Kain Markowitz - Human Necromancer

[TheUdjat]

Interestingly, I noticed that you didn't actually leave a spell slot open to make use of Alacritous Cogitation.

[Yakumo]

Jeez, everyone is calling me out here. Hahah, I'm going to unmemorize a ray of exhaustion in that case. Thanks

[TheUdjat]

[Just trying to help you use your feat, man. It's a good feat.]

[Yakumo]

Yeah I understand. I was a bit tired when I wrote everything up so I probably just hadn't put 2 and 2 together.

[TheZebraShakes™]

Alright, it's all good.

Thanks for clarifying Deekin, that's mainly what I was looking for as I don't have a chance to read in between the lines of everything. I figured he might be right, I just wasn't sure why based solely on the preliminary glance at the feat table listings.

All feats are in order, keep them as is or as was at the time of my previous post.

[Yakumo]

Level up in progress:

+5 HP
+1BAB
+1 All saves

+6 Skill points
-- +1 to Appraise, Spellcraft, Arcana
--+3 to Forgery



1 additional 2nd and 3rd level per day

2 additional spells
-- 3rd Level: Protection from Energy
--3rd Level: Invisibility Sphere
Scraping Color Spray for Alarm

+1 MW item
+3500 CP totaling at 3842
Refunding the Invisibility Scroll for +450

Total: 4242

[TheUdjat]

You never finished updating to Level 6, did you? I notice BAB is still listed as +2, and it still says Level 5.

[TheZebraShakes™]

When we actually do have a combat, I'm gonna notice all of the mistakes on people's character sheets and we're all gonna be screwed.

Level up to 6 when you get the chance.

[Yakumo]

Weird, I wrote it all down in that post but I never edited it. I'll do it now.

EDIT: Also I never spent those CP I think. Any suggestions?

[TheUdjat]

Okay, I'm poking around the MIC, trying to see what kind of stuff I would pick up if I were playing Kain. But to be helpful, you could point out what kind of direction you want to take Kain in, besides 'lots of Necromancy spells'. With the Spell Compendium and other expansions there are a ton of Necro spells, some which you might want to grab. And Kain's DCs are getting pretty wicked with them (14+2+Level).

Which brings up another question Shakes will have to help you answer: New Spells. The big advantage to being a wizard over a sorcerer is your ability to change the repetoire every time you nap. A wizard should always be interested in picking up spells he can cast--in your case, Necromancy, Divination, Conjuration, and Illusion. Alacritous Cogitation only makes this more essential, as the ability to cast any of dozens of spells at the drop of a hat is just... wow.

So the question is, how is Shakes handling a Wizard adding spells beyond the +2/level to his spellbook, with the CP system? Typically a wizard need only buy the scroll (or make a copy from another spellbook) and then must burn special materials costing 100 GP x Spell Level to write it in the spellbook (which also costs money, and pages are finite). Given that we're using CP, paying all the spellbook costs is probably unnecessary book-keeping. But is there a charge for scribing something to a spellbook?

If a wizard has to pay all the GP in CP, that becomes prohibitively expensive really fast. Kain would have to burn 675 CP for one 3rd level spell (375 Scroll + 300 Scribing). That's pretty steep, especially if in a standard game a Wizard is expected to easily be able to burn this much money at any given time.

Anyway, yeah, that's my question, since you should consider picking up more spells for Kain.

Otherwise... I dunno. He's got an impressive stash of scrolls, potions, and alchemical items, which makes it tricky to swap out items for more CP (which you're already doing with Invisibility anyhow). I'll have to poke around a little.

[TheZebraShakes™]

From CP system rules

Wizards and Scrolls
At each level, a wizard may chose to scribe scrolls into a spellbook. In this case, purchase the spell (scroll) at its listed price and add it to the spellbook as normal. The crafting discount does not apply in this situation.

pay the cost of the scroll as listed in the SRD and put it in your book. You won't have to pay additional costs from your CP pool with the caveat that there are no special/rare component costs. If the spell requires special costly components or XP costs, let me know and we will work on a case by case basis.

You won't be able to use these spell scrolls for anything other than scribing into your book

And may I suggest not going super crazy creepy necromancer undead undead undead- (not saying you will, but there's this guy in my old group and. . . yeesh) remember, we ARE based in a city environment and I DO want you to enjoy playing the character and being able to get the most from his abilities when the occasions should come up.

Any new spells/items/abilities, let me know what they do. I've been slow in getting around to these character sheets, so I hope that we can all work together in terms of looking everything over and helping one another out with character building.

[TheUdjat]

Man, I'm so smart. Checking the listed rules and everything before I posted, what a novel thought.

Anyhow, good to know.

[TheZebraShakes™]

Well, in your defense, it wasn't there in the beginning. Initially it came up with Jolith for Lance, and then I think it was finally settled on when something came up with Kain.

I just quoted myself to point out to people that something did in fact exist. I can clarify a bit more, but yeah, in a nutshell, that's how it goes.

[Yakumo]

Yeah, I've been trying to focus more on the utility aspect of things with Kain here. So some of the Alchemical things I'm keeping around because honestly, in a game like this you never know when they will be convenient, and if I didn't have them I would be too tempted to spend all the points and not have that backup CP to check whether Kain just happened to bring the stuff along.

as TZS said, I can't get too deep into Necromancy, because frankly I won't be ab le to cast it all. Summoning the dead and what not will not be practical because that will just panic so many people and be less helpful the good. So with that said, and my feat choice, you can tell I want utility but you can also tell I want people making DC checks.

It's DC = 10 +2 (two spell focuses) (+2 if Necro) + 4 (Int) + Level (Level+1 if It is Necro becasue of Sickening Grasp)

[TheUdjat]

Jun 24, 2009 11:36:50 GMT -5 Yakumo said:

It's DC = 10 +2 (two spell focuses) (+2 if Necro) + 4 (Int) + Level (Level+1 if It is Necro becasue of Sickening Grasp)

The spell focus feats only improve Necromancy spells, so I'm not sure where that other +2 is coming from.

Utility is good, but you basically have that covered by keeping a slot open for Alacritous. Bear in mind you can also keep a slot open under ordinary conditions and spend 10 minutes to memorize something at any point during the day. So if you have a lot of situational spells that don't need to be instant, that might not be a bad idea.

Animating undead is probably a bad idea in a city, but Summoning them might not be horrible. They don't last for long, after all. Though that's Conjuration, not Necromancy.

I'll poke around some more and come up with some suggestions at some point.

[Yakumo]

Non-necro Spells - DC = 14 +Spell Level (Int)

Necro Spells - DC = 14+4+Spell Level. Intelligence, +2 for the 2 spell focuses, +2 for Specialization and Kain's Caster Level is considered +1 higher for Necro Spells as per Sickening Grasp.

This all Equals a DC higher than Mathematically possible for me to comprehend.

[TheUdjat]

Jun 24, 2009 13:55:05 GMT -5 Yakumo said:

Non-necro Spells - DC = 14 +Spell Level (Int)

Necro Spells - DC = 14+4+Spell Level. Intelligence, +2 for the 2 spell focuses, +2 for Specialization and Kain's Caster Level is considered +1 higher for Necro Spells as per Sickening Grasp.

This all Equals a DC higher than Mathematically possible for me to comprehend.

I see the confusion.

Specialization doesn't increase DCs. It gives you +2 to Spellcraft for that school and +1 Spell/level for the chosen school. Focused Specialization gives you +2 spells for that school/level (in addition to the above) and a third prohibited school. But it doesn't improve DCs, either.

I don't know why your character sheet has it written down otherwise.

[Yakumo]

Neither do I now... Well 16+ is still pretty good.