Suggestions for Gnomish Ro/Wiz/AT/AS

[mrieder79]

The concept for this toon is a party buffer/trap handler who can do some DPS in a pinch or to help out during a boss fight.

I am set on arcane trickster, wizard, and rogue. Arcane scholar is such a good PRC that I took it as well, though I would be open to others if they present superior abilities--not blood mage, for RP reasons, though.

I do not want to make a hipster as it won't work well with gnome.

Has to be a gnome, for RP reasons.

I'm pretty much set on rogue3/wiz7/AT10/AS10. There are a LOT of feat slots that are unfilled and since it's been forever since I played an arcane caster, I thought I'd ask for suggestions on good feats to take.

Practiced spellcaster, spellcasting prodigy, requisite PrC requirements, and extend spell are the ones I have so far. I was thinking about taking CE and ICE since the +6 AC is a very nice boost. Any other suggestions are most welcome.

What about toughness and steadfast determination? I'll be able to get decent saves with buffs, so this seems like it would be a nice bonus. The extra HP are always welcome, too.

Here's the build so far...

http://nwn2db.com/build/?233037

[chad878262]

Invisible needle? Good combo might be blindness, invisible needle, especially when in company to keep the baddies off you... When in doubt there's always spell penetration or focus...

[mrieder79]

Oooh! Yeah. Forgot about the reserve feat for sneak attack goodness! Okay. I'm putting that in there. Thanks for the reminder.

[sir_blacksoutalot]

Having been running a similar build awhile now, here's are a couple neophyte recommendation on feat selection. As an arcane trickster - and setting utility spells aside for purposes of this discussion - your DPS is all about using ranged touch attacks. I took Empower Spell and Maximize Spell so that that I could load up lots of RTA spells (like Ice Darts) across multiple levels. If you're going ASoC then I think you'll also want to grab Quicken Spell because that class really boosts the power of all three of those meta magic feats, especially for powering up low-level orb spells.

I also took Improved Critical RTA, but I honestly can't confirm how much it's actually activating.

I went the HiPS route with more rogue levels; no regrets, but it does reduce CL for things like AoE spells. You should end up with a CL 27 and even higher if you take Practiced Spellcaster like you propose.
One question is that if you want to be a trap handler, can you really get a high enough skill score with only 13 rogue levels? Just something to consider.

And I hardly consider myself an expert, plenty of others to chime in here I'm sure. I will say it's been very fun to play a rogue/arcanist so hope you enjoy it as well.

[chad878262]

Just a few things based on the previous post...

1. with able learner he can be perfectly fine with traps and locks, even with limited rogue levels.

2. ASoC gets maximize, quicken and the improved versions for free, class requires empower so his build well have all of three meta magic feats.

3. While more rogue levels are all well and good the only real benefit would be rogue 10 to gain epic precision. However max caster level with PSC is 24 which will be an issue with the dispel fix, especially with no hips...

4. HiPS is, of course the way to go speaking strictly of power building. However, this idea is going to give Matt 31 caster levels (psc) so he is essentially a full caster with Roguish abilities and 5d6 SA dice added for basically no cost (limited cost). This certainly should not be a difficult character to level with.

[mrm3ntalist]

With PSC you should take an extra level of rogue Rogue4/wizard6 for the extra skills and no other loss.

This is a build that i would try automatic quicken 1 - 2 but i dont know how efficient that would be without hips.

Other than that, you should stay away from any DC spell ( maybe an enervation - save or die combo at most ) and focus only on rays, orbs and darts.

[TeoDeathDealer]

Want to boost your power or RTA spells? Replace ASoC with with Daggerspell Mage. Biggest damage from a mage I've ever seen has come from a R/W/AT/DSM. Not sure of the exact build, but it rocked.