Builds: Frosty Spell-Sniper

Frosty Spellsniper

Frosty Spellsniper

The bane of the low level caster is running out of spells. It is a fear you shall never have for your cantrips will be deadly and while they will not be as high level as a straight caster’s there will be quite a few of them. Convention be dammed, this is an unholy combination of blasting and sneak  attack!

Feats/Class Features of note

Feats are of chief import for this build to become effective as quickly as possible which leaves the obvious choice of human. Anything else will be slower, small sized creatures make for a worthy alternative. For Build purposes I am assuming Elemental Pupil and Arcane Lineage traits have been taken.

1: Human Wizard (Admixture subschool) 1: Flagbearer, Scribe Scroll, Point Blank Shot (ROF 1d3+5, Snowball 1d6+4), get a flask of liquid ice to use as a focus for snowball and ROF. Greensting Scorpion makes a fine familiar. (important spells: Mount, Snowball, Truestrike, Vanish, Grease, Chill Touch)

2:  Winter Witch 1: Hex-Frozen Caress*, Ice Magic, Cold Flesh, Familiar (Raven) (ROF 1d3+1d4+5, Snowball 1d6+1d4+4) (important spells: Frostbite is a good choice not on the wizard list generally pick spells that you do not get elsewhere.)

3:  Either Crossblooded Sorcerer** or more likely Wildblooded (Rime-Blooded 1):  Bloodline arcana makes your cold damage spells also slow foes, you also gain Cold Steel bloodline power, Eschew Materials, Weapon Focus: Rays

4:  Ninja 1: (1d6 SA), Poison use or Rake 1: Bravo’s blade, and SA 1d6

5:  Ninja 2: Ki Pool, Vanish Trick  or Rake 2: Evasion, Snap Shot***, Rime Spell

6:  Ninja or Rake Rogue 3: (2d6 SA)

7:  Arcane Trickster 1 Ranged Ledgerman, Extra Hex: Evil Eye****

8:  Arcane Trickster 2 (3d6 SA)

9:  Arcane Trickster 3 Impromptu Sneak attack 1/day, Extra Hex: Slumber

10: Arcane Trickster 4 (4d6 SA)

11: Arcane Trickster 5 Tricky Spells 3/day Extra Hex: Intensify Spell

12: Arcane Trickster 6 (5d6 SA)

13: Arcane Trickster 7 ISA 2/day Tricky Spells 4/day, Extra Hex Prehensile Hair

14: Arcane Trickster 8 (6d6 SA)

15: Arcane Trickster 9 Tricky spells 5/day, Invisible Thief Extra Talent or Trick Finesse Rogue or Shadow Clone Respectively

14: Arcane Trickster 10 (7d6 SA) Surprise Spells

17: Wizard 2 Mounted Combat

18: Wizard 3

19: Wizard 4 Craft Wands, Quicken Spell

20: Wizard 5

Ending Casting level 16, SA 7d6

ROF- 1d3+1d4+8 with a rider effect of slow with possible SA damage and a free intimidate check if you went rogue

Snowball 10d6+1d4+5 with rider effects of slowing, staggering and entangling at 2nd level slots with possible SA damage only difference for 1st level is dropping the entangle effect.

These options take little away from the fact you can use a wide variety of battlefield control spells and have a variety of feat options that can settle different casting styles.

*Frozen Caress says touch but doesn’t specify if it means spells that target touch or spells with range touch, I choose and assume it means the former latter than the latter.

**Crossblooded Sorc is the pooer choice partly because we dumped will so hard partly because chasing an extra damage here is hardly worth the effort.

***Snap Shot can be interpreted as meaning only a ranged weapon rather than a ranged attack.

****The main issue with taking hexes is that they will only increase DC with Int.

Attributes

Int/Cha/Dex/Con/Wis/Str

Point Buy 20

Str: 7

Dex: 14

Con: 13

Int: 18 (+2)

Wis: 7

Cha: 16

Attribute increases should go into Con then Wis, then Int twice.

Skills

Max Ride, Stealth, Disable, a little of everything really.

Traits

There’s some very decent options here, particularly if your GM has a laissez faire attitude towards trait restrictions.

Havoc of the Society: (adds +1 to damage as force) Train may well be disallowed w/o faction. Plenty of games hand waive that though, for this I am assuming that it is ok. This is a magical trait

Elemental Pupil: (adds +1 to an elemental damage type less restricted and it’s a regional trait

Arcane Heritage: (lowers adjustment of a meta magic feat by 1 spell level, snowball is the likely choice) also a magical trait.

Reactionary: +2 to initiative

Variables

This build helps you keep your wolf alive for no real trade off in action economy and most importantly lets you deal massive amounts of damage utilizing spirited charge and sneak attack while mounted, then you
simply ride on by forcing the enemy to make a move action to fight back (if they live.) A nasty alternative to this could well be going lance instead, or switching up for some archery fun.

Tactics at Level…

Level 1: Better than the usual wizard because you have a strong cantrip.

Level 3:  You’re suffering for a lack of BAB and 2nd level spells are a bit distant, but you have strong cantrip options and a variety of first level spells to get you by.

Level 5: Wide variety of skills are now at your disposal and mixing SA with touch attacks means you’re BAB is a little less an issue. You should use vanish (or vanish trick) to make them flat footed denying both dex bonus to touch AC for extra damage.

Level 7: Here on out feats are mostly about adding extra tricks to your repertoire while your SA and spell level increases. Mount spell can keep you quite mobile and remember even if you are simply invisible on the mount the enemy is vulnerable.

Level 8-14: Finally you’re getting better spells, skills and sneak attack all at once!

Level 15-20: Mostly to gain more spell levels and an extra feat

The Extra Hex Feats can be Extra Ninja Tricks or Craft wand or really whatever you feel the need to shore up. When you run into something with a strong cold resistance switch to a different element. You have some decent damage but do not neglect buffer and battlefield control spells. Use mount spell to keep mobile, summons for some meat shields or SLAs as needed. You’re going to have issues with Spell resistance and spell penetration isn’t a terrible idea, or simply stick to spells like snowball that don’t suffer for it.