Classic Build - The JaronK Special

[Postmodernist]

So, apparently JaronK made this build:

Binder 1/Archivist 3/Anima Mage 10/Tainted Sorcerer 1/Tenebrous Apostate 5.

Sadly, much of the info around this build has been lost to the internet. Can you help me with a few things?

I understand that generally, I Bind Naberius, Zceryll, and Tenebrous. Take the Ritual of Shadow-Walking from p 125 of Lords of Darkness. Take lots of metamgic feats and maybe Divine Defiance (the feat that lets you spend a turn undead attempt to counter a spell as an immediate action). It provides lots of endless metamagic, lots ofendless spells, insanely high spell save DCs, near unlimited access to every spell ever, and ability to spam creatures out everywhere, plus complete situational awareness.

Build starts at level 1, going Dream Dwarf (-2 Dex, +2 Con). We'll be running Expedition to Undermountain, so survivability at each level is gonna be important. I imagine I'll largely act as support, eventually evolving into summoner status.

Questions:

What should the stat distribution be, with 32 point buy?
What should spell prioritization look like?
Gear recommendations? (I've read the Archivist Handbooks, as well as the Binder Handbooks for gear recs, but this build is funky and there's less I've been able to find about it.)
Feat recommendations. Aside from a metamagic feat (DMM craziness is not guaranteed in this campaign, depending on the DM's inclinations) and Improved Binding, things are wide open. Would love to get thoughts.
Anything else I should consider? The build will be strong regardless, but I'd like to keep options open, and consider that high theoretical op stuff is not guaranteed, both by the DM and the nature of a challenging campaign that encourages the build to be viable at every level.


Thanks!

[Rebel7284]

I mean DMM is worse than the Tainted Sorcerer metamagic anyway.

I like Craft Contingent Spell if you have downtime, but I have no idea if that adventure path has that.

[Biggus]

Feat recommendations. Aside from a metamagic feat (DMM craziness is not guaranteed in this campaign, depending on the DM's inclinations) and Improved Binding, things are wide open. Would love to get thoughts.


I'd definitely say you want more than one metamagic feat to take full advantage of all the free metamagic you get. Metamagic reducers (Easy MM, Arcane Thesis, MM School Focus) are worth considering too.

[Chronos]

Doesn't Tainted Sorcerer hit you with increasing taint/corruption every time you cast a spell, very quickly adding up to destroy you (if you're not a fiend or undead)? Or is that just Tainted Scholar?

[Postmodernist]

Doesn't Tainted Sorcerer hit you with increasing taint/corruption every time you cast a spell, very quickly adding up to destroy you (if you're not a fiend or undead)? Or is that just Tainted Scholar?

I don't know about Tainted Scholar, but Tainted Sorcerer has some downsides, and is mostly about paying for casting boosts with HP damage. It's not strictly necessary for the build.

[Anthrowhale]

I'm confused by this build. How does Anima Mage (advancing arcane casting) legally advance Archivist (a divine caster)?

[Rebel7284]

I'm confused by this build. How does Anima Mage (advancing arcane casting) legally advance Archivist (a divine caster)?


ADAPTATION
Anima mages needn’t exploit vestiges to gain power—the
vestiges could volunteer the added powers to an anima
mage in recognition of his spellcasting ability. You could
also relax the prerequisites to open this prestige class to any
spellcaster—or even a psionic character.

Based on that line, may folks talk about "divine anima mage" being easily applied to divine characters with a permissive DM, which... that line allows, but doesn't necessarily encourage.

[Curbludgeon]

Tainted Scholar only advanced arcane.

Keeping those taint saves under control seems like it could be tedious. With a sacked Wisdom a feat like Force of Personality might be a good idea. The variant on Tenebrous and its related PrC (Green Lady/Apostle of the Green Lady) gets an extra caster level among other stuff, like a nicer appearance.

[Anthrowhale]

Based on that line, may folks talk about "divine anima mage" being easily applied to divine characters with a permissive DM, which... that line allows, but doesn't necessarily encourage.

Ok, thanks.

For the OP, if you are willing to pay an extra feat, you can advance your Archivist casting by a level. Start out with Archivist 3/Anima Mage 10 taking Bind Vestige and Improved Bind Vestige. Anima Mage directly grants binding:

At each anima mage level, your soul binding ability improves as if you had also gained a level in the binder class.
So Anima Mage quickly self qualifies for that prereq. Hence, you should be able to retrain those 2 feats into something else as per the PHBII rules upon successive levelups. Using that your access to the vestiges is undelayed.

Expedition to Undermountain is levels 1-10 so half the time that level of spell advancement gives you access to a new level of spells you'll otherwise be missing.

[Chronos]

So Anima Mage quickly self qualifies for that prereq.
But not quickly enough, because as soon as you get binding from a class, those two feats cease to function, and so you lose the prerequisite for Anima Mage as soon as you take it. At that point, it's a question of how your DM rules on losing prerequisites for prestige classes.

You might (or might not, depending on how your DM rules order of operations on leveling up) be able to get away with it by arranging to take the Improved Binding feat at the same time as your first level of Anima Mage.

[Anthrowhale]

But not quickly enough, because as soon as you get binding from a class, those two feats cease to function, and so you lose the prerequisite for Anima Mage as soon as you take it. At that point, it's a question of how your DM rules on losing prerequisites for prestige classes.

You might (or might not, depending on how your DM rules order of operations on leveling up) be able to get away with it by arranging to take the Improved Binding feat at the same time as your first level of Anima Mage.

Good point. Retraining also does not work for this because you did not meet the prereqs at the time of choosing Improved Bind Vestige.

[Postmodernist]

Ok, thanks.

For the OP, if you are willing to pay an extra feat, you can advance your Archivist casting by a level. Start out with Archivist 3/Anima Mage 10 taking Bind Vestige and Improved Bind Vestige. Anima Mage directly grants binding:

So Anima Mage quickly self qualifies for that prereq. Hence, you should be able to retrain those 2 feats into something else as per the PHBII rules upon successive levelups. Using that your access to the vestiges is undelayed.

Expedition to Undermountain is levels 1-10 so half the time that level of spell advancement gives you access to a new level of spells you'll otherwise be missing.

Yeah, the DM wouldn't allow this, anyway. It's the standard entry for this character.

[Quertus]

Doesn't Tainted Sorcerer hit you with increasing taint/corruption every time you cast a spell, very quickly adding up to destroy you (if you're not a fiend or undead)? Or is that just Tainted Scholar?

IIRC, you get a save, but, yes, my favorite(ish) prestige class Tainted Sorcerer does, indeed, try to make you self-destruct. You've got to limit your casting to the amount of Taint you can burn off in a day (if you don't have downtime, at least). Which you can do with certain (Cleric, IIRC) spells.