Blastificer build

[kalt]

Okay so my DM is starting up one of the pathfinder adventures(the one with the drow the name escapes me) and I'd like to play an artificer/cannith wand adept. Books allowed: Pretty much everything I have all of the eberron books, MIC, Spellcompendium, core, etc... I could just use a little guidance in picking what goes where in terms of feats and levels. We will be playing from level 1 on to I guess about 17-18 or so. His point buy system is 72 points(each attribute point costs a point). I tend to play a batman kind of wizard so I thought an blastificer would be a little different. We have 4 people in our party including myself. Druid, Paladin could go duskblade, me, and the fourth I don't know. For my race I think I will do a strongheart hafling(DM already approved). Apparently he thinks these pathfinder adventures are challenging (I've played through age of worms and didn't quite share his view but ohh well batman tends to not be worried about much).

So here is what I was thinking in terms of attributes and what not.

Race: Strongheart Halfling

Str 8
Dex 12
Con 12
Int 16
Wis 8
Cha 16

Sorry I'm AFB and can't do a little more I'm at work and wizards site is blocked so I really don't have much to go on. Thanks in advance for everyones help

[Sstoopidtallkid]

The key to a Blastificer is using Metamagic with damaging wands to burn off about 20 charges in a go and kill anything with a ranged touch attack. Snag all of the cost-reducing feats ASAP, that's your bread and butter, and use a crossbow early on with buffs to make it magical so you don't burn through your little starting GP.

[Eldariel]

I'd drop down to 14 Cha for 18 Int, and maybe 6 Str for 14 Con. I'd also want 14 Dex, especially for a Wandificer; Cha or Wis is the next to drop. Anyways, you need to ensure you can make the Use Magic Device DCs to apply metamagic.

I'd start with Legendary and Extraordinary Artisan as per normal (use your bonus feats for those), along with the Regional Mercantile Background if available (Artisan-feats are in Eberron-books, Mercantile is in Faerun-books). Then just tons of metamagic like Extend Spell, Persistent Spell, Twin Spell, Split Ray, Empower Spell, Quicken Spell, etc. Energy Substitution and Born of Three Thunders is also quite decent. Also, pick up Wand Mastery, Dual Wand Wielder & TWF, and go to town. As apparent, flaws come in handy.

For Use Magic Device, competence-granting items are handy, and the "Item Familiar"-feat from Unearthed Arcana really boosts your checks. You could apply it to a ring or something. Of course, use the standard means of boosting and avoid sinking more than one feat into it; Blastificers are infamously feat-starved.

[kalt]

Just noticed that when I made this thread a whole bunch popped up and that was certainly not my intention. It could have been due to either this site or our intranet running abnormaly odd today. Either way I apologize for the inconvenience and if a mod sees this thread feel free to lock/delete the others.

[D Knight]

there also is metemagic wand grips in the MIC that way you do not need to make all of thoes UMD checks.

[Gorbash]

My suggestion is - don't put that much into Charisma. You only need it for UMD, and whether it's +1, +2, or +3 won't really matter except in the beginning. You should ask your DM could you create an item that gives +5 on UMD (Goggles, or something like that), since there are those items for most of the skills (goggles of minute seeing, tunic of steady spellcasting, boots of striding and springing, crystal mask of knowledge etc), and they cost only 2500 gold. Even without those - you'll get by.

Regarding the build. You should keep in mind that blastificer uses TONS of wand uses, so you'll be running low on gold almost constantly. With that being said, here's a standard least of feats blastificers use:

Wand of lesser acid orb (CL 7, 5250 gp), wand master, CL 9, 5d8 acid damage.
- Energy Subsitution (electricity)
- Born of Three thunders: changes it to half sonic/elec
- Twin spell: 10d8 sonic/elec [+4 charges]
- Energy Admixture: 20d8 sonic/elec [+4 charges]
- Empower Spell: 20d8 x 1.5 [+2 charges]
- Quicken Spell: 40d8 x 1.5 [+4 charges]
- Dual wand feat + 2 weapon fighting: 60d8 x 1.5

As you see it ends up being pretty effective (bordering on game breaking) and costly at that. Of course you can use Scorching Ray (which costs about 13000) instead of lesser acid orb, ending up somewhere in 70d6.

Overall good artificer feats are Rapid Infusion (1/day speed up casting time), Wand Surge (using Action Points instead of charges). Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot you could take if you have nothing else, it's a nice boost since you're relying on hitting with those touch attacks.

And of course, Wand Mastery - don't go even thinking about playing a blastificer without this one.

[kalt]

Thanks for the help so far everyone. I won't get home until later this evening from stupid business traveling, but when I do I will check some of these ideas out.

So so far I guess I have

Art1 Precise Shot, Point Blank Shot, Artificer Knowledge, artisan bonus, disable trap, item creation, Scribe Scroll
Art2 Brew Potion
Art3 Craft Wondrous Item, Extend Spell
Art4 Craft Homonculus, Legendary Artisan
Art5 Craft Magic Arms and Armor, retain essence
Art6 Metamagic spell trigger
Art7: Craft Wand
Art8: Wand Mastery

Stats:
Str 8
Dex 14
Con 10
Int 18
Wis 8
Cha 14

I don't think the DM will let me drop STR lower than an 8 so I think that'll have to do. So how does that look so far and where would you recommend going from 6. Should I go Cannith Wand Adept or not and just ride artificer out? I've never played this drow arc pathfinder adventure so I'm not really sure what it is catered towards. Anyway thanks so far with being away from my books I just can't look much up and have to go mostly off of memory.

[Eldariel]

Drop Cha to 12 for Con 12. Hell, I'd really want to find a way to get Con 14; in the end, HP is the best defense in the game and Artificers only have d6 HD. It's more important than Cha, more important than Dex probably even more important than Int. So take points to Con from somewhere. Also, in the end I wouldn't bother with Point Blank Shot/Precise Shot yet; you've got lots of feats you want, and you'll be making Touch Attacks with a medium BAB class only on your highest attack bonus with very decent Dex and small size bonuses, so even when firing into melee, you wouldn't be missing much anyways. Also, I recall there are means to gain Precise Shot through items, which is more of your cup of tea

Instead, cram more metamagic in there. That's your bread and butter as a blastificer. Also, cram Extraordinary Artisan to an early level; you'll burn through Wands pretty fast to maximizing the funds you've got available is pivotal to your success. This would also open up feats for the Dual Wand Wielder/TWF combo to double up your blasting. But first I'd go pick all the metamagic, since that's what makes Blastificer roll in the first place.


Cannith Wand Adept is a decent option, but not for some time yet. I'd consider Artificer 13 to be the first breakpoint; Take 10 on UMD-checks is an absolute must for you so you really want to go straight Artificer up until then (it's necessary to avoid those pesky natural 1s specifically written into UMD). Also, freeing up a feat for the Dragonmark prerequisite (pick up "Mark of Making") is very much a non-trivial endeavour. So 14-15 is the earliest I'd consider Cannith Wand Adept.

[kalt]

Art1 Extraordinary Artisan, Empower Spell, Artificer Knowledge, artisan bonus, disable trap, item creation, Scribe Scroll
Art2 Brew Potion
Art3 Craft Wondrous Item, Extend Spell
Art4 Craft Homonculus, Legendary Artisan
Art5 Craft Magic Arms and Armor, retain essence
Art6 Metamagic spell trigger
Art7: Craft Wand
Art8: Wand Mastery
Art9: Craft Rod, TWF
Art10:
Art11:Metamagic Spell Completion
Art12:Dual Wand Wielder, Twin Spell, Craft Staff
Art13:

Stats:
Str 8
Dex 14
Con 12
Int 18
Wis 8
Cha 12

Okay so far how does that look? I'm really having a problem finding a place to shove all of the metamagic feats in there while taking the crafting feats, which are more than likely necessary. Being gold starved may or may not be a problem I'm not sure how plentiful the treasure/gold is in the pathfinder drow campaign arc.

[Keld Denar]

There is a spell somewhere...I forget the name, but it gives you an action point every round to spend for rounds/level. That, plus Wand Surge combos pretty sick. Use the wand of that spell to start the action points flowing, then right before it ends, use an action point to reactivate that wand. In between time, you can use other wands free of charge. I suggest a wand or Enervation in a Split Ray MM Wand Grip (called Hurt) and a Wand of Orb of Fire in an Empower Spell MM Wand Grip (Burn).

And mad kudos if you catch the PA reference.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

There is a spell somewhere...I forget the name, but it gives you an action point every round to spend for rounds/level. That, plus Wand Surge combos pretty sick. Use the wand of that spell to start the action points flowing, then right before it ends, use an action point to reactivate that wand. In between time, you can use other wands free of charge. I suggest a wand or Enervation in a Split Ray MM Wand Grip (called Hurt) and a Wand of Orb of Fire in an Empower Spell MM Wand Grip (Burn).

And mad kudos if you catch the PA reference.

Who doesn't catch the reference to the infamous Sorcelator?

[kalt]

hmm so do you think the metamagic i have now where they are is that right way or should i move some more feats around? The one i'm kind of up in the air about is possibly switching twin spell with split ray...but i dunno since the orb line(always a good decision) is not a ray, but the ever so popular scorching ray is. Dunno this build is a lot tougher than i thought it would be, which is why I think i haven't managed to find many of these builds using a search function. Generalist artificers are fairly simply but a go boom one seems to be rather hard with the lack of feats you pull down.

[Gorbash]

Art1 Extraordinary Artisan, Empower Spell, Artificer Knowledge, artisan bonus, disable trap, item creation, Scribe Scroll
Art2 Brew Potion
Art3 Craft Wondrous Item, Extend Spell
Art4 Craft Homonculus, Legendary Artisan
Art5 Craft Magic Arms and Armor, retain essence
Art6 Metamagic spell trigger
Art7: Craft Wand
Art8: Wand Mastery
Art9: Craft Rod, TWF
Art10:
Art11:Metamagic Spell Completion
Art12:Dual Wand Wielder, Twin Spell, Craft Staff
Art13:

Stats:
Str 8
Dex 14
Con 12
Int 18
Wis 8
Cha 12

You missed your regular 6th lvl feat. I'm assuming, since you took Extend Spell, that you wanted to take Persistent Spell?

You don't really need it, though. Your wand charges/dmg/etc don't rely on buffs you have on yourself, so it's kinda waste of two feats. And it's for a bufficer, not a blastificer.

If you're starting from lvl 1 drop Extend Spell, take Wand Mastery - you'll need it before lvl 8, trust me. Hell, you should drop extend spell anyways, it doesn't fit your build.

Empower Spell is useless at first lvl, since you can't use it up until you get Metamagic Spell Trigger (which you get at lvl 7, not lvl 6, it's been Errata'd).

[kalt]

Art1: Extraordinary Artisan, TWF, Artificer Knowledge, artisan bonus, disable trap, item creation, Scribe Scroll
Art2: Brew Potion
Art3: Craft Wondrous Item, Wand Mastery
Art4: Craft Homonculus, Legendary Artisan
Art5: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, retain essence
Art6: Dual Wand Wielder
Art7: Craft Wand, Metamagic spell trigger
Art8:
Art9: Craft Rod, Empower Spell
Art10:
Art11:Metamagic Spell Completion
Art12:Quicken Spell, Twin Spell, Craft Staff
Art13:

Stats:
Str 8
Dex 14
Con 12
Int 18
Wis 8
Cha 12

Here we go, this seems a little better I guess. I reshuffled some feats around and then changed some in general. How is this looking up until level 13? At 12 I could I suppose add in the feat that I think is required for Cannith Wand Adept that escapes me at the moment. Thanks for the continueing help. I have until Sunday but am not going to get home until this evening and Sat. isn't looking like the most free day ever.

[Gorbash]

It really depends which level are you starting from. IMHO, you dumped too much because of INT. I'd make it 16, and put some points into Wis - your strong will save doesn't do you much good if you don't have at least 10.

Or at least, lower charisma by 2 since you don't need it. I've played an Artificer with 8 charisma from level 1, it's really not an issue. You have a bunch of skill points in it, +2 bonus from Artisan Knowledge or whatever that ability it's called. That's +6 at level 1, but you won't start making good stuff until 5-6th lvl and even then you have multiple tries and action points to boost that roll.

You need Favored in the House or Least Dragonmark of Making for Cannith Wand Adept. Pick Least Dragonmark.

But it's good overall.

[kalt]

Ohh I apologize I thought I said 1-18ish in my opening thread, either way we are playing from 1-18 . So maybe stats wise something like this:

Str 8
Dex 14
Con 12
Int: 16
Wis: 10
Cha: 12

[Gorbash]

I'd still knock off two points from charisma and put it on Con, but seeing as you're dead set on having that +1 on UMD (and nothing else), go ahead.