Pale Helf(Barb) Wiz18/Rog2 296 HP Raw

[Shuricain]

I was thinking about the survivability and typical wizard /splash rogues and thought of how you can use half-elves to mitigate some of the squishiness here. So I rolled up a half-elf wizard 20 / rogue 2 pale master with the Barbarian dilletentte feat and here's what I got with a 32-point build:

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Level 20 Lawful Good Half-Elf Male
(2 Rogue \ 18 Wizard) 
Hit Points: 296
Spell Points: 1306 
BAB: 10\10\15\20
Fortitude: 11
Reflex: 17
Will: 10

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats          Modified Stats
(32 Point)       (Level 1)             (Level 20)
Strength              8                     8
Dexterity             8                     8
Constitution         18                    20
Intelligence         18                    27
Wisdom                8                     8
Charisma              8                     8


Level 1 (Rogue)
Feat: (Half-Elf Dilettante) Half-Elf Dilettante: Barbarian
Feat: (Selected) Toughness


Level 2 (Wizard)
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Maximize Spell


Level 3 (Wizard)
Feat: (Selected) Insightful Reflexes


Level 4 (Wizard)


Level 5 (Wizard)


Level 6 (Wizard)
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Spell Focus: Enchantment
Feat: (Selected) Spell Focus: Necromancy


Level 7 (Wizard)


Level 8 (Wizard)


Level 9 (Rogue)
Feat: (Selected) Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy


Level 10 (Wizard)


Level 11 (Wizard)


Level 12 (Wizard)
Feat: (Selected) Greater Spell Focus: Enchantment
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Heighten Spell


Level 13 (Wizard)


Level 14 (Wizard)


Level 15 (Wizard)
Feat: (Selected) Spell Penetration


Level 16 (Wizard)


Level 17 (Wizard)
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Quicken Spell


Level 18 (Wizard)
Feat: (Selected) Greater Spell Penetration


Level 19 (Wizard)


Level 20 (Wizard)
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Fluidity I
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Fluidity II
Enhancement: Human Adaptability Intelligence I
Enhancement: Human Greater Adaptability Constitution I
Enhancement: Wizard Improved Maximizing I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Racial Toughness III
Enhancement: Corrosive Spellcasting I
Enhancement: Glacial Spellcasting I
Enhancement: Charged Spellcasting I
Enhancement: Deadly Acid I
Enhancement: Deadly Ice I
Enhancement: Deadly Shocks I
Enhancement: Acid Manipulation I
Enhancement: Acid Manipulation II
Enhancement: Acid Manipulation III
Enhancement: Acid Manipulation IV
Enhancement: Acid Manipulation V
Enhancement: Acid Manipulation VI
Enhancement: Frost Manipulation I
Enhancement: Frost Manipulation II
Enhancement: Frost Manipulation III
Enhancement: Frost Manipulation IV
Enhancement: Frost Manipulation V
Enhancement: Frost Manipulation VI
Enhancement: Storm Manipulation I
Enhancement: Storm Manipulation II
Enhancement: Storm Manipulation III
Enhancement: Storm Manipulation IV
Enhancement: Storm Manipulation V
Enhancement: Storm Manipulation VI
Enhancement: Wizard Spell Penetration I
Enhancement: Wizard Spell Penetration II
Enhancement: Wizard Energy of the Scholar I
Enhancement: Wizard Energy of the Scholar II
Enhancement: Wizard Energy of the Scholar III
Enhancement: Half-Elf Barbarian Constitution I
Enhancement: Wizard Intelligence I
Enhancement: Wizard Intelligence II
Enhancement: Wizard Intelligence III
Enhancement: Half-Elf Barbarian Toughness I
Enhancement: Half-Elf Barbarian Toughness II
Enhancement: Shroud of the Lich
Enhancement: Wizard Pale Master I
Enhancement: Wizard Pale Master II
Enhancement: Wizard Pale Master III

The main focus here is the raw 296 HP, just a few points shy of 300. The build requires the Toughness feat, which some people forgo on non-human builds (due to lack of an extra feat). However, the half-elf dilettante feat really ramps things up by granting an extra 20 HP bonus (Half-elf Barbarian Toughness I & II), with the 30 from the Racial Toughness enhancements, on top of the 22 from the Toughness Feat for a total of 72 HP. On top of this, the Barbarian Dilettante Feat also allows you to add a +1 Con enhancement at level 9, which can stack along with Human Greater Adaptability +1 Con at level 13: pushing Con up to 20 (from 18) and netting an extra 20 HP. Overall, while the Toughness feat alone would net you 52 HP w/Racial Toughness, the Half-Elf Barbarian Dilettante feat increases that by 40 points to 92 HP (something Human's can't do).

The trade off is that you have to sacrifice a feat that you would normally take as a non-human in this type of wiz/rogue build. In this build's case, I took out the Extend metamagic feat considering that when you're at a high enough level, the casting durations are pretty substantial and you have more than enough SP to cast these buffs again when needed.

Also, I liked the half-elf over the Warforged for an HP "wogue" build for a few reasons:
1.) Wizards don't make great healers (generally IMHO). If needed, self-healing can be done via UMD (not gimped as much by the WF's -2 starting Chr bonus), or via Shroud of the Lich + neg spells.
2.) Half-elves get the Human Adaptability Intelligence bonus.
3.) Half-elf Wizard / Rogues can retain their rogue abilities [Evasion] in light armor w/out arcane spell failure when using the Arcane Fluidity enhancements; thus opening up more armor options other than just docents. Arcane Fluidity could be swapped out if using Twilight Leather or Greater Twilight Chainmail, but these +3 and +5 armor enchantments could be slotted for better use. Also, you need to take a point in Warforged Inscribed Armor anyway to remove their natural 5% arcane failure; which can't be removed via inventory like Twilight gear can.
4.) Pale Master and Warforged have too much over overlap related to Undead and Living Construct benefits; both allow for self-healing but Pale Master's Undead seems to trump the Warforged immunities & protection traits overall.
5.) While the Warforged can have just 10+ more HP with a near identical build, it takes an extra 5 Action Points to do so (1 point in Warforged Inscribed Armor and 4 points in Racial Toughness IV). These points can be allocated more efficiently elsewhere.

As for the my feat selection order and other flavored enhancements (e.g. Improved Maximize or the Arcane Fluidity that I mentioned), these can be manipulated to whatever you feel suits best. Let me know what you think of the build, any suggestions would be appreciated

[HalfORCastrator]

"Not sure if serious or just trolling."

Assuming you're going to be staying at 20+ and first life, go warforged 18wiz/2mnk archmage and work towards Shiradi. Best 32pt wiz you can make right now. If you don't have WF and/or monk, human pm and/or 2 rog. Gets you the hp you want and makes you EE capable once you gear up.

[Hobgoblin]

not to troll just some observations

wf wizard gets +2 con with out ap points.

if you put the points into con you can have +40 hp on a wf


so 20 base con on wf
18 base con on helf

+2 via enhancements either race

wf still ahead

helf 30 racial +20 barb

wf 40 racial

helf slightly ahead here, but thats a lot of ap that can go into much more useful things

also the wf can qualify for epic toughness a lot more easily then can helf (+1 tome vrs +3)

just saying

[Shuricain]

Thanks for the well appreciated feedback. This build isn't much for Epics, just for first time TR cap/survivability. I'm not a vet in the game but here are some questions/thoughts.

"Not sure if serious or just trolling."

Assuming you're going to be staying at 20+ and first life, go warforged 18wiz/2mnk archmage and work towards Shiradi. Best 32pt wiz you can make right now. If you don't have WF and/or monk, human pm and/or 2 rog. Gets you the hp you want and makes you EE capable once you gear up.

What are the key benefits to going Shiradi for EE as a 32pt wiz? Is it worth the 2 levels of mnk compared to rogue? Both would still have evasion, but the monks extra fighting abilities don't seem to make up for solo trappfinding abilities pre-level 20.

not to troll just some observations

wf wizard gets +2 con with out ap points.

if you put the points into con you can have +40 hp on a wf


so 20 base con on wf
18 base con on helf

+2 via enhancements either race

wf still ahead

helf 30 racial +20 barb

wf 40 racial

helf slightly ahead here, but thats a lot of ap that can go into much more useful things

also the wf can qualify for epic toughness a lot more easily then can helf (+1 tome vrs +3)

just saying

While they'll be a hp+10 difference between the wf & helf, the AP should be the same for both builds. The reason being that the +40 racial for wf costs 10 AP total while the 30 racial +20 barb costs 9. WF also have to dump 1 AP into Inscribe Armor, making a 2 AP difference. You can use the extra 2 AP to get the the a +1 INT from Human adaptability, which would even the two out AP wise (or you can leave out the helf +1 INT and have 2 extra AP over the WF build). Both would still get +2 Con enhancement though at a 6 point cost.

While you're right about the epic toughness requirements, I wouldn't be looking to epic this toon; it's mainly just to have a alternative to a wf wizard/rogue but with light armor and regular healing that can be TR capped at 20.

[HalfORCastrator]

Thanks for the well appreciated feedback. This build isn't much for Epics, just for first time TR cap/survivability. I'm not a vet in the game but here are some questions/thoughts.

What are the key benefits to going Shiradi for EE as a 32pt wiz? Is it worth the 2 levels of mnk compared to rogue? Both would still have evasion, but the monks extra fighting abilities don't seem to make up for solo trappfinding abilities pre-level 20.

If it's just to TR at 20, go pure. You lose way to much having that delay in spells, and at level 18(sweet spot until 20), if you want to make use of evasion, you won't be able to use level 9 spells.

Personally, I don't care for heroic traps and with insightful reflexes even without evasion you should be fine. With the 2 feats monk gives you(2x toughness is most applicable) and the extra base class hp(which you were doing this build for), I prefer 2 monk all around if building towards epic content and shiradi or if you insist on evasion for heroic levels.