A step beyond my last Gnome, A Gnomish Focus, this one achieves a Spell DC (before spell level and items) of 29 in 4 schools (Illusion, Conjuration, Necromancy and Evocation). With a capped INT, boosted by items, this can reach 1 point less than the maximum DC available in all 4 schools, making this spell caster a fairly formidable opponent.
Epic Warding (lasting for 40 rounds) was the only Epic Spell taken, as this little fella gets the full monty from his damage shields on hit, with CON boosts a further 240HP can be achieved, taking him to a max of 560, which isn't bad for a caster really.
Called him Spanky as he most certainly will with one of his arsenal of spells.
As you can see a bare minimum of 128 points will be inflicted on hit by his attackers.
Whilst you do want mobs to be able to hit you, I have taken Tumble, purely to reduce the Attacks of Opportunity and to give a level of natural AC, as he is not Crit Immune, nor has any innate Damage Reduction to protect himself, unlike the Dwarflord's latest offering Mestil's Pale Adversary.
Silent, Extend, Empower and Maximize metamagic feats have been taken to enhance his firepower still further. Empowered and Maximised EBT's are a frightening concept when stacked.
Specialist School of Illusion was taken, purely for the increase in spells, but you could consider Necromancy if you don't mind the loss of True Seeing and Premonition. (Premonition I can handle, True Seeing may be an issue for some). Doing this would allow you to focus in Enchantment instead of one of the scholls selected, probably Evocation. Originally I wanted Transmutation for the Flesh to Stone spell, but 3 feats for only 4 offensive spells made me reconsider; also noting that the highest is only a 6th level spell.
Crafting skills were taken, but these can be changed easily for other skills easily enough, however these will mostly be crossclassed.
Playing him, he is extremely versatile and has a high DC for a lot of AoE spells, which does make things very interesting both at lower and higher levels.
The Crafting skills were taken purely as they are class skills, these can be dropped in favour of something else, such as Search and Disable Trap, albeit cross-classing this time. Lore is also a skill choice maybe best left unselected, if you need the points, it is easily dropped.
Spell Penetration 40+1d20
Spell DCs: (unbuffed INT and ignoring spell level)
Just to demonstrate several of the more choice offensive spells (This assumes INT boosting equipment is worn to the cap):
Phantasmal Killer 39 Weird 44 Flame Arrow 38 Grease 36 Web 37 Stinking Cloud 38 Evard's Black Tentacles 39 Cloudkill 40 Acid Fog 41 Firebrand 40 Scintillating Sphere 38 Sunburst 43 Incendiary Cloud 43 Meteor Swarm 44 Combust 37 Negative Energy Burst 38 Undeath to Death 41 Finger of Death 42 Horrid Wilting 43 Wail of the Banshee 44
As you can see something for any occasion.
Feedback, critiques, comments please as usual
Edited By I...Samphus on 09/15/06 11:06
So, I am not sure what the last two levels of wizard really gain you. A +2 to spell penetration checks? Perhaps you would do better to use the two free levels as stat dumps for discipline / spot / whatever and maybe pick up evasion in the process (monk or rogue).
Quote: Posted 09/15/06 13:21:03 (GMT) -- Ariel Thomas
So, I am not sure what the last two levels of wizard really gain you. A +2 to spell penetration checks? Perhaps you would do better to use the two free levels as stat dumps for discipline / spot / whatever and maybe pick up evasion in the process (monk or rogue).
Discipline really won't help a character like this. And he has spells that can make up for Skills like Spot/Listen. I suppose he could get really cheesy and take 1 level of Ranger and get an Epic Spell Focus, and use one of his Wizard bonus feats to pick up another Epic Spell. And he could take 1 Level of Monk for Evasion and Tumble dump. Then that would be like fried-cheese mozarella sticks.
Looks like a very tough caster. In playing him, I would suffer from Indecisive Spell Selection Syndrome, because there would be just too many options, and I would panic and fuss incessantly over my Spellbooks while the rest of the party would be spamming their "Boredom" tells.
Edit: Oh, and "Spanky"? Gnomes always get the worst names for their builds. Poor buggers. _________________ Got Hommlet? World of Greyhawk Action Server (with 1/2 price ales on Mondays!)
Ariel, Ookla, RIDE!
Edited By grizzled_dwarflord on 09/15/06 15:29
Quote: Posted 09/15/06 15:26:33 (GMT) -- grizzled_dwarflord Discipline really won't help a character like this. And he has spells that can make up for Skills like Spot/Listen.
Out of curiosity, why doesn't Discipline help? If he's trying to rely on getting hit to generate damage, I would think being KD'd could be annoying, especially against a sneak attacker. And I keep forgetting True Seeing lets you see through stealth on default, too used to PWs that have disabled that.
As you say Discipline isn't entirely necessary, but in playing him he does get put down a lot, but that doesn't stop them killing themselves on his shields. That happens faster when you're standing in the middle of an Empowered Acid Fog, Emp and Max EBTs, Emp Cloudkill, Web and Grease to boot. All you need to do is toss in a Maxed Negative Energy Burst and watch them pop. most are toast well before he hits half HP.
Playing this little fella now on a PW and can prepare spells for any occasion. You could do a cross-classed Discipline dump, just to help, but really you'd be better putting them into Search/ Disable Trap/ Open Lock to give you more versatility.
Not sure I like cheese too much with the single level of Monk/ Rogue/ Fighter/ whatever, but I can see the benefits of taking them.
Either way you could sub out one of the schools for Transmutation giving you a 41 DC when fully buffed for Flesh to Stone spells.
You could also polymorph into a zombie and not worry about sneak/dev crit peeps.
you'd still be using your magic shields and you could walk in and out of combat to provoke aoo swings.
I would really have to take 1 level of Ranger at level 40* for a skill dump into discipline, as well as any of hide, move silently, set traps or spot...plus if you had worked in Combat Casting you could get the improved combat casting feat for free!!!
You would lose 1 caster level but IMO the gain of discipline alone would outweigh the loss of 1 SR penetration & a 5% loss of dispelling power with Mords**!!!
*or 39 if you wanted to take ESF: discipline
Quote: Posted 09/15/06 15:35:26 (GMT) -- Ariel Thomas
Out of curiosity, why doesn't Discipline help? If he's trying to rely on getting hit to generate damage, I would think being KD'd could be annoying, especially against a sneak attacker.
The thing is, unless he takes and ESF: Discipline, there really isn't a way for him to beat the DC of the Knockdown.
Say at Level 40 he takes Ranger1 and dumps 43 into Disc. And let's say he goes into combat with a very mediocre Rogue with a modified 50AB. And let's assume the Rogue is human with IKD. Rogue swings an IKD, rolls a 10+50, -1 for size, -4 for IKD attempt, = 55, hit.
Spanky, with his sparkling 43 Discipline, now has to resist the IKD vs the 55DC. But wait, he gets -4 because he's small stature, and he gets a further -4 due to Rogue having IKD. So effectively, the DC is now 63.
Spanky has to roll a natural 20 in that scenario just to resist. If that Rogue had rolled an 11 instead of a 10, he couldn't beat it at all. Give Spanky some Str enhancements, and his odds are slightly better, but not by much. Swap out mediocre rogue for high AB meleers, and the situation is even worse. Therefore, unless he's going to take ESF: Disc, or Shapechange into Iron Golem form, I wouldn't even bother with Disc. I suppose if you make the char at Lvl 40, then why not, right? But if you play from the ground up, and you reach Level 39 without having a point of discipline, it will hardly matter by Level 40. _________________ Got Hommlet? World of Greyhawk Action Server (with 1/2 price ales on Mondays!)
Ariel, Ookla, RIDE!
Edited By grizzled_dwarflord on 09/16/06 13:37
I would hate to immobilize a casters offensive by a polymorph, but that is a good idea. Just seach for a polymorph with low AC, and Crit/Sneak immunity, so you don't get hit by those pesky Devastating Critical..
As a moment of thought, if your shield absorbs the whole critical do you have to make a fortitude save? Just something I was wondering. _________________ ~Blake~
Nice to see a gnome once in a while. Just a suggestion about the polymorphing, the iron golem is veeery nice for soaking up damage.
I like this one. Simple and efficient at what it does. It does magic .
Kurth
Thanks for the feedback everyone.
I have given the Discipline, Tumble, Evasion points some consideration, but to be honest, with the spell casting this little chap has it has yet to be a major issue. Maybe I am not testing him hard enough.
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