Suggestions on improving my planned FVS build

[Teeaaa]

So I have a level 12 FVS (thats not as good as I want), that I plan to use the lesser reincarnate at level 15 to a build I have in mind. Could I get some feedback or suggestions on making this spellcaster-fvs build a bit better?

Spellcating-Focused Favored Soul

Its a first life, and the only packs I have atm is Gianthold and Vale of Twilight

Halfling Favored Soul (Calculations are not including items)

Abilities:

13 Strength (6 base + 7 Character Generation (8 points))
12 Dexterity (10 base + 2 Character Generation (2 points))
14 Constitution (8 base + 4 Character Generation (4 points) + 2 Ability Improvement (Level 12 and Level 16))
8 Intelligence (8 base)
11 Wisdom (8 base + 2 Ability Improvement (Level 8 and Level 20)
25 Charisma (8 base + 10 Character Generation (14 points) + 1 Ability Improvement (Level 4) + 6 Enhancements)


24 - 4 Str 0 Dex 4 Con 0 Int 16 Wis 0 Cha

Ability Improvements:
Wis, Wis, Wis, Wis, Wis

12 Strength (6 base + 4 Character Generation (4 Points))
10 Dexterity (10 base)
12 Constitution (8 base + 4 Character Generation (4 Points)
8 Intelligence (8 base)
27 Wisdom (8 base + 4 Enhancements + 10 Character Generation (16 Points) + 5 (Ability Improvements)
10 Charisma (8 base + 2 Enhancements)

Skills:

Heal: +16 (+5 Enhancements, +11 Points)
Spellcraft: +6 (+6 Points)
Tumble: +5 (+5 Points)
Intimidate: +5 (+5 Enhancements)
Concentration: +4 (+1 Point, +3 Enhancements)

Feats
Regular, Diety, and Favored Soul
Level 1
- Empower Spell
- Follower of the Silver Flame
Level 3
- Mental Toughness
- Child of the Silver Flame
Level 5
- Energy Resistance: Fire
Level 6
- Maximize Spell
- Silver Flame Exorcism
Level 9
- Improved Mental Toughness
Level 10
- Energy Resistance: Electricity
Level 12
- Quicken Spell
- Beloved of the Silver Flame
Level 15
- Heighten
- Energy Resistance: Acid
Level 17
- Leap of Faith
Level 18
- Spell Focus: Evocation
Level 20
- Damage Reduction: Silver

Spells:
Level 1
- Nightshield
- Remove Fear
- Nimbus of Light
- Bless
Level 2
- Lesser Restoration
- Soundburst (Although looking at going for the SLA in the Epic Destiny)
- Energy Resistance
- Cure Moderate Wounds
- Blue (Enhancement)
Level 3
- Aid, Mass
- Prayer
- Magic Circle Against Evil
- Searing Light
Level 4
- Freedom of Movement
- Holy Smite
- Order's Wrath
- Cure Critical Wounds
Level 5
- Slay Living
- Flame Strike
- Greater Command
- Divine Punishment
Level 6
- Cometfall
- Heal
- Blade Barrier
Level 7
- Cure Serious Wounds, Mass
- Resseruction
- Destruction
Level 8
- Cure Critical Wounds, Mass
- Death Ward Mass
- Fire Storm
Level 9
- Heal, Mass
- Energy Drain
- Implosion

Enhancements

Angel of Vengeance (42 action points)
Core: Font of Power, Shield of Condemnation, Aura of Menace, Summon Archon, Vengeful Magic, Light of the Flame
1: Scourge (Rank 3), Smiting, Inquisition (Rank 3), Angelic Resilience (Rank 2)
2: Just Reward (Rank 3), Smiting, Articles of Faith
3: Spell Penetration, Smiting, Wisdom
4: Crown of Retribution, Smiting, Wisdom, Intense Faith (Rank 3)
5: Zealous Faith, Evocation Focus, Unstoppable Magic (Rank 3)


Warpriest (31 action points)
Core: Smite Fow, Resilience of Battle, Sanctuary, War Domain: Blur, War Domain: Haste
1: Toughness (Rank 3), Divine Might (Rank 1), Sacred Touch (Rank 3), Awareness (Rank 3)
2: Wall of Steel (Rank 3), Inflame (Rank 3)
3: Burden of Sin (Rank 3), Wisdom
4: Light Guard (Rank 3), Wisdom


Hope I can improve this before I set it in action
Edit: 8/14/2017 12:08 - Edited Ability Scores, Feats, Spells, and Enhancements following Response

[Xgya]

Alright, that's a lot to unpack, so here comes.

Until they change Favored Souls, their spell DCs are based on Wisdom. You might want more of that (or less of that, and take only attack spells with no saves. Matter of fact, as a first-lifer, I'd recommend the latter. If you're worried about Will saves, take Force of Personality)
Wisdom is an all-or-nothing stat for Favored Souls. You need exactly 19 Charisma (counting equipment) to get by and cast your strongest spells, but if you want them to actually land, you need Wisdom.

Why all the uneven numbers? I don't see any use for your Dexterity beyond attacking with bows and a few points of AC that has become a lot less useful in the past few years.

Lower Wisdom to 8, use the points somewhere else. (perhaps int to get enough skill points to max out concentration, heal and spellcraft)
Make sure all stats that aren't prerequisites for feats get even instead of the odd results they are right now.
Drop Dex 3 points (4 character points). Give 2 to Strength and 2 to Con.

Remove Eschew and buy actual spell components. With the game's economy as it is right now, platinum comes cheap, but feats are precious resources.

The Dragonmark's effects and the AP you're spending to improve it are less useful on a Favored Soul than they would be on other classes. It grants you a few more points of healing spell power, and a few cures per rest. Without going into detail, this saves you a bit more than 200 mana per rest. Being that Favored Souls already get more mana than most classes, a bit of an overkill. If you truly want that extra resource, take the second Mental Toughness. It might be a little less equivalent mana, but you'll also gain 1% crit chance, which is harder to come by.

Change your divinity to the Host. A sword and shield will serve you better than a bow in most cases, if only for the fact two equipment slots will have more bonuses than a single two-handed weapon. Add to that the fact you took Divine Might, and you've got enough Strength to back it up and use it in combat, if only as a last resort.
The fact Silver Flame Exorcism's DC is risible at higher levels is another good reason not to want it, whereas the Host's Unyielding Sovereignty will heal everything and anything off anyone. (it's one of the few things in the game that instantly removes death penalties as well as everything else it does)
If the reason you took Silver Flame was for the at-will Searing Light at level 20, well, equip a sword and board nonetheless, but ignore the above.

I never got the chance to find Mobile Spellcasting or Combat Casting useful, but I can understand that feat picks on casters not focused on DCs can hard to pick.
Favored Souls don't natively get Heavy Armors, so you could net that proficiency and some resiliency, which is probably what you were looking for when you took Mobile Spellcasting - survivability.
You could also get Empower Spell, for some extra oomph on your best attack spells.

Your choice of spells, too, needs some revision, but I have little time left to finish this text, so I'll just add just a few things:
Remove Slay Living, take Divine Punishment. It's a dangerous DoT that focuses on a type of damage you should already maximize.
Remove Bull's Strength as soon as you get a Strength item, or Close Wounds if you never do, and take Energy Resistance. If nothing else, your partners that skipped getting ship buffs or just died and lost them will thank you for making walking through that room full of fire elementals less painful (plus, it'll save you a little mana healing them ;P )
Keep Searing Light even when you get it at will. They both have separate cooldowns, after all.
Don't take Water Breathing as a known spell, the number of times you'll use it is so small you'll regret not taking a spell like Protection from Energy, which gets benefits from higher caster levels and will be cast often enough to count. (if you DO find yourself drowning often enough in water-ridden quests, buy a few scrolls instead. 20 at most will get you through all the waterborne content the game has to offer at the moment.
Remove Harm (unless you have pale master friends) and take Blade Barrier instead. While I DID say a thing about spells with saves earlier, running around and making enemies repeatedly hit it means even taking half damage will eventually kill them. (those with evasion, you'll have to deal the normal, laser-shooty way)

[gummolo]

Just some advice(writing by phone,so exaustive like I would like):
Stat: 6/8/16/10/18/12 (assuming 32 points build), all level up on wis
Skill (in the order): spellcraft,heal,balance,UMD
Feat: maximize, spell focus: evocation, quicken, empower, heighten, spell penetration, improved spell penetration. Epic: epic spell penetration, embolden, intensify, ruin. 26:light SP, 28: Force SP, 29: arcane pulse
If you do not want to bother with spell penetration line you can take mental toughness line. Can add more lager it needed

[Teeaaa]

Ok I edited with some of the suggestions you guys made. Still very open to any and all other suggestions

[Enoach]

Looking at your spells it looks like you are leaning on going with Light/Fire damage as your primary - Some have no sr/saves and some do.

It looks like most spells are Evocation so for a first life that is good to be more focused - as you gear up you can be a little more open to other schools.

---
For the current system the lack of Wisdom is going to bring down your DC's on your spells. A lot of Divine Spells that have damage and knockdown effects target the Reflex save - Evasion will be your nemesis with these spells.

If you are planning on being a caster focus, then Strength is only useful for carry capacity. Of course Halflings have an already reduced carrying limit beyond just their starting strength so it might be wise to start with around 12 Strength.

Dexterity with the reflex save - Personally the base 10 of Halfling will likely be enough. The +1 Reflex Save appears to be the only reason to go 12 here as I don't see it being a pre-req

I agree with others about your starting 8 int - If you are going for damage you want to make sure you have the skill points. I would look at the potential of a starting 12 Int.

As for your spells, you will want to review them, as you progress some spells you have in your list will become less useful. When you do your Lesser Reincarnation for 15 you can switch out some of the spells that have no value to you such as Bull's Strength once you get a +4 or better Strength item.

[Miow]

Ok I edited with some of the suggestions you guys made. Still very open to any and all other suggestions

If your casting spells don't dump wisdom as suggested, you can get a workable evocation dc in heroics on a first life as you don't seem to be planning for Epic destinies/epics. Blade barrier is very powerful in heroics as you kite the enemy through it. Until they change fvs i would not dump wisdom and focus on evocation/spell pen.(this affects implosion too)

Just my opinion but you may want to summon the build master.

[Brightheart245]

Hello!

This is more feedback for the lvl 15 LR, as if you want to be a caster focused Favored Soul, with the current system, you will need Wisdom. I imagine you reaching 15 before the pass arrives, so hopefully this will be helpful, although you could remain WIS spec post FVS update and still be effective. If you do go more Charisma based no-save damage spells for now, then don't worry about most of this write up! However, if you want to be more of an active offensive caster now (and post-update for the most part, even if not optimal), this would suffice.

Stats
I would max Wisdom, even remaining points into Constitution and Charisma. Dumping STR as a halfling can be detrimental due to carrying capacity, so pick up Divine Might, which your Charisma pumps points into, so that post update your CHA still has some importance even if you do go WIS spec. Always wear a blanket STR item - Divine Might should be used generously in quests so that your maximum running speed is at full capacity (Light category), where it matters.

Feats
I would strongly recommend changing out Combat Casting and Mobile Spellcasting - Combat Casting has no use if you are running Quicken (which as a FVS, should be on always save for maybe buffs while not in combat - personally, I keep mine on at all times due to a higher SP pool, gets addicting). Mobile Spellcasting can be simulated by jump-casting - if you make it a habit to jump as you cast, you can save a feat there.

By removing these two, you have room to pick up Heighten (effective for lower level spells to match DC's with higher level spells) and another feat: Spell Focus: Evocation (grants access to a Magister twist for +3 more Evocation DC) or Heavy Armor Proficiency would be my top two options in your case. I would normally suggest the Wizard Past Life or Completionist here, but as you are a first lifer, the +1 Evo DC or Heavy Armor Prof would be excellent alternatives - but in the event you ever get a Wizard life in, that would be my go to feat there!

As for religion feats, Silver Flame is a fine option despite the buggy active exorcism ability (that I normally ignore anyway as it is entirely bugged for a Favored Soul - it only calculates Cleric level into the formula), just for that Searing Light SLA capstone as a heroic race. I would suggest looking into Olladra religious line though, it has a great level 6 ability compared to SF Exorcism (10k heal + 1d6 luck bonus to all ability scores), and its capstone is Lucky Cape.

For Favored Soul energy resistances, as of now, you could consider swapping Cold -> Acid. Acid + Fire can negate the low damage but persisting dot Burning Blood, and is of some use in quests like Black and Blue where there is heavy acid damage (although -10 may not make much of a difference anyway!). Not a build breaker if you stay Cold though! I took Fire/Elec/Cold for the longest time until I decided to pick up Acid in exchange due to acid dot rationale mentioned earlier (Melf's Acid Arrow, Black Dragon Bolt, Burning Blood - although BDB would be considered a strong acid dot).

Spells
Here is a revised list with some commentary, with notes in purple:

Level 1
- Nightshield
- Remove Fear
- Nimbus of Light
- Protection from Evil -> Bless or Obscuring Mist
Bless for countering Bane (Aid Mass does not do this despite incorporating the Bless portion of the spell), and Obscuring Mist for concealment when not using fire spells (hardly used in my experience)

Level 2
- Aid -> Lesser Restoration
- Bull's Strength -> Soundburst
- Resist Energy
- Cure Moderate Wounds -> Hold Person
- Blur (WP Enhancement)
Lesser Restoration is often used to remove a variety of debuffs (Exhaustion, Ray of Enfeeble, minor stat damage, etc.) - it is best Quickened to remove them fast, and Restoration + GR are not necessary to remove these, as even an LRestoration potion would suffice. Soundburst is an AoE CC stun that is useful for +50% helpless damage. Hold Person is a will save CC spell that also applies 50%, helpful against orange named humanoid bosses.

Level 3
- Cure Serious Wounds -> Aid, Mass or Blindness
- Prayer
- Protection from Energy -> Magic Circle of Evil
- Searing Light
Aid, Mass for the buff in mass version, or Blindness if you want to be more offensive driven, by diversifying your CC options. Removing your singular target Protection From Evil spell from Level 1 to Mass version here (Magic Circle of Evil) reduces buffing headaches.

Level 4
- Freedom of Movement
- Holy Smite
- Restoration -> Order's Wrath
- Cure Critical Wounds
I cannot stress the importance of Order's Wrath - it is greatly helpful against Chaotic mobs, some of which include Jariliths, Draegloths, Dretches, Umber Hulks, some Drow, and more. Since it is a will save and does not require Spell Resistance checks, it is an easy stun spell to land.

Level 5
- Raise Dead -> Slay Living
- Flame Strike
- True Seeing -> Greater Command
- Divine Punishment
I would actually put Slay Living back on here, as it is a lesser Destruction essentially. With Heighten, it basically becomes your secondary instakill spell. Replace TS with Greater Command, this is your go to mass CC spell - in exchange, pick up TS scrolls; these will suffice, and as you are a caster, this buff only benefits those who request it (or if you need to find doors that are of below DC 30).

Level 6
- Cometfall
- Heal
- Blade Barrier

Level 7
- Greater Restoration -> Cure Serious Wounds, Mass
- Resurrection
- Destruction
GRestoration also comes in scrolls, so replace this with a mass cure spell. I noticed a lack of mass cures, which if you have zero intent of healing others,
that is fine - if you do want to heal others to some degree, masses will make things much easier and your spell list more compact.

Level 8
- Death Pact -> Cure Critical Wounds, Mass
- Death Ward, Mass
- Fire Storm
Best to carry two mass cures to cycle through, but if you prefer the self raise, this is fine too!

Level 9
- True Resurrection -> Heal, Mass
- Summon Monster IX -> Energy Drain
- Implosion
Energy Drain is one of your most valuable debuffs - use prior to casting instakill spells for best effect. Heal, Mass is slow even with Quicken, but it is good to use for occasions where you can fit it in your sequence between mass cures versus mob damage, and for curing health conditions massively (e.g. Shroud Harry fights).

Scrolls
So as you can see, some of the spells means you carrying scrolls as cheaper alternatives (especially due to Favored Souls having such limited spell slots). This allows you to create a more compact spell list, so be sure to pick these up!

True Seeing - available unbound in Portable Hole or House P (Object Desire)
Greater Restoration - available bound in House K divine guild vendor or House J (House of Wizardry)
Protection from Energy, Mass (12 min duration, but max caster level = 120 points still, same as spell; only difference is the extended duration, which does not really matter for this type of spell as it usually depletes within less than 12 min anyway) - available unbound Portable Hole
Resurrection (to make up for only 1 rez spell in list) - available unbound in House J (House of Wizardry) or bound in House K divine guild vendor
Optional:
Heroes' Feast - available unbound in Portable Hole or House J (House of Wizardry)
Restoration, Mass (useful for mass negative level removal, similar to Cleric's Radiant Burst, when necessary) - available unbound in House J (House of Wizardry) or bound House K divine guild vendor

---

Sorry for the lengthy write up, hope some of it was helpful! As my main is a Favored Soul focused on endgame content, a lot of this information may not be relevant to you now or for a while yet (or at all), so ignore the information if it does not help you personally! Thanks for reading~

~Sera

[Teeaaa]

Sorry for the lengthy write up, hope some of it was helpful! As my main is a Favored Soul focused on endgame content, a lot of this information may not be relevant to you now or for a while yet (or at all), so ignore the information if it does not help you personally! Thanks for reading~

~Sera

Oh, I actually wanted the long writup, I've only read a bit of it and I guess I'll have to take a long while with your suggestions (I'll work on incorporating your suggestions later today)

Now, with the next update coming up, should I save my lesser reincarnation until then, or will I get something like a free reincarnation when they incorporate the changes? If not then I'll probably hold off on reincarnating until then (or reincarnate and just create it *for* the update). Although the real question is if I'm able to get to 15 by then, cause yesterday my main PC's power supply decided to go KAPOOF

But actually, looking at some of your suggestions, a CC insta-death sortof fvs was one of the main reasons that I wanted to make a FVS spellcaster, so those suggestions will most likely be put into play

Thanks, (Will post another when I'm done working on the build more)