Author Topic: Pyromancer build  (Read 16598 times)

Offline Chemus

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Re: Pyromancer build
« Reply #20 on: May 08, 2015, 09:48:28 PM »
Silver Pyromancer is found in Five Nations, page 150.  It's annoying to get into though:

Lawful Good
Knowledge (religion) 4 ranks
3rd level arcane spells
Turn Undead
Sacred Exorcist (CDiv) gets wizards in by 10th level sorc's by 11th, and you lose no levels to a divine casting class.
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Offline Jackinthegreen

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Re: Pyromancer build
« Reply #21 on: May 09, 2015, 01:01:22 AM »
Wizards can easily get into Sacred Exorcist, but sorcerers have an issue due to the Knowledge: Planes and Knowledge: Religion ranks needed.  The only way for sorcs to get in at a good level is using the Domain Access ACF in Complete Champion to get the Knowledge domain which would give them all Knowledges as class skills, and even then they only get Dismissal and Dispel Evil as a 5th level spell unless they're using the Oriental Adventures rule that allows a sorcerer to use the wu jen spell list instead.  Wu jen gets Dismissal at 4th.

If a sorcerer had the knowledges as class skills before taking the domain ACF (through various possibilities from this guide) then they could take the Balance or Exorcism domains instead to get Dismissal as a 4th level spell.

But that's getting less and less about fire spells unless the theme is burning evil in divine fire or something.
« Last Edit: May 09, 2015, 01:11:47 AM by Jackinthegreen »

Offline KellKheraptis

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Re: Pyromancer build
« Reply #22 on: May 24, 2015, 12:30:59 AM »
Spellwarp Sniper onto Fireball makes for an easy ray with awesome range - combine with Arcane Thesis and friends to make it Megatron's Fusion Cannon.  Also, Elven Spell Lore for changing energy type to something else.  Um...that alone should have you putting holes in things at stupid long range, and with metamagic reducers, be keyed off of 3rd (or possibly even 2nd with the right tricks) through 6th level spells.  That's just off the top of my head - there are two really nice pyro's floating around keyed off of Snowcasting of all things that do some ridiculous status effects on top of nice damage, and neither really loses any versatility for it.

Offline Jackinthegreen

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Re: Pyromancer build
« Reply #23 on: May 24, 2015, 05:30:36 PM »
Damn, now I have an urge to document all the spells Spellwarp Sniper can warp...

Offline CaptRory

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Re: Pyromancer build
« Reply #24 on: May 24, 2015, 05:49:59 PM »
I just wanted to touch on the fact that a LOT of things are resistant to fire, far more than are weak to fire. But there are metamagic feats that let you change the energy of magic and the Admixture Metamagic Feat that lets you combine them for double damage. If you go with magic it's something to consider when you inevitably end up having to fight Fire Elementals or Salamanders or something.

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Pyromancer build
« Reply #25 on: May 24, 2015, 07:05:12 PM »
I just wanted to touch on the fact that a LOT of things are resistant to fire, far more than are weak to fire. But there are metamagic feats that let you change the energy of magic and the Admixture Metamagic Feat that lets you combine them for double damage. If you go with magic it's something to consider when you inevitably end up having to fight Fire Elementals or Salamanders or something.
Yeah, I'd definitely want to get Searing Spell, or take levels in Silver Pyromancer, or something like that to bypass that problem.
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Offline RobbyPants

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Re: Pyromancer build
« Reply #26 on: June 17, 2015, 07:45:42 AM »
Woah! Stuff has been happening in the thread since I left it!


Spellwarp Sniper onto Fireball makes for an easy ray with awesome range - combine with Arcane Thesis and friends to make it Megatron's Fusion Cannon.  Also, Elven Spell Lore for changing energy type to something else.  Um...that alone should have you putting holes in things at stupid long range, and with metamagic reducers, be keyed off of 3rd (or possibly even 2nd with the right tricks) through 6th level spells.  That's just off the top of my head - there are two really nice pyro's floating around keyed off of Snowcasting of all things that do some ridiculous status effects on top of nice damage, and neither really loses any versatility for it.
Complete Scoundrel is one of those books I know very little about, so I overlooked that. That's an interesting idea. My first thought was to look for other spells that would have an area that would be better than Fireball. The first thing I noticed was my range would be cut much shorter.

What's the easiest entry into this class as a Wizard (possibly Focused Conjurer)? I'd need a way to get that +1d6 Sneak Attack, but I don't want to drop caster levels. The only thing coming to mind is Martial Stance for Assassin's Stance, but I think I'd need to be something stupid like level 10 to qualify, IIRC.


I just wanted to touch on the fact that a LOT of things are resistant to fire, far more than are weak to fire. But there are metamagic feats that let you change the energy of magic and the Admixture Metamagic Feat that lets you combine them for double damage. If you go with magic it's something to consider when you inevitably end up having to fight Fire Elementals or Salamanders or something.
That's definitely something worth remembering. In addition to the fire stuff, though, I figure the character would be casting offensive stuff that I could try to sell to the DM straight-faced as being fire or ash. They'd include:
  • Wall of Smoke
  • Incendiary Slime
  • Stinking Cloud
  • Solid Fog
  • Cloudkill
That obviously doesn't handle everything, but the character is meant to mainly be themed on fire, smoke, and ash.


Yeah, I'd definitely want to get Searing Spell, or take levels in Silver Pyromancer, or something like that to bypass that problem.
Searing Spell is probably the easiest option I've seen to overcome this, so far. It's good enough that it'd be worth taking Easy Metamagic on that feat, IMO. That, or if I had two favorite spells, I might skip EMM in lieu of taking Arcane Thesis with my two favorites, and then figure they'd both be Searing for free.
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Offline Fadier

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Re: Pyromancer build
« Reply #27 on: June 18, 2015, 12:52:26 AM »
If you are able to get Searing Spell (I notice its not in your list of books) then you could try using Frost Mage (Frostburn 58) and re flavoring it to fire. Not only does it not loose caster levels but, it gains Piercing Cold at 4th level (Searing Spell for Cold) but with the additional benefit of ignoring magical item resistances/immunities which Piercing Cold (Searing Spell in your case) does not cover.
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Offline RobbyPants

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Re: Pyromancer build
« Reply #28 on: June 18, 2015, 08:22:53 AM »
If you are able to get Searing Spell (I notice its not in your list of books) then you could try using Frost Mage (Frostburn 58) and re flavoring it to fire. Not only does it not loose caster levels but, it gains Piercing Cold at 4th level (Searing Spell for Cold) but with the additional benefit of ignoring magical item resistances/immunities which Piercing Cold (Searing Spell in your case) does not cover.
It wasn't in my list of books, but I can find it with dndtools, and it's pretty important to the build.

Frost Mage might be doable with a bit of work, but I'm not sure it's that necessary.
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Offline RobbyPants

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Re: Pyromancer build
« Reply #29 on: June 18, 2015, 09:04:08 AM »
On a side note: I've been toying with taking four levels of Elemental Savant. The abilities are cute, but not great. The plus side is four levels won't cost me a caster level. The downside is that it requires Energy Substitution (Fire).

That being said, if I went that route, are there any good energy spells that do interesting things that might be worth converting to fire? I'm looking for any good debuffs or something else worth noting that I wouldn't be able to get from a straight up [fire] spell.

Ones I've found that might be worth while:Can anyone think of anything else?
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Offline Solo

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Re: Pyromancer build
« Reply #30 on: June 18, 2015, 06:18:56 PM »
Ice Storm. Rename to Meteor Shower.
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Offline RobbyPants

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Re: Pyromancer build
« Reply #31 on: June 19, 2015, 08:45:09 AM »
Ice Storm. Rename to Meteor Shower.
I was at first going to complain that it is pretty weak, but then I saw the parts in their about the duration and half-speed. It still seems a bit lackluster for a 4th level spell, but it's not bad.
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Offline Solo

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Re: Pyromancer build
« Reply #32 on: June 19, 2015, 03:02:52 PM »
The blaster doesn't get to complain about things beingv weak :p

Meteor Shower + Flaming Fog, though.
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