The Noctuary (D&D 3.5e, Level 20+ Adventure)

[Duqueen]

CL by itself does not improve casting (maximum spell level and spell slots). It helps a little with dispels and overcoming CR?

Now, the bonus is much better to Initiator level and Binder level, this indeed allows you access to higher vestiges and maneuvers.

The hellfire warlock combo is pitiful, an extra 6d6 on the blast? It seems meaningless on a 20th level game.

The skill rank limit is more problematic, early entry to PrC and earlier access to some feats.

I am thorn between an Incarnate 20 (bloodlines would kinda help] and something 10/Iaijutsu Master 10 (bloodliness do not help at all). What I really want are the feats from the bloodlines

[Zarthrax]

Accepted.

@chaincomplex- Just for clarification, does that mean I can use it now, or as I put it forward, as an epic progression? Because if I can use it now, I'll do so.

[Yas392]

The buy off interpretation was my skim read. Not my first time ever going over bloodlines rules, but the first in recent memory. Wires got crossed and I assumed you were paying off an XP cost for these benefits, which made sense to me. Reading it again convinced me that this is definitely not RAW. Bloodline "levels" definitely aren't LA or levels that can be bought off.

That said, I don't feel strongly about following RAW here, and you're putting forward a decent argument for treating bloodline "levels" as LA. I'm mostly wondering about bloodlines advancing CL. Buying off levels that still count for casting seems like it could lead to situations like being a higher level caster than the number of actual levels in a caster class, allowing for early qualifications and similar tricks.

If RAI of treating bloodlines as LA and buyoffs are available, there is no abuse from my side. I am using it to free one feat slot and optimize an underpowered class that can do one thing good.

[Auranghzeb]

Just for clarification, does that mean I can use it now, or as I put it forward, as an epic progression? Because if I can use it now, I'll do so.

Damn... no i may just steal your thunder and build with that... it's just the perfect class. Kidding, maybe.

In all earnest, I'm assuming with your Vestige selection that you are going totemist/ipos chupoclos for natural attacks? I could re-build Domo as Incarnate/Andras-Balam Zuriel tank. Oh, I wish I hadn't seen that theurge existed.

[Infernally Clay]

I've generally been OK with DMM. Worse comes to worst you can always DMM spells to the party's benefit rather than druidzillaing yourself if you are consistently overdoing them. As is usually the case with tier 1 casters, it's as much up to the player as it is to the DM to not play their caster as OP as they can possibly be.

Yeah, I'll try different things out and adapt as necessary. I was mostly looking at Divine Metamagic as a way to Quicken or Empower spells rather than extending or persisting them.

Wildshaping into a dire hippo and casting Nature's Avatar and Bite of the Werebear on myself sounds impressive on paper but while it doesn't require any metamagic (because spells last ages at this level) I won't actually know if spending an entire turn on selfish buffs is really going to work. That'll depend on the rest of the party and how quickly things die. It may turn out that Druidzillaing is too slow and I'm better off dropping an empowered Tsunami or something instead.

Either way I'll keep things sensible as best I can. I'm already avoiding dinosaurs completely because it doesn't really make sense that she'd even know what a dinosaur is let alone have one as an animal companion, so it's a convenient excuse for no venomfire fleshraker nonsense.

[namo]

Regarding Bloodlines: I think capping caster/initiator/binding/... level to ECL and saying "no shenanigans" (e.g. you can't use the augmented skill rank limit AND later buy off the Bloodline level) would curb pretty much any abuse. What remains is fairly weak LA.

I'll note that I have a potential bias since it could theoretically be of interest: it's a way for War Weaver to cast higher spells into their weaving (the only way IMO, I'm not a big believer in Legacy Champion or Uncanny Trickster magically extending prestige classes beyond their end)...
But at this time I haven't seen any spell that I would want and that would make use of it, anyway.


@InfernallyClay: wildshape doesn't change your type. You can't cast Nature's Avatar on yourself. There, I saved you a round of buffing.

[Archmage1]

That said, I don't feel strongly about following RAW here, and you're putting forward a decent argument for treating bloodline "levels" as LA. I'm mostly wondering about bloodlines advancing CL. Buying off levels that still count for casting seems like it could lead to situations like being a higher level caster than the number of actual levels in a caster class, allowing for early qualifications and similar tricks.

I also had concerns about that as well. My thoughts were, well... either you treat the bloodline like LA all the time(Which means no advancing max skills, advancing caster levels, or anything else a bloodline level would normally do. It is LA.)(Probably frontloaded from the perspective of buyoff. Treat a minor is 1 LA, moderate 2, Major 3), or you treat it like a bloodline(So advance max skills, advance caster level, but no buyoff). That avoids the issue of them being used to qualify for a class, then removed. It also removes the ability to pay some XP for a CL boost.

[AvatarVecna]

I'm looking to make metamagic rods that aren't in the books, but the DMG prices are inconsistent. The ones in Complete Arcane seem to (almost) follow a formula though:

Spoiler: math stuff

Show

300 * X * X * (1+(Y*Y))

X=maximum spell level that can be affected
Y=the level adjustment of the metamagic feat in question

Following this formula would indicate the following costs...

Level	3	6	9
0	2700	10800	24300
1	5400	21600	48600
2	13500	54000	121500
3	27000	108000	243000
4	45900	183600	413100
5	70200	280800	631800
6	99900	399600	899100

In Complete Arcane, the metamagic the rod of Sculpt Spell (+1) agrees with this formula 100%. The metamagic rod of Chain Spell (+3) is priced at 27200/108000/243000, which is so very close to being correct that the difference could be attributed to a mistype. Similarly, the metamagic rods of Cooperative Spell and Energy Substitution (both +0s) match the chart except their middle level is 10500 gp instead of 10800 gp, which could also be simply a mistype (albeit one happened consistently, so maybe the prices were copy-pasted?).

Is it acceptable to use this formula/table for pricing out metamagic rods that don't otherwise appear in the books?

Separate question, since I can't really find a straight answer one way or the other in the RAW: can one apply metamagic rods to spell completion/spell trigger items? If the answer is definitely "no" for wizards on the grounds that you think metamagic can't be applied to spells from items, can it be a "yes" for artificer since I have class features specifically allowing me to apply metamagic feats to spells from items?

Finally, requesting Easy Metamagic feat (dragon 325 pg 62).

[remetagross]

Gotta hold all that spinach

for the whole coronation!

Anyway, I'm rather impressed with the builds you lads are pulling off left and right. There are some heavy lifters there!

[Feathersnow]

I will point out Noctumancer's whole thing is temporarily boosting caster level by countering spells.
My current go-to way to use that is eat the buffs off the target then cast draconic polymorph with a boosted HD cap. Although I have other things I can do in an encounter if that is infeasible.

[Zarthrax]

Damn... no i may just steal your thunder and build with that... it's just the perfect class. Kidding, maybe.

In all earnest, I'm assuming with your Vestige selection that you are going totemist/ipos chupoclos for natural attacks? I could re-build Domo as Incarnate/Andras-Balam Zuriel tank. Oh, I wish I hadn't seen that theurge existed.

Close. Chupoclops, Focalor, Ipos, with Ashardalon taking front and center, with necessary substitutions maybe requiring Focalor->Tenebrous.

Still, there'll be a lot of natural attacks...lol

First epic feat is gonna be Bind Additional Vestige.

[Archmage1]

I will say that one great thing about epic feats is that they are mostly fairly terrible, letting you mostly get away with totally ignoring them.
Except, of course, for ones introduced for specific classes.

There are some exceptions of course.

[Burning Spear]

I will try not to take Common, under the guise of a long dead person not being up to date with the "younger and newer" dialects, and a disdain for pidgin languages anyway.

Also, would you allow: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/alertness/
(So in our case +2 Spot/ Listen and Sense Motive?)
It's a crappy prerequisite for a PrC, hence my "interest".


Also, I want a Skull Plaque, but with a permanent Desecrate on it for the wearer?
Base item is 6.200 gp.

How much for a permanent lv 2 spell? (possibly only effective for the wearer?)

Also, I wanna make a flight capable chariot, how do I go about doing this?
base it on the flying carpet? Or the horseshoes of flight?

[AvatarVecna]

I will say that one great thing about epic feats is that they are mostly fairly terrible, letting you mostly get away with totally ignoring them.
Except, of course, for ones introduced for specific classes.

There are some exceptions of course.

Can confirm. List of stuff that's good:

• Anything to do with casting (if you're a caster)
• Anything to do with crafting (if you're a crafter)
• stuff that's specific to a non-core class (if you're that specific non-core class)
• Anything with Leadership as a prereq
• maybe the deflection feats that make you immune to like all ranged attacks

That sounds like a lot but it's really not. There's a lot of stuff that doesn't fall under any of those, and it's basically all garbage.

[AvatarVecna]

How much for a permanent lv 2 spell? (possibly only effective for the wearer?)

Depends on the details. Step one is to look at the benefit it's giving you and see if there's an existing item, or a general item formula that covers it. For example, Divine Agility is a lvl 5 spell (min CL 9) lasting 1 round/lvl that gives you Dex +10 (enhancement). If we follow the spell formula below, the market price would be 360000 gp...but since there's already a formula for pricing Dex +10 (enhancement), we use that price instead (which is 1000000 gp).

For a continuous spell effect on an item, the market price formula is:

[Spell Level] x [Caster Level] x [2000] x [duration modifier].

Duration modifiers
Round/lvl: 4
Min/lvl: 2
10 min/lvl: 1.5
24 hours or more: 0.5

Additionally, if the spell in question has an expensive material component, you need to pay for that 100 times over and add it to the cost. Finally, if it has an XP cost, you need to pay 500 gold per XP it would normally cost to cast that spell.

Also, I wanna make a flight capable chariot, how do I go about doing this?
base it on the flying carpet? Or the horseshoes of flight?

If the chariot isn't being pulled by horses, it's essentially a refluffed flying carpet. If it's being pulled by horses, the horses need horseshoes of flight, and also the chariot itself probably needs to be a magic item where like...the base cost is the cost of a chariot, plus the cost of a continuous Levitate effect? And you can sorta twist that into a "chariot remains level with the horses instead of plummeting below them like gravity would dictate". That's how I'd do it, anyway, but you'd need to ask the DM if that's fine with them. I imagine it is, but it's good to ask.

[Burning Spear]

Depends on the details. Step one is to look at the benefit it's giving you and see if there's an existing item, or a general item formula that covers it. For example, Divine Agility is a lvl 5 spell (min CL 9) lasting 1 round/lvl that gives you Dex +10 (enhancement). If we follow the spell formula below, the market price would be 360000 gp...but since there's already a formula for pricing Dex +10 (enhancement), we use that price instead (which is 1000000 gp).

For a continuous spell effect on an item, the market price formula is:

[Spell Level] x [Caster Level] x [2000] x [duration modifier].

Duration modifiers
Round/lvl: 4
Min/lvl: 2
10 min/lvl: 1.5
24 hours or more: 0.5

Additionally, if the spell in question has an expensive material component, you need to pay for that 100 times over and add it to the cost. Finally, if it has an XP cost, you need to pay 500 gold per XP it would normally cost to cast that spell.



If the chariot isn't being pulled by horses, it's essentially a refluffed flying carpet. If it's being pulled by horses, the horses need horseshoes of flight, and also the chariot itself probably needs to be a magic item where like...the base cost is the cost of a chariot, plus the cost of a continuous Levitate effect? And you can sorta twist that into a "chariot remains level with the horses instead of plummeting below them like gravity would dictate". That's how I'd do it, anyway, but you'd need to ask the DM if that's fine with them. I imagine it is, but it's good to ask.

1st, A.Vecna, thanks for the reply.

I am looking at "mounts" that can fly by themselves to use to pull the magic chariot, however, fluff-wise, I don't see 2 winged creatures close next to each other flapping their wings, so it needs to be something like inherent magical flight (as Nightmares do), maybe I'll buy some helmets of opposites alignment and make them C.G. lolz.

Deities & Demigods, page 187, is the inspiration of my chariot, with "good" Nightmares.

[Infernally Clay]

Can confirm. List of stuff that's good:

• Anything to do with casting (if you're a caster)
• Anything to do with crafting (if you're a crafter)
• stuff that's specific to a non-core class (if you're that specific non-core class)
• Anything with Leadership as a prereq
• maybe the deflection feats that make you immune to like all ranged attacks

That sounds like a lot but it's really not. There's a lot of stuff that doesn't fall under any of those, and it's basically all garbage.

How's Magical Beast Wild Shape? I saw I could use it to wildshape into a phoenix, but unless I'm mistaken I only get the supernatural and extraordinary abilities of one. So I get Immolation, Planar Travel, Telepathy, Shriek, Spell-like Metamagic and Uncanny Dodge, but I don't get the Defensive Aura? I don't believe I'd get the spell-like abilities either, since that'd be kinda busted.

Maybe I'm better off just wildshaping into a Hound of the Hunt... :P

[AvatarVecna]

How's Magical Beast Wild Shape? I saw I could use it to wildshape into a phoenix, but unless I'm mistaken I only get the supernatural and extraordinary abilities of one. So I get Immolation, Planar Travel, Telepathy, Shriek, Spell-like Metamagic and Uncanny Dodge, but I don't get the Defensive Aura? I don't believe I'd get the spell-like abilities either, since that'd be kinda busted.

Maybe I'm better off just wildshaping into a Hound of the Hunt... :P

Wild Shape stuff is good too actually. That comes with some caveats* ofc but Wild Shape is a powerful versatile ability. I'll admit when I said non-core classes only I was mostly thinking of the litany of terrible feats for epic martials, and tbh even some of the cleric ones are mediocre.

(Caveats: getting all the forms you want costs a lot of feats that could be spent on casting boosts instead, you could go into MoMF since the main downside of losing spell levels no longer applies, and how much Wild Shape as a mechanic matters is really debatable when Shapechange is on the table.)

[namo]

How's Magical Beast Wild Shape? I saw I could use it to wildshape into a phoenix, but unless I'm mistaken I only get the supernatural and extraordinary abilities of one. So I get Immolation, Planar Travel, Telepathy, Shriek, Spell-like Metamagic and Uncanny Dodge, but I don't get the Defensive Aura? I don't believe I'd get the spell-like abilities either, since that'd be kinda busted.

Maybe I'm better off just wildshaping into a Hound of the Hunt... :P

You can get SLA (from some creatures) via Planar Shepherd, and it's indeed kinda busted.

Otherwise, Shapechange antiquates much of Wildshape.

[Infernally Clay]

You can get SLA (from some creatures) via Planar Shepherd, and it's indeed kinda busted.

Otherwise, Shapechange antiquates much of Wildshape.

I hear Planar Shepard is very very cheesy so I'm keen to avoid it.

[Burning Spear]

I am also debating with myself whether Able Learner feat si worth taking, with the game-rule "Once in class, always inclass".

(ignoring the fact that Human Paragon gives it also for one skill as a special ability, 1 skill always in class)

[chaincomplex]

Also, would you allow: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/alertness/
(So in our case +2 Spot/ Listen and Sense Motive?)
It's a crappy prerequisite for a PrC, hence my "interest".

Nope. This is a much better implementation, yes. But where D&D and PF overlap I'm going with D&D. The role of allowing limited PF imports is to fill in gaps, not to better D&D.

@chaincomplex- Just for clarification, does that mean I can use it now, or as I put it forward, as an epic progression? Because if I can use it now, I'll do so.

It's permitted as a prestige class, straight up. For everyone, not just for you, taken as you will.

Regarding Bloodlines: I think capping caster/initiator/binding/... level to ECL and saying "no shenanigans" (e.g. you can't use the augmented skill rank limit AND later buy off the Bloodline level) would curb pretty much any abuse. What remains is fairly weak LA.

A simple solution might be to say that CL can't exceed ECL? That way, even if you buy off the bloodline levels, you'd need to have dropped CLs somewhere to benefit. It's a small buff to any remaining LA, but not so much that it really affects anything (and if you were trying to cheese CLs, it's still an overall nerf, which is slightly mitigated by the LA).

Yeah, alright. I've made my final ruling: go ahead and treat bloodline "levels" as LA instead. Explicitly: you can buy them off. But they add to your LA!

General idea: the onus has always been on the tacit contract between player and the game not to grab feats like Item Familiar and push it to its nutty limits. With this in mind, I'll assume you're not going to do any silly tricks with bloodlines, and that you'll let me know if you feel like you're being weird with bloodlines. I'm not even sure most early qualifications are particularly strong anyways, so I don't want to ban them full out.

Is it acceptable to use this formula/table for pricing out metamagic rods that don't otherwise appear in the books?

Yes. But only for the ones that don't appear, as stupid as pricing may be. No need to ad hoc away from RAW here.

Separate question, since I can't really find a straight answer one way or the other in the RAW: can one apply metamagic rods to spell completion/spell trigger items? If the answer is definitely "no" for wizards on the grounds that you think metamagic can't be applied to spells from items, can it be a "yes" for artificer since I have class features specifically allowing me to apply metamagic feats to spells from items?

I think a careful reading of RAW suggests the answer is no generically, since the metamagic rods confer an ability that is in most aspects like having the respective feats, which cannot be applied to spell completion or spell trigger items for anyone. But by this same token, the answer is yes for Artificers, straight out of RAW, since they can apply metamagic feats to their spell completion or spell trigger items.

Finally, requesting Easy Metamagic feat (dragon 325 pg 62).

Ah, a classic opti tool. Go ahead. Use this power wisely.

I hear Planar Shepard is very very cheesy so I'm keen to avoid it.

It's very strong. In fact AFAIK it might be unequivocally the best build for druid as it advances every important class feature and replaces useless ones with superior alternatives. But unless your chosen plane is an absolute meme, like Dal Quor or something, it's not necessarily pure cheese.

I am also debating with myself whether Able Learner feat si worth taking, with the game-rule "Once in class, always inclass".

Yeah, that ruling definitely reduced the value of Able Learner. But Able Learner is a prereq for at least one pretty good generalist PrC so YMMV.

[remetagross]

It's nice to see some 20-level builds put into action, but at the same time I shudder at the idea of actually comtemplating what Shapechange looks like in a real game.

[Auranghzeb]

It's nice to see some 20-level builds put into action, but at the same time I shudder at the idea of actually comtemplating what Shapechange looks like in a real game.

It really depends on DM and player's. I have seen some really dumb stuff like shape changing into a Dragon to wield huge axe with dragon short arms... And I have also seen some over lenient DMs allowing Animal companions with Int scores of 2 to use Shapechange to change forms every round as astute creatures.

But yeah, it is one of those really cheesy spells. I'd love it if you could choose two-three max shapes when you learn the spell. It would remain flexible, but it wouldn't be dumb. But then again, that's why Tier 1 classes are what they are.

In my experience, shapechange power users tend to be boring to play with, since it is almost impossible to resist doing shenanigans. Just like CodZilas and Batman-God builds. But that's a matter of taste and preferences. For example, Artificiers are very powerful and shatter magic items economy. But my job involves endless spreadsheets, so I never play Artificiers because they just look like work. To each their own.

[AvatarVecna]

It's nice to see some 20-level builds put into action, but at the same time I shudder at the idea of actually comtemplating what Shapechange looks like in a real game.

The power of wild shape/shapechange focused builds is one of those things that always feels like a really easy path to power and versatility, and also something I never want to touch with a 10 ft pole. If someone enjoys it, good for them, but I have enough trouble building one sheet for figuring out how all my stuff combines into combat stats. Even if you've only got a dozen forms you ever take, that's a dozen sheets you probably need to make just to keep track of how items/buff spells/shapechange stats are stacking. That sounds exhausting.

EDIT: And ofc if you find yourself in a situation where you need to use something other than one of your standard forms, time for a new sheet!

[namo]

Ha, to each their own. Not that I'm enamored of Shapechange and its complexity, but you're building an Artificer: concurring with Auran, it's already the equivalent of 10 sheets, between calculations, dumpster-diving for spells from any spell list and items from any book (given the huge discounts you're getting in this game and your XP shenanigans you probably have 10x+ the normal WBL, no?), plus metamagic combinations (with all rods open here), plus infusions.

[AvatarVecna]

Ha, to each their own. Not that I'm enamored of Shapechange and its complexity, but you're building an Artificer: concurring with Auran, it's already the equivalent of 10 sheets, between calculations, dumpster-diving for spells from any spell list and items from any book (given the huge discounts you're getting in this game and your XP shenanigans you probably have 10x+ the normal WBL, no?), plus metamagic combinations (with all rods open here), plus infusions.

You're not entirely wrong but not entirely right either. x10 money isn't hard to spend cuz usually you're always short on stuff you wanna spend on +number items anyway, it's just made more complicated by actually picking all these spell items instead of just making a beatstick. It also really helps that a lot of the dumpster-diving has already been done for me, since the community is enamored with spellcasting builds. Like, I'm not exactly reinventing the wheel here; pick a low-level spell so the wand is cheap, make sure it does attack rolls instead of saves, make sure it doesn't tangle with SR. So it's an orb spell, and this is a mailman build. Good metamagics for mailman are empower, maximize, quicken, twin, energy sub, energy admix, probably searing spell to get around fire resistance/immunity. That's like half a dozen rods and like 50 wands I could write down without needing to put any more thought into it, and if you knew what a mailman was, it'd all be pretty obvious. It's a similar story for the wands/rods/staves that will focus on party buffing. Healing, scrying, SR, DR, ER, immunities...you probably already know a few good spells for each of those and you're not even the one building this. I'm gonna get extend, and a few powerful buff spells put into staves that don't normally see a lot of play. It also helps that frankly I've never bothered learning infusions, and I'm not gonna bother starting now.

And it's mainly bad cuz all this effort is upfront. If this was an artificer played from lvl 1-20, or even just lvl 17-20, the nonsense would be a lot more spread out. But at the very least, once the character is done, it'll be a while before I have to calc new stuff. I won't get Epic Wondrous for at least a few levels, so my efforts until then will be reforging wands I've already designed and burned through, during downtime. Whereas with Shapechange, at any moment you might find yourself in a situation where your main beater forms aren't quite fitting, and you need to go dive for a form that's better in this specific situation, and then make a sheet for it (including how all your buff spells/items affect that). All for a form you'll use for like...3 rounds this combat, and never again. Ughghgh. At least when I have to do post-chargen design work for artificer, it's usually a permanent bonus, instead of like a unique wand I'm gonna burn through 50 charges on this fight, and then never build again.

EDIT: I'm a similar albeit weaker aversion to summoning builds, which also have the "search 10 books for the perfect monster" problem but at least you're dealing with that from lvl 1 with limited lists, instead of having all monsters everywhere dumped in your lap as options at lvl 17.

EDIT 2: I can also admit that with stronghold stuff thrown in, while I'm used to the complexity of artificer, this is easily the most complex one I've ever built, including one I made for an epic campaign since he just played super-beatstick.

[Archmage1]

Eh... Shapechange is fairly simple. Now that people have put together shapechange guides, anyway.

Spoiler: Thoughts on Shapechange

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First: Work out how magic items work. As equipment that your new form can wear remains, this can get complicated. Luckily, the MIC has an answer.

Spoiler

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As a default rule, treat creatures of any shape as having all the normal body slots available. Creatures never gain extra body slots for having extra body parts (for example, a marilith still has only one hands body slot and two rings body slots). For unusual cases, here are some guidelines to help a DM particularly dedicated to details:
Amorphous Creatures: Creatures without any shape, such as most oozes and the phasm (in its normal form), have no body slots and can’t wear magic items at all.
Armless Creatures: Creatures without forelimbs, such as snakes, don’t have the arms, hands, or rings body slot (but see multilegged creatures, below). A creature with only a single forelimb retains these body slots, and can wear both of a pair on the same limb (such as both gloves on the same hand, and so on).
Fingerless Creatures: Creatures without flexible digits or extremities, such as horses, lack the rings body slot. A creature need not be able to manipulate objects to wear rings - a hell hound can wear a ring on a toe of its forelimb.
Headless Creatures: Creatures without an identifiable head, such as shambling mounds, lack the face, head, and throat body slots.
Legless Creatures: Creatures without hind limbs, such as lillends, don’t have the feet body slot.
Multilegged Creatures: Creatures with more than two legs can treat their foremost pair of limbs as their arms (allowing them access to the arms, hands, and rings body slots), even if those limbs are used for locomotion rather than for manipulation. Creatures with multiple legs that also have arms (such as centaurs or driders) don’t lack any body slots.

Next, identify creatures with useful abilities. You're going to want a utility form(Beholder Hive Mother), a combat form(Probably something undead, elemental, or golem), and then just use a reference sheet for special abilities you want.

The really painful part is managing magic items and inherent bonuses.

But the terrible part is that shapechange basically solves every single problem your party is likely to encounter.
Locked door? Disintegrate.
Unlocked door? Disintegrate.
Locked chest? Disintegrate.
Enemies? Disintegrate.
Allies? Charm Monster. Or Dominate. Your choice.
Spying? Disintegrate.
Sneaking? Disintegrate.
The list goes on.

The real issue with shapechange is that it basically breaks the game in that it lets one character solve all the problems out of combat. In combat, it makes the wizard more powerful, sure, but at higher levels it does fall off simply because, well... caster power basically caps at 17, and goes downhill from there. There are a few exceptions, but in general you're not going to be able to grow your DC's faster than enemy saves go up.

Artificing is also fairly simple: You can put as much time into it as you like until you get sick of it, but the real limiter is how much cheese you want. At least, at this level.

With the prevalence of guides, once you accept the limitations of said guides, it's mostly a matter of time. People have already identified the best options in a vacuum. You just need to pick the best options for your character.

[Yas392]

@chaincomplex Need help with bloodline buyoff. Do we use buy them as standard LA buyoff?

[remetagross]

Archmage1, I'd argue it breaks the game in combat as well, doesn't it? Turn into a Chronotyryn and you get to cast two spells per turn, etc. Or into a Solar and pop a Wish, then the next round into a Pit Fiend and pop a Wish, then the round after that into a Zodar and pop a Wish.

AvatarVecnaa, aren't you going to use infusions at all? You're purely crafting there?