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Crossbows are a bit costly, but if you've got a decent DEX they're a great fallback.
Look for spells with a duration of "concentration". With one of those, you can make a single spell last the entire fight if it's the right spell for the job.
Some encounters will have other noncombat tasks to take care of while the others fight. Getting innocent bystanders to safety, calling the town guard, operating the lever that disarms the scorching ray turret, etc. Keep an eye out for anything of that nature to busy yourself with, because the melee fighters will have their hands full and will likely appreciate having something to turn the situation in their favor.
If you can afford it, a wand is a good choice. Somewhere between second and fourth level, you should be able to buy a wand with a first level spell. Heck, if you're lucky you might even find one! I find magic missile to be a very handy spell to have in a wand.
At low levels: Cantrips, "pew-pew laser" abilities and the occasional scroll.
At mid levels: Scrolls, wands, etc.
At high levels: n/a, you basically don't run out of spells.
Ready a crossbow to shoot any enemy who appears, or any spell caster that casts. Damaging cantrip can be helpful here.
Be the strategist: while everyone else is hammering the foe, try and figure out what's important, what's really going on, does everything make sense, does it appear reasonable, what surprises might be coming? Get ready for it.
Try and figure out how to be maximally effective with minimum application of force.
The easy answer (which is probably best for a newbie, no offense) is be an elf and use a short or longbow . You’ll need two feats to be decent (point blank and precise shot), but crossbows are even more feat intensive to really work well and these two feats help with ranged spells too so it is not so bad – the focused shot feat is something to consider also. If you don’t like the elf, I think there are other ways to get the proficiency, though I can’t think of any right now.
Scrolls and wands are nice too, but from what I’ve heard PFS is a bit stingy with gold and downtime for crafting. I could be wrong though.
Until you get a few levels under your belt to make bows work or funds and time for scrolls/wands, spamming cantrips is your best bet. Also don’t forget about the aid action when applicable.
Color spray and Sleep can be good for a starting wizard. You cast once at the beginning of combat and then mop up with coup de grace maneuvers and attacks on the helpless opponents along wiht the rest of the party. This allows you to not use all of your spells in one combat. Flasks of acid and other splash alchemical weapons and holy water are all useful for the early adventurer.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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You haven't said what your specialization is, or if you are a universalist. School powers can be pretty big at lower levels, I've seen some serious damage done with Hand of the Apprentice.
As for the crossbow, consider using daggers or clubs instead, they are cheaper and reusable. You could also invest in some splash weapons, it's always good to have someone with alchemists fire or acid, though you won't use them every encounter.
As for the crossbow, consider using daggers or clubs instead, they are cheaper and reusable.
His character has 7 Strength, so throwing daggers or clubs would be fairly useless.
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Don't forget the Aid Another action. This means you are giving a +2 to either a friends AC or +2 for a friend to hit the target. This can really help!
Knowledge skills - These can really help in your role as the tactician. Read up on how they work and be making those checks to identify the monster, it's weaknesses, and let your party know!
At low levels I would not be prepping Mage Armor... those few precious slots needs to go to things that can stop an encounter in its tracks with one spell. Sleep and Colour Spray (as mentioned above) are fantastic at low levels. Grease could be a good option as well. Taking out the one tough guy in the encounter can be good as well, so look for save or suck type spells.
Finally, not sure how this works in society (as I don't play it) but I would be crafting scrolls each night of unused spells if you can (once you have the cash). Having scrolls of is just like storing your money and your uncast spells. If you find you want the money, you just sell them at the same cost you made them for. However, if you find yourself in a situation one could be useful you ask yourself if you would be willing to spend the cost of the spell to have that spell right then, if so... you do!
Sean Mahoney
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I completely forgot that you never run out of cantrips. I had great fun playing a wizard in 3.5, back when being out of spells meant being OUT of spells. If you've got unlimited 1d3+1 of acid, I'd say you don't really need to worry about off-turns too much. At least not so much that you feel the need to spend two or more feats and a good chunk of your starting gold on a crossbow. Spend that money on spells to copy into your book and fall back on the Acid when needed.
You mentioned 7 Strength-- how's your Dex?
What to do in your off turns?
Laugh maniacally. Enjoy it.
Double move into a better position.
Make a Knowledge check - find something appropriate and with a good roll your GM might let you know about some advantage to be utilised. Engineering and Dungeoneering can be great for this, and Local and Arcana (and ...can't remember the third main one?) are the main ones for learning about an opponents weakness. Or perhaps you'll learn/remember something of the opponent that you can leverage against them, a little parley during combat might end it quickly than blades can.
Buy scrolls when you can. When your spellcraft is maxed you often need only roll a two to cast a scroll from the level above your highest, and that can make a massive difference.
Aid Another, as mentioned above, is great. Use a longspear to stay at a safe (well, safer) distance. You only need to manage AC10 to give your friend a +2, and s/he will love you for it.
Enjoy the fact that the wizard doesn't have to act every turn. Enlarge a friend, or Grease an area and step back to enjoy the carnage you have enabled.
It looks like you haven't picked a favored class bonus (or you missed out on your skill point for being human). You have 8 skill points, which is what a human wizard with INT 20 would have, but you didn't take an extra hitpoint either so you get one of the two.
Also, as an illusionist battle is probably not where you are going to shine. Sure you get some nice buffs (blur, invisibility) and some other cools spells (color spray as everyone else mentioned). However, what I love about illusion magic is the amount of cool stuff you can do outside of combat. The more you can think outside the box, the more you can even prevent combat from happening. There are some straightforward illusions for out side combat like hallucinatory terrain (a 4th level spell) but you can have a lot of fun with open ended spells like minor and major image (sometimes even silent image). Obviously this does not mean you have nothing to do in a combat, just that the illusionist is more of a subtle class of wizard.
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Illusionist?! I'd overlooked that. Blinding Ray is IMHO one of the best things anyone can do in combat. The rogue will want to have your babies, and the fighter will ask to marry you. Or maybe its just that my local group is a bit overly friendly.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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His character has 7 Strength, so throwing daggers or clubs would be fairly useless.
As for the crossbow, consider using daggers or clubs instead, they are cheaper and reusable.
Ah.. I should pay closer attention. Then crossbow and maybe splash weapons is about it. Even that is dubious, you could run into weight issues.
A pint flask of oil is 1sp. Memorize spark cantrip, have fun, don't get caught.
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Well, as others mentioned, Bow is one option. They really aren't expensive and keep in mind the low lvl adventures give you 500+gp for completing. Add to that if you put a skill in a proffession you make additional cash.
Aside from that, as illusionist you have a crazy good ray attack that can be used X amount of times per day. Then there are the cantrips.
On a side note, have you looked at Conjuration as your specialist school? The APG (or maybe Ultimate Magic) offers an alternative per day use of being able to teleport as a swift action, that to me is crazy good - it is only 5ft per 2 lvls I think, but the ability to use a swift action to escape a grapple or threatened areas is pretty amazing
Just as a few notes about silent image:
You can't get a flank from it (only creatures can do that), but you can use it to create total concealment.
If you have line of effect to a target but not line of sight, he is considered to have total concealment from you.
If you create an silent image of a brick wall, you have to concentrate on it, but it blocks line of sight but not line of effect -- so it grants total concealment. You can use this fact to make quick walls between your opponents and allies -- particularly useful for stopping a secondary attacker or "dividing and conquering" enemies. Enemies don't get a save against the wall unless they carefully study it or interact with it (both typically needing a standard action). Trying to move through the wall or throw something through it causes everyone to autosave (automatic disbelief). If you yell something to your teammate in a weird language you both understand (yay a good use for gnoll!) and say the illusion is fake, you can have them instantly roll a save with a +4 bonus. . . so your ally can see through the illusion (they see the outline, but it's transparent) and your enemy can't.
If your GM gets huffy/puffy about this strategy, remember the purpose of illusions are to delay and confuse enemies. That's exactly what this strategy is doing in combat.
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They pretty much covered it; daze at low levels, silent image if you need to block line of sight. Don't waste feats, money, or carrying capacity on weapons. If the fight is handled no need to use expandable resources, though wands of highly useful but non-level dependent 1st level spells (like Enlarge Person) are handy to have in your pocket (15 go a casting is trivial).
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Instead of memorizing Mage Armour, grab a scroll of it for 25gp. At first level, use scrolls of spells that don't allow or require a save (or on things like silent image, where the object may not ever be saved against).
Daze is amazing, Aid Another as has been said above is a good choice, but try to protect yourself too. You're probably only a few easy attacks from death's door.
Don't forget your school ability either. If you're a transmuter, you can punch people from range. If you're an evocator, you should have 6-8 free magic missiles.
Ghost Sound. Really really really good. Especially with Spell Focus: Illusion.
Recommended Schools for banning: Necromancy and Evocation. Those look like the schools that don't mix as well with Illusion. You've got some good stuff in both of them, but there are good things in every school.
The four most important Knowledges for weaknesses: Arcana, Nature, Planes, Religion. Knowledge: Local is good, but only for humanoids. Depends on the campaign.
Your attack bonus with your dagger should be -2. At any rate, I agree with bumping your Str to at least 10 somehow. Also I'd make my Con at least a 12. If you already have a better party face I'd let them do it and put my Cha at a 7. Unless you have a great character reason for that anyway.
Color spray and Sleep can be good for a starting wizard. You cast once at the beginning of combat and then mop up with coup de grace maneuvers and attacks on the helpless opponents along wiht the rest of the party.
Yup. I have a halfling wizard who carries around a battle axe for just this purpose. :) You don't have to be proficient or even strong to have an effective CDG at low levels with the right weapon.
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Remember that in PFS, you canm spend 2 PP, even if your Fame isn't high enough to buy it with gold, to obtain a 1st level wand.
Wand of Magic Missile is good, no need to roll to hit, just an automatic 1d4+1 damage, and by the time you run out of the wand, you'll have better spells on your list.
As mentioned, be very careful with the Aid Another actions, since you will typically wind up at risk yourself to do it.
If you play with a more-or-less regular group, reminf them to pick up wands of stuff they want used on them, too. The Fighter who loves Enlarge Person should be providing the means of casting it, IMO; everyone should, at some point, pick up their own wand of Cure Light Wounds or Infernal Healing; etc.
Tanglefoot Bags are amazing. Alchemical Fire is a virtual necessity, unless you stock up on Burning Hands. Holy Water (or Disrupt Undead) is useful.
At low level, using a smoke stick can be on par with a personal Obscuring Mist, they get a 20% miss chance, you don't.
Marbles and caltrops are useful, but Grease can be better.
If you have an Archer in the party, Abundant Ammunition, especially with a follow-up Magic Weapon (or better at higher levels), can be a terrific combo punch.
Never forget the cantrips. Detect Magic is pretty much a requirement. Dancing Lights, IMO, is a better choice than Light, since someone is probably going to break out a sunrod anyhow, you can then roll them in front of the party to give that hypothetical archer access to more of his maximum range, and reduce the chance of ambushes.
Mage Hand and Mending are useful, although a bit more limited by what's happening around you. Thes, along with Prestidigation, can be awesome in the hands of a player with a great imagination.
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but never bellow 10 right ? =)IMO you simply shouldn't have a melee attack (aside from a weapon-finesse touch-attack) -- either cast defensively or make a Withdraw action.
Alternatively. make a proper gish if you want to have weapon attacks that aren't 98% worthless.
(I am firmly in the camp of dump-your-strength.)
Wrong. Dump it into the toilet. You don't need it, you never use it, and if you do need it, the piddly amount you could possibly jack yourself up to is unlikely to make a difference one way or another anyway. -- What exactly are you going to fight with a dagger and a 10 or 12 STR that will be even slightly impressed, let alone hitable off a wizard's melee attack-bonus, beyond 4th level?
If you meet a shadow....well, that's what that back-up scroll of Bull's Strength is for.
but never bellow 10 right ? =)IMO you simply shouldn't have a melee attack (aside from a weapon-finesse touch-attack) -- either cast defensively or make a Withdraw action.
Alternatively. make a proper gish if you want to have weapon attacks that aren't 98% worthless.
(I am firmly in the camp of dump-your-strength.)
Wrong. Dump it into the toilet. You don't need it, you never use it, and if you do need it, the piddly amount you could possibly jack yourself up to is unlikely to make a difference one way or another anyway. -- What exactly are you going to fight with a dagger and a 10 or 12 STR that will be even slightly impressed, let alone hitable off a wizard's melee attack-bonus, beyond 4th level?
If you meet a shadow....well, that's what that back-up scroll of Bull's Strength is for.
If your GM actually enforces encumbrance and/or throws Climb and Swim checks at you I think 10 Str is a reasonable investment. Even with your 5 million skill points per level you have better skills to invest in than Climb and Swim. Plus 0 Str gives you a better CMD than -2 Str. Depends on your GM and the campaign.
IMO 10 Str is far more reasonable than 10 Cha. If anything should be a 7 it's Cha. If you want to be a face it'd be better to play a Cha reliant class. Unless your Wizard has high Cha for roleplaying reasons, in which case all pure optimization talk goes out the window anyway.
And stasiscell proves he's not bothered to review the new ability penalty, damage and drain rules.
Ray of enfeeblement and bestow curse are both penalties and as such cannot drop you.
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i mean just look at the character endurance aspect of the game when fatigued and exhausted comes into play , there may be a situation where your character cant sleep for a few days and needs to stay active .
its a sad character that cant lift up his 10 pounds of gear because he hasnt slept in 2 days .
Uhm.... Handy Haversack, hired porter, mule-team, STR:26 fighter ally, Rope Trick, ...hmm, how about Mount for six horses to carry you and your junk for 4hr/level with a tap of ye olde Lesser Extend Rod?
Or maybe just Teleport the whole party right past all this annoying walking-through-the-desert-under-baking-sun BS?
If a wizard can't think his way past these trivial problems, he ought to just multiclass barbarian right now and sells his books -- because he's too dumb to be a brainy spellcaster.
Say, did you know you can make your own personal hovercar out of Floating Disk, and zoom around like a kid in a shopping-cart...Weeee! --? All you need is a plank strapped over the top of it, you sit on the front while the back end is ballasted with your stuff, and off you go. Lean to turn, and scoot back to the center of the disk to stop. It's like the old donkey/carrot-on-a-string-tied-to-a-stick trick, except you're the carrot.