I don't get how to play palemasters

[sephiroth1084]

100% the casters that get one shotted by Epic Abishai are those without IR. I cringe at Wizards without IR

Yup.

IR means being able to be out of mass heals in Epic DQ 2 without dying almost instantly.
IR means not dying immediately upon accidentally stumbling into a trap.
IR means being able to get hit by the fire breath on the Epic Abishai Devastator without dying most of the time.
IR means that you are much less likely to die to an untimely AoE from an enemy caster.

[thx.janus]

<snip>

If you are a pure human wizard, you should have 13 feats. My recommendation for a first-lifer (in no particular order):
Maximize
Empower
Heighten
Quicken
Extend
Toughness
Insightful Reflexes
Spell Penetration
Greater Spell Penetration
Necromancy Focus
Greater Necromancy Focus
Mental Toughness
Enchantment Focus

I would suggest to swap mental toughness for greater spell focus enchantment as soon as you can use lich form.
Mental toughness is a prereq for wraith form, but other than that its just a mere 105 SP. the +1 enchant DC will probably save you more sp, because you have to cast at least two spells less, simply because your dc is +1 higher.

Oh, and definitly take both Spell pen feats and all spell pen enhancements. Nothing is worse than waisting SP against a spell resistance. The Magewright Spectactles from the cannith wilderness area are easy to get and have spell pen XI on them. That helps, too

Regarding your int score, a 46 should be reachable:

18 Base
5 level
2 tome
2 capstone
2 ship buff
4 enhancements (human adaptability + wizard)
6 item
2 Lich form
3 exceptional (any ToD ring, doesnt have to be a wizard one with +2 or the epic spyglass, and an epic slot or a dragontouched robe with +1)
2 yugo pot
---
46

Put on a greater necro focus item and a greater enchant focus item (both are craftable shards), and you should be able to hit a 42 necro dc and a 41 enchant dc. If you can also sqeeze an greater conjuration focus in, you can hit a 40 conjuration dc for webs. Webs target one reflex save, which is often very low, even in epics. And, most important, they dont have a spell resistance check.

Getting that gear may take some time, but its not too bad. Should be done in about a month or so.

[Spiffyspiffy]

100% the casters that get one shotted by Epic Abishai are those without IR. I cringe at Wizards without IR

My reflex save is +7, I don't get one shotted. Not that +20 reflex would actually help in epics.

If Toughness weren't required for Lich form, I'd get rid of it on my wizards looong before dumping IR

Meanwhile this guy wants to give up 42-62 (depending on race) hp by giving up Toughness.

Do an experiment. Everytime you're at 50hp for the next month, send me 10k plat. That's your respec fee.

[sephiroth1084]

Meanwhile this guy wants to give up 42-62 (depending on race) hp by giving up Toughness.

Do an experiment. Everytime you're at 50hp for the next month, send me 10k plat. That's your respec fee.

More like, every time I take a reasonable amount of damage on a Reflex save, I'll send you a copper piece. You'll end up with far more plat that way.

Succeeding on your Reflex saves most of the time at endgame is definitely worth much more than 50 HP. I did a pretty good job of surviving the endgame and the first waves of epics on a 280 HP wizard pre-PM, and am sure that I could do much better with the additional gear I have and all the PM bells and whistles at the same amount of HP. As it stands, though, my PM is at around 590 HP when lightly buffed and over 600 when fully buffed. Without Toughness III or a Con +2 item. What's important is that I very rarely die, and when I do it is either due to a huge spike in damage (that would have killed me even with 100 more HP) or due to my being a cocky ass and not paying attention.

Making Reflex saves most of the time has kept me alive far more often than 40 HP has. Also, the Reflex save on a moderately geared wizard can and should be in the mid-30s to the mid-40s.