Post by maudlin27 on Nov 17, 2006 21:19:39 GMT
I've decided to go even further with this build than with my previous melee-pixie-wizard staffmaster type build (who didn't have any WM levels), and create one of the most bemusing and contradicting builds on HG! Enter the Paradoxical Spell-Bow.
What is this build? Well, it's a near-pure wizard, who's taken the Doppleganger subrace. It's a caster who plans on using the longbow, with only 10 base dexterity. It's an archer who plans on hitting enemies repeatedly without even taking Rapid Shot as a feat. It's a Doppleganger who will cast arcane spells instead of divine ones. Oh, and this character is from the weakest racial group of them all, the Half-Elves!
Surely by now you must be thinking that such a build as this is doomed to failure or mediocrity on a normal module, let alone one as punishing of character flaws as higher ground. However, in some ways I think this build could well turn out to be even better as an archer than alot of AA builds, while still having a powerful arsenal of spells at its desposal:
Race: Half-Elven Doppleganger:
"Doppleganger" (secret UltraRare subrace) - no race requirement (changes Appearance)
STR -2, CON +2, WIS +5, CHA -2, free feat: Alertness, free feat: Creature Weapon Speacialization, free feat: Martial Weapon Proficiency
Half-Elf: Nothing special, except you don't have a 20% xp penalty for taking a second class.
Level progression: 16 wiz, 4 AA, 19 wiz, 1 Monk
Starting Stats:
8 [6] Str (0)
10 [8] Dex (2)
16 [18] Con (10)
15 [20] Wis (8)
16 [16] Int (10)
8 [8] Char(0)
Leveling up points: First one into Int, remaining ones into Wis
Feats wanted (7 normal, 3 bonus):
(Martial Weapon Proficiency - gained from doppleganger)
Weapon Focus: Longbow
Improved Critical: Longbow
Point Blank Shot
Zen Archery
Toughness
Empower Spell
Maximise Spell
Extend Spell
Spell Penetration
Greater Spell Penetration
Epic:
7 normal 6 bonus
Armour Skin
Epic Weapon Focus: Longbow
Epic Prowess
Great Wis I-IV
Great Int I-II
Spell Focus: Trans
GSF: Trans
ESF: Trans
Greater Spell Penetration
LL (7 available):
Epic Spell Penetration
Legendary spell penetration
Great Wis V-IX
Epic Spell Book: Divination
Skills:
Concentration, Tumble (40), Spellcraft, Discipline (43), PickPocket (cross class), remaining points into Appraise (cross class), and then Lore
lev60 stats:
73 ab (74 if you're lucky enough to get a wis artifact)
8 attacks per round
800 hp
117 ac
Pro's:
Excellent survivability
-very high conceal (85%)
-access to all wizard buffs including energy buffer+elemental shield
-although ac is below average, it's still high enough to mean alot of attacks will miss, so when combined with conceal makes you very hard to hit
-decent hp. Nothing spectacular, but you are a wizard after all
-Epic Wall+Divination epics. Divination means even if you die you get back up and running just as before with all buffs on, effectively giving you 2 lives to everyone elses one. The epic wall means you can not even have to worry about anything hitting you as well!
Excellent ranged offensive power - get more attacks per round than a typical AA build, while have as much ab as a typical melee
Excellent spell selection - have extend, silent, empower+maximise. Your DCs may be poor, but often it wont make that much of a difference anyway, given how high enemies saves are, and there are always spells like ice storm
Evasion (always nice to have!)
Excellent Will Saves
Overall is very versatile
Can complete doppleganger quest to change appearance!
Con's:
Ab while high is still lower than your typical AA
Miss out on AA special abilities such as seeker arrow+wail
Die easily unbuffed due to fairly low ac (still survive better than your typical caster though)
Hopeless spell DCs (n/t: In the case of FoD this can often be an advantage)
Decent but not great spell penetration (basically you'll be 3 sp points below the average sorc build out there so should be able to break most enemies especially with mords. There will be a few enemies that won't be easy to bypass though)
Weak Fort+Reflex Saves
Despite its breaking of traditional build formats, IMO this build offers you the best of both worlds. You can be at least as good as the other AAs out there in terms of offensive power with your bow, have better defensive power, and have the great ability to mass entire areas+kill them with your spells. Alternatively you could compare it with a caster - you suffer a slight to moderate hit in your offensive spells power (depending on the area you're at and your level, as low level casters will find most enemies saving even if they have maxed Int/Char). However you gain a boost to your defensive power, and have the added bonus that when/if you run out of spells, you're still extremally useful as you can use the dusty bow/hunter points quiver, and hit enemies alot with it.
Unfortunately I've not had time to get this build up to immo status yet, so there's a chance I've missed some glaring flaw in the char build I haven't discovered yet. However so far I've had a great time with it. Been able to mass areas, wipe out most of the enemies with my spells, and then pick off any survivors with my bow. I'm definately looking forward to trying it out in LL areas, in particular the pyramid run (given the builds ideal combination of an AA bow with an epic wall spell). I'll post again if I notice any other useful points, or if I found out I've slipped up and have forgotten something critical that means the build won't work!
In terms of varients on this build, I did originally look at doing a FA sorc version. However the lack of feats would IMO have been just too much for this build to retain its good spell selection and good prowess with the bow, as you'd lose the 4 bonus wizard feats, and the doppleganger bonus feat. You could do a dex-based wizard instead. Planewalker would be the ideal subrace for such a build, but unfortunately I didn't have it, so was left with the choice of Lycan (or the IMO inferior Yukio) ones for a dex-based character. You'd have the benefit of higher ac and an extra attack per round (if you chose rapid shot), but at the cost of losing more ac when flatfooted. Rapid shot isn't so good either, as it'd cause a -2 penalty on all of your attacks, so it might well end up meaning you hardly hit enemies more with it anyway.
Non-UR subrace alternatives would include wraith and Tiefling secret subraces (for a dex-based wiz build). I wouldn't recommend this build without a secret subrace though, as it ideally is looking for points in 3 stats (Wis/Dex, Int and Con) in order to be effective, and most standard subraces for half-elves and elves don't tend to provide enough of these for the build to have much chance of being successful (as if its too weak you'll end up in the situation of having the worst of both worlds instead of the best).
What is this build? Well, it's a near-pure wizard, who's taken the Doppleganger subrace. It's a caster who plans on using the longbow, with only 10 base dexterity. It's an archer who plans on hitting enemies repeatedly without even taking Rapid Shot as a feat. It's a Doppleganger who will cast arcane spells instead of divine ones. Oh, and this character is from the weakest racial group of them all, the Half-Elves!
Surely by now you must be thinking that such a build as this is doomed to failure or mediocrity on a normal module, let alone one as punishing of character flaws as higher ground. However, in some ways I think this build could well turn out to be even better as an archer than alot of AA builds, while still having a powerful arsenal of spells at its desposal:
Race: Half-Elven Doppleganger:
"Doppleganger" (secret UltraRare subrace) - no race requirement (changes Appearance)
STR -2, CON +2, WIS +5, CHA -2, free feat: Alertness, free feat: Creature Weapon Speacialization, free feat: Martial Weapon Proficiency
Half-Elf: Nothing special, except you don't have a 20% xp penalty for taking a second class.
Level progression: 16 wiz, 4 AA, 19 wiz, 1 Monk
Starting Stats:
8 [6] Str (0)
10 [8] Dex (2)
16 [18] Con (10)
15 [20] Wis (8)
16 [16] Int (10)
8 [8] Char(0)
Leveling up points: First one into Int, remaining ones into Wis
Feats wanted (7 normal, 3 bonus):
(Martial Weapon Proficiency - gained from doppleganger)
Weapon Focus: Longbow
Improved Critical: Longbow
Point Blank Shot
Zen Archery
Toughness
Empower Spell
Maximise Spell
Extend Spell
Spell Penetration
Greater Spell Penetration
Epic:
7 normal 6 bonus
Armour Skin
Epic Weapon Focus: Longbow
Epic Prowess
Great Wis I-IV
Great Int I-II
Spell Focus: Trans
GSF: Trans
ESF: Trans
Greater Spell Penetration
LL (7 available):
Epic Spell Penetration
Legendary spell penetration
Great Wis V-IX
Epic Spell Book: Divination
Skills:
Concentration, Tumble (40), Spellcraft, Discipline (43), PickPocket (cross class), remaining points into Appraise (cross class), and then Lore
lev60 stats:
73 ab (74 if you're lucky enough to get a wis artifact)
8 attacks per round
800 hp
117 ac
Pro's:
Excellent survivability
-very high conceal (85%)
-access to all wizard buffs including energy buffer+elemental shield
-although ac is below average, it's still high enough to mean alot of attacks will miss, so when combined with conceal makes you very hard to hit
-decent hp. Nothing spectacular, but you are a wizard after all
-Epic Wall+Divination epics. Divination means even if you die you get back up and running just as before with all buffs on, effectively giving you 2 lives to everyone elses one. The epic wall means you can not even have to worry about anything hitting you as well!
Excellent ranged offensive power - get more attacks per round than a typical AA build, while have as much ab as a typical melee
Excellent spell selection - have extend, silent, empower+maximise. Your DCs may be poor, but often it wont make that much of a difference anyway, given how high enemies saves are, and there are always spells like ice storm
Evasion (always nice to have!)
Excellent Will Saves
Overall is very versatile
Can complete doppleganger quest to change appearance!
Con's:
Ab while high is still lower than your typical AA
Miss out on AA special abilities such as seeker arrow+wail
Die easily unbuffed due to fairly low ac (still survive better than your typical caster though)
Hopeless spell DCs (n/t: In the case of FoD this can often be an advantage)
Decent but not great spell penetration (basically you'll be 3 sp points below the average sorc build out there so should be able to break most enemies especially with mords. There will be a few enemies that won't be easy to bypass though)
Weak Fort+Reflex Saves
Despite its breaking of traditional build formats, IMO this build offers you the best of both worlds. You can be at least as good as the other AAs out there in terms of offensive power with your bow, have better defensive power, and have the great ability to mass entire areas+kill them with your spells. Alternatively you could compare it with a caster - you suffer a slight to moderate hit in your offensive spells power (depending on the area you're at and your level, as low level casters will find most enemies saving even if they have maxed Int/Char). However you gain a boost to your defensive power, and have the added bonus that when/if you run out of spells, you're still extremally useful as you can use the dusty bow/hunter points quiver, and hit enemies alot with it.
Unfortunately I've not had time to get this build up to immo status yet, so there's a chance I've missed some glaring flaw in the char build I haven't discovered yet. However so far I've had a great time with it. Been able to mass areas, wipe out most of the enemies with my spells, and then pick off any survivors with my bow. I'm definately looking forward to trying it out in LL areas, in particular the pyramid run (given the builds ideal combination of an AA bow with an epic wall spell). I'll post again if I notice any other useful points, or if I found out I've slipped up and have forgotten something critical that means the build won't work!
In terms of varients on this build, I did originally look at doing a FA sorc version. However the lack of feats would IMO have been just too much for this build to retain its good spell selection and good prowess with the bow, as you'd lose the 4 bonus wizard feats, and the doppleganger bonus feat. You could do a dex-based wizard instead. Planewalker would be the ideal subrace for such a build, but unfortunately I didn't have it, so was left with the choice of Lycan (or the IMO inferior Yukio) ones for a dex-based character. You'd have the benefit of higher ac and an extra attack per round (if you chose rapid shot), but at the cost of losing more ac when flatfooted. Rapid shot isn't so good either, as it'd cause a -2 penalty on all of your attacks, so it might well end up meaning you hardly hit enemies more with it anyway.
Non-UR subrace alternatives would include wraith and Tiefling secret subraces (for a dex-based wiz build). I wouldn't recommend this build without a secret subrace though, as it ideally is looking for points in 3 stats (Wis/Dex, Int and Con) in order to be effective, and most standard subraces for half-elves and elves don't tend to provide enough of these for the build to have much chance of being successful (as if its too weak you'll end up in the situation of having the worst of both worlds instead of the best).