Potent Scholar Build?

[dbeinfect]

Hello all first time poster, and am glad to see such a nice forum for Conan.
I have all the basics of Conan down having played pnp for 15 yrs but am at a loss on what to do to make a truly potent offensive Scholar. I would love any opinions on build types and spell/feat choices any may have. Thx again all!

 

[Evil_Trevor]

There are any number of ways to build a potent scholor, however they are not easy to play.

Start by picking a concept which needs to include race and main sorcery styles and feats you want. If you want to go for an effective low level scholor then either hypnotism or Oriental magic are powerful. At higher levels then the summoning and necromantic styles are very powerfull

Basing your ideas on a race or other class can help develop the character a lot (e.g. Khitan noble/scholor, Shemetish priest, pict shaman) that will allow you to develop the most appropriate sorcery styles and feats.

For a hyborian (Corinthian/Ophiran/Aquilonian etc.) think about the scholor backgrounds (Acolyte etc.) and the characters background (is he/she a noble, a freeman, a slave) and develop from there.

Any offensive magics with the Opportunistic sacrifice feat (level 7 and above) get really dangerous you can build up to that by taking the other sacrifice feats and starting with just hypnotism very effectivily, Oriental magic as a second style really complements.

 

[slaughterj]

Why do you find Oriental magic to be powerful? If you combine with Curses to get Gelid's Bones, yes, but otherwise?

To me, here's what I find offensively powerful at lower levels:

-Conjuring/Prestidigitation/Telekinesis, especially with crafted items and/or getting up to Animate Swords.
-Necromancy at 4th level gets you zombies.
-Gelid's Bones.

Clearly not offensively powerful:
-Divination
-Countermagic

Others:
Nature (maybe animals are useful offensively at low levels?)
Oriental (gets you to Gelid's Bones with Curses, but what else?)
Hypnotism (has some potential, but often fails due to saves)
Curses (okay for support effects, good for Gelid's Bones if you get Oriental too)

 

[argo]

Oriental Magic can be powerful for defense. I have a player with a multi-class pirate/scholar with a focus on Oriental Magic and who took the Defensive Martial Arts feat. At 7th level he can reliably have a Dodge DV of about 23 or so and when he dumps all of his PP and fights defensively he can push DV 31 or so. Combine that with some outside-the-box thinking on the player's part and there have been a few combats where he has saved everyone's hide.

The downside of course being that with his HP he can take two, maybe three hits tops.

Anyway, to give some more general answers to the OP.
-Geled Bones is the lowest-level insta-kill in the game. Requires a touch attack to deliver.
-If you can afford to manufacture your own alchemical/herbal/poison do-dads Telekinesis can be plenty good. Talk to your GM both about having the money and, more importantly, the down-time to craft your stuff. IMC I handwave the time reqired for players to craft stuff but in exchange reserve the right to veto line-items.
-Hypnotism is the go-to school for the ability to ruin someone's day without preparing a week in advance. The downside is most are evil-eye range meaning if your opponent does make their save you may be too close to get a second chance.
-Necromancy of course has all the fun insta-kill spells but most don't kick in until higher level.
-Summoning and Nature magic both give you the ability to call up a minion to fight for you. Requires good tactics for maximum effect.

And, of course Opportunistic sacrifice is the go-to feat for scholars who want to put the hurt on people all day long.

Hope that helps.

 

[urdinaran]

Take a look at "Foxing" in Free Companies; it basically curses someone to not be able to eat or drink anything as long as you spend 1 PP per day.

There is also another spell (can't remember the name) I mentioned a little while back; it's Necromantic, I think, and lets you summon multiple Ghouls which can become ethereal (???, sorry, forget the term they use in the spell, i'm at work) and follow your orders.

 

[urdinaran]

Here it is:

Summon Essence:

5 PP per jar of blood; each jar creates 1 ghoul, 1 jar per Scholar level

Prerequisites: Raise Corpse, MAB +2

Duration: MAB set duration in HOURS

These ghouls can turn incorporeal, and they can function as spies or guards !!!

 

[samagee]

Why do you find Oriental magic to be powerful? If you combine with Curses to get Gelid's Bones, yes, but otherwise?

To me, here's what I find offensively powerful at lower levels:

-Conjuring/Prestidigitation/Telekinesis, especially with crafted items and/or getting up to Animate Swords.
-Necromancy at 4th level gets you zombies.
-Gelid's Bones.

Clearly not offensively powerful:
-Divination
-Countermagic

Others:
Nature (maybe animals are useful offensively at low levels?)
Oriental (gets you to Gelid's Bones with Curses, but what else?)
Hypnotism (has some potential, but often fails due to saves)
Curses (okay for support effects, good for Gelid's Bones if you get Oriental too)

First off with divination you can be offensive by using projection and then hypnotism spells on them from a 1,000 miles off. You can even get creative by hypnotising someone else nearby to do your dirty work for you.

Countermagic has spells like ward of will for DR that can help you get offensive or stay on the offensive while someone is trying to beat on you. There is also master warding that winks out almost all magic in a radius around you. That can be very offensive if you walk up to another sorcerer and they don't have martial art feats to defend themselves.

The other thing to consider is what kind of offensive sorcerer do you want to be. If you don't want to be evil, then you will have to go with meditation and greater meditation instead of opportunist sacrifice. Also, you will have to stay away from styles like necro. Animate swords is nice, but the real attack bonuses for animated objects really kicks in with animate statue. If you pick up magic builder with the right craft skills. You can animate what you build. Statues, machinery, etc...

These are just some quick thoughts on it.

I almost forgot. I can't wait for 12th level scholar so I can get Oriental magics shape shifter. That way I can shape change into a Trex and kill a bunch of people trying to kill me. I can't wait to see my GMs face when I do that. Since you retain your intel, wis, and char I plan to smile and crack my knokles after I shape change into that. I wonder if they will just out right feint instead of fail their fear check.

 

[slaughterj]

Why do you find Oriental magic to be powerful? If you combine with Curses to get Gelid's Bones, yes, but otherwise?

To me, here's what I find offensively powerful at lower levels:

-Conjuring/Prestidigitation/Telekinesis, especially with crafted items and/or getting up to Animate Swords.
-Necromancy at 4th level gets you zombies.
-Gelid's Bones.

Clearly not offensively powerful:
-Divination
-Countermagic

Others:
Nature (maybe animals are useful offensively at low levels?)
Oriental (gets you to Gelid's Bones with Curses, but what else?)
Hypnotism (has some potential, but often fails due to saves)
Curses (okay for support effects, good for Gelid's Bones if you get Oriental too)

First off with divination you can be offensive by using projection and then hypnotism spells on them from a 1,000 miles off. You can even get creative by hypnotising someone else nearby to do your dirty work for you.

Countermagic has spells like ward of will for DR that can help you get offensive or stay on the offensive while someone is trying to beat on you. There is also master warding that winks out almost all magic in a radius around you. That can be very offensive if you walk up to another sorcerer and they don't have martial art feats to defend themselves.

Note, I said "here's what I find offensively powerful at lower levels," and I don't find Divination or Countermagic offensively powerful at lower levels. Further, neither of these by themselves is what is powerful in your descriptions, it is in combination with other effects/situations.