Advice Needed - New Drow Wizard

[Dravik]

I've never played a wizard, or any arcane caster, before. The closest I have is a bard who is a great buffer/CC character. I wanted to see what being an arcane caster was all about so I rolled up a Drow Wizard and have gotten him to level 7 so far. I must say, he's a lot of fun to run but it can also be rather frustrating at times. SP conservation and spell selection have been particularly difficult but I know that these are skills that come with experience so I'm forging on. The fun far outweighs the frustration

I seem to need Empower running to keep things like my Wall of Fire doing decent damage. This seems especially important if I solo as I try to learn what spell combo works best for various situations. I use these solo excursions as learning tools for my wizard. It's more about figuring out his capabilities and limitations than completing the quest. Is there anything I can do to increase spell damage without as severely affecting SP use? In other words, what options do I have for SP conservation? My current build (and future plan) is as follows:

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 3.34
DDO Character Planner Home Page
Level 20 Drow Male
(20 Wizard) 
Hit Points: 204
Spell Points: 1844 
BAB: 10\10\15\20
Fortitude: 8
Reflex: 7
Will: 11
              Starting          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats          Modified Stats
(28 Point)       (Level 1)             (Level 20)
Strength              8                     8
Dexterity            12                    12
Constitution         14                    14
Intelligence         20                    32
Wisdom                8                     8
Charisma             10                    10
Tomes Used
+2 Tome of Intelligence used at level 14 (I figure I should have 1750 favor sometime around here)
 
Level 1
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Mental Toughness
Feat: (Selected) Toughness
Level 3
Feat: (Selected) Empower Spell
Level 5
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Extend Spell
Level 6
Feat: (Selected) Spell Penetration
Level 9
Feat: (Selected) Heighten Spell
Level 10
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Improved Mental Toughness
Level 12
Feat: (Selected) Greater Spell Penetration
Level 15
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Maximize Spell
Feat: (Selected) Toughness
Level 18
Feat: (Selected) Quicken Spell
Level 20
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Spell Focus: Necromancy
 
At level 7 I have the following Enhancements:
Enhancement: Wizard Improved Empowering II
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Wizard Concentration II
Enhancement: Wizard Energy Manipulation II
Enhancement: Wizard Elemental Manipulation III
Enhancement: Wizard Energy of the Scholar II
Enhancement: Wizard Subtle Spellcasting I
Enhancement: Wizard Intelligence I
Enhancement: Wizard Wand Mastery I
 
By level 20 I plan to have the rest of these Enhancements:
Enhancement: Wizard Master of Magic
Enhancement: Wizard Improved Empowering III
Enhancement: Wizard Lineage of Elements III
Enhancement: Wizard Elemental Manipulation IV
Enhancement: Wizard Spell Penetration III
Enhancement: Wizard Energy of the Scholar IV
Enhancement: Wizard Subtle Spellcasting III
Enhancement: Wizard Intelligence III

Am I missing anything in this plan...should I change any Feats around?

I look forward to your comments and advice.

[blitzschlag]

personally i'd swap dex for str and get insightful reflexes for the 2nd toughness feat. reflexing a dbf is imo more worth than the 22 more hp that won't help you in that case

[Dravik]

Thanks for the tip on Insightful Reflexes. I'll definitely add that into the plan!

[sigtrent]

This is a great wizard, but not a good solo character in general. Wizards are good at changing up thier game, damage or CC depending on the quest, and they get enough feats to do both quite well. But... spell points are pretty limited compared to sorcerers.

Here are tactics I'm familiar with that casters use to solo
1. Using charm to have the monsters fight other monsters
2. (easy before DUngeon alert, harder now) gather monsters up to kill more with a single spell. Typically a wizard can run away all day long so you can train stuff through your walls and such.
3. Using stealth to bypass all encounters where fighting is not required to complete the quest. Look for Ghoste's guide, he's the master of this. It can save you a ton of spell points. You may want to reincarnate for stealth skills if you don't have them.
4. Spend gold on consumable scrolls to augment your spell point pool. Sometimes others will gladly give you these for free. If you are patient, they can help somewhat.
5. Take the necro focus at a lower level and get pale master, then use the arcane skeleton summon. At lower levels, if you are patient he does some reasonable damage and costs very little mana and can be summoned over and over when his mana runs out. Again, being patient and taking things slow is required for this to help.

[darkvirus]

personally i'd swap dex for str and get insightful reflexes for the 2nd toughness feat. reflexing a dbf is imo more worth than the 22 more hp that won't help you in that case

I say the same. I know as a drow wiz with the same stats as yours the 8 str is a killer. Even with a +6 str item you can easily be made helpless will enfeeblement.

and if you want more Hp try palemaster. It is fun right now and there are some great changes and spells in the work that will make them great.

[Dravik]

I've read Ghoste's guide...and it sounds like a ton of fun. I have given him some stealth abilities so I hope to try them out soon. Good tips on the rest though.

I hope the 8 Str doesn't hamper me much and I can always reroll or buy a +2 Turbine Tome...I figured a first attempt at a class to be a learning experience anyway. My next attempt will be a better built caster from what I learn with this one. Who knows...I may enjoy it so much that he becomes my first TR