Ultimate Magus

[emanresu]

I read on some threads where this class was being suggested, repeatedly, by several players. This led me to believe it must be strong prst class or have a interesting role playing hook. What are the tricks of the trade when it comes to this class?

eman resu

 

[Nagol]

Biggest trick is to keep getting +1 caster levels on the prepared casting side through the purchase of Practised Spellcaster feat. That reduces the "castable spell-level" tax of the class.

 

[Dandu]

Archivists cast Divine spells iirc.

 

[Jackinthegreen]

Archivists cast Divine spells iirc.

To better explain this:

Archivists can cast spells from the Sorc/Wiz list, but when the Archivist does it they're divine spells. They're recorded as divine spells in his book(s).

 

[Argyle King]

Biggest trick is to keep getting +1 caster levels on the prepared casting side through the purchase of Practised Spellcaster feat. That reduces the "castable spell-level" tax of the class.

This...

It takes a little time to pay off, but it eventually turns out pretty well. My knowledge of 3rd edition is extremely rusty, but I remember playing this class and having it turn out pretty well once I got the hang of how everything worked.

 

[Empirate]

Ultimate Magus is a little bit tricky to make work. If you just enter Sorcerer 1/Wizard 4, like the designers seem to have intended, you lose a lot over just straight Wizard.

If, on the other hand, you take Int synergy into account (Beguiler 1/Wizard 4 entry), and use Practiced Spellcaster well, you can easily reach 9th level spells on the Wizard side, get a LOT of low level slots from the Beguiler side, and profit from the UM's metamagic capabilities.

Very high caster levels can be reached by exploiting the way certain prestige classes calculate caster level - a Wizard 7/Nar Demonbinder 1 entry can be very good for this, although it takes a little bit of wriggling. Demonbinders cast Blasphemy/Holy Word/Dictum/Word of Chaos as arcane spells, and can get extremely good caster level on these spells... lots of pain for equal-level opponents.

For further reading, let me direct you to the (preliminary) Ultimate Magus Handbook.

 

[emanresu]

Ultimate Magus is a little bit tricky to make work. If you just enter Sorcerer 1/Wizard 4, like the designers seem to have intended, you lose a lot over just straight Wizard.

If, on the other hand, you take Int synergy into account (Beguiler 1/Wizard 4 entry), and use Practiced Spellcaster well, you can easily reach 9th level spells on the Wizard side, get a LOT of low level slots from the Beguiler side, and profit from the UM's metamagic capabilities.

Very high caster levels can be reached by exploiting the way certain prestige classes calculate caster level - a Wizard 7/Nar Demonbinder 1 entry can be very good for this, although it takes a little bit of wriggling. Demonbinders cast Blasphemy/Holy Word/Dictum/Word of Chaos as arcane spells, and can get extremely good caster level on these spells... lots of pain for equal-level opponents.


For further reading, let me direct you to the (preliminary) Ultimate Magus Handbook.

If in a gestalt campaign how would this alter your entry classes.


You bought up a very good point or at least reminded me of one. And that is, this PC may be for this or the following campiagn, and odds are 1 of them will be evil. So when you say Demonebinder, although I have no idea who or what these are, I must look into things such as these for the evil campign.

 

[emoplato]

If in a gestalt campaign how would this alter your entry classes.


You bought up a very good point or at least reminded me of one. And that is, this PC may be for this or the following campiagn, and odds are 1 of them will be evil. So when you say Demonebinder, although I have no idea who or what these are, I must look into things such as these for the evil campign.

The Nar Demonbinder is a Faerun prestige class found in the Unapproachable East.

 

[Empirate]

If in a gestalt campaign how would this alter your entry classes.


You bought up a very good point or at least reminded me of one. And that is, this PC may be for this or the following campiagn, and odds are 1 of them will be evil. So when you say Demonebinder, although I have no idea who or what these are, I must look into things such as these for the evil campign.

Nar Demonbinders don't have to be evil, they can be neutral (and that is probably a superior choice anyway).

Gestalting an Ultimate Magus... I can't really think how I'd do that, since I have no experience with gestalt campaigns, but I believe you and your DM would have to work together to let this happen in a nice and balanced way. Particularly, I'd have reservations about the following statement concerning PrCs in gestalt games:

A gestalt character can’t combine two prestige classes at any level, although it’s okay to combine a prestige class and a regular class. Prestige classes that are essentially class combinations-such as the arcane trickster, mystic theurge, and eldritch knight-should be prohibited if you’re using gestalt classes, because they unduly complicate the game balance of what’s already a high-powered variant. Because it’s possible for gestalt characters to qualify for prestige classes earlier than normal, the game master is entirely justified in toughening the prerequisites of a prestige class so it’s available only after 5th level, even for gestalt characters.

Dual casting is really only good in a standard game; in a gestalt game, why not just level up the two base classes? Or, if you want powerful metamagic, go Beguiler 20 // Focused Conjurer 5/Incantatrix 10/Archmage 5?