Battlemage help please!!

[Wintersmith81]

Hi there im starting to play NWN2 again and this time i want to try and make a Battlemage! Fighter and mage mix with good hand to hand fighting and fireballs etc to really hurt them! Any of you got any good ideas of were to start and how to go about this please!

[Claudius]

Wizard 8 Fighter 8 Divine Champion 4 Eldritch Knight 10

26 BAB
9th level wizard spells
loads of feats
access to autostills very fast

1 Wizard 1: Still Spell, open feat if human
2 Fighter 1: WF Scimitar
3 Wizard 2: Extend Spell
4 Wizard 3
5 Wizard 4
6 Wizard 5: Blindfight, Craft Wand
7 Eldritch Knight (EK) 1
8 EK 2
9 EK 3: Practiced Caster: Wizard
10 EK 4
11 EK 5
12 EK 6: open feat
13 EK 7
14 EK 8
15 EK 9: Persistent Spell
16 EK 10
17 Wizard 6
18 Wizard 7: open feat
19 Wizard 8
20 Divine Champion 1
21 Divine Champion 2: Autostill 1, Autostill 2
22 Fighter 2: Epic Prowess
23 Fighter 3: Autostill 3
24 Fighter 4: Weapon Specialization-Scimitar
25 Fighter 5: Great Strength 1
26 Fighter 6: open feat
27 Fighter 7: Great Strength 2
28 Fighter 8: Greater Weapon Focus-Scimitar
29 Divine Champion 3: Great Strength 3
30 Divine Champion 4: Epic Weapon Focus-Scimitar

[Scottg]

Claudius suggestion is about as good as you'll get. However anytime I see this request (and it occurs a LOT), my suggestion is:

Favored Soul (FS) - 20 levels. (..assuming its the OC and you have MOTB installed. For continuing on to MOTB.. add what class you want - even potentially 10 levels of Sorcerer.. and don't fret about your BAB because the FS has Divine Might at spell level 4 to counter it.)

The good damage spells for an FS aren't available until higher levels, BUT there are several excellent spells.

[Wintersmith81]

Thank you for the help but just one thing why Divine Champion is added in to the mix?

[Claudius]

For early access to autostill. Plus it gives feats AND grants saves unlike fighter which would only give feats (and fighter cannot choose autostill)

Finally it allows you to delay feats to epic levels so you have more options. If you took Fighter 2 at level 20 it would have to be a pre-epic feat and then you couldn't grab 2 epic feats at 21. This way you get an insane 9 epic feats (or 10 if you replace weapon specialization).

[Scottg]

This is the particular feat that Claudius is emphasizing:

Automatic: Still Spell - NWN2Wiki, the Neverwinter Nights 2 wiki

Still spell - is an otherwise useless feat.. EXCEPT for access to Automatic Still Spell. Then it can be an incredibly useful feat.

Sure, Auto Still (1-3) can allow you to cast spells at their normal level with out an armor check penalty for spell failure - thats good but not great.

What *IS* great is having Automatic Still Spell 3 voiding the spell failure rate when this spell is active:

Neverwinter Nights 2 @ GameBanshee

The combination is AWESOME.

(..without Automatic Still Spell 3 the spell is kind'a useless.)

With regard to classes and feats..

Regardless of class you get epic feats at 21, 23, 25, 27, 29.

With these feats you essentially have full access to all epic feats that your character has earned the right to have access to. This means that if you have still spell then at 21 you could spend your epic feat on Automatic Still Spell 1 regardless of what class you had for that level.

However if you also had a class specific feat (like a fighter's bonus feat at every other level), then you only get to choose what is available from the Fighter's feat selection. In this case Claudius is getting you Automatic Still Spell 3 as fast as you can possible get it by using the Divine Champions additional class-specific feat that DOES have access to Automatic Still spell at epic levels - and using it for Automatic Still Spell 2 (in addition to Auto Still 1) at level 21.

Again, Claudius's build is about as good as you'll get for what you've asked for.

BTW, be sure to pick up Empowered Spell from the meta-magic feat at character level 12.

[Wintersmith81]

wow thank you you two there is just one more thing i would like to ask and thats why WF Scimitar and what would be the best race for this set up?

Thank you again for your help!

[Claudius]

You can change the WF if you want. Scimitar is a good weapon because it has a 17-20 crit range which makes it a huge critter when keen. It can also be used two handed for 1.5 X damage or sword and board (shield) without needing monkey grip feat. Go ahead and take a falchion and pick monkey grip if you want but I don't think the -2 for monkey gripping (to AB) is worth the extra 2-8 vs 1-6 damage....only reason to monkey grip falchion's is if you are PVPing and want to disarm (big weapon better at disarm).

Drow would be the most powerful at level 30 but it would be harder to get up there. It would be good for MoTB but I don't like playing the OC with a drow...you can level up to 3 then reload from the begininning with your level 3 char I guess..you can even level to 3 in something like Mith's Hall of Training (available at the vault...I'd send a link but I don't know the address..I think I found it either looking around bioware forum else google)

Otherwise a race with fighter or wizard favored and either str or int with a bonus. Intelligence is better because then you start with more skill points. Human is also a good choice for the extra feat. You should finish the game with 19 or 20 int and mostly cast no save spells. Put the rest in str.

So Sun Elf, Drow Elf, Air Genasi, Earth Genasi.

[Wintersmith81]

Cool thank you for your help! Going to give it a try!
Oh and what would be good armour i know robes are good because my spells will always work but then going in for hand to hand that would kill me proper! So what works out best? What should i start with?

Again thank you for your posts really help alot!

[Scottg]

You pretty much can NOT wear armor until Automatic Still Spell 3. You cannot put on armor during battle (or take it off).

There are however a few armors in-game with low spell failure penalties, still - it isn't worth it.

Key spells are:

Mage Armor, Shield
Mirror Image
Displacement, Improved Mage Armor, SpiderSkin.

You should almost always scribe these spells to scroll and then use the scroll to cast them. This gives you more attack spells to fill in your spell slots. This is particularly true for the "Armors", that have a long duration. Latter when you have access to persistent spells, you can use shield and Spiderskin as persistent spells if you wish.

Oddly enough the best spell of the group is actually Mirror Image, but it does work better with higher AC's and additional concealment (and is particularly sensitive to dexterity). Occasionally If I suspect a long tough battle I might use Mirror Image as an extended spell (you can't do persistent with it).

Note that in addition to your Dex. bonus you also can wear other AC enhancing items that won't cause spell failure.

Shields will also cause some degree of spell failure.. BUT when you start using them chances are you will be fighting, not casting spells - so its generally OK to just equip a shield when you need it (..something you can't do with armor during battle). In these instances just use the strongest shield you have, but remember to unequip it before casting another spell.

Finally you have the damage resistance spells:

Ghostly Visage
StoneSkin
Greater StoneSkin
Ethereal Visage
Stone Body
ShadowShield
Iron Body
Premonition
Shades

The StoneSkins and Premonition are somewhat like the "Armors" - they have a long duration and if possible should generally be scribed to scroll and casted from the scroll. Of course they only last as long as the damage they absorb, so sometimes you will also want *one* spell slot open for the strongest you can cast so that you can quickly cast it during battle in case your scribed scroll version was used up.

Ghostly Visage can be useful early in the game, but once opponents start getting magic weapons its pretty much useless. (..and you can get better concealment from Displacement and Greater Invisibility.. However it has a MUCH longer duration - so half the concealment bonus may well be worth it considering its duration length which is 10 times as long.)

Ethereal Visage for the most part is useless because its duration is so short.. BUT if you are about to go into battle that shouldn't take to long to finish then this is a good one to scribe to scroll and use just before the battle (if you can).

Shadow Shield is a really only good for Immunity to Death/Necromancy spells, the AC bonus can bettered from Improved Mage Armor. Furthermore with the higher fortitude you will gain with an Eldritch Knight class you might not need the Immunity to Death/Necromancy spells because you could well make your save.

Stone Body and Iron Body.. really need Auto Still Spell at their levels for these spells to be effective in most instances.

Shades is quite nice (mostly as a Premonition substitute).. BUT it requires either a costly scribed scroll or one of your precious 9th level spell slots.

[Wintersmith81]

ok cool thank you so much for the info!
Just one thing how do you scribe scrolls? I should know this but i dont! sorry

[Scottg]

You need a blank scroll sheet available from various vendors in I believe the spell section, but it could be the crafting section.

Anyway they are usually about 5-10 GP for the blank scrolls.

Then you have the cost of scribing the scroll; lower spell levels generally cost less than high spell levels.

You open up your inventory and cast the spell on the blank scroll. If you can't "target" the spell then you can't cast it on a scroll.

Note that because of the cost that you can't really do this early in the game (the OC) because its too expensive.

[Scottg]

Maybe I'm not seeing the basic math behind the build.. BUT

Auto Still needs a native 27 in spell craft, correct?

Level 21 = max native 24 in any skill (..20+4).

Claudius's build doesn't seem to add-up.

[Wintersmith81]

Cool thank you! Also dose it matter what school of magic is best really? i like the sound of Evocation but will that have the shield?

Hum i dont know what you mean Scottg about Auto still.

[Scottg]

Do NOT choose a particular school.. AND when it asks "what type of wizard".. make your own.

Choosing a particular school provides an extra spell slot at each level - Good. It however ALSO removes the ability to cast spells from the opposing spell school - *VERY* BAD.

What I meant with Claudius's build is that I don't think it will work exactly as he has listed. The basic premise is sound, but the execution is flawed - it appears that you can't get any Auto Still feats until at least character level 24.