Utility Wizard build? New to 4th

[Scarey Nerd]

Hey guys, I've never played 4th edition before but I've been invited to play in a 4th edition all-Dwarf campaign, so I've gone with Dwarf Wizard. However, I want to focus on being useful in varied situations as opposed to just doing damage, and I was wondering how feasible that is? Would I need to concentrate massively on Rituals, or are there many Wizard Powers that can do it? My DM is using loads of the sourcebooks; all 3 Player's Handbooks, an arcane supplement (Arcane Power? Something like that), etc etc.

Thoughts? :smallsmile:

[tcrudisi]

You will want to pick up a lot of rituals to use outside of combat.

If you are not worried about damage, you've gone to the right class. The spellbook will help in the right campaign, allowing you to make sure you have the right dailies for the job. However, if you are expecting the utility of a 3.5 wizard, expect to be sorely disappointed. A 4e wizard is equal outside of combat with the rituals than their 3.5 counterpart (since there's no number of times per day limitation on the number of rituals you can cast) but far worse inside of combat. That's not to say the 4e Wizard is bad. Au contraire - it's still one of the best classes in the game (though barely since all 4e classes are pretty much equal). It just lost its ability to dominate the world.

To that end, your job will be to control the battlefield. No one will do this as well as you. Don't look at big numbers and think that just because it does more damage, it is a better spell. That's patently false as far as wizards go. If anything, the opposite is true. Who cares if you do 3d10+mods against 4 targets when you can instead put those 4 targets to sleep so that everyone can coup de grace them?

To that end, go here for help picking powers and feats:
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/28817645/Archmages_Ascension_-_The_Wizards_Handbook?pg=1

and

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/25095865/The_Power_of_Knowledge_-_The_Wizards_Handbook?pg=1

Both are fantastic resources.

Typical disclaimer: this game is made for fun. If you see a power that's rated terribly but it looks fun? Pick it anyway. The resources I linked are best when used when you have a few powers that look fun and you want to try to decide between them. Also, it's great to figure out exactly how to play a wizard.

Good luck!