LazarX, I agree...but how would you know beforehand? :) Not like all GMs advertise this.
Just like with Item Creation how a wizard acquires spells beyond level should be discussed with the GM beforehand.
Personally, I try to make it easy. For availability I use the spellcaster services on CRB p163 to determine general availability. At about spell level 6 though the negotiations really begin.
- Gauss
LazarX, I agree...but how would you know beforehand? :) Not like all GMs advertise this.
Just like with Item Creation how a wizard acquires spells beyond level should be discussed with the GM beforehand.
Personally, I try to make it easy. For availability I use the spellcaster services on CRB p163 to determine general availability. At about spell level 6 though the negotiations really begin.
- Gauss
For learning new spells I've really found the GameMastery settlement guide to be a boon, at least to determine availability for any particular spell (it's interesting to note that even metropolises only have up to 8th level spells available by default. The Magical trait is needed to push the settlement into 9th level spell territory). Now, just because a particular spell is available in said town/city/metropolis doesn't necessarily mean a wizard will just up and let you copy the spell. But that's where roleplay (and perhaps a favor to the wizard) come into play. Magical Colleges (such as the one described in Katapesh) can help immensely with acquiring new spells, as well.
Brotato: The GMG settlement guide is basically the same thing as CRB p163. :) Makes it so I don't have to dig out my GMG.
- Gauss
Brotato: The GMG settlement guide is basically the same thing as CRB p163. :) Makes it so I don't have to dig out my GMG.
- Gauss
Too true. The GMG is just the first place I ever actually dug into the meat of settlement building (before Pathfinder I had DMed Forgotten Realms, and most settlements had been built for me already) so my brain defaults to that instead of the CRB.
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You can just buy spells on a scroll and copy those into your spellbook;
A wizard can also add a spell to his book whenever he encounters one on a magic scroll or in another wizard’s spellbook. No matter what the spell’s source, the wizard must first decipher the magical writing (see Arcane Magical Writings). Next, he must spend 1 hour studying the spell. At the end of the hour, he must make a Spellcraft check (DC 15 + spell’s level). A wizard who has specialized in a school of spells gains a +2 bonus on the Spellcraft check if the new spell is from his specialty.
Although other methods may be cheaper.
Anyone wanna make a list of schools, the pros and cons of picking said school as well as the pros and cons of placing said schools as your opposition schools? Or could this thread have been avoided with a link to the nearest Wizard Guide?
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Don't go evocation. Wizards are a poor choice as far as i can tell for evokers (sorcerers do a better job at that). Divination is a fair choice, and you could always use the extra spell slots from your school to basically act as pre-battle preparation (such as, what monsters are in this room? Is that a boos chamber? What is the BBEG planning? Etc. Most of which can be obtained with a good scry or clairaudience spell).
You could also look into the elemental magic schools. They offer only one restricted school (which can be removed as a 10th level Wizard Discovery [UM]), ad some of them (namely air) have fairly good abilities and spells. The idea of having no restricted magic at all by the time you're halfway through your wizarding career is a pretty good change, though you do sacrifice the nice speciality with a broader school of magic though.
Ascalaphus:
Some GMs do not allow you to buy spells either directly, or via scrolls because they either do not like wizards getting a massive amount of spells or they are running a major poor world and are thus not giving the group access to much magic.
As a result, you need to find out what kind of game your GM runs upfront when it comes to how they run you buying new spells/scrolls.
- Gauss
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The Wizard guides have a good coverage of school powers, but I'll do a quick rundown of spell choices by school.
For your school slot, where you want to have spells that are useful every day, at every level. I'll offer an example of an everyday preparation at each spell level.
- Abjuration: Weak at low levels. The school is focused on defense, but the best defensive spells are elsewhere. At higher level they're quite powerful but somewhat situational, and as a bonus your lower level slots will still be useful. Few options outside of core.1: protection from evil 2: resist energy 3: dispel magic 4: none, unless you can afford stoneskin 5: spell turning 6: greater dispel magic 7: spell turning 8: prismatic wall 9: mage's disjunction
- Conjuration: The clear winner for spell choices. Powerful and flexible, and especially broad at low levels. Includes summons, damage spells, debuffs, battlefield control and transportation. Gets narrower at higher levels, but there's always a Summon Monster of every level, which is always worth preparing. As a bonus, most of it bypasses SR. Lots of non-core stuff. 1: Grease 2: Web 3: Stinking Cloud 4: Black Tentacles 5: Wall of Stone 6: Summon Monster VI 7: Greater Teleport 8: Maze 9: Summon Monster IX
- Divination: You chose this for the powers. You will struggle to actually use the spell slots every day, you just don't need to do that much scrying. Not much outside of core. 1: true strike 2: see invisibility 3: clarivoyance/clairaudience 4: scrying 5: telepathic bond 6: true seeing 7: greater arcane sight 8: moment of prescience 9: foresight
- Enchantment: This varies wildly by campaign, since many enemies are immune to the entire school. It also depends on how your GM has the NPCs react. Almost entirely debuffs. The effects it produces tend to be weak, except for sleep and confusion, making those spell slots less valuable. Some cool stuff outside of core, but it suffers from the same drawbacks.1: sleep/charm person 2: hideous laughter 3: heroism 4: confusion 5: hold monster 6: mass suggestion 7: power word blind 8: irresistable dance 9: dominate monster
- Evocation: Actually pretty good, especially with the newer metamagics like Rime Spell (especially if you're admixture). Blast spells may not be the best choice, but in combat they're never useless. Blasts don't scale that well, though, and evocation doesn't have a ton of utility spells to put into your low-level slots. Lots of non-core stuff. 1: magic missile 2: flaming sphere 3: fireball 4: wall of ice 5: wall of force 6: contingency 7: grasping hand 8: sunburst 9: crushing hand
- Illusion: Home of the best defensive spells, invisibility, and the image spells. Shadow spells have a ton of versatility and so are good choices although they're a bit weak. Best if you're creative with images and have a cooperative GM. 1: color spray/silent image 2: invisibility 3: displacement 4: shadow conjuration 5: shadow evocation 6: programmed image 7: project image 8: greater shadow evocation 9: shades
- Necromancy: Lots of good debuffs and save-or dies, and ones you'll want to use everyday, but that's about it. Necromancy has an unusual reliance on costly material components for spells like create undead. Magic jar deserves special not for being very powerful, but a bit of a production to pull off. A few nice things outside of core. 1: ray of enfeeblement 2: blindness/deafness 3: ray of exhaustion 4: enervation 5: magic jar 6: create undead 7: waves of exhaustion 8: horrid wilting 9: energy drain
- Transmutation: tons of great buffs you will have no trouble finding a use for every day. Also some debuffs/save or dies. Level 4 is lacking, so just prepare another haste! Tons and tons of non-core spells, some of which are even good. 1: enlarge person 2: levitate 3: slow 4: haste! 5: overland flight 6: flesh to stone 7: reverse gravity 8: polymorph any object 9: time stop
- Elemental Schools: All the elemental schools have very limited lists and may not have spells worth casting every day at some levels. The Summon Spells only work for elementals of the appropriate type.
And opposition schools:
It's not obvious that Spellbinder lets you put bonded spells into school slots. The rules say you can only prepare schools spells in that slot, but when you exchange in the bonded spell does it not become "prepared" in that slot? The archetype is pretty vaguely worded, it's up to GM interpretation.
Improved Familiar is awesome, I especially like Nosoi and Faerie Dragons.
The other feats are mostly worth taking, although I don't think you have enough to spare for the +saving throw feats. Eschew Materials isn't really worth it, just carry a spare pouch. If you want to turn into a dragon or something, you can set the pouch down and pick it up again.
Take Boat is right, Imp Familiar is awesome. One particular bit of Improved Familiar cheese is more than awesome, but that is...cheesy. LOL
- Gauss
To be fair, a GM should be up-front if they're going to be stingy with a Wizard adding extra spells to their spellbook.
When you count it all up, from leveling alone the Wizard and Sorcerer are very close in the number of spells they know. The Wizard is designed with versatility in mind, but if you don't allow the Wizard to find spellbooks/scrolls, then the Sorcerer actually ends up having more versatility than the Wizard, and extra spells per day to boot.
tl;dr - It's a cruel GM that doesn't tell a Wizard, before the game starts, that he's gonna be a jerk about adding spells.
Neo2151: Unfortunately some of those GMs do exist. There have been occasional posts by such GMs on these boards.
Oh well.
- Gauss
Are you referring to Shadow Projection, or just Burning Gaze?
To be fair, a GM should be up-front if they're going to be stingy with a Wizard adding extra spells to their spellbook...
tl;dr - It's a cruel GM that doesn't tell a Wizard, before the game starts, that he's gonna be a jerk about adding spells.
I think they don't say anything because, those GM's don't feel they're being stingy or a jerk. They are just enforcing the rules as outlined and reasonable behavior that would make sense for powerful individuals that don't want competition.
I've seen it several times.
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for feats i'm looking at getting:
improved initiative
extend spell
quicken spellthen i'm considering but unsure of:
spell focus/greater spell focus (no idea what school yet)
dazing spell
spell penetration/greater spell penetration
preferred spell
persistent spell
spell perfection
lightning reflexes
great fortitude
iron will
improved familiaroh, and is eschew materials worth getting?
None of those feats look bad.
Just personal preference, I wouldn't take that many metamagic feats. I find that I rarely seemed to use more than 2 or 3 with a prepared caster. Although there were a couple of occasions where we had a whole lot of information and so I had a really detailed prepared list just for a specific situation or three.Spell focus and greater is wonderful if you find yourself continually casting offensively from the same school. If not, it is waste. I would wait a little while and see what spells you find yourself relying on the most.
Most wizards don't feel the need for iron will (good save) but if you do find yourself failing the save alot it can be worth it. Largely depends upon your opposition.
Lightning reflexes might not be worth it. This is usually save for half damage. Often squishy wizards will still die from half damage so it didn't gain you anything. If you get/make ring of evasion, wonderful. But you may be bette relying on the protection spells.
Quicken spell is really nice at higher levels. But a quickend 1st or 2nd level spell just usually ain't that great compared to what you could have prepared. But some people still rely on them.
Many people love improved familiar, but you don't sound like you want a familiar anyway. So decide first.
Seriously consider a craft X feat or two. The ones that seem to be the most worth while (in terms of constant use) are craft arms and armor, craft wonderous, and craft wand. But check with you GM first. Some GM's/campaigns do not give you the down time to ever craft much of anything.
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Eschew Materials is mostly irrelevant, as soon as you demonstrate the idiocy and triviality of most material components. Most material components are bad jokes.
There are some exceptions: many shapechanging spells require a tissue sample of the creature you want to turn into, and Dragon Breath requires a scale from the dragon whose breath weapon you want to emulate. Shapechanging isn't very hot for wizards though, because only animals with a suitable mouth and hands can cast spells (no Natural Spell), so that's rather awkward. How available those dragon scales are is a bit vague. Technically, they have no listed cost so they could be in your spell component pouch/Eschew Components.
Eschew Materials is not worth it unless you believe that your DM will, regularly, go out of their way to separate you from your components if you don't have it. Even then, though, there are a fair number of spells that don't require material components.
With that said, though, if you DM is going to put you in those situations under any circumstances other than 'plot stuff is happening and it is completely taking into account you've lost access to some things' (which can be compelling storytelling), you should be more worried about what's happening to your spellbook, because bro, nevermind being unable to cast spells with material components, you can't cast anything you can't prepare.
Yeah, I did ;_; edited with great shame.
Sundering or disarming component pouches is niche, I don't think I've eever seen someone do it. The viability of the tactic depends, of course, on how well the wizard is protecting that components pouch. If you feel the DM is likely to target it with sunder or disarm attempts, you'll probably want to drop a Silent Image or it, not wear it on your person, use sleight of hand to conceal it and use it sneakylike, have two or three extras in a handy haversack, etc etc...
The only situations where, imo, Eschew Materials would actually be beneficial over Wizard Paranoia would be any scenario in which the characters are stripped of their gear. Which is why I'm more concerned about the loss of spellbook angle.
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Yeah, I agree, it's definitely a niche concern. Or with the semi-precious/obscure spell components I mentioned earlier. I'm willing to accept having all the common cheap components in a pouch, but hundreds of animal tissue samples is stretching it.
I suppose you could try to sunder/disarm a pouch if you want to take the wizard captive instead of killing him though. If the wizard uses Shift/Dimension Door to escape grapples (which also stop V-S spells) then I suppose you could limit his options by taking away the pouch, but it's so extremely situational.
Hahaha I bet most component pouch attacks are by DMs frustrated with level 1 wizards who memorize nothing but colour spray and breeze through encounter after encounter.
I know it was only an example, but I feel like I need to point out that Dimension Door, Teleport, and Greater Teleport only have verbal components -- no somatic and no material.
Be different! Go Sylph Air Specialist taking the favored class bonus on the fly power to get fly at will by level 7, then switch to bloatmage and be the Sylph Bloodblimp!
Be different! Go Sylph Air Specialist taking the favored class bonus on the fly power to get fly at will by level 7, then switch to bloatmage and be the Sylph Bloodblimp!
Aye, now that's different. Arr...