[3.5] Anti Undead Blaster Mage

[Etcetera]

So, I would like a decent blasting mage for a campaign against waves of
(mostly mindless) undead, but I'm not particularly good at making characters who survive.

So.
ECL 9
28 Point Buy

I can only use core and one of the complete splatbooks or PHB 2.
49,000 GP.
And a ECL 6 Cohort, just to give a clearer picture of the character.

The campaign will be very linear, and we'll be defending a point, so no hiding for long periods of time or similar.

[gbprime]

So you can use PHB, and choice of ONE book? Odd.

Against mindless undead? First and foremost, make sure you can fly. And for underground or enclosed areas, make sure to have Rope Trick handy so you can make a foxhole for you and your party to retreat to. (Mindless undead are easily circumvented by hiding from them for 8 hours...)

[Etcetera]

It won't be underground, and we have to protect a location from attack, so rope trick is right out. Fly, will, of course be useful. I'll edit the first post to included that info.

[WoodenSword]

So, I would like a decent blasting mage for a campaign against waves of
(mostly mindless) undead, but I'm not particularly good at making characters who survive.

So.
ECL 9
28 Point Buy

I can only use core and one of the complete splatbooks or PHB 2.
49,000 GP.
And a ECL 6 Cohort, just to give a clearer picture of the character.

The campaign will be very linear.

here's the trick:

Race: Aasamir (it's worth 1LA, trust me...)
Class: Lightbringer (EtCR) Cleric 8/RSoRH (Radiant Servant of Re-Horthanky, for Glory and Sun domains) 10/Contemplative 2(Take Winter Domain. Seriously) [Note: These aren't in order!]

Focus on Turning-Boost feats, to add more dice to your turning (Faith in the Frost, Light of Aurifar, Exalted Turning, Improved Turning, and Quicken Turning) so you can Greater Destroy Undead twice/round

[Etcetera]

I should add that ECL 9 Means a max level of 9, or 8 with aisimaar. And we'll only be gaining 1 level over the campaign. I would take a cleric, but that spot is really already occupied.

[gbprime]

Well if it's PHB plus ONE other book, make that book Complete Mage. Master specialist is a powerful pick if you're level 9 and have just one book.

The Fiery Blast reserve feat is useful too, as it will give you a near unlimited supply of 5d6 area effect fire blasts to use against the hordes you're expecting to face. Just keep 1 5th level slot in reserve with a fire spell. Nothing sucks worse than a wizard who is out of juice...

That frees up your equipment budget from having to provide firepower or longer battery life.

For survivability, consider the Minor Shapeshift reserve feat. It can be used to replenish 9 temporary hit points as a free action each round. A good use for a single 4th level slot with a polymorph in it.

[Lapak]

If you're looking at waves and waves of undead, you're actually going to run into the wall of spell-slot limits sooner or later. Which means that the first thing I'd look at in your situation would be Reserve Feats; which means that you're probably looking at, what, Complete Mage maybe? For your one and only splatbook.

[Kosjsjach]

It should be noted that, in an undead-heavy campaign, there`s really nothing wrong with having more than one cleric.

[Volthawk]

For convenience, here's the thread he's building for.

[krossbow]

Ask your DM he'd allow you, as backstory (AKA, For Free) research a lower level equivilent to sunburst

[gbprime]

Building off what I said earlier...

Wizard 2 / Master Specialist 7 (Necromancy)
1 - Precocious Apprentice
1 - Spell Focus (Necromancy)
3 - Fiery Blast
6 -
9 - Minor Shapeshift

You take Enchantment and Illusion as your forbidden schools. CL 9, but 10 for necromancy, fire, and polymorph spells. (But mostly fire. )

5th level spells, one 5th reserved to power Fiery Blast, one 4th reserved to power Minor Shapeshift.

The level 7 master specialist ability for a necromancer is Immunity to Ability Damage, Ability Drain, Energy Drain, and Negative levels. Win.

Invest in an item that lets you fly (Broom or Carpet), the obligatory +4 INT Item, +1 weapons for your minions, and associated potions and scrolls.

Your 6th level minion, you could go with an apprentice theme. Wiz 5 / Cler 1. Give him the Fiery Blast as well, spend his 300 XP on scrolls of Cure Light, and arm him with Levitation so he's a mini-me version of you.

[Optimystik]

Can you use BoED instead of a Complete? Sorcerer+Exalted Arcanist+Archmage would be great for a blaster - you can make it so none of your spells hurt your allies no matter how blasty you get, via Mastery of Shaping and free Purify Spell.

They also do extra damage to undead (since 99% of undead are Evil.)

[Etcetera]

Building off what I said earlier...

Wizard 2 / Master Specialist 7 (Necromancy)
1 - Precocious Apprentice
1 - Spell Focus (Necromancy)
3 - Fiery Blast
6 -
9 - Minor Shapeshift

You take Enchantment and Illusion as your forbidden schools. CL 9, but 10 for necromancy, fire, and polymorph spells. (But mostly fire. )

5th level spells, one 5th reserved to power Fiery Blast, one 4th reserved to power Minor Shapeshift.

The level 7 master specialist ability for a necromancer is Immunity to Ability Damage, Ability Drain, Energy Drain, and Negative levels. Win.

Invest in an item that lets you fly (Broom or Carpet), the obligatory +4 INT Item, +1 weapons for your minions, and associated potions and scrolls.

Your 6th level minion, you could go with an apprentice theme. Wiz 5 / Cler 1. Give him the Fiery Blast as well, spend his 300 XP on scrolls of Cure Light, and arm him with Levitation so he's a mini-me version of you.

Unfortunately I can't take Precocious Apprentice, as it's from complete arcane...

[WoodenSword]

1. Focus on Complete Scoundrel
2. Be a Sorcerer with the ACF to get a free domain
3. Choose Luck
4. Be a halfling of some sort
5. Worship Lady Luck
6. Take the lucky mage PrC in the book
7. Take Third Time's the Charm
8. Have fun

[Eldariel]

Be a Transmuter Wizard, begin Disintegrating Undead in 2 levels (Disintegrate wrecks UD)... It tends to work pretty well. Your second book should obviously be Spell Compendium, it's not even close. Though sure, Complete Mage and Complete Arcane offer some powerful options, but what you really want is more versatility spell-wise which you get from Spell Compendium. If that's not alright, PHBII is a very solid option, also netting you the almighty Arcane Thesis for blowing things up along with solid defenses.

CArc and metamagic stacking Orbs is a decent option, but honestly, Core+Spell Compendium is going to pull you through fine as the true metabreaker classes aren't available anyways. But yeah, Disintegrate is the Alpha as far as killing Undead goes. Orb of X is a solid backup (Conjurations) as are Will-save spells that aren't mind-affecting (Glitterdust, Slow, etc.), Illusions (Undead can't make out reality of the Images so they'll just keep wailing at it) and of course, Reflex-save effects. But for Incorporeals, pack some Orbs of Force or such.

[Gnaeus]

Pick any small race.

ECL 6 cohort should be a Druid with natural spell. Otherwise known as your flying mount with healing/crowd control.

Edit: Enchantment is a good school to drop but illusion may not be. Mindless undead can be seriously impeded by the illusion of a wall.

[Eldariel]

Pick any small race.

ECL 6 cohort should be a Druid with natural spell. Otherwise known as your flying mount with healing/crowd control.

Edit: Enchantment is a good school to drop but illusion may not be. Mindless undead can be seriously impeded by the illusion of a wall.

Enchantment and Evocation are fair choices. Conjuration does Boom Boom better anyways.

[gbprime]

Unfortunately I can't take Precocious Apprentice, as it's from complete arcane...

<facepalm>

Oops. You are correct.

Looks like Wiz 3 / Master Specialist 6 then. Otherwise the same build, though you're open to choose whichever school specialization. If you think you'll level up before the final conflict, stick with Necromancy so you're immune to all that undead stuff before then.

And on an aside, WHY does the DM consider the splat books to be mutually exclusive? Complete Arcane and Complete Mage are mutually exclusive? Or Adventurer and Scoundrel? Very odd.

[lsfreak]

And on an aside, WHY does the DM consider the splat books to be mutually exclusive? Complete Arcane and Complete Mage are mutually exclusive? Or Adventurer and Scoundrel? Very odd.

More than likely he's one of those that mistakenly believe more splats = more broken. He doesn't want Core-only, but wants to limit the 'brokenness' by limiting how many splats are available per character.

[Volthawk]

More than likely he's one of those that mistakenly believe more splats = more broken. He doesn't want Core-only, but wants to limit the 'brokenness' by limiting how many splats are available per character.

Well, here's the exact quote:

Books: I'm a believer that splat books where not intended to be combined.
Please limit yourselves to using core resource (including Psionics, excluding Unearthed Arcana alternate classes/races) plus any one supplement book of your choice from the Complete X series. I'll also allow the PHB II to be used as the one supplement book as well.

[Greenish]

And on an aside, WHY does the DM consider the splat books to be mutually exclusive? Complete Arcane and Complete Mage are mutually exclusive? Or Adventurer and Scoundrel? Very odd.

Books: I'm a believer that splat books where not intended to be combined.

So yeah..............

[lsfreak]

Well, here's the exact quote:

Well that's interesting, considering stuff like PHB2 assumes the first four Completes, and the second series of Completes assumes their respective sister books in the first series. Elder Evils draws from an extremely large source of splats for its statted monsters.

[gbprime]

Meh, his game, his rules.

All I know is that there are things in some of the books that have prerequisites from other books.

Take the Elemental Adept feat in Complete Mage, for example. You need to have a class ability to take that feat that comes from Complete Arcane.

[Optimystik]

Enchantment and Evocation are fair choices. Conjuration does Boom Boom better anyways.

And Illusion does Mind Screw.

Any word on BoED? I think an Exalted Blaster would be a lot of fun in an undead campaign.

[WoodenSword]

Vile darkness is my fave spellbook. y? mindrape.

Evil Wizard: I'm gonna destroy the world!!!
Me: No.
Casts Mindrape
Me: Now...
Formerly Evil Wizard, now a Pretty Princess: I feel pretty...Oh so pretty....

[Another_Poet]

I've played with Psionic Dog before, you'll have a good time - don't sweat his rules at all, he's just keeping things simple for himself.

I was going to suggest a cleric as your cohort but using a wildshaped druid as your mount is far more brilliant. I second that, take a druid cohort with natural spell. Since you're using Complete Mage I believe you can give the druid a reserve feat for one of his/her Summon Nature's Ally spells? Using unlimited summoned critters to lure mindless undead wherever you want could come in handy.