Pathfinder Wizard Advice

[Doofy87]

Greetings, this is my first time posting here. Farily new to the pathfinder system. Heres whats going on.

I recently had a character die in the compagin we are playing it. It was a rogue i enjoyed playing, but felt that i was ineffective vs the ranger in the party. So with this characters death i am planing on rolling a mage. We are 3rd level. Race will be elf. Class will be wizard.
I rolled some really decent stats here they are

Str. 13
Dex. 18
Con. 14
Int. 20
Wis. 16
Cha. 15

these are with bonus and negitives for being an elf. I am going to go with the bounded item Longbow because i am shooting for Arcane Archer. I know i am taking the long way, but oh well our party really needs an arcane caster witch is the role i always end up filling no matter the system. My feat choices are going to be point blank shot and precise shot. I will be specializeing in transmutation. Any feed back would be greatly appreciated.

Doofy

[CTrees]

I'll just point out that with those stats, Improved Initiative, and a Compsagnathus familiar, you'd be at +12 initiative (seems like the compy should be +2, but it's written as +4, so...). Add another 'half you wizard level' if you go Divination or any of its subschools (I'm terribly fond of Foresight for the massive number of preemptive rerolls). The item familiars tend to be less than wonderful, from what I've seen.

[Aricandor]

If you're picking up those feats I guess you might as well go for some sort of ray specialist with your spells. Having some touch and special effect options next to the arrows is always nice, beyond the obvious hastes and whatnot.
Disintegrate is a classic, but beyond that I can't recall any ray spells of transmutation specifically. Hunting down a few might be worthwhile just to see what you can make of it.

[Doofy87]

Well the reason I am going with the item is because I plan on taking arcane archer after 12th level, figured it would make sense from a role playing aspect and I have always wanted to play one. The reason I am thinking transmutaion is because of the buff spells it offers as well as the stat bonus from specing with it. What do you guys thin of arcane archer. Granted I will only have 8 levels of it, but I will still be able to cast 9th level spells at 20th level.

[Infernalbargain]

Well the reason I am going with the item is because I plan on taking arcane archer after 12th level, figured it would make sense from a role playing aspect and I have always wanted to play one. The reason I am thinking transmutaion is because of the buff spells it offers as well as the stat bonus from specing with it. What do you guys thin of arcane archer. Granted I will only have 8 levels of it, but I will still be able to cast 9th level spells at 20th level.

psst: look at emergency force sphere. It's from a setting book, but with imbue arrow it is a no save - no SR forcecage if they're not flying.

Bonded item has its pros but steep cons. If it is ever not on your body, you have to make 20+spell level concentration for every single spell in addition to anything else. I'd seriously consider the familiar. There's no exp cost, merely money cost to replace it if something happens. IMO familiar can also do more.

[Paul H]

Hi

Would suggest you don't fall into the bounded (weapon) item trap.

Don't forget it's nigh on impossible to cast spells if you don't have your weapon in hand. Much simpler just to have a ring.

I agree with the Transmutation idea - having an enhancement bonus last 24 hrs is good.

Thanks
Paul H