I'm running a gestalt game, and one of my PC's is a Barbarian 9//Beguiler 8/Mindbender 1. He plays the character as a caster first, only resorting to bashing things when his spells aren't working. As of late, that has been quite often, and it is frustrating the hell out of my player. There's nothing that he's doing "wrong" per se, but the dice have been against him for the past month or so of play.
I can get you his specific stats later, but he currently has a Strength of 18 (thanks to gauntlets of ogre power), and his Intelligence is an 17. All his feats have gone toward enhancing his casting, including:
Combat Expertise
Improved feint (meaning feinting as a free action thanks to beguiler, which often boosts his DC's by 2)
Spell Focus Enchantment*
*I allow the 3.0 versions of Spell Focus and Grt Spell Focus, meaning each feat boosts his DC's by 2
So, he should routinely be looking at enchantment DC's of 15 or 17+ spell level.
I also put a +2 headband of intellect into some of the treasure awards not too long ago (nice random roll), thinking the Beguiler would take it, but the party Rog//Wiz snatched it instead.
And that's not to say his spells don't work. Just last night he nailed 3 fiendish ice trolls (Will +3) and a Half-Troll Athach (Will +10) with a Confusion in the first or second round of combat, affecting two of the ice trolls. It just happened that the ice trolls were subsequently brought to negative hit points by a fireball before they got to act, so effectively, his spell did nothing.
And like I said, the dice have just been against him of late. Last night there were SEVERAL times that my d20's were rolling in the high teens, and I was making the saves on the nose or one higher. And he's getting frustrated that his spells seem to be "All or Nothing," as opposed to the Wizard and Sorcerer blasters, who are still doing damage when the foes succeed on their saves. During our talk after the game, he estimated his spell success rate at 30%, and it is disappointing to him. A small part of that has been due to the fact their main opponents are Tanarukk (SR 14, or higher with class levels) and fiendish trolls (SR 11 - not a problem any more).
There has also been a bit of "choosing the wrong target" for his spells. The Half-Troll Athach has a good will save (since the base creature is an aberration, but he didn't know that), but large HD (huge creature) means it's more likely to have a better will save. The enemy beguiler - of course the caster has a decent Will save.
His plan at 12th level is to up his Intelligence to 18 and take Greater Spell Focus (Enchantment), which means his DC's will be 18 or 20+spell level. I'll also try to work in another headband of intelligence before the final massive battle of this plot-arch (which will happen around 11th-12th level)
However, he does routinely complain that he thinks DC's should be tied to your caster level, not just spell level. Given his success rate, I understand his frustration, but that doesn't mean the DC system doesn't work.
I also discussed some of the other spells on his spell list that would help him and the party. He's not once ever cast Haste in a year of game play from 5th - 9th level. Last night he saw an enemy beguiler utilizing (greater) Mirror Image to make himself very difficult to hit, and we discussed that tactic, and pairing it with blur or displacement after the game session. His weapon right now is a +1 Berserking Greatsword (the version from Unapproachable East, so when he rages, the greatsword becomes +3). His greatsword damage without raging is 2d6+7, usually doing about 15 for each of his two attacks per round. Since he tries to be a caster first, he rarely rages, and will get a sword hit in once every two or three rounds, depending on the situation.
Last night I pointed out that buffing himself with Mirror Image, Displacement, and Haste, then raging, would give him 3 attacks per round, he'd be damn near impossible to hit, and his attacks would be +19/+19/+14, dealing 2d6+12 damage. Now, that's not a lot to us here at Character Op, but it's mildly respectable, especially since he'd be hitting nearly every time. Two hits for 19 damage each starts to make a dent.
So, any suggestions to make this character more effective?
For comparison, the party has a Druid//Sorcerer with Arcane Strike (pounce+arcane strike = pain) and a tiger companion,
a Wizard//Rogue with acidic splatter+improved invisibility (both these arcane casters like to "blast" a lot),
an NPC Druid 9//Scout 5/Ranger 1/Wizard 3 (pouncing skirmish) with a tiger companion,
and just joining the party last night was a newb Archivist//Scout (tactically ineffective right now, as he has very little experience with D&D, but his Dark Knowledge has helped) who focuses on throwing a returning short spear for skirmish damage.
