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Guinaur
2007-06-21, 07:29 AM
Sorry if this has been asked before, but what are the best ("best" as in, something for everything) spells to take for a lvl1 Wiz in a party where he is the only arcane spellcaster?

I am asking because the few times that I play (I DM 95% of the time in our group), I am the only arcane caster and the rest of the party is mostly fighting-class + archer-class + sneaky-class.

And I'm just asking out of interest ^_^

Fixer
2007-06-21, 07:34 AM
Your party seems to be lacking a healing-class, so if I were you I'd concentrate on one of two aspects:
Beefing up your friends to live longer
Outright damage/battlefield control to destroy opponents.

This also depends on your GM. If the GM is battle-happy, the above applies. If they are RP-happy more social spells are more appropriate.

Try Color Spray, Shield, Magic Missile, and Charm Person for the primary 4. Those cover most situations and with your first amount of XP you want to scribe Shield and Charm Person to scrolls ASAP so you can just memorize the others.

Kurald Galain
2007-06-21, 07:38 AM
Grease and Sleep are very effective.

Swooper
2007-06-21, 07:38 AM
Magic Missile is not worth it untill you have a few more caster levels, with 1d4+1 you're really better off saving your spells and using a crossbow or something. Use sleep instead for the first few levels. Ray of Enfeeblement is nice, although it requires an attack roll. I hear people praise Grease as a battlefield control spell although I've never used it myself, you might want to look into it.

Edit: Damn ninjas. Mental note: Memorize Foresight and Celerity to get the first post next time.

Yuki Akuma
2007-06-21, 07:38 AM
Sleep, Color Spray, Grease, Mage Armour. DO not take Magic Missile, direct damage is a terrible waste of a spell slot.

By all means, scribe it into your spellbook if you find a scroll, and then craft a wand or tons of scrolls of it, but don't waste your spell slots preparing it.

Guinaur
2007-06-21, 08:00 AM
Thanks for the replies.

Yeah, I usually take Magic Missile, Mage Armor, Sleep, and Charm Person or something. I see your point about magic missile, its not realy ever helped me much in the past. I have once (recently) seen grease used to great effect (by an enemy) and wondered whether it is a good choise as a lvl 1 spell.

Oh, and another thing, which lvl.0 spells to you guys/girls keep memorized on average? I never know what to memorize there.

Yuki Akuma
2007-06-21, 08:02 AM
Prestidigitation is always useful. Always. It's like Wish, but... not.

Chineselegolas
2007-06-21, 08:17 AM
Magic Missiles do come in handy if your DM likes throwing incorporeal at you. And incorporeal when only 2/6 party members have magic weapons (We are only level 3)... Magic missiles sure do save some ass.

Charity
2007-06-21, 08:20 AM
^They are good for finishing off foe's that have been mostly unharmed by your manky fireball spell also.:smallwink:

0 levels, I find I always need a detect magic spell, and if I'm really lucky a read magic.
I know the cleric can cast these, but they have always squandered all their 0 levels on healing the rogue.

v yup daze is a useful one

Ikkitosen
2007-06-21, 08:25 AM
I like Daze, for when the fighter (at 1hp of course) needs just one more hit to drop that baddie. Only effective at low levels, but we're talking L1 spells for a L1 charatcre, right? L1 spells that stay useful into later levels are a whole other category.

Baskineli
2007-06-21, 09:50 AM
I am surprised nobody mentioned the Logic Ninja guide... Look it up.

Ikkitosen
2007-06-21, 10:34 AM
I am surprised nobody mentioned the Logic Ninja guide... Look it up.

1. It's fairly common knowledge around here.

2. Every wizard playing the same way is bad.

3. It's not exhaustive by any means.

But yes, worth a look as a first port of call. Type "guide to being batman" into Google and you should find it.

bigbaddragon
2007-06-21, 11:02 AM
I would go for grease asap because its very good against poor reflex save characters which are also unlikely to have 5 ranks in balance (which means if they stay on their feet they are flatfooted I think).

Later you could look for metamagic feat "Sculpt Spell" in Complete Arcane. It requires any metamagic feat and it allows you to change spell area (e.g. into four 10 foot cubes) which can give nice uses for grease for example. Spell modified this way uses spell slot one level higher.

If someone in your party carries two handed weapon you could consider Enlarge Person spell. It would give your friend some bonus to damage from strength and reach, bonus on disarm, trip and grapple checks. This is great if you have a tripper/disarmer in your party - make him trip first and than use that bonus attack from Improved Trip to disarm opponent. Bonuses would be enormous:
-large size = +4
-two handed weapon = +4
-his target is prone = +4
-his target is prone 2 = +4 (this is the penalty that characters suffer to their attack rolls while prone, and disarm is about opposed attack rolls)

this is +16 without strength, so I'm counting about +20 real bonus.

Also if your friend has improved disarm thats another +4.

PlatinumJester
2007-06-21, 02:06 PM
Charm Person - makes people your friend. Cast it on the city guard chief and you can do whatever you want almost.

Weapon Shift (SC) - turn the enemies weapon into a mouth dart or a dagger. Not so tough now are you barbarian.

Mage Armour - +4 AC is great for wizards who tend to have crap AC and it lasts for hours.

SpikeFightwicky
2007-06-21, 02:16 PM
I'm a huge fan of color spray. Low-level enemies tend to have lesser will saves, and takes multiple enemies out of the fight. Best part is: even against higher HD enemies, it still stuns them for a round.

Cons: Cone shape is not always easy to use.

lukelightning
2007-06-21, 02:19 PM
The problem with sleep is that it has a one-round casting time. It's very annoying, as I found out last night. The two targets I was trying to get with the spell moved, so I could only get one.

One spell I've always overlooked is hypnotism. It looks like a good alternative to charm person for situations like "we need to get info from this guy" or "we need the gatekeeper to let us in." If you cast it on a single target outside of combat they have a -2 to their save, and if they fail they don't even know they've been hypnotized.

Yechezkiel
2007-06-21, 02:20 PM
Weapon Shift (SC) - turn the enemies weapon into a mouth dart or a dagger. Not so tough now are you barbarian.



Except the part where it's a touch attack (meaning you're next to that barbarian) and the part where it's a Fort Sv. (using his Fort Sv.). I think the barbarian will have a good answer for you saying he's not so tough.

Cruiser1
2007-06-21, 03:58 PM
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Identify (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/identify.htm) yet. That's perhaps the most important level 1 spell, especially if you're the only real caster. Being able to actually know what the loot you find does is invaluable.

Magic Missile (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magicMissile.htm), although indeed weak at the lowest levels, is one of the best damage spells. It always hits, so barring spell resistance is guaranteed to do damage. It's also the only way to damage certain monsters that are immune to other forms of magic, such as Will-O’-Wisps (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/willOWisp.htm).

Kurald Galain
2007-06-21, 04:24 PM
Oh yeah. Phantasmal Force (or whatever the 1st level illusion spell is called these days) for the win.

Mount is a good situational spell. So is Identify, of course. And fog cloud has many uses for its obscurement.

Gavin Sage
2007-06-21, 05:20 PM
Silent Image is fun if your DM is willing to reward being creative with it. Hide from enemies, distract enemies, possibly scare them or trap them. Course if the DM is going to be strict on defined use or have enemies be smart then nothing much.

Also Protection from Evil is a decent buff since it protects from mental effects, in addition to the other protection it grants. Since well you will face a lot of evil stuff generally speaking.

Tor the Fallen
2007-06-21, 08:13 PM
Make sure you get magic missile. No one will take you seriously if you don't.

TigerHunter
2007-06-21, 08:20 PM
Well, rather than make a new thread like I was planning--would all these suggestions also apply to sorcerors when picking Spells Known?

Gavin Sage
2007-06-21, 08:42 PM
It means you have less rooms for mistakes and you want to have spells you will want to cast more then once a day. Or at least everyday. Something like Identify for example, still a useful spell but when you only have so many choices its important to keep in mind the spell doesn't keep you alive for the next five minutes. Better to wait on Identify until later levels, possibly when you can start dropping spells and can ditch a spell you found you aren't using.

Tor the Fallen
2007-06-21, 08:47 PM
It means you have less rooms for mistakes and you want to have spells you will want to cast more then once a day. Or at least everyday. Something like Identify for example, still a useful spell but when you only have so many choices its important to keep in mind the spell doesn't keep you alive for the next five minutes. Better to wait on Identify until later levels, possibly when you can start dropping spells and can ditch a spell you found you aren't using.

Or ever. Scrolls of id cost what, 125 gp? There are better 1st level spells.