Does anyone know of any guides to Wizards? Or there feelings on the various schools and which ones are actually viable and which are clearly not?
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So lots of the powers aren't worth using. I like the second tier illusion one and the first tier divination one. The conjuration teleport and necromancy heal are okay too.
Spells in general suck at low levels, but get better and better as you level. At high levels I think they are OP.
At level 1 you have magic weapon, which is great until characters start getting magic weapons. And Magic missile is good at level 1.
Some good spells are chain lightning, blindness, level 6 slow.
Control spells generally are pretty bad, damage dealing spells are actually good when you get chain lightning. Buffs/debuffs are good uses of your low level spells, because the DCs scale the same as your highest level spells.
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If I'm being honest, every Wizard who wants to be a school specialist should just be an Universalist. They get many more Drain Arcane Foci, which you can use for just one spell school if you'd like.
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I haven’t played a wizard yet and have only had one person in my group play one (an evoker) but from what I’ve looked at, evocation is still good at what it has always been good at, illusion is solid and has even gained some interesting looking spells including some fairly offensive ones, I’d definitely like to see one in play. Currently my favorite is necromancy, you can’t currently do the undead horde but they’ve gotten some solid looking offensive spells that I think make up for it and I’m pretty sure the final product will have create undead. I’d say that at a glance they may be the best blaster wizards after evokers. Transmuters at a glance look weaker than in PF1 but then they were a bit OP then. Sorry if I am focusing too much on combat stuff but that’s what the play test chapters have taught me to look at. Which is a problem, it feels like DD doesn’t explore many out of combat parts of the system very much especially downtime activities. As far as the other schools I can’t give much of a critique on, sorry.
I do agree that universalists seem very solid at the moment and are probably optimal But I’ve always been a sucker for school specialization.
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Here is a thread on specialists and their powers not being worth anything, and here's the info from the post:
Abjurer - Protective Ward
- Use 2 actions to give allies within 10' a +1 to AC. Requires concentration. Using up 2 actions then 1 each round to maintain for only getting a +1 to AC is something I would virtually never choose. It's not worth the effort compared to what else you could be doing.
Diviner - Diviner's Sight
- Use 1 action to roll a d20. When the target attempts a Perception check, saving throw, or skill check, it can use the number you rolled instead of rolling. Very situational. You don't usually know that in the next round a perception or save will be called for. Not worth the effort in combat when you could be doing something useful. I could only see doing this when someone has time for performing a skill that only takes 1 turn.
Enchanter - Charming Words
- Use 2 actions to keep someone from attacking you for 1 round (stun on crit) or give them +2's to everything against you (crit save). Sanctuary for 1 round is potentially interesting. Stun is too rare to rely on. However, if I really need to keep someone off me for 1 round, giving them +2's instead would probably be lethal at that point. I would almost never risk using this.
Evoker - Force Bolt
- If you want to do damage, this is usable. However, needing a hit roll makes me wonder how much I'd use this over a cantrip blast. This one is ok but combat only.
Illusionist - Warped Terrain
- Fake difficult terrain in a 5' radius is too minor and situational. Not interesting.
Necromancer - Call of the Grave
- Give the frightened condition. For 2 actions, this is not interesting. Combat-centric. Many creatures worth using this on are immune to frightened conditions. Not worth using on mooks when you could just blast them.
Transmuter - Physical Boost
- 2 actions (V,S) and range of touch to give someone a 1d4 conditional bonus to the next Acrobatics, Athletics, or Stealth roll they attempt. Another power that only lasts 1 turn. Probably never useful in combat for 2 actions. Situationally useful before some skill checks. Useless for stealth since it has a verbal component. So maybe if someone is about to walk a tightrope or jump a pit, you can give them bonus (potentially lower than using Aid action). Not interesting at all.
These powers should make us want to play a specialist. None of these excite me about the classes.
Layout - Where are the powers? Someone perusing the specialists in the Wizard section would want to compare the classes side by side. The powers are mixed up with the spells. It's another case of having to flip through pages dozens of times to see and compare.
TLDR - There aren't interesting powers for Specialists. Universalists get the same number of spells as specialists minus 1 but with more versatility. I don't see myself choosing a Specialist over a Universalist. First level Specialist powers should be more interesting.
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The others have already hit on most of the key issues. Wizard SP abilities come in varying flavors of suck, and this makes the universalist with its better drain focus power more appealing. Mage armor isn't very good, so snapping up armor proficiency is a high priority at low levels. Because of the 3-action turn and typical 2-action casting time of spells, weapon proficiency is supremely useful for wizards to get a good 1-action filler option to round out your turn. This makes multiclassing fighter a no-brainer choice at 2nd level even if you want to be more caster-focused, since all wizards benefit from having weapon and armor proficiency. The Magical Striker feat is similarly a no-brainer at 4th level; 2-action spell followed by 1-action attack is going to be your standard offensive attack routine, and this is a big buff to it. There isn't a whole lot of reason not to be a gish, and the PF2 wizard really feels a lot more like the PF1 Magus.
If you want a good SP power, you'll need to multiclass for it. The 9th level human ancestry feat is the best way to snap that up, allowing you to bypass ability score prerequisites which are very onerous for wizards which typically aren't heavily invested in Wis or Cha. If you're a generalist you'll need to pick up the Hand of the Apprentice power to get an Int-based SP pool.
Now, one last and supremely important thing about the wizard: crafting. With Intelligence being the go-to dump stat for 10/12 of the game's classes, the wizard is very likely to be the only person in the party who has any real competency with crafting.
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I do agree that the school spell powers, and most spell point powers in general, need a boost. Though it’s kinda funny because as situational at best the evocation shield is, it seriously contributed to our group beating DD5. Our wizard cast his last cone of cold, activated the shield and ran into melee with the mutilation demon. The demon, not being the smartest of beasts, attacked the squishy guy who just took out a 3rd of its total hit points last turn and promptly keeled over. It was pretty hilarious if nothing else.
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Yeah, speaking as the GM in that story, that was entertaining. :)
Personally, I think Specialists are quite worth it assuming you actually want to use the School in question heavily. Yes, the Powers are decidedly uninspiring for the most part, but an extra spell at your highest spell level plus the ability to have four different spells available at each level rather than three is nothing to sneeze at.
Universalist's ability to re-use spells a lot more is also certainly excellent, but if you're sufficiently focused on your School, being a Specialist has serious advantages.