I'm helping a friend make her first Wizard. She normally plays Rangers and Fighters, but wanted to challenge herself more than usual. I was thinking of recommending a Conjurer and go with traditional good stuff like Grease, Create Pit, and later on, summons, walls and so forth? Or maybe go Evoker Admixture if she wants to blast...
Is there anything new going on with the Wizard? I haven't created a Wizard since Ultimate Combat came out and was wondering if any new archetypes or spells have challenged the traditional wizard model.
My player hasn't created a character sheet for my campaign yet, so still plenty can change; I've also considered recommending an Arcanist instead, since it's simpler to run/more forgiving to players new to spellcasting. But still looking at wizard first and foremost since she seems to want the challenge.
I think both of your ideas are solid, a Conjurer or trying out the Arcanist. But find out if blasting is what she wants, then it's a different story.
Make sure she understands the need to familiarize herself with the spell lists and descriptions - hopefully, she is excited to do this. This takes some time. Especially when it comes to casting times (i.e. summon monster), allowed targets, and which ones need savings throws vs. a ranged attack. A couple guides here in the advice forum give a decent rundown of useful spells.
Also, make sure you (or whoever is the GM) is good about handing out scrolls and spell books so there's some stuff for her to copy. I've found this is easy to forget if you don't have a resident whiny wizard in the group.
As far as I know, there are no Wizard archetypes that are clearly better than a straight wizard (if fact, I think it's one of the only classes where most of the archetypes are really just for play style and cost you a lot of functionality to have).
2) most ladies I've played with play because its time to spend with someone they care for OR they want an identity to relate to or play out.
It's probably sexist to categorize women that accurately! Leastways it pans out for my group. The wizard player actually falls in the 1st category, while the other two ladies in my group fall in the 2nd category. She loves spending time with us, but hasn't been especially invested in Pathfinder. Although I think she's willing to put in a little extra effort, hence picking wizard this time.
3) wizard isn't hard to learn just hard to master.
Good point. I'll try to give tips on good memorizations and combat tactics (Don't use too many spells, don't use too few, and what spells are appropriate for which situations)
4) I am I the personal belief that a wizard transitions better into prestige classes.
I'd agree; Wizards class features are less vital for them to function, while an Oracle, Arcanist, Witch, and others lose a lot more since so many powerful abilities key off of class level.
Make sure she understands the need to familiarize herself with the spell lists and descriptions - hopefully, she is excited to do this. This takes some time. Especially when it comes to casting times (i.e. summon monster), allowed targets, and which ones need savings throws vs. a ranged attack. A couple guides here in the advice forum give a decent rundown of useful spells.
She has seen wizards in action for several years, so hopefully it won't all be foreign concepts. We'll assist when necessary. Oh, and maybe have another player control monsters she summons. I think I have a player who keeps Summon Monster details on flashcards or excel or something for the most popular summons, so he could run them.
Also, make sure you (or whoever is the GM) is good about handing out scrolls and spell books so there's some stuff for her to copy. I've found this is easy to forget if you don't have a resident whiny wizard in the group.
I was intending to include spellbooks as loot before she chose wizard (There's a witch in the group) but now I'm definitely going to make sure there's a few wizard enemies in the sandbox campaign I'm building.
If you're starting from first level, there's time to learn. Grease and Pit, Sleep and Charm Person and Mage Armor, Burning Hands if you're a blaster... the first and second level spells are pretty much a set of solved problems. I agree that conjurer and evocation-admixture blaster are the two good ways to go here, with the latter probably being easier for a relative newbie.
We'll be starting at level 3. Which is still pretty low, but high enough to ignore things like Sleep. I'm hoping she'll go Conjurer, to fully enjoy the subtleties of "God" wizard-ness. You don't have to deal the finishing blow to be invaluable to the party's success.
As to something new, I believe alchemical reagents are new since Ultimate Combat. I did a post a while back about how you can use them to make a blaster just a little more blast-y. Here it is; hope it's of some interest.
That was an interesting read! I've used Liquid Ice for Ray of Frost, but I never took the time to read much more into Alchemical Reagents. There's cool stuff for an Evoker like Urea.
The only major 'new' piece is the Exploiter Wizard, which... you can argue over whether it's a loss or a gain, but it is an interesting piece. If she's interested in the Arcanist toolbox but not Arcanist casting, point her there.
Beyond that, a few new spells, same Wizardly ways.
Exploiter Wizard is certainly an interesting archetype, and one made better since I'd allow players to take Extra Exploit with this archetype. (I guess there's some uncertainty about this?) I'll see if she likes the exploits.
I've got my list of recommendations, hopefully she'll like one of them. I can still show her other archetypes/schools if she has another concept that these don't cover.
Wizard Conjurer Teleportation
Wizard Diviner Foresight
Wizard Evoker Admixture
Wizard Void
Wizard Exploiter
Arcanist
Arcanist Occultist
Arcanist School Savant