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I'm playing a similar build, but he's human.
I'm 7th level so far.
My GM uses the rules for retraining, so I was able to try out feats, and then trade them if I didn't like them.
Also, I've been playing D&D/Pathfinder for decades now, and wizards are my favorite class - so I know a thing or two about playing them.
So here is what I've found so far -
1) I took fast study and ended up trading it out. The reason being that any time I used it about 20 times over the course of 2 levels of play (which is pretty good right?), but on reflection only ONE of those 20 times did it matter that I had taken 1 minute instead of 15.
So I traded it for craft wand. Craft wand is powerful because it gives me full access to wands for me and my familiar, and I can trade it out again at higher levels once I have all the wands I want.
2) Extend spell is an EXCELLENT feat - yes you can buy a rod for cheep - and you should. But that is for your spells that last 1 min/day. All your 1 hour per day spells (and there are way more than 3 of them) can be cast a day ahead of time. For this reason I like taking the feat.
3) While dimensional agility is a cool feat, ask yourself how you will actually use it in play - you are a spell cannon, bouncing around on the battlefield is great, but how is that actually tactically better than your current abilities as a ranged caster - teleport into place, cast a spell and fly away isn't much different than fly into place, cast a spell and teleport away, and you can already do that. On the other hand, it is useful for teleporting ot of tight spots and still getting to cast a spell that round.
I chose not to take augment summoning because my party has two tanks. When I summon it's for casting support and Augment Summoning doesn't help for that.
Craft Rod can get you all the metamagic feats you want - provided your GM gives you the money you need to craft them - remember you don't have to be 17th level to make them - that just determines the craft DC.
Finally, and I can't emphasize this enough:
TAKE CRAFT WONDROUS ITEM! This is a required feat for all wizards. Not only does it let you craft most of the items you will want in your career, it also let's you cut the cost of learning new spells down to 6.25 gp per spell level by crafting a "blessed book"
Hope that helps.
waterproof, lotsa pages, has a lock to trap if you so choose, and lets you scribe into it without need of material components. makes for a great 'grimoire' during your mage's career.
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A blessed book is a magical spell book that has 1000 pages. It allows you to scribe a page into your spellbook without paying the standard cost for doing so. Each spell uses up 1 page per spell level.
The book costs 12500 gp, so to craft it costs 6250 gp.
So each page costs 6.25 gp to craft and each page holds one level worth of spell.
So here is the breakdown of the standard (Std) cost vs the blessed book (BB) cost:
0nd: Std = 5 gp, BB = 6.25 gp – so don’t write your cantrips into it.
1st: Std = 10 gp, BB = 6.25 gp
2nd: Std = 40 gp, BB = 12.50 gp
3rd: Std = 90 gp, BB = 18.75 gp
4th: Std = 160 gp, BB = 25 gp
5th: Std = 250 gp, BB = 31.25 gp
6th: Std = 360 gp, BB = 37.50 gp
7th: Std = 490 gp, BB = 43.75 gp
8th: Std = 640 gp, BB = 50 gp
9th: Std = 810 gp, BB = 56.25 gp
Now keep in mind that you still have to buy the spell from someone else to write it in your spellbook OR find it as treasure somewhere, but the cost of putting spells in your spellbook is one of the biggest limits on a wizard’s power, and this item GREATLY reduces that limit. And it’s right there in the core rule book to boot!
By the way,
Consider this math:
The price of a scroll = 25 gp x caster level x spell level. You can sell the scroll for ½ the price.
This is MUCH higher than the cost of scribing a spell in your spellbook. So what does this mean? You should NEVER scribe a scroll into your spellbook! Instead, SELL the scroll on the open market, and BUY the spell (and several other spells to boot) from an NPC wizard and add THAT to your spellbook. It will save you a ton of money, and you can get several spells in your book for the price of a single scroll.
More than any other character class, wizards are pretty much financial institutions. It’s really worth your time to do the math on this stuff.
Finally, remember that you get two FREE spells per level. These should go in a NON-Magical spellbook (the one you started the game with). This is because you are paying for pages in your blessed book UP FRONT - when you craft the item. Only use them when you have to. If a spell is free to begin with there is no point using pages in your blessed book to hold it. Also, remember to keep a back up spellbook in case you lose your main one - it REALLY sux to lose your spellbook!
2) Extend spell is an EXCELLENT feat - yes you can buy a rod for cheep - and you should. But that is for your spells that last 1 min/day. All your 1 hour per day spells (and there are way more than 3 of them) can be cast a day ahead of time. For this reason I like taking the feat.
3) While dimensional agility is a cool feat, ask yourself how you will actually use it in play - you are a spell cannon, bouncing around on the battlefield is great, but how is that actually tactically better than your current abilities as a ranged caster - teleport into place, cast a spell and fly away isn't much different than fly into place, cast a spell and teleport away, and you can already do that. On the other hand, it is useful for teleporting ot of tight spots and still getting to cast a spell that round.
Why wouldn't you just cast your hours/level spells with the rod? Why use a higher level slot?
IME and, granted, YMMV, min/level spells usually don't last more than one encounter and even extending them doesn't change this. Extend's best use is on hours/level and 10 min/level spells to make them last all day, or at least all adventuring day. Using both a feat and a higher level slot is far more resource intensive than, say, buying TWO rods if that's what you want to do.
For Dimensional Agility, the reason it's different is how attacks of opportunity work. As you say, being able to get out of a grapple AND put the grappler in a pit is infinitely better than moving 30 feet away and having the same problem the very next round.
Granted, only worth a feat slot of it is happening a lot in his game.
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@Nyan637 "Then there is the choice between persistent or extend...Which would be better to pick as a feat and take the other as a wand? Unless I can somehow take both? Maybe replacing Opposition research with the other?
Then there is also the spell perfection thing. I have had a few good suggestions but I'd like to hear the suggestions of several people before I pick what spell to perfect."
OK, so here is the way I think about these things:
Persistent spell and spell perfection are offensive feats that you build your character around more or less completely. There are basically a hand full of wizard builds out there:
1) "God" wizard - this is a battlefield controller. His job is to make sure his team wins. He is NOT about burning down bad-guys. Persistent + Dazing spell is a good combo for this build b/c you can cast fireballs that daze opponents for 3 rounds (and they have to roll their save twice). Other favorites of this build are item creation feats to increase character versatility. For example - craft wand to give lots of wands to your familiar, craft staff to have a bunch of utility spells in your handy haversack etc, and craft rod for a wide range of metamagic feats. Spell penetration is not super important for this build because you are effecting the battlefield a lot more than you are effecting the bad guys directly
The favorite school for this build is conjuration (teleportation) for the battlefield control and the shift ability
2) The save-or-suck build. This guy is built around spell perfection and persistent spell. Pick one spell (Flesh to Stone is a favorite) and poor all your feats and traits into this spell. Spell Focus, greater spell focus, spell penetration, greater spell penetration and spell perfection are the backbone of this build. Add in quicken heighten spell and preferred spell and at 15th level you can burn all your 5th and higher level spell slots to cast flesh to stone over and over, and add quickened & persistent to it as well. This is a very powerful build but you can see how feat-intensive it is.
The favorite school for this build is divination - for the bonus to your initiative - go first, end the fight on the first round of initiative. Watch your GM cry as the rest of the party fiddles with their dice.
3) Blockbuster Wizard - this character is built around fireball and other evocations. He uses dazing spell liberally, and can switch energy types at will. There is a great write up on this build if you search "blockbuster wizard" so I'll say no more except:
The evocation school is pretty much required for this build because it lets you choose your energy type on the fly.
4) There are several other "boutique" builds - Crafter wizard, ray specialist etc - but I'll let you do the leg work on these.
As far as opposition research goes - I think it's a good feat, I haven't played pathfinder to that level yet (D&D but not pathfinder). So I don't know how good it is. One idea I had was to simply take the craft staff feat instead. The reason being that there is only a half a dozen opposition spells in each school that I would want to ever memorize, and I can enchant them into a staff and keep them in my pocket. I haven't priced this out though, so I don't know if it's a good idea or not. The fact that you can still cast opposition spells is FREAKING AWESOME, and there are ways to work around it. For example you can extend false life (or even put it in a wand) and enjoy the benefit without paying the price.
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@ meatrace - As far as the extend spell feat goes, obviously it's a matter of personal preference, but I like to have lots and lots of pre-cast hour/level buffs up by mid level, but having only three 1 min per level or 10 min/level buffs up seems like enough to me.
Here is a list of 1-2 hour/level spells that one might want to have pre-cast:
Ablative Barrier
Aboleth's Lung
Ant Haul
Countless Eyes
Cushioning Bands
Darkvision
Darkvision, Greater
Delay Pain
False Life
False Life, Greater
False Vision
Fins To Feet
Floating Disk
Getaway
Ghost Wolf
Impart Mind
Life Bubble
Mage Armor
Magic Weapon, Greater
Misdirection
Moment of Prescience
Monstrous Extremities
Mount
Nondetection
Overland Flight
Phantom Steed
Planar Adaptation
Planetary Adaptation
Protection from Arrows
Prying Eyes
Ride The Waves
Rope Trick
Secure Shelter
Shadow Projection
Shadow Walk
Shadowy Haven
Shield Companion
Unseen Servant
Water Breathing
Web Shelter
The bold spells represent spells that I would want to have active pretty much all the time if I could help it (and if I didn't have a magic item that made the effect redundant). That's about 15 spell effects - note that some of them (greater magic weapon for example) wouldn't necessary be cast on me.
Rope trick is also a good one to extend because it let's you get a full day of safe rest out of a 3rd level spell slot at 10th level or so.
Looking this over, figure a lesser rod of extend spell AND a regular rod of extend spell would probably do you almost as well, but the extend feat does give you a bit more to work with.
Isn't the toughness feat a fairly standard one to take?
That's....a LOOONG list of buffs. Even just the bolded ones would be nearly all your slots (if extended at +1 spell level) at medium to high levels. Yeesh.
Isn't the toughness feat a fairly standard one to take?
Yes at some point.
Maybe I missed it but, what kind of campaign is this? It makes a big difference. For example if you were running the Wrath of the Righteous adventure path, and fighting mostly demons, I'd probably recommend spell penetration. Otherwise I wouldn't (especially if you're an elf and already get a +2).Necromancy and Evocation have long been my prohibited schools, but I'm starting to rethink Evocation with the advent of Dazing Spell.
Might I suggest looking at Cypher Script? At earlier levels it cuts your spellbook's cost by roughly 1/3, and it saves you time that you otherwise would be wasting in game when you should be adventuring.
It also lets you effectively increase the pages of the aforementioned Blessed Book to almost 1500.
Of course, if your DM hand waves these rules (and shame on him if he does) then you can for sure skip the feat.
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I would take persistent spell at 9th level and craft wondrous item at 5th - just because you don't have the spell slots to support persistent spell just yet, and craft wondrous pays off pretty quickly.
There are lots of good low cost magic items on the "must have" list:
Handy Haversack
Headband of Vast Intellect +2
Cloak of Resistance +1
etc.
On the other hand, at 5th level would you rather have a persistent color spray or a haste spell?
Exactly! With a day of prep time, you are like twice the wizard you would have been without the feat!That's....a LOOONG list of buffs. Even just the bolded ones would be nearly all your slots (if extended at +1 spell level) at medium to high levels. Yeesh.
You'll have zero spell slots left. Even at 20th level, extended Overland Flight only lasts 40 hours--less than 2 days. So it's more like you cast the buff spells and are then the most impressive flying commoner ever seen.
You'll have zero spell slots left. Even at 20th level, extended Overland Flight only lasts 40 hours--less than 2 days. So it's more like you cast the buff spells and are then the most impressive flying commoner ever seen.Exactly! With a day of prep time, you are like twice the wizard you would have been without the feat!That's....a LOOONG list of buffs. Even just the bolded ones would be nearly all your slots (if extended at +1 spell level) at medium to high levels. Yeesh.
However the following day when those buffs are still active, you have all your slots back and prepare your really necessary combat spells.
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That's right. If you have a day of prep time you have tons of pre-cast buffs. Then on the first day of the adventure you leave a few spell slots open (a good policy anyway for those non-combat spells that might come up if you need them). Then, whatever empty slots you don't use get rolled over into extended spells for the next day.
Now let's add a rod of extend spell or two to this strategy.
Take a 12th level wizard. His spells available for the day (including high Intelligence and specialization are something like:
1st - 7
2nd - 7
3rd - 7
4th - 6
5th - 5
6th - 4
Total = 36 spells per day.
Assuming he keeps open a spell slot of levels 1-4, he has memorized 32 spells today.
Of those 32 spells, His most combat-intensive levels are levels 4-6. Other than one empty 4th level slot he keeps them mostly full. He has a mix of battlefield control, utility, and direct damage spells - he's a teleport conjurer so he doesn't need a dimension door, and he keeps an emergency teleport on a scroll. So he's in pretty good shape for those higher level spells.
Today is day one of the adventure he goes into combat glowing magic like the sun. Some pre-adventure divinations let him know that he would need protection from acid, so he uses his lesser rod to cast extended protection from acid on himself, he also used it to cast an extended keen edge on the fighter's greatsword. His enemies have caster's in their number, so for good measure he cast an extended shield spell on himself (to defend against magic missile attacks).
In the big battle against the elite guards outside the throne room, he uses his standard rod of extend spell he decides to extend his summon monster IV (granting him 36 rounds of duration thanks to his class ability as a conjurer), and he also extends a greater invisibility spell so that at the end of this battle these spells will still be up when they burst through the door to fight the BBEG.
Unfortunately the BBEG get's away, so the party rests and regroups. He fills his empty 3rd level slot with an extended rope-trick, and then uses his second level slot for a mage armor before turning in that night. Finally he uses his 4th level slot for an extended non-detection, since he knows the BBEG saw through his invisibility in the last fight.
This sort of tactic gives you maximum pre-cast buffing and allows you to bank magic from one day to the next. Using the combination of rods and the feat gives you the best of both worlds. Note that our hero still has about 12 combat effective 4-6th level spells available during the fight, and he relegates his low-level spells to buffs and utility magic (mostly).
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But there is one issue I see with the crafting feats. Dont you have to know the needed spell in order to craft your desired item? If so how will I learn those? All of those spells are pretty much useless...
Not technically. Every spell you don't know just adds +5 to the DC to craft the item. Get Spellcraft high enough and you can manage pretty well as long as the CL isn't also too high and there aren't too many spells required per item.
I play a Human on a similar chassis, I'll weigh in here too.
Lvl 1: Improved Initiative
Lvl 3: Craft Wondrous Item
Lvl 5: Spell Focus (Conjuration), Persistent Spell
Lvl 7: Improved Familiar
Lvl 9: Craft Rod
Lvl 10: Dazing Spell
Lvl 11: Greater Spell Focus (Conjuration)
Lvl 13: Additional Traits
Lvl 15: Spell Perfection, Quicken Spell
Lvl 17: Spell Penetration
Lvl 19: Greater Spell Penetration
Lvl 20: Immortality
That would be my order for this kind of character. Craft Wondrous Item is so good not taking it ASAP is a mistake. I would move things back and add in Leadership at 7th if it is allowed, Leadership is by far the most powerful feat in the game, who doesn't want an apprentice 2 levels lower to share spells with?
I think that the 1 point of DC from Greater Spell Focus is good but not as good as making your own magic swag, others will feel differently, it is a matter of playstyle. I would also pick up Additional Traits to get Magical Lineage and if possible Wayang Spellhunter on the spell I am going to use for Spell Perfection.
Many people will want Quicken Spell before level 15, but I would rather have a Rod of Quicken and use my high level slots for high level spells. Craft Rod could be skipped and Quicken Spell taken at 9th, but it is a matter of playstyle.
For prohibited schools I would think about what other party members can do. If there is a Witch around then prohibiting Enchantment is fine, your covered. If there is a Cleric around you can easily prohibit Abjuration, if you really want it just use two slots, you don't need many from here. Same goes for an evil Cleric and Necromancy. Divination is a decent prohibited school, you can usually afford to wait until tomorrow and spend two slots to solve mysteries. Evocation is a poor choice for someone who is taking Persistent and Dazing metamagic. Illusion is painful to lose, but keeping away from enemies can make even that work. I would never under any circumstances give up Transmutation or Conjuration, if I wanted to play someone who can't fly or teleport I would play a different class.
Okay but reading the part about this and item ceation it also say this in the end of the paragraph "In addition, you cannot create potions, spell-trigger, or spell-completion magic items without meeting their spell prerequisites." So what exactly does that mean?
This means that to create scrolls, potions, wands and staves you need the spell, and for everything else you just add +5 difficulty. There are a few exceptions like the attribute increasing books and golem creation manuals, but in general those are the four types that need the spell to be created.
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Okay but reading the part about this and item ceation it also say this in the end of the paragraph "In addition, you cannot create potions, spell-trigger, or spell-completion magic items without meeting their spell prerequisites." So what exactly does that mean?This means that to create scrolls, potions, wands and staves you need the spell, and for everything else you just add +5 difficulty. There are a few exceptions like the attribute increasing books and golem creation manuals, but in general those are the four types that need the spell to be created.
This.
Your current build has only Craft Wondrous Item...which doesn't make any of those kinds of items, so you're good to go there. You do also have Scribe Scroll, and there you'll need to actually have the spells, but not for the permanent items you make with CWI.