My Level 1 Halfling Wizard, your thoughts?

[Tormsskull]

I am finally getting the opportunity to play (I've been DMing for the past 5 years or so without getting a chance to be a character) and I've decided on a halfling wizard for RP reasons and because I think it will be fun.

Mechanically I'm thinking of putting my second highest score in Dex (we roll stats) and then with the +dex from halfling race and +1 to hit from size, ranged touch attacks should have a pretty decent chance of hitting.

I'm currently contemplating either specializing in divination and dropping evocation or specializing in transmutation and dropping evocation and enchantment. I've always been stuck playing blaster mages, and I thought it'd be fun to try this newer "direct damage is suboptimal" approach to wizards.

I'm thinking of spending my skill points on knowledge, concentration, decipher script, and then taking additional languages with the remaining skill points. While I know I could use magic to understand all languages, RP wise I think it would be cool if my diminuitive wizard actually knew a boatload of languages rather than having to rely on spellcasting. I'm aiming to make this guy a peacemaker who tries to make friends with all civilized races and learn about their culture and such.

I really am not sure how to spend my 1st level feat.

So, all in all, anything that sticks out as glaringly bad for my wizard here? Or any suggestions on what else I should do / might want to change? If it matters I'm going to be 1 PC of a 6 PC party, starting at 1st level, rolled stats, heavy RP campaign.

Ok, thanks.

[Yvian]

Put the highest score in INT, 2nd in Dex. That will get you more flexibility. INT gets you extra spells and higher saves.

If you want to shoot rays all day long, take Weapon Focus: Ray.

I would take the FR feat prodigal spell caster. It effectively bumps up your INT for spells know and saves. Or I might take some other only at 1st level feat, bloodline of fire or something like that.

Mounted Combat might be a fun feat depending on what you are doing. Mobile wizards on large dogs are always fun. Everything is cross classed, but still – not your worst pick.

Or, you can always take spell focus. In particular if you are specialized wizard and are going to be casting a lot of spells from that school.

[Fax Celestis]

If you with the Diviner and ban Evocation, take this variant (here) if you can, since it's a nice augment for RP purposes. You'll lose your familiar, though, which isn't really that big a deal.

If you go with Transmuter, try the variant here (here) for awesomesauce. You'll lose your familiar (again), but you'll gain a swift action +2 to an attribute. Woohoo.

As for feat expenditure, might I recommend a Spelltouched feat or the Item Familiar feat?

[Piccamo]

What sort of direction do you want your wizard to go? If it doesn't clash with anything else, you may want to consider going into Master Specialist (CompMage) since you lose nothing and gain a few class features. It also has very low requirements so you will be able to get into it before others. From there you can PRC into something else.

You say its heavy RP, so what motivates your character to adventure? Why is he a wizard?

[Darrin]

I'm currently contemplating either specializing in divination and dropping evocation or specializing in transmutation and dropping evocation and enchantment. I've always been stuck playing blaster mages, and I thought it'd be fun to try this newer "direct damage is suboptimal" approach to wizards.

I'm thinking of spending my skill points on knowledge, concentration, decipher script, and then taking additional languages with the remaining skill points. While I know I could use magic to understand all languages, RP wise I think it would be cool if my diminuitive wizard actually knew a boatload of languages rather than having to rely on spellcasting. I'm aiming to make this guy a peacemaker who tries to make friends with all civilized races and learn about their culture and such.

If you want to influence other people, then keep Enchantment, drop Conjuration instead. You can get those nifty Evocation/Conjuration spells later with Shadow Evocation and Shadow Conjuration. If you're going the "social engineering" route, consider Sorcerer instead of Wizard, since a high Cha will help on those Diplomacy and Bluff rolls.

Avoid direct damage spells... yes, the +1 bonus for small size helps with rays, but if you're going to specialize in rays, then focus on the ability damage/suck/lose special effects stuff. If you really want to optimize a spellcaster with ranged attack bonuses, Druid's a bit stronger pick (you get your +1 size bonus and +1 thrown weapon bonus on slings, magic stone, produce flame, etc.).

I really am not sure how to spend my 1st level feat.

Extend Spell is most useful at the lower levels, and helps qualify for Persistent Metamagic cheese down the road.

Otherwise... if you're trying to build a Diplomat, then a feat that gives you Diplomacy as a class skill would be pretty essential:

Noble Born (Dragon #333) - Diplomacy and Knowledge (Nobility & Royalty) become class skills. Only available at 1st level.

[Piccamo]

If you want to influence other people, then keep Enchantment, drop Conjuration instead. You can get those nifty Evocation/Conjuration spells later with Shadow Evocation and Shadow Conjuration. If you're going the "social engineering" route, consider Sorcerer instead of Wizard, since a high Cha will help on those Diplomacy and Bluff rolls.

Don't drop Conjuration. It has some of the most utility spells: Grease, Mage Armor, Glitterdust, Web, Phantom Steed, Stinking Cloud, Dimension Door, Solid Fog, Major Creation, Teleport, Acid Fog, Wall of Iron, Mage's Magnificent Mansion, Plane Shift, Greater Teleport, Incendiary Cloud, Maze, Gate, and Teleportation Circle. There's at least 2 good conjuration spells for every level.

Ditching Evocation is always ok and I'd recommend Necromancy as well. You have plenty of other schools that can emulate everything within Necromancy.

[Galdor Miriel]

Personally I would not spend a feat on a +1 bonus that you might get with a ranged touch attack. You can always boost the ranged touch attack by items improving dex, items improving ranged touch attack directly, or by using my old favourite true strike (though every time I cast true strike followed by a sudden maximised enervation at the big baddy I roll a 1) in conjunction, when rich, with rod of quickening.

The feat for you my friend, if you want to be the halfing ray wielder is split ray. Get two rays of enfeeblement instead of 1, get 2 schorching rays then three when you hit third. If you are going to optimise for those kinds of spells then this feat will be a winner.

Later on of course do not forget to consider spell penetration, because spell resistance sucks, and when you work so hard to hit you do not want to suck.

So I would specialise in whatevr school has the most ray attacks you like the look, not forgetting to check out the spell compendium which has a whole bunch of them, and just fly.

[Tormsskull]

Sorry guys, I should have specified we were playing core only.

Put the highest score in INT, 2nd in Dex. That will get you more flexibility. INT gets you extra spells and higher saves.

Yeah, that's exactly what I am planning to do.

You say its heavy RP, so what motivates your character to adventure? Why is he a wizard?

Well, I did a spoof of Lord of the Rings with my backstory. Tolman (my halfling character) grew up in a halfing shire & was always told the tales of the four legendary halflings that saved the world long ago. The halflings were so proud of these tales, and whenever one of the halfling children would dispair the elders would say "One of the heroes never let that get to him, and he was no bigger than you."

As Tolman started to get older, and examined the stories more in depth, he realised that the halfling heroes never really did anything, they just happened to be in the company of really power and influential people. The person in the stories that stuck out the most to Tolman was Dan Dalf. Dan was a human wizard who always seemed to be at the right place at the right time, showing up just in the knick of time to save the day.

These stories moves Tolman and because of them he decided to try to become a wizard himself. Wizardy is widely feared in this campaign world, so it was difficult for Tolman to find anyone willing to train him. But after begging and pleading with his parents they agreed to send him to the human city that wasn't too far away in an attempt to find someone willing to teach him.

He eventually found a trainer, and after 2 1/2 years he had mastered the rudimentary concepts of magic and was ready to explore the world like his idol Dan Dalf did.

He is chaotic good and gets uncomfortable during formal ceremonies and such. His goal is to become sort of a universal adviser, traveling to places of need where his knowledge will be able to help people out.

[Piccamo]

From your description it sounds like he should be a diviner with Evocation as the restricted school.

Always getting to places in the knick of time would suggest knowledge of what will happen or is happening elsewhere. The fact that magic is feared there means that flashy shows of power like blasty spells would be a dead giveaway. I'd recommend you play a Psion if you were allowed just because its even less flashier than Arcane or Divine magic. In any case, you should see if you can get the specialist variants from Unearthed Arcana (and the SRD). I don't recall Dan Dalf having a familiar

[Drider]

his beard was a cat, that had very high disguise modifiers...

[Soepvork]

THe first feat that came to my mind: Player's Handbook 2's Wanderer's_Diplomacy] Wanderer's Diplomacy. Perhaps not the most useful, but it seems to fit your character quite well.

Edit: bleh, can't get rid of the ugly link...

[Tormsskull]

THe first feat that came to my mind: Player's Handbook 2's Wanderer's_Diplomacy] Wanderer's Diplomacy. Perhaps not the most useful, but it seems to fit your character quite well.

Edit: bleh, can't get rid of the ugly link...

Not familiar with that one. But PHB 2 isn't core so it wouldn't be allowed anyway.

Another question for everyone though.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/speakLanguage.htm :

Spoiler

Show

Speak Language (None; Trained Only)
Action
Not applicable.

Try Again
Not applicable. There are no Speak Language checks to fail.

The Speak Language skill doesn’t work like other skills. Languages work as follows.

You start at 1st level knowing one or two languages (based on your race), plus an additional number of languages equal to your starting Intelligence bonus.
You can purchase Speak Language just like any other skill, but instead of buying a rank in it, you choose a new language that you can speak.
You don’t make Speak Language checks. You either know a language or you don’t.
A literate character (anyone but a barbarian who has not spent skill points to become literate) can read and write any language she speaks. Each language has an alphabet, though sometimes several spoken languages share a single alphabet.

I read this but got confused. The part about not buying ranks, does that mean that I spend 1 skill point for 1 language, or do I spend 2 skills points for 1 language since it is a cc skill?

Also, am I limited in how many times I can take Speak Language?

[Quikngruvn]

As for feat expenditure, might I recommend a Spelltouched feat or the Item Familiar feat?

Unfortunately you can't get the Item Familiar feat till 3d level. Plus the whole problem of having a suitable magic item in the first place.

[RussellI]

Well, the only standard spells Dan Dalf is recorded as using in the ``legends'' are Scorching Ray (used against goblins) and Mount (Shadow Facts was clearly a conjuration). So, while divination specialist is appropriate, I would recommend keeping conjuration and evocation schools around. Dan Dalf fought the necromancer of murky woods (Sore Ron in disguise), and did not practice necromancy himself, so necromancy might be an appropriate forbidden school. I'm not really sure how he defeated the balr.. er balor, but he sure seemed to know everything. If you don't want to be a walking artillery unit, but want access to skills like Diplomacy, maybe you should multiclass Bard-Wizard.
(Three levels of wizard to earn your pointy hat, then switch over to bard.) It's not efficient, but you could get all the languages you want, plus Bardic knowledge is really closer to what Dan Dalf contributed to the group than most of the divination spells. If your GM is willing, you could define your Perform skill as Oratory, and give lectures to the party to inspire them rather than play music. (Be sure that your group will tolerate this...)

I think WF(rays) is a fine feat. You should be careful, in that there really aren't that many core first level ray spells, especially if necromancy is forbidden. Ray of frost really is weak. So you might want to save that for your third level feat. Skill focus (concentration) is always useful, especially at low levels, for casting defensively, and Con isn't on your list of favored stats.

[Quikngruvn]

I read this but got confused. The part about not buying ranks, does that mean that I spend 1 skill point for 1 language, or do I spend 2 skills points for 1 language since it is a cc skill?

Also, am I limited in how many times I can take Speak Language?

As a cross-class skill, spend two points and you know the language. There's no limit to the number of times you can take Speak Language.

Though you shouldn't have to do this till you run out of bonus languages from your Int bonus.

[Piccamo]

Well, the only standard spells Dan Dalf is recorded as using in the ``legends'' are Scorching Ray (used against goblins) and Mount (Shadow Facts was clearly a conjuration). So, while divination specialist is appropriate, I would recommend keeping conjuration and evocation schools around. Dan Dalf fought the necromancer of murky woods (Sore Ron in disguise), and did not practice necromancy himself, so necromancy might be an appropriate forbidden school. I'm not really sure how he defeated the balr.. er balor, but he sure seemed to know everything. If you don't want to be a walking artillery unit, but want access to skills like Diplomacy, maybe you should multiclass Bard-Wizard.
(Three levels of wizard to earn your pointy hat, then switch over to bard.) It's not efficient, but you could get all the languages you want, plus Bardic knowledge is really closer to what Dan Dalf contributed to the group than most of the divination spells. If your GM is willing, you could define your Perform skill as Oratory, and give lectures to the party to inspire them rather than play music. (Be sure that your group will tolerate this...)

Or he could decide to not purposefully gimp himself. He's not becoming Gandalf, he's emulating him from their stories where he's referred to as a wizard. If he wants the Bardic Lore class feature he can PrC into Loremaster

And for Speak Language, its 2 skill points per language.

[Foolosophy]

IF you take a ray-enhancing feat DO take precise shot to negate the "shooting into melee"-penalty of -4.

still suboptimal (but fun if you are ray fanatic), but way better than +1 to hit from spell focus.

btw. does improved critical(rays) only work with dmg spells or with ability drain/damage aswell?

[Sabattus]

I'm thinking of spending my skill points on knowledge, concentration, decipher script, and then taking additional languages with the remaining skill points. While I know I could use magic to understand all languages, RP wise I think it would be cool if my diminuitive wizard actually knew a boatload of languages rather than having to rely on spellcasting. I'm aiming to make this guy a peacemaker who tries to make friends with all civilized races and learn about their culture and such.

All well and good on the skills-set, but don't neglect Spellcraft. It's what allows you to identify spells that are being or hvae been cast by others, as well as what you use to learn new spells from a scroll/spellbook.

[geez3r]

From what you've said about your character, it seems that they should be a diviner, with a "sub-concentration" in enchantment. I think the loremaster PrC fits in really well with your character design. You scower the world looking for knowledge, get a bardic lore like ability, and even 2 bonus languages, not to mention the all important full caster progression. It's a realitively high level PrC though, as you can squeeze in at 7th level if you take only the feats required to get it. If you don't want to be pushed into the blaster roll, Ban Evoc.

I actually did something similar in the last camaign I played in, I was a transmutor, banning ench and evoc, honestly, I got bored of it. At low levels you may feel very ineffective during combat, but if the game is RP heavy, it really shouldn't make that big of an impact. I found taking extend spell at low level to be quite worth it. Try and take either de-buff or buff spells so you have something to do in combat as well.

Best of luck.

[Toliudar]

Diviner with a focus on boosting and battlefield control sounds about perfect. In this case, anything that's going to maintain your mobility is going to be best (core only lets out the options I was going to suggest).

If it's possible to look ahead to where you might want to be in a few levels in terms of prestige classes, you might as well be ready for it now. If, for instance, you think Loremaster is the direction you're heading, then biting the bullet and taking the suboptimal feat Skill Focus (Spellcraft) will at least allow you to fully mesh the crunch and fluff of a true spellcasting/research geek.

[Hunter Noventa]

I actually did something similar in the last camaign I played in, I was a transmutor, banning ench and evoc, honestly, I got bored of it. At low levels you may feel very ineffective during combat, but if the game is RP heavy, it really shouldn't make that big of an impact. I found taking extend spell at low level to be quite worth it. Try and take either de-buff or buff spells so you have something to do in combat as well.

Funny, I'm doing exactly the same thing and I'm having a blast. We're going after a nest of Kobolds, and Color Spray has been more then enough to take out half of what we hit each encounter.

As for the actual question, I agree, Divination + Loremaster is a really great combo, and Loremaster is a decent 'default' prestige class, as there's only one feat to get in that you don't need, but you get a bonus feat from the class to make up for it. And Skill Focus(Any Knowledge) seems very appropriate for your character anyway.

[ChomZ]

I'm not sure if it's a human only feat.. but isn't there something (able learner??) that lets you learn a new language per level? that sounds like something that would fit your RPing ideas.

[Yvian]

btw. does improved critical(rays) only work with dmg spells or with ability drain/damage aswell?

I will have to check the FAQ, but I think it works only with damage spells.

Critical hits and sneak damage only work if you do physical [hp] damage, per RAW.

With ability drain/damage, there is nothing to multiple. Sigh.

[Abstruse]

If it's possible to look ahead to where you might want to be in a few levels in terms of prestige classes, you might as well be ready for it now. If, for instance, you think Loremaster is the direction you're heading, then biting the bullet and taking the suboptimal feat Skill Focus (Spellcraft) will at least allow you to fully mesh the crunch and fluff of a true spellcasting/research geek.

To get around having to spend the feat on Skill Focus, consider some levels in the Master Specialist prestige class from Complete Mage. You only need spell focus in your specialist school to get in at level 4 (with the ability to cast 2nd level arcane spells), and if you stick with it from levels 4 - 7 you get Skill Focus (Spellcraft), Greater Spell Focus (your specialist school), an extra spell known, and Minor School Esoterica.

MSE is an ability which varies based on your specialist school. Diviners, for example, get to have their concentration-only spells stay in effect after concentration ceases for a number of extra rounds. Personally, I favor Illusion (+2 DC on any illusion spell that has "Will disbelief" in its save entry) and Conjuration (+level added to hp of all summoned creatures).

Anyways, master specialist could give you some useful extras while you're making your way up towards Loremaster's prerequisites.

[Cade Shadow]

For your feat, i recommend a feat from Complete Arcane (i can't remember the name of it, its somewhere in the back). What it does is it gives you 6+your int modifier for first level spells (rather than 3+) and gives you 4 additional spells per level, which gives you a wide range of options.

[Abstruse]

Collegiate Wizard. It's on p. 181 of Complete Arcane. Of course, you'd need to take it as a 1st level character and get the DM's approval on it, since it's an optional rule.

[Rincewind]

So, all in all, anything that sticks out as glaringly bad for my wizard here? Or any suggestions on what else I should do / might want to change? If it matters I'm going to be 1 PC of a 6 PC party, starting at 1st level, rolled stats, heavy RP campaign.

Ok, thanks.

Try not to get hit by an arrow, ok? You HP is probably 4 or 5 :D

[Tormsskull]

OK, well, I rolled up my stats, and here is what I ended up with:

3
16
12
16
13
8

So, incredibly weak (adding into my backstory some kind of strength-racking disease or something), but 16 dex and int should work nicely I think.

I went with Diviner, and I banned evoc. I think I am going to like this character overall, I just have to worry about getting hit with any strength-draining poison or whatnot (I'm probably be killed in 1 -str effect). My companions have agreed to be my mules, but even so, I'm going to be medium load just to carry the essentials.

I am most likely going for Loremaster (if we're allowed to use PrCs in this campaign). But overall, I am fairly happy with this character, and I am paired with a druid, a fighter, a cleric, and 1 unknown character as of yet.

Thanks everyone for your help, and if you have any other suggestions upon seeing my stat array or anything else feel free to let me hear em.

[Kevlimin_Soulaxe]

Wow, a 3? I assume that's going to go into strength...hope you have a friendly human or half-orc to help you tote about your spellbook.

[Peregrine]

I am most likely going for Loremaster (if we're allowed to use PrCs in this campaign).

My advice? Check with your DM now. Tell him/her you're looking to head that way down the line; even if you're not the sort of player to plot out your 20-level progression ahead of time, it will save you some disappointment later and (if your DM is a good one) lead to in-character opportunities for you to enter the PrC path.

Thanks everyone for your help, and if you have any other suggestions upon seeing my stat array or anything else feel free to let me hear em.

Well, there is the famous Guide to Being Batman, which will help you be effective without (necessarily) being cheesy. Going diviner with no evocation is a textbook recommendation from the Guide.

Oh, and it has to be said...

Dan Dalf fought the necromancer of murky woods (Sore Ron in disguise)

Don't you mean Sour Ron? </tolkienGeek>