Using [Calling] spells to fuel Sacrifice Exp farming

[Jowgen]

So the sacrifice rules from BoVD are one of the many wondrous ways to mitigate magic item crafting costs, among many other benefits you can get out of them.

What is needed to benefit from them is a lack of moral hangups, a suitable place to murder people in peace, a setup to boost your sacrifice check ideally into the tripple digits and of course a supply of people to murder.

This idea deals with the latter need.

Conjuration [Calling] spells transport actual creatures to your location, usually with some mechanic that allows you to get them to do stuff for you.

Provided a called creature meets the requirement of being living and having an Int of at least 3, I see nothing that prevents you from using those Sacrifices.

Halaster's Fetch I seems to me like the prime candidate spell to use. It's 4th level with no list shenanigans, summoning 1-2 HD magical beasts from either the upper or lower planes, no exp costs or other lengthy requirements. You even get a little boost to your sacrifice check if you choose the right critter.

Even someone with limited magic could likely get a 4th level Minor Schema for 11.200 gp to call a Celestial Porpoise or somesuch, then proceed to do a daily sacrificie.

Given a decent level of optimisation, it should be possible to secure a steady supply of 300+ Dark Craft exp every day; i.e. enough to craft a 15000 gp magic item with.


So, anyone got any thoughts or ways to improve upon this?

[ExLibrisMortis]

Turns out I really should read up on the "once a day" limit on getting sacrificial rewards before writing a post. I'll leave it up in case someone has a use for it.


An illumian wizard 1/erudite 3/cebremancer 2/mind mage 6 with the right feats* has ML 18 with Twin Wells applied to their manifesting, and could prepare Halaster's fetch I as second-level Echoing spell using the Magical Reinforcement ability. Since one can cast a second-level spell at CL 3, and their caster level for Conjuration (calling) spells is 12 + 18 = 30, they can cast this Halaster's fetch I seven times from one slot, with one hour between each casting. With an orange ioun stone (or the School Mastery ACF), they can cast it eight times from one slot. With a pearl of power, they can then get the spell back "just as if it had not been cast", good for a further eight castings.


With sixteen castings of Halaster's fetch I, you can now conduct sixteen one-hour sacrificial rituals in a day, using only one 4th-level spell slot and 16 power points. That's one very long working day.


Now, I know there are some creatures that combine into higher-HD creatures, though I can't find them right now (I doubt many are within reach of SMI, but still). In theory, a combined 16 HD sacrifice would be really nice if the HD of the sacrifice matters at all, as it does for the divine power option, but it doesn't help for dark crafting, and the bonus on your sacrifice check is really tiny.


If nothing else, sixteen sacrifices gives you sixteen chances at a good roll, so there's that. But then a 9th-level cleric could make all that irrelevant.


*Like this:
1) Spell Focus (Conjuration)
f) Practiced Spellcaster (wizard)
f) Improved Krau Sigil
w) Scribe Scroll
e) Psiotheurgy (Metacreativity)
e) Psicrystal Affinity Practiced Spellcaster (erudite)
3) Dual-Plane Summons
6) Harden Energy
9) Echoing Spell
12) Easy Metamagic (Echoing Spell)

Psicrystal Affinity is DCFS'd to get Practiced Spellcaster (erudite). You can also shuffle Scribe Scroll or even the Mind Mage prereqs (if you swing that way), or convince your DM to sanction a variant conjurer with Spell Focus (Conjuration) instead of Scribe Scroll.

[Jowgen]

Doing a multi-farm setup could still be done.

"one reward per day per temple" only means that you'd need multiple sacrificial temples, perhaps dedicated to different deities.

Think the temple of the divines in Solitude, Skyrim. A bunch of chapels built right next to each other, each with its own Unhallow, dedicated to any given member of an evil pantheon that doesn't contain any "jealous" deities that demand monotheistic worship should do.

[gogogome]

Mirror Mephit Simulacrum(s). No xp to get started.
Less cheese is Runic Guardian with Simulacrum. Gonna need some xp to get started.
Even less cheese is Grisgol with Simulacrum. Gonna cost a hell of a lot of xp to get started.

Another spell you might consider is Lesser Planar Exchange. Make a magic circle calling diagram, cast lesser planar exchange while inside it, have the creature knock itself out, end the spell and the circle will prevent the creature from returning to whence it came.