First Time Wiz (Help Appreciated)

[slothi]

Hey there,

this is probably the 1000 thread about how to build a wf wiz/rog, so I'm sorry for asking the 1001th time.

I have a level 20 monk and want to start a caster toon now. Can someone provide an up to date build or link to a build for a good endgame stuff farmer? (32 pt build)

Would be great if someone can help me out.

[Simplesimon1979]

At least with epics in there current form having necromancy as your main focus and ether conjuration for web or enchantment for hold/disco. Max INT/CON then ether STR or CHA for UMD.

If WF probaly acrhmage otherwise human PM

[Cardtrick]

Are you dead-set on wiz/rogue? On a first-life build, and especially if it's your first arcane, I think a pure wizard is much better while leveling. Delaying your big spells by one or two levels can lead to some painful leveling spots (a level 8 or 9 wizard without firewall is going to struggle in at-level/Bravery elites, as is a level 13/14 without Disco Ball/Finger of Death or a level 17/18 one without Wail/MHM).

If you don't mind going pure, and you still want warforged, here's my take on a Necro/Conj archmage (with other options below):

Here's an example warforged pure wizard archmage, main focus in necromancy with secondary focus in conjuration and the Web SLA (but no Necro SLAs -- I think the SP is more valuable).

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 03.11.02
DDO Character Planner Home Page

Warforged Archmage
Level 20 True Neutral Warforged Male
(20 Wizard) 
Hit Points: 272
Spell Points: 1910 
BAB: 10\10\15\20
Fortitude: 12
Reflex: 16
Will: 10

                  Starting            Ending          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats         Base Stats         Modified Stats
(32 Point)       (Level 1)          (Level 20)           (Level 20)
Strength             14                 14                   14
Dexterity             8                  8                    8
Constitution         18                 20                   22
Intelligence         18                 25                   30
Wisdom                6                  6                    6
Charisma              6                  6                    6

Tomes Used
+1 Tome of Intelligence used at level 3
+2 Tome of Constitution used at level 7
+2 Tome of Intelligence used at level 7

                  Starting            Ending          Feat/Enhancement
                 Base Skills        Base Skills        Modified Skills
Skills           (Level 1)          (Level 20)          (Level 20)
Balance               1                 10                   10
Bluff                -2                 -2                   -2
Concentration         8                 29                   33
Diplomacy            -2                  9                    9
Disable Device        n/a              n/a                   n/a
Haggle               -2                  1                    1
Heal                 -2                 -2                   -2
Hide                 -1                 -1                   -1
Intimidate           -2                 -2                   -2
Jump                  4                 12                   12
Listen               -2                 -2                   -2
Move Silently        -1                 10                   10
Open Lock            n/a               n/a                   n/a
Perform              n/a               n/a                   n/a
Repair                4                 10                   10
Search                4                 10                   10
Spot                  0                  9                    9
Swim                  2                  2                    2
Tumble                1                  1                    1
Use Magic Device      0                  9                    9

Level 1 (Wizard)
Skill: Balance (+2)
Skill: Concentration (+4)
Skill: Jump (+2)
Skill: Spot (+2)
Skill: Tumble (+2)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+2)
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Extend Spell
Feat: (Selected) Toughness


Level 2 (Wizard)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Move Silently (+2)


Level 3 (Wizard)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Mental Toughness


Level 4 (Wizard)
Ability Raise: INT
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Move Silently (+1)
Skill: Spot (+1)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)


Level 5 (Wizard)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Spell Focus: Necromancy


Level 6 (Wizard)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Diplomacy (+1)
Skill: Move Silently (+1)
Skill: Spot (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Maximize Spell
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Improved Concentration I
Enhancement: Improved Concentration II
Enhancement: Acid Manipulation I
Enhancement: Frost Manipulation I
Enhancement: Storm Manipulation I
Enhancement: Force Manipulation I
Enhancement: Repair Manipulation I
Enhancement: Wizard Energy of the Scholar I
Enhancement: Wizard Energy of the Scholar II
Enhancement: Wizard Intelligence I
Enhancement: Wizard Wand and Scroll Mastery I
Enhancement: Warforged Constitution I
Enhancement: Warforged Healer's Friend I
Enhancement: Warforged Inscribed Armor I
Enhancement: Wizard Archmage I
Enhancement: Archmage Spell Mastery I: Necromancy


Level 7 (Wizard)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Spot (+1)


Level 8 (Wizard)
Ability Raise: INT
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Diplomacy (+1)
Skill: Move Silently (+1)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)


Level 9 (Wizard)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Spot (+1)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Insightful Reflexes


Level 10 (Wizard)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Diplomacy (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Move Silently (+1)
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Spell Focus: Conjuration


Level 11 (Wizard)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)


Level 12 (Wizard)
Ability Raise: INT
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Diplomacy (+1)
Skill: Move Silently (+1)
Skill: Spot (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Improved Concentration III
Enhancement: Glacial Spellcasting I
Enhancement: Deadly Ice I
Enhancement: Frost Manipulation II
Enhancement: Frost Manipulation III
Enhancement: Frost Manipulation IV
Enhancement: Wizard Energy of the Scholar III
Enhancement: Wizard Intelligence II
Enhancement: Warforged Constitution II
Enhancement: Wizard Archmage II
Enhancement: Wizard Archmage III
Enhancement: Archmage Secondary Spell Mastery I: Conjuration
Enhancement: Conjuration I - Grease
Enhancement: Conjuration II - Web


Level 13 (Wizard)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)


Level 14 (Wizard)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Diplomacy (+1)
Skill: Move Silently (+1)
Skill: Spot (+1)


Level 15 (Wizard)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Spot (+1)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Quicken Spell
Feat: (Selected) Spell Penetration


Level 16 (Wizard)
Ability Raise: INT
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Diplomacy (+3)
Skill: Move Silently (+1)


Level 17 (Wizard)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Spot (+1)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)


Level 18 (Wizard)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Diplomacy (+2)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Move Silently (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Heighten Spell
Enhancement: Racial Toughness III
Enhancement: Improved Concentration IV
Enhancement: Frost Manipulation V
Enhancement: Frost Manipulation VI
Enhancement: Frost Manipulation VII
Enhancement: Wizard Spell Penetration I
Enhancement: Wizard Energy of the Scholar IV
Enhancement: Wizard Intelligence III
Enhancement: Wizard Wand and Scroll Mastery II
Enhancement: Wizard Archmage IV
Enhancement: Wizard Archmage V
Enhancement: Archmage Spell Mastery II: Necromancy


Level 19 (Wizard)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Diplomacy (+1)
Skill: Spot (+1)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)


Level 20 (Wizard)
Ability Raise: INT
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Haggle (+3)
Skill: Move Silently (+1)
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Empower Spell
Enhancement: Wizard Master of Magic
Enhancement: Wizard Improved Maximizing I
Enhancement: Wizard Spell Penetration II

Feat order:

There are some things there you may want to change. I wait until 20 to take Empower, for instance -- depending on playstyle, you may want that earlier. (Personally, I usually keep it turned off -- just too expensive most of the time.)

Feat alternatives/swaps

There are 2 important feats that are missing: Greater Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Focus: Conjuration. There are also two obvious candidates for a swap: Extend and Insightful Reflexes. Personally, I find Extend invaluable at low levels, but much less so at cap. I would almost certainly swap Extend out for Greater Spell Penetration at high level.

A lot of people don't much care for Insightful Reflexes, but for me the survivability of a high reflex save is more valuable than +1 DC on Web. I would keep that one. But, if you disagree, then you could take Greater Spell Focus: Conjuration in place of Insightful Reflexes (actually, due to the order, you'd need to take GSF: Necromancy in place of Insightful Reflexes, and then take GSF: Conjuration in place of GSF:Necromancy at level 12).

Enhancement Alternatives

This is wide open, and you should change this around a lot as you level. It's easy and nearly free, and the best options are different at different levels. The ones I've listed are intended as endgame options. You will certainly want points in fire at the mid levels for the glorious hey day of wall of fire.

Even at end game, there's room to change stuff around. For example, I didn't take any Necromancy SLAs, preferring the extra SP. The levels 4 and 5 SLAs are quite nice (Enervation and Waves of Fatigue), but I don't think they're worth the 375 SP cost -- you may feel differently, and that's totally fine.

On the other hand, I don't know how much I care about the 75 SP from Archmage V -- I might suggest dropping it, in which case you can also drop Energy of the Scholar IV and Improved Concentration IV. That's a total cost of 105 SP and a savings of 6 AP, which you could then use to significantly spec into a second elemental line (acid, probably, to take advantage of your high Conjuration DC) or one of the reduced SP metamagic lines, or 3 tiers of Subtle Spellcasting, if you're having aggro problems.

Other types of archmage

You'll want to change this if you go for a different type of archmage. For enchantment, it's pretty much as simple as swapping Necro for Enchantment in the spell focuses (and probably swapping conjuration for necro -- instant killing is so nice that an enchantment/necro archmage is a lot more appealing than an enchantment/conjuration or enchantment/evocation).

For evocation, it's more significant. You'll play this more like a lower-DPS, more versatile sorcerer. Enhancements will be significantly different, and you'll probably want more investment in the force line, and maybe even a third line. You'll care much less about spell penetration, and much more about damage. You'll have to swap your necro spell focuses to evocation, but your secondary should probably still be conjuration -- heightened web is really nice and doesn't depend on spell pen. You'll want to take Empower much earlier than I did -- it's an expensive metamagic for most standard spells, but a virtually essential one for evocation SLAs. You might consider dropping Spell Penetration entirely. You'll almost certainly want to take the arcane bolt/blast SLAs, along with the evocation ones (at least up to tier 3). (I should reiterate one more time: currently an evocation archmage is not nearly as strong a DPS choice as a savant sorcerer. It's an option, but not the strongest one available to you.)