Return of the Blaster-Caster!

[Fax Celestis]

So I'm thinking about statting up a Blaster Caster for a change from the same old same old. Here's the tentative build so far:

Spellthief 1/Sorceror 6/Spellwarp Sniper 5/Arcane Trickster 5/? 3

Definite feat selections: Reach Spell, Master Spellthief, Split Ray, Accelerated Metamagic (Split Ray), Accelerated Metamagic (Reach Spell), Point Blank Shot

Possible feat selections: Strong Ray, Ray Specialization

[hr]

Thing is, I dunno what to fill the last three levels with, or even if I should trade the Arcane Trickster for Incantatrix 8.

See, here's the basic premise: I'd like to use most of my blasting with Spellwarp Sniper's spellwarp ability. However, a lot of really good low-level attack spells are touch-range and therefore can't be spellwarped. Reach Spell would allow that, and then Split Ray would make them doubly lethal.

(Impromptu) Sneak Attack/Sudden Raystrike combined with Steal Spell would make for extra damage on rays (including on ones that didn't normally deal hp damage), as well as the ability to keep my spells up.

Help me figure out what I should do here.

And yes, I know blaster's suboptimal. I'm lookin' for raw arcane destruction, not finesse. After all, blaster-caster fits the premise (and personality) of the character.

[Person_Man]

Well, as you probably already know Fax, blasters are considered less powerful then battlefield control and/or Save or Lose builds. But hey, blasting stuff is fun.

Consider Stormcaster from Stormwrack. They lost one level of spellcaster progression, but gain +2 caster level to spells with the electrical, air, sonic, or water descriptors. Their 5th level ability adds a little extra sonic damage to every electrical spell, and targets must maked a Fort Save or be Stunned for one round.

Take Energy Substitution. Combine with the Born of Three Thunders feat (Complete Arcane - also adds a Save or Stun effect and any Stunned target must Save or fall Prone, but it Dazes you for 1 round) and the Quick Recovery feat (Lords of Madness, let's you make a Save to reduce any Stun or Daze effect) and you get one pretty potent blaster.

Now every time you blast someone with an energy spell, they must Fort Save twice or be Stunned, and then Ref save or be Prone, plus the normal spell effect.

[Fax Celestis]

...and Spellwarp Sniper's spellwarp ability removes Ref Saves, which means that they'd be autoprone. Huh. I'll consider it, but I don't know if I have room for it in this build.

[AtomicKitKat]

Huh. And here I was, wondering what I had to sleep with to get a !daze power to synergise with BoTT, and it turns out I needed an aberration as a partner. :P

[Amiria]

Raw arcane destruction is 10 levels of Incantatrix with Empower Spell, Maximize Spell, Twin Spell and Arcane Thesis (Moonbow).

As an 8th level slot (CL 20), you'll have on 10 motes on average, each does 93 points of damage on average.

Add the Archmage's Mastery of Elements for energy versatility.

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Arcane Tesis (some ray spell) with the Split Ray feat is also very good. But what's the nastiest ray spell ? Enervation is very scary, but some monsters are immune and then there is also Death Ward to foil it. It has to be a very versatile ray spell, Disintegrate would be good ... if you pump up the DC. Or Lucent Lance (SC), or ...

[AtomicKitKat]

Now every time you blast someone with an energy spell, they must Fort Save twice or be Stunned, and then Ref save or be Prone, plus the normal spell effect.

Hmm. It's only 1 Fort save and 1 Reflex save(only if you fail the Fort).

Now, if you could find some way to reduce the Fort save chance, or had a Hexblade to penalise their saves...

Edit: I just looked up Quick Recovery. You need to begin your turn Dazed, so no dice. :/

[Simius]

I don't think the Master Spellthief feat also causes your levels to stack when determining the maximum amount of spell levels you can have stolen. At least, there's no mention of it in the feat's description.
If it doesn't, then your character would still only be able to steal level 1 spells.

edit:

I'm lookin' for raw arcane destruction, not finesse.

This doesn't really seem to fit the Spellwarp Sniper's fluff description, but I guess you don't care about WotC's roleplay advice (I wouldn't either)

[Leush]

Ummm.... Pure sorcerer. Metamagic variant. What's wrong with a simple enlarge spell and quicken spell? And GSF: Evocation and Greater spell penetration? Why you ask? Because spell resistance is not fun.Also because shooting two fireballs a round at a range of 3200ft is so worth it.... Obviously you need Cairvoiance to actually use it, and it's not like you ever need to shoot something at that distance...

[tarbrush]

I don't think the Master Spellthief feat also causes your levels to stack when determining the maximum amount of spell levels you can have stolen. At least, there's no mention of it in the feat's description.
If it doesn't, then your character would still only be able to steal level 1 spells.

Wow, yeah. I can't believe that that was the intention of the writers, but still, that's jsut dumb. I think if I were DMing I'd let it pass.

[TSGames]

Strait shadowcaster from Tome of Magic is a very good blaster. When I played one I was able to out blast the warmage in the party with relative ease. However, it requires a lot of feats and cannot be done for very long, the shadowcaster runs out of ammo pretty quick.

[Person_Man]

Hmm. It's only 1 Fort save and 1 Reflex save(only if you fail the Fort).

Now, if you could find some way to reduce the Fort save chance, or had a Hexblade to penalise their saves...

Edit: I just looked up Quick Recovery. You need to begin your turn Dazed, so no dice. :/

Ok, so the 5th level Stormcaster ability forces anyone hit by one of your electrical spells to make a Fort Save or be Stunned. It also adds a little sonic damage, and Stormcasters cast all sonic and electrical spells at +2 Caster Level.

The Born of Three Thunders feat makes your electrical spell 50% electricity and 50% sonic, and forces anyone hit by it to make a Fort Save or be Stunned, and "then knocks stunned creatures prone unless they succeed on a Reflex save." So, based on the text, anyone who is Stunned (i.e., everyone who does not make both Fort Saves) must make a Reflex save or be knocked Prone.

Born of Three Thunders has the side effect of making you Dazed for one round (no Save), i.e., until the end of your next turn. So at the beginning of your next turn you will be Dazed, and Quick Recovery will entitle you to use a Move action to make a Will Save to recover from any Daze or Stun effect, even if it didn't initially entitle you to a Saving Throw.

[AtomicKitKat]

Ahh, okay. I see it now.

[Simius]

Wow, yeah. I can't believe that that was the intention of the writers, but still, that's jsut dumb. I think if I were DMing I'd let it pass.

You think so? It might be a way to make it an option to take more than one Spellthief level. Would the feat be overpowered if it stacked for the maximum stolen spell levels as well?

I'm actually quite interested in this discussion, because one of the players in the game I'm going to run is planning to use Master Spellthief.

[Woot Spitum]

Huh. And here I was, wondering what I had to sleep with to get a !daze power to synergise with BoTT, and it turns out I needed an aberration as a partner. :P

Most aberrations (if not all) are asexual.

[SpiderBrigade]

Most aberrations (if not all) are asexual.

Tell that to the Japanese animation industry...

[Ramza00]

Get some Unseen Seer in there. You prestige out at lvl 8 when you can prestige out at lvl 6.