|
|
Post by diemex on Sept 30, 2006 11:23:16 GMT
My version of the "HP Mage".... Quite possibly the worst build I have ever come up with ! You can call him stubby mage too if you like... though he may bash you in the head !  DWARF (Arctic Dwarf) 10 STR 10 DEX 16 CON 8 WIS 18 INT 8 CHA First stat increase is INT, rest are CON. Level Progression 1 FTR 2-39 WIZ 40 FTR PreEpic Feats Toughness, Blind Fight, Spell Penetrate, Ext Spell, SpF: Evocation, Emp Spell, Still Spell, Max Spell, Gr SpF: Evocation, Gr Penetration, Combat Casting Epic Feats Armor Skin, Epic Spell penetration, Auto Still 1/2/3, Epic Spell Mage Armor, Gr CON, Epic Spell Hellball, Gr CON2, Epic Spell Warding, Gr CON3, Epic Spell Dragon Knight, Gr CON4, Epic Spell Gr Ruin, Epic Toughness Skill Points @ 40 43 Concentrate/Discipline 42 Spellcraft 21 Open Lock/Disarm Trap ( 46 to spare.... Craft Skills ?) STATS @ 40 AB (well nevermind this) AC 11 (naked oi!) SV F 29 W 20 R 15 (+11 vs spells) HP 672 Playability/Misc notes AC is not hot, but you can wear Heavy Armor / Shield. And to be honest I dont think you want to evade everything. With your HPs you can carry heal pots... and heal the damage taken while the enemy suffers from your acid sheath. Reflex save stinks, but most reflex saves are for damage and that you can take a lot of and just heal it away. Will save not so great, but mind immunity should save most of your worries. This build with +12 con buff/items will have 912 HP. Your attacking mainly with Evocation spells, theres a lot of damage spells there with no save or save for 1/2 damage. With both empower and max spell you can ladder the no save versions through levels so as to have more of them available to cast. You can buff yourself fairly well. I think this mage should be able to solo fairly well when required. I've enjoyed it on other servers, have not tested on HG yet but with all the spell changes and other improvements this build should be fairly strong alone or in a team. No LL plans... |
|
|
|
Post by mrslayer on Sept 30, 2006 17:00:46 GMT
As I am sure many others will confirm it is better to wear no armour as ethereal visage, premonition etc are boosted if not armoured. Good build for other servers, not so hot hear. Only arcanists that should bother with Still Spell are Bane Knights and Pale Masters.
|
|
|
|
Post by irongolem on Sept 30, 2006 17:26:33 GMT
I gotta agree with mrslayer. I've tried it both ways - 90% conceal, the resistance you can acheive with no armor on.. much better than ac.
However, that don't mean you can't have options of steel vs cloth for when the time calls..
|
|
|
|
Post by cathedralmaster on Sept 30, 2006 18:07:48 GMT
In a word: Palemaster. Either that, or readjust it for melee and use your spellcasting abilities to buff yourself (ie. go Staffmaster). The way you have the build set up now, you have a high hp... well that's about it. Other than that: DWARF (Arctic Dwarf) 10 STR 10 DEX 16 CON 8 WIS 18 INT 8 CHA First stat increase is INT, rest are CON. The DC on your spells is going to be garbage. No wonder you dropped Necro focuses. However, that also means your offensive spell capabilites are going to be seriously underpowered. Say goodbye to FoDs, Wails, Flesh to Stone... In a word, ouch. I can just see every wizard on HG cringing. Level Progression 1 FTR 2-39 WIZ 40 FTR Since you don't care about AB, you'd be better off going for Wizard 1st level as the Rowan tree will then give you two levels instead of 1. You might also want to think about exchanging one of those levels for Paladin (which adds it's charisma bonus to all saves) or Monk (for evasion). PreEpic Feats Toughness, Blind Fight, Spell Penetrate, Ext Spell, SpF: Evocation, Emp Spell, Still Spell, Max Spell, Gr SpF: Evocation, Gr Penetration, Combat Casting If your not going melee, why take Blind Fight? Epic Feats Armor Skin, Epic Spell penetration, Auto Still 1/2/3, Epic Spell Mage Armor, Gr CON, Epic Spell Hellball, Gr CON2, Epic Spell Warding, Gr CON3, Epic Spell Dragon Knight, Gr CON4, Epic Spell Gr Ruin, Epic Toughness Hellball is worthless here. Epic Mage Armor, Epic Warding, and Greater Ruin you can all find on good staves. Epic toughness for anything but an RDD build is a sign your build has problems. AC is not hot, but you can wear Heavy Armor / Shield. And to be honest I dont think you want to evade everything. With your HPs you can carry heal pots... and heal the damage taken while the enemy suffers from your acid sheath. Reflex save stinks, but most reflex saves are for damage and that you can take a lot of and just heal it away. Will save not so great, but mind immunity should save most of your worries. As far as the relfex saves, for the pre-LL areas, maybe. For the LL areas, if you fail a reflex save then half the time that means so much dmg that it might as well be instant death. It's why everyone here loves reflexes and evasion so much. But you won't go into the LL areas then? On this mod, the game doesn't really begin till you get to the LLs. |
|
|
|
Post by diemex on Oct 1, 2006 1:18:46 GMT
O U C H.
Thanks for your honesty though, I would hate to put all that effort into a build to find out that it really isnt very viable here.
|
|
|
|
Post by jillybean on Oct 1, 2006 1:30:18 GMT
If your not going melee, why take Blind Fight? Blind fight doesn't just help melee it also helps against other people hitting you. From the wiki: |
|
|
|
Post by quinn on Oct 1, 2006 2:59:25 GMT
High HP mages are still a viable option around here. perhaps you can look into making something which combines PM and COT in the caster build for the higher HP rolls. i've done this before making a wizard..granted, on a pvp server. I'm not sure however this would cope with effectively beating the high SR of monsters, especially in desert. ive combined autostill with a sorcerer build (before i knew of the changes to premoition and the availability of warding) and yes.. its a bit unneccesary to do here. the ac helps, but usually for casters there is some reliance on a tank (or powerful summon) being present and yes, I usually always pick blindfight, even when making a caster. though I'm unsure if having True Seeing negates the benefit of having that feat *shrug*  |
|
|
|
Post by whodat1 on Oct 1, 2006 4:47:03 GMT
If your doing 16 con, you should be rollin 800-900 hp at 60. You push con hard, you can get 1100-1200. What you sacrifice for this is in no way a decent trade off. If you pull off 2 great ints or great chas, your going to feel it. The HP mage on HG is a cleric control class, or PM cc, etc.
|
|
|
|
Post by whodat1 on Oct 1, 2006 23:37:00 GMT
Also, Stubborn has 2 b's in it (stubborn meaning obstinate, which is what I assume you intended),
Unless you meant stu born, meaning your mage was born by a man named Stu, which in that case I would recommend renaming the build "Stu's baby-daddy-destroyer". You don't have to give me any credit, thats ones a freebie.
|
|
|
|
Post by Yomi on Oct 3, 2006 16:45:26 GMT
At level 60, my pure wizard who started with 18 CON (30 with equipment) has 780 hp. Cast regular tensers and he has about 1200. Oddly expowered and maximized tensers are identical to regular tensers for me (I get a random result which is about 1200 rather than the fixed 1380 one might expect from maximized). Having more hp is (in my opinion) not worth the downsides of losing INT, spell penetration, and/or feats. I sacrificed no INT, feats, or caster levels to get this con.
A fully armored sorc is a viable build. It must not be easy as I've only seen one very effective one, but it has advantages in some places. With tensers I think you can get the AC beyond what a str tank or cleric can obtain. At 125-129 AC most things don't hit you, and you are actually useful upon being rezzed unlike a normal mage who often has to buff first to stay alive. Not to mention the immunities you get from a shield. But it's certainly nontraditional and more reliant on good equipment, and will have disadvantages in other areas (where you just equip an offhand, switch to robes and you're good to go).
cath hit a bunch of the obvious other stuff. Including bioware epic spells and epic toughness are bad signs (I've made a character with epic toughness, and it was 100% poor planning). Hellball will be lucky to cause 40 points of damage on things in LL areas while breaking all the loot that was a primary reason for being there. Even in the non-LL areas when the new mage is chortling about the awesome power of hellball I don't have the heart to tell them that my combat log indicates it did less damage than the dex fighter. I must confess my first caster took hellball, and had some enlightening experiences blowing up whole treasure rooms to the horror of her parties.
|
|
|
|
Post by whodat1 on Oct 4, 2006 1:54:49 GMT
Its funny because its true! One guy new to ll zone would literally do a countdown to warn the group when he would unleash his hellball, hilarious! But eventually had to tell him to stop when he ultimately broke something, was worth it tho!
|
|
