Bloodfire Mage

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1 Bloodfire Mage (Sorcerer/Red Dragon Disciple)
2 See Also
3 Class-specific forum

Bloodfire Mage (Sorcerer/Red Dragon Disciple)

Requirements

Must have 10 levels of Sorcerer, 10 levels of Red Dragon Disciple, Greater Spell Focus (Evocation), and Resist Energy (Fire) before level 22.

Benefits

On achieving Bloodfire Mage status at level 20 or 21, the character is automatically given Epic Spell (Hellball) and Epic Spell (Dragon Knight) as bonus feats.

Any light or medium armour worn by the Bloodfire Mage has its spell failure chance reduced to zero.

Bloodfire Mages receive a CL/2 boost to lore for their spells. This can go beyond the normal 120 limit, up to 130% enhancement.

Spells

For certain spells, casterlevel = Sorcerer level + RDD level including legendary levels if the control class is Sorcerer or RDD. In addition these spells count as Evocation for determining DCs and receive +1 spell penetration for every 10 caster levels over 20.

Those spells include:

Level	Spells
1	Burning Hands Negative Energy Ray (does divine damage) Lesser Orb of Fire Summon Creature I
2	Combust Flame Weapon Summon Creature II
3	Flame Arrow (does all damage in one hit) Fireball (does (3/4 caster level)d6; 2/3 fire and 1/3 positive) Summon Creature III
4	Elemental Shield (duration multiplied by 10) Stoneskin Wall of Fire Orb of Fire Orb of Force Summon Creature IV
5	Firebrand (no longer limited to 1 brand per target; does full fire dmg) Energy Buffer Summon Creature V
6	Tenser's Transformation Summon Creature VI
7	Delayed Blast Fireball (does an additional 1d6 per 2 caster levels of Positive damage) Greater Orb of Fire Greater Orb of Force Summon Creature VII
8	Incendiary Cloud (does 1/2 fire and 1/2 magical) Summon Creature VIII
9	Detonate Meteor Swarm (does CLd10 Fire or Divine whichever is best against each target) Summon Creature IX

Other Changes

Dragon Knight
- Dragon disciple levels count for improving Dragon Knight.
Hellball
- Does (casterlevel*3/2)d20 of fire (or electrical for Dragonstorm Mage). Creatures that heal off fire (or electric), will take lowest exotic damage type instead (positive/divine/magic).
- No longer breaks loot
- Receives 1 additional use per day for every 10 levels of red dragon disciple including legendary levels if the Mage's control class is red dragon disciple)
Wing Buffet (requires draconic full transformation) gets enhanced DC = BFM levels + Constitution modifier.
Spells:
- Firebrand now inflicts 2/- per 10 casterlevels in resistance debuffs.
- Fireball now inflict 1% per 6 caster levels damage vulnerability.

Tips for Building and Playing

Unlike any other mages, Hellball does not break loot and does respectable damage to monsters as well as knocking them down. It is very useful for controlling big spawns. Cast it at an expected spawn point then run in following it, if timed right you'll then be hitting lots of knocked down injured creatures.

If spells do combination damage (i.e. 1/2 fire and 1/2 magical), they will generally not work underwater at all. Meteor Swarm does fire OR divine and does work under water. The force orb spells work underwater just fine.

Branding everything whilst hilarious in Pre-LL areas can to turn to suicidal to the caster (and their party in the case of AoE kickback) when they hit kickback creatures, unless you have all required immunities covered, due to the sheer amount of hits on the target. Unless you want to invoke the wrath of fellow party members 'Tab' to ensure there are no AoE kickback creatures (e.g. Winds, Fumes, Infernal Machines, Coldforge Constructs, etc) in any spawn you want to brand.

There are three main ways to build a BFM (Bloodfire Mage).

Caster-Tank. This is a very hardy caster that gets all the Bloodfire mage buffs and spells while wearing light or medium armour. Spell durations and penetration on non-BFM spells are very weak. A typical example would be 19 Sorc, 20 RDD, 1 Paladin. Some people spend the Epic Toughness feats to get full RDD progression, others do not. Another possible choice is wherever or not to use Auto-Still feats to allow shields and heavy armour.
Sorcerer Control Class. Typically 29 Sorcerer, 10 Red Dragon Disciple, 1 Paladin. Gets caster epic spells in addition to ending with 49 caster levels, similar to a level 51 cheese sorcerer, for all non-BFM spells. In robes can get long lasting 65% conceal via EV, or switch to light or medium armor and get shorter lasting 50% conceal from displacement.
Red Dragon Disciple Control Class. Typically 25 Red Dragon Disciple, 12 Sorcerer, 3 Paladin/Blackguard. This version concentrates more on physical attacks and buffs with offensive spells as an backup. Base AB suffers a lot because of the sorcerer and RDD levels levels pre-20 but Tenser's Transformation helps recover to acceptable levels, it is worth considering taking Extend Spell as you do not get the extended version of this spell available to a Staffmaster.