4e Wizard Wishlist

[Mindfreak]

Like the guy in the 3.5e section, on last wedsnday, I destroyed the wizard's spellbook who was in my Party. The bad thing was that he was level 22. Suffice to say he is pretty mad about it, and I have decided to make it up to him. Can you guys please list some spells that would be a good idea to have in the spellbook. If it helps he is a level 22 Chaotic Good Wizard who's paragon class was the Wizard of the Spiral Tower.

They are currently on a quest to destroy all of the giants in a country.
There are over 300 giants in the country.
The wizard tries to hide behind the Barbarian in the party, because he has only Wizard Cantrips available to him and his Paragon Powers.

All Soucebooks are allowed(So PHB1, PHB2, Arcane Power)

[Eldest]

Well, one thing you can do to make him feel better is explain that he can use his at will and encounter abilities. Only the daily and utility powers are in the spellbook. At least, according to the PHB1 without acess to any eratica.
Also, you might want to say if he leaned towords controller or blaster.

[Mindfreak]

Well, one thing you can do to make him feel better is explain that he can use his at will and encounter abilities. Only the daily and utility powers are in the spellbook. At least, according to the PHB1 without acess to any eratica.
Also, you might want to say if he leaned towords controller or blaster.

I houseruled in that all spells other then wizard cantrips are stored in your spellbook. And if your spellbook is destroyed, you have to reinscribe the spells into another spellbook. They are in the wilderness.

[Mindfreak]

He also leaned towards blaster

[ashmanonar]

I would imagine he would want the spells that were in the spellbook that got destroyed.

The wizard isn't nearly the same as in previous editions, where the spell selection for the day can vary wildly. He'll pretty much have the same spells each day, with some variation because of the Daily spell switch class feature. The feats the wizard has chosen should definitely have been chosen with his powers in mind, so giving him a whole new spellbook with wildly different spells will screw with his character.

(On another note, if the other characters don't have any sort of mechanic that can make them lose 75% of their class effectiveness, the spellbook houserule is pointless and silly. New edition, new class conceits (as you're level 22, you should know this by now.))

[Mindfreak]

He was the one who wanted the house rule in the beginning. He said that it was better for his roleplaying. He has no way other then me, to get a spellbook in game with good spells, before they get themselves killed. They are a three person Party:

Barbarian
Wizard
Paladin(with a houseruled: Channel Divinity: Healing Word power)

I've never played a Wizard before, so I'm asking you guys what kind of spells you would have at this point. This is just going to be a temporary spellbook for him, it's okay because we have another houseruled making it so a wizard can read another wizard's spellbook and use the spells in it. And the Barbarian and Paladin have flaws that can easly screw them over. The barbarian has to eat his dead opponent's beards right after he kills them. And the paladin is a bit of a speciest. He nearly got the party killed in a tavern by talking bad about elves and drow.

[dehro]

The barbarian has to eat his dead opponent's beards right after he kills them

eek! gack, bleurgh..
*shudder.

[MLH]

Why would you even do that.

Give him exactly what he had or ask him what he wants and give him that, then let him keep it forever so his character is allowed to actually do things again instead of getting singled out for having a unique descriptive element. Include a nicely wrapped box of chocolates.

What happens if Barbarian McTrichophage doesn't eat beards, melee basic attacks only until further notice?

[Kurald Galain]

Well, one thing you can do to make him feel better is explain that he can use his at will and encounter abilities. Only the daily and utility powers are in the spellbook.
It's even better, by RAW he can keep using the same daily and utility powers as he was using the previous day, he just can't switch them out to others.

Anyway. Suggested blasty spells for a level 22 wizard. He does, I hope, have Enlarge Spell, as well as either War Wizardry or Spell Accuracy?

W - Thunderwave
W - Freezing Burst
7 - Corrosive Mist
13 - Prismatic Beams
17 - Mass Charm (yes, that's not blasty, but it's too awesome not to use)
9 - Wall of Fire
15 - Evard's Dreadful Mist
19 - Summon Rockfire Dreadnought
2 - Moonstride
6 - Fire Shield
10 - Illusory Wall (again, not blasty but extremely awesome)
16 - Flame's Protection
22 - Mass Fly


Oh yeah, and just a random suggestion: Spiral Tower isn't very good for blaster wizards, I would recommend letting him retrain to either Blood Mage or Spellstorm Mage.

[Mindfreak]

It's even better, by RAW he can keep using the same daily and utility powers as he was using the previous day, he just can't switch them out to others.

Anyway. Suggested blasty spells for a level 22 wizard. He does, I hope, have Enlarge Spell, as well as either War Wizardry or Spell Accuracy?

W - Thunderwave
W - Freezing Burst
7 - Corrosive Mist
13 - Prismatic Beams
17 - Mass Charm (yes, that's not blasty, but it's too awesome not to use)
9 - Wall of Fire
15 - Evard's Dreadful Mist
19 - Summon Rockfire Dreadnought
2 - Moonstride
6 - Fire Shield
10 - Illusory Wall (again, not blasty but extremely awesome)
16 - Flame's Protection
22 - Mass Fly


Oh yeah, and just a random suggestion: Spiral Tower isn't very good for blaster wizards, I would recommend letting him retrain to either Blood Mage or Spellstorm Mage.

The only feats I know for a fact he took are:

Expanded Spellbook
Wintertouched
Lasting Frost
Arcane Reserves
Arcane Fire
Destructive Wizardry
Enlarge Spell

At will powers I knew he had:

Ray of Frost
Scorching Burst

Encounter Powers I knew he had:
Burning Hands
Fire Shroud
Winter's Wrath

Dailys I knew he had:
Freezing Cloud
Fireball
Ice Storm

Utilities I knew he had:
Dispel Magic

I would ask him for the contents of his old spellbook, but I don't want him to know what I am doing, sorry I don't remember more.

[evirus]

I houseruled in that all spells other then wizard cantrips are stored in your spellbook. And if your spellbook is destroyed, you have to reinscribe the spells into another spellbook. They are in the wilderness.

I don't know how you expect this to play out.

You will either give him a spellbook that contains spells he CAN use (those he picked) or spells he actualy CAN'T use because he didn't select them (learn them). There is nothing saying he could use a spell that he hasn't selected during the leveling process.

What happens if he starts using spells that he hasn't selected? You are basically allowing him to retrain every attack and utility power moving forward. If he doesn't like a power selection mid level he can find a book that has the spells he wants, throw out/burn his old one and run with the new book.

Would you allow your barbarian to suddenly retrain all of his attack powers as well?

If I can suggest something? Just give him a blank spellbook, tell him it will take a day to rewrite all his existing spells.

Alternatively, give him a spellbook that has limited space until he gets back to town. He will then have to chose (5-6?) spells to write down instead of his full selection, he will get to squirm and agonize over which spells to include.

You could also give him a selection of low level wands to allow him to use some wizard powers.

[Mindfreak]

Alternatively, give him a spellbook that has limited space until he gets back to town. He will then have to chose (5-6?) spells to write down instead of his full selection, he will get to squirm and agonize over which spells to include.

Oooo! I really like this option. I'm going to choose this one. I like watching my players squirm.

[Kurald Galain]

The only feats I know for a fact he took are:
Okay. For what it's worth, expanded spellbook, arcane fire, and arcane reserves are pretty bad feats.


At will powers I knew he had:
To be honest, he has a pretty bad selection of powers here, even for a PHB1-only wizard; and at level 22 he should have retrained out of his L1-L5 powers a long time ago. For example, Fireball is one of the worst wizard dailies in 4E. That means that the above suggestions should make him happy if he tries them in-game.

[Eldest]

One other suggestion: Ask him if he regrets the house rule. If he does and wants it gone, reverse it in the next battle. Aomething like "you feel arcane engery flow though you, and without though you unleast [insert at-will spell here]. You realize it was only [insert nice motivational speech] holding you back."
And all of the above spells recomended as well.
Finaly, you only get 4 encounter/daily spells at a time, max (running from memory, correct me if I'm wrong about the number). So once he had four and learned a new daily, he forgets his lowest level daily. Same with encounter. Utilities you never forget, though.