I have always hesitated to play a true arcane caster build. But now I have decided to give it a try. I'm trying to start a new line of House Duskryn on Fredian, but until recently, only 4 members have appeared. None of them is a Arcane Spellcaster. I decided to build a Drow sorcerer, so this will be the newest addition to the Fredian line of House Duskryn. The duskryns on the Island of Fredian have forsaken Lolth in favor of Vhaeraun. It has not yet come to open war with the Lolth clergy and houses, but hopefully, Duskryn will be ready by the time it starts. With Lomion, hopefully the Arcane will be a weak spot no longer. When the Fredian Line of the House is complete, the disciples and blackguards of Vhaeraun will step forward to further His goals;
Vhaeraun is the god of thievery and the furthering of drow aims, interests, and power on the surface world. He is also the god of drow males opposed to the matriarchy of Lolth, teaching that females are no better than males. He believes that drow should work with other elven races for common advancement; never associating or trading with duergar, svirfneblin, or other dwarven and gnomish races. (Humans and halflings can be tolerated.) Vhaeraun is handsome, even vain, and does not forget slights and deceptions.
Skills: Put points into Spellcraft(40) and Concentration(at least 25, for improved Combat casting. More is possible, but make sure you have enough skillpoints available for your bard level). At lvl 40, put 40 points into tumble, and 30? In Use Magical Device (how much is needed to be able to use Divine scrolls, and monk items for example?)
This sorcerer is a real AC monster. With +10 from Improved Expertise, +8 from tumble and the use of heavy armor + shield, and +5 dodge from Epic Mage Armor, the AC will be insane. For the occasional hits you will take, there is always epic warding to shrug off the damage (with a high AC, being critically hit is almost impossible).
Although the spell selection of a sorcerer is rather limited, this one has +1, +2, and +3 level metamagic feats for the best possible customization of your spell selection. He can also use all scrolls in existence, including Heal and Harm.
The 2 blackguard levels will add your CHA bonus to all your Saving Throws, and the use of All armor and shields. Drow have Spell Resistance of 52.
If you know how to improve this build, please let me know. The following I've already taken into consideration: 1 level of fighter instead of 2 levels of blackguard, and get a sorcerer bonus feat, and don't waste 5 cross-class skill points on hide, and don't waste 2 epic feats on power attack and cleave. Then STR 14 (13 actually) is not needed. But that is not an option. This is a blackguard. Wizard instead of sorcerer. Get 4 pre-epic Wizard bonusfeats. Get a ***load of skillpoints. Learn all spells. But alas, Lomion is chaotic. His ability to cast spells is raw. He can cast the spells he needs, not the ones he prepared.
Zhoreb
Edited By Zhoreb on 06/28/04 17:05
Is there another reason besides maxing tumble that you took rogue/bard (you flip flop between them in your post) levels?
It is supposed to say Bard all over. Where blackguard is relevant for RP issues, the Bard level isn't. That's purely a OOC addition to the build. Indeed, to max out tumble and UMD.
I'd lose 1 sorc lvl and put 1 more for BG to max out ac with divine shield. Maybe lose some spells like epic dragon knight / epic mage armor, if going pvm mainly hellball gets pretty useless.
Pretty cool build. I'm mostly posting to comment on the RP stuff in relation to the PW I play on, Sojourney Menzoberranzan, where Duskryn is the 9th house in the city. I'm sorry to say that your character would be executed for heresy on that server if found to be a follower of "Big V" as I like to call him, because I always forget how to spell the name. Menzo is a strict Lolthite society, and anything else is heresy, at least in the War of the Spider Queen story we're playing. Certainly a heretic would never make it into the Duskryn nobility, as your character would be based on his name, Duskryn rather than Del'Duskryn. Also Sorcerors are considered slow learners at the Academy as they learn fewer spells than Wizards. They are also not completely trusted due to the spontaneous nature of their magic, but that's Drow for you. On the plus side, leveling is really slow there and all of the players there would probably be flattened by this character. The highest we have is 14, I think. Drow top out at 18 though, because of some subrace engine thing I don't really remember. I'm not trying to be critical or anything, your setting must be different than mine. Just posting my thoughts as the player of a devout Priestess of Lolth.
So as not to be a total waste of time, I will comment on the build to the best of my ability. Expertise would be handy as casters lose nothing while casting with it, but some servers do not allow casting with it on. Not sure if you knew that. If yours does, I say keep it even though if it was my server I would turn it off.
Since you asked, I can give my two cents about spells, though it would be helpful to know how much magic is available on your PW and what enemy types you commonly see, undead or outsiders for instance. At level 3 I would for sure get Fireball and/or Scintillating Sphere. At level 9, I would go with Time Stop, Mordenkainen's Disjunction, and Greater Spell Mantle. Take Premonition, but only if they don't hand out +5 weapons like candy. Cone of Cold is pretty nifty, as is Elemental Shield.
Saves? DCs? Actual AC? Skills?
If you're going to bump up your AC a lot you might want to go for Divine Shield. Assuming that you're only using Epic Mage Armor for the dodge bonus, that could free up another epic feat, since Divine Shield will give you as much dodge as you need.
And why's your charisma so low? Where's Spell Focus? I'd free up some room for those from Spell Penetration.
Again, old build. You're welcome to ask questions, just don't hope for them to get answered. _________________ Dragonlance ROH is back, better than before! and I spend a little time here WoG
Menzo is a strict Lolthite society, and anything else is heresy, at least in the War of the Spider Queen story we're playing. Certainly a heretic would never make it into the Duskryn nobility, as your character would be based on his name, Duskryn rather than Del'Duskryn. Also Sorcerors are considered slow learners at the Academy as they learn fewer spells than Wizards. They are also not completely trusted due to the spontaneous nature of their magic, but that's Drow for you. On the plus side, leveling is really slow there and all of the players there would probably be flattened by this character. The highest we have is 14, I think.