Need help with a 1st time wizard.

[Edyit76]

Hi, I'm looking to start a wizard and to be honest i have absolutly no idea how to go about it. My main character that I run is a lvl 13 cleric and i'm considering reincarnating to a wizard. Untill then I have Vet status and 32 point build to make a wizard to get the feal for it. I've gone through the forum here a few times but theres just way to much to take in and go through to get what I'm looking for.

So a few questions I have are
1. Race, I'm leaning towards Elf (extra mp enhancement)
2. Build, I usually go custom but i kept seeing something about a pale master build, are there any other special builds like this?
3. Starting Stats, Int for obvious reasons, what else though?
4. Feats. Mental toughness is a given I'd say but what else to pick?

[Kriogen]

Warforged race is very popular. Reasons:
- Wizards can cast Repair/Reconstruct. As you are WF, you can selfrepair just as Cleric
- WFs get +2 Con bonus and extra +2 Con enhancements and higher HP enhancements. For a class that gets only 4 HP/level this is big
- WFs are immune vs some annoying things like Level Drain

Elf is *not* the best option for a Wizard. It's kinda funny. Why:
- WF more durable and can selfrepair
- Human gets extra feat, better Con/HP and can take extra +1 Int enhancement. Human Improved Recovery also helps
- Drow is the only race that can start with Int 20. Great for spell DC
- Halflings can take healing Dragonmarks (works great with Max/Empower), have better Con then Elf, will have better saves
- Dwarf get getter Con/HP

First feat: Toughness.

Stats: Int primary, then Con. The rest as you wish.

Skills: max Concentration and UMD

[captain1z]

So a few questions I have are
1. Race, I'm leaning towards Elf (extra mp enhancement)
2. Build, I usually go custom but i kept seeing something about a pale master build, are there any other special builds like this?
3. Starting Stats, Int for obvious reasons, what else though?
4. Feats. Mental toughness is a given I'd say but what else to pick?

1- Race you can play with:

Human- very flexible stat-wise, make nice balanced casters and they get a free feat.
drow- Higher Int, lower con, higher dex. The advantages are obvious
elf- Arcane Archer wizard elf with some bonus sp via enhancements. Nuff said
warforged- self healing, 300+ hps easy. A warforged caster is a like a cleric and wizard in one
dwarf- High hp advantage, more sp via enhancements
halfling- with the dragon marks you get free heals with maximize and empower virtually free also

2- check wizzy forum for build ideas

3- starting stats are obviously High Int. After that there are 2 schools of thought

option A) High Dex (or Insightful reflexes but very high dex may not need) to take half damage (or evasion if u splash) from area effects

or

option B) High con to absorb the damage or insightful reflexes still an option

4- all the metamagic feats including mental toughness and improved mental toughness can be taken as part of the class granted feats. At 1,5,10,15,20 you can choose

Best: maximize,empower,extend,heighten, mental toughness

2nd choices: quicken, improved mental toughness, spell focus

situational: enlarge spell (Mrcow likes it)

mostly useless: eschew materials

this leaves your character feats at 1,3,6,9,12,15,18 totally freed up

think about picking up some of the secondary metamagic feats, toughness maybe, Insightful reflexes maybe and season the rest with your own flavor.


Some points in str is good, 12 is perfect so u dont get enfeebled too often or have carry load issues. Charisma of like 12 only if u plan on having UMD (most sorcerers do, most wizards do not) If you dont put points in charisma then 12 in wisdom is ok also but for the most part you dont really need wisdom or charisma or more than 12 in strength. Int primary then flip a coin on dex/con or balance them out your choice.


look into pale master pre-reqs tomorrow as they will be the flavor of the month but I wouldnt roll anything until friday...... give the dust time to settle and hear some feedback.

Good Luck to you.

[sephiroth1084]

Race:

Don't go elf. The extra SP you can get with enhancements isn't really worth it, and elves take a hit to a wizard's second most important stat, Con, without giving you anything in return.

The 3 best races for wizards are:
Warforged for the self-healing via repair/reconstruct spells, wands and scrolls, and because they boost your Con and have better racial Toughness enhancements. Many people go this route for the extra survivability.

Drow have the highest potential DC for wizards (and sorcs, and bards). They take a hit to their Con, but the Int can make it worthwhile.

Humans have the second highest potential DC (they are either tied with drow, or one bracket behind them depending on equipment--this fluctuates a lot), they don't take a hit to Con, can boost their Con a little, have access to better Toughness than the drow, and the extra skill point and bonus feat are nice.

I have both a drow wizard (20) and a WF wizard (2 rogue/13 wizard currently). Both have their draws, and it kinda comes down to preference.

Halflings are also a decent choice, I'm told, for the Dragonmarks, but they don't actually give you anything, so WF is a better option. Same reason you don't see many dwarven wizards running around--WF give you the same benefit and then some (and a LOT of some), while the dwarf doesn't give you anything.
------------------------------------------------
Build:

The Pale Master is a prestige enhancement coming out for wizards in the next update (in a few hours). There has been a lot of debate about its usefulness, and it has gone through some changes. I'm not sure how it will end up in terms of usefulness, but in the last iteration I was familiar with, it was absolutely not worth bothering with. Irrespective of how it looks now, as an enhancement, you should be able to respec for it fairly easily if you decide you'd like to try it out.

So, build-wise, going straight wizard is really the most solid choice, while mixing in 2 levels of rogue can be interesting. Some people like designing their wizards for melee, and perhaps one of them will pop on here, but I'm not a fan. At end game, I can wade into battle with a Dreamspitter and do alright some of the time without any focus devoted toward physical combat, and that's sufficient for my tastes.
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Stats:
The most important (really only important) stats on a Wizard are Int and Con, in that order. A starting 10 Str is not a bad idea to beef up your carrying capacity and to serve as a buffer against being enfeebled into helplessness, but isn't necessary. Unless you intend to be a stealthy wizard, Dex is a dump stat, and unless UMD becomes necessary for making Pale Master worthwhile, Cha is a dump stat. You don't need Wis either, really, as you have a good Will save progression.

It is therefore entirely reasonable to go 16 Con/20 Int (drow), 20 Con/18 Int (WF), 18/18 (human). One a WF or human I might consider dropping Con by one bracket to boost something else by a few points (Str probably), but that is more a matter of personal taste than anything.
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Feats:
Feats... The real staples are Extend, Maximize, Empower, Heighten (not before level 10), Insightful Reflexes (to give you a really solid Reflex save), Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration. That leaves you with 5 or 6 more feats depending upon your race. Toughness is a good choice; Mental Toughness and the Improved version are really good early on, but probably worth replacing (at least Improved) with something else later. Quicken is a useful spell to have endgame, but isn't necessary. Spell Focus: Necromancy or Enchantment is worth picking up eventually as well.

Ultimately, you have a lot of feats on a wizard, so you can spend a couple of things that are only rarely useful, but are very good when those situations in which the feats are really useful.

[sephiroth1084]

To add a little more...

Skills:-Concentration is your only must-have skill. Keep this maxed, and try to get decent Concentration items as you level. If you lean on Quicken, this becomes less necessary, but it can get really expensive to leave Quicken on all the time.
-I recommend Spot (for seeing sneaky monsters, not to spot traps) and Balance as possible secondary skills, then whatever else you want.

You could go with Hide and Move Silently if you want to try being stealthy, UMD if you want to be able to equip race restricted gear (with your low Cha and cross-classing this, you're likely not going to get a significant enough score for important stuff like using Heal and Raise scrolls), Jump is worth getting up to about 8-10 ranks, Swim can be convenient for getting around aquatic areas more quickly...

-Repair is kind of nice if you're WF for more HP back at shrines, but pretty useless overall.

Remember that you will need to purchase many of your spells as you level in order to scribe them. Check this list for spells that cannot be purchased. You can scribe spells even if you can't cast them yet, so feel free to collect and send down level 7, 8 and 9 scrolls to scribe from your higher level cleric, along with the funds or inscription materials to do so. You get 2 free spells added to your spell book each level, so if you miss a spell or two that cannot be purchased, you'll have another shot at them the next time you level up.

[Edyit76]

ok so i messed around a bit and went with a warforged (able to self heal in a pinch and immunities) started off with
10ST
8DX
18Con
18Int
8Wis
8Char

toughness and mental toughness and insightfull reflexes. so far i gotta say i'm liking it a lot, any other tips though are always appreciated.

[captain1z]

ok so i messed around a bit and went with a warforged (able to self heal in a pinch and immunities) started off with
10ST
8DX
18Con
18Int
8Wis
8Char

toughness and mental toughness and insightfull reflexes. so far i gotta say i'm liking it a lot, any other tips though are always appreciated.

When you are able to cast reconstruct I would drop all lower level repair spells.

max and empowered repair critical costs you about 65 sp and repairs about 125 hps - about that - and about 50 normally for 25 sp

max and empowered reconstruct repairs about 150 hp at the cost of 35 sp and hastes 1 wf for 30secs. W/o max and empower it costs you 35 sp and repairs about 150 hp plus the haste boost.

Its the most efficient use of your sp.

[sephiroth1084]

What captain said, except that I'd probably not bother preparing Repair spells at all. Wands of Repair Light-->Critical should be sufficient until you can start using Reconstruct scrolls and then actually casting Reconstruct (worth keeping scrolls and a wand or two even after that point).

[Modinator0]

one thing no one ever seems ot touch on is spell use.. I'm still a bit lost on early wizard leveling with spells... none of the level 1 damage spells seem to do much damage except the ice ray, and that gets saved against a lot... Do you guys just take buff spells and melee to the good levels? or is there somethign I'm missing?

[sephiroth1084]

one thing no one ever seems ot touch on is spell use.. I'm still a bit lost on early wizard leveling with spells... none of the level 1 damage spells seem to do much damage except the ice ray, and that gets saved against a lot... Do you guys just take buff spells and melee to the good levels? or is there somethign I'm missing?

The damage spells are almost worthless unless you have a Superior Potency item of the applicable level/type and occasionally either Empower or Maximize. My first wizard took Empower early, but didn't use it much, and my newer wiz took Maximize first, but again only occasionally bothered with it.

I tend to focus mostly on crowd control until I obtain Wall of Fire. Usually carry either Magic Missile or Burning Hands, Hypnotism, Charm Person, Ray of Enfeeblement as lvl 1 spells, then Web, Otto's and Scorching Ray (get's a bit better at 7, and much better at 11 when you can start one-shotting a lot of things) for 2nd. For 3rd lvl spells, Fireball (or I suppose Acid Blast now) just because it's fun, Haste, Hold Person, Suggestion (great spell!).

That's kind of rough. Ultimately, you're a wizard; try to acquire all the spells you can, and figure out what works for you and what doesn't.

Everything changes once you acquire firewall, though.