Favored Soul Curser

[AdamSmith]

Please look over my Favored Soul Curser build and critique it. Thanks!

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Level 20 Lawful Good Human Male
(20 Favored Soul) 
Hit Points: 302
Spell Points: 1803 
BAB: 15\15\20\25\25
Fortitude: 17
Reflex: 12
Will: 19

                  Starting            Ending          
Abilities        Base Stats         Base Stats        
(36 Point)       (Level 1)          (Level 20)        
Strength              8                 10            
Dexterity             8                 10            
Constitution         18                 20            
Intelligence          8                 10            
Wisdom               18                 25            
Charisma             12                 14            

Tomes Used
+2 Tome of Strength used at level 7
+2 Tome of Dexterity used at level 7
+2 Tome of Constitution used at level 7
+2 Tome of Intelligence used at level 7
+2 Tome of Wisdom used at level 7
+2 Tome of Charisma used at level 7

                  Starting            Ending          
                 Base Skills        Base Skills       
Skills           (Level 1)          (Level 20)        
Balance              -1                  6            
Bluff                 1                  2            
Concentration         8                 28            
Diplomacy             1                  2            
Disable Device       n/a                n/a           
Haggle                1                  2            
Heal                  4                  7            
Hide                 -1                  0            
Intimidate            1                  2            
Jump                 -1                  0            
Listen                4                  7            
Move Silently        -1                  0            
Open Lock            n/a                n/a           
Perform               n/a               n/a           
Repair               -1                  0            
Search               -1                  0            
Spot                  4                  7            
Swim                 -1                  0            
Tumble               n/a                 1            
Use Magic Device      3                 13            

Level 1 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Deity) Favored by the Silver Flame
Feat: (Selected) Maximize Spell
Feat: (Past Life) Past Life: Favored Soul
Feat: (Past Life) Past Life: Wizard
Feat: (Human Bonus) Toughness
Spell (1): Nightshield
Spell (1): Command


Level 2 (Favored Soul)
Spell (1): Remove Fear


Level 3 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Selected) Past Life: Arcane Initiate
Spell (1): Cause Fear


Level 4 (Favored Soul)
Spell (2): Cure Moderate Wounds


Level 5 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Favored Soul Bonus) Energy Resistance: Fire
Spell (2): Resist Energy


Level 6 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Selected) Empower Spell
Spell (3): Magic Circle Against Evil


Level 7 (Favored Soul)
Spell (2): Soundburst
Spell (3): Bestow Curse


Level 8 (Favored Soul)
Spell (4): Freedom of Movement


Level 9 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Selected) Heighten Spell
Spell (2): Close Wounds
Spell (4): Holy Smite
Spell (3): Remove Curse


Level 10 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Favored Soul Bonus) Energy Resistance: Electricity
Spell (5): Raise Dead


Level 11 (Favored Soul)
Spell (3): Prayer
Spell (5): Greater Command
Spell (4): Order's Wrath


Level 12 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Selected) Quicken Spell
Spell (6): Blade Barrier


Level 13 (Favored Soul)
Spell (4): Divine Power
Spell (5): Slay Living
Spell (6): Heal


Level 14 (Favored Soul)
Spell (7): Destruction


Level 15 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Favored Soul Bonus) Energy Resistance: Cold
Feat: (Selected) Shield Mastery
Spell (5): Divine Punishment
Spell (6): Cometfall
Spell (7): Resurrection


Level 16 (Favored Soul)
Spell (8): Mass Death Ward


Level 17 (Favored Soul)
Spell (7): Mass Protection From Elements
Spell (8): Mass Cure Critical Wounds


Level 18 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Selected) Empower Healing Spell
Spell (9): Mass Heal


Level 19 (Favored Soul)
Spell (8): Symbol of Death
Spell (9): Implosion


Level 20 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Deity) Favored Soul Damage Reduction: Silver
Spell (9): Energy Drain

Short version:
Level 1: Nightshield, Command, Remove Fear, Cause Fear
Level 2: Cure Moderate Wounds, Resist Energy, Soundburst, Close Wounds
Level 3: Magic Circle Against Evil, Bestow Curse, Remove Curse, Prayer
Level 4: Freedom of Movement, Death Ward -> Divine Power, Holy Smite, Order's Wrath
Level 5: Raise Dead, Slay Living, Greater Command, Divine Punishment
Level 6: Blade Barrier, Heal, Cometfall
Level 7: Destruction, Resurrection, Mass Protection from Elements
Level 8: Mass Death Ward, Mass Cure Critical Wounds, Symbol of Death
Level 9: Implosion, Heal Mass, Energy Drain

Feats: Toughness, Past Life: Wizard, Heighten, Maximize, Empower, Quicken, Shield Mastery, Empower Healing

Enhancements: AoV I&II, Heal +40%, Full Smiting Lines, +Charisma +Wisdom, Toughness

[Matuse]

Why Necromancy? You only have a handful spells in there that benefit from it at all. Slay Living isn't very good with the extremely low range.

You take SF:N and GSF:N before you have any :N spells worth casting. Seems silly. Move those closer to the end, put Empower/Maximize earlier. Contagion and Bestow Curse are really only useful as boss killers (trash just doesn't live long enough to justify the SP), and at low levels those things have terrible saves that are not very difficult to bypass.

Take Blade Barrier before Heal.

Order's Wrath is garbage. Lawful enemies outnumber chaotic ones by a sizable margin. Even against chaotic opponents, it is amazingly unspectacular.

Fire Storm is garbage. Take Holy Word.

Restoration should be handled by potions, and is made completely obsolete by Heal. Consider Recitation instead.

Take 2-3 points out of Charisma, put them in Strength.

Consider taking 2 points out of Con and bump Str/Int. 5-10 skillpoints in Jump works wonders, as does a single point in Tumble.

[Eth]

Pretty solid build. If you want to heal raids, you should at least have one more mass cure. I'd ditch Fire Storm and take Mass Cure Crit. Wounds (this is especially important if you want to run Master Artificer Raid).

Apart from that you might think of going Wizard First Life and make the FvS Build after a TR, but that depends on the time you want to invest. Then you can exchange Spell pen Feat for the Wiz PL then and still have the same Spell Pen and +1 more to all DCs (since you focus on necro spells this will help). But ir might not be in your interest to farm gear with it as a wizard ;-)

Take AoV II as you benefit a lot from it (practically improves your DCs by 2 and Spell Pen by 2).

[AdamSmith]

Pretty solid build. If you want to heal raids, you should at least have one more mass cure. I'd ditch Fire Storm and take Mass Cure Crit. Wounds (this is especially important if you want to run Master Artificer Raid).

Apart from that you might think of going Wizard First Life and make the FvS Build after a TR, but that depends on the time you want to invest. Then you can exchange Spell pen Feat for the Wiz PL then and still have the same Spell Pen and +1 more to all DCs (since you focus on necro spells this will help). But ir might not be in your interest to farm gear with it as a wizard ;-)

Take AoV II as you benefit a lot from it (practically improves your DCs by 2 and Spell Pen by 2).

Do you think I could also swap break enchantment for cure light wounds mass? I've just finished leveling a cleric and a favored soul to level 20 and haven't seemed to use that very much besides dispelling dance balls in Monastery of the Scorpion...

[AdamSmith]

Why Necromancy? You only have a handful spells in there that benefit from it at all. Slay Living isn't very good with the extremely low range.

You take SF:N and GSF:N before you have any :N spells worth casting. Seems silly. Move those closer to the end, put Empower/Maximize earlier. Contagion and Bestow Curse are really only useful as boss killers (trash just doesn't live long enough to justify the SP), and at low levels those things have terrible saves that are not very difficult to bypass.

Take Blade Barrier before Heal.

Order's Wrath is garbage. Lawful enemies outnumber chaotic ones by a sizable margin. Even against chaotic opponents, it is amazingly unspectacular.

Fire Storm is garbage. Take Holy Word.

Restoration should be handled by potions, and is made completely obsolete by Heal. Consider Recitation instead.

Take 2-3 points out of Charisma, put them in Strength.

Consider taking 2 points out of Con and bump Str/Int. 5-10 skillpoints in Jump works wonders, as does a single point in Tumble.

I wanted to have better DC for Slay Living early but you may be right, it may be preferable to have stronger searing lights, divine punishments, and blade barriers early (not maximizing cures).

I've never used Order's Wrath before so I wanted to give it a try and swap it out if it wasn't worth it.

Restoration was to remove negative levels on other players...but I think I could buy greater restoration scrolls instead. I did add 1 point into tumble but it's still 0 because of the dex penalty. Not sure if it will work at 0 or if wearing a dex item is needed. And yes jump is a good skill but I was thinking of getting by with Morah's Belt and a +10-15 jump item.

OK Fire Storm is garbage seems to be the consensus.

[good_ole_corwin]

I did add 1 point into tumble but it's still 0 because of the dex penalty. Not sure if it will work at 0 or if wearing a dex item is needed.

It wont, and its not. GH or even just heroism (assuming no armor check penalties on you) from clickies/pots will get you above 1 and allow you to tumble. But IMHO tumble is overrated - if you have Morah, you can jump farther than tumble and youre a FvS - if you need to escape quickly to save your butt, you will wing out anyway.

[Matuse]

Restoration was to remove negative levels on other players

Which it won't do.

[good_ole_corwin]

Which it won't do.

It will so.

[DanteEnFuego]

Wait on Heighten for later when it has more oomph. I scroll Greater Restoration to fix neg levels. Lesser won't work. I also scroll TS, Heroes Feast and many more. I like my UMD also to teleport, since I am slow as $hizzat running already...

[Eth]

Do you think I could also swap break enchantment for cure light wounds mass? I've just finished leveling a cleric and a favored soul to level 20 and haven't seemed to use that very much besides dispelling dance balls in Monastery of the Scorpion...

Well I only play Epics/Raids on my FvS and only quests that come to my mind where reak Enchant is useful are Epic Chrono (end fight concealment), LoB (dog poo - most likely no use here, depends on Raid Leader's tactics), VoN1 (end fight Ottos dance, no big deal not to have though ), Epic Small Problem (although the ottos dance is hard to get rid of even with 20 FvS lvls) - so..i have it on my FvS, but its no requirement.

And to the overall idea of the build I totally like the necro focus. An evoker has excellent spells with implosion and BB, your best tools will be destruction and slay living. Still your BB will see not to many saves, because its reflex save. Your Implosion will suffer though compared to the evoker. But from my experience those spells are more useful on a first lifer than implosion is. My first life evoker had a sustainable evoc DC of 39 I believe (TRed now..dunno anymore). I almost exclusively ran epics and found myself much more using Destruction/slay living. Implosion works awesome sometimes, but sometimes not - it will excel on a multi TR with 1 wiz and several sorc past lifes. You will find yourself spamming enervation anyways a lot before destruct/slay living - but the 2 more necro DC helps alot more than evocation will if this is your playstyle.
When you solo you can kite mobs that charge you still effectively through your BB, but you have the advantage on barely moving casters/ranged mobs.
You could also take 1 Feat Evoc and 1 Feat Necro and find out yourself what spells you like using more in what situation and later use your free feat respec token to go towards necro or evoc (or leave t like that)
So I'd say go for it.

[butcheredspirit]

Fire Storm is garbage. Take Holy Word.

Boy I wish!! This spell is still on my "I want it yesterday" list.
However it's level 7, not 8.

Imagine banishing a whole room with a single spell!

[Matuse]

Originally Posted by Matuse View Post
Which it won't do.

It will so.

Sorry, I got it flipped with lesser restore, which is the more commonly taken option. Level 4 has a good selection of spells and Restoration is seldomly among them.

Boy I wish!! This spell is still on my "I want it yesterday" list.
However it's level 7, not 8.

This is apparently not my thread...HOLY AURA is what I meant. Still a lot better than Firestorm, which -flukey targeting issues aside- does horrible damage in a heavily resisted type, particularly as there's no fire boosting enhancement lines as Arcanes get. You'd also need to lug around a separate amrath belt or mindsunder robe in order to get an equipment boost on it.

[Eth]

Although you should mention that holy aura is not as strong as it used to be. It now has a Spell Pen Check and a Will Save against the blindness. And turbine managed to screw it even further...the Spell Pen Check even applies for Allies for the +4 saves. So if you are a drow, have a high SR item or a divine casted Spell Resist, you will not get the +4 saves. But that will be hopefully changed again...