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View Full Version : [3.5] PrC's for a Fire-Caster?



arguskos
2008-10-06, 04:47 PM
So, in my current campaign, the party is level 4, and one of the players just rolled up a fire-based blaster wizard, since his druid was just pulped by a voor.

So, he'll be looking at PrC's soon, and I wanted to find him something fun and powerful, but not crazy overpowering. All I've got so far is Elemental Savant (and it's highly underwhelming, IMO).

Any thoughts?

-argus

mostlyharmful
2008-10-06, 04:50 PM
for wizard casters you don't really need a PrC for an elemental bases theme, it's all in the spell selection. I'd advise homebrew myself.

Fax Celestis
2008-10-06, 04:53 PM
Not a PrC, but a worthwhile feat: Blistering Spell, PHB-II.

AstralFire
2008-10-06, 05:00 PM
Exalted Arcanist would be good, but it's spont-caster only.

I would take a page from Psionics and add a feat that lets you add +1 to each d6 of damage from fire, for starters. Not meta, just a feat.

arguskos
2008-10-06, 05:06 PM
for wizard casters you don't really need a PrC for an elemental bases theme, it's all in the spell selection. I'd advise homebrew myself.
While I agree, I do like PrC's for giving fun and unique abilities. I tend to encourage my players to all take a PrC, and was planning on encouraging this group to do the same (the fighter is going Exotic Weapon Master+Master Thrower; the ranger is thinking about Order of the Bow Initiate; the rogue is going for Shadowdancer; and the poor bard is confused).


Not a PrC, but a worthwhile feat: Blistering Spell, PHB-II.
That is a most excellent feat that I've taken on occasion and loved greatly. I was actually going to suggest it next level (Wizard bonus feat and all that jazz).


Exalted Arcanist would be good, but it's spont-caster only.

I would take a page from Psionics and add a feat that lets you add +1 to each d6 of damage from fire, for starters. Not meta, just a feat.
Thought about Exalted Arcanist, but he's not exalted, and has no interest whatsoever.

That refluffed feat could be neat though.

-argus

The_Snark
2008-10-06, 05:07 PM
There's a metamagic feat that does that, too—Fiery Spell, from Sandstorm. Searing Spell, from the same source, is useful too.

If you're the DM, you could always permit a variant of the Frost Mage class, switching fire for cold. A few things would need changing (the Frozen Magic prerequisite feat doesn't have a direct equivalent, the Gain Knowledge feature should be replaced with the ability to learn any spell with the fire descriptor), but not much. Not spectacular by any means, but you don't really lose anything either.

arguskos
2008-10-06, 05:11 PM
There's a metamagic feat that does that, too—Fiery Spell, from Sandstorm. Searing Spell, from the same source, is useful too.

If you're the DM, you could always permit a variant of the Frost Mage class, switching fire for cold. A few things would need changing (the Frozen Magic prerequisite feat doesn't have a direct equivalent, the Gain Knowledge feature should be replaced with the ability to learn any spell with the fire descriptor), but not much. Not spectacular by any means, but you don't really lose anything either.
Yah, I'm the DM. Thought about refluffing Frost Mage too. Decided against because of the issue with Frozen Magic, though I guess I could make a Scorching Magic feat or somesuch.

Urrr... I really need to pick up Sandstorm sometime soon (yay alliteration). For the uninitiated, whadda those feats do?

-argus

tyckspoon
2008-10-06, 05:53 PM
Fiery Spell adds +1 damage per die to a Fire spell; it's the same effect as choosing Fire or Cold as the energy type for the Psionic blasting powers. +1 metamagic. Searing Spell makes a Fire spell ignore resistances completely and breaks immunities by half (that is, the spell does half damage to a creature that would otherwise be immune.) Also a +1 metamagic. A fire-specialized caster will want to add one or the other to pretty much every attack spell he ever casts. Preferably both, if you allow him some form of metamagic reducer. Or just make Fiery Spell a +0 metamagic; it wasn't broken when psionics got it for 'free', it won't be broken when your player has to spend a feat for it.

Starbuck_II
2008-10-06, 05:57 PM
Fiery Spell adds +1 damage per die to a Fire spell; it's the same effect as choosing Fire or Cold as the energy type for the Psionic blasting powers. +1 metamagic. Searing Spell makes a Fire spell ignore resistances completely and breaks immunities by half (that is, the spell does half damage to a creature that would otherwise be immune.) Also a +1 metamagic. A fire-specialized caster will want to add one or the other to pretty much every attack spell he ever casts. Preferably both, if you allow him some form of metamagic reducer. Or just make Fiery Spell a +0 metamagic; it wasn't broken when psionics got it for 'free', it won't be broken when your player has to spend a feat for it.

Don't forget Elemental Spellcasting (choose a element) +1 DC.

arguskos
2008-10-06, 06:05 PM
Actually Starbuck, he has Fiery Burst (reserve feat, damage all day, +1 CL fire spells), so that's covered.

Also, yeah... Fiery Spell should probably be +0. Also, I'll be sure to recommend those to him. Thanks tyckspoon.

-argus

Chronos
2008-10-06, 06:09 PM
Another good feat would be Fiery Burst: Now you can burn everything in sight, without having to worry about running out of spells.

arguskos
2008-10-06, 06:13 PM
Uh... already has that. :smallwink: That was my first thought, actually.

Hey, is Summon Elemental worth it later? He can spam Small Fire Elementals.

-argus

RTGoodman
2008-10-06, 06:13 PM
I don't have my copy of Complete Mage since a friend borrowed it and never returned it, but what about the Master Specialist for Evokers (since I assume that a fire-blasty-type wizard is probably an Evoker)? I don't remember what the class abilities for it are, but it's really easy to qualify for and doesn't have any drawbacks besides not advancing familiars (and that's standard anyway). Maybe Archmage after that? That's all I can really think of, since there's not a lot of impressive elementalist PrCs.

arguskos
2008-10-06, 06:15 PM
I don't have my copy of Complete Mage since a friend borrowed it and never returned it, but what about the Master Specialist for Evokers (since I assume that a fire-blasty-type wizard is probably an Evoker)? I don't remember what the class abilities for it are, but it's really easy to qualify for and doesn't have any drawbacks besides not advancing familiars (and that's standard anyway). Maybe Archmage after that? That's all I can really think of, since there's not a lot of impressive elementalist PrCs.
He's not an evoker. Were he though, I'd certainly suggest it. :smallamused:

-argus

Starbuck_II
2008-10-06, 06:20 PM
Actually Starbuck, he has Fiery Burst (reserve feat, damage all day, +1 CL fire spells), so that's covered.

Also, yeah... Fiery Spell should probably be +0. Also, I'll be sure to recommend those to him. Thanks tyckspoon.

-argus

But when he casts an actual Fire spell +1 DC can be useful (stacks with Spell Focus and all).

arguskos
2008-10-06, 06:23 PM
But when he casts an actual Fire spell +1 DC can be useful (stacks with Spell Focus and all).
OH!!! It increases DC, not CL. I misread. Yeah, that's pretty good actually. I'll recommend that as well. :smallcool:

-argus

ocato
2008-10-06, 06:29 PM
I was going to throw Master Specialist out too, but... is he a generalist? Ocato r confused.

Red Wizard isn't bad, if you like. Especially if you convince him to take leadership to found a wizard's school later in his career. He may find that by teleporting to his base and calling up his followers, Circle Magic could prove to be a very useful setup.

AmberVael
2008-10-06, 06:32 PM
No. Fiery Burst increases Caster Level- you had it right the first time. It doesn't increase DC at all.

Rei_Jin
2008-10-06, 06:37 PM
War Wizard of Cormyr from Magic of Faerun can be a very good Prestige Class for a blaster. It isn't themed around fire magic, but it does allow you a few free Widen Spells per day, and increases the boost from a Widen spell to +100% instead of +50%

arguskos
2008-10-06, 06:37 PM
Well, in his words: "Just in case, I don't want to specialize!" Also, Red Wizard is specialist-only.

Also, Vael, I know Fiery Burst only works on CL. I thought he suggested another feat that worked on CL, since I misread it that way. He meant the suggested feat increased DC, not CL. Lots of misinterpretation all around! :smallbiggrin:

-argus

Ionizer
2008-10-06, 07:18 PM
So, your player wants to be Nuclear Dan (from "Another Gaming Comic" (http://agc.deskslave.org/))?

Good luck with that one. Check out Nuclear Dan's character sheet (http://agc.deskslave.org/files/AGCcharacters3.5.rtf) for some ideas.

As for more general advice, Explosive Spell fits a fire mage pretty well.

OzymandiasVolt
2008-10-06, 07:28 PM
Ultimate Magus works out well. The Spell Level on your wizard side winds up one lower than normal, but the class gets Caster Level bonuses, and when Practiced Spellcaster brings your Caster Level up to your current level, the CL bonus stacks on top of that. Also, being able to dump otherwise useless spell slots for free metamagic is pretty sweet.

(Edit: This is assuming you use the Practiced Spellcaster trick to keep your Wizard levels high.)

Triaxx
2008-10-06, 07:47 PM
Actually, Fiery Burst will increase DC, but indirectly since DC is 10+CL+Stat Bonus. So it will increase it, the same as an Orange Ioun Stone.

arguskos
2008-10-06, 07:51 PM
Uh, Spell Save DC is 10+Spell Level+Casting Statistic, not 10+Caster Level+Casting Statistic. Just saying. :smallwink:

Also, hey, I totally forgot about Explosive Spell. Thanks!

-argus

OzymandiasVolt
2008-10-06, 08:42 PM
So, for the sake of argument, you'd be trading one point of DC for a few extra CL, which generally means extra damage dice, extended range, better spell penetration, etc. It's generally not a bad trade-off.