What are some good evocation spells to add to a warmage's list of spells?

[eyebreaker7]

The warmage has an ability called "Advanced Learning" which means that at certain levels he can add a new spell to his list. He automatically knows all his spells for the levels he can cast. But at levels 3, 6, 11 and 16 he can add a new spell to his list permanently as long as it's a wizard spell of the evocation school. And of course it can't be a higher level spell than he can cast.

Anyone have any good options to choose from?

At 3rd level he still only knows 0 & 1st level spells.
At 6th level he can add one spell of 0, 1st, 2nd or 3rd level.
At 11th level he can add up to one 5th level or lower spell.
At 16th level he can learn one new spell of up to level 8 or less.

[Nifft]

Try here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mBZFBdZRuCtldiqti91ej1FkIbngCr_aYKyF5zyZee8/view

[ThanatosZero]

Gain Versatile Spellcaster and you will be able to cast spells of higher levels early.
Combine it with Precoscious Apprentice and you gain a real 2nd level spell slot, with which you then can cast 3rd level spells even as a 1st level human player character.

[Troacctid]

Gain Versatile Spellcaster and you will be able to cast spells of higher levels early.
Combine it with Precoscious Apprentice and you gain a real 2nd level spell slot, with which you then can cast 3rd level spells even as a 1st level human player character.
That doesn't work, sadly.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Gain Versatile Spellcaster and you will be able to cast spells of higher levels early.
Combine it with Precoscious Apprentice and you gain a real 2nd level spell slot, with which you then can cast 3rd level spells even as a 1st level human player character.


That doesn't work, sadly.

You're able to cast a spell of X level, by using two slots of X-1 level, as long as you know a spell of X level. As soon as you're able to cast a spell of X level, you automatically know all Warmage spells of X level. There are two schools of thought on this:

1. You don't know any spells of X level yet, so you can't actually use that to cast a spell of X level, and it doesn't qualify you to gain knowledge of the spells of X level.
2. That you have the resources and ability to do so, even if you can't do so right now, does not disqualify you. See: Wizard who's used all his daily spells and can no longer cast anything still qualifying for his prestige classes that require the ability to cast spells of a certain level.

It's ultimately up to your DM to decide which is the most fair ruling. Regardless, combining Versatile Spellcaster with either Heighten Spell or a Bloodline feat in Dragon Compendium is guaranteed to give you early access to the next higher level of spells, regardless of which interpretation your DM goes with. Heighten Spell can be useful for powering reserve feats, or combined with Earth Spell, but neither use of it is optimal for a Warmage. A Bloodline feat however gives you a new spell known of each spell level from a specific list, in exchange for not being able to cast any spells of a particular descriptor. If you choose carefully, you'll cut yourself out of being able to cast a bunch of spells that a Warmage would have never learned anyway, and there's no real drawback at all. A Bloodline feat can add a ton of versatility to a Warmage's repertoire.

PH2 introduced Eclectic Learning which can be used to gain non-evocation spells, which is useful for adding some versatility.

[Troacctid]

You're able to cast a spell of X level, by using two slots of X-1 level, as long as you know a spell of X level. As soon as you're able to cast a spell of X level, you automatically know all Warmage spells of X level. There are two schools of thought on this:

1. You don't know any spells of X level yet, so you can't actually use that to cast a spell of X level, and it doesn't qualify you to gain knowledge of the spells of X level.
2. That you have the resources and ability to do so, even if you can't do so right now, does not disqualify you. See: Wizard who's used all his daily spells and can no longer cast anything still qualifying for his prestige classes that require the ability to cast spells of a certain level.

It's ultimately up to your DM to decide which is the most fair ruling. Regardless, combining Versatile Spellcaster with either Heighten Spell or a Bloodline feat in Dragon Compendium is guaranteed to give you early access to the next higher level of spells, regardless of which interpretation your DM goes with.
I don't think there's any reason to believe that spells of a higher level from another source qualify you to learn the next level of warmage spells. The class table already indicates which levels grant you access to a new grade of spells.

And even in interpretation #2 (which is, frankly, the more dubious one), you'd still need to solve the minimum caster level problem.

Certainly there's no interpretation that results in Precocious Apprentice + Versatile Spellcaster allowing you to cast a 3rd-level spell at level 1.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I don't think there's any reason to believe that spells of a higher level from another source qualify you to learn the next level of warmage spells. The class table already indicates which levels grant you access to a new grade of spells.

And even in interpretation #2 (which is, frankly, the more dubious one), you'd still need to solve the minimum caster level problem.

Certainly there's no interpretation that results in Precocious Apprentice + Versatile Spellcaster allowing you to cast a 3rd-level spell at level 1.

WotC Sage officially stated that a Sorcerer who's not yet high enough to cast 2nd level spells can use Versatile Spellcaster to cast an Extended Mage Armor by spending two 1st level spell slots. If that's possible then so is a Heightened 1st level spell cast as a 2nd level spell in the same situation. Thus caster level is irrelevant when it comes to casting higher level spells with Versatile Spellcaster.

"When a warmage gains access to a new level of spells, he automatically knows all the spells for that level listed on the warmage's spell list." Being able to cast a spell of X level means he's gained access to that level of spells, and thus knows all Warmage spells of that level.

Even if early access to the next higher level of the class spell list isn't possible, a Bloodline feat alone will allow you to pick every Advanced/Eclectic Learning spell of any level up to and including 9th: "...of a level no higher than that of the highest-level spell the warmage already knows." A Bloodline feat grants you a spell known for that class of every spell level 1st-9th.

[Nifft]

WotC Sage officially stated that a Sorcerer who's not yet high enough to cast 2nd level spells can use Versatile Spellcaster to cast an Extended Mage Armor by spending two 1st level spell slots. If that's possible then so is a Heightened 1st level spell cast as a 2nd level spell in the same situation. Thus caster level is irrelevant when it comes to casting higher level spells with Versatile Spellcaster. That doesn't follow.



The heightened spell is as difficult to prepare and cast as a spell of its effective level.

You can't Heighten a spell above your normal level cap because this line makes Heighten differ from normal metamagic.

You must treat a Heightened spell as all other spells of the higher level, which you don't know yet.

[Troacctid]

WotC Sage officially stated that a Sorcerer who's not yet high enough to cast 2nd level spells can use Versatile Spellcaster to cast an Extended Mage Armor by spending two 1st level spell slots. If that's possible then so is a Heightened 1st level spell cast as a 2nd level spell in the same situation. Thus caster level is irrelevant when it comes to casting higher level spells with Versatile Spellcaster.
Extended mage armor is still a 1st-level spell, so it has a minimum caster level of 1. So this isn't really evidence one way or the other.


Even if early access to the next higher level of the class spell list isn't possible, a Bloodline feat alone will allow you to pick every Advanced/Eclectic Learning spell of any level up to and including 9th: "...of a level no higher than that of the highest-level spell the warmage already knows." A Bloodline feat grants you a spell known for that class of every spell level 1st-9th.
Well, okay, fair enough, I guess I can't argue with this point.

[AvatarVecna]

Also this isn't 5e. Sage Advice isn't worth the paper it isn't written on.

[Thurbane]

Great Thunderclap (SC) isn't a bad one for 6th level. It is one of the few SR:No Evocation spells, and forces three separate saves vs. stunned, prone and/or deafened.