kkplx
2014-02-27, 10:18 PM
Welcome!
After playing my first ever Wizard character for about 1-1/2 months now I would greatly appreciate third party opinions on my build/spell selection/overall theme.
You can find the sheet here: Shelam, Necropolitan Wizard (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=753148). The theme I wanted was a scholar, diviner and scientist, with a slightly twisted focus on necromancy due to his backstory and his own undeath. He's checking every bookshelf he can get his hands on with detect magic and scholar's touch, and keeps scetches of monsters they encounter as well as a collection of left hands for his pet project, Crawling Claws in a portable hole. My main "thing" is uncanny forethought and Collegiate Wizard, which allows for a more flexible spell selection on the fly. I started at level 10 and just reached 12 last session.
Our party consists of a heavily optimized Cleric/Crusader/Ruby Knight Vindicator, a similarly optimized Swordsage, a (half-baked ubercharger) Despot with Wings, a Conjuration Focused Specialist Wizard (no abrupt jaunt & less book-savvy than me) and my own Wizard (Lots of research on spells done, but IC choices lower the overall power).
When the GM threw 2 epic-level Iron golems with Collossal Greatswords at us, we almost got killed but took one of them down to an estimated 10% hp, and we're generally fighting encounters of at least CR+2. Our GM has done an amazing job all game to keep us challenged, though his tendency to not roll openly (we play online on roll20) has upset players on occasion.
I've been mostly happy with how things turned out, despite the situation being rather sub-optimal (we've been stuck for 7+ sessions in a dwarven tomb, filled with anti-undead traps, constructs and undead...) for the typical Wizard. This meant that I could rarely use my selection of noncombat spells like tongues, read thoughts and divinations, and that the wizards haven't learned anything outside of levelup stuff for a while. I started to fill a little bit of a blaster position after we entered the tombs, with the conjurer providing BFC and summons. I've started to look into transmutation to buff our melees instead of blasting myself when I get access to new spells.
Some high and low points so far:
high
-Detect Thoughts in a Dwarven Outpost, asking them questions to read their thoughts, leting us better prepare for the tombs.
-The Crawling Claws obsession - I LOVE to have quirks on characters, gathering hands is perfect
-PF Feat progression means a lot more options.
-Disguise - aside from the despot nobody is aware of his undead nature...I accomplish that with a daily casting of Disguise undead, as well as a high disguise check and a hat of disguise.
-Animate Dead. Animated a Pyroclastic Dragon skeleton (Draconomicon) - with 2 heads (suggestion of the GM :D)! Pun-Pun the dragon has been a nice asset with his climb speed...unfortunately our Cleric hates it IC.
-When the GM threw a Slaughterstone construct at us a combination of Disintegrate and Acid orb blasted it for like 1/3rd of total hp, and extended manyjaws is fun as well if paired with
-Benign Transposition. Oh my god, saved the Despot at least 3 times from certain death now.
-The cleric hates/doesn't like undead and animating the dead - I like the interactions and for example keep my hands off dwarves/good creatures.
low
-Magic Jar. Used it in the Pyroclastic Dragon encounter. Everything was within 4HD of each other - literally no effect on the entire encounter, jsut lying on the ground.
-Spiritwall. Used it in the first encounter, GM simply ran the enemies through the wall after they made their save.
-No Dimension door initially - Ceiling collapsed, completely trapping me.
-Made a mistake and for 2 sessions used the swift concentration skilltrick like an idiot, keeping up concentration on a swift for rounds over rounds. It's my biggest shame :/
-Knowledge checks - the GM is giving out rather sporadic knowledge on checks, which makes the higher CR encounters and wondrous creatures frustrating to fight because of intel depravation.
-Even with Uncanny Forethought, I often felt like I was without options, especially when confronted with Magic immune enemies or specific anti-undead measures.
-Stonebreaker Acid. GM HATED the idea of us braking down a door or wall with it, so he straight up said it wasn't possible. At all.
-Anti-Undead traps. Fracking Searing Light EVERYWHERE. >_<.
-The cleric hates undead. I'm having trouble explaining the nonissue without it devolving into him claiming the point of "it detects evil, it's evil, must kill".
So, now that you have some background and my sheet, are there spells, roleplaying advice (especially for an undead PC), build ideas, general suggestions, criticism or even horrible mistakes like my skilltrick fiasco that you'd be willing to share with a fellow wizard? =)
edit: holy crap, that's a lot of text - I just wanted to give as much context as anyone might want, so feel free to not read all of it if you're only interested in specific aspects.
After playing my first ever Wizard character for about 1-1/2 months now I would greatly appreciate third party opinions on my build/spell selection/overall theme.
You can find the sheet here: Shelam, Necropolitan Wizard (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=753148). The theme I wanted was a scholar, diviner and scientist, with a slightly twisted focus on necromancy due to his backstory and his own undeath. He's checking every bookshelf he can get his hands on with detect magic and scholar's touch, and keeps scetches of monsters they encounter as well as a collection of left hands for his pet project, Crawling Claws in a portable hole. My main "thing" is uncanny forethought and Collegiate Wizard, which allows for a more flexible spell selection on the fly. I started at level 10 and just reached 12 last session.
Our party consists of a heavily optimized Cleric/Crusader/Ruby Knight Vindicator, a similarly optimized Swordsage, a (half-baked ubercharger) Despot with Wings, a Conjuration Focused Specialist Wizard (no abrupt jaunt & less book-savvy than me) and my own Wizard (Lots of research on spells done, but IC choices lower the overall power).
When the GM threw 2 epic-level Iron golems with Collossal Greatswords at us, we almost got killed but took one of them down to an estimated 10% hp, and we're generally fighting encounters of at least CR+2. Our GM has done an amazing job all game to keep us challenged, though his tendency to not roll openly (we play online on roll20) has upset players on occasion.
I've been mostly happy with how things turned out, despite the situation being rather sub-optimal (we've been stuck for 7+ sessions in a dwarven tomb, filled with anti-undead traps, constructs and undead...) for the typical Wizard. This meant that I could rarely use my selection of noncombat spells like tongues, read thoughts and divinations, and that the wizards haven't learned anything outside of levelup stuff for a while. I started to fill a little bit of a blaster position after we entered the tombs, with the conjurer providing BFC and summons. I've started to look into transmutation to buff our melees instead of blasting myself when I get access to new spells.
Some high and low points so far:
high
-Detect Thoughts in a Dwarven Outpost, asking them questions to read their thoughts, leting us better prepare for the tombs.
-The Crawling Claws obsession - I LOVE to have quirks on characters, gathering hands is perfect
-PF Feat progression means a lot more options.
-Disguise - aside from the despot nobody is aware of his undead nature...I accomplish that with a daily casting of Disguise undead, as well as a high disguise check and a hat of disguise.
-Animate Dead. Animated a Pyroclastic Dragon skeleton (Draconomicon) - with 2 heads (suggestion of the GM :D)! Pun-Pun the dragon has been a nice asset with his climb speed...unfortunately our Cleric hates it IC.
-When the GM threw a Slaughterstone construct at us a combination of Disintegrate and Acid orb blasted it for like 1/3rd of total hp, and extended manyjaws is fun as well if paired with
-Benign Transposition. Oh my god, saved the Despot at least 3 times from certain death now.
-The cleric hates/doesn't like undead and animating the dead - I like the interactions and for example keep my hands off dwarves/good creatures.
low
-Magic Jar. Used it in the Pyroclastic Dragon encounter. Everything was within 4HD of each other - literally no effect on the entire encounter, jsut lying on the ground.
-Spiritwall. Used it in the first encounter, GM simply ran the enemies through the wall after they made their save.
-No Dimension door initially - Ceiling collapsed, completely trapping me.
-Made a mistake and for 2 sessions used the swift concentration skilltrick like an idiot, keeping up concentration on a swift for rounds over rounds. It's my biggest shame :/
-Knowledge checks - the GM is giving out rather sporadic knowledge on checks, which makes the higher CR encounters and wondrous creatures frustrating to fight because of intel depravation.
-Even with Uncanny Forethought, I often felt like I was without options, especially when confronted with Magic immune enemies or specific anti-undead measures.
-Stonebreaker Acid. GM HATED the idea of us braking down a door or wall with it, so he straight up said it wasn't possible. At all.
-Anti-Undead traps. Fracking Searing Light EVERYWHERE. >_<.
-The cleric hates undead. I'm having trouble explaining the nonissue without it devolving into him claiming the point of "it detects evil, it's evil, must kill".
So, now that you have some background and my sheet, are there spells, roleplaying advice (especially for an undead PC), build ideas, general suggestions, criticism or even horrible mistakes like my skilltrick fiasco that you'd be willing to share with a fellow wizard? =)
edit: holy crap, that's a lot of text - I just wanted to give as much context as anyone might want, so feel free to not read all of it if you're only interested in specific aspects.