« Reply #3 on: November 21, 2008, 06:36:13 PM » |
[/size]Builds and general build guidelines
[/color]- First, know what level at which the game will occur. We like 1-20 builds here but rarely games go that far. Your optimization window in reality is smaller and you need to be aware of that.
- Second, I've got some of the more referential builds outlined below ... but at the bottom I have a section on other combos and fillers. You won't have many levels to play with but the few you do have should be planned for accordingly.
[/size]All Levels (1-20)
You're pretty well in for some really, really rough times ahead.
The simple fact is, Warmages do well enough if you can plan for a specific level block but poorly if you try to do too much.
Don't do this. If you are going to do this, really think long and hard about your attribute selection, etc. You might have to deal with some poor performance early before you get to the point in which your choices make sense.
[/size]Low Level (under 5-6)
If you know the game will be low-ish levels, you're in a pretty good spot. You are a glass cannon, play like it. You don't have much choice but to play like the picture at the top post. Sorry.
You will want your CHA to be somewhere near ... hmm ... 12-14. That's it. Put a safe bit in DEX and CON and the rest into INT. If you know the game won't get past 4th, cap your CHA at 12. If you know you can get an item, cap your CHA at 12. In low level games, damage is goodness. For a warmage, a cantrip can do decent, reliable damage what with Warmage's edge. Use your crossbow, use your cantrips and play like an archer with limited arrows. That's the best you can do.
[/color]- RACE: Something with an INT bonus. You're all about the cantrip that does X+6 points of damage.
- DEX, CON around 14-16 and CHA of 12 is a good baseline ... the rest into INT
You might consider a multi-class dip into Scout or Rogue or Spellthief for the extra damage boost. I'd not suggest this for a game reaching higher levels, but for lower levels you need all the help you can get and being a glass cannon isn't horrible. As the game progresses towards 5-6 you're going to start to lag behind the warlock, and that is lame.
Incidentially and I'm sure no one really cares but the GenCon Delve (where you take low-level characters through a mix of challenges, etc.) was for a while completely dominated by Warmages (whole parties of them). At these levels there aren't huge amounts of resistances, special defenses, etc. It's all about laying out the damage and if you can do it at range, all the better. I'm still surprised the Warlocks and DFAs didn't do as well, but I suspect the Warmage players simply realized their own specialized niche and didn't try to venture out of it while the others tried to be too creative. I think one all Warmage party finished it in like 13 minutes.
[/size]Mid Level (6-15 or so)
This is the really a strange decision spot for Warmages, but you do have a few options that can peak in this range. The truth is, Warmage is a 5 or 6 level class. From then on out you're going to primarily stick to PrCs to advance your casting with a set of more useful abilities. And you're pretty much only picking things that really help expand your spell list.
WIS can be low because you're PrCing mostly high-Will classes. INT should only be high enough for the skills you need to qualify; if you're saving it high for Warmage's Edge you've fallen into an Ackbar. DEX and CON are always good. If you started at 1st you're going to have to fight that desire to pump INT high for that Warmage's Edge. DO NOT DO THIS.
[/color]- RACE: Something with an CHA bonus. Pretend Warmage Edge does not exist.
- DEX, CON around 14-16 and enough INT to qualify for PrCs (12?) is a good baseline ... the rest into CHA
There are three basic builds I'd recommend for people wanting to play a Warmage through this set of levels.
[/size]Warbards[/b]
Yeah, seriously. Bards. Prestige Bard, specifically. Before you head down this path, ask your DM for a ruling on the section entitled "Unique Spells". You should gain access to the spells that are ONLY Bard spells at a minimum. If you get more than that, gravy.
[/color][/color]- NOTE: You need to snag perform as a class skill somehow; thankfully there are a number of ways to do that via a feat (apprentice from DMG II is quite popular).
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http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/prestigiousCharacterClasses.htm[/b]
Build here is this:
Quote Warmage 1 armored mage (light) Warmage 2 Warmage 3 eclectic learning - silent portal (0 to 1st) - illusion Warmage 4 Warmage 5 Warmage 6 eclectic learning - touch of idiocy (enchantment) Prestige Bard 1 bardic music, inspire courage, bardic knowledge You'll need to take Melodic Casting as a feat. You lose a caster level, but you just gained bardic music and bard spells. That's a heck of a lot of options. From here you can do things like pick up Extra Music, then head to Lyric Thaumaturge if you want to throw around some extra damage on your sonic spells. You can use Bardic Music to power metamagic. Born of Three Thunders is also thematic (just make sure you've got an option for ignoring the dazed condition ... Mark of the Dauntless, something).
I don't recommend staying Prestige Bard past 2nd because you lose one caster level at 1st and another at 3rd for marginal gain. Lyric Thaumaturge, Virtuoso are better choices.
Lyric Thaumaturge has some very specific benefits to it that bear mentioning:
- It advances bardic music - something you can use to do metamagic, etc.
- Melodic Casting (required feat) lets you use perform instead of concentration (it's CHA based)
- It sets up a natural Born of Three Thunders / anti-dazing cycle
- Lyric Thaumaturge lets you add to your spells known AND spell slots
[/list] So that becomes:
Quote
Noticed a problem with the build; re-checking some pre-reqs
But other classes can do that!
- Yeah, but they can do other things. This is something a Beguiler or Dread Necro *may* consider, but you're in a better spot. Beguilers want to maximize their INT synergy (perform is CHA based) and Dread Necros don't really synergize as well with bards as their undead don't handle morale bonuses so much.
- The classes that don't know their entire list can do this too, but only Sorcerer is a real consideration. They'd still have to learn the Bard spells though, so you get way more out of it.
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Born of Three Thunders + Celerity + Immune to Daze makes for a powerful combo if you can squeeze it in (may need flaws to do this though).
Lyric Thaumaturge adds 6 spells and some additional slots on top of the bard spells you've acquired.
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[/size]Sandmages[/b]
Sand Shaper, from Sandstorm. It takes one feat to enter, expands your spell list pretty significantly and gives you some free metamagic options. You also get some funky healing and regeneration capabilities and the dust shapes you can make let you perform some utility functions (scouting, guarding, flanking, etc). Lose two caster levels, and that's pretty harsh but free raise dead, regenerate, metamagic and an expanded spell list is mighty handy.
[/color][/color]- NOTE: One feat to get in, two skills. You'll want an INT of 12 or be human w/ 10 at a minimum to get in.
[/list] The build order on this is simply Warmage 5 / Sandshaper 10 with a possible dip back to pick up the 6th level of Warmage at some point to cherry-pick a higher level advanced or eclectic learning option. In general you take either 1 or 10 levels of Sand Shaper.
A full build looks like this
Quote 1 Warmage 1 armored mage (light), warmage edge Touchstone (city of the dead) 2 Warmage 2 3 Warmage 3 eclectic learning - 0 4 Warmage 4 5 Warmage 5 6 Sand Shaper 1 desert insight, dust magic, sand shape 7 Sand Shaper 2 sandform 8 Sand Shaper 3 sand stride 9 Sand Shaper 4 inmproved sand shape 10 Sand Shaper 5 improved dust magic 3/day 11 Sand Shaper 6 12 Sand Shaper 7 desert slumber, improved dust magic 4/day 13 Sand Shaper 8 14 Sand Shaper 9 greater dust magic 5/day 15 Sand Shaper 10 desert shroud
Lots of options on feats. Reserve, familiar, whatever. This might be a good progression to work in a series of Draconic feats, etc. You also have all the Summon Desert Ally chain, so perhaps the elemental reserve feat. Practiced Spellcaster?
Since you are two caster levels down, you're not advised to lose any more progression if you're headed for epic.
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[/size]Warmage of the Arcane Military Order[/b]
Requires Arcane Preparation in addition to Cooperative spell, but this is a fairly mundane and common way of expanding your options. I personally don't like it because it only gives you a limited amount at a time ... but for what it is worth you can cherry pick what you want.
The build order here is Warmage 5 / Mage of the Arcane Order 4 or 7 (depending on how high the game goes)
At 4th you can "borrow" up to 6th level spells, and that should be plenty for a while. If the game is going to go higher, you might consider MotAO 7 to be able to snag 7-9th levels. You get some free metamagic out of the deal and you've already got arcane preparation so you can do a bit of pre-work and planning.
Again, the main advantage is you can pretty much cast any Wiz/Sorc spell you need. The disadvantage is that it takes time (a full round to retrieve, and then you can cast it the next round) and you're limited in how many you can snag a day. In my experience that kind of down time in the midst of combat is trouble ... but you are quite powerful outside of combat. One limitation many folks forget is that the spellpool only contains spells from the PHB (this is specific to the rules in Complete Arcane). Sure, that's still Polymorph, whatever ... but it isn't quite as open ended as you'd think.
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- NOTE: Since you have Arcane Preparation and haven't lost a spellcasting level yet, you might consider Wyrm Wizard as a finisher. Expand your spell list, get some free metamagic, all good.
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Check out what a real Warmage looks like[/size]High Level (16+) ... Rainbow WarsnakeEvery character that starts as a warmage that is planning to go 16th level or higher should be a Rainbow Servant. This will get you access to all Cleric spells ... not just PHB spells (like Mage of the Arcane Order does for Wiz/Sorc) ... but ALL cleric spells. If they aren't on the Wiz/Sorc or Bard list, you also cast them as DIVINE SPELLS. Nifty. You're a single-classed dual caster. Awesome.
The versatility of this is pretty key ... you can, at a moment's notice, cast any spell on your Warmage list, any spell from the Air, Law or Good domain or any Cleric spell. With no preparation. From any book.
The build for this is Warmage 6 / Rainbow Servant 10
It's that simple.
What to do after that ... that's the trick. Well, not much of a trick. Your next level is Sacred Exorcist. Your 18th level feat is Divine Metamagic and somewhere along the way you took either Quicken Spell or Extend / Persist. Because those cleric spells that are not Bard or Wiz/Sorc spells are DIVINE spells, and Divine Metamagic will work for them. Divine Power, Visage of the Deity, whatever. By the way, you have to be good to be Sacred Exorcist so your Rainbow Warsnake is either LG or NG. Them's the breaks.
At this point you have 3 levels to play with. Check the combos section. Here's a sample
Quote
1 Warmage 1 armored mage (light), warmage edge Feat what gets you K(religion) as a skill (educated, whatever)
2 Warmage 2
3 Warmage 3 eclectic learning - 0 Skill Focus (knowledge religion)
4 Warmage 4
5 Warmage 5
6 Divine Oracle 1 Oracle Domain OPEN FEAT
7 Rainbow Servant 1
8 Rainbow Servant 2
9 Rainbow Servant 3 OPEN FEAT
10 Rainbow Servant 4
11 Rainbow Servant 5
12 Rainbow Servant 6 OPEN FEAT
13 Rainbow Servant 7
14 Rainbow Servant 8
15 Rainbow Servant 9 Quicken Spell
16 Rainbow Servant 10
17 Sacred Exorcist 1 Turn undead
18 Divine Oracle 2 prescient sense DMM Quicken
19 Contemplative 1 domain of your choice
20 Contemplative 2 or Seeker of the Misty Isle 1
PS: I'd consider dropping Air for Air Devotion - it's a good feat.
Rainbow Servant ... 10/10 or 6/10 casting?Note this hinges on the Rainbow Servant being 10/10 (which the FAQ and Sage begrudgingly think is correct by the rules, but against RAI). If your DM hits this with the nerf bat, you've got some issues. HOWEVER, still consider this if the class is 6/10 under the following conditions:
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- Your group is somewhat unoptimized and being a spell level down won't kill you. It's one thing to be optimized, another to outshine everyone and at 16th level being able to snag whatever cleric spell you want at any time has the potential to be un-fun for others in the party.
- If you're epic but starting higher than 20 ... you can make up the lost spell levels, etc. easily enough
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Prior to the FAQ and other updates, the Rainbow Servant deal was a hotly debated item. Until then, if you played a Warmage and you wanted to not completely suck you played a Sand Shaper, MotAO or Prestige Bard. People still laughed at you.
[/td][/tr][tr][td][/size]« Last Edit: December 20, 2008, 01:26:16 PM by ChristopherGroves »[/t][/color][/td][/tr][/table][/td][/tr][/table][/td][/tr][/table]