Theory Crafters - Pure Wizard Inquisitive?

[Montegue]

So, I've been playing a rogue inquisitive, and am melting quite a bit of face with a light crossbow in either hand. It got me thinking about a pure wizard, using Inquisitive, Eldritch Knight, and Deep Gnome or Harper to complete the picture. The idea is ranged control, and mana free single-target burn from the crossbows.

Let's just assume for the sake of argument that you're rocking a Ravenloft Heavy or Light Crossbow (legit not sure which is better for Inquisitive two handed shooting). And in that crossbow you've got you sentient gem with your spellcasting bonuses (ottos, eye, and the like).

With Sharn gear, you don't need your DCs to come from a Nightmother Scepter. Gear-wise, I don't see much room to put shooting gear (The three piece Wallwatch set would make a casting set a non-starter, I think).

Feats-wise, what would be best for combat? It looks like Rapid Shot, Rapid Reload, Imp Crit Ranged, Point Blank and Precise Shot are all good buys. That's 5 feats versus, say, Single Weapon fighting that you'd want to take to make it work. That might be the deal breaker. Does that sound right for ranged feat support?

Right now, I'm looking at

41 Inquisitor (more or less the standard build I see on Rogues)
13 Deep Gnome (int bonuses, full Color Spray, full bonus to illusion)
26 Eldritch Knight (Cores, Shield and Armor, Spell Power boost and Synergistic Magic, Int to hit, Medium Armor, Int)

You could play in Shadowdancer to add Sneak Attack dice to the shots + Int.

You could swap out of Deep Gnome entirely, and focus on Harper Agent for Know the Angles and some other odds and ends.



Thoughts? I don't have a specific build proposal yet, mostly because that's sort of daunting. More interested in seeing if it's even worth trying.

[cru121]

it seems that this kind of inquisitive does not need to go wizard 20. because you are not taking high wizard cores anyway. 18 / 2?
another option would be to consider only minimal investment into EK (for example 6 AP). This can still net you 6d6 elemental damage (vs 6d8 for 21+ AP)
you could also go down to 15 wizard levels and 5d6. what can be done with those 5 levels? you lose 9th level spells though.

[rabidfox]

/2 with fighter (or other high BAB) gets you 2 extra feats & IPS at 20 (splash 1 fighter level at 20); if you don't want to wait until 21 and/or delay overwhelming crit. /2 arti gets you rune arms for an extra gear slot (good way to get set bonuses and other benefits). Splashing seems to have some nice benefits given the capstones would be coming from Inquisitive and not any wizard line.

[Montegue]

Do you think the extra spell damage would make a significant impact? It feels like it should hit really hard single target.

[jskinner937]

You mention DCs but you are not going for any PREs that help. That doesn’t mean that you cannot get the DCs with proper gear/stats however on a wizard. DC wise you do not need to go pure to benefit...only 17 levels. 18W/2F gives you an extra feats +1 likely better choice since the lvl 20 Wizard bonus feat will not help a ranged build. 17W/2A/1F gives you rune arms, saves conjure bolts AP, trapping and access to a better feat since lvl 20 bonus feat will not help a range much.

Personally I would tend to go the later as time arms would be even better since not only do you get imbues, but you can boost your spell power and get some other goodies from an extra inventory slot including more augments. Plus trapping will be solid on the split since your int based and have ample skill points.

[jskinner937]

Do you think the extra spell damage would make a significant impact? It feels like it should hit really hard single target.

It depends on how high you can get your SP. At 17 wizzy with 1000 SP and 4 cores, you would be doing 180 dmg. At 18+ wizzy, 1000 SP and 5 cores your damage will be 250. This more or less doubles the law dice damage.

I think the biggest drawback is no way of adding a stat to damage, no inherent SA die and no extra insightful dmg form KTA. If you have 100 stat this is a total loss of about 150dmg from the stat and KTA alone. If you throw in SA die from rogue levels and the extra enhancement I do not see it being on par damage wise, but it would be close. I am not sure prismatic spray would be worth it, but I could be wrong. Not to mention you must not only maximize RP, but SP as well. It is possible however to look at Harper at 12pts, drop gnome AP and prismatic spray and dump 31 points into EK. This would net you KTA, stat to dmg and 5 cores into wizzy. This would certainly be an increase overall in damage from a Mech inquisitor. Although I still feel as though 18 or 17 wizzy (or in this case 15/16 wizzy) is a better split either way. 16W/2A/2F seems like a nice split.

[goldgolem]

Early game inquisitor, late game dc wiz? Makes a way to play wiz as a past life and get through early levels fast

[Caarb]

Early game inquisitor, late game dc wiz? Makes a way to play wiz as a past life and get through early levels fast

Yes this is my plan - hybrids just don't work right now at end game as the difference between full dps and hybrid dps is too high and the DC cost of going full dps is also too high (especially with the magister changes) should be super fun to level though

[SUPERCREWJOHN]

Yes this is my plan - hybrids just don't work right now at end game as the difference between full dps and hybrid dps is too high and the DC cost of going full dps is also too high (especially with the magister changes) should be super fun to level though

This seems like a decent viable built. I am current working toward a 18/2 Wizard /Artificier build using Inquisitive & EK. I would like to go warforged as this will be a TR'ed build. I am currently level 7 - 2 art /5 Wizard. My question is this:

1. Is it worth investing points in warforged build to get 100% fort and memories of the last war for 15 ranged /melee power?
2. Should I take a body feat like mithril or adamantine during heroic levels. I used feat for Intellegence for reflex saves so I a, I placed minimal investment in Dex ( 10 base) ? What about Arcane Failure?
3. Should I investing in Harpers for KTA and Strategic Combat II for Int Dmg as well as two hit or will this stetch the distribution of Enhancement points to thin to be effective in an one tree

Any input would be helpful

This toon will be sitting on Cannith

[Zretch]

This seems like a decent viable built. I am current working toward a 18/2 Wizard /Artificier build using Inquisitive & EK. I would like to go warforged as this will be a TR'ed build. I am currently level 7 - 2 art /5 Wizard. My question is this:

1. Is it worth investing points in warforged build to get 100% fort and memories of the last war for 15 ranged /melee power?
2. Should I take a body feat like mithril or adamantine during heroic levels. I used feat for Intellegence for reflex saves so I a, I placed minimal investment in Dex ( 10 base) ? What about Arcane Failure?
3. Should I investing in Harpers for KTA and Strategic Combat II for Int Dmg as well as two hit or will this stetch the distribution of Enhancement points to thin to be effective in an one tree

Any input would be helpful

This toon will be sitting on Cannith

1. Memories 15 Ranged Power is very good, but if you don't have racial past life APs, it's a 12 point investment, which is 3 levels. You're already splitting APs between Inquisitive tree, EK tree, and Harper tree, so I'd probably look at trying to work those points in a bit later in the build (after level 12).
2. You can stick with normal composite body, or take mithril as EK cores will give you enough ASF reduction to take it to 0 anyway.
3. You're going to want Int to Damage. If you don't want to spend the extra 10 AP in Harper (you can get Int to Hit for 2 AP from EK, where Int to Hit + Damage is 12 AP total in Harper), you can go 6 Artificer levels giving you access to Insightful Damage as a spell (Int to Damage buff). Then you just go 2 AP in EK for Int to Hit, buff yourself with Int to Damage, and go. Artificer levels are pretty solid for Inquisitive leveling, giving you weapon buffs for DR breaking.

[LightBear]

Seen plenty of top notch warforged wizard inqui on the HQ server.
As long as you can get int to hit and damage you're set.

[Ventros2000]

Right now, I'm looking at

41 Inquisitor (more or less the standard build I see on Rogues)
13 Deep Gnome (int bonuses, full Color Spray, full bonus to illusion)
26 Eldritch Knight (Cores, Shield and Armor, Spell Power boost and Synergistic Magic, Int to hit, Medium Armor, Int)

You could play in Shadowdancer to add Sneak Attack dice to the shots + Int.

Doesn't exist now, but let's say that someday there is a +2 universal enhancement point tome.

41 Inquisitor
41 Eldritch Knight

Double capstone? Sounds like you could dump in a bunch of damage between EK toggles and Law damage both. (Maybe double capstone is the reason why there aren't +2 universal tomes?)