Pick Your SLAs

[AvatarVecna]

You have a large number of at-will SLAs. Three per spell level, including cantrips, chosen from the cleric/druid/sorcerer/wizard lists. You've still gotta pay GP/XP costs. You're lvl 20, and the save DC will be as spells. What spells do you pick?

[MisterKaws]

(Greater)Anyspell, (Greater)Glyph of Warding, (Greater)Arcane Fusion, Shadow Conjuration, Shadow Evocation, Shades, Gate, Greater Teleportation, Greater Plane Shift, Superior Invisibility, Fly, All the 'Control X' and 'Transmute X to X', and a bunch of Scrying variations.

[Vizzerdrix]

Context? Are we still us in our world, or on one of the planes? I'd pick more combat stuff one way as opposed to the other.

[Jack_Simth]

You have a large number of at-will SLAs. Three per spell level, including cantrips, chosen from the cleric/druid/sorcerer/wizard lists. You've still gotta pay GP/XP costs. You're lvl 20, and the save DC will be as spells. What spells do you pick?

9th: Shapechange, Miracle, and Shades.
8th: Superior Invisibility, Steal Life, Polymorph Any Object
7th: Mage’s Magnificent Mansion, Greater Arcane Sight, Greater Shadow Conjouration
6th: Veil, Shadow Walk, Disintegrate
5th: Unfettered Heroism, Skin of the Steel Dragon, Planar Tolerance
4th: Celerity, Friendly Fire, Delay Death
3rd: Permeable Form, Hesitate, Halt
2nd: Wings of Cover, Stay the Hand, Close Wounds
1st: Nerveskitter, Deep Breath, Alibi
0th: Dawn, Prestidigitation, Detect Magic

Logic:
Shapechange: Very generically useful. Can get me a LOT of different abilities. Including, potentially, Wish (Zodar abuse), which in turn gets me magic items for free. Yay!
Miracle: Any 7th level or lower spell as a standard action (8th, Cleric).
Shades: Depends partly on interpretation: Shades loses the class and subschool in the description. If that overrides the class and subschool of the base Shadow Conjouration Spell, then this gives me True Creation as an at-will (although I'll want to hop over to the Plane of Shadow to cast it, just to be "safe").
Superior Invisibility: Because I'll sometimes want to avoid detection very well.
Steal Life: Who doesn't want immortality?
Polymorph Any Object: ... but I'd rather not take it from a real person, and this lets me use a rock.
At 7th level and lower, I don't want anything that takes a standard action or more - the spell duplication clause of Miracle covers it - so I want to load up on Swift and Immediate action spells.

7th and 6th level spells are mostly just fill because I couldn't find suitable shorter-action spells on those levels.


Context? Are we still us in our world, or on one of the planes? I'd pick more combat stuff one way as opposed to the other.
There's enough flexibility in there that I'm not overly concerned either way. In the real world... well, I can get basically anything I want. In most game worlds, pretty much ditto. I'd want to get Mind Blank from a Third Eye Conceal, but beyond that? Meh, whichever.

[AvatarVecna]

Context? Are we still us in our world, or on one of the planes? I'd pick more combat stuff one way as opposed to the other.

It's a D&D world, and you're as much of an adventurer as you wanna be I suppose.

[Anthrowhale]

9th: Shapechange, Miracle, and Shades.

Maybe Time Stop instead of Shades? As an at-will, you could invoke it every other round to keep yourself in perpetual apparent time. Pretty much every problem yields to Miracle, Shapechange, and Time Stop.

[Jack_Simth]

Maybe Time Stop instead of Shades? As an at-will, you could invoke it every other round to keep yourself in perpetual apparent time. Pretty much every problem yields to Miracle, Shapechange, and Time Stop.
Time Stop was my second choice for that slot, but not by much. The ability to create expensive spell components (and any other nonmagical item) I'll want just slightly outweighed it. Also, of course, is that Shades is a save-or-lose with a very low immunity rate (via Trap the Soul).

[Anthrowhale]

Time Stop was my second choice for that slot, but not by much. The ability to create expensive spell components (and any other nonmagical item) I'll want just slightly outweighed it. Also, of course, is that Shades is a save-or-lose with a very low immunity rate (via Trap the Soul).

I'm not following the True Creation (ab)use. Shades says:
...mimics sorcerer and wizard conjuration spells of 8th level or lower. True Creation is not a sorcerer or a wizard spell.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

At-will?

9. Miracle, Foresight, Time Stop
8. Superior Invisibility, Polymorph Any Object, Moment of Prescience
7. Greater Teleport, Holy Star, Arcane Spellsurge
6. Heal, Greater Dispel Magic, Ruby Ray of Reversal
5. Call Avalanche, Wall of Force, Swift Etherealness
4. Ruin Delver's Fortune... you have Miracle at will, just pick any swift/immediate-action spells that may be useful at the lower levels.
2. Wings of Cover

[Feantar]

(Greater)Anyspell, (Greater)Glyph of Warding, (Greater)Arcane Fusion, Shadow Conjuration, Shadow Evocation, Shades, Gate, Greater Teleportation, Greater Plane Shift, Superior Invisibility, Fly, All the 'Control X' and 'Transmute X to X', and a bunch of Scrying variations.

I was thinking of arcane fusion myself, but it would actually do nothing. It requires that you know sorcerer spells. Not SLAs.

[Vizzerdrix]

It's a D&D world, and you're as much of an adventurer as you wanna be I suppose.

Rodger that. I'll edit my picks into this post over the next few hours, or maybe tomorrow.

Oths- this is tough. I love cantrips and would be happy taking all of them.

Cure minor wound, caltrops, and conjurers toolbelt. I feel that is a good start.

[MisterKaws]

I'm not following the True Creation (ab)use. Shades says: True Creation is not a sorcerer or a wizard spell.

Yeah you need Arcane Disciple.

[Crichton]

You've still gotta pay GP/XP costs.

So, not really Spell-Like Abilities (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#spellLikeAbilities), then? That's kinda the whole point of an SLA vs a spell, so these are really just at-will spells?



It means my answer is largely dependent on how much available XP I have to burn through, in casting them. And only Spells, no Powers? Ok. Makes things mildly trickier, and makes it require a touch of Zodar Wish abuse, to avoid actually casting XP heavy spells, but we'll be starting with Shapechange, and then from there we're off on the Path to Ascension. The rest of my list is just details, at that point.

[AvatarVecna]

So, not really Spell-Like Abilities (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#spellLikeAbilities), then? That's kinda the whole point of an SLA vs a spell, so these are really just at-will spells?

They're SLAs with that particular exception. So still no verbal/somatic/material, unless the material is expensive.

[Jack_Simth]

I'm not following the True Creation (ab)use. Shades says: True Creation is not a sorcerer or a wizard spell.

Oh, that's interesting.

I've been playing a lot of pathfinder lately, and apparently they changed the wording for Shades (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/shades/):
This spell functions like shadow conjuration, except that it mimics conjuration spells of 8th level or lower. The illusory conjurations created deal four-fifths (80%) damage to nonbelievers, and non-damaging effects are 80% likely to work against nonbelievers.

Huh. Explains my confusion.

[MisterKaws]

Oh, that's interesting.

I've been playing a lot of pathfinder lately, and apparently they changed the wording for Shades (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/shades/):

Huh. Explains my confusion.


Shadow conjuration can mimic any sorcerer or wizard conjuration (summoning) or conjuration (creation) spell

So it wouldn't exactly work on PF either.

[Jack_Simth]

So it wouldn't exactly work on PF either.

That aspect boils down to whether or not the "except that it mimics conjuration spells of 8th level or lower" is to be read as a replacement for "mimic any sorcerer or wizard conjuration (summoning) or conjuration (creation) spell of 3rd level or lower" in the sense of the entire phrase or just the spell level. Noting that Greater Shadow Conjuration goes "duplicates any sorcerer or wizard conjuration (summoning) or conjuration (creation) spell of 6th level or lower", I've seen DM's rule it both ways.

[Vizzerdrix]

0s- conjurers toolbelt, cure minor wound, mending
1s- Entangle, Summon marked homunculus, weildskill
2s- continual flame, splinterbolt, blood blossoms
3s- coral growth, arcane hammer, greater mighty wallop
4s- suspension, panacea, secure shelter
5s- minor servitor, baleful polymorph, create darkenbeast
6s- mephit mob, fantastic machine, curse of lycanthropy
7s- halasters fetch 4, greater bestow curse, bite of the werebear
8s- bodak birth, cacoon, polymorph any object*
9s- greater fantastic machine, summon golem, shapechange*


Lots of spells for building and making stuff. Everything from tools to construction equipment, to people.



* I feel like these two are copout choices. If I find something more fun I'd swap them.