Blood Scholar - Wiz(6),Brd(4),ASC(10),RWT(10)
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Wizard 6 / Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep 10 / Red Wizard of Thay 10 / Rogue OR Bard OR Druid 4
This is a primary arcane caster build, and easily one of the most powerful possible, since it combines both Arcane Scholar and Red Wizard. Further to this, it goes down the armored caster route, which grants it a few extra AC, but more importantly gives it the option of using Stone or Iron Body for a large chunk of immunities and uncapped damage reduction.
This is one of the few builds that can consistently beat the Iron/Obsidian Sorcerer in Battle of the Builds, but primarily due to the limits of the AI routines. Roughly, the sequence of events is as follows:
- 1. Both Obsidian Sorcerer and Blood Scholar cast Quickened Greater Breach at the same time removing each other's spell mantles
- 2. Both Obsidian Sorcerer and Blood Scholar cast Quickened Forceful hand at the same time knocking each other down
- 3. After 30 rounds, the Obsidian Sorcerer's Forceful hand wears off. The Blood Scholar can then get up and finish him off (because his Forceful hand lasts 35 rounds).
In an actual PvP match, an Iron/Obsidian Sorcerer player can Quicken additional Spell Mantles and Breaches to get his defense back up, so the Fight could go either way.
Pros:
- Ultimate Magical Power: Including access to level 9 spells. Easily among the most Powerful Casters possible, with an effective caster level of 35 in your school of specialization.
- However, keep in mind that Ultimate Magical Power alone won't win fights. The loss of AC and Shadow Simulacrum compared to the Iron and Obsidian Sorcerer, means that this will have problems against Semi-Divine Tanks who have Death Ward (can't Energy Drain them) and spell mantles (because you can't spontaneously cast more Breaches than they have Mantles).
- Effectively ignore Spell Resistance (SR) for your School of Specialization: With +5 bonus RWoT caster level and +6 Epic Spell Penetration, your Caster Roll against SR is 41. which means that you automatically bypass Drow and Deep Gnome SR of equal level!
- This advantage however, is not that great if you are going up against something whose primary Magic Defence is NOT Spell Resistance.
- Relatively tough: The Rogue and Bard Variants have moderate AC, due to Tumble class skill, monk boots, and light armor/shield. And if that isn't enough, you have a whole range of protective buffs on top of that. Autostill lets you walk around in Stone/Iron Body for a whole range of immunities.
- The Bardic Blood Scholar is a specialized Anti-Stealth caster, with a buffed Listen score of over 70.
- The Druid Blood Scholar can buff himself with Foundation of Stone (and Mind Blank) for immunity to Bigby's Forceful Hand, giving him a huge Advantage in Mage-Duels.
- The Rogue Blood Scholar has the Skill points to double as the Party Lock Opener / Trap Disabler
Cons:
- Low BAB: You are no warrior, and you can't hit the broad side of a barn.
- Comparatively Low AC: You lose the Obsidian Sorcerer's Divine Shield, and have nothing to make up for it.
- Comparatively Low Saves: You lose the Obsidian Sorcerer's Cha bonus to saves as well. Your fortitude is especially bad. You may have Evasion, but you don't have the Reflex saves to back it up. However, as long as your protective buffs are up (Shadow Shield, Iron Body, Protection from Alignment, Energy Immunity), you don't need to worry too much, as these protective buffs essentially negate needing high saves. But if they are removed, you are in trouble.
- You lose TWO schools of magic.
- You can still learn up to level 8 spells in your RWoT second forbidden school before losing it.
- For Anti-Tank combat, this is especially painful, since most of the better specialist schools (Necromancy and Abjuration/Evocation) lose Illusion as 2nd school, thereby denying you access to the extremely powerful Shadow Simulacrum.
- You must Memorize your spells before you cast them
- For fighting anything with Spell Mantles this is problematic, as they can negate a lot of your spells simply by memorizing more Spell Mantles than you have Breaches.
- For everything else, it means that you are in trouble if you prepared the wrong set of spells for the wrong situation.
School of Specilization
- In BoTB, the Blood Scholar is an Evoker specialist.
- Evocation Pros
- Your main Duelling offensive spells are all Evocation (Bigby's Grasping Hand, IGMS). Specializing in Evocation lets these spells effectively ignore Racial Spell Resistance of equal level.
- You retain Divination and Clairaudience/Clairvoyance for Stealth detection
- Evocation Cons
- You lose Conjuration, and the such useful spells as:
- Flame Arrow: a great PvM Fodder killer
- In PvP, this is less of an issue as Fire Immunity is relatively common. All primary Divine and Arcane casters can get it, and all RDDs (pretty much all the warrior builds) have Fire immunity as well. Anything that isn't an Arcane/Divine Caster or an RDD tends to be a stealthy build with evasion.
- In BoTB and any high magic gear setting, Fire Damage Resistance on equipment is the final nail in the coffin
- Flame Arrow: a great PvM Fodder killer
- You lose Conjuration, and the such useful spells as:
- Evocation Pros
- However, for Campaigns, I would normally recommend specializing in Necromancy.
- Necromancy Pros
- You retain Conjuration and the Fodder killing Flame Arrow, which is essential for any non-melee primary caster (such as this) to get through long dungeons with lots of monsters.
- Necromancy Cons
- You lose Divination, and the following key spells:
- Clairaudience/Clairvoyance: The loss of this is not important as few campaign enemies use stealth.
- True Seeing: You still have Blindsight as a substitute.
- Premonition: As an Autostill caster, you have Iron Body as a substitute
- Power Word: Useful spells, but by no means essential
- You lose Divination, and the following key spells:
- Necromancy Pros
Levelling Notes
- In the Schemes below, we use a few abbreviations. ASoCK stands for Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep, and RWoT stands for Red Wizard of Thay
- The Red Wizard loses another spell school as soon as he takes his first level of this prestige class. He will no longer be able to learn spells from this new opposing school, but those he had learnt previously will not be lost. Because of this, you want to delay taking Red Wizard levels until as late as possible, so that you can learn as many spells as you can from this school, before you lose it. Therefore the Red Wizard levels are taken as late as possible in these progression schemes.
- There are 3 possible level progression schemes, depending on what you pick as your last class. There are seperate schemes for Bard, Rogue, and Druid.
VariantsEdit
One of the main problems with the (6 Wizard / 10 ASoCK / 10 RWoT / 4 Something Else) configuration, is that you can only learn up to level 8 spells of the 2nd RWoT forbidden school before losing it. Depending which is your school of specilization, and what setting you are playing under, this may or may not be a problem. One possible variant therefore, is to go with (7 Wizard / 10 ASoCK / 10 RWoT / 3 Something Else) i.e. swap 4th level of Something Else for 7th level of Wizard.
Pros:
- This lets you learn those level 9 spells before losing the school of magic.
Cons:
- Your BAB would drop from 16 to 15, losing the 4th attack
- But you lose the benefits of whatever the 4th level of Something Else gave you including
- A few Extra HP
- A few Extra Skill points
- The 4th level Class features of your Something Else Class.
- Bard
- -1 Caster level (Shortens duration of Amplify)
- Lose access to Level 2 Bard spells (you cannot extend your level 1 spells)
- Level 1 spells per day drop from 2 to 1 (or 3 to 2 if you include your Cha bonus spells)
- Rogue
- Uncanny Dodge (which you don't really need anyway)
- Druid
- Resist Natures Lure (which you don't really need anyway)
- -1 Caster level (shortens duration of Foundation of Stone)
- Lose 1 Level 1 and 1 Level 2 spell slot (but you still have 3 level 1 slots and 2 level 2 slots, including Wis bonus)
- Bard
On the whole, depending on what level 9 spell you can squeeze out of the deal, and what your Something Else class was, this may or may not be worth it. Its usually worth it for Rogue Blood Scholars, as Uncanny Dodge is not that important. Its far less worthwhile for Bardic Blood scholars as Bard level 1 spells are part of what makes the build so powerful, and you have so few to start with. And that level 2 spell slot is important for extending your spells. Druid Blood Scholar is somewhere in between the 2.
Bard ProgressionEdit
Going with Bard provides one of the all round strongest builds, as the addition of Bard level 1 spell Joyful Noise effectively grants immunity to Silence, which would otherwise normally cripple a primary spellcaster such as this. Further to this, you gain access to Amplify. Combine this with Inspire competence, Owl's Wisdom, Greater Heroism and Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, and you can boost Listen by +38, in addition to your maxed listen score of 32 (33-1 Wis penalty). This gives a total Listen Score of 70 (without any gear!), making it virtually impossible to sneak up on you. However, it lacks the broad skillset that Rogue provides, and therefore loses the capacity to open lock/search and disable. If you already have a Bard in your party, the benefits of going with Bard are greatly reduced.
Bard: Character CreationEdit
Race: Human
Alignment: Any non-good and non-lawful
Stats
| Base Values | Racial Modifiers | Final Values | |
| Str | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Dex | 16 | 16 | 16 |
| Con | 14 | 14 | 14 |
| Int | 16 | 16 | 24 |
| Wis | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Cha | 14 | 14 | 14 |
BAB: 16
HP: (6*4) + (10*4) + (10*4) + (4*6) + 60 con bonus= 188
Saves
Fort: 2 + 3 + 3 + 1 = 9 +2 Con
Will: 5 + 7 + 7 + 4 = 23 -1 Wis
Reflex: 2 + 3 + 3 + 4 = 12 +3 Dex
And Evasion
Bard: OverviewEdit
Feats
Character Feats
1. Able Learner
3. Skill Focus: Concentration
6. Skill Focus: Spellcraft
15. Practiced Spellcaster: Wizard
18. Armor Proficiency (medium) OR Practiced Spellcaster: Bard
25. Automatic: Still Spell 0-3
27. Automatic: Still Spell 4-6
29. Automatic: Still Spell 7-9
Wizard Bonus Feats:
Red Wizard of Thay Bonus Feats:
5. Still Spell
10. Extend Spell
A few notes on the Level 18 feat of choice:
- Practiced Caster Bard helps some of your Bard spells last longer. Joyful Noise one of the main benefits of going with Bard, however is NOT one of them. This really only helps Amplify and Silence last longer, essentially doubling their length (from 4 rounds to 8 rounds). In particular, Amplify gives you +20 to listen checks, and helps you counter stealth, and can be extended to 16 rounds. Combine this with Inspire competence (+2 to all skills) and the Wizard spells Greater Heroism (+4 to all skills) and Clairaudience/Clairvoyance (+10 to spot and listen) and it becomes impossible to sneak up on a Bard.
- Medium Armor Proficiency lets you upgrade to Mithril Fullplate for an overall +1 to AC, and also reduces your Max Dex Bonus to 16, so that the Dex penalty from Stone/Iron Body has less effect. In the NWN2 OC/MoTB campaign, very few enemies use stealth, so Practiced Caster Bard is not nearly as worth it. In that case, I would recommend going with Medium Armor proficicency.
Note that in the NWN2 OC, there is a 0 ASF Eldritch Knight Chain Shirt (sold by Deekin in Neverwinter city), and 0 ASF mithril heavy shield available. The EK chain shirt has the requirement that you must be an Eldritch Knight, but you can circumvent this by having a modified UMD score of 15. You can use this equipment as a stopgap to boost AC, until level 29 when you get all your Autostill feats.
Bard: SkillsEdit
Base Skill Points:
- Bard 1st level (4*6)
- Bard 3 more levels(3*6)
- Wizard 6 levels (6*2)
- Arcane Scholar 10 levels(10*2)
- Red Wizard 10 levels (10*2)
Total = 94
With Starting int of 16, and human skill bonus, you start off with 4 extra skill points per level, and it steadily goes up as your Int improves:
- Int 16-17
- 4x at Level 1
- Normal From Level 2-7
- Total: (4*4) + (6*4) = 40
- Int 18-19
- From Level 8-15
- Total: 8*5 = 40
- Int 20-21
- From Level 16-21
- Total: 6*6 = 36
- Int 22-23
- From Level 22-27
- Total: 6*7 = 42
- Int 24
- From Level 28-30
- Total: 3*8 = 24
Total Skill points: 94 + 40 + 40 + 36 + 42 + 24 = 276 ~enough to max out 8.364 Skills.
This build really doesn't need that many skill points, as it lacks the Rogue skillset. There are 5 core skills it needs:
Besides the above, for Campaigns, I would recommend 1 Conversation Skill:
You still have about enough skill points to max out 2.364 skills left over. You might want to put these into:
- Other Convo skills: You really only need one really good convo skill for the campaign. But if you are feeling greedy, there is no reason why you can't have more.
- Taunt: A quick and easy AC and Concentration debuff. As long as you stay in the backlines, you won't attract Attacks of Opportunity while using this.
- Spot: This is not a class skill, and therefore only maxes out at 16 ranks at level 30. Stealth is generally not a major problem in the NWN 2/OC and MoTB campaigns, but in other settings (and especially in PvP), it is heavily used. Even though you can detect them using listen, it is still a good idea to max out Spot to protect against Feint.
- Appraise: In settings where money is a problem, this can help. Note that MoTB is NOT considered a money short setting.
Note that you don't have enough skill points at the start to keep all of the above skills maxed out. Your skill points per level steadily increases as your Int increases, so you wind up getting most of your skill points towards the end. You therefore need to prioritize which one is important. I would recommend maxing them out at each level in the following order:
- 1. Concentration
- 2. Spellcraft
- 3. Diplomacy OR Bluff
- 4. Tumble
- 5. UMD
- 6. Listen
- 7. Anything Else
Bard: Character ProgressionEdit
Rogue ProgressionEdit
Going with Rogue provides you a more diverse skill set, including Open Lock, Search and Disable. With these skills, you can effectively double up as the Party Rogue. However, you lose the Spells that Bard or Druid provide in the process. If you decide to use a Rogue Blood Scholar, consider dropping the 4th level of Rogue for the 7th level of Wizard (as described in the Variants above). Take the 7th Wizard level before entering the RWoT class, and this will let you learn level 9 spells in your 2nd RWoT forbidden school before you lose it.
Rogue: Character CreationEdit
Race: Human
Alignment: Any non-good
Stats
| Base Values | Racial Modifiers | Final Values | |
| Str | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Dex | 16 | 16 | 16 |
| Con | 16 | 16 | 16 |
| Int | 16 | 16 | 24 |
| Wis | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Cha | 8 | 8 | 8 |
BAB: 16
HP: (6*4) + (10*4) + (10*4) + (4*6) +90 con bonus = 218
Saves
Fort: 2 + 3 + 3 + 1 = 9 +3 Con
Will: 5 + 7 + 7 + 1 = 20 -1 Wis
Reflex: 2 + 3 + 3 + 4 = 12 +3 Dex
And Evasion
Rogue: OverviewEdit
Feats
Character Feats
1. Able Learner
3. Skill Focus: Concentration
6. Skill Focus: Spellcraft
15. Practiced Spellcaster: Wizard
25. Automatic: Still Spell 0-3
27. Automatic: Still Spell 4-6
29. Automatic: Still Spell 7-9
Wizard
RWoT
5. Still Spell
10. Extend Spell OR Silent Spell
For the Rogue, none of your classes come with Shield proficiency, so that has to be bought at level 18. A Good mithril heavy shield gives you +7 AC, as well as a host of enchantments (such as regeneration).
Note that in the NWN2 OC, there is a 0 ASF Eldritch Knight Chain Shirt (sold by Deekin in Neverwinter city), and 0 ASF mithril heavy shield available. The EK chain shirt has the requirement that you must be an Eldritch Knight, but you can circumvent this by having a modified UMD score of 15. You can use this equipment as a stopgap to boost AC, until level 29 when you get all your Autostill.
Rogue: SkillsEdit
Base Skill Points:
- Rogue 1st level (4*8)
- Rogue 3 more levels(3*8)
- Wizard 6 levels (6*2)
- Arcane Scholar 10 levels(10*2)
- Red Wizard 10 levels (10*2)
Total = 108
With Starting int of 16, and human skill bonus, you start off with 4 extra skill points per level, and it steadily goes up as your Int improves:
- Int 16-17
- 4x at Level 1
- Normal From Level 2-7
- Total: (4*4) + (6*4) = 40
- Int 18-19
- From Level 8-15
- Total: 8*5 = 40
- Int 20-21
- From Level 16-21
- Total: 6*6 = 36
- Int 22-23
- From Level 22-27
- Total: 6*7 = 42
- Int 24
- From Level 28-30
- Total: 3*8 = 24
Total Skill points: 108 + 40 + 40 + 36 + 42 + 24 = 290 ~enough to max out 8.788 Skills.
There are 4 core skills it needs to max out:
Besides that, if you are choosing to go with Rogue, it presumably means you are trying to double up as the party rogue. In which case I would recommend maxing out the following 4 more:
- Diplomacy (for Campaign) OR Spot (for PvP)
- Search
- Disable device
- Open lock
There are a few skill splashes it should have:
- Splash 5 ranks in Set trap for Synergy bonus to Disable Device
Note that you don't have enough skill points at the start to keep all of the above skills maxed out. You need to prioritize which one is important. If you are essentially acting as the Party Rogue, then the rogue skills need to be prioritized. I would recommend maxing them out at each level in the following order:
- 1. Concentration
- 2. Spellcraft
- 3. Search
- 4. Disable
- 5. Diplomacy (for Campaign) OR Spot (for PvP)
- 6. Open Lock
- 7. Tumble
- 8. UMD
Open Lock is of lower priority, as you can cast knock as a Wizard.
Rogue: Character ProgressionEdit
Druid ProgressionEdit
Druid lose a lot compared to Bard or Rogue. For one they don't have Tumble or UMD as class skills. The main reason for picking Druid, is for the Druid spells, and 1 spell in particular: Foundation of Stone. This provides them with immunity to Knockdown, for the 11 or so rounds that it lasts anyway (22 rounds if extended). Therefore, DO NOT take Druid if you already have access to items that grant knockdown immunity anyway.
What sort of opponents use Knockdown? Well anything with High Strength can use it effectively, including enemy monsters. But if you are fighting monsters, you should have a party with you, and as the Wizard, and you should be far away from the front lines.
The other enemy that likes to use knockdown are Arcane casters: Other Wizards and Sorcerers. The spell Bigby's Forceful Hand effectively knocks you down for 3 or so minutes, and is a favorite among Arcane Casters for disabling their foes. (Forceful hand also has a dazing effect, but Wizards already have protection from alignment and mind blank to protect against that.) Foundation of Stone therefore provides immunity to the knockdown effect of Bigby's Forceful hand, and lets you keep fighting, at least for the 11 rounds or so that it lasts.
On the whole therefore, going with Druid is only recommended if you expect to be duelling other Arcane Casters.
Druid: Character CreationEdit
Race: Human
Alignment: Any non-good and any Neutral
Stats
| Base Values | Racial Modifiers | Final Values | |
| Str | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Dex | 16 | 16 | 16 |
| Con | 14 | 14 | 14 |
| Int | 16 | 16 | 24 |
| Wis | 14 | 14 | 14 |
| Cha | 8 | 8 | 8 |
BAB: 16
HP: (6*4) + (10*4) + (10*4) + (4*8) + 60 con bonus= 196
Saves
Fort: 2 + 3 + 3 + 4 = 12 +2 Con
Will: 5 + 7 + 7 + 4 = 23 +2 Wis
Reflex: 2 + 3 + 3 + 1 = 9 +3 Dex
And Evasion
Druid: OverviewEdit
Feats
Character Feats
1. Able Learner
3. Skill Focus: Concentration
6. Skill Focus: Spellcraft
15. Practiced Spellcaster: Wizard
18. Practiced Spellcaster: Druid
25. Automatic: Still Spell 0-3
27. Automatic: Still Spell 4-6
29. Automatic: Still Spell 7-9
Wizard
RWoT
5. Still Spell
10. Extend Spell OR Silent Spell
Druid: SkillsEdit
Base Skill Points:
- Druid 1st level (4*4)
- Druid 3 more levels(3*4)
- Wizard 6 levels (6*2)
- Arcane Scholar 10 levels(10*2)
- Red Wizard 10 levels (10*2)
Total = 80
With Starting int of 16, and human skill bonus, you start off with 4 extra skill points per level, and it steadily goes up as your Int improves:
- Int 16-17
- 4x at Level 1
- Normal From Level 2-7
- Total: (4*4) + (6*4) = 40
- Int 18-19
- From Level 8-15
- Total: 8*5 = 40
- Int 20-21
- From Level 16-21
- Total: 6*6 = 36
- Int 22-23
- From Level 22-27
- Total: 6*7 = 42
- Int 24
- From Level 28-30
- Total: 3*8 = 24
Core Skills:
- Concentration
- Spellcraft
- Tumble
- UMD
Total Skill points: 80 + 40 + 40 + 36 + 42 + 24 = 262 ~enough to max out 7.939 Skills.
There are 7 skills you should try to max out:
- Concentration
- Spellcraft
- Diplomacy
- Spot
- Listen
- Tumble (cross class)
- UMD (cross class
Note that you don't have enough skill points at the start to keep all of the above skills maxed out. You need to prioritize which one is important. I would recommend maxing them out at each level in the following order:
- 1. Concentration
- 2. Spellcraft
- 3. Diplomacy
- 4. Spot
- 5. Tumble (cross class)
- 6. UMD (cross class
- 7. Listen
