[D&D 3.5] Feats for an Abjurer

[Jergmo]

The Spell Compendium has given me many fancy new spells for an Abjurer NPC I'm trying to optimize in my campaign, and I'm also working on an Abjurer for a friend's campaign. What I'm trying to work on now is the Care and Feeding of Feats. Below are the feats that I've already had set up/have found - if any folk in the Playgrounders know of other feats for me and other prospective Abjurers, I'd appreciate it!

Extend Spell with Easy Metamagic(Extend) from Dragon Magazine - I can't argue with free Extended spells.
Abjurative Potency (Dragon magazine): Any Abjuration spell that provides an AC bonus has this bonus increased by 1. For example, Shield provides a +5 shield bonus rather than +4. (Although, do any other Abjuration spells really provide such a bonus?)
Energy Abjuration (Complete Mage): When casting an abjuration spell, you gain energy resistance equal to (1 + spell level) x5 for spell's duration.
Improved Counterspell (Core) is related, naturally...

[Kalaska'Agathas]

Combat Casting, so you can get into Abjurant Champion (Complete Mage). That will give you more free metamagic on your abjurations.

[Gorgondantess]

Feats don't matter- PrC's are what matters. Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil (CArc) & Abjurant Champion (CMage) (just a few levels in the latter) will make your abjurer ridiculously powerful. Check out the feat requirements for those, and meet them.
Also, Easy Metamagic has been revised to not reduce spell level adjustments below 0. Sorry.

[Jergmo]

Feats don't matter- PrC's are what matters. Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil (CArc) & Abjurant Champion (CMage) (just a few levels in the latter) will make your abjurer ridiculously powerful. Check out the feat requirements for those, and meet them.
Also, Easy Metamagic has been revised to not reduce spell level adjustments below 0. Sorry.

It's not below 0, though.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Directly from Easy Metamagic in Dragon 325, page 62:

Benefit: Choose a metamagic feat you already have. When preparing or casting a spell modified by that feat, lower the spell-slot cost by one. You can never reduce the spell-slot cost below one level higher than the spell's actual level.

Probably the best 'feat' you can get is trading your Wizard 5 bonus feat for the Domain Granted Power ACF in Complete Champion, choosing the Inquisition domain. That gives you a +4 bonus on all Dispel checks, including using (greater) Dispel Magic to Counterspell, possibly when casting Break Enchantment, and any Wall of Dispel Magic or Dispelling Screen spells you cast.

Master Specialist in Complete Mage grants a bonus on Dispel checks equal to half your levels in that class. It also gives you Greater Spell Focus and Skill Focus: Spellcraft for free, so you only need to spend one feat on Spell Focus: Abjuration to qualify for both this and Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil. You can take Master Specialist as early as 4th level, but you'd miss out on the Inquisition domain that way, so I'd go Wizard 5/ Master Specialist 4/ Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 7, and then probably either four more Master Specialist levels, or three Master Specialist and one Wizard since that 6th level will increase all of your saving throws one last time before you go epic.

[Jergmo]

Directly from Easy Metamagic in Dragon 325, page 62:


Probably the best 'feat' you can get is trading your Wizard 5 bonus feat for the Domain Granted Power ACF in Complete Champion, choosing the Inquisition domain. That gives you a +4 bonus on all Dispel checks, including using (greater) Dispel Magic to Counterspell, possibly when casting Break Enchantment, and any Wall of Dispel Magic or Dispelling Screen spells you cast.

Master Specialist in Complete Mage grants a bonus on Dispel checks equal to half your levels in that class. It also gives you Greater Spell Focus and Skill Focus: Spellcraft for free, so you only need to spend one feat on Spell Focus: Abjuration to qualify for both this and Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil. You can take Master Specialist as early as 4th level, but you'd miss out on the Inquisition domain that way, so I'd go Wizard 5/ Master Specialist 4/ Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 7, and then probably either four more Master Specialist levels, or three Master Specialist and one Wizard since that 6th level will increase all of your saving throws one last time before you go epic.

Oh...that's a bit of a downer. The Inquisition power, though, sounds rather spiffy. I'd known about Master Specialist stuff, though I was considering going into Geometer. Although I'm not sure about its use anymore. IotSV is a little cheesy for my taste, but hrm...

Speaking of Geometer, though, I can't get over the terrible builds present in the books. Level 6 elf abjurer/5 Geometer with Combat Casting, Empower Spell, Great Fortitude, Scribe Scroll, Spell Focus(Abjuration) and Toughness...

[Eldariel]

Really, Abjurant Champion isn't a caster's class; it's a class for a warrior mage. What IS a caster's class is Master Specialist: Abjurer. This leads to the amazing Abjurer-build that is "Cloistered Cleric 1/Abjurer 1/Master Specialist 10/Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 7/Archmage 1" picking Arcane Reach or Mastery of Counterspelling from Archmage.

Cloistered Cleric is there just to grant you a divine caster level and Turn Undead so you can pick up "Divine Defiance"-feat from Fiendish Codex II which allows burning a Turn Undead-attempt to counterspell as an immediate action. Like Reactive Counterspell except it doesn't suck totally. Oh, and it gives you the Inquisition-domain for free too, which is always great. And Master Specialist is entered via. Precocious Apprentice or similar; you can meet the skill prerequisites by level 3 so it's quite obviously designed to be early-enterable.


But feats, yeah. Divine Defiance is amazing for Abjurers but requires Turn Undead and divine caster level 3. Arcane Mastery [Complete Arcane] is fairly good, as is Chain Spell [Complete Arcane] (to go with Dispel Magic-line most importantly). Extraordinary Spell Aim [Complete Adventurer] is quite good, as Residual Magic [Complete Mage]. Elven Spell Lore [Player's Handbook II] is useful if you absolutely want to squeeze out every last bit of dispelling potential (Master Specialist: Abjurer grants you +5 too), and if you don't dip Cleric, you can pick Inquisition-domain granted power (+4 to dispelling) off Planar Touchstone.

[nedz]

Whilst AC is a gish PrC, it is full casting and gives some useful class features.
(Free Extend on all abj, Free Quicken, etc.)
No reason a caster shouldn't take it, unless they want to do some thing else.

[Jergmo]

The only problem I'm seeing with Abjurant Champion is the BAB requirement. But it is nice for the long term, yes...

I'm surprised there aren't quite as many options as I'd hoped there'd be for Abjuration when it comes to feats. Thank you, everyone, for your help so far, though.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Really, Abjurant Champion isn't a caster's class; it's a class for a warrior mage. What IS a caster's class is Master Specialist: Abjurer. This leads to the amazing Abjurer-build that is "Cloistered Cleric 1/Abjurer 1/Master Specialist 10/Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 7/Archmage 1" picking Arcane Reach or Mastery of Counterspelling from Archmage.

Cloistered Cleric is there just to grant you a divine caster level and Turn Undead so you can pick up "Divine Defiance"-feat from Fiendish Codex II which allows burning a Turn Undead-attempt to counterspell as an immediate action. Like Reactive Counterspell except it doesn't suck totally. Oh, and it gives you the Inquisition-domain for free too, which is always great. And Master Specialist is entered via. Precocious Apprentice or similar; you can meet the skill prerequisites by level 3 so it's quite obviously designed to be early-enterable.

An Illumian with the Krau sigil and Improved Sigil: Krau can accomplish both the early entry and the caster level easily. Note that you wouldn't get a second sigil until you hit Master Specialist 2, so Divine Defiance couldn't be taken until 6th level at the earliest. I think Naenhoon would be the most beneficial runeword in this case considering the bonus to Int-based skill checks, but if you don't want to use the combined word benefit Hoonkrau would also be decent for a bonus on Concentration checks as well as Listen and Spot. You can even retrain or psychic reform or chaos shuffle that Improved Sigil: Krau into something more useful later on, such as Divine Defiance at your 4th level.

[Keld Denar]

You can also get the Inquisition domain ability from Planar Touchstone. Costs you a feat and 250g, but does everything the wizard ACF does while still allowing you to cram in all 10 MS levels AND 7 Iot7V levels.

[ajkkjjk52]

Magic Disruption and/or Mystic Backlash from Complete Mage.

Reserve feats help you get the most out of specialist casters.

[Eldariel]

An Illumian with the Krau sigil and Improved Sigil: Krau can accomplish both the early entry and the caster level easily. Note that you wouldn't get a second sigil until you hit Master Specialist 2, so Divine Defiance couldn't be taken until 6th level at the earliest. I think Naenhoon would be the most beneficial runeword in this case considering the bonus to Int-based skill checks, but if you don't want to use the combined word benefit Hoonkrau would also be decent for a bonus on Concentration checks as well as Listen and Spot. You can even retrain or psychic reform or chaos shuffle that Improved Sigil: Krau into something more useful later on, such as Divine Defiance at your 4th level.

Aye, that saves two feats in the Practiced Spellcasters you'd need otherwise and allows the less controversial Improved Sigil-entry as opposed to Precocious Apprentice which might not work for non-Focused Specialists. All in all a great pick, though Human who ignores that 1 CL from Wizard (hurts, of course) could break even feat-wise.