I am playing around with making a battlefield control/utility wizard out of a character I've played in a previous campaign. But that isn't important for this post. I have not played wizard before (or any spellcaster for that matter), and thus am not proficient in their class concepts. I've been reading things such as treatmonk's guides and such. The thing is to use my old character it would have to be an older version of him. I also know that intelligence is number 1 priority so I figured I'd make an attempt at building him venerable aged giving him +3 to WIS, INT, CHA, but the -6 to STR, DEX, CON seems like a huge hindrance. At least to me it does... I don't find much in the magical interwebs regarding building a venerable character, but (starting with) having a huge hit to AC and skill checks from low DEX and only getting a few hit points from a low con just seems like if I were to stub my toe I'd just die. I know I can make those stats better, but having the highest INT i can while doing that proves difficult.
Ability scores:
STR:10 DEX:10 CON:10 INT:10 WIS:10 CHA:10
STR:-6 DEX:-6 CON:-6 INT:+3 WIS:+3 CHA:+3 after venerable age modifier
STR: 4 DEX: 4 CON: 4 INT:13 WIS:13 CHA:13
STR:-- DEX:-- CON:+2 INT:-- WIS:+2 CHA:-2 after dwarf race modifier
^ He is a dwarf, no changing
STR: 4 DEX: 4 CON: 6 INT:13 WIS:15 CHA:11
Now these are the base stats before my own point buy-ins
That's the next problem. Our DM has only used a 15pt buy-in. This may make it near impossible to make a functioning wizard. right now his heavy encumbrance is 39lbs -_- (out of character I like to have loot, much loot, but for one campaign I think I can control it) and his DEX gives him a base AC of 7. He has a total of 4, count 'em! FOUR hit points...(Before a probably necessary toughness feat almost doubling his max health). Also a -3 to all STR and DEX skills (not too bad for a wizard i guess?).
Sooooo... unless I'm completely missing something I find it very difficult to make a character that won't die immediately for a very strenuous paper cut while running a high INT stat. I know Dwarf isn't the prime race, but that isn't too important. We play for RP and so long as my character isn't pathetically useless it can work. If anyone has insight for me please let me know. All comments and advice are valuable to me so thank you in advance.
I did this, twice. Once in a Pathfinder game, and once in a 3.5 game: The World's Largest Dungeon (not easy to find Reincarnate.) You are right about the hit points. A single hit, a failed Reflex save even for half damage, and you're going down (not necessarily dead, thankfully).
I started at level 1 and managed to survive through luck basically. It's not just hit points, but Con damage from simple things like spiders or undead, it's very tough. Went specialist Necromancer just to try it (really not the greatest of selections) and got up magic jar. At that point, I was able to get myself into some durable bodies (though still had to cart around and protect the original flesh suit, so even that was a logistic pain.)
My plan was obviously to find/procure a reincarnate spell. Would have been better if another party member was a druid, but no luck, so also had to get some Use Magic Device on someone else, since obviously can't use the scroll yourself when you die. Was a human, which meant I would have kept my bonus feat and my extra skill points, and also, get a new young adult body, which meant no age penalties even it wasn't a beefy half-orc or bugbear while keeping my mentals. It was a solid plan and it can work, but you definitely have to have a party willing to play along and keep you safe (and reincarnate you when you die). Strangely enough, that character didn't even really die, so I never got to get a new body, since we never actually found a method of reincarnating, other than a new character replacing a dead one and bringing a scroll of reincarnate as starting gear, which would have been cheesy. It's definitely doable.
In the Pathfinder game it wasn't as tough, since we started at a higher level. I knew if I died, the party could get hold of reincarnate pretty easily so I'm not as proud of it since it was pretty much one adventure and we could buy a scroll (or at least go to a town, which wasn't something that happened in The World's Largest Dungeon) and also I didn't lose a level as a penalty like in 3.5.
You'll definitely need to protect yourself and not get hit. Glitterdust and mirror image definitely stopped a lot of attacks against my 3.5 wizard, displacement was a close second.
I did not think of the reincarnate to be completely honest, but that is a good tactic. More so I want him to survive to lvl 20 to discover immortality and thus live forever! or at least until he is skewered on some orc's sword or something. I want to do this for four reasons: 1)just to play a wizard in general since I haven't yet. 2)To make a character get to lvl 20 and live forever (bonus points if this guy can do it because he is my favorite character). 3)Because a close friend of mine dislikes this character. Mostly because it's my character so not that he is actually upset about the game, but because his character is an elf and will live for a very long time now he can sleep at night knowing the story goes on with his and my character together. 4)Because I want to see him in later campaigns with my friends. That would be cool.
Back to the actual post. So I want to make him venerable with the whole +3 to mental abilities and -6 to physical. PizzaLord, do you know what your ability scores were when you started? To anyone reading, how can I get past this penalty with a 15pt buy? I may have to back off venerable to the old age instead, but i'm not 100% sure yet.
if you want to stay venerable, you can spend 5 points to put your CON up to 14 before modifiers, which will make it a 10 after adjustments. your AC will be absurdly low, and you will need to get other people to carry your loot, as you will be over encumbered at 40lbs. you will need to work very hard to avoid being targeted, since a lot of things will still be able to knock you out in 1-2 hits.
It looks like you are doing things out of order. You should be doing the point buy before age and racial adjustments. That makes quite a big difference.
Typically the Venerable Wizard builds I have seen are designed to be starting at higher level, usually using greater age resistance or an item that has a similar effect or at a very minimum having magic items with enhancement bonuses to at least partially offset the penalties.
I would suggest you go for old instead of venerable, that way the penalties are a little more manageable.
Also, definitely drop the Wisdom to 12, and Cha to 8...that's another 8 points for your point buy.
Then you can go
STR 10
DEX 14
CON 14
INT 17
WIS 7
CHA 7
for result of
STR 4
DEX 8
CON 10
INT 20
WIS 12
CHA 8
after racials and age mods.
So you have at least "regular" hit point(plus thoughness and favored class bonus).
Consider wearing Armor. With no Dex, Mage Armor may be sweet, but a Full Plate is also only 35% spell failure, if Mithril and you pick up arcane armor training/mastery, thats 5% spell failure(at 25 lbs weight).
(Nonproficiency won't really hurt you if you stick to spells not using an Attack Roll).
It's not "great", but can become decently survivable.
Once you get Level 7 spells, Greater Age Resistance will be great and make you very powerful :)
Our Wrath of the Righteous campaign included a venerable wizard.
He played a human and went:
S 10
D 10
C 12
I 18
W 10
Ch 7
For a net:
S 4
D 4
C 6
I 23
W 13
Ch 10
It was his first PF wizard, and his justification was, "I'm used to playing d4 hit die wizards, this'll be oldschool."
However, he had the luxury of being able to pick up the Longevity mythic ability and erase his age penalties.
Well, wizards start out relatively weak, but become steadily stronger over the course of 20 levels. If you go venerable, you start out even weaker, for a long-term bonus you probably won't even notice.
In real play it doesn't always work out like in Treantmonk's guide. You might be ambushed, attacked with ranged weapons or forced to climb for your life. A regular wizard has trouble with such situations, a 'god wizard' even more and a venerable 'god wizard' likely is screwed.
Anyway, if you are set on the concept:
* Consider a toad for +3 hitpoints. Later you can replace it by an improved familiar.
* Be very careful with your positioning.
* Use your high Int for many Knowledge checks, to reduce the risk of deadly surprises.
* Invisibility comes at level 3. As long as you don't attack, you won't be seen (by most creatures).
* Beware of area effects.
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