The Next Step

[RaistlinandPals]

So currently I'm playing a focused illusionist with abj, ench, and necromancy banned. I am now in my second lvl of Master Specialist and am kinda wondering where I should go after this. Any good prestige recommendations? I'm kinda hoping for a control ye mind with illusion kinda thing.

RP

[Dark_Wind]

I think Shadowcraft Mage requires you to be a Gnome, but if you qualify then I say take that, 'cause it pwns things good. Otherwise, Archmage never hurts, especially since you have plenty of slots. Beyond that... I'm at a loss, sorry.

EDIT: Phooey on you for banning Abjuration. Phooey I says.

[MeklorIlavator]

The Mindbender(complete Arcane) would be perfect from a flavor perspective, but double phooey for banning abjuration.

[RaistlinandPals]

Bah humbug to abjuration....actually I'm kinda regretting it now....all the cool prestiges need it T_T...I'll look into the other ones, thanks.

RP

[Jack Mann]

Yeah, banning abjuration was a really bad idea. Banning necromancy wasn't much better. Focused specialist is never worth it. Next time, ban evocation. It's the least useful school you'll find. Especially as an illusionist, since you'll get those nifty shadow evocation spells later on.

For prestige classes, archmage is always good if you can fit the feats in. Fatespinner is always good, especially since you depend so greatly on saving throws, as an illusionist. Geometer's pretty easy to get into, and the second level's nice. Mage of the Arcane Order might be fun.

Aside from Complete Mage, what books do you have available to you?

[JaronK]

Focus Specialist is great if you're a Shadowcraft Mage, though again Abjuration isn't a great one to ban.

Are you a gnome?

JaronK

[Closet_Skeleton]

You banned abjuration, the neccesary anti-magic school, enchantment, the school with most synergy with your specialist discipline, and necromancy, well, that one isn't so bad.

You should have banned Evocation and Conjuration since you can just learn the Shadow Evocation and Shadow Conjuration spells. Banning Necromancy has penalised you but not much since every school has save or dies nowadays.

[Jack Mann]

Actually, enchantment wasn't a terrible school for him to ban. It has a lot of overlap with illusion. You're hurt when you give up enchantment, but not too badly, so long as you still have illusion.

Conjuration should be banned under absolutely no circumstances. Shadow conjuration only helps with summoning and creation spells. Granted, that's the majority of the spells, but it blocks you from the important teleportation spells. You're going to be in trouble if you're grappled and you don't have dimension door. And because there are so many useful spells in conjuration, you're going to want to cast them a lot more often than you could if you were only able to use fourth or higher slots to cast them. Shadow evocation works as a substitute for evocation only because there are so few spells in evocation that are worthwhile.

The real cost of losing necromancy is its debuffs. The save-or-dies are nice, but the real cream is being able to make your enemies much easier to kill. Ray of enfeeblement, ray of exhaustion, enervation, energy drain... Tasty, tasty fun.