Wizard troubles...

Remove all ads!

1: If you're intending to melee with your mage, then yes

2: Specialists get +2 to saves vs their school iirc. Also +2 to spellcraft checks concerning it. No DC's, which is a shame, really. So, no, only int and Spell Focuses. Spell level adds to the number too, of course. An alternative road is to forgo DC's alltogether. Have enough int to cast highest lvl spells and focus on spells with no save, buffs and meleeing.

3: For 3 attacks you need 11BAB. That's from pure rogue 15 to wizard 16/rogue 4. Dont really know about blackstaff, my gnomes cant use a staff and never were into bashing people over the head with sticks, so anyone else?

4: Evocation is a standard. Necromancy is a very close second. Ray of enfeeblement at first level is a great spell. Way better to lower enemies strenght by a whooping 11 with a first level spell than to cause up to 25 damage.
Then there's also Negative energy ray for low lvl offensive. It's negative damage, almost no one has DR against negative. Dont use on undead, of course
Ghoul touch as lvl2 spell for melee mages.
Negative energy burst for lvl3 is also stuff worth talking about. AoE strenght reducer with no save, how great is that. 1 point of strenght per 4 caster levels. Vampiric touch is also an excelent spell, with no saving throw. Granted, you dont need Spell focus for these two anyway.
Enervation, lvl4 is great to use on enemy mages. They lose up to two of their highest spell levels. With one spell, you can erase most of their powers. Also in the same group, an awsome crowd control spell: Fear.
Lvl5 Animate dead is the best summon you'll get after the dire wolf, until the elementals.
Circle of death, lvl6 for dispatching hordes of low lvl adversaries in one go. Also, undeath to death, for the ultimate mass undead ass whopping. Maximised, at caster lvl20 it should affect 80 HD worth of undead.
Lvl7, even better! Control undead, for an up to 2x your caster level for an hour per level? What more could a wizard as for? Finger of death is also an awsome spell. DC's should be around 35 even at the level you get it. Most of the time it means, one spell, one death.
Create undead at lvl8 sucks, i dont think there's one redeeming feature for this spell. Horrid Wilting makes up for it, though.
lvl9 comes with ultimates. Wail of the Banshee and Energy drain.

As you can see, necromancy is definitely one of the most useful schools. Any mage going for DC's should have an epic spell focus in it.


As for other schools. Most of them come with no saving throw, as they're not focused in enemies. Conjuration perhaps, for Grease, Evald's black tentacles and most of all, Flame arrow, which has no cap and produces 10 arrows at lvl40, each doing 4d6 fire damage. There's a save for half, so SF would help. I think that's bout it for Conjuration. Enchantment, i think it's too limited. Lots of monsters have mind spell immunity, and the spells are usualy charm or crowd control. Only lvl9 spell, dominate really rocks.
I've heard illusion is a good school, but gradualy i noticed i dont use it much. There's Weird as lvl9 spell, but that aint enough for 3 feats for it. Phantasmal killer has two saves, hardly worth it.
That's about it. For my mages, i'm taking Evocation and Necromancy Spell focuses all the way. Both way too useful.


5: Definitely nay. If there are parma haste items (which are almost everywhere) then there's no use for it. If they arent, you'll want to cast Haste (extended, preferably) on yourself for the +50% move rate and 4AC anyway. Note that this AC is stackable with everything.

6: If youre going for DC spells, definitely. If not, there's no real reason to go over 19, except for bonus spells. Those that go for spells with no saves are far too limited IMO. Bigby's, Missile storms, Ice storms are the main weapons.
Yup, there's a slight shortage of feats for wizards. Nothing too hard though. I'm wondering, why are you taking SD levels? Hide in plain sight perhaps, but there's invisibility spells you have. Not unlimited, but they're there. Also, if the enemy gets damaged while you're hiding they stroll right up to you, so there's not much use for trapping them in some AoE persistant spell. You also dont have Hide&MS as class skills.
You're right about Epic Spells. Epic warding is a must, epic armor is fine enough, if you're going for AC. Summoning sucks. I bet a fully buffed elemental could beat that red dragon and mummy.
2, 3 DC difference. If the world is balanced, you a normal mage should have about 75% to affect the target with a save spell. Then there's unbalanced worlds with more or less chances. I prefer to maximize a wizard where it counts, so he's taking as few chances as possible. Going a different route may seem weaker, but you get more options, so you might adapt to the situation better, use different strategy. Your playing style also counts big time here.

7: Planar summoning is best if you're of Good alignment. Neutral and Evil dont have any decent summons. I dont usualy play good and hate to choose it, simply for a better summon. Maximizing a wizard with feats and spells, that i go for. Using alignment for it, i dont
Huge elemental vs Celestial Avenger, i'll try it right now, i'm curious. Edit when i'm done

Oh, the generalist wizard,.. If you want to, i find that missing a few spells for an extra slot of each level is quite acceptable.


EDIT:
The main difference is spell duration. Round/lvl vs 24 hours. So, if you're looking for a lasting lackey, use an elemental. If you need power for a battle, Celestial Avenger's the bet. The guy is quite amazing! A follow-up of a Hound Archon, who is also a good fighter. A good version of Animate dead's Skeleton Chieftain.
So, celestial avenger is better than summon VIII in almost every respect, except HPs, which are barely over 100. Even with 34AC, at those levels that's too few, so have Endurance ready for him. His second weakness (in most cases) are his spells. He has Rage, which is fine, but casts if first, and then proceeds with Chain lightnings with a pathetic DC of 19. If you intend to use him in a melee heavy fight, that's a hinderance, he'll get pummeled to a pulp while he's trying to cast. For most other summons, tempering him in weaker monsters work, but his is such a short duration that it's pretty impossible, time-wise. If he didnt use spells, he'd very likely be better than Summon IX, even if his HP are less than half of those. AC makes up for some of that, your Endurance on him as well. So, he's very likely the best solution for short, intense battles, where you need to use spells - cant summon Black Blade of Disaster.

[ January 17, 2006, 12:46: Message edited by: Gothmog• ]