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HMS Invincible
2009-04-13, 05:10 AM
Wasn't there a feat that says spell attacks against allies take a -5 penalty? Can anyone tell me the source and name of this feat, I know I've seen it somewhere...

In addition, I'm pretty sure this is a paragon feat. Besides this feat, how should a wizard minimize collateral damage(allies)? Should we plan out resistances so that wizards deal damage only at party members who are resistant to fire/cold/thunder? My party always gets into the thick of things, and I can never fire off a good blast or burst without incinerating my allies. Otherwise, I end up hitting 1 or 2 guys or doing nothing. Ideas?

Burley
2009-04-13, 06:31 AM
I do believe it is the War Wizard feat from Forgotten Realms. I also am fairly sure it is an Epic tier feat.

The best way to minimize collateral damage is to make sure your party doesn't stay all bunched up together. Remember, if you have an area attack, the enemy will probably have two and an aura.

Izmir Stinger
2009-04-13, 08:53 AM
I do believe it is the War Wizard feat from Forgotten Realms. I also am fairly sure it is an Epic tier feat.

It is called War Wizardry and it is Paragon. In the Epic Tier wizards can take Spell Accuracy that just lets them exempt a number of sqaures from the effect equal to their WIS modifier. Despite it's name, War Wizardry is not just for wizards.

As far as not scorching your allies, a little coordination goes a long way. For Area Burst 1 effects (the most common size) just having them shift away from what you intend to be the center of the burst after they attack will get everyone out of the way. Burst 2 and larger are more difficult.

The main thing is not to feel bad about it. They have more HP than you for a reason.

Awesomologist
2009-04-13, 10:35 AM
Wasn't there a feat that says spell attacks against allies take a -5 penalty? Can anyone tell me the source and name of this feat, I know I've seen it somewhere...

In addition, I'm pretty sure this is a paragon feat. Besides this feat, how should a wizard minimize collateral damage(allies)? Should we plan out resistances so that wizards deal damage only at party members who are resistant to fire/cold/thunder? My party always gets into the thick of things, and I can never fire off a good blast or burst without incinerating my allies. Otherwise, I end up hitting 1 or 2 guys or doing nothing. Ideas?

This is the problem we've had with the wizard from day one. Everyone always says "move around" or "work to your wizard's strengths" which many times don't work. First of all no party should be forced to play towards one character's strengths, they should work towards ALL character strengths. No wizard want to be stuck casting Magic Missile (or whatever your single target at-will is) every round. I suggest the following two options:
1) Ditch your large area spells until Paragon or Epic and instead pick up walls, small area spells, or summons/conjurations. The problem is that many of the good ones are dailies and at best you'll only ever have 4 of those.
2) Play an invoker or druid. Sure the spells don't do as much damage sometimes but the area spells are of manageable size and many don't affect allies (or they give allies a buff!).

Lapak
2009-04-13, 12:51 PM
I haven't been playing 4e all that long - my wizard is only level 3 - but so far I've dealt with positioning issues by firing off the largest-in-area attacks first as much as that's feasible. If I think I'm going to burn Color Spray or Sleep at all during the encounter, that's the first thing I'm going to use before the battle lines start to break down. It doesn't work in full-out ambushes, but other than that there's often at least a round where they are mostly over THERE and we are mostly over HERE. After battle is joined, it's easier to work in the burst 1s and blast 3s - you may not be able to tag a lot of bad guys, but you can probably get one or two without hurting anyone on your own side.

Also, if your first shot slows or incapacitates more than one of your enemies, you're more likely to set yourself up for a followup strike in the next round. My group tends to fight in pretty close formation most of the time, so any outlying monsters - whether they're there by choice or not - can be blasted with impunity. So 'go big early' seems to be a generally good idea for wizards.