Ive been playing pathfinder for a year now.

and Ive never played a wizard, so I'm having trouble getting good gear going and good spells(for his theme)

the book ill be using him is an extremity difficult compilation of a bunch of adventure paths from the original d&d.

we lost a lot of characters already to it,(my last character was killed by a wish ,another party member wished i had all the experience he had, and it aged me to death and turned him into a fetus, and we where both elves.

other characters where lost to what i assumed a cr 14 huge spider thing when we just started at level 7.

back on topic i need to fill a gap of a strong balanced caster.

to start i rolled extremely good stats so that's no problem .

here is what I'm starting with.

level 8 wizard

starting stats are

16 str
18 dex
16 con
18 int
15 wis
12 cha

after choosing my race and the two bonus points for being level 8.

16 str
20 dex (race bonus)
16 con (race neg)(added two points from level)
20 int (race bonus)
14 wis
12 cha

His name is Maxwell Dalavenchi Caron The 3rd.

with this character i plan on making a conjurer who is also a craftier of constructs.

from here I'm kinda lost on what i can do.

its a lot to jump right into .
help please?

first read this THE COMPLETE Professor Q Wizard Guide

you lost one point in wisdom ?
It's an elf , rght ?

what other classes are in your group ? important for the choice of your spells.

I guess you will choose to bond with an object (no familiar then)

In order to take craft construct, you need to take craft magic weapon & armor and craft wonderous item.
So you have only 2 feats to choose.

On the stuff side, by the book you should have about 33k gold of treasure.
think about your defence first because the wizard is usualy a primary target.
bracers of defences, cloak of displacement (minor) [ask your DM if you are allowed to make it by yourself,if so it cost you "only" 12k]

the lost point in wisdom was a typo

but yeah i am an elf.

our current team consists of this currently

1 hell-knight samurai combo

2 witches

1 dwarven fighter , (who has voice of the gods out of some fluke with the wishes at the crossroads)

that's all we have and here are all the deaths right now.

1.we did have a cleric. (destroyed and charred to ash)

2. a bard was (knocked into negative hit points and we could not save em.)

3.a Kensai (lost to a giant spider thing

4.a fighter (hell-knight lost to the giant spider

5.a barbarian (lost to a demon who put negative levels on us)

6.a rogue who (was assassinated by ab inn keeper on the first session)

7.a ranger (me(who was wished to death by a slightly dimwitted party-member)

8. wizard (who wished the ranger to die of old age and turned into a fetus

we almost had a tpk last session but 4 of us escaped with low health (i was still out) the bard and cleric was put down by the same spell.

i wanna put more bodies on the field so that we dont get targeted so much and to get a surviving chance.

revising based on some reading the stats are now

12 str
20 dex
16 con
20 int
16 wis
14 cha
with some thought like i said i want to add some bodies on the field to soak up damage from out team.

and with that perhaps i could use constructs to do more damage
and my summons to be tanks.

leaving me and my party to focus on high priority targets.

the majority of what we are fighting are immune to mind affecting stuff (bard proved that one)

Ok, so first off:

Read Treantmonk's Guide to Wizards
Then read the guide that Kelleg posted

General Spell Selection Tips:

1st: Damage alone is typically a poor choice. You have limited resources and often will do damage equal to or worse than fighter of equal level. This isn't to say that you will never take damage spells, but they are not your bread and butter

2nd: Spells that offer no save and no spell resistance are often your best spells. See the Reverse Gravity Spell for an excellent example.

3rd: Look to spells that offer you a great deal of utility. Grease for example is arguably the best 1st level spell in the game and stays relevant for a LONG time. It's crowd control, debuff and buff to grappled characters

4th: Make sure that you have a way to target each save. If you put all your spell selection in one basket, you will have a bad time.

Easy Assumptions: Large Creatures will have good Fort Saves and Bad Reflex Saves

Casters will have Bad Fort Saves and Good Will Saves

Martial Characters will have Good Fort Saves and Bad Will saves

Small Creatures will have Good Reflex Saves and Bad Fort Saves

5th: Know your status afflictions. Some, like Paralysis, Blindness, Dazed and Nauseated, are devastating for enemies. Some, like Dazzled...not so much.

6th: Buff your INT as high as possible, to get the best Spell DCs possible.

I'll post some more later if you like. Feel free to PM me on the boards as well.

I might end up being the lone dissenter here, but with 2 witches already active, why are you creating a third arcane character? I would think filling the entirely absent divine or skill-monkey roles would be more useful.

Witches and Wizards play off each other very well. If those witches are using Evil Eye and Misfortune Hex on the foes, the wizard can stomp all over their foes with his spells.

Save Vs Stinking Cloud. Oh and Save at a -2. Oh and make two saves, and take the worse roll.

While that's true, the witches can also do that with their spells.

With the witches able to somewhat fill the healer role, the divine character isn't totally necessary, but the party is SEVERELY lacking in skill-monkey / stealth ability.

I'm not sure a skill monkey is necessary with that level of Arcane Casters. Each one of them is going to have probably 7-8 skills a level. Between the three of them, they can cover most important skills and anything that they can't really cover, like stealth, isn't really a big deal, because they have spells like invisibility.

Allow me to second that you don't need 3 arcane casters.
Get rid of the two witches.

Wizards are glass cannons. Forget about defense, all the defense in the world is not going to make a material difference.

7 guides to life as a wizard. And you can email me later, if you need more.

1. Leadership. Best Feat in the game. Get you a meat shied that you can build, and control.

2. Forth Level spell: emergeancy Force Shield. From the cheliax guide. Bear hits you: EFS. Wizard fireballs you: EFS.

3. Initiative. Go second and die. Go first and live, for you are squishy. Maximize your init score. Consider very strongly divination specialist; at the very least improved init, comsognathis familiar. One magic weapon property give you a bonus to init - put it on a glove, cestus, gauntlet - whatever will allow you to continue having use of the hand.

Preferred spell then to swap out spells.

4. Improved familiar. Lyrakian azata with a maxed out umd - wands of cmw, restorate, dispel magic... its all about action economy.

5. Battle field control. Fighting is for fighters. Thank them profusely for doing that for you. Make their job easier. Things like wall of stone, wall of fire, glitterdust, web.

6. Trait Magic lineage; and wayang - allows you to add metamagic to a spell at -1 level adjustment.

My personal favorites: Snap Dragon Fireworks & Magic missile.
If you take elemental control, or thasilonian evoker - you can change the energy type.

Apply either Rime or Dazing.

Snap Dragon has a small Aoe, but is a reflex save or be dazed - and huge creatures reflex tends to be the worst save.

Magic missile allows you to hit multiple targets. Hit them each with one magic missile.

So, how do you get the DC's up?
Spell Focus, Greater spell focus, elemental Focus, greater elemental focus - and your Int modifier. You get triple play on intelligence - more skills, better skill rolls, bonus spells and higher DC's. Us em.

So for example a Dazing magic missile, magical lineage is 3rd level.
Start with 18, racial 20, two points to 22, +4 headband = 26. + 8 to your DC. If you went with SF, GSF, and ESF your DC will be 10+1+3+8 or DC 22. You will hit 4 opponents and lock them down.

Or, heighten a rime'd magic missile to 3rd level to essentially stop their charges, and make them easier to hit. DC = 24 for that.

Take the qadira trait that 1/day lets you boost the DC by +2.

7. Have a plan. Know how you are going to deal with grapple, spell resistance, silence, and darkness.

Here's a sample build for level 8

So what have I done here:

This is a pretty standard Elf Conjurer build.

You're an elf, I gave you the elf racial alternative that gives you +2 to your initiative, as well as the reactionary trait and elf init trait. That gives you a +6 init bonus right out of the gate.

I put your two Ability points from leveling into Int.

Your bonded item is a ring. Familiars are definitely better than bonded items and If you want to talk about familiars, I'm happy to do so, but bonded item is admittedly must more "newbie friendly."

Most of your wondrous items are crafted, saving you quite a bit of gold.

Your school is Conjuration, with Divination and Enchantment as your opposition schools. I gave you the Teleportation Sub school because Shift is arguably one of the best wizard abilities in the game.

You can use your lesser rod of extend to buff yourself with Mage Armor in the morning and it will last 16 hours...which is pretty much the entire adventuring day.

I gave you a few 1st level wands that will help you out significantly. Shield for buffing yourself, Obscuring Mist for hiding and Identify for making sure you can identify your items.

Allow me to second that you don't need 3 arcane casters.

Get rid of the two witches

If I understand the OP correctly, the two witches are already a part of the campaign. I know some of you people have raging hardons for wizards, but you don't get to tell another player to retire their character just because you want to play something kind of similar. Even if it is a wizard.

Chill man. Its a joke.

Witches made right are strong. As an aside - with the casualty rate he's talking about he really doesn't have to worry about it.

Allow me to second that you don't need 3 arcane casters.

Get rid of the two witches.

Wizards are glass cannons. Forget about defense, all the defense in the world is not going to make a material difference.

1. Leadership. Best Feat in the game. Get you a meat shied that you can build, and control.

2. Forth Level spell: emergeancy Force Shield. From the cheliax guide. Bear hits you: EFS. Wizard fireballs you: EFS.

3. Initiative. Go second and die. Go first and live, for you are squishy. Maximize your init score. Consider very strongly divination specialist; at the very least improved init, comsognathis familiar. One magic weapon property give you a bonus to init - put it on a glove, cestus, gauntlet - whatever will allow you to continue having use of the hand.

Preferred spell then to swap out spells.

4. Improved familiar. Lyrakian azata with a maxed out umd - wands of cmw, restorate, dispel magic... its all about action economy.

To suggest that existing party members re-roll to suit a new character coming in is...well rude to say the least. No...just no.

1) FALSE. Leadership gives you an NPC cohort. The DM is under the direct control of NPCs in the game. Do you get to stat out the innkeeper? NO. A DM MAY choose to let you do so (I usually do as I am lazy)...but by RAW, the DM makes your cohort...not you...and the NPC is under the control of the DM...not you. You can however make requests of the NPC and the NPC being helpful to you will most likely agree to do it.

2) Your assuming he even has access to that book. It's a decent enough spell to avoid an attack...but while it is up, you can't do anything yourself offensively. It also doesn't help with somebody hitting you as the shpere is a 5ft RADIUS shere centered on you. That means anything in melee gets trapped with you...and generally, that is bad news for your squishy butt. Honestly it's not a bad 4th level spell...but there are better ones. Acid pit leave a nice hole where things can get shoved into for example. Greater invis protects your squishy butt while allowing you to toss out offensive spells. Rimed elemental aura cold entangles with no save anyone who is silly enough to get in melee range with you...assuming they aren't resistent or immune to cold.

3) Gloves are not a weapon and can't be enchanted as weapon. Cestus does not leave a hand free for spell casting. Gauntlets do however. Going first is pretty dang nice...however unless your campaign is of the rocket tag sort...not nearly as important as the theorycraft people like to place it. In my casual games...not really all that important. In my optimized, closer to theorycraft groups...yeah go first or die. Conisder the death rates tho...yeah going first couldn't hurt. Not sure if it's worth going diviner for it tho.

4) Look at the death rate...I don't think a familar is gonna be long for the world.

1) FALSE. Leadership gives you an NPC cohort. The DM is under the direct control of NPCs in the game. Do you get to stat out the innkeeper? NO. A DM MAY choose to let you do so (I usually do as I am lazy)...but by RAW, the DM makes your cohort...not you...and the NPC is under the control of the DM...not you. You can however make requests of the NPC and the NPC being helpful to you will most likely agree to do it.

Not to be rude, but I think you're houseruling the crap out of that. The DM gets to MAKE your cohort?

And how does that work for people who chose monster cohorts as mounts?

The reason leadership is so universally banned is exactly because it's giving you a second character.

I've seen GM's run cohorts out of combat, but there is nothing RAW that takes control of the cohort out of the hands of the player. The feat is left intentionally vague to allow GM interpretation, but it is just that, GM interpretation, not RAW.

get fireball and metamagic feats especialy daze aoe daze targets reflex weakest stat.

Out group is a little special with the need for characters
a good balanced wizard is really needed pretty bad.

Just last session the witches nearly died just after they where introduced into the campaign

We traveled for a wee bit and came a cross a dieing dire wolf (who the cleric healed and they became friends) ,and above us there was
some group of flying demon things who had a ton of resistances
they first rained dretches from above on us

Then the four of them did a dance that just wrecked the party ,killing the cleric ,leaving one of the witches at 7 hp , knocking out the bard to negative 11 ( out of 14). and leaving the fighter with only 20 hp left.
the hell-knight was the only one out of range at the time due to inability to fight them.

And as the party was running a way they summoned 40 or so dretches and rained them on us (they died from the fall).

Well on the witches they both have been put into the healing slot with DE-buffs in mind as-well. (necromancers).

Anyway with two new characters coming in , one of which is going to be a meat brick the other i don't know perhaps an inquisitor.

so the party is in shambles at the moment.

don't get me wrong though we are enjoying the campaign, just alot of stupid stuff happens.

DM must be using custom monsters, bog standard Vrocks can't summon dretches

EDIT: Also, 4 Vrocks is a CR 13 encounter. I'm glad you guys are having fun, but your DM should tone it down a bit. That's way too high of an encounter if you guys are 8th level.

they where in this book only he let me look at their ability's (as i was dead) they did have it.
they where as strong as standard vrocks but they did have that ability.

the campaign is called "The Slumbering Tsar Saga"
'

EDIT: i quite agree ,he is a pretty tough DM
it just makes it that much tougher to make a good wizard for any situation.

Cold Napalm wrote:

1) FALSE. Leadership gives you an NPC cohort. The DM is under the direct control of NPCs in the game. Do you get to stat out the innkeeper? NO. A DM MAY choose to let you do so (I usually do as I am lazy)...but by RAW, the DM makes your cohort...not you...and the NPC is under the control of the DM...not you. You can however make requests of the NPC and the NPC being helpful to you will most likely agree to do it.

Not to be rude, but I think you're houseruling the crap out of that. The DM gets to MAKE your cohort?

And how does that work for people who chose monster cohorts as mounts?

The reason leadership is so universally banned is exactly because it's giving you a second character.

I've seen GM's run cohorts out of combat, but there is nothing RAW that takes control of the cohort out of the hands of the player. The feat is left intentionally vague to allow GM interpretation, but it is just that, GM interpretation, not RAW.

Umm cohorts are NPC by RAW

This feat enables you to attract a loyal cohort and a number of devoted subordinates who assist you. A cohort is generally an NPC with class levels, while followers are typically lower level NPCs. See Table: Leadership for what level of cohort and how many followers you can recruit.

By RAW, DM makes and controls NPC.

they where in this book only he let me look at their ability's (as i was dead) they did have it.

they where as strong as standard vrocks but they did have that ability.

the campaign is called "The Slumbering Tsar Saga"
'

EDIT: i quite agree ,he is a pretty tough DM
it just makes it that much tougher to make a good wizard for any situation.

Even if they did, summon must be summoned on solid grounds...you can't make then rain. It is also a full round action to summon 1d4+1 of them...with the dance of ruin taking 3 rounds. I get the feeling he isn't running things quite right.

Elamdri wrote:

Cold Napalm wrote:

1) FALSE. Leadership gives you an NPC cohort. The DM is under the direct control of NPCs in the game. Do you get to stat out the innkeeper? NO. A DM MAY choose to let you do so (I usually do as I am lazy)...but by RAW, the DM makes your cohort...not you...and the NPC is under the control of the DM...not you. You can however make requests of the NPC and the NPC being helpful to you will most likely agree to do it.

Not to be rude, but I think you're houseruling the crap out of that. The DM gets to MAKE your cohort?

And how does that work for people who chose monster cohorts as mounts?

The reason leadership is so universally banned is exactly because it's giving you a second character.

I've seen GM's run cohorts out of combat, but there is nothing RAW that takes control of the cohort out of the hands of the player. The feat is left intentionally vague to allow GM interpretation, but it is just that, GM interpretation, not RAW.

Umm cohorts are NPC by RAW

Quote:

This feat enables you to attract a loyal cohort and a number of devoted subordinates who assist you. A cohort is generally an NPC with class levels, while followers are typically lower level NPCs. See Table: Leadership for what level of cohort and how many followers you can recruit.

By RAW, DM makes and controls NPC.

Just because a character is an NPC does not mean that the DM automatically gets to create them and control them.

Mounts, Animal Companions, Eidolons, Summons, Bound Creatures, and Familiars are all NPCs as well. Do you let the DM create and control those as well?

There's no point to taking leadership if you can't create and control your own cohort, furthermore, it completely destroys player agency to have them take a feat and then completely take away any decisions that are made as to the feat.

I have NEVER seen Leadership used how you describe it, and the reason that it's almost universally banned is because it DOES allow you to make and control your cohort, effectively giving you a second character.

they where in this book only he let me look at their ability's (as i was dead) they did have it.

they where as strong as standard vrocks but they did have that ability.

the campaign is called "The Slumbering Tsar Saga"
'

EDIT: i quite agree ,he is a pretty tough DM
it just makes it that much tougher to make a good wizard for any situation.

*googles Slumbering Tsar Saga*

"The Slumbering Tsar Saga began its journey years ago as a single mega-adventure for the masters of Third Edition rules and First Edition feel, then became a trilogy of adventures, then a trilogy of mega-adventures, and now finally comes to you as a monthly series culminating in a massive book with over a half million words of pure First Edition-style adventure."

THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT explains things a bit.

Cold Napalm wrote:

Elamdri wrote:

Cold Napalm wrote:

1) FALSE. Leadership gives you an NPC cohort. The DM is under the direct control of NPCs in the game. Do you get to stat out the innkeeper? NO. A DM MAY choose to let you do so (I usually do as I am lazy)...but by RAW, the DM makes your cohort...not you...and the NPC is under the control of the DM...not you. You can however make requests of the NPC and the NPC being helpful to you will most likely agree to do it.

Not to be rude, but I think you're houseruling the crap out of that. The DM gets to MAKE your cohort?

And how does that work for people who chose monster cohorts as mounts?

The reason leadership is so universally banned is exactly because it's giving you a second character.

I've seen GM's run cohorts out of combat, but there is nothing RAW that takes control of the cohort out of the hands of the player. The feat is left intentionally vague to allow GM interpretation, but it is just that, GM interpretation, not RAW.

Umm cohorts are NPC by RAW

Quote:

This feat enables you to attract a loyal cohort and a number of devoted subordinates who assist you. A cohort is generally an NPC with class levels, while followers are typically lower level NPCs. See Table: Leadership for what level of cohort and how many followers you can recruit.

By RAW, DM makes and controls NPC.

Just because a character is an NPC does not mean that the DM automatically gets to create them and control them.

Mounts, Animal Companions, Eidolons, Summons, Bound Creatures, and Familiars are all NPCs as well. Do you let the DM create and control those as well?

There's no point to taking leadership if you can't create and control your own cohort, furthermore, it completely destroys player agency to have them take a feat and then completely take away any decisions that are made as to the feat.

I have NEVER seen Leadership used how you describe it, and the reason that it's almost universally banned is because it...

Yes, all those things are technically suppose to be controled by the GM...like I said I don't...because I am lazy. Well with the exception of summons which you have direct control over with the spell and all (like if you domintated an NPC). The eidolon also seems to have the whole direct control thing as well as they are part of the summoner.

Anyways leadership wise...have you possible thought that maybe just MAYBE all those it's broke comments are because you AREN'T playing by what the rules says? If you do play it as written it's not a bad feat at all. Hell I even allow my players to stat out thier cohort...but I do still get control over what they do. Works out quite well actually. And I have people take leadership even with that oh my god it's useless limitation.

In case nobody's said it yet, if you're going wizard, make it conjurer with summoning as a focus, and don't take the level ability points in CON, take then in INT.

bodies to absorb dam? flankers? summon some allies!

In case nobody's said it yet, if you're going wizard, make it conjurer with summoning as a focus, and don't take the level ability points in CON, take then in INT.

bodies to absorb dam? flankers? summon some allies!

i know it seems counter productive but i need to be able to survive aswell. if it was another campaign i would add it to int.

soaking up damage is important for the party yes ,but if i get focused i need to be able to take a few hits and every hp counts.

rangerjeff wrote:

In case nobody's said it yet, if you're going wizard, make it conjurer with summoning as a focus, and don't take the level ability points in CON, take then in INT.

bodies to absorb dam? flankers? summon some allies!

i know it seems counter productive but i need to be able to survive aswell. if it was another campaign i would add it to int.

soaking up damage is important for the party yes ,but if i get focused i need to be able to take a few hits and every hp counts.

You have 16 Con though! That's about 6 more Con than any wizard I have ever played, and you did it without sacrificing any other stat. I don't think you need to go any higher.

Wizards have plenty of ways to defend themselves besides Con. The reality of things is that as a Wizard, you just shouldn't be getting hit at all. You should be flying around, far away, controlling the battlefield.

Besides, even with that Vrock Dance, you would only have been down by -4 HP with the HP of the example wizard I posted. And that's assuming your wizard didn't do something to interrupt their dance in the 3 rounds (Which you would have).

If this book your DM is running is very high lethality and using CRs way over what you should be fighting, you will NEED to squeeze every little bit you can get out of your Spell DCs to have a reasonable chance of affecting enemy monsters.

You shouldn't spend so much time fretting over survivability and then try to play God. BE GOD and survivability will take care of itself.

mmmm

*formulates a character personality and playstyle*

i could be like batman with a counter for everything.

i think turning the enemy on themselves would be a fun way to counter em as-well

im re working my character sheet aswell to get more int.

Good Wizard Races are

Human
Half Orc
Half Elf
Elf
Ratfolk
Tiefling
Sylph
Emberkin (Variant Aasimaar from blood of angels)
Elan (psionics unleashed)
Blue (psionics unleashed)

Not saying drop your Con, just put your level points into INT.

And again, look at conjurer summoning, especially if you're in a brutal campaign where your party needs to be able to absorb lots of hp damage. Advanced and Superior Summoning feats. And advanced familiar, uses your skills, drops s#&% on the enemy, spell like abilities... like another party member!

clerics have more of the turn enemies on each other with murderous command. A wizard controls the battlefield. The most powerfull spells either add and ally or remove an enemy for a time. You will be the most tactic dependant character in the group. Your spells can shut down a fight or be neigh worthless.

the campaign is called "The Slumbering Tsar Saga"

Heh heh heh...that explains the body count.

Make whatever class you feel like...and have about a half-dozen spare replacement character waiting in the wings.

And tell your GM you want to venture into Rappan Athuk next. :D

Kashikoi_Takumi wrote:

the campaign is called "The Slumbering Tsar Saga"

Heh heh heh...that explains the body count.

Make whatever class you feel like...and have about a half-dozen spare replacement character waiting in the wings.

And tell your GM you want to venture into Rappan Athuk next. :D

yeah, i do have spare characters built but none of which would be useful for the party atm.