Help! - Pathfinder Wizard and Good Impressions

[Guiha]

Hello, everyone!


TL;DR: I've never played Pathfinder before. This sunday, I'll be playing a 2nd level wizard with people i've never played with before. I need some help building my character as well as some tips about playing with people you never played before, because I want to cause a good impression :smallbiggrin:

I'm here because I need your help. Yes, you fellow D&D player. But first, let me tell you my history.

I've been playing roleplaying games since I was 6. By the age of 13, I played D&D for the first time ever, and it really got me. It was the Sunless Citadel and I played a Druid. Since then, I've been playing with the same people and always 3.5e. These guys are my best friends and they grew up with me learning and having fun with this classic system. With time, we played less and less, til a point where we only played when i came up with a new adventure, but sometimes I was busy with college, so it was really hard. This year, one of our friends started playing 5e and got hooked into it, which also made me learn it. We started to play Murder in Baldur's Gate and we had one session so far, which was not so good. My friend brought his new boyfriend and he never played any rpg in his life, and that would be ok, except for the fact that he doesn't really care about playing at all, making us play like once per month or so. Today, I discovered that we won't be able to play until February and that made me really, really sad. So i went on the internet to find people in my city to play with me. It took a while, but I finally got some guys that play every week, seven hours per session (My friends were playing like three hours, sometimes four) and that made my day. They play Pathfinder - a system I've never played or read before. I really want to stick with them so I want to cause a good impression. I'll play a Wizard, which is great because it's my favorite class, so I want to optimize it, but at the same time I don't want to outshine anyone, lol! Anyway, I could use some help building my Wizard (It's second level) - Stats distribution (20 points), picking spells, feats, etc. and also some tips about playing with people you never played before, because, well, I never did. I would normally read everything here on the playground and in the materials and build it myself, but we will play this sunday, so I don't have much time.

Thank you very much for reading this far. Sorry for my english, it's not my first language. And, of course, sorry for the wall of text! :smalleek:

[stanprollyright]

Pathfinder core is almost identical to 3.5. The spells are mostly the same, but you should probably read the ones you want because some have been tweaked. Polymorph effects have been nerfed. Wizards play pretty much the same, except you get a choice of school powers that are separate from your casting, you can choose between a familiar and a bonded item that stores a single spell per day of your highest level (familiar is usually better), you have a d6 HD now, and you can spam cantrips all day without running out. You can also prepare from your forbidden schools, it just takes 2 slots.

General build advice: Elves make good arcane casters, otherwise human or half elf are good too. Improved Initiative should be one of your first feats, Spell Focus is always good (especially if it's also a prereq). For a fun early-game trick, get Rime Spell (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/metamagic-feats/rime-spell-metamagic) and the Magical Lineage (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/traits/magic-traits/magical-lineage) trait with either Snowball or Ray of Frost. I'd go conjuration specialist with the teleportation subschool (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/wizard/arcane-schools/paizo---arcane-schools/classic-arcane-schools/conjuration/teleportation), since conjuration is a large and varied school. For spells I'd prepare stuff like: grease, color spray, mage armor, snowball, mount, enlarge person. You have a light crossbow and ray of frost for when you run out of spells.

ability scores (elf)
str 7 dex 12(14) con 16(14) int 17(19) wis 9 cha 10
(human)
str 7 dex 14 con 14 int 17(19) wis 11 cha 10