After perusing the Kingmaker Player's Guide, I still can't come up with a reason why I'd play Wizard.
Illusionists, Hedge Wizards, Enchanters, students of fey magic, and even evokers for hire all make up great concepts, I just can't seem to find something that fills my style.
As for Pathfinder, I've played an Arcane Trickster ( Rogue / Conjurer ), Elemental Evoker and even the ACG's Arcanist. I think what my problem is, I'm trying to find a Wizard build that's fun to play, and something new.
Would anyone be able to recommend Wizard Builds that they've enjoyed?
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Wizards get bonus feats which can be used for item crafting. There also tends to be a lot of downtime in Kingmaker. Those two things combined could give you the chance to craft lots of magic items. I'm personally fond of having an Improved Familiar which can activate wands. Faerie dragons are very useful in this regards.
Perhaps a divination wizard? Pump that initiative score as much as possible could be good.
Abjuration counterspell probably wouldn't be good until way later in the campaign.
I'm playing a Wood Wizard in kingmaker myself, which is fitting since the majority the locations are outside and wooded. I've been enjoying it quite a bit. Other elemental lines could be quite good, especially air.
It's not a wizard but a druid would fit in very well in kingmaker and are still quite powerful and flavorful. Standard or master summoner would do very well in kingmaker as well I think.
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So you want a wizard that would be good in Kingmaker?
Witch!
In my opinion one would work wonders with the slumber hex. I also like the witch's spell list.
Second Choice:
Sorcerer
You will Have some Charisma based face skills to be King. I know power gamers can come up with crazy ass cross-blooded damage monstrosities. But Honestly a Draconic Bloodline and 8 levels of Dragon Disciple are a lot of fun. I would have fun playing a greedy Red who is building up HIS kingdom. Amassing wealth and power...Becoming more of the beast inside.
Devil Killer is right about the downtime. I like taking crafting feats when a campaign gives a good amount of downtime. My favorite Craft would be Wondrous Item. Helps your group buy those items at lower prices which means increased wealth for other things. But his Suggestion of craft wand+improved wand using familiar is a super strong option.
My favorite was a conjuration wizard I played for a doomed carrion crown game. I came up with a backstory before actually building. Marcellus Thrune was a wizard from Cheliax, was somewhere around 118th for the throne and figured that's waaaaaay too many people to kill without getting caught, said eff that, and decided that adventuring was a faster way to gain power. Lo and behold he was borderline evil, did good acts but ensured to balance them with not so good, and accidentally made a paladin fall (didn't want the paladin to fall but for whatever reason the paladin thought it was a good idea to follow me and listen to me and my raven that spoke infernal). There was no gimmick to him, no super combo, just a fun character with SF conjuration and Augment Summoning to summon creatures to fight for me.
You can take traits to replace Charisma with Intelligence for some of your social skills. Divination starts off slow (the low level spells are nothing to write home about) but ends up being incredibly powerful, as well as being excellent in the later phases where you build and run a kingdom.
The king
I'll echo the sentiment that a sorcerer would be great for Kingmaker. A lot will depend on the rest of your group of course, but, without trying to spoil anything, having face skills will certainly be advantageous in this campaign.
At the same time, I can't argue with the idea of a crafter either. There will be plenty of time for crafting -- assuming your GM doesn't get overly tired of the party merely pimping themselves out. :)
Haruhiko!
Oh man, have I a story to tell you! Remember this thread: Advice for a Cleric who abandoned his faith? ?
Okay, so it eventually worked out that my Mammite had killed off Jhod Kavken, re-consecrated the Temple of Erastil to Mammon, began a secret cult, and worked towards vanquishing my enemies while my allies were completely un aware. Unfortunately, OOC arguments within the group lead the game's destruction and I couldn't see my character fully blossom into a BBEG.
Thanks for the recommendation though!
So...instead of picking a school and trying to figure out what kinda wizard, it's probably better to find a gimmick that I want ( Portals, Pocket Dimensions, Crafting, Summoning, Enhancing, Creation, etc )?
Good to hear, and sometimes it's fun to use a gimmick character, sometimes it's fun to just build a character. It's really up to you. Best description I've heard for a guy with a gimmick wizard was a guy who asked this question at a table. "What is the terminal velocity of a triceratops?" He weaponized teleport. Portals are cool, pocket dimensions are fun, crafting is AMAZING in Kingmaker due to how much money you get.
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I think I'll just list the things you'll want probably take into account for Kingmaker (some of which has been mentioned above) and the rest, I feel at least, you can make as suits your fancy. Note these are from my personal experience. Results may vary.
1 - Social Skills. (I.e. Diplomacy, Bluff, Intimidation, sense motive). These come up quite often, especially diplomacy and sense motive. This can be accomplished for wizards by the trait mentioned above so that Charisma is almost not needed, doesn't work for sense motive of course, but neither does charisma.
2 - Perception. I'd suggest you get this up as much as you can. It is as useful as ever here.
3 - If not properly prepared, survival may come in handy.
4 - Knowledge nature.... lots of things this can be used on.
5 - Other knowledges. Less so than nature here, but they do come in handy.
Anyways, that's really it. All of them are skills which the Wizard can handle easily. Crafting magic items can definitely come in handy for sure. My wizard has the crafting feats, but we're only just got to 6th level and so far we haven't gotten enough personal money for me to make anything really useful. Just my experience of course, we may be doing something different. So, take that as you wish.
As for taking a theme and going with it. I'd say go for it. You could probably do more than one depending on the theme to give yourself even more to do.
We played the first 2 chapters, and there is a lot of downtime. A crafter would definitely be nice to have. Maybe be a wizard that researches lots of new spells?
Maybe a manipulative Enchanter? There are lots of humanoids to charm and dominate.
I like the witch idea, too. Very naturey and people skilly.
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For Kingmaker, invest into the storyline and setting, regardless of the mechanical benefits. It's fey-rich, wilderness heavy, and depending on your GM, possibly intrigue laced. Something rugged yet capable of handling politics for (as you can guess by the name) when players begin to build their own kingdom in these wild lands.
Down on your luck, denied by so-called "legitimate" schools of magic, your character knows he's got potential, and if proving himself in the Stolen Lands is the only way anyone will notice, so be it. His [insert spell type, like fireballs] will get everyone's attention.
Having GM'd the campaign, besides the random encounters the fights aren't generally killer, so you have a lot of freedom to play something intriguing rather than a combat machine.
I failed to mention, I'm the GM of this very same adventure I've been requesting aid for. It was originally a pbp between several friends of mine, but between school and work, it's become a one man show.
Solo Adventurer where my only player is a classic Ranger who takes advantage of prep time and quick thinking to dispatch my foes. To aid his cause, I'd given him a cast of NPCs that he can use at his disposal.
Since it's a game between two best friends, I'd figured that I can cast my lot into the adventure and DMPC someone to assist him. We're well into the latter part of Book 2, and with Book 3 around the bend, it's probably nigh time I step things up.
Party Comp:
Human Ranger
Human Alchemist NPC
Gathlain Druid NPC
I had originally prepared an Air Elementalist, she was to be a Court Wizard from House Orlovsky who abandoned her family for freedom and happiness. While the concept sounded cool and original, a friend had recently played the same build in another game I was in, and it ruined the taste for me.
Alas, here I am.
A crafting Wizard would do fine in Kingmaker. It might be worth noting that with Craft Constructs you can build a golem which acts as an "army". The Queen in our KM game built an iron golem army, and its DR made it a very good defensive unit while its breath weapon made it decent on offense too. It also cost less than the King's Cossacks.
Touc mentioned random encounters, and you would probably do well to make sure the party is very crafty and careful about how and where they rest. Somebody in our group rolled a CR15 random encounter which attacked our camp while we were sleeping at 11th level.
Arcane sorcerer
Craft Wand
Wish Spell Known
Shenanigans to get more wealth than you should really have
...
Profit!
More seriously though, my personal favorite has always been an Abjurer. Focus on Abjuration and Evocation spells and just go to town. You may not, "win the fight" for the group like a Conjurer/Summoner would, but it's very rewarding to be the "protector" with access to the Wiz/Sor spell list.
If 3.X material is available, Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil all the way!
I just started playing a half-orc earth wizard with a pig familiar who dresses and behaves as if he was a farmer. He used the chain fighter (or something similar) alternate racial trait to be proficient with flails and uses a flail looking a bit like the farm implement as a weapon and has profession: farmer. This combined with the fact that he has relatively high con and strength makes him very fun to play. And at first level he is a real threat in melee, thanks to the earth school ability giving him +1 to hit and damage.
The acid cloud school ability proved very strong, saving me and my companions during several fights.
I think my next question is, if I go with an Abjurer - What sorta Arcane Bond?
Item or Familiar?
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Familiar + Improved Familiar is so strong.
Familiar typically is stronger then the Item.
Item is ok if you don't want the chance of your familiar dying or even dealing with one.
Sometimes people just don't want to deal with it.
There are Archetypes for familiars that lets it become a Pet crafter. You get it started crafting at camp and go adventure that day and come back to check on it at night. Can get a lot of crafting done this way.
Given the fact that you should have time to craft items I would definitely suggest Craft Wands + Improved Familiar. The faerie dragon is very strong for this since it can use Sor/Wiz wands without even making a UMD check. It is also charismatic enough to have a pretty good chance at activating other sorts of wands.
Most DMs I've seen won't target familiars very often as long as the familiars stick to buffing and healing and don't make attacks. The faerie dragon has greater invisibility if needed though, and it wouldn't be expensive to make a wand of mirror images. Anyhow, for a Wizard the worst case is that you have to wait a week and pay some gold for a new familiar (Witches are in a more dangerous situation)
And there are lots of "in story" opportunities to get Improved Familiars in Kingmaker.
What's the issue with going with a bonded item? Are they garbage compared to a familiar?
Familiars are probably more powerful, but I will note that the wizard I'm playing is using the bonded item and it has come in handy quite a few times with it's spontaneous spell. Even saved the party on an occasion. I chose the ring, so when I have the spare cash I'm probably going to add some useful effects to it.
Familiars can be quite good with their abilities and wands. Even without wands, something like the greensting scorpion is huge in and of itself.
I'm sure that bonded items are ok. The extra spells seems nice, and I'd imagine that being able to enchant the item without taking a feat would be nice too.
I really like familiars though. They can be like having an extra spell every round. Even better, they save you from needing to perform boring tasks like saving another PC from dying. The familiar can just fly over with a cure wand while you continue blowing stuff up.
My party wizard was an elf necromancer on the run from a witch hunter. His spell selection brought out some of the spells I haven't seen many wizards use and we actually encountered a surprising number of undead by the end of the third book (when we stopped playing) so his abilities got a lot of use.
Kingmaker has a lot of 1 encounter days, so the ability to nova - even just with expensive 1-shot items created with Create Wondrous Item - helps a lot. The extra spell is nice for flexibility but won't matter in terms of endurance.
I.e familiars are more useful than bonded items IMO.
Depends on the GM, avr. Some GMs will tie together several encounters per hex, others that are in the majority won't.