Enervation Wizard

[jamorris09]

I was looking through spells, to see if there were any that would be fun to revolve a whole character around. My eyes settled on energy drain. What's more fun than watching your enemies get further and further away from being able to put a hurtin on you. All the while, effectively boosting your parties abilities, by making your enemies suck. The only problem is you can't really metamagic it that well. So I decided to go with an Enervation Wizard. I guess my first question is, has this been done before? I mean I can't find any online, are there any? And second, I just threw together a build, it's very basic, but I wanted to see what people though. So here it is.

I use UA to gain 2 extra starting feats.

Human Wizard
H- Eschew Materials
Flaw 1 (UA)- Split Ray
Flaw 2 (UA)- Empower Spell
1st- Chain Spell
3rd- Maximize Spell
5th- Fortify Spell
6th- Quicken Spell
9th- Twin Spell
10th- Easy Metamagic (Empower)
12th- Easy Metamagic (Maximize)
15th- Easy MEtamagic (Split Ray)
15th- Easy Metamagic (Twin Spell)
18th- Arcane Theosis (Enervation)
20th- Arcane Mastery

Clearly this works just like any other build that rapes metamagic usage to the max. Unfortunately you need to be close to monsters to use this and you need to hit the with ranged touch attacks, which means you need a high dex bonus, because the lack of weapon focus leaves you a little weak, but only by +2 or +3 with PBS. We pretty much never need to worry about failure though, because there is no DC, so goodbye chain spells only disadvantage, and between Arcane Mastery and Fortify Spell you can break anything in the worlds SR easily. No Spell Pen. required.

I would just love to see this mage quicken dimensional door out into the middle of a throng of combatants. Point his finger at his nearest victim, utter a dark incantation and watch as his Empowered Split Maximized Chained Twined Enervation drops the nearest 20 enemies begin withering away with a nasty 24 level total drain on their souls. Granted, you wouldn't have the spell slots to use this for long. But seriously one cast of this with just empower and maximize and you've just set a level 20 back almost a third of the way to where he started when he first set out on the road years ago.

And like I said you've still got your party to do the dirty work. This is the ultimate "make the game a little easier on everyone" character. Plus you only need less than half your slots devoted to this spell, leaving you open for plenty of utility. You could specialize, but why, there's no real need.

I know plenty of people will say there is only a 15 hour duration, but you can do whatever you want to your enemy while there are busy sucking for 15 hours.

Ok sorry I kind of went on and on, but there's my build, tell me if someone has already beat me to it, and any strengths/ weaknesses, or why I should never make this guy in the first place.

[Pharaoh's Fist]

Unfortunately you need to be close to monsters to use this and you need to hit the with ranged touch attacks, which means you need a high dex bonus, because the lack of weapon focus leaves you a little weak, but only by +2 or +3 with PBS.

Greater Heroism gives +4 to attack.

[Mongoose87]

Couldn't you add Incantrix into the build to reduce some of those Metamagic costs more effectively?

[RelentlessImp]

It's been done before, abusing un-errata'd Arcane Thesis (which reduces metamagic costs by -1 for every metamagic on the spell) and +0 level adjustment metamagics (Invisible Spell, etc). Practical/Easy Metamagic was in there, too, I think.

Add in Signature Spell: Enervation for even more fun. Abuse with a Sorcerer and Versatile Spellcaster. Fun for the whole family!

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

I love the Necromancy school. Something about draining the life out of your foe screams 'badass wizard' to me. That said, focusing on Enervation or even the entire school of necromancy will end up really hurting you, especially by the time metamagicked enervation really comes into its own. By the high levels, many (if not most) foes are immune to negative energy one way or another, making your primary strategy completely worthless in many encounters. It's sort of like specializing in an element.

With the proper build, metamagicked enervation can be one of many tricks up your sleeve, but I wouldn't recommend making it the only trick.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

It's been done before, abusing un-errata'd Arcane Thesis (which reduces metamagic costs by -1 for every metamagic on the spell)

Actually, the errata'd version still allows this. They basically errata'd it in a way to retain that ability.

[RelentlessImp]

Actually, the errata'd version still allows this. They basically errata'd it in a way to retain that ability.

I'm going to have to go re-read the errata. I thought it simply lowered the final cost, post metamagics, by 1.

[Pharaoh's Fist]

I love the Necromancy school. Something about draining the life out of your foe screams 'badass wizard' 'emo' to me.

Fixed it for you.

[jamorris09]

GoodByeSoberDay: That's exactly why I need a necro wizard. They are totally the guy nobody wants to sit next to but you always invite to the party. Just a little crazy, you know.

Is greater heroism a spell? I'll look whatever it is up later. I though about going with the domain wizard and trying to get like divine power or whatever the 4th level one was, but I just didn't like that idea on this guy. He needs to be cold and dark.

I didn't think about a lot of things having immunity. I mean I know all undead, sure, but I guess I don't think about them a lot. My DM has only ever used undead in one campaign, and that was because we had a cleric who wanted to go on a campaign against evil. Like we all aren't on that one, lol. What else gets stuff like that? Sorry we've already got a walking library in our group so I've never had to memorize any of this stuff.

[Pharaoh's Fist]

Is greater heroism a spell? I'll look whatever it is up later. I though about going with the domain wizard and trying to get like divine power or whatever the 4th level one was, but I just didn't like that idea on this guy. He needs to be cold and dark.

PHB, 6th level.

[Zaydos]

GoodByeSoberDay: That's exactly why I need a necro wizard. They are totally the guy nobody wants to sit next to but you always invite to the party. Just a little crazy, you know.

Is greater heroism a spell? I'll look whatever it is up later. I though about going with the domain wizard and trying to get like divine power or whatever the 4th level one was, but I just didn't like that idea on this guy. He needs to be cold and dark.

I didn't think about a lot of things having immunity. I mean I know all undead, sure, but I guess I don't think about them a lot. My DM has only ever used undead in one campaign, and that was because we had a cleric who wanted to go on a campaign against evil. Like we all aren't on that one, lol. What else gets stuff like that? Sorry we've already got a walking library in our group so I've never had to memorize any of this stuff.

Constructs, and death ward spell are what come to mind.

[lsfreak]

It's been done before, abusing un-errata'd Arcane Thesis (which reduces metamagic costs by -1 for every metamagic on the spell) and +0 level adjustment metamagics (Invisible Spell, etc). Practical/Easy Metamagic was in there, too, I think.

Errata'd Arcane Thesis also reduces +0 metamagics to -1. The only qualifier is that the final adjustment can't be more than +0. [At least I'm 95% sure on this. I'm having problems downloading the errata].

And yes, this is a fairly standard build. Combine with Residual Metamagic for extra fun and games, as is standard for lots of metamagic abuse. Chain doesn't actually work with Enervation, though, since it has no Target entry (which is explicitly required for Chain Spell). Throw in Invisible Spell, Black Lore of Moil, and so on to help reduce the metamagic costs further, and pick up Incantatrix instead of wasting all those feats on Easy Metamagic. Black Lore of Moil allows you to tack on Fell Drain for an extra negative level as well, and you'll be dealing a little bit of damage as well (which when combined with Twinned Split Ray Empowered Maximized, becomes a not-so-little amount of damage).

The biggest problem is that it's completely useless against undead, constructs, and anything with Death Ward.

EDIT: Major ninja's. Because I open too many tabs at once.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

Fixed it for you.

Do your necromancers create Wight chains to feel? Not all negative energy specialists have to be dark and broody. Some are the arrogant, crazed, plotting type.

[jamorris09]

Ok, ok. Man that's too bad, didn't realize it was not effective with chain. While in the example the wizard drops a bunch of guys dead, I've always been a support character, which is why I like a guy like this. He doesn't normally kill or take out characters like other wizards, but just makes everything easier. My friend made a possessor type character. He played an arrow demon warlock and cursed everything in sight. Kinda the direction with this guy but on a more massive scale. Ok incantatrix it is.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

The biggest problem is that it's completely useless against undead, constructs, and anything with Death Ward.

The recommended fix for this is also taking Arcane Thesis:Orb of Fire and either Energy Substitution or Searing Spell. Either way, you can kill stuff if your debuffs don't work.