Arcane Cerebremancer 38 Wiz/1 Monk/1 Pal

[setekhi]

For a wizard, I wanted decent saves, 3 metamagics and four epics, with LL focus in 2 schools. It seems this is a little different from the other builds posted here as well as being newer with the legendary save feats and what I know of the hells in mind so I'm giving it its own thread.


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

Gnome based. -2 Str, +2 Con, SF: Illusion, +2 Concentration, +1 AC, etc.

Character Creation - Post Subrace
=
6 - 5
8 - 8
17 - 16
8 - 8
18 - 23
14 - 14

You end up using a Transmutation spell focus book (and an Int artifact when you get one of course).

Take the Monk level pre-epic. You don't get the +2 net from tumble as opposed to cross-classing, but AC is a non-issue, and you get a +2 net bonus to fort and reflex, and +1 to will. Take the paladin level at 40 to max out discipline.

It's important to go Illusion specialist. Here's your feats.

=Pre-Epic (7 + 3 Wiz bonus)
Luck of Heroes [Racial Bonus: Iron Will, Slippery Mind, SF Illusion]
Toughness
Combat Casting
Spell Pen
SF Evoc
GSF Evoc
Still Spell
Greater Spell Pen
GSF Illusion
Spell Foc Enchantment

=Epic
Epic Spell Pen
Improved Combat Casting
ESF Illusion
ESF Evocation
Empower Spell
Maximize Spell
GSF Enchantment

=Epic Wizard (6 + 1 from pre-epic)
Great Int 1-6
ESF Enchantment

=LLs (7)
Legendary Luck
LSF Illus
LL Spell Pen
LSF Evoc
Great Int 7-9


Assuming your gear maxes out your save bonus and your relevant ability scores, your saves will be: Fort 64, Reflex 60, Will 67.

Final Weird DC (after the int artifact): DC 64.

You end up with the Transmutation and Enchantment epics (wall and balor) as well as maxing out your Meteor Swarms and Weirds.

Well, there it is. I feel this is the best build I could come up with for a straight caster wizard. (If you don't have Illithid, I would also recommend just levelling up a tank or something and acquiring the Illithid subrace first. With tinker gnome or whatever your DCs would go down by 1 and you couldn't hold anything in your offhand.)

By the way here's my autocaster: Mage Armor, Protection from Evil, Premonition, Death Armor, Spell Mantle, Elemental Shield, Mestil's Acid Sheath, Ethereal Visage.

It's probably best to just remove the damage shields from your prepared spells in areas where the kickback would be a problem. Also I put in the ability score spells and just remove them from my prepared spell slots as I change my gear.

To wrap up, I would ask what gear to shoot for ideally. It would be best to have +12 Dex, Con, Int, Wis and Cha from items, plus a strength boost, which doesn't make things easy. Most of those can come from spells; with the UR Wizard belt you max out your dex and con with spells. In the end some of it doesn't matter because I think the level 2 ability score spells give you an average of +12 to your stats when you're in the LLs anyways, but it doesn't always, and I think it's necessary to have a little bit of item based strength bonus, since 33 pounds of carrying capacity isn't enough to not be overburdened even if everything's in bags, and if you die, your buffs are gone, and when you get rezzed you may need to move before you GS/rebuff. I guess I usually GS first anyways but you never know what the next situation will call for and I don't want to spend all my actions casting Bull's Strength. So all in all it'd be best to have some bonus to all your abilities from items.

Anyways this is the framework for the gear - substitutes. I'm emphasizing URs and such that one can reasonably expect to work towards getting in loot/trading for (Tiamat caster gear and BUR items would follow the same framework). I'm assuming the reader can obtain Dachy gear as well as specific rares.

Ruinvorn's Claw (?)(UR staff) - if I recall Dachy staff loses out on a con bonus and 6th level spell slots (though you will feel the lack of bonus Chain Lightning/IGMS slots)
Prescient's Guard (Thid bracers) - Clasps of the Forewarned or something else beforehand, Immo bracers if you need the discipline bonus I guess
Lamentation's Call (UR belt) - Xitachyl's Ruin before you get it, will also need to wear another int increasing item like Thinker's Thwart or something
Ectoplasmic Weave (Thid cloak) - I use a UR cloak in its place, but if you don't have access to these yet you can use a Dachy cloak which I believe also covers int if you're using the rare belt
Dachy amulet - don't know if fear immunity is necessary for casters in the hells, if so, Lich-King's Phylactery, don't know if there are any easier items to come by with it that won't override other gear slots
Dachy boots

Honestly don't know what to do for a helm. I've looked at a few, but preferably this is where your strength bonus would come from, and the strength helms I have stats on end up being pretty redundant with the rest of your setup. Hood of Axundir looks nice for the skill bonuses and such, and Unitary Focus would be cool for the bludgeoning immunity, but neither has a strength bonus. Maybe the strength bonus isn't necessary, but I dunno, and mostly this is conjectural for me as I don't have these but it would be nice to know what to trade for.

Questions/answers/comments?


=Edited for feats and level change (Monk over Ranger).
=Edited again because monk saves are awesome.

[phalthallus]

If you havent' already, you might consider the Scion of Sorcere. +12 dex/cha (maxes two of the stats you listed, especially nice with your one level of paladin), immunity to spells level 4 and lower, and concentration/discipline +15. Also has True Seeing, Universal +5, and Immunity to Mind Affecting Spells.

It's what I wear on my druid (who also has 1 level of paladin), and am pretty happy.

[Yomi]

Two other choices include:

Soul Mirror, the Illithid bard helm. +12 to CHA and DEX, +10 each to concentration and discipline, plus a bonus epic warding. While not really common, it's not a UR.

Titan's Top, UR helm. +16 deflection, +12 to STR and CON (especially nice if you don't have the UR staff), KD immunity, and some physical DR.

If you want to wear robes that don't have physical DR on them, such as Hawklight Robes, then Titan's Top is especially nice as it covers that. The problem with Titan's Top is that it's a UR that is pretty valuable. I have plenty of other characters that would benefit from wearing one, and people (for good reason) ask a lot to trade one.

My wizard currently wears the bard helm. When doing Illithids he uses the Broken Covenent Illithid torch and casts Bulls Strength on himself. This raises discipline high enough to be immune from Gravitars while wearing almost all Dachy caster gear. If I was wearing Titan's Top and didn't have DEX covered I'd cast Cats Grace instead to boost reflex saves.

[Raj]

hello ^^

57 reflex and no evasion is really a bad idea imho

i'd start with con 17->16, int 18->23 and cha 14; +1 on will and ref, -60 hp
now u only need great int IX, so no longer ranger and go monk; +2 ac with tumble ( not really important but... ) and evasion
and then i'd say no need for combat casting but great and legendary reflex feats; reflex save hits 67 but u have to quickslot defensive mode

or simply don't take ench focus and spare those 3 feats, plenty of girdling clerics in hell parties for gmw, and balor while nice isn't really a must have

[setekhi]

lol sorcs The question is if that much reflex is actually necessary. To my knowledge the only time you would ever need reflex that high is if you were caught in the way of Tiamat's consorts and such. From what I hear anyway you can stay out of reach. If I recall the raks in hells are supposed to have high 50s for Meteor Swarms, which could hurt, though most of the time you'll only be taking half damage and with divine resistance I imagine you wouldn't be hurting too bad.

Rearranging the ability scores could be worth looking at, and would give you room for the monk level. In any case isn't there a pure wizard with demigod status? I know I wouldn't trade the Combat Casting feats, defensive mode just does not seem practical at the high levels here. In any case I figured in the end "decent" reflex would be "enough" so I could fit in the epics and such. I see enough wizards around without the monk level that it seems it's not *that* necessary, as good as it is.

[fragment]

Improved combat casting at level 40 is pretty late, and you're gonna hurt up to there (if not, you wouldn't take it in the 1st place).

Why don't you take ESF Enchantment at level 40 (appears in the ranger bonus feat list on nwnwiki) and take improved combat casting as wizard feat?

Regards!

[setekhi]

I thought only GSF was on the Ranger bonus list for some reason. Will change.

=Edit: Went ahead and swapped ranger for monk. Sacrificing 60 hp for a better class and more survivability in the end seemed worthwhile. Huzzah for re-levelling!

[setekhi]

As can be seen, I've changed the build. 60 Reflex and Evasion have been attained. The old version was retired at 47; some powerlevelling sessions have brought my new version to a level 40 immo.

For gear, I've decided I'll be going with Noble Fireborn boots (rare, +8 Str, 5% physicals, +3 regeneration) and a charisma/discipline boost helm. Soul Mirror actually looks to be one of the better choices for this; I do have a Scion of Sorcere I'll be wearing. The tradeoff I think is +5 Discipline/Concentration vs +5 Regeneration and Epic Warding. I've seen the Soul Mirror around, I'll track one down and probably end up using it. Good ideas all.

[FunkySwerve]

Hey, welcome to the forums! You can just delete your own posts, if you like.
Funky

[Scotty the Man]

Wait a minute, doesn't Illusion specialist make enchantment spells forbidden? If yes, what is the point of taking spell focus enchantment and the higher ones? Other than getting the balor.

[flynn01]

The Enchant Spell foci are most commonly used to increase the efficiency of the Transmutation (iirc) spell Greater Magic Weapon.

[Scotty the Man]

ahh, that's pretty useful for the tanks who rely on buffs