Building a Blood Magus/Archmage, any suggestions?

[zoroastor]

As the title says, any suggestions for doing a Blood Magus/Archmage? I am considering doing, 5 wizard, 5 Master Alchemist, and then 10 each in the other two, using the alchemist to generate gold, and the Blood Magus abilities to make up for the lost spell slots. Looking for a generalist swiss army knife style of wizard.

[Tsidkenu]

Master Alchemist won't generate you much gold. Craft Wand has higher demand and only costs 1 feat (as opposed to 2 for alchemist: brew potion and skill focus craft alchemy). Just ask Maddy Thunderkeg (Player - NeonAvenger).

With Aeili now fully retired there's a significant gap in qualified wand crafters too

As for the build, someone else can answer because I don't dabble in blood magic

[zoroastor]

Ah a fellow aussie! Btw, is there a decent guide to crafting wands? And has crafting been implemented properly yet?

[Tsidkenu]

Crafting magical items has not been (although the framework system is in place already, just disabled).

I had a wand price list a while back but there's only a handful that are particularly in demand:

Improved Mage Armour
Invisibility
See Invisibility/ Blindsight
Mirror Image
Displacement
Improved Invisibility
Least Spell Mantle
Lesser Spell Breach
Greater Resistance
Dimension Door
Isaac's Lesser Missile Storm
Death Ward (Cleric)
Hammer of the Gods (Cleric)
Invisibility Purge (Cleric)
Silence (Cleric/Bard)

There's probably a handful of others but I've been out of the crafting business for several months now that I don't know what's popular anymore besides those.

There are a bunch of nifty high level elixirs that have a niche market, though (like Sending, Mislead, Alarm) which cannot be made into wands. They are very expensive, though. You can see a fairly accurate list (at least of Wizard spells) here. PM me if you'd like price approximations because NeonAvenger sent those to me a while back and I should be able to dig it up again.

[Sun Wukong]

As a Bloodmagus/Archmage you will most likely reach caster level of 35... 36 if you are going to make use of Practised Spellcaster (Wizard) and all of your blood magic abilities simultaneously.

Thus, I would pick two schools of magic with save or die spells. Perhaps Enchantment and Necromancy/Illusion. You know, Dominate Monster to turn the mighty mobs of the server into your own lackeys, and then some spells that just kill things on a failed save.

After all Bloodmagus requries Toughness feat, for Archmage it is Skill Focus Spellcraft and two Spell Focus feats, and Master Alchemist wants Skill Focus Alchemy and Brew Potion. A grand total of 6 feats. You will probably want Spellcasting Prodigy at level 1, and Craft Wand to craft wands on top of the potions. So if you are going non-human/strongheart halfling, you are out of pre-epic feats.

As for epic feats, you could pick epic spells of your choice and Great Intelligence to boost your saves further.

Thus, with the classes you want, you really do not have a space to go beyond being a 'save or die' type of caster. Thus if you do pick Enchantment and Necromancy, at least you have high Will and Fortitude type of spells to sling. You know, if you cannot Dominate someone, you throw a Finger of Death.

[zoroastor]

Well my preference is already for spells like Phantasmal Killer and Weird... That said, I don't like the idea of limiting my choices, hence why a generalist rather than a specialist. I had considered and had experimented with arcane scholar, but was not certain of the results. Am currently rcr'ing and choosing an Imaskari, for spell clutch and the +2 int...

The generalist thing is more based around my RP group of five or six, and I am the guy who tends to always have a tool, so taking a speciality would hurt significantly...

[chad878262]

Being a generalist won't effect your DC's, only how many spells you get per day. Specialists gain one extra spell slot for each level at the expense of losing a school of magic. I have started a Wand crafting guide, but only got through 'C' so far as I've been a bit busy with work, it's a long term WIP...

viewtopic.php?f=149&t=58258

[zoroastor]

Would it maybe be worth dropping Alchemist for five levels of Arcane Scholar? Would that meta-magics be worth it?

[Sun Wukong]

You get Improved Empower Spell, and free Quicken/Maximise Spell feats, thus if you are not going to brew potions, those 5 levels of Arcane Scholar would let you make more out of Evocation spells for example. Or perhaps just cast Empowered Horrid Wilting if one of your spell focuses is Necromancy.

So yeah, Arcane Scholar would give you more mechanical power, and in one way give you more choices to pick favorable spell focuses.

[zoroastor]

How does the blood traveling work btw? the Wiki doesn't give much details about using it as a teleportation spell alternative. Does it cost gold? And can it be done between the surface and the underworld?

[mrm3ntalist]

Would it maybe be worth dropping Alchemist for five levels of Arcane Scholar? Would that meta-magics be worth it?

It depends. If you are building a DC wizard and the majority of your spells are DC based, then there is no need for ASoC. If after planning your spellbook you end up with very few spells with empower/maximize metamagic, then it would make sense to skip ASoC go for another PRC or even 5 more levels of wizard for an extra feat.

Personally I avoid picking ASoC on all my DC builds.

[zoroastor]

In your view, would it be worth it to drop the 5 levels of Alchemist, and focus instead on another 5 levels of wizard, and boosting that?

[chad878262]

In your view, would it be worth it to drop the 5 levels of Alchemist, and focus instead on another 5 levels of wizard, and boosting that?

Yes. Master Alchemist is only good for RP, and even that is limited since the elixirs you can brew are not in high demand (or in any kind of demand). You are absolutely better off with 5 more levels of Wizard and a few extra feats (don't take the MA Pre-reqs). You can still get craft wand and make some RP around wand crafting and scroll scribing in any case. While the stuff MA can do would be sweet, it isn't because no one buys the stuff. We may eventually have some changes go in that make it more of a viable RP tool, but it will never make you more powerful than focusing on Caster classes. W30 is a perfectly viable way to build a DC Caster, if you aren't going 'evil' route it might be the best way, though Nothing wrong with W26/AM4 either.

[zoroastor]

I have to admit, I am massively disappointed by how much potions and scrolls cost to make. It feels quite bad, when making a spell scroll, will always be more expensive than buying the same scroll from an NPC. I almost wish it would be viable for wizards to make scrolls to help them along their way, to let them better prepare for an adventure.

[Glowfire]

I have to admit, I am massively disappointed by how much potions and scrolls cost to make. It feels quite bad, when making a spell scroll, will always be more expensive than buying the same scroll from an NPC. I almost wish it would be viable for wizards to make scrolls to help them along their way, to let them better prepare for an adventure.

You're not alone! It should be made more reasonable but... hasn't.