Upcoming Campaign Advice

General questions, debates, and rants about RPGs

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shirak
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Re: Upcoming Campaign Advice

Post by shirak »

* Eschew Materials :WTF: :bash:
* Improved Initiative -> This has it's own thread. I wouldn't pick it myself
* Skill Focus (Concentration) :WTF: Is this for a prestige class or something?
* Spell Focus (Illusion) Sounds good. If you're making Battlefield Control Specialist you should focus on Conjuration but whatever.
* Extend Spell -> This is more for buffermen but is a decent choice nonetheless
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virgil
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Re: Upcoming Campaign Advice

Post by virgil »

Skill Focus was for the instant gratification of being able to cast defensively more reliably, at the total expense of long-term benefits; not terribly serious. Eschew Materials was for the potential of losing the spell component pouch to a sunder-happy opponent (yeah, yeah, I know...).

Extend Spell eventually has it's uses for non-buffs, such as Acid Arrow or Ice Storm. I'm not sure of what spells there are for the Conjuration school that actually force a saving throw, at least until Planar Binding hits the scene.
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virgil
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Re: Upcoming Campaign Advice

Post by virgil »

Crap, I just discovered Elf Dilettante. It's like Jack of All Trades, but it gives me a +1 to all of those untrained skill checks to boot. Time to modify my list to...

* Extend Spell
* Spell Focus (Illusion)
* Elf Dilettante
Come see Sprockets & Serials
How do you confuse a barbarian?
Put a greatsword a maul and a greataxe in a room and ask them to take their pick
EXPLOSIVE RUNES!
Iaimeki
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Re: Upcoming Campaign Advice

Post by Iaimeki »

virgileso at [unixtime wrote:1189284529[/unixtime]]
* Eschew Materials
* Improved Initiative
* Skill Focus (Concentration)
* Spell Focus (Illusion)
* Extend Spell


Thumbs down on Eschew Materials and SF (Concentration). Seriously, if someone pulls that sunder idiocy on you just spend more cash on spell component pouches: if necessary, get mule loaded down with pouches; or better yet, arrange never to be in melee range. SF (Concentration) sucks in all sorts of ways that I think have already been discussed.

I happen to be a major fan of Improved Initiative: in D&D, offense carries the day, and at 1st level and again by 7th level, if you can get the first attack in with something like color spray or phantasmal killer, often you can end the battle right there without further questions asked.

Along with this, I would argue that the standard 28-point-buy gray elf wizard stat distribution after racial mods is: 6 Str, Dex 16, Con 12, Wis 8, Int 20, Cha 8. Since you're on 32-point-buy you have some points to waste in useless stats, or to further pump Dex/Con. Stats that aren't Dex, Con, or Int do nothing for you: Dex is important for initiative, Ref saves, and AC (mostly against ranged touch attacks), in that order of importance; Con for hit points and Fort saves; and Int for all the obvious reasons.

I'm not a big fan of any of the Spell Focus feats outside a character expecting to hit archmage or a build highly focused on maxing out one school, like the shadow gnome builds. If you really want it, master specialist (I can't remember if that's allowed) is a good way to pick it up at low cost.

In terms of other feats, you've mentioned Extend Spell and Craft Wondrous, which are both good wizard feats for all the standard reasons. I'd also encourage you to look at Sculpt Spell: it's useful from low to high levels, starting with things like sculpted grease and ending up at things like sculpted antimagic field. Alacritous Cogitation may also be worth a look, though there's a magic item in the same book that serves much the same purpose.

You should definitely look into the elf wizard substitution levels in RotW if they're allowed: elf generalist is quite nice if you don't need specialization, and one of the others is good too.
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virgil
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Re: Upcoming Campaign Advice

Post by virgil »

Man, just discovered Collegiate Wizard, only to subsequently discover that it was left out of the allowed feat list. I'm fairly certain the elf substitution levels won't be allowed, since the DM's very wary of spellcasters (and if Collegiate Wizard's considered too much, I doubt the substitution level'll slide by).
Come see Sprockets & Serials
How do you confuse a barbarian?
Put a greatsword a maul and a greataxe in a room and ask them to take their pick
EXPLOSIVE RUNES!
rapanui
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Re: Upcoming Campaign Advice

Post by rapanui »

I highly support the Improved Initiative.
In Rocket Launcher Tag (aka "D&D") going first often means winning.
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tzor
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Re: Upcoming Campaign Advice

Post by tzor »

rapanui at [unixtime wrote:1189479263[/unixtime]]I highly support the Improved Initiative.
In Rocket Launcher Tag (aka "D&D") going first often means winning.


Yes but if you can manage to avoid your opponent's initative in the first place (take him out right from the surprise round) his ability to have +4 to the initative he never gets to use is moot. And your's doesn't come into play.
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