Versatile kensai? Bah, he's a one trick pony when compared to this guy! There are few able to cast arcane spells, divine spells, and fight well with a sword - and the Red Mage is one of them! Actually, that's not the best build ever created, but it's purpose - to create a character that can cast 9th level cleric and wizard spells, who has auto still spell and devastating critical - is achieved. PS. This character has nothing in common with the Thay Red Wizards from Forgotten Realms. It's a tribute to red mages from FF series, especially one of the main characters from 8 bit theater - my favorite webcomic.
Adventages: -Has access to 9th level in both arcane and divine spells -Has Devastating Critical and 45% chance for a critical hit -Has Epic Warding -Very versatile, can be a healer, mage, buffer or a melee fighter -Nice AC, AB and damage when buffed
Disadevntages: -Weak DC of spells - you should concentrate on spells without saves -Mediocre saves -Low on HP, especially without buffs -No Improved Combat Casting -Very weak when dispelled
Wizard 23/ Cleric 17 Race: Human Spheres: I'd suggest Healing and Plants (for Barkskin and Creeping Doom) Equipment: Full Plate, Tower Shield, Scimitar
Levels and feats: 1-20. Take (in any order) Wizard 4 times and Cleric 16 times. Put three points into Wis and two into Str. Feats (in any order): Weapon Proficiency (Martial), Power Attack, Cleave, Greater Cleave, Favorite Weapon (Scimitar), Improved Critical (Scimitar), Still Spell, your favorite metamagic feat (I suggest Maximize Spell) 21. Cleric - Great Strength I 22. Wizard - Great Intelligence I 23. Wizard 24. Wizard - Automatic Still Spell I, +Str 25. Wizard 26. Wizard 27. Wizard - Great Intelligence II, Automatic Still Spell II 28. Wizard +Str 29. Wizard 30. Wizard - Great Strength II 31. Wizard 32. Wizard - Great Intelligence III, +Str 33. Wizard - Overwhelming Critical (Scimitar) 34. Wizard 35. Wizard 36. Wizard - Great Strength III, +Str 37. Wizard - Automatic Still Spell III 38. Wizard 39. Wizard - Devastating Critical (Scimitar) 40. Wizard - Epic Spell (Epic Warding), +Str
Cleric level 0. Light, Resistance level 1. Bless, Divine Favor, Protection From Alignment, Shield of Faith level 2. Aid, Barkskin, Lesser Restoration level 3. Darkfire, Magic Vestment, Prayer level 4. Death Ward, Divine Power, Restoration level 5. Battletide, Maximized Bull's Strength, Maximized Endurance, Heal, Spell Resistance, True Seeing level 6. Greater Sanctuary, Harm, Heal level 7. Creeping Doom, Greater Restoration, Word of Faith level 8. Aura Versus Alignment, Mass Heal level 9. Undeath's Eternal Foe, Mass Heal with Still Spell
Notes: If you don't have Maximize Spell, use normal Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace and Endurance istead of maximized ones. Remember that you can use Still Spell to cast a spell one level higher then it's level is - you can for example use it to cast Mass Heal as lvl 9 spell. Some of the spells exist in both spell trees - pick them in only one of them.
Tactics: Use Bigby's Hand Spells and Maximized IGMS, they work as well as cast by any other wizard (with exception minor effects of some Bigby's spells). Heal a lot - beginning from level 5, at all cleric levels you have a spell that can heal your entire HP. Healing is important for this character, because he has low HP. Knock down an enemy with Bigby's Forceful Hand and attack him with your scimitar. Cast Time Stop and attack enemies in melee, those who suffered from critical hits will have a fair chance to be dead when the spell runs out. Catch an enemy with Bigby's Crushing or Grasping Hand, cast Creeping Doom on him, go away and watch him being slowly eaten alive by the insects. Use your imagination, this character's versatility can be used in many surprising ways.
Edited By Tengudor_t on 08/27/04 20:10
Why are you bothering with melee feats when you have that much spell power? _________________ Come visit the Epic Builders Guild for all the character info you could ever want or need: Click Here
Because he can, Emrill.
Because he can...
Devastating Critical with Timestop and cleric buffs while wearing full plate and a tower shield... ow my head. Nice. _________________ "Intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit; Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad."
I know he can. It just looks like a lot of feats waste to get one feat, when a lot of other feats could greatly enhance his spellcasting powers. _________________ Come visit the Epic Builders Guild for all the character info you could ever want or need: Click Here
If he concentrates on spells that have no saves, or just buffs, he becomes a quite scary melee character. He's got epic warding for 50/+20 DR, a bucket o' bigby (tm), timestop, IGMS, and all the wizard AND cleric buffs. There's not much reason to try and increase save DCs when his spells aren't using saves... and the durations will be long enough. He's also got more than enough spells to spare, so increasing his intelligence or wisdom any higher than he has to would be useless. He might as well get the most powerful melee feat in the game. _________________ "Intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit; Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad."
MA Sword's point is correct, and also - making this character better in magic and worse in fighting would make it less versatile, which was not the purpose.
Tengudor, here is a slight variation on your build that gets much higher HP (+160 or so), although it loses Epic Spells and gets an XP penalty.
1 Power Attack 3 Cleave 6 Still Spell 9 Toughness 12 Imp. Crit. 15 Great Cleave 18 Favorite Metamagic Feat (Empower Spell, Extend Spell, etc.)
Fighter: WF: Scimitar
Epic:
Great Str x 7
Fighter: EWF: Scimitar, Overwhelming Crit., Dev. Crit. (at lvl 40) Wizard: Auto-still spell I, II, + III
Good character, but I think gaining 120 HP isn't worth losing Epic Mage Armor and especially Epic Warding - the dwarf would die afst to a melee fighter, but he'd be a bigger challenge for a spellcaster.
My not-actually-next character can be found here. Sorry for double posting.
Kinda reminds me of chndragons old build, only not quite so complex. Sometimes you dont need to get too fancy. I've always liked the dual-caster builds (like 6/17/17 Monk/Druid/Cleric, etc) even if they dont have the oomph to break high level SR. They usually have enough to break the typical PvM SR, and thats good enough for me. Likewise, I tend to skip the Epic Spells, since you always get them so late in the build, its spent its whole like without them, and I've gotten used to not having them. _________________ Normal kids play rock-paper-scissors. Shifter kids play IronGolem-RustMonster-MindFlayer. . .
What would be suggested as a dev-crit alternative?
