Ultimate Magus Help

[Kremti]

Another thing to remember...

How is the downtime in this game?  Will you have more than a couple of days of "We need to stay here and do shit in town" type deal?  If you do...

Your Transmuter Friend and your character can start swapping spells off of each others books.  So make sure you don't pick duplicate spells of his.

Of course, this is highly DM dependent whether you guys will have "A couple of weeks to copy each others books". 

-K

[valen0121]

The DM does give downtime. He told the spell casters dont expect to be crafting a lot of magic items  .

[valen0121]

Question for everyone, which is better spellcasting prodigy (intelligence) or able learner feat at 1st level?

Thanks,

Valen

[AyeGill]

I'd say spellcasting prodigy. Unless able learner has some specific use in this build that i'm not aware of.

[Kremti]

Agreed.  Unless some specific skill ranks required, and you are having problem with skill points, I'd probably say Spell Slots > Skill Points...

-K

[valen0121]

I like to thank everyone who has given me great suggestions on my build. I've narrowed it down to 2 builds. Tell me what you think and what suggestions to fill out for the feats.

Human
01-Beguiler-01
02-Abjurer-01
03-Abjurer-02
04-Abjurer-03
05-Abjurer-04
06-Ultimate Magus-01
07-Ultimate Magus-02
08-Ultimate Magus-03
09-Ultimate Magus-04
10-Ultimate Magus-05
11-Ultimate Magus-06
12-Ultimate Magus-07
13-Ultimate Magus-08
14-Ultimate Magus-09
15-Ultimate Magus-10
16-Geometer-01
17-Geometer-02
18-Geometer-03
19-Geometer-04
20-Geometer-05


Feats (Beuguiler-01/Wizard-04/Ultimate Magus-10/Geometer-05)
------------------------------------------------------------
Human-Spellcasting Prodigy (Intelligence)
01-Extend Spell
03-Practiced Spellcaster (Beguiler)
06-Metamagic School Focus (Abjuration)
09-Craft Wands
10-Metamagic Feat
12-
14-Metamagic Feat
15-
18-


====== or ======


01-Beguiler-01
02-Abjurer-01
03-Abjurer-02
04-Abjurer-03
05-Abjurer-04
06-Ultimate Magus-01
07-Ultimate Magus-02
08-Ultimate Magus-03
09-Ultimate Magus-04
10-Ultimate Magus-05
11-Ultimate Magus-06
12-Ultimate Magus-07
13-Ultimate Magus-08
14-Ultimate Magus-09
15-Ultimate Magus-10
16-Incantatar-01
17-Incantatar-02
18-Incantatar-03
19-Incantatar-04
20-Incantatar-05


Feats (Beuguiler-01/Wizard-04/Ultimate Magus-10/Incantatr-05)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Human-Spellcasting Prodigy (Intelligence)
01-Extend Spell
03-Practiced Spellcaster (Beguiler)
06-Metamagic School Focus (Abjuration)
09-Cratf Wands
10-Metamagic Feat
12-
14-Metamagic Feat
15-Iron Will
16-Metamagic Feat
18-
19-Metamagic Feat



What do you think about the feat Arcane Manipulation from Lost Empires of Faerun?

Thanks,
Valen

[AyeGill]

Incantatrix/tar is infinitely better than geometer.

[Rebel7284]

Also, conjurer > abjurer if you have access to abrupt jaunt.

[Kremti]

What do you think about the feat Arcane Manipulation from Lost Empires of Faerun?

Thumbs down.  Especially for a build like this where you have tons of spells coming from Wizard and Beguiler, what you want is *MOR HIGHER LEVEL SPELLS* and not breaking down higher level spells into lower level spells.

-K

[X-Codes]

What do you think about the feat Arcane Manipulation from Lost Empires of Faerun?

Thumbs down.  Especially for a build like this where you have tons of spells coming from Wizard and Beguiler, what you want is *MOR HIGHER LEVEL SPELLS* and not breaking down higher level spells into lower level spells.

-K

Except lower-level spells can be used with UM's metamagic abilities, effectively making them higher-level spells again.

[Kremti]

Yeah, but if you are blowing through the lower level spells to feed, say, Extend or Empower (which will be at most 8 times a day), it is probably more cost effective to just carry around extra Pearls of Power or things along that nature (which are relatively cheap), than blowing a feat...

If if you are blowing through mid-level spells to feed things like Quicken...I think you'd still rather not break level 5 spells, down to level 4 + level 1, and end up with level one spell.  You are *definitely* not breaking up level 8 spells for 2 level 4 spells, so the best case senario is breaking up level 5 and 6 spells and end up with...buncha *more* level 1 and 2 spells?  I don't see that particularly useful.

I think, in general you'd be better off spending that feat for something else, especially something that helps *a lot* from level 1 up, like Invisible Spell or some such. (I believe Arcane Manupilation must be taken at level 1).

-K

[X-Codes]

No, read the UM ability.  His free metamagic can be applied to a spell of a level no more than 1/2 his class level.  Therefore, breaking down a level 8 spell into 2 level 4 spells with the intent to Quicken them later will result in, effectively, 2 more level 8 spells, and you can't quicken the 8.

[Janthkin]

Given the number of low-level spellslots a Beguiler offers, wouldn't Versatile Spellcaster (RotD) be more useful?

[X-Codes]

Versatile Spellcaster does it, too, but aside from actually casting Beguiler spells you're also going to add and cast 1-5 Sor/Wiz spells to that list and also most likely burn your Beguiler slots to juice your Wizard spells.

I'm not saying Arcane Manipulation is the most awesome thing ever for a Ultimate Magus, just that it's not as bad of a deal for an Ultimate Magus as it is for most other Wizards.

[Kremti]

Versatile Spellcaster does it, too, but aside from actually casting Beguiler spells you're also going to add and cast 1-5 Sor/Wiz spells to that list and also most likely burn your Beguiler slots to juice your Wizard spells.

I'm not saying Arcane Manipulation is the most awesome thing ever for a Ultimate Magus, just that it's not as bad of a deal for an Ultimate Magus as it is for most other Wizards.

OK, giving it thumbs down might have been a bit too harsh.  I give you that it has its purpose, and should ponder a bit.

I still think it's luke warm, given that you gotta take this feat at level 1, and there are probably more than a handful of feats that'll be more useful, than having the feat coming online at a narrow level bands that you gotta carry around all the way from level 1.  But I concur that it's worth pondering the possibility if you get one of those "LOTS OF LOTS OF FEATS" games, particularly with flaws giving multiple level 1 feats.

-K

[valen0121]

Well some bad news, the campaign died before it even got started. The DM kept coming up with excuses for not statrting. Come to find out he was playing in another game. Another player will be running a pathfinder game to start next week. The new DM is allowing me to play 1st level beguiler converted to pathfinder rules. Any suggestions for a pathfinder build?

Thanks.
Valen