Early Level Survival ... with an Arcane Trickster

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Username17
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Re: Early Level Survival ... with an Arcane Trickster

Post by Username17 »

Since this thread popped up again, I wanted to know if anyone has ever considered using Assasin spellcasting levels to qualify for the preregs on the AC, and then adding the caster levels to a single level of Wiz? You end up being only half a level behind on your sneak attack, and at 20th level you cast as a fifth level assasin and an 11th level Wiz.


At 20th level you...

Have a BAB of +11
Have 118 skill points (plus 23 times int bonus)
Have 6th level Wizard Spells
Have 3rd level Assassin Spells
Have 10 dice of sneak attack.

At 20th level, ou are pretty decent, although I think I'd rather have 4 points of BAB, 66 skill points, and some Rogue abilities. Still, it's workable.

The problem is the long crawl on your tongue. For the vast majority of that, you are going to be sucking - because you get the low-end spells first.

At 10th level you are looking at not having Skill Mastery and being out 1 BAB and 26 skill points - and having basically nothing to show for it (well, 1st level Wizard spells and 3rd level Assassin spells - which is basically nothing).

Good for an Epic character, however, in the long run you are going to be just like a Wizard but have a better BAB and Sneak Atack and more skills.

-Username17
Wrenfield
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Re: Early Level Survival ... with an Arcane Trickster

Post by Wrenfield »

Using UA variants, you can make an Arcane Trickster with 20 spellcasting levels in 20 total character levels. You have to use the Generic Spellcaster variant. Which unfortunately makes you take your arcane spellcasting capability and gives it Sorceror mechanics (phooey). But hey ... at least you don't have to deal with that ugly 2-3 levels of lost spellcaster progression. And you still get +7d6 of SA in pre-Epic.

Something like a:

Spellcaster-6 / ArcaneTrickster-10 / DivineOracle-2 / MageArcaneOrder-2

...will give you some good versatility and effective class abilities to help make up for your sucktastic Sorc-like spellcasting ability. Add in that new feat (or 2 of them) coming out in Complete Divine that gives you bonus divine domain spells as "spells known", and you actually have a rather interesting Arcane Trickster that actually has some teeth.
Username17
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Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Re: Early Level Survival ... with an Arcane Trickster

Post by Username17 »

Scroll down a bit.


Seems like the people at the "Character Optimization Boar" eventually caught on.

The real question is: do I sound like too much of an asshole if I say "I told you so." at this point?

-Username17
User3
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Re: Early Level Survival ... with an Arcane Trickster

Post by User3 »

Yes.

Being correct does not give you the right to gloat.
-----------------------------------

So sad. As a player of rogue-y mages, I have never taken even one level of AT. Sneak attack is nice, but people overvalue it. It blows compared to high level spellcasting.

The strange thing is that the people on that board really don't seem to be that creative. How is it that they never get sneak attacks as an AT? I have come up with a dozen tactics to do it from level 1 and up, and have never had any problems.
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