Making a Spirit Binder wizard, and am picking out opposition schools for him. I was originally going to go with necromancy as one of them, until I reread the class and noticed that it said I couldn't, because after he created his familiar with his mother's spirit after watching her being killed in front of him and feeling disgusted with what he did afterwards, but then I thought about evocation.
Evocation, to me, is pretty much the bread and butter of wizards, containing a lot of the damage potential for the class. However, as the character is a 16 year old who was relatively sheltered during his life, he isn't big on being in combat so I'm thinking about making him more of a support character, using a lot of buffs, debuffs, and illusion spells to control the battlefield. Would the character be good and not a hindrance in combat with evocation spells at a penalty?
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I'm pretty sure you can make an effective wizard with any opposition school. You might not be a great blaster wizard with evocation as a opposition school, but most people agree they're probably the worst wizards to begin with. And there are damage spells that exist outside of the evocation school. Snowball is a good example of a damage spell that's from another school (conjuration).
EDIT- ninja'd. But you're probably going to see a lot the same opinion here.
Thanks, that does help a lot. Only other arcane casters I've used before was a human dragon-bloodline sorcerer/dragon disciple from Xa Hoi and a dwarven blackblade magus.
Now just trying to figure out which Focus School I want, the Enhancement or Phantasmal school.
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I like to Oppose Enchantment and Divination on my evokers. But I tend to go the route of Crossblooded 1 sorcerer Orc & Dragon/ Admixture Wizard X. With my Sorcerer Levels I pick up Detect magic and Read magic as Cantrips.
I honestly like Necromancy more than most. There are spells that have an effect even if they pass their Saves. I really like that appeal. It also has some good buffs in its school. False Life and Defending Bone are pretty good Hour/Level buffs that are worth it IMHO.
I tend to always Oppose Enchantment unless I am specializing in it. It is a school of magic that tends to Have an all or nothing effect. It is a school that needs Spell focus and/or Persistent Meta Magic to be reliable. Typically the only thing you lose is the Early levels Sleep and Heroism in the mid game. Buy a scroll or potion. I tend to buy a Wand of Alchemical Allocation and just buy the best potions I can. Heroism, Darkvision, Barkskin, Shield of Faith. I then tell anyone with UMD in the group about it and charge them 150g per charge and let them do the same. The Rogue tends to become my best friend.
I like to Oppose Enchantment and Divination on my evokers. But I tend to go the route of Crossblooded 1 sorcerer Orc & Dragon/ Admixture Wizard X. With my Sorcerer Levels I pick up Detect magic and Read magic as Cantrips.
I was thinking of going with Divination, but I thought that Enchantment hand a lot of buff spells, which is something my character is going to do a lot.
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I thought that Enchantment hand a lot of buff spells, which is something my character is going to do a lot.
Heroism and Greater Heroism are the big buffs of the Enchantment school the rest are not really worth it.
Your main buff school is Transmutation. Abjuration, Conjuration, Illusion, and necromancy have a smattering of Buffs in them.
I thought that Enchantment hand a lot of buff spells, which is something my character is going to do a lot.Heroism and Greater Heroism are the big buffs of the Enchantment school the rest are not really worth it.
Your main buff school is Transmutation. Abjuration, Conjuration, Illusion, and necromancy have a smattering of Buffs in them.
Ah, thanks. That makes my decision of Transmutation/Enhancement Focus School easier to live with.
On a side note, his Soulbound Familiar will be a monkey with a Tiny-sized Glaive because his mother was a Polearm Fighter before she was killed.
And I fight the thought highly amusing.
Personally Transmutation is one of the schools I would never oppose. To me giving up enchantment is easy -- most of the spells are iffy to start with due to NPC interaction with them and their almost universal attribute of being mind affecting (meaning there are lots of things either flat out immune or with huge bonuses).
Illusion while nice is easy to survive without, in this case I think that and enchantment would make an easy choice.
Some Transmutation/Enhancement notes:
Annihilation Spectacles. The moment you can get them, get them. Really, like now.
Secondly, you can take Quicken Spell-Like Ability for Augment starting at level ten. Highly recommended.
I know these are both high level options, but they are so great (mostly the spectacles) you should count building towards them from the start.
Okay, got the wizard straightened out for the most part. Prolly go and tweak it a little at some point. Now I'm working on the familiar.
Decided to change it from a monkey to a wallaby, because I can see the little thing using a weapon and other than monkey I can't really see any other non-Improved Familiar using a wepaon. Still has a glaive (used the first Lost Talents feat to give it proficiency), and I'm looking at armor. I read the description on wearing non-proficient armor, and it says that it applies the ACP to attack rolls as well as the skill checks, but leather armor doesn't have a penalty. Does that mean there's no penalty to attack if my wallaby wears it?
Some Transmutation/Enhancement notes:
Annihilation Spectacles. The moment you can get them, get them. Really, like now.
Secondly, you can take Quicken Spell-Like Ability for Augment starting at level ten. Highly recommended.
I know these are both high level options, but they are so great (mostly the spectacles) you should count building towards them from the start.
Thanks for the input. The specs look like a lot of fun for when I can afford them, and I will definitely look into getting the feat for Augment when I can.