Mail Man-Control Wizard hybrid?

[Yogibear41]

Might be playing this: http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=pcemvfbci1gvmioqkhbsnu14g7&topic=4653.0 in an upcoming game soon.

To sum it up quickly it gets spells as a wizard of 3/4 its level so basically it gains spell levels as a cleric gets bab(CL=HD), as well as some metamagic reducers and other things.

Now I have never actually played a wizard before, but I think I have read enough about them to play one pretty well. What I would like to do is play a sort of mix up of a mail man and a control wizard. I know I would probably be better suited to picking one and going with it but having wizard casting I have greater versatility so I would like to capitalize on that, otherwise I would just go sorcerer.

I can't decide if I should specialize conjuration and ban enchatnment and necro, or focused specialize conjuration and ban enh, necro, and evocation, I feel like I need the extra spell slots since I will have less spell slots than a wizard of my same level to begin with, but can I fill the roll of mail man without evocation spells? Is being forced to cast mostly conjuration spells worth it? (I know conjuration has plenty of great damage spells that would do just fine) I'm mostly just trying to get other peoples opinions on the matter.

This game will most likely be played by only myself and one other person, from level 1. Not sure what he is going to play but he has expressed interest in playing a binder. The game monsters are generally not optimized at all and lots of times just nuking unintelligent monsters is a great way to go, hence the mailman idea, but I also want to be prepared in case we run into something smart that has things planned out relatively well.

Anyway feel free to post any thoughts you have that could be helpful! :smallsmile:

[Crake]

Wouldn't it be better to just play a straight wizard and get a sorcerer as a cohort via leadership? that way you can play straight control wizard, but also get the mailman blasting from sorc, and without any loss in the action economy by trying to play both on one character?

[A_S]

Uhhhhhhhh...

That thing's "Free Metamagic" ability is pretty gruesomely overpowered. Which is a blaster's wet dream. Are you allowed to take other class levels as well, or is that progression fixed?

[Tulya]

Uhhhhhhhh...

That thing's "Free Metamagic" ability is pretty gruesomely overpowered. Which is a blaster's wet dream. Are you allowed to take other class levels as well, or is that progression fixed?

There are plenty of official options for mitigating the cost of metamagic that don't necessitate a loss in casting progression, and at a maximum application of once per spell, it seems less broken for what it is than those official options.

I mean, I realize that's not saying much, since a lower lactose cheese is not always going to satisfy a lactose intolerance, but I imagine if someone's seriously looking at playing the class - and we'd normally expect that a DM at least gave it a glance if it's a serious option despite being homebrew - then we can assume that the game is at least near an optimization level to tolerate such cheese.

Anyway, on-topic, Conjuration's main deficiency in the blasting department tends to be lower level large AoE blasting spells. If that's a problem for your intended playstyle, you can probably manage it with the Sculpt Spell metamagic feat.

[A_S]

I actually misread it at first as applying its reduction to each metamagic feat, like Arcane Thesis. As a flat subtraction, you're right; it's good, but no better than lots of (overpowered) things that are already in the game.

[Radar]

First thing: this class doesn't have the specialization variants as the Wizard does, so you can't specialise (I think).

Second thing: being a controller wizard doesn't require much resources apart from spells known and prepared. Grab Sculpt Spell and Selective Spell and you are more then ready to rock. You can even buy metamagic rods of those instead of taking appropriate feats and apply them only, when you need to.

All in all, being a relevant blaster will require much higher feat investment. You probably know The Mailman (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1765181) guide considering the thread title, but I'll link it just to be sure.

[Yogibear41]

I can specialize, the creator of the homebrew class mentions it later down in the list.

Also, I think I am going to pick up Entangling Exhalation as my 1st level feat, my breath weapon only does 1d4 per level but it can still be used as a control spell too! :smallsmile: