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I realize I've got a surprising amount of trouble making up my mind here. My Wizard just reached level 5, and I can take a feat. But which one? There are a lot of interesting ones, but nothing that really jumps out as the "take me now!" feat.
I'm a Conjurer, Teleportation subschool, specializing in battlefield control. Background-wise, it'd make sense if I summoned lots of Devils. I don't have Summon Monster I (probably because it has no devils for me to summon), but I do have Summon Monster II. I've got an insane +13 on initiative.
My wizard is not actually lawful evil, just neutral, but he grew up in a lawful-evil environment and only recently left. He didn't object so much to the devil summoning itself, but he hates the tyranny and the decadence of his former masters.
Our group consists of a 2-H Fighter who's planning to focus on crits, a Tiefling reach Fighter with a glaive, an archery Ranger, a Monk (who's often absent), and a Druid with a big ape.
Were using Core, APG and UM.
Feats so far: Improved Initiative and Craft Wondrous Items.
When I get to level 7, I'm going to take Improved Familiar, to get an Imp. I believe that's still legal when you're neutral, right?
But what to take right now, at level 5? Some ideas:
Spell Focus (Conjuration) - increased DC for many of my battlefield control spells, and is prereq for augmented summoning. But so far I haven't actually summoned all that much yet.
Metamagic -- I already have a Rod of Extend Spell which I love, and I think it's way too early for Quicken Spell or Dazing Spell to be useful.
Item Creation -- I don't know what more I need beyond scrolls and wondrous items. Rods? I only need a few and I'll just buy them when I get there. Unless the GM wants to restrict my access to them, of course. Then being able to make my own is a nice workaround.
Combat Casting -- I don't really plan to be in melee at all. Plenty of meleeers to hide behind. Although I do have a tendency to be a bit too much to the front (for a better view of the battlefield to get that first vital spell in), but I use my Shift ability to move to the center of the group as soon as possible.
Defensive Combat Training -- suggested by Treantmonk, but I can always Shift out of any grapple. Shouldn't I be focusing on offense (well, control) rather than defense?
Spell Penetration -- No doubt useful eventually, but is this something to take right now? We haven't encountered anything with spell resistance yet.
Preferred Spell -- Well, first I'd have to take Heighten Spell, but aside from that, I have no idea which spell should be my preferred spell. I suppose spontaneously summoning devils would be cool, but it's only going to work for one specific summon spell. Later on I may want to summon more powerful monsters.
Spell Specialization -- Again, no idea which would be my favourite spell for this. Does this +2 also count for DCs? Also, I'd need Spell Focus first, so it's going to have to be a Conjuration spell, probably.
Toughness -- I don't intend to get hit, but you never know what happens. Last session I got sneak attacked and nearly went down. I had 23 HP at level 4, and a +1 Con modifier. Do I really need something defensive rather than something offensive?
After writing all of this down, Spell Focus (Conjuration) is starting to look like the best option. Still, if I take a feat just for the prerequisite, it's going to be until level 9 before I can finally take the feat I'm taking it for. Because Imp at level 7.
So I'm hoping someone here has some interesting insights or new suggestions I haven't considered yet.
I am always a fan of toughness, but that's just me.
Hard to go wrong with Spell Focus. Spell penetration is nice, but less of an issue as a conjuration spec.
Well, just to offer a counter opinion, I never take toughness.
Feats are far too valuable to waste on a wizard getting a few more hit points.
You have three party members who would likely appreciate Craft Magic Arms and Armor. If nothing else is screaming your name, and you think you'll get the down time to craft, that might be a nice feat to have.
I only take toughness at first level. After that, it has less bearing on survivability. I still value the hit points a lot, but would rather choose a more fun option at later levels.
As a wizard, you will be powerful regardless of your feat selection, so I feel there is more latitude with feat selection.
Since you get a bonus feat, you should be up for two feats now.
You might want to look at the Arcane Discoveries from Ultimate Magic.
Arcane Builder will make your wondrous item crafting 25% faster, which can be an important factor if the campaign you're in moves on a fast timescale.
Fast Study gives you much needed flexibility, letting you swap in free empty spell slots in one minute of preparation time.
I'm also a fan of the Split Slot Arcane Discovery, but rather at later levels than level 5. When you can split one level five spell into two level three spells, that's something to look forward to.
Also, you might want to take a look at Cypher Script from the Inner Sea World Guide, which drastically cuts down on the cost, time and space requirements of copying new spells into your spellbook.
In my opinion, you missed the boat by not taking Augment Summoning sooner. It is a great buff for the Summon Monster II monsters at lower levels. At low levels I love the small earth elemental with a +4 to Str and Con. It is still an ok buff to all of your summons past that.
It does lead to Superior Summoning though, so it could be worth your time anyway. The Summon Monster III monsters are great (Hello, Dretch...I need a Stinking Cloud! Nevermind, I'll take a Lepoard with Pounce and Grab.), benefit more from the Augment Summoning feat, and there are many situations where you could use 1d3+1 slightly less powerful monsters more than one more powerful one (Hello Dretches...I need TWO to FOUR Stinking Clouds! Nevermind, I'll take TWO to FOUR Lepoards with Pounce and Grab.).
combat casting is a necessity. I know it isnt flashy but the way i DM there will be times when the wizard gets ambushed and having spells fizzle while hilarious, is bad news for mr. wizard.
Since you get a bonus feat, you should be up for two feats now.
Yeah, I only just noticed that too. Too bad I can't take Spell Focus or Augmented Summoning with that bonus feat.
You might want to look at the Arcane Discoveries from Ultimate Magic.
I'd completely overlooked them because somehow I thought they were only for higher levels. I thought that because I want to eventually take Opposition Research, which is only for level 9+. But that one seems to be the exception. I'll have a good look at them.
Arcane Builder will make your wondrous item crafting 25% faster, which can be an important factor if the campaign you're in moves on a fast timescale.
Yeah, not sure if that's going to be an issue. I wouldn't want to waste feat on that if we get plenty of time for crafting. I haven't even done any crafting yet, so I'll hold off on this one for now.
Fast Study gives you much needed flexibility, letting you swap in free empty spell slots in one minute of preparation time.
I always, always forget to keep an empty slot for those unexpected situations. I'm not sure if one minute or 15 minutes really makes that much of a difference, though.
I'm also a fan of the Split Slot Arcane Discovery, but rather at later levels than level 5. When you can split one level five spell into two level three spells, that's something to look forward to.
Yeah, for now I'm happy with every high level slot I get.
Also, you might want to take a look at Cypher Script from the Inner Sea World Guide, which drastically cuts down on the cost, time and space requirements of copying new spells into your spellbook.
Interesting. Not sure if it's allowed for this campaign, though.
In my opinion, you missed the boat by not taking Augment Summoning sooner.
You might be right. I figured initiative was pretty vital for a battlefield controller, and Craft Wondrous Items just seemed really useful. But I could have gotten Craft Wondrous Items with my 5th level bonus feat. If I'd taken Spell Focus at level 3, I would now be able to take both Augmented Summoning and Craft Wondrous Items.
I haven't even used Craft Wondrous Items yet. I wonder if the GM would allow me to retcon that.
Perhaps Spell Focus (Conjuration) to get ready for Augment Summoning and then use the bonus feat on Extend Spell metamagic?
If you were so inclined you could use it on your summoning therefore keeping them around longer.
Craft Wand is usually a good choice for a wizard at 5th level. Combined with Scribe Scroll and a day or two of down time (and/or the "4 hours for 2 hours" when adventuring), you can really expand your capabilities as a caster; use Scribe Scroll for the situationally great spells (darkvision, resist energy, protection from arrows, dispel magic, tiny hut, water breathing, etc.) and Craft Wand for the spells you want to cast often (shield on yourself every combat, magic missile (CL 3) until you can afford scorching ray, etc.). It's also much more convenient for being able to use the "great" spells in your opposition schools without tying up two spell slots to prepare.
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I really like Fast Study. Stuck in an enemy stronghold? Cast Invisibility, go sit in the corner, and prepare whatever spell you need. It makes you almost as versatile as a sorcerer, with a much larger spell selection.
If you're looking at metamagic, Still Spell and Silent Spell can both be handy, though less so for a wizard than a sorcerer. If you fight a lot of humanoids, Magic Missile with Toppling Spell will be pretty awesome for a while. If you're a blaster, Elemental Spell is handy; if you're fighting ghosts, Ectoplasmic Spell can save your ass; if you like save-or-suck effects, Bouncing Spell can double your chances of affecting someone.
I'm trying to focus as much as possible on battlefield control, and I'd like to do as little damage as possible. I don't even have Magic Missile and Fireball in my spellbook. Metamagic that turns damage spells into battlefield control (particularly Dazing Spell) is really cool, but beyond that, I don't really care about blast spells.
Craft Wand goes well with the Imp I intend to get at level 7, of course. I'm planning on making me a Headband of Vast Intellect with the UMD skill, which would also get my Imp UMD, I believe. Give the Imp lots of utility wands, and have it cast all the stuff that needs to be cast often where DC doesn't mater. Like Haste on our army of fighters. Although I believe our Druid already has Craft Wand. I'm not entirely sure about that.
Fast Study does require me to leave a lot of slots empty to take advantage of it. But what I'm thinking is: if I've got 1 minute to study, what are the odds I won't also be able to afford 15 minutes to study?
I think the biggest argument against heading for Augmented Summoning is that we already have plenty of fighters, and we've had situations where the room was too crowded with party members to be able to move around (a large ape helps a lot to crowd small spaces). Summoning even more creatures might be a bit much.
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I'm playing a Conjuration wizard myself (Teleportation subschool). Let me give you the rundown on my feats and how well they've worked out for me:
1) Improved Initiative: I tend to get a +9 to initiative now, which is good enough.
3) Spell Focus: Conjuration. Good purchase: it enhances Flaming Sphere (a cute spell) and Glitterdust. Glitterdust has been amazing; mass-blinding enemies is a brutal debuff. No spell resistance, and affects a lot of different creatures; Will save but not mind-affecting. So far it's only failed me against earth elementals with Tremorsense.
5) Augment Summoning: amazing. It's like automatic and free Bull's Strength and Bear's Endurance on everything you summon. Good on the SM-2 Earth Elemental, SM-3 Leopard (Pounce! Rake! Smite Alignment! Murder!) and the SM-4 Hound Archon (bizzarrely many HP, DR 10/Evil, heavy damage output).
5bonus) Feral Speech - hasn't seen much use. But the GM really hates magic item crafting, otherwise CWI would've been good.
7) Dimensional Agility - my GM agrees that this applies to the Shift ability of the Teleportation subschool. If your GM agrees too, then this feat is amazing. You can just Shift away from melee as a swift action, without any AoO risk. It replaces Combat Casting entirely for me. Moving as a swift action is also handy with spells like Summon Monster, which eat up your entire round's action; you can move and cast now.
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As for advice: I'd go the Augment Summoning route. Delay the Improved Familiar, seriously. Augmented Hound Archons are brutal monsters. Lots of HP combined with DR 10/Evil means they can take an amazing amount of punishment, and they dish out quite a bit themselves.
The first time I summoned an Augmented Leopard, it charged the enemy cleric hiding among the rank and file, and tore him to pieces immediately. The look on the GM's face was priceless. Pounce-Rake means it makes 5 attacks on a charge, all of which get +2 to hit and damage with Augment.
Small Earth Elementals are pretty nice too. Pretty good to-hit and disturbingly high damage for their level. They also walk through walls, so you can send them into rooms without opening the door.
I got access to the Bison now, which has a sick trample ability. If I need to demolish an army I'll summon bisons to run all over it.
You're a Neutral Conjurer, which means you can apply any of the four templates (Celestial, Entropic, Fiendish, Resolute) to animals you summon. That's a significant power. Recognize which energy types the enemy will use and pick a template with resistance to it; or look for the enemy alignment and pick a template with Smite against it.
It's worth learning some languages to properly direct your summons; Terran to command earth elementals to for example go through the wall to kill the guards on the other side. Lightning Elementals make Auran worth learning as well.
The GM is fine with me retroactively having taken Spell Focus at level 3, so I can get Augmented Summoning now, and Craft Wondrous Item as the bonus feat.
I think I'll go that route, despite summoning possibly not being the best strategy for me. (Already crowded party, and we have a Druid too.) But summoning is just very in character for this guy.
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Well, that's the best of both worlds really :)
I recommend getting Invisibility if you're going for summoning. Summoning monsters and directing them to attack doesn't break Invisibility, and it's handy during those full-round castings of SM-3+.
I'm considering Superior Summoning myself, but I don't consider it quite as vital as Augment.
From a battlefield control point of view, superior summoning is pretty good, because you're putting more threatened squares on the board.
Dont you guy tired of carrying around stat blocks of summoned monster all the time? and bogging down combat with your extra monsters?
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It bogs down combat a little bit yeah, but on the other hand the extra monster firepower can speed up the "turns until victory" counter too.
I tend to carry only the statblocks from the best monsters from each tier, there's a lot of monsters I never intend to summon. For example, for combat summons on SM-3 my go-to guy is the Leopard, for ranged/aerial I'll take Lantern Archons or Lightning Elementals. I don't need the stats for all the weaker animals.
If I'm building a god wizard, my feat selection goes something like: Spell Focus (Conjuration), Improved Initiative, Craft Wondrous Item, Toughness.
Dont you guy tired of carrying around stat blocks of summoned monster all the time? and bogging down combat with your extra monsters?
See, the point is to hit critical mass with the summoned creatures so the DM just flips the table and hand-waves the combat.
My favorite combo, from the last campaign I played, was multiple Lantern Archons (like...4-6) plus Haste (hey, look, 3 laser blasts) and Inspire Courage (rays are a weapon, so they get +3 hit/dmg). We basically just followed this swarm of Lantern Archons as they laid waste to the entire dungeon.
Dont you guy tired of carrying around stat blocks of summoned monster all the time? and bogging down combat with your extra monsters?
If the person who's doing it is ready for his turn, and can handle it without any problems, no. I've seen people control 4-6 "creatures" better than some players handle 1 (in terms of knowing its their turn, and moving through their turn quickly).
Now, when it does bog down, is when that 1 player tries to do the "Summoning" bit ;-p That I can live without.
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The GM is fine with me retroactively having taken Spell Focus at level 3, so I can get Augmented Summoning now, and Craft Wondrous Item as the bonus feat.
I think I'll go that route, despite summoning possibly not being the best strategy for me. (Already crowded party, and we have a Druid too.) But summoning is just very in character for this guy.
Ah, definitely do that, then.
Handling extra characters isn't so bad as long as you have statblocks ready, pre-roll your attacks and know what else you're doing with your turn ahead of time. Sometimes I'll have a lillend azata, 3 large earth elementals, a Dust Wall/Flaming Sphere/Aqueous Orb move, and my own spell for the turn, but as long as I can go 1-2-3-4-done it's no problem.
Oh, and I highly recommend Superior Summoning. Nothing is awesome like summoning 4 Huge creatures at once.
I'm still getting used to summoning. Yesterday I did have to look up the stats of the Celestial Leopard I summoned, and initially forgot to apply the Augmented Summoning bonuses. Looking up the Celestial template and figuring out what it does exactly, was also a bit of a hassle. But I expect that will soon get smoother.
In the end, the celestial leopard landed the killing blow on the Bone Devil that almost nobody was able to hurt (because of its DR and its sky high AC).
One of my favorite low to mid level combos is a version of Create Pit and summoning an earth elemental. Even a small earth elemental with Augment Summoning has +9 to it's CMB to bullrush (don't forget the +1 for earth mastery) and then there is no saving throw for falling into the pit. The earth elemental falls into the pit too? Well, it's only a summons and it can do some damage before being "killed" down there. At higher levels you have to watch for flying opponents, but then summoning offers tons of options for flying opponents :-).
Scribe scroll!!!!!
Or Feats that boost your summons.