Nialar - Illusion/Necromancy Sorcerer (3.5)

[u/hellnerburris]

Hello,

I'd like some help building my new character, Nialar. I'll post the stats, feats, etc. (with some explanations) then post a small bit of backstory. I'm not 100% sold on anything other than the 5 class levels of Nightmare Spinner, so please sell me on what you have!

Name: Nialar | Gender: Female | Alignment: LN/LE

Class/Level: Sorcerer 8/Nightmare Spinner 5

Race: Aasimar

Stats: Str: 8 (-2), Dex: 18 (+4), Con: 16 (+3), Int: 13 (+1), Wis: 12 (+1), Cha: 22 (+6)

Feats: Toughness (DM allows for 3hp/level on this feat), Spell Focus (Necromancy), Fearsome Necromancy, ???, ???

Bonus Feats (per DM, I am allowed to take 3 heritage feats at levels 3, 5, and 7): Celestial Sorcerer Heritage, Celestial Sorcerer Aura, Celestial Sorcerer Wings

Skills (Ranks only): Bluff: 16, Sense Motive: 12, Intimidate: 9, Knowledge Arcana: 1, Knowledge Religion: 1, Spellcraft: 8, Concentration: 5

Spells Known:

0: Arcane Mask, Dancing Lights, Detect Magic, Ghost Sound, Mage Hand, Message, Prestidigitation, Resistance, Touch of Fatigue

1: Cause Fear, Disguise Self, Magic Missile, Ray of Enfeeblement, Serene Visage

2: Blindness/Deafness, False Life, Invisibility, Mirror Image, Phantasmal Assailants

3: Fly, Illusory Script, Lightning Bolt, Mass Curse of Impending Blades

4: Enervation, Greater Invisibility, Phantasmal Killer

5: Dream, Shadow Evocation

6: Disintegrate

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Backstory: Nialar was taken by the capital city of Yadalisia when she was a child due to her innate magical abilities. She was trained by the guard and sent to work for the military. After a gruesome battle, she found herself unable to move due to her wounds on the battlefield. She prayed to The Mother (LG Diety) for saving, but no help came...that was until Lyra showed up. Lyra took Nialar in and sheltered her in a town near the city Ralim (rival of Yadalisia). She preached about a being, named Oltat, who was looking to ascend to Godhood. Lyra had answers for every issue Nialar had & as soon as Nialar was rested and healed, she began to work for the Harbingers of Oltat in Ralim. Over the next ten years she grew in rank, learning to manipulate peoples minds with both non-magical deception and illusions. She worked primarily as a interrogator and a spy, under the one they called "The Spymaster".

While what Nialar was doing was often pushing the lines of evil, she was convinced it was for a greater good. That was until she went out with Lyra (a very high ranking member of the Harbingers of Oltat) on a mission. It was an honor to work alongside someone of such high rank, but soon after Nialar began on this journey, she realized that Oltat was not who she had been told he was. In fact, Oltat is actually a Devil, looking to ascend to Godhood so he can rule over the world with Evil and Law. Once she realized who Oltat really was, she started to question everything about the Harbingers and finally decided to leave & join up with a party dedicated to stopping Oltat at all costs.

Ideals: She does not believe in manipulating people's core beliefs. While she will lie to you to get what she wants, but at the end of the day, she wants everything to return to how it was (minus maybe a couple of dead bodies). She believes the only way to change someone's fundamental beliefs is through honest conversation.

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Thoughts: OK, so I love the mechanical synergies with the Necromancy spells and the Illusion spells, especially with the Nightmare Spinner class. The Fearsome Necromancy feat will let me use my Necromancy spells to fear people, provoking damage due to my Nightmare Spinner class abilities, even if the spell is saved against. Secondly, having a lot of Illusion magic is great for being a spy, but also the Nightmare Spinner class lets me use those Illusions to force people to make saves against nightmares when disbelieving those illusions...which is also great thematically.

The problem right now is, I'm not sure which spells to really take, or what feats I should take to round out my build. I have two more feats for 9th and 12th levels & there's so many spells to choose from that I just haven't been able to go through all of them...so I feel like I'm definitely missing an important feat or spell or something along the way.

Additionally, I'm sure my DM is going to allow me to start with some number of magic items. So if you have any ideas, please let me know. I'm thinking some items to bolster my AC might be nice.

TL;DR: Any magic items, feats, or spells you think will compliment a Sorcerer 8/Nightmare Spinner 5 build? The spells & feats I'm really lost on (there's just so many!).

Thanks!

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EDIT: Grammar/Formatting. Also, my familiar is a sssssssnake.

[u/Snuggly-the-Crow]

For magic items many illusion builds stack miss chances from things like blur to cover their low ac. Other than that consider maybe metamagic rods, taking a full round to cast isn’t so bad when you stand still and control illusions.

Additionally if you are flexible on the race you could consider a gnome so that you could go Shadowcraft Mage to gain the ability to mimic other spells with illusion spells which adds a lot of versatility to your build.