notice the lack of noise :smalltongue:

XD, I thought about that too, so as long as I stay 20ft away from him/her i should be fine :P

[Sian]

XD, I thought about that too, so as long as I stay 20ft away from him/her i should be fine :P

my thought was actually in lines of animal life fleeing the scene since they spot you, hence the ambience quieting, and paying enough attention to notice that

[RoboEmperor]

NEVERMIND, no silence. It's not a sorcerer/wizard spell, it's a bard or cleric spell. Ah well, sticking with move silently for now.

[Ikeren]

A brief guide to core only gishing:

For a core only gish, you need to make some choices, and you don't seem to have made them:
1) Wizard or Sorcerer ---> You seem to be chosing sorcerer here
2) Fighter or something else ---> Fighter provides bonus feats, but since in core, there aren't tonnes of good feats, Paladin 2 is a typical join with sorerer, because you get Charisma to Saves at second level.
3) Fighting Style or Casting style ---> Even if you go (Paladin2/Sorcerer 6/Eldritch Knight 10/X2) or Fighter 1/Wizard5/Eldritch Knight 10/X4, you can still choose to focus most of your feats around casting. In core, that's item creation feats, metamagic feats, and DC/penetration feats --- the last of which you won't have stats to use. If you go casting style, your "gish" levels are really just backup power/increasing hit dice/bab/saves.
4) If you pick fighting style, pick between Two Handed Fighting, Two Weapon Fighting, and Ranged Fighting.

So: Builds:
Fighter 1/Wizard 5/Eldritch Knight 10/X4 --- 2 fighter bonus feats, BAB 13 with 4 levels left, only 2 lost Wizard caster levels. If you go Fighter +1 and 3 more levels of 1/2 BAB (Archmage or Wizard, say), you get 16 BAB and 17th level casting, which is the "gold standard" for gishing.
Paladin2/Sorcerer6/Eldritch Knight 10/X2 --- You get charisma to saves and other minor paladin goodies. Regardless of what X2 is, you get 16+ BAB, but your maxed at 17th level sorcerer casting; only 8th level spells. You can start with fighter here as well, going
Fighter1/Sorcerer6/Eldritch Knight 10/X3 --- but you can't get both BAB16+ and 18th level sorcerer casting (in core).

Point buy:
If melee based: Str 16, Dex 8, Con 14, Wis 8, Int or Cha 16 (other 8) = 26 points, 6 remaining to boost low stat of choice
If two weapon or ranged: Str 14, Dex 15, Con 14, Wis 8, Int or Cha 16 (other 8) = 30 points, 2 remaining to boost low stat of choice or str-dex-con by one.

You get 7 feats, +1 for human, +1 fighter for eldritch knight 1, +1 or 2 fighter if you go the wizard route.

You pick a combat style:
Two handed brute: Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave. Get a big weapon, power attack and deal damage. Cleave gets progressively less useful as you level (3 feats).

Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Improved Trip: You use a guisarm and armor spikes to threaten a 10 foot reach (15 with enlarge person) and trip people everywhere. (Uses 3 of 9-11 feats)

Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, and possibly Improved Precise Shot, Manyshot and Farshot: You wield a bow, using rapid shot to get an extra attack. Yay! (Uses 3-6 of 9-11 feats)

Two Weapon Fighting, Improved Two Weapon fighting, Greater Two Weapon Fighting: You two weapon fight and make lots of attacks. Most of the spells that provide bonus damage are unfortunately, not core, but still works. (Uses 3 of 9-11 feats): Improved shield bash lets you use a shield as your offhand weapon (it's got d6, 20*2) for an AC bonus at the cost of using a weaker weapon.

General melee feats to seriously consider on all these builds: Power Attack, Improved Initiative, Leadership (if not banned, a cohort, even a basic core only bard or wizard with buffs and item creation feats and a crossbow is excellent).

Casting Feats you want to consider for your gish: Metamagic Extend, Quicken, and Still: For buffs, and casting in armor (though you're better off trying to get armor that doesn't weigh you down so much): Mithril Chain Shirt has only 10% ASF, and a mithril buckler has none. Mage armor and bracers of armor +X also help.

Crafting feats you want to consider for your gish: Craft Magical Arms and Armor, Craft Wondrous Item are unequivocably the most versatile.

If you're going the primary caster route, you are already sort of disadvantaged by not having an 18 in your primary stat (though the melee based could pull it off by dropping dex). You're going to look at metamagic empower, metamagic maximize, Spell Focus, Greater Spell Focus, Spell Penetration, Greater Spell Penetration and an 18 in your primary stat.



This char will be assassin-y, sneaking around, scouting, assassinating via moment of prescience maximized disintegrate, and using blade and bow whenever spell fails or not worth it. But due to constraints, she will just be a plain archer/caster until higher levels, specifically until she hits 14. Thats when she can craft the kukri and get disintegrate though maximized scorching ray is a fine substitute early levels, though it would only start shining at level 9

Given what you write here, you almost seem like you really want to be running a Rogue3/Wizard5/Arcane Trickster 10. But either way: Decide what you want to do (hint: Bow + Sword + magic is a few too many), then pick appropriate feats.

Maximized scorching ray requires a 5th level slot; that's only 2 levels before you get disinitegrate.

In your original build, Dodge, Eschew Materials, Weapon Finess, Silent spell are all feats to drop. If you want to play the sneaky-caster archetype, pick Rogue3/Wizard5/Arcane Trickster 10 and then consider silent spell and weapon finesse.

If I was going to play a core only gish, it would look like this:
Fighter 1/Wizard 5/Eldritch Knight 10/Fighter +1/Wizard+1/Loremaster+2
Str: 16, Dex: 14, Con: 14, Wis 8, Int 16, Cha 8. Level ups to intelligence.
Level 1 Feat: Combat Expertise. Fighter Feat: Combat Reflexes. Human Feat: Improved Trip
Level 3 Feat: Craft Wondrous Item
Level 6 Feat: Leadership
Level 6 Wizard Feat: Craft magical arms and armor
Level 7 Eldritch Knight Feat: Power Attack
Level 9 Feat: Extend Spell
Level 12 Feat: Still Spell
Level 15 Feat: Quicken Spell
Level 18 Feat: Skill Focus: Knowledge Arcana. Loremaster returns this feat: Use it for whatever you want at 20.
BAB: 16. Saves: 12/5/11.
If Fractional BAB was allowed, Wizard5/Loremaster3 would get you an extra secret and skills at the cost of 1 will save.

[Sian]

Furthermore ... Bow + Magic (of the damage kind) have slight issues pairing together on the meta level since they overlap to much with to little one (bow) can do which magic can't ... Sword + Magic, you have a choice if you want to wack someone with a sword (since you're to close to dare throwing spells without getting nailed with AoO or spell AoE), or stand at a distance tossing spells

a Caster focusing on Bow combat, should probably focus on Utility and buff spells so it doesn't have the same ammount of overlap

[RoboEmperor]

Great post! I will refer to your EK build as the one of the most optimized builds and try not to stray too far XD

I guess according to you, I'm not really looking to play a gish, but instead, a caster with a really high BAB, because I'm really only going EK for the BAB. BAB for ranged touch attacks, BAB for polymorphed forms, and BAB for additional attacks per round.

Having said that, arcane trickster isn't what I'm looking for because although they are stealthy, their BAB progression is just as bad as a normal caster.

So, this char is not a gish, just a caster who traded spell levels for BAB and can buff herself to use dex weapons decently v.s. generic mobs. Most, if not all of her weapon damage is from elemental enchantments and according to my calculations, the dps on my EK with a triburst kukri compared to a two handed EK with a triburst falchion is about half, even less if the two handed EK uses power attack.

So yeah... my char here is severely unoptimized... but who cares XD. She can cast a ton of scorched rays and disintegrates; baleful polymorph, dominate person, and hold monster for save or die spells, got the usual broken arcane caster stuff like planar binding, and her weapon usage is decent enough to help kill mobs not worth wasting spells on or be used as a decent backup when all her spells are used up.

Thank you all for your input! This has given me a better understanding of the game.

[Ikeren]

I guess according to you, I'm not really looking to play a gish, but instead, a caster with a really high BAB, because I'm really only going EK for the BAB. BAB for ranged touch attacks, BAB for polymorphed forms, and BAB for additional attacks per round.


Oh! That's totally fine!

Then I'd go heavier on the caster feats and lighter on the melee feats, and with the weapon just as back up. You can do your combat style using your fighter bonus feats, of which you'll get 2 or 3 (Power attack/Cleave/Great Cleave, Combat Expertise/Combat Reflexes/Improved Trip, Point Blank Shot/Precise Shot/Rapid Shot, or Two Weapon Fighting-Improved-Greater), and dedicate all your normal feats to casting things as ordinary. There is nothing wrong with running a "gish" like that, just that...we got to be clear about what we mean, since sometimes the term means "primary melee with a splash of casting" and sometimes "primary casting with a splash of melee." :smallbiggrin:

[PlotPirate]

One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet, or maybe I just overlooked it in which case my apologies, is the type of arrows you'll be using. If I may suggest I find most archer/gishes benefit greatly from arrows of spell storing. It costs 8,000 gp for 50 arrows. Which as a caster you can place spells into to help out your damage output, and even battlefield control to some extent. normally I'd recommend the orb of [insert element of choosing here] and lesser orb of series of spells but as you're limited to core some good picks might be.

Lv 1- charm person, shocking grasp
LV 2- Shatter, Blindness/Deafness
LV 3 - Vampiric Touch, Suggestion, Dispel magic (targeted version)

Also you can apply metamagic to spells stored in the arrows without actually raising the spell lv, since spell storing can only hold up to a lv 3 spell. A maximized/empowered Vampiric touch or Shocking grasp can really add some oomph to your hits. Finally if you have a cleric buddy, he can cast his cure spells into the arrows, not the ideal way to heal an ally, but cure serious wounds at 120ft range, for as many shots as you can hit your friend with that round works a lot better than one casting at touch range.

Hope that helps a little.

[Vhaidara]

I'm sorry, but I need to go and build a Zen Archer who uses spellstoring arrows for spot healing in combat.

[RoboEmperor]

I've decided to go
STR:14
DEX:14
CON:12
INT:14
WIS:8
CHA:16

with feats power attack, improved initiative, and eschewed materials (you can't persuade me out of this feat! I'm obsessed with self-sufficiency and this feat makes me 99% independent of shops :P)

I'll just go power-attack crazy with a two-hand weapon, enlarge person, heroism, and bull's strength behind the frontline with a reach weapon, but if survivability is still an issue, I guess I can temporarily go +4 composite bow with the same buffs, except with the addition of flame arrow, but unlikely because I'll have decent AC.

Having said that... this is no longer a dex-based eldritch knight :(

[Techwarrior]

I'm sorry, but I need to go and build a Zen Archer who uses spellstoring arrows for spot healing in combat.

Off-topic, but arrows of healing are already a thing. (I want to say in the Ravenloft book?)

[Ikeren]

Also, spellstoring is only on the "melee weapons property" table and not the "ranged weapons property" table.

[Yogibear41]

I would drop the dodge feat, and lower my int to up my con if I were you. Also there was something about empower spell being technically better than maximize spell or something too, so you might want to switch those. Yeah I'm blind :smallsmile:

Leadership is core :smallsmile:

Spell Penetration, Combat Casting, Run, Weapon Focus could be used in place of dodge and are all decent enough. What is the rest of your party doing?

[RoboEmperor]

Spell Penetration, Combat Casting, Run, Weapon Focus could be used in place of dodge and are all decent enough. What is the rest of your party doing?

Yeah, I'm skipping dodge. I misread it that it gives 1 AC, but instead it gives 1 AC against only 1 target.
I don't know what the rest of my party is doing, we're all just planning at the moment.

As for spell resistance, I'll just either melee the guy down or shoot the guy down

I'll also be dropping quicken spell because
1. Autoquicken spell requires 30 spellcraft, so I'm gonna get it deep into epic.
2. Forge ring. I want the +5 deflection ring, and the 10 spell storing ring. Who can say no to a feat that gives you a free maximized disintegrate?

[Yogibear41]

Unless you use it on an undead or a construct the critter is probably going to save against the disintegrate anyway, just keep that in mind.