Draconic Mechanic - 12 Wizard / 6 Rogue / 2 Artificer

[Deathdefy]

This is what I'm considering TRing into.

I'm certain that I can't pull off, and am not interested in trying to pull off, a pure wizard with Illusion SLAs given the Archmage tree's ridiculous 'one line of SLAs only' situation. /negativity

But, I have a deep and abiding love of the Phantasmal Killer SLA. The enhancement pass finally completely untied the SLA's cooldown from the spell of the same name's cooldown so you can use both without having to play strange meta-games.

I want:
1) Phantasmal Killer the SLA with a serviceable DC (basically 65ish; that's enough for EE Wheloon and targetting fort saves in EE Stormhorns isn't happening without neg levels via e.g. Enervation SLA, or tactical ability DCs which are unavailable on anything remotely similar to this build.)
2) Repeating Crossbow Proficiency with Int-to-Damage and enough bonus sneak attack to make crossbow damage significant.
3) Evasion with Insightful Reflexes
4) Pin and Otto's Whistler twisted into an Int Destiny

I considered 6 Arti / 13 Wizard / 1 Fighter, but it trades off a lot of sneak attack damage from rogue (7d6 including the 4 enhancements I take in the Assassin tree), and I'd have to be in shadow dancer for evasion which means losing 1 of the following 4 epic abilities since they would all need to be twisted:
1 - Draconic Presence (+3 PK DC) <-- This key ability + primarily running in Draconic Incarnation give this build its name. Any excuse to rhyme.
2 - Illusion Focus (+3 PK DC)
3 - Pin
4 - Otto's Whistler

I could have done it by giving up Otto's, but I'd have also have lost too much raw damage, and I do actually like Otto's so I'm happier with this version despite the 6 Arti / 1 Fighter version picking up a bonus 2 PK DC (via a 13th wizard level and feat savings meaning I could take 2 x GA:Int at the effective cost of losing Combat Archery).

Drow 32 pt
STR 8
CON 14
DEX 16 + 5 Tome
INT 20 +7 Level-Ups + 11 Item + 1 Exceptional + 3 Insightful + 2 Completionist + 5 Tome + 2 Race Enh + 2 Archmage + 2 Assassin + 1 Mechanic + 2 Ship Buff + 2 Yugo Pot + 6 Destiny = 66 (MOD 28)
WIS 8
CHA 10


1 - Rogue 1 - PBS
2 - Artificer 1 - Rapid Reload
3 - Rogue 2 - Completionist
4 - Rogue 3
5 - Rogue 4
6 - Rogue 5 - Precise Shot
7 - Rogue 6
8 - Artificer 2
9 - Wizard 1 - Insightful Reflexes, SF: Illusion
10 - Wizard 2
11 - Wizard 3
12 - Wizard 4 - PL: Wizard
13 - Wizard 5 - Quicken
14 - Wizard 6
15 - Wizard 7 - IC: Ranged
16 - Wizard 8
17 - Wizard 9
18 - Wizard 10 - GSF: Illusion, Heighten
19 - Wizard 11
20 - Wizard 12
Epic 1 Improved Precise Shot
Epic 4 ESF: Illusion
Epic 6 Pierce Adamantine
Epic 7 Combat Archery
Epic 8 Doubleshot

Enhancements:
Drow 6 = 2 INT
Archmage 32 = 2 INT, PK SLA, 2 Illusion DC, 3 Spell Pen, Quicken/Enlarge/Heighten efficiencies.
Assassin 24 = 2 INT, 4 Sneak Attack Trainings.
Mechanic 14 = 1 INT, Int to X-Bows, Wracking Shot
Arcanotech 4 = Wand/Scroll 75%

ED:
Sit in Draconic.
1/3 Energy Burst is doable along with 6 INT and 3/3 Draconic Presence and even Daunting Roar.

Twists:
3 - Otto's Whistler
2 - Pin
2 - Illusion Focus

I could also swap to Magister, trading Energy Burst and Daunting Roar for the +5 temporary DC boost though that's probably not happening.

PK DC:
10 Base
6 Heightened to level 6 (yay haha)
28 Int MOD
4 Feats (SF, GSF, ESF, PL:Wiz)
6 ED Bonuses (Illusion Focus + Draconic Presence)
5 Item (Gloves of the Master Illusionist)
2 Mastery Item (Adamantine Cloak of the Dragon. Which I still have to make before I TR!)
1 Phiarlin Ship Buff or Spellsinger
2 Archmage Enhancements
=
64

Playstyle
-Pin and Otto's and Radiance crossbow some trash.
-PK other trash.
-Needle and Improved Deception / Bluff on red names.
-eSlinger / Triple Pos in FoT if I'm not rejected for having an ostensibly ludicrous level split.

I have 2 questions and concerns that ideally someone will have answers to:

1) Spell Pen in the new content. I functionally have... 12 Wizard + 5 Draconic + 9 Passive PLs + 5 Item(do these exist?) + 3 Archmage = 34. I assume that may as well be 0 in EE? Which mobs have spell resistance in the new content?

2) Is having a rune arm (~18 bonus damage per shot with a Toven's Hammer. More if Cove comes back and I grind out a Glass Cannon) worth giving up Wizard 13's 1 bonus DC of Heighten for PK and 7th level spells? - Prismatic Spray for Giant Skeletons, and Waves of Exhaustion in all likelihood since Finger of Death and Otto's Ball will have laughable DCs.

I'm really torn on this. My min-maxxer says to not give up the DC... and 65 sounds so much better than 64... but I know that my main complaint on my pre-pass Archmage life was about damage on red names, and the rune arm sures that up as well as obviously providing solid bonus damage on trash.


That's it. Comments/incredulity welcome.

[Theolin]

My biggest issue with mixing xBow with caster is the abysmal delay time between casting and attacking or attacking and casting, and I have a few characters that mix them. For some reason the extra delay with a non arti vs arti on this is noticeably different. So if you haven't played with it you should before comiting to this type of build.

[CoasterHops]

I think if you still want lvl 13 Wizard you drop one level of rogue, making it a 13/5/2 personally I think the extra damage from a rune arm is worth a little more than the sneak you get from the one level of rogue, also if using a repeater there is so much more you can get from your rune arm, for example Potency, freezing ice guard, two slots as per any tor rune arm etc.

[CoasterHops]

What I forgot to mention is maybe 6 Arti is a better option, I don't see this as giving up Raw damage as you get INT to damage with your xbow (3rd level arti spell) and and extra feat, so if you wanted to still keep evasion the 12 wiz/6arti/2rogu would work fine.

[CoasterHops]

Triple post, I just realized you are getting INT to damage from 6 Rogue, cancel my above post hehe.

[Firepants]

Just do a 12/6/2 split. You're not getting anything significant to the build out of level 7 spells (13 Wiz). Then you can opt for 6arti and get endless fusillade, INT damage mod/misc arti spells, and some bonus feats. Throw in Pale Master core 4 (Shroud of the Wraith) for self healing and a load of extra miss chance. Sit in Draconic with the Shiradi twists. I'm currently running this build end game and love it. He can solo EEs, but it takes a little while (lots of pulling single mobs from groups). Though IPSing a group down from range and then bursting once they close for melee is probably one of the most satisfying tactics in this game