|
I would rather prevent damage in concert with the cleric than have him be the 'the healer' everyone seems to want him to be. Any thoughts?
You Sir are playing with the right mind set.
If you want control Play Conjuration wizard. Typically they are considered the strongest option.
I would look at the Guides section of these Advice forums for Ideas. Treemonk's Guide is superb.
It is sad you don't have advance players guide as I would suggest a Witch. They have Hexes that are sever and have access to some really good De-buffs. Hexes are an Infinite source that even if your out of spells your doing something good.
But I totally suggest going Conjuration and having a really good initiative.
As far as Opposed school I like to oppose Enchantment. It is a save or Die kind of school that if the spell fails it does absolutely nothing.
Evocation is a good school to give up as blasting sucks without meta magics and specializing heavily to blast. Having a few of the better blasts is good tho. But I think you could easily give up evocation this campaign and it not harm you. I don't recall a moment the entire campaign that a blast was necessary. If you want to "Blast" you can conjure a wall of fire, Acid Arrow, Disintegrate, ext ext that is a little damage without needing the blast. Or you can summon a creature with a SLA that has a blast spell.
I like Necromancy...as some spells don't allow saves or if the save is passed they still take partial effects. Like Ray of Enfeeblement is amazing spell always overlooked but can easily make it so they can't hit your tank as much...which is another form of negation.
|
Hah! You got railroaded into arguably the best / most interesting class for this campaign.
You will not be disappointed playing a Wizard in RotRL, in any of the books.
If you haven't already, take a look at the various Wizard guides.
Available here:
Guide to the Class Guides
And here:
Zenith Games comprehensive Pathfinder guides
Treantmonk's guide is the gold standard and is core-only. I recommend starting there. (edit: Thistlefoot ninja!)
There's a lot of opinions on which opposition schools to take.
In RotRL, I can say that all of them will be useful and as long as your choice of how to focus your character is interesting to you, it will be fun and effective. Control is fine, blasting is fine, necromancy is fine, transmutation is...especially awesome.
Your party looks great and has no obvious weaknesses.
I imagine that a Diviner Wizard that goes first and casts Haste in most encounters will be much appreciated by the rest of the party. Do that and the rest of the fight is 'free choice time' for you.
There are plenty of ways to optimize for this, but if you're going Core only, just take Improved Initiative and call it good.
|
|
Loss of sleep hurts for 4 levels In which you can color spray.
Charm person is all good but only makes the target your friend but not the rest of your parties and is still friends with the other enemies. Charm helps if your buying and selling. But I think your other classes will do fine providing the face aspect.
Truth be told I like opposing Enchantment/Divination myself. I suck up and run 3 0-level spells for Detect magic. But most divination spells will do you well on scrolls or to be cast in your down time. So I just make me special scrolls of the useful divination spells and go without it on my adventuring day. I already told you why I hate enchantment. I feel the school also needs to backed up with Greater spell focus to work consistently and even then it is a gamble.
Thistlefoot's advice on the specialty is spot on.
You can of course go with any specialty and be successful; the joy of being a wizard is diversity, but the Conjuration (Teleportation) school is loads of fun and offers you fantastic mobility. edit - oops, it also has some very good offensive spells which by pass SR.
Personally I prefer not opposing Divination, but different strokes for different folks and all that. From the Divination school - Analyze Dweomer, True Seeing, Scrying, Detect Scrying - a couple of these spells are staples on my list and I would rather not be without them. Most Divinations are situational though and work absolutely fine as scrolls as Thistlefoot pointed out though, so YMMV.
Enchantment is one of the other more popular ones to drop. However as a Conjurer I've had far more success targeting Will saves on Mooks than Fort saves and have been avoiding Fort saves like the plague for a good portion of the adventure now. Charms have been valuable in providing us with inside information on a couple of key occasions, and fairly easy to land, so I absolutely do not regret keeping this one. And then there's Holds and Heroism of course.
Having played high level campaigns in the past I know Enchantments will suffer and I'm sure RotR is no exception, however, a couple of spells aside - so does Necromancy. Mechanically, end-game, Enchantment only offers buffs (unless you've invested heavily in it with a specialised build or are fighting lots of brutes) however it has a lot to offer before you get there. Necromancy offers debuffs, mostly very minimal or 0 on a successful save, but game-changing on a fail. Typically one of your opposed choices is between these two schools, so you'll just need to have a check and see which option you favor. Neither are absolutely essential. However if you're going to go Necro I would highly suggest investing in it, especially if you're going to do so early doors.
But there's no right or wrong way with designing a wizard as long as you're tailoring your daily spell selection as appropriately as you can, thinking not only about what may lie ahead but also about your parties strengths and weaknesses. What one wizard can neutralize with a Hold Monster, or a Transmute Flesh to Stone, another can neutralize with a simple grease spell on the weapon and letting the rest of the party sort it out. But I wouldn't worry about it too much either way - you can still access ALL spells regardless, it just costs a bit more.
Personally I went with opposing Evocation and Necromancy (again), as you originally suggested Napper75, and for the most part deal with control and mobility for the group and have had no problems losing out on Necromancy.
However I'm a big fan of the non-blasty Evocations - Wall of Force for cover against ranged or to divide groups of enemies in corridors, Telekinetic Charge to give our big hitters free attacks and positioning for full attacks, Contingency... and took Opposition Research at 9th to get this school back. It's also nice to just be able to throw out a blast every once in a while when the situation presents itself. =)
The DM suggested a divination wizard
"Tsch... Back in civilized times we recognized that divination was not worthy of its own school. The puny magelings in these times, claiming our great work for their own, unworthy hands. Nevermind, soon all that is about to change"
I'd also recommend taking enchantment and necromancy as opposed schools, because you can take Opposition Research feat/discovery at 11th level and regain necromancy in time to use enervation and a few other spells.
Diviner is excellent; so is conjurer.
|
|
"Tsch... Back in civilized times we recognized that divination was not worthy of its own school. The puny magelings in these times, claiming our great work for their own, unworthy hands. Never mind, soon all that is about to change"
More gracious Words from the Master. Divination isn't even worthy to be called a school of magic.
Like I said I like Necromancy. Mostly for Ray of enfeeblement and Enervation being 2 very useful debuffs. Enervation offers no save and Ray of enfeeblement does half effect on a save and if you roll well your still cutting up to 11 STR off the target for a 1st level spell.
My favorite schools are Transmutation, Necromancy, and Conjuration. I tend to hate Enchantment and Evocation. But I find use for evocation on the rare occasions. (swarms, mooks, and a few wall spells.) Abjuration and illusion are sort of middle group but I like the defensive spells that come from them. Divination is a scroll school to me so I throw it away without a second thought. I like the spells but always stock up on scrolls of them so I have them when I need them. I also typically permanency-Arcane sight to myself at some point.
You can do what others say and Take opposition research and get a school back. That is always a save pick for a wizard extra feat.
I usually see people pick Conjuration (Teleportation), Divination (Scryer) or Evocation (Admixture) for the specialty school. I have seen every single school of magic picked as an oppositions school and I think the only 2 I even hesitate to give up are Conjuration and Transmutation. If you have a Cleric you can rely on them for basically all the important Abjuration and Divination stuff. Just remember to use what you have. Shield, Mage Armor, Reduce Person, False Life and Mirror Image all come from different schools so every wizard can have 3/5 by 4th level easily.
You could go with Divination even if it's just for the Initiative boost and then just spend your feats on Spell Focus: Conjuration and the like. Not the greatest bonus spells but it won't kill you each level. I as are many around these parts a fan of the Teleportation sub-school. Extra moving can get ya outa many a jam not to mention the numerous cramped spaces you'll find yourself in.
I also like Enchantment and Necromancy for my opposed schools and just look to grab Opposition Research at a later date. Evocation isn't a terrible choice though.
Depending on your DM i would look to have some craft type feats on my list. Arms and Armor and Wonderous Items will go a long way for making you and your party's life much easier.
That poor Rogue! Someobe needs to tell him he can be an urban ranher or archelogist bard if he wants to trap find. Poor sod will become so irrelevent so fast.
|
|
Depending on your DM i would look to have some craft type feats on my list. Arms and Armor and Wonderous Items will go a long way for making you and your party's life much easier
Very dependent on your DM as RotRLs is on a time crunch and you hardly get crafting time if you follow the AP to the letter. You have time for scrolls and potions. A few cheap wondrous items maybe. But don't be looking at rings, rods, staffs, or Arms/armor.
Crafting makes any wizards stronger. They can be amazing feats. I'd just hate to see you take a craft feat and never get to sit down and use it..So specifically ask your DM on this one. My bet is he will follow the AP suggestion and keep you on a Tight Schedule.
Depending on your DM i would look to have some craft type feats on my list. Arms and Armor and Wonderous Items will go a long way for making you and your party's life much easierVery dependent on your DM as RotRLs is on a time crunch and you hardly get crafting time if you follow the AP to the letter. You have time for scrolls and potions. A few cheap wondrous items maybe. But don't be looking at rings, rods, staffs, or Arms/armor.
Crafting makes any wizards stronger. They can be amazing feats. I'd just hate to see you take a craft feat and never get to sit down and use it..So specifically ask your DM on this one. My bet is he will follow the AP suggestion and keep you on a Tight Schedule.
Oh i don't disagree with asking the DM. This is always a first and foremost.
That poor Rogue! Someobe(sic) needs to tell him he can be an urban ranher(sic) or archelogist(sic) bard if he wants to trap find. Poor sod will become so irrelevent(sic) so fast.
Someone has never seen a power gamer with the Gang Up feat playing the rogue.