Nature Mage (51/365)
Wow....it's been a while since I've done any of these.
What can I say, I got distracted.
As for what distracted me well... hell, if I can remember D:
I just sort of fell off the bandwagon but I WILL get 365 of these done even if it kills me!
When we last left off we had two votes for the Nature Mage which Sigma had (incorrectly) assumed to be female.
No.
I actually don't RP women all that often. Hardly ever in fact.
The Nature Mage is, in fact, an elf which is almost the same thing as playing a female. Almost. Still technically male.
But I was challenged to make a personality and history for HIM so I'll give it my best shot to do a quick sketch.
Caedril Lorosien was, as many elves were, a magical prodigy at an early age; even for an elf. Barely into his 30s are Caedril was already performing as well as apprentices more than twice his age when it came to the arcane arts... but there was a problem. Despite his enormous potential Caedril held only a tepid enthusiam for the world of the arcane and the secrets that could be his -- the secrets of the cosmos and of creation -- held no fascination for him.
He was, instead, entranced by the workings and wonders of the living world; the natural world. Older elves observed that had he been born into a more savage setting, a more feral time that Caedril would've made for a natural born Druid but, even though druids were still a powerful influence, the community of Tol Cisyad was wholly devoted to the arcane. Caedril was left with two options before him when put forth into formal apprenticeship: He could either leave, exiling himself from Cisyad entirely or take up the mantle expected of him.
Caedril, however, wasn't considerd gifted without reason and found a third option: He began to interweave the druidic arts with the arcane arts.
While this meant Caedril was creating spells that mimicked the druidic powers it also meant his devotion to the natural, living world stunted his spellcasting ability and let the pure arcanists pass him by in terms of arcane power but for all that Caedril was still considered to be a stronger mage thanks to his repotoire of strange magics and his feral allies.
Now, this gives us the picture of Caedril as a brillant and strong willed elf; reckless with youth perhaps and powerful beyond his years in many ways. He's also got a very strong connection to the natural energies of the land and draws on those for his magic.
So what does this mean for the character build?
Well Caedril is, first and foremost, a wizard; I thought about making him a specialist wizard but I think that doesn't fit the tone, right. He will be taking the first level Elf racial Wizard level for the Generalist Wizardry ability. Not only do I get to prepare an extra spell every day but I also get bonus spells known every so often (every other level, really). There are two more alternate class features he'll be taking; one of those is losing the wizard feat list for the fighter list -- remember, despite his arcane talents Caedril is more in tune with a more feral and savage existence -- and the last one is the big one.
Caedril will be losing his familiar to pick up the animal companion of the druid; albeit with only half his wizarding levels counting for it.
So where does this leave us?
Well, the key to this is upping Caedril's effective druid level and the best way for that is Beastmaster. It's an often overlooked PrC from Complete Adventurer and it's freaking awesome if I do say so myself -- at least in specific instances and this is one such instance.The downside to Beastmaster is that more than 2-3 levels of it is essentially worthless because the class just doesn't give you enough to make more levels worthwhile. And, on top of that, each level in Beastmaster is one less level I have in wizard which then impacts my spellcasting.
So how does the level breakdown look?
Level
1 Wizard Collegiate Wizard, Dodge
2 Wizard
3 Wizard Magic of the Land
4 Wizard
5 Wizard Combat Expertise
6 Ruathar Skill Focus (Handle Animal)
7 Ruathar
8 Beastmaster
9 Wizard Coordinated Strike
10 Beastmaster Alertness
11 Wizard
12 Beastmaster Natural Bond
13 Wizard
14 Wizard
15 Wizard Drift Magic, Improved Toughness
16 Wizard
17 Wizard
18 Wizard Practiced Caster
19 Wizard
20 Wizard Mounted Combat
The first five levels have to be wizard just because I can't get into Beastmaster before then. Except there's one big problem -- Beastmaster requires (alot of) ranks in two skills I don't have; Handle Animal and Survival. Now, Survival I can fake, more or less (take as cross class since I don't need very many ranks). But Handle Animal I have to have as a class skill. No other way.
I could do several things in order to fix this problem of Handle Animal; the easiest of which is to use the Skill Knowledge feat to take it as a class skill. But that costs me a feat though I do have a spare feat floating around out there. The other option is to multiclass which is what I've done -- Ruathar; the Star Friend.
While it's uncommon for elven Ruathar to exist I've gone ahead with the assumption I'll qualify for it. Now, this class actually does quite a bit for me. Not only do I get both Handle Animal and Survival as class skills from it but I also keep up my spellcasting progression -- at the end of the day I'm getting 9th level spells when I hit 20th level.
Since Ruathar lets me get into Beastmaster easily what does Beastmaster actually DO for me? Primarily it buffs my animal companion to ridiculous levels. Oh, and I get Alertness and I can Speak with Animals 1/day. See what I meant about it not being all that great? But with those three levels my effective druid level goes up by +6. The rest of my effective druid level is more or less just wizard levels; the main reason I've cut multiclassing down to a minimum with this build.
And where does that leave me, feat wise?
Well, first level is Collegiate Wizard -- the absolute best way to say "My Wizard is a Badass" at low levels. I also pick up a bonus fighter feat thanks to my alternate class features and grab Dodge. Useful low level feat and all. Helps with survival since I'm, well, a wizard and therefore squishy. Though the animal companion helps out there as well.
3rd level is something called Magic of the Land which is from Races of the Wild. With it I can actually heal the targets of my spells (or hurt undead) which plays into the idea that Caedril's more in tune and in touch with the natural energies.
5th level and I get my second bonus feat -- Combat Expertise. There's a method to my madness here that's larger than just buffing my AC -- but that helps too.
6th level (I'm into Ruathar now) and I get Skill Focus for Handle Animal. Required for Beastmaster; no other reason for it.
My next feat is all the way at 9th level when I get Coordinated Strike. This is a feat I got specifically for use with my animal companion and it does a few things for me. By now I've got a not-so-shitty BAB so I might actually hit something. Or, if I'm using spells that require an attack roll I can use this to get a little extra edge.
Along at 10th level I get a bonus feat from Beastmaster; I get Alertness. My Spot and Listen checks are....out of this world by now.
12th level is Natural Bond which ups my effective druid level by another 4 points. I chose this timing specifically because it coincided with my last level of Beastmaster; a sort of RP nod at the feat.
When I hit 15th level I get two feats. One for being a 10th level wizard and one from being, well, a 15th level character. For the latter feat I choose to take Drift Magic; from Sandstorm. This could really be anything, I just went for the same land-magic theme and this increases Caedril's caster level by a bit whenever he uses certain types of spells. For my bonus feat I take Improved Toughness which is for more HP pure and simple.
18th level is normally my last feat (not this time) and I grab Practiced Spellcaster for it. While I don't get the full benefit of the feat since I was only down by three caster levels it still helps immensely by bumping my total caster level back up to 20.
And then at 20th level, when I'm a 15th level Wizard, I grab Mounted Combat and you're probably going "WTF, Mounted Combat?" Here's where that greater logic I mentioned back at 5th level comes into play -- I now have, for the most part, all the requirements for Champion of Corellon Latherian so if the game continued into epic levels (or this was gestalt) I'd be able to take levels in Champion. It's really not a bad class, even for a 2-3 level detour and it'd help alot with representing his sort of primordial elven nature.
Now, through all this I haven't actually talked about his animal companion.
Personally, since the Wizard/Sorcerer Animal Companion Alternate Feature essentially works just like the Ranger class feature (though starting at 1st rather than 4th level) I'd let an elven wizard -- like Caedril -- get an Elven Hound, or Cooshee, as an animal companion just like the Ranger can. Failing that I'd go with a big fighting dog and call it a day. By the end of the build Caedril is casting 9th level spells and has an animal companion equal to that of a 17th level Druid.
So; Voting Again:
Knob, Multiterrain Shocktrooper, Balthas Kasra, Kurth, Alarian Thrakos, Tarman Vorse, Spellsmiter, Highlander Build, Dragonmage, Melee-ist Fighter, "Standard Fighter", Master of Chains, Mounted Archer, Arisias, Whirlwind, Vykes, Cerberus Ranger, Kobold Pick Fighter, Magekiller, Ebin, William Corshek, Grappler, Stormlord Cleric, Storm Mage, Lucky Adventurer, Toguro Character, Slashing Killer, Meta-Mage, Hunter of Man, Force Mage, Bardic Dervish, Halberdier, Assassin Homage, Dragoon, Draco-Blade, Missile Mage, Aiel Homage, Graeme, Ulric Vantir, Archer Mage, Vartyr Kellisk, Trapper, Blessed Hunter, Dwarven Thane
Gestalt Builds:
Seige Engineer, Ubertrooper, Leon Thrakos, Ravenclaw Bard, Tri-Weapon Fighter, Warblade/Lurk Concept Char, Alikin, Bloodclaw Master, Wordspeaker, Dread Pirate Roberts, Disarmer, Joshua Numenor, Direfrost Mage, Incarnate Dragon, Fortress Sorcerer, Voice of the Forgotten, Voice of Gruumsh, Kalix of Black Iron, Shadow Hunter, Elias the Stormwalker, Njal the Warbringer, Randal Bernard, Marsarlis #113, Eddie the Pierce Sniper, Graul the Ice Fisted, Tero Dach, Armored Tank, Earthbender Sorcerer, Mindreader, Dusk Commando, Eldritch Fistfighter, Lucian Thrakos, Merek Stonebreaker, Flash, Captain America, Arhmis Diei, Liam Ironarm, Runecaster Dwarf, Horizon, Desmond Arlin, Undead Psy-Warrior, Paladin of Revelry, Lord of Moil, Master of Fears, Jokhan Thrakos, Arch Druid of Cair Moloch, Duskblade Vindicator, Anarok Tor, Fangborn Martial Artist, Original Gideon, Edward Mallory, Nature Mage
What can I say, I got distracted.
As for what distracted me well... hell, if I can remember D:
I just sort of fell off the bandwagon but I WILL get 365 of these done even if it kills me!
When we last left off we had two votes for the Nature Mage which Sigma had (incorrectly) assumed to be female.
No.
I actually don't RP women all that often. Hardly ever in fact.
The Nature Mage is, in fact, an elf which is almost the same thing as playing a female. Almost. Still technically male.
But I was challenged to make a personality and history for HIM so I'll give it my best shot to do a quick sketch.
Caedril Lorosien was, as many elves were, a magical prodigy at an early age; even for an elf. Barely into his 30s are Caedril was already performing as well as apprentices more than twice his age when it came to the arcane arts... but there was a problem. Despite his enormous potential Caedril held only a tepid enthusiam for the world of the arcane and the secrets that could be his -- the secrets of the cosmos and of creation -- held no fascination for him.
He was, instead, entranced by the workings and wonders of the living world; the natural world. Older elves observed that had he been born into a more savage setting, a more feral time that Caedril would've made for a natural born Druid but, even though druids were still a powerful influence, the community of Tol Cisyad was wholly devoted to the arcane. Caedril was left with two options before him when put forth into formal apprenticeship: He could either leave, exiling himself from Cisyad entirely or take up the mantle expected of him.
Caedril, however, wasn't considerd gifted without reason and found a third option: He began to interweave the druidic arts with the arcane arts.
While this meant Caedril was creating spells that mimicked the druidic powers it also meant his devotion to the natural, living world stunted his spellcasting ability and let the pure arcanists pass him by in terms of arcane power but for all that Caedril was still considered to be a stronger mage thanks to his repotoire of strange magics and his feral allies.
Now, this gives us the picture of Caedril as a brillant and strong willed elf; reckless with youth perhaps and powerful beyond his years in many ways. He's also got a very strong connection to the natural energies of the land and draws on those for his magic.
So what does this mean for the character build?
Well Caedril is, first and foremost, a wizard; I thought about making him a specialist wizard but I think that doesn't fit the tone, right. He will be taking the first level Elf racial Wizard level for the Generalist Wizardry ability. Not only do I get to prepare an extra spell every day but I also get bonus spells known every so often (every other level, really). There are two more alternate class features he'll be taking; one of those is losing the wizard feat list for the fighter list -- remember, despite his arcane talents Caedril is more in tune with a more feral and savage existence -- and the last one is the big one.
Caedril will be losing his familiar to pick up the animal companion of the druid; albeit with only half his wizarding levels counting for it.
So where does this leave us?
Well, the key to this is upping Caedril's effective druid level and the best way for that is Beastmaster. It's an often overlooked PrC from Complete Adventurer and it's freaking awesome if I do say so myself -- at least in specific instances and this is one such instance.The downside to Beastmaster is that more than 2-3 levels of it is essentially worthless because the class just doesn't give you enough to make more levels worthwhile. And, on top of that, each level in Beastmaster is one less level I have in wizard which then impacts my spellcasting.
So how does the level breakdown look?
Level
1 Wizard Collegiate Wizard, Dodge
2 Wizard
3 Wizard Magic of the Land
4 Wizard
5 Wizard Combat Expertise
6 Ruathar Skill Focus (Handle Animal)
7 Ruathar
8 Beastmaster
9 Wizard Coordinated Strike
10 Beastmaster Alertness
11 Wizard
12 Beastmaster Natural Bond
13 Wizard
14 Wizard
15 Wizard Drift Magic, Improved Toughness
16 Wizard
17 Wizard
18 Wizard Practiced Caster
19 Wizard
20 Wizard Mounted Combat
The first five levels have to be wizard just because I can't get into Beastmaster before then. Except there's one big problem -- Beastmaster requires (alot of) ranks in two skills I don't have; Handle Animal and Survival. Now, Survival I can fake, more or less (take as cross class since I don't need very many ranks). But Handle Animal I have to have as a class skill. No other way.
I could do several things in order to fix this problem of Handle Animal; the easiest of which is to use the Skill Knowledge feat to take it as a class skill. But that costs me a feat though I do have a spare feat floating around out there. The other option is to multiclass which is what I've done -- Ruathar; the Star Friend.
While it's uncommon for elven Ruathar to exist I've gone ahead with the assumption I'll qualify for it. Now, this class actually does quite a bit for me. Not only do I get both Handle Animal and Survival as class skills from it but I also keep up my spellcasting progression -- at the end of the day I'm getting 9th level spells when I hit 20th level.
Since Ruathar lets me get into Beastmaster easily what does Beastmaster actually DO for me? Primarily it buffs my animal companion to ridiculous levels. Oh, and I get Alertness and I can Speak with Animals 1/day. See what I meant about it not being all that great? But with those three levels my effective druid level goes up by +6. The rest of my effective druid level is more or less just wizard levels; the main reason I've cut multiclassing down to a minimum with this build.
And where does that leave me, feat wise?
Well, first level is Collegiate Wizard -- the absolute best way to say "My Wizard is a Badass" at low levels. I also pick up a bonus fighter feat thanks to my alternate class features and grab Dodge. Useful low level feat and all. Helps with survival since I'm, well, a wizard and therefore squishy. Though the animal companion helps out there as well.
3rd level is something called Magic of the Land which is from Races of the Wild. With it I can actually heal the targets of my spells (or hurt undead) which plays into the idea that Caedril's more in tune and in touch with the natural energies.
5th level and I get my second bonus feat -- Combat Expertise. There's a method to my madness here that's larger than just buffing my AC -- but that helps too.
6th level (I'm into Ruathar now) and I get Skill Focus for Handle Animal. Required for Beastmaster; no other reason for it.
My next feat is all the way at 9th level when I get Coordinated Strike. This is a feat I got specifically for use with my animal companion and it does a few things for me. By now I've got a not-so-shitty BAB so I might actually hit something. Or, if I'm using spells that require an attack roll I can use this to get a little extra edge.
Along at 10th level I get a bonus feat from Beastmaster; I get Alertness. My Spot and Listen checks are....out of this world by now.
12th level is Natural Bond which ups my effective druid level by another 4 points. I chose this timing specifically because it coincided with my last level of Beastmaster; a sort of RP nod at the feat.
When I hit 15th level I get two feats. One for being a 10th level wizard and one from being, well, a 15th level character. For the latter feat I choose to take Drift Magic; from Sandstorm. This could really be anything, I just went for the same land-magic theme and this increases Caedril's caster level by a bit whenever he uses certain types of spells. For my bonus feat I take Improved Toughness which is for more HP pure and simple.
18th level is normally my last feat (not this time) and I grab Practiced Spellcaster for it. While I don't get the full benefit of the feat since I was only down by three caster levels it still helps immensely by bumping my total caster level back up to 20.
And then at 20th level, when I'm a 15th level Wizard, I grab Mounted Combat and you're probably going "WTF, Mounted Combat?" Here's where that greater logic I mentioned back at 5th level comes into play -- I now have, for the most part, all the requirements for Champion of Corellon Latherian so if the game continued into epic levels (or this was gestalt) I'd be able to take levels in Champion. It's really not a bad class, even for a 2-3 level detour and it'd help alot with representing his sort of primordial elven nature.
Now, through all this I haven't actually talked about his animal companion.
Personally, since the Wizard/Sorcerer Animal Companion Alternate Feature essentially works just like the Ranger class feature (though starting at 1st rather than 4th level) I'd let an elven wizard -- like Caedril -- get an Elven Hound, or Cooshee, as an animal companion just like the Ranger can. Failing that I'd go with a big fighting dog and call it a day. By the end of the build Caedril is casting 9th level spells and has an animal companion equal to that of a 17th level Druid.
So; Voting Again:
Knob, Multiterrain Shocktrooper, Balthas Kasra, Kurth, Alarian Thrakos, Tarman Vorse, Spellsmiter, Highlander Build, Dragonmage, Melee-ist Fighter, "Standard Fighter", Master of Chains, Mounted Archer, Arisias, Whirlwind, Vykes, Cerberus Ranger, Kobold Pick Fighter, Magekiller, Ebin, William Corshek, Grappler, Stormlord Cleric, Storm Mage, Lucky Adventurer, Toguro Character, Slashing Killer, Meta-Mage, Hunter of Man, Force Mage, Bardic Dervish, Halberdier, Assassin Homage, Dragoon, Draco-Blade, Missile Mage, Aiel Homage, Graeme, Ulric Vantir, Archer Mage, Vartyr Kellisk, Trapper, Blessed Hunter, Dwarven Thane
Gestalt Builds:
Seige Engineer, Ubertrooper, Leon Thrakos, Ravenclaw Bard, Tri-Weapon Fighter, Warblade/Lurk Concept Char, Alikin, Bloodclaw Master, Wordspeaker, Dread Pirate Roberts, Disarmer, Joshua Numenor, Direfrost Mage, Incarnate Dragon, Fortress Sorcerer, Voice of the Forgotten, Voice of Gruumsh, Kalix of Black Iron, Shadow Hunter, Elias the Stormwalker, Njal the Warbringer, Randal Bernard, Marsarlis #113, Eddie the Pierce Sniper, Graul the Ice Fisted, Tero Dach, Armored Tank, Earthbender Sorcerer, Mindreader, Dusk Commando, Eldritch Fistfighter, Lucian Thrakos, Merek Stonebreaker, Flash, Captain America, Arhmis Diei, Liam Ironarm, Runecaster Dwarf, Horizon, Desmond Arlin, Undead Psy-Warrior, Paladin of Revelry, Lord of Moil, Master of Fears, Jokhan Thrakos, Arch Druid of Cair Moloch, Duskblade Vindicator, Anarok Tor, Fangborn Martial Artist, Original Gideon, Edward Mallory, Nature Mage