Talk:Spontaneous Gnome Shadow Illusionist (3.5e Optimized Character Build)

Hide and Seek

Where can I find the Shadowcraft Mage and the Shadowcrafter. Also, locations to where the feats are located would be useful. Flession 10:10, 24 March 2007 (MDT)

The shadowcraft mage is in Races of Stone, the shadowcrafter is in Underdark, and Signature Spell is in Player's Guide to Faerûn. —Sledged (talk) 23:40, 31 August 2007 (MDT)

Many thanks. -- Flession 09:06, 3 September 2007 (MDT)

Spell Mastery

You'll need to take Spell Mastery as your 6th level feat, as it's a prerequisite for the Signature Spell feat. --Heretic379 05:52, 27 October 2007 (MDT)

This build uses the illusionist variant from Unearthed Arcana:

Illusion Mastery (Ex): ... Furthermore, any time the illusionist learns a new illusion spell, he treats that spell as if be had mastered it with the Spell Mastery feat.

Spell Mastery not needed, or rather the illusionist need not select it. —Sledged (talk) 15:05, 27 October 2007 (MDT)

I know, but the Signature Spell feat itself has a prerequisite of Spell Mastery; just because you count as having used the feat doesn't mean that you count as having taken that feat for the purposes of later feat selections --Heretic379 04:28, 28 October 2007 (MDT)

Actually it does. It's called a virtual feat. Virtual feats allow you to qualify for other feats and PrCs even though you don't technically have the feat in question. I'll provide a rules reference when I find it. —Sledged (talk) 10:23, 28 October 2007 (MDT)

Gnome Illusion Spells

It must be noted that the 1st level gnome illusionist racial substitution level waters down the shadowcraft mage's class feature shadow illusion (Su), because the conjuration/evocation spell mimicked can only be as high as the used figment's level minus one, and the save DC and % of effect are based on the figment's spell level.

By the same token, Heighten Spell becomes a very valuable feat because it effectively raises the spell level of the figment. In fact, with the class feature powerful shadow magic, you could heighten silent image to a 9th-level spell and deal 110% damage with a mimicked evocation spell, and it gets better in epic levels with Improved Spell Capacity and Improved Heighten Spell. You deal an extra 10% more damage for every slot used beyond 9th. What's bizarre is that if the target fails their disbelief Will save they take only 100% of the damage. —Sledged (talk) 21:59, 27 October 2007 (MDT)

Earth Spell + Heighten

If you can, fit Earth Sense(Races of Stone), Earth Spell(Races of Stone), Arcane Thesis(Silent Image)(PHBII) and Heighten Spell(SRD) into the build.

The Shadowcraft Mage allows you to mimic an evocation or conjuration(creation/summon) spell of an equal or lower level with an image spell, changing its type descriptor from figment to shadow and making it partially real (on a made will/disbelief save). Earth Spell lowers the cost of a metamagic feat by 1 spell level, as does Arcane Thesis. They stack. Using both on a Silent Image Heightened to lv9 makes it able to mimic a 9th-level spell, but from a 7th-level slot.

Note: You cannot use arcane thesis with heighten spell. PHBII states, "when you apply a metamagic spell other than heighten spell to that spell, the enhanced spell uses up a spell slot one level lower than normal."

Heighten Spell and Silent Image

Actually, you wouldn't even need to take Signature Spell for anything but Silent Image. Signature Spell(Silent Image) and Heighten Spell would allow you to mimic any Conjuration(Summoning), (Creation), or Evocation spell of 8th level or lower, leaving 3 feats for Earth Sense, Earth Spell, and Arcane Thesis.

Spell Levels

In the character description it states: "At low levels you have access to most illusion spells two levels early". I'm having trouble understanding how this is possible. Are you refering to the few special illusion spells Gnome Illusionists get 1 lvl earlier than normal? JaVe 15:50, 27 April 2011