Dealing with the Underdark as a Rogue/Wizard.

[Reprimand]

Hi I'm currently playing in an underdark setting (mostly vanilla D&D 3.5)

I am playing a Neutral Evil human Poison Use, Penetrating Strike Rogue 4 / Domain Battle Wizard 1 / Unseen Seer 1
My Feats are Able Learner (H), Combat Expertise (1), Deadly Defense(Flaw), Knowledge Devotion (3), Weapon Finesse(W1) (UA), Leadership (6). I'm going to be taking practiced spellcaster followed by dark stalker and combat casting at 15th so I can get into abjurant champion
My stats are 8 strength 14 dex 12 con 15 int (going to bump to 16 at 8th) 12 wisdom (for divine wands and scrolls) 12 charisma,
My spells are
0th: Read Magic, Detect Magic, Amanuensis, sonic snap, Light, Ghost Sound,
No Light, Silent Portal

1st: Shocking Grasp, Expeditious Retreat, Magic Missle,
Alarm, Mage Armor, Detect Secret Doors(domain wizard), Ventriloquism, Silent Image.

Next level I want to snag invisibility and Chain of Eyes (combo with telepathic bond) or spy master's Coin (Conditional clairaudience / clairvoyence with much shorter casting time to be paired with alarm), See Invisibility (domain wizard), Divine Insight or lore of the gods (via advanced learning from unseen seer to combo with knowledge devotion).

unseen seer 3 I want to grab Deafness / blindness (Basically SoD, permanent, Spellcaster shutdown, brute force stealth) and Chain of eyes or Spy master's coin whichever one I didn't grab.

I didn't choose darkstalker because I thought he had a high requirement I was thinking of the pathfinder variation hellcat stealth or somethign similar so I didn't choose that sadly. I Need to grab practiced spellcaster to increase my ability to one shot targets. I am using improved feint and deadly defense as I an using the cautious trait and the DM ruled it applies to combat expertise as does the 5 ranks in tumble synergy. This Dm doesn't pull punches in combat and I find being able to survive is generally much more important in this campaign specifically. Also being able to feint allows me to get away from big creatures with reach AoOs and cast in combat with little investment in concentration and enabling sneak attacks.

My current items are Ring of the Darkhidden, Healing Belt +1 Silver Dagger, Anklets of Translocation (these have saved my life several times.) I am currently trying to obtain a set of gloves of dexterity and goggles of night.

We have a wizard with Scribe Scroll, craft wonderous item and craft wand as well. we are going to be making wands of shocking grasp as well.

I'm enlisting the Playground for this question: What are some of the best strategies for dealing with denizens of the underdark? not just drow but oozes bulettes, trolls, orcs, goblins and tons and tons of aberrations or worse!

[Reprimand]

Sorry for bumping but I would really appreciate a reply on this. :|

[denthor]

Your human in the underdark.

What is your ight source for seeing? When I went in I took darkvision spells. Became a devoted lover of that spell. I guess no light but limited time of use.

A couple of necromantic spells

2nd level spectral hand

3rd level vampiric touch. This gives distance from thing and a few hit point extra. Just so you know it makes my group really upset when I use it. Don't know why. Great on oozes.

Your rogue is your highest level do not rush into combat. Take a few rounds to position. Get flanking for extra hit and damage. Invisibility helps later. But for now stealth.

Find a way to cast shocking grasp through your weapon it increase your first hit stealth damage. Work with DM. Would try to get a spell storing weapon.

[Reprimand]

Your human in the underdark.

What is your ight source for seeing? When I went in I took darkvision spells. Became a devoted lover of that spell. I guess no light but limited time of use.

A couple of necromantic spells

2nd level spectral hand

3rd level vampiric touch. This gives distance from thing and a few hit point extra. Just so you know it makes my group really upset when I use it. Don't know why. Great on oozes.

Your rogue is your highest level do not rush into combat. Take a few rounds to position. Get flanking for extra hit and damage. Invisibility helps later. But for now stealth.

Find a way to cast shocking grasp through your weapon it increase your first hit stealth damage. Work with DM. Would try to get a spell storing weapon.

Currently the wizard is tagging me with dark vision pretty much every encounter and we have rope trick most nights, we only forgot once and after having to flee from a bulette we learned that interdemensional sleeping space is REALLY nice.
Other than that we are able to usually get in some free rounds of darkvision cast because we have rings of darkhidden.
I got the whole party to snag them during character creation (we also have a kobold who has spot maxed and an npc with skill focus listen, alertness AND keen eyed scout) casts and extinguish our bullseye lanterns the dm ruled they don't cause us to be in shadowy illumination (allowing us to retain the benefits of our dark vision rings) if we hold them forward and don't point them in the line of effect of party members.

I also make frequent use of no light to remove enemy lanterns or torches and keep the party hidden. I have mixed feelings on spectral hand because while useful I'll probably be outscaling it in a few levels once I can get my hands on some better buffs and defensive options. Obviously I'm not going to hard engage and troll, ooze or bulette though I don't have a deathwish!

[denthor]

As a rogue/ mage you have a low basic attack bonus(bab) how do you out scale a touch attack? Not to mention spectral hand gives you a +2 to your hit chance. I am 10th level mage my bab is +5 +2 for the spell.+2 for the feat that let's me use my dex. Total +9 still miss AC 20 on a 10 of a d 20 roll.

[Reprimand]

As a rogue/ mage you have a low basic attack bonus(bab) how do you out scale a touch attack? Not to mention spectral hand gives you a +2 to your hit chance. I am 10th level mage my bab is +5 +2 for the spell.+2 for the feat that let's me use my dex. Total +9 still miss AC 20 on a 10 of a d 20 roll.

Bab +3, dex +2, Knowledge devotion (average +3 or 4), conditional invisibility from ring of dark hidden +2, flanking +2. I don't mean out scale touch attacks I just mean the usefulness of spectral hand in general Also I don't get sneak attack off of it.

Generally anything we can't drop in a few we're running away from.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Anything with an attack roll can sneak attack, the extra damage is the same damage type as the base damage of the attack. You can sneak attack with shocking grasp, and it deals additional electricity damage.

I think you should have dumped another stat (Wis and/or Cha) for a high enough Dex for TWF. Where's your (wand of) Wraithstrike?

You'll want to get Gloves of the Balanced Hand (MIC) and get an enhancement bonus to Dex added to those (MIC p234). Get TWF but get the gloves instead of taking ITWF, and GTWF is never really worth taking.


I'd say consider rebuilding/retraining (PH2) your character as a Spellthief 1/ Psion 4/ Psychic Assassin (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723d). The Spellthief level allows you to use wands of wizard spells from any school the class has access to. After Psychic Assassin 6 (which only loses two manifester levels per the text/primary source) finish the build with (Illithid) Slayer (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/prestigeClasses/slayer.htm). You can get Psionic Darkvision which lasts an hour/level, use Energy Ray or Crystal Shard to make sneak attacks at range, and have tons of personal-range buffs and utility powers. Psionic powers don't have verbal or somatic components (but some have an Auditory display that can be made barely noticeable), which automatically makes it better than spellcasting for stealth.

You could get a 5th Psion (Egoist) level to get True Healer (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070314a) if the party is in dire need of someone capable of fixing other characters, or use Ardent instead of Psion and switch your focus to Wis (Substitute Powers (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070629a) is a must if you do that). Ardents get higher level powers based on manifester level instead of class level, so Practiced Manifester allows you to keep up on power level as though you were single-classed.

Plan to get Mind Cripple from Psychic Assassin, which disables animals and animal-intelligent enemies in one hit and can take down most bruisers in a single full attack. You'll need Practiced Manifester to qualify for Psychic Assassin, which can be your Psion 1 bonus feat. Also consider taking Psicrystal Affinity (Coward or Hero or Nimble), keep it in a compartment on your person so opponents never have line of sight/effect to it and can't target it directly or hit it with area effects. Give it a healing belt which it can use on you during combat when needed. Keep Share Pain active on it at all times, its Hardness 8 reduces every instance of damage it takes from Share Pain by as much. You can buff with Vigor and share it with the psicrystal for a huge temporary hp cushion.

[Reprimand]

Anything with an attack roll can sneak attack, the extra damage is the same damage type as the base damage of the attack. You can sneak attack with shocking grasp, and it deals additional electricity damage.

I think you should have dumped another stat (Wis and/or Cha) for a high enough Dex for TWF. Where's your (wand of) Wraithstrike?

You'll want to get Gloves of the Balanced Hand (MIC) and get an enhancement bonus to Dex added to those (MIC p234). Get TWF but get the gloves instead of taking ITWF, and GTWF is never really worth taking.


I'd say consider rebuilding/retraining (PH2) your character as a Spellthief 1/ Psion 4/ Psychic Assassin (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723d). The Spellthief level allows you to use wands of wizard spells from any school the class has access to. After Psychic Assassin 6 (which only loses two manifester levels per the text/primary source) finish the build with (Illithid) Slayer (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/prestigeClasses/slayer.htm). You can get Psionic Darkvision which lasts an hour/level, use Energy Ray or Crystal Shard to make sneak attacks at range, and have tons of personal-range buffs and utility powers. Psionic powers don't have verbal or somatic components (but some have an Auditory display that can be made barely noticeable), which automatically makes it better than spellcasting for stealth.

You could get a 5th Psion (Egoist) level to get True Healer (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070314a) if the party is in dire need of someone capable of fixing other characters, or use Ardent instead of Psion and switch your focus to Wis (Substitute Powers (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070629a) is a must if you do that). Ardents get higher level powers based on manifester level instead of class level, so Practiced Manifester allows you to keep up on power level as though you were single-classed.

Plan to get Mind Cripple from Psychic Assassin, which disables animals and animal-intelligent enemies in one hit and can take down most bruisers in a single full attack. You'll need Practiced Manifester to qualify for Psychic Assassin, which can be your Psion 1 bonus feat. Also consider taking Psicrystal Affinity (Coward or Hero or Nimble), keep it in a compartment on your person so opponents never have line of sight/effect to it and can't target it directly or hit it with area effects. Give it a healing belt which it can use on you during combat when needed. Keep Share Pain active on it at all times, its Hardness 8 reduces every instance of damage it takes from Share Pain by as much. You can buff with Vigor and share it with the psicrystal for a huge temporary hp cushion.

See the problem with all this is I want to play a rogue / wizard and make it more efficient at dealing with these specific scenarios not retrain my entire character.

I was basically hoping for more tactics or item suggestions that anything else.