PM/Rogue- Thoughts?

[LordMond63]

I have a Warforged Rogue/Wizard (Archmage), currently level 2/14.

As I already have a 'pure' level 20 Archmage, I am getting a bit of that "been there, done that" feeling playing this alt, even though the Rogue splash mixes things up a bit. I have never tried a Pale Master and am wondering if that is a way to make the alt even more interesting to play.

I think the major question I have is one of self-healing and how being a PM might affect that. Is Reconstruction considered a positive energy spell and so would not work on a PM in undead form? I think I'm right in saying that a PM in undead form has self-healing capability- would that replace Repair spells or be another means to heal myself?

Other than that, if any of you who've played this mix can offer some suggestions, tips, tricks, etc., please chime in.

[Hikup]

Sadly, you can't recon/repair in form but the bonus to necro dcs is nice with the loss of capstone.

[Splatterfart]

I play an 18Pale/2Rog. It's a fantastic adventure build that will allow you basically solo anything and everything. I do recommend going fleshy, however. Here's why:

The best part of being warforged in general are the resistances. Even better, warforged arcanes can self-heal like crazy.

However...

When you enter an undead stance you gain all of the immunities a warforged would normally have and then some, so you've already effectively wasted that chunk of your racial decision. Similarly, when in undead stance your repair spells will no longer heal you. So, you've just wasted the two best parts of being a warforged arcane.

I would recommend human as a "best" option as the bonus feat will recover your lost level 20 wizard feat, and the bonus skill point will be very handy on that build (especially early on). Drow is another solid option, but I dislike the con penalty.

Properly geared a human pale will hit the 500hp mark. It's a very, VERY durable build that is extremely difficult to kill and very, very versatile in its offensive arsenal.

[LordMond63]

I do appreciate the advice.

Being that I am on my third arcane (Wizard, Sorceror and the Rog/Wiz), I'm thinking that it will be some time before I begin yet another arcane caster. I guess that I'm going to stand pat because, as has been mentioned, being a WF and a PM is overkill when it comes to resistences, since one or the other is all that you need to be.

[minic78]

I play an 18Pale/2Rog. It's a fantastic adventure build that will allow you basically solo anything and everything. I do recommend going fleshy, however. Here's why:

The best part of being warforged in general are the resistances. Even better, warforged arcanes can self-heal like crazy.

However...

When you enter an undead stance you gain all of the immunities a warforged would normally have and then some, so you've already effectively wasted that chunk of your racial decision. Similarly, when in undead stance your repair spells will no longer heal you. So, you've just wasted the two best parts of being a warforged arcane.

I would recommend human as a "best" option as the bonus feat will recover your lost level 20 wizard feat, and the bonus skill point will be very handy on that build (especially early on). Drow is another solid option, but I dislike the con penalty.

Properly geared a human pale will hit the 500hp mark. It's a very, VERY durable build that is extremely difficult to kill and very, very versatile in its offensive arsenal.

There are some fine advantages with WF though. You're not going to be in form all the time, and out of form you are healable by repair and positive (if all you do is solo, it's a little less useful). Different strokes, I guess. I advocate for WF as every class anyway (except for artificer obviously).

[Entelech]

If you really want to mix things up, and are not averse to burning a Lesser Heart to redo skills, I can suggest some things to try:

(1) The Ghost-Mage. Invest in Hide and Move Silently. Use Wraith and Invisibility along with Finger of Death and Charm/Dominate to solo quests by stealth and assassination.

(2) The Summoner. Take Augment Summoning and use Pale Master skeleton pets along with a Summon Monster spell. For soloing, this works great with the stealth tactics above, since nobody will notice the sneaky Wizard when there's a big honking Hezrou stomping around.


Or, to go a bit further afield, try a LR into a 12 Wizard / 2 Rogue / 6 Fighter battlenecro. It'll play quite a bit differently from your pure caster guy.

[FuzzyDuck81]

i've got a warforged 2monk/18wiz pale master (was rogue originally then i switched since i wanted more durability), its a lot of fun. Its great for versatility too, as you can use whichever form you need for specific circumstances since you get self-healing in either form & though each type has some shared immunities, there are some that arent shared - undead form is especially vulnerable to light as everyone knows, but they can also be effected by earthgrab & gorgon petrification, plus in high-damage situations they simply cant self-heal as fast as when you're in warforged form using a quickened reconstruct.

One of the other very handy things about pale master is their negative energy attacks, which run off HP instead of SP (and will also work fine while staring down a beholder), meaning for soloing especially if you dont like doing the whole "kite a bunch & then wail" tactic you can take them down with minimal SP expenditure

[LordMond63]

I received some very similar advice in game from guildies and now am leaning towards going Monk/Wizard (Pale Master).

I've read a few posts regarding this mix and get the idea that it can work, even if you don't have absolutely top-tier equipment (or are in the process of acquiring it). At this point, even with good trap gear, her Search, on hard and elite quests, is iffy unless I have a pretty good idea where the trap box is (limited search radius). Disabling them and opening locks isn't bad, but I have to do a bit of gear swapping to be at my best while doing these tasks. And I already have a 20 Rogue which gets to do plenty of Rogue-ly things. Sure, a Palemaster is another arcane caster, but it sure seems to me that it is quite different from an Archmage Wizard or a Sorceror of any kind, so, even though there will be some similarities to characters I have already played, there will be enough differences to keep the gameplay fresh.

Can anyone point to a build or two and/or comment on their experiences either playing or playing with this combo?