Fixing my Wu Jen

[ekarney]

Context: After being a perma-DM for almost 5 years, one of my players has offered to run a one-shot for me and another player, seeing as the final member of our group is on holiday in another country.

My problem is, is that after DMing for so long, without having to follower player rules, I've gotten a little too used to just handwaving things like PrC requirements, or spells known for when I've made an NPC for my campaigns. So now I'm in a bit of weird place, where I have so many options of what to do with my character but I'm not sure if I've gone about obtaining them the best way.

Here's my build, we start at level 5, and the DM has said we're likely going to go to level 20, taking the usual 2 flaws, and I'll start with 21 spells known.

Binder 1/Wu Jen 1/Anima Mage 9/Incantatrix 9
In order to get into Anima Mage so early, I'm going to need Precocious Apprentice, as well as Improved Binding. I'm also taking Faerie Mysteries Initiate to help offset my pretty garbage con.
From there, I wanna grab an item familiar, as well as Arcane Disciple for the Spite Domain (So I can use the Transcend Mortality/Pact of Return combo)

Now from what I can tell, my build seems fine but I really want to know if/how I can improve it, what metamagic feats I should take, since it;s a heavily MM focused build, what spells I should try and nab, and what should I should ban for Incantatrix?

[Anthrowhale]

Wu Jen is esoteric but the limited spell selection is iffy. Have you considered a more straightforward Wizard 5/Incantatrix 10/?? 5? Starting with 3rd instead of 2nd level spells seems big.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Umm, how are you going from level 5 to 20 in a one-shot? Just curious :P.

Persistent Spell is capable of being (i.e. is pretty much always) the staple of any build that includes Incantatrix 3. So Extend + Persist, plus perhaps Ocular Spell to make more spells persistable.

You can grab Iron Will from the Otyugh Hole magical location, where it's valued at 3000 gp.

[Bohandas]

Umm, how are you going from level 5 to 20 in a one-shot? Just curious :P.

That's a good point. Even if you tweaked the advancement so you leveled after every encounter that's still 15 encounters

[ekarney]

Umm, how are you going from level 5 to 20 in a one-shot? Just curious :P.


I'm very interested in finding that out for myself honestly.



Persistent Spell is capable of being (i.e. is pretty much always) the staple of any build that includes Incantatrix 3. So Extend + Persist, plus perhaps Ocular Spell to make more spells persistable.

You can grab Iron Will from the Otyugh Hole magical location, where it's valued at 3000 gp.

Huh, I always skimmed over that part in CS, I figured it was all just aimless adventure hooks. That's actually really helpful, thank you!

How does turning it into a spell make it more likely to be persistable? Is it just because of the 8 hour storage time?


Wu Jen is esoteric but the limited spell selection is iffy. Have you considered a more straightforward Wizard 5/Incantatrix 10/?? 5? Starting with 3rd instead of 2nd level spells seems big.
I REALLY like the Wu Jen's spell list though, and I've played and made a lot of wizards in the past, plus I've always wanted to play a WJ
Starting without 3rd level spells might hurt, but hopefully the binder brings some extra firepower to it.

[Bohandas]

Wu Jen is esoteric but the limited spell selection is iffy.

It's not limited, it's neglected. They didn't take it into consideration when making splatbooks other than Complete Arcane and Complete Mage, so some spells that maybe should be on the Wu-Jen list were never added becasue they weren;t from one of those two books

[Allanimal]

It's not limited, it's neglected. They didn't take it into consideration when making splatbooks other than Complete Arcane and Complete Mage, so some spells that maybe should be on the Wu-Jen list were never added becasue they weren;t from one of those two books

I've felt the same way for a while. I really like the flavour of the Wu Jen and wish it got the same treatment other classes did throughout all the splatbooks.

So, I'm trying to build that list of spells that should be on the Wu Jen list in this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?598086-3-5-Nurturing-the-Wu-Jen-Spell-List).

[ExLibrisMortis]

How does turning it into a spell make it more likely to be persistable? Is it just because of the 8 hour storage time?
Persistent Spell can only be applied to spells with a fixed range or "Personal" range. A spell like haste is ineligible, because it has a "Close" range. However, Ocular haste has a fixed range (of 60'), and is eligible to be Persisted. If you weren't using free metamagic, this would actually be quite balanced, since Ocular Spell increases the level of the spell slot required by two. With free metamagic, Ocular Spell becomes something of a list expander for Persistable spells, which is really powerful. Use with caution and/or glee, as appropriate.