Halflings of Doom are getting entirely too popular, so it's time to introduce the Gnome of Doom (much more fearsome, to be sure). I think this is also the best place to point out that there are zero builds on the search engine that use PM, but don't get critical immunity. Actually, there aren't even any PM builds with fewer than 10 levels.
playable 1 - 40 PvM
Race: Gnome Alignment: Any non-good
Starting/ Ending
Str 8 Dex 14 Con 16 Wis 8 Int 18/ 36 Cha 8
Leveling: 1 Wiz (1): Combat Casting 2 Wiz (2): 3 Wiz (3): Dodge 4 Wiz (4): +1 int (19) 5 Wiz (5): Spell Focus (Evocation) 6 Wiz (6): Mobility 7 PM (1): 8 SD (1): +1 int (20) 9 Wiz (7): Greater Spell Focus (Evocation) 10 Wiz (8): 11 Wiz (9): 12 SD (2): +1 int (21), Extend Spell 13 Wiz (10): 14 Wiz (11): Spell Penetration 15 Wiz (12): Greater Spell Penetration 16 Wiz (13): +1 int (22) 17 SD (3): 18 Wiz (14): Empower Spell 19 Wiz (15): Greater Spell Focus (Illusion) 20 Wiz (16): +1 int (23), 21 Wiz (17): Epic Spell Focus (Evocation) 22 SD (4): 23 Wiz (18): 24 Wiz (19): +1 int (24), Epic Spell Focus (Illusion) 25 Wiz (20): Great Int I (25) 26 Wiz (21): 27 Wiz (22): Epic Spell: Epic Mage Armor 28 SD (5): +1 int (26) 29 Wiz (23): Great Int II (27) 30 Wiz (24): Great Int III (28) 31 Wiz (25): 32 SD (6): +1 int (29) 33 Wiz (26): Epic Spell: Epic Warding, Great Int IV (30) 34 Wiz (27): 35 Wiz (28): 36 Wiz (29): +1 int (31), Great Int V (32), Great Int VI (33) 37 Wiz (30): 38 Wiz (31): 39 Wiz (32): Great Int VII (34), Great Int VIII (35) 40 SD (7): +1 int (36)
Skills (395 total): Concentration: 42 Hide: 43 Listen: 43 Move Silently: 43 Search: 21 (34) [only rogues can detect traps with a search DC greater than 35] Spellcraft: 42 (55) Spot: 43 Tumble: 40 [the first 5 ranks are cross class] 73 left over
Max HP: 310 Average HP (no rerolls): 266 AC (Naked): 22 AB (Melee): +19, AB (Ranged): +22 Saves (+11 vs Spells): Fort: 21 Ref: 20 Will: 22 Spell Save DC (Illusion and Evocation only): 29 + Spell Level
Advantages: Arcane caster with a lot of levels, 2 epic spells, near optimal DCs in two schools of magic and Hide in Plain Sight Evasion Slippery Mind No particularly long gaps without skill dumps As a Gnome who actually takes Spell Focus feats in Illusion, you aren't as cheesy as all of the other Illusionists out there.
Disadvantages: Low AC Low AB Low saves
Pale Master may be substituted for any class with Hide and Move Silently as class skills (Bard, Monk, Ranger, or Rogue) without compromising the integrity of the build, and, for all but Ranger, without having to cross class the first five ranks of Tumble. However, this build gains little from the added melee presence and proficiencies brought by those classes, while the additional spells per day from PM increases playability through level 25 (at which point you have 20 Wizard levels), and the +2 to AC is nice throughout the lifespan. Note that if Ranger is selected for your stealth skill dump, you will have 3 attacks by level 20, though I'm not sure if this third attack can be used for spellcasting.
The goal of this build was to find a use for all those Wizard skill points without sacrificing arcane caster nuking power (at least not too much). Shadowdancers have a nice skill set, they get a lot of nice things that benefit a character whether or not they are swinging a sword in close combat, and they get them in fairly few levels. Not to mention, without any sneak attack damage, there is no motivation to try being a spellsword .
Tactics Tactics are fairly simple, and are more or less comparable to Archer/ Shadowdancers: cast, hide, move further away, repeat. This should make solo play possible if rest restrictions are fairly lax, but in party play this character really shines because the tanks can spend much less time trying to protect you, and much more time going after the heavy artillery of the opposition. There may be a temptation to use the DR from Shadow Evade in combination with reciprocal damage shields, but by the time you get it, it probably won't be of much use.
Variations Part of what makes this build possible is that Gnomes are granted Spell Focus: Illusion as a racial bonus, and the size boni to hide checks are just kind of an icing. Still, it should work well with any race. A human could, of course, use their bonus feat at first level for any school of their choice, altering the Greater Spell Focus feat accordingly, and any other race could handle the situation in a myriad of ways, though I would probably take Toughness in place of Greater Spell Focus: Illusion pre-epic and Epic Skill Focus: Listen in place of Epic Spell Focus: Illusion.
Someone once pointed out to me that most builds that get Improved Evasion don't need it, because they are already making their reflex saves. This is one build that could definitely use it, and could get it with only 3 more levels of of SD at the expense of one Epic bonus feat and 3 caster levels. This is certainly a viable option, and the decision ultimately comes down to play style, but I think only 32 levels and the number of feats is pushing it already.
Feedback is appreciated.
Edit: Typo _________________ There's always time to procrastinate.
Edited By griphook on 02/08/06 23:44
Why SP feats? You've got 32 caster lvls, you'll be penetrating max toolset SR anyhow
Nice touch to use PM for the class skills and qualify for SD that early!
It will be hard to save from his evocation and illusion spells with epic focus and that high Int.
I miss some of the meta magic feats like silent, maximise, quicken sp etc. More of them add to the flexibility since you can prepare each spell at more levels. (Eg. if you need to spam firebrand, you can prepare it at your lvl 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 slots using your different metamagic feats.) _________________ I generally avoid temptation, unless I can't resist it...
A Gnome, how lovely!
Cool build, congrats. _________________ Fanget av begravelsen pines vi av guds godhet ingen flammer, intet hat de hadde rett vi kom til Helvete...
~ Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
If i get it correctly you are using SD to Hide in plain sight, maybe Shadow Evade and as you said Improved Evasion, but your character is a caster alright, low AB is no real disadvantage, you shouldn't really be fighting in melee.
I think it's a really good tactic there, unless maybe against strong melee with Blind-Fight.
Why SP feats? You've got 32 caster lvls, you'll be penetrating max toolset SR anyhow
Since you aren't a pure build, it should increase playability early on (hence no Epic Spell Penetration). They can easily be swapped for some of the metamagic feats if you prefer, but I don't usually use anything but empower or extend. Thanks for mentioning this, though. I forgot to post the reason in the original post. _________________ There's always time to procrastinate.
If i get it correctly you are using SD to Hide in plain sight, maybe Shadow Evade and as you said Improved Evasion, but your character is a caster alright, low AB is no real disadvantage, you shouldn't really be fighting in melee.
I think it's a really good tactic there, unless maybe against strong melee with Blind-Fight.
You are absolutely correct, this build will be avoiding melee, so a lot of the weaknesses aren't that big of a deal. Like I said, I won't be playing the version that get's Improved Evasion, but it would be nice with that low reflex save. _________________ There's always time to procrastinate.
Why SP feats? You've got 32 caster lvls, you'll be penetrating max toolset SR anyhow
Monks.. Monks... Monks...
(Though, if monk build is based on sr, you couldn't bybass it even if you had SP feats)
I just realized that I forgot to factor in the Gnome size bonuse to AC and AB. If only there was someone with some sort of Magic Editing Wand who could fix this _________________ There's always time to procrastinate.
You are almost a pure caster and monks built for SR wouldn't notice the difference, I think you'd have increased playability by taking save boosters instead of SP feats, or one save booster and toughness. Just my two cents.
Cheers, Kail _________________ Dilegua notte Tramontate stelle Tramontate stelle All'alba vinceṛ Vinceṛ Vinceṛ
You are almost a pure caster and monks built for SR wouldn't notice the difference, I think you'd have increased playability by taking save boosters instead of SP feats, or one save booster and toughness. Just my two cents.
Cheers, Kail
Thanks for the input! I definitely agree that the Penetration feats won't come in handy versus any monk who is purposely trying to be a mage killer. My philosophy is something along the lines of this: if I plan on slumming it for most of my early career, in other words before I can auto beat 32 SR on caster levels alone, then the SP feats will be worthless. However, if I am consistently challenging myself against monsters with a higher CR than my own, then I will need those SP feats to have a shot against any such monster with SR. _________________ There's always time to procrastinate.
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