Renegade Paladin
2008-01-13, 10:17 PM
Last night, I showed up for a game having forgotten my character sheet. Since I'd missed the previous session, that session had involved going way the heck away from my character's native Waterdeep (which he has strong reasons to not do) and I didn't have him anyway, I decided to just take the opportunity to switch to another character and tossed together a gnome illusionist in about five minutes. I think I built him fairly competently, though the DM just kept rolling improbably high Will saves; I think he might have been fudging behind the screen to keep his encounters from dying of phantasmal killer in the first round.
Anyway, since my thrown-together-in-five-minutes wizard didn't immediately completely dominate the session, my group's other primary DM, who insists that wizards are not broken, decided to rag on me about it because the low-Will monster made every single Will save I forced on it. So now I'm annoyed and am going to do what I wasn't going to do before: Actually set out to break this thing. I get to change anything I hadn't used by the end of the session, so here's a listing of what is and is not up for grabs:
The characters are tenth level; I'm playing a gnome illusionist 3/master specialist 7. That's set in stone, since he's been played with those class levels, but a fair number of feats are not. I took the chains of disbelief (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/specialistWizardVariants.htm#chainsofDisbelief) variant from Unearthed Arcana, though that didn't come into play yet and can therefore still be traded out. I provisionally banned evocation and necromancy, though I haven't used spells from transmutation or abjuration either, so I could switch for either of those. (I really don't want to, though; especially not abjuration.)
Ability scores are STR 11, DEX 16, CON 16, INT 18 (20 with headband of Int +2), WIS 11, CHA 11. HP 63.
For my skills I've maxed Concentration, Decipher Script, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (the planes), and Spellcraft; the extra skill points from my Intelligence increase from leveling went to Knowledge (history). I've rolled skill checks already with Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft; everything else can be switched around.
So far my feats I've selected are Spell Focus (illusion) and Improved Initiative. Feat slots for 6th and 9th levels are open, and of course I have the bonus feats given by wizard and master specialist.
Except for the headband of intellect, no equipment has been chosen. The only spells set in stone for me to have to know are the ones I cast last session; those are phantasmal killer, prying eyes, silent image, hold monster, sensory deprivation, and grease. I have others picked out by default because I tossed them onto my prepared spells list when I was hurriedly building the character, but I didn't use them and so they're fair game to be traded out.
So, everything else is fair game.
The obvious advantage from my perspective: Between being a gnome and the illusion school esoterica from master specialist, the save DCs for my illusion spells with Will (disbelief) saving throws are ludicrous. Disadvantages include being fairly helpless against monsters that are immune to mind-affecting effects. So, what's the best way to build this?
Anyway, since my thrown-together-in-five-minutes wizard didn't immediately completely dominate the session, my group's other primary DM, who insists that wizards are not broken, decided to rag on me about it because the low-Will monster made every single Will save I forced on it. So now I'm annoyed and am going to do what I wasn't going to do before: Actually set out to break this thing. I get to change anything I hadn't used by the end of the session, so here's a listing of what is and is not up for grabs:
The characters are tenth level; I'm playing a gnome illusionist 3/master specialist 7. That's set in stone, since he's been played with those class levels, but a fair number of feats are not. I took the chains of disbelief (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/specialistWizardVariants.htm#chainsofDisbelief) variant from Unearthed Arcana, though that didn't come into play yet and can therefore still be traded out. I provisionally banned evocation and necromancy, though I haven't used spells from transmutation or abjuration either, so I could switch for either of those. (I really don't want to, though; especially not abjuration.)
Ability scores are STR 11, DEX 16, CON 16, INT 18 (20 with headband of Int +2), WIS 11, CHA 11. HP 63.
For my skills I've maxed Concentration, Decipher Script, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (the planes), and Spellcraft; the extra skill points from my Intelligence increase from leveling went to Knowledge (history). I've rolled skill checks already with Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft; everything else can be switched around.
So far my feats I've selected are Spell Focus (illusion) and Improved Initiative. Feat slots for 6th and 9th levels are open, and of course I have the bonus feats given by wizard and master specialist.
Except for the headband of intellect, no equipment has been chosen. The only spells set in stone for me to have to know are the ones I cast last session; those are phantasmal killer, prying eyes, silent image, hold monster, sensory deprivation, and grease. I have others picked out by default because I tossed them onto my prepared spells list when I was hurriedly building the character, but I didn't use them and so they're fair game to be traded out.
So, everything else is fair game.
The obvious advantage from my perspective: Between being a gnome and the illusion school esoterica from master specialist, the save DCs for my illusion spells with Will (disbelief) saving throws are ludicrous. Disadvantages include being fairly helpless against monsters that are immune to mind-affecting effects. So, what's the best way to build this?