Wizard build for 3.5 game

[Victoria6990]

Hi,

I want to make a really powerful wizard for 3.5 with the following constraints:

1. All official 3.5 source books are allowed
2. 2 flaws and 2 traits
3. Starting level and gold: There is a choice here, essentially a trade-off for wealth and experience:

- level 8, 400 gp
- level 7, 4,000 gp
- level 6, 20,000 gp

4. LA+1 templates/races are allowed
5. My ability score rolls: 17, 15, 14, 14, 13, 11

The character should not be heavily support focused, since the GM is clear in indicating that there won't always be a party for the character(s) during adventures. Therefore, the character should be able to hold her own when required.

Side info:

I did search for various existing threads (came across Incantatrix/War Weaver) but I am even more confused about what to do after looking at them since there seems to be a lot of contradictory opinions going about.

Thanks for all the help.

Edit: I noticed that a general question for such threads is "how powerful do you really want to be", the answer would be as powerful as possible, barring stuff like "infinite wish cycles" that are blatantly trying to break the game.

[Dread_Head]

Wizard 5 / Incantatrix 3 and take the lower wealth. Go Grey Elf for race, distribute ability scores (before racial adjustments) Str 11, Dex 14, Con 15, Int 17, Wis 14, Cha 13 and put the level up points in int. Use the elven substitution level at 1st (and possibly the others if you want them) and the domain wizard ACF. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#wizardVariantDomainWiz ard)

Take the following feats: 1. Extend Spell, Flaw. Iron Will, Flaw. Collegiate Wizard, 3. Spell Mastery, W5. Persistent Spell and 6. Uncanny Forethought. Take traits that boost knowledges and spellcraft (if one exists). Flaws should be chosen out of murky eyed, frail, vulnerable, noncombatant.

Basically what you can do is choose some nice looking buff spells (a good start is polymorph). Cast them in the morning then use metamagic effect from Incantatrix along with persistent spell to make them last all day. Uncanny forethought lets you cast any spell you have in your spellbook as a fullround action and you should have plenty of spells between elven generalist, domain wizard and collegiate wizard even with reduced wealth.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Any good alignment, this is absolutely necessary.

8th level, 400 gp. Say you visited the Otyugh Hole in CS to get Iron Will without spending a feat on it.

Middle-age Gray Elf (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/elf.htm#grayElf), which including two points from levels puts you at Str 10, Dex 15, Con 12, Int 22, Wis 15, Cha 12.

Wizard will be specialized in Conjuration, with Evocation and Enchantment prohibited. Trade your familiar for Abrupt Jaunt in PH2, which can automatically avoid an attack if it puts you out of reach/line of effect, and there's no take-backs on what the attacker was doing that turn. Use this variant (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#wizard) to get Improved Initiative instead of Scribe Scroll, and trade your Wizard 5 bonus feat for the domain power ACF in CC for the Magic domain to still use wands, scrolls, and staffs of spells from your prohibited school.

Start out Wizard 5/ Incantatrix 3, gaining Necromancy as another prohibited school. Use Cooperative Metamagic and Metamagic Effect to add Persistent Spell and other metamagic feats to your buffs. Cooperative Metamagic can be used on your own spells outside of combat because the action economy system only exists during initiative.

Your flaws should be Noncombatant and Love of Nature (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?258440-The-quot-Best-quot-Flaws#30), your traits should be Passionate and Slow.

Feats: Improved Initiative (Wizard 1), Iron Will (OH), Extend Spell (Flaw), Skill Focus: Spellcraft (Flaw), Sculpt Spell or Fell Drain or Fell Frighten Spell (1), Ancestral Relic (3), Persistent Spell (Incantatrix 1), Item Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/itemFamiliars.htm) (6).

Put max ranks in Concentration, Craft: Boyer, Knowledge: Arcana, and Spellcraft.

You crafted an Elvencraft Composite Longbow, which counts as a quarterstaff as well as a composite longbow for 300 gp extra. You made the bow portion and one end of the staff portion masterwork for 600 gp extra. A composite longbow is 100 gp, which makes the total base price of this item 1,000 gp, which you paid 333.33 gp in raw materials to craft, taking ten on all the checks. This is both your Ancestral Relic and your Item Familiar, which is generally a terrible idea but in this case it's necessary. Select Wall of Salt from Sandstorm as a spell known, which instantaneously creates a permanent, nonmagical volume of salt (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/wealthAndMoney.htm#wealthOtherThanCoins), which you then sacrificed into your Ancestral Relic to upgrade it in various ways up to its maximum magical value for absolutely free. You can continue sacrificing valuable materials into the relic even after it's reached its max magical value, which is conserved for later use.

You can make the staff portion of your relic into a Staff of Wish that uses all fifty charges per spell, giving you a wish for 26,147 gp 5 sp worth of salt. This isn't available until you're 11th level and can make the relic's magical properties up to that much. Making it twenty-five charges per wish makes it cost twice as much, ten charges per wish makes it cost five times as much, etc. At 13th level you can use it to add a +2 Inherent bonus to each of your stats if you cast Wall of Salt and meditate for long enough. You can make each portion +1 Defending and put Greater Magic Weapon on each of them to add a significant bonus to your AC, since defending weapon bonuses always stack with other bonuses, including other defending bonuses. You'll eventually want to make the bow portion an Energy Bow (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ask/20061227a), and upgrade the remaining staff end to be masterwork and add three wand chambers, plus filling those wand chambers. Note that these are all options for when you're higher level, and can afford a few 3rd level Pearls of Power for the Greater Magic Weapons.

You'll have gained two levels since taking Item Familiar, which gets you fifteen skill points since your 8th level point in Int happens before you gain your skills for that level. You've invested these into your Item Familiar, which gets you a +5 bonus to apply to your skills, all of which should go into Spellcraft. The current properties on your relic should include a Competence bonus to Spellcraft (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm), which at your current level can be as high as +11 for 12,100 gp worth of value, but you only need a +9 for 8,100 gp. That plus 11 ranks, +6 Int, +3 skill focus, +2 synergy, +5 Item Familiar, +2 from a Masterwork Tool (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/goodsAndServices.htm#toolMasterwork), and taking ten on the checks, you can always make a DC 48, which is enough to put Persistent Spell on a 4th level spell. Spells you should make Persistent every day include Expeditious Retreat, Shield, Nightshield, Swift Fly, (Fell Drain/Frighten) Cloud of Knives (multiple times), and Greater Invisibility, to name just a few.

Go to the good ol' God Wizard Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?PHPSESSID=8mdq8ptla7c6gt0osnv492g8f1&topic=394.0) for what offensive spells to pick, that guide has sample spell lists for 5th, 10th, and 15th level Conjurers, but don't forget your three prohibited schools.

When you get some gold and another level, pick up Permanency. Hire an NPC (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/goodsAndServices.htm#spell) Psion to use Psychic Reformation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/psychicReformation.htm) on you, and swap some of your existing feats for Fell Drain, Fell Frighten, Flash Frost, Heighten Spell, and Snowcasting. Cast Detect Magic with as many of those as you can, and use your Incantatrix abilities to add the others to it. Use Permanency to make its duration permanent, so whenever you concentrate on that you'll project a cone that deals some cold damage which automatically inflicts a negative level and the Shaken condition on anyone damaged by it. A given creature only gets affected by Fell Drain and Fell Frighten the first time they're damaged by that, but you can get the Swift Concentration skill trick to use it as a swift action once per encounter. Pay for a second Psychic Reformation to swap your feats back, since once those metamagics are applied to that permanent spell you don't need to have the feat any more. You can use Metamagic Effect to add others to it later, such as Fell Weaken, (Sudden) Widen Spell, and further Heightens (with Earth Spell) for increasing the Flash Frost damage, but remember that the Spellcraft DC always includes every metamagic feat applied.

[Rubik]

Does your group use the standard-issue rule for gaining XP for people who are of different levels? If so, might I go against the grain and suggest you start off at lower level with more wealth, then use the wealth and cost-reducers to craft items using alternative sources of XP, like souls or a pet artificer? That can be a significant power boost, and you'll catch up on XP pretty quickly after that.

[Victoria6990]

Actually we might not be using the XP gain rules since we are going to be pretty sparsely distributed for our adventures. I suspect that XP is going to be at a higher premium than gold because of this reason.

[Victoria6990]

Any good alignment, this is absolutely necessary.

8th level, 400 gp. Say you visited the Otyugh Hole in CS to get Iron Will without spending a feat on it.

Middle-age Gray Elf (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/elf.htm#grayElf), which including two points from levels puts you at Str 10, Dex 15, Con 12, Int 22, Wis 15, Cha 12.

Wizard will be specialized in Conjuration, with Evocation and Enchantment prohibited. Trade your familiar for Abrupt Jaunt in PH2, which can automatically avoid an attack if it puts you out of reach/line of effect, and there's no take-backs on what the attacker was doing that turn. Use this variant (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#wizard) to get Improved Initiative instead of Scribe Scroll, and trade your Wizard 5 bonus feat for the domain power ACF in CC for the Magic domain to still use wands, scrolls, and staffs of spells from your prohibited school.

Start out Wizard 5/ Incantatrix 3, gaining Necromancy as another prohibited school. Use Cooperative Metamagic and Metamagic Effect to add Persistent Spell and other metamagic feats to your buffs. Cooperative Metamagic can be used on your own spells outside of combat because the action economy system only exists during initiative.

Your flaws should be Noncombatant and Love of Nature (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?258440-The-quot-Best-quot-Flaws#30), your traits should be Passionate and Slow.

Feats: Improved Initiative (Wizard 1), Iron Will (OH), Extend Spell (Flaw), Skill Focus: Spellcraft (Flaw), Sculpt Spell or Fell Drain or Fell Frighten Spell (1), Ancestral Relic (3), Persistent Spell (Incantatrix 1), Item Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/itemFamiliars.htm) (6).

Put max ranks in Concentration, Craft: Boyer, Knowledge: Arcana, and Spellcraft.

You crafted an Elvencraft Composite Longbow, which counts as a quarterstaff as well as a composite longbow for 300 gp extra. You made the bow portion and one end of the staff portion masterwork for 600 gp extra. A composite longbow is 100 gp, which makes the total base price of this item 1,000 gp, which you paid 333.33 gp in raw materials to craft, taking ten on all the checks. This is both your Ancestral Relic and your Item Familiar, which is generally a terrible idea but in this case it's necessary. Select Wall of Salt from Sandstorm as a spell known, which instantaneously creates a permanent, nonmagical volume of salt (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/wealthAndMoney.htm#wealthOtherThanCoins), which you then sacrificed into your Ancestral Relic to upgrade it in various ways up to its maximum magical value for absolutely free. You can continue sacrificing valuable materials into the relic even after it's reached its max magical value, which is conserved for later use.

You can make the staff portion of your relic into a Staff of Wish that uses all fifty charges per spell, giving you a wish for 26,147 gp 5 sp worth of salt. This isn't available until you're 11th level and can make the relic's magical properties up to that much. Making it twenty-five charges per wish makes it cost twice as much, ten charges per wish makes it cost five times as much, etc. At 13th level you can use it to add a +2 Inherent bonus to each of your stats if you cast Wall of Salt and meditate for long enough. You can make each portion +1 Defending and put Greater Magic Weapon on each of them to add a significant bonus to your AC, since defending weapon bonuses always stack with other bonuses, including other defending bonuses. You'll eventually want to make the bow portion an Energy Bow (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ask/20061227a), and upgrade the remaining staff end to be masterwork and add three wand chambers, plus filling those wand chambers. Note that these are all options for when you're higher level, and can afford a few 3rd level Pearls of Power for the Greater Magic Weapons.

You'll have gained two levels since taking Item Familiar, which gets you fifteen skill points since your 8th level point in Int happens before you gain your skills for that level. You've invested these into your Item Familiar, which gets you a +5 bonus to apply to your skills, all of which should go into Spellcraft. The current properties on your relic should include a Competence bonus to Spellcraft (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm), which at your current level can be as high as +11 for 12,100 gp worth of value, but you only need a +9 for 8,100 gp. That plus 11 ranks, +6 Int, +3 skill focus, +2 synergy, +5 Item Familiar, +2 from a Masterwork Tool (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/goodsAndServices.htm#toolMasterwork), and taking ten on the checks, you can always make a DC 48, which is enough to put Persistent Spell on a 4th level spell. Spells you should make Persistent every day include Expeditious Retreat, Shield, Nightshield, Swift Fly, (Fell Drain/Frighten) Cloud of Knives (multiple times), and Greater Invisibility, to name just a few.

Go to the good ol' God Wizard Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?PHPSESSID=8mdq8ptla7c6gt0osnv492g8f1&topic=394.0) for what offensive spells to pick, that guide has sample spell lists for 5th, 10th, and 15th level Conjurers, but don't forget your three prohibited schools.

When you get some gold and another level, pick up Permanency. Hire an NPC (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/goodsAndServices.htm#spell) Psion to use Psychic Reformation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/psychicReformation.htm) on you, and swap some of your existing feats for Fell Drain, Fell Frighten, Flash Frost, Heighten Spell, and Snowcasting. Cast Detect Magic with as many of those as you can, and use your Incantatrix abilities to add the others to it. Use Permanency to make its duration permanent, so whenever you concentrate on that you'll project a cone that deals some cold damage which automatically inflicts a negative level and the Shaken condition on anyone damaged by it. A given creature only gets affected by Fell Drain and Fell Frighten the first time they're damaged by that, but you can get the Swift Concentration skill trick to use it as a swift action once per encounter. Pay for a second Psychic Reformation to swap your feats back, since once those metamagics are applied to that permanent spell you don't need to have the feat any more. You can use Metamagic Effect to add others to it later, such as Fell Weaken, (Sudden) Widen Spell, and further Heightens (with Earth Spell) for increasing the Flash Frost damage, but remember that the Spellcraft DC always includes every metamagic feat applied.

I love the detailing and the step-by-step instructions along with what to in the future. I had a few questions though, if I may:

1. If the DM doesn't allow me just saying that I visited the Otyugh hole, which feat should I drop for taking Iron will? Or should I instead opt for level 7 4000 gp and pay the 3000 gp for Otyugh instead of wasting a feat on it?

2. You meant Craft: Bowmaking when you wrote Craft:Boyer right?

[Victoria6990]

Also, leadership is allowed so would it be a good idea to get a caster cohort at some point for utilizing cooperative metamagic even without the presence of the party (the party has a warblade, cloistered cleric/church inquisitor, ranger, monk, druid so far)?