What magic-using class should I start as to optimize my build?

[Solse]

Hello all,
I am creating a new 3.5e character and I am wondering if I should be wizard, sorcerer, bard, or some combination. Specifically I am wondering if I should become a wizard/sorcerer. Note that I am playing an elf, so if I multi-class to sorcerer, I would not take any XP penalty. One thing that I would hate about playing a low-level wizard is that I only would get 7hp and 4 spells per day. I also heard about the Ultimate Magus prestige class, and I am wondering if I should take a 1 level in sorcerer, 1 level in wizard, and then become an Ultimate Magus. Could somebody help me figure out how to optimize my build?

[Sception]

warning: text wall incoming. tl, dr version: play a beguiler.


In general, you want to avoid losing caster progression (note that this is distinct from 'caster level') with spellcasting classes. This is because higher level spells are generally far more powerful than the spells that came before, so a character with access to 3rd level spells is generally far more effective than a character that only has access to 2nd level spells, even if the later character has more spells, and has spells from more class lists.

For this reason, multiclassing spellcasting classes is generally discouraged unless there's a major payoff (generally in the form of qualification for a PrC with significant additional benefits). Note that simply progressing in two spellcasting classes simultaneously is not a sufficient benefit here - it isn't enough to be an mystic theurge because there is no point at which having access to more lower level spells, even from multiple class lists, is better or even as good as having access to higher level spells.

Ultimate Magus is one of the exceptions, because the key benefit - alternate cost for metamagic enhancement, is a significant and highly powerful payoff that will eventually be worth a few lost caster levels. Of course, even then there are tricks pulled with optimized UM builds to either access the class early, or push the caster progression as much to one side as possible, to minimize the cost in delayed spell level access. If you're curious about the Ultimate Magus, search for optimization guides on it, there have been a few written on how to get the most out of just that class.


In general, however, spellcasters will stick to just one class until they can qualify for a relevant PrC that progresses their spellcasting at all levels, and if you have not played many spellcasters before, I would recommend cleaving to this rule.


As for which base class to select, there are various hierarchies out there. For full casters, power is generally dependent on the rate at which you access new spell levels, and the diversity of spells you have access to, with spells known prioritized over spells you might have available at one time. Ie, memorized spellcasting classes are generally more powerful than spontaneous spellcasters with limited lists of spells known. This is because there are tricks and means of shifting your spells memorized in a given situation or accessing utility spells in a pinch (the easiest being 'go home and rest' and 'craft scrolls' respectively). Additionally, the supposed versatility of spontaneous casters like the sorcerer is severely hampered by their aggressively limited number of spells known, particularly for their highest spell levels. "I can cast any spell I know" doesn't mean very much when you only know two spells of the highest spell level you have access to. That the spontaneous casters are generally a level behind their memorized peers in access to higher level spell slots only magnifies the problem.


So, in general, the wizard, cleric, and druid are considered the strongest spellcasting classes. The wizard because its most powerful spells are generally somewhat stronger than those that the divine casters have access to at the same levels, and the cleric and druid because they're more physically resilient than the wizard, have more useful class features (especially the druid), and know all spells on their spell list, which is phenomenal.

Between the cleric and druid, the cleric generally has slightly stronger spells (in large part because the cleric's domains let them access a handful of choice wizard spells), while the druid has much more physical power, in the form of an animal companion (which, when well built, can be nearly as effective as a party fighter in its own right), shape shifting (an incredibly powerful and versatile ability), and a more useful spontaneous casting option (clerics can trade prepared spells for inflict spells - which are lousy touch attacks - or healing spells - which doesn't want to cast ever once the party can buy or make wands of cure light wounds; druids can trade prepared spells for powerful & versatile summoning spells).


However, just because the 'big three' are the most powerful in the hands of an experienced optimizer, doesn't mean they're the best choices for a player who is new to the game in general or spellcasting classes in particular. All three have to be aware of and manage huge lists of spells that generally only have a few stand outs for dozens of traps and wastes of space. And you'll be expected to know your spell lists inside and out as a player of these classes, so not to delay the game for your friends. Nothing is more frustrating for everyone else at the table as the cleric or druid who doesn't know his spells, sitting at the table and trying to read their entire spell list one by one when deciding which spells to memorize each in-game morning. And on top of that, the druid is bogged down by two major class features entirely apart from their spellcasting, each complicated enough to be worthy of an entire class all to themselves.

If you want to play one of these classes for the first time, do your homework. Find class guides, and spell guides, and know what you want to do and how it works mechanically before you show up to your session.


That is not necessarily an endorsement of the sorcerer, however. A well built sorcerer is indeed easier to play at the table than a cleric, wizard, or druid. But in some ways the sorcerer is a far less forgiving class. You can't really mess up a cleric or druid's spell selection. If you memorize some duds, then you'll be less effective that day, but then you'll know better and memorize something else the next day. If the wizard selects poor spells for their book when they level up, well that sucks, but they're only a small payment of gold away from writing something better into their books.

The sorcerer? If you select a bad spell when you level, you're stuck with it for ages. You have a very limited selection of spells, so its important that they all be as effective and versatile as possible, and you only have a few limited opportunities to swap spells out if you find you don't like something you have. This is a big deal. If you play a sorcerer, you need to build it right, and you need to select good spells, so even if you don't have the day to day hassles of the other spellcasters, your decisions when you level are far more important and require much greater attention. Think the memorized classes as classes that have frequent quizzes, and allow you to re-take quizzes that you do poorly on, while the sorcerer is a class with only a couple major tests, and you have to do well on them or else.

I'd still recommend sorcerer over the others for a first time spellcasting player, but be sure to do your homework looking online at spell guides before selecting new spells when you level up. Also, because of your aggressively limited spell selection, you don't want your spells to overlap very much, and you don't have spare slots for purely thematic choices. As such, you can't really 'theme' your sorcerer spell selections and still be effective. If you're playing a sorcerer, your theme is 'sorcerer'. Not pyromancer, not enchanter, and especially not necromancer. Your theme is sorcerer. Pick your spells because they're the best sorcerer spells, not because they match some subtheme.

Of course, there are more primary spellcasters than just those in the PHB. There are tons of classes in 3/3.5e, and that's before we even get to third party sources. I'm not familiar with them all, but I am familiar with a few. Favored Soul, for instance, purports to be a sort of divine sorcerer, but I really don't recommend the class. It has all the failings of the sorcerer, plus splits its spellcasting ability between two stats (one determining bonus spells & spell access, the other setting DCs). Plus divine magic, even more than arcane, tends to rely on a lot of very narrow spells. A Cleric or Druid doesn't want to memorize healing and recovery spells, but they do want access to them for the creation of scrolls, and ability to sleep overnight to access a remedy to an obscure malady contracted over the course of the previous adventuring day. With a limited spells known list, the Favored Soul can't really deal with such things, and isn't going to fulfill the expected functions of a divine caster in the party.


It may seem like I'm pushing the sorcerer, But wait! I don't even recommend sorcerer for a first time spellcaster! No, what I recommend is one of the 'theme-casters'. The theme casters are spontaneous casters with narrow, thematically focused spell lists to which they have complete access. Ie, as soon as they're able to cast spells of a particular level, they know all the spells of that level on their spell list. From least to most recommended they are: Healer (miniatures handbook), Warmage (complete arcane), Dread Necromancer (heroes of horror), and Beguiler (players handbook 2).

None of these classes are as powerful as a well built sorcerer, let alone a cleric, wizard, or druid; but as spontaneous classes they don't have to mess with memorization, and their smaller spell lists means you don't have to familiarize yourself with as many spells, and knowing their full lists means you aren't going to accidentally screw yourself over by choosing your spells known poorly. They're less powerful than the other dedicated classes on the high end, but they're harder to get wrong on the low end, and, apart from the healer, they're still plenty powerful. Honestly, choosing one of these less powerful classes can avoid interparty angst over the poor balance between casters and non-casters in 3.5, or at least delay its onset.

The healer isn't recommended because their thematic specialty is healing, and that's just not something you want to spend your time doing during combat. 'White Mage' or 'Healbot' just isn't an effective combat role in 3.5. Even dedicated healers have difficulty outpacing monster damage with their action, and by not spending actions reducing the length of combat, they generally result in combats draining more resources from the party, not less. Basically, this isn't 4e with its minor action and side effect heals, a healer in 3.5 is typically burning their action doing nothing else, and that's just not the best strategy.

The Warmage is alright, but still not great, focusing on direct and area damage. Damage spells tend to be a lot less effective than buffing or battlefield control spells, and area damage tends not to be a big deal past the lowest levels, because enemies weak enough to be taken down with area damage tend to be weak offensively as well and not worth worrying about. This isn't 4e with its minion mechanics. Still, Warmages can put out enough damage to be effective for their party, and they do have some utility spells, and blowing stuff up with fireballs is a sort of archetypal spellcaster thing that a player might want to do with their first spellcaster. Not a bad first caster choice, IMO, but you might not want to be the only arcane caster in the group, as you have trouble with some of the utility stuff the party mage is expected to supply in later adventures.

The Dread Necromancer is my personal favorite, though not my most recommended. First level is tricky and deadly as with any mage type class, though you get a martial weapon proficiency (generally composite longbow) and light armor proficiency to see you through. Once you hit second level, powerful defensive class features start kicking in. Your spell list has a ton of interesting and effective spooky tricks, some decent control, some touch damage (not as suicidal for you due to the aforementioned defensive abilities), and some very effective de-buffs. With the tomb-tainted-soul feat (or the necropolitan template) from libris mortis you can handle your own out of combat healing as well. Summoned and animated undead combine with an enhanced familiar (though it doesn't appear until higher levels) to give you a lot of pets to play with. Unfortunately, being a spooky necromancer guy can cause a lot of friction with npcs, or even between your character and other PCs, particularly if you have a paladin, druid, or good-aligned cleric in the party. And minions in general can be a lot of extra hassle. Permanent minions for the dread necromancer don't show up until pretty late (level 8ish), but even then they can cause a lot of slow down and disruption. Still, can be a lot of fun, and worth looking at.

My number one recommendation for first time full spellcasters, however, is the Beguiler from Players handbook 2 (which alongside the magic item compendium, spell compendium, rules compendium, and tome of battle, I consider to be of equal importance to the core rules). The beguiler is a roguish spellcaster with a ton of skill points, a strong skill list, and a spell list focused on illusion and enchantment. You're sneaky, tricky, and subtle - able to serve as the party's face, mage, or skill monkey (though generally not all with the same character). The spell list has useful utility spells as well as some effective buffs and debuffs, and some class features that make your spells harder to resist if you're able to catch your opponents by surprise, which isn't that hard considering your ability set and spell list. You'll have some issues with enemies that are immune to mind-affecting abilities (undead and constructs mostly), but you still have some useful tools to fall back on in those cases, and everyone's got weaknesses, right? It's hard to get a beguiler wrong, and while there are a few useful prestige classes to consider, a beguiler never stops getting useful abilities, making a simple beguiler 20 a perfectly valid build choice.



As I said, there are other casters that could be discussed - bards, archivists, etc, but I don't have as much to say about them. There are also alternate system casters - magey type character that don't 'cast spells' per se, like the warlock, binder, or incarnate. I don't really recommend these classes as much since they're typically weaker, and they involve asking your DM to learn new systems. Generally speaking, they're more about changing things up for players who like magicky characters, but are bored with the usual spell system.

Warlocks may be worth a mention, since they're designed in part to be much easier to play than typical spellcasters. Warlocks are fun and interesting, but they are much weaker than full casters, and like sorcerers you really need to do your research when choosing invocations or you'll end up stuck with abilities you don't use for long periods of time, possibly crippling your character.



In generaly, magey type characters (as opposed to divine types) are pretty squishy in the earliest levels, and frequently have to resort to crossbows after running out of spells. Don't worry about this too much, though. Careful spell selection and use will mean that even if you only get 3 first level spells per day, those three will significantly impact three encounters, and a crossbow isn't that much worse than anyone else is working with at your level (unless they're ToB or something). Also, at the earliest levels the melee classes don't have too much trouble blocking off avenues of attack or threatening enough damage with their opp attacks that enemies won't want to risk running past them to get to you. Later on 'tanking' just becomes impossible, but by then you'll have the spell slots and defensive spells that it shouldn't matter.

The theme casters tend to have light armor proficiency, so that helps, and the dread necromancer in particular suddenly becomes completely melee-viable at level 2, and stays that way right up until they get access to minions to do that job for them. And the divine casters tend to be more resilient in general, with more HP, better armor, and defensive class features.

So don't worry about your squishiness or lack of spells per day. It will work itself out sooner or later. Honestly, by the time you can cast 3rd level spells its over, good spell choice will make you more durable, more powerful, and more versatile than your non-casting compatriots.

On that note, try not to rub it in. Like, if you're a primary spellcaster, don't pick spells to make you a better fighter than the party fighter, even if they're available. And try to avoid instant-kill spells that render the damage done by your party meaningless. If you want to kill enemies directly, do hp damage like everyone else so that your efforts are cumulative with the party. And if you can, avoid direct assault entirely, and go instead for buffs, debuffs, and battlefield control spells, that will let you dominate encounters while still letting your mundane allies have the joy of actually taking the monsters down.

-------------------

Oh, you did specifically mention bards. I'm no bard expert, but... they suffer from sorcerer-like spells known penalties, and have very limited spellcasting progression in exchange for buff effects that can typically be more than made up for by spells. They get more skills than most other casters, but they don't really fill the skill-monkey role. They make great party faces, and decent fifth party members if you've got a couple mundanes looking for buffs, and you can build vaguely functional gishy magicky fighters out of them. They're definitely a step down from the full casters in power level, but you can build a decent character out of the class if you know what you're doing. I definitely recommend doing your homework by looking up class guides and reviews of their spellcasting options, though.

[Snowbluff]

If you are doing the Beguiler, take Versatile Spellcaster. It's a really powerful feat.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I'd recommend using Beguiler, to handle the skills the party needs. Something like Illumian (Krau/anything), Beguiler 1/ Wizard 4/ Ultimate Magus 10/ (full casting PrCs) 5, with Practiced Spellcaster: Beguiler before 6th to put 10/10 UM casting toward Wizard. Get Able Learner, Versatile Spellcaster, and plenty of metamagic. I'd go specialist Conjurer with Enchantment and Evocation prohibited, get Abrupt Jaunt in PH2. Also include the Fighter feat list replacement for Improved Initiative instead of Scribe Scroll. Use Orb of energy spells for direct damage, but you should mostly focus on debuffing/disabling/dividing opponents and buffing the party.

Ultimate Magus in Complete Mage advances only one of your classes at its 1st, 4th, and 7th level. Specifically, it advances whichever class that has a lower caster level rather than spellcasting capability. If both classes have equal caster levels, then you get to pick which to advance. The above build can apply each of those levels' spellcasting increases to Wizard, so the only level of Wizard casting you lose is that one level of Beguiler.

The feat Practiced Spellcaster: Beguiler is crucial to that caster level trick, but it's not enough to put UM 7 toward Wizard. The Illumian race from Races of Destiny get special runewords, one of which is Krau which acts like Practiced Spellcaster but puts a +2 toward every class you have, still capped at your character level. That bumps your Wizard caster level to equal your character level, while increasing your Beguiler caster level by enough to make both equal when taking UM 7. Note that you can apply your own effects in the most beneficial order per the official FAQ, so you can apply all of the capped-at-character-level caster level bonuses first and then add on the Arcane Spell Power bonus from Ultimate Magus to increase your caster levels higher than your character level.

Illumians are Humanoid (Human), so they qualify for Human-only feats and prestige classes. The feat Able Learner in Races of Destiny makes it so you only have to spend one skill point for cross-class skill ranks, instead of the normal two skill points per rank. It must be taken at 1st level, and your max ranks in cross-class skills is still half of that of class skills. Note that if a skill was ever a class skill for you for even a single level (Beguiler 1), your max ranks in it are always that of a class skill. Able Learner basically makes it so that you get to use the Beguiler class skills for every level you take, in addition to whatever other class skills you get from other levels. Since your only really important stat is Intelligence, you should get plenty of skill points every level.

The feat Versatile Spellcaster in Races of the Dragon allows you to spend two spell slots of the same level to cast any spell you know of one level higher. That means you can spend two 1st level Beguiler spell slots to cast any 2nd level Wizard spell you've learned and put in your spellbook. That build can eventually cast 4th level Beguiler spells, which means you could spontaneously cast any Wizard spell you know of up to 5th level. Versatile, indeed! Also keep in mind that it will give you early access to the next higher level of the Beguiler spell list, so you'll have access to that entire list of up to 5th level as well. You should never find yourself in a situation that you don't have a spell to handle.

Note that with this build you'll need Practiced Spellcaster: Beguiler no later than 3rd level, and you'll need a metamagic feat before taking Ultimate Magus, so to squeeze in Able Learner and get Versatile Spellcaster before 6th you'll need to use flaws.

You should specialize in Conjuration with the Wizard levels, your prohibited schools won't affect your Beguiler spellcasting in any way. Enchantment and Evocation are the easiest prohibited schools, Beguiler gets most of the best enchantments already and Evocation is easy to replace. Conjuration has the best direct damage spells and the best crowd controls, along with tons of utility effects. There are alternate class features for specialist Wizards in PH2 that replace your familiar, the Conjuration ability is the best one since it can completely avoid attacks, bypass locked doors, and whatever else you can think of. There are also alternate class features in UA that replace Scribe Scroll listed here, the one for Conjuration gives you Augment Summoning for free. There's also this variant also from UA, which allows you to take Improved Initiative instead of Scribe Scroll, which would probably be the best choice for this character.

The last five levels of the build can be pretty much anything that advances your Wizard spellcasting for all five levels. You could put one level of Mindbender in there, since you can cast Charm Person via Beguiler despite Enchantment being prohibited to Wizard, and even pick up the feat Mindsight in Lords of Madness (p126). You could grab the fifth level of Wizard for another bonus feat, or even get one of the alternate class features from the Wizard section in Complete Champion such as a domain power or Spontaneous Divination. I'd probably finish it off with Paragnostic Apostle, also in Complete Champion, since it's so easy to qualify for and it gives so many useful abilities.

I hope this helped, it really is a complicated build but it's also extremely fun to play. Google-up some Batman wizard guides if you need tips on what spells to pick and when to cast what.

[Clericzilla]

Snip

*Snap*

Anyways...

To the OP: I have to say start off as a Beguiler also :D

[Sgt. Cookie]

Just so you know, Warlock can give you that caster feel, without needing to deal with the whole "resource management" thing other spell casters do. It's still rather effective,without being OP.

[Malroth]

if done well, in the hands of a skilled player a warlock can keep up with warblades, Factotums and bards but they have a really really low optimization floor and if built poorly make the monk look strong.

[Story]

Doesn't Warlock optimization mostly boil down to taking as many levels of Hellfire Warlock as possible (more than 3 thanks to shenanigans)?

[Clericzilla]

Doesn't Warlock optimization mostly boil down to taking as many levels of Hellfire Warlock as possible (more than 3 thanks to shenanigans)?

Warlock/Binder/Hellfire Warlock tends to be the build. Binder is in there so that you can heal the constitution ability damage but not be immune to constitution ability damage.

[Kalaska'Agathas]

Beguiler is definitely an excellent option for a beginner to spellcasters - they're fairly easy to play (and have a good handbook (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=363)), quite adaptable, and very fun.

But I'm going to make a different recommendation. I'm going to recommend, if you are open to divine casters, the Druid. The reasons for this are simple - they're dead easy to build (Druid 20 with Natural Spell (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#naturalSpell) at sixth level is a perfectly valid optimized build), they can support any number of builds (again, all you need is the one class and one feat, so you can do all sorts of stuff with your other feats), and they are able to change fundamental aspects of their class with minimal fuss and difficulty.

For example, if you find your animal companion is not working in your environment, against the enemies you face, or for whatever reason, you may dismiss it and acquire another with nothing more than 24 hours of uninterrupted prayer (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/druid.htm#animalCompanion). So if you find you have the wrong spells, wrong wildshape form, and wrong animal companion, you can completely change all of them in 25 hours and 6 seconds (24 hours to get a new AC, 1 hour to prepare spells, and one round to wildshape). A druid needn't carry a spellbook, all the druid spells in any available source are immediately available.

The druid list is pretty versatile, as is Summon Nature's Ally, so it can support virtually any playstyle. Given that, I'd definitely recommend the druid for a beginner to spellcasters. If you want to go that route, I'd recommend reading the Druid Handbook (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=940) and asking any questions you may have - we're here to help!

[Captnq]

1) Why are you optimizing?
2) What are you optimizing towards?
3) What are the parameters? (Which books allowed? 3.0? 3.5? Magazines?)
4) How many players in your group? What are they playing?
5) What level do you start out at? What will you end at?
6) What is your starting resources?
7) How long do you expect the campaign to last?
8) Do you want to be a team player, or do you want to be the star?
9) Do you have a head for math?
10) Do you enjoy arguments? Is it a quest for the truth? Do you hate to lose?
11) Is bookkeeping fun? Do you want to have to keep track of spell lists longer then your arm in 6 point font?
12) Do you want to do everything okay, or a few things Awesome?
13) If you could cast only one spell, but it vaporized everything for 250 yards, would that be fun for you? What if it left the treasure behind? How about it spares your fellow party members?
14) Do you have a sense of humor? Is it a good one? Does the idea of using spells to make other people fart make you double over with laughter? Are your jokes so esoteric and obscure that you have to know three dead languages to get the pun?
15) is this a serious character? In a serious campaign?
16) Do you enjoy making things just to see it happen? Does the idea of playing a halfling who wields oversized six-handed scissor swords (one in each hand) thus appearing to be a wirlwind of flashing blades sound cool? What if it was really expensive to pull off and not combat effective?
17) Finally, What do you want to play?

[limejuicepowder]

Warlock/Binder/Hellfire Warlock tends to be the build. Binder is in there so that you can heal the constitution ability damage but not be immune to constitution ability damage.

If you want to contribute personally to party damage, that. This is definitely the most common but far from the only option.

-Warlocks can be good party faces with beguiling influence and charm person. It hurts that they don't get diplomacy, but at low to mid levels that doesn't even matter because of beguiling influence, charisma focus, and skill synergies.

-They are 2nd in item creation and UMD'ing only to the artificer. The item creation part doesn't come on line until level 12, but picking up lots of different wands and scrolls is a good idea from the beginning. To get really fancy take two levels in chameleon for the floating feat: at level 14 you can now make any item in the game.

-Warlocks are excellent minionmancers, and all it takes is one lessor invocation and a maybe a couple feats.

-Spamable abilities is better than a lot of people give it credit for, IMO. Now, if there's even the slightest reason or use of an ability, you can do it without worrying about running out of resources. Because of this, with the right invocations they have a lot of out of combat utility.

-There are several excellent general utility invocations that are almost always going to be useful - fel flight, see the unseen, flee the scene, dark utterance, and entropic warding are examples of this.

People tend to focus on the small number of invocations warlocks get, but what I think a lot of people don't realize is that is usually only takes 1 or 2 invocations/feats to be able to use a certain strategy to great effect. No you won't be quite as good as the character who spends all 20 levels in that particular niche, but that doesn't mean you're not effective. In this way, warlocks can do a lot of different thing and bring a lot to the table.

[Snowbluff]

If you want to contribute personally to party damage, that. This is definitely the most common but far from the only option.

-Warlocks can be good party faces with beguiling influence and charm person. It hurts that they don't get diplomacy, but at low to mid levels that doesn't even matter because of beguiling influence, charisma focus, and skill synergies.

-They are 2nd in item creation and UMD'ing only to the artificer. The item creation part doesn't come on line until level 12, but picking up lots of different wands and scrolls is a good idea from the beginning. To get really fancy take two levels in chameleon for the floating feat: at level 14 you can now make any item in the game.

-Warlocks are excellent minionmancers, and all it takes is one lessor invocation and a maybe a couple feats.

-Spamable abilities is better than a lot of people give it credit for, IMO. Now, if there's even the slightest reason or use of an ability, you can do it without worrying about running out of resources. Because of this, with the right invocations they have a lot of out of combat utility.

-There are several excellent general utility invocations that are almost always going to be useful - fel flight, see the unseen, flee the scene, dark utterance, and entropic warding are examples of this.

People tend to focus on the small number of invocations warlocks get, but what I think a lot of people don't realize is that is usually only takes 1 or 2 invocations/feats to be able to use a certain strategy to great effect. No you won't be quite as good as the character who spends all 20 levels in that particular niche, but that doesn't mean you're not effective. In this way, warlocks can do a lot of different thing and bring a lot to the table.


This. Anima Mage is easy enough to get into as a Warlock Binder, and is very handy for increasing your number of abilities.

I have a handbook in my sig.

[sambouchah]

Wizard/Psion/Cerebramancer is usually my choice.

[Greenish]

I also heard about the Ultimate Magus prestige class, and I am wondering if I should take a 1 level in sorcerer, 1 level in wizard, and then become an Ultimate Magus.Prestige Classes (usually abbreviated PrC) work somewhat differently from base classes, one of the key differences being that they require you to fulfill a set of requirements before you can take levels in them.

In case of Ultimate Magus, you cannot enter the class unless you have at least 5 levels in other classes*, because it requires you to have 8 ranks in Spellcraft, and the most ranks you can have in a skill is level+3.


*Actually, there are some ways to bypass this, but they're obscure, difficult, and likely to be vetoed by the DM.

[HunterOfJello]

1. If you're new to the game, avoid prepared spellcasting classes. They have a much higher learning curve and require a much larger knowledge base of the game to play well. These include Wizard, Cleric, Druid, Archivist.

2. Spontaneous casters are the best way to start the game as a spellcaster. Sorcerers, Favored Soul, and the rarely played Spirit Shaman give you the options to choose your own spells and then cast them spontaneously. This requires enough knowledge of the game that you choose your spells wisely. If you do not choose them wisely, then your character's ability to deal with any given situation will suffer.

The other type of spontaneous casters are fixed spell list casters. These are the Warmage, Beguiler, and Dread Necromancer. (Duskblade technically falls into this category too, but is far more of a arcane barbarian than a spellcaster.) Out of those 3 classes, Beguiler is usually regarded as the best. It is also, from my personal experience, quite fun to play.


~~~~~~

Many other people here have suggested Beguiler so I'll give you a few tips about them to start often your optimization.

If you want to play with a larger focus on Illusion, then you should strongly consider playing one of the variations of Gnome that exist. Gnomes get +1 to the DC of their illusion spells. This is an awesome boon.

Another great option, if you're willing to play a non-good character, is to take the Shadow Weave Magic feat and enter into the Shadow Adept prestige class. A single level in the PrC gives you 3 bonus feats which will make your spellcasting much more effective. Both the feat and the PrC can be found in the Player's Guide to Faerun. The one, somewhat harsh, requirement for this combination is that you must have 15 Wisdom.

[Greenish]

The other type of spontaneous casters are fixed spell list casters. These are the Warmage, Beguiler, and Dread Necromancer. (Duskblade technically falls into this category too, but is far more of a arcane barbarian than a spellcaster.)Duskblades pick their spells known from the duskblade list, they do not actually know the whole list.

[thethird]

I would go with elven generalist (since you are an elf, preferably a gray elf for the int bonus) taking 4 levels of wizard, 1 level of beguiler (then practiced spellcaster (to raise your beguiler caster level and versatile spellcaster to be able to cast high level beguiler spells) that would let you qualify for ultimate magus, and then go with it.

[Story]

Remember, if you're going Generalist, always pick Domain Wizard, preferably in Conjuration. There's literally no reason for a generalist not to take it. It combos especially well with Elven Generalist, though some people may not let you take both.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I would not suggest starting off with a Wizard or Sorcerer as your first arcane caster, simply because they require too much bookkeeping, and your spell selection choices can turn even the most powerful of classes into gimped commoners.

Having said that, I would strongly suggest the following:

Beguiler. Because they cast off their whole list, they make an excellent character who is a skilled and stealthy little trickster. Far more magically inclined than most bards, they have a surprisingly potent repertoire of arcane prowess to back up their mundane skill.

Warlock. These guys take a bit of getting used to, but nothing is more amusing than laughing at a 'traditional' caster who has run out of spell slots while you keep going. Also, Eldritch Blast is only good *damage* output if your HFW it up, but it can be quite useful for tossing around lockdown effects. Invocations like Hinder Blast, Beshadowed Blast, Nauseating Blast, and Bewildering Blast are all pretty good at 'save or lose'. They also get stuff like Chilling Tentacles for good battlefield control.

Dragonfire Adept. Like the Warlock, he's an invocation user. However, his breath-weapon invocations are split off from his normal ones, giving him a decided advantage in versatility. Also, the feat Entangling Exhalation makes him exceedingly good battlefield control right out of the gate.

Dread Necromancer. If you want to go that route, this isn't a bad way to go. Plenty of things, although some of the better options require a bit of research on the topic. Like the Beguiler, they cast off of their entire spell list. Is one of the best Minionmancy classes in the game, but can also be set up to deal out plenty of negative levels and/or fear effects.

Binder. Much more forgiving than casting in general because if you don't like what you are doing, you can always bind something else. Doing your research can really ramp up the power of this class. However, it doesn't really feel much like a 'magic user' unless by that you mean 'summoner who binds spirits to himself for Moar Power'.

Bard requires a bit of system knowledge to really deck out properly. Basically, your options boil down to "Be a Sorcerer with additional skills" or "Dragonfire Adept". The former requires a prestige class to do most of the load-bearing, and the latter isn't much of an actual 'magic using class' so much as a vehicle for giving everyone a whole fistful of d6's on damage rolls.

Warmages are also a bit of fun, but not particularly powerful. Still, if you just want to make things go boom, it spontaneously casts off their whole spell list, like the Beguiler and Dread Necromancer.

Shadowcasters also use a different mechanic, but can be quite difficult to set up properly. But if you do your research, can be exceedingly fun to play.

[Sception]

But I'm going to make a different recommendation. I'm going to recommend, if you are open to divine casters, the Druid.

I don't mean to be contrary: the druid is very easy to build. It's hard to get a druid wrong, and they're exceedingly powerful in capable hands, while also having a strong and interesting thematic bent.

But while druids are easy to build, they're not exactly easy to play, not for players new to playing spellcasters in general. The shape changing mechanics in 3.5 are hasslesome and complicated, and getting good use out of them requires familiarity with a wide set of monster stat blocks, and understanding of which elements of those statblocks you get to use. The other big class feature of the druid, the animal companion, likewise requires familiarity with monster statblocks, and will require the druid player to functionally handle two characters simultaneously during battle, which is a lot to manage even if one of those characters isn't a primary spellcaster.

Like the cleric, the druid knows their entire spellcasting list, which is massive even in the PHB alone, and only gets more massive the more sources of additional spells the DM allows. That means the druid player needs to be familiar with a ridiculous number of spells to be effective with their character, and more importantly to not delay the session trying to select spells each in-game morning.

And the druid has the ability to spontaneously cast summon nature's ally spells - another strong and useful feature, but again requiring them to delve into the monster manual and handle multiple creatures in the same combat.

If you're prone to option paralysis (stuck on your turn trying to decide what to do), then you're going to be a huge drain on real world time, struggling to decide what spells to memorize in the morning, then what spells to cast, what form to use, what action to take, and what to tell your summons to do each round of combat. And if you're not completely clear on all of the complicated rules involved, it's only going to take up that much more time.

I've seen first time druid players take up as much as twice as much time on their turn as the rest of the party put together.


Now, that's not to say 'don't play a druid' if that's what you want to play. But if you do want to play a druid, you need to do your homework before the session researching which spells you want to use, which spells you might need, how exactly those spells work, what summon spells you can trade them for in a pinch, what creatures those spells can summon and what abilities are available to those creatures, how exactly the wild shape ability works, what exact shapes you'll likely want to use, what exactly your stats and abilities will be in those shapes, what animal companion you want, and what the exact abilities of that companion are, as well as preparing yourself to manage all of that stuff going on at the same time during combat.


The upside, again, is that it's hard to build a druid wrong. Prepare bad spells one day? Well, prepare different spells the next. Don't like you're wild shape? Wild shape into something else. Your animal companion not helping? Dismiss it, get another. While the druid has a steep learning curve, it's also very forgiving, and you can get better at any point and not be hampered by poor decisions in the past, unlike the sorcerer or especially the warlock that will punish you forever for bad build choices made early on.

However, the druid throws all of its stuff at you right from level one, and it's just a ton to actually manage. The sorcerer or warlock do require some homework before play to build them properly so that they can be contributing party members and not be a drain on in game resources. But while there's little to no risk of accidentally making a weak character, the druid requires far more homework to not be a drain on the far valuable real-world resources of the rest of the your group's fun and time.


The beguiler remains my primary recommendation for first time primary spellcasters because it's pretty forgiving on both fronts. It's extensive class features and pre-built spell list means its hard to build one poorly, but the limited size of that spell list and relatively less complicated abilities mean that they're not too hard to actually play, either.

Of course, OP were new to the entire game, I wouldn't be recommending a full spell caster at all, as even the theme casters are a lot to manage for new players.