Building a Wizard Specializing in Ray Spells

[Jvirtue55]

I’m thinking about a Wizard who specializes in Ray Spells because there are alot of good ray spells out there . Is there any thing already out there on Building an Optimized Ray using wizard as a skeleton to work from? Thanks for the help

[X-Codes]

TM20's guide is pretty much it.  There are breakdowns of spells by school.  A trend with rays is that most of them don't allow a save for reduced effect (and, if they do, their effect isn't bad on a successful save, either).

[sonofzeal]

I’m thinking about a Wizard who specializes in Ray Spells because there are alot of good ray spells out there . Is there any thing already out there on Building an Optimized Ray using wizard as a skeleton to work from? Thanks for the help

You should check out Blastificer guides, as many of those rely on rays.  In general, "Seeking Ray" is awesome at low level, "Scorching Ray" is one of the better damaging ones, "Ray of Clumsiness" is generally better than "Ray of Enfeeblement" (though both are good), "Ray of Stupidity" combined with "Split Ray" can dominate just about anything, and check if you can research the "Arrows of Dusk" mystery (it's weak, but it's no-SR and Medium range, which are both almost unheard of for Rays) and the "Magnetism" Wu Jen spell (also no-SR, and considerably more useful).  Also, "Improved Critical" can be applied to Rays (and until then, "Critical Strike" is a nice swift action buff).  Oh, and that reminds me - sources of Sneak Attack damage will be good for you.  Consider going "Daggerspell Mage" if you prefer interesting over optimal, and "Assassin's Stance" is always nice.

[Jvirtue55]

Is the Spellwarp Sniper any good for a Prestige Class?

[Khorus]

Also Ocular spell meta magic feat is something to check into. Lets you hold 2 spells in your eyes to be discharged. So could shoot 3 rays (or 4 if you split ray the one you cast) a round.

[ninjarabbit]

Split ray, quicken spell, empower spell, maximize spell, twin spell, and arcane thesis are going to be your friends.

I would load up on metamagic feats and find ways to reduce the metamagic costs like arcane thesis and metamagic school focus. Ray of stupidity and evervation are my favorite ray spells but it's a shame they're from different schools.

[Ithamar]

Watch out for people protected by Ray Deflection (SpC).  That will ruin your day.

[sonofzeal]

Watch out for people protected by Ray Deflection (SpC).  That will ruin your day.

At the same time, there's Targetting Ray, Seeking Ray, and Guided Shot that.... won't negate Ray Deflection, but are worth keeping in mind when you're in danger of missing otherwise.

[mans0011]

Getting to Incantatrix 10 with Arcane thesis is absolutely delicious. Pick something nasty like Enervation or Scorching Ray for your thesis and then go to town on Metamagic. Mmm Mmm Good!

[wO-_-OdrOw]

Is the Spellwarp Sniper any good for a Prestige Class?

I forget if the bonus dice it grants works for ability damage or not. If so, then yeah, it's okay. I don't remember if it's full casting, but losing caster levels can be looked at as balancing your character.

[Ithamar]

Bonus dice pretty much never add to ability damage, it is just converted into negative energy damage.

[Shadeseraph]

Is the Spellwarp Sniper any good for a Prestige Class?

Yes, but mainly for the ability to transform any area spell into a ray, which transforms any reflex ST into a ranged touch attack. Spellwarped Wings of CoverFlurry for uncapped D6 force damage + Daze effect with no saving throw allowed is just sweet. In addition, the extra range for ranged sneak attacks is a nice (though not too powerful) addition.

I would pick some mix of Spellwarp Sniper, Archmage (for arcane reach, extra caster level, and other goodies) and Unseen Seer (get Hunter's Eye for extra free SA).

Not incredibly powerful, but pretty fun.

Lastly, some feats:
-Split Ray (Complete Arcane; as the other have already noted).
-Chain Spell (Complete Arcane; Lovely when you are against many enemies, has many interesting uses with Arcane Reach).
-Quicken Spell (Core; any full caster should have it).
-Fell Drain (Libris Mortis; lovely with split ray and chain spell).
-Darkstalker (Lords of Madness; Nice when you can't depend on your spells)
-Residual Metamagic (Complete Mage or Player's Handbook 2, I can't remember right now; nice when you have many metamagic feats).
-Arcane Thesis (Player's Handbook 2; already noted by ninjarabbit, ideal for enervation madness).

[Tshern]

Spellwarped Wings of Flurry you mean, not Cover. Anyway, my Spellwarp Sniper was promptly disallowed after my Sorcerer tossed out a Spellwarped Split Ray'ed Twinned Wings of Flurry on four of our foes at once...

[Shadeseraph]

Spellwarped Wings of Flurry you mean, not Cover. Anyway, my Spellwarp Sniper was promptly disallowed after my Sorcerer tossed out a Spellwarped Split Ray'ed Twinned Wings of Flurry on four of our foes at once...

Ups, typo noticed and corrected. Thanks. And I can understand why it was disallowed. It's incredible how powerful some spells become when you somehow cancel the need for a saving throw.

Another interesting metamagic feat for a ray specialist (in my opinion): Invisible Spell, from Cityscape. It doesn't increase the spell level, and it makes the effect invisible. Ideal for a sniper. And very useful if you use a sorcerer and the arcane spellsurge (sp?) spell from dragon magic.

[jameswilliamogle]

Most DMs I've played with don't allow Chain Spell to be applied to ray spells.  I don't know what the official ruling on that is, but just FYI.

[Caelic]

Bear in mind that Enervate is a ray spell.  Enervate plus Arcane Thesis is just NASTY.

[woodenbandman]

Spellwarped Wings of Flurry you mean, not Cover. Anyway, my Spellwarp Sniper was promptly disallowed after my Sorcerer tossed out a Spellwarped Split Ray'ed Twinned Wings of Flurry on four of our foes at once...

Ups, typo noticed and corrected. Thanks. And I can understand why it was disallowed. It's incredible how powerful some spells become when you somehow cancel the need for a saving throw.

Another interesting metamagic feat for a ray specialist (in my opinion): Invisible Spell, from Cityscape. It doesn't increase the spell level, and it makes the effect invisible. Ideal for a sniper. And very useful if you use a sorcerer and the arcane spellsurge (sp?) spell from dragon magic.

I love that combo. I like Arcane Spellsurge for a wizard based SCM better, though, because you can summon as a standard action, then cast a SoD with your swift, as well as have wizard casting (though the Shadow Illusion kinda defeats the need).

[ninjarabbit]

Another good ray is Ray of Exhaustion, good if you want a ..... nonlethal way of deal with a foe, especially barbarians or other tanks. Even if the foe makes his save he's still fatigued and can't charge or run.

Another feat I like for ray mages is knowledge devotion (of course I like that feat for a lot of builds), the extra damage is not so much but being able to get an easy extra +2 or +3 to your attack roll is a better deal than weapon focus: rays or point blank shot.

One of the specific reasons why enervation is so nasty when metamagiced is because negative levels stack.

[Caelic]

Getting to Incantatrix 10 with Arcane thesis is absolutely delicious. Pick something nasty like Enervation or Scorching Ray for your thesis and then go to town on Metamagic. Mmm Mmm Good!

The only problem with Scorching Ray is that it doesn't work well with Split Ray; you only get one extra ray.

[Irthos Levethix]

A nice magic item to have with your sneak attacking ray caster would be the Hellcat Gauntlets from the MiC.

3/day, as a swift action, you can add Xd6 slashing damage to a spell, where X is the level of the spell you cast.  Really nifty for, say, Ray of Light.  Blind for 1d4 rounds with extra damage, and possibly triggering your Sneak attack as well, and no save?  Yes please.