Mage-U-Like 39 Wiz 1 Your Choice

[chainlink]

Name: Mage-U-Like
RACE: Human
Subrace: Illithid (secret subrace)/Genie (Beyond Ultra Rare subrace)
Level Progression: 39 Wizard 1 Ranger or Monk
Human: +1 starting Feat, +1 Skill Point per level

However this is where it gets tricky, you can ether go the route of one level of Ranger at 40 which gives you access to a another Feat such as Improved combat casting (best you don’t take this earlier if you choose this option) and max discipline or alternatively go one level of Monk with the attendant Evasion, tumble maxing and discipline maxing, the jury is out on the best of these two choices.

"Illithid" (secret subrace) - no race requirement (changes Appearance)
STR -1, CON -1, INT +5, free feat: Iron Will, free feat: Slippery Mind

"Genie" (secret Beyond UltraRare subrace) - no race requirement (Changes Appearance)
DEX +2, CON +2, INT +6, free feat: Spell Penetration, free feat: Greater Spell Penetration, able to walk on quicksand, increases character size to large

STATS: Illithid/Genie
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STR: 8 (7)[8]
DEX: 12 (12)[14]
CON: 17 (16)[18 start at 16] Gives you a huge 480 + 360 (from+12 to Con) 840 hps and then of course you cast Tensers Transformation!
WIS: 8 (8)
INT: 17 (22) [24 Start at 18] Final INT at level 60 will be 50 +10 Stat points +10 Great INT, +10 LL Stat points maxing to 64 with +12 from items, can gain another +2 from the Int artefact for a final total of 66 or 68 with Genie.
CHA: 8 (8)

School: General
Epic School Focus: Enchantment, Evocation, Necromancy, Transmutation
Bonus Book School Focus: Illusion
Main Skill Focus: Concentration, Spellcraft, Lore plus tumble, discipline, etc at level 40 depending on your alternate class choice. Put it this way I struggled to spend all the skill points I’d amounted by level 40 and in LL I’m still spending 17 per level on random skills. However I’d say always put a few points into Appraise as this is INT based and will get you much better prices for gear you sell.
Now I've actually checked this out maxing spellcraft gives you a handy +12 on saves vs. spells by level 57 and a non too shabby +8 by level 37 (although this may actually add up to significantly more than this as unlike tumble I'm not sure that this is limited to just the spellcraft points and not additions to spellcraft from abilities and bonus points from items?).

[

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Combat Casting
Spell Penetration [Free with Genie]
Silent Spell (enables casting of spells +1 level above their normal level)
Empower Spell (enables casting of spells +2 levels above their normal level)
Maximise Spell (enables casting of spells +3 levels above their normal level)
Greater Spell Penetration [Free with Genie]
Spell Focus: Evocation
Greater Spell Focus: Evocation
Spell Focus: Necromancy
Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy
Spell Focus: Enchantment
Spell Focus: Transmutation

[[Epic Feats]]
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Epic Spell Penetration
Improved Combat Casting (take as a Ranger Feat at level 40 if you choose this option leaving you with another feat to play with)
Greater Spell Focus: Enchantment
Greater Spell Focus: Transmutation
Epic Spell Focus: Transmutation
Epic Spell Focus: Necromancy
Epic Spell Focus: Enchantment
Great Intelligence I (1)
Great Intelligence II (2)
Great Intelligence III (3)
Great Intelligence IV (4)
Great Intelligence V (5)


[[Legendary Feats]]
====================
LL Spell Penetration
LL Spell Focus: Necromancy
Great Intelligence VI (6)
Great Intelligence VII (7)
Great Intelligence VIII (8)
Great Intelligence IX (9)
Great Intelligence X (10)

Note: The two extra feats you get with Genie would be well used for Extend Spell and LL Spell Focus Evocation.

[[Spells]]
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No point in noting spells as you’re a mage so you can pick and choose depending on the enemies you’re facing but obviously it goes without saying that spells you have LL focus in will tend to fare better.

Typical Equipment

Lamentation's Call - UR Wizard Belt
Ruinvorn's Claw - UR Wizard Staff
Amulet of Axeria Imperia - Dachy Wizard Amulet
Boots of Axeria Imperia - Dachy Wizard Boots
Cloak of Axeria Imperia - Dachy Wizard Cloak
Prescient's Guard - Illithid Wizard Bracers (Level 55 requirement)
Thinkers Thwart +10 - Random Wiz/Sorc/Monk Helm
Sstadi S'Benat - Ssithrak Torch (careful with this its an artefact)
Vecna's Eye - Intelligence Artefact (Level 55 requirement)
Make sure you don't have the Ssith torch equipped when you come to use Vecna's Eye or else!!
Rings- I have an entire screen of rings but I tend to use Bauphin's Bulwark (for its anti-mord properties) and the Ring of Windworking (effectively the greater levitation ring).  The ring of Axeria Imperia also comes in handy as it gives you more bonus spells and immunity to Knockdown.

As you can see I've gone for equipment that maximises bonus spells in most areas and not necessarily for the best gear available as hopefully your spells should protect you from most attacks.

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EPIC SPELLS
=======================

Starfire 
School: Illusion
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Description:
Deeply dissatisfied with his school's inability to cause 'real' physical change in the world, Akir de'Bat, the greatest Illusionist of the Academy, continually pushed the limits of phantasmal energy. His greatest creation, and his last, was this spell, for its discovery drove him utterly mad. In his quest for the 'real', he discovered enchantments so powerful that they could bind the caster's perception of reality, as well as the victim's. This spell creates the irrefutable impression in the caster that he is opening, for a brief instant, a portal to the heart of the Sun, unleashing its tremendous fury on his enemies. The caster's absolute conviction apparently denies his foes any chance of disbelief. Whether it actually DOES open a portal to the centre of the Sun, no one will ever know, but the effects of the spell are undeniable.
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Effect:
This spell affects every creature hostile to the caster in a Gargantuan area of effect, inflicting (1d6 per casterlevel) x 3 points of magical damage, and knocking them to the ground for 2 rounds. There is no chance to Evade this spell, though a successful reflex save against a DC of (30 + relevant caster ability bonus) cuts the damage in half.

Death of Magic 
School: Necromancy
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Description:
True masters of the necromantic arts learn not only to perceive and snuff out the life force in living things, but to see the larger web of life in which all living things are linked, their life threads intertwining with those of other beings and with the planet itself. From this commingling comes the raw magical energy used to shape spells. While the life-threads of the planet are too immense for any mortal to sever, the greatest necromancers of the Academy divined a way to 'pluck' at certain threads in such a manner as to cause a recoil in those threads, sending them careening away from the effected area for a short while, rendering it magic-dead.
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Effect:
All non-epic magic ceases to function in the entire area for 6 rounds. This means for monsters, AND for PCs.

Missile Barrage 
School: Evocation
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Description:
Long before Isaac's time, the casters of the Axerian Empire had perfected this most deadly spell. It was from tattered fragments of one of the few scrolls on which it was scribed that he was able to reconstruct, to an extent, the effect of this spell. His efforts, however painstaking, unfortunately produced only pale imitations.
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Effect:
Creates an IGMS-like barrage of 20 missiles which each impact their targets for 8d6 points of magic damage. This spell may be cast twice per day, unlike other epic spells.

Ensnare True Denizen
School: Enchantment
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Description:
Conjurers have always found it impossible to conjure up the greatest, most infernal beings of lower planes. They are too mighty, and their link to their plane too strong - only by their own will can they leave it. Therein lies the key to this spell. Rather than forcing and containing such a creature, the greatest Enchanter in Axeria learned to beguile and confuse them, making them believe that they were rushing to face their hated foes in the never-ending blood feud between demon and devil.
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Effect:
Summons a Balor, straight from the Abyss, to fight for the caster for 2 minutes. A real one.

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Transmute Barrier 
School: Transmutation
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Description:
For years now the elusive goal, the crown gem of transmutation has been the ability to transmute lead into gold, transforming one fundamental building block of the universe into another. Axerian Transmuters scoffed at such petty pursuits, however, having long such mastered them, and achieved tasks far more daunting. They were able to transmute not only solid-state element to solid-state element, but gas-state element to solid -state element, somehow tapping the immense energies stored in these basic building blocks. This spell is one of the more practical extensions of that ability, transmuting the very air around the caster into solid obsidian walls.
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Effect:
This spell creates epic walls of stone in box formation around the caster. The walls have 5000 hps and 10/- physical resist, and persist for 1 round per casterlevel. They form at a distance that prevents Medium size creatures and below from reaching the caster if he stays in the centre. Larger creatures can still reach at that distance, however, so clever placement will be needed to achieve maximum safety.

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Notes:
In answer to a previous Wizard build comment Transmute Barrier is very useful in the right areas as myself and a mate can produce one each of these then nuke the mobs until they are all dead (with a couple of obvious exceptions).  Out of all the Epic spells I have the one I’ve used least is DoM but this is probably because I’ve been in caster only groups recently in areas where the mobs just tend to mash you and not use spells and casting DoM is suicide. 

This is the way I created my mage but I suspect that taking Evocation Feats earlier may produce a benefit (as IGMS and MS are both Evocation) or alternatively use a book for Evocation and use the LL Feats for Illusion to get access to Starfire.

Delfestra has a good point and it may be worth sacrificing a couple of points of Great Int to get both Extend Spell and possibly Quicken Spell giving you both longer lasting spells and the option to cast spells at +4 above their standard level.

It is possible to use Gnome as the base for this build but you would have to take one of the other spell schools via a book or the Gnome spell focus illusion would be wasted and you would be effectively -1 feat.  On the positive side you would get two more Con points and the Str and skill point reductions are fairly irrelevant for this build.

7/7/06 Edited to take into account Spellcraft skill information.
23/10/06 Complete re-edit based on the way I actually built my mage (Ilikebrains Gald) and I took the monk option.
31/10/06  Equipment description load out started.
18/12/06 Yes I got Genie and Oh yes I used it!  Improvements over the original Illithid build are a fairly significant +3 dc on evocation spells, +1 dc on all other schools and the ability to extend your spells.  I thought about going straight mage rather than splash monk but I’m just too attached to the evasion and ac bonus so I don’t think I can drop it.  As you get even more skill points with this option I’m going to be throwing them around on random skills I suspect, if for some reason you wanted an even more insane quantity of skill points (pity you can't donate them to other toons!) take the great Int feats earlier on.

[Delfestra Ruinvorn]

Personally, I think you sacrifice a great deal not having extended spell. I personally use that all the time on buffs with a *rounds per level component: The three damage shields, Globe of Invulnerability, Shield, and the all important Tensers for example.

It is also useful with spellmantle, but those are often better taken empowered, since in high caster areas its not likely to last long enough to make it worth it. The trick is to cast it right before you encounter the casters to maximize the time you have it while hunting critters to waste it.

[chainlink]

Added modifications from the use of Genie.

[fragment]

I modelled a tiefling gnome illusionist after this, and have a question: What about saves with this build? Does it make sense to sacrifice a spell focus to gain LL Luck? Or do you play wizzes in a way that they don't save?

Thanks in advance, regards.

[chainlink]

Completely depends on how you want to play it. Personally I'm for maxing spell power after all that's why you built your mage isn't it?

[dodrudon]

Your saves are pretty low anyways, you should be relying on Spell Mantles or other methods (such as staying, far, far away from combat) to avoid having to make a saving throw. That said, you could boost your saves if you wanted, but you would rarely see the benefits of doing so (you might be able to get enough to make all your implode saves in the desert), whereas you would often see the benefits from spell foci.

[chainlink]

If you want a caster with high saves play a Sorc, if you want access to all the spells and change them when you want play a Wiz. You could always splash a Paladin level but with the standard build the best you're going top get is +5 to all saves. Anyway that's why you took epic transmutation to get the Epic Wall to keep the nasties at arms length isn't it?......................You did take this didn't you?....................No, Oh Dear!

[..[Sirloin]..]

Ummh.. do you take epic spell focus evocation with this build? No?

And what about the imp. combat casting.. is it worth taking at all?

[chainlink]

I took improved combat casting as I've never got the hang of defensive casting mode and no I couldn't fit in LL evocation but I used a book to get epic focus. Being more experienced now I would take feats to get evocation and use a book for enchantment or transmutation. I still use Ilikeabrains as my premier mage even though I have a level 60 Genie and I Tia tagged him so he could use uber gear (in preference to tagging the Genie, yes I know that's wrong!).

[..[Sirloin]..]

Yea.. i think i would take only evocation, necromancy and enchantment focuses as feats.. and then transmutation or illusion as a book whether you want to have the barrier or starfire.

Would it be any good to take both, the ranger and the monk lvl? like ranger at 39 for the feat and monk at 40 to get the skills and evasion.. i think it would be worth it.. you wouldn't lose more than one wizard lvl.. and you would get tumbe, discipline and an extra feat etc..

Btw.. would it be good to choose gnome as starting base race rather than human? Cause i wouldn't be taking any transmutation or illusion focuses as feats it would free up few feats.. so human not so needed. gnome would grant me +2 to con. And the small size would go awat with illithid form.. ??

Thanks!