Help boost a Wizard's survivability

[Silva Stormrage]

Hello I have a enchanter specialist wizard cohort in a camphain right now that is rather... frail. He always seems to get brought down to low hp or killed in half the fights we are in and I would like to know some ways to boost his survivability.

Right now the group is level 10 and the cohort is level 9 due to improved cohort. His barred schools are Necromancy and Evocation.

I was wondering if there are any good spells/items that would help his survivability. He gets targeted with AOE's melee attacks and all kinds of attacks.

Right now for defenses I have Greater Mirror Image and I am going to start using alter self to turn myself into a form that can fly.

Thanks for the help.

[Metahuman1]

Will your DM let you Retrain a feat to get Faerie Mysteries Initiate? It would let you add Int Mod to HP in place of Con. That would probably give you more HP.

Using Invisibility will also help keep you from being targeted, and a miss chance will give you some protection form Melee and arrow attacks.

Build up resistances and immunity's as many energy types as you can.

The heart of Spells can also add some meaningful boosts.

[ericgrau]

Well the best morning buff for both AOEs and melee attacks is empowered false li-, oh snap no necromancy. Stoneskin helps though it's expensive. Mirror image, displacement and such are ok against melee but not area and they sometimes eat a round that could otherwise be spent pulling his own weight as your cohort. You could load up on lots of different kinds of energy resistance or protection from energy in the morning, possibly extended with rod(s) of lesser extend spell. That's spell slot intensive. My favorite method is instead to use battlefield control spells to prevent damage not only to him but to everyone, such as the 99.9% reliable no-save, impenetrable, nigh-uncounterable, wall of force wall of stone (has save, destructible) / solid fog (only a delay) / sleet storm (delay, ginormous) / slow (best against several targets).

You know, sometimes it's a good idea to give banned schools some consideration instead of automatically going with the most popular options. Especially on a secondary or otherwise unconventional character where the budget or capabilities (save DCs, etc.) on work-arounds might be low.

[Amnestic]

Will your DM let you Retrain a feat to get Faerie Mysteries Initiate? It would let you add Int Mod to HP in place of Con. That would probably give you more HP.


Of course you need to find someone else with the same feat to get that bonus - and engage in a passionate ritual with them.

[Silva Stormrage]

Will your DM let you Retrain a feat to get Faerie Mysteries Initiate? It would let you add Int Mod to HP in place of Con. That would probably give you more HP.

Using Invisibility will also help keep you from being targeted, and a miss chance will give you some protection form Melee and arrow attacks.

Build up resistances and immunity's as many energy types as you can.

The heart of Spells can also add some meaningful boosts.

Unfortunately no on the Faerie Mysteries Initiate because he banned Dragon Magizine.

Heart of Stone helps a lot since I can't get False Life, I will cast that with my other all day buffs.

Invisibility might be good to have prepared once a day, he is an enchanter not a conjuration specialist so he would break that invisibility pretty fast though.


@Ericgrau

Ya I use sleetstorm to help protect him now but it kinda hurts the rest of the party since its such a big area so I can't rely on that. Solid fog is a great idea too I will scribe that.

And I did think about school specilization. My main character is a dread necromancer so I really don't need more necromancy :smallbiggrin:. Also I just dislike the evocation school.

[Redshirt Army]

Illusion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/blur.htm) is (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/invisibility.htm) your (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/mirrorImage.htm) friend. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/displacement.htm)

[ericgrau]

And I did think about school specilization. My main character is a dread necromancer so I really don't need more necromancy :smallbiggrin:. Also I just dislike the evocation school.
It's too bad false life is a personal spell. Otherwise you'd have nothing to worry about.

I was just thinking that one spell that's both good for offense as a SoL targetting the most common low save and saving your own butt or an allies' at the last moment almost no matter what. It's resilient sph-, gosh darn it :smalltongue:. Well your main character might be able to cast in on your cohort unless...

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

Well, I'd recommend Abrupt Jaunt, but he's not a conjurer. I'd recommend Wings of Cover/Ruin Delver's Fortune, but he's not a Sorcerer. We're running out of options, so all I can think of is the worst immediate action offender of them all. Celerity + Orb of X is a decent way to "counterspell," Celerity + some kind of Wall or Fog is a good way to block off melee (though Halt and Greater Mirror Image work here too), and Celerity + Dimension Door is a decent last resort escape plan.

RE: False Life, I prefer Heart of Earth. In fact, the Heart of [element] spells, all in complete mage, help with a lot of things, and last hours/level.

[ericgrau]

Wow heart of earth is nuts. It's like empowered false life + stoneskin + no material cost. What were they smoking? Well that's solved.

You might as well give him heart of captain planet + protection from energy (cold) + protection from energy (electricity), or resist energies to conserve spells, and he'll be pretty well covered defensively.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

Heart of Water is the most commonly cited one; level 3, you can expend it to get Freedom of Movement for rds/level. So basically a better FoM a level earlier. Best part is if you have all of them up (and they're all good except Heart of Air, which is eh), you get heavy fortification from an elemental source. Good times.

[ericgrau]

Heart of air is only level 2 though. You might as well form captain planet.

[Keld Denar]

By the time you have enough slots and levels to afford to form Captain Planet readily, you can cast Elemental Body (Trans6, SpC) and get 100% fortification, perfect fly, and a +1 AC against anything that is also flying. Thats about as good as it gets!

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

Elemental Body is 7th level, and Heart of Fire is a solid buff to cast, even at level 9. Also, the benefits from Water and Earth are good enough that you probably want to cast them even if you have Elemental Body up. Maybe Heart of Fire, too.

[NecroRick]

Congratulations - you have just discovered the "Tier Fallacy".

AKA because you're a wizard you win at everything†,

†where 'everything' is defined as "not including combats where you actually might take damage and also only those few things you prepared for today, or that you can procrastinate about long enough to come back tomorrow with a new set of spells or that are sufficiently non-urgent that you can go away and visit your nearest magic-mart for a bunch of new spells to scribe into your spell book and come back to in a couple of weeks time".
††May include traces of nuts.
†††Judges decision is final.
††††Not valid where prohibited by law or in the state of Massachusetts.
†††††Dinosaurs in the mirror are closer than they appear.
††††††Batteries not included.
†††††††Some assembly required.

I'd suggest temporary hit points - e.g. Vampiric Touch delivered by Spectral Hand... but you banned Necromancy.

You can fake temporary hit points with Bear's Endurance, but depending on how your DM handles the damage when the extra hit points wear off (e.g. if it works like the Barbie's does), it may only be a temporary life-saver. Even so it might keep you on your feet long enough to get you to the nearest Healing Belt (p110 Magic Item Compendium. It unslices! It undices! Available for one easy payment of 750gp. Postage and packaging not included. Does not ship outside of continental US. Use of corrupt magic voids the warranty.).

Hmm.. the second thing is to look at bumping up your defences. Shield + Mage Armour is good. The problem is that although Mage Armour is going to last all day, Shield isn't. You can either try to save it for when you need it, or get some way of replenishing it. Pearl of Power is crunchy (in more ways than one! Ha!) for this, at a mere 1000gp (500gp if you buy the one that you have to put together yourself in the garage on christmas eve.). An eternal wand (p159 MIC) is nice for this, gives you two uses per day for a mere 820gp. Two minor schemas is even cheaper, but not by much!

I don't know about you, but a lot of the battles we have involve a round of manoeuvring to get into (or out of position). These can be good things to cast in that round.

There is an upgraded version of Mage Armour in the Spell Compendium, which gives +6AC instead of +4.

I second the above posters suggestion of Blur, but unless you have other ways of stacking %miss chance then you might be better off with Mirror Image.

Another thing to do is to think about *why* you are taking damage? Are you running up next to the fighter and hacking away at the enemy with your dagger? Maybe a change of tactics is in order!? Or are you sensibly hanging back but still taking lots of ranged damage? If the enemy is frequently archers, then Mirror Image isn't going to stay up long. On the other hand, if we think about Mirror Image, then its effectiveness is directly proportional to the size of the incoming damage. If you're taking a lot of 1d6 arrows to the head, then Mirror Image isn't so great. But if it's giants throwing boulders for 4d8 damage each, then each image in the mirror image is effectively worth 18 temporary hit points - a good deal for a level 2 spell! Against arrows there is the Crystal of Arrow Deflection - for 5000gp you get to add +5 to your AC vs ranged attacks and get free Arrow Deflection feat (p25 MIC). Note that (as per p221 MIC) augment crystals have to be attached to armour, but Bracers of Armour +3 would qualify for that (they even mention that item by name so you know it's good). But that would supersede your Mage Armour and/or Greater Mage Armour.

Perhaps you are taking most of your damage from enemy casters? Some resistance, spell turning or counter-spelling might prove useful.

[Silva Stormrage]

Congratulations - you have just discovered the "Tier Fallacy".

AKA because you're a wizard you win at everything†,

†where 'everything' is defined as "not including combats where you actually might take damage and also only those few things you prepared for today, or that you can procrastinate about long enough to come back tomorrow with a new set of spells or that are sufficiently non-urgent that you can go away and visit your nearest magic-mart for a bunch of new spells to scribe into your spell book and come back to in a couple of weeks time".
††May include traces of nuts.
†††Judges decision is final.
††††Not valid where prohibited by law or in the state of Massachusetts.
†††††Dinosaurs in the mirror are closer than they appear.
††††††Batteries not included.
†††††††Some assembly required.

I'd suggest temporary hit points - e.g. Vampiric Touch delivered by Spectral Hand... but you banned Necromancy.

You can fake temporary hit points with Bear's Endurance, but depending on how your DM handles the damage when the extra hit points wear off (e.g. if it works like the Barbie's does), it may only be a temporary life-saver. Even so it might keep you on your feet long enough to get you to the nearest Healing Belt (p110 Magic Item Compendium. It unslices! It undices! Available for one easy payment of 750gp. Postage and packaging not included. Does not ship outside of continental US. Use of corrupt magic voids the warranty.).

Hmm.. the second thing is to look at bumping up your defences. Shield + Mage Armour is good. The problem is that although Mage Armour is going to last all day, Shield isn't. You can either try to save it for when you need it, or get some way of replenishing it. Pearl of Power is crunchy (in more ways than one! Ha!) for this, at a mere 1000gp (500gp if you buy the one that you have to put together yourself in the garage on christmas eve.). An eternal wand (p159 MIC) is nice for this, gives you two uses per day for a mere 820gp. Two minor schemas is even cheaper, but not by much!

I don't know about you, but a lot of the battles we have involve a round of manoeuvring to get into (or out of position). These can be good things to cast in that round.

There is an upgraded version of Mage Armour in the Spell Compendium, which gives +6AC instead of +4.

I second the above posters suggestion of Blur, but unless you have other ways of stacking %miss chance then you might be better off with Mirror Image.

Another thing to do is to think about *why* you are taking damage? Are you running up next to the fighter and hacking away at the enemy with your dagger? Maybe a change of tactics is in order!? Or are you sensibly hanging back but still taking lots of ranged damage? If the enemy is frequently archers, then Mirror Image isn't going to stay up long. On the other hand, if we think about Mirror Image, then its effectiveness is directly proportional to the size of the incoming damage. If you're taking a lot of 1d6 arrows to the head, then Mirror Image isn't so great. But if it's giants throwing boulders for 4d8 damage each, then each image in the mirror image is effectively worth 18 temporary hit points - a good deal for a level 2 spell! Against arrows there is the Crystal of Arrow Deflection - for 5000gp you get to add +5 to your AC vs ranged attacks and get free Arrow Deflection feat (p25 MIC). Note that (as per p221 MIC) augment crystals have to be attached to armour, but Bracers of Armour +3 would qualify for that (they even mention that item by name so you know it's good). But that would supersede your Mage Armour and/or Greater Mage Armour.

Perhaps you are taking most of your damage from enemy casters? Some resistance, spell turning or counter-spelling might prove useful.

Well first off your post was amusing to read :smallsmile:.

Unfortunatly he has tomb tainted soul sooo no belt of healing :smallbiggrin:. Maybe I can find a belt of harming?

I have a familiar that can use magic items so actually I could just give the familiar an eternal wand of shield and tell him to use it on himself and share it with me. (I am actually unsure if familiars can do that I remember reading it somewhere but can find it now)

For armor crystals can't I still enchant them on regular clothes? for Magic Vestment clothes count as + 0 ac armor.

The main reason I seem to be taking attacks is that my DM has all the melee enemies basically rush for the casters. Since his ac is pretty low (19) he gets hit a lot and greater mirror images pop fast. And since he lacks abrupt jaunt its sometimes hard to get away. Also my dm homebrews a lot so most casters are a homebrew "mage" class whose aoes are very wide spread.

[NecroRick]

Well first off your post was amusing to read :smallsmile:.


Thanks for the feedback, nice to know I'm not a total muppet (or at least, my ranks in perform: muppet are sufficiently amusing to the intended audience) :D

For what it's worth, I also endorse the Heart of X suggestions, especially Heart of Earth. Very good find.



Unfortunatly he has tomb tainted soul sooo no belt of healing :smallbiggrin:. Maybe I can find a belt of harming?


Why on earth do you have that when you banned necromancy???

Are you planning on Uttercolding?



I have a familiar that can use magic items so actually I could just give the familiar an eternal wand of shield and tell him to use it on himself and share it with me. (I am actually unsure if familiars can do that I remember reading it somewhere but can find it now)


I think the one familiar in question was the monkey, which has sufficiently hand-like ability to wave the wand around? I don't see it on the SRD list, but it's bound to be out there somewhere.

Raven also has something - they can speak one language of the master's choosing, so could potentially do stuff requiring somatic components.


For armor crystals can't I still enchant them on regular clothes? for Magic Vestment clothes count as + 0 ac armor.


Correct. Armour crystals work on anything providing an enhancement bonus to AC, and Magic Vestment does that. Presumably if the Magic Vestment spell wears off the crystal will fall off. So maybe attach it to a decorative but functional chain of some sort?



The main reason I seem to be taking attacks is that my DM has all the melee enemies basically rush for the casters. Since his ac is pretty low (19) he gets hit a lot and greater mirror images pop fast. And since he lacks abrupt jaunt its sometimes hard to get away. Also my dm homebrews a lot so most casters are a homebrew "mage" class whose aoes are very wide spread.

Reminds me of Shadowrun. All the Mages blast away at the Street Samurai, and all the Street Samurai shoot at the Mages. Good times. :D

Is there something that the fighter-types can do in order to prevent the opposition from sacking the quarter-back?

Honestly, it sounds like the DM is doing pretty much what I would do. Knowing the theoretical power of mages at high levels, this would not be some secret of the advanced military colleges - most warriors would get told at boot camp to take out the guy with the pointy-hat and robes first.

There is a historical precedent for this too - the roman legionaries who carried the banners into didn't have a very long expected lifespan.

As for the mage vs mage problem, this has always been a bit icky. You roll d4s for hit points, but you blast away with d6s... the math does not favour your continued survival! You could try to kill them "more" and "first" but then while you are casting your save-or-sucks at them the ground pounders are getting into pounding range...

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

"The tier fallacy" seems like a bit of a straw man argument to me. At most the tiers say T1s could win at everything if they were optimized to the fringe of practical, in which case you're playing a very weird game. Otherwise they're just generally capable of catching unprepared DMs by surprise with a single spell slot. Traveling-based adventure? Teleport. Mystery/fetch quest? Divinations. Roleplay encounter? Charms/Dominates. Combat? No-save spells. None of this says that the wizard is an immortal win machine all the time in all games.

/fun police

[ericgrau]

Ha ya few people want to admit it, or they blame human error http://fs01.androidpit.info/aico/x59/4459.png, but wizards die too, and parties with wizards in them do fail. Not just sometimes, but often. When you can hit nigh-infinite in TO, being able to do it in as many ways as possible is everything. But in PO tiers only measure versatility: the ability to anything, but not everything, nor is the action necessarily successful.

On a semi-related practicality note I'm gonna suggest reading over all the suggestions and picking the least resource-intensive options, spell slot-wise, gold-wise, and action-wise; also with minimum reliance on saves (especially at cohort save DCs).

[HunterOfJello]

Invisibility
Greater Invisibility
Obscuring Mist
Charm Person during fights (takes an enemy out of the entire equation)
Suggestion
Reduce Person
Mirror Image
Darkness
Deeper Darkness cast on a few pebbles kept in closed cases

-use Defensive Casting on a regular basis after boosting concentration to at least 18
-put a +1 Twilight Mithril Chain Shirt on him
-Smokesticks
-move around more in combat and have the wizard focus more on living than helping others (a common problem when players are allowed to control their own cohorts in combat)

[NecroRick]

"The tier fallacy" seems like a bit of a straw man argument to me. At most the tiers say T1s could win at everything if they were optimized to the fringe of practical, in which case you're playing a very weird game. Otherwise they're just generally capable of catching unprepared DMs by surprise with a single spell slot. Traveling-based adventure? Teleport. Mystery/fetch quest? Divinations. Roleplay encounter? Charms/Dominates. Combat? No-save spells. None of this says that the wizard is an immortal win machine all the time in all games.

/fun police

Good lord man, don't put it so bluntly. There will be tears before bedtime if you challenge the holy tier system round here!

[Silva Stormrage]

Why on earth do you have that when you banned necromancy???

Are you planning on Uttercolding?



I think the one familiar in question was the monkey, which has sufficiently hand-like ability to wave the wand around? I don't see it on the SRD list, but it's bound to be out there somewhere.

Raven also has something - they can speak one language of the master's choosing, so could potentially do stuff requiring somatic components.


Actually I barred Evocation too :smallbiggrin: no uttercolding for me. I mentioned it earlier but you probably just missed it, my main guy is a Dread Necroamncer and actually the entire party has Tomb Tainted Soul :smallbiggrin:.

I meant can familiars cast spells on themselves and have it affect the main. If so that actually works REALLY well in my favor because I have an imp familiar so I could get invisibility and have him hold a wand of shield.

@ Hunter of Jello

I actually frogot about obscuring mist, that will also be helpful.

Thanks for the suggestion about the twilight mithril chain shirt I forgot that that had 0 arcane spell failure on it. Also it helps me get that armor crystal.

@ General Tier discussion, kinda ironic somewhat derailing my own thread but it seems that like a 75% of the threads I read that relate to balance at all. (Or tier ones not being omnipotent or monks being awesome) seem to devolve really fast into people debating the tier system. Has anyone else noticed this?

[Arbane]

The main reason I seem to be taking attacks is that my DM has all the melee enemies basically rush for the casters. Since his ac is pretty low (19) he gets hit a lot and greater mirror images pop fast. And since he lacks abrupt jaunt its sometimes hard to get away. Also my dm homebrews a lot so most casters are a homebrew "mage" class whose aoes are very wide spread.

Can you use a disguise spell to LOOK like a fighter? Nobody expects the guy in plate-armor to start tossing Sleep spells.

[Thespianus]

Use battlefield control spells like Evards Tentacles to separate the enemy meleers from reaching the mage(es)? Use illusion spells to hide your prescence? Stone Shape to create walls?

Depending on the environment (tight dungeons, for example) fly and similar spells might have limited effect. It's not always easy to get out of the way as a caster, I know that. But there are options :)

[candycorn]

Use battlefield control spells like Evards Tentacles to separate the enemy meleers from reaching the mage(es)? Use illusion spells to hide your prescence? Stone Shape to create walls?

Depending on the environment (tight dungeons, for example) fly and similar spells might have limited effect. It's not always easy to get out of the way as a caster, I know that. But there are options :)

In these instances, however, Walls and such are especially effective.

[Thespianus]

In these instances, however, Walls and such are especially effective.

Absolutely. The 10+CL cubic feet of Stone Shape, for instance, helps a lot.

EDIT: My bad, I did the cubic feet to cubic meters conversion all wrong. Metric system translation fail. 20 cubic feet at level 10 is very little material to work with.

[Redshirt Army]

"The tier fallacy" seems like a bit of a straw man argument to me. At most the tiers say T1s could win at everything if they were optimized to the fringe of practical, in which case you're playing a very weird game. Otherwise they're just generally capable of catching unprepared DMs by surprise with a single spell slot. Traveling-based adventure? Teleport. Mystery/fetch quest? Divinations. Roleplay encounter? Charms/Dominates. Combat? No-save spells. None of this says that the wizard is an immortal win machine all the time in all games.

/fun police
Gotta agree. Tiers measure versatility more than overall power. To the detractors, I ask you, what would a


Fighter, Monk, CA Ninja, Healer, Swashbuckler, Rokugan Ninja, Soulknife, Expert

contribute to said travel, mystery, or roleplay encounter, that a Wizard could not?

Tiers don't mean "WIN D&D FOREVER, THEN DANCE ON YOUR DMS PROSTRATE BODY." (At least not a middling to low optimization levels.) And no-one claims that they do. They just mean that you have more to contribute in a wider variety of circumstances.

EDIT:http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/9097/dancej.jpg

[Divide by Zero]

DANCE ON YOUR DMS PROSTATE BODY.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

[Amnestic]

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

He was only one letter off :P Though the difference between a prostate body and a prostrate body is a rather large one, yes...

[ericgrau]

The main reason I seem to be taking attacks is that my DM has all the melee enemies basically rush for the casters. Since his ac is pretty low (19) he gets hit a lot and greater mirror images pop fast. And since he lacks abrupt jaunt its sometimes hard to get away. Also my dm homebrews a lot so most casters are a homebrew "mage" class whose aoes are very wide spread.

Actually the image AC is lower than yours, probably 15 or maybe lower, so they pop even faster. Kill the mage is a reasonable tactic, and should be the battle cry of most intelligent foes. So you don't have allies getting attacks of opportunity when they try this? Oh well, I think there are some good ideas forming anyway.