How a wizard survives...

[arkangel111]

Tons of topics come up, asking how to kill a caster (wizard mostly) heck I've started a couple myself. Now I want to turn it on its side.
Assume E6 all official sources... what should a wizard prep on the average day (no adventuring) to both survive and make a living without giving away the fact he is a wizard?

Obviously several right answers out there but let's see what is common between builds. Make sure you mention any special feats they may have.

[Uncle Pine]

In your average day (no adventuring) all you need to survive and make a living is Profession (any) 1 rank. Everything else can be prepared so that even if the worst happens, you can safely get away.

[KillianHawkeye]

without giving away the fact he is a wizard?


This seems like an odd stipulation. Is there some reason to assume the wizard is in hiding?

[Gusmo]

I would constantly be on the lookout for anyone that might know the secret. I'd make my 6th level mindbender (Complete Arcane) and take the mindsight (Lords of Madness) feat, so I'd know where pretty much anyone around me is at any time. Then I'd always wear around a medallion of thoughts (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#medallionofThoughts), to further be able to keep an eye on anyone whose suspicions might be aroused, casting magic aura (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magicAura.htm) on the medallion at all times (and all other magic items). Eschew materials would be useful, just to eliminate another avenue of suspicion. I would train sleight of hand (for its conceal spellcasting use, see Rules Compendium), bluff, and all the other social skills at least a little bit, with magic items to enhance each, to fend off ordinary levels of inquisition. Anyone passing opposed skill checks to find me out would need to be taken care of with spells.

Exact feats:
1: eschew materials
3: craft wondrous item
5: extend spell (halves amount of times magic aura needs to be cast)
6: mindsight

[Uncle Pine]

This seems like an odd stipulation. Is there some reason to assume the wizard is in hiding?
There are many possible reasons: the wizard could want to avoid attracting unnecessary attentions that might hinder his studies, or he might live in settings like Ravenloft where arcanists are frowned upon to say the least, or he could be hiding from the dread Sorcerer King.

[Quertus]

Easiest way to make sure no-one knows what you are? Make sure no-one even knows you exist. This could involve many things, but I'm loving the flavor of living in an isolated tower, far from civilization, sending undead minions / constructs / whatever out to make survival checks to gather food (and materials?) while obsessively researching the art.


or he could be hiding from the dread Sorcerer King.



Assume E6

I'm pretty sure that build doesn't come online in E6.

[lylsyly]

or he could be hiding from the dread Sorcerer King.

Shhh......

[Flickerdart]

Well, let's come at it from the other way - what would it take to hide from someone really determined to hunt and kill arcanists?

A 6th level mystic ranger or 1st level ranger/5th level archivist with FE: Arcanists can use detect favored enemy to identify you as an arcanist from 600 feet away, but not through lead/stone/dirt of the appropriate thickness. So you have three strategies:


Live so far away from everything that a person cannot come within 600 feet of you without being easy to spot.
Live in the confined quarters of a palace, catacomb, or similar, where the only way to not deal with an impenetrable barrier is to be in the same room as you.
Boost your CL, plonk down 50 gp every time you go out on nondetection, and pray to Mystra that the hunters don't roll well on the CL check.


However, if the ranger also has Nemesis, strategies B and C are useless. You must stay 60 feet away from the ranger at all times.

A wizard's tower accomplishes both A and B easily, but it has the drawback of sticking out like a sore thumb. Instead, you must construct a dungeon. It can't be spotted from far away, is always shielded from divinations by any amount of dirt and stone and lead that you care to truck in, and even if someone finds it, they won't immediately suspect wizards. Using undead minions, it should be easy enough to excavate something quick, and gradually expand deeper into the soil. Use command undead to control way more minions than a simple animate dead would grant you. Try to build your dungeon on top of mineral deposits so you can sell them.

If you need to go into town yourself, disguise your familiar and send it in your stead.

[Gusmo]

You could carefully live in a city despite the presence of detect favored enemy casting inquisitors. Anti-detection measures are a common feature of shops in many campaign worlds I've played in, and in a world that hates arcane magic, mundane defenses against them arguably make even more sense to be put in place on a business. So, if you ran your own store, and had employees run your errands during the day, you'd be safe behind your lead-lined walls until an inquisitor came into your store. At that point you could make yourself scarce upstairs, and if called upon, fire up every temporary CL booster you can muster, then throw on nondetection, which you would need to keep prepared daily for such occasions. Now that you've got nondetection up for several hours anyway, go outside and party it up for a while, to keep up appearances and generally do your best to make yourself not seem like the suspicious coot who keeps themselves locked up. Consider grabbing sudden extend to make it last even longer. As long as you haven't done something to arouse suspicion to create a higher than normal level of scrutiny for yourself, this should be sufficient. You could also benevolently sponsor the construction and remodeling of other buildings around town with such defenses, so you could have other places around town where you could operate with some level of safety. Conveniently for my build stub, mindsight and telepathy are not hindered by lead or any other such obstructions.

Edit: I screwed up my initial implementation of nondetection. Also, here's a handy list of ways to raise caster level (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?444635-Raising-Caster-Level). Edit2: actually, after looking at how tricky a lot of those CL boosters are to pull off in E6, arguably better to go arcane thesis: nondetection instead of sudden extend, due to the CL boost (my build already had extend in it). Combined with a badge of Lathethian, and robe of arcane might, you've got CL 10, or a DC of 25, which is good for foiling all low level inquisitors. A quick drink of terran brandy would be needed to combat higher level inquisitors one ones boosting their caster level. This is all expensive, though, you'd need to be working those mercantile skills hard to be able to afford this on the regular.

[Coidzor]

Well, there are a few options before retreating to one's own private demiplane to live on one's own in the wilds.

In Pathfinder, starting at level 1, a Wizard can use Expeditious Construction (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/e/expeditious-construction) and Expeditious Excavation (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/e/expeditious-excavation) to to start making themselves an isolated place to live and start digging down. Or wall off part of a cave and make themselves a koi pond or level the floors.

At 3rd level they get the ability to turn water into mead or wine using Tears to Wine (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/t/tears-to-wine), so they can always get their drink on. Depending upon GM, the stuff may stick around as non-magical booze, allowing them to potentially acquire funds by selling it through proxies.

Stone to Flesh (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/stone-to-flesh) is the lowest level spell Wizards get that creates food, though they do have access to Restore Corpse (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/r/restore-corpse) which would allow them to have a never-ending supply of meat and liver and fat, so long as they have access to Purify Food and Drink (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/p/purify-food-and-drink) through some means or another.

Of course, magic item crafting would allow for them to just have a Create Food and Water item.



In 3.5 a Wizard can use Unseen Crafter to construct a subterranean lair from first level, I think, or at least craft progressively better forms of shelter.

Can't remember any food-creating spells that Wizards have access to in 3.5.

[Flickerdart]

*snip*
Still can't defeat Nemesis.

[Gusmo]

Still can't defeat Nemesis.

Yeah, nemesis is very tricky, though luckily it has a very short range. Your own enhanced detection abilities can let you know when someone so equipped is approaching, though, thanks to the very short range of nemesis. I wonder what the best way to meet with a nemesis equipped inquisitor would be, to appease them and get them off your back. Some sort of decoy?

Edit: to be clear, my reading of mindsight ("several observable characteristics") makes me think you can uniquely identify a given person's presence, 100 feet out, so as long as you keep an up to date roster of inquisitors to recognize.


The creature also perceives several observable characteristics about each being detected with mindsight, including the being’s type and Intelligence score. The creature need not take any additional or special actions to gain this information; it is as obvious to mindsight as the being’s race and clothing would be to eyesight.

Edit2: very expensive, so we're well into the territory of breaking WBL (which isn't crazy for a wizard, but it needs to be noted), but you could also make yourself a high CL version of one of these (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#amuletofProofagainstDetectionand Location). Once you get through the phenomenally high one time expense, at least it saves you from needing diamond dust, terran brandy, and anything else you're mustering on a regular basis for high CL nondetection. Probably still a good idea to have the spell itself prepared everyday as a backup, though.

[Flickerdart]

I wonder what the best way to meet with a nemesis equipped inquisitor would be, to appease them and get them off your back. Some sort of decoy?
Someone else with telepathy? As long as both your ranges outrange Nemesis, the patsy can feed you the inquisitor's questions, and you can feed back answers.

[Gusmo]

Plausible. Plus, if this is a party scenario, someone else in the party with good social skills could be the wizard's double, in which case telepathy wouldn't even necessarily be required. In essence, exactly what Christian Bale was doing as Borden/Fallon in The Prestige. A cleric or other divine caster would be ideal, because during those times where the wizard needs to venture out, there are more similarities between a cleric and wizard than a wizard and a muggle, in some ways. Not a compartmentalized solution in that it relies on others, but doable.

[Ruethgar]

War Rope Trick, go in, get familiar with it, come out, let it close, Create Portal to it and destroy the portal. Rope Trick doesn't create the space, just leads to it. Plus 150 creatures should be enough to sustain you if you're clever... like if you have 18 int :smallbiggrin:

It isn't a plane, so you are safe from those tricky little Martial Monk Jaunters, pretty much only Wish teleport and Gods can get in as I understand it.

[Gusmo]

That actually gives me a different idea, the wizard could just be perpetually "travelling." They'd actually live in the apartment at the top floor of their shop complex (with a very high first floor ceiling, say, 60 feet :smallbiggrin:). They'd just venture out in disguise at locations deemed safe as often as desired. A loyal NPC manager could keep order, who would in fact actually believe the wizard is travelling all the time. Of course, should treachery on the part of the manager occur, it would happen while the wizard was "coincidentally" home, and the manager would then rot in city prison, as a nice example to the next manager. Alter self or other methods could even be used to test the possibility of corruption on the part of a manager before they actually happen. Recruiting a manager with some sort of code of conduct requiring honesty, such as a paladin, would be effective, too.

The mercantile empire of the wizard could expand throughout the city, and they could create additional safehouses, connecting them with skybridges, even. They could of course, also travel for real as often as desired. Eventually their mercantile empire could even expand to multiple cities, thus allowing an additional alibi of being based elsewhere at any given time potentially. Expansion and travelling create an issue of keeping an eye on your holdings. I'm not sure there's a good solution to this in E6, I can't think of a good way to get on demand, multi-use, teleportation, or a reliable way to hold a lengthy conversation across long distances.