[3.5] How do you play a Wizard?

[Gale]

I've never played a wizard before nor have any of my friends. The general consensus is usually that wizards are too confusing to bother with. Instead most players choose to play another magic class instead. I decided to do some research into how to play one by looking into a couple handbooks but I only ended up confusing myself. Honestly, part of the problem is I tend to be a perfectionist. If my character build ends up being suboptimal for any reason I become really irritated. I don't exactly understand what a wizard is supposed to do. I don't even fully understand why they are often considered the best class in the game. I'm used to having little to no magic at my disposal which doesn't help much.

I would like to add that I'm partially making this character in the event my current one dies. My peers are notably stronger than me in many ways. I'm not complaining, I still have a purpose, but still if I died I would love a little power boost or at least something new.

Bottom line: Can someone explain to me how to play a Wizard?

[Zytil]

Bottom line: Can someone explain to me how to play a Wizard?

Alter reality at will, generate infinite everything, refer to Emperor Tippy for more information?

[HammeredWharf]

You pick a niche and optimize for it while trying to prevent your character from sucking at other niches.

Wizard is a very versatile class. It can be a summoner, a nuker, a battlefield controller, a scout, a social character, a melee combatant, etc. How you play depends largely on the role you chose. Here (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?PHPSESSID=r4go0a4jr6bjb59o9pr5bn6gk3&topic=394.0)'s an excellent guide for general wizardry.

[busterswd]

The reason you don't like wizards is the reason they're broken: extreme versatility and basically unlimited (powerful) options. There's literally a spell for just about everything. There's also a variety of ways to shore up your weaknesses earlier on with the right builds, metamagic feats, and features. And a healthy amount of metagaming: the more you know about 3.5 in advance, the stronger you become in game.

Early, low level priorities are making the most of your limited spell slots; you want things that will either end fights quickly, or be useful in just about any situation (Alter Self is a particularly broken level 2 spell that's good in just about any fight AND nice out of combat). As you get more spells per day (usually by the time you hit level 5 or so) you've got enough tricks to make sure you're safe for the most part as well as contributing to the party.

An optimally played, high level wizard requires extreme foresight, intimate knowledge of the class, and the willingness to say "Well, a bolt of lightning (or worse, another wizard) might hit me, so I'll plan for any such contingency like that a few years in advance by persisting spells that last entire days on my expendable clone that I can essentially create at will while hiding the entire time in my well stocked, variable time pocket dimension fortress." If you don't want to be a paranoid chessmaster, pick spells that help you control the battlefield and let your allies shine, without neglecting your personal defenses.

[Troacctid]

How do you play a Wizard? Very carefully. They're one of the most difficult classes to play, but also one of the most powerful if you know what you're doing. What level are you starting at? It gets a lot easier as you level up, just because of how overwhelmingly they scale.

Some general tips: the best spells are ones that work reliably without allowing a save or spell resistance. So orb of fire and friends are great damaging spells, solid fog can shut down a group of enemies, polymorph lets you transform into an ass-kicking machine no matter how high their save bonuses are, mobility spells like dimension door and overland flight can be game-breaking if the DM isn't ready for them, and many utility spells just do their thing without any rolls involved at all. (Incidentally, it's not a coincidence that these are all 4th level spells. 7th level is a big power spike for Wizards; it's where they really start to outpace nonmagical characters in an obvious way.)


Honestly, part of the problem is I tend to be a perfectionist. If my character build ends up being suboptimal for any reason I become really irritated.

You'll probably enjoy the Wizard ability to learn new spells, then. It lets you tweak your loadout on a daily basis, so you can tune it to perfection as you gain more practical experience with the spells. The Collegiate Wizard feat from Complete Arcane might also interest you--it gives you lots of additional spells known to facilitate this.

[Afgncaap5]

I'd suggest working on your character first. If you already know that you're going to be working for optimization, try to figure out what kinds of magic you specialize in (and I mean that more from a story perspective than a mechanical perspective.) Basically, where sorcerers have magic because of their in-born mutant powers, wizards have magic because they've studied arcane secrets and performed (often unnatural) experiments and rituals to figure out exactly how the universe ticks.

The good news is that you don't have to worry too much about getting it "right" the first time. If you pick some good versatile spells for yourself (and your team, probably) then you should be okay. If there's a spell that you wished you'd picked, it's just a matter of some money and time spent either researching or buying a new spell and adding it to your spell book (or when that's full, buying or making a new spell book.)

[Karl Aegis]

Wizards do whatever role(s) they want to do, often better than classes than specialize in that role. Normally I would set up a shop in the general area of a bunch of creche-forges and get visited by almost unlimited Inevitables telling me I screwed up some way or another at something.

[True believer]

As mentioned before the first thing you must do is to choose what type of wizard do you wanna be. Because is your first time as a wizard i suggest focus on battlefield-control. It Is something that every party needs, relatively easy to do and a large amount of spells are available for this.

Enjoy :D

[jjcrpntr]

I like to build a wizard that is utility based. Battle field control buffs /debuffs. Keeps me useful on any situation.

Although I know it's not the most powerful way to play I've also found just straight blasting can be fun.

[endur]

You watch Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

Then you watch Harry Potter.

You are ready to play a wizard.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Batman (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?104002-3-5e-The-Logic-Ninja-s-Guide-to-Wizards-Being-Batman) is pretty good, but God (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=394.0) generally gets better results. Both are very similar in their methods, in that you act as a force multiplier. The presence of your character makes your party capable of overcoming challenges that would otherwise be well beyond their capabilities if your character wasn't present. That's how you play a Wizard, you prevent the opponents from posing a threat to your party using crowd controls and debuffs that affect multiple targets, and you buff your allies to be significantly more capable than they otherwise would have been.

[DMVerdandi]

Fluff wise, I would play a wizard as a scientist. IMO it is the resident sci-fi class in the PHB. While you can go classic fantasy and have your wizard as master of the arcane, and all these fluffy titles, I prefer to think of them as academic specialists using their macroinstructions (spells) to metaphysics.

Crunch wise?

1. Pick a role.
Everyone said this already, and it can't be said enough. By picking a role, and possibly a school specialization, it limits your power and focuses it, which is necessary, because again as everyone said, the wizard, and especially generalist wizard has too much and without experience in actually limiting yourself with a tier 1 class, you can end up breaking the game.


2. Explore the alternative class features.
The base wizard is pretty cool in itself, but it can be customized to your liking. In my opinion, ACF's like Spontaneous divination and Eidetic spell caster are must haves. MUST HAVES. Eidetic spell caster in particular. I deplore the spell book mechanic, and think it really hunkers down on the game. It temps bad GM's too heavily to take it away.

I mean, some people really do like the idea of Vancian casting, and having musty old books, but not I.
One of the first things I would do if I had magic would be to make sure I remembered it all. And then with those skyrocketing intelligence scores, you would think there was some mechanic to memorization but no. Pathfinder did better with spell memorization[feat]


3. Get a reserve feat
I think this is paramount. One of the things that has always been kind of weird about the wizard is the amount of paranoia they have to experience based on casting their spells. What spells do I need, what don't I, etc.
I think especially at low level, that the wizard needs something to keep it the wizard all day. Generally a minor little trick that just allows them to maintain their role, rather than running out of slots, and suddenly becoming a commoner with a crossbow.

Usually I recommend one of the direct damage ones. This way, you can still blast if none of your utility or specialized spells have an application. You can ALWAYS just do more damage in battle. Fiery blast is probably my favorite.

4.Don't be afraid to prestige
Wizard is one of those classes that is prestige friendly. Generally you can initially get into a ten level prestige class by level 5. While this will require very elementary planning, it is necessary. Generally good wizard prestige classes are things like Geometer, war weaver, and other prestige classes that continue to increase spell casting of the base class

5. Have a main list of spells.
This should be your go to spells. If you have a reserve feat, you don't really need to prepare many other damage spells. Maybe one or two just in case. This is where you fill up the rest with spells from your school or two of choice.

Secondly, leave maybe one slot per spell level unprepared. You can take 15 minutes to fill it up with any spell of that level or lower that you know. Do this, and when things go weird, you have an emergency back up just in case you need a spell that you didn't prepare (while out of combat)

6. Don't spend your money like a muggle
Don't worry about armor, don't worry about weapons, don't worry about trinkydinks. You have spells for a lot of that. And that sir is what you need to focus on when spending your money. Buy scrolls for you to memorize new spells from. Now, what is important is buying various stat boosting equipment. Anything to boost Int,Con,Dex,AC are important items. Also making your own wondrous items is a great idea.
Secondly, Money should be spent on items to increase the amount of casting you have. Wands are okay, But I think Eternal wands are better. Rings of wizardry, Metamagic Rods. Those things are good.
Staves are kind of a waste of money.


Also, you can sell items you create for a premium
You can sell your spell casting services on a spell by spell basis. Don't EVER think that you have nothing of value as a wizard. You have your spells and you have your knowledge, and you can profit from the use of such while in towns and such.

[Grek]

These are the spells that remove enemies from fights. Learn at least one each spell level and prepare at least three every day.

Level 1:
Colour Spray
Grease
Silent Image
SleepLevel 2:
Blindness
Ghoul Touch
Glitterdust
WebLevel 3:
Deep Slumber
Major Image
Stinking Cloud
Hold PersonLevel 4:
Charm Monster
Evard's Black Tentacles
Fear
Solid Fog
Phantasmal KillerLevel 5:
Dominate Person
Hold Monster
Fall of Force
Persistent Image
Magic Jar
Baleful PolymorphLevel 6:
Acid Fog
Eyebite
Flesh to Stone
Programmed Image
DisintegrateLevel 7:
Plane Shift
Insanity
Forcecage
Prismatic Spray
Finger of DeathLevel 8:
Mass Charm
Maze
Otto's Irresistible Dance
Scintillating Pattern
Power Word Stun
Polymorph Any Object
Trap the SoulLevel 9:
Imprisonment
Dominate Monster
Weird
Temporal Stasis
Shapechange
Wail of the Banshee
Weird

The rest of your spells known and spells per day should be devoted to whatever buffs and utility effects strike your fancy. If you expect to need a spell infrequently but will want access to it quickly when you do end up needing it (good examples include See Invisibility and Dispel Magic) use your Scribe Scroll feat you get for free at first level to make a scroll of it. For effects that you need unexpectedly, but only ever outside of combat (good examples include Comprehend Languages and Knock), leave a spell slot open (just don't prepare anything in it) and use the "15 minutes to prepare one spell" rule to pull exactly the right spell for the job out of your spellbook.

[oxybe]

Think outside the box.

Heck, think as though there never was a box to begin with.

The versatility of spellcasters cannot be stated enough. While something like burning hands or shocking grasp are very obvious in their uses, you can often find alternative uses for "gout of flame" and "stun gun punch". The problem with some of these damage spells is that they sound awesome, but without some min-maxing, they're basically like hitting everyone with a sub-standard sword.

You want stuff like sleep, grease and color spray that can take out enemies for several turns. Not that the previous spells are 100% horrible, because sometimes you just want to melt a guy's face off, but the contribution of that one spell usually is very insignificant when compared to the 3 I mentioned. Why? Because they can turn a 5v5 into 5v3 for a round or two, taking an enemy or two out for a few rounds allows for everyone to focus their attention on those three guys without taking hits from the two you temporarily put away. And once the three are dead, you can focus on the other two.

Again, if you have the opportunity to permanently take someone out, do so, but you'll likely get more mileage by temporarily removing several dudes at the start of a fight, or in the middle of one to give your party a breather.

Alternatively you can give a party member a buff. Haste alone is giving everyone an extra attack for a good time period, which can rack up far more damage then using that slot for fireball.

The real kickers, though, are the things with more open-ended effects. Silent image is one of those spells that you can go "Hey, this spell lets me make a not-dragon appear to scare my enemies" however you can also use it to go "Hey, I can use this spell to make this 10ft cube I'm standing in look exactly like it does not, except I'm not present" or "I'm going to create the illusion of a thick fog cloud, blocking enemy line of sight". Stuff like Alter Self (the entire polymorph line, really) is equally fantastic: beyond the combat buffs you can get, the ability to turn a corner and 6 seconds later go from looking like a young female elf into an old male half-orc is incredible. Speaking of polymorph, your GM might hate you, but it's good if you familiarize yourself with a few Monster Manual entries of various forms, like some made for travel, pure combat offensive, combat but allows for casting, etc...

Another thing is that wizards, especially in the later game, can summon their own fighters. Sure they're not individually as good as the party fighter, but you get a good variety of specialized options, like giant crocodiles that grab with their jaws and start going into a death spiral or dinosaurs that act like living battering rams. Early summons are meh, but mid-late game ones are actually pretty impressive.

This is how a wizard thinks. Now, this is general purpose wizard stuff. If you want more specialized information on different builds, those exist, but it's a bit more in-depth then I'm willing to go into.

[RoboEmperor]

People have these weird labels for wizards, but essential they are just support.

They are the disablers, not the damage dealers.
They are the buffers, not the killers.

So just pick spells that disable or buff a guy and you're set. Pick long duration spells or save your spells for the hard fights. Early game you're just gonna be shooting crossbows or doing nothing and letting your party take care of everything 90% of the time.

Later in the game though, you get spells that lets you solo the game. There are spells that let you do other party member's jobs much better and therefore obsolete. The planar binding line of spells grant you infinite expendable creatures that last days/caster level that are in fact much stronger than any PC tank or damage dealer.

[Karl Aegis]

People have these weird labels for wizards, but essential they are just support.

They are the disablers, not the damage dealers.
They are the buffers, not the killers.

So just pick spells that disable or buff a guy and you're set. Pick long duration spells or save your spells for the hard fights. Early game you're just gonna be shooting crossbows or doing nothing and letting your party take care of everything 90% of the time.

Later in the game though, you get spells that lets you solo the game. There are spells that let you do other party member's jobs much better and therefore obsolete. The planar binding line of spells grant you infinite expendable creatures that last days/caster level that are in fact much stronger than any PC tank or damage dealer.

Wizards can be the damage dealers and the killers. The "Dead" condition is one of the best ways to control the battlefield, after all. Most wizards who play well with others would rather have mere mortals do their dirty work and have a metamagiced wand handy for when they need to kill 30+ dudes in one action.

[JDL]

The majority of the work involved in running a Wizard comes from preparation.

Others have summarized the good points above and I'll refrain from repeating them. Instead, focus on building your team into a cohesive unit, and make sure you know how to best utilize your strengths. For example, in my latest game (Pathfinder, but still relevant) I am starting with a level 2 Wizard in a party that contains a Monk, a Cleric and a Rogue.

This tells me a few things. I make sure to prepare a second Mage Armor each day to cast on the Monk, I carry a Silent Image to "cover the area of the enemy in an inky cloud of impenetrable darkness that constantly remains one foot away from the enemy" to disallow them to interact with it and get a save. This obscures vision and grants my Rogue sneak attack. I give my Cleric Enlarge Person so he can not only smack things with his mace but also reach allies in a far greater radius if they're in need of a quick cure light wounds.

That's all four of my daily spells done and accounted for, and not one actually does any damage to the enemy. But then, it doesn't need to. I've just made my entire party far more effective and neutralized the enemy quite severely at the same time. Prior to combat I cast Mage Armor on myself and my Monk, Enlarge Person on my Cleric, then in combat I cast silent image and use my standard action to maintain it for as long as it's useful. Because I enjoy minmaxing too, I choose to spend my move action on untrained Handle Animal checks to direct my war trained mount to attack as well.

Know your party and how best you can help them and make them more effective. Not only will you improve your party efficiency, you'll also make friends faster and bring them onto your side to protect you if you need it.

[P.F.]

Honestly, part of the problem is I tend to be a perfectionist. If my character build ends up being suboptimal for any reason I become really irritated. I don't exactly understand what a wizard is supposed to do. I don't even fully understand why they are often considered the best class in the game.

The "optimal wizard" varies a lot form table to table.

In some circles, Illusion and Divination are two of the most powerful schools of magic in the game. In others (like the folks I play with) it's like pulling teeth to explain why my illusion should have any effect on anyone, scrying is nearly impossible, and trying to predict the future is an exercise in futility.

Some DM's lean heavily on the "one big bad monster" encounters: these monsters will make every fortitude save and render spells with Hit Die limits useless. Other DM's will use a group of monsters to tear you up with wolf pack tactics; single target spells are less useful in these encounters, but even non-scaling multi-target spells like color spray can be devastating.

As you noted, even going through a guide and trying to pick from the recommended spells can be daunting. The good news is that you keep learning new spells and aren't limited by a maximum number of spells known.

Finally, wizards tend to be high-value targets and have low hit points, lousy AC, and poor Fortitude/Reflex saves, so if you get irritated with your character, it shouldn't be too hard to get yourself killed. If you want to live, however, there are a variety of defensive/protective/keep-out-of-the-line-of-fire spells you can cast to ensure your tenure among the living.

[Huldaerus]

Batman (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?104002-3-5e-The-Logic-Ninja-s-Guide-to-Wizards-Being-Batman) is pretty good, but God (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=394.0) generally gets better results.

Would you care to elaborate? I found them quite similar.

-Huldaerus

[Kurald Galain]

Would you care to elaborate? I found them quite similar.

Basically, a Batman wizard is a team player who makes his party look awesome by buffing them and locking down the enemies, whereas a God wizard is a solo player who ignores his party members and does everything all by himself.

[HammeredWharf]

Basically, a Batman wizard is a team player who makes his party look awesome by buffing them and locking down the enemies, whereas a God wizard is a solo player who ignores his party members and does everything all by himself.

You're right about the Batman, but according to Treantmonk himself, this is what a God wizard is:

"This is the role this thread is based upon. Three kinds of wizards alter reality so that the Glass Cannon and the Big Stupid Fighter think they are better than they are. Those three wizards are Battlefield Controllers, Buffers, and Debuffers. Your best bet is to do a bit of all of them - but you can make wizards exclusive to each role as well without sucking."

So, they're pretty much the same thing.

[Coidzor]

To play a Wizard, one must first think like a Wizard, and that means research.

Unfortunately the research is definitely not something everyone is suited for, though the various guides and handbooks do provide some useful cliffnotes.

[Kurald Galain]

You're right about the Batman, but according to Treantmonk himself, this is what a God wizard is:

That's one line, though. The rest of his handbook is spent belittling and insulting every other character class. It's handbooks like that that give the wizard class a bad name.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Would you care to elaborate? I found them quite similar.

The biggest difference IMO is your mindset when playing. Batman is more teamwork focused, whereas God is more about being capable of doing everything himself when necessary, but not step on anyone's toes. Besides that, the God guide is far more developed than the Batman guide and generally has better advice.

[Vortenger]

That's one line, though. The rest of his handbook is spent belittling and insulting every other character class. It's handbooks like that that give the wizard class a bad name.

You don't like the scathing wit, eh? Ah well, some of us appreciate what the author was going for. It made the read much more amusing.

I find the given definitions a bit strange, and maybe even a bit backwards. A Batman wizard has his 'utility belt' of spells and tries to have an answer for any given situation. A God wizard focuses on altering reality in his party's favor without getting dirty himself (I'm especially fond of the three-peated passage about making the mortals feel as if they'd done all the work). Based on the previous, one could infer it is the batman who could take on any situation solo, while the god is entirely a team player. Another major difference is that TheLogicNinja advocated for taking Craft Wondrous Item as a feat, where TreantMonk swore off anything with an XP cost. Again that points to the batman creating the tools to handle anything himself, while the god wizard has to go shopping for any particular toy they're after, making them much less self-reliant. Both work as force multipliers, though, and there's a lot of similarity between suggested spell lists as well, so the difference is relatively minor.

[Kurald Galain]

You don't like the scathing wit, eh?

Belittling other classes is neither scathing nor witty.

[Greenish]

That's one line, though. The rest of his handbook is spent belittling and insulting every other character class. It's handbooks like that that give the wizard class a bad name.The tone is mostly to make you feel better playing a character completely devoted to supporting the other characters.

Main difference between God and Batman is that God tends to go with more generic spells (usually party boosts), while Batman uses divinations to have the exactly right spells for solving whatever encounter they foresee. God wizard is named for the greek etc. gods that'd use mortals as their agents, changing the conditions to make their champions come up top. Batman is named for having Bat Shark-repellant when they encounter sharks.

[Coidzor]

Belittling other classes is neither scathing nor witty.

So the humor is lost on you. Regrettable, but sadly something that's going to happen, seeing as how this is the internet and we're mostly dealing with humans here.

The content is still hinged upon enabling other classes to do their jobs and win fights rather than winning fights without any input from one's allies, regardless of how acerbic you find it.

GOD divides their foe's forces in twain so that the big stupid fighter and rogue can work together to turn them into mincemeat while the Cleric's summoning abilities keep those enemies not being offed by the BSF and glass cannon occupied until it's their turn to get ganked and then they all go together against the second half of the enemy's forces at the cost of one or two spells per caster, but in a way that lets the BSF and glass cannon feel like they were an integral component of the battle plan.