Red Wizard Spell Power Question

[kewell1000]

As I've never played a Red Wizard before I'm a little unsure how Spell Power works.
Does it only add Caster Levels to the specialized school or all schools?

Like for instance if you are a level 15 character with 5 wizard levels and 10 Red Wizard levels and your school was Evocation.
Your Fireburst would deal 20d8 instead of 15d8 right?
But what about a Disintegrate spell which is a Transmutation spell. Does that deal 30d6 or 40d6 granted the save is failed (2d6 per level)?

And does the Spellpower go beyond the cap?
Like a fireball which is capped at 15d6. Would the Spellpower be added above the cap so it dealt 20d6?

Thanks in advance

[dzidek1983]

i love red mages.. they are best necromancers out there

Enhanced Specialization: Upon becoming a Red Wizard, the character becomes even more skilled at casting spells from his chosen school of specialization - gaining +1 to DC for spells requiring a save and +1 to attempts to penetrate spell resistance.

the +1 bonus to DC is actually applied to ALL of the Red Wizard's spells (it does not, however, affect the DC of Epic Spells from any school).

Specialist Defense: A Red Wizard gains a bonus to defending against spells from his specialist school.

this works properly so a necromancer gets a bonus vs necromancy

Spell Power: At 2nd level, The Red Wizard's effective caster level for determining level-dependent variable checks for spells is increased by +1. This bonus increases by +1 every even-numbered Red Wizard level, to a maximum of +5 at 10th level.

this bonus only applies to spells from the chosen school of Specialization. This includes any Epic Spells from the chosen school.

fun thing with this is you get CL 35
spell-save DC is raised by +1 for every 3 caster levels over 20 (normally its +3 at 30)
so this gives you additional +2 to DC's even if it only raises your CL
if you take a dip into palmaster the get legally prcticed sellcaster and raise it to 35 you get a nice +3 o DC's

[Eldebryn]

As I've never played a Red Wizard before I'm a little unsure how Spell Power works.
Does it only add Caster Levels to the specialized school or all schools?

Like for instance if you are a level 15 character with 5 wizard levels and 10 Red Wizard levels and your school was Evocation.
Your Fireburst would deal 20d8 instead of 15d8 right?
But what about a Disintegrate spell which is a Transmutation spell. Does that deal 30d6 or 40d6 granted the save is failed (2d6 per level)?

And does the Spellpower go beyond the cap?
Like a fireball which is capped at 15d6. Would the Spellpower be added above the cap so it dealt 20d6?

Thanks in advance

As far as I know the cap is never surpassed, even with extra caster levels from any source.

The RW spell power feature in particular only increases the CL of your specialized school.

There other benefits to this however, the increased CL makes your spells easier to bypass spell resistance and makes them harder to get dispelled.

Moreover NWN2 has a rule about spell DCs, you gain +1 DC for your spells for every 3 CL beyond 20. So, assuming this works as intended a 30 level caster with RW has a CL of 35 in his specialized school, which means +2 DC for those spells in comparison to an identical build without RW and with the same Intelligence score and Spell focus feats.

[RowllandR]

As I've never played a Red Wizard before I'm a little unsure how Spell Power works.
Does it only add Caster Levels to the specialized school or all schools?

Like for instance if you are a level 15 character with 5 wizard levels and 10 Red Wizard levels and your school was Evocation.
Your Fireburst would deal 20d8 instead of 15d8 right?
But what about a Disintegrate spell which is a Transmutation spell. Does that deal 30d6 or 40d6 granted the save is failed (2d6 per level)?

And does the Spellpower go beyond the cap?
Like a fireball which is capped at 15d6. Would the Spellpower be added above the cap so it dealt 20d6?

Thanks in advance

Hey Kewell, allright i'll try my best to answear you
the extra red wizard caster levels will only work for you specialized school
the extra one dc granted by "Enhanced Specialization" works for ALL spells, but epic spells

one your second quest yes you'd deal 20d8, disintegrate wouldnt be affected by the extra 5 spell power as it's from a diferent school

back in the day when soundblast wasnt capped you could reach 40 cl (so it was a nice and flat 320 sonic damage on a maxed spell) , you can reach 39CL now but the spell is capped ,besides lenght and spell resistance and mordenkeins there is not much use in having a caster lvl that high

the two exceptions would be Elemental shield (evocation and not capped)
so you'd be dealing 1d6+39 fire damage everytime things hit you (and cause some damage, unfortunatelly)

and fire arrow, so back in the day with 40 caster levels you could shoot 10 arrows for 4d6 each for 240 dmg, now you can do 9 max

i hope to have helped, if there's more you'd like to know, just ask

[Zlaayer]

I wouldn't recommend using Red Wizard for a powerbuild. It's a faction specific class that is moderated by a DM and is very roleplay emphasized. But if you're interested in Thayan Lore I can help you there too.

If your goal is to make a really powerful wizard then Red Wizard probably isn't a good choice. It's more of a roleplay build than a powerbuild for these reasons.

1.) You lose two arcane schools, which is huge.
2.) DC's aren't very powerful in Baldur's Gate because it's so easy to get high saves.
3.) Pretty much every DC spell can be countered easily with immunity to mind effects or immunity to death effects. The exception is evocationists, but any rogue worth his spit will laugh at your DC's anyway.
4.) DC builds are super squishy without prebuffing.

Here is a link to some information about RW's.http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Red_wizard

Spell Power only applies to your school specialty. All it does is add to your DC's for your specialty as well as your CL for purposes of epic spell progression and level dependent variables such as damage rolls. It won't increase your damage spells beyond their damage cap, but some spells (such as flame arrow) don't have a cap.

Your typical lvl 30 wizard gets the following DC for a lvl 9 spell. . .
10 base + Int Mod (Typically about 10) + Spell Level (Lvl 9 spell) + Epic Progression at every third epic level taken (+1 at 23, 26, 29 for a total of +3) = 10 + 10 + 9 + 3 = DC 32

A 20 Wiz/10 Red Wizard would receive the following DC for their school of specialty . . .
10 base +Int Mod + Spell Level + Epic Progression (+1 at 23, 26, 29, 32, and 35) for a total of +5) + 5 for Spell Power= 10 + 10 + 9 + 5 + 5 = DC 39

If you want to be a powerbuilder you can take Practiced Spellcaster which would essentially make your 20 Wiz/10 Red Wizard into a CL 39 monster for purposes of spell DC's and level dependent variables. So the DC's get even higher.

If you take Practiced Spellcaster and nothing but Great Int and Epic Spell Focus Feats you can get the following DC's. . .
10 Base +13 Int Mod + Level 9 spell + 5 Spell Power + 6 Epic Spell Progression +3 Epic Spell Focus = 43 DC

The CL 39 would also have a pretty powerful Flame Arrow because it has no cap. You just get 1 arrow that does 4d6 damage for every 4 CL you have. So a CL 39 would have 9 flame arrows totalling 36d6 damage. Maximize it and you have a pretty powerful level 7 spell (lvl 6 if you have improved metamagic). There are a handful of other spells that don't have a damage cap such as ice storm.

Also of note. I'm almost positive that Spell Power and Epic Spell Focus don't apply to epic spell DC's.

[kewell1000]

Thank you for your replies. They answered my questions.

Zlaayer, you have raised a new one however

First of all this is a RP build but since I don't know the class very well I would like to know what I get in stead of playing the character blind.

The question you've raised is the DC calculation for the Red Wizard.
I can recognize the Epic Caster Progression which grants +5 in stead of +3 with a "normal" Epic Mage. But do you also get +5 to the DC from the Spell Power?

[kewell1000]

EDIT: Double post

[matnow]

um "if you want to be powerbuilder?"

Either rules have changed significantly since I was playing this server or this is a misunderstanding. As I can understand you preventing people from playing your class for powerbuild reason, I am not really sure whether you should advertise classes which can be easily powerbuilded. It is like you make sure nobody who powerbuilds will play your character but increase number of those people choosing other classes.
As I am recalling myself powerbuilding is absolutely forbidden here (in this server) and every action you take or particular feature of character or class your character chooses is connected with your plot.

Apologies for my English if it got worse since last time, but must say that have not really used it for a long time.

[Zlaayer]

Thanks for your answers. They answer my question.

But Zlaayer you've raised another one

First of all it's a RP build but I would still like to know what I'm gonna play.

But are you sure you get the +5 to Spell DC from the Spell Power feat?
As I read the feat it raises the Caster Level and not the DC level.
So as I se it it will only raise the DC because you get more Epic Caster Levels.

But I might be wrong.

I played a Red Wizard on BGTSCC for about a year when I first started playing on BGTSCC back in 2008. I definitely remember that Red Wizards get +5 to spell DC's for their chosen school. It only applies to that school though. You also get higher CL which means better SR penetration and level dependent variables such as damage (flame arrow as I explained earlier). Also one note. I included the DC's for a RW with nothing but Epic Int feats and a +4 Int item. It's pretty safe to say you won't get a +4 Int item, so take the max DC down to 43 for a lvl 9 spell in your specialty. If you have any other questions about the faction send me or G1Megatron a PM.

[Zlaayer]

um "if you want to be powerbuilder?"
I am not really sure whether you should advertise classes which can be easily powerbuilded. . .

As I am recalling myself powerbuilding is absolutely forbidden here (in this server) and every action you take or particular feature of character or class your character chooses is connected with your plot..

I may be misunderstanding your statement, but it sounds like you are saying that this is a server where powerbuilding is prohibited and I'm telling people how to powerbuild. Well, it's not a secret that you can make a powerbuild with the Red Wizard PrC. And yes, you're right. The staff has implemented several rules to prevent powerbuilding.

It used to be very easy to powerbuild with a Red Wizard for several reasons. A Red Wizard must be a specialist. So let's say at creation that you make him a necromancy specialist. This forbids you from learning any divination spells since that is the opposing school of necromancy. A Red Wizard also loses ANOTHER spell school once he takes his first Red Wizard level. The class that you lose depends on your specialty. In this case, the necromancy specialist loses access to illusion spells. People used to get around this fact by waiting until they were a level 17 wizard and THEN taking their first level of Red Wizard. You can learn all the illusion spells up through level 9 so it's a way of working around the system. It's powerbuilding. I admit I did it, most everyone did.

Look here to learn which spell schools a Red Wizard loses depending upon his specialty.
Look here to see a listing of which spells belong to which spell school.

In order to prevent powerbuilding, and because of RP reasons, the staff made a decision that you must take your first level of the Red Wizard PrC as soon as you meet the prerequisites. Because of the game mechanics you can't do this until level 7. There is no requirement to join the Red Wizard faction though (even though I highly recommend it).

My best guess is that DM's want people to submit some sort of bio before the DM's grant you the feat which allows you to take the class. Many people take the PrC and don't understand anything about the PrC. This misrepresents what the Red Wizards are, and since there is an established Red Wizard faction, this affects other players. (This is my own speculation)