Tiny Wizard?

[Proley]

Hello boards,

I'm playing a small sized wizard, emphasis on summoning, control, and the occassional buff. He's built around being able to live to see another day. He's generally behind the party with a cohort bodyguard and when worse comes to worse, he dimensional steps to safety.

Now I'm considering adding another layer of defense via making myself Tiny. I figure I'd have better AC, stealth, and fly, and the loss of reach or smaller damage dice doesn't particularly matter since I don't think I've made a melee attack ever.

Aside from friendly spells that have a touch component, can you think of any reason why I wouldn't want to become tiny? If you're staring down 3 murder hobos, will you notice/care about the sparrow buzzing around 30 feet behind them?

[A highly regarded expert]

I played a cayma sorcerer in a 3.x game set in the Red Steel world. It worked out well.

[Master of the Dark Triad]

I'll care about the sparrow buzzing around when he throws a fireball at my teammates and I.

Generally speaking, being tiny wouldn't be bad. Now, your AC will never be good (it's better to focus on miss chance, like Blu), so being tiny really isn't worth the spell. But it wouldn't be bad, I suppose.

[Imbicatus]

I played a caster druid with wild spell who liked to lob spells as an actual sparrow. It worked great when you just sat on a tree doing a birdsong and lightning struck your enemies. That said, you have less hide in plain sight options as a wizard.

[Reynard_the_fox]

Well, you get +2 AC and I believe a +4 to stealth. On the other hand, you no longer threaten the squares around you, so no flanking or taking attacks of opportunity. (I know you have no intention of dealing damage with AoOs, but an enemy that knows they can get shanked for trying to sunder your spell component pouch might think twice.) Also you're taking a net loss to your CMD, though you do get a bonus to Escape Artist. Which ALL WIZARDS should max out.

Overall, it's flavorful and a worthwhile bonus for a level 1 spell, but there are better minute/level buffs to cast when it comes to defense. The best use, of course, is to cast it on your 6'4" half-orc barbarian for laughs.

[Ciaran Barnes]

Hold me closer tiny wizard
Count the dead mooks in the AoE

[Cardboard Hero]

maximized reduce works okay. I did it with an halfling wizard in a mid-lvl game (12-16th). It worked out okay and was fun, I was also trained in stealth with high dex so I could hide very easily. I made sure to have a few contingency spells like Still grease and dimension door and such. It was more fun then anything else really, the pros are not that great and the cons can actually be deadly to you. On the other hand I did have life sized golden statue made in my image that didn't cost me too too much

[Proley]

Oh I didn't specify in the original post, but I was thinking of making it Permanent as per the spell, so it wouldn't be a short term buff but more of a lifestyle choice. I'm level 13 so think my playstyle is firmly established and I won't miss the lack of reach or AoOs. Plus, we're already fighting large, and colossal things so I can already be eaten alive, lol.

On the one hand, I think it would be very flavourful and entertaining but I wouldn't want to be crippled by it.

[Bart Vervaet]

rules mechanics wise bit wouldn't cripple you, but consider the general role-playing picture. you'd look like a halfling child. So no-one would take you seriously, you'd have a hard time getting a beer at the local inn, zero chance of success with the cute halfling serving wenches, that sort of stuff.

I'd really think about this long and hard before making the decision

[AbsolutGrndZer0]

Proley wrote:

Oh I didn't specify in the original post, but I was thinking of making it Permanent as per the spell, so it wouldn't be a short term buff but more of a lifestyle choice.

On the one hand, I think it would be very flavourful and entertaining but I wouldn't want to be crippled by it.

I would recommend if your GM will let you do the Permanency thing, maybe he would instead let you craft (or have crafted) a magic ring or maybe a tattoo, if you have tattoos in your game, that allows you to turn it on and off. I did this once with a halfing battle oracle. For the most part people thought she was a half-elf or something (in my games I don't do the straight up x8 thing that makes a minimum weight halfling end up a maximum weight human... I apply reasonable weight increases to keep you the same basic body proportions with x2 for tiny, x4 for small x8 for medium, x12 for large etc cause when you compare the tables, those numbers make sense, but when they designed the spell they just used the medium x8 and called it a day) because she always kept her Enlarge Person tattoo active, but if she wanted to she could always deactivate the tattoo and be a halfling again.

[Reynard_the_fox]

Oh yeah, if you're using Permanency it's dandy. Protip, though, don't do it if it would bring your Str down to 6 or less - we had a halfling shuriken-based ninja that I permanently shrunk in a high-level game, and he got one-shot KOd by Waves of Exhaustion. And then since he was invisible and tiny we couldn't find him until after the combat ended. : /

I would also highly recommend a permanent See Invisibility. It doesn't come up often, but when an invisible foe pops up you really don't want to have to waste a turn casting it. Your party needs that Glitterdust NOW!

[hambilton]

If you permanently reduced your size, could you use a flying familiar as a mount?

[Forthepie]

Ciaran Barnes wrote:

Hold me closer tiny wizard

Count the dead mooks in the AoE

Even better if he had said he was a necromancer.

Then it could be Hold me closer Tiny necromancer.

Yeah I know it doesn't "fit" the syllables...