7th level spell choice, for his lesser arcane class

[Jay R]

I have an epic pixie ultimate magus. He has just leveled up from wizard 21 to 22, and from Sorcerer 13 to 14. So the only new spell he is choosing is a 7th level sorcerer spell.

He already has greater teleport from the Expanded Spell Knowledge ability of an Ultimate Magus (expanded into epic levels). So he will have two spells that he can cast up to five times a day.

In general, his attack spells are his wizard spells, for greater DC. What seventh level spell is he likely to cast several times a day, that doesn’t need his highest DC? I’ve focused on buff spells on the sorcerer side, but can’t find a good one.

Any ideas?

[Biggus]

Energy Immunity or Brilliant Aura (both SpC)? Spell Turning (PHB)?

[Zanos]

Arcane Spellsurge?

[Biggus]

Arcane Spellsurge?

I thought of suggesting that, but as far as I can tell it would affect your Wizard spells as well (it says "casting times for arcane spells are reduced") so unless you've got a lot of spells which take a full round to cast it would mean you could only cast one spell per round instead of two. If you've got Extend Spell you could use it all your Sorcerer buffs maybe?

[Khedrac]

Does the character go around in a party much? IF so, there's a strong argument that his first choice should be limited wish. It's the spell you never want to cast, but when you need it you need it.

Several years ago I was DMing for a moderately high level party (Living Greyhawk and they were basically waltzing through the opposition) when the party cleric (sacred exorcist) rolled a natural one - on a save versus flesh to stone, everybody froze for a second (I was confident that they would have a solution) then on his next action the sorcerer cast limited wish: stone to flesh and on they steam-rollered.

The point it, virtually all the emergency condition breakers (break enchantment, stone to flesh, remove curse etc. can be duplicated by limited wish so (unless someone has wish or miracle) it's the essential backup when the party's primary remover of status effects is the one affected.

If you are not usually in a party then who cares?

[Zanos]

I thought of suggesting that, but as far as I can tell it would affect your Wizard spells as well (it says "casting times for arcane spells are reduced") so unless you've got a lot of spells which take a full round to cast it would mean you could only cast one spell per round instead of two. If you've got Extend Spell you could use it all your Sorcerer buffs maybe?
You can take extend or a filler metamagic like invisible spell to raise the casting time to a full round action for sorcerer spells.

Uncanny Forethought on the wizard side can raise spell cast times to a full round action, also.

[Jay R]

People are coming up with great ideas. Unfortunately, because I haven’t told you everything about the character, many of these ideas can’t work in this case.

They are still helping me explore the possibilities; keep them coming.

Pip is a Sorcerer 1 / Wizard 5 / Incantator* 4 / Ultimate Magus 14. This is a metamagic-heavy build, to take full advantage of the metamagic abilities of the Incantator and the Ultimate Magus. One of his Ultimate Magus abilities is to add a metamagic feat to a spell using a slot from the other side, up to 10 times a day.

So arcane spellsurge is unnecessary. He can quicken 10 spells for free already . [Usually less than that, because he starts each day with Persistent chasing perfection.] He also has very few spells that take a full round to cast. He has no summoning spells, because I thought the party already had a summoner. I was wrong, but he still doesn’t have those spells. Perhaps summon monster VII?

He has energy immunity as a Wizard spell, and memorizes it each day, but I don’t think he’ll need it more than once a day, so it doesn’t need 5 open spell slots.

Brilliant aura makes sense, if you will be fighting people in armor. But it’s worthless against high-level wizards or epic monsters who don’t wear armor. I’ve never played an epic game before. How often do you face armored foes at the epic level?

Yes, he’s with a party. He already has [I]limited wish, as a wizard spell. He also has a Rod of Excellent Magic, so he doesn’t mind casting it once a day. So he always memorizes it.

But he’s not likely to cast it several times a day, so it doesn’t need to be a sorcerer spell.

Because this is a metamagic-focused build, feats are precious. I wasn’t willing to use two of them to get Uncanny Forethought.

Spell turning may be it, or possibly summon monster VII. I'm looking for a spell he might cast several times in a day.

Any more ideas?

---

*Incantatrix. Many early languages use different endings on nouns for male and female. In the Latin third declension, the endings are “-tor” and “-trix”. A female gladiator (if there had been such a thing) would have been a gladiatrix. Similarly, a cantor was a male singer; a cantrix was a female singer. English adopted this usage for some nouns. It has used “aviator” and “executor” for men, and “aviatrix” and “executrix” for women. D&D rules use the feminine gender throughout, so they wrote “incantatrix”. Since Pip is male, I use “incantator”.

These distinctions are going away in modern English, and women are both aviators and executors. In the 21st century, “tor” is for men and women, and Trix are for kids.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Research an arcane version of the soul crystal psionic power, from MoI? Cast it as a sorcerer but use your wizard spells to store in the crystals. That way, you can basically spontaneously make temporary wands of all of your wizard spells that anyone can use.

[bekeleven]

Some good 7th level spells I could see casting multiple times a day:

Greater teleport: just go wherever.

Synostodweomer: arcane spells are cure spells!

Unicorn heart: Yes, it's an hour/level buff, but it's a really good one and you can expend it to dimension door as a swift.

And finally, of course: Greater Shadow Conjuration.

[MultitudeMan]

He also has very few spells that take a full round to cast. He has no summoning spells, because I thought the party already had a summoner. I was wrong, but he still doesn’t have those spells. Perhaps summon monster VII?

Spell turning may be it, or possibly summon monster VII. I'm looking for a spell he might cast several times in a day.



What's your alignment? It might affect your decision on Summon Monster VII.

[Jay R]

What's your alignment? It might affect your decision on Summon Monster VII.

Neutral good, like all pixies. He could summon an elephant, avoral, whale, djinn, huge elemental, or invisible stalker.

[Asmotherion]

Arcane Spellsurge is a must for every Sorcerer. Greater Scrying is also a solid choice for Scry and Fry situations. Plane Shift is situationally usefull, especially if your campaign revolves around other planes. Finally there is Limited Wish which can grant you access to some other spell lists, which is great.

[nedz]

It depends upon your game, but all of these are spammable

Transport: Ethereal Jaunt (PH p227), Phase Door (PH p261)
Utility / Attack: Forcecage (PH p233)
Utility: Planar Bubble (Spell Compendium p158)
Problem solving: Ruby Ray of Reversal (FR)

[MaxiDuRaritry]

If you dip into incarnate or totemist, open lesser chakra would let you bind to your arms, brow, crown, feet, hands, or shoulders chakra. Multiple castings would bind to multiple chakras. Phase cloak bound to your shoulders would be worth the spell by itself, although you're more likely to be better off casting it as a wizard.

[Biggus]

He has energy immunity as a Wizard spell, and memorizes it each day, but I don’t think he’ll need it more than once a day, so it doesn’t need 5 open spell slots.

You don't want to be immune to all five energy types all the time?


*Incantatrix. Many early languages use different endings on nouns for male and female. In the Latin third declension, the endings are “-tor” and “-trix”. A female gladiator (if there had been such a thing) would have been a gladiatrix. Similarly, a cantor was a male singer; a cantrix was a female singer. English adopted this usage for some nouns. It has used “aviator” and “executor” for men, and “aviatrix” and “executrix” for women. D&D rules use the feminine gender throughout, so they wrote “incantatrix”. Since Pip is male, I use “incantator”.

These distinctions are going away in modern English, and women are both aviators and executors. In the 21st century, “tor” is for men and women, and Trix are for kids.

PGtF (p.61) says male incantatrixes are called incantatars. I don't know why they changed the o to an a.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

PGtF (p.61) says male incantatrixes are called incantatars. I don't know why they changed the o to an a.Children who take that PrC are incantator tots.

[Seward]

Ok, for your epic pixie, what you want is a spell you might want to cast multiple times, or zero in a day and you don't want to think about it during spell prep.

Greater Teleport is a good one for this, as it has both tactical and strategic advantages.

Spell Turning is kind of "false life for spells" - you sometimes need to recast it, and in epic it lasts a good long time till discharged. I like it on a sorcerer for the same reason false life is stronger on a sorcerer.

If you don't already have control weather, it's decent on a sorcerer. Can help other spells (eg, if party is traveling using bottles of smoke or wind walking you can make sure high winds don't happen). Can get pretty impressive if you have time to work it up too but needs some creativity. It's one of those niche spells that often isn't prepped the day you need it (I like gust of wind on a sorcerer better than on a wizard for similar reasons)

Other than that, um, antimagic ray. It's mostly useless vs creatures just as Disintegrate is, but it is pretty potent on magical barriers, traps etc, and can strip them of defenses for your followup disintegrate....or just bring them down long enough to pass through without the awkwardness that an antimagic shell can cause the caster.

I have to say though, being actually immune to all energy types 24x7 is fairly appealing. Energy Immunity has its appeal but only if you aren't needing those slots for other things too. I'd prefer in your shoes something that would not tie up all those slots every single day.


Arcane Spellsurge is a must for every Sorcerer. Greater Scrying is also a solid choice for Scry and Fry situations. Plane Shift is situationally usefull, especially if your campaign revolves around other planes. Finally there is Limited Wish which can grant you access to some other spell lists, which is great.

This isn't a sorcerer though. It's an ultimate magus build, with wizard as the primary class. The pixie can already quicken any spell prepped as a wizard just by burning surplus sorcerer spells, so spellsurge doesn't add much. Likewise in epic, scrying is usually blocked, and when not his wizard slots work fine for that.

Plane shift is interesting the same way Greater Teleport is interesting. It's all about whether planar travel is as common in their epic campaign as tactical and strategic teleporting are in a typical campaign. If it is common to randomly need to jaunt to an outer or elemental plane, it could be pretty useful. If that sort of thing is more "once in a campaign arc" the wizard spell slots work better.

[Bohandas]

Maybe a general combat spell like Delayed Blast Fireball or Prismatic Spray so that you can save your wizard slots for utility spells