Tips for a True Flame?

[Barteg]

I have a lvl 9 True Flame, and the feats I've taken so far are GSF Evo, Greater Spell Penetration, and Combat Casting. I've been putting my skills into Concentration, Spellcraft, Heal, and Lore. Any tips on what to take next? Any must have spells or feats? And have I been doing my skills right? Am I waaayyyy overthinking all of this!?

[Rystefn]

You want Maximize. I'm assuming you already know the joys of infinite Darkness. Honestly, your spell selection is pretty much done for you by being limited to the one school, though. Darkness, Bigby, missile spam, flame arrow, cone of cold. I assume people actually have more spells than that, but that's what gets used generally. Sometimes Fireball for fun.

[Twily]

I personally skipped combat casting and went for toughness instead on mine, but aside from that it's exactly the same so far. HP can be a true flame's friend since they lack buffs. I personally recommend getting toughness, and putting Constitution as your secondary stat(after charisma), assuming it's a pure caster true flame rather than a melee or archer mix.

As Rystefn says, I also think maximize is extremely important to get, although due to the spell level increase there's no huge rush. (level 12 or 15 would be when I grabbed it on mine)

PS: Flame arrow is conjuration.

[Barradoor]

Maximize and quicken

[Rystefn]

Sorry. Firebrand.

[taoofbalance]

Not to go to far off subject here. Hope the OP doesn't mind me asking a question.

Is a Trueflame viable all the way up through epic? Do they get the double-damage they do (Used to?) on FL?

[Barteg]

I've heard people say they're only viable in groups at higher levels

[IndifferentPerson]

Well, you see. Going true flame is already a problem.

[Barteg]

How so?

[IndifferentPerson]

It's a straight downgrade from being a normal mage, anything with stealth, UMD or some magic is already a problem.

[Barteg]

B-b-but unlimited evocation spam

[Urch]

It's hilarious when you find someone able to guard you. Stick on defensive casting and go to town.

Going still spell and multiclassing to a class that has heavy armour proficiency is also quite cool if you wanted a bit more AC. If you have the strength for it you could get yourself in a tower shield and fullplate.

One idea I have toyed with is getting elemental damage immunity on all items, and getting elemental resistance feats (fire or something), and fireballing everywhere, while being completely immune.

True flame isn't a solo class, and it isn't a PvP class. In fact, it isn't a powerbuilder's class. Especially considering the type of people who generally PvP are the ones that are semi or fully powerbuilt and will flatten you incredibly fast. It isn't a bad class per say, it's just not effective on your own. (I've played a true flame sorcerer. Multiclassed to fighter, and barbarian for roleplay reasons. It was great fun, but in terms of power, it was terrible).

[Maragaram]

The Diablo II Sorceress was a True-Flamer, and she did just fine. If you can take down the Three Prime Evils, you can survive on Arelith. Don't give up on your dreams on killing your foes with the powers of fire, cold, and lightning!

(Diablo references forever)

[msterswrdsmn]

You can -totally- solo with a trueflamer. You just need to be smart about it.

Lead with some evocation crowd-control spells (stinking fog, bigby's, darkness) and pick off your disabled targets. It won't work 100% of the time, but its doable.

Be aware of the AoE effects of spells and carefully draw things out. Running in and throwing fireballs into a mob is a great way to get killed. Try using things like magic missle to pull things one at a time from a distance into a persistant AoE crowd control spell and then finish it off.

I'd recommend quicken spell and maximize. Quicken is probably better, as its essentially hasted casting without having to worry about spellslot requirements since you have unlimited castings per day.

There are a handful of critters you won't be able to kill due to high elemental resistances and spell resistance, but they're pretty far and few in between as I remember.

[Urch]

^true msterswrdsmn, you can solo. I just hate the spell darkness because it always screws me up, and I never picked it for ages haha.

One spell I would recommend picking up is gust of wind. While it may not seem impressive against foes, it can dispel area based fog spells (like acid fog, cloud of bewilderment, cloudkill, creeping doom, incendiary cloud, mind fog, stinking cloud, and poison traps that have gone off), and also open doors from a distance. It helps to avoid traps on doors.

[msterswrdsmn]

That, and you can use quickend gust of wind as an AoE knockdown over and over again! More crowd control!

[Barteg]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Empower Spell. Is it just not as good as I think it is?

[Barradoor]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Empower Spell. Is it just not as good as I think it is?

Maximize is constant, so usually picked over it.

[The Rambling Midget]

Using Fireball as an example, if you Empower the spell, you multiply its damage by 1.5, but it remains random, giving an average damage of 52.5. If you Maximize the spell, you get 60 damage flat, every time. There's a chance that you'll do as much as 105 damage with Empower, but also a chance that you'll go as low as 15.

Maximizing does require an extra spell level beyond Empowering, but that doesn't matter as much in the late game, since you have infinite castings, and metamagic doesn't create a need for spell components.

[IndifferentPerson]

Well feel free to play a gimped class all you want, I showed you the cards they have

[msterswrdsmn]

Its not bad with PvE, provided your not stomping in an area with an abundance of stealth-spawns. Pvp it definatly has issues, though if your fighting something with stealth or good saves.

[Mithradates]

I'm no building genius, but I too have been able to solo with a TF from level 3 in the sewers up until I decided to remake her as a Weave Mastery sorceress around level 12. I made sure my Intelligence was 14 and invested in stealth skills. Quite an investment considering the double points, but that coupled with my gear being uniformly enchanted with +2 to MS and Hide made me able stroll casually through dungeons. I use my stealth in tandem with darkness as an unexpected bonus in all my casters. Well... I only play casters .

While developing tactics was tedious at times, I ultimately think True Flame is awseomely powerful, more specifically if your focus is PvE. I just made another TF whom I've been having fun creating tactics with. She's been cursed with a Mark of Humility by her cruel cruel maker, but still I've been soloing with great success! I took the Stealth feat, Spell Focus Evocation, and Toughness so far, and I'm toying with the idea of going a few levels of paladin for saves and stuff. My one question is : Is Shelgarn's Persistant Blade affected by Evocation focus?

[Rattus_norvegicus99]

Quicken and all the Auto quickens ... fast, fast, fast.

[Rattus_norvegicus99]

It's a straight downgrade from being a normal mage, anything with stealth, UMD or some magic is already a problem.

How on earth is something with stealth, UMD or magic a problem?

[IndifferentPerson]

A true flame can't detect invisible/stealthed targets, for one.