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View Full Version : Help with building a Lvl 7 Wizard



IIzak
2016-03-10, 12:20 PM
Hey there peeps! So I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out this character and was wondering if you wonderful people could offer some advice.

So I'm playing in a campaign that's swinging towards the Evil end of the Alignment spectrum and the best magic caster in our group right now is a Duskblade. So I thought to myself that I'd play a Wizard, and I've been messing around with stuff ever since. Now I want to say that I am already in a separate campaign where I'm playing a Wizard, and I want this Wizard to feel distinctly different from the other wizard. That Wizard is an Elven Generalist with the Collegiate Wizard feat that has all the spells and then I took Paragnostic Apostle and plan to enter Initiate of the 7fold Veil relatively soon.

So my idea is to play something along the lines of a Specialized Conjurer, and focus in on that sort of? I know that Specialization is good, but I need advice on which schools to ban, what feats to take, which PrC's to go into, and good spells to pick. I've read all the guides (Logic Ninja, Treantmonk, Dictum, etc.) but the caveat is that we're starting at level seven and I'm not the best at building characters that start at higher levels. I normally build from the ground up and learn what I like and don't like as I play. I see this campaign going into somewhere into the high teens(lvl 18 or 19 maybe?), so suggestions for stuff to take at higher levels would also be appreciated. Also, I don't know if it would be the best move, but I kind of just don't feel like playing an Incantatrix. Anyway, thanks in advance for any advice.

(Pretty much all books are available, except TOB, and some super cheesy stuff might need DM approval)

Cosi
2016-03-10, 12:52 PM
Schools:
-Abjuration: These are spells it is important for the party to have, but not for you to have. Don't specialize, but don't ban if unless someone else has it covered.
-Conjuration: This school is full of awesome at basically every level. Specialize. Become a Focused Specialist (Complete Mage ACF) even. Don't ban.
-Divination: Can't ban. Don't specialize, because Spontaneous Divination exists and you can use your specialist slots for Divinations anyway.
-Enchantment: It screws over people who don't have defenses and have low will saves. Don't ban this and illusion. If you want to specialize, be a Beguiler instead.
-Evocation: Ban. Ban. Ban. Unless you're playing a high enough OP game that you want contingency. Even then, Shadowcraft Mage exists.
-Illusion: It's Enchantment, except instead of charm person and dominate monster it has shadow conjuration. Ban one.
-Necromancy: It has everything, but it also has very little unique. You can ban, or you can specialize, or you can do neither.
-Transmutation: polymorph et al, buffs, and some random stuff. Decent choice for a specialist.

In your situation (leaning Conjuration), I would either go Specialist (ban Evocation and Enchantment/Illusion) or Focused Specialist (ban Evocation, Enchantment/Illusion, and Necromancy). Remember to trade your familiar for Abrupt Jaunt.

Domain Wizard (Unearthed Arcana) is also an option, especially in combination with Elf Generalist (pick up a Hummingbird Familiar for +8 Init).

Trade your 5th level bonus feat for Spontaneous Divination. If you feel cheesy, use that spontaneous casting to pick up Versatile Spellcaster.

PrCs:
-Incantatrix: Lots of people recommend it, and they recommend it for a reason. That reason is because it is broken.
-Mage of the Arcane Order: You get minor goodies, and you get to periodically pull out random spells to save the day.
-Anima Mage: You can get in with 0 or 1 levels of Binder, and it gives free metamagic. It's like Incantatrix (in that you get free Persists), but massively less broken (in that you get three).
-Ultimate Magus: Illumain Beguiler 1/Wizard 4 entry loses 1 caster level gets some utility spellcasting and metamagic. Not terrible, also not great.

There are obviously other viable PrCs, but those are both decent and have something good online at 7th. Nice/interesting ones include Primal Scholar (Eberron, lets you cast spells up to 5th infinite times per day), War Weaver (buff all the things), and a variety of "filler" PrCs like Divine Oracle which are simply better than Wizard levels.

For spells, I recommend this (http://www.tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=31950) list of combat spells.

Some 20 level builds:
-Wizard 6/Divine Oracle 4/Abjurant Champion 5/Archmage 5 (doesn't get you any particularly impressive class features, but you get a bunch of decent stuff and casting)
-Wizard 5/Incantatrix 3/Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 7/Shadowcraft Mage 5 (it's a pile of PrCs which are good, what more do you want?)
-Beguiler 1/Wizard 4/Ultimate Magus 10/Incantatrix 5 (a fair-er build for metamagic cheese)
-Wizard 5/Red Wizard 10/Archmage 5 (Red Wizard value, probably pick up Improved Familiar for a Mirror Mephit)
-Wizard 3/Binder 1/Anima Mage 10/Primal Scholar 5/Archmage 1 (you get a bunch of minor abilities at will, in addition to nearly perfect casting)

Obviously, those could be changed/improved. The Archmage levels are filler for the most part, and you can definitely drop the Binder from the Anima Mage.