Good Shadowcaster Builds?

[supersonic29]

I wanna go for a likely suboptimal shadowcaster run in an upcoming campaign and I wanted to hear what paths people think are the bests with mysteries, what feats people choose, good races, all that jazz. Also experienced with the class- if its abysmal to play or tons of fun y'know

[Extra Anchovies]

Shadowcaster doesn't get enough uses per day of its abilities to be all that effective; even in low-op they run out of stuff quickly. However, Wizard 1 (with Precocious Apprentice)/Shadowcaster 3/Noctumancer 5/Shadow Adept 1/Noctumancer +5/Mystic Theurge 5 is a really nice build.

Regardless of whether you want to multiclass, ask for Ari Marmell's Shadowcaster fixes (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?184955-Shadowcaster-fixes-by-Mouseferatu&p=3273239&viewfull=1#post3273239) to be implemented.

Regarding paths, I like filling out Ebon Whispers, Dark Terrain, Unbinding Shade, Black Magic, Dark Metamorphosis, and Shadow Calling. Dark Reflections is also really good.

[frogglesmash]

Before you even get started, have you seen the suggested fixes (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?184955-Shadowcaster-fixes-by-Mouseferatu&p=3273239&viewfull=1#post3273239) for the class? They're written by mouseferatu aka Ari Marmell, one of the authors who worked on Tome of Magic, so they're pretty legit.

Edit: Damn ninjas.

[gorfnab]

In my signature is the link to the Compiled Shadowcaster Handbook.

Noctumancer and Mystic Theurge are actually great option for Shadowcaster prestige classes, mainly that multiclassing with another casting class will help offset the limited uses of mysteries.

[Troacctid]

For feats, Still Mystery and Shadow Familiar are the two go-to bonus feats, I think. Still Mystery automatically removes somatic components from your mysteries, so you can cast in any kind of armor without arcane spell failure. Shadow Familiar gives you a familiar that has the Dark template, which is great for scouting and skill checks and stuff and can be upgraded with other feats.

Ebon Roads is my personal favorite path. Extradimensional travel is great.

[supersonic29]

Many thanks for everything guys! Not sure if I will gun for the fixes to be implemented because, between you and me, this is going to be a really easy time of a campaign so I might as well play vanilla and see what I can pull out that way. The handbook is absolutely perfect to give me guidelines to go by. Those feats definitely seem like the way to go, I expect to take them. Cheers!

[G'dir]

I'm also having difficulty finding a good shadowcaster build. What I want is a Max DMM divine/shadowcaster (arcane) build resulting in dual 9 at the end. I have a fairly good DMM side, but how to integrate the fully functional shadowcaster side is troubling. We don't do Gestalt. The DM allows races with natural spellcasting, such as Rakshasa and marrutact (HD are dropped, LA is kept ignoring racial HD except for 1). I was considering this initially:
(Racial: True Necromancer)//Cloistered cleric 1/wiz1 (maybe)/Pragnostic Apostle 5 (4 with wiz)/Doomdreamer 1/Faith Scion 10/War Priest1/Bone Knight 1
This requires some cheese, Psychic Reformation, and some templates/lvl drain stuff to work.
How could I add the Shadowcaster to this? Obviously we could make the Wiz an illusionist, but...

The DM has given us 4 feats that can only be used for a pre-requisite of something else. We are using flaws, all published materials, Dragon magazine content.

[The Viscount]

Also for reference the incomparable Piggy Knowles has a handbook which includes some fleshed out builds and discussion of the online paths.

As for the dual class that's difficult. If you have 1 level of wizard and then enter shadowcaster, you can trade it for another shadowcaster level, but keeping some of your original stuff. If you're using the right PrCs you can enter and advance your mysteries, a lot like with warlock.

[barakaka]

Remember to put a lot of stock in your Shadowmagic Items. A scroll/wand here or there helps out a lot when you only have a few mysteries per day.

[ATHATH]

I'm also having difficulty finding a good shadowcaster build. What I want is a Max DMM divine/shadowcaster (arcane) build resulting in dual 9 at the end. I have a fairly good DMM side, but how to integrate the fully functional shadowcaster side is troubling. We don't do Gestalt. The DM allows races with natural spellcasting, such as Rakshasa and marrutact (HD are dropped, LA is kept ignoring racial HD except for 1). I was considering this initially:
(Racial: True Necromancer)//Cloistered cleric 1/wiz1 (maybe)/Pragnostic Apostle 5 (4 with wiz)/Doomdreamer 1/Faith Scion 10/War Priest1/Bone Knight 1
This requires some cheese, Psychic Reformation, and some templates/lvl drain stuff to work.
How could I add the Shadowcaster to this? Obviously we could make the Wiz an illusionist, but...

The DM has given us 4 feats that can only be used for a pre-requisite of something else. We are using flaws, all published materials, Dragon magazine content.
I think that you should play a necromancer instead. You've already shown quite an aptitude for it.

In case you haven't "gotten" it yet: You committed thread necromancy. This thread is from 2015.

[Bonzai]

I've played one as a shadow pouncer gish. Went shadowcaster to assassin to teflammar shadowlord. Frankly I was glad I was a Gish, as I would have quickly run out of things to cast if I was solely dependent on casting mysteries.