Creating a Mage

[Elycium]

Hi people!

I wanted to ask for help.

First than all, you must know that I am pretty new in this kind of games, so I wanted to ask this, How I make a strongth wizard?
This is a campaing of 3.5e and my character starts at Lv14.

[Urpriest]

If you're really new you probably shouldn't start at level 14. High level D&D is very complicated and requires a lot of knowledge of the rules, as there are many high level enemies where not knowing how they work will lead your character to a messy death. A level 14 wizard has more than 28 spells prepared every day. That's a lot to keep track of! Unless your fellow players are willing to help you out a lot, you're probably better off waiting until your friends play a lower level game, or finding another group.

That said, the first and most important question before we can give you any advice: what sort of character do you want to play?

[Stront]

Hi people!

I wanted to ask for help.

First than all, you must know that I am pretty new in this kind of games, so I wanted to ask this, How I make a strongth wizard?
This is a campaing of 3.5e and my character starts at Lv14.

I have found Treantmonk's Guide to Wizards: Playing God (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19873034/Treantmonks_guide_to_Wizards:_Being_a_God) extremely helpful and informative.

[Elycium]

I am new, not completely new, if you understand what I mean. But my others experiences are whit warriors characters (barbarian for example) nothing like an actual mage.

Well, what I was thinking is about a wizard that specialize in one of this 3 schools: Enchantment, Conjuration or abjuration. But again, I am not really sure about what of those 3 as I said, I never really used the class before. If you could give and advice about those 3 or even what you think of it, it would be really appreciated.


PD: Sorry for the bad English that you may read >_<


I have found Treantmonk's Guide to Wizards: Playing God (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19873034/Treantmonks_guide_to_Wizards:_Being_a_God) extremely helpful and informative.

Thanks for the guide Stront, I will read it :)

[Flickerdart]

Hi people!

I wanted to ask for help.

First than all, you must know that I am pretty new in this kind of games, so I wanted to ask this, How I make a strongth wizard?
This is a campaing of 3.5e and my character starts at Lv14.
A wizard can do many things at the same time, but for a novice it is probably better to focus on one thing. Do you want to blast people with huge explosions, or maybe accurate lasers? What about summoning monsters, or transforming the battlefield to your advantage? Making your allies stronger, or making your enemies weaker?

It would also be helpful to know what sources you have. Advice given to someone with only the SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/) would be very different from advice to someone who has the entire run of Dragon in their library.

Edit: Ah, a Conjurer, Abjurer, or Enchanter! That narrows things down somewhat.

Enchantment: Enchantment is one of the strongest school at low levels, when a single Suggestion can defuse an encounter. However, at high levels, when enemies get access to Mind Blank and similar, it becomes a lot weaker. Playing a Beguiler (PHB2) would be a lot easier for a beginner, since they have a pre-selected list of mostly Enchantment and Illusion spells that they can cast spontaneously.

Abjuration: Few attack options, but this school can really crank up the defenses! You'll want to take a look at the Abjurant Champion PrC, which makes your abjurations better and gives you a little bit of melee combat skill.

Conjuration: One of the best schools. Summon, bind creatures to your will, blast with orb spells, create matter and items from nothing, teleport around, and generally be a boss. Again, level considerations are important - summoners are rubbish at low levels because of the duration on their spells.

[Story]

It also depends on how highop/lenient the DM is. Is say, Incantrix allowed?

[Elycium]

A wizard can do many things at the same time, but for a novice it is probably better to focus on one thing. Do you want to blast people with huge explosions, or maybe accurate lasers? What about summoning monsters, or transforming the battlefield to your advantage? Making your allies stronger, or making your enemies weaker?



Hmmm, I would be more the kind of guy that blast things a lot, tough accurate lasers doesn’t sound bad.

And about being someone that buffs people... well, that would be like the antithesis of my gameplay xD


More important than all, your signature made me wary of what I am about to do jajajajaja

[Elycium]

It also depends on how highop/lenient the DM is. Is say, Incantrix allowed?

Funny that you asked this, the GM also have a character that plays in the game, and that character is a Incantatrix, but is already at Epic Lv, think of it like a judge that if you do a "little too much" comes and punish you.

I was seriosly amazed whit what that character could do.

[Gavinfoxx]

If you want to be a highop blaster mage, look at this:

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19868534/The_Mailman:_A_Direct_Damage_Sorcerer

[Story]

Well if you want to be a blaster and Incantrix is allowed just look up a "mailman" build.

[Elycium]

If you want to be a highop blaster mage, look at this:

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19868534/The_Mailman:_A_Direct_Damage_Sorcerer


My thanks for this :)

Now I have to start reading xD


Well if you want to be a blaster and Incantrix is allowed just look up a "mailman" build.

Will do.

[Flickerdart]

Hmmm, I would be more the kind of guy that blast things a lot, tough accurate lasers doesn’t sound bad.

And about being someone that buffs people... well, that would be like the antithesis of my gameplay xD


More important than all, your signature made me wary of what I am about to do jajajajaja
Blasting things it is! Blasting is mostly Evocation, but specializing in Evocation is a terrible idea because most of its spells are the same. Conjurers blast pretty well, strangely enough.

At its core, blasting is reasonably simple. You can expect spells to deal 1d6 damage per caster level. You may notice that this isn't a lot. After all, even a Rogue has 1d6+Constitution HP per level! How are you supposed to kill anyone? The answer is metamagic, which is a blaster's best friend. However, metamagic is really overpriced, so you'll want to track down ways to reduce the adjustments. There's a couple of feats that do that, and once you have a -2 or so adjustment you should stop, because more than that is a little cheesy. Quicken Spell and Empower Spell are going to be your best friends, especially at higher levels.

You also need to be careful about spell resistance and saving throws, and resistances/immunities to energy types. All mean that enemies might not be exploded when you want them to be exploded. Fire and cold are the most common energy types to be resisted, and sonic is the least common, so slap on some more metamagic (Energy Substitution or Energy Admixture) or find another way to get one of those less common types, or pick up Searing Spell or Piercing Cold to bypass immunity entirely. Spell resistance is trickier, so you'll want to either pack the Assay Spell Resistance spell or simply pick up a few spells that don't care about SR. Saving throws are the same - buff up your DCs as much as possible with things like Spell Focus, and pack spells that target many different saves. Remember to put ranks in those Knowledge skills so that you can know if your enemies have spell resistance, energy resistances, or especially high saves. The advantage of lasers over explosions in this case is that they require a touch attack roll instead of a saving throw, which makes them a lot easier to land, but they only affect one target (unless you use Split Ray metamagic - are you seeing a trend here?). It's a good idea to pack both types of spells, and save your accurate attacks for scary solo monsters. The Spellwarp Sniper prestige class allows you to turn area of effect spells into touch attack spells, but it's a little tricky to get into.

The way to pick good blasting spells is to look at things other than their damage. Spells that have a debilitating effect in addition to their damage are usually better than spells that don't, because an enemy fights just as well at 1 HP as it does at 100. If you hinder him somehow as you deal damage, you and your buddies will have an easier fight on your hands. Sometimes these spells even end up doing more damage in the long run. Acid Fog might only deal 2d6 points of damage, but it does so every round, and enemies inside it have a hard time escaping because they can only move 5 feet each turn (and the spell has a radius of 20 feet!) and can't even see where they're going. Not only did you take your enemy out of the fight for at least 4 rounds, but you also dealt them 8d6 damage. Similarly, Black Tentacles only deal 1d6+4 each turn, but they also grapple your opponents, so you can leave them in there while they slowly get crushed to death and can do nothing to hurt you. Incidentally, both of those spells are Conjurations.

[Elycium]

Thanks for the help Flickerdart!

[Story]

Remember to buy Iron Will with the Otaygue Hole or whatever it's called from Complete Scoundrel instead of wasting a feat on it.

Also, Persisted Fell Drain Cloud of Knives is great fun.