I've got a new elven wizard, just reached 2nd level. Planned on using the longbow for auxiliary firepower once the spells run out. But some of the ideas on this board are making me pause and reconsider.
Would I be better off casting acid splash (acid flask focus), ray of frost (liquid ice focus) or sticking with the longbow (16 dex makes him an OK archer for this level)? Rays targeting touch AC might hit more often than the longbow, even if 1d3+1 is less damage than 1d8.
Are there any other ways to increase my cantrip damage, now that my traits are spent and my race and class are fixed?
I was also thinking that if I stick with the longbow, I could take point blank shot at 3rd... although there are loads of magic-y feats I want to take ASAP as well.
Advice?
I would suggest the cantrips. it's what, 3 damage compared to 4.5 damage. And the bow and arrows cost money. They are heavy. And they go against the harder AC. Also then you don't really need feats for it. You shouldn't really be running out of spells often, and that's what the other party members are for.
Also, what school are you?
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longbow is your best bet, normally new wizez use crossbows. however dont take precise shot, unless you are gonna be a ray centered wizard
i find that taking rich parents and buying wand of magic missile is extremelly useful for low levels. You can use it almost always and save your best spells for specific moments
Elemental facous adds +1 damage to one element spells
Havoc of society adds +1 force damage
Multiclassing sorc, can net you uo to +2 damage with energy attacks
you could do up to 1d3+4 on four levels, pretty respectable for a cantrip, altought you may wanna ask if yourself if you are ok with that. you can do up to 1d6+4 if rare cantrips are allowed
I would stare away from feats to help 0 lvl spells unless you plan on specializing in a particular element later on, as after 3rd lvl you will unlikely be useing 0 lvl spells.
School: conjuration for the cool 5-foot teleport ability at 1st level.
I can't see using my favored class bonus for a small damage bonus every other level when I can get an extra hit point every level instead.
Point blank shot would work both for the bow and the ray attack, so I'm strongly leaning towards it for the +1 hit & damage within 30 feet. Still a good (if small) boost for scorching ray later on. The +1 hit & damage bonus would apply to each and every ray, right?
I got the bow and sword for the flavor of being a "fighter-magic-user" elf, like in 1st edition, even though this character will only take wizard levels (and really sucks with the sword with his 10 strength).
We haven't had many rest opportunities, out last two sessions (6 hours each) were without rest in between, so those spells got used up mighty fast. Without a fallback, this wiz would've been a spectator. AS is, the bow and 16 DEX made him almost as good an archer as the dedicated archer characters.
I was really looking for any neat tricks I might have overlooked to get some small damage bonus, in addition to the alchemical focus.
Good advice to switch hit situationally, cantrips on the armored low-touch-AC foes, bow for the dodgy high-touch-AC foes.
Bow has a MUCH longer range, which can be very important outside a dungeon.
you will find elements of this useful it keeps cantrips viable for awhile
Wizards generally can't hit very well at ranged combat. I would suggest just using the cantrips even though their range is much less. Most groups don't have a lot of long range combat.
Pick up a wand of Magic Missile for the long range combat. It always hits.
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As Akerlof mentioned, Daze is a wonderful cantrip. For dealing damage with cantrips Solspiral's got it down with sneak attack. If you want a trick to boost damage more then make your own acid and go acid splash, then use sulfur and acid as a material component along with using another flask of acid as a focus component to bring your damage to 2d3+4 over 2 rounds(with crafting it's costing you 4 GP 3 Silver 4 Copper about each time you use this trick.) Your other option if your DM allowed it would be to take the false focus feat and use the above trick without the GP cost.
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If you want a trick to boost damage more then make your own acid and go acid splash, then use sulfur and acid as a material component along with using another flask of acid as a focus component to bring your damage to 2d3+4 over 2 rounds(with crafting it's costing you 4 GP 3 Silver 4 Copper about each time you use this trick.)Hey, sorry for the noobish question, but do the rules dealing with using alchemical items as components/foci come from the Alchemy Manual? Just want to confirm, because I'm interested in reading more about them.
The rules with power components come from Adventurer's Armory. I also used an alchemical reagent as an additional power components which is from the Alchemy Manual.
As Akerlof mentioned, Daze is a wonderful cantrip. For dealing damage with cantrips Solspiral's got it down with sneak attack. If you want a trick to boost damage more then make your own acid and go acid splash, then use sulfur and acid as a material component along with using another flask of acid as a focus component to bring your damage to 2d3+4 over 2 rounds(with crafting it's costing you 4 GP 3 Silver 4 Copper about each time you use this trick.) Your other option if your DM allowed it would be to take the false focus feat and use the above trick without the GP cost.
Hmmm. This is what I was looking for, but I can't seem to find sulphur or any other details on the pfsrd. Although I've got to say that sounds pretty extreme for cantrip-level magic.
Thanks for all the suggestions.
This character isn't an evoker so that's out. Also, I suspect the DM will be leery of me trying to juggle three components in two hands.
What about this: Ray of frost (1d3) with a liquid ice focus (1d3+1), and when I need a little extra punch, black powder reagent for another point (1d3+2, 10 gold or 3.34 gold if I craft it myself). With the focus in one hand and the reagent in the other, this should work. Or do I need to keep a hand free for the gestures? If so, no reagents are possible, in addition to the focus.
Obviously, any time I'm over 30 feet away, it'll be the longbow, or perhaps wand of magic missles later on (gotta get some gold for that, and a place to purchase it, not sure how this DM is for the ye olde magick shoppe syndrome).
I keep coming back to Ray of frost instead of Acid burst because I'm still strongly considering point blank shot for +1 hit & damage with both rays and the longbow. Is that a waste of a feat?
This character's main focus is battlefield control and summoning, aiming to be a "god-ish" wizard at as low a level as possible, since we're liable to have at least 2-3 sessions per level at one session a month. That's a long time at low levels. So I don't want to spend a lot of resources on these damaging cantrips. Just want to remain a viable member of my party after my spells run out.
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PBS is quite a useless feat, its most useful incorporation is access to precise shot. Elemental focus is much better since it also raises your spells dcs. Give you damage, and since rays are touch attacks +1 to hit is probably not gonna do almost any difference. Really you will get spells so fast you will be just relying on cantrip for 4 sessions at most. Its not worth specializing in it. Also you dont really want to be as clase as 30ft, on most cases you wanna be fearther.
ElementalXX... that was the reason for my debate. By the time a wizard hits 5th or 7th level, I suspect he will no longer be needing to fall back on the bow or on cantrips to supplement spells, since:
- he'll have lots more spells of ever higher level to cast
- he'll have several items (and lots more scrolls) to supplement spellcasting
- combat will be faster and deadlier and the mid-level battlefield control and summoning spells will be getting a lot more mileage.
Seems like being an evoker would apply to Ray of Frost, but not Acid splash. Still not an option in this case, since I chose conjuration for the bonuses for summoning and for the cool alternate teleport ability straight from 1st level.
Seems like I'd be better off using my feats for improved initiative, augmented summoning, metamagic and item creation.
A flask of acid or liquid ice can be used as a focus to add +1 to the damage. If you're not an evoker, acid splash is better than ray of frost, since there's no SR.
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yes actually any other feat is better for a controller, was just pointing that if you reaally want damage there are better options than pbs. I think you are confusing the elemental focus feat with the evoker option. The feat is useful for dc augment, some control spells actually do energy damage too in which the feat applies
Yes, I've thought about that, although currently this character is blowing his wealth primarily on scrolls.
The problem with alchemy is the time factor. With a +9 in craft (alchemy) and taking ten, he can craft an acid flask in 2.45 days costing 3.34gp. Currently he has no alchemist lab, so no bonus there.
Most alchemical items are DC 20, so he'll need at least a portable lab for the +1 bonus to succeed taking ten. Then a smokestick would require 3.5 days and cost 6.67 gold.
Once our caravan gets rolling, it is possible I'll have more days to work with. Although then I wouldn't have 8-hour workdays either.
Scribing scrolls is so much less problematic, since I can squeeze in the 2-hour time slot into our camping time easily, being an elf and requiring less sleep.
Alchemy, like any form of mundane crafting, takes loads of time. So it's very dependent on the DM's campaign plans.
If you're throwing anything into melee, you want Precise Shot.
All ranged attacks take -4 if your target is in melee. And unless you don't have any other party members, 80% of the time, you will have at least a -2 cover penalty (usually -4).
Taking -8 to hit is extremely painful. At 2nd level, your wizard needs a 20 to hit against AC 15; you need a 16 or higher if you can avoid cover or if you take Precise Shot (with no cover AND Precise Shot, you can hit on a 12). Throwing spells into melee is a little less painful because you target their touch AC. But without Precise Shot, don't count on hitting very often.
The wand of magic missile is a good option. Later on, long range area effect spells will be your best option.
(Side note: Most wizards use crossbows only because they aren't proficient with a longbow; elves don't have that problem.)