Example wizard

[vrigar]

In our group it is traditional for the same guy to play a wizard. I think he does that (at least strategically) quite badly. Each fight is the same - once mage armor and shield are in place he starts blasting with fireballs and magic missiles. No buffs, no battlefield control, just blasting away.
I now have the opportunity to create an additional wizard. I want to create a wizard so superior in every way that he will have no choice but to admin he is doing it wrong and mend his ways (he's a good friend and a bright guy so there's nothing personal).
We are currently at 7th level.
I'm thinking of a grey elf domain wizard (transmutation) with metamagic feats aimed at ray spells and some haste/enlarge/etc buffs.
What do you think?

[dextercorvia]

Unless it is causing balance problems in the game, I'd leave him alone, and let him have his fun. Now, if you want to build a BFC/buffbot wizard for yourself, that is awesome. Go for it, but not if you are just trying to show him he's wrong.

[blazinghand]

Honestly, if a guy is playing his Wizard below-tier, that's... well, that can be okay. If most of the party is like core rogues and fighters and things like that, those classes were all made with the "wizard as a semi-useless nuker" in mind. He's not turning into a dragon and/or solo-ing every encounter with Web and Evard's Black Tentacles... and that's okay. Let him do that. In theory, that's how 3.5e was designed to be played.

If you want to really be useful, you'll probably be best off focussing on buffs and the like. Slap down an Extended Haste or whatever at the start of an important battle and you'll be infinitely more useful than him without making him feel bad. Trying to upstage another PC is just gonna lead to trouble.

[ahenobarbi]

Each fight is the same - once mage armor and shield are in place he starts blasting with fireballs and magic missiles.

He really is casting Mage Armor in-combat? Wow. Well you probably don't want to play god-wizard (because it's not flashy enough so he might not notice).

So I'd suggest building a gish or a blaster.

[Exirtadorri]

IMO I would go with a teleportation specialist. They are amazing fun and give you quite the versatility. Bad guy to far away to flank? No problem! Ally fell in a pit and can't climb out due to bulky armor? No problem! can't find a way to remove that troublesome 4854684654865 Hp monster? NO problem!

I have found that this build wont ruin the game but people will definitely notice you. Things like a hasted barb charging through a dimension door into the fray on round two when there is a couple foot ball fields of danger ahead can easily sway the way the party sees you, sees the blaster, and the monsters see the party.

[Deepbluediver]

Trying to prove that some one is playing the game "wrong" is just a bad way to start out, since everyone has fun in their own way. Unless this is causing actual, mechanical problems in your game, I wouldn't worry about it to much.

It seems like what you really want to do is show your friend that there are options other than "magical archer".
If that is an acceptable goal, then I would avoid ray-type spells, or anything else that can be construed as direct damage, since that is what he already does plenty of.

Two of the biggest options are shapeshifting/Transmutation, in order to let the wizard do things that a frail bookworm type of character can't do, and summoning spells to conjure up hordes of angry badgers (or camels, or astral devas, whatever floats your boat). If you're playing a campaign with room for non-holy crusader types, use Necromancy to create armies of mindless undead minions.
Also, Mage Armor and other buffs can be cast on other players, but many have a range of Touch, making their use in battle tricky. Depending on how much informatio your DM is willing to give out, take some Divination spells and have the perfect selection of spells all prepped and ready to go.
If you absolutely must straight-up kill something, use your familiar to deliver SoD spells.

[dextercorvia]

IMO I would go with a teleportation specialist. They are amazing fun and give you quite the versatility. Bad guy to far away to flank? No problem! Ally fell in a pit and can't climb out due to bulky armor? No problem! can't find a way to remove that troublesome 4854684654865 Hp monster? NO problem!

I have found that this build wont ruin the game but people will definitely notice you. Things like a hasted barb charging through a dimension door into the fray on round two when there is a couple foot ball fields of danger ahead can easily sway the way the party sees you, sees the blaster, and the monsters see the party.

I'm not so sure about this advice. Dimension Door despite the name, doesn't create a door for the Barbarian to charge through. It teleports you and touched creatures to the destination directly. I don't know that I would want to DD closer to the big bad along with the Barbarian.

I'm not saying that the concept can't be accomplished, but it should be a relatively small part of any build, and these particular tactics don't seem to hold up on face value.

[vrigar]

I want to explain myself.
My main issue is not what happens during combat.
I am playing a fighter and a tactically sound wizard could ruin all combat for me. I have given up on buffs and rely on magical equipment so combat is quite enjoyable this way.
The problem is non combat situations. As I mentioned I am playing a fighter and I'm pulling us through a fair amount of the non combat challenges. Since there were a number of situations the fighter simply couldn't help in I am now also playing a shapeshifting ranger / master of many forms and between the 2 of them they are solving the majority of the problems (a dungeon needs searching? 3 shapes later it's searched. A barrier is met? The ranger and fighter break it down).
There are so many situations during which a wizard could help (if not solve it by himself) so I would like to demonstrate how a wizard, in my opinion, could cope and not just lobe lightning bolts and fireballs around.
The teleport expert sounds interesting. How would you build him?