All day caster abilities

[danskjavel]

I have recently been building some arcane casters but one thing I run into is that sometimes when they are in actual play there are some circumstances where I have prepped wrong for the fight (too large AoE:s, this enemy being immune to my low level spells but not worth my high levels), want to save my resources to push further, I suspect a costly escape, etc. Hence, I have come to the conclusion that I want my dudes to have some stuff that can keep going and be simple and reliable for almost any encounter.

The reserve feats are an answer to this, if not the most powerful option for all of them. Summon Elemental is certainly impressive but either very costly to get early or rather weak in combat and late if no early qualification is used, and the rest are generally worse. I suppose Xd6 elemental damage for having a certain type of direct damage spell prepped/available is also an option with fiery burst and the like if looking for something simple and fairly reliable.

Another idea that I have thought of was trying to get iaijutsu focus and using that to do some decent damage with probably a reach weapon to avoid being right in the thick of it. Generally though, this leads to lost CL but for a gish(y) build it might not be too bad as it can be picked up using Human Paragon which is often included in gish builds so it might just be something extra if going that route. Works nicely if combined with Persisted Greater Invisibility.

Then there is of course Persisted (Fell Drain) Cloud of Knives and other persistomancy spells that allow per round attacks.

Theurging is also an option, something like Anima Mage or Eldritch Theurge add all day options as well. Mystic theurge or cerebremancer adds significantly more spells or powers per day which helps last that bit longer but are not "true" all day options.

What ideas do you have for making an all day viable arcane spellcaster? Which approach would you prefer for having all day abilities. Divine answers would also be appreciated but divines are usually fine with using just a standard big stick when out of spells (and the big stick usage would probably be buffed by an number of persisted spells via DMM).

Also what ways could a caster make their HP go further? Getting LA for fast healing is generally not great for a(n almost) full caster.

Basically, what ways can a caster have more juice in the tank without recharge tricks or other TO adjacent tricks?

[Inevitability]

Sorcerers have the X dragon lineage feats that let them sacrifice a spell slot to get a thematic dragon ability.

[danskjavel]

That is kind of all day but sadly stops working when you run out of slots. In hindsight unlimited use might have been a better way to put what I was thinking of when writing up the post.

[Runenstahl]

In my opinion cantrips are nothing to sneeze at. They will quickly be the better choice then weapon attacks (even for clerics with big sticks). Just make sure you pick your cantrips to do stuff that differs from your other spells. If you have fireball and scorching ray, maybe don't pick fire bolt.


Apart from that, here are few spells that I personally find very useful in a number of ways:

Chromatic Orb - Allows you to pick the type of damage according to the situation.

Grease - Low level spell that makes difficult terrain and gives a chance to knock down enemies. Does not require concentration and might be useful in certain romantic situations too.

Magic Missile - Need to break someones concentration ? Having to make several DC 10 checks after getting hit by a barrage of magic missiles might do the trick. Need to make sure that creature that just went down is really dead ? Getting hit by 3 magic missiles while unconcious will kill you for sure. Finish off enemies that look close to falling over ? Got it ! On top of that, not many enemies are resistant or immune to force damage.

Enlarge / Reduce - Can improve combat capabilities if used before combat. Other than that it can be helpful in a number of ways as it can give advantage to strength checks and might allow characters to squeeze into very small areas.

Bestow Curse - Apart from wish, this is one of the most flexible spells in the book. It allows you to do basically anything as long the DM agrees it's not more powerful then the listed examples. For high level spellcasters it's worth noting that casting this at level 5 or more does no longer need concentration, so it's no longer easy to get rid of it.

[danskjavel]

Yeah, cantrips are a great addition to 5e for spellcasters as a way to not feel that you have to use even your low level spells for easier encounters. It is equivalent abilities but for 3.5e that I want to look for in this thread. The 0th level spells in 3.5 are neither unlimited use nor nearly as good as 5e cantrips.

[Inevitability]

The planeshifter PrC gets Plane Shift at-will at level 8, which includes the part where you can cast it on other people offensively. This only comes online at a very high ECL, though.

[Troacctid]

Magic items can help if you're willing to spend some money. A wand of snake's swiftness is good value if you have a partner who can take advantage of it well, for example.

Personally, though, I think there's nothing wrong with Fiery Burst. It's not a ton of damage, but it's reliable. It's a Su ability, so it has no components, which means you can use it as a fallback even if you're grappled or silenced or the like. And when you actually cast your fire spells, the +1 caster level is a meaningful boost to damage. If you're in the market for an at-will ability and you're willing to invest a feat slot, I think it's one of the best around.

[Runenstahl]

Yeah, cantrips are a great addition to 5e for spellcasters as a way to not feel that you have to use even your low level spells for easier encounters. It is equivalent abilities but for 3.5e that I want to look for in this thread. The 0th level spells in 3.5 are neither unlimited use nor nearly as good as 5e cantrips.

My bad, I was missing that you where talking in the 3/3.5 section. Sorry.

[Jay R]

This isn't the best use of a caster. Casters have the most powerful single moments; martials have abilities that last all day. Do what your character does best, and let other PCs do what they do best.

The simplest way for your caster to do damage all day is to hire a couple of martials.

[Darg]

You could try dipping a level of warlock, grabbing a chausable of fell power, and then entering the Eldritch Theurge PrC. For the loss of one level you get many at will abilities, more class features, and with a greater chausable you can have an 8d6 EB by class level 10.

[Troacctid]

This isn't the best use of a caster. Casters have the most powerful single moments; martials have abilities that last all day. Do what your character does best, and let other PCs do what they do best.
DRUID: Mialee, I can explain—
WIZARD: You're getting wild shapes that last all day while my polymorph spells only last 1 minute/level?!
PALADIN: 1 minute/level?! My smite only lasts for one attack!
SWASHBUCKLER: ...Wait, you guys are getting class features?

[Maat Mons]

If you've got the gold to spare, Ring of Telekinesis gives a decent at-will attack.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Theurging is the path I'd choose for this, but then I love theurging.

Didn't know about Chasuble of Fell power before this thread. That gets you into Eldritch Theurge for just one level in Warlock, and is probably your best choice for a consistent damage option.

Two levels in Totemist or Incarnate, or a single level in either plus an Open Least Chakra feat/spell, will get you into Soulcaster. This is even easier than Eldritch Theurge, since it only requires one level and a spell (which you don't even have to keep casting after your first level in the PrC if you don't want to), but is going to be better for giving you utility options than for combat options. Unless you have a Dragonfire Inspiration Bard on the team, in which case Manticore Belt starts looking a lot more attractive. Still, that escape spell you were preparing can be spent on a combat spell instead if you can short-range teleport at-will, as an example.

One level in Bard and two weak feats gets you into Stormsinger. Fully advances your spellcasting, gives you 10 more uses of bardic music, and gives you some lovely combat applications for that bardic music. Even so, this is probably the weakest of the three options for the price of entry.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Don't discount the utility uses for Summon Elemental. You can use it to Nodwick traps. You can make a water or earth elemental go under a door and open it from the other side. Fire elementals can start fires, water elementals can put them out. An air elemental can still whirlwind.

Work on mitigating the effects of having spells prepared that you ended up not needing. A Runestaff from MIC (custom rules from p223) allows you to swap out a prepared spell for a spell on the runestaff. The Raiment of the Four set in MIC gives similar utility. The feat Uncanny Forethought allows you to leave a number of spell slots empty up to your Int bonus, and cast any spell you know from one of those as a full-round action as long as the spell's level is equal to or lower than the slot spent. Those combine well with reserve feats like Fiery Burst, UF especially if you also know Heighten Spell. There's also the Spontaneous Divination ACF, and various other methods of spontaneous casting specific spells.

Persistent Thunderlance (SC) is a superb choice if you can do it, especially if you can cast Greater Magic Weapon on it.

Use Permanency on a Detect Magic which has been cast with Snowcasting, Heighten +1, Flash Frost Spell, Fell Drain, Fell Frighten, Widen, etc. All you do is concentrate on the Detect Magic to make its effect manifest. Take the Swift Concentration skill trick to do it as a swift action once per encounter. Use Summon Component (CM) to get the snow for snowcasting if necessary. If you have Incantatrix you can even apply the metamagic feats to it after you've cast it. This is getting closer to cheese/TO than something that would be acceptable at a table, though.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Psionic manifesters have several potential answers to this.

There are quite a few low-level powers that are very strong even without augmenting them. Psionic minor creation, for instance, lasts 1 hour/lvl and can make any number of objects and substances that are quite strong at high levels. Drow sleep poison and black lotus extract are both very powerful when you have enough of it, and it doesn't matter if an enemy has a +400 Fort save if it's doused in a thousand doses of it (so long as it's not immune, anyway). And with some knowledge of biology, biochemistry, and even just plain everyday substances, you can get a lot of mileage out of a single power point. And if you have the Linked Power feat, you can do this on the fly, rather than spending a minute manifesting it. (And with synchronicity, you won't even lose an action to do so.)

There are also several powers that last for some time that you can use throughout a whole encounter. For instance, energy conversion with or without control body and a psicrystal and a bit of metapsionics (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=19788955&postcount=274) allows for very powerful chained energy shots for quite some time, especially if you don't mind filling a hole/bowl/handy haversack with boiling acid (for both fire and acid damage) and standing in it to soak up energy damage.

And there are so many power point recharge schemes in the game that there's no way it wasn't intended.

[Vizzerdrix]

You have access to alchemy. Egg shell grenades and acid flasks are great. Enchant a gnome calculus to push up the damage. Don't worry about non proficiency because you only need to hit touch ac.