Solid Human Wiz Build needed

[dunklezhan]

Hi there,

Can anyone link me a good solid human wizard? The strength of humans is their adapatability, and the strength of wizards over sorcerors is the same. Obviously strong DCs & damage output are probably the foundation, and it needs to be reasonably survivable too, but it doesn't need the best damage/DCs that would come from specialising too far. I'd like to be able to switch between nuking and reasonably effective CC or buffing as the situation requires.

Having searched the first few pages of the wizard forum I haven't found anything that isn't either a multiclass or nonhuman.

I have 32pt builds available. Current attempt, loosely following Aranticus' Elven mage (main difference clearly being that mine's a human!) from the Wiki, up to L4 can be seen on myddo here:

http://my.ddo.com/character/argonnessen/anyayna/

Obviously MyDDO is of limited value here (or even generally imho...) as it doesn't cover chosen enhancements (but I tend to build these for the level I'm at and respec as needed), feats or spell lists. I can tell you though that I have Extend, Toughness, Insightful Reflexes and Maximise at this point.

So any ideas/helpful links to a build? Obviously I've been reading the Wizards Handbook thread and a few others, but I'd like the reassurance of a recommended build to check my progress against, even if I don't specifically follow it letter for letter.

Also - is Pale Master actually any good yet? Given it requires a feat and the necromancer flavour it brings, I'm only really interested in going that route if its truly effective without too much extra investment - I like the idea of the attack multiplier of minions, but I never really see myself being a master of eeevil, Darth. Also, I suspect Charisma might be helpful for a summoner type build, and frankly, I've dumped mine.

[Deaths_ward]

Are you entirely unwilling to multiclass? If not then you might try the 18/2 Wizard/Rogue split, the evasion, UMD, and potential trap skills allow you to not only survive, but in some situations pull the party out of a fire with wands, or simply take up double duty as both support (Buffs), and CC in the form of either enchantments or damage.

[dunklezhan]

On this toon I'm unwilling yes - I already have a wiz/rogue. Don't want another one.

[dunklezhan]

As I have said before, I'm an idiot.

Tihocan has already answered this here under Ingenious Sage

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php...34#post2843434

[AZgreentea]

As I have said before, I'm an idiot.

Tihocan has already answered this here under Ingenious Sage

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php...34#post2843434

I love Tihocan's builds. The only other page I have stickied for build ideas is Sigtrents:

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=117232
His page is constantly evolving, so it is worth it to check back to see what he has added.

[hermespan]

Why human?

I have a lvl 18 pure warforged wizard, and he's plenty adaptable and is not feat starved. IMHO if you want to be all you can be as a wizard, go warforged pure wizard. your will saves won't be great as a wizard and a human can be held. Warforged are immune to hold person, sleep, energy drain, nausea, sickness, exhaustion, poison, disease, and paralysis effects.

All of these can ruin your day as a wizard since your str is low, your DC (indeed ability to cast spells) is dependent on level and you can't be energy drained. Ideally you have some constitution and hitpoints.

All of these things immunities can be gotten with items, but only a warforged wizard can get his entire health bar back in one shot with a wizard spell (reconstruct) and there are better things to do with your item slots than fill them with immunity items.

You lose +2 DC by multiclassing at 18/2 and DC is your life in end game as a wizard. +2 DC is HUGE. You are increasing the aggro's chance of not saving 2 with +2 DC. It can mean the difference between a 10% chance of a spell working or 0 chance. Or 10% chance of aggro save or no chance. The actual percentages are much higher than you'd guess. It's not a straight 5% per DC.

I've run elven, human and warforged wizards. WF is by far my favorite. Look up Impaqt's Battlestar build as a starting point. This class couldn't have been better complemented than it is with WF.

[Zachski]

Why human?

I have a lvl 18 pure warforged wizard, and he's plenty adaptable and is not feat starved.

I think you're getting a little stuck on stats there, buddy.

Some people don't want to play as a construct. Simple as that. Others may not have WF at all...

[Deaths_ward]

Why human?

I have a lvl 18 pure warforged wizard, and he's plenty adaptable and is not feat starved. IMHO if you want to be all you can be as a wizard, go warforged pure wizard. your will saves won't be great as a wizard and a human can be held. Warforged are immune to hold person, sleep, energy drain, nausea, sickness, exhaustion, poison, disease, and paralysis effects.

All of these can ruin your day as a wizard since your str is low, your DC (indeed ability to cast spells) is dependent on level and you can't be energy drained. Ideally you have some constitution and hitpoints.

All of these things immunities can be gotten with items, but only a warforged wizard can get his entire health bar back in one shot with a wizard spell (reconstruct) and there are better things to do with your item slots than fill them with immunity items.

You lose +2 DC by multiclassing at 18/2 and DC is your life in end game as a wizard. +2 DC is HUGE. You are increasing the aggro's chance of not saving 2 with +2 DC. It can mean the difference between a 10% chance of a spell working or 0 chance. Or 10% chance of aggro save or no chance. The actual percentages are much higher than you'd guess. It's not a straight 5% per DC.

I've run elven, human and warforged wizards. WF is by far my favorite. Look up Impaqt's Battlestar build as a starting point. This class couldn't have been better complemented than it is with WF.

Except for the +2 Intelligence capstone (which is only 1 DC) the 18/2 has just as much intel, and that's only 1 DC, and I was just suggesting the 18/2 for survivability as a human.

If you're dead set on 20 Wizard as a human, you'll probably want to max INT and take at least 14 Con, 15 if you've got a +1/+3 Tome that you can pass along. The bane of your existence as a pure wizard at higher levels is going to be the creatures that are doing upward of 30 points of damage before any chance to crit is garnered.

You'll also definitely want a Shroud item (I recommend goggles on a wizzy) that bumps up SP so you can live in a permanent state of Stone Skin and Blur. Your real ability to survive is going to come from gear, and damage mitigation spells.

As far as CC is concerned, the maxed INT will bump Save DC's, and at higher levels your spell pen, and DC's should be high enough to tag all but the most healthy creatures at least some of the time with effects like Finger of Death, and Wail of the Banshee, but all of this is just from my personal experience.

[dunklezhan]

I think you're getting a little stuck on stats there, buddy.

Some people don't want to play as a construct. Simple as that. Others may not have WF at all...

Answer in bold.

I dont like WF enough to buy them. Simple as that. I don't dislike them, I just don't like them enough. I appreciate the self healing option and the immunities, I really do. But like I said in the OP, I actually actively am not looking for optimal, I want a good, adaptable all rounder.

That's not to say a WF couldn't do it, but I don't want to be wholly self reliant. The classic AD&D wizard needs minions- uh, willing dupe- um... team mates to help with stuff. And a WF then has to spend the relevant APs in order to benefit from healing from the party clerics, otherwise you're spending your spell points on healing when you should be spending them bending reality to your will and messing with powers mortal beings were not meant to wot of. And player-character wizards tend to wot like you've never seen...

Yes, if I wanted the most optimal wizard possible I certainly would go WF. If I wanted one of the most adaptable builds in the game with arcane magic I'd probably go WF wiz/rogue 18/2. But I don't. I want to play a bog standard, human wizard.

If it was good enough for Elminster, its good enough for me.