Help a new Wizard!


Advice


Hey guys! Newbie here seeking help with my character!

So, I'm playing a Wizard as my very first character and so far i'm level 3. As I keep getting more and more into the game I start thinking about how I want to build this character - but i'm kinda lost.

I've been reading through some of the books and looking up some advice on the internet but i'm pretty much lost. So I was hoping some of you guys could give me some good advice. Now, as i'm a complete noob, I don't want to overly complicate things so the plan is to go for something pretty basic and play as an offensive based Wizard.

So, what do you guys recommend? How can I become a powerful battle-based Wizard? Should I take some levels in Archmage? Sorcerer? etc?


Heavy hitting?

What do you want to focus on? Wizards are generally useful, and can make good generalist... but if you don't really know all your options well you are generally better off focusing on one area.

Scarab Sages

People like different things. Evocation is good for dealing damage, and is a good one for a newby. Conjuration is good for controlling terraign and obviously putting critters on the board. After that, it gets more tricky - diviners are good for the anti suprise bit, illusion can be tricky and so can enchantment.

I would pick evocation or Conjuration. Keep your feats for spell focus and the like, and remember - a successful adventure for a mage is one in which you take no damage.


Necromancy can be really good for debuffing and damage -- lots of touch, ranged touch and targeted effects that really hamper the enemy.

Typically I like focusing on necromancy and transmutation with a dash of conjuration (simply because it's hard to screw up with conjuration) -- this gets you lots of great options to debuff, buff, and change things to your liking.

Liberty's Edge

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I'd avoid Divination. For an offensive-based wizard, it's basically giving up one spell slot per level of spells for a scaling bonus to initiative.

For a classic offensive-based wizard, I might recommend building an evoker and dabbling in conjuration (glitterdust), enchantment (confusion), and transmutation (slow). Throwing fireballs around can be fun, and having some spot battlefield control is always nice.

Conjuration is a great school because it mostly ignores spell resistance, so it's always nice to have a glitterdust, create pit, or a grease spell up your sleeve for when you're up against golems or outsiders.

Shadow Lodge

Here are a few Wizard resources to help you plan.


As a noob I like Evocation, because nothing beats a fireball or lightning bolt when you are in a bad mood. Although I've noticed it does kind of drain your spell slots when you are on your own, but if you make friends with the party warrior than you can soften them up and let him finish them off. I love my party warrior <3.


My recommendations on how to decide your future wizarding career:

1) Read all spells from each given level, if you like some of them particularly try to specialize in a school or playstyle, blasting, battlefield control, buffing, summoning, debuffing.

2) It is heavily adviced that you never enter melee under any circumstance, you have almost zero ways to negate heavy melee damage, so touch attacks are to be used with metamagic.

3) View metamagic and consider what you will be casting in next levels.

4) Consider what you would do in a combat all the way through.

5) Your feats are what will make you completely different from other wizards you know. Have them into consideration when you level as they are invaluable and are prereqs to the future one.

6) Never be a Flaky Egoist Wizard...
- Paladin: Please dispel the defensive magics of the dragon so I can hit better (mage armor and shield)
- Flaky Egoist Wizard: Sure man sure next round, because right now is Lighting Bolt! Rolls 10d6...26 dmg...
- P: Please I can hit him with my Smite Evil for a lot please dispel him this round.
- FEW: Sure man sure right after my SCORCHING RAY...
- P: Right...
(dragon full attacks)
- P: <---Dead
- 2 rounds later Total Party Kill

Sometimes your most unflashy spells will be the ones that will turn the battle into your side I'm talking about: Charm Person, Dispel Magic, Grease, Glitterdust, etc...

Hope that helps!


Vasantasena wrote:

My recommendations on how to decide your future wizarding career:

1) Read all spells from each given level, if you like some of them particularly try to specialize in a school or playstyle, blasting, battlefield control, buffing, summoning, debuffing.

2) It is heavily adviced that you never enter melee under any circumstance, you have almost zero ways to negate heavy melee damage, so touch attacks are to be used with metamagic.

3) View metamagic and consider what you will be casting in next levels.

4) Consider what you would do in a combat all the way through.

5) Your feats are what will make you completely different from other wizards you know. Have them into consideration when you level as they are invaluable and are prereqs to the future one.

6) Never be a Flaky Egoist Wizard...
- Paladin: Please dispel the defensive magics of the dragon so I can hit better (mage armor and shield)
- Flaky Egoist Wizard: Sure man sure next round, because right now is Lighting Bolt! Rolls 10d6...26 dmg...
- P: Please I can hit him with my Smite Evil for a lot please dispel him this round.
- FEW: Sure man sure right after my SCORCHING RAY...
- P: Right...
(dragon full attacks)
- P: <---Dead
- 2 rounds later Total Party Kill

Sometimes your most unflashy spells will be the ones that will turn the battle into your side I'm talking about: Charm Person, Dispel Magic, Grease, Glitterdust, etc...

Hope that helps!

What if the dragon enters battle prebuffed and you don't know he's buffed would you throw a Dispel magic up to find out?


Permanent Detect Magic...and if you are against a dragon...you should know better that he will be buffed if you dont hit. With a high number.


I'd assume that any dragon that's lived long enough to be big at least has Mage armor up, and probably other stuff as well. So, yes, I might well open with a dispel.

Liberty's Edge

I have not yet played a wizard, but I have heard that Universalist is BAD, and a wizard should always have a preferred school, even though it entails 2 opposition schools.
Has anyone had any experience with this?


@Theconiel

Well, with the universalist you are basically opting to forgo a free spell at every level. And the restricted schools are still accessible if you really need them, they just take up an extra spell slot.

Plus, the school abilities are much much cooler than the universalist's equivalent abilities.


Theconiel wrote:

I have not yet played a wizard, but I have heard that Universalist is BAD, and a wizard should always have a preferred school, even though it entails 2 opposition schools.

Has anyone had any experience with this?

It's not all bad -- yes you give up a spell a day, and yes you end up with a crappy first level ability, however the free spontaneous metamagic is really strong late game, and universalist has a bonded item that is probably the best in the game.

It could use a bit more juice though.


Thanks for the replies guys! They've been really helpful. So another quick question : Should I multi-class? Say, should I take a level or two in Sorcerer for example?


No you should not multiclass casters. It will leave you weaker than you would be otherwise. Taking levels in sorcerer definitely won't help. You will just be further behind in both classes.


Abraham spalding wrote:
Theconiel wrote:

I have not yet played a wizard, but I have heard that Universalist is BAD, and a wizard should always have a preferred school, even though it entails 2 opposition schools.

Has anyone had any experience with this?

It's not all bad -- yes you give up a spell a day, and yes you end up with a crappy first level ability, however the free spontaneous metamagic is really strong late game, and universalist has a bonded item that is probably the best in the game.

It could use a bit more juice though.

It's certainly not optimal.

Even if you memorize one opposition school spell, you end up with the same number of spells per day for that level.

Spontaneous metamagic can be obtained through feats and rods as well, and other specialization schools get some unique and very useful powers instead.

I don't recommend it.


wraithstrike wrote:
No you should not multiclass casters. It will leave you weaker than you would be otherwise. Taking levels in sorcerer definitely won't help. You will just be further behind in both classes.

Gotta agree, here. Nothing works better than just leveling up and getting more spells as a wizard. Magic is power.

Lots of good advice here. I'd just add that you should be aware of what spells you know and what they do. If you find yourself memorizing, but not using a certain spell, try another one. It's OK to experiment a bit and see how things turn out. Blasts aren't always your best option, but they'll usually get used sometime in the day. You won't always be ready for every situation, so don't beat yourself up if you picked spell A when spell B would have been better. Just plan for what you can.

Summoning monsters is fun. Have a card or something with their basic stats ready, to save everybody some time.


Professor Q wrote:
Abraham spalding wrote:
Theconiel wrote:

I have not yet played a wizard, but I have heard that Universalist is BAD, and a wizard should always have a preferred school, even though it entails 2 opposition schools.

Has anyone had any experience with this?

It's not all bad -- yes you give up a spell a day, and yes you end up with a crappy first level ability, however the free spontaneous metamagic is really strong late game, and universalist has a bonded item that is probably the best in the game.

It could use a bit more juice though.

It's certainly not optimal.

Even if you memorize one opposition school spell, you end up with the same number of spells per day for that level.

Spontaneous metamagic can be obtained through feats and rods as well, and other specialization schools get some unique and very useful powers instead.

I don't recommend it.

I didn't say it was optimal -- only that it wasn't all bad. I also maintain that it has one of the best arcane bond items possible though. Items can help with spontaneous metamagic, but generally you have to switch out rods or burn more feats for much more limited use, the spontaneous metamagic from the universalist can be used with those other sources as well and provides a nice perk.

Now again, I think it could use a bit more pizzazz, but it's not all bad.

However if you have access to say, magic of the inner sea I agree that I wouldn't recommend it -- being a thassalonian specialist shadow caster offers a much nicer set of options than the generalist could hope to contend with... but I wouldn't facepalm if someone brought an universalist to the table either.

Shadow Lodge

I can think of one reason to multi-class to sorcerer, but it's very situational. With one level of sorcerer, you can grab both the crossblooded and Varisian Tattoo Archetypes. This nets one one very useful feat and two potentially useful bloodline arcanas. It can be very useful if you are going honing in on one specific type of play.

Here is an example, pretty much the strongest blaster you can build, and it's a wizard build with a one level dip in sorcerer.

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