Solo Sorcerer & Wizard

[simulacrum]

I noticed a lot of spell options for both sorcerer and wizard are focused around battlefield control, buffing, and slight amounts of debuffing. So your fighter can go over and bonk the thing in the head twenty times in a row without fear of retribution.

I also note that a lot of the builds are focused around campaigns with reasonable DMs.

Now let's say we had a harsh DM who absolutely hates it when her players have any magic items at all, much less multiple of them. She likes throwing ECL+1 monsters at us (without compensating for our lack of magic items). She likes stealing wizard spellbooks and isolating player characters. Most infuriatingly, she likes to add "realism" in her games by forcing combat encounters on us when we've just used up quite a few of our spells.

(The lady in question is mostly hypothetical, of course.)

How would that change arcane spell choice for wizards and sorcerers? Feats chosen? How would you optimize yourself to be prepared for almost any situation as a wizard of levels 5, 10, 15, and 20?

[Yora]

If your spellbook is constantly being stolen, don't be a wizard. Sorcerers and psions still have to rest, but they have no spellbooks. Binders and Warlocks never run out of power and can keep going all day.

[simulacrum]

If your spellbook is constantly being stolen, don't be a wizard. Sorcerers and psions still have to rest, but they have no spellbooks. Binders and Warlocks never run out of power and can keep going all day.

I'm specifically asking wizard because I need want the long lifespan.

[Yora]

The only thing I can think of is to scribe all your spells permanently on your skin. The only way to take them away would kill the character.

[Vizzerdrix]

personally, as a wizard I'd use my body as my spellbook (via tattoos), I'd invest a few feats into Reserve Feats, I'd start as a focused specialist (or an elf generalist).That should keep you casting long enough and prevent book theft.

as a sorcerer, I'd use the meta magic friendly variant and start throwing around negative levels as soon as I could (from level 1 or 3 as a human) along with Reserve feats to go that extra mile.

In either case, some way to "make new friends" would be helpful.

[Amnestic]

The only thing I can think of is to scribe all your spells permanently on your skin. The only way to take them away would kill the character.

Eidetic Spellcaster ACF from Dragon Magazine (354?) lets you store all your spells in your memory. No tatoos, no spellbook, no talismans or anything else :smalltongue:

[WinWin]

Level 5

Trap your spellbook (craft wondrous item & craft:trapmaking) Or tattoo your spells (later, secret page). Have your familliar on guard duty when you rest. Sleep in an (extended) rope trick. Explosive Runes. Fire Trap. Snake Sigil. Pay a cleric for password protected Glyphs of Warding.

Level 10

Planar Bound Minions set to guard your stuff. Undead set to kill anything that touches your stuff. Higher level spells and better traps. Permenancy (invisibility, leomunds trap and nystuls magic aura on your book). You can afford to make back-up spellbooks with your important spells and place protections on and around them.

Level 15

Contact other Plane "Anyone gonna try and steal my stuff today?...How about tommorrow?..." Greater planar bound minions and created undead. Bigger and badder spell and trap options. Contingency and Craft Contingent Spell. Better options for permenancy. Craft Construct.

Basic stuff. can get far more involved depending on how big a jackass your DM is. If it comes down to it, have your character do nothing and contribute nothing and make sad faces at the table until the DM stops abusing fiat to screw over your character.

[Baka Nikujaga]

http://i54.tinypic.com/2nsz4av.jpg
If you're afraid of losing your spell book when out adventuring use the spell Hoard Gullet. Just as long as you have an Eternal Wand of Enlarge Person (which is swallowed after casting), you'll have the book inside of you. Following that, when you need to rest you can cast Rope Trick and hide safely in your "pocket reality" for eight hours. This would ensure that if you're frisked, or otherwise checked, no one would be able to steal your spell book without a blatant DM fiat (and the other simply prevents random critters from running off with it).

An alternative (should you be interested) is to be a Specialist Illusionist and take the Illusionist Mastery variant in exchange for bonus spells per day. This would mean that every Illusion spell you have learned is treated as if it had been mastered in the same way as the Spell Mastery feat.

[simulacrum]

What should I get in the way of metamagic feats since it's obnoxiously difficult to obtain metamagic wands or rods?

I'm thinking extend, because I kinda need to stay alive at night, and empower. Would it be wise to specialize in divination and drop necromancy? I usually get spell focus or spell penetration feats, but should I change that up? I also think that the shadow conjuration line of spells will be invaluable for me.

edit

Illusion, makes sense I suppose, as I've stated myself that the shadow conjuration line will be useful. Nevertheless, I can't think of what else I'm willing to drop, since coming by wands and rods is annoyingly hard. Necromancy I can part with. Otherwise...?

[Baka Nikujaga]

I would recommend including Heighten Spell on that list as well. At the very least it will improve the DC of your spells.

EDIT:
I would recommend parting with Evocation first. Most of the commonly used Evocation spells can be mimicked with the Shadow Conjuration line. As for the other school, it depends on what you want to do and what your DM will allow. By keeping Necromancy open, you could always resolve to create a Wightocalypse or some other manner of undead army to protect your precious spell book.

[simulacrum]

But then what would I do in terms of straight damage at early levels? :smallconfused: Between levels 1 and 7?

[Ryu_Bonkosi]

First and slightly jokingly, do everything in your power to make a character that operates within the rules of the game but can wipe the floor with everything she throws at you. *Warning the following is exceedingly cheesy* Play a White Dragonspawn Abomination Loredrake Desert Kobold Cleric, take Alternate source casting, reserves of strength, the greater draconic rite of passage, and craft contingent spell with at least three levels in Incantrix, at least (one of the most important parts) one level of Tainted Scholar, the ritual of alignment to the evil plane, and as many levels of Dweomerkeeper as possible. This will allow you to apply Metamagic effects with a spellcraft check to not raise the spell's level, give you unlimited bonus spells, and the ability to cast spells like wish without having to pay the exp to cast them a number of times a day.

On a serious note that won't get you kicked out of every group you could possibly imagine, take precautions against the DM. Copy spell books, have multiple spell component pouches, save some spells for the end of the day. Use contingency spells to create magical fail-safes that you can fall back on if you get ambushed with low spells.

To prevent the theft of spell books there is a spell that creates a sanctum that can only exist in that spot when you cast the spell. If you hide a copy of your spell book in there, it can't be taken.

And on the note of Magic Items, make your own or take leadership and get an Artificer companion to make them for you.

[Baka Nikujaga]

The lowest levels of D&D aren't necessarily about inflicting straight up damage. At level one, for example, you could cast Color Spray or Sleep to incapacitate (and then murder) enemies, use a Silent Image to copy an Iron Wall in order to escape from enemies, or use Grease to prevent enemies from approaching you.

At third level this expands to casting Glitterdust in order to blind enemies that would otherwise not be affected by Color Spray, cast Web to prevent an enemy's approach, Arcane Lock to escape if there's a door, or Command Undead if you're in the mood to recruit some.

But if you absolutely need damage the Lesser Orb spells work (and are, more importantly, able to ignore certain restrictions).

EDIT:
And continuing down that line is Ice Knight which can also do Dex damage, Bone Fiddle for use against a fellow Arcane caster (who won't appreciate it), etc.

[Ryu_Bonkosi]

The lowest levels of D&D aren't necessarily about inflicting straight up damage. At level one, for example, you could cast Color Spray or Sleep to incapacitate (and then murder) enemies, use a Silent Image to copy an Iron Wall in order to escape from enemies, or use Grease to prevent enemies from approaching you.

At third level this expands to casting Glitterdust in order to blind enemies that would otherwise not be affected by Color Spray, cast Web to prevent an enemy's approach, Arcane Lock to escape if there's a door, or Command Undead if you're in the mood to recruit some.

But if you absolutely need damage the Lesser Orb spells work (and are, more importantly, able to ignore certain restrictions).

This are absolutely right, at lower levels incapacitating the enemy then doing what you want, whether it be kill them or runing like a pansy, is better then trying to just kill them in a fair fight.

Also, any particular reason you make your text blue?

[Baka Nikujaga]

No one reason in particular. I just support ⑨ and Harvy V.

EDIT:
http://i52.tinypic.com/max6p2.jpg
But if I decided to use another character, I would probably change the color of my text as well.

[HappyBlanket]

You said you didn't have many magic items? Then go for the +4 line. Normally they'd be redundant, given that your items supply you with Enhancement bonuses, but in your case they'd be rather helpful.

I'm also throwing in my hat for using your body as your spell book... There might be rules for it in Complete Arcane. Check the Arcane Campaigns section near the end.

((Again, I love your text :) Someone went the extra mile on their signature))

[Eldariel]

Regarding your Spellbook:
Don't be fooled - spellbooks are immeasurably valuable and the primary vessel of your otherwise insurmountable power. It's going to be an exceedingly important target for various reasons. But you are bestown with powers to combat attacks on your spellbook. Use them. Don't pretend it's easy to steal a spellbook. You're a wizard. Use your cosmic powers to keep it safe. Trap it. Store it in an extradimensional space (Glove of Storing, Secret Chest or some such). Here's a snippet from Logic Ninja's Venerable Guide To Wizardy (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=104002):

"Without your spellbook, once you run out of spells for the day, you're just a commoner with a good will save and some magic items. In most games, this never comes up. In some, it does; if you know it will, take precautions, and, hell, you may want to take them anyway. There are two parts to this: the first is trapping your spellbook. The magic trap rules are, as mentioned, in the DMG; I had this idea for a recent character I made. At higher levels, you need tree traps: link them all to command words that must be spoken before the book is touched (or one command word for all three). The first is a Teleport trap, that will teleport the spellbook to your home, a friend of yours, or a temple of Mystra/Boccob/whoever you have an account with. This means that while you may not have your book, no one else does, either.
The second is some kind of punishment for the fool who dared to mess with your stuff. I like Curse of the Putrid Husk from the BoVD for this: make them think their flesh is falling off in pieces! Of course, generally, something more lethal and with less [Evil] descriptor is better. Try Insanity, Finger of Death, or better yet, Geas: Find the Wizard Whose Spellbook You Tried To Steal, Confess to Him, and Go On a Quest He Assigns You. The third is Arcane Mark, to put your mark on the bugger.
The second part is Spell Mastery (include Teleport), and/or always having one Teleport in reserve. This is so you can Teleport back to wherever your book went and pick it up."

Now, is it possible to 100% ensure you never lose your spellbook? No. Does it help? God, yes. You could even invest some skillpoints in Craft: Trapmaking (though that's only for mechanical traps which are like to be less useful - still, it's Int-based and you're a Wizard and it's in class so it would be very easy for you to learn). And obviously, if you happen to have good Spot, that won't hurt either. Also, there's no reason not to use extradimensional storage for your Spellbook. It's harder to crack those.

Remember the Symbol-spells too; a Symbol or two in the cover of your spellbook could do quite a bit for would-be thieves. Just make sure you have some way to circumvent them yourself so you don't end up popping them yourself. Easiest way is probably to make it trigger on looking at the rune (as opposed to touch) and just opening the spellbook your eyes closed. Also, you can use a Divination like Contact Other Plane (or Commune from your Imp/Quasit familiar or some such) daily to ask "Will somebody try to steal my spellbook today?" If the answer is "yes", just go to town with more Divinations to figure out the exact time and prepare accordingly.

Obviously normal defensive magic like Battlemagic Perception, Anticipate Teleportation, something with True Seeing (Greater Prying Eyes cover this for free eventually; before then you could Planar Bind something) and constant Detect Magic + Arcane Sight (through Permanency-spell; it's amazing how many would-be thieves have their cover blown because of magic items or spells like Invisibility on their person) also make it easier for you to keep a track of people doing suspicious stuff around you.


Now, in spite of all your precautions, it is possible for your spellbook to be stolen. For this reason, you should always have backups. A backup spellbook with your few key spells in a secure location (some friendly stronghold, a Temple of Magic or some such; basically, a friendly outside entity or some location you own, such as your private Plane from Genesis or such). Just make sure the spellbook is well-kept and that you try to avoid blowing your last Teleport every day. That is, make an effort to keep one prepared so you can Teleport to your spellbook if need be.

Then, tattooed spells. Complete Arcane page 186 has rules for tattooing spells on your body, using your body as a spellbook. You should tattoo few keys. The mentioned Teleport, and Disintegrate are good ones to get where you need to get to, for example. If you don't want to draw unwarranted attention, only tattoo normally clad parts of your body such as abdomen and back (Craft: Tattooing is int-based so you have no trouble doing the actual Tattooing) and keep the spells you tattoo to absolute essentials, mostly spells for retrieving your spellbook.

That's the basics of working with your spellbook and keeping it safe. Spellbooks don't "just get stolen"; if it was stolen you've made a mistake and somebody has outsmarted you. A Wizard should always be prepared though. As soon as you can afford it, get a second minispellbook and work from there. Oh, and don't forget to make your Spellbook somehow traceable for you. Make sure it's unique enough in appearance that you can Locate Object on it, for example.


Surviving Alone:
Unfortunately, if you are actually forced to be alone you might have to break out more power than normal. In teams, you can be a teamplayer but in solo adventures you need to use more of Wizards' potential. The fundamental thing you need is a way to fight constant battle. You could also use some high-powered single-target nukes in your repertoire, when there's no worry that somebody else gets miffed when you do everything yourself.

The most obvious things to do while fighting alone:
- Create minions. Between Planar Binding (obscenely powerful, binds creatures to service), Simulacrum (create spellcasting replicas), Animate Dead (undead are unsightly, meh) & your standard issue Summon Monster (kinda weak for combat on appropriate levels but there are a few that can be used as precision-answers to certain threats) means you're capable of acquiring various assistants.

Planar Binding in particular gets you long duration treaties with powerful outsiders with very favorable terms since you can cheat in the Charisma-check with magic while also stripping them of any and even debuffing them if necessary before the treaty.

- Use shapeshift magic. Wizened old Wizard isn't really made for combat. Polymorph, Polymorph Any Object & Shapechange with you and your familiar as platforms mean the opposition might soon be facing a 12-Headed Hydra, a Pit Fiend, a War Troll, a Dusk Giant or various other potent creatures that make you every bit as lethal as a warrior in melee, and if you pick a form with hands and vocal tracts or native spellcasting of some kind (do try), you can still use magic too. You could purchase casting of PAO rather early and enjoy your turbocharged physicals for a long time. That spell is kinda nasty tho so I'd stick to just preparing Polymorphs and breaking it out when you need to fight alone. Don't forget to share it with your Familiar as per Share Spells.

- Optimize damage spells. Empowered Energy Admixtured Searing Spell Orb of Fire is pretty darn effective. If you have Arcane Thesis [PHBII] in a damage spell, you can stack metamagic on it quite cheaply. There's also Metamagic School Focus [Complete Mage] and some more broken options (Incantatrix, Easy Metamagic, Practical Metamagic, everyone knows these). Of course, you can get quite good results with just Split Ray Enervation, for instance. In general, if you can't rely on having a party be prepared to end things yourself. Normally it's kinda bothersome for your team if you both, do all control and damage but when you're alone, it's less of a problem. Wield the power but use it sparingly, using least resource expenditure per encounter possible. Polymorph is often a far more efficient way of killing people, for example, and simply throwing Alchemist's Fires or Coup de Grace with a Scythe at a sufficiently disabled opponent can often get the job done without as much as a spellslot.

- Pick a reserve feat. These get you an all-day ability to do something minor. Most of them are pretty bad but they're good for clearing mooks and what not. Fiery Burst, Minor Shapeshift & Acidic Splatter are all "alright". I personally don't like using them since they feel kinda like wastes of resources but if you aren't that careful with your spellslots, you might need them.


Short version, abuse the more broken parts of the system to replace the need for an outside party to boink heads. Do battlefield control, then boink heads yourself. Or, occasionally when it seems like the most efficient course of action, destroy the target with heavily metamagicked damage.


Surviving Combat Encounters In Quick Succession:
This is simple: Be conservative with your resources. Think one spell will do it? Use one spell. Think you can make do with just Alchemist's Fires/Crossbow Shots/Whatever? Go for it. Also, you should always have some general purpose Wand in your back pocket, and a few key Scrolls for "extended workdays".

Remember that Wands and Scrolls don't get your stats to the save DCs and use your caster level so you should avoid spells reliant on saves or caster level to function (or buy a high caster level Wand but those are as expensive as they come).

This is what battlefield control is great for. A single Web or Grease or Stinking Cloud can do enough to sufficiently disable a whole encounter worth of enemies (won't necessarily, but can - depends on how they rolled their saves and if the opponents have some countermeasures available) if the enemies are in close proximity or can be funneled by terrain use. If you need to kill them yourself, figure out if you need to shift and kill them or if it's sufficient to use mundane tools for the job.

Also, rest in safety. Rope Trick, Teleport, Magnificient Mansion, Plane Shift/Genesis/Astral Projection (Nightmares get this and can be bound with Lesser Planar Binding), use your level appropriate tools to maximize the chances of safe, reliable rest. Extradimensional camps or just using your own stronghold/friendly temple/such for resting tend to be among the better means to minimize the chance of you getting bothered in the night. Also, Howard's Fortifying Bedroll [Complete Mage] is an excellent item that reduces the time you need to rest massively. Always get those. If you have trouble getting magic items, get Craft Wondrous Items and craft them yourself. Obviously, Heward's Handy Haversack is another item you should have and one that makes robbing you harder (regarding Spellbook).


So, that, in short, is it. Use your resources sparingly, prepare for everything and prepare to do the dirty work yourself and you shall triumph. Don't forget to divine as appropriate; being able to tell the future has its uses.


Oh, and Being Batman (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=104002) & Playing A God (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=394.0) are must-reads if you haven't already. The spell selection is broadly appropriate for solo and party adventures alike. But yeah, the only difference is, solo you get to use more of your power without making others feel useless (and no, Fireball still isn't better than Slow). For actually killing people, mentioned Alchemist's Fires/Crossbows and Coup de Grace (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/combatModifiers.htm#coupdeGrace) with e.g. a Scythe are good on low levels. So...yah. Enjoy.

[faceroll]

I would go dragonwrought kobold, pick up loredrake, spellhoarding, and riddled templates. Start with around 30 int, all your spells are runes on your scales, you can learn any spell that you counter spell (includes cleric spells, bard spells, whatever), and you only need gems to "scribe" spells into your spellbook.. You also get scribe scroll and eschew materials for free, so go with domain war wizard for one free spell a day and swap out the wizard's freebie scribe scroll with improved initiative.

Pick up rope trick and the feat extend spell, so you can sleep out safely as soon as you hit CL5 (level 3 for you).

With slight build and a racial +2 dex, your hide's decent. There are a few spells you could cast to boost your hide even further, but you have to pay a ranger or druid to cast them, then successfully counter spell them.

I have a cerebremancer build, similar to the above (picked up deep template and dragonspawn) that, between psionic powers and spells from 3 lists, gets like +20 or +30 on untrained hide checks.

[gorfnab]

Eidetic Spellcaster ACF from Dragon Magazine (354?) lets you store all your spells in your memory. No tatoos, no spellbook, no talismans or anything else :smalltongue:
From a previous post of mine


Easy Bake No "Worries" Wizard

Elf, preferably Gray

Elf Wizard Racial Sub - Races of the Wild
Eidetic Spellcaster ACF - Dragon Magazine #357
Spontaneous Divination ACF - Complete Champion - Optional but great at higher levels
Collegiate Wizard feat - Complete Arcane

1st Level - 7+ Int mod 1st level spells known, all cantrips, 1 extra spell per day of highest level
No Familiar, No Scribe Scroll, No Spellbook

Note: Every level after 1st that advances wizard spellcasting gets you 5 spells known for free instead of the usual 2.

If flaws are available and depending on the campaign at first level Sacred Vow (BoED) + Vow of Poverty (BoED) may actually be an option.

For other feats look into Reserve (CM and CC) feats to keep up you versatility and staying power.

Edit: If you're playing in Eberron, the feat Aerenal Arcanist (Player's Guide to Eberron) will net you an additional spell known per level netting you 8+Int spells at 1st level and 6 additional spells known every level after that.

[Jack_Simth]

I noticed a lot of spell options for both sorcerer and wizard are focused around battlefield control, buffing, and slight amounts of debuffing. So your fighter can go over and bonk the thing in the head twenty times in a row without fear of retribution.

I also note that a lot of the builds are focused around campaigns with reasonable DMs.

Now let's say we had a harsh DM who absolutely hates it when her players have any magic items at all, much less multiple of them. She likes throwing ECL+1 monsters at us (without compensating for our lack of magic items). She likes stealing wizard spellbooks and isolating player characters. Most infuriatingly, she likes to add "realism" in her games by forcing combat encounters on us when we've just used up quite a few of our spells.

(The lady in question is mostly hypothetical, of course.)

How would that change arcane spell choice for wizards and sorcerers? Feats chosen? How would you optimize yourself to be prepared for almost any situation as a wizard of levels 5, 10, 15, and 20?
That's a rather annoying DM. Workable, though, if that's the only ways the DM messes with the characters.

As a Wizard:

Key 1:
The Aforementioned Dragon Magazine Alternate Class Feature, Edetic Spellcaster, so you don't *have* a spellbook.

Key 2:
Collegiate Wizard (Complete Arcane) to double your level-based free spells known.

Key 3:
The Book of Exalted Deeds, Vow of Poverty, so the lack of equipment doesn't matter.

Key 4:
Extend Spell + Rope Trick.

[Dalek-K]

Here you go

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#spellMasterySpecial

And it is core ;)

[Thrice Dead Cat]

This has a lot of nasty - but legal - tricks on it. The classes don't really matter, but it is a super wizard without even needing wizard levels. (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=257072)

[Psyren]

If you're afraid of losing your spell book when out adventuring use the spell Hoard Gullet.

Even without the difficulty of having to enlarge yourself every morning to swallow a book (the spell was really designed for dragons), Hoard Gullet has another problem - getting hit with a dispel causes you to puke all its contents into your square.

Compare this to a regular bag of holding, which merely becomes inert when dispelled/suppressed (keeping the contents safe, if inaccessible.)

[Baka Nikujaga]

But from what simulacrum included in his original post, the chances of maintaining possession of a bag of holding would be a bit difficult or at least more so than what is typically stored inside of you (and only removed in an antimagic field or dispel).

[Psyren]

I'm not saying that bag of holding is a viable option either; but given that most enemies he faces will be a higher level and he is a caster, his chances of being dispelled are pretty high. Which means RALPH, there's the spellbook.

His best bet, as others have posted, is to avoid needing a spellbook altogether - either by not being a wizard at all, or by storing his spells in some alternate fashion.

[Baka Nikujaga]

And I would be inclined to agree with you.