Necromancer Ember is stupid broken

[Eedjit]

So im playing a Devil Eldritch Archer, decided to spec Ember as full out Necro with spell pen and touch attacks buffed out the wazoo with feats and items, and my god is it broken, just casual -10 str -10 dex Wracking rays each turn, along with waves of exhaustion etc, makes even the nastiest of demons completely useless in the fight, down to like 10 AB with just couple spells along other debuffs, not to mention how incredibly good the fortune and protective luck Hexes are... I dont even bother with Evil eye or slumber anymore, since they are such coin flips all the time. Playing on Core+, How do you spec your Ember?

[pete3great]

Originally posted by Duder:

Thing about ember is she's not great as an offensive character because of her burns. She suffers massive penalty to her attack rolls.
I always multi her into a dirge bard/witch more of a support character

You don't need to roll to hit with all offensive spells, and even then it's usually touch attack which is much much easier to hit than regular AC. In theory, Ember can't hit. In practice, she hits just fine.

[Rogue.ch]

Originally posted by Duder:

Thing about ember is she's not great as an offensive character because of her burns. She suffers massive penalty to her attack rolls.
I always multi her into a dirge bard/witch more of a support character

blackend only applies to weapon rolls. ray casting isn't affected

[Crusader993]

Originally posted by Duder:

Thing about ember is she's not great as an offensive character because of her burns. She suffers massive penalty to her attack rolls.
I always multi her into a dirge bard/witch more of a support character

She's a more than great offensive character, and she's also a great supporter. That's exactly what makes the little witch so indispensable. :)

Her ranged touch attacks hit reliably... and she's great at dispelling magic.

Hellfire Ray + Ember is without a doubt one of the strongest combos in the game.

Fire is the strongest element in WotR, due to having the most item support and the most spells. If she is casting an elemental spell such as fire, using the mythic feat Ascendant Element removes the resistance and immunity of any target.

[CthuluIsSpy]

Originally posted by Duder:

Thing about ember is she's not great as an offensive character because of her burns. She suffers massive penalty to her attack rolls.
I always multi her into a dirge bard/witch more of a support character

The penalty only affects her weapon rolls.
She suffers no penalties with touch attacks. The game really, really wants you to build her as a pew pew mage, hence why the recommended feat path involves giving her point-blank and precise shot, so she can use hellfire ray and scorching ray with impunity.

[revan1229]

Originally posted by Crusader993:

Originally posted by Duder:

Thing about ember is she's not great as an offensive character because of her burns. She suffers massive penalty to her attack rolls.
I always multi her into a dirge bard/witch more of a support character

She's a more than great offensive character, and she's also a great supporter. That's exactly what makes the little witch so indispensable. :)

Her ranged touch attacks hit reliably... and she's great at dispelling magic.

Hellfire Ray + Ember is without a doubt one of the strongest combos in the game.

Fire is the strongest element in WotR, due to having the most item support and the most spells. If she is casting an elemental spell such as fire, using the mythic feat Ascendant Element removes the resistance and immunity of any target.

What makes Ember a great dispeller? And Nenio and Daeran are better Hellfire Ray blasters.

[pete3great]

Originally posted by revan1229:

Originally posted by Crusader993:

She's a more than great offensive character, and she's also a great supporter. That's exactly what makes the little witch so indispensable. :)

Her ranged touch attacks hit reliably... and she's great at dispelling magic.

Hellfire Ray + Ember is without a doubt one of the strongest combos in the game.

Fire is the strongest element in WotR, due to having the most item support and the most spells. If she is casting an elemental spell such as fire, using the mythic feat Ascendant Element removes the resistance and immunity of any target.

What makes Ember a great dispeller? And Nenio and Daeran are better Hellfire Ray blasters.

Quite simple: Ember already has two of the most important ray feats when you get her. With Nenio, you're basically retooling her from 3 levels where she's clearly been set up for something entirely different, making those 3 levels wasted feat wise.

[Raikon]

Its true she comes with two feats your looking for, but its not like you have hellfire ray at lvl 3 anyways. It really isnt an issue to get daeran or nenio to hellfire standards, atleast feat wise. Plenty of time before hellfire become available.

[revan1229]

Originally posted by pete3great:

Originally posted by revan1229:

What makes Ember a great dispeller? And Nenio and Daeran are better Hellfire Ray blasters.

Quite simple: Ember already has two of the most important ray feats when you get her. With Nenio, you're basically retooling her from 3 levels where she's clearly been set up for something entirely different, making those 3 levels wasted feat wise.

Nenio comes with Spell Pen and Spell Focus - Illusion. Neither of these feats are wasted, even if she's using rays. Plus, as a Wizard, she gets bonus feats anyway compared to Ember, and her Empowered/Bolstered/Maximized rays don't take a full round.

[fox5s]

I mean... with Sorcerous Reflexes, neither do Ember's. :D

Really, it's that there's a lack of direction for anything to do with Ember. And Witch spells are... ehhh.... not wizard spells. So her best raw damage option without some hard thinking is Ray casting which her Feats already facilitate.

Yes, you can build her for other things. Yes, others can probably do Ray casting better. Her Hexes alone are enough to keep her around for me. It's just fishing around for something else to do on occasion or when she is out of things to Hex.

Or, if you hate micromanaging Hexes (probably cause you play RTwP rather than TBM), she needs something else to do. Raw damage takes the least thought and is easy to set up.

[revan1229]

Originally posted by fox5s:

I mean... with Sorcerous Reflexes, neither do Ember's. :D

Really, it's that there's a lack of direction for anything to do with Ember. And Witch spells are... ehhh.... not wizard spells. So her best raw damage option without some hard thinking is Ray casting which her Feats already facilitate.

Yes, you can build her for other things. Yes, others can probably do Ray casting better. Her Hexes alone are enough to keep her around for me. It's just fishing around for something else to do on occasion or when she is out of things to Hex.

Or, if you hate micromanaging Hexes (probably cause you play RTwP rather than TBM), she needs something else to do. Raw damage takes the least thought and is easy to set up.

SR is once per combat and for spells two levels lower than your maximum spell level (so lategame)... She's fine as a ray caster, but lots of people seem to think that she is the only companion that can do this. And I do find some action economy issues and minor gear optimization issues when combining a hexer and blaster, which is why Wildlands Shaman is my go-to hexer (I know they stack - but outside of the early game, I don't find I need 2).

[Duder]

I thought it affected all her attack rolls. Good to know.