Kelryn |
I decided I'd like to play an elven illusionist at my FLGS. I'm running him as true neutral - he's morally uninvolved, a little bit roguish, but not actively malignant. I like his character concept, but when we're actually out there crawling the caverns and tunnels I'm completely bored out of my skull. I long to shoot people around corners with a gunslinger, or do something other than plink away with my longbow when we're fighting something and it's been longer than 3 rounds. We're still low level - just hitting third level this past session.
I've played a necromancer in the past when 3e was first released, but I haven't touched wizards since then. It seems fun, but I just don't feel like it's very exciting. Also I bloody hate taking actions and not having control over the die that confirms if they work or not. I feel like I spend all my time pretending to be a conjurer or creating illusionary pits/swarms of snakes to provide myself and others with a bit of protection.
Any suggestions on what I should be doing to make things more... dynamic? Maybe I'm just playing the wrong type of character for the group I'm in.
Jaunt |
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Illusionists aren't the fightiest dudes. If you like fighting somewhat head on, conjurer should've been the play. As an illusionist, you should be contriving crazier stuff. Make your party face look like an ogre and demand fealty from the goblin tribe you're tasked with wiping out, or frame the baron for murder or something.
Illusionists are all about finding creative, non-intuitive solutions to things with their immense flexibility. If you're not regularly going out on a limb to do things you can't do with any other school, you shouldn't spec that school.
Experiment 626 |
Just because you're an illusionist doesn't mean you're stuck with only the illusion school spells. What schools did you prohibit?
I'm running an illusionist and am throwing down grease, silent image to provide instant concealment, laying down "sniper blinds", leading mindless things on goose chases, and nailing people with glitterdust regularly. I'm also tossing out the occasional summon. Not sure what's going on here...maybe its yours or the group's playstyle that aren't working out with your choice.
Knick |
Sounds like Wizard might not be the class for you, and it especially sounds like a control wizard is not for you. As for being the wrong character for the group you are in? I don't see how the group has anything to do with it. Wizards have limited resources, and that is especially true at lower levels. You are also playing an Illusionist, which takes a sideways approach to a lot of opponents/obstacles. Seems to me that you would be happier with a more direct approach. Also, the things you point out about the character concept that you really like seem to be entirely based upon alignment, and have nothing to do with being an Illusionist. I see no reason why you can't play the same character concept as almost any other class.
My suggestion: stop playing a Wizard. I think if you like the idea of being a caster, supporting the group, and having a lot of things to do, I'd recommend asking your GM to let you reroll as a Witch. You can probably keep the same stat line and familiar, too. At least when you don't feel like casting spells you can lay down hexes and still feel like a caster instead of a pitiful archer (and you are still a pitiful archer if that floats your boat). Keep in mind, however, that you are still watching the GM roll dice to see if your actions resolve or not.
If you want to try keeping the Illusionist and making it work you could try multi-classing Rogue and maybe work towards Arcane Trickster.
Otherwise, you might just want to play a martial character. At least then you get to roll your own fate.
Reynard_the_fox |
The problem lies within your imagination... or lack thereof. IMO, combat is actually the least exciting place for an illusionist, since the goal is simply to subdue the enemy. Your mileage may vary depending on your GM, but you should be using your illusions to confuse and befuddle enemies before combat - see if you can get one of them at a time to wander around the corner where your fighter, barbarian, and cleric are waiting to mush his face into a puddle of goo. Or mislead an entire group of enemies at once so they stampede over a cliff that you covered with an illusion of solid ground. Or avoid combat altogether by distracting or scaring enemies away.
The trick comes in figuring out:
1. What is your goal?
2. What actions by an NPC or enemy would support your goal?
3. What does the NPC/enemy need to believe in order to take that action?
4. What's a believable illusion to make them believe that?
I'm with Jaunt - if you're using illusions to simulate Create Pit, you might as well just cast Create Pit. Remember, illusionists are just as capable of casting conjuration spells as other types of wizards. In fact, a combination of real pits and fake ones may be just what you need to trick an enemy - if they can easily step through the first 3 pits, chances are good they'll walk straight into the fourth.
Oh, and try to get your teammates involved. Got a half-orc that likes to intimidate people? Back up him up with a mob of muttering, malicious-looking thugs. You're not limited to your own imagination - getting your teammates in on the ruse improves both chances of success and group satisfaction.
Kelryn |
As for being the wrong character for the group you are in? I don't see how the group has anything to do with it.
I wasn't prepared for the level of hack and slash that is going down in the adventures. So while I was imagining I'd "conjure" up terrifying visages that would cause enemies to flee in terror, or trick them into wasting their powerful abilities, instead I end up creating at best a phantom flanker for our rogue. The goal was to work illusions in a coincidental magic manner, to borrow from the old Mage: the evocative noun game. The only solution to our encounters is combat, never trickery.