Advice from Expert Arcanists sought: my first blaster build

[Rudolph]

I'm a noob regarding non-buffing magic (regarding playstyle, too) and thought playing a blaster might be a good way to learn. Based purely on my wiki knowledge of the classes and what I read here and there regarding what to look out for, I eventually cobbled together the following, going for the absolute maximum in CL and DC:
http://nwn2db.com/build/?283424
What do you experts think? I have one flexible pre-epic feat, for which I have picked Combat Expertise. Should I take a metamagic feat instead? Which? And which High Arcana feat should I take at AM 6? Is it possible to take a regular Metamagic feat instead of a High Arcana one? Furthermore, can I afford to replace 2 Epic CHAs with different feats?

Any feedback would be much appreciated.

[chad878262]

This is a really bad idea... Sorcerer, Wizard and Warlock do not stack your CL, you don't get the benefits of all 3 for a CL30 character. You are effectively a level 8 Warlock (so your blasts don't do much damage at all), a level 6 Wizard (level 3 spells) and a level 16 Sorc (level 8 spells).

Hopefully you can see the issue with this. If you are going to be a blaster you either need to be a full warlock (or hellfire warlock), or a full Sorcerer (wizard also works, but less so).

Recommend you research our Wiki classes and get an understanding of the various classes you might pick up. Something like Sorc 7/AS10/DD10/BG3. CL will be 28, but you'll get Divine Shield to add to defense and be able to wear heavy armor. An armored blaster is a very difficult opponent and Divine Shield is fantastic with a high CHA Sorc blaster. Blackguard can be substituted for Cleric if you don't want to be evil or want to save on feats, but BG Dark Blessing (CHA to saves) is really nice too.

Another option is Bard dip with StormSinger, which allows you to progress your Sorc caster level. Here is a build I put together based on a request a year or 2 ago...
http://nwn2db.com/build/?236664

[Rudolph]

This is a really bad idea... Sorcerer, Wizard and Warlock do not stack your CL, you don't get the benefits of all 3 for a CL30 character.

Thanks for answering, Chad. Much appreciated. Though I think you missed something: I'm a noob, but not that much of a noob. See below what I wrote in the Info section of the build. Also take a look at my CL calculation.

Wizard stands for Blood Magus.

Arcane Scholar stands for Dragon Disciple.

Warlock stands for Archmage.

Final abiltiy stats (with DD boosts):
STR 10 buffed 14
DEX 16 20
CON 14 18
WIS 8 12
CHA 34 38

[chad878262]

Ah, that's better... blood magus is better for a dc caster while arcane scholar is better for a blaster...archmage is good for mastery of shaping and mastery of energy. I will take a longer look later, but improved meta magic is really nice.

Anther great choice for blaster is frost mage, but unfortunately piercing cold didn't work with mastery of energy.

[aaron22]

i am not a huge fan of archmage CL power ups on a blaster build. sacrificing spells for a CL is not as beneficial. id go with things that give more spell slots or make the ones you have better.. like what AS does. freebee CLs from BM are good. getting one CL there for nothing really.

right now im working on a blaster concept that utilizes the trans feats to empower shapechange when i run out of blasting spells or if i want to save them for bosses and tough rooms. its a sorc7/bm3/dd10/as10 build.

[aaron22]

might disregard above post... i am not an expert archanist.

[chad878262]

i am not a huge fan of archmage CL power ups on a blaster build. sacrificing spells for a CL is not as beneficial. id go with things that give more spell slots or make the ones you have better.. like what AS does. freebee CLs from BM are good. getting one CL there for nothing really.

right now im working on a blaster concept that utilizes the trans feats to empower shapechange when i run out of blasting spells or if i want to save them for bosses and tough rooms. its a sorc7/bm3/dd10/as10 build.

The primary benefit of AM for a blaster is:

High Arcana: Mastery of Shaping
Specifics: At the cost of one 6th level spell you gain the ability to shape your spells in such a manner that they only harm hostile creatures. Your understanding of magic has deepend to the point where you can use this ability at will. If no sacrificed spell slot is available the ability cannot be used. Spell slots are sacrificed the first time the feat is used after resting and must contain a memorized spell.

Note that this will not work on all AoE spells! Cloud spells will still melt your friends' faces off, mass enchantments will still stop them in their tracks and while this feat is activated, wards cast on others will do nothing and be lost.

Use: On / Off

High Arcana: Mastery of the Elements
Requirement : Archmage level 8

Specifics: At the cost of one 8th level spell you gain the ability convert spells from one element into another. This ability can be used at will. If no sacrficed spell slot is available the ability cannot be used. Spell slots are sacrificed the first time the feat is used after resting and must contain a memorized spell. Note that this won't enable a Frostmage to use their piercing cold ability on spells that aren't cold-based to begin with.

Use: On / Off

Which essentially means you can shape your fireball around your friends (but not your Acid Cloud) and/or you can turn your Fireball in to an Iceball. While it does cost a 6th and 8th level slot, it offers a lot of utility which a blaster Sorc really needs. My personal opinion is any blaster (which is weak on BGtSCC anyway due to increased HP of mobs) needs either Archmage or Frostmage.

Note that going AM10 and taking Arcane Fire is also really nice. All your cantrips can now do 10d8 magic damage. Even though it costs a 9th level spell it allows your Sorc to still take a few "RP" spells which can be converted to single target magic damage spells when you know you won't need the RP spells.

If building a blaster (I wouldn't) I would either go Sor7/BG(or cleric)3/AM10/AS10 or Sor7/BG(or cle)3/FM10/AS10. If I didn't care about being an armored blaster (which note this is tough because you become more reliant on buff spells, which means less blasting spells!) I would go with S5/AS5/DD10/FM10. This doesn't work with Archmage because you'd need at least 6 levels of Sorc so you would kind of need to pick what else you take. I would love to get Arcane Scholar 7, but you need to get to Sorc5 before you can qualify to level in Frost Mage and both DD and FM benefit from full 10 levels. However, since Blasters are not really going to have amazing DCs you don't necessarily need the Dragon Apotheosis. Thus you could chose to forego the stat increases at 10 and go S5/AS7/DD8/FM10 to improve your metamagic. I do not feel Archmage mixes well with Dragon Disciple because a blaster Archmage needs at LEAST 8 levels, preferably 10 so you would basically need to drop Arcane Scholar. You could do it, but it'd be less than ideal.

[Sun Wukong]

Dragon Disciple has alignment restrictions. And people please, use DraD for Dragon Disciple, DD stands for Dwarven Defender.

Anyhow...

[list] [*]Black Dragon: Chaotic Evil ... vil[/list]

Then I would remind that Sshamath is a city of specialist wizards and not of some 'second rate sorcerers.' But that said, your build should be fine, although I feel that evocation is a wasted spell focus. You would get more out of Conjuration for better summons, Illusions for alternative save or die spells, or Transmutation to unlock Augment Form to be used with Polymorph Self and Shapechange. I would drop Combat Expertise for Augment Form, and Shapechange into a Red/Black Dragon. (Presuming Chaotic Evil Alignment)

As for caster level calculations, you got it slightly wrong:
CL:
+ 6 (Sorcerer 6)
+ 5 (Blood Magus 6)
+ 7 (Dragon Disciple 10)
+ 8 (Archmage)
+ 4 (Practised Spell Caster feat)
+ 1 (Blood Component)
+ 2 (Blood Seeking Spell)
+ 3 (Archmage Spell Power III)
= 36 (+5 Epic Caster DC bonus)

Yet a part of me would actually consider going for an 'inferior build' that would go something like this:
Wizard 3/Sorcerer 8/Dragon Disciple 10/Blood Magus 9
CL:
+ 8 (Sorcerer 8)
+ 7 (Dragon Disciple 10)
+ 8 (Blood Magus 9)
+ 4 (Practised Spell Caster feat)
+ 1 (Blood Component)
+ 2 (Blood Seeking Spell)
= 30 (+3 Epic Caster DC bonus)

With the exact same base stats, it would get +2 to Constitution from Blood Magus Infusion. You would have more feats to spare as you no longer have to meet Archmage requirements, and more spells slots as Archmage no longer eats away at your number of spells per day. Additionally, you could simply join one of the schools of magic and not have to pretend to be a 'wizard' like some 'members' do. And you get to do 10d10 damage every 5 mintues.

[MrPsion]

Not much content in here about spell selection. Ice darts (2) and (greater) missile storm spells are great. Ideally you will have a mix of auto hit, ranged touch attack and reflex save based spells so that yoi can be effective in a variety of situations. You want 10 levels of ASoC for improved metamagic feats.

[chad878262]

as far as spell selection, especially with 10 levels of ASOC, as suggested (though 7 is also ok). Taking auto-quicken 0-1 is worth a feat IMO for the following reason:

Auto-Quicken - Grease followed by your choice of cloud spell (Wall of Fire, Acid Cloud, Cloudkill, Incendiary Cloud).

Or Auto-Quicken - Grease followed by Bigby6, 7 or 9

IGMS is obviously very good in PvP. In PvE it is less impressive. Finding choke points, gathering large groups of enemies and then using a mix of cloud spells and ways to keep the entire group in the cloud will be the best use of your spells. Unless you want to waste a feat on a reserve feat and plink away at mobs for ~31.5 damage per round, which I would not recommend.

Basically you want to disable enemies and then use clouds and blasting spells to destroy them. A well built blaster is very good against most players in PvP, but in PvE it's a bit slow and boring to play. Using summons, polymorph/shapechange and/or cloud spells will allow you to avoid running out of spells too quickly and needing rest. For example Chaos and his buddies are in big trouble after a quickened grease followed by acid cloud and undeath to death.

[Rudolph]

As for caster level calculations, you got it slightly wrong

Yes, I thought BM 6 loses two CL-granting levels, but it's only one, yay.

One big take-away from all your very instructive comments is that CL does not seem as important as I thought. I aimed for a blaster that could damage anything in PvE and thought CL and DC were crucial for that - even more so than metamagic and perhaps Arcane Scholar feats.

As is, my build (Sorc 6 / BM 6 / Drag D 10 / AM 8) does not include Arcane Scholar and its perks and has only one free High Arcana feat in between Spellpower I-III - for either Master of Shaping or Elements. I'm still not sure whether it's a good idea. I did get attracted by the new Dragon Disciple class and my hope was that I didn't have to rely on Shapeshifting, for which there are probably better builds and whose subtleties I don't know very well either.

Ah well, I'll ponder and take your feedback - and anyone's who still has some to give - into advisement. Thanks very much, you all!

[chad878262]

The thing is, blasters are more about damage than DC. Caster Level IS still important for some blast spells. For example, Flame Arrow continues to improve with CL above 20 and many direct damage spells have been improved on BGtSCC. Recommend you take a look through this thread: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=16494

Meteor Swarm (for example) does 40d6 damage, but does not check Caster Level to determine this. However, Burst of Glacial Wrath is 1d6/Caster level with a cap of 30d6, so there is no benefit in going beyond CL30. While a DC mage gains +1 DC at 32, 35 and 38 a blaster is not gaining extra damage in the vast majority of cases.

Another issue for a blaster is while many spells come from evocation, some very good ones also come from Conjuration, Transmutation and other schools. Thus you can't realistically get fantastic DC's in any of them. Thus, focusing on DC's is not your most efficient method to enhancing your power. Instead, focusing on metamagics. For example, if you cast a fireball at 15d6 damage, the average is 52.5 damage. Empowered that increases to ~79 average damage and maximized it is 90. Arcane Scholar allows Empowered to only increase spell level 1 and Maximized by 2. In many cases maximized spells will outperform spells of 2 higher levels. IGMS for example, maximized is a level 8 spell and does 144 damage to a single target or 132 damage to 2 targets (max of 12 out of 22 missiles can strike a single target. The best damage spell for level 8 is polar ray, which caps at 30d6 damage (~105 average). Thus, your Maximized IGMS is better and, since there is no saving throw, your DC is unimportant.

This is why PRC's Archmage, Frost Mage, and Arcane Scholar are the best fits for a blaster. Frost Mage gives piercing cold, so if you focus on cold spells very few enemies can avoid damage from them. Archmage I explained earlier, but spell power is not why you take AM as a Blaster. Mastery of Shaping, Mastery of Energy and Arcane Fire are the 3 best Archmage abilities for blaster caster. Arcane Scholar is arguably the most important of the 3, because now your Maximized IGMS is a level 8 spell instead of a level 9 spell. Another great spell to maximize is Greater Fireburst (level 5 spell). This spell caps at 21d8 so maximized it does 168 damage in a decent sized radius around the caster. Empowered and Greater Firebursts are wonderful spells to use when grinding... round up as many mobs as you can and then level them all quickly. So long as you have displacement and mirror images up you'll be fine.

Which brings me to one more bit of advice.. Don't get overzealous on the buffs. You do not need 12+ spells to become immune to what most of the server can throw at you. Mostly you take your buff spells at lower levels and save your higher level slots for real damage spells. ShadowShield is a great spell and all...But if you have super high saving throws and/or spell resistance do you need immunity to death magic? Something to consider, the answer could be yes or no depending on the rest of your spells, your race and equipment. Sorcerer requires careful selection of spells. If you take too many buffs you may find you have more than you need, while you are wishing for more blasting spells to keep you going longer between rests.

[Deathgrowl]

I personally like sorcerer/asoc/archmage/paladin (or blackguard). Archmage is there just to get elemental mastery. Paladin/blackguard gets you armour proficiency and charisma to saves (and potentially divine shield!).

[niapet]

not sure about NWN2 but aren't sorcerers all about meta-magic feats? They can use them on the fly.


I agree to focus on the damage. Let the Wizards handle the high DC control spells while you blast everything to ash!

And on the point mentioned about conjuration ... yeah Conjuration >> Evocation

[MrPsion]

I'm going to disagree with Chad and say that reserve feats are definitely worth it. Want to solo as a d4? This is what you need, plus some good wards. I've even been getting compliments from multiple PCs about how I have so much magic and how I'm so powerful because I am doing much more consistent damage across encounters vs that mage in the back with his crossbow saving his spells for the right moment. (e: At early levels I found that a staff of magic missle was a fantastic thing to have, they're about 3k gp at the spell shop in BG. Still low damage but you definitely will hit.) Improved Evasion will bypass your reserve feat damage unless I think you get the force based power that does less damage so keep that in mind.

I personally like sorcerer/asoc/archmage/paladin

I'm going for a similar build, just Gold Dragon Disciple instead of Archmage. I've been trying to figure out lately which is better: wearing full plate with auto still spell series and divine shield for highest AC (5 feats required) or just using the Paladin's extra BAB and saving throws to your advantage while you focus on auto quicken and epic spell feats instead