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DWXXV
2010-10-21, 07:20 PM
Im relatively new to actually playing D&D, and so far I have only played stabbity types.

I decided I want to branch out and play a wizard, but theirs a twist.
For flavor reasons i'm playing a warforged and I dont know if that will make this more difficult.
Std WBL and 32 point buy.
What should i do?

holywhippet
2010-10-21, 07:27 PM
The only reason a race would be harder to use as a wizard would be if they had something about them hindering them. AFAIK, warforged don't have any such problem (I've not studied the Eberron setting though). It would really only be a problem if they had an INT penalty. Otherwise they'd be about as good as most other races as a wizard.

Kylarra
2010-10-21, 07:32 PM
The only reason a race would be harder to use as a wizard would be if they had something about them hindering them. AFAIK, warforged don't have any such problem (I've not studied the Eberron setting though). It would really only be a problem if they had an INT penalty. Otherwise they'd be about as good as most other races as a wizard.
Warforged do have a 5% ASF penalty due to their built in armor actually, which means you'll either need to blow a feat for unarmored body, or look into one of many ways to reduce ASF.

Ranger Mattos
2010-10-21, 07:33 PM
The problem I can think of is that the armor they automatically have has a 5% Arcane Failure Chance. But that can be taken away with a feat (Unarmored, I think it's called?)

Edit: Durned ninjas. But I gave a solution!

mootoall
2010-10-21, 07:34 PM
Or you could have your armor made of mithral, thereby making the ASF chance 0.

Kylarra
2010-10-21, 07:36 PM
Or you could have your armor made of mithral, thereby making the ASF chance 0.The Mithral Body feat actually increases your ASF IIRC. :smalltongue:

jiriku
2010-10-21, 07:37 PM
Logicninja's Guide to Being Batman (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=104002&highlight=Logic+Ninja%27s+Guide)

Treantmonk's Guide to Being God (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19873034/Treantmonks_guide_to_Wizards:_Being_a_God)

There. That oughta do ya. :smallsmile:

Urpriest
2010-10-21, 07:38 PM
Or you could have your armor made of mithral, thereby making the ASF chance 0.

False. Mithral Body gives 15% ASF.

mootoall
2010-10-21, 07:41 PM
False. Mithral Body gives 15% ASF.

Lolwut? That ... that sucks. A lot. Can you give your inherent armor the Twilight enchantment?

jiriku
2010-10-21, 07:47 PM
I don't see why not. You can enchant it with anything else, after all.

Of course, you'll have to watch a lot of your spells fizzle until you get to the level where you can afford the enchant.

mootoall
2010-10-21, 07:52 PM
Not a lot. Only as many as the fighter fumbles an attack!

Andion Isurand
2010-10-22, 02:26 AM
Perhaps you can find a way to outfit your warforged with the Caster Armor quality from Dragon Magazine 358 pg 39

Temotei
2010-10-22, 02:29 AM
If you're allowed homebrew, twilight touch (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9239064&postcount=1) could get you what you want. Take Precocious Apprentice if you want it right away.

Runestar
2010-10-22, 02:38 AM
Warforged is actually a fairly good race for a wizard.

Slap on the dragonborn template, which removes the composite plating. You now have +4con, which is always nice for a wizard. If you have the feats to spare, take endurance followed by steadfast determination (PHB2), thus allowing you to dump wis.

Eloel
2010-10-22, 02:44 AM
You could blow a feat on Unarmored Body, to get rid of the ASF.


Warforged is actually a fairly good race for a wizard.

Slap on the dragonborn template, which removes the composite plating. You now have +4con, which is always nice for a wizard. If you have the feats to spare, take endurance followed by steadfast determination (PHB2), thus allowing you to dump wis.
If you're turning Dragonborn, Warforged is pointless. You have -2 Wis over a Dwarf, for nothing. You're not even a construct anymore, though you can be harmed by stuff that harm a construct.
Really, Dragonborn subtracts more than you'd want from a Warforged.

Runestar
2010-10-22, 03:33 AM
If you're turning Dragonborn, Warforged is pointless. You have -2 Wis over a Dwarf, for nothing. You're not even a construct anymore, though you can be harmed by stuff that harm a construct.
Really, Dragonborn subtracts more than you'd want from a Warforged.

You retain living construct traits.

From the FAQ,


Can a warforged become a dragonborn of Bahamut, and if so what are the racial traits it keeps from the warforged list?

Despite the misleading entry in the dragonborn racial traits that suggests that all dragonborn are humanoids, the only prerequisites for being reborn in this manner are a non-evil alignment and an Intelligence of 3 or better. Thus, there’s nothing stopping a warforged from undergoing this ritual and dedicating himself to the service of Bahamut.

A warforged who becomes a dragonborn would be a construct with the living construct and dragonblood subtypes. He’d retain his warforged ability score modifiers and favored class.

He’d also retain all traits derived from the living construct subtype, including immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, disease, nausea, fatigue, exhaustion, and energy drain; inability to heal damage naturally; vulnerability to certain metal or wood-affecting spells; and half effect from healing spells.

He’d still become inert at –1 to –9 hp, and he still wouldn’t need to eat, sleep, or breathe. However, he would lose his composite plating, light fortification, and slam attack.

The next logical question, of course, is whether the dragonborn warforged can select feats that would improve his now-absent composite plating. Technically, these feats don’t list composite plating as a prerequisite, so it appears the answer would be yes.

The Unarmored Body feat (Races of Eberron, page 120) supports this ruling, as it indicates that other feats that adjust the character’s armor bonus could be selected later, even though he technically doesn’t have the composite plating’s armor bonus any more.

This also opens up interesting polymorph/alter self options normally unavailable to non-constructs, such as dwarf ancestor (MM4).

Randel
2010-10-22, 03:43 AM
Magic Item Compendium has the Twilight magic armor enchantment that reduces arcane spell failure by 10%.

Kurald Galain
2010-10-22, 03:56 AM
Lolwut? That ... that sucks. A lot. Can you give your inherent armor the Twilight enchantment?

Will that make it sparkle?

Eloel
2010-10-22, 04:08 AM
Will that make it sparkle?

Of course it will. It can't exist without sparkles.

Amoren
2010-10-22, 04:36 AM
...I now want to play a robot dragon. /:

DragonOfUndeath
2010-10-22, 05:50 AM
...I now want to play a robot dragon. /:

you didnt before? i want to play a dragonborn housecat :smalltongue:

Eloel
2010-10-22, 05:52 AM
you didnt before? i want to play a dragonborn housecat :smalltongue:

I want to play a catborne housedragon, but meh.

Myth
2010-10-22, 06:00 AM
Im relatively new to actually playing D&D, and so far I have only played stabbity types.

I decided I want to branch out and play a wizard, but theirs a twist.
For flavor reasons i'm playing a warforged and I dont know if that will make this more difficult.
Std WBL and 32 point buy.
What should i do?

You should win DnD. That's what Wizards are for :smallbiggrin:

But seriously, what level are you starting at?

DragonOfUndeath
2010-10-22, 06:02 AM
I want to play a catborne housedragon, but meh.

housedragons arent as good as housecats and catborne can only wipe out a horde of level 10 raging barbarians with a single meow (the housecat-descendant template allows genocide of epic level barbarians and gives AM fields to prevent Wizards tampering

JeminiZero
2010-10-22, 07:29 AM
Barring the Composite Plating ASF (which going Dragonborn can fix, if you're willing to live according to Bahumat's code), Wizardry actually isn't that bad a choice for Warforged, since your spell list includes Repair Light so you can heal yourself, hence reducing the burdensome healing penalty that warforged normally suffer (Preferably from wands, you have better things to do with your actual spell slots).

Additionally, warforged immunities help compensate for your crappy fort saves. Also look up the Construct Essence series of spells. The level 5 version provides almost all the protection you could ever want against non-HP special attacks.

Endarire
2010-10-23, 05:44 PM
What about being a warforged Psion instead? No spell/power failure, and potentially as game-breaking.

Alternatively, what about a Wizard who thinks or wants to be a warforged, but never is one?

Urpriest
2010-10-23, 06:06 PM
What about being a warforged Psion instead? No spell/power failure, and potentially as game-breaking.

Alternatively, what about a Wizard who thinks or wants to be a warforged, but never is one?

Hell, Renegade Mastermaker can even become one (sort of).

Eldariel
2010-10-23, 06:07 PM
Honestly, Mithral Body Warforged Wizard is perfectly viable as long as you begin on high enough level to afford a +2 armor enhancement (that would be level 4; 4000 out of your 5400gp - though as you kinda need it for your concept to work, you could ask your DM to somehow prebuy it or something). Warforged's body can be enhanced just as any armor, so it's fine. Then you can your armor into +1 Twilight and cut the ASF down to size.

And if you don't mind refluffing a bit, you could try to get your DM to approve some really strange background to rationalize Githcraft or Feycraft template on your body; maybe something crazy happened like you're a replica created by psionic entities mimicking the Warforged creation process secretly in the creation forges or whatever.


If nothing else, you can pick up Spellsword level later provided you somehow get a ton of proficiencies (non-Wizard dip would be the easiest though you could also burn a ****ton of feats on it, inc. Militia [refluffed as something related to all Warforged having the skill to use all martial weapons] or Otherworldly [figure that one out by yourself]; both are from Player's Guide to Faerun so cross-settings too but there you go), or talk with your DM a bit.

Alternatively, you could try to get Armored Casting-feat for light armor. Again, a level dip would make it easy but without losing levels, it's a bit trickier. Knight Phantom [Five Nations] gets it but loses a caster level and requires martial weapon proficiencies. Hm, Runesmith [Races of Stone] could be refluffed (standard Dwarf-only) to allow casting without ASF (the Rune-casting doesn't really seem that farfetched for a Warforged, creature made of magic; you could actually get Adamantine Plating that way) and Githyanki Battlecaster feat [MM4] which with some refluffing could also work for you with Mithral Body.


Yeah, getting rid of the ASF entirely (as you will want to) while getting a decent natural armor isn't easy but it can be done. Though without losing any caster levels and getting a decent plating, yeah, it's a bit of a hassle. Composite Plating is mostly pointless but having to pay a feat just to remove it...meh.

Greenish
2010-10-23, 06:28 PM
Hm, Runesmith [Races of Stone] could be refluffed (standard Dwarf-only) to allow casting without ACF (the Rune-casting doesn't really seem that farfetched for a Warforged, creature made of magic; you could actually get Adamantine Plating that way)That's a good idea. Refluffed Runesmith fits warforged caster, I'd even say better than the Spellcarved Soldier (RoE).

A generous DM might allow for the [Metal] Body feat to count as Heavy Armour proficiency for the sake of the requirements, too.

Psyren
2010-10-23, 06:48 PM
What about being a warforged Psion instead? No spell/power failure, and potentially as game-breaking.

Alternatively, what about a Wizard who thinks or wants to be a warforged, but never is one?

Emphatic second to this idea. You get all the infuriating superiority of being an Int-based caster, plenty of warforged-only psionic goodies, and no verbal, somatic or material components getting underfoot. Plus you'll never accidentally squash your pet rock the way you would, say, a toad or rat familiar.

And if you really want to be a "prepared" caster, give the Erudite (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20060406b&page=1) a try :smallsmile:

Jokasti
2010-10-23, 07:07 PM
Be a ghost and don't tell anyone until the last meeting.

Psyren
2010-10-23, 07:29 PM
Be a ghost and don't tell anyone until the last meeting.

What could go wrong? (http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp05032002.shtml)

:smallwink: