New character spell caster

[ancientdm]

I am looking at making a spell caster for a brand new campain. Our DM says it will be Reign of Winter so I am assuming it will be alot of frozen or cold based places. My question is , having never played a spell caster what skills or feats should be concentrated on at low levels to make my spell caster (some kind of wizard or witch)effective at higher levels? Ie spell penetration etc. etc.

Will be starting at first level so maybe a template for a build might be helpful.

Also should i consider multi classing, arcane classes or prestige classes or just stick with the base spell caster?

[master_marshmallow]

For spellcasters, it's pretty much considered dictum to never multiclass.

If this is your first spellcaster, then I would normally recommend something like a simple sorcerer build so you can get the hang of spellcasting before you have to learn how to prepare things and do it well.

What do you want from this character? Do you want to blast things? Utility magic?

[My Self]

Multiclassing is only good if you know 100% full well what you're getting into. If you do multiclass, you will always want to multiclass into something that advances your spell progression.

Loremaster is good for Wizards, as you lose 0 spell levels, 0 BAB, and only a little bit to your saves. You lose 2 bonus feats in exchange for more skill ranks/level, Bardic Knowledge, 8 pseudo bonus feats, and 2 bonus languages.

If you're going first time, Arcanist might be a good choice. The School Savant archetype in particular is useful. If you mess up on spell selection, you can reprepare later. However, it casts flexibly like a spontaneous caster, too.

Cleric is also a great choice.

[ancientdm]

looking to build for the long term. want to be able to choose the appropriate feats that will help me at higher levels while being able to help the party at my current level. I am not a min max power builder but i do want to be effective as a wizard or sorcerer or such. I will have to look up Arcanist to see what that entails. Mu goal is primarily offensive but with enough of a skill set to have certain spells to change the course of battle like combinations of stinking cloud over a tentacles spell or such.

[Rylar]

did you read the players guide for the AP? Link

How well can you handle new concepts that you haven't tried before? I would suggest a wizard, but you need a firm grasp on what spells you want to cast before you start. Witch is not a bad idea either. Sorcerer is often the first class that players try out, the idea of having access to the spells you want to cast when you want to cast them seduce players.

[ancientdm]

thank you everyone for your input. After looking over various archetypes I am going to go straight Wizard class with no specialization going to do bonded object also. It appears spell penetration and the ability to cast defensively are extremely important if you want to be effective so judicious use of skill points and the correct feat choices will simplify alot of things. Again thank you for your suggestions.