Charm Animal

[Lanhelin]

I spent some thoughts about the ultimate Charmer. Charming Animals is the only thing the CC Wiz can't do, so I thought about taking one Level Druid - until I realized that Druid 1 for Charm Animal is not the best idea, because Heighten won't height the spell due to no more Druid Levels(?). What is the highest DC reachable for Charm Animal when I take Druid 1 / Wiz 19 and will it be sufficient? Or is there an alternative in ED's or something like that to push the DC or get a similar spell?

[Lanhelin]

I tried it myself a bit. At Level 7 the DC is 16 Will (Wis 17, with SF and GSF Enchant) - but, and this is what it'll probably make it worth nevertheless, the DC of Sonic Blast unmeta'ed is 15 Will, and I use SB unmeta'ed still at Level 18 against animals like lions or spiders and it still dazes pretty often. So assuming animals have a quite low Will save, 1 Druid for Charm Animal would still be viable even around 20. And there are items that push Wisdom/Enchantment, so the DC would be higher than 16.

Do you have some more specific experiences with this? Or is there a difference between Will savings on daze-effects (easier to win against) and charming (harder to win against)?

[Lanhelin]

I just +20 LR'ed my Level 16 Evocation Wiz (28 pt, Int 17, Wis 17), rebuilt him for Enchantment and took Druid on Level 1 to test it in Vale of Twilight. It work's pretty good on the dogs, spiders and lions there, DC is 18 - could be higher - but I didn't have any Wisdom items left except one that gave me +1 Wis. About every 3rd (enlarged only, no other metamagics) charm animal spell did what it is supposed to, which is about the rate of all other heightened charm/control/dominate spells. Animals seem to have very, very low will saves (and this should not be changed ... please ... thank you, Turbine =).

Edit: so I'd either go Wiz/Druid 19/1 or Wiz/Druid/Rogue 18/1/1 for more versatility due to trap skills. Evasion won't save your party - charm will ;-)