Post by the1kobra on Feb 17, 2008 13:44:19 GMT
Burninator, nothing like turning something to dust with a thought =), and this is exactly what this class does. A bloodfire mage is a quasiclass, an atypical class combonation that grants unique benefits on Higher Ground. The Bloodfire mage quasiclass is a class that revolves around the idea of a sorcerer who's Red dragon blood fuels his flame magic well beyond the ability of other casters. He gives up a lot of power on his non fire magic spells, since compared to other sorcerers, you are going to be down 10 levels.
As a character, you will basically be a piece of artillery, laying massive amounts of enemies to waste with a single cast of a spell. A bloodfire mage is a specialist however, and there are going to be enemies that you will find you cannot harm without severe difficulty. A bloodfire mage's abilities revolve around flame magic and obviously, anything immune to fire is going to have to be dealt with creatively. Now of course, you still retain some of the versatility innate in sorcerers, but you will not be able to do as much to everything as a normal arcane caster would. Against things that are not fire immune however, you are... well... lets just say it doesn't end pretty and you'll be the one on top of the pile.
Here is a link to the wiki on bloodfire mages:
www.hgwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Bloodfire_Mage
Keep in mind, to become a bloodfire mage, you need to fufill these requirements:
Before level 22:
Greater spell focus evocation. (Their focus in fire magic)
Resist energy fire. (Originally, this quasiclass was made with total fire immunity from 10 RDD. Consider this feat a token of investment towards unlocking the inner dragon and fueling your magic with it.)
Basics: By 20: 10/10 Sorc/RDD
By 40: 29/10/1 Sorc/RDD/Pal
Note: MUST be lawful good. You will want to take a Paladin level and you have to be lawful good to do it. (You can change alignment after lvl 40)
Now then, for subraces, Yuan-Ti is ideal, it gives you +1 to dex, 2 to Cha, 1 to int, for 1 to str and 3 to wis. Since wisdom and strength are for all intensive purposes useless to you, they're good stats to lose, and cha, int, and dex are nice ones to gain in.
Starting stats: (Underneath is the subrace modification)
8/11/14/13/8/18
7/12/14/14/5/20
Note: If you can't stand the look of the Yuan-Ti subrace, just use human with these stats:
8/10/14/14/8/18
Feat progression will be the same for both.
Now I will warn you beforehand, this character will have a lot of trouble before he becomes a bloodfire mage. Once you attain that status however, your true powers unleash and you turn into a real engine of destruction.
Level Progression:
Note: Src means Sorcerer, RDD means Red Dragon Disciple, Pal means Paladin
1: Src, Take Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus Evocation
The way the quasiclass works, all of your offensive spells are going to be evocation based, even fire spells that are not normally evocation are evocation for this character. This will add a total of 4 DC to your fire spells, making them much harder to resist.
2: Src
3: Src, Take Spell penetration.
There are a lot of monsters with spell resistance in this mod, and you'll want to be able to overcome it with ease. Your spells won't be very spectacular if they end in a whiff of smoke.
4: Src, Charisma +1
5: Src
6: RDD, Greater Spell penetration
Another 2 Penetration, handy
I take RDD here, because RDD gets an intelligence boost at RDD 9, which means you get more skillpoints for taking it sooner. You could take sorcerer until 10 for an easier starting game, but I would reccomend not losing any potential skillpoints.
7: RDD,
8: RDD, Charisma +1
9: RDD, Toughness
Toughness will give you 60 HP total. Bloodfire mages have fairly poor defense, so you want to be able to grab this.
10: RDD
11: RDD
12: RDD, Empower Spell, Charisma +1
Empower spell gives you some flexibility with your fire magic. Your key spell, firebrands, are greatly enhanced by this, so be sure to grab.
13: RDD
14: RDD
15: RDD, Resist fire energy
This is required to become a bloodfire mage.
16: Src, Charisma +1
17: Src
18: Src, Maximize spell.
Like empower, this feat will allow you to tinker with your magic to produce nice effects.
19: Src
20: Src (You are now a bloodfire mage, yaaaaaay!), Charisma +1
You have become a bloodfire mage. Good job. If you took the firebrand spell, you will notice an immediate increase in your power. Many creatures up until late are not fire immune, so theres plenty to scorch.
Please note: You get the hellball and dragon knight spells free, but you cannot use them until 21st level.
Hellball is very nice for a bloodfire mage spell. It knockdowns, and to bloodfire mages, it does fire/magic/divine/positive, less common immunities than hellball's default. You also get to cast TWO of these per day, use wisely.
21: Src, Armor skin
Armor skin gives 2 AC, so you will want to get this. Anything that keeps you alive is useful.
22: Src
23: Src
24: Src, Epic penetration, Charisma +1
Again, you don't want your spells being rendered useless by those two points of SR, so be sure to grab this.
25: Src
26: Src
27: Src, Extend Spell
Since you only get 29 casterlevels, a lot of your non bloodfire mage buffing spells do not last very long. This feat will help correct that.
28: Src, Charisma +1
29: Src
30: Src: Epic focus Evocation
Since ALL of your offensive spells are evocation based, you want your DCs to be the highest possible, and this will add another +2.
31: Src
32: Src, Charisma +1
33: Src, Great Charisma 1&2
Charisma is your primary stat for casting. Bonus spells, your spell's DCs (How hard they are to resist) is based on charisma. It will definitely be worthwhile to keep this high, well worth the feats you have to spend to keep it.
34: Src
35: Src
36: Src, Still spell, Automatic still spell 1.
Still spell allows you to cast spells in heavy armor. Since the bloodfire mage does not have access to many of the best defensive spells, you will likely want to grab a suit of heavy armor and a tower shield after you take these. You cannot however, use heavy armor or a shield until you have taken your paladin level, so for now, this is simply an investment feat.
37: Src
38: Src
39: Src, Automatic still spell 2 and 3
These feats allow you to use all of your spells in heavy armor.
40: Pal, Max Discipline, Max Parry, Charisma +1
The paladin level here is your last opportunity to increase your discipline. Be sure to have saved some points for this, as there are a lot of engine checks in the game that will do horrible things to you if this isn't high. Parry gives you partial critical hit immunity, so you want that here too.
You can now use your suit of fullplate and your tower shield without penalty now.
You will also notice a spike in your saving throws. Paladin lets you add your charisma to your saving throws, meaning that you will have high enough saves now to meet almost every save in the game.
Legendary levels:
Remember to put all points given here into charisma.
42: Legendary Penetration
Another 2 for your spell penetration.
45: Legendary Focus evocation
Another 2 for your fire magic DCs
48: Great charisma 3
51: Great charisma 4
54: Great charisma 5
57: Great charisma 6
60: Epic Skill Focus Lore
Epic Skill focus Lore might look like an odd pick. However, on Higher Ground, certain direct-damage spells get damage bonuses that depend on your lore skill. The higher it is, the more bonus damage you get. This feat will help improve damage on those spells.
Calculated Stats:
By 40: 11/12/16/16/5/34
By 60: 11/12/16/16/5/48
Spell Selection for your sorcerer:
Spells with a * are bloodfire mage spells.
1s: Burning Hands*, Negray*, Mage armor, Expeditious Retreat, Endure elements.
Negative energy ray is actually a bloodfire mage spell. It does divine damage so you can use it on things that are fire immune.
2s: Combust*, Flame weapon*, Balagarn's iron horn, Death Armor, Lesser dispel
3s: Fireball*, Gust, Displacement, Flame Arrow*,
Fireball and Flame arrow are useful bfm offensive spells. A lot of enemies like to use cloud attacks, so gust will disperse them, even if you're a level 6 caster.
Displacement will give you 50% concealment, which is about as good as a bloodfire mage can get.
4s: Stoneskin*, Wall of fire*, Elemental Shield*, Ice Storm
Stoneskin will be your main damage soaking spell, as it is a bloodfire mage spell and the other two soaking spells are not.
Wall of fire is a very useful tactical tool.
Elemental shield will give you a 50% immunity to cold, nice in those areas where gear alone will not protect you.
Ice storm is an overall very nice spell, even if the notion of a fire mage casting cold spells is more than a little rediculous.
5s: Firebrand*, Energy Buffer*, Lesser Mantle, Mestil's Sheath
Firebrand is your main offensive spell. This spell does loads of fire damage, as you can hit targets with multiple arrows, each doing base damage. It is certainly worth grabbing.
Energy Buffer is like stoneskin, but with elemental damage. Again, you will want to keep this on pretty much all the time.
Lesser spell mantle will soak up some spells when you are fighting enemy casters. There are plenty of situations where this is useful.
Mestil's acid Sheath will deal acid kickback, and give you some immunity to acid.
6s: Tensers Trans*, Bigby's Forceful hand, Ethereal Visage(Not a Bloodfire mage spell, be warned.)
Tensers transformation will give you a huge burst of temporary HP, give you natural armor, and boost your str/dex/con if they are not already maxed by gear.
The forceful hand is one of the few non bloodfire mage offensive spells you will want to have. Since you will be taking legendary evocation, it will still be quite powerful. You are however, not adding RDD levels to the casting level, so the spell penetration is not going to be powerful. Enemies with high SR will be immune to this spell, unless you can bring it down.
Ethereal Visage is an odd pick, since it is rendered useless in heavy armor. However, there may be a time when you want to use robes, so then this spell is useful. If you find this spell is useless, swap it out for greater spell breach.
7s: DB fireball*, Shadow Shield, Bigby's Grasping Hand (Not a bloodmage spell, but so useful anyway)
Delayed Fireball is like a more powerful fireball, but you can also set them up as traps. They are also your sole source of positive damage, which some creatures will be receptive to when fire is not.
Shadow shield is a very nice boosting spell. It will make you immune to negative energy damage, and give you immunity to necromancy spells. There are plenty of situations where you want to keep this up.
Bigby's grasping hand has much of the same uses as forceful. There are however, a few monsters that will take this but not forceful.
8s: Incindiary Cloud*, Greater Sanctuary, Bigby's Clenched Fist
Incindiary cloud is a bit of a dissapointment, despite being a bloodfire mage spell. Still, there are a few places where the magic damage is useful.
Greater Sanctuary is a must have spell. It is like being truly invisible, monsters can't attack you while you have this up.
Clenched fist does Casterleveld20 physical damage (yeouch!), but remember, enemies with high sr will shrug this off because you're only casting with 29-49 sorcerer levels.
9s: Meteor Swarm*, Mordenkainen's Disjunction, Bigby's Crushing Hand
Meteor swarm is the big dealer of divine damage, so there are many places where this will pull through where your other spells do not. Plus, you can't use firebrands with your 9th level spells, so use these instead.
Mordenkainen's Disjunction will reduce an enemy's Spell Resistance by 10, so it's useful if you want to connect an enemy with a non bloodfire mage spell, or simply have too much SR for proper burnination
Bigby's Crushing hand is like the 7th level spell grasping hand, but there are a few monsters where this will work on where the other will not. Plus, it gives you some flexibility with your spellbook.
Skills Section:
You start with 5/lvl if you have a 14 INT. You get 6/lvl once you hit 14, so through levels 1-13, its 5. 1 gives you 4 for that level, so, you get. 16(5) SP=80 Skills pts.
After that, you get 6 levels 14-60. That will give you.. (60-13)=(47)(6)=282
282+60=342 If you base INT 12, you get 279
You however, lose 4 points since the int bonus activates after you make the character. Total is 338
Skills you want.
Concentration: 63
Spellcraft: 63
Lore: 63
Parry(Dump): 43
Discipline(Dump): 43
Tumble(CC): 60
Concentration prevents you from dropping your spells if you get hit, it's a must grab.
Tumble, taken cross class, gives you 1 AC for every 5 points you spend, to a max of 6 AC for 30 points. You have to spend 60 points getting this however, as it's a cross class skill.
Discipline is a skill that prevents you from being disarmed, or from having your gear damaged, or from being tripped, several nasty nasty things. It's a class skill for paladins and not sorcerers and must be taken at level 40.
Parry partially reduces the damage you take from critical hits. Since you will have only decent AC and no form of immunity, you will want this, it can save you life. It's a class skill for paladins and must be taken at level 40.
Lore can be used to indentify items, but on HG, it also increases the damage from direct damage spells. Since you're primarily a fire-damage based mage, you want as much of this as possible.
Spellcraft is also another useful skill, with a lot of 'odds and ends' uses. It allows you to identify hostile spells as they are cast, aids in counterspelling, and has a few other uses. It's quite useful and is certainly worth the points spent on it.
With some basic addition skills:
63+63+63+43+43+60=335
You have 3 spare points, so you can spend them wherever you desire.
T1K
As a character, you will basically be a piece of artillery, laying massive amounts of enemies to waste with a single cast of a spell. A bloodfire mage is a specialist however, and there are going to be enemies that you will find you cannot harm without severe difficulty. A bloodfire mage's abilities revolve around flame magic and obviously, anything immune to fire is going to have to be dealt with creatively. Now of course, you still retain some of the versatility innate in sorcerers, but you will not be able to do as much to everything as a normal arcane caster would. Against things that are not fire immune however, you are... well... lets just say it doesn't end pretty and you'll be the one on top of the pile.
Here is a link to the wiki on bloodfire mages:
www.hgwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Bloodfire_Mage
Keep in mind, to become a bloodfire mage, you need to fufill these requirements:
Before level 22:
Greater spell focus evocation. (Their focus in fire magic)
Resist energy fire. (Originally, this quasiclass was made with total fire immunity from 10 RDD. Consider this feat a token of investment towards unlocking the inner dragon and fueling your magic with it.)
Basics: By 20: 10/10 Sorc/RDD
By 40: 29/10/1 Sorc/RDD/Pal
Note: MUST be lawful good. You will want to take a Paladin level and you have to be lawful good to do it. (You can change alignment after lvl 40)
Now then, for subraces, Yuan-Ti is ideal, it gives you +1 to dex, 2 to Cha, 1 to int, for 1 to str and 3 to wis. Since wisdom and strength are for all intensive purposes useless to you, they're good stats to lose, and cha, int, and dex are nice ones to gain in.
Starting stats: (Underneath is the subrace modification)
8/11/14/13/8/18
7/12/14/14/5/20
Note: If you can't stand the look of the Yuan-Ti subrace, just use human with these stats:
8/10/14/14/8/18
Feat progression will be the same for both.
Now I will warn you beforehand, this character will have a lot of trouble before he becomes a bloodfire mage. Once you attain that status however, your true powers unleash and you turn into a real engine of destruction.
Level Progression:
Note: Src means Sorcerer, RDD means Red Dragon Disciple, Pal means Paladin
1: Src, Take Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus Evocation
The way the quasiclass works, all of your offensive spells are going to be evocation based, even fire spells that are not normally evocation are evocation for this character. This will add a total of 4 DC to your fire spells, making them much harder to resist.
2: Src
3: Src, Take Spell penetration.
There are a lot of monsters with spell resistance in this mod, and you'll want to be able to overcome it with ease. Your spells won't be very spectacular if they end in a whiff of smoke.
4: Src, Charisma +1
5: Src
6: RDD, Greater Spell penetration
Another 2 Penetration, handy
I take RDD here, because RDD gets an intelligence boost at RDD 9, which means you get more skillpoints for taking it sooner. You could take sorcerer until 10 for an easier starting game, but I would reccomend not losing any potential skillpoints.
7: RDD,
8: RDD, Charisma +1
9: RDD, Toughness
Toughness will give you 60 HP total. Bloodfire mages have fairly poor defense, so you want to be able to grab this.
10: RDD
11: RDD
12: RDD, Empower Spell, Charisma +1
Empower spell gives you some flexibility with your fire magic. Your key spell, firebrands, are greatly enhanced by this, so be sure to grab.
13: RDD
14: RDD
15: RDD, Resist fire energy
This is required to become a bloodfire mage.
16: Src, Charisma +1
17: Src
18: Src, Maximize spell.
Like empower, this feat will allow you to tinker with your magic to produce nice effects.
19: Src
20: Src (You are now a bloodfire mage, yaaaaaay!), Charisma +1
You have become a bloodfire mage. Good job. If you took the firebrand spell, you will notice an immediate increase in your power. Many creatures up until late are not fire immune, so theres plenty to scorch.
Please note: You get the hellball and dragon knight spells free, but you cannot use them until 21st level.
Hellball is very nice for a bloodfire mage spell. It knockdowns, and to bloodfire mages, it does fire/magic/divine/positive, less common immunities than hellball's default. You also get to cast TWO of these per day, use wisely.
21: Src, Armor skin
Armor skin gives 2 AC, so you will want to get this. Anything that keeps you alive is useful.
22: Src
23: Src
24: Src, Epic penetration, Charisma +1
Again, you don't want your spells being rendered useless by those two points of SR, so be sure to grab this.
25: Src
26: Src
27: Src, Extend Spell
Since you only get 29 casterlevels, a lot of your non bloodfire mage buffing spells do not last very long. This feat will help correct that.
28: Src, Charisma +1
29: Src
30: Src: Epic focus Evocation
Since ALL of your offensive spells are evocation based, you want your DCs to be the highest possible, and this will add another +2.
31: Src
32: Src, Charisma +1
33: Src, Great Charisma 1&2
Charisma is your primary stat for casting. Bonus spells, your spell's DCs (How hard they are to resist) is based on charisma. It will definitely be worthwhile to keep this high, well worth the feats you have to spend to keep it.
34: Src
35: Src
36: Src, Still spell, Automatic still spell 1.
Still spell allows you to cast spells in heavy armor. Since the bloodfire mage does not have access to many of the best defensive spells, you will likely want to grab a suit of heavy armor and a tower shield after you take these. You cannot however, use heavy armor or a shield until you have taken your paladin level, so for now, this is simply an investment feat.
37: Src
38: Src
39: Src, Automatic still spell 2 and 3
These feats allow you to use all of your spells in heavy armor.
40: Pal, Max Discipline, Max Parry, Charisma +1
The paladin level here is your last opportunity to increase your discipline. Be sure to have saved some points for this, as there are a lot of engine checks in the game that will do horrible things to you if this isn't high. Parry gives you partial critical hit immunity, so you want that here too.
You can now use your suit of fullplate and your tower shield without penalty now.
You will also notice a spike in your saving throws. Paladin lets you add your charisma to your saving throws, meaning that you will have high enough saves now to meet almost every save in the game.
Legendary levels:
Remember to put all points given here into charisma.
42: Legendary Penetration
Another 2 for your spell penetration.
45: Legendary Focus evocation
Another 2 for your fire magic DCs
48: Great charisma 3
51: Great charisma 4
54: Great charisma 5
57: Great charisma 6
60: Epic Skill Focus Lore
Epic Skill focus Lore might look like an odd pick. However, on Higher Ground, certain direct-damage spells get damage bonuses that depend on your lore skill. The higher it is, the more bonus damage you get. This feat will help improve damage on those spells.
Calculated Stats:
By 40: 11/12/16/16/5/34
By 60: 11/12/16/16/5/48
Spell Selection for your sorcerer:
Spells with a * are bloodfire mage spells.
1s: Burning Hands*, Negray*, Mage armor, Expeditious Retreat, Endure elements.
Negative energy ray is actually a bloodfire mage spell. It does divine damage so you can use it on things that are fire immune.
2s: Combust*, Flame weapon*, Balagarn's iron horn, Death Armor, Lesser dispel
3s: Fireball*, Gust, Displacement, Flame Arrow*,
Fireball and Flame arrow are useful bfm offensive spells. A lot of enemies like to use cloud attacks, so gust will disperse them, even if you're a level 6 caster.
Displacement will give you 50% concealment, which is about as good as a bloodfire mage can get.
4s: Stoneskin*, Wall of fire*, Elemental Shield*, Ice Storm
Stoneskin will be your main damage soaking spell, as it is a bloodfire mage spell and the other two soaking spells are not.
Wall of fire is a very useful tactical tool.
Elemental shield will give you a 50% immunity to cold, nice in those areas where gear alone will not protect you.
Ice storm is an overall very nice spell, even if the notion of a fire mage casting cold spells is more than a little rediculous.
5s: Firebrand*, Energy Buffer*, Lesser Mantle, Mestil's Sheath
Firebrand is your main offensive spell. This spell does loads of fire damage, as you can hit targets with multiple arrows, each doing base damage. It is certainly worth grabbing.
Energy Buffer is like stoneskin, but with elemental damage. Again, you will want to keep this on pretty much all the time.
Lesser spell mantle will soak up some spells when you are fighting enemy casters. There are plenty of situations where this is useful.
Mestil's acid Sheath will deal acid kickback, and give you some immunity to acid.
6s: Tensers Trans*, Bigby's Forceful hand, Ethereal Visage(Not a Bloodfire mage spell, be warned.)
Tensers transformation will give you a huge burst of temporary HP, give you natural armor, and boost your str/dex/con if they are not already maxed by gear.
The forceful hand is one of the few non bloodfire mage offensive spells you will want to have. Since you will be taking legendary evocation, it will still be quite powerful. You are however, not adding RDD levels to the casting level, so the spell penetration is not going to be powerful. Enemies with high SR will be immune to this spell, unless you can bring it down.
Ethereal Visage is an odd pick, since it is rendered useless in heavy armor. However, there may be a time when you want to use robes, so then this spell is useful. If you find this spell is useless, swap it out for greater spell breach.
7s: DB fireball*, Shadow Shield, Bigby's Grasping Hand (Not a bloodmage spell, but so useful anyway)
Delayed Fireball is like a more powerful fireball, but you can also set them up as traps. They are also your sole source of positive damage, which some creatures will be receptive to when fire is not.
Shadow shield is a very nice boosting spell. It will make you immune to negative energy damage, and give you immunity to necromancy spells. There are plenty of situations where you want to keep this up.
Bigby's grasping hand has much of the same uses as forceful. There are however, a few monsters that will take this but not forceful.
8s: Incindiary Cloud*, Greater Sanctuary, Bigby's Clenched Fist
Incindiary cloud is a bit of a dissapointment, despite being a bloodfire mage spell. Still, there are a few places where the magic damage is useful.
Greater Sanctuary is a must have spell. It is like being truly invisible, monsters can't attack you while you have this up.
Clenched fist does Casterleveld20 physical damage (yeouch!), but remember, enemies with high sr will shrug this off because you're only casting with 29-49 sorcerer levels.
9s: Meteor Swarm*, Mordenkainen's Disjunction, Bigby's Crushing Hand
Meteor swarm is the big dealer of divine damage, so there are many places where this will pull through where your other spells do not. Plus, you can't use firebrands with your 9th level spells, so use these instead.
Mordenkainen's Disjunction will reduce an enemy's Spell Resistance by 10, so it's useful if you want to connect an enemy with a non bloodfire mage spell, or simply have too much SR for proper burnination
Bigby's Crushing hand is like the 7th level spell grasping hand, but there are a few monsters where this will work on where the other will not. Plus, it gives you some flexibility with your spellbook.
Skills Section:
You start with 5/lvl if you have a 14 INT. You get 6/lvl once you hit 14, so through levels 1-13, its 5. 1 gives you 4 for that level, so, you get. 16(5) SP=80 Skills pts.
After that, you get 6 levels 14-60. That will give you.. (60-13)=(47)(6)=282
282+60=342 If you base INT 12, you get 279
You however, lose 4 points since the int bonus activates after you make the character. Total is 338
Skills you want.
Concentration: 63
Spellcraft: 63
Lore: 63
Parry(Dump): 43
Discipline(Dump): 43
Tumble(CC): 60
Concentration prevents you from dropping your spells if you get hit, it's a must grab.
Tumble, taken cross class, gives you 1 AC for every 5 points you spend, to a max of 6 AC for 30 points. You have to spend 60 points getting this however, as it's a cross class skill.
Discipline is a skill that prevents you from being disarmed, or from having your gear damaged, or from being tripped, several nasty nasty things. It's a class skill for paladins and not sorcerers and must be taken at level 40.
Parry partially reduces the damage you take from critical hits. Since you will have only decent AC and no form of immunity, you will want this, it can save you life. It's a class skill for paladins and must be taken at level 40.
Lore can be used to indentify items, but on HG, it also increases the damage from direct damage spells. Since you're primarily a fire-damage based mage, you want as much of this as possible.
Spellcraft is also another useful skill, with a lot of 'odds and ends' uses. It allows you to identify hostile spells as they are cast, aids in counterspelling, and has a few other uses. It's quite useful and is certainly worth the points spent on it.
With some basic addition skills:
63+63+63+43+43+60=335
You have 3 spare points, so you can spend them wherever you desire.
T1K