So, she wants to be a Wizard ...

[What'sInAName?]

Alright, here's the story. It's going to need some explanation, though, so please bear with me.

My family is trying to get into a position where we might be able to play Dungeons & Dragons. It's just me and my parents, so already that's less than ideal, but that particular problem isn't what I'm worried about. Rather, it's expected that I be the one to DM the game. Of the three of us, my father is the only one with any real experience playing D&D, but he has no interest in taking the job of DM. When I was much younger, me and a couple of friends tried playing D&D (with my dad DM-ing for us), but I honestly can't say I remember anything about it.

So here's me, with next to no experience actually playing the game, and I'm expected to DM. Okay, fine. Good. Great.

Excuse me while I hyperventilate into this paper bag.

To top it all off, my mother wants to play a Wizard. Not a Cleric. Not a Sorcerer. Not a Druid, Bard, or any other spellcaster. A Wizard, and anything but a Wizard means she has no interest in playing.

Now, for a DM with actual experience, this might not be a problem. But I have little to no experience playing the game, let alone DM-ing, and I honestly don't know if I can handle a Tier I spellcaster in the party. The thing is, what my mother is most interested in is the flavor-text of the Wizard - you know, incredibly intelligent and learned magic user. She's fine with house-ruling in a few extra restrictions on the Wizard to bring it down to a more palatable power-level, so long as those changes aren't too restrictive.

So here are some of the changes I was thinking of making to the Wizard class:


Institute Paladin-like multi-classing restrictions. A Wizard starting character can take levels in Wizard as long as they want, but once they take a level of anything outside Wizard (or various associated prestige classes), they have effectively left the path of learning behind them and can no longer take levels in Wizard.
Also, characters that start out as something other than Wizard cannot multi-class into Wizard. Sorcerer's fine, but absolutely not Wizard.
Here is (what I think, anyway) the biggie - Wizards don't choose new spells immediately upon level-up. They receive all the other immediate benefits of level-up as normal, but they only get to choose new spells when the party stops in such a place where the Wizard could reasonably be assumed to find time to research and has access to a library of arcane knowledge. So maybe the party has gone into a dungeon and the Wizard levels up twice during the course of the adventure. She'd get her new "Spells Per Day" spell slots, Attack bonus, Save Modifiers, etc. However, she wouldn't be able to choose new spells until the party gets back to civilization. These restrictions wouldn't apply to spells learned from reading a scroll the party encounters, or to metamagic-upgraded versions of spells she already knows, but she can't get new spells until she is in a place where she can study and has the time to do so (so, even though they are "in the city" she can't necessarily get new spells if she levels-up while the party is traipsing around the sewers).


Now, I'd like to think a Wizard is still very much playable given these restrictions, and that all of my edits fit in thematically with the Wizard-concept.

I ask you, dungeoneers of the Playground ... do any of my modifications make a Wizard unplayable? Is there anything you would add or change about the Wizard class to make them less on to abuse?

Alternatively, I'd very much welcome any advice you could give on DM-ing Wizards. Should I be as worried about this as I am?

Thanking you in advance ...

[ArcturusV]

Well... here's the thing. You're new at DMing, but it sounds like your mother there is new at playing. A new player almost NEVER actually knows how to "properly use" a Wizard, or break any character to speak of. Chances are, you don't have to worry about coming up with appropriate challenges. New players who play wizards tend to take spells like Shocking Grasp, Burning Hands, Magic Missile, etc. at first level (And as a new DM, I would suggest starting at level 1). They continue as they level getting spells like Melf's Acid Arrow, Fireball, Chain Lightning, etc.

And doing this? There's no huge challenge to DM out.

So just breathe, relax. Realize that is probably going to be the sort of thing you handle. If your mother there throws down an Enchanter, or Illusionist, it's also pretty easy to deal with. It mostly just involves putting yourself in the world and the NPC, and figuring out how things look to that NPC.

It's very rare a new player will pull out some ungodly powerful Wizard. And even if someone helps them build one? They typically don't really know how to use it.

Your limiters really aren't all that limiting. The first one? That's basically how wizards play out anyway. Even new players know their power as a wizard is directly linked to advancing as far and as fast as they can as a wizard. They almost never 'Dip' into a non-wizard class, unless going for something like a Mystic Thuerge. The third limitation? Also not all that limiting, but does curtail some of the power creep and you can keep some of the most powerful spells out of the wizard's hands. Since it's a new player, they likely won't care if you do this. They don't know they're "Being robbed" necessarily. It won't impact the game too much unless you are also really stingy with Spell Scrolls in loot, or never run into enemy spellcasters and thus no enemy spellbooks.

[CaladanMoonblad]

For someone who claims not to know a lot about D&D, you sure do know the Playground's culture about wizards.

Here's the thing; straight up wizard is not overkill if you are playing the game starting at level 1. Which is really where new players and GMs should be starting in the first place. Do you play Monopoly by randomly assigning properties first before even rolling the dice the first time around?

Look at the modules; most are geared for a standard 4 player crew of Fighter, Rogue (Thief), Cleric, and Wizard (the classic group for D&D since it's first incarnation as Chainmail in the early 1970s). Run some of those first if it will put less pressure on you.

If you're concerned about Wizard spell lists, simply keep the group away from large communities (and thus, access to new spells). Wizards still have to research their 2 free spells each level outside of game time, which is still under your purview as a GM. You control which spells are found through adventuring otherwise.

There's another thread around here for first time GMs... here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=278809). The same advice applies to your situation.

[Randomguy]

Just restrict things to core only and know what all of her spells known are and have a vague idea of what they do and you'll be fine as long as you remember to keep all that into account.

[AuraTwilight]

A wizard's brokenness comes from their ability to anticipate and prepare for things ahead of time. Your mother probably won't know how to do that. You're both adults, and if you notice a problem she's not intentionally trying to abuse you can probably deal with it. "So hey, mom, I noticed a problem with Polymorph that makes it a bit too powerful, so how about we put these restrictions on it?"

[What'sInAName?]

Thank you, ArcturusV. CaladanMoonblad. Randomguy. AuraTwilight.

My mother is, indeed, new to playing D&D and RPG's in general. However, she does have an unfortunate tendency in other games (RPGs are fairly new to us, but we play a fair share of board and card games) to hit upon some cheap tactic and spam it ruthlessly. She may not have played D&D before, but I know that she is a munchkin at heart.

It's good though that it doesn't seem like my restrictions would be too ... draconian. I don't want to seriously inhibit her playing ability, just bring it to a slightly more managable level.

Incidently, I don't know if it changes anything, but the books we have are as follows:

Player's Handbook (duh)
Dungeon Master's Guide (duh)
Monster Manual (and duh)

as well as ...

Deities and Demigods (not really applicable)
Book of Vile Darkness
Libris Mortis
Heroes of Horror

I'm admittedly not too worried about her using spells from the supplementary material we do have - she hs a strange aversion to Necromancy. I don't mean that she's squeemish about dead things or that she's particularly inclined towards a "Good" moral alignment. She merely has an inexplicable hatred of the word Necromancy. Most of the interestng sounding arcane spells in those books are Necromancy, and the good ones that aren't Necromancy are squicky enough that I don't think she'd go for them.

Oh, the other thing is that I am expected to create her character for her. It's only Level 1, so it's not that much of an issue, but she is expecting a character with the potential to be good (not optimized, necessarily, but one with potential). She'll handle leveling-up the character herself, but she wants me to choose her starting array, expecting something reasonably powerful and versatile. I don't think that would change any of your advice thus far, but assume the Wizard in question will start with a reasonably good build.

[eggynack]

If you want to put limitations on the wizard, I'm not sure what your houserules are trying to accomplish. The first two actually push the wizard to a much more optimized place. If you wanted to get less powerful wizards, the houserule should read, "If you multiclass out of the wizard class, I'll give you candy. This will happen everytime you multiclass out of wizard, so a build of fighter1/wizard1/fighter1/wizard1 etc. is how you can optimize for maximum candy. It can be any kinda candy you want." The third houserule is closer to harming a wizard, but it just pushes the class towards returning to town frequently, potentially furthering the 10 minute adventuring day.

If you think that an inexperienced first level wizard is going to destroy your campaign, and it's possible that it will, then you need to figure out what aspects of the wizard are going to do the destroying and disincentivize them. It might be a good idea to find out what your mother actually wants to do with a wizard, and work forward from there. If all she wants to do is spam magic missile, then you can just take a nap, and if she wants to go focused specialist conjurer, banning evocation and enchantment, eventually becoming an incantrix, then you have your work cut out for you.

Finally, I don't see much of an issue in building a wizard. Just stick the stat points in intelligence, then constitution, then dexterity, and presumably don't make the character a necromancer. Wizards see most of their building done at the micro, spell by spell, level. For this, you should go back to the "find out what she actually wants to do," point. You could give a wizard toughness every level and they'll have the potential to be good. Just toss on the standard load out of metamagic, crafting, and possibly whatever she'll need to hit a neat PrC. It'll be fine.

[SowZ]

Thank you, ArcturusV. CaladanMoonblad. Randomguy. AuraTwilight.

My mother is, indeed, new to playing D&D and RPG's in general. However, she does have an unfortunate tendency in other games (RPGs are fairly new to us, but we play a fair share of board and card games) to hit upon some cheap tactic and spam it ruthlessly. She may not have played D&D before, but I know that she is a munchkin at heart.

It's good though that it doesn't seem like my restrictions would be too ... draconian. I don't want to seriously inhibit her playing ability, just bring it to a slightly more managable level.

Incidently, I don't know if it changes anything, but the books we have are as follows:

Player's Handbook (duh)
Dungeon Master's Guide (duh)
Monster Manual (and duh)

as well as ...

Deities and Demigods (not really applicable)
Book of Vile Darkness
Libris Mortis
Heroes of Horror

I'm admittedly not too worried about her using spells from the supplementary material we do have - she hs a strange aversion to Necromancy. I don't mean that she's squeemish about dead things or that she's particularly inclined towards a "Good" moral alignment. She merely has an inexplicable hatred of the word Necromancy. Most of the interestng sounding arcane spells in those books are Necromancy, and the good ones that aren't Necromancy are squicky enough that I don't think she'd go for them.

Oh, the other thing is that I am expected to create her character for her. It's only Level 1, so it's not that much of an issue, but she is expecting a character with the potential to be good (not optimized, necessarily, but one with potential). She'll handle leveling-up the character herself, but she wants me to choose her starting array, expecting something reasonably powerful and versatile. I don't think that would change any of your advice thus far, but assume the Wizard in question will start with a reasonably good build.

I'd prioritize starting stats like so, Int>Con>Dex>Wis>Str>Cha. To give her something good. Best race would be human or possibly grey elf. If she doesn't like low Charisma, let her know it isn't ugly it is just bad social skills.

[ArcturusV]

Well, depends on what sort of wizard she wants to play, and what sort of campaign you're running.

For example, Cha being halfway decent is important if you want to run a Mindjacker Enchantment and Illusionist trickster type, as you'll want it decent to help facilitate Bluff, Intimidate, Diplomacy, etc.

So asking her what she thinks a wizard is and does is a crucial step before you go too heavy into builds. I mean it's literally an open ended class that can do an ungodly number of things.

Most newbies think the Wizard is a Blaster. They think of things like Fireballs, Lightning Bolts, etc. Sometimes they think illusions and enchantments. Sometimes they think of Necromancy.

Rarely do people think of optimized concepts like the Conjurer, or a Transmuter.

And honestly? Doesn't matter how you Optimize her character for her if it doesn't fit her image of what a wizard does.

[Chilingsworth]

I've just recently started DMing for my parents, too.

Hmm, are your parents internet-literate? Maybe someone on the forums could run something for the three of you?

Heck, if you don't mind an inexperienced dm (but an experienced player) I could try to run something, to help you guys get a feel for the game.

You're playing 3.5, right? I'm most experienced in that, but I'm DMing a pathfinder game for my folks.

[What'sInAName?]

I've just recently started DMing for my parents, too.

Hmm, are your parents internet-literate? Maybe someone on the forums could run something for the three of you?

Heck, if you don't mind an inexperienced dm (but an experienced player) I could try to run something, to help you guys get a feel for the game.

You're playing 3.5, right? I'm most experienced in that, but I'm DMing a pathfinder game for my folks.

Wow! Thank you for the offer, although I don't think I can take you up on it. Honestly my dad might prefer an internet game, and I could probably handle it (although I myself prefer to hold the papers in my hand). I don't know how well my mom would handle it, though.

More to the point, I don't know how often we'll be able to play (mom has a heavy work schedule, dad has a highly variable schedule, and I myself will probably be busy with finals and/or seeking employment of my own). We may not be able to start for some time yet. I couldn't possiby ask you to make that kind of time commitment.

Although ... an internet game might be a pretty good idea, just for myself. I would get a more hands on experience with the system (as a player) before starting a game of my own, and an internet game means I wouldn't have to worry overmuch about organizing schedules or transportation and the like.


It might be a good idea to find out what your mother actually wants to do with a wizard, and work forward from there.


Well, depends on what sort of wizard she wants to play, and what sort of campaign you're running.


So asking her what she thinks a wizard is and does is a crucial step before you go too heavy into builds. I mean it's literally an open ended class that can do an ungodly number of things.

That's a good point. I hadn't given it much thought, that she might imagine a Wizard completely different than I would. We haven't had the time, yet, to talk about it in too much detail (although it sounds as though she would be reluctant to ban any schools, even if it means not specializing in anything either). I'll have to make inquiries.

[MirddinEmris]

Actually, for a new players i'd recommend 2-3 level of play - it's a much more forgiving start than a 1st level.

[SinsI]

You are worrying about the wrong thing. For low skill players, low level Wizards are much weaker than most other classes - having just a few spell slots (further restricted by needing to decide on them ahead of time) makes their adventuring day a whole 1 minute long....
Maybe something like Psion would fit her better? Just reflavor it to fit her liking...

[Rejusu]

I think you're worrying too much. As others have already mentioned it takes a reasonable amount of system knowledge to turn Wizards from powerful to broken. And at lower levels they're not there's less of a power gap anyway. With new players though you really don't have to worry that much. As an example we have a new player in our group using a Druid. Two sessions in and she has yet to wild shape once. Mostly she's just been healing and using the breath weapon she got from being dragon born.

Also balance is relative. It doesn't matter what tier someone is playing in unless it's out of line with the rest of the party. Party composition is more important than the tier of individual characters. If you have a party of tier ones you just hand them more challenging encounters. The problem is when you have T1s in the same party as T5s. Which is unfortunately common in Core only as you have Wizards and Druids in the same book as Monks and Paladins.

So unless your Dad wants to play a Monk you shouldn't need to worry too much.

[Spuddles]

Don't worry, let her have fun. She won't hit on anything too game breaking, especially if you start at level 1. It'll take about 10 levels before the wizard is approaching anything that is really game breaking, unless your mother REALLY goes out of her way to break the game.

If you do have problems, come back here. But you're all new. First learn how you guys play together, your play styles, how D&D plays for your group, etc.

Play style can really affect how well classes perform, especially at low levels.


Also balance is relative. It doesn't matter what tier someone is playing in unless it's out of line with the rest of the party. Party composition is more important than the tier of individual characters. If you have a party of tier ones you just hand them more challenging encounters. The problem is when you have T1s in the same party as T5s. Which is unfortunately common in Core only as you have Wizards and Druids in the same book as Monks and Paladins.

So unless your Dad wants to play a Monk you shouldn't need to worry too much.

A monk with high rolls and some choice feats and a wizard with mediocre ones and a bad spell list won't be very out of line.

Fighter with power, attack cleave, chainmail, and a heavy shield is pretty solid. Evocation specialist with magic missile, sleep, and mage armor isn't good at all. And that's playing D&D how you're "supposed" to play it.

[Rejusu]

A monk with high rolls and some choice feats and a wizard with mediocre ones and a bad spell list won't be very out of line.

Fighter with power, attack cleave, chainmail, and a heavy shield is pretty solid. Evocation specialist with magic missile, sleep, and mage armor isn't good at all. And that's playing D&D how you're "supposed" to play it.

Alternatively it could go the other way and you could have a fighter that's taken Dodge. Best to assume similar optimisation level unless you know how good the players are at optimising.

[Arc_knight25]

To give your mom ideas on what kind of wizard she would like to be. If you can get your hands on a PDF or hardcopy of Complete Arcane and Complete Mage, Just have her read over the descriptions of the types of casters and how they interact with the world. Also if she looks into the prestige classes there she might have a better idea as to where to take her character. Of course you'll be right beside her learning about the classes and how they work as well.

I fail to see why even place restrictions. I can see the not gaining spells till you have had time to research for flavour, but the others shouldn't come into play. Wizards have limited castings per day compared to that of a sorcerer, but have the versatility the Sorcerer lacks. So once she casts her 2 level 1 spells all she will have is 3 cantrips.

[Spuddles]

Alternatively it could go the other way and you could have a fighter that's taken Dodge. Best to assume similar optimisation level unless you know how good the players are at optimising.

Not really. Optimization for wizards is counter-intuitive and hard. It is far easier to go wrong with a class that has no armor proficiency, d4 HD, and dependency on a stat that doesn't help with anything combat related. At level 1, 10 + con mod HP, medium armor, a shield, and that 1 BAB goes a long way.

To have a wizard that outclasses a fighter, you basically need war trained riding dogs via an alternative class feature/esoteric feat.

[GnomeGninjas]

Wizards aren't that powerful with new players. She'll probably do blasting spells and save or dies (I'm putting baleful polymorph and flesh to stone is this category as well) because they are what initially seem appealing in my experience.

[Rejusu]

Not really. Optimization for wizards is counter-intuitive and hard. It is far easier to go wrong with a class that has no armor proficiency, d4 HD, and dependency on a stat that doesn't help with anything combat related. At level 1, 10 + con mod HP, medium armor, a shield, and that 1 BAB goes a long way.

To have a wizard that outclasses a fighter, you basically need war trained riding dogs via an alternative class feature/esoteric feat.

At level one? Sure. As level increases? Not so much. Even a wizard with a sub optimal spell list will outpace a fighter before long. After a certain point you'd have to be deliberately sabotaging the Wizard to keep them in a similar power bracket. And that point is around level 5, where the Wizard starts getting stuff like Fly.

And you say Wizard optimisation is counter intuitive but it's not like optimising a fighter is completely intuitive either. 3.5 is full of system traps for new or inexperienced players, things that seem cool on paper but suck in practice.

Anyway your point stands at low levels, but in the medium to long term the power gap is only going to widen. When that is depends on relative optimisation levels. But frankly it's hard to screw up a Wizard that badly.

Fighter stands a better chance than Monk at least. They're close to the top of their tier.

[CaladanMoonblad]

Incidently, I don't know if it changes anything, but the books we have are as follows:

Player's Handbook (duh)
Dungeon Master's Guide (duh)
Monster Manual (and duh)
Deities and Demigods (not really applicable)
Book of Vile Darkness
Libris Mortis
Heroes of Horror
....
Oh, the other thing is that I am expected to create her character for her. It's only Level 1, so it's not that much of an issue, but she is expecting a character with the potential to be good (not optimized, necessarily, but one with potential). She'll handle leveling-up the character herself, but she wants me to choose her starting array, expecting something reasonably powerful and versatile. I don't think that would change any of your advice thus far, but assume the Wizard in question will start with a reasonably good build.

D&D, Book of Vile Darkness, and Libris Mortis are more like a GM's toybox of awesome villains- so kudos!

So, here's a generic 25 point wizard build (I'd suggest using the Point Buy (http://tools.digitalightbulb.com/pbcalc.html) System instead of rolling- it makes starting characters fair)

Elf Wizard 1 (+2 Dex, -2 Str) 5 hp (1d4+1)
+0 melee (longsword 1d8) and +3 ranged (longbow 1d8)
STR: 10 DEX: 16 CON: 12 INT: 14 WIS: 10 CHA: 11
Skills: 16 skill points
Feats: 1) Eschew Materials, 1w) Scribe Scroll. Longsword, Longbow, club, dagger, heavy crossbow, quarterstaff.
Spells: 0th (3), 1st (2) Spellbook: All 0th level spells, 1st- Magic Missile, Burning Hands, Color Spray.
Equipment: Longbow (20 arrows), Longsword, Dagger, Spellbook, Traveling Outfit, etc. (100 gold to spend overall).

So.... why an Elf? The racial weapon proficiences allow for ranged attacks at early levels, so she can still be effective at low levels after exhausting her spells. Or simply to hold onto her spells for when it really matters and not just hiding all the time or twiddling her thumbs. If you want a 16 Int, go with Standard Elf, if you want 18, Gray Elf (-2 Con, +2 Int) and reorder the stats (Climb and Swim are dependent on Str, and having a -1 or -2 penalty will be a killer at low levels if you have impediments like a river, or a palisade before Fly is available at 5th level Wizard).

Why not maximize Int to 18? 1st level characters are fragile, and with an elf build, dexterity is as important at 1st level for the backup weapon. A 14 Int can still give bonus spells to 1st and 2nd level, and by the time 3rd level are available at 5th level Wizard, the +1 Int at 4th character level chips in, and it is not unreasonable to have a Circlet of Intellect +2 (4,000 gp) in one of the treasure hoards or bought outright. The ability to hit Intelligence 19 to be able to cast 9th level spells at 17th level Wizard is doable.

So... why the 3 spells? Actually, at low levels, Burning Hands is useful as the first AoE spell. With a 15 ft Cone, that burning hands spell will actually affect 6 or 7 squares depending on how you angle it on the battlemap. So doing 1d4 damage to a group of tightly packed enemies, perhaps bottlenecked in a tunnel by the tank, it can severely weaken 1st and 2nd level foes nicely; this tactic can be used up to 5th level.

Color Spray is often seen as OP, but it was one of the original D&D spells if I'm not mistaken; think of it like a Shark, which has been around since the Silurian Period (these guys outlived the last four great extinction events in the previous 400 million years).

Magic Missile; also an original D&D spell from the 1970s. It is an automatic hit, which rocks everyone's socks.

Alternatives at 1st level to the 3 original spells might be; Mage Armor, Sleep, True Strike (especially if you want to push the archer elf flavor), Magic Weapon (it's tough to get a magic weapon prior to 4th level) or Cause Fear (necromancy is often misunderstood, but this is like Gandalf intimidating Bilbo "Do not take me for some conjurer of cheap tricks...")

Anyway, this is what I'd suggest as a base. 1st level adventures are only as tough as a GM makes them; something as simple as being merchant's guards and staving off a bandit attack, overcoming a pack of wild dogs, etc., is more than adequate. What matters is the story. The intro scenario needs to introduce the characters as a team.

I started an alternative campaign (when our normal players cannot all make it, and the group doesn't want to progress the main story without the integral character); enter, Rialtur's Tower, a wizard's tower in the wilderness with Grand Wizard Rialtur (Wiz 12) as an employer who has a niece named Sophie Straud (Wiz 1) who needs protecting... all the time... as she gathers ingredients for her spell pouch, or insists on conducting an anthropological survey of the local goblin tribes, or is heading to the big city for her birthday party (and she is incredibly naive, and rich, so a sucker for every scam artist).

Since my players are used to powering through everything at 12th-13th level in the main campaign (they started at 2nd level), playing 1st level characters again makes for... interesting game play.

[Spuddles]

At level one? Sure. As level increases? Not so much. Even a wizard with a sub optimal spell list will outpace a fighter before long. After a certain point you'd have to be deliberately sabotaging the Wizard to keep them in a similar power bracket. And that point is around level 5, where the Wizard starts getting stuff like Fly.

And you say Wizard optimisation is counter intuitive but it's not like optimising a fighter is completely intuitive either. 3.5 is full of system traps for new or inexperienced players, things that seem cool on paper but suck in practice.

Anyway your point stands at low levels, but in the medium to long term the power gap is only going to widen. When that is depends on relative optimisation levels. But frankly it's hard to screw up a Wizard that badly.

Fighter stands a better chance than Monk at least. They're close to the top of their tier.

Fighter and wizard actually stay fairly close until about 11th level, actually, especially if the fighter is picking up weapon focus and cleave and the wizard is just using fireball and fly. I mean sure, you can go Spontaneous Divination ACF at Wizard 5, nab an item familiar, and take 3 levels of incantatrix to persist all the spells, but I don't really see a newbie player doing that.

Shrink Item, Major Image, and Explosive Runes are the really abusive 3rd level spells, without getting out of Core. Stuff that causes DMs head aches. Fly doesn't actually do a whole lot. It's basically the monk of spells, especially at 5th level.

[Eldariel]

I suggest:
- Try and get her a 20 in Intelligence (Gray Elf race has +2 racial to Intelligence; it's an Elf race from the Monster Manual). If the game starts from level 1, one of the most boring things possible to a Wizard is to have only 2 spell slots (1 in the old AD&D days) and then do nothing but shoot a Crossbow rest of the day. 20 Intelligence = 3rd spell slot from the 1st level. Specialization would give her a 4th, though in this case I might suggest the "Elven Generalist" [Races of the Wild] instead.
- Elven Generalist is an Elf Wizard, who gets 1 bonus slot from the her highest spell level available (as opposed to normal Specialist who gets 1 bonus slot from all levels). This means she'll still get those 4 slots on 1st level without having to give up schools. This is better for a new player who'll still have to look around at what interests her and probably doesn't want to bar doors entirely.
- Pathfinder (basically D&D 3.75, here (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/)) offers casters infinite uses of Cantrips (0th level spells); look into that. That way a Wizard can do something "Wizardly" constantly - minor powers, but still powers.
- If she wants Charisma, that's fine. Charisma is a useful stat for a Wizard anyways for few Enchantment (Charm/Dominate Person/Monster) and Conjuration (Planar Binding) spells, as well as later for Polymorphing into creatures and using their abilities (those saving throws are generally Charisma-derived).


I'm fairly sure it'll all work out. Early on, Wizards aren't that game-changing. They really begin to change how you play campaigns around level 9 (long range teleportation, ability to "Scry" on distant places and Contact Other Plane to ask deities for solutions).

Up until then, they're just characters with varying powers (stunning and such from level 1, flight from level 3-5, short range teleportation and shapechanging from level 7). And up from there, you can just plan around magic such as Scrying and Contact Other Plane as a part of a solution to any problem.

And yeah, I suggest giving her a Human or a Grey Elf (depending on her preference) with Int > Con > Dex > Cha > Wis > Str. That should work out reasonably well. First feat can be Improved Initiative, Spell Focus: Conjuration (or whatever), Spell Penetration or some such.