Help with a highly thematic "enchantress" LVL 15

[Albions_Angel]

Hi all,

Building another NPC/PC today. This time its Jarl Astrid Gundridr, the "Faerie Queen". Ive never built anything quite like this before so its probably easiest to give you my restrictions and let you go to town.

Astrid is a powerful "enchantress" with fey ancestry, specializing in enchantment spells (not particularly illusion spells). But, she also needs to have enough blasting to hold up in a fight (and be damn scary at doing so).

She MUST be a high elf
She MUST take Fey Heritage at lvl 1
She MUST take Improved Familiar before or at lvl 15 (shes getting a PF faeire dragon, the only bit of PF in my world atm).

She SHOULD be a Sorcerer base (I really dont want a beguiler. Yes, I know they are preferable for what I want. But form over function on this one).

If somehow there are floating feats anywhere, any of the other Fey Heritage feats will fill them.

Prestige classes are welcomed, as is multiclass, but try to keep it simple.

All first party books (just to be clear, try not to use Dragon Magazine) are allowed.

Im looking for a basic class progression, feat progression and some must have spells. I can mess with the rest myself.

Thanks

[Eldariel]

Not Beguiler, but have you considered Bard/Sublime Chord? Cha-based casting at about the same pace, high skill points as you'd expect of a fey heritage caster (most importantly for all the Charisma-skills), various very powerful mass enchantment abilities in forms of Bardic Music (most notably Fascinate and Suggestion use the Perform Check as DCs meaning they're practically impossible to resist). You'd of course use Perform: Oratory (singing or the like) so it wouldn't functionally be much different from spells. Just an option that feels a bit more "fey" to me. It also gets some signature enchantments like Irresistible Dance earlier than any other option (indeed, it's the only way to get the spell this early).

Be that as it may, enchanters have one major problem: there are countless things that can't be affected. Bards can sidestep this to a degree with Bardic Music feats but to get your Charm/Dominate spells and the like to work on Undead/Elementals/Oozes/Plants/Constructs - nothing short of Polymorph Any Objecting them into something else seems to work. Well, Song of the Dead [Dragon Magazine] works for spells too (but if you want to charm/command undead, there are specific, great spells for that in Command Undead and Control Undead). There is also the issue of Protection from Alignment spells and later Mind Blank negating much of what you can do but you can sneak some spells past Protection. You'll have to (as DM) figure out precisely what it protects against. The most narrow reading only has it protect against the Charm-line, Dominate-line, their ilk and Possession effects, while the broadest reading has it protect the party from basically every enchantment. This affects the spells to learn; e.g. Confusion is an incredibly powerful spell against enemies it works against, but if it's blocked by Magic Circle/Protection from, its stock goes way down. Most reasonable readings say it should probably not be blocked but the broadest readings would make it ineffective.


There aren't too many classes for enchanters if you go Sorcerer. Mindbender 1 for the Telepathy is nice (kind of a big deal for an Enchanter) but rest of the class is pretty useless: most of the remaining class features just replicate spells you'd know anyways (Detect Thoughts, Suggestion, etc.). Nightmare Spinner [Complete Mage] says it could be adapted to Enchantment to bypass mind-affecting immunity which would make it really, really useful but you'd have to actually make the adaptation as it's not quite that straightforward. It would easily be worth losing one caster level for if you do though - it would be amazing. Wild Soul [Complete Mage] seems interesting. It loses 1 caster level but is heavily Fey-themed getting some new spontaneous spells and Fey summons. It's less of an enchanter option though. Fatespinner [Complete Arcane] is great for 4 levels to play with enemies' saves and to force rerolls to get stuff through. Divination like Detect Thoughts, Scrying, etc. goes hand in hand with being an enchanter as does shape altering and disguising magic like Alter Self or Polymorph (Any Object).

Spell selection advice in Enchanter Handbook (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?471594-Enchanter-Handbook-D-amp-D-3-5-(Zarzak-CantripN)) with some added advice at in Treantmonk's Guide (http://bg-archive.minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=394.msg8102#msg8102). Notable enchantments include many of the Power Words, Charms and Dominates, and of course the Rays (and Mind Rape [BoVD] if he ever got 9th level spells). Memory alteration in general is kinda big deal á la Programmed Amnesia, Modify Memory and company. You should naturally blend Illusions (at least one of the major "does everything" from the Silent Image, and obviously some Invisibility-spell) with your enchantments perhaps even adding some fear-effects from Necromancy, and then you wanted some blast spells so do so (though seems like an odd choice of weapon for an enchanter). If you want for them to do good damage, perhaps spend your Prestige Classes on something like Incantatrix or Dweomerkeeper instead for the metamagic reduction and pump some metamagic feats into your bombs. You don't really need classes to be an enchanter - just a spell selection and feats. Unsettling Enchantment is a near must as a feat if you plan on them casting any combat enchantments.

[Albions_Angel]

That is very helpful, thanks :)

And it actually bounced me back to a thread I rather like, Priya the Prismatic Priestess. While its not exactly what I want, theres enough there for me to rip out and play with.

It cant be bard Im afraid. The area has 9 Jarls, each a different, distinct class. One of the others is a bard. I know, its petty, but there is method to my madness. I dont need these Jarls to be high op. Most of my players are very, very green, and honestly, I dont need to stat out the Jarls, I just like to (incase a crazy party DOES try and attack the Jarls, or somehow they see them in battle, after its all over, if one of them asks "How do I do that" I can show them).

So at least 4 levels of Incantrix is in (took me ages to find the right class. I kept getting stuck on the 3.0 Magic of Faerun version and wondering why the abilities were different). Yes it focuses on abjuration, but its the meta reduction I want. That alone will make her few direct damage spells powerful enough to wreck most creatures.

Dont really care that her enchantments are useless against monsters. She isnt fighting mosters day to day, and thats what the damage spells would be for. She just likes messing with mortals, making people fall in love with her, manipulating the other Jarls, playing games. So I actually dont need many enchantment spells. There will be some overlap with the Bard Jarl, but where as he goes more for calm emotions and things, she will be more... mind rapey...

Any other ideas? Advice? If you were a level 15 sorc, what 3 direct damage spells would you take that are, in your opinion, scary and effective. They dont need to take out a god. Just deal a lot of damage (preferably over a decent area) and look showy.

[Demidos]

Wings of flurry -- Force damage around you, scales well.
Boreal Wind -- Decent Cold Damage with a wind-pushing effect
Frostfell -- Technically a 9th level spell for sorcerers, but great power, thematics, big area, favorite spell, and works if she is the winter type of faerie. The sort of spell that takes someone from a spellcaster into a force of nature

[Morty_Jhones]

I know it sounds kind of odd but levels of rouge type classes can help 'pure' enchanters trot there thing.

poisons and potions slipped into supplies can help den't high level saves and open opportunities to that would otherwise be locked behind inhibitions and habit.

sneak attacks involving charms can be funny with the proper preparation

Enchanter(es) are definitely a character type that needs time to prep.

As for offence spells i would recommend spells that do sonic damage such as 'shatter' and 'sonic blast' most enemies that can resist your enchantments are undead and constructs. both of witch take full damage from sonic.