The Dispel Specialist

"Magic is both the sword and the shield. But it can be undone by more of the same."

- Grigori Imoff, Master Unmaker

Magic is one of the greatest tools that can be wielded in any roleplaying game. Not only that, but the higher one gets in level, the more and more of it they're going to have to deal with. From spellcasting enemies, to foes wielding deadly enchanted items, to dealing with the lingering arcane forces that lurk in ancient ruins, magic is a constant threat that adventurers have to deal with.

Some are skilled enough to dodge it. Some are tough enough to tank it. Others, though... others can unmake this magic at its source.

The Dispel Specialist

Dispel magic is one of the most potent weapons you can wield against magic. It can strip away active spells from a target, it can temporarily turn off magic items, and it can even short out magic traps (for a time, at least). And the more commonly you have to deal with enemies who use magic (whether it's to boost themselves or curse your allies), the more useful it's going to be as a tool. You can even use it as a counterspell, assuming you've readied an action to try to prevent whatever it is your enemy is going to do.

The question, of course, is how you want to build your dispel specialist?

The obvious choice is as an abjurer wizard, since this gives you bonus slots for abjuration spells. However, if you want to get crafty with your choices, you could also use the arcanist (particularly if you take Potent Magic exploit, allowing you to temporarily increase your effective caster level). Those are the two best bets I was able to find, but there may be a sorcerer bloodline, or a class archetype, that could give you an extra boost that I simply didn't come across.

However, whichever class you use as your chassis, there are a couple of traits and feats to consider. I mentioned these in my blog entry 3 Tips For Boosting Your Caster Level in Pathfinder, but they include:

- Gifted Adept (trait): Pick 1 spell, and its effects manifest at +1 caster level

- Magic Tattoo (Varision Tattoo in the original text) (feat): Choose 1 school of magic you've taken Spell Focus for. Increase your caster level for spells of that school by +1

- Spell Specialization (feat): Choose 1 spell from the school of magic you've taken Spell Focus for. Treat your caster level as 2 higher for all level-dependent effects

Additionally, you could consider the prestige class Bloatmage (whose lower levels grants you increases to your caster level based on a particular school of magic), and if you have a lot of treasure to throw around you might want to consider grabbing an orange prism ioun stone (or a flawed version if the standard is too costly for you).

The goal is to make sure that your caster level for dispel magic, and any similar spells that function like dispel magic, is as high as possible so that when you start stripping away spells helping your enemies (or hurting your allies), that you never end up casting this spell in vain.

Because, on a long enough timeline, your BBEG is probably going to be a spellcaster, and they're definitely going to have a panoply of spells and echantments making them into an even larger threat. So do what you can to cut them down to size before your allies move in to finish the job!

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