| Azothath |
Utility. I hear this so often. How much more utility to you need, with a Wizard classed PC?
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commonly utility means making the mundane part of adventuring easier mainly via travel or secure shelter, having the right tool for the job at hand.
I think of it as including healing, using other party member's items when they can't to heal or remove conditions, survival(food, water, shelter), combat defense (survive or busy an opponent for your party), information gathering via proxies(reconnaissance), and general helping.Taking cleric adds a weapon and doubles your spell list (mainly for item activation). Alternatively taking monk for +3 to all saves really makes the PC tougher and IUS doesn't hurt. For some builds it's a hard choice as they run on castable spells but there's a lot to be said for keeping your party up and active.
You should read a couple of the detailed class builds I've posted.
| Mark Hoover 330 |
Food and water: Survival is an untrained skill and unless you're already under duress you can take 10. If the Wizard PC has a 0 or higher bonus from Wis they should be able to get basic needs met. If they kept their familiar as I keep suggesting, there's another resource in this dept.
Healing: Potions of Cure spells and other Condition removals. Plus there are a decent amount of spells, From Resistance as a cantrip on up that a Wizard can employ to make sure they don't get a Condition in the 1st place. As I mention in my post, if a L2 Wizard doesn't buy a Cloak of Resistance +1 at L2 they should theoretically have 1000 GP to use on such items.
Weapons: spells and magic items
How often are Wizards in your games directly targeted? How often is the party surrounded, ambushed or otherwise tactically in a position where the Wizard is on/near the front line of open combat at the beginning of the fight? I run a lot of homebrewed adventures with an emphasis on dungeons or wilderness locations, so it actually doesn't happen that often at my tables.
I'm not claiming a Wizard can be good at everything, nor should they. You mentioned shelter though right? At L1 that'll be tough for everyone beyond a basic tent and bedroll, but from L2 on:
Unseen Servant lasts an hour/level. Not only that but Expeditious Construction can create a single low berm or wall 3' thick, 3' tall and 10' long/3 CL. These 2 spells on enough scrolls and a shovel means in an hour in many earthen environments, or perhaps even in snow and tundra, you could have a dugout shelter you simply have to put a roof on.
Wizards have the utilities you're talking about, or they can buy the items they need to make up the gaps. This is a game of parties but a Wizard PC has a fairly high degree of diverse powers, skills and abilities provided their GM allows them to actualize it.
| Azothath |
if you want to play a wizard with a familiar, that's fine. I don't think it is a good choice for mid to high level play but the wizard can deal with it or just not replace the soft target.
Choosing to rely on potions means the player is signing up for a resoure hog that is effective from 1st to 6th level. Spend the cash if that's your thing.
You really have to look at the whole party from 1-15th level (most games don't get beyond that) and build for scaling effective play.
I've had discussions with doubters in these forums and shown that for a Wizard simply having the spells on your spell list makes casting (spell completion, activation) easier than UMD with reasonable ranks. The bonus is putting those ranks in knowledge skills or something useful.
| galaxy human wizard |
hi there I think the best wizard is a elf conjurer level 7 dnd miniature it is a wizard it has summon monster lv 3 and see invisible . dispel magic . fire bolt . mage armor. and it can learn wizard spells for offensive and conjurer spells for defensive healing spells its on the back of the miniature card for role playing 3.5e or pathfinder its a red card and elf wizards can learn all 4 elements its my favourite wizard and mounted it on a celestial pegasus miniature for flight and some resistance my favourite dragon is large brass dragon level 10 it has sleep breath great vs a evil boss if the evil boss fails to throw a dc 16 of a dc20 its unconscious for 10 minutes if 9 minutes are over use the sleep breath if the evil it fails dc 16 its unconscious for 10 minutes if the evil boss is to op that's when you need the large brass dragon to make it more balanced :) thanks its a smart question the best is the best and conjurer uses thin air to summon spells :)