Planewalking Gnomish Wizard [W38/Ranger1/Monk1]

[booboospooki]

I believe that wizards are very versatile as far as feat choices go, so here's my second version.

The Planewalking Gnomish Wizard is a variation of the Tenacious Tinker. My changes reflect the lessons I've learned on Higher Ground.

Attributes

	Starting	Planewalker
STR	8		6
DEX	10 		12
CON	18		20
INT	18		20
WIS	8		8
CHA	8		8

Advantages
* Intelligence of 50 at level 60 without items
* Four Epic spells
* Legendary Spell Focus in Evocation, Necromancy
* Constitution of 20 without items

Disadvantages
* A low strength means you'll use lots of magic bags!
* Being small-sized, you can't wear a staff and a torch

Saves
- Adding +5 to the level 40 saves from Legendary Levels
- Taking into account DEX 24, CON 32 and WIS 20 from items
- Not taking into account any item bonuses
Fortitude: 42
Reflex: 28
Will: 31

Note
You have three free feats which you can rearrange during character development. You may fill these with more metamagic feats, or you may go for Epic Spell Focus in another school - whichever you want!

Class development
- Take a ranger level at 39 for the extra feat
- Take a monk level at 40
- The above choices will allow you to maximize tumble and discipline too
- Read a book that teaches you Epic Spell Focus: Transmutation



Epic Spells
- Death of Magic (Necromancy)
- Missile Barrage (Evocation)
- Transmute Barrier (Transmutation)
- Ensnare True Denizen (Enchantment)

Background
Growing up in Sigil, you always dreamed of finding a world where you could experiment on your own without the nonsensical rules imposed by the various factions dispersed throughout the City of Doors. You joined a group of gnomish spelljammers and discovered a Prime world where your genius would really be appreciated.

Edit: Corrected the Evocation Epic Spell
Edit: Added (supposed) saves at level 60

[setekhi]

The Evoc epic is an IGMS deal, I believe the Conj epic is the Bigby swarm.

So how are your saves at level 60?

[booboospooki]

I added saves, which I calculated as follows:
- Character up to 40 in a test module
- Adding +5 from Legendary Levels
- Attributes from items (+6 to each save)

- Apparently you can add +20 from items/bard song:
Fortitude: 62
Reflex: 48
Will: 41

This makes me think that it would be very helpful to take Lightning Reflexes, then Legendary Reflexes, as one of the three optional Legendary Feats. The lower will save is in my opinion not a problem if you have Mind Blank prepared.

I appreciate the comments so far, I'm hardly an expert at planning builds; this one was focused on getting a high intelligence bonus early on.

[fragment]

Close to what I'm doing, but ... the 3 free feats bug me. You don't have free feats in a HG character build

- Gnomes get sf illusion for free, so you may as well take the missing 2 sf feats in illusion and get starfire - and a nicer DC for phantasmal and weird. Illusion epic is 1 feat cheaper than other epics. I in fact dropped necro and enchantment in favor of illusion and divination.

- You can also invest the free feats into better saves. I'm not sure what's doable at all, though, but reflex 50+ at level 42 would be good. LL luck requires luck of heroes at level 1. This is what I planned to do.

- I think having only 1 metamagic feat may be a problem later. I'd suggest at least 2, rather 3, but more experienced players than me might chime in.

And general:

- Depending on your playstyle, you might want to get improved cc at the earliest possible level, which is level 23.

Regards!

[chainlink]

If you play a Gnome caster prepare for heartache when you get to a decent level (40+) and are unable to wield both a good staff and something and your off hand.

[Yomi]

As said, you really shouldn't be a small race to start (like Gnome) unless you use a subrace that changes size back to medium. This is why people make gnome illithids, since you get the gnome benefit (+2 con) without the horrible penalty of being unable to use a caster staff and torch. With Planewalker I think you're better off with human. You still get a +2 to CON from PW at least, and the human bonus feat makes up for the SF: Illusion from Gnome.

High CON is definitely a big deal for casters -- good to see you maxed that. Seeing casters in the level 30's with 130hp is crazy -- how do they expect to ever do a DB run? I never had an issue with low STR on my wizards. It's quite annoying for dexers using shields, but my wizard fully equipped with an inventory full of stuff is at 46 pounds. You do need bags for loot of course. If you want to use a fancy caster shield you may need to boost it with equipment, but those seem to be higher level gear. With gnome+planewalker for a 4 STR you may see problems -- Human/PW should be fine.

I would recommend looking at maximize and/or empower. They're very useful. A lot of people recommend the transmute barrier for an epic. Personally I'm not enthralled with it, but it is awfully nice for illithid tube room, pyramid, and Hells. In fact you really need it if you plan to be a mage in Hells.

[sabregirl]

Well, I will say on the side of gnome wizards that they aren't entirely undoable, as Tyran's gnome wizard (currently tagged up to Stygia) attests. The loss of an offhand item is definitely annoying and there have been some efforts made to address this problem, primarily the existance of gnome sized fans. Though these are currently only found in the lower levels of hells and are somewhat underpowered considering their staff counterparts, there are some steps being taken in support of gnomish casters.

-S