Wand are ridiculously expensive. It is better to give the familiar scrolls. There is also a feat in ultimate magic which gives your familiar 1 evolution point as if it was an Eidolon. I would use that to give it the Eidolon "skilled" ability. IIRC that gives a +8 to any one skill. UMD gets better for the familiar a lot faster.
edit:I think a 4th level wand is about 20000 gp.
Wands are actually cheaper than scrolls in the long run. Yes a 4th level wand is 21,000gp. But divide that by 50 charges and you've got 420 gold a cast. Compare that to giving the Familiar a Level 4 scroll, which costs 700 gold. It's a 40% savings, which savings is reflected in all spell levels.
It really depends on how often you want your familiar casting spells like that.
Something like Telekinetic Charge is something powerful that the Familiar can do, but it's something that you'd want him to do over and over (If you have the money, that is.)
Now granted this comparison to scrolls is assuming full price on both items, but since the Wizard starts with Scribe Scroll, out of the box his level 4 scroll costs him 350. If he picks up Craft Wand though he's still saving 40% over scribing a scroll.
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Have fun with that. I'll be adding updates to this version from now on. I've linked the PDF version to the top of the Google Docs version since I can't edit the original post of this thread.
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I'm really enjoying your guide. I've been playing DND since the days of THAC0 and actually never really had a chance to really play as a Wizard, so reading your guide is helping me figure out a great character for our upcoming campaign.
Thanks a bunch! I really appreciate this guide. Great job, Professor Q! :)
A veery helpful and insightful guide. I will make a personal note though. You show Mnemonic Enhancer in the red where personally I feel it's a really good spell, if not occasionally circumstantial.
Yes it is a 10 minute cast time, but it says it lasts for 24 hours. From other threads I've read this means at the end of the day, if you have a spare slot for Mnemonic Enhancer open, you can use it to give you 3 extra spell levels for the next day.
Example: End of day and miraculously you have a level 4 slot still open. You study up Mnemonic Enhancer, cast it grabbing 3 spell levels worth of goodness. After rest, you compile your list as normal, but this time with 3 spell levels more spells.
Now, admittedly, that is how I see it being used (as well as a few other people) and I could be wrong. The retain ability doesn't seem all that useful though.
Anyways, again, really solid guide.
Terrific job professor Q.
Will you add the feat "Good Summons"?
My opinion: More summons for your list. Diehard is ice on the cake. I think this is a blue feat.
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I would love to hear some opinions on the expanded list for Summon Good Monster, too.
I would love continued updates as the rules evolve. For an example snapdragon fireworks was nerfed a little (indirectly). The spell itself is untouched since the creation of the guide, but Heighten spell now has a FAQ.
There has been an interpretation of heighten spell that meant that when you applied other metamagic feats with heighten that the heighten applied to those spell levels aswell as the amount you put into heighten itself.
Fx. Snapdragon Fireworks (1st lvl) + Dazing Spell (now a 4th lvl spell) + 1 heighten spell = 5th lvl spell that dazes for 5 rounds and has a DC of 10+5+ability score mod. This is NOT the way the heighten feat was meant to work and has now been contradicted by a FAQ.
The way it works now with the same example would be that it dazed for 2 rounds and had a DC of 10+2+ability score mod despite being prepared as a 5th lvl spell.
Heighten NEVER worked that way. The number of level you invest in heightened affected the base(actual) level of the spell, while other metamagic feats only affected the spell slot.
As an example a heighten(+3), empowered(+2) fireball counts as a 6th level spell, and it would have a DC of 10+6+stat mode, but for the purpose of burning a slot it used an 8th level slot. The rule is that the modifiers for the purpose of determining which slot was used stacks, but the actual spell level did not. As you can see fireball being a level 3 spell stacks with the above modifiers to burn an 8 level slot, but the actual spell levels which can only be bumped by heighten bring it to a base level of 6.
Spells modified by a metamagic feat use a spell slot higher than normal. This does not change the level of the spell, so the DC for saving throws against it does not go up.
All effects dependent on spell level (such as saving throw DCs and ability to penetrate a lesser globe of invulnerability) are calculated according to the heightened level. The heightened spell is as difficult to prepare and cast as a spell of its effective level.
Metamagic feats dont increase the level of the spell. Only the slot it uses. Heighten as an exception affects both.
Another example using fireball.
Fireball 3rd level spell, 3rd level slot.
Heighten +3 to spell level, +3 to slot used.
Empower +0 to spell level, +2 to slot used.
Spell level 6, slot level 8.
There is no wording that says heighten changes the slot level used to the actual base level of the spell.
PS:If you go and check many of the old optimizer guides and the books they used to sell, telling you how to make characters it always worked that way. That FAQ is there because of a big debate.
If you think the PF guys interpreted the rules they were in WoTC and had input on the rules. It is not like they are some hacks off the street who just happened to be picked up by Paizo.
Thanks for the feedback. It's nice to know people are getting something good out of this.
Thread necro, but I'd just like to say that there are still people getting good things out of this. I only recently stumbled upon it and just wanted to say thanks.
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Has it been 2 years?
Sheesh, the time flies.
And actually I did some updates for the guide, including the Race guide, since the one linked in this guide. The most recent guide is here:
The Complete Professor Q's Wizard Guide Single Document
I actually posted it in a different thread (Called it the guide "2.0") but that's apparently lost to the archive now.
Even with the updates though it's still been about 2 years hasn't it? As a matter of fact though I haven't really played Pathfinder for at least a year and a half, so I'm not sure what's new for the Wizard, if anything.
And actually the main reason I'm coming back here is that someone has been spamming my guide with comments to make edits - I was thinking if I had time in the next month, I'd actually try to make them.
For my free time, I've been pretty busy reviewing PC games for another site, but if I do get around to making updates, it'll probably be mostly grammatical errors and commenting on some of the discrepancies that people have kindly pointed out to me on an almost weekly basis through the comments.
If there is any new content you'd like me to look at though I'd be happy to give it a review as well.
So, does anyone have a copy of the guide that hasn't been ruined by anonymous edits?
A couple solutions to the vandalism via suggestions.
1. In the top right area google docs there is a green button with what looks like an eye with a paragraph behind it. Click that and select "view" instead, this will hide all the suggestions that make the doc unreadable. When I tried to access the doc on my PC with chrome I couldn't do this before the page crashed.
2. Try copying the document via an android device. The android docs app "hides" all suggestions and makes copying it easy.
3. Here is an older version of the guide.
4. I suppose I could share the doc now that I have copied it, but I am hesitant to do so without Professor Q's permission. (edit: which obviously if he was available to give permission he could just fix the issue anyway.)
I'm really disturbed by the amount of trolling that occurred in this guide.I actually can't access the guide at all, so the best I can do is what Radic did - copy it and repost it.
Here is a New Link..
Sorry about that everyone (And sorry for not checking on this sooner.)
I'm sorry that people can be so useless.
You clearly worked hard on this, and created a very good guide.
No one will ever agree on everything. That's no reason to tear down what others have made.