Leslie:
With your enhancements, I noticed you went through each level and picked your enhancements at that level. What a lot of build guides do, however, is wait until level 20 to pick all the enhancements. This allows the viewer to see everything taken at cap, all at once, instead of piecing it together as they scroll through each level. I can understand you might want to present a "Here's what you take at each level" sort of thing, but given how easy enhancements are to reset, people will often be taking enhancements that immediately benefit them, rather than what they'll need for level 20.
Choosing enhancements at level 20 in the Character Planner also has a very practical application: You can switch around enhancements so much easier. If you pick enhancements at each level, you have to contend with the current AP limit of the level, calculate saving AP through levels, and if you need to make a change that nets excess AP, or needs more AP than your previous selections allow, your entire selection tree needs to be redone. It's a pain in the ass.
Nephilia and Leslie:
Like enhancements, you sometimes benefit more from certain spells at level than at cap, which can be tricky to show in a build. A separate "Build At Cap" and "Leveling Guide" would probably solve that issue. In any case, I compared both of your spell selections to see what the differences were (MQ stands for Mississippi Queen):
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Spells (end game):
Lv 1:
Master's Touch
Hypnotism [MQ]
Focusing Chant [MQ]
Otto Resistable Dance [MQ]
Charm Person
[MQ] Cure Light Wounds
[MQ] Remove Fear
Lv 2:
Glitterdust
Rage [MQ]
Soundburst [MQ]
Suggestion [MQ]
Blur
[MQ] Cure Moderate Wounds
[MQ] Invisibility
Lv 3:
Crushing despair [MQ]
Charm Monster
Displacement [MQ]
Haste [MQ]
Slow
[MQ] Cure Serious Wounds
[MQ] Good Hope
Lv 4:
Dimensional Door [MQ]
Hold Monster
Otto's Dance Sphere [MQ]
Freedom of Movement [MQ]
Cure Critical Wounds [MQ]
[MQ] Break Enchantment
Lv 5:
Mass Suggestion [MQ]
Greater Heroism [MQ]
Mind Fog [MQ]
Cure Light Wounds, Mass [MQ]
Greater Dispell Magic [MQ]
Lv 6:
Cure Moderate Wounds, Mass [MQ]
Charm Monster, Mass [MQ]
Otto's Irresistible Dance [MQ]
Greater Shout
[MQ] Heroes Feast
Level 1:
I was surprised to find MQ did not have Master's Touch, despite the starting STR investment.
Cure Light Wounds I think is something that is good at first, but should be replaced. You get enough Cure spells to juggle through cooldowns, and CLW is the least mana-efficient (especially if Meta'd). I'd sooner use a CLW wand.
Remove Fear is an awesome spell, but caster level has absolutely no effect on it. The only thing you can do with it as a spell is Extend it. Otherwise, it's a much better spell to have on a clicky.
Charm Person loses its flavor quickly when Charm Monster works on more targets and has a higher DC.
For me, I went with Master's Touch, Hypnotism (prefer Soundburst, but the save types are different so there's still a niche for it), Focusing Chant, Otto's Resistible Dance, and Merfolk's Blessing (situational, surely, and requires materials, but can help the party on any swimming sections -- especially trap-laden ones). I keep a Remove Fear clicky. I might consider replacing Otto's Resistible Dance for something else, though, since I'll have the Irresistible version at cap.
Level 2:
I was also surprised MQ did not take Blur, a very standard spell. Displacement might offer superior concealment, but the duration of Blur cannot be beat. I would take Invisibility wands over losing Blur. You could keep both if you switched out Soundburst and used Greater Shout (spell level 6) in its place.
Level 3:
Glitterdust is a rather nice spell, but so is Cure Moderate Wounds. A tough choice, one that hinges on your Cure wand/scroll budget. It is worth noting that Glitterdust is a Bard's only true cloud spell (Mind Fog excluded), and gives concealment against monsters with True Sight. Also, the blinding portion of the spell helps Rogues maintain their Sneak Attack damage.
Good Hope is made obsolete by Inspire Courage and Greater Heroism, but the duration of Good Hope exceeds IC and the area-effect of Good Hope is far more mana-efficient than giving everyone GH. Good Hope has a place, but you could work it out of your build if needed.
At cap, Suggestion beats out Charm Monster on duration (no saves once landed), but while leveling Charm Monster will be useful.
Slow looks like a good spell on paper, but given all your other choices for Will-based spells, I wouldn't use it over charming, holding, or AoE debuffing (Crushing Despair).
Level 4:
Hold Monster vs. Break Enchantment. An interesting choice. Break Enchantment can be risky to use, though, as it's AoE and can remove even friendly Blade Barriers and Firewalls. Still, since we're talking about spells at cap, you have to think about overall utility. Hold is great for auto-crits, but it takes time and energy to cast. How many other single-target will-based CC spells do you already have and could cast instead? Does any other spell you have give you the options that Break Enchantment does?
Level 6:
Heroes Feast is a useful buff, whereas Greater Shout, an upgraded Soundburst, is a fort-save AoE CC (Otto's being a no-save single-target CC, and Mass Charm being a will-based CC). Greater Shout is evocation, though, so it will not benefit from your character being Enchantment-specced. You could take both by foregoing Mass Charm Monster, considering you've taken Mass Suggestion the previous spell level.
How about this for a spell roster:
Code:
Spells (end game):
Lv 1:
Master's Touch
Hypnotism
Focusing Chant
Merfolk's Blessing
[Open Slot] Possibilities:
- Otto's Resistible Dance (possibly save SP vs low-will monsters, like elementals, instead of using Irresistible Dance)
- Remove Fear (save an inventory slot, though Greater Heroism and Heroes Feast give Fear immunity)
- Cure Light Wounds (something to juggle cooldowns with, though not likely necessary)
- Feather Fall (lol, but hey, can save a valuable equipment slot -- if only it had a decent duration)
- Detect Secret Doors (if you have an item with True Sight, you won't need this; otherwise, eh, why not?)
- Grease ! (lol)
Lv 2:
Glitterdust
Rage
Suggestion
Blur
Invisibility
Lv 3:
Crushing Despair
Displacement
Haste
Cure Serious Wounds
Good Hope
Lv 4:
Dimensional Door
Otto's Dance Sphere
Freedom of Movement
Cure Critical Wounds
Break Enchantment
Lv 5:
Mass Suggestion
Greater Heroism
Mind Fog
Cure Light Wounds, Mass
Greater Dispell Magic
Lv 6:
Cure Moderate Wounds, Mass
Otto's Irresistible Dance
Greater Shout
Heroes Feast