Yer a wizard Harry!

[thethird]

So long story short, me and some friends decided to start a d&d game and apparently everyone wanted to be some kind of melee focused character, but the DM wanted an arcanist in the group so it has come to me to be the wizard of the party.

Normally when I play a wizard I try to focus on battlefield control and some buffing. And this is what I would like to do. The problems are, the party is more likely to engage at melee really fast and as such emmanations might be a problem (I don't want to hit all of them). I also don't really want to outdo them, I don't want to be an angel summoner :P

I would like some good spell ideas, for example haste would be really useful as it can be used to buff everyone at once, or benign transposition is fun because I can use it to get them in melee and get myself out of it at the same time.

[Flickerdart]

You're probably going to want to steer in the direction of War Weaver. Being able to turn single-target buffs into multi-target buffs is going to be awesome for an all melee party, and makes some spells (like the +4 stat spells) actually worth preparing.

[JeminiZero]

Even with a party of Leroy Jenkins, there are still plenty of options for a wizard.

Buffs are obviously good:
1-Benign Transposition [SpC]
1-Enlarge Person
1-Nerveskitter [SpC]
2-Bull strength
2-Elation [BoED]
3-Haste
3-Greater Might Wallop [RoD]
3-Dimension Step [PHB2]
4-Greater Invisibility
4-Battle Hymn [SpC]
4-Mass Resist Energy [SpC] (If there is a cleric/druid, have him cast this since it is Cleric/Druid 3)
6-Greater Heroism
6-Brilliant Blade [SpC]
7-Brilliant Aura [SpC]
8-Superior Invisibility [SpC]

Special Mention: Kuo-Toa Skin [Storm] lasts hours per level and provides immunity to web ensnarement. This *might* mean that you can cast it your whole party, and then drop webs on the battelfield. However, while they won't be entangled, they might still need to make strength checks to move through the web. Check with your DM.

Self-defence spells are good:
1-Karmic Aura [CM]
2-See Invisibility
3-Anticipate Teleport [SpC]
3-Karmic Backlash [SpC]
3-Heart of Water [CM]
4-Heart of Earth [CM]
4-Greater Mirror Image [PHB2]
5-Greater Blink [SpC]
6-Karmic Retribution [CM]
6-Superior Resistance [SpC]
6-Greater Anticipate Teleport [SpC]
6-True Seeing
7-Greater Arcane Sight
7-Elemental Body [SpC]

Don't Forget Utility
2-Rope Trick
3-Fly
3-Dispel Magic
5-Mass Fly [SpC]
5-Teleport
6-Greater Dispel Magic
7-Greater Teleport
8-Chain Dispel [PHB2]

Debuff Spells that hit only one enemy. (Note that some of these go well with Chain spell, letting you hit multiple enemies at once, especially those that have no save, or still have some effect on a sucessful save):
1-Ray of Enfeeblement
1-Ray of Clumsiness [SpC]
2-Stolen Breath (no save, Chainable)
2-Baleful Transposition [SpC]
2-Curse of Impending Blade [SpC] (Technically Chainable, but the mass version is just 1 level higher)
3-Unluck [SpC]
3-Suggestion
3-Phantasmal Stranger [CM]
4-Burning Blood [SpC]
4-Shadow Well [SpC]
4-Enervation
4-Resilient Sphere
5-Hold Monster
5-Baleful Polymorph
5-Viscid Glob [SpC]
6-Fleshshiver [SpC] (no save, Chainable)
7-Stun Ray [SpC]
7-Glass Strike [SpC]

Debuff Spells that can hit multiple enemies while ignoring allies:
3-Slow
3-Mass Curse of Impending Blades [SpC]
3-Grasping Wall [CSc]
3-Legion of Sentinels [PHB2]
3-Melf's Unicorn Arrows [PHB2]
4-Wall of Good [SpC] (That is, assuming your party is good or neutral)
5-Dimension Shuiffle [PHB2]
5-Refusal [SpC]
6-Mass Suggestion
6-Freezing Glance [Frost]

Special Mention: Fell Drain metamagic. Apply it to any damaging spell that only hits multiple enemies like Magic Missile.

Additionally, take Sculpt Spell. Being able to turn an area spell into 10 foot cubes will greatly reduce friendly fire (so long as nobody has started flanking). Some spells this should work well with:
1-Color Spray
2-Glitterdust
4-Confusion

[BWR]

How about a Bard, if you wanted to be melee too?
You have some spells, can do the talky stuff, lots of skills, plenty of buffs like Inspire Courage and can melee a bit.

[Uhtred]

Have you looked at Metamagic feats? I'm pretty sure that the Sculpt Spell Metamagic feat allows you to pick and choose your targets in an area effect spell like Fireball.

[RolandDeschain]

You're probably going to want to steer in the direction of War Weaver. Being able to turn single-target buffs into multi-target buffs is going to be awesome for an all melee party, and makes some spells (like the +4 stat spells) actually worth preparing.

I'll second this. You could even take the Spell Focus - Transmutation, and Ability Enhancer feats for a little extra 'juice' for the party.

[Vaz]

Spellguard of Silverymoon works as well for a Persistomancer (Incantatrix 3 here).

Some interesting RP requisites there.

[ericgrau]

You can still do battlefield control among melee with wall spells, plus area spells cast in round 1. Wall of ice and wall of force. Resilient sphere is really handy too. Wall of stone is a bit destructible and small while wall of iron doesn't give much advantage over the lower level walls. So you really need evocation. Precise shot and empowered ray of enfeeblement are great for taking out foes without hitting an ally too. Likewise for enervation. So be careful about which guides you read and what you ban, especially in your case. For round 1 you can use the standard area BFC from conjuration or also one of the above spells.

Between those and buffs, that leaves enchantment, abjuration and illusion. Enchantment is the easy ban choice in that most people don't bother amassing an army of mindslaves and it's weak for anything else (but if you will go through the trouble of getting slaves, that's awesome and go for it). If the party has a cleric you can easily survive without abjuration. Losing illusion will be painful no matter what, but you can still manage just fine with your other 20 great spell choices. If you don't plan on images and don't have a party rogue to greater invisible, you can manage without it. And you don't have combat time to cast the defenses, especially when you need to cast haste.

For buffs haste is really nice, but besides haste your best buffs are the hour/level ones. Especially if you get them 24 hours. It may seem like a small bonus, but the fact that you can cast multiple without eating any rounds are what make them amazing. Similar to the reason why quicken is so good. Besides buffing allies it also covers your defense well since you usually don't have time in combat for anything besides haste. Likewise swift and immediate buffs like nerveskitter are equally good. For dungeon runs have some 10 min/level spells in your book to swap in instead of or on top of your usual buffs. Again you don't have time in the middle of a fight, cast at the entrance. They tend to be stronger to make up for their short duration, the drawback being that they're nearly useless for wilderness travel.

[thethird]

Thanks for the advice guys :D

Right now I'm going elven generalist I'm the only arcane caster in the party so I decided not to specialize. And I'm thinking of taking levels of urban savant because I feel that war weaver might be a tad too stong in the situation.

I'll look in to the spells, some of them were already on my radar, but some others weren't kuo-toa skin sounds like a nice consideration.