Post by johannhowitzer on Jul 27, 2020 12:01:43 GMT
You know how much I love minmaxed builds that are designed to stop leveling early... this one's optimized to do several jobs.
1) Hyper-efficient, safe scroll factory
2) Able to scribe every spell despite being specialized
3) Powerlevel anyone level 15-27
4) Feast upon the delicious minds of the unwitting masses
5) Ahnyth mgkadishtu ot kadishtu syha'h fhtagn
Gnome, Illithid, Lawful Good
STR 6 (5)
DEX 14
CON 17 (16)
INT 18 (23)
WIS 8
CHA 8
All increases go to INT
Wizard 1-19, Rogue 20, Wizard 21
Illithid happens to have BC: Rogue, which gives a very nice XP bonus to this build for even more scribing! Plus the Rogue level bumps the 20th Wizard level into epic character levels, which permits the double ESF feats at 21.
Yes, this build stops at 21, not 17, which is the lowest level you can get Weird and Timestop. At first I was shooting for 17, too, but it turns out there are many excellent reasons for 21. You get ESF Illusion, which greatly improves Weird and speeds up the kill rate to compensate; ESF Necromancy, which allows both specialization and scribing everything (more on this later); some key gear pieces; higher HP for more safety; casterlevel 20 which means small stone wall, better defensive buffs, and more level 9 slots. Also, the optimal level for an Oltum grinder is 8, which can help characters up through 14, perfectly bridging the gap to start using this at 15.
Skills: max Appraise, Concentration, Craft Armor, Lore, Parry, Pickpocket, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device, get 20 Tumble, and the rest in Search. You will need to dump into most of these skills on the Rogue level. Most of them don't do much, and are just there because this build is a Wizard and therefore has too many points.
(SF Illusion free)
1 - Extend
3 - Empower
5 - Maximize
6 - GSF Illusion
9 - SF Necromancy
10 - GSF Necromancy
12 - Toughness
15 - SP, GSP
18 - Brew Potion
21 - ESF Illusion, ESF Necromancy
Specialize in Illusion, bar Enchantment and Necromancy. ESF Necromancy here functions as a "pivot," allowing you to use !despecialize to remove your specialization. You will need to do this if you want to cast Necromancy or Enchantment spells. When finished, return to this specialization. You can specialize in Necromancy for a while if you like, as long as you bar Illusion, though that locks out a bunch of useful stuff. You can also forgo specialization altogether - however, note that Weird will take a sharp drop in success rate. Weird is near its success rate cap against all non-boss-room Zhentarim, if specialized.
Let's talk gear setup!
Staff - Planar Staff from Emporium (9 slot)
Offhand - Skull of Iyachtu Xvim (True Seeing, CON, INT)
Robe - Robe of Courage from Rips (Fear imm)
Helm - Helm of the Guardian from Hel and cohorts in Loki's Hall (Mind/Sneak imm)
Amulet - Amulet of the Arch Wizard from Web level 1 (9 slot)
Cloak - Cloak of Perfection from Troll King's chest (Freedom, KD/Mind/Death imm)
Gloves - Gloves of Epic Concentration from Emporium (+30 Concentration)
Belt - Belt of Wizardry from northwest corner of Duergar Mines (Haste, INT, 10/- Physical)
Boots - Boots of Hardiness +6 from Blood Moor Hags' chest (CON, Dodge AC)
Rings - two Wizard's Circles from the Farmhouse (9 slots)
If you don't have the Skull of Iyachtu Xvim, wear the Drachen Helm from Rips while resting for the extra INT. You may notice that the INT here isn't maxed from gear, that's by design. This setup gets the last possible level 9 slot, at 36 INT which requires +8 from gear, and getting +12 would have required something like dropping sneak immunity, which is very important for Zhentarim. Fox's Cunning goes in the autocaster to top off the spell DC.
As for tactics, prep maybe 2-3 Timestop and the rest Weird on level 9. Typical buffs plus Fox, and you want a summon of some sort to gather enemies and get past the beetles blocking the Fox Trail, I like Summon Creature 1. At Zhentarim, you can Timestop if in trouble or you don't feel like having to pay attention, but note that using Timestop incurs an ever-increasing cooldown per area. So if you use it three times in the cave, you'll have ramped up the cooldown to a full minute until the server resets. Your defenses are solid enough to alternate Weird with GV to break combat. Small wall and unfocused Gate spell also provide some tricks to save Timestop uses, if you're so inclined.
Go forth, and feast upo-- I mean XP the populace! Ia!
1) Hyper-efficient, safe scroll factory
2) Able to scribe every spell despite being specialized
3) Powerlevel anyone level 15-27
4) Feast upon the delicious minds of the unwitting masses
5) Ahnyth mgkadishtu ot kadishtu syha'h fhtagn
Gnome, Illithid, Lawful Good
STR 6 (5)
DEX 14
CON 17 (16)
INT 18 (23)
WIS 8
CHA 8
All increases go to INT
Wizard 1-19, Rogue 20, Wizard 21
Illithid happens to have BC: Rogue, which gives a very nice XP bonus to this build for even more scribing! Plus the Rogue level bumps the 20th Wizard level into epic character levels, which permits the double ESF feats at 21.
Yes, this build stops at 21, not 17, which is the lowest level you can get Weird and Timestop. At first I was shooting for 17, too, but it turns out there are many excellent reasons for 21. You get ESF Illusion, which greatly improves Weird and speeds up the kill rate to compensate; ESF Necromancy, which allows both specialization and scribing everything (more on this later); some key gear pieces; higher HP for more safety; casterlevel 20 which means small stone wall, better defensive buffs, and more level 9 slots. Also, the optimal level for an Oltum grinder is 8, which can help characters up through 14, perfectly bridging the gap to start using this at 15.
Skills: max Appraise, Concentration, Craft Armor, Lore, Parry, Pickpocket, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device, get 20 Tumble, and the rest in Search. You will need to dump into most of these skills on the Rogue level. Most of them don't do much, and are just there because this build is a Wizard and therefore has too many points.
(SF Illusion free)
1 - Extend
3 - Empower
5 - Maximize
6 - GSF Illusion
9 - SF Necromancy
10 - GSF Necromancy
12 - Toughness
15 - SP, GSP
18 - Brew Potion
21 - ESF Illusion, ESF Necromancy
Specialize in Illusion, bar Enchantment and Necromancy. ESF Necromancy here functions as a "pivot," allowing you to use !despecialize to remove your specialization. You will need to do this if you want to cast Necromancy or Enchantment spells. When finished, return to this specialization. You can specialize in Necromancy for a while if you like, as long as you bar Illusion, though that locks out a bunch of useful stuff. You can also forgo specialization altogether - however, note that Weird will take a sharp drop in success rate. Weird is near its success rate cap against all non-boss-room Zhentarim, if specialized.
Let's talk gear setup!
Staff - Planar Staff from Emporium (9 slot)
Offhand - Skull of Iyachtu Xvim (True Seeing, CON, INT)
Robe - Robe of Courage from Rips (Fear imm)
Helm - Helm of the Guardian from Hel and cohorts in Loki's Hall (Mind/Sneak imm)
Amulet - Amulet of the Arch Wizard from Web level 1 (9 slot)
Cloak - Cloak of Perfection from Troll King's chest (Freedom, KD/Mind/Death imm)
Gloves - Gloves of Epic Concentration from Emporium (+30 Concentration)
Belt - Belt of Wizardry from northwest corner of Duergar Mines (Haste, INT, 10/- Physical)
Boots - Boots of Hardiness +6 from Blood Moor Hags' chest (CON, Dodge AC)
Rings - two Wizard's Circles from the Farmhouse (9 slots)
If you don't have the Skull of Iyachtu Xvim, wear the Drachen Helm from Rips while resting for the extra INT. You may notice that the INT here isn't maxed from gear, that's by design. This setup gets the last possible level 9 slot, at 36 INT which requires +8 from gear, and getting +12 would have required something like dropping sneak immunity, which is very important for Zhentarim. Fox's Cunning goes in the autocaster to top off the spell DC.
As for tactics, prep maybe 2-3 Timestop and the rest Weird on level 9. Typical buffs plus Fox, and you want a summon of some sort to gather enemies and get past the beetles blocking the Fox Trail, I like Summon Creature 1. At Zhentarim, you can Timestop if in trouble or you don't feel like having to pay attention, but note that using Timestop incurs an ever-increasing cooldown per area. So if you use it three times in the cave, you'll have ramped up the cooldown to a full minute until the server resets. Your defenses are solid enough to alternate Weird with GV to break combat. Small wall and unfocused Gate spell also provide some tricks to save Timestop uses, if you're so inclined.
Go forth, and feast upo-- I mean XP the populace! Ia!
