Arcane Trickster feat choice

[Mushroom Ninja]

So, my hafling Rogue3/Wizard5/Arcane Trickster 6 is leveling up. I'm curious what feat to choose at 15th level.


My current feats are
Quick draw, Two Weapon Fighting, Craft Wand, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, and Double Wand Wielding.

I'm debating between Improved init. and Improved Crit (Ray (or maybe orb))

what are your thoughts?

[xelliea]

craft wand

[Mushroom Ninja]

already got it. I've also been considering Imp. Familiar. I could get something with hands to carry and UMD some of my wands

[ColonelFuster]

Improved Familiar is a good choice. I would suggest Practised Spellcaster(Wizard) to fill in that 3-level rogue gap in caster level.

[CASTLEMIKE]

Craft Wondrous Item unless your game levels up perfectly.

Possibly Leadership.

The Summon Elemental Reserve Feat from Complete Mage could be nice for a Arcane Trickster.

Improved Familiar depending on wizard aligment and familiar chosen. (For good wizards there is the spell Call Faithful Guardians from BoED for obtaining Coure, Lantern Archons and Mustevals) [Unusual in the game it doesn't have a corresponding Evil spell which shouldn't be that hard to create for Imps and Quasits with Original Spell Research Rules]

Using the Animal Companion Variant instead of Summon Familiar for your own personal Druid style meat shield:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/cl...sorcererWizard

Take the Obtain Familar feat after using the Animal Companion variant so now you have a Animal Companion for combat and a Familiar for UMD (Monkey or a Raven familiar can grasp and use a Wand in most games since they can hold it and point it (Probably use the smaller 6" Wands).

[Falrin]

http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-...ic_Splatter,CM

Very Nice

Just keep an Acid fog in reserve.

Now you have an infinite Touch Attack (Acid: Nice) with possible Sneak attack.

5d6 Sneak + 6d6 Acid Damage.

Get improved invisibility up and your good to go.

[CASTLEMIKE]

Practiced Spellcaster Feat is nice:

http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-...pellcaster,all

[Mushroom Ninja]

http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-...ic_Splatter,CM

Very Nice

Just keep an Acid fog in reserve.

Now you have an infinite Touch Attack (Acid: Nice) with possible Sneak attack.

5d6 Sneak + 6d6 Acid Damage.

Get improved invisibility up and your good to go.

That's very nice. Currently, my favorite trick to pull is Dual wielding two CL11 Wands of Scorching Ray.

[ericgrau]

Between the two the OP mentioned, improved init. You get sneak attacks against any monster you go before in the 1st round. And even w/o the SA, it'll sometimes give you an extra round of actions each combat. On average (sometimes you get an extra turn sometimes you don't), it could translate in to almost half a round of extra actions per combat. Handy for any class really, especially if you fight a lot of short combats.

Or if you find a better choice for now you can always grab improved init later.

Improved crit is handy for anyone but not as much for you. Ray spells don't even have the crit benefits of a greatsword, and it doesn't multiply your sneak attack damage. Basically you'll average 5% more base damage, with no increase to SA damage. 5% of 6d6 something like +1 damage on average (actually +20ish damage 5% of the time). Meh.

[Kurald Galain]

I second the suggestion for Acidic Splatter since you can sneak attack with it.

I would dump quick draw (assuming your DM allows retraining of some sort) since it's pretty pointless for a caster (note that you can draw wands as part of a move action anyway, and you don't need to draw splatters).

Imp Familiar is nice. Prac Spellcaster is nice if you have spells for which it matters (e.g. that do 1d6 damage per caster level). Splatter is nicer though. Imp Initiative is a cliche, albeit a good one; it's just not a very inspiring feat since it's just a flat mechanical bonus.

[Mushroom Ninja]

My thought behind using Improved Familiar is that my familiar can hold my wand of Greater Invisibility and fire it off on me first round so I can get off sneak attacks at the start of the battle.

I've got Nerveskitter as a spell, so I'm having second thoughts about Improved Init.

Also, in defense of Quick draw, I can draw and UMD a scroll of Grave Strike as a swift action, then pull out my wands and sneak attack ftw.

[Kurald Galain]

Also, in defense of Quick draw, I can draw and UMD a scroll of Grave Strike as a swift action, then pull out my wands and sneak attack ftw.

Since you have a familiar anyway, you can also have the familiar draw and UMD the scroll of Grave Strike. Just saying

[Mushroom Ninja]

I like your thinking! For some reason that hadn't occured to me yet.

Btw, can familiars without hands UMD?

[CASTLEMIKE]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wands.htm

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/UseMagicDevice.htm

Spell Trigger
Spell trigger activation is similar to spell completion, but it’s even simpler. No gestures or spell finishing is needed, just a special knowledge of spellcasting that an appropriate character would know, and a single word that must be spoken. Anyone with a spell on his or her spell list knows how to use a spell trigger item that stores that spell. (This is the case even for a character who can’t actually cast spells, such as a 3rd-level paladin.) The user must still determine what spell is stored in the item before she can activate it. Activating a spell trigger item is a standard action and does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Ravens are great. Wands are DC20 for UMD

A familiar like a Monkey is interesting because your PC has the Craft Wand feat and nothing prevents the word from being an "animal" word like Owww.

[Mushroom Ninja]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wands.htm

Spell Trigger
Spell trigger activation is similar to spell completion, but it’s even simpler. No gestures or spell finishing is needed, just a special knowledge of spellcasting that an appropriate character would know, and a single word that must be spoken. Anyone with a spell on his or her spell list knows how to use a spell trigger item that stores that spell. (This is the case even for a character who can’t actually cast spells, such as a 3rd-level paladin.) The user must still determine what spell is stored in the item before she can activate it. Activating a spell trigger item is a standard action and does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

Ravens are great.

A familiar like a Monkey is interesting because your PC has the Craft Wand feat and nothing prevents the word from being an "animal" word like Owww.

That's cool. I'm definatly going to toss some wands to my familiar ASAP.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

I like to take ravens, then PAO them into a monkey or dragon or something. Pixies work well.

[Darrin]

My thought behind using Improved Familiar is that my familiar can hold my wand of Greater Invisibility and fire it off on me first round so I can get off sneak attacks at the start of the battle.

Pick up Staggering Strike (CAdv). It's a Fort save but DC is based on your total damage.

[Gorbash]

Improved Familiar, depends on your aligment, but if you're Chaotic Good, Celestial Familiar is an excellent choice. Coure Eladrin is the best familiar you can get + it has hands!

[loopy]

So, my hafling Rogue3/Wizard5/Arcane Trickster 6 is leveling up. I'm curious what feat to choose at 15th level.


My current feats are
Quick draw, Two Weapon Fighting, Craft Wand, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, and Double Wand Wielding.

I'm debating between Improved init. and Improved Crit (Ray (or maybe orb))

what are your thoughts?

Where can I find the Double Wand wielding? And can Improved Crit be applied to Rays/Orbs?

[CASTLEMIKE]

Complete Arcane:

http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-...nd_Wielder,all