Chapter 5-131: Contemplations of a Silent Warlock (2/2)

His lips twisted despite himself at the thought, which he knew was stirred up by his Hellpact just to mess with him, but nevertheless might still be true.

A selling point for Damned Hellpacts! The thought disgusted him, but he was fairly sure it was happening...

The trip to the Firezone was going to be a baptism of literal fire, but it seemed shadows and undead would be taking place first.

Sinbound...

Undead were one thing, but Warlocks and a Dark Church was something else. It would be good to have a specialist along for such things...

Master Fred pulled out his Vaccine and sent out a text. The response came back shortly.

He smiled slightly, despite himself. Another acquaintance Lady Traveler would no doubt find interesting to meet. She was already roping in The Mick... this would be a different thing entirely, but he had the very definite impression that a Shroudborn Chosen of Sylune would be flexible about such things...

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From Sorcerer/4 to Elemental Theurge/1. That Theurgic boost went to Wizard, boosting it to 1 (4), staying on pace.

Here was where the overeager might press forward, knowing they could make it to Nine. No reason to wait, right?

Patience, patience...

There was a ding! here, foisting upon me the Extra Druidic Domain of Desolation, the Blighter version of Winter, which basically meant Earth and Cold. +1 to Caster Level of both types of spells, increasing cold resistance, some spells designed to kill living things, yada yada...

With it came Elemental Mastery/2, Cold, letting me turn any spell with Elemental damage to Cold, weaving a greater whole out of the disparate parts.

From a science standpoint, there was no difference between hot and cold, they were all on the same scale. Getting magic, which was built around the four stages of matter, to recognize that was a little bit harder.

The primary purpose of the Elemental Theurge Class was to fuse Druidic and Arcane magic, letting me Cast spells out of one with the power of the other. Since I wasn’t going to use my Blighter Slots at all, and in fact was just going to Nog them away, that meant I could recharge/take my Druidic spells with Arcane power, completely sidestepping the need to suck power out of the Land.

Yeah, I spent a few days transcribing and Writing a lot of Druidic spells, to the astonishment and delight of the Archives here. The simple fact I could make up Arcane versions of Druidic spells that had not been made before meant more spells to be sold, more income generated...

From there, Archsorcerer/2 was picked for me the next day, doubling my Valence II Slots, and I just continued the theme and grabbed the Extra Spell Known/2 and Extra Spell Slot/2 at the same time. Base 9 Spell Slots at II was worth the delay, as my rep counts were atrocious for everything, except maybe the Write spell... and I’d been adding Sanctified Spell to that just to get a few extra rep counts off my II’s. Eesh, dumpster diving for rep counts, indeed...

Archwizard/2 was forced on me next, and both Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration for Feat and Mastery. They were all part of the same Feat/Mastery Chain, taking that to /3, and combined with the Piercing Spell Meta, would get me to +9 Spell Penetration if I needed it. If I cast it out of a higher Valence instead of buying it off, Improved Raise Spell and Fortified Spell would add +2 per Valence higher, too...

I had the feeling I was going to be going up against things with Spell Resistance. Poor them.

Battlemad/1 and Arcane Archer/1 both followed. These were combat Theurgic Classes, the classic Melee/Caster and Archer/Caster builds. Where the Caster Theurgies allowed you to boost Caster Level of the Classes they were fusing, Battlemad and Arcane Archer instead allowed you the option of +1 Melee or Ranged Attack bonus respectively instead, to a maximum of +2, the total not to exceed your character Level.

This was the backdoor method Fighter or Archer Primaries could use to exceed Six, and which the dwarves used, employing Cleric or Artificer to do so. A Fighter would use the Arcane Archer, a shooter would use the Battlemad. They’d take the opposite fighting class as secondary, after using the Theurgies to fill in the ‘holes’ of their attack bonus that occurred at One and Five, since Melees had Medium Ranged Attacks, and Archers had Medium Melee Attack. After they did so, they’d take a Melee or Archer Level, which would also fill in that empty spot at One, pop their secondary Attack Bonus to Seven, and clear the way for their Primary Class to do the same.

It was how the dwarves reached Seven, as a rule. They could also use stacking Caster Theurgies to clear the way to Eight, but hadn’t realized it was possible, since a Theurgy couldn’t promote you past your Primary Level. The idea of stacking Theurgies first, and then boosting the Class Level afterwards, hadn’t occurred to pretty much anyone...

With the Battlemad Level came two advances on the Combat Focus line, adding Combat Stability and Combat Vigor. The former was extremely useful for not being pounded into the dust and trampled on by something bigger and stronger than me, while the latter gave some in-combat healing for myself that didn’t waste actions or spell slots.

With Arcane Archer came Zen Archery, which let you add your Wisdom to your ranged attack rolls, a decent feat for an average Archer... and an awesome Feat if you had a high Wisdom score. Given that Weaponized Shards needed all the bloody bonuses to-hit that I could get, this was one sweet Feat.

Spellwarp/2 finished it out, letting me shift Valence II’s instantly to a Ray, without having to use a Meta to do so. While Spellsculpting could do it, too, the combination of the two effects gave me intrinsic and marvelous control over the process... which I was also going to exploit.

The Theurgic buffs went to Inquisitor and Minstrel. That was because I needed to get both Classes to /9 eventually, in order to get the Stat bonuses to spells from them, and they were competing with Ur-Priest and Bard for those Theurgic bonuses. Use them while I had them...

Battlemad/2 and Arcane Archer/2 finished out the Theurgies I could take. The Theurgic Level went on Ur-Priest, as I’d already used up one Mystic Theurgy to boost Wizard, not Ur-Priest, and one Elemental Theurgy to boost Wizard instead of Blighter.

Feat and Mastery for Battlemad were Touch Attack of Opportunity, letting me fast-cast a Touch Spell if someone was stupid enough to leave themselves open in range of me, and Sneak Attack/1, Sneak Attack of Opportunity, which let me apply SA damage on an AoO, just to abuse the point that you shouldn’t leave yourself open like that.

Arcane Archer was War Magic/2, Energize Spell, the standard +2 Meta that increased variable damage of a spell by 50%, giving it a nice kick, if a bit on the pricey side. With it came the first of the Sudden Metas line, the ability to add a Meta on the spot, once a day, without Valence cost.

SuddenExtend Spell wasn’t a huge thing, doubling the duration of a spell, but the later ones all had their insta-kill uses.

Tomorrow would be Sorcerer/5, and then the march to Ten Casting...