3.5 playing a Wizard in a battle/war-oriented game advice

[wallofterror]

I am starting a Wizard in a battle/war-oriented game.

I was thinking of playing a Conjurer (opposed school Divination (homemade alt. rules)) or an Invoker (opp.school ench.).

We are gonna use PHB only...

It is gonna be my first wizard. Any advice ?

thanks

[Eldariel]

Sounds like you'd be using AD&D era specialization rules. I'd consider Illusion specialization as Necromancy is largely redundant in terms of combat...though if you'd be interested in creating a platoon or two of undead, that's a bad idea. The thing is, Evocation forbids Enchantment and Enchantment forbids Evocation and neither is an extraordinary specialization. But I wouldn't want to give up Enchantment just for the "dominate leaders on opposing side"-factor and Evocation...meh. Lots of rather large spreads in the school. Ultimately, conjuration would be the best specialization but Divination is a bit hefty to give up (Please Try Dying isn't nearly as scary as Scry'n'Die).

Enchanter may be the easiest way ultimately; you could bring stuff in to Dominate your targets but it's really inconvenient to have them in unreliable hands instead of your own, so having access to Dominates is really big while...well, there's tons of ways to blow things up so Evocation isn't strictly necessary. Sure, Fireball wreaks nice havoc but a Cloudkill is far more brutal (of course, it's also higher level).


Anyways, Being Batman is a good place to start in. Just, for war purposes, re-evaluate spells based on their grand scale impact; Planar Binding is pretty insane since such a creature can destroy a purely martial army alone, for example, and something like Cloudkill or in general, anything that affects a large area (Control Weather much?) simply has vastly increased usefulness.

[Tvtyrant]

I am starting a Wizard in a battle/war-oriented game.

I was thinking of playing a Conjurer (opposed school Divination (homemade alt. rules)) or an Invoker (opp.school ench.).

We are gonna use PHB only...

It is gonna be my first wizard. Any advice ?

thanks

1. How out numbered are your forces likely to be? And how much power disparity? If your out numbered ten to 1 by somewhat weaker enemies area control spells, if your out numbered 100 to 1 by weak-as-kittens archers then buffing your allies.

2. What special rules are at play in the game? If its a normal game based around fighting lots of humanoids then banning Div is not a good plan. Scry and Dieing tactics are even better in a military based game then an adventuring game. "cleric buffs group to maximum, wizard scry/teles them in, kill the enemy leader, tele out." Or even better, tele to their horses at night and kill them all so they have no mounts.

3. Don't be afraid to run. A wizard is really, really squishy.

[Tyndmyr]

If I could normally ban divination in 3.5, I would almost every time. It's my least used school, with the exception of detect magic and identify, which are easily available from items. See invis is also nice, technically, but since it's subject to permanency, you only need it cast on you once.

The only thing I'd actually miss is the easy access to True Seeing. Oh well, that's what summons and calling are for.

[UserClone]

I'd be a conjurer or transmuter building off of strong buffs, and make your way into the War Weaver PrC from Heroes of Battle. Your party will LOVE you. Also, take a look at the various orb spells and some nice debuffs like slow and touch of idiocy, enervation and the like.

[Valameer]

Don't give up divination. Intelligence in a military campaign is huge. Knowing who and what is where is the first step to stopping any enemy plans.

Being able to plan ahead and know when your enemy is weak and strong is the equivalent of min-maxing a war.

Imagine the enemy has a contingent of hippogriff riding elven archers. If they attacked your camp at night and dropped alchemist's fire on your supplies, it could be devastating. With their mobility, they could strike and be long long gone before you realized what had happened. But if you had divined that the enemy had such a force, and had advance warning that they were attacking, then those hippogriffs would just be flying into an ambush.

Also, don't underestimate necromancy. Skeletons on skeletal horses can gallop all night and all day with no supply train.

Honestly, your least useful abilities will probably end up being evocation. And hey, enchantment could potentially win the war sun tzu style.

[herrhauptmann]

If I could normally ban divination in 3.5, I would almost every time. It's my least used school, with the exception of detect magic and identify, which are easily available from items. See invis is also nice, technically, but since it's subject to permanency, you only need it cast on you once.

Pretty sure that if you ban Divination, you can't use anything that provides a divination spell. Definitely not wands, and probably not crystal balls, or anything else with a Divination spell in the crafting prereqs.