Arcane Retribution (80 Wizard)

[Retribution]

Highlights

• 1 Paragon Spells - Polymathy
• 3 Paragon Spell Focii - Evocation, Abjuration, and Necromancy
• 1 Legendary Spell Focii - Illusion
• 2 Epic Spell Focii - Transmutation and Divination
• 2 Metamagics - Extend and Empower
• Maximised Intelligence

Overview

This is a pure wizard build made to tackle most areas of the mod. It has been made with the specific objective of being both flexible in all areas, and reasonably sturdy (I use it a lot for double-boxing). The choice of focii may seem a little odd, and are partly due to personal preference. Evocation is impossible to go past at the moment, given the damage focus of mages. Necromancy is my favourite spell school, and I enjoy insta-killing, so I chose to maximise DC for this school. PSF Abjuration opens up Banish, gives great energy immunity, and makes dispell spells auto succeed versus all casters at present. LSF Illusion grants 85% Ethereal Visage and a good Weird DC. ESF Transmutation provides passable DC on Disintegrate and Reverse Gravity, while ESF Divination grants contingency (my favourite epic) and improves the hit point limit for Power Word: Kill. Extend and Empower spell grant plenty of spellbook flexibility. Greater Ruin was omitted, as there really isn't the need for it in newer areas.

Basic Information

Base race: Human
Subrace: Genie

Base Stats/Racially Adjusted Stats

STR: 8/8
DEX: 14/16
CON: 14/16
INT: 18/24
WIS: 10/10
CHA: 8/8

Level Progression: 40 Wizard

Feats

Free Feats

Spell Penetration
Greater Spell Penetration

Human Bonus Feat

Spell Focus: Evocation

7 Pre Level 20 Feats

Greater Spell Focus: Evocation
Spell Focus: Necromancy
Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy
Spell Focus: Illusion
Greater Spell Focus: Illusion
Spell Focus: Divination
Greater Spell Focus: Divination

4 Pre Level 20 Wizard Bonus Feats

Spell Focus: Abjuration
Greater Spell Focus: Abjuration
Metamagic: Extend Spell
Metamagic: Empower Spell

7 Epic Feats

Great Intelligence I
Great Intelligence III
Great Intelligence V
Great Intelligence VII
Great Intelligence IX
Epic Spell Penetration
Epic Spell Focus: Evocation

6 Epic Wizard Bonus Feats

Great Intelligence II
Great Intelligence IV
Great Intelligence VI
Great Intelligence VIII
Great Intelligence X
Epic Spell Focus: Necromancy

3 Spell Tome Bonus Feats

Spell Focus: Transmutation
Greater Spell Focus: Transmutation
Epic Spell Focus: Transmutation

7 Legendary Level Feats

Epic Spell Focus: Illusion
Epic Spell Focus: Divination
Epic Spell Focus: Abjuration
Legendary Spell Penetration
Legendary Spell Focus: Evocation
Legendary Spell Focus: Necromancy
Legendary Spell Focus: Illusion

6 Paragon Level Feats

Paragon Spell Penetration
Paragon of Polymathy
Paragon Spell Focus: Evocation
Paragon Spell Focus: Necromancy
Legendary Spell Focus Abjuration
Paragon Spell Focus Abjuration

Stat Increases

20 Intelligence

Level 80 Stats/With +16 Item Bonuses/Double Demigod

STR: 10/26/30
DEX: 18/34/38
CON: 18/34/38
INT: 56/72/76 (78 with Artifact)
WIS: 12/28/32
CHA: 10/26/30

Saves

Base + Epic Level Increase + Legendary Level Increase + Paragon Level Increase + Ability Bonus + Items + Double Demigod

Reflex: 6 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 12 + 20 + 2 = 60
Fortitude 6 + 10 + 5 + 5+ 12 + 20 + 2 = 60
Will: 12 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 9 + 20 + 2 = 63

Skill Points

Lore: 63
Concentration: 63
Craft Armour: 63
Spellcraft: 63
Discipline: 41 (Cross-Class)
Tumble: 41 (Cross-Class)
Listen: 31 (Cross-Class)
Search: 31 (Cross-Class)
Appraise: 31 (Cross-Class)

Extras

Pandect: Shield

Artifact: Intelligence

AC Calculation at Double Demigod

10 (Base)
18 (Armour)
17 (Deflection)
20 (Natural Armour - With Tenser's Transformation)
20 (Dodge)
14 (Dexterity Bonus)
2 + 18 (Shield - Artifact)
8 (Tumble)
3 (Craft Armour)

= 130 AC Total (132 With Girding)

Gear

There are many gear setups, however I have chosen to go with:

Wrap of Fistandantilus
Amulet of The Pharoah
Rampart of the Pact Primeval
Gaze Into the Abyss
Spellguards of Netheril
Corruption of the Mind
Cloak of the Axerian Grandmaster
Belt of the Axerian Grandmaster
Staff of the Axerian Grandmaster
Planewalker/Quarternary Exotica + BUR Mord or Breach Ring

Cheers
T Scott

[chainlink]

Eye of Vecna makes you evil so bye bye to paladin saves, yes you can go back to good but if they change other alignment restricted stuff you might find good alignment affects the functionality of the Eye.

[alandrian]

Why do you go Human instead of Gnome? Genie will adjust your size anyway and you gain +2 to con. You dont lose a feat because Gnomen get free Illusion Focus.
Another question. Do you really think the loss in spellpenetration is worth the saves/discp you get from monk/pal?
Just a minor flaw: I guess you take Greater Int X not IX.

[Retribution]

Thanks for the replies. Regarding the artifact making me evil effecting paladin saves, i asked this in the class edits thread and was told that eye of vecna changes alignment, but is not actually algnment restricted, so atleast for the moment i can use both. The reason i have not gone gnome is that i wish to change my appearance back to base race for aethetic reasons, and using gnome and doing this would make me small size, and unable to use a shield and a staff. Think i wil stick with both pally/monk as I have been playing this build for a while and not really minded, but i guess that is just my personal choice. And hey, sorcs manage . And yes that was meant Great Int X not IX, fixed it up. Any answers to my questions at the bottom much appreciated

Thanks for your advice

[Retribution]

After talking to some people in game have decided to stick with the focuses that i have, however i am still unsure on which metamagics i should be taking and whether it is worth freeing up a feat for epic warding and/or epic mage armour? Any thoughts/advice much appreciated as i am anxious to get reincarnation underway

Cheers
T Scott

[nohmask]

Im eager to use the jello pop maker (g ruin) and see how that does, also if they put back some of the super summons they had initially discussed Id be into seeing how these go. I'm not sure metas will be out by the end of reincarnation so I'd say just use what they have on the list..in which case not sure legendary illusion is needed (unless you REALLY need that extra ethereal round or two) no max or extend seems problematic, but mainly the no max, as I like to max booms or daggers for some damage....but its true you cant max much else...well, firebrands for tears...melfs I do max actually...dump the monk level..I've done 5 layers without it and I haven't noticed the difference....hmm....6 layers? 6....right....it gets blurry....Im going to take legendary transmutation for the extra umph on the stone to flesh, my new thing to try, and still on the fence about the stripper...I was actually thinking its raw that if you go to all the trouble to take feats with that you should get something other than one shot and suped up greater dispells...yawn...am I missing something about that spell? I must be....or maybe at legendary you get to use it unlimited amount? If everyone is taking listen not sure this in its present form is that hot really....it might be shocking but all that evocation, while I love how thunderclaps with legendary and high int knocks things down here and there, it might be scrapable really...just take the half damage...those missles fly willy nilly anyway when you are trying to blast a B. Steel Golem so....use starfire, great epic! Also dump the con, boost the cha, dump the reflex save....thats just my take, as I have said many a time, there's a lot of different ways to build a caster toon, all are fun and most can work out fine. Happy Hunting!
Oh, since we are not sure how some of the odd spell changes like the Maze effect and the huge wall, I'm still waiting to see how this works, and experimenting with the epic conjuration to see if all that kickback risk is worth it...we shall see...

[Retribution]

Updated, lets see some wizards people ;p

[Retribution]

Updated after int arti change

[Chaos]

My first time wizard will be based upon this build. I really like planewalkers abilities (strider and aquatic) and the resists so I think I will be using that race. This is the build I will be going by except going human and switching luck of heroes at start for spell pen and greater spell penetration at start. Expect to see a new wizard!

HawkeZ

[Retribution]

Updated

[uncanny]

Daft question.. I don't seem to be getting the amount of feats you've got listed.
I get 13 feats in epic levels, and an additional bonus feat from the Ranger (14 total) - but you have listed 14 and an extra from Ranger (15 total).
Or am I reading it wrong maybe?

[Grogbot]

Jan 22, 2009 16:26:36 GMT @uncanny said:

Daft question.. I don't seem to be getting the amount of feats you've got listed.
I get 13 feats in epic levels, and an additional bonus feat from the Ranger (14 total) - but you have listed 14 and an extra from Ranger (15 total).
Or am I reading it wrong maybe?

I had the same problem - the issue, I think is that you don't get 3 pre-20 level Wiz feats as per the description, you get 4 pre-21 (5,10,15 and 20) - which means, as far as I can tell, you get one less epic feat.

So ... the same sort of thing happened to me (I only noticed at L19) ... which meant I had one extra pre-epic Wiz feat I was stuck with and had to drop an epic feat.

_{Modify - typo} - bah! Unless of course you don't take your 20th Wiz level until you are ChL 21 - an epic character - in which case I think the bonus Wiz feat allows you access to Epic Feats ... sorry , my bad

My point now being - you can't use this 19/1/19/1 build as a template for a pure wiz!

[Retribution]

The build works with the feats as listed, as I have made it (I may not have them in the right order but you can take them all). I actually take a splash level pre epic just so the extra feat is shifted into the epic category, as there aren't really any pre epic feats that are really useful. Glad to see people still looking at this build

Ret.

[uncanny]

Ret;
Are you sure you're not using a pandect for the epic spell penetration (is there even one)?

[kingcamaro]

why would he be? genie get spell pen and G spell pen for free, so only need to take epic spell pen (which he has listed)
and no, there isnt a pendects, but there is a tome of epic spell penetration (though he states to read trans tome)