Post by tyranlthixis on Feb 8, 2009 22:35:36 GMT
The Call of Endless Night (30 palemaster/8 wizard/2 Blackguard)
On higher ground, the palemaster is a highly specialized arcane spell caster class focusing in the art of death magic and draining. Specifically Palemaster’s can only be proficient in spells in the Necromancy and Illusion schools (with the exception of the spell Power Word Kill, which is considered a necromancy spell when cast by a palemaster). Palemasters can cast spells in other spell schools, such as evocation, but they will cast those spells at a fairly low level. Evocation spells are good for little more than breaking objects for a palemaster. But, in their schools of focus a palemaster has no equal on this server.
As with Wizards there are many theories on what a palemaster build should look like. One of the bigger controversies is the value of wearing Heavy armor over Robes. Many feel strongly that a palemaster can survive just fine wearing a robe and a shield. Heavy armor, to be used effectively, requires usually a non wizard splash class and 4 additional feats (still spell, and auto still 1-3). Palemasters can afford these feats if they think its worth it. I think the issue is less about survival and more about gear flexibility. There are several platemail armors with either extra Palemaster specific abilities or a great deal of extra spell slots. Not having heavy armor will prevent you from using these items and any other such armors that will be added in the future. Not to mention the loss of damage immunity and all of the armors (heavy, med, light) available to you that anybody would like to wear (there are 2 heavy armors that grant you implosion immunity for example). Feel free to disagree but this build will include heavy armor.
About the build
The current build is a direct result of changes to the artifact The Eye of Vecna. Prior to this change nearly every Palemaster on the server used a single paladin level splash to gain armor feats and paladin save bonus. The Eye of Vecna artifact grants you full mind immunity, increases your intelligence by 2, and allows you to enslave an enemy monster to do your bidding once per rest. It is the best artifact to use on a palemaster. Unfortunately, the artifact now causes you to adopt a permanent evil alignment. It is impossible to use The Eye of Vecna and gain a charisma save bonus from a Paladin level, since being evil disqualifies you from these saves.
The trend has been to take a single level of something else, such as cleric or fighter level, to gain the heavy armor and shield skills and forsake the paladin save bonus. This build takes 2 blackguard levels granting you the armor feats free and qualifies you for the Dark Blessing feat (adds your charisma bonus to your saves). Most spell casters cannot afford this many splash levels in an “other” class because of the high spell resistances typically found on monsters on this server (Taking splashes that do not stack with your main casters class lowers your overall spell penetration). The fewer levels you have in a non stacking spell class the lower your spell penetration will be. Palemaster’s are the exception to this rule since their spell penetration potential is so much higher than a typical spell caster, they can easily eat the spell penetration loss.
I considered using Gnome (Tinker Gnome) for this build since you would get constitution and the spell focus illusion feat for free. But, at the last minute I changed my mind. Since we are splashing blackguard I thought it would be more valuable to take advantage of the wider skill selection available with Elf, since Elf gets the Able Learner feat. The Able Learner feat is available to Elf subraces only and allows you to take off class skills in legendary levels as if they were class skills. Not all skills are available to you. To qualify as an able learner skill you will need to have had the skill as a class skills in one of your class choices. Since, we have done blackguard levels we will be able to take skills such as discipline, at a greater skill point cost, as if it was a class skill in legendary levels. The good news is palemasters have far more skill points than they know what to do with. Ultimately, you give up Maximize Spell for a better chance to make discipline checks (less slagging of gear, getting tossed around in the Illithid area, etc, etc ). There are many such skill checks already present and you can count on more showing up as new areas open up. I thought it a good trade off.
Things to Gather Before you Start This Build
Before you start this build you should have gathered a few items first.
Keep an eye out for scrolls in the Illusion and Necromancy schools. During your Palemaster levels you will NOT be granted the option to learn new spells. The only means a Palemaster has to fill his/her spell book is to gain them by reading scrolls or research crystals. Naturally you will be able to choose spells during your 8 wizard levels but this will only grant you a handful of spell choices and will not grant you spells such as wail which you will not qualify for until epic levels. Those spells, such as Soul Bind, you cannot get by leveling or scroll can be obtained by visiting the spell pedestal by the docks.
Once you reach 20 levels of Palemaster (total level 30) you will qualify for the first of two lich transformations. This first transformation will grant you the ability to breath underwater without a ring and will give you a generic skeletal appearance. The second transformation will happen after legendary levels if you can find the class secret and will grant you a craftable skeletal appearance and a few other abilities. To be able to perform the first transformation you must have gathered 3 items
Book of Bones
Wand of Lichdom
An Empty Phylactery
They ALL must be in your inventory to complete the first transformation. Once you qualify for the transformation you will use the Wand of Lichdom in the presence of the other two items. Your phylactery will no longer be empty, and you will be a lich. It is recommend that you gather these items before actually making your Palemaster since one of these three items is in a rather difficult area for a low level character.
The other item you NEED before starting this build is a vial of The Blood of Uruboros. This will obviously not be your first character unless you have a generous friend who hands you this item. It should not be too difficult to get. Uruboros is a non fugue area that is available to legendary level characters. The blood, at the moment, is only useful to open subraces for gaining the Cleave skill (required to qualify for Blackguard). This will change at some point in the future but at the moment it is not a highly sought after item. Due to its present limited usefulness, is not unusual to find this blood in the priced item market for a reasonable price. So, that is also an option for you if you wish.
Spells and Tactics
Palemaster spells are cast at a much higher Difficulty Check (D/C) and at a higher Spell Penetration (SP) than a typical wizard of the same intelligence and of the same level. Much of a Palemaster’s niche, therefore, is killing creatures with death magic. Part of your job as an effective caster will be to identify and memorize which creatures you can kill with which spell. Wail, finger of death, and other classic death magic spells respect death magic immunity. Weird, an illusion spell, on the other hand respects mind AND fear immunity. If a monster lacks these two things, even if its death immune, it can be instant killed with the weird spell. There are also a handful of monsters that can be instant killed with the Horrid Wilting spell.
Palemasters have other roles in the group beside direct killing with death magic. Draining spells have become the palemaster’s most potent ability. Energy drain for example is able to weaken and eventually kill a whole range of monsters that are very problematic for any of your group members. Energy drain also grants you “temporary caster levels”. These caster levels temporarily inflate your D/C and your SP. A smart palemaster player will drain weaker enemies and use their inflated spell power to easily decimate monsters many casters would literally have little chance to instant kill because of insanely high spell resistance or saves. The spell soul bind can be used to store this extra spell power to be used in a timely manner. Enervation is another draining spell that can be used to inflict vulnerability on your enemies so that those will strong evocation spells or strong melee can more easily land damage.
Palemasters also have spells such as Curse and Eyebite that can be used to make an enemy more vulnerable to your spells. Also keep in mind that Palemasters have a curse song that can stand in for bard curse song if necessary. At the moment Palemasters can only do this 3 times per rest, but this is slotted to be changed so that a palemaster can curse using spell slots.
Palemasters also have strong damage spells that typically do negative or magic damage.
Other issues
Palemaster tumble AC is capped to place a limit on the total AC attainable by the class. A level 30 palemaster does not need more than 30 points in tumble for AC purposes. Having said that there are tumble checks and you do have a large amount of skill points to waste, so it up to you if you invest more than this.
School specialization is recommended. This is accomplished by visiting the spell pedestal at the docks. You can choose only one school to specialize in and must select two schools to abandon as a cost. For Palemasters, Enchantment and Divination are good choices as banned schools since they have very few useful spells you might want to use in scroll form. You must be very careful when choosing schools to ban. For example, transmutation is an off school but contains the spell Greater Sanctuary. Choosing Abjuration would interfere with Mordenkainen’s Disjunction (needed for counterspelling, lowering sr, and debuffing). Which school to specialize is is up to you. Necromancy specialization grants you the widest range of benefits to the most spells. Illusion specializtion is mainly taken to increase the effectivenss of the Weird spell (an instant death spell with two checks).
Race
Elf
“Moon Elf”
INT +2, STR -2, Spellcraft +4
Alignment: Evil (any)
Strength 8(6)
Dexterity 10
Constitution 14
Wisdom 8
Intelligence 18(20)
Charisma 12
Pre-Epic Levels
Level 1: Wizard
Take Feat: Spell Focus (Necromancy
Free Feat (gained by drinking the Blood of Uroboros):Cleave
The main skills you will want to work on are: Concentration, Spellcraft, and Tumble (take these on every level if possible)
Spell Focus (Necromancy), is the 1st of 4 spell focuses in necromancy. This feat increases the D/C of all necromancy spells and qualifies you for the feat Greater Spell Focus (Necromancy)
Cleave, skill obtained to qualify for the Blackguard prestige class later
Level 2: Wizard
Level 3: Wizard
Take Feat: Spell Penetration
Spell Penetration, spell penetration feats are some of the most important to take on the server. High level monster SR’s are customized assuming you have taken all 4 spell penetration feats and have close to 60 caster levels. This is the 1st of 4 spell penetration feats. Failure to take these feats will cause your caster’s spells to bounce harmlessly off most monsters in high level areas.
Level 4: Wizard
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Level 5: Wizard
Take Feat: Greater Spell Penetration
Greater Spell Penetration, spell penetration feats are some of the most important to take on the server. High level monster SR’s are customized assuming you have taken all 4 spell penetration feats and have close to 60 caster levels. This is the 2nd of 4 spell penetration feats. Failure to take these feats will cause your caster’s spells to bounce harmlessly off most monsters in high level areas
Level 6: Wizard
Take Feat: Metamagic: Still spell
Metamagic: Still spell, allows the user to cast spells in full armor one level higher than they would normally be cast at. It also qualifies the character for the three Autostill feats which allow casting in armor at any level. The feat also serves the purpose of any of the other metamagic feats: To customize your spell book further and have more of the spells that work best in a particular area at your disposal and less wasted slots.
Level 7: Palemaster
Level 8: Palemaster
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Level 9: Palemaster
Take Feat: Spell Focus (Illusion)
Spell Focus (Illusion), is the 1st of 4 spell focuses in Illusion. This feat increases the D/C of all Illusion spells and qualifies you for the feat Greater Spell Focus (Illusion).
Level 10: Palemaster
Level 11: Palemaster
Level 12: Palemaster
Take Feat: Greater Spell Focus (Necromancy)
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Greater Spell Focus (Necromancy), is the 2nd of 4 spell focuses in necromancy. This feat increases the D/C of all necromancy spells and qualifies you for the feat Epic Spell Focus (Necromancy)
Level 13: Palemaster
Level 14: Palemaster
Level 15: Palemaster
Take Feat: Greater Spell Focus (Illusion)
Make sure you take at least 5 points in the Hide Skill to qualify for Blackguard at this time
Greater Spell Focus (Illusion), is the 2nd of 4 spell focuses in Illusion. This feat increases the D/C of all Illusion spells and qualifies you for the feat Epic Spell Focus (Illusion).
Level 16: Wizard
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Be sure to pick up Shades and Shadow Conjuration during your spell selections at this level. It will be difficult to get these via scrolls or other means.
Level 17: Palemaster
Level 18 Blackguard
Take Feat: Metamagic (Empower spell)
Metamagic (Empower Spell), spells cast “empowered” do more damage that spells cast at a regular caster level. Empower also gives you the option to memorize a spell on a tier two tiers higher than its base level. This will allow you to customize your spell book further and have more of the spells that work best in a particular area at your disposal and less wasted slots.
Level 19 Wizard
Be sure to pick up Undeath to Death and Eyebite during your spell selections at this level. It will be difficult to get these via scrolls or other means.
Level 20 Blackguard
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Top off your Discipline at this point
Feat Gained Automatically: Dark Blessing
Dark Blessing , is the reason people splash 2 blackguard levels in their builds. This feat causes your charisma bonus to be added to your total saves, improving your stability as a character and lessening the need for extra feats to raise saves. You must stay in an evil alignment for this feat to work.
Saves at level 20
Fortitude 15, Reflex 6, Will 13
Epic Levels
Level 21 Palemaster
Take Feat: Great Intelligence 1
Great intelligence feats increase the D/C of all your spells, 1 point of D/C for every 2 intelligence. Save checks on this server assume you have started with maximized intelligence with at least a +2 intelligence race, taken all your stat bonuses in intelligence, and have taken all 10 Great intelligence feats. Failing to maximize your main caster stat for any caster on this server is not advisable.
Automatic Feat: Deathless Master: This feat will eventually grant you full critical hit immunity.
Level 22: Palemaster
Level 23: Palemaster
Take Feat: Epic Spell Penetration
Epic Spell Penetration, spell penetration feats are some of the most important to take on the server. High level monster SR’s are customized assuming you have taken all 4 spell penetration feats. This is the 3rd of 4 spell penetration feats.
Level 24: Palemaster
Take Feat: Great Intelligence 2
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Great intelligence feats increase the D/C of all your spells, 1 point of D/C for every 2 intelligence. Save checks on this server assume you have started with maximized intelligence with at least a +2 intelligence race, taken all your stat bonuses in intelligence, and have taken all 10 Great intelligence feats. Failing to maximize your main caster stat for any caster on this server is not advisable.
Level 25: Palemaster
Level 26: Palemaster
Take Feat: Epic Spell (Greater Ruin)
Epic Spell (Greater Spell Ruin), Gives you two uses of a very high D/C instant death spell that also does positive damage. This can be used to eliminate non boss monsters that need to be killed quickly.
Level 27: Palemaster
Take Feat: Great Intelligence 3
Great intelligence feats increase the D/C of all your spells, 1 point of D/C for every 2 intelligence. Save checks on this server assume you have started with maximized intelligence with at least a +2 intelligence race, taken all your stat bonuses in intelligence, and have taken all 10 Great intelligence feats. Failing to maximize your main caster stat for any caster on this server is not advisable.
Level 28: Palemaster
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Level 29: Palemaster
Take Feat: Epic Spell Focus (Illusion)
Epic Spell Focus (Illusion), is the 3rd of 4 spell focus feats in Illusion. It will increase the D/C of all illusion spells (including the atypical instant death spell Weird). It also qualifies you for the Epic Spell: Starfire, a powerful magic damage spell that knocks down opponents (usable once per rest), if you can find it.
Level 30: Palemaster
(you may use the Wand of Lichdom, so long as you have the Book of Bones and Phylactery are in your inventory and achieve your first Lich transformation)
Take Feat: Great Intelligence 4
Great intelligence feats increase the D/C of all your spells, 1 point of D/C for every 2 intelligence. Save checks on this server assume you have started with maximized intelligence with at least a +2 intelligence race, taken all your stat bonuses in intelligence, and have taken all 10 Great intelligence feats. Failing to maximize your main caster stat for any caster on this server is not advisable.
Level 31: Palemaster
Level 32: Palemaster
Take Feat: Epic Spell Focus (Necromancy)
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Epic Spell Focus (Necromancy), is the 3rd of 4 spell focuses in necromancy. This feat increases the D/C of all necromancy spells and qualifies you for the feat Legendary Spell Focus (Necromancy). It also qualifies you for the epic spell Death of Magic (a powerful tactical spell) if you can find it.
Level 33: Palemaster
Take Feat: Autostill 1
Autostill 1
Allows you to cast any spell up to level 3 spells while wearing full plate armor without arcane spell failure
Level 34: Palemaster
Level 35: Palemaster
Take Feat: Autostill 2
Autostill 2
Allows you to cast any spell up to level 6 spells while wearing full plate armor without arcane spell failure
Level 36: Palemaster
Take Feat: Great Intelligence 5
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Great intelligence feats increase the D/C of all your spells, 1 point of D/C for every 2 intelligence. Save checks on this server assume you have started with maximized intelligence with at least a +2 intelligence race, taken all your stat bonuses in intelligence, and have taken all 10 Great intelligence feats. Failing to maximize your main caster stat for any caster on this server is not advisable.
Level 37: Palemaster
Level 38: Palemaster
Take Feat: Autostill 3
Autostill 3
Allows you to cast any spell up to level 9 spells while wearing full plate armor without arcane spell failure without
Level 39: Palemaster
Take Feat: Great Intelligence 6
Great intelligence feats increase the D/C of all your spells, 1 point of D/C for every 2 intelligence. Save checks on this server assume you have started with maximized intelligence with at least a +2 intelligence race, taken all your stat bonuses in intelligence, and have taken all 10 Great intelligence feats. Failing to maximize your main caster stat for any caster on this server is not advisable.
Level 40: Palemaster
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Legendary Levels
Level 41
Gained via Tome of Knowledge: Epic Spell Focus (Transmutation)
Epic Spell Focus (Transmutation) This feat is gained only for the purpose qualifing you for the Epic Spell: Transmute Barrier (if you can find it). Your spell level in this school will be too low to reap the benefits of the focus, but having the wall will allow you to have more tactical options during a battle and will allow you to fill the mage roll in groups more easily. The tome may be read any time after level 41.
Level 42
Take Feat: Great Intelligence 7
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Great intelligence feats increase the D/C of all your spells, 1 point of D/C for every 2 intelligence. Save checks on this server assume you have started with maximized intelligence with at least a +2 intelligence race, taken all your stat bonuses in intelligence, and have taken all 10 Great intelligence feats. Failing to maximize your main caster stat for any caster on this server is not advisable. Intelligence feats were moved up in priority to gain the maximum possible skill point possible so that you can get the most out of able learner.
Level 43
Level 44
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Level 45
Take Feat: Great Intelligence 8
Great intelligence feats increase the D/C of all your spells, 1 point of D/C for every 2 intelligence. Save checks on this server assume you have started with maximized intelligence with at least a +2 intelligence race, taken all your stat bonuses in intelligence, and have taken all 10 Great intelligence feats. Failing to maximize your main caster stat for any caster on this server is not advisable.
Level 46
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Level 47
Level 48
Take Feat: Great Intelligence 9
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Great intelligence feats increase the D/C of all your spells, 1 point of D/C for every 2 intelligence. Save checks on this server assume you have started with maximized intelligence with at least a +2 intelligence race, taken all your stat bonuses in intelligence, and have taken all 10 Great intelligence feats. Failing to maximize your main caster stat for any caster on this server is not advisable.
Level 49
Level 50
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Level 51
Take Feat: Great Intelligence 10
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Great intelligence feats increase the D/C of all your spells, 1 point of D/C for every 2 intelligence. Save checks on this server assume you have started with maximized intelligence with at least a +2 intelligence race, taken all your stat bonuses in intelligence, and have taken all 10 Great intelligence feats. Failing to maximize your main caster stat for any caster on this server is not advisable.
Level 52
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Level 53
Level 54
Take Feat:Legendary Spell Penetration
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Legendary Spell Penetration, Spell penetration feats are some of the most important to take on the server. High level monster SR’s are customized assuming you have taken all 4 spell penetration feats. This is the 4th of 4 feats
Level 55
Ideally you will want to use the Eye of Vecna (the Intelligence artifact from the Beholders area) at this point if you have one to use. This will grant you some more d/c, but mainly it will grant you a few more skill points per level until level 60.
Level 56
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Level 57
Take Feat: Legendary Spell Focus (Illusion)
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Legendary Spell Focus (Illusion), The fourth of four spell focus Feats in Illusion. This focus increases the D/C of all spells in the Illusion school (including the powerful instant death spell Weird).
Level 58
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Level 59
Level 60
Take Feat: Legendary Focus: Necromancy
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Legendary Spell Focus (Necromancy), is the 4th of 4 spell focuses in necromancy. This feat increases the D/C of all necromancy spells. This school includes tactical “draining” type spells, several instant death spells, anti-undead spells, and negative energy spells.
Stats at Level 60 (without gear)
Strength 6
Dexterity 10
Constitution 14
Wisdom 8
Intelligence 50 (52 if you used the Eye of Vecna)
Charisma 12
Fort 30 Reflex 21 Will 28 (with gear and charisma bonus F 62, R 53, W 60)
Skills
Spell craft
Skill required to effectively counterspell. It also qualifies you for Greater Ruin and Autostill 1-3.
Concentration
Helps prevent spells from being disrupted while casting, and wards against concentration checks.
Craft Armor
Every 40 points of craft armor will grant you 1 AC. With bard song this skill should grant you 3 AC.
Lore
Helps to identify items. Weapon gems require high lore scores to reveal their properties.
Tumble (30), Every 5 points of tumble will grant you 1 point of AC. This is capped at 6 AC for palemasters.
Discipline
Helps ward against discipline checks, which are commonplace on this server
Appraise
With high appraise shops will give you a lot more money for items sold. This will also save you money on very expensive transactions such as at the Hellstore.
Search
Helps uncover "secret" or "hidden" objects or places.
Spot
Helps uncover "secret" or "hidden" objects or places and wards against pick pocking.
Tyranlthixis
On higher ground, the palemaster is a highly specialized arcane spell caster class focusing in the art of death magic and draining. Specifically Palemaster’s can only be proficient in spells in the Necromancy and Illusion schools (with the exception of the spell Power Word Kill, which is considered a necromancy spell when cast by a palemaster). Palemasters can cast spells in other spell schools, such as evocation, but they will cast those spells at a fairly low level. Evocation spells are good for little more than breaking objects for a palemaster. But, in their schools of focus a palemaster has no equal on this server.
As with Wizards there are many theories on what a palemaster build should look like. One of the bigger controversies is the value of wearing Heavy armor over Robes. Many feel strongly that a palemaster can survive just fine wearing a robe and a shield. Heavy armor, to be used effectively, requires usually a non wizard splash class and 4 additional feats (still spell, and auto still 1-3). Palemasters can afford these feats if they think its worth it. I think the issue is less about survival and more about gear flexibility. There are several platemail armors with either extra Palemaster specific abilities or a great deal of extra spell slots. Not having heavy armor will prevent you from using these items and any other such armors that will be added in the future. Not to mention the loss of damage immunity and all of the armors (heavy, med, light) available to you that anybody would like to wear (there are 2 heavy armors that grant you implosion immunity for example). Feel free to disagree but this build will include heavy armor.
About the build
The current build is a direct result of changes to the artifact The Eye of Vecna. Prior to this change nearly every Palemaster on the server used a single paladin level splash to gain armor feats and paladin save bonus. The Eye of Vecna artifact grants you full mind immunity, increases your intelligence by 2, and allows you to enslave an enemy monster to do your bidding once per rest. It is the best artifact to use on a palemaster. Unfortunately, the artifact now causes you to adopt a permanent evil alignment. It is impossible to use The Eye of Vecna and gain a charisma save bonus from a Paladin level, since being evil disqualifies you from these saves.
The trend has been to take a single level of something else, such as cleric or fighter level, to gain the heavy armor and shield skills and forsake the paladin save bonus. This build takes 2 blackguard levels granting you the armor feats free and qualifies you for the Dark Blessing feat (adds your charisma bonus to your saves). Most spell casters cannot afford this many splash levels in an “other” class because of the high spell resistances typically found on monsters on this server (Taking splashes that do not stack with your main casters class lowers your overall spell penetration). The fewer levels you have in a non stacking spell class the lower your spell penetration will be. Palemaster’s are the exception to this rule since their spell penetration potential is so much higher than a typical spell caster, they can easily eat the spell penetration loss.
I considered using Gnome (Tinker Gnome) for this build since you would get constitution and the spell focus illusion feat for free. But, at the last minute I changed my mind. Since we are splashing blackguard I thought it would be more valuable to take advantage of the wider skill selection available with Elf, since Elf gets the Able Learner feat. The Able Learner feat is available to Elf subraces only and allows you to take off class skills in legendary levels as if they were class skills. Not all skills are available to you. To qualify as an able learner skill you will need to have had the skill as a class skills in one of your class choices. Since, we have done blackguard levels we will be able to take skills such as discipline, at a greater skill point cost, as if it was a class skill in legendary levels. The good news is palemasters have far more skill points than they know what to do with. Ultimately, you give up Maximize Spell for a better chance to make discipline checks (less slagging of gear, getting tossed around in the Illithid area, etc, etc ). There are many such skill checks already present and you can count on more showing up as new areas open up. I thought it a good trade off.
Things to Gather Before you Start This Build
Before you start this build you should have gathered a few items first.
Keep an eye out for scrolls in the Illusion and Necromancy schools. During your Palemaster levels you will NOT be granted the option to learn new spells. The only means a Palemaster has to fill his/her spell book is to gain them by reading scrolls or research crystals. Naturally you will be able to choose spells during your 8 wizard levels but this will only grant you a handful of spell choices and will not grant you spells such as wail which you will not qualify for until epic levels. Those spells, such as Soul Bind, you cannot get by leveling or scroll can be obtained by visiting the spell pedestal by the docks.
Once you reach 20 levels of Palemaster (total level 30) you will qualify for the first of two lich transformations. This first transformation will grant you the ability to breath underwater without a ring and will give you a generic skeletal appearance. The second transformation will happen after legendary levels if you can find the class secret and will grant you a craftable skeletal appearance and a few other abilities. To be able to perform the first transformation you must have gathered 3 items
Book of Bones
Wand of Lichdom
An Empty Phylactery
They ALL must be in your inventory to complete the first transformation. Once you qualify for the transformation you will use the Wand of Lichdom in the presence of the other two items. Your phylactery will no longer be empty, and you will be a lich. It is recommend that you gather these items before actually making your Palemaster since one of these three items is in a rather difficult area for a low level character.
The other item you NEED before starting this build is a vial of The Blood of Uruboros. This will obviously not be your first character unless you have a generous friend who hands you this item. It should not be too difficult to get. Uruboros is a non fugue area that is available to legendary level characters. The blood, at the moment, is only useful to open subraces for gaining the Cleave skill (required to qualify for Blackguard). This will change at some point in the future but at the moment it is not a highly sought after item. Due to its present limited usefulness, is not unusual to find this blood in the priced item market for a reasonable price. So, that is also an option for you if you wish.
Spells and Tactics
Palemaster spells are cast at a much higher Difficulty Check (D/C) and at a higher Spell Penetration (SP) than a typical wizard of the same intelligence and of the same level. Much of a Palemaster’s niche, therefore, is killing creatures with death magic. Part of your job as an effective caster will be to identify and memorize which creatures you can kill with which spell. Wail, finger of death, and other classic death magic spells respect death magic immunity. Weird, an illusion spell, on the other hand respects mind AND fear immunity. If a monster lacks these two things, even if its death immune, it can be instant killed with the weird spell. There are also a handful of monsters that can be instant killed with the Horrid Wilting spell.
Palemasters have other roles in the group beside direct killing with death magic. Draining spells have become the palemaster’s most potent ability. Energy drain for example is able to weaken and eventually kill a whole range of monsters that are very problematic for any of your group members. Energy drain also grants you “temporary caster levels”. These caster levels temporarily inflate your D/C and your SP. A smart palemaster player will drain weaker enemies and use their inflated spell power to easily decimate monsters many casters would literally have little chance to instant kill because of insanely high spell resistance or saves. The spell soul bind can be used to store this extra spell power to be used in a timely manner. Enervation is another draining spell that can be used to inflict vulnerability on your enemies so that those will strong evocation spells or strong melee can more easily land damage.
Palemasters also have spells such as Curse and Eyebite that can be used to make an enemy more vulnerable to your spells. Also keep in mind that Palemasters have a curse song that can stand in for bard curse song if necessary. At the moment Palemasters can only do this 3 times per rest, but this is slotted to be changed so that a palemaster can curse using spell slots.
Palemasters also have strong damage spells that typically do negative or magic damage.
Other issues
Palemaster tumble AC is capped to place a limit on the total AC attainable by the class. A level 30 palemaster does not need more than 30 points in tumble for AC purposes. Having said that there are tumble checks and you do have a large amount of skill points to waste, so it up to you if you invest more than this.
School specialization is recommended. This is accomplished by visiting the spell pedestal at the docks. You can choose only one school to specialize in and must select two schools to abandon as a cost. For Palemasters, Enchantment and Divination are good choices as banned schools since they have very few useful spells you might want to use in scroll form. You must be very careful when choosing schools to ban. For example, transmutation is an off school but contains the spell Greater Sanctuary. Choosing Abjuration would interfere with Mordenkainen’s Disjunction (needed for counterspelling, lowering sr, and debuffing). Which school to specialize is is up to you. Necromancy specialization grants you the widest range of benefits to the most spells. Illusion specializtion is mainly taken to increase the effectivenss of the Weird spell (an instant death spell with two checks).
Race
Elf
“Moon Elf”
INT +2, STR -2, Spellcraft +4
Alignment: Evil (any)
Strength 8(6)
Dexterity 10
Constitution 14
Wisdom 8
Intelligence 18(20)
Charisma 12
Pre-Epic Levels
Level 1: Wizard
Take Feat: Spell Focus (Necromancy
Free Feat (gained by drinking the Blood of Uroboros):Cleave
The main skills you will want to work on are: Concentration, Spellcraft, and Tumble (take these on every level if possible)
Spell Focus (Necromancy), is the 1st of 4 spell focuses in necromancy. This feat increases the D/C of all necromancy spells and qualifies you for the feat Greater Spell Focus (Necromancy)
Cleave, skill obtained to qualify for the Blackguard prestige class later
Level 2: Wizard
Level 3: Wizard
Take Feat: Spell Penetration
Spell Penetration, spell penetration feats are some of the most important to take on the server. High level monster SR’s are customized assuming you have taken all 4 spell penetration feats and have close to 60 caster levels. This is the 1st of 4 spell penetration feats. Failure to take these feats will cause your caster’s spells to bounce harmlessly off most monsters in high level areas.
Level 4: Wizard
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Level 5: Wizard
Take Feat: Greater Spell Penetration
Greater Spell Penetration, spell penetration feats are some of the most important to take on the server. High level monster SR’s are customized assuming you have taken all 4 spell penetration feats and have close to 60 caster levels. This is the 2nd of 4 spell penetration feats. Failure to take these feats will cause your caster’s spells to bounce harmlessly off most monsters in high level areas
Level 6: Wizard
Take Feat: Metamagic: Still spell
Metamagic: Still spell, allows the user to cast spells in full armor one level higher than they would normally be cast at. It also qualifies the character for the three Autostill feats which allow casting in armor at any level. The feat also serves the purpose of any of the other metamagic feats: To customize your spell book further and have more of the spells that work best in a particular area at your disposal and less wasted slots.
Level 7: Palemaster
Level 8: Palemaster
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Level 9: Palemaster
Take Feat: Spell Focus (Illusion)
Spell Focus (Illusion), is the 1st of 4 spell focuses in Illusion. This feat increases the D/C of all Illusion spells and qualifies you for the feat Greater Spell Focus (Illusion).
Level 10: Palemaster
Level 11: Palemaster
Level 12: Palemaster
Take Feat: Greater Spell Focus (Necromancy)
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Greater Spell Focus (Necromancy), is the 2nd of 4 spell focuses in necromancy. This feat increases the D/C of all necromancy spells and qualifies you for the feat Epic Spell Focus (Necromancy)
Level 13: Palemaster
Level 14: Palemaster
Level 15: Palemaster
Take Feat: Greater Spell Focus (Illusion)
Make sure you take at least 5 points in the Hide Skill to qualify for Blackguard at this time
Greater Spell Focus (Illusion), is the 2nd of 4 spell focuses in Illusion. This feat increases the D/C of all Illusion spells and qualifies you for the feat Epic Spell Focus (Illusion).
Level 16: Wizard
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Be sure to pick up Shades and Shadow Conjuration during your spell selections at this level. It will be difficult to get these via scrolls or other means.
Level 17: Palemaster
Level 18 Blackguard
Take Feat: Metamagic (Empower spell)
Metamagic (Empower Spell), spells cast “empowered” do more damage that spells cast at a regular caster level. Empower also gives you the option to memorize a spell on a tier two tiers higher than its base level. This will allow you to customize your spell book further and have more of the spells that work best in a particular area at your disposal and less wasted slots.
Level 19 Wizard
Be sure to pick up Undeath to Death and Eyebite during your spell selections at this level. It will be difficult to get these via scrolls or other means.
Level 20 Blackguard
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Top off your Discipline at this point
Feat Gained Automatically: Dark Blessing
Dark Blessing , is the reason people splash 2 blackguard levels in their builds. This feat causes your charisma bonus to be added to your total saves, improving your stability as a character and lessening the need for extra feats to raise saves. You must stay in an evil alignment for this feat to work.
Saves at level 20
Fortitude 15, Reflex 6, Will 13
Epic Levels
Level 21 Palemaster
Take Feat: Great Intelligence 1
Great intelligence feats increase the D/C of all your spells, 1 point of D/C for every 2 intelligence. Save checks on this server assume you have started with maximized intelligence with at least a +2 intelligence race, taken all your stat bonuses in intelligence, and have taken all 10 Great intelligence feats. Failing to maximize your main caster stat for any caster on this server is not advisable.
Automatic Feat: Deathless Master: This feat will eventually grant you full critical hit immunity.
Level 22: Palemaster
Level 23: Palemaster
Take Feat: Epic Spell Penetration
Epic Spell Penetration, spell penetration feats are some of the most important to take on the server. High level monster SR’s are customized assuming you have taken all 4 spell penetration feats. This is the 3rd of 4 spell penetration feats.
Level 24: Palemaster
Take Feat: Great Intelligence 2
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Great intelligence feats increase the D/C of all your spells, 1 point of D/C for every 2 intelligence. Save checks on this server assume you have started with maximized intelligence with at least a +2 intelligence race, taken all your stat bonuses in intelligence, and have taken all 10 Great intelligence feats. Failing to maximize your main caster stat for any caster on this server is not advisable.
Level 25: Palemaster
Level 26: Palemaster
Take Feat: Epic Spell (Greater Ruin)
Epic Spell (Greater Spell Ruin), Gives you two uses of a very high D/C instant death spell that also does positive damage. This can be used to eliminate non boss monsters that need to be killed quickly.
Level 27: Palemaster
Take Feat: Great Intelligence 3
Great intelligence feats increase the D/C of all your spells, 1 point of D/C for every 2 intelligence. Save checks on this server assume you have started with maximized intelligence with at least a +2 intelligence race, taken all your stat bonuses in intelligence, and have taken all 10 Great intelligence feats. Failing to maximize your main caster stat for any caster on this server is not advisable.
Level 28: Palemaster
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Level 29: Palemaster
Take Feat: Epic Spell Focus (Illusion)
Epic Spell Focus (Illusion), is the 3rd of 4 spell focus feats in Illusion. It will increase the D/C of all illusion spells (including the atypical instant death spell Weird). It also qualifies you for the Epic Spell: Starfire, a powerful magic damage spell that knocks down opponents (usable once per rest), if you can find it.
Level 30: Palemaster
(you may use the Wand of Lichdom, so long as you have the Book of Bones and Phylactery are in your inventory and achieve your first Lich transformation)
Take Feat: Great Intelligence 4
Great intelligence feats increase the D/C of all your spells, 1 point of D/C for every 2 intelligence. Save checks on this server assume you have started with maximized intelligence with at least a +2 intelligence race, taken all your stat bonuses in intelligence, and have taken all 10 Great intelligence feats. Failing to maximize your main caster stat for any caster on this server is not advisable.
Level 31: Palemaster
Level 32: Palemaster
Take Feat: Epic Spell Focus (Necromancy)
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Epic Spell Focus (Necromancy), is the 3rd of 4 spell focuses in necromancy. This feat increases the D/C of all necromancy spells and qualifies you for the feat Legendary Spell Focus (Necromancy). It also qualifies you for the epic spell Death of Magic (a powerful tactical spell) if you can find it.
Level 33: Palemaster
Take Feat: Autostill 1
Autostill 1
Allows you to cast any spell up to level 3 spells while wearing full plate armor without arcane spell failure
Level 34: Palemaster
Level 35: Palemaster
Take Feat: Autostill 2
Autostill 2
Allows you to cast any spell up to level 6 spells while wearing full plate armor without arcane spell failure
Level 36: Palemaster
Take Feat: Great Intelligence 5
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Great intelligence feats increase the D/C of all your spells, 1 point of D/C for every 2 intelligence. Save checks on this server assume you have started with maximized intelligence with at least a +2 intelligence race, taken all your stat bonuses in intelligence, and have taken all 10 Great intelligence feats. Failing to maximize your main caster stat for any caster on this server is not advisable.
Level 37: Palemaster
Level 38: Palemaster
Take Feat: Autostill 3
Autostill 3
Allows you to cast any spell up to level 9 spells while wearing full plate armor without arcane spell failure without
Level 39: Palemaster
Take Feat: Great Intelligence 6
Great intelligence feats increase the D/C of all your spells, 1 point of D/C for every 2 intelligence. Save checks on this server assume you have started with maximized intelligence with at least a +2 intelligence race, taken all your stat bonuses in intelligence, and have taken all 10 Great intelligence feats. Failing to maximize your main caster stat for any caster on this server is not advisable.
Level 40: Palemaster
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Legendary Levels
Level 41
Gained via Tome of Knowledge: Epic Spell Focus (Transmutation)
Epic Spell Focus (Transmutation) This feat is gained only for the purpose qualifing you for the Epic Spell: Transmute Barrier (if you can find it). Your spell level in this school will be too low to reap the benefits of the focus, but having the wall will allow you to have more tactical options during a battle and will allow you to fill the mage roll in groups more easily. The tome may be read any time after level 41.
Level 42
Take Feat: Great Intelligence 7
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Great intelligence feats increase the D/C of all your spells, 1 point of D/C for every 2 intelligence. Save checks on this server assume you have started with maximized intelligence with at least a +2 intelligence race, taken all your stat bonuses in intelligence, and have taken all 10 Great intelligence feats. Failing to maximize your main caster stat for any caster on this server is not advisable. Intelligence feats were moved up in priority to gain the maximum possible skill point possible so that you can get the most out of able learner.
Level 43
Level 44
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Level 45
Take Feat: Great Intelligence 8
Great intelligence feats increase the D/C of all your spells, 1 point of D/C for every 2 intelligence. Save checks on this server assume you have started with maximized intelligence with at least a +2 intelligence race, taken all your stat bonuses in intelligence, and have taken all 10 Great intelligence feats. Failing to maximize your main caster stat for any caster on this server is not advisable.
Level 46
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Level 47
Level 48
Take Feat: Great Intelligence 9
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Great intelligence feats increase the D/C of all your spells, 1 point of D/C for every 2 intelligence. Save checks on this server assume you have started with maximized intelligence with at least a +2 intelligence race, taken all your stat bonuses in intelligence, and have taken all 10 Great intelligence feats. Failing to maximize your main caster stat for any caster on this server is not advisable.
Level 49
Level 50
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Level 51
Take Feat: Great Intelligence 10
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Great intelligence feats increase the D/C of all your spells, 1 point of D/C for every 2 intelligence. Save checks on this server assume you have started with maximized intelligence with at least a +2 intelligence race, taken all your stat bonuses in intelligence, and have taken all 10 Great intelligence feats. Failing to maximize your main caster stat for any caster on this server is not advisable.
Level 52
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Level 53
Level 54
Take Feat:Legendary Spell Penetration
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Legendary Spell Penetration, Spell penetration feats are some of the most important to take on the server. High level monster SR’s are customized assuming you have taken all 4 spell penetration feats. This is the 4th of 4 feats
Level 55
Ideally you will want to use the Eye of Vecna (the Intelligence artifact from the Beholders area) at this point if you have one to use. This will grant you some more d/c, but mainly it will grant you a few more skill points per level until level 60.
Level 56
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Level 57
Take Feat: Legendary Spell Focus (Illusion)
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Legendary Spell Focus (Illusion), The fourth of four spell focus Feats in Illusion. This focus increases the D/C of all spells in the Illusion school (including the powerful instant death spell Weird).
Level 58
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Level 59
Level 60
Take Feat: Legendary Focus: Necromancy
Stat Bonus: Intelligence
Legendary Spell Focus (Necromancy), is the 4th of 4 spell focuses in necromancy. This feat increases the D/C of all necromancy spells. This school includes tactical “draining” type spells, several instant death spells, anti-undead spells, and negative energy spells.
Stats at Level 60 (without gear)
Strength 6
Dexterity 10
Constitution 14
Wisdom 8
Intelligence 50 (52 if you used the Eye of Vecna)
Charisma 12
Fort 30 Reflex 21 Will 28 (with gear and charisma bonus F 62, R 53, W 60)
Skills
Spell craft
Skill required to effectively counterspell. It also qualifies you for Greater Ruin and Autostill 1-3.
Concentration
Helps prevent spells from being disrupted while casting, and wards against concentration checks.
Craft Armor
Every 40 points of craft armor will grant you 1 AC. With bard song this skill should grant you 3 AC.
Lore
Helps to identify items. Weapon gems require high lore scores to reveal their properties.
Tumble (30), Every 5 points of tumble will grant you 1 point of AC. This is capped at 6 AC for palemasters.
Discipline
Helps ward against discipline checks, which are commonplace on this server
Appraise
With high appraise shops will give you a lot more money for items sold. This will also save you money on very expensive transactions such as at the Hellstore.
Search
Helps uncover "secret" or "hidden" objects or places.
Spot
Helps uncover "secret" or "hidden" objects or places and wards against pick pocking.
Tyranlthixis
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