The idea behind this build was to take the Pale Master and Red Dragon Disciple AC bonuses and stack them on top of a Sorcerer with Epic Mage Armor, while sacrificing very little in spellcasting capability. It also looks amazingly cool when you put up Imp Invis and Shadow Shield. Like a shadow dragon reaper!
PvP quality seems decent, though I haven't tested it; Devastating Critical is a glaring weakness, and the Wail DC is a little low. PvE, the build is downright amazing. It's actually pretty weak until epic levels, though even at level 15 it's capable of magic damage from behind allies. Once it reaches level 25 or so, it's very playable; at level 36, you should be able to solo most areas.
Human, any non-good
Starting abilities: STR 14 DEX 8 CON 14 WIS 8 INT 10 CHA 18
Skills will be Lore 8, Concentration 43, Spellcraft 41, Tumble 20 (!!), Discipline 23. Make sure you have 8 Lore at level 5 for the Red Dragon Disciple class. Skill points increase at level 15 thanks to the INT increase. At level 20, be sure Discipline gets up to 23.
Red Dragon Disciple gives some extra boosts to certain abilities, so the final raw ability scores will be: STR 22 DEX 8 CON 16 WIS 8 INT 12 CHA 30
30 CHA is quite respectable for a mage, though I admit some Great Charisma would definitely help the Wail DC. The build has full Sorcerer spells, a high CHA bonus and Epic Necro Focus, yet manages 50-60 AC at level 40, plus damage shields and epic warding. AB is a problem thanks to 10 Sorcerer levels pre-epic, but it still ends up around 40 with self-buffs at the end, more when buffed by a cleric.
HP: around 350 with maxed Endurance AB: 12 base, 35-40 buffed with scythe AC: 26 naked and unbuffed, 50-60 buffed Saves: 25 fort, 18 reflex, 22 will *NOTE* - the above stats are estimates. I currently have this build up to level 35 in a PW, and will update with more exact stats once I have the build to level 40.
If I could only go to level 41, I could get rid of one level of Sorcerer along with Epic Warding and go for ten levels of Pale Master, thus avoiding the possibility of sneaks and devastating critical! If you want, you could remove the tenth level of Red Dragon Disciple pre-epic. Removing two would get rid of one attack per round, but you could argue that Epic Warding is worth it. I just preferred the fire immunity and 4 STR/2 CHA.
On servers where wail gets extremely limited, this mage is just about the best thing money can buy, and if you're on a server with no Devastating Critical, you're a demi-god.
For spells: 1: Mage Armor for the extra +1 dodge AC. 2: Bull, Cat, Eagle, and Endurance, to be maximized, plus Flame Weapon. 3: Weapon buffs, Fireball, and Clarity. 4: Ice Storm's nice for maxing, and Imp Invis is a must. 5: Mestil's Sheath for making the most of your warding, and Firebrand, Cone of Cold for maxing. Also, Energy Buffer's nice. 6: Isaac's GMS, True Seeing, and Chain Lightning to be maxed. 7: Finger of Death, Shadow Shield, and Bigby's Grasping. 8: Horrid Wilting of course, and Premo until you get Warding. Later on, your pick - Mind Blank is useful, as is Bigby's Clenched. 9: Wail's the only offensive spell on 9th level. You can max Chain Lightning anyway, so go with Greater Mantle and Mord's Disjunction for defensive purposes. Time Stop could be useful if your server supports it; mine has it bugged.
I love this build. It has problems until epic levels, but then it really takes off, maxing spells left and right and not worrying about enemy tanks! Once you hit levels 33 and 36, no mobs should be able to hurt you enough to kill... and Mestil's will make them regret picking you as a target! (Speaking of which, Improved Critical could be traded for Extend Spell, to get more out of the Acid Sheath.)
Edited By johann_howitzer on 02/07/07 05:57
It's cool if you can make yourself forget that two more levels of Pale Master would make you immune to criticals and sneaks. But everytime you remember it, it has to hurt your brain.
If (big if) you were building to 40 (as opposed to a leveling build), you'd want to delay that RDD 10 level to real late for the discipline skill. Since taking levels 9-10 in RDD is the exact same as far as AB as taking two levels of sorceror or PM, shouldn't effect AB or APR. You'd still want to take the RDD 9 as early as possible (Level 21) for the bump in intelligence/skill points.
I hate to say this, but I'd probably drop the epic sorceror levels (good bye, epic warding and mage armor) and take the two levels of PM. But that would be different.
Good hunting.
Ithacan
Hm. Interesting ideas; kind of a hybrid of several things I already mentioned along with a few new things. What about taking Sorc 21 / RDD 9 / PM 10? You'll get Epic Mage Armor, crit immunity, and the 9th RDD level can be taken very late for Discipline. I'll have to try that out. Sacrifices 4 strength and 2 charisma, but I bet I could sneak a few Great Charismas in. OR (gasp!), drop RDD entirely and go for a level of Paladin and some more Epic Sorc for bonus feats! Blech. Too many choices, and I can't take everything... but this is NWN, what else is new?
Idea - what about removing all focuses in Necromancy? This build doesn't exactly have the DC to make Wail extremely useful, and I could trade it for Epic Evoc Focus and some other stuff. Shame about the fire immunity... it actually does help when casting Fireballs close-range on the server I play on. But then, Fireball's a level 3 spell and Firebrand is far superior.