Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

I am thinking about making this build: Wizard/Red Wizard/Pale Master/Blood Magus

Attributes
STR 8
DEX 14
CON 16
INT 18
WIS 8
CHA 8

Human race

Should I focus on evocation or necromancy? I am leaning towards Necromancy since Divination is useless to my knowledge for this build. Is leaving wisdom and charisma that low going to hurt me? Any and all advice on this build would be greatly appreciated. (Yes, I am aware I need to be approved for Red Wizard)

I'm pretty bad with wizard builds even if I play one... but just so you know, you can now select whichever opposition school you want no matter which one you specialize in.

That opposition will be fun. I'm definitely trying to create a RP personality with my build, but I want to be sure that it's going to be powerful enough when I'm level 20 that I won't have any problems with the later stages of the game.

What Glowfire is trying to say is that your preference towards Necromancy is because 'Divination is useless', in other words you seem to have the impression that Divination must be your opposed school since this is enforced in NWN2 vanilla. BGTSCC has incorporated a feature whereby a 1st level wizard can choose whatever opposing school they like; you are not bound to NWN2 vanilla choices. Meaning you can be an evoker and take divination as your opposed school if you want. Make sure to read my New Player's Guide to Wizardry (in signature below) for other custom changes that impact wizards on this server.

A good split for your build might be W 6/ RW 10/ PM 10/ BM 4. DC necro is probably far more suitable than DC evoker simply due to the fact that high-end mobs on BGTSCC have bloated HP pools that every blaster except warlocks (unlimited spells) will rue at some point. Evoker is workable if you've got someone to tank/DPS for you and you just nuke the dungeon/area end boss to death.

Negative stats will only be an issue in DM events

Thanks for the help guys. I am partially experienced in the wizard build, but I am looking for direct advice on whether or not my idea will work. I more so engage in small group adventuring, so the most effective PvM build is the most sought after. I just want to be sure that when I play as my character past level 20 that I will not feel that I have wasted my time as I had with previous builds. If you feel as if I'll get killed later on, then let me know.

I will now go with necromancy as I feel it will suit my interest as a well rounded party member. I definitely want to blast people but not be completely unprotected on my own. I think I'll be ok, just if anyone knows how to make it great please let me know

If you have any desire to be able to loot dungeons I would recommend at least 10 STR (14 after casting bull's STR).

Blaster Wizards are not all that great due to the high HP mobs and bosses have. DC mages will fare far better. Thus Necromancy is overall a better choice than Evocation.

Since you are considering a Red Wizard, you might try reaching out to the guild, as some of the Wizards there might be able to better help you consider your options as well.

Crockpot wrote:Should I focus on evocation or necromancy? I am leaning towards Necromancy since Divination is useless to my knowledge for this build.

On BGTSCC you can pick which school to prohibit, like in PnP. That means you aren't forced to lose divination and illusion as a red wizard necromancer. Necromancy is the best school either way, as it has the best DC spells. And with a Red Wizard, there's no real reason to do anything but DC spells.

Crockpot wrote:Is leaving wisdom and charisma that low going to hurt me?

Wisdom: Going to reduce your will save a little bit. Hardly a problem for a wizard with high will saves and spells to help. No to mention Mind Blank...
Charisma: Won't have any mechanical effect on you at all.

If you want to RP an unwise and uncharismatic red wizard, though...

Crockpot wrote:Any and all advice on this build would be greatly appreciated. (Yes, I am aware I need to be approved for Red Wizard)

Are you set on blood magus? And Palemaster?

I could suggest Wizard10/RW10/Archmage10 for 38 caster level in necromancy. Should be able to get you a 42 DC Wail of the Banshee.

Wizard6/palemaster10/red wizard10/archmage4
Not sure archmage is really worth it there. 35 CL in necromancy from red wizard already, and you can't get to 38, so... Wizard10/pm10/rw10 is probably better.

Not sure how you'd make blood magus worth taking in there either. Scars are cool, but frankly a bit overrated.

Could also go with 3 levels of Shadow Adept to improve DC's even more... Something like:

W10/RW10/SA4/AM6 could still get to CL38 for Necromancy spells, but gain an extra +2 to Necromancy DC's from Shadow Adept level 3... Still not Blood Magus, but has great Necromancy DC's and as a bonus can have solid Illusion DC's as well! :

EDIT: Note that this requires Shar and the (useless) True Believer Feat...However, it works from an RP standpoint as Shar is one of the larger cults in Thay and worshiped openly. Just remember, this is Shar from the 1e timeline so none of the stuff where she became destroyer of worlds exists or is known yet (even by her followers).

Shadow adept comes with another application too.

And it has extra downsides with reduced CL in other schools. If you're already prohibiting two schools as red wizard, and then making some more schools less useful, you're hacking quite savagely away at your versatility in order to push the necromancy DCs very high.

Deathgrowl wrote:Shadow adept comes with another application too.

And it has extra downsides with reduced CL in other schools. If you're already prohibiting two schools as red wizard, and then making some more schools less useful, you're hacking quite savagely away at your versatility in order to push the necromancy DCs very high.

Yes, this sort of only works if Evocation and Transmutation are prohibited schools since they will have reduced effectiveness anyway. Or at least if Evocation is prohibited and Transmutation only used for buffing. That said, but having Necromancy and Illusion as your Spell Focuses you can get sick DC's. If something is immune to Death Magic you throw down Weird! If immune to illusions as well you have Undeath to Death or clouds/conjuration spells. It has a lot of One Shot potential, and for the most part any weaknesses aren't worse than what other specialist wizards suffer, but the sky high DC's make your spells very likely to succeed at a near 95% rate in most PvE.

If you go blood magus , it is an 8/10 caster level progression. Just a heads up.

Also, 8 str feels good to have at first, but even if you are running around with extended bulls... 12 str isn't enough for actually walking away with loot after a run. Starting at 10 or even 12 you will be at ease with the amount you can carry.

where does it say in the forum that BM is 8/10 progression? it looks to me like its 9/10 and level 5 is the skip.
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=49035

Description needs update.

besides the 5th then what level of BM gets the skip?

Deathgrowl wrote:

Crockpot wrote:Should I focus on evocation or necromancy? I am leaning towards Necromancy since Divination is useless to my knowledge for this build.

On BGTSCC you can pick which school to prohibit, like in PnP. That means you aren't forced to lose divination and illusion as a red wizard necromancer. Necromancy is the best school either way, as it has the best DC spells. And with a Red Wizard, there's no real reason to do anything but DC spells.

Crockpot wrote:Is leaving wisdom and charisma that low going to hurt me?

Wisdom: Going to reduce your will save a little bit. Hardly a problem for a wizard with high will saves and spells to help. No to mention Mind Blank...
Charisma: Won't have any mechanical effect on you at all.

If you want to RP an unwise and uncharismatic red wizard, though...

Crockpot wrote:Any and all advice on this build would be greatly appreciated. (Yes, I am aware I need to be approved for Red Wizard)

Are you set on blood magus? And Palemaster?

I could suggest Wizard10/RW10/Archmage10 for 38 caster level in necromancy. Should be able to get you a 42 DC Wail of the Banshee.

Wizard6/palemaster10/red wizard10/archmage4
Not sure archmage is really worth it there. 35 CL in necromancy from red wizard already, and you can't get to 38, so... Wizard10/pm10/rw10 is probably better.

Not sure how you'd make blood magus worth taking in there either. Scars are cool, but frankly a bit overrated.

I believe your archmage idea is the best. I am more into being able to trash monsters late in the game. 10 wizard 10 rw 10 am sounds like the best build for me. If I'm wrong please let me know!