Unseen Seer Build

[static783]

Hello All. For a campaign that I have started, I was planning on trying an unseen seer build. The campaign does plan to run until level 30 or so.

I wanted to properly plan out my first twenty character levels, and decided on the basic build:

Rogue 1 / Wizard 5 / Unseen Seer 10 / Arcane Trickster 4

I am a human (I can't change this now, but I'm allowed to shuffle my starting feats still), and we get to have a flaw feat trade. Also, on top of that, all characters, regardless of class or race, get Weapon Finesse and Able Learner for free.

So my planned feat progression thus far is this:

Auto:

Weapon Finesse
Auto:

Able Learner
Human:

Craven
Flaw:

Darkstalker
Level 1:

?
Level 3:

Extend Spell
Wizard Bonus Feat:

Acidic Splatter
Level 6:

Persistent Spell
Unseen Seer Bonus:

Silent Spell
Level 9:

Practiced Spellcaster
Level 12:

Arcane Thesis (Hunter's Eye)
Level 15:

?
Level 18:

?

I was wondering what feats would be most useful? Also, I have seen no prerequisite for metamagic feats on d20srd. Am I allowed to take them at level 1 even though I am a rogue? Have I already completely picked the wrong feats so far?

I am pretty set on the level progression, I have read many of the forum posts about the pros and cons of beguiler/spellthief, and I feel like this progression best suits what role I am looking to fill in the party.

Please let me know what you think, and thank you ahead of time.

[Darrin]

I was wondering what feats would be most useful?


I'm partial to Staggering Strike (CAdv), although by your BAB it's not available until ECL 12ish... works for your ECL 15 feat. For ECL 18... Arcane Strike (CWar), or maybe another reserve feat? Minor Shapeshift is always fun.

For stealthy stuff, Shape Soulmeld: Kruthik Claws is good for a +4 competence bonus on both Hide and Move Silently. Shape Soulmeld: Mage's Spectacles for +4 on UMD could also come in handy.



Also, I have seen no prerequisite for metamagic feats on d20srd. Am I allowed to take them at level 1 even though I am a rogue?


By the Rules As Written (RAW), you don't need to be a spellcaster or cast spells to pick up the entry-level metamagic feats. Some DMs might get twitchy over this, though.

[Ellowryn]

I would recommend against too many levels in Unseen Seer though. No more than 2 as starting at third level you start losing caster level for anything but divination spells. So while it does have better BaB progression than Arcane Trickster, i would recommend taking no more than two levels of Unseen Seer.

[DrMartin]

well, practiced spellcaster fixes the caster level loss for divination spellpower.

Spellthief (with master spellthief later) and Scout are alternatives to that first level of rogue you could consider. There was a cool build on the wizards's forum called something like "something for everyone" that used a scout/sorcerer unseen seer with spell list aimed at having a counter to everything I think.

[Troacctid]

I would recommend against too many levels in Unseen Seer though. No more than 2 as starting at third level you start losing caster level for anything but divination spells. So while it does have better BaB progression than Arcane Trickster, i would recommend taking no more than two levels of Unseen Seer.

Naw, it's fine, that's what Practiced Spellcaster is for. It's worth it for the extra skills and stuff.

A good feat to fit in, depending on your alignment, would be some form of Improved Familiar. Celestial Familiar (BoED) for a coure eladrin if you're CG, Planar Familiar (PlH) for a lantern archon if you're non-evil non-chaotic or an imp/filth imp or quasit if you're any kind of evil. Familiars share all of your skill ranks, so they are very good if you have a lot of skills, since they can aid your checks to give you +2 on everything, or just roll their own checks to effectively let you roll twice and take the better result. The specific familiars I mentioned are also piled with a fantastic array of spell-like and supernatural abilities that will rock your socks.

Lantern archons have Aid and Greater Teleport (self plus 50 pounds of objects) at will, both of which are awesome, and they also get Detect Evil, Tongues, and a constant Magic Circle Against Evil.
Coure eladrin have Faerie Fire at will, and I cannot stress enough how important that is on a sneak attacker, since concealment shuts off sneak attacks and Faerie Fire shuts off concealment. They can also turn incorporeal at will and they have a ridiculous Hide mod, making them the ultimate Scouts, and they have at-will Detect Magic, Detect Evil, Tongues, and Magic Circle Against Evil, plus a few Magic Missiles just in case.
Imps and quasits have all-day invisibility, 1/week Commune, some minor shapeshifting, at-will Detect Magic and Detect Good, and a 1/day ability (Suggestion for imps, Fear for quasits, Stinking Cloud for filth imps). They're generally solid, although a tier below the good-aligned guys IMO.

Nymph's Kiss (BoED) is also a good feat if you're good-aligned.

[static783]

Thank you Darrin for your help and suggestions! I'll be looking into them as well.


I would recommend against too many levels in Unseen Seer though. No more than 2 as starting at third level you start losing caster level for anything but divination spells. So while it does have better BaB progression than Arcane Trickster, i would recommend taking no more than two levels of Unseen Seer.

If I am not mistaken, doesn't taking practiced spellcaster nullify that? As I gain character level, I still gain Wizard caster levels normally.


Spellthief (with master spellthief later) and Scout are alternatives to that first level of rogue you could consider. There was a cool build on the wizards's forum called something like "something for everyone" that used a scout/sorcerer unseen seer with spell list aimed at having a counter to everything I think.

I was going to mention that I did consider the other entry classes for this, such as scout/spellthief/ninja/ and warlock/beguiler/warmage/sorcerer. I feel like Rogue Wizard would give me what best compliments the rest of the party. Also, we started play and I'm locked into Rogue, the DM is just letting me change my entry feats because he's nice.

Also, Troacctid, thank you for your suggestions as well! I'll definitely read up more on those.

[Troacctid]

There's also Psychic Rogue (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723b), which would lose you 8 skill points at 1st level but give you minor manifesting. (This essentially translates to a +10 circumstance bonus to Bluff from Conceal Thoughts, the ability to use dorjes off the PsyRogue list, and the ability to gain psionic focus and take 15 on Concentration checks.)