High Level Wizard / Caster?

[Hobgoblin Shogun]

So I have the opportunity to start a game as a 15th level PC. So, of course, I'm going to play a wizard of some kind. Does anything have suggestions for cool/interesting/powerful wizard/caster prestige classes? Or if you just think straight wiz is the way to good. I've love witches and alchemists too. I always liked Psionics back in 3.5, but the third party PF stuff sketches me out. Never played a Cerebremancer, but always wanted to. Reminded me of Onslaught.

[andreww]

PF caster prestige classes are generally not worth bothering about.

If you can use old 3.5 classes then the situation becomes very different.

[Claxon]

Prestiege classes aren't particularly strong in Pathfinder. If you're interested in something for the flavor then do it, but there isn't a prestiege class that will provide more power than just advancing your wizard levels.

[Hobgoblin Shogun]

Hmmm. Alright. So straight wiz for me? They sure don't have many archetypes. Maybe I'll focus and building a badass wizard tower and golem army.

[EWHM]

You could be a W-3/C-3/MT-9 mystic theurgist. Or if your GM allows the kinda sleazy early entry, a MT-10 with 5 levels between wizard and cleric.
Loremaster isn't a bad prestige class if you like the sort of stuff it gives.
But wizard-15 is really powerful, ESPECIALLY if your GM allows APG stuff (which I don't). Spell perfection is just plain crazy, especially combined with dazing spell, quicken, empower, or intensify.

[Hobgoblin Shogun]

Hmmm. Alright. So straight wiz for me? They sure don't have many archetypes. Maybe I'll focus and building a badass wizard tower and golem army. I love making golems. And this will be my highest level character to date, so I want to take advantage.

[EWHM]

Hobgoblin,
I'd suggest simulacrums (of yourself) rather than golems. A simulacrum of a 15th level character is effectively 7th level and costs 3500 GP. 3500 GP for a mini-you. If you're still wanting golems/constructs, make mini-you's your officers in your army or warband.

I'll let you in on another little secret---spell perfection blasters DO NOT SUCK. Or you could go White Witch from Narnia and spell perfect flesh to stone.

[Vendis]

I played a Wizard 3/Psion 3/Cerebremancer 3 in 3.5e. It was fun - I grabbed what blasting I needed from Psion and had a lot of utility from Wizard. The way boosting works with psionics, you can keep stuff relevant for a bit longer.

It was weaker than straight wizard or even psion would have been, plenty of spell slots and power points, a single needed stat, and lots of spells and powers for options let me always have a plan.

[Jodokai]

There's an Elf only Archetype that allows you to switch spells out (can't remember what it's called). I would seroiusly loook at that. You memorize all your utility spells, but can switch them out for blasting spells when you need to. I also specialized in Fireball and had a blast with it (pun intended). With the Magical trait that lowers the cost of metamagic, I could add Intesify, or Selective on the fly, take admixture and change the damage type. I took Teleport school (love those short range jumps) and used Elemental Rod (acid).

I REALLY liked this build becauase at first glance I'd look like Treantmonk's "God Wizard" but could trade all my spells out to just blast things.

[Azixirad]

Starting that high, I too would go full on blaster wizard. Check out brewers guide to the wizard its great.

[Mirrel the Marvelous]

The Elf Archetype is called a Spellbinder I believe.

You could also take the Leadership Feat to become the head of a mighty Wizards Guild, and all the low-level backup, secondary casters you could ever need.

By the way, the Simulacrum spell can create a half-strength version of a creature up to double your caster level in hit dice. Your caster level is 15, the Tarrasque has 30 hit dice. Just saying.

[Hobgoblin Shogun]

I'm thinking of making a Wizard tower, with Colossal Animated Objects guarding it. And clockwork and stain glass golems on the inside. With my tower, if possible, floating on a giant clockwork airship.

You know. A work in progress.

@EWHM
Holy mothers, simulacrums. Doombots eat your heat out. Wow. You're the best.

[Captain Xenon]

15th wizard(specialist).... go human, start with 23 int. you will have 11 feats (3 of those are restricted choices). leadership is one of the optimal choices. opposition research is another, so that you only have one opposed school. also, get 'true name' for your lv15 arcane discovery- and get a 18HD or less outsider at your beck and call (a celestial is a better choice usually- the Planetar Angel is 17HD, and CL16, with 8th level divine magic prepared).

for traits, you should look at taking focused mind (concentration bonus), and reactionary (initiative bonus). those are a couple solid choices, unless you see something you want more for your build.

heighten spell+ Preferred spell (either shadow evocation[5th] or shadow conjuration[4th]) is a good feat choice, as it gives you a wide range of spontaneous casting.

if your GM allows it, take 'false focus' from inner sea magic. using a gold holy symbol, you will be able to ignore material component costs of less than 100gp. this covers a lot of spells, and can really help in the long run. remember, heightened continual flame is a wonderful thing!

do get craft wondrous item, as this allows you to start with those items you can create at half their cost. thats a difference of 18,000gp for your headband of vast intellect +6[for int 29], which you can spend on more fun stuff. your 240k WBL is expected to get an extra 60k of equipment this way. also make sure to get some meta-magic rods, those are very useful and you can afford to boost your lv 6 spells withe ease. you should get your Int to 30, either with a tome of clear thought +1, or just by being middle aged, so that you have a +10 bonus for all your spell DCs and concentration checks. [roll 1+10 int+2 trait bonus+level 15= 28, enough to always cast lv 6 spells or less defensively without other feats- that lv 7 spell need you to roll a 2]

for your level, spell penetration will be a good idea. you will have to deal with SR at that level, although some of the best spells don't require SR rolls. make sure you have summon monster VII and VIII. the list for 7 is excellent, more so if you can summons several at once.

look at the ultimate campaign book if you can, it has everything you need for building and stocking your wizards tower.

and the final dirty trick- create demiplane(ultimate magic). this is a 8th lv spell, and you should probably use permanency with it for 20k. this gets you your own safe hiding place to keep all manner of goodies, just be sure to have a scroll or two of plane shift ready in case of emergencies. you get an area thats a little bigger than a 30'x30' room, and you can make it bountiful(so theres enough food for 10 people), and set it to your alignment. (the most fun demiplane stuff is lv9, so you cant do that yet)

so you have- a lv 15 wizard with 8th level arcane magic, his lv 13 cohort, his 17HD angel with 8th level divine magic(summon 1/day), his familiar, his 7HD simulacrium, and his followers, with a wizards tower and his own demiplane. and several spellbooks of spells that he can carry in his handy haversack, or store in his demiplane. and any spell of lv 5+ can be spontaneously cast as a shadow evocation, giving any lv 4 or less evocation on demand at the higher DC. that is a ton of flexible firepower, and a LOT of actions per round.

[EWHM]

Simulacrum mini-mes are kind of a staple of the higher level games I run, so much so that they've entered the simulation pretty strongly (new parties frequently encounter the same pretty, but not beautiful 5'6" dark haired woman in a lot of the cities they visit---she's one of many simulacrums of a fairly famous member of a homebrewed mystic-theurge-like class).

[Hobgoblin Shogun]

Thank you oh Captain my Captain. That is a lot of awesome, useful ideas. I'll need to check out the Ultimate Campaign book. I can't wait to create my floating tower.

[Hobgoblin Shogun]

Sorry for double post, I just got Ultimate Campaign. Where exactly is the info about building a wizard's tower?

[Captain Xenon]

rooms start on page 94. the 'casters tower' is a pre-made building on page 107, but you can build your own from the rooms in the book.