I posted a projected build for myself this morning of a 18/2 wiz/rog mostlikely as a Pale Master. This spawned a few comments and questions. So let me see if I can hash a few of them out for you all.

The most common two are: Why is Heighten so late (lvl 17)? Why no Spell Pen feats? Lets look at the Heighten question first.

At level 17 when I will take Heighten that will be my 15th wizard level. Which means before then 7th level was my max level spell any way. Aka Finger of Death is as good as it can get and Circle of Death is only 1 behind it. Making my DCs on removal spells almost or just as good as someone that took Heighten sooner.

Spell Pen: You have to know from reading my stuff for a while to know that I have the max number (for past life gains+) of Wizard lives done already. And as a completionest I have already done a FvS life, so I am +7 over a first lifer already. So I am sure that will get me to 20 with just a few enchantments and an item. If I get to epics and have trouble I can swap out the sorc past life and side in the spell pen feat taking the rest post 20. But I don’t think they will be needed. Tobril was telling me just the other day how a 2nd lifer was getting no fail Spell Pen on eE quests with all the feats and a few twists. I am hoping the extra 5 spell pen I have from past lives will do the work of all those feats and some of the epic twists. If not I can do a few mow FvS lives.

Also real fast something I might have said or should have said is this build is mostly to level with. I don’t know if I will stay 18/2 post level 20 or not. But this is a fairly well rounded build for the first 20 levels.

Lets see some other comments….

On Barb Past life: The sooner you take the Barb past life feat the stronger it is in the over all life of a build. 20 hps and a rage is very strong at level 3. Just looking at the planer level 3 I would have around 60 hp with out items, taking the feat is a third more. Be at -11 to -19 a few times and tell me how you feel about having 20 more hp? Barb past live vs toughness: 20 hp now vs 3+1 per level until level 17 the past life is just plan better and having the clickly is an often over looked perk. Be one point short of pulling a lever and know that if you had this you would have gotten it done.

No Extend?: With the changes to extend I don’t take it on new casters. I just don’t. Why do I need it? Haste and Rage were talked about in one comment, But I offen don’t cast them on my casters, unless I am killing mobs via melee or something.

Empower: This is my spell booster for the low levels. Sometimes I just want to cast a spell once and be done. This is how I help make this happen. Its costs are low enough that paying for it is affordable at low levels, I used to use Max Spell but those lifes often took longer to level up due to having to melee more then I liked.

Sorc past life: I am only taking it for prereqs for like Wrath form and if I go Am to use instead of Mental toughness. If it turns out I can’t use it as a Mental Toughness sub (think it can) I will be taking Mental toughness instead.

The last big comment I see again from Malinza2 (lots of good comments btw) is on why not 2 monk over 2 rog. This is a matter of preference. For starters I have never liked how a 2 monk splash looks on casters. You either make life hard on yourself or run a round uncentered all the time. In my eyes two feats are not as good as Rog skills and a d6 the sneak attack for stunned or held mobs, lest not forget alignment restrictions that monks have to follow meaning you can’t switch to N to take less damage at places and take neg levels to use some items. Also for me it comes down to gear. I have lots of gear that plays well for a caster that plays well with rog levels that doesn’t play nice with monk levels. I mean if I am doing a melee build, monk is easy to fit in I have lots of cool wraps and a fair amount of robes, but as a caster I am just better of using a host of other gear.

Would I say run out and build this for yourself? Not really. This is more of a build for me. But I want to share my thoughts and process in the event that it helps others.

Tomorrow that talk on AM vs PM.

❤