Appreciation for Wizard

[Sacrieur]

Now I know wizard is powerful. I know how to use wizard so that he's powerful. In the god wizard sort of way.

I am playing a spellbinder [PF], and my favored spell is color spray. Everything I cast it I'm laughed at, despite it being ludicrously powerful. I have infernal healing which tops our druid's cure light wounds. I use grease to disarm foes, etc. etc. The party is a rogue, dwarf druid, two halfling somethings, and a monk.

We've been level one and just got to level two. I love playing the wizard, controlling the battlefield is just so much fun. But no one else seems to notice that I've been making it a lot easier for them through the use of carefully placed spells.

What should I do to make myself seem like a valued member of the party? Should I ramp it up, or simply hang back and let them mock me, all the while knowing it was me who helped the mortals win?

[Kelb_Panthera]

If they mock you after a battle, ask them to run the battle again without your presence as a non-cannon part of your group's story. Do this several times.

After getting a taste of what combat would be like without your spells nerfing the enemy into cannon fodder they'll probably change their tune in a hurry.

If the DM or other players aren't cooperative to this excersize then tell them in-character that you're sick of being mocked for your "lack of contribution" and refuse to aid them in the next fight or two.

If showing them what it would be like without your wizard there doesn't change their minds you'll have to seriously consider if you or your character want to continue to play. At that point you can either grin and bear it, retire the character, or quit.

[Darth Stabber]

simply hang back and let them mock me, all the while knowing it was me who helped the mortals win?

That is your best option. Eventually it will become known, either they realize it on their own, or you miss a session and they find out just how much you were contributing.

Too many people playing wizards hog the spotlight, but in your current case everyone else feels they are contributing, and you know you are, everyone wins.

[Sacrieur]

Well, they did have to fight a swarm of dire rats after I ran out of spells. I had cast mage armor on our almost dead monk (wish I had kept it for color spray LOL).

I flanked them and missed a few times with my staff. They insisted I needed damage dealing spells. Which was odd, because I had stolen someone's kill with magic missile in the counter before (I didn't want the monk to die).

The monk quit mocking me after I gave him mage armor.

The group is actually quite fun, and their mocking isn't the kind I take personally. More of a sportsman kind of mocking. I can take it just fine. I enjoy taking a backseat. I know if I wanted I could blow them all out of the water, but a few bad rolls with color spray had them doubting me (the guys I cast it on apparently had +4 will and rolled 15 + 18). And before that there was a bar fight and I was hesitant to use it lest I incapacitate the party (so I just detect magic'd the area, suspicious that something was up).

I was the first to jump into a sewer and go after a baddie fleeing (with no spells), I think that earned me some respect. And the DM seems to like to divulge information to me about where to lead the party.

I would like to make them think I did something useful in a passive aggresive sort of way, though.

I picked up summoning I (despite it not being that terrific at level 2), and shocking grasp (some things were getting a little too close for me to be comfortable with). My favored school is conjuration with enchantment and universalist schools banned.

I think the summoning may come in handy when I have to track down some guy through the sewers, so that may help. Iunno, thoughts?

[Threadnaught]

I think they do appreciate you based on what you've written, they just don't seem to want to show it. Some may actually be goading you into showing the full power of a Wizard.
Personally I recommend you keep up with your buffing/debuffing routine. It's a nice bit of roleplay for your character, lets the other players play while contributing and it's working for your whole group.

Edit: I really should've noticed that mistake when I posted. Stupid keyboard having keys near other keys. :smallannoyed:

[Sacrieur]

Maybe, I do have a tendency to die.

It might be just from some bad luck, but they told me my problem was that I play as though my character would play. I don't metagame like everyone else in the least.

But I find it enjoyable this way.

Yeah I think I'll stick to buffing/debuffing. I'll try to do it almost comedically (grease is great for this) and see if that helps.

[nedz]

I wouldn't worry about it — 1st level wizards are relatively weak.
At some point they will appreciate you.

[Aasimar]

Well, they did have to fight a swarm of dire rats after I ran out of spells. I had cast mage armor on our almost dead monk (wish I had kept it for color spray LOL).


If you prepared mage armor, you couldn't have cast color spray anyway.

[Sacrieur]

If you prepared mage armor, you couldn't have cast color spray anyway.

Spellbinder allows me to bind spells so I can use a full round action to replace another spell I have prepared with my favored spell (of equal level). I have to give up my familiar for this ability (but you get multiple favored spells).

So I probably should have prepared a spell and kept it prepared until we know what we were up against. Maximum versatility that way.

[Story]

I don't think you're allowed to ban Universal.

[Sacrieur]

I don't think you're allowed to ban Universal.

Heh, you're right, I'll have to fix that.

[mcv]

Let them mock you. A battlefield control wizard isn't for people who crave affirmation, it's for people who are comfortable enough with themselves that they can stay in the background and allow others to steal the glory. Your job is to make them feel powerful and important. When they do that, you did your job.

But if they prefer you using damage spells, by all means, prepare some magic missiles and show them how much less effective your party is without someone making all the enemies prone or stunned.

My last session, my level 4 wizard throw a bag of marbles in front of a mummy. Everybody laughed and demanded I do something useful. I checked my sheet and had nothing useful. "Don't you have Acid Splash or something?" (Does d3 damage.) No, I'd replaced it with Light. Turns out the marbles saved our fighter's life, and immediately contributed to the mummy's demise. He failed his save, fell, got up, and got cut up by two attacks of opportunity. Without my marbles, the mummy would simply have attacked our fighter for a ridiculous amount of damage and possibly killed him.

Yes, I lost my marbles that encounter, but they're only 1 sp, so I can easily get new ones.

[TuggyNE]

Yes, I lost my marbles that encounter, but they're only 1 sp, so I can easily get new ones.

Sooo quotable. :smallbiggrin:

[Tr011]

because I had stolen someone's kill with magic missile in the counter before

What the ...? This isn't hack and slay. Even if it would be, you can't "steal" a kill.

At topic: In almost all of your posts, you say you are really powerful and you know it. If the others don't respect you, you should just keep the image of being useless, because you can trust me, it's better like that.
I have played many wizards (and other prepared arcane casters) and in various versions and at various levels (ranging from 1 to 19). In my experience, when your party once discovers that any guy can full attack things in front of it after gaining two buffs by the wizard and kill the enemy by rediciously high amounts of damage, you are seen as overpowered. Once your party realizes that an enemy with dimensional anchor on it that gets it's actions destroyed by readied spells they might feel overwhelmed by you, which is worse than being seen as useless, because you truly are overshadowing your party.
In my experience, almost no enemy can kill a defensive wizard build at level 8+. Once your knowledge checks are high enough to know your enemies best offensive tactic, you can protect yourself (and sometimes the whole party) and especially when you get enough ways to get additional actions there is no reason anything you consider lethal would hit you, and since a wizard can be build very good around knowledge, there is no reason not to know what is lethal and what isn't.

//edit: some offtopic I just remembered when I read that marble-story... when I was around level 11 once, a highly buffed frenzied berserker troll chased my party when we were sailing on a ship through a desert and destroyed half the ship. It wasn't already in melee range to attack us, but it was close enough to jump to an ally and instantly kill him in the next combat turn, when I casted grease. The troll hit the ground and couldn't get away from the grease in his turn so I decided to roll my marbles. That was too much for the huge-sized troll with 0 ranks in balance and although he couldn't die from damage for the next 7 rounds or something, he didn't made the checks to reach any of us and while I was drinking martini laughing at him my friends enjoyed shooting as hard as possible at him, dealing multiple houndreds of damage.

[Slipperychicken]

What should I do to make myself seem like a valued member of the party? Should I ramp it up, or simply hang back and let them mock me, all the while knowing it was me who helped the mortals win?

Level 1 is the time when Barbarians rule the field and Wizards are amateur crossbowmen with magic tricks. They'll stop calling you weak once you start passing out the Haste, when they realize you're giving them with one spell slot what they've taken whole feat chains to achieve. Same goes for once you start solving all their problems with magic; should start around level 5 or so.

You die a lot? Probably because you have 10 Con, a d6 HD, no armor, and are running right into your enemy's face to cast Color Spray. Use Sleep or Grease, and stand back. You have no business on the front lines, and should ideally be as far away as possible, hidden just around a corner where you have Concealment (and duck all the way behind that corner every other round, just in case).