Help with drow rogue/wizard

[svinja]

I want to make a wizard that will have high rogue utility skills. I have never played a wizard or a rogue, so I don't really know much about them in this game.

This is what I've come up with, going on my experience with Neverwinter Nights 2 and common sense:

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Level 20 Lawful Good Drow Male
(2 Rogue \ 18 Wizard) 
Hit Points: 166
Spell Points: 1573 
BAB: 10\10\15\20
Fortitude: 7
Reflex: 18
Will: 14

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats          Modified Stats
(28 Point)       (Level 1)             (Level 20)
Strength              8                     8
Dexterity            10                    10
Constitution         12                    12
Intelligence         20                    28
Wisdom                8                     8
Charisma             16                    16

Tomes Used
+1 Tome of Intelligence used at level 3

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
                 Base Skills         Modified Skills
Skills           (Level 1)            (Level 20)
Balance               4                     4
Bluff                 3                     3
Concentration         3                    24
Diplomacy             7                     7
Disable Device        9                    29
Haggle                7                     7
Heal                 -1                    -1
Hide                  4                     4
Intimidate            3                     3
Jump                  3                     3
Listen               -1                     1
Move Silently         4                     4
Open Lock             4                    24
Perform               n/a                   n/a
Repair                5                    10
Search                9                    26
Spot                  3                    24
Swim                 -1                    -1
Tumble                4                     4
Use Magic Device      7                    29

Level 1 (Rogue)
Feat: (Selected) Toughness
Enhancement: Rogue Skill Boost I
Enhancement: Elven Perception I
Enhancement: Elven Keen Eyes I
Enhancement: Rogue Open Lock I


Level 2 (Wizard)
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Mental Toughness
Enhancement: Rogue Search I
Enhancement: Rogue Spot I
Enhancement: Wizard Elemental Manipulation I
Enhancement: Wizard Energy of the Scholar I


Level 3 (Wizard)
Feat: (Selected) Insightful Reflexes
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Rogue Disable Device I
Enhancement: Wizard Intelligence I


Level 4 (Wizard)
Enhancement: Wizard Lineage of Elements I


Level 5 (Wizard)
Enhancement: Wizard Elemental Manipulation II
Enhancement: Wizard Wand Mastery I


Level 6 (Wizard)
Feat: (Selected) Force of Personality
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Maximize Spell
Enhancement: Wizard Improved Maximizing I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Wizard Lineage of Deadly Elements I
Enhancement: Wizard Spell Penetration I


Level 7 (Wizard)
Enhancement: Wizard Energy of the Scholar II


Level 8 (Wizard)
Enhancement: Wizard Elemental Manipulation III
Enhancement: Wizard Intelligence II


Level 9 (Rogue)
Feat: (Selected) Skill Focus: Use Magic Device
Enhancement: Wizard Lineage of Elements II


Level 10 (Wizard)
Enhancement: Wizard Improved Maximizing II


Level 11 (Wizard)
Enhancement: Wizard Lineage of Deadly Elements II
Enhancement: Wizard Energy of the Scholar III


Level 12 (Wizard)
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Empower Spell
Feat: (Selected) Improved Mental Toughness
Enhancement: Wizard Elemental Manipulation IV


Level 13 (Wizard)
Enhancement: Wizard Lineage of Elements III


Level 14 (Wizard)
Enhancement: Wizard Spell Penetration II


Level 15 (Wizard)
Feat: (Selected) Spell Penetration
Enhancement: Wizard Improved Maximizing III


Level 16 (Wizard)
Enhancement: Wizard Energy of the Scholar IV


Level 17 (Wizard)
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Heighten Spell
Enhancement: Wizard Lineage of Deadly Elements III


Level 18 (Wizard)
Feat: (Selected) Greater Spell Penetration


Level 19 (Wizard)


Level 20 (Wizard)

Leaving 13 AP unused, I'm not sure what to put them in.

1. I don't know whether elemental is good, or I should go force or energy, or more than one of those. I have no idea which spells are good, whether spell crits are good, on which "tree" they are good, or whether they stack with items that provide those bonuses.

2. I'm not sure whether such high search is needed - wizards have the spell for finding things? Or is that not good enough to rely on?

3. The metamagic feats and their enhancements. I'm pretty sure maximize is good, but I have no idea about quicken, empower, heighten and their enhancements. I have 5 feat slots to choose from 6 feats - heighten, quicken, empower, normal+greater penetration, skill focus: UMD. Giving up any of the other feats seems really bad.

4. How important is spell penetration anyway? Should I take more or less of it? I put everything in except for the third enhancement.

5. Should I take spell focus feats?

6. As far as I can tell, there is no feat like "Able learner" that lets you raise cross-class skills 1:1?

Is this any good at all? Any advice is appreciated

[Xyfiel]

1) take fire/cold to IV, others what you can afford.

2) Max search, disable, open, and spot.

3) Drop force of personality, take the other 6.

4) Take all spell pen you can. You will already be down 2 from rogue levels.

5) 1-2 focus feats really help. Depends what you cast the most.

6) No, there isn't.

[tihocan]

Don't forget to take into account your level-ups in Int to plan your skill allocation properly. Max out search, DD, OL, UMD, Concentration. I'm not sure you'll have enough room for spot.
Action Points aren't a big deal, they are easily respecced out. So you can experiment with them.
You can get rid of Force of Personality.
You probably want Spell Pen as L15 feat and Greater Spell Pen as L18 feat.
Not sure you'll have room for the 2 Mental Toughness feats. You should get Extend and Maximize early. Heighten and Empower around L10. Quicken is not a huge deal on a drow unless you can't max out Concentration.
You'll probably be able to switch out SF: UMD at higher levels (once you can reliably get to 39 UMD without it).

[ivar415]

Play to your strengths.
Rogue2 gives you Evasion, but you have no Dex to speak of to actually be good at it.

Also don´t waste your enhancement points on pushing skills.
Go for Wand heightening and the Drow Spell & Enchantment resistances.
Later you can buy an Enhancement wipe and throw Spell Resistance out, but in the early levels (<9) it is pretty handy.

Also pushing Open Lock so much is redundant, as you can get the Knock spell at level 3.
Having a combined Jump skill of 10 and a good Balance skill will help you much more.

BTW usually Wizards taking Rogue levels go for the sneaking Shadow Wizard.
Concentrating on Move Silently and Hide. It sounds like a fun build too.

[tihocan]

Play to your strengths.
Rogue2 gives you Evasion, but you have no Dex to speak of to actually be good at it.

That's because he's relying on Insightful Reflexes.

[ivar415]

Ah, righto. Missed that.

Won´t help him with actual Dex skills, but at least Evasion works as intended. And he seems to go for Wiz-Trapmonkey, instead of the silent approach.

[svinja]

Ah, righto. Missed that.

Won´t help him with actual Dex skills, but at least Evasion works as intended. And he seems to go for Wiz-Trapmonkey, instead of the silent approach.

Yeah, wizard + traps + unlock was my intention. Thanks for the advice guys. Just another question:

"Also pushing Open Lock so much is redundant, as you can get the Knock spell at level 3."

Does this mean I don't need open lock at all, except perhaps a few points at low levels? This would make it MUCH easier to handle my skill points. Does this also work with search / Detect secret doors or that only actually detects doors, and not traps? Do this spells actually work as well as the rogue skills (at least the rogue skills of a 10 dex wizard) or I can't really rely on them?

Also, do the "lore" items stack with the spell crit enhancements? Do people take the enhancements or do they just grab a lore item?

[tihocan]

"Also pushing Open Lock so much is redundant, as you can get the Knock spell at level 3."

Does this mean I don't need open lock at all, except perhaps a few points at low levels? This would make it MUCH easier to handle my skill points. Does this also work with search / Detect secret doors or that only actually detects doors, and not traps? Do this spells actually work as well as the rogue skills (at least the rogue skills of a 10 dex wizard) or I can't really rely on them?

Detect secret doors only works for secret doors, you'll want maxed Search for traps.
Giving up on open locks in favor of knock is viable, but keep in mind you won't be able to open all locks in the game. Some locks are designed not to be knock-able. There is still a good bunch of knock-able locks at high level though. But if you want to get them all.... invest in OL

Also, do the "lore" items stack with the spell crit enhancements? Do people take the enhancements or do they just grab a lore item?

They stack and people use both.

[svinja]

Detect secret doors only works for secret doors, you'll want maxed Search for traps.
Giving up on open locks in favor of knock is viable, but keep in mind you won't be able to open all locks in the game. Some locks are designed not to be knock-able. There is still a good bunch of knock-able locks at high level though. But if you want to get them all.... invest in OL


They stack and people use both.

Thanks, I think I'll just go without open lock, those evil unknockable locks be damned