I want to play a pure caster

[danzibr]

I've been playing D&D off and on for like, 9 years. In that time, I've made... well, a lot of melee people. I made a Psion once but we didn't get past level 2.

Right now, however, I'm a Bard (just hit level 9), focused almost exclusively on buffing. I'm not going into any PrC (not a high OP party). Anyways, we had to move this statue, and I cast Grease at its base and the DM gave me a +4 circumstance bonus and I thought, "How cool."

Anyways, there have been quite a few situations where, well, I haven't done much beyond buffing. I'm not saying Bards are incompetent by any means, but it seems magic is where it's at. However, I've always been a bit hesitant to roll a Wizard or Sorcerer or something. So many options for the spells, and on top of that, metamagic. And for a Wizard you pick your spells at the beginning of the day when you have no idea what'll happen (well, sort of no idea).

So my question is this: what's a good pure caster that's first-time-caster friendly which can contribute to any situation? Not necessarily a blaster or melee master, but like a jack of all trades.

[JeminiZero]

Druid come pretty close to jack of all trades, their list has a bit of everything: healing, blasting, BC (they're not necessarily the best at all these, but they *can* do it). And once wildshape comes online, they can out-melee the fighter (to say nothing of their extra meat shield.

And of course they can spontaneously summon, which is always useful in combat (moar meat shields) and out of combat for trap baiting (at least until you get Summon Elemental reserve feat). So even if your prepared spell isn't useful, just default back to summoning.

[Acanous]

If not Druid, Cleric may be more up your alley. They have no spellbook to worry about, get the armor and weapons of more melee-focused characters, don't lose much by way of base attack, and if you picked the wrong spells that day, you still have spontanious curing.
Further, Cleric suits your playstyle a little more snugly, as a cleric's best spells are all buffs.

Well, buffs and Gate. But Buffs 'till you get Gate.

[Corlindale]

You might consider one of the full casters with a fixed spell list, such as the Beguiler, Warmage or Dread Necromancer. You can't mess up spell choice here, because you get spontaneous casting from an entire list made for a specific theme.

The beguiler is generally considered the most powerful of these - he is focused on enchantment, illusion and similar, all the trickster-style spells. Also gets some decent buffs, so he can contribute even when facing enemies immune to his main tricks.

He also rivals the rogue in the skill monkey department, which will benefit you if you wish to be a jack-of-all-trades.

[prufock]

You might consider one of the full casters with a fixed spell list, such as the Beguiler, Warmage or Dread Necromancer. You can't mess up spell choice here, because you get spontaneous casting from an entire list made for a specific theme.

The beguiler is generally considered the most powerful of these - he is focused on enchantment, illusion and similar, all the trickster-style spells. Also gets some decent buffs, so he can contribute even when facing enemies immune to his main tricks.

He also rivals the rogue in the skill monkey department, which will benefit you if you wish to be a jack-of-all-trades.

Seconding the Beguiler. Warmage is a blaster, if that's what you want (blasting can be fun!) but lacks versatility. Dread Necro is good, but can be a lot to keep track of if you're animating undead.

Beguiler has good spells, good skills, cool class abilities, no worries about selecting or preparing spells (except your Advanced Learning spells, of which you only get a few). They have a couple downsides (bad base attack and most of their spells are will save or mind-affecting), but they are still pretty awesome in most cases. Just don't pick one if you know you're going to be facing a lot of undead and constructs.

Second to that, I'd say Sorcerer or Favoured Soul. Again, you don't have to prepare spells, but you do have to select them. This is fine, since it's one-time bookkeeping at each new level, instead of every adventuring day.

[Devils_Advocate]

The common theme you'll notice here is that people are suggesting classes that have fixed lists of spells known (save for the favored soul). This spares you the puzzle of constructing a proper repertoire of spells. With Cleric and Druid, you still need to prepare spells each day, but a mistake made here lasts only for a day, so that's still pretty forgiving. You get the chance to try out a different selection of spells each day in order to figure out what works best for you, and whichever spells you pick, you can swap them out for generally useful healing or summoning spells as the need arises.

Spontaneous fixed-list casters are even simpler, with the need to choose spells delayed right until you cast them! The downside with them is that they have narrower themes. But I gather that Beguilers are similar to Bards, but with more emphasis on spellcasting, and maybe that's just what you'd like?

I'd go with Cleric just because that class's odd grab bag of utility, combat, and healing magic appeals to me. And, hey, a Cloistered Cleric of Boccob with the Magic and Trickery domains is also like a Bard!

[Mando Knight]

and if you picked the wrong spells that day, you still have spontanious curing.

If you do go with one of the divine casters, the Spontaneous Casting bit is important to remember. If you're a Good Cleric, don't prepare any Cure spells, if you're an Evil one, don't prepare any Inflict spells, and if you're a Druid, don't prepare any Summon Nature's Ally spells. The exception to this is if you feel you'll want to cast a metamagic Cure/Inflict/Summon without increasing the casting time.

[ericgrau]

Wizard is the most friendly for the first time. Druid is more complicated because of additional non-casting options, and cleric is more complicated because it's harder to find good spells that take out enemies well and it does some fighting too (though it's simpler than figuring out dire tiger stats). Prepared is more friendly than spontaneous because if you screw up you can switch to better spells as you go. That said, if you're extremely careful about picking spells either by reading them all or searching old threads for recommendation, sorcerer is much easier and fun to play.

For feats there are a lot of good options but it's hard to go wrong with greater spell focus and metamagic. Empower (don't forget the variable spells that don't do hp damage) and quicken are often your best bet for metamagic. For a high level sorcerer heighten is handy too. For greater spell focus conjuration, transmutation, evocation (not just for area damage) and sometimes illusion are decent. You want to avoid spells that even have saves, but those that hit multiple targets and/or target reflex (the lowest on average) tend to be worth it so you get GSF for those.

[Slipperychicken]

Honestly, since you're already familiar with the magic system (Bard), any of them shouldn't be a problem.

A Wizard just needs to track his spells prepared each day, not so bad if you have the time. Put it on a computer file like Excel, and you won't smudge your paper. I get around the being-surprised issue by taking Uncanny Forethought (Exemplars of Evil, allows Int-mod spontaneous castings per day).

[lsfreak]

I'm going to second/third/fourth/whatever beguiler or dread necro. They get you in a casty mindset without requiring much work on your part, and beguiler especially gives you somewhat obtuse spells that are not straightfoward in their use, which is a good thing to keep in mind when playing a caster. If someone had no idea how to play a caster and wanted to, I'd either point them to one of those, or give them a sorcerer with a pre-built spell list.

Wizard is very forgiving but will require quite a bit of work on your part, especially if you don't know much about spells, and I'd recommend against it. An advantage or disadvantage of cleric or druid is you can play fairly similar to the melee you're used to while still being a caster, but if you're wanting something different keep that in mind when building up your spell list. Sorcerer is a no-no for beginners unless you're getting a lot of help with spell selection and/or your DM is being very lenient on relearning spells (Font of Psychic Reformation at your local sorcerer hovel).

[Randomguy]

Beguiler would definitely be a great choice.

I'd also recommend Spirit Shaman: You get the druid spell list, you cast spontaneously like a sorcerer, and you can swap out your spells known each day! So, unlike a sorcerer, if you find a certain spell isn't doing it for you, you could just not pick that spell the next day, instead of having to wait a long time.

If you'd rather not wait until you get a new game, you could make your bard a sublime chord and get sorcerer casting.

[Endarire]

I'm a fan of using Wizards if you have proper help!

TreantMonk (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=394) provides.

In short, stick to Conjuration and Transmutation spells. They're the most powerful and, generally, the most party-friendly. (Buffs, summons, and crowd controls without much direct damage.)

From my experience, a Conjurer or Transmuter is best. Drop Enchantment & Necromancy (Ench is mostly redundant and Necro requires too long to get good) and get extra slots per level.

Alternatively, be an INT elf (that is, Gray Elf/Fire Elf/Sun Elf) generalist Wizard with the Domain Wizard (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#wizardVariantDomainWiz ard) and Elf Wizard1 Substitution Level (Races of the Wild) alternative class features.

You can do so much! It's a matter of what you want to do right now!

[Psyren]

Just wanted to pop in and say, if you don't feel like rerolling, you're at just the right level to enter Sublime Chord (basically becoming a Sorcerer that sings.) It'll take a bit to get your casting up to speed though.

[ericgrau]

From my experience, a Conjurer or Transmuter is best. Drop Enchantment & Necromancy (Ench is mostly redundant and Necro requires too long to get good) and get extra slots per level.
Necromancy is easy to drop because it's a bit specialized, but I think the opposite is true on its spells. Single target save or die isn't any better than single target save or lose for winning a fight. A resilient sphere targets a lower save (on average), fewer things are immune, and it's only level 4. My favorite necromancies have no save, and those tend to be at low level. Mostly ray of enfeeblement, false life and enervation, though there are some other ok ones. Those are even better with empower. Besides enchantment I'd consider abjuration or illusion. Given how few rounds fights have blowing an early one on a defensive illusion dramatically reduces your contribution to the fight; better to cast false life in the morning. Then open the fight with a crowd control spell to reduce damage to the entire party including yourself. A couple of my favorites are empowered ray of enfeeblement or wall of force, though web is ok at low levels and solid fog is ok too. Losing the invisibilities is a pain but they're not as spectacular as spells like these. Abjuration is nice in theory if you roll well (or the enemy rolls poorly) and you prepared precisely the right defense; otherwise the spell slot is wasted. Plus the party cleric does it better.

I don't think I could live without transmutation but to focus on it I'd have a hard time finding a great bonus spell each level. I could find a good one, but there's usually a conjuration, necromancy or evocation I strongly prefer that normally might not leave room, especially when I first get a spell level and only have 2-3. Except for haste at level 3. And I am assuming no cheesy polymorph tricks like war trolls. Polymorph also involves a huge amount of book-keeping, not good for a first timer.

[DeusMortuusEst]

Just wanted to pop in and say, if you don't feel like rerolling, you're at just the right level to enter Sublime Chord (basically becoming a Sorcerer that sings.) It'll take a bit to get your casting up to speed though.

Yup, I'll second, or third this suggestion. Also, if you want to be able to do many different things with your bard-caster, try to pick up the Snowflake Wardance feat from Frostburn (It's cold outside!), which allows you to spend bardic music to get CHA to attack and damage. Now you're a bard-caster-melee character :smallsmile:

[Cor1]

Do you want ALL of the spells? Just do an EZ-Bake Wizard!


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

If flaws are available
Precocious Apprentice: Melf's Acid Arrow, Ice Knife, or Combust - Complete Arcane
Acidic Splatter, Winter's Blast, or Fiery Burst - Complete Mage
Sacred Vow + Vow of Poverty - Book of Exalted Deeds - depending on the campaign, this may work

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

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.
Basically look into the feats Collegiate Wizard and Aerenal Arcanist. These two feats together will give you an insane number of spells known when combined Elf Generalist Wizard ACF. If you go with Eidetic Spellcaster then you will not be reliant on a spellbook. Eschew Materials will also make it so that you only need material components 1gp or higher. You can have these three feats (Collegiate Wizard, Aerenal Arcanist, and Eschew Materials) at first level with two flaws. From there look into the best battlefield control and utility spells you can find.

That's the best one to keep the options open. You'll rely on your Int mod a lot for spells/day, though.

If you want a LOT of spells per day, otoh, I think there's enough advice in the thread already...

[danzibr]

Beguiler sounds mighty cool, and actually Spirit Shaman too. However, after reading a couple (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=394) Wizard (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=104002) handbooks (http://dictummortuum.blogspot.com/2011/09/wizards-handbook-part-one-attributes.html), I might end up going Wizard in the end.

Thanks all!

Oh, and as much as I would love Dread Necro (really), I'd want to have butt loads of undead minions, and I'd rather have just me and my familiar. If I were doing a solo campaign I'd totally go Dread Necro though.

[Flickerdart]

Do you want ALL of the spells? Just do an EZ-Bake Wizard!
Precocious Apprentice is useless unless you're doing early entry, and taking it just so you can have a reserve feat two levels early is hideously wasteful.