Conjurer / Master specialist / Arche-mage 5/10/5

[Nosta]

I want to be a blaster and am going to go Evoker 5 / Master S 10 / Arche mage 5

Books allowed
Player hand Book 1 & 2
Monster Manuel 1
DM Guide 1 & 2
1: Heroes of Horror
2: Storm-Wreck
3: Complete Mage

3 more will be added eventually

but with the books listed i need to chose 3 feats
level 1
race (human
level 3

told also use feat advice
on my next 7 levels after that

[Kaleph]

There's a (sort of) UM handbook at this link: http://bg-archive.minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=431.0

If I'm not mistaken, wizard/sorcerer or wizard/beguiler are typical entries, and they are in the books you are listing.

Depending on how you build it, you could take the focused specialist variant for your wizard (complete mage) as the school you loose COULD be provided by the secondary class.

[Nosta]

There's a (sort of) UM handbook at this link: http://bg-archive.minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=431.0

If I'm not mistaken, wizard/sorcerer or wizard/beguiler are typical entries, and they are in the books you are listing.

Depending on how you build it, you could take the focused specialist variant for your wizard (complete mage) as the school you loose COULD be provided by the secondary class.

Oh? Well if I went Focused specialist I kinda want to take meta magic specialist from PHB II book I am unsure of my stats

[Kaleph]

Oh? Well if I went Focused specialist I kinda want to take meta magic specialist from PHB II book I am unsure of my stats

I assume that the wizard will be your primary side, i.e. the one that you will increase through archmage. Now you have to decide if you want to keep your classes balanced, or you want to take as many caster levels in wizard as you can.

In the second case, the spontaneous side would be much kind of a supporting role; this is why I personally prefer a class with a fixed list (given the books you're allowed, I guess you would chose beguiler). In this case, your only stat that matters is intelligence.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Are your book limits due to an arbitrary limit for 'balance' or is it limited by what books your group owns?

UM works best if you can take Practiced Spellcaster for your secondary class, since at the 1st, 4th and 7th levels it advanced whichever class has the lower caster level. This makes it so the caster level of your primary class is equal or lower at two or three of those levels depending on your build. This way you lose only two spellcaster levels in your primary class for the whole build, instead of four. Master Spellthief is an alternative to this, but ends up with the same net outcome of two levels lost in your primary class, but an overall higher caster level with both classes.

It also works out amazingly if you start with Beguiler and can take the feat Able Learner in Races of Destiny. That lets you keep up your Beguiler class skills without paying twice as many skill points for cross-class ranks on non-Beguiler class levels. That book also has the Illumian race, which is Humanoid (Human) and can take that feat. That race gets power sigils such as Krau that's basically a +2 version of Practiced Spellcaster for all of your classes. That race plus Practiced Spellcaster for your secondary class allows you to put all ten levels of Ultimate Magus toward your primary class.

If you're absolutely limited to the books you listed, then you're not going to have the resources to make a UM build work very well. In this case my advice is to shelve the UM idea until you have access to additional resources (if physical copies are a limitation, you can find every book or the contents thereof online), and instead go another route into Archmage, such as Master Specialist.

[Nosta]

All right , I feel going Um may me a little much
so I am going

Focused specialist (Evoker) in to Master specialist
Race Human

I need Advice on Feats and what schools would be best to ban

[Rebel7284]

The best school to ban for a blaster is often Evocation. Conjunction has better blast spells.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Using spells to deal damage is often extremely suboptimal since you have a limited number of spells with which to do damage, while the Fighter, Rogue, and other characters in the party can deal damage every round at no cost of daily resources.

The most optimal way to play a spellcaster is to use only a few high-impact spells per encounter. A damaging spell won't end an encounter because it won't deal enough damage to kill all the enemies, but a Glitterdust that blinds at least half of your opponents, or a Color Spray that knocks them unconscious, or a Web that prevents them from attacking, etc. will generally give your party the edge it needs to clean up with little personal risk.

If you employ that type of strategy, you'll need something to do in the rounds that follow, preferably something that doesn't needlessly expend additional spells. In this case you can get a reserve feat like Fiery Burst, which you can spam every round at no cost of daily resources (other than leaving a spell of 2nd level or higher unspent). In this case you don't even need to specialize in Evocation, since the spells you most often want to cast will be Conjurations or Transmutations.

If you really want to deal damage with spells, there are ways to do that, but likely not at your starting level. For example, you could go Rogue 1/ Sorcerer 4/ Unseen Seer 4/ Arcane Trickster, use the Acidic Splatter reserve feat to make ranged touch attacks with sneak attack damage all day, and spontaneous casters are at an advantage for multiple-attack spells. Per the Rules Compendium, any full-round action that makes multiple attacks can apply precision damage such as sneak attack to every one of those attacks, so a Sorcerer casting Scorching Ray with a metamagic feat (Split Ray gives an extra attack even) does so as a full-round action, so every ray gets to add sneak attack damage. You can use Swift Invisibility or Greater Invisibility to enable your sneak attacks easily. However, you'll want access to take Able Learner at 1st level on that build due to the skill requirements, so it's probably not going to work.


A Conjurer gets the best ability from Master Specialist 10. You can also get Augment Summoning instead of Scribe Scroll, and cast Summon Monster spells as a standard action in place of gaining a familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/specialistWizardVariants.htm#conjurerVariants). Many of the most impactful spells for turning a fight to your favor are from the Conjuration school (Grease, Wall of Smoke, Web, Glitterdust, Stinking Cloud, Sleet Storm, Black Tentacles, Solid Fog, etc.), so your (Greater) Spell Focus: Conjuration will have a greater impact, plus they automatically ignore spell resistance and most types of spell immunity.

For your starting feats, get Spell Focus: Conjuration at 1st, maybe Improved Initiative as your bonus feat, and Fiery Burst at 3rd, with those two alternate class features I linked. You should have Enchantment and Evocation as your prohibited schools, keep a Boiling Blood (CM) prepared to enable Fiery Burst. For higher level spells, Summon Monster III or higher can summon one or more fire elementals, which enables that feat because it could be cast as a [fire] spell if you have it prepared. You'll want to go Wizard 3/ Master Specialist 10/ Archmage 5, and worry about what classes you'll take at 19th and 20th level once you're closer to it.

[Nosta]

@ Biffoniacus_Furiou

ok I will take your Advice an build a Focused specialist (conj) 3 / Master Specialist 10 /Arch-Mage 5

My question is what feats should I take between level 6 - 15 most likely the game will not even get that high but I'd like Advice on it

So far my Feats are

Spell focus - (conj)
Augment summoning
Improved Initiative

I know I did not take Fiery Burst- I wanted Augmented summoning more and i took the feat cause the book the Alt class feature is in is not allowed (its UA right?)

[Anthrowhale]

You might want to take the "Abrupt Jaunt" ACF from PHB II. It's pretty helpful at low levels.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

In that case, let Augment Summoning wait until 6th or even 9th level, as low-level summons aren't really worthwhile. Fiery Burst is definitely worth having at the start of play, even if one of your highest level spells will go unused all day to enable it.

You'll need Spell Focus in a second school by 12th level to qualify for Archmage. Cloudy Conjuration (CM) is a decent choice. Metamagic School Focus (CM) for Conjuration and/or the second school you take Spell Focus in may be worthwhile, but most of the best metamagic feats are in Complete Arcane.

I'd go with the following feat choices:
1. Spell Focus: Conjuration
H. Cloudy Conjuration
3. Fiery Burst
6. Improved Initiative
9. Augment Summoning
12. Spell Focus: Transmutation
15. Quicken Spell

[Nosta]

@ Biffoniacus_Furiou

Could you Recommend me my first 3 levels of spells

Banning EVO /Enchantment/ Necromancy

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Carefully consider each of the following spells, depending on what you think you'll get the most use from:

1st: Mage Armor, Color Spray, Grease, Protection from Evil, Silent Image
2nd: Boiling Blood (CM), Glitterdust, Web, Rope Trick, Pyrotechnics, Alter Self
3rd: Sleet Storm, Stinking Cloud, Haste, Summon Monster III, Dimension Step (PH2), Dispel Magic, Shrink Item
4th: Solid Fog, Black Tentacles, Celerity (PH2), Greater Invisibility, Summon Monster IV
5th: Overland Flight, Teleport, Wall of Stone, Transmute Rock to Mud, Summon Monster V

The Boiling Blood and summon spells are mostly to keep one prepared in one of your highest-level slots all day to enable Fiery Burst.

[Nosta]

@ Biffoniacus_Furiou

Thank you for your help

One more thing I'm not sure the starting Gold

But what would be some Decent items a third level wizard should have to start?

That of course are in the Books mention

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

A 3rd level character typically only has 2,700 gp worth of gear, and given the books available, you don't have many must-haves.

Given that Stormwrack is on the list, I'd say a Steadying Robe (CM) is a solid metagame choice. A Mithril Buckler has no arcane spell failure chance and no armor check penalty, and you can get it upgraded to +1 and eventually Reflecting.

Tool, Masterwork (PHB p130) are 50 gp each and gives a +2 bonus to a given skill check, provided some type of tool would be useful for using that skill. For example, a laminated quick reference card that's color-coded for a bonus to Spellcraft checks could work. Just pick a skill and be creative with what the tool would be.

[Troacctid]

Banning evocation on a blaster seems unwise to me. Almost all of the best blasting spells are evocation.

[Nosta]

Banning evocation on a blaster seems unwise to me. Almost all of the best blasting spells are evocation.

@ Troacctid

oh i'm sorry I guess i should change the title of the thread

I went from doing a Blaster to doing a Convoker