GameBanshee Forums

Dear readers,

As you might know I've been asking a lot of questions about Wizards. This class is something that suits my taste down to the letter. Now I love roleplaying that's why I like Wizards but I also like powergaming and that's also why I love Wizards.

The following build is something I cooked up in my long studies on the wizard. Hopefully for those who enjoy playing the way I do, this build will help them during their adventures.

I'd like to thanks Magrus and the forum admins for their contribution to this little work of art. Their information on the subject has put light into this long project.

Please enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed making it!

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Getting started:

Race:

Human

I picked human because I enjoy the extra feat they get, I like the fact they get an extra skillpoint and from a roleplaying perspective I'm a human so I like playing one and other characters don't have as much appeal to me.

Class:

Wizard

Reasons have been given

Allignment:

The choice is yours in this matter. I picked neutral good and I enjoy forming a team with people of a likewise allignment.

Abilities:

Strength 8
Dexterity 14
Constitution 15 and 16 at lvl 4
Intelligence 16 and 20 at lvl 20
Wisdom 14
Charisma 10

Strength: 8 (Well a Wizard should be a bit fragile right?)
Dexterity: 14 (moderate, not bad and not good and can be boosted with items)
Constitution: 15 +1 at lvl 4

I picked a higher constitution for a few reasons, I enjoy higher fortitude saves, I enjoy more hitpoints and more importantly if you play a Wizard right the only thing you need to worry about are area of effect spells and most importantly necromancy. For these reasons and a million more I picked 15 constitution

Intelligence: 16 +4 at lvl 20

Now I know, more intelligence means more power. Now this is true for a part however you don't need an incredibly high intelligence in this game. With spellcasting prodigy you get a nice bonus and with 20 intelligence you get enough skillpoints, enough bonusspells and you keep enough points for other abilities.

Wisdom 14 (nice saves)
Charisma 10 (not the highest but should be enough in combination with the skills)

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Skills

I didn't pick ANY item creation skills, for me this is such a hassle and takes away so much of the pacing in the game. I don't like working so long on it and I'd rather be playing. And to be honest I haven't missed the items at all.

Appraise, max (moneysaver, roleplaying)
Lore, max (moneysaver, roleplaying)
Concentration, max
Spellcraft, max
Diplomacy, max (roleplaying)
Tumble, untill it hits rank 10 (This feat can save yer behind, gives +1 AC at rank 10 so well worth it)
Use magic device, remaining points after lvl 16 (might be handy for some scrolls and items)

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Customize this wizard! This way you can handpick every feat and skill from the first level.

Pick the skills like I suggested above and pick Illusionist as a specialist Wizard. I don't really like enchantment spells nor do I use them so it's an easy choice.

I took a pig as familair for roleplaying reasons. I don't think familairs to be of use during a battle since they keep dying on me. Instead I want to use a familair I can summon only for the chatter.

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FEATS! (The important stuff)

At character creation:

Spellcasting prodigy (you now have a nice buff for intelligence without spending the points, just one feat which you got as a bonus for humanity)
Spell penetration (obvious reasons)

At 3:

Toughness (at this point you won't have enough partymembers to shield you so the hitpoints will be nice)

At 5:

Greater spell penetration

At 6:

Lightning reflexes (I picked this after toughness because of the enemies, cryptic as not to spoil things)

At 9:

Great fortitude (sturdy fellow)

At 10:

Empower spell (At this point you will enjoy boosting your fireballs)

At 12:

Spell focus evocation (You will be using these spells a lot)

At 15:

Greater spell focus evocation
Spell focus necormancy

At 18:

Iron will (at this point best prepare for it all right?)

At 20:

Greater spell focus necromancy

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Equipment

If you find something that gives you a nice boost to dexterity, saving throws, AC, intelligence and even charisma you should be fine.

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I won't tell you how to play this wizard, all I can say is this dude can take a hit but shouldn't need to take them. Use your tanks and enjoy the roleplaying aspects he has.

I believe this Wizard to be well rounded for roleplaying and powergaming. Good hitpoints, saves, spells and flexibility.

Try it and enjoy!

Written by: De Priester

PS.

When created could this build be posted on the strategy section? THANKS!

Might as well slot in a power-gaming wizard in here too. There are a few ways to go with this, but here's a decent one off the top of my head. Basically, this character will focus on spells in combat. Your battle wizard if you will.

Race: Sun Elf (Bonuses: +2 Int, several Martial Weapon Proficiencies, sense based skill bonuses {+2 Listen, Spot and Search}, +2 to save vs Enchantments, Sleep Immunity)

Class: Wizard 5/ Pale Master 1/Eldritch Knight 10/ Wizard 4
Pros:
[INDENT]
* 9d4 Wizard Hit dice and 11d6 Eldritch Knight and Pale Master Hit Dice. (Averages +11 extra Hit Points)
* 19 total spellcasting levels
* +14 BAB by level 20 (4 higher than straight wizard, highly useful for touch and ranged touch spells)
* Base Fort Save: +12 (+3 from Wizard, +2 from Pale Master, +7 from Eldritch Knight)
* Base Ref Save: +6 (+3 Wiz, +3 Eldritch Knight)
* Base Will Save: +12 (+7 Wiz, +2 Pale Master, +3 Eldritch Knight)
* +2 Natural Armor (Pale Master level)
* Bonus feats- Scribe Scroll, +1 Bonus Wizard Feat; Combat Casting and Skill Focus-Concentration(Eldritch Knight)[/INDENT]

Cons: Loss of 1 caster level (1 8th and 9th level spell exactly)
Special Requirements; Easy to meet:
Non-good
Martial Weapon Proficiency (costs 1 feat)

Attribute placement:
Creation/20th level
Str: 8/ 8
Dex: 16/ 16
Con: 12/ 12
Int: 20/ 25
Wis: 8/ 8
Cha: 8/ 8

Pros:
+3 to Ref save and Dodge AC
+1 HP/level, +1 to Fort Save
+5 to skill points/level (+6 and then +7 later on), +5 1st level spells known at creation, +5 (eventually +7) to offensive spell DC's, Bonus spells

Cons:
Low weight capacity, -1 to Attack and Damage in melee
-1 to Will save (negligable, see Spellcraft skill bonus)
-1 to all Cha based skills

Skills:
At creation, you will have 28 points to distribute (2+5x4) and then +7 per level after. Once you hit 8th level, you will have 8 points per level, and then upon reaching 16th level it will become 9 points per level. This will give you a good selection of skills you can use in the game. Some necessary ones to focus on:

*Concentration: Keep maxed, important in order to cast spells
*Lore: Keep maxed, allows you to identify magic items on the fly as you are progressing for free
*Spellcraft: Keep maxed, important in identifying spells cast, scribing scrolls. +1 to saves vs spells/ 10 ranks in this skill. Will help offset loss to Will saves from low wisdom by providing a +2 versus saves by 17th level.

Highly suggested:

Use Magic Device: Keep as high as you can even as a cross-class skill.
Tumble: Keep as high as you can even as a cross-class skill. +1 to AC at 10 ranks, helps you avoid AOO when moving through combat, highly useful to keep high.

Optional choices:

*Your 1 level of Pale Master provides you with a few choices that you don't have as a wizard for skills. Dropping all of your points into Heal or Diplomacy can help you with healing your party with Healer Kits or in dealing with NPC's. You should have at least 7 points to do this, so I would suggest dropping all 7 in one or the other.

* 10 levels of Eldritch Knight offers new choices as well. Parry isn't a bad choice, without wearing armor and a high parry skill, you might be able to deflect incoming blows while using a sword in one hand. If you choose to forgo leveling Tumble or UMD, this could be a decent choice for you.

*Crafting skills. Unnecessary, but helpful. With your high intelligence, you can progess quickly and be able to craft items with special materials.


Feats:

1: Spellcasting Prodigy (bumps up DC for spells and bonus spells)
3: Martial Weapon Proficiency (necessary)
5: [Wiz. Bonus Feat] Extend Spell
6: A few options:
[INDENT]Skill focused character- Able Learner
Casting focused character- Spell Focus: Evocation
[/INDENT]
9: Empower Spell
12: Extra Spell Slot: 5th (useful with metamagic feats chosen for 5th level spells , 4th level extended spells (Stoneskin), or 3rd level empowered spells [fireball].
15: Spell Penetration
18: Extra Spell Slot: 8th (extra Premonition spell every day can be incredibly useful)

Spells per day: Without factoring in equipment, here is what your spells per day will look like from 0 level-> 9th level spells. This is only slightly less than a 20th level sorcerer (excepting bonus spells of course ), but allows you much greater freedom of spell choices.

4/6/6/6/6/6/6/5/5/3

With Extend spell you can prepare your protection spells and have them last through several encounters in a row. With Empower Spell, you can prepare a few spells which you find to work well to do more damage and use them to clear out groups of fodder in one shot, or to use against tougher enemies. Spell penetration should help give you an edge against foes with spell resistance.

I haven't gotten through chapter 2 yet so far, so I may ammend this once I get through the game and see what you end up facing. Given that, I will leave off spells of choice and equipment. Although, equipment to boost your Con, Dex, Int or AC is going to be highly useful. Equipment giving you resists is a good choice as well, allowing you to free up spells for more blasting while relying on equipment for protection instead.

Hope this is helpful to someone.

My Wizard would beat your Wizard hands down

(Don't really know this for a fact it's a joke)

Only if you got lucky. :laugh: Your character would have a good number more HP, lets see, roughly 49 on average more, +4 higher Will save, and 1 extra 9th level spell. Mine would have a higher AC (+2 Natural and +1 Dodge), +1 to Ref save, more skills, and have more spells than yours in the spell levels 2-8, as well as have equal footing on DC's for all spell schools as your character has taken 4 feats to specialize in with just 2 schools. You'd really have to hope that your char could bypass whatever protection spells I can come up with and wear my HP down before I did yours. Which, that extra 49 HP is a big advantage, but so is an extra 6 spells too.

Magrus wrote:Only if you got lucky. :laugh: Your character would have a good number more HP, lets see, roughly 49 on average more, +4 higher Will save, and 1 extra 9th level spell. Mine would have a higher AC (+2 Natural and +1 Dodge), +1 to Ref save, more skills, and have more spells than yours in the spell levels 2-8, as well as have equal footing on DC's for all spell schools as your character has taken 4 feats to specialize in with just 2 schools. You'd really have to hope that your char could bypass whatever protection spells I can come up with and wear my HP down before I did yours. Which, that extra 49 HP is a big advantage, but so is an extra 6 spells too.

At level 20 our spells would match and you won't be able to cast that much spells anyway, your AC isn't protecting you from magic and necromancy and seeing your low hitpoints and lach of fortitude saves you'd be dead, my will AND fortitude saves are higher, a few spells to strip away protections and finger of death will get things done quickly

You have a powerfull build but also very fragile, best suited against melee characters but against a pure caster I don't think you stand a chance.

The only saves you have that would be higher than mine would be your Will save. In that respect, you'd have to hope you could dispel any protections I had and then use spells that have a Will save effect. Still, the nearly 50 extra HP is a great advantage to a wizard.

Even so, the build was for a game with 2-3 other people in the party to protect the wizard, not solo. In any situation where this character wouldn't be able to take down a target that resists his spells, the other party members could be buffed by his spells and do the work instead while the character simply protects himself and stays alive. The extra spells at each level between 2-8 over your character would guarantee that as a possibility every day. Even if it was just to add an extra Haste and Greater Heroism on the party as well as a Stoneskin for yourself, you suddenly made the party more efficient in killing everything in sight, yet again.

Magrus wrote:The only saves you have that would be higher than mine would be your Will save. In that respect, you'd have to hope you could dispel any protections I had and then use spells that have a Will save effect. Still, the nearly 50 extra HP is a great advantage to a wizard.

Even so, the build was for a game with 2-3 other people in the party to protect the wizard, not solo. In any situation where this character wouldn't be able to take down a target that resists his spells, the other party members could be buffed by his spells and do the work instead while the character simply protects himself and stays alive. The extra spells at each level between 2-8 over your character would guarantee that as a possibility every day. Even if it was just to add an extra Haste and Greater Heroism on the party as well as a Stoneskin for yourself, you suddenly made the party more efficient in killing everything in sight, yet again.

aha yer backing down we are talking about Wizard vs Wizard and my fortitude saves are higher because I have +2 from feat and also because my constitution is higher (16) which if I am not mistaken adds to fortitude saves. So one on one, I don't think you can beat the HP and since we cast at the same speed and I have higher saves, it's hands down my wizard that would win. In a party versus party convo there are so many variables that the outcome is impossible to predict. But don't feel bad, your elf is cute for a nice blast but my Wizard is just bad.

Time for bed

I would have a +13 Fort save bonus. You would have a +11 Fort save bonus. Mine would be better.

Anyway, I hope people will enjoy the builds provided, try them and feel free to post some feedback. We all know my build is obviously much better and a lot more fun to play being a pure wizard as it should be. But anyway enjoy the game and enjoy what is has to offer.