Battle Focused Wizard Suggestions?

[Anderlith]

In a game coming up I'm be playing a mage & I want to be unstoppable when it comes to combat. I know that it's better to go other routes than damage & stuff but I'm going more for a theme & the others of my group won't be optimizing.

Thing is I will probably be restricted to Core.

Any suggestions to turn the battlefield to my advantage?

[Squirrel_Dude]

What level are you going to be starting the game at, how long do you expect it to run?

Define "Core" to the best of your ability. Are we talking PHB, DMG, and MM, or are we talking SRD?

[Anderlith]

What level are you going to be starting the game at, how long do you expect it to run?

Define "Core" to the best of your ability. Are we talking PHB, DMG, and MM, or are we talking SRD?

Level 3. PHB, DMG, MM

[Umbranar]

What exactly do you meam by "in combat"?

If you mean blaster-caster id say magic missile, scorching ray and flaming sphere.

If you mean gish I guess shield, mage armor and truestrike is as far as it goes?
Also false life is nice to offset that low hp. It lasts for hours and 1d10+3 thp is great at this level.

[Anderlith]

Summons, terrain manipulation, crowd control, & good ol' fashioned fire.

[Umbranar]

In that case the suggestion I did earlier for blaster caster combined with the golden low level spells: Grease, Web, Glitterdust. Get Sculpt spell and your good. Google "treantmonks guide to be a god" (or something simular) to see what spells are considered the best options. There is a list for every school.

[Muktidata]

{Scrubbed}

[Anderlith]

Would warmage be better than a battle focused wizard or is it too unoptimized?

[XmonkTad]

Personally, I like warmage, but its main class feature (warmage edge) gets really gimped and doesn't do that much extra damage, save for levels 1-2. Problem with warmage is that you're a level behind regular wizard, and lose out on god spells.

Even at level 3, you're behind a regular wizard. Besides, warmage isn't core.

[RFLS]

Would warmage be better than a battle focused wizard or is it too unoptimized?

Yes, in terms of damage. Entirely irrelevant, though, because the OP stated Core only.

My recommendation would honestly be to play a sorcerer.

[Qwertystop]

Learn to read. Try. Real hard.

Why the flaming? He answered the question with legitimate advice, and there wasn't anything that said "I don't want any spells other than straight damage." In fact, he specifically said crowd control was on the list.

[Muktidata]

Qwerty, learn to read. Try. Real hard.

The OP states core. Then the OPoster clarifies DMG, PHB, MM1. Then someone says "..blah blah and Sculpt Spell is really good.." What? How do you qualify that as "legitimate advice"? If I had a dime for every time I've seen someone totally ignore the OP's requests and offer something out of bounds, I could probably buy some of them a few college credits to help with their reading retention.

I acknowledge that it was a flame and apologize to Umbranar. The rest of his post was fine and TMLVL20's guide is great advice because it covers a lot of core spells.

[Gavinfoxx]

http://www.thetangledweb.net/forums/profiler/view_char.php?cid=4511

There you go, core only.

[Qwertystop]

Qwerty, learn to read. Try. Real hard.

The OP states core. Then the OPoster clarifies DMG, PHB, MM1. Then someone says "..blah blah and Sculpt Spell is really good.." What? How do you qualify that as "legitimate advice"? If I had a dime for every time I've seen someone totally ignore the OP's requests and offer something out of bounds, I could probably buy some of them a few college credits to help with their reading retention.

I acknowledge that it was a flame and apologize to Umbranar. The rest of his post was fine and TMLVL20's guide is great advice because it covers a lot of core spells.

So... basically, you take offense at one particular feat, which seems to be the smallest part of the advice? And then, instead of pointing out this one mistake, you insult the person who made it? And then, when someone asks why, you insult them as well before angrily pointing out the error?

I don't claim to know what Umbranar's thought process was, but for me it was that Sculpt Spell just feels like such an obvious metamagic (in terms of "hmmm... what generic ways could you modify a spell?", it's on the top of the list of things I would think of) that I just sort of assumed it would have been in core. Also, the fact that it's practically an afterthought to the rest of the comment in question, which you flamed in its entirety, made me assume you were talking about the spells (which seem like the main portion).

[Muktidata]

I apologize to both of you. Telling someone to learn to read is unacceptably rude. You are both clearly talented readers and Qwerty your argument is both valid and sound.

OP, here is the guide that has been referenced (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19873034/Treantmonks_guide_to_Wizards%3A_Being_a_God&post_num=5).

[Anderlith]

Thanks for the guides & the advice