Roahin: Inferno Priest of Asmodeus Role: Ranged Nuke
Race: Tiefling (Hellspawn Heritage)
Alignment: Lawful Evil / Lawful Neutral / Neutral Evil
Final Build: Sorcerer 4 / Ecclesitheurge 6 / Mystic Theurge 10
Build Notes:
Tieflings are a race that have vexed me for some time. I prefer Devils and the Lawful Evil fiends over the Demons and the Chaotic Evil ones. But the Hellspawn (LE) heritage is a +2 Con, +2 Wis, -2 Cha unless you take Sorcerer / Eldritch Scion levels with the Infernal bloodline. I can't NOT take one of those classes and know I'm forever lugging around a -2 attribute penalty I didn't have to take, but at the same time, who wants a Sorcerer with +2 Con and +2 Wis? Are there any two stats worse? I fiddled around with Clerics of Asmodeus who just took the -2 hit to Charisma, but couldn't get past it. I tried Eldritch Scions but found the attributes didn't make sense and were wildly ineffective. Then this build clicked. It does everything I'd ever wanted a Priest of Asmodeus to do. Burn everything. Burn the heretics, burn the lawbreakers, burn the rival countries, burn it all. Starting Stats Sorcerer-1
Bloodline: Infernal
10 Strength
14 Dexterity
16 Constitution
10 Intelligence
16 Wisdom
16 Charisma
Skills: Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Spell Focus (Evocation), Spell Specialization (Magic Missile)
Spells: (1) Grease, Magic Missile
Notes: While the Hellspawn gets a +2 on Perception checks, it never becomes a class skill and there really aren't the points to burn on it. Leveling Stats Level 2 - Ecclesitheurge 1
Deity: Asmodeus
Domains: Fire, Law
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Notes: With Spell Specialization - Magic Missile, you can step away and level Cleric for now. In the earlier levels, a Sorcerer 1 / Cleric 3 is worth more than a Sorcerer 4. Level 3 - Ecclesitheurge 2
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Point Blank Shot
Notes: There are going to be a lot of Ray spells down the road, Precise Shot should be taken ASAP. Level 4 - Ecclesitheurge 3
Attribute: Wisdom +1
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Notes: You might be tempted to switch Spell Specialization over to Arrow of Law. After all, that'd make it do 3d8 damage and there are a LOT of Chaotic creatures in this game, but resist the temptation. You don't have Precise Shot yet and Magic Missile hits everything, Chaotic or not. Level 5 - Sorcerer 2
Skills: Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Precise Shot
Notes: Remember as an Eccleistheurge you can prep ALL your Cleric spells with Domain spells. So if you want to use all Scorching Rays, you can and now is a good time to do it since you no longer have the -4 penalty for firing into melee. Level 6 - Sorcerer 3
Skills: Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Spells: (1) Shield, Protection from Good(Free)
Notes: Your SS-Magic Missile now fires 3 missiles. Level 7 - Sorcerer 4
Skills: Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Elemental Focus - Fire, Spell Specialization (Burning Arc)
Spells: (2) Burning Arc
Notes: It's a judgement call on switching Spell Spec. 7 uses of 3d4+3 Magic Missile vs 4 uses of 6d6 Burning Arc that will bounce around between targets. I personally find Burning Arc more useful, but play it by ear. Level 8 - Mystic Theurge 1
Attribute: Wisdom +1
Skills: Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Spell Specialization (Magic Missile)
Spells: (1) Ray of Enfeeblement, (2) Molten Orb
Notes: I know what I said for 7, but for 8, SS-MM is worth more. The reason is that it now does 4 missiles, and in addition to your 7 Sorcerer slots, thanks to Mystic Theurge, you can now prep your 4 Cleric-2lvl slots with it as well. By about this time you're just machine gunning down every Troll you come across. Also note that your Cleric bonded Holy Symbol? This works on Arcane spells that you prepped with your Cleric slots. So, really, you've got 12 casts/day. Level 9 - Mystic Theurge 2
Skills: Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Greater Spell Focus (Evocation)
Spells: (3) Fireball
Level 10 - Mystic Theurge 3
Skills: Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Spells: (1) Burning Hands, (2) Scorching Ray, (3) Haste
[i]Notes: Magic Missile now fires all 5 missiles.
Level 11 - Mystic Theurge 4
Skills: Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Greater Elemental Focus (Fire)
Spells: (4) Controlled Fireball
Level 12 - Mystic Theurge 5
Attribute: Wisdom +1
Skills: Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Spell Specialization (Scorching Ray)
Spells: (2) Mirror Image, (3) Displacement, (4) Dragon's Breath
Notes: Why the switch? Magic Missile now natively is maxed out at 5, Spell Spec doesn't help it anymore. But it will give you a third Scorching Ray ray for a total of 12d6 damage. And between your Cleric and Sorcerer slots, that's a lot of rays. Level 13 - Mystic Theurge 6
Skills: Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Spell Penetration
Spells: (5) Fire Snake
Notes: Roahin, what should my spell lists be looking like? Assuming you have no stat buffs to increase limits and you're just looking for pure blast damage: Sorcerer: 7 Magic Missiles, 7 Scorching Rays, 7 Fireballs, 5 Controlled Fireballs, 3 Fire Snakes; Cleric: 6 Burning Hands, 6 Scorching Rays, 5 Fireballs, 4 Controlled Fireballs, 2 Flame Strikes. As you can see, the name of the game with this build is TONS of high damaging spells. I generally recommend having your team pre-buffed with both Fire Resistance spells so you don't have to sit there trying to work them out of the area of effect (that'll let you drop Controlled Fireball for Dragon's Breath which does more damage). You will never run out of spells, and you're going to find that even if a tough mob out there is making his reflex saves, you're going to be burning them down like nothing anyhow. And when you're dropping 40+ damage to like eight targets simultaneously, you're really doing hundreds of overall damage per cast. Level 14 - Mystic Theurge 7
Skills: Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Spell Specialization (Fire Snake)
Spells: (2) Blur, (3) Stinking Cloud, (4) Obsidian Flow, (5) Cloudkill
Notes: Your Scorching Ray now natively fires all three rays. Fire Snake is one of the few spells that can still benefit from increased caster level at this point. Level 15 - Mystic Theurge 8
Skills: Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Greater Spell Penetration, Spell Specialization (Hellfire Ray)
Spells: (6)Hellfire Ray
Level 16 - Mystic Theurge 9
Attribute: Wisdom +1
Skills: Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Spells: (4) Volcanic Storm, (5) Vampiric Shadow Shield, (6) Sirocco
Level 17 - Mystic Theurge 10
Skills: Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Weapon Focus (Ray)
Spells: (7) Firebrand
Notes: God, Firebrand is such a great spell. For those unfamiliar, you make your whole team immune to your fire spells and all their weapons count as flaming. Level 18 - Ecclesitheurge 4
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Level 19 - Ecclesitheurge 5
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Feats: Improved Critical (Ray)
Level 20 - Ecclesitheurge 6
Attribute: Wisdom +1
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) +1, Lore (Religion) +1, Persuasion +1
Some might recognize this as a variant of my Firelord build for Tristan in the Companions page. Given both Saranae and Asmodeus are fire Gods, there's some obvious overlap. But whereas Tristan's build also focused on healing and buffing, the Inferno Priest is just a tactical nuke, clean-sweeping encounters away. It should be noted that even on Unfair difficulty, I found this build was making things too easy. Maybe that's a boon to you, maybe it's a drawback.