master of illusions, master enchanter and evocation specialist

[sideswipe]

these are 3 bosses that i am designing for the current campaign, essentially 8 wizards all specialised in a school of magic. these 3 are next and i have no idea of what to build them as.

i am looking for a prestige class for each of them, the doesn't change them, doesn't expand them away from being a focused specialist and doesn't try to accommodate for weaknesses in the school (unless it also improves the school).

a couple things of note -

• races are still up for grabs, go nuts, or they will default to human
• classes are set for reasons in the campaign. they must start as a focused specialist wizard of their school, though banned schools are not decided.

each encounter is in their tower, so the illusionist will have a big tower full of illusions to bypass and traps. a sort of maze with him at the end, any suggestions of good illusion tricks is also helpful.
the enchanter will have the group dividing and possibly attacking and killing each other in both the gauntlet and the fight.
the evoker i have thought will just try and part the party with walls of force and blast them to pieces. basicly flying and 1 on 1 most of the party.

all the wizards are level 10. and will not improve. im mainly looking for prestige classes for them.
thank you playground

[fishyfishyfishy]

these are 3 bosses that i am designing for the current campaign, essentially 8 wizards all specialised in a school of magic. these 3 are next and i have no idea of what to build them as.

i am looking for a prestige class for each of them, the doesn't change them, doesn't expand them away from being a focused specialist and doesn't try to accommodate for weaknesses in the school (unless it also improves the school).

a couple things of note -

• races are still up for grabs, go nuts, or they will default to human
• classes are set for reasons in the campaign. they must start as a focused specialist wizard of their school, though banned schools are not decided.

each encounter is in their tower, so the illusionist will have a big tower full of illusions to bypass and traps. a sort of maze with him at the end, any suggestions of good illusion tricks is also helpful.
the enchanter will have the group dividing and possibly attacking and killing each other in both the gauntlet and the fight.
the evoker i have thought will just try and part the party with walls of force and blast them to pieces. basicly flying and 1 on 1 most of the party.

all the wizards are level 10. and will not improve. im mainly looking for prestige classes for them.
thank you playground

I am on my mobile device, else I would link you directly, but Google The Killer Gnome. Best Illusionist build around.

An idea for your Enchanter is to have some exotic monsters and NPCs that they have charmed/dominated fight with them.

[sideswipe]

I am on my mobile device, else I would link you directly, but Google The Killer Gnome. Best Illusionist build around.

An idea for your Enchanter is to have some exotic monsters and NPCs that they have charmed/dominated fight with them.

good starting ideas. thanks.

any examples of cool exotic monsters to challenge a level 6 party? the party is mid OP noobs lol. i helped build their characters. if the monsters are too good i will have them as single fights rather than help the wizard.

[GreatDane]

Shadowcraft mage (Races of Stone), even without much optimization, makes a powerful and thematic illusionist.

Master Specialist (Complete Arcane) is great for both the enchanter and illusionist, with the enchantment esoterica suppressing many of the bonuses charmed or dominated foes get on their saving throws and the illusion esoterica providing a flat (and large) boost to save DCs. Master Specialist also provides Greater Spell Focus for free, which is good since both of these schools rely heavily on failed saves to work properly.

For the evoker I'd recommend a metamagic-focused route. For prestige classes there's the obligatory mention of Incantatrix (Player's Guide to Faerun), but straight wizard does pretty well, too, especially since your BBEGs are 10th level (for that extra metamagic feat). It's easy enough to pick a bread-and-butter damage spell or two, grab Arcane Thesis and similar metamagic reducers, and go to town. For details, I'll just point you to the Mailman build.

Speaking of metamagic, don't forget to include Quicken Spell so that each wizard can make the most of the 4-6 rounds he'll have to tussle with the PCs.

[sideswipe]

Speaking of metamagic, don't forget to include Quicken Spell so that each wizard can make the most of the 4-6 rounds he'll have to tussle with the PCs.

yeah they just fought an abjurant champion who used swift abjurations, travel devotion and celerity to move cast two spells and full attack. mind you both spells were to replenish his buffs that were being dispelled constantly.

edit- this was to show them, with the weakest offensive wizard, how powerful you can be and abuse spells in a short time. the idea was to make them think that they will need a supreme tactics to overcome their adversaries.

[Duke of Urrel]

Keep in mind that the best way to be effective as either an enchanter or an illusionist is not to let most people know that you are one. Enchanters will work indirectly, through their charmed or mind-controlled minions, and illusionists will work invisibly behind the scenes – or in plain view, but in disguise.

You're probably thinking along these lines already, since these wizards are going to be bosses, and working indirectly is the way they roll.

The evoker is the only specialist who has trouble governing from the shadows and maintains power through open threats and building a fearsome reputation.

[sideswipe]

Keep in mind that the best way to be effective as either an enchanter or an illusionist is not to let most people know that you are one. Enchanters will work indirectly, through their charmed or mind-controlled minions, and illusionists will work invisibly behind the scenes – or in plain view, but in disguise.

You're probably thinking along these lines already, since these wizards are going to be bosses, and working indirectly is the way they roll.

The evoker is the only specialist who has trouble governing from the shadows and maintains power through open threats and building a fearsome reputation.

i will keep these things in mind. i like the idea of the illusionist infiltrating the party somehow....

these were the bosses i was having trouble with, the necromancer, conjurer, transformagist and abjurer write themselves (and the diviner is on their side)

[Duke of Urrel]

Here's an idea. Everybody hates the local king, who has the reputation of a tyrant, but loves his cute court jester who makes jokes about the king, yet always manages to avoid punishment. In reality, the jester is a powerful evil enchanter who has the good king under his mental control.

I once fooled the PCs with an illusionist who pretended to be two different people, one of whom was a close ally.

[sideswipe]

Here's an idea. Everybody hates the local king, who has the reputation of a tyrant, but loves his cute court jester who makes jokes about the king, yet always manages to avoid punishment. In reality, the jester is a powerful evil enchanter who has the good king under his mental control.

I once fooled the PCs with an illusionist who pretended to be two different people, one of whom was a close ally.

this is extremely close to my setting. which is a lot more complex.

in very quick terms, an ancient being of godly power (demilich i was thinking) took over the land 100's of years ago, a group of 9 mages (8 specialists of each school and an elven generalist) created a spell that would seal him away, unfortunately draining the innate magic of the kingdom away too (everyone de-leveling to below level 10). the spell had to be maintained forever and they would live forever whilst it was maintained.

the generalist became king and set his 8 other mages to guard parts of the realm, bringing in a very strict law system, think Russian paperwork for everything and monitored travel but worse, this was to stop the evil being released.

the party know none of this.

a couple hundred years later the party is working with their lord and one of the mages (diviner) to bring down the evil tyrannical king, so they think, by killing his pet mages and revolting against him. this is what they believe.

but actually the lord of their city and the diviner are working to release the ancient evil as his cultists essentially. this is because of the diviners 200 years of divinations and such and the evil whispering to him and corrupting him to his side.

so the players are now starting at the mages and have killed the abjurer and now get to choose one of the 3 in the title next. i am dropping hints in to the true motive of the lord and the diviner which will become stronger and easier to read the more they kill, if they kill 5 of the 9 then the spell will unravel and release all the energy and the horror.
or they stop the diviner and the lord after realising the severity of the situation, and let the really evil king (who ordered a city burned to find the "cult" or as they are known to themselves "the resistance") maintain his rule and oppression of the people.

if the horror is released everyone will be "free" but an age of evil will begin, and all the old energies will enter the people of the kingdom again, allowing the impassable terrain and wastes (the sandbox outlines) to be passable and everyone to get a significant level boost from the released energies.