1 level of wizard

[nickbeat]

How effective would one level of wizard be for an unarmored monk? I'm just wondering if it is just a bad idea to even try it. Lets assume we have practiced spellcaster in there, so the effective caster level is 5.

How long would shield, mage armor, and enlarge last?
Could the character still use any arcane wand or scroll?

Is it even worth it, or will this gimp my character to the point of being useless?

I really think this would make for an interesting and versatile character.

Thanks in advance,

Nick

[sharringtonm]

I played a monk in the NWN1 OC. I took a single level of sorcerer. Why? For a single spell. True Strike. I'd cast that and then devestate anything (including all the bosses). They couldn't resist my disarm or knockdown, and missing just about never happened in the next round. 1-20 damage + str x 6 attacks that shouldn't miss no matter what there ac is.. it was deadly.

[Kangleton]

Depends on the purpose of the character. I would assume that you're making a melee character, as that is what would make the best use of the buffs you mentioned. With that in mind, I'd say that those aforementioned buffs actually aren't worth it, considering nerfed duration based on Sundren scripting, and that by the time you finished casting all the buffs, the first few would already be close to wearing off. However, you make a good point with scrolls and wands, which, as far as I know, you can use without hinderance.

Was this supposed to be 14 Monk/1 Wizard? If you want as many Monk levels as you can get and don't wanna sacrifice anymore, I'd swap Wizard for Shadowdancer, since HiPS is just plain better than a level of Wizard. You could just add that Shadowdancer level, though, to make it 13 Monk/1 Wizard/1 Shadowdancer, and you'd have a versatile character with arcane casting through scrolls, SR, magical fists, enhanced speed, HiPS, free Improved Knockdown, a bunch of attacks per round, and a few other pros. You'd need to be dex-based.

I forgot what the point of this post was.

[nickbeat]

Just wondering how long the wizard buffs would last, and interested in opinions. I've been wanting to do this for a while now, but fear I would reduce my character's effectiveness. I might to it just for the nifties.

I don't plan on more than 2 levels of Monk.

Is there a place that describes the math for durations based on level and duration of the spells?

[joker]

Why don't you ask some of the half-orcs that have taken 1 level of wizard. I saw some just last night.

[Gairun]

Heres how to do it, dont take wizard, insead take cleric and take the magic domain. Be a monk/cleric of Mystra. You get some wizard spells and it meshes really well.

Taking just one level of mage + practiced spell caster would give you an effective caster level of 5. Sheild, Magic weapon etc. all would last 1 minute/level, so that would be five minutes. Prot. From Align., mage armour etc. all would last 1 hour/level, so that would be 25 minutes as 1 hour in game = 5 minutes real time. if you had at least a 12 intelligence you would only get 3 spells, so it's kinda not worth it.

[nickbeat]

OK, so Enlarge and Shield would only last about half a minute, and Mage Armor five. Gotcha.

[Noraax]

I am working on a cleric\monk\sacred fist build right now.

3 levels monk, 3 levels cleric, at 7 start taking sacred fist, you gain monk like abilities plus you gain levels in divine spells. Mine is going to be a monk of Ilmatar and is focusing in healing and strength. Hoping for it to be pretty brutal pretty quick.

[nickbeat]

Yes, I was given that advice before actually. Perhaps I should have listened, but I still hope that this could make for an interesting build.

[sparkeh]

I thought taking one level of a class for a feat/spell was considered powergaming and frowned upon here.

The fuss that was made of taking one level of shadowdancer ended with HIPS being moved to lv4.

Not saying you are right or wrong to do this, just that I thought that this was discussed before and that I wasn't cool to do.

[Machiavelli]

[EDIT]

The nasty nature of the message that previously occupied this space has fulfilled its purpose, and so I am replacing it with this more friendly announcement! I won't really be doing any of that nasty stuff (or it's very unlikely), I just wanted to kill that discussion and make a few points.

[Kangleton]

It isn't so much about powerbuilding as it was about finding out whether or not something was even useful. He was, really, just asking a question about game mechanics involving duration of spells.

[nickbeat]

Machiavelli, you are right that this thread has diverged into power build recommendations, which is not really what I am after. Please don't post anything to that effect.

I'm actually concerned that this build would be horribly ineffective, but still want to do it just for coolness. It seems the durations could really reduce his effect, but perhaps the proper timing applied at just the right times might pay off.

[rustediron]

Well, you can rest every 10 mins...

Wands ARE AWESOME! but the best ones, bless and flame weapon, might not work for a monk (unless you use a kama or something).

I remember a gnome/halfling (he would never take off his helm so we didn't know) called maddock with a magic/monk build... it was really good. Not sure how he managed it, but I remember darts and kamas being used, with a lot of good buffs.

[Machiavelli]

I remember a gnome/halfling.

Gnome/Halfing is a blatant powerbuild. Anyone caught playing a Gnome/Halfling will be immediately banned!

But seriously, discussing the spell durations is cool as they are indeed modified on Sundren. However, it did turn into a thread about the most effective powerbuild. You can keep talking about it if you like, I won't really take away anyone's levels, but I guarantee you that people with weird stats/builds generally get less time from me as a DM. Typically it's pretty easy to guess why someone has 8 wisdom and 6 charisma as well as a level of sorcerer, and the answers don't scream "interesting character". That said, if people RP their weird stats/builds well then that can be good too. More of this sort of thing happens than you folks might guess, especially along the lines of single-levels-that-don't-make-sense and dump-stats-that aren't-RPed-out (usually Charisma... seriously, if your charisma is 8 then you shouldn't be RPing excellent social skills). In fact, the Gnome/Halfling mentioned by Rusty above was a prime example of these things (He had a 6 Cha, and was always RPing being witty and charming for the ladies... huh?!?).

As for the spell durations (unless they've been recently tweaked), Mage Armour and Shield are both shorter in duration, and have been modified in the AC bonuses they provide.

Mage Armour: Gives +1 to Deflection, Armor, Dodge, and Natural AC. Duration is more like 1min/level (probably slightly higher than this) than 1hour/level (don't have exact numbers on duration I'm afraid, and I don't believe they were ever posted, but I used to play a mage and that's close to the mark).

Shield: Gives +4 Deflection AC. Duration is approximately halved on Sundren