LVL 10 Min/Maxed Duergar Gestalted Wizard

[Roticet]

Hello,

I'm looking for some help building a Duergar Gestalted Wizard. I want him Min/Maxed, specializing in Acid Damage. Old player, new DM. Been 10+ years since I built a wizard and I have never built a gestalted one. Mostly need help with the feats. What feats should I take? And what would be a good class to combine? All official material is available for use. This will be my DMNPC to be used more of a guide for the next Scion. I still want him as a pure combat build though.

Character: Duergar Wizard/Something LVL 10-12 Neutral Evil Erythnul worshipper. Prestige classes are open for consideration on top of the gestalted classes (pre-reqs for prestiges need to be met)

Background: Sent by Erythnul to watch over a new Erythnul Worshipper and help her blossom into the next Scion of Erythnul.

This is a homebrew single player campaign where the Scion will come into conflict with the main campaign I'm running. I have a Cleric/Druid, Ranger/Fighter, Rogue/Ranger, Druid/Rogue, and a Wizard/something in the main campaign that will be coming into conflict. I tend to award magic items more often than not. Already have players at LVL 7, dealing over 40+ damage on AVG. (I kinda broke my own campaign and have been dealing with the consequences. lol)

Could someone help, or at least point me in the right direction for some assistance? If you need anymore information please let me know. If this thread was posted twice, sorry, I was having issues posting it the first time and couldn't find it anywhere, so I submitted it again.

[Rebel7284]

First of all, damage is a pretty suboptimal way to play a wizard in 3.5. The fighter deals damage just fine, the wizard is the only one that can reshape the whole battlefield or buff/debuff to trivialize the encounter.

With that said, it sounds like you don't necessarily want to overshadow the players, so a suboptimal Wizard is just fine.

The super simple answer would be Wizard/Incantatrix // Factotum. You can add your Intelligence modifier to Attack/Damage/Initiative (and other strength and dex checks)/Saves/AC
You can take an extra standard action a few times per encounter to cast more spells, and at level 11 you can automatically overcome SR.
Also, you have all the class skills. Literally.
Incantatrix (make sure you are looking at the 3.5 version) is ridiculous due to the free metamagic. You can also pick up Iron Will from a magical location in Complete Scoundrel, making it free to enter.

For blasting, take Arcane Thesis (Orb of Acid) or something and metamagic feats.

Less powerful than using Persistent Spell to become nearly immortal, but hey!

If you find yourself needing higher skill checks for Incantatrix, take Item Familiar as a feat.

Taking Font of Inspiration feat a few times makes Factotum even better as a passive side.

[Roticet]

First of all, damage is a pretty suboptimal way to play a wizard in 3.5. The fighter deals damage just fine, the wizard is the only one that can reshape the whole battlefield or buff/debuff to trivialize the encounter.

With that said, it sounds like you don't necessarily want to overshadow the players, so a suboptimal Wizard is just fine.

The super simple answer would be Wizard/Incantatrix // Factotum. You can add your Intelligence modifier to Attack/Damage/Initiative (and other strength and dex checks)/Saves/AC
You can take an extra standard action a few times per encounter to cast more spells, and at level 11 you can automatically overcome SR.
Also, you have all the class skills. Literally.
Incantatrix (make sure you are looking at the 3.5 version) is ridiculous due to the free metamagic. You can also pick up Iron Will from a magical location in Complete Scoundrel, making it free to enter.

For blasting, take Arcane Thesis (Orb of Acid) or something and metamagic feats.

Less powerful than using Persistent Spell to become nearly immortal, but hey!

If you find yourself needing higher skill checks for Incantatrix, take Item Familiar as a feat.

Taking Font of Inspiration feat a few times makes Factotum even better as a passive side.

I actually do want the wizard to "overshadow" the rest of the group. It's going to be a main point of conflict. And I'm working on getting the single player campaign main hero on par with the Wizard. When I first introduced the wizard into the single player campaign, I had him take out an ogre with 2 "spells" to show case how strong he is suppose to be (All I really did was say that there is a green glob of acid that shoots out of the wizard's hand and splashes all over the ogre. First ball of acid destroys an arm, the second the face). I have 5 gestalted players and a Homebrewed Muscle Wizard taken from the SRD website to contend with. Their damage output is insane. I expect this guy to die in about 3-5 rounds. But in those 3-5 rounds, I want him taking out half the party. So, the advice of damage not being as important as I initially thought, is actually helpful. I can focus on more CC spells vs actual damage spells. Am I understanding that correctly?

Also, do you know what books the Incantatrix and Factotum classes are from? I have most books in PDF. So, once I know the book, it will be super simple to find. Which metamagic feats would you, or anyone else, recommend? Quicken? Heighten? Extend?

Quick lore explanation. Basically the PC in the single player campaign is an Anti-Paladin that decided it would be better to leave her group (who are in the main campaign for my group) and strike out on her own instead of killing the PC attacking her. (Mostly because the rest of the party would feel forced into defending one or the other and none of them wanted it. This was done because another player was being very toxic in our group. The other player has since left, and never allowed to come back. That other player also cheated while making their gestalted character. >.> But I digress...) Now, because of the perceived slight, the Anti-Paladin is going around, gathering Ravagers to her party and attempting to make a stronghold in the name of Erythnul as a base of operations. The Anti-Paladin wants to grow in power and then come back and attempt to wipe the main group. I'm hoping it doesn't turn into a main group wipe, but I certainly want to make both the Wizard and the Anti-Paladin strong enough to take on 5 gestalted characters and a broken (my fault) muscle wizard and put up a challenging fight. So, yes, optimized would be preferred. Please understand while the build will be optimized, I don't have faith in myself to run the wizard in an optimized way. I'm sure I will forget something that will ultimately swing it in the player's favor. I've done it at least once in every session for the last 6 months. lol

With all that being said, does that change any info presented in your first reply? Also, what kind of spells, or what spells would be recommended? Ima need a high intelligence stat to overcome their strong saves. Reflex is the strongest save in the party. Followed by Will, then Fortitude. Hold Monster will be a must (IIRC it's a 5 lvl spell slot in 3.5) along with Haste. Hold Monster because I have a Minotaur as the PC Muscle Wizard, and it's going to be darn near impossible for me to hit him since I'm allowing him to use some broken homebrewed feats. (Like gaining plus 10 to your strength if you hit 3 different requirements, or adding his STR mod to his AC). I slammed an Adult Fang Dragon at the party at LVL 6 and I couldn't even down one of the players. Partly my fault cause I kept focusing on one player instead of spreading out to others but yeah....

Also, thanks for the quick reply and the helpful knowledge. :) Gives me a good base to start with.

[Rebel7284]

Googling "Factotum class 3.5" and "Incantatrix class 3.5" would answer sources.

Factotum: Dungeonscape p. 14
Incantatrix: Player's Guide to Faerûn p. 61

Yes, crowd control is important, especially if you want combat to last more than 1 round. Here is a link to a well-written guide about how to play Wizards. It focuses on PCs, but these same strategies work just as well on an NPC. https://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?471542-Treantmonk-s-Guide-to-Wizards-Being-a-God-in-D-amp-D-3-5-(Treantmonklvl20-CantripN-Tsuyoshi-Dan2)

Here is a very rough outline with 11 Class levels:

(Domain) Wizard 5/Incantatrix 6 // Factotum 11
Banned School: Evocation

Feats:
Scribe Scroll (or Improved Initiative if you trade for Fighter Feats)
1: Free
3: Item Familiar
Location: Iron Will
Wizard Bonus: Extend Spell (if you took Fighter Feats instead, you can use Domain Granted Power to replace THOSE with Planning Domain which gives you Extend Spell anyway)
Incantatrix Bonus: Persistent Spell
6: Quick Recovery [Lords of Madness] (use with celerity, also good protection against these effects)
Incantatrix Bonus: Quicken Spell
9: Free
11: Craft Contingent Spell!!!!!!

Have a bunch of spells persisted: http://bg-archive.minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=12944.0
Friendly Fire[exemplars of evil], Greater Mirror Image, Greater Blink, Fly[Swift], Draconic Polymorph into something with amazing natural armor, etc.

Have Heart of Earth, Heart of Water, Heart of Air, and Heart of Fire cast, possibly with a lesser rod of extend spell. Also Resistance, Superior

Battlemagic Preception[Heroes of Battle], Persisted or just extended to counter anything the casters throw at you as a free action.

Anticipate Teleportation can be nice too.

Items:
Lesser Metamagic Rod of Chaining [Magic Item Compendium]
Shadow Cloak (Drow of the Underdark, P. 101)
Lesser Rod of Extend
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?187851-3-5-Lists-of-Necessary-Magic-Items

You can Planar Bind a few Demons to your aid the day before if you are prepared.

While you might be able to win the battle without taking any actions with just Craft Contingent Spell alone, you can also start like this:

Round 1:
Standard Action: Chained Dispell Magic at everyone AND any prominent magic items they are holding
Swift Action: Quickened Glitterdust
Second Standard Action: Solid Fog most of your opponents
Move action: Fly further away just in case.

In case anything goes wrong and gets past your contingencies AND your Blink/Mirror Image: Immediate action: Celerity[PHB2] -> Teleport

[Roticet]

Thank you, I greatly appreciate it. That gives me a good base, and thank you for the links. This will really help with building the encounter when it's time. Given the fact that the Anti-Paladin is part of the encounter, going CC will really supplement that encounter, which is something I didn't think about in the first place. I usually just go damage, damage, damage. Never really had a need for CC's in the past when I played previous campaigns. We also never really min/maxed everything.

[StevenC21]

Well, to instakill any one PC, you can always pull a Maximized + Empowered Lahm's Finger Darts with metamagic reducers.

That's always fun.

[Eldariel]

Honestly, you can go about this in any number of ways. But yeah, the key is not being targetable/affectable in the first place. Then throw stuff at them. Summon something, throw Black Tentacles in addition to the Solid Fog (the party can't move, can't move and gets grappled, and is taking constant damage; dispel, counterspell or disrupt the casting of any Freedom of Movement attempts as necessary). If you want, you can always metamagic e.g. Black Tentacles or Solid Fog with Snowcasting [Frostburn] > Flash Frost Spell [PHBII] to make it deal cold damage (or acid if you add Energy Substitution).

Otherwise, Orb of Acid [Spell Compendium] is the best natively Acid boom on this level. Generally, if you add control spells you'll do better with DoT effects though. Extended Acid Rain would deal 7d6 for two rounds and then Grease up the area. Not amazing but it's not terrible on level 9 with Rod of Extend Spell. Energy Substitution is something you should definitely pack for an Acid-themed character as most Acid-spells are kinda meh (Acid Fog is actually kinda nice but only one level later). Acid Sheath [Spell Compendium] is actually a rather nice buff to persist if the character uses Acid-spells heavily; 14d6+14 is already a lot more than 14d6 from Extended Acid Rain for example. Venombolt [Serpent Kingdoms] is a superb multithreat spell as well: it does (minor) damage, paralyzes on a failed save and Slows on a successful save. Again a prime candidate for Extension; the whole party can be Slowed for 2 rounds on a successful save and paralyzed for 2d4+2 rounds on a failed one.

Final spell of note is Vitriolic Sphere [Spell Compendium]: it does 6d6 damage for half but for two additional rounds on a failed save. Makes for a total of 18d6 in a 10' radius burst (18d6+18 with Acid Sheath) and you could argue in favour of it being Extendable as well. 5 rounds of damage from one spell while the Wizard is doing other stuff is nice (30d6+30 total).


As Acid spells often have damage over time components, things that apply with every instance of damage are of course excellent. It's also good for disrupting casting and such, but of course, single-minded focus on a single element is easily countered by lowly (Mass) Resist Energy, so Dispel Magic has to be kept ready at all times as well as Battlemagic Perception for Counterspelling.

[Roticet]

Honestly, you can go about this in any number of ways. But yeah, the key is not being targetable/affectable in the first place. Then throw stuff at them. Summon something, throw Black Tentacles in addition to the Solid Fog (the party can't move, can't move and gets grappled, and is taking constant damage; dispel, counterspell or disrupt the casting of any Freedom of Movement attempts as necessary). If you want, you can always metamagic e.g. Black Tentacles or Solid Fog with Snowcasting [Frostburn] > Flash Frost Spell [PHBII] to make it deal cold damage (or acid if you add Energy Substitution).

Otherwise, Orb of Acid [Spell Compendium] is the best natively Acid boom on this level. Generally, if you add control spells you'll do better with DoT effects though. Extended Acid Rain would deal 7d6 for two rounds and then Grease up the area. Not amazing but it's not terrible on level 9 with Rod of Extend Spell. Energy Substitution is something you should definitely pack for an Acid-themed character as most Acid-spells are kinda meh (Acid Fog is actually kinda nice but only one level later). Acid Sheath [Spell Compendium] is actually a rather nice buff to persist if the character uses Acid-spells heavily; 14d6+14 is already a lot more than 14d6 from Extended Acid Rain for example. Venombolt [Serpent Kingdoms] is a superb multithreat spell as well: it does (minor) damage, paralyzes on a failed save and Slows on a successful save. Again a prime candidate for Extension; the whole party can be Slowed for 2 rounds on a successful save and paralyzed for 2d4+2 rounds on a failed one.

Final spell of note is Vitriolic Sphere [Spell Compendium]: it does 6d6 damage for half but for two additional rounds on a failed save. Makes for a total of 18d6 in a 10' radius burst (18d6+18 with Acid Sheath) and you could argue in favour of it being Extendable as well. 5 rounds of damage from one spell while the Wizard is doing other stuff is nice (30d6+30 total).


As Acid spells often have damage over time components, things that apply with every instance of damage are of course excellent. It's also good for disrupting casting and such, but of course, single-minded focus on a single element is easily countered by lowly (Mass) Resist Energy, so Dispel Magic has to be kept ready at all times as well as Battlemagic Perception for Counterspelling.


I like this more than the first one just focusing on CC. That fits more my personal play style. And I am aware that sticking with one element is actually determental more than beneficiary. Also, insta-gibbing my players isn't my focus as another user posted. It's the wizard, and an anti-paladin going against 5 gestalted PCs and a broken muscle wizard. So, I need the battle to be tough, but I don't want to pull a Die Vecna Die scenario where I just start killing off all my players. Dispel Magic will be crucial. Whether it's for countering spells (most likely), or actually dispelling magic.

Quickened Solid Fog into an Acid Rain. Next turn Maximized Orb of Acid? Then after that some quickened/extended venom bolts and if Solid Fog disappears, maybe drop one more or the Black Tentacles spell? I would prolly only grab one copy of grease, and have the rest in Magic Missile. Ima need some guaranteed hit spells. That muscle wizard has an AC 28. (Again, I let the player break it and now I'm dealing with the consequences.) And a teleport spell slot saved for that Oh ****, gotta go quick! moment.

Still, thanks for all the help. Really helping me get back in my D&D playing ways. This gives me some things to work with and some ideas on my own. Time for more research!!!

Edit: You mentioned Battlemagic Perception in your first post. I'm confused on how that's actually a beneficial spell. It mentions that you can counter as a free action. Does that mean that I could theoretically counter 2 spells, one with a free action, the other as a reaction?

[Eldariel]

I like this more than the first one just focusing on CC. That fits more my personal play style. And I am aware that sticking with one element is actually determental more than beneficiary. Also, insta-gibbing my players isn't my focus as another user posted. It's the wizard, and an anti-paladin going against 5 gestalted PCs and a broken muscle wizard. So, I need the battle to be tough, but I don't want to pull a Die Vecna Die scenario where I just start killing off all my players. Dispel Magic will be crucial. Whether it's for countering spells (most likely), or actually dispelling magic.

Quickened Solid Fog into an Acid Rain. Next turn Maximized Orb of Acid? Then after that some quickened/extended venom bolts and if Solid Fog disappears, maybe drop one more or the Black Tentacles spell? I would prolly only grab one copy of grease, and have the rest in Magic Missile. Ima need some guaranteed hit spells. That muscle wizard has an AC 28. (Again, I let the player break it and now I'm dealing with the consequences.) And a teleport spell slot saved for that Oh ****, gotta go quick! moment.

Still, thanks for all the help. Really helping me get back in my D&D playing ways. This gives me some things to work with and some ideas on my own. Time for more research!!!

Edit: You mentioned Battlemagic Perception in your first post. I'm confused on how that's actually a beneficial spell. It mentions that you can counter as a free action. Does that mean that I could theoretically counter 2 spells, one with a free action, the other as a reaction?

Battlemagic Perception allows you to:
1) Identify spells being cast within its range including spell-like abilities. Which is pretty awesome, since otherwise SLAs are pretty hard to counter.
2) Counter a spell as a free action. The "free action"-bit is huge. Most fights are short and brutal and this allows you to counter a key spell without spending an action on it.

Note that it's impossible to counter spells as a reaction normally. You need to ready an action which essentially takes your whole turn and wastes it if the condition (spell being cast) isn't met. There is a feat, Divine Defiance [Fiendish Codex II], which allows countering a spell as a swift action but it requires Turn Undead and 3rd level divine caster level.

Magic Missile doesn't do enough damage to be worth casting on these levels generally.. Maybe Fell Drain Magic Missile for some automatic negative levels but bogstandard Magic Missile on this level does negligible amounts of damage (5d4+5 averages 17,5 damage, one fifth of what your average beatstick might dish out in a round - even a level 10 Wizard with 14 Con and no spells like False Life would have enough to tank ~4 of those before going down).


First level spells of use:
1) Grease
2) Mage Armor ('cause why not)
3) Silent Image (it can literally do anything - a good way to frighten people off or waste resources)
4) Unseen Servant (opening doors, creating blockades, etc. - extra actions of even minor sort can amount to a lot in combat and it lasts all day so you can cast it in the morning)
5) Wall of Smoke [Spell Compendium] (simultaneous Wall-spell and a Fort save-or-be-screwed)
6) Ray of Enfeeblement (even more powerful metamagick'd, but even bogstandard "1d6+5 Str penalty" can cause a melee type to collapse under the weight of their equipment and makes most martial monsters completely worthless)
7) Shield ('cause why not #3)
8) Protection from Good (though you probably want Magic Circle against Good since it lasts for 10 min/level and is thus prebuffable)

The AC of 28, even touch, isn't much of a big deal since it's not like most of the good stuff Wizards do targets AC. You can attack saves, disable, and touch AC at times. All of these combined should be plenty lethal. Just use Quickened True Strike (or pre-cast) with Orb of Acid if necessary.