Best Minor Schemas?

[sorcererlover]

Looking at schemas and trying to figure out which ones are must haves.

Think about a fighter with UMD. What schemas would you give it? I am NOT talking about damage so no combat buffs.

Teleport for escape/travel
Divine Insight + Guidance of the Avatar + Surge of Fortune for skill checks
Major Creation for utility
Fabricate for environment manipulation. Chosen over Disintegrate.
Create Food and Water
Polymorph for versatility
Shadow Conjuration + Evocation for a lot of spell coverage.

Anything else?

[MeimuHakurei]

-Endure Elements. Resisting harsh temperatures permanently is nice for a one-time 400 gp purchase, especially since the duration is a fixed 24 hours.

-Identify. Slightly more pricy, but you rarely have to ID a multitude of magic items in a day. Also saves you from constantly expending money on identification.

-Dimension Door. Allows the escape utility of Teleport, but is much cheaper, although it can only really get you out of an encounter and not out of a dungeon.

-Heart of Water. Can be used for five hours of underwater travel when cast, but also be expended for a short-term Freedom of Movement - as a Fighter will often be in grapple range of monsters, this can be quite handy.

-Restoration. A very potent condition removal spell that is probably too expensive for a wand and doesn't need as many castings as a CLW Wand.

-Tongues. The ability to speak with any creature is crucial for social challenges.

EDIT: Identify has a costly material component, making it ineligible for a Minor Schema.

[Silva Stormrage]

Etch schema of the artificer's infusion "Concurrent Infusion" which lets infuse a single item with 3 different level 1 infusions. Most notably it doesn't require the XP/GP costs of those infusions.

This way you can use the incredibly powerful Spell Storing Item infusion repeatedly without having to pay it's XP cost. It's out of combat only since it has a minute cast time but it grants you insane versatility.

[Troacctid]

Primal Instinct. +5 initiative for 24 hours. Perfect for a schema. It's a 2nd level spell for Rangers.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Divine Insight + Guidance of the Avatar + Surge of Fortune for skill checks
Divine Insight and Surge of Fortune both use your immediate action to trigger, so you only need one of them. And Surge of Fortune is generally not worth the higher price in that comparison.

Major Creation for utility
Fabricate for environment manipulation. Chosen over Disintegrate.
Those are both really expensive. They're certainly useful, but only sometimes. You'd probably be better of getting them on a scroll or two unless you know you'll use them a lot.

Create Food and Water
Way too expensive for the benefit. There's plenty of wondrous items in MIC and other books that do the same thing for a fraction of the price.

Polymorph for versatility
Polymorphs utility is extremely dependant on CL. I'd suggest either getting the Phylactery of Change (A&EG) if allowed or saving up for the Skin of Proteus (XPH) for all-day Metamorphosis.

Shadow Conjuration + Evocation for a lot of spell coverage.
Due to the limits of those spells almost all effects they can produce are extremely dependant on CL and save DCs, both of which will be minimal if cast from a Schema. That's in addition to the will save to disbelief, which will also be minimal. I don't think you'll get as much out of them as you're hoping to.

Really the only thing on your list i'd consider remotely "must have" is the Teleport, and that's only if no-one in your group can cast it and you're certain you'll need it often enough to make it worth it to buy a Schema instead of scrolls.

As for Minor Schema that are actually useful, normally i'd suggest the Metamagic Item infusion but since you're not a spellcaster you likely won't have the metamagic feats to use it.
Still worth considering if you have casters in the party though because it can give you a lot of value out of even cheap wands.

Otherwise in most cases you can get the effect cheaper on a wondrous item.
You should also consider carefully if you actually need a spell often enough to justify buying a permanent item over a scroll or wand because they're often overvalued.
You can get a lot more bang for your buck if you let go of the mindset that every item has to be permanent and go for consumables instead.


This way you can use the incredibly powerful Spell Storing Item infusion repeatedly without having to pay it's XP cost. It's out of combat only since it has a minute cast time but it grants you insane versatility.

Not really since Schema are only 1/day.
There are certainly worse picks for your emergency toolbelt than "any three 1st level spells from any list", but the 1/day restriction makes it a true emergency solution unless you can afford to buy several.

[magicalmagicman]

Etch schema of the artificer's infusion "Concurrent Infusion" which lets infuse a single item with 3 different level 1 infusions. Most notably it doesn't require the XP/GP costs of those infusions.

This way you can use the incredibly powerful Spell Storing Item infusion repeatedly without having to pay it's XP cost. It's out of combat only since it has a minute cast time but it grants you insane versatility.

Why am I learning about this just now? WHY DON'T THE FREAKING ARTIFICER HANDBOOKS MENTION THIS?

[sleepyphoenixx]

Why am I learning about this just now? WHY DON'T THE FREAKING ARTIFICER HANDBOOKS MENTION THIS?

I'm 99% sure that at least one of them does. In the glowing praise kind of way.

[Silva Stormrage]

Not really since Schema are only 1/day.
There are certainly worse picks for your emergency toolbelt than "any three 1st level spells from any list", but the 1/day restriction makes it a true emergency solution unless you can afford to buy several.

Spell Storing item lets you use any 4th level or lower spell on any spell list. It costs XP but seriously 4th level spells are amazing.

If you really want to use this trick to it's maximum effectiveness find some way of getting quintessence (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/quintessence.htm). Each day cast the spell storing item on a rod or something similar, then coat the rod in quintessence. The spell duration is paused while in quintessence and you can remove the rod and clean it off whenever you need to use it out of combat. It basically gives you 1 spell slot/per day with no upwards limit.

[thethird]

Why am I learning about this just now? WHY DON'T THE FREAKING ARTIFICER HANDBOOKS MENTION THIS?

Well it is a rather evident thing. Most handbooks disregard infusions, which is not a good thing. That said read this one: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?427628-Disregard-Money-Acquire-Buff-Spells-Artificers-without-the-Artifice

[Thurbane]

-Restoration. A very potent condition removal spell that is probably too expensive for a wand and doesn't need as many castings as a CLW Wand.

Unfortunately Schemas can't be made of spells with costly components, so that rules out Restoration.

I know this because I was hoping to drop one as loot for my party, then discovered it wasn't RAW legal. :smallmad:

[Kelb_Panthera]

Spell Storing item lets you use any 4th level or lower spell on any spell list. It costs XP but seriously 4th level spells are amazing.

If you really want to use this trick to it's maximum effectiveness find some way of getting quintessence (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/quintessence.htm). Each day cast the spell storing item on a rod or something similar, then coat the rod in quintessence. The spell duration is paused while in quintessence and you can remove the rod and clean it off whenever you need to use it out of combat. It basically gives you 1 spell slot/per day with no upwards limit.

Unfortunately, this;


Unfortunately Schemas can't be made of spells with costly components, so that rules out Restoration.

I know this because I was hoping to drop one as loot for my party, then discovered it wasn't RAW legal. :smallmad:

goes for spells with xp components too, IIRC.

[Troacctid]

Unfortunately, this;



goes for spells with xp components too, IIRC.
That's why you have to backdoor it with concurrent infusions.