Building a wizard is cool!

[transtemporal]

Having built a nuker/instakill sorc and got him to cap, I decided to build myself a drow pure wiz (maxed int/con, 8 wis, everything else average). Quite a different experience and quite enjoyable but with the surplus of feats, the danger is I'm going to build a wiz that does a little bit of everything, but no one thing well. To that end I'm probably gonna go either cc enchanter (with school focus and gtr school focus and heighten on all the time) or debuffer necromancer (with the same feats), with the reasoning that these schools give the most bang for the buck.

Got a couple of questions for you wiz experts out there...

1. Any opinions on which of the schools is the better? Any other schools I schould consider specialising in? Abjuration is good for dismissal and banishment but thats about it. Conjuration is pretty lame.
   
2. I have a ton of skill points. Enough that I can afford to max out concentration and lavishly put the rest into cross-class. What cross-class skills do wizards favor? Balance, Jump, UMD, Diplo?
   
3. On my sorc I had to pay for meta feats with my first born. Now I get them for free.
   
   1. What order do you get your meta feats in? Any you avoid getting (I'm looking at you Eschew Materials!)?
   2. What other feats are good to pick up? School focus, gtr school focus, mental toughness, imt, spell pen, gtr spell pen?
   
   
4. I'm planning to go acid/electric enhancements for nuking (just for variety). Probably grab energy of scholar and spell pen line as well. Anything else useful? Are the meta improvement ones worth it for a wiz?

Cheers,
trans

[Vienemen]

The answers to #2-4 are detailed in the handbook in my signature. The answer to question one is that on my wizard, I do not have any school focus feats and do both CC and debuffing very well. Take a look at it if you have a few minutes.

V

[transtemporal]

The answers to #2-4 are detailed in the handbook in my signature. The answer to question one is that on my wizard, I do not have any school focus feats and do both CC and debuffing very well. Take a look at it if you have a few minutes.

V

Wow, you've added a lot to that since last I looked! Awesome work Vienemen!

I agree on your feat selection. Having looked at it, pretty much everything there is must-have (except for insightful reflexes, which I can't fit being drow).

Do you think its worthwhile to go elf for the elven arcanum?

[Kevlar]

I think the ability to do a "little bit of everything" is the strength of the wizard generally and is the reason to play a wiz versus a sorc. I don't use school focuses either, there's too many other feats that aren't as narrowly focused. Clearly you adjust for what's effective but you can do that through enhancements and equipment.

[transtemporal]

I think the ability to do a "little bit of everything" is the strength of the wizard generally and is the reason to play a wiz versus a sorc. I don't use school focuses either, there's too many other feats that aren't as narrowly focused. Clearly you adjust for what's effective but you can do that through enhancements and equipment.

Good points. I meant: "with all these feats, I could really specialise in something, AND be good at everything else my sorc is good at!"

I guess I just didn't want him to be a carbon copy of my sorc feats and enhancements. Which they pretty much are, except for the sp, gtr sp, mt, imt and quicken (so ok, that is a pretty big difference but its nothing earthshatteringly sexy).

[Vienemen]

In regards to insightful reflexes, with a 36 Int, reflex is my highest save. Its like +13 to my base class adjustment or something with that feat. I used to have a 20 dex before the feat, and that was with sticking a few points into it at creation...even with your +2 from drow you would be far off from from where you would be with it. If I were to suggest a feat to skip on since your not human it would be quicken right now...I got that for the Abbot (and we dont run that much right now). I suppose you could pass both up and go for a school focus...cause dont get me wrong, had I room I would add them all, just that there are higher priorities. Necro, Enchant, Conjuration, and Abjur would be some of my first choices.

[Jesen]

Having built a nuker/instakill sorc and got him to cap, I decided to build myself a drow pure wiz (maxed int/con, 8 wis, everything else average). Quite a different experience and quite enjoyable but with the surplus of feats, the danger is I'm going to build a wiz that does a little bit of everything, but no one thing well. To that end I'm probably gonna go either cc enchanter (with school focus and gtr school focus and heighten on all the time) or debuffer necromancer (with the same feats), with the reasoning that these schools give the most bang for the buck.

Got a couple of questions for you wiz experts out there...

1. Any opinions on which of the schools is the better? Any other schools I schould consider specialising in? Abjuration is good for dismissal and banishment but thats about it. Conjuration is pretty lame.
   I would recommend Necromacy or Enchantment, both have solid spells.
   
2. I have a ton of skill points. Enough that I can afford to max out concentration and lavishly put the rest into cross-class. What cross-class skills do wizards favor? Balance, Jump, UMD, Diplo?
   Spot is helpful to see hidden mobs, Balance is great plenty of mobs try to trip, Jump you can cast on yourself and its +30 so no need to waste points there. Hide can be useful, keeps aggro off you at the start of a fight. UMD is great if you can get it over 22, otherwise its a waste. As a wizard though you will find you have so many skill points that you will not need them all and you can essentially choose whatever you like.
   
3. On my sorc I had to pay for meta feats with my first born. Now I get them for free.
   
   1. What order do you get your meta feats in? Any you avoid getting (I'm looking at you Eschew Materials!)?
      Start with Extend for buffs, then Empower(Most efficient boost to your damage when needed), Highten, Maximise(Emp/Max firewall is just too good to pass up), then you can pick something that suits your playstyle. For example I will sometimes use Enlarge to CC mobs from safety since alot of CC spells do not draw aggro, or to throw a Finger at that Beholder from a nice safe distance . It is although very situational for me. You can try quicken also if you think you will be in the thick of a fight often and potentially being interrupted(Firewall/Fireball/Cone combo). Otherwise I believe the crucial ones to take as a Wiz are Emp/Max/Highten/Extend everything else is based on playstyle.
      
   2. What other feats are good to pick up? School focus, gtr school focus, mental toughness, imt, spell pen, gtr spell pen?
      As my Wizard is built for CC/Insta kill I swear by Spell Pen Feats and Enhancements(+25 to Spell pen currently on my Wiz) it saves me alot of mana when not needing to recast becuase certain spells(Web, Dancing ball etc.) do have a spell pen check on them so it helps with that. As a wizard both levels of Mental Toughness is pretty crucial as your mana is your usefulness, Insightful Reflex is quite frankly awesome as well.
   
   
4. I'm planning to go acid/electric enhancements for nuking (just for variety). Probably grab energy of scholar and spell pen line as well. Anything else useful? Are the meta improvement ones worth it for a wiz?
   Improve Highten is excellent take 2 levels of it and your level 1 spells cost 14 less SP while hightened when your casting level 8 spells. Improve Empower is also great as Empower is the most efficient way to increase damage without blowing too much SP, and the less SP you can use on that the better. Otherwise make sure you get some Increase damage/Crit chance/Crit multiplier on your Acid/Elec...Crits are like giving you free mana when you get lucky.

Cheers,
trans

Good luck with your Wizard!

[Aesop]

My wizard is big on utility. I actually did something I don't normally suggest with casters and took a second class. I went bard 1 for UMD, Diplo and Cure Wands with no UMD. I could have gone Rogue but honestly I didn't want to. Too many people would think that I was a Rogard and I don't want that. I just want UMD for UMD sake really. Bard also lets me tap a little extra sp from a decent Cha.

Being able to Rez a cleric when there is no one else who can is just plain nice. The problem is a later spell progression and no level 20 Metamagic feat... but I think I made out well enough.

now as to your question

Enchant and Necro are the big ones right now
Diplo is nice to have
UMD is great to have if you can get it to usable levels
Balance is good to have (for when the buthead in your party throws grease in the middle of combat)
I lean towards Maximize,extend,empower,heighten in that order.
Some swear by enlarge and some by Quicken... which is true I dunno... have to judge on your own.
AS a wiz you are shorter on SP then a Sorc so the Improved Meta enhancemnts could be valuable

Vien probably is the best one to reference on this subject though

Aesop

[transtemporal]

Hmmm, some good suggestions there folks. I must say I do like enlarge. I don't use it much on my sorc but boy is it useful to charm-snipe from time to time!

In regards to insightful reflexes, with a 36 Int, reflex is my highest save. Its like +13 to my base class adjustment or something with that feat. I used to have a 20 dex before the feat, and that was with sticking a few points into it at creation...even with your +2 from drow you would be far off from from where you would be with it.

Sorry Vienemen, not sure if I'm following you there. Are you suggesting I pick up insightful reflexes or no? At 16th, with a theoretical max Int of 39 (+14), +5 base reflex save and a +5 resistance ring I'd be looking at a +24 reflex save. Is that sufficient for end game reflex saves?

My sorc has an abyssmal reflex save and is guaranteed to fail every time so isn't really a great measure. Then again, I can count the times hes had to make a reflex save recently on one hand... and each time, hes died (**** blade barriers), but hey.

[coolpenguin410]

I built an drow enchanter wizard (named Enchantre) mostly for Charms, but he's great with other crowd control. I specifically avoided Maximize and Empower. I like taking the road less traveled (I hardly ever prep firewall anymore). With SF, GSF, and an enchantment item, you'll find that you'll rarely need highten for your enchantments. I mostly use it when I need that curse (and some other spells) to land on a boss. I can't recall all the feats I took, but I have SF Necro and am planning on picking up GSF Necro at level 18 when the cap goes up.

Most of my meta-magics are strictly situational.

Highten: Non-enchantments or when that one spell MUST land
Extend: Mostly for haste or when soloing
Enlarge: Sniping, great for beholders and soloing.
Quicken: Fast and furious casting. When I get interupted too much.

I cast a lot of debuffs too. Even a red name isn't much of a threat when he's got Curse, Crushing Despaire, Ray of Exhaution, Ray of Enfeeblment, Waves of Exhaution, Symbol of Weakness and Slow.

[Vienemen]

Sorry Vienemen, not sure if I'm following you there. Are you suggesting I pick up insightful reflexes or no? At 16th, with a theoretical max Int of 39 (+14), +5 base reflex save and a +5 resistance ring I'd be looking at a +24 reflex save. Is that sufficient for end game reflex saves?

The way your second post sounded to me when I read it was that you were not planning to pick up insightful reflexes, perhaps due to the bonus dex a drow gets or lack of feats. I was just pointing out the fact that even with higher base dex from race, the feat still puts me way above where you would be without it. But from what you just wrote above it looks like you had planned to take it all along and I misread your post. If lack f feats is the issue I would drop quicken instead of missing out on insightful reflexes...specially end game. +24 unbuffed is solid for reflex.

[transtemporal]

The way your second post sounded to me when I read it was that you were not planning to pick up insightful reflexes, perhaps due to the bonus dex a drow gets or lack of feats. I was just pointing out the fact that even with higher base dex from race, the feat still puts me way above where you would be without it. But from what you just wrote above it looks like you had planned to take it all along and I misread your post. If lack f feats is the issue I would drop quicken instead of missing out on insightful reflexes...specially end game. +24 unbuffed is solid for reflex.

Hmmm, thanks Vienemen. My second post did kinda sound like that huh? Especially the "except for insightful reflexes" part.

Might pick up insightful instead of quicken and see how it goes. I seem to cast plenty fast enough. Cheers.

[transtemporal]

I built an drow enchanter wizard (named Enchantre) mostly for Charms, but he's great with other crowd control. I specifically avoided Maximize and Empower. I like taking the road less traveled (I hardly ever prep firewall anymore). With SF, GSF, and an enchantment item, you'll find that you'll rarely need highten for your enchantments. I mostly use it when I need that curse (and some other spells) to land on a boss. I can't recall all the feats I took, but I have SF Necro and am planning on picking up GSF Necro at level 18 when the cap goes up.

Most of my meta-magics are strictly situational.

Highten: Non-enchantments or when that one spell MUST land
Extend: Mostly for haste or when soloing
Enlarge: Sniping, great for beholders and soloing.
Quicken: Fast and furious casting. When I get interupted too much.

I cast a lot of debuffs too. Even a red name isn't much of a threat when he's got Curse, Crushing Despaire, Ray of Exhaution, Ray of Enfeeblment, Waves of Exhaution, Symbol of Weakness and Slow.

Interesting. This is how I originally wanted to build her but because I run her in a static group where there are no other arcanes, I figured I needed a little nuking power.

[Vienemen]

You should still have sufficient nuking power. With max and empower, a greater arcane lore item and superior potency IV, your wall of fires can dish out enough dmg if needed. With a sup pot VI item and the other stuff a disintegrate will do a nice chunk when needed as well. Dmg can be close (even equal) to what a sorc does, its just the frequency and quantity that we lack the ability to match.