Wizard opposing school selection help

[Atnot]

Hello all,

I am making a Wizard of the controller type in a part with a fighter, bard (archer build) and a druid (melee build with animal companion bear).

I am choosing conjurer as my focus school and want to do a summon/crowd control type of play style.

Given the other casters in the group, what would you suggest to a new player as schools to be opposing schools?

We are doing Kingmaker if that makes a difference.

Thanks in advance.

[Evil Lincoln]

Evocation and Necromancy.

Well, no, really, you have to look at the spell lists and decide for yourself. But do bear in mind that in Pathfinder Wizards can prepare prohibited school spells, they just take up twice as many slots.

That is especially relevant to kingmaker, where the majority of encounters you'll have will be one-encounter-per-day unless your GM intervenes to extend the workday. This means that any school you would rely on for "utility" spells that can wait a day to be cast (stuff like knock, or break enchantment, etc) is a candidate for prohibition.

While I think the above is good advice for Kingmaker, do remember that the exceptions to the 1 encounter/day rule are also the scenes that will kill you if you are unprepared.

So, in closing.... Evocation and Necromancy. Maybe divination instead of one of those, but divination is... very nice in Kingmaker.

[Riku Riekkinen]

Evocation and Enchantment.

Necromancy has some very good debuffs. Also the presence of Bard makes Enchanment less important for you (Bard is good in that).

[Tivilio]

I've got a similar character for Kingmaker, but I chose Necromancy & Enchantment as my opposed schools. While I do like a few schools from each, as EL pointed out, you can prepare them if needed by sacrificing an extra spell slot. I find that those are the schools I use least, while Evocation is just all sorts of good fun, especially if you're making use of some of the APG spells.

Also item creation feats can play a great role in Kingmaker, as the PCs can have months (or even years) of downtime in between questing, so making good use of item creation feats is highly suggested.

[Zurai]

Evocation is very easy to drop thanks to shadowy evocation and its siblings.

[Atnot]

Tivilio wrote:

Also item creation feats can play a great role in Kingmaker, as the PCs can have months (or even years) of downtime in between questing, so making good use of item creation feats is highly suggested.

What level do you recommend I start selecting these feats if I go that route?

Thanks for the input all, it has been very helpful!

Atnot

[Austin Morgan]

Riku Riekkinen wrote:

Evocation and Enchantment.

Necromancy has some very good debuffs. Also the presence of Bard makes Enchanment less important for you (Bard is good in that).

+1

[Tivilio]

Atnot wrote:

What level do you recommend I start selecting these feats if I go that route?

Thanks for the input all, it has been very helpful!

Atnot

Fortunately you get Scribe Scroll right away, so that can keep you busy at lower levels, but beyond that, it depends on your build. At 5th level, I haven't taken any others yet because I've taken Imp. Init., Toughness, Spell Focus (Conjuration) and Augment Summoning, but I will be taking Craft Wondrous Item soon.

[james maissen]

Atnot wrote:

Hello all,

I am making a Wizard of the controller type in a part with a fighter, bard (archer build) and a druid (melee build with animal companion bear).

I am choosing conjurer as my focus school and want to do a summon/crowd control type of play style.

Given the other casters in the group, what would you suggest to a new player as schools to be opposing schools?

We are doing Kingmaker if that makes a difference.

Thanks in advance.

My advice to you.

Make a list of all the spells that you like casting as a wizard.

On that list, what can be cast just as well (or nearly so) from a scroll? For example see invisibility is a great spell, but works just as well from a scroll, likewise wall of force. If you're not casting it too often, then you'd likely not memorize it but rather carry around scrolls of it anyway. Shouldn't factor into your forbidden schools choices as you can still read those scrolls in PF.

Are there a few there that are only going to be cast on special occasions or once a day? The former would be things like permanency, perhaps water breathing, and the like. The later would be things like false life, overland flight, detect scrying and such.

These you might make do using up two slots to cast. It makes the cost of using these spells much higher, but if they are the only choices you are taking from a school then it can work as a prohibited one.

Unlike 3.5 where forbidden was gone, now its just as item or using up two slots. This changes things up a bit.

-James