The Magister

[LoyalPaladin]

Good morning!
I am here in the stead of my wizard companion, to see if we can help him out with his Epic Spellcaster (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=635129) he is playing on Friday. Currently he is built as so: Wizard 8/Sorcerer 1/Ultimate Magus 10/Rainbow Servant 10/Knight of the Weave 1. All WotC material is okay.

This is the culmination of about a year of planning (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?405401-Holy-Crossbow-Devil-Hunter). We've finally got our table assembled and we're setting out for a weekend long epic adventure. His sheet looks pretty solid to me, but I'm not a wizarding genius.

Any helpful suggestions would be great, but let me list a few things that we need help with the most:
Spontaneous Blasting Spell Selection Prepared Utility Spell Selection Ultimate Magus Shenanigans Magic Item Selection (5mil gp to spend) Feat Selection


This is the same wizard that was just a fledgling mage (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?416720-A-Paladin-Teaching-a-Wizard-What) so many moons ago.

To top all this off, he has the Magister (http://www.realmshelps.net/monsters/templates/magister.shtml) template. So are there any spells you would recommend being immune to? Outside the standard Antimagic spells, that is.

There is a small list of spells that have been banned by the DM. The spells in this list are:
Mordenkainen's Disjunction
All teleports that are not line of sight
All forms of Celerity
All forms of planar travel
All forms of Miracle
All forms of Wish
Stasis
Genesis and similar spells


Thank you all for your future input!

P.S. (He is supposed to be a super disciple of Mystra, for fluff reasons. He also does a lot of things with the spell weave, also fluff reasons.)

[RolkFlameraven]

Can't really help but how on earth did I miss that 'Mystra's shield' makes the Magister immune to Psionics, just flat out? I'm sure it was supposed to make it so aboleths and Mind Flayers and such couldn't use their stuff but how its written a Epic Psion couldn't use any powers, directly, on the Magister!

Then again, I guess it could be working as intended and Mystra and Auppenser had an agreement so no Psion would kill the Magister, back when you got the job that way, and take the title for themselves despite not using the weave... huh, now theirs an idea.

[LoyalPaladin]

Can't really help but how on earth did I miss that 'Mystra's shield' makes the Magister immune to Psionics, just flat out? I'm sure it was supposed to make it so aboleths and Mind Flayers and such couldn't use their stuff but how its written a Epic Psion couldn't use any powers, directly, on the Magister!
Yeah, the template is crazy good.

[Snowbluff]

You need mithril bucklers. 2 of them. One of them Empyreal (BoED) for better saves, the other just +5 for more AC. Don't forget Soulfire, either.

Also, get a Pheonix Cloak, a Ring of Spellbattle,

Friendly Fire is one of my favorite spells for a reason. Use it. Additionally, Wings of Cover and Greater Mirror Image are also good immediate action spells. Wings of cover can be made into an Eternal Wand and put in the wand chamber on your +5 Defending Spike Gauntlet.

Wings of Flurry, Orbs, Hail of Stone are good blasting spells. Check sandstorm and frostburn for other spells, those books are generally good for things like making enemies turn into salt, etc.

Double check your Ultimate Magus levels. If your Wizard CL is above your Sorcerer CL, it will progress sorcerer more, IIRC.

[LoyalPaladin]

<Super handy information>
Thanks, SB! I'll run that all by him. He does have a mithral buckler, soulfire armor, and currently he has a double khopesh with defending on each end, which I am not entirely sure is legal?

Sandstorm and Frostburn, check. We're spending the entire adventure in Baator, FYI. Starting level 30.

[DarkSoul]

I feel like the Knight of the Weave is a wasted level. Read and Detect Magic at will, and 2 extra first level sorcerer spells seems like a bit of a letdown. With Epic Spellcasting in your feats chosen, I'm pretty sure Ultimate Magus shenanigans will fall a little short of what you could be doing.

That being said, however, Incantatrix seems like a better follow-up class to Ultimate Magus than Rainbow Servant. The capstone ability of Incantatrix makes Ultimate Magus that much better, allowing Quicken to be applied with a third level slot and Persistent Spell to only cost a 5th. The bonus metamagic feats given by the Incantatrix increase the flexibility of Ultimate Magus as well.

Re: Double defending. I don't think the bonuses from each end of the weapon stack, since they're created by multiple instances of the same effect and thus would be the same type of bonus. This would mean that only the highest value would apply, not both. (Edit: I was incorrect, defending stacks with everything, even itself, it appears...)

[Snowbluff]

Thanks, SB! I'll run that all by him. He does have a mithral buckler, soulfire armor, and currently he has a double khopesh with defending on each end, which I am not entirely sure is legal? Defending Spike Gauntlets sounds like a safer bet.



Sandstorm and Frostburn, check. We're spending the entire adventure in Baator, FYI. Starting level 30.

Baator? Any weapons you're using for fighting should be holy and silver. Make sure to have mindblank and/or immunity to enchantments and divinations. Furthermore, spell resistance and maybe a way to be immune to Sonic could help with Blasphemy. Oh, and fire resistance.

[DarkSoul]

I'm confused how you're getting 9th level spells as both a sorcerer and wizard with this character. I'm also not sure how you're taking Initiate of Mystra at level 18, without the requisite 3 cleric levels.

I would drop the Practiced Spellcaster feats, Force of Personality, and the epic crafting feats and move Twin Spell down to nonepic if you really want to keep it, then take two more nonepic metamagic feats and take Intensify Spell at 27th and Improved Metamagic at 30th. Extend and Empower nonepic and Persistent Spell at 24th become +0, +1, and +5 spell level metamagic feats respectively at 30. Twin spell is alright, but intensifying an orb spell is a lot of damage, without a save or SR.

[NeoPhoenix0]

Must have spells:
Wall of force
magic missile
grease
glitterdust
web

as far as blasting spells go, i like boreal wind from frostburn for those crowds of enemies.

feats:
heighten spell
for blasting consider an energy substitution feat orb spells are great but in some situations other spells can be better and this helps get around resistance.

and that is about all the effort i care to muster at the moment. to much junk going on.

[LoyalPaladin]

Awesome input guys! I don't really have control of this sheet, but I'll shoot him the link to this thread and tell him to get the ball rolling.

[Werephilosopher]

To top all this off, he has the Magister (http://www.realmshelps.net/monsters/templates/magister.shtml) template. So are there any spells you would recommend being immune to? Outside the standard Antimagic spells, that is.

If by antimagic spells you mean AMF and dispelling, you can't be immune to those with the Magister template; its immunity works as spell immunity, so it only works on spells that offer spell resistance.

[DarkSoul]

I played around with the character, switching out the Rainbow Servant levels for Incantatrix and the Knight of Mystra level became one of Archmage. I'll probably fully develop the character as an NPC, but you guys are welcome to look it over, steal ideas, and ask any questions that come up:

Magister Redux
(http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=651919)
This version has a large gap between the sorcerer and wizard levels, because the only sorcerer level advancement comes from Ultimate Magus. Because of this disparity, this character uses the upper level sorcerer spell slots almost exclusively to fuel Intensified and Persistent spells via Augmented Casting. Incantatrix levels and a list of metamagic feats allow him to modify his allies' spells both as they're cast and, if they leave a persistent spell effect like blade barrier or wall of force, he can add his metamagic feats to them after casting too.

Two uses of Instant Metamagic from Incantatrix allow some Intensify tricks on spells that are either higher than 5th level or already have metamagic applied, such as the orbs of cold that have no reason not to be empowered unless specifically saved for intensifying... or an enhanced, empowered, instant-intensified orb of cold...300 + 25d6/2 damage, no SR, save vs. blinded next round but take full damage anyway, oh and it's sonic damage because Archmage. You could bump it to 8th level and twin it if you really want. At that point it hits harder than disintegrate by quite a bit (600 + 50d6/2 damage) with no save against the damage. This is just damage dealing, by the way. He IS the Magister after all, there's a whole list of things he can do with this kind of control over magic that don't involve dealing damage. This just illustrates that he's pretty good at hitting hard if he needs to be.

[Flickerdart]

Can I just say how silly the fluff of the Magister template is? Here's a guy charged with promoting magic in the world...so he secludes himself and hides his identity, and has a bunch of magic resistance powers that, if anything, discourage magic use because people see that spells fail against this powerful guy.

[LoyalPaladin]

Magister Redux
(http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=651919)
Dear lord. That's awesome. He'll love it.

This is actually one of my favorite characters that I've had to the pleasure of partying with. This guy is basically a mix between Sandy (http://dreamworks.wikia.com/wiki/Sandy_(Rise_of_the_Guardians)), the Fairy Godmother (http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Fairy_Godmother), and Antonio Banderas (http://images6.fanpop.com/image/polls/1194000/1194040_1363824928620_full.jpg).

He makes a demi-plane for children to use as a creative space when they are sleeping, helping shape them into kind hearted people with an eye for wonder.

[DarkSoul]

Can I just say how silly the fluff of the Magister template is? Here's a guy charged with promoting magic in the world...so he secludes himself and hides his identity, and has a bunch of magic resistance powers that, if anything, discourage magic use because people see that spells fail against this powerful guy.I agree, but disagree that the Magister secludes him- or herself. Hiding their identity lets them work in peace. I think the defensive abilities are warranted simply because of how many people would try to kill or control the closest thing to a Chosen of Mystra in existence without actually being one. It's like Dumbledore crossed with Batman. :smallbiggrin:

[RolkFlameraven]

Point of fact, you used to become the Magister if you kill the magister in a mage duel. Mystra changed that because there was like 6 in one year or something, but LOTS of people still believe you can get the job if you kill the current one. Its like Spell Fire in that regard, you can't get it but lots of people think you can.

I think 'go kill the magister' is up there with 'kill Elminster' and 'kill The Simbul' for how higher ranked Red Wizards get rid of powerful, or foolish, lower ranked ones.

[LoyalPaladin]

Point of fact, you used to become the Magister if you kill the magister in a mage duel. Mystra changed that because there was like 6 in one year or something, but LOTS of people still believe you can get the job if you kill the current one. Its like Spell Fire in that regard, you can't get it but lots of people think you can.

I think 'go kill the magister' is up there with 'kill Elminster' and 'kill The Simbul' for how higher ranked Red Wizards get rid of powerful, or foolish, lower ranked ones.
True that. This guy is fairly well taken care of though haha.