Shining Hand Wizard

[clean_slate]

Hello lovely people. I was reading about Monastic orders of FR and I came upon Shining Hand order, which allows Monks/Wizards. So I started creating a concept build with this split in mind :

Wizard 26/Monk 4, Sun Elf. He would be a DC focused wizard. I know that there are better options out there, but this seems nice from a RP but also from a mechanical perspective. Monk gives some better saves, movement speed, Evasion and Tumble. Monk Wisdom AC (Owl's Wisdom spell for +2 AC). Also flurry of blows for some Staff fun.

I would try to take advantage from extra Wizard feats in order to pump up AC (CE,ICE) and DCs. Maybe even some extra spell slots.

What do you think? I don't have experience with Wizards so any advice is appreciated.

[Tsidkenu]

Do take a moment to acquaint yourself with the custom changes & improvements to the wizard class on BGTSCC using the guide in my signature below.

26/4 is a good split, though. You can't go wrong with that.

[Nemni]

Most wizards go for rogue instead as that gives even more skills, opens up some PrCs and gives uncanny dodge too. Or they go for shadowdancer. But monk could also work well, even if it's not as good. Speed is actually quite useful for putting yourself in the right place at the right time, which is pretty important for a wizard. And you could use your flurry of blows in polymorph/shapechange forms, especially once new ones are added that might fit your char better.

RP wise you could be somewhat rare if you put many points into wisdom, as it's usually a dump stat for wizards.

[Deathgrowl]

Monk3/wizard7/ek10/asoc10. Gets you 30 CL, won't be a DC caster, but you'll be able to swing that quarterstaff around! And then you have spells with a lot of metamagic to play with!

Monk of the Shining Hand is a concept that doesn't work very well in nwn2, I'm afraid. I had ideas regarding it myself once, but PnP lends itself much more to lower CL casters.

You could try monk3/wizard23/archmage4 as a DC build. That should make it possible for you to get 32 CL, 34 base intelligence and epic spell focus in one school. That means 32+spell level DC in one school. 41 DC wail of the banshee, for instance, if you choose necromancy.

[Babuguuscooties]

On that note, would abjuration be any good to specialize in? As a monk of the shining hand im sure almost any is doable. After-all, Azuth is LN (I think). However, necromancy is outlawed I think? Just curious if Abjuration is even worth specializing in, really.

[Tsidkenu]

There are some neat protective abjurations these days like Hilater's [Greater] Misdirection that really do give your character an edge in combat. Offensively there is very little besides Dismissal/Banishment, but with the number of planar beings wandering the wilderness these days you'll get plenty of opportunity to use them.

Also don't forget you can pick whatever prohibited school you want. It does not have to be Necromancy (although that is my preferred choice if I'm not actually playing a necromancer!).

I wanted to develop a new line of offensive abjurations called Splinter Spell (+Lesser, Greater) which would deal damage to a character based on dispelling the most powerful buffs they had but Aeili ran out of time on the server

[Babuguuscooties]

There are some neat protective abjurations these days like Hilater's [Greater] Misdirection that really do give your character an edge in combat. Offensively there is very little besides Dismissal/Banishment, but with the number of planar beings wandering the wilderness these days you'll get plenty of opportunity to use them.

Also don't forget you can pick whatever prohibited school you want. It does not have to be Necromancy (although that is my preferred choice if I'm not actually playing a necromancer!).

I wanted to develop a new line of offensive abjurations called Splinter Spell (+Lesser, Greater) which would deal damage to a character based on the number of active buffs they had but Aeili ran out of time on the server

Oh man that would'be been pretty sweet tbh. So its possible for high level mages to create spells (with DM supervision and all that jazz)???

I just want to see all of the schools of magic be worthwhile. I think its great how divination has some good new stuff, for instance.

[Tsidkenu]

Of course they can. We've had several custom spells added to the server which were invented by mage players. Rorick's Rune of Light & Aeili's Astrological Augment are the two I know of!

If you'd like more information about my idea and you'd like to run with it, I can send it via PM.

[Valefort]

There's also Deez's shadow barrier.

[Babuguuscooties]

Oh I didn't even realize lol. That's so cool.