Wizard school selction with a druid and summoner in party

[Neils Bohr]

As I've said in the title there are a druid and a summoner in my party, and I'll be playing a wizard. Summoning is obviously covered, and the druid plans on being a wildshape melee combatant.

My plan is to do battlefield control with buffs/debuffs as necessary. My question is what school to pick, I'm looking at the enhancement subschool or the teleportation subschool. I'm open to other options as well. However, I was planning on picking necromancy and enchantment as opposition schools.

I'm leaning towards teleportation, even though I wouldn't use the increased summon duration, because being able to zip around the battlefield seems very useful. Enhancement has a more useful static power with the stat boost, but I'm less excited about the on use buff actions I'd get from the school. Both have spells at each level that I'd want to cast each day, so that isn't really a concern.

Thanks in advance for any help you're able to give.

[Avoron]

Of the two, teleportation is probably the better option. Not only is swift-action teleportation pretty great, conjuration spells tend to be more useful than transmutation for debuffing and battlefield control. Although if you're starting out at a high level, it might be worth it to take the enhancement school so that you can get annihilation spectacles. Annihilation spectacles are cool. Keep in mind that the value of the free enhancement varies widely depending on the availability of wealth and magic items.

There is one more option you might not have considered: taking the exploiter archetype. There are so many great options for arcanist exploits - familiar to make up for the lost arcane bond, dimensional slide so you don't miss out on teleportation, school understanding foresight to always act first, potent magic to make your magic more potent, consume magic items to fuel your arcane pool, and of course, quick study for the ultimate versatility.

[Neils Bohr]

Thanks for your advice. we're going to be in a big city, with the standard magic item availability I believe, so I think that lowers the stat boost value a bit.

I'll look into the exploiter, but I didn't like the arcanist much when I first looked into it, it felt kind of odd and clunky to me. I will have to give it another chance though.

[Atarlost]

The other good school is Foresight. You'll have trouble filling slots, though except at high levels divination isn't as bad as it used to be, but the initiative is very valuable for your intended role.

[412294]

Teleportation is definitely better than enhancement, there's also the foresight school, divination isn't the best school in terms of spells, but the foresight school powers are pretty good and you get that wonderful initiative boost.

[Neils Bohr]

Thanks, I'll add foresight to my choices as well, filling spell slots is the reason I discounted it initially

[dragonhunterq]

If you are not summoning I'll second (third?) foresight (or basic divination in a pinch) the boost to initiative and ability to act in the surprise round more than offsets the difficulty finding decent spells.

[Matt2VK]

I'm a big fan of the Void School.

While the extra spells Void grants access to is kind of small, you should find a good one for each spell level. While having only one opposition, elemental,school makes up for the short spell list.

What makes the Void school special is the schools powers.

Void Awareness - a bonus to your saves vs spells and SLA.
Reveal Weakness - reduces targets defenses and saves.
Aura of Prescience - at 8th grant a +2 bonus to all allies to just about every roll they make.

[412294]

There's something ok for most levels of divination, the main weakness is just that you'd be fine just keeping a scroll around for most of them.
I've tried to find something useable at each level
1: Heightened awareness, +2 to perception and knowledge for 10/min level and you can end it for +4 initiative. Comprehend languages might be useful.
2: Blood transcription, add a spell that a dead enemy knew to your spell book by drinking. Detect thoughts, always good for interrogation. See invisibility.
3: Blood biography. Tongues.
4: Scrying.
5: Telepathic bond
6: True seeing
7: Literally just slightly better versions of lower level spells
8: Moment of prescience is pretty good. Prediction of failure is interesting, although not that good.
9: The only one is foresight and it's pretty bad.
The school powers are probably worth the mostly irrelevant spells though. I think divination might just be the worst spell list of any school.

[Avoron]

412294 wrote:

7: Literally just slightly better versions of lower level spells

Vision can be pretty great, especially compared to legend lore.

[SmiloDan]

Is bard a wizard school? Or is that more of a college?

Anyways, a bard buffing a druid, an animal companion, nature allies summons, a summoner, an eidolon, and monster summonings, sound super awesome and efficient.

I would lean towards transmutation just for all the buff spells, like haste, mass bear/bull/cat stuff, etc.

[Avoron]

SmiloDan wrote:

Anyways, a bard buffing a druid, an animal companion, nature allies summons, a summoner, an eidolon, and monster summonings, sound super awesome and efficient.

Actually, that sounds like a job for a skald.

[SmiloDan]

Avoron wrote:

SmiloDan wrote:

Anyways, a bard buffing a druid, an animal companion, nature allies summons, a summoner, an eidolon, and monster summonings, sound super awesome and efficient.

Actually, that sounds like a job for a skald.

I've heard it both ways!