Making a Combat Wizard and advancement tricks.

[D4rkh0rus]

Hi GitP, How would I go about making a wizard focused on damage?

What Do I mean by this? A wizard that retains all its utility casting, but contributes with damage to the combat.

Yes, I know God wizards are usually better since they can control the field, but, I want to deal damages while still being able to cast the utility spells like fly, teleport, planeshift, genesis, wish and so on... I might add that the campaign does not have magic marts, as a matter of fact, scrolls/wands are incredibly scarce and magical items are revered as artifacts. (think of it as a crafter's apocalypse). and to a certain extent, magic is outlawed, so being able to fight in a non-magical way helps out.

Is there anything that fills this criteria, preferably a ranged build. but melee works.




On another note, what are the main advancement tricks for arcane casters?

For example, I am aware of the spontaneous divination wizard + ultimate magus double wizard advancement, are there any others?


Thank you guys in advance :P

[Emperor Tippy]

Incantatrix makes it easy. Loosing Enchantment or Necromancy kinda sucks but it makes for a very solid blaster wizard that still has virtually all of the utility of a more standard wizard.

[D4rkh0rus]

Incantatrix makes it easy. Loosing Enchantment or Necromancy kinda sucks but it makes for a very solid blaster wizard that still has virtually all of the utility of a more standard wizard.

how does incantatrix make a blaster wizard, the only thing i noticed might help was the Metamagic reduction, is that all thats necessary? or is there some hidden trick im not seeing?

[Kelb_Panthera]

No, you got it. The trick to mastering the damage wizard is learning to stack metamagics until your spells that go "pop" go "BOOOM" instead.

Try googling the Mailman build.

[Extra Anchovies]

No, you got it. The trick to mastering the damage wizard is learning to stack metamagics until your spells that go "pop" go "BOOOM" instead.

Try googling the Mailman build.

The Mailman would indeed be very helpful. It's a sorcerer build, but lots of the stuff there is good for blasting in general. Because who doesn't want a Twinned Maximized Disintegrate?

[AnonymousPepper]

No, you got it. The trick to mastering the damage wizard is learning to stack metamagics until your spells that go "pop" go "BOOOM" instead.

Try googling the Mailman build.

For a bit of explanation: the Mailman is a kobold sorcerer that uses Practical Metamagic and Incantatrix to make blasting a very viable option for dealing large amounts of damage, and then kicks it up to 11 once it hits fifth, seventh, and eighth level spells - 5th gives it Arcane Fusion, allowing it to make True Strike work within the action economy and therefore do consistent, major damage with the Orb of X spells plus True Strike, then at 7ths, Arcane Spellsurge allows two such spells to go off *per round,* then at 8ths, Greater Arcane Fusion lets you do even more crazy shenanigans with casting two spells at once (twice per round).

Three main disadvantages here: one, without blowing a feat on arcane thesis, you can't get metamagic costs on a spell down to zero; two, you're a sorc base, so you lose out on utility casting unless you have both Dragon Mag and a good amount of money available (Knowstones, specifically); and three, the sheer action economy abuse is likely to get books thrown at you. However, for raw damage dealing, nothing in the game - infinite loop shenanigans like Pun-Pun excepted - can nova harder than the Mailman (edit: with the possible exception of a certain bit of Dominant Ideal Ardent abuse, anyway).

As an alternative that relies less on breaking the action economy, and is based off a wizard chassis instead, the Nuker build uses a Wizard and Warmage base to advance Ultimate Magus, using proper feat selection plus Warmage's plentiful spell slots to power metamagic and thus metamagic even harder than the Mailman, while still retaining the utility casting of wizards. Also, since it doesn't rely on not so much breaking as completely shattering the action economy into tiny tiny pieces, the Nuker is a lot less likely to get books thrown at you by the DM (and in particular you get to not have the Draconomicon, Races of the Dragon, and Dragon Magic thrown at you!). T

he downside, however, as compared to the Mailman, is that Wizards don't have access to several of the spells that the Mailman has access to - namely, the Wizard list lacks Arcane Spellsurge and the two Arcane Fusion spells, which are absolutely the core of the Mailman. Also, the Nuker, like most other wizards, is usually an elf, meaning you can't grab the Practical Metamagic feat line; this can be circumvented by being a silverbrow human, but you will generally want the INT bonus.


Either way, you'll note that the key here is metamagic cost reduction in one way or the other. It makes spells hit above their weight in damage and thus makes many spells that wouldn't otherwise be worth it *totally* worth it. Nothing beats a Twinimaxipowered Disintegrate (if the Mailman, preceded by an Avasculate!) when you just want to tell the BBEG where he can put his Bond Villain Monologue.

[D4rkh0rus]

For a bit of explanation: the Mailman is a kobold sorcerer that uses Practical Metamagic and Incantatrix to make blasting a very viable option for dealing large amounts of damage...


Thanks for the detailed explanation :P

IS there any way for a sorcerer to key off intellect? or only cha for them?

[AnonymousPepper]

Thanks for the detailed explanation :P

IS there any way for a sorcerer to key off intellect? or only cha for them?

Not any rock-solid, firmly rules-legal, entirely WotC-official (i.e. no Dragon Mag, etc.) way that I know of.

If you want my take - if you want INT-based direct damage, play the Nuker. If there was a way to make the Mailman work off INT, it'd probably use up a lot of your DM capital in and of itself, and frankly the Mailman requires a lot of DM capitial just to exist. The Nuker's equally as capable; less burst but better sustain, and has utility casting.

Link if you wanna have a look at it (http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3451291)

[Kelb_Panthera]

Mind you, I highlighted The Mailman as an exemplar and extreme example of a damage dealing mage. Obviously the old dwk cheese is probably better left in the fridge than brought to the table.

[AnonymousPepper]

Mind you, I highlighted The Mailman as an exemplar and extreme example of a damage dealing mage. Obviously the old dwk cheese is probably better left in the fridge than brought to the table.

Actually, I'm playing him right now.

And I took it to the next level by pulling the "true dragon" card and adding in Loredrake on top of the Greater Draconic Rite. >_>