Melee/Wizard?

[Devilassist]

I have be testing different builds of my own, and have had little go right. If anyone has a good build for the Wizard class, as well as getting it to do good in melee, i would love to know.(I have WF class if you have a build for that)

[Phidius]

My recommendation would be the following:

Casting focused, yet does OK in combat: WF: 17 Wiz/1 Fighter/2 Rog

Melee focused, caster levels for buffing/healing/situational damage: WF: 12 Wiz/6 Ranger/2 Monk

[JeffreyGator]

As a wizard you are a bit less feat constrained than a sorc and so have more capacity to spend feats on melee things.

I like elves for this since they get a bunch of free martial weapons. LongSword, Longbow and rapier and it is easy for them to get the dex needed for TWF. This matters less with master's touch or splashing any melee level.

I also like mixing in rogue levels. For melee you get evasion and +d6+3 damage on sneak attack (which is the non aggro attacking you may want to be doing as a low hp melee type.)

I also like the possibility of a dragon marked halfling for self healing. Maximized (empowered) and +50% potency 8 CLW, 6 CMW and 4 heals is a lot of healing.

[corignis]

My recommendation would be the following:

Casting focused, yet does OK in combat: WF: 17 Wiz/1 Fighter/2 Rog

Hi Phidius,

Would you explain the 1 level of fighter? Is it to get the weapon & armor proficiency plus the extra feat? Is that worth it to loose spell points, spell penetration, and spell duration?

Thanks in advance! =)

Regards,
CorIgnis

[Calebro]

Hi Phidius,

Would you explain the 1 level of fighter? Is it to get the weapon & armor proficiency plus the extra feat? Is that worth it to loose spell points, spell penetration, and spell duration?

Thanks in advance! =)

Regards,
CorIgnis

I'm not Phidius, but I can field that one.
The level of fighter is for weapon & shield proficiencies, a bonus combat feat, a slightly better attack boost, Intimidate as a class skill (in case you wanted it....), and a few helpful enhancements. Even if those enhancements are only first tier, they're still useful to a melee wiz.

Whether or not that gain is worth the loss is up to you. For someone who expects to be in melee, I would personally say that it's worth it.

[Valakai]

I would personally go with 18wiz/2monk or 18wiz/2rog. Both would have insightful reflexes. Max int and all level ups there con 16 and str 14 all others dump stats. THF with glancing blows and power attack. You dont deal nearly the melee dps of dedicated melee but you are primarily a caster with chance to add some melee dps when needed. Evasion with good reflex save is nice and this way you are not far behind the pure casters just lacking the capstone.

Palemaster is pretty nice pcr as it will give you more hp and wraithform for meleeing and lichform for casting.
Warforged would be the obvious choise as you can self heal. (I would still roll a human though I would consider him inferior from min max point of view...just dont like playin a toaster.)

I would rather get the 3rd tier of Pcr then 1 level of fighter here. Especially since we don know what other Pcr will be like.

Get lots of DP clickies.

[Phidius]

I'm not Phidius, but I can field that one.
The level of fighter is for weapon & shield proficiencies, a bonus combat feat, a slightly better attack boost, Intimidate as a class skill (in case you wanted it....), and a few helpful enhancements. Even if those enhancements are only first tier, they're still useful to a melee wiz.

Whether or not that gain is worth the loss is up to you. For someone who expects to be in melee, I would personally say that it's worth it.

Yup. The bonus feat, inherent weapon proficiencies, and Intimidate are my primary reasons, as I've found it difficult to hold aggro with all these mobs being immune to fire.

With full UMD from the rogue levels, this is the most solo/PUG/raid friendly build I can think of.

There's no gain to BaB, as 18 wizard gets a +1 BaB over 17 wizard.

[corignis]

Thanks for the replies.

So the mobs will run away from the firewall unless you intimidate them?

CorIgnis

[captain1z]

As a wizard you are a bit less feat constrained than a sorc and so have more capacity to spend feats on melee things.

.

what he said.

[Calebro]

Thanks for the replies.

So the mobs will run away from the firewall unless you intimidate them?

CorIgnis

Not at all.
Later in the game there are a lot of mobs that are immune to fire, therefore fire spells don't hurt them. If you're not hurting them, you won't have aggro. As most arcanes are fire spec'ed, and constantly resetting your enhancements becomes expensive, having Intimidate at a decent score will help you hold aggro if/when your most potent spells won't do it themselves.
....if you wanted that....
Just another option is all this is.

[corignis]

Ok. Thanks Calebro.

CorIgnis

[Calebro]

Ok. Thanks Calebro.

CorIgnis

Yeah, it's a playstyle choice.
It's not my personal style, but in the right hands it can be very effective, even with a Wiz.

[muncholuncho]

11 wiz 6 ranger 3 rogue wf has been good to me not huge dps or casting power but with ranger lvls and manyshot can be pretty **** nasty have solo'd most anything I want can get 99% of traps and a **** fun pvp build will admit was a better build when 0 con was death (all that trouble,time,plat for dual wop rapiers) but still a fun build.really nice saves too can self buff all to 30+

[Talamus]

I personally play the 2 monk/6 ranger/12 wizard version and it's a very fun build. Weapon finesse all the way with kamas and tempest along with decent ac from the monk levels and dex. Also the monk levels provide evasion and the extra feats to pick up weapon finesse without really losing anything. Also warforged does make a huge difference as the self healing is important as most healers will not heal a caster who is in meleeing.

[corignis]

So for the Wizard 17/ Fighter 1/ Rogue 2. When do you take the fighter level? I would think:

Level 1: Rogue
Level 2: Fighter
Level 3-10ish: Wizard
Level 11ish: Rogue


Rest go to Wizard.

Is that right?

CorIgnis.

[Spell]

If you're going WF
lvl1=Wizard (get that lvl 1 repair spell asap)
lvl2=Fighter (get your wpn prof and start meleeing)

So for the Wizard 17/ Fighter 1/ Rogue 2. When do you take the fighter level? I would think:

Level 1: Rogue
Level 2: Fighter
Level 3-10ish: Wizard
Level 11ish: Rogue


Rest go to Wizard.

Is that right?

CorIgnis.

[Phidius]

So for the Wizard 17/ Fighter 1/ Rogue 2. When do you take the fighter level? I would think:

Level 1: Rogue
Level 2: Fighter
Level 3-10ish: Wizard
Level 11ish: Rogue


Rest go to Wizard.

Is that right?

CorIgnis.

My plan when I TR Precious is to follow this progression:

1: Rogue (4 points into skills including Intimidate)
2-8: Wizard (Wall of Fire)
9: Fighter (first level no wasted skill points - all into Intimidate)
10-13: Wizard (Reconstruct)
14: Rogue (Evasion, catch up skills)
15-20: Wizard

This is putting all level ups into Int, and eating a +1 @ 3rd, and a +2 @7th. You could take the rogue level earlier, and the fighter level later - just make sure you minimize cross-class skill raises.

Not at all.
Later in the game there are a lot of mobs that are immune to fire, therefore fire spells don't hurt them. If you're not hurting them, you won't have aggro. As most arcanes are fire spec'ed, and constantly resetting your enhancements becomes expensive, having Intimidate at a decent score will help you hold aggro if/when your most potent spells won't do it themselves.
....if you wanted that....
Just another option is all this is.

Exactly right. When I'm PUGging, I prefer to have methods to pull aggro to myself to keep the squishier folks safe.

[Samiusbot]

Please keep in mind that Phidius is the man at making builds that are fantastic at level 20, but might be a little harder to play up to 20 then a lot of other builds.

That aside I am thinking of GTing into a fighter level on one of my capped PCs and realigning my stats to allow for a closer alignment to this ideal.

[Carpone]

Isn't Tenser's Transformation a requirement in a wizard melee build, simply from a BAB perspective?

If I was pursuing this playstyle, I'd go THF Warforged for the melee enhancements.

[Phidius]

Well, Gemstone and Stryde were/are late bloomers, but this version of Precious will be a joy to level.