[Pathfinder] Specialization as a Wizard

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I'm building a wizard character and I was wondering what is the best wizard specialization to go for? Yes, I've read the famous Treantmonk guide, which places Conjuration above all others, but they don't discuss what Banned schools to take. I haven't really played wizards before in Pathfinder, so I find myself at a bit of a loss.

Is Conjuration truly the best way to go? If it isn't, what is? And what two schools should be my forbidden ones?

[NNescio]

I'm building a wizard character and I was wondering what is the best wizard specialization to go for? Yes, I've read the famous Treantmonk guide, which places Conjuration above all others, but they don't discuss what Banned schools to take. I haven't really played wizards before in Pathfinder, so I find myself at a bit of a loss.

Is Conjuration truly the best way to go? If it isn't, what is? And what two schools should be my forbidden ones?

Generally, Evocation is a first drop, since blasting is considered subpar. Next would be Enchantment, since immunity to mind-affecting effects isn't that hard to get. The third choice is usually either Necromancy (has some nice debuffs, but most of the school can be blocked by a single spell. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/deathWard.htm)) or Abjuration (has a lot of decent protection spells and the dispel magic line, but some wizards choose to rely on clerics to cast those spells instead.)

As for the best spell school, well... Conjuration is the hallmark of the GOD Battlefield Controller (and is the best school bar none at lower levels), but Transmutation spells are generally better at higher levels. Especially once a caster hits 9th level spells.

Pathfinder is a little different though. Most of the Conjuration low-level gems are nerfed. "Banned" schools no longer exist, they are now "opposed" and can be cast at the cost of more spell slots. The Illusionist gains some nice bennies for specializing. Generalists are also buffed up (to the point where some people consider specialists to be subpar, even post-errata) since they gain free metamagic a limited time per day.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

For the record, I'm making this character for the Serpent Skull adventure path. Will that sort of stuff be as effective against the enemies in that campaign?

Also, how do some of the new Wizard things from Ultimate Magic like Arcane Discoveries and such hold up?

The Universalist looks tempting, but the Treantmonk guide says this:

What can I say? Give up one spell casting of every level you can cast, so that spells from 2 schools of your choice don't take double slots to memorize? This is an absolutely terrible, awful, dismal deal. Being a generalist in Pathfinder is a practice in masochism, don't do it.

[Luckmann]

Well I think that's going overboard, to be honest. It's not like you'll be physically or emotionally damaged by playing a Universalist.

Considering that Wizards overall are considered extremely powerful, it's not some kind of cardinal sin to not take the optimal choices. Playing a Universalist may be a suboptimal choice, but sometimes you just have to go for that suboptimal choice to be happy.

If I played Joe Wizard, I'd probably go with a Universalist, optimization be damned. Character concepts trump optimization every time, in my opinion.

Sorry if that's not helpful, since what you're asking for is optimization advice specifically.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

For further clarification, I'm designing this wizard around the Bloatmage prestige class:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/bloatmage

It doesn't seem too bad optimization-wise solely because it has unbroken spell progression, but it doesn't really seem to offer any insight as to what KIND of wizard works best for it. It requires Spell Focus though, so that's why I was wondering if specializing was a good idea.

[Blisstake]

These are trends I've noticed in the one PF adventure path I've done. I could be wrong on some things, so go ahead and correct me. Anyway, my philosophy is that you should pick schools to compliment your playstyle rather than alter your playstyle around what schools you pick, especially since adventure paths are usually easy enough where you don't need to be remotely optimal to complete.

Conjuration isn't quite as powerful in PF (weaker summons; no orb spells), but is still an excellent choice, and has nice utility, as well as excellent battlefield control options.

Enchantment is usually good not to ban (unless you have a DM that loves giving out mind immunity), but the Serpents Skull Player's Guide (free download from Paizo) says to expect a lot of enemies somewhat resistant or immune to mind altering effects, so this would be an acceptable pick for a opposed school.

Necromancy seems to be a fairly common pick for opposed schools in my experiences, and if you want to be a character that specializes in the undead, cleric is probably a better choice anyway. A good pick for an opposed school.

Evocation in PF is the best choice for blasting. While many people consider blasting inferior, it is more than sufficient for getting through an adventure path, and is sometimes more reliable than other schools (lots of enemies seem to have poor reflex saves, but high fort and will) for dealing with tough opponents. Pick it as an opposed school if it goes against you playstyle, otherwise, it's really not as bad as a lot of people make it out to be.

Illusion usually offers too much versatility to give up, but if you don't plan on being sneaky, you can pick it as an opposed school. Also has some nice buffs.

Transmutation is mostly just buffing spells, but also has some other interesting miscellaneous effects. Not really sure what advice to give, but I usually don't make this a specialized or opposed school. Keep in mind that polymorph effects aren't nearly as good in PF.

Abjuration has the very useful dispel magic spell, but at low levels, I don't really see it offering much to a caster, and at high levels it gets a lot of anti-caster options (anti-magic zone, spell turning, mind blank, disjunction). I think it's an okay choice for a ban.

Divination doesn't seem to offer any necesary abilities, and a lot of their utility depends on how your DM acts (like whether he tells you what items do as soon as you get them, and how much he lets augury-like abilities reveal). Not really the best pick for specialized school, and a decent pick for opposed school.

Like I said, I'm not an expert on the system, and this is from a generally non-optimized point of view.

[NNescio]

For further clarification, I'm designing this wizard around the Bloatmage prestige class:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/bloatmage

It doesn't seem too bad optimization-wise solely because it has unbroken spell progression, but it doesn't really seem to offer any insight as to what KIND of wizard works best for it. It requires Spell Focus though, so that's why I was wondering if specializing was a good idea.

Well... transmutation can help get around the movement penalties, and it has some SoDs/SoLs later on which benefit from Spell Focus.

Illusion can help mask your...uh...grotesque nature, and it also benefits from SF.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Thank you. Looking at these suggestions, I'll probably take Conjuration with Enchantment and Necromancy as my opposed schools. I'll post the character sheet later to see if I'm on the right track.

[Infernalbargain]

I suggest specializing, the slot is worth it. While the free metamagic is quite good, there are some very good abilities to be gained from specializing.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I've written the character sheet.

http://www.dndsheets.net/view.php?id=18102

How's it look? Good?

[Blisstake]

Any particular reason for picking unseen servant?

Edit: You should also have 3 level 1 spells prepared (spec bonus plus int bonus), I believe.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Well, to carry her stuff for her, mainly. With Bloatmage Initiate, she's constantly considered to be carrying a medium load, before you even factor in the weight of her gear.

[CheshireCatAW]

KNOWLEDGE

+1

An important thing to note is that banned schools work differently in PF than in 3.5. You can still use magic items from that school (Like a wand of magic missile for Evocation, or a scroll) and prepare those spells by using twice as many spell slots.

Evocation makes a good ban because you can still use cheap wands for damage. Additionally, a lot of the really important spells can be used as a scroll.

EDIT: Also, ask your DM about Linguistics. The ones that I've played with recently have gone with the rule of awesome and allowed the extra 3 ranks from class skills to count toward new languages. It's not unbalancing and basically allows the DM to expose more story. It's win-win.

[ericgrau]

Magic items have no chance of keeping up in damage...

Regardless there's less reason to drop evocation in pathfinder unless your group uses spell compendium with the orb spells. It gets excessive flak in general, probably b/c it used to be the most popular school and people who write guides like to have something to rip on. Some of the best crowd control spells are evocation, in fact. The most droppable schools are necromancy, enchantment, illusion and abjuration. Not because they're necessarily bad, but because they're specialized and you might not always want those flavors.

Good schools for control casters are conjuration, evocation, transmutation and a couple rare abjurations. Good spells include barriers, area/multi debuffs and status effect (not +X) buffs. Getting lots of low level utility scrolls is nice too.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Thanks for the tips. Out of curiosity, is the backstory a bit too melodramatic? I want to give the impression that she's a somewhat cynical woman who did some stupid things in her teenage years that she's got to live with for the rest of her life, which has made her a bit jaded.

Plus, I'm trying to get into the psychology of an adventuring bloatmage. These are people who deliberately overclock their circulatory system to produce more blood than it can contain, causing blood vessels to break and the blood to pool in fatty deposits in their body, constantly needing to regulate their blood pressure with leeching to prevent essentially getting a stroke or something that would cause them to rampage in spell-fueled madness before bleeding out. I have no idea how that kind of stress on the body would color one's psychology.

[fratar11]

I've been playing a universalist PF wizard for a year now and it's a good choice. As someone already said, wizards are awesome all-powerful reality bending machines of death and despair. And universalists are equally good in all types of reality bending.
When I was creating my character i took treantmonks guide to be my Bible and although it's a great guide you should keep in mind that it's just that - a guide. If you make a character based on it you might end up feeling you have a really generic wizard.
This started happening to me but luckily the DM and I came up with an awesome backstory through the campaign. Now my wizard is almost like an alter-ego of mine.