wizard race

[ima donkey]

In my current campaign there is a mandatory LA of 3 or 4. I am helping a new player pick out a race and he wants to be a wizard but sorcerer is not out of the question, I was wondering if there were any good races or templates or any combination of the two that were particullarly good for a wizard or sorcerer. We are able to use all books and are starting at level 6, any help would be apreciated.

EDIT: please list the book or books the races/templates are from

[Mithril Leaf]

A phrenic and half-fey of whatever race can take magic in the blood? He's get a massive list of spell/psi-like abilities to help him out. Alternatively, a shadow Petal.

[ima donkey]

A phrenic and half-fey of whatever race can take magic in the blood? He's get a massive list of spell/psi-like abilities to help him out. Alternatively, a shadow Petal.

That sounds interesting. Can you please name what books they are from?

[God Imperror]

Well liches have +4 LA :smallsmile:

[Mithril Leaf]

That sounds interesting. Can you please name what books they are from?

SRD, SRD, Player's Guide to Faerun, Lords Of Madness, and Monster Manual III.

[Logic]

Well liches have +4 LA :smallsmile:

I'm pretty sure you have to be an 11th level caster to become a Lich.

[Mithril Leaf]

Oh and 4 levels of the ghost Savage Progression.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Shadow Creature from Lords of Madness is +2 LA and gives Shadow Blend (same as this (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/shadowMastiff.htm) gets), Fast Healing, and a bunch of other good abilities. Just to note, that total concealment from Shadow Blend outright prevents targeted spells (no-attack-roll and non-area-effect) from being used against him, and everything that makes an attack roll will have a 50% chance to completely miss.

Half-Giant (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicRaces.htm#halfGiants) (+1 LA) can get the Primordial Giant template (+0 LA) from Secrets of Xen'drik, which grants +4 Int and Cha plus some other benefits.

Half-Fey (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20040213a) (+2 LA), originally from the Fiend Folio, would be a strong choice for a Sorcerer. If you apply it to a base creature that qualifies for the feat Magic in the Blood from Player's Guide to Faerun, all of the spell-like abilities it grants that are normally usable 1/day can instead be used 3/day.

Phrenic Creature (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/monsters/phrenicCreature.htm) (+2 LA) in the Expanded Psionics Handbook is another strong choice, and again Magic in the Blood can increase its daily uses of spell/psi-like abilities.

If going Sorcerer, choose a humanoid or monstrous humanoid race (after inherited templates are applied) and add on White Dragonspawn (LA +1) from the Dragonlance Campaign Setting. That gives +7 natural armor, wings, and +1 level of Sorcerer spellcasting, among other benefits. Most creatures which become Dragonspawn have their alignments changed and become enslaved to their creator dragon, but in rare cases (i.e. any PC that starts play with the template) recipients retain their free will and manage to escape.

[Kane0]

Is homebrew permitted?

Cause I made up the Theg (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12839824&postcount=9) and it works really well with casters. It isn't LA +3 or +4, but we can change that :smallwink:

[Randomguy]

Hobgoblin Warcaster from MMV. You get 4 HD but 4 levels of free Wizard casting, so it balances out, and the minimum +3LA. You also get +6 Int (awesome), +6 Con (awesome), +4 dex (awesome if you want to use rays), -2 strength (who cares) and +2 Cha (good for summoners and enchanters).

You also get small bonuses when you make a saving throw against a spell. And you can grant goblinoids spell resistance. Oh, and your type is monstrous humanoid, which gives a bunch of advantages, like full BAB.

For wizards with mandatory +3LA, it doesn't get much better than this. The downside is if you meant starting ECL, not starting HD + levels, then it's invalid, since it's ECL 7, but you could ask to play one with 3HD and 3 levels of wizard casting.

Arkemoi, a type of Ushemoi (also MMV), are similar. 4 HD, casting as a level 4 sorcerer, monstrous humanoid and benefits for casting spells. (their spell DC, spell Damage and their deflection bonus all improve as they cast spells). The downside is that they get +4, not +3 LA, and their stats are a tad worse. (still not valid if you're looking for ECL 6).


There's also Aranea, a giant (well, medium sized) spider from the Monster Manual. 3HD, casting as a level 3 sorcerer, and +4 LA (also still not valid for ECL 6, sadly). And some shapechanging things. Oh, and since their brain is in a hump on their back, not in their head, they are arguably immune to vorpal weapons/decapitation. They'd still get blinded though.

[ima donkey]

Really we are just going with ECL of 9 but we want to stay within one LA of each other hence the 3 or 4. We currently have a half celestial human paladin, a yeenoghu blooded flind ranger, a winged creature aasimar swordsage, and a winged creature flind cleric. All of those are LA 3 or 4 so we are just trying to make the last guys character and he is new but really wants to play some sort of arcane caster so I want to keep it fairly simple and he really wants to be human so if there is some sort of template to throw on human that wouldn't alter the looks too much that would be nice but he doesn't really care about optimizing.

And we cannot use homebrew because we told one guy he couldn't play a tome samurai because it was clearly made to be overpowered and now if we let anyone else use homebrew he will complain.

[Kane0]

Meh, it would have been pretty easy to pick worse. Besides, with that party layout you have described so far I don't think a difference in power would be too much of an issue :smalltongue:

Edit: heres a link that you might find handy (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=189980)

[ima donkey]

I personally think the game is at it's best at LA +1 but compromises had to be made. High LA requires too much digging for my taste and tends to get overly complicated.

[Feralventas]

If you're just looking for a 'caster, Unbodied into Psion should stack nicely.

Marutact from Sandstorm has natural wizard levels, though 7HD and LA+3.

[Rejakor]

As a note, I houseruled the Tome Samurai from automatic criticals to 'double damage' on kiai attacks... it made more sense, and when I ran it in a game alongside a stock (PHB) fighter and barbarian, it wasn't gamebreaking.

He could 'nova' more easily than those other two, but the fighter dungeoncrashing everything to hell and back and the barbarian's ridiculous strength score while raging were more effective overall than the kiai. The only time it gets ridiculous is when someone shows up with a kaorti resin gitchcraft greatmace or something for a x5 crit on 2d8 base damage. Basic katanas are only 19-20/x2 and 1d10, so it's nowhere near as big a deal if Samurai kiai with those. Making the kiai only ever double (not triple, or quadruple) damage made them work a lot better.

I also did this to the Tome Ninja, which has the same automatic critical effect (although on a sneak attack replacement, not on a automatic per day use effect). Again, with a ninja to or a knife or a shuriken, it's all fine, but then you get Tome Ninjas with scythes or whatever and it's just blargh.