Spellfire Channeler Help

[RNightstalker]

So I'm hoping to get a chance to play a Spellfire Channeler and I'm curious of those that have played one before. What was around the Spellfire Channeler levels? Earliest entry is level 6 due to skill requirements, so what do you do for the 5 levels before and 5 levels after? I've thought of Swordsage, Sorcerer, Wizard, Cleric, Warmage, Stoneblessed, Human Paragon, Ranger. I know there was a competition post on it a while back, which I'll go back and check later. I'm hoping to hear from those that actually played a character with that class with any insights on what they would do differently, what worked and didn't, etc.

Thanks.

[Gorthawar]

I've not played a spellfire channeler myself but one of the players in my current campaign started the game at level 1 with the spell fire wielder feat and is now level 8. My advise would be to make sure that you and the DM are on the same page on how the feat works and how you intend to get yourself charged up. As written the feat doesn't really work as we envisioned it as it requires you to ready an action to absorb the spells which means it's not very useful in combat. As such we ended up with a lot of house rules around the feat and a homebrew prc for his character.

[RNightstalker]

I've not played a spellfire channeler myself but one of the players in my current campaign started the game at level 1 with the spell fire wielder feat and is now level 8. My advise would be to make sure that you and the DM are on the same page on how the feat works and how you intend to get yourself charged up. As written the feat doesn't really work as we envisioned it as it requires you to ready an action to absorb the spells which means it's not very useful in combat. As such we ended up with a lot of house rules around the feat and a homebrew prc for his character.

Being on the same page with the DM is definitely something to be discussed before the game is even started lol, it will depend on the DM's ruling of the 3.5 update to the rod of absorption that doesn't require a readied action.

[mabriss lethe]

It's an odd bird of a PrC. Mostly due to being 1/2 BAB and burning through those spellfire points like crazy to create a level appropriate response. In all honesty, it's a pretty bad class and doesn't really mesh well with anything. and the few options that mesh with it well enough to function are arguably better than it is. but enough of that.

First off: Figure out what you want the character to do other than be a spellfire wielder. They're going to take a massive BAB hit, so most melee builds are going to be worthless without some help. Spellfire as a damage source runs off of ranged touch attacks, so you want a build that either doesn't need attack rolls or has its own ready made access to ranged touch attacks. You're also going to want some Con synergy if you can. Those two criteria tell me that Dragonfire Adept is probably the most logical option. DFA can easily meet all the PrC entry criteria, its main weapon is flexible, doesn't even rely on an attack roll and keys to Con. As a bonus it cuts down on book keeping for any ability that isn't spellfire related.

Second: How far do you want to go in SF Channeler? If you're going to do it at all, I'd say it's worth 5 levels for Drain Permanent Item. because the ability to treat common permanent magic items as something like Pearls of Power to top up your spellfire reserves between fights is kind of nice. I doubt I'd go deeper than that. While for example,Crown of fire is a decent ability on paper, it consumes so much spellfire per round that it really isn't a viable defense.

Third: GM cleanup. as already mentioned, everything spellfire related is pretty sloppy. I'm looking at an excerpt from Magic of Faerun (my copy is awol at the moment) so I'm not sure if it's accurate, but this says it requires both a ranged touch and a reflex save for half when used to deal damage. Thats.... no bueno. I'm also not 100% sure how it interacts with other types of magic like SLAs and don't feel like taking a deep dive. (though if you can talk your DM into allowing it to be used on SLAs? Invokers like DFA or Warlock become solid gold. Just keep casting a buff invocation on yourself until you're topped off, though of course, at that point you don't need to be able to drain permanent items and you're not getting anything appreciable from the class, so you might be inclined to skip SFC all together and just stick with the base feat. )

[Darg]

Third: GM cleanup. as already mentioned, everything spellfire related is pretty sloppy. I'm looking at an excerpt from Magic of Faerun (my copy is awol at the moment) so I'm not sure if it's accurate, but this says it requires both a ranged touch and a reflex save for half when used to deal damage. Thats.... no bueno. I'm also not 100% sure how it interacts with other types of magic like SLAs and don't feel like taking a deep dive. (though if you can talk your DM into allowing it to be used on SLAs? Invokers like DFA or Warlock become solid gold. Just keep casting a buff invocation on yourself until you're topped off, though of course, at that point you don't need to be able to drain permanent items and you're not getting anything appreciable from the class, so you might be inclined to skip SFC all together and just stick with the base feat. )

It works with SLAs right off the bat as SLAs function like spells and the rod of absorption explicitly absorbs them. Being your own battery also goes against the concept of spellfire so I wouldn't count on that being available as a character choice.

I do agree that the reflex save needs to go (it's only there to counter the fact that you can unload everything all at once). Put a cap on expenditure to 1 spell level per character level per use.

Changes for the class:

3/4 BAB
Improved healing: As a full round action, you can touch up to 6 friends to receive the benefit
Rapid Blast: Only pay the cost of 1 blast.
Flight: In addition you can expend 3 spell levels to gain the benefits of Overland Flight for 1 hour.
Crown of Fire: DR 10/magic, expend 10 spell levels for 10 rounds of resistance 11 + character level
Maelstrom of Fire: Can expend 1 extra spell level to exclude a 5 foot line from the ability.

New ability:
Heightened absorption: At first level as an immediate action once per round, you may absorb one spell targeted at you. At 6th level as an immediate action you may absorb one spell that you are within the area of and came into effect the just before activation of this ability. An instantaneous effect does not affect you when you use this ability, but it still affects other targets. Spells with a duration longer than instantaneous is absorbed before affecting any target. When using this ability in this way, you can't use the ability for a number of rounds equal to the level of the spell absorbed minus a number equal to the band of storage you are within.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Just keep casting a buff invocation on yourself until you're topped off, though of course, at that point you don't need to be able to drain permanent items and you're not getting anything appreciable from the class, so you might be inclined to skip SFC all together and just stick with the base feat. )

I can't agree with that last statement. SFC still gives you a lot of nice things even if you can recharge yourself at will. The increased spellfire capacity will be invaluable almost always, and allow you to go through a fight by nova-ing all you want without risking running out of spellfire. Up to 3xCon, the saving throws and disadvantages will be negligible anyway. Also, draining permanent items is not only good to gain some spellfire. It's also an incredibly good tool for dispelling magical traps, or other McGuffins for a day. No save if somebody doesn't wield it, no dispelling check... Depending on the campaign, that may be extremely good adventuring tool. Also, I'd go so far as to take the 6th level. One spellfire point per minute is nothing, and flying twice as fast as what draconic flight allows you is really good. Rapid Blast is interesting if your DM rules that the two blast both get the full Con score x 1d6. If you have to only use only half of your nova for each blast, then it's underwhelming and niche at best, completely useless at worst.

On the other hand, I fully agree with "DFA is best". Spellfire rules support the assumption that spell-like abilities can be absorbed. "Unlike most supernatural abilities, spellfire is affected by spells and magic items that affect spell-like abilities, [...] and theoretically a spellfire wielder could counterspell another's spellfire." This also means that you can put both Ability Focus and Spell-like ability Focus on your spellfire, to increase the DC by 4 (still not that good, but you take what you can). Also, even with infinite out-of-combat spellfire, a channeler isn't broken at all, so there is a high chance your DM will let that flow. DFA also gives you versatility and at-will abilities, which complement really well the one-trick-pony, one-action-per-fight spellfire channeler. I'd say DFA 5->SFC1->DFA6->SFC X. Getting increased storage as soon as possible is a must, but you'd like to get a lesser invocation if possible (probably voidsense or walk unseen, which will make sure your first ray will hit the opponent).

[Paragon]

There has been a Iron Chef Competition (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?439020-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-LXXII) using this ingredient in the past and the builds were remarkable.

I remember one of them with a Dragon Shaman using his at-ill Feather-fall to fill his Spellfire (climb up a 5-foot tree, ready to absorb, jump (move action), trigger Feather Fall (immediate action) which is a spell you're the target of meaning you absorb it, fall 5 ft on your butt, repeat)
Another was a swordeater mindblade that drained its own creations for Spellfire refills.

Much fun.

Something that's on my list of builds is having a SPC with an incarnum class as base since meldshaping is Con based. Food for thoughts

[Max Caysey]

I've not played a spellfire channeler myself but one of the players in my current campaign started the game at level 1 with the spell fire wielder feat and is now level 8. My advise would be to make sure that you and the DM are on the same page on how the feat works and how you intend to get yourself charged up. As written the feat doesn't really work as we envisioned it as it requires you to ready an action to absorb the spells which means it's not very useful in combat. As such we ended up with a lot of house rules around the feat and a homebrew prc for his character.

^^^ very much this! … personally I would try and get it to work as a rod of absorption! Which in 3.5 does not need a readied action… I have never played the class, but did play a wizard with the spell fire wielder feat. Because my DM insisted the readied action and disallowed self charging I have used to feat only a hand full of times over more than a decade of gaming… a real shame!!! He was afraid it would be too strong the poor thing, so instead I went dweomer keeper… now my free wishes are killing him, and he regrets not listening to reason! Reason being both allowing it to work like the updated Rod and allowing self charge! Crump my character I crump your entire campaign!