Playing a Universalist Wizard

[Angry Wizard]

I’m thinking of playing a universalist wizard in my pathfinder group. The reason why is because wizards are what I’m good at (and the rest of my group hates playing primary spellcasters), but I've grown tired of specializing in Conjuration and other such b!&~&%++ to become overpowered and wreck APs, but I cannot let go of my one true love either. I've been thinking about it all day and I’m starting to wonder why more people don’t play universalists. Feel free to add the either list.

Pros
>all the schools of magic are available without having to invest in UMD and creating a middle man
>less likely to be accidentally munchkin’d to bits, thus keeping the pressure of an unstoppable arcane force off the GM
>less spell slots make for a greater challenge (if you’re into that)
>The 8th level spontaneous metamagic ability is attractive
>Being able to find a spellbook in a treasure hoard and not go “Oh boy I wonder what I’m going to add to my spellbook this ti- Aw balls, half of these spells are from my prohibited schools. *sigh* into the sell pile you go…”
>More flexible background stories. Beyond the game mechanics, there are flavor and story issues associated with being an Evoker, or an Illusionist, etc. that one can often feel beholden to when playing a specialist.

Cons
>Hand of the Apprentice (Offset by Arcane Crafter)
>less spell slots make for a greater challenge (if you’re not into that)
>The existence of Opposition Research

Also, any advice for someone playing their first universalist wizard?

[Deadmanwalking]

I wouldn't do it. If you want to play a less optimized Wizard don't skip all the way down from Conjurer to Universalist, go with something like Abjurer, Necromancer, Enchanter, or Evoker. All of which are fun and flavorful, and somewhere in the middle of the optimization bracket.

Or at least that's what I'd do.

[master_marshmallow]

If you don't want to specialize, play an Exploiter wizard.

They are still good or even better than a regular specialized wizard without falling into one of the more common niche builds you see.

[Snowblind]

Playing a universalist isn't really that different to playing a specialist. You can still prepare any spell off the sorc/wizard list. You just have 1 fewer slots/level and don't get any really good abilities. A wizard could have spells as their only class feature and they would still be good.

Play the wizard as per normal, but be really stingy about how much you are casting.

I would recommend taking arcane crafter - hand of the apprentice is pretty much useless.

Taking an archetype instead isn't a bad idea either.

off topic - some disagreement with your pros:

"All schools are available" - You can prepare an opposed school spell in 2 slots. If you prepare 1 such spell at every spell level you end up having the same number of slots as a universalist wizard. Since you won't be doing this if you didn't pick bizarre opposed school choices like conjuration, the tradeoff should be straight up in the favor of specializing.

"less likely to break the game" - Yeah, no, most of the good schools are good because of defensive powers (Teleportation, Foresight), and the extra spell slots amount to some more endurance. The wizard list breaks the game, nothing more, nothing less.

"8th level ability is good" - It would be better if it weren't restricted to 1 or 2 uses a day or allowed you to exceed your max spell level. Making a fireball Dazing requires you to be level 12 and you can only do this 1/day until level 18(!!!). It might be nice on an emergency still/silent spell, but are you actually taking the feats for those as a wizard?

"Spellbooks filled with opposition school spells" - seriously, how many times are you going to find a spellbook containing huge volumes of enchantment spells and nothing else (I wouldn't mind this - it means that you can shut down many encounters with Suppress Charms and Compulsions). Besides, if you were actually an enchanter you would look at the spellbook and say "Out of the 3ish spells/level that are actually worth preparing from the enchantment school, are any in this book....this, this and this are, but I know all of them already. It does have daze monster in it though...*sigh*...into the vender trash bag with you". The fact of the matter is that there are only so mnay good spells at each spell level, and you will know most of them.

"Specialization forces flavor" - not really, PF wizards can prepare whatever they want even if they specialize. It isn't a pivotal part of your character unless you want it to be.

[Cap. Darling]

A spellslinger May be a Challenge, the universalist is just one Spell behind pr level.
If you have played wizards before a universalist should not be a problem.

And just a note prohibited schools are long gone unless you usually play sin wizards.