Advice on wizard PC

[xigbar]

I recommend taking all 5 levels of Archmage and taking Arcane Power, or whatever the caster level boosting thing is. Use Dictum to autokill many enemies.

 

[Empirate]

Ok; here goes-
0's- Detect Magic, Read Magic, Detect Poison
1st- True Strike, True Casting, Detect Secret Doors
2nd- Detect Thoughts, See Invisibility, Locate Object
3rd- Arcane Sight, Spellcaster's Bane, Tongues
4th- Detect Scrying, Assay Spell Resistance, Locate Creature
5th- Quickened True Strike, Quickened True Casting, Telepathic Bond
6th- Analyze Dweomer, True Seeing, Probe Thoughts (or more quickened true strikes)
7th- Greater Arcane Sight, Greater Scrying, Quickened True Strike
8th- Discern Location, Moment of Prescience, Greater Prying Eyes
9th- Foresight, Quickened True Strike, Chained Assay Spell Resistance

If you think you'll need more combat power, quickened true strike, quickened true casting, assay spell resistance, know vulnerabilities, and unluck are all good spells to sub in for the others listed.

I'd rather have:

1. Grease x2, Mage Armor
2. Glitterdust x2, Web
3. Stinking Cloud, Sleet Storm, Summon Monster III
4. Black Tentacles, Dimension Door, Solid Fog
5. Cloudkill, Major Creation, Teleport
6. Acid Fog, Wall of Iron, Summon Monster VI
7. Plane Shift, Greater Teleport x2
8. Maze, Quickened Dimension Door, Greater Plane Shift
9. Gate x3

Note that this is all Core. Some stuff could be subbed out for better outside Core, I'm sure, such as Benign Transposition for one Grease, Dimension Step for Summon Monster III, or Freezing Fog for Acid Fog.

 

[Dandu]

I notice there are no rays in that list

 

[Empirate]

I notice there are no rays in that list

You funny little blue mage, you. No, Conjuration happens to experience a dearth of good ray spells at the time being. Those are more the department of Necromancy, and I wasn't about coming up with good spells for a Focused Necromancer.

 

[Lactantius]

IMHO, a focused diviner owns a focused conjurer.
Conjurers get too much flattered by the community.

Combine a focused diviner with some sort of spontaeneity and you count virtually as "prepared 3 divination spells per level" without the need to actually prepare divinations (and so, keep up flexibility).

the tools of trade are:
- Spontaenous Divination: all slots, even the prepared non-divination ones count as divination spell slot since you can make them so on-the-fly.
- open slots which get refilled within 15 minutes (wizard class feature) or 1 full round (uncanny forethought, spellpool).

Honestly, I find focused conjurers very, very boring.

The whole idea behind them is to memorize all the same conjuration spells day-by-day.
Going this route, you cut off the wizards main strength: filling the spell slots with many different spells.
Focusing on conjuration sounds versatile since the spell school is very broad.
Depending on the gamestyle, this can be true, but it also can be a lackluster.
I find it boring memorizing a dozen battlefield controls or organizing my summoned minions.
Plus, I wonder who memorizes spells like fabricate or major creation on a daily-based routine.
This requires ALOT of creativity.

But as said, this statement depends on the game style.
I really, really prefer the magic philosophy of foreseeing, planning , disabling and undoing.
Therefore, abjuration and divination are my favorite schools and so, they get a bonus on my daily spell preparation.

 

[Nezkrul]

I'd rather have:

1. Grease x2, Mage Armor
2. Glitterdust x2, Web
3. Stinking Cloud, Sleet Storm, Summon Monster III
4. Black Tentacles, Dimension Door, Solid Fog
5. Cloudkill, Major Creation, Teleport
6. Acid Fog, Wall of Iron, Summon Monster VI
7. Plane Shift, Greater Teleport x2
8. Maze, Quickened Dimension Door, Greater Plane Shift
9. Gate x3

Note that this is all Core. Some stuff could be subbed out for better outside Core, I'm sure, such as Benign Transposition for one Grease, Dimension Step for Summon Monster III, or Freezing Fog for Acid Fog.

You'd rather have all that? That's pretty hard if you're a focused diviner.

 

[Empirate]

You'd rather have all that? That's pretty hard if you're a focused diviner.

Also, on the Spontaneous Divination thing: I don't think this will work as you believe. Your focused specialist slots must still be filled with divination spells. Being able to cast these spontaneously in exchange for another, prepared spell, nets you next to nothing. In fact, Spontaneous Divination is about the single worst ACF you could shoot for with a Focused Diviner, if I understand correctly how this works.

 

[Nezkrul]

Also, on the Spontaneous Divination thing: I don't think this will work as you believe. Your focused specialist slots must still be filled with divination spells. Being able to cast these spontaneously in exchange for another, prepared spell, nets you next to nothing. In fact, Spontaneous Divination is about the single worst ACF you could shoot for with a Focused Diviner, if I understand correctly how this works.

I don't ever use it, but I do like having a lot of true strike, true casting, and quickened versions of these in those extra slots.. makes your ray attacks (if you use them) and SR yes spells better.

 

[Grand Poobah]

Thanks everyone for their input.

I've had a rethink based on the fact that some non-core books (SpC, CA, CM, PHB II) have become available and am steering in the specialist diviner direction.

Starting 3rd level Diviner (banning Evo) but ending Diviner 10/Loremaster 10
Stats are after Grey Elf racial adj.
Str 8
Dex 12
Con 12
Int 19
Wis 8 (yeah, I know but I needed the 12 CON and want to make my DC as high as possible plus get as many spell slots as I can)
Cha 8

Familiar - Toad (for the extra 3 hp)

Feats etc - (aiming for Loremaster (more for flavour than any real desire) at level 8 - although I'm not massively familiar with non-core PrCs so if there are better options in the other books...?). Is LM worth the 4 feats it takes to qualify?
1 - Skill Focus (Knowledge - Arcana) LM prereq
3 - Extend LM prereq
5 - Craft Wonderous LM prereq
6 - Heighten LM prereq
8 - LM secret - Spell Focus Conj
9 - Spell Focus Ill
9 - LM - Bardic Lore
10 - LM secret + 2 Fort save
11 - LM bonus language
12 - Quicken Spell
12 - LM secret +2 Reflex save
13 - LM Greater Lore
14 - LM secret + 1 2nd level spell
15 - Silent spell
15 - LM bonus language
16 - LM secret + 1 1st level spell
17 - LM True Lore
18 - Greater spell focus Conj
20 - Greater spell focus Ill

I'd really like to get Imp Init so might go for that as the first LM secret instead of SF Conj.

Do DCs scale in line with the save bonuses as CR increases? I've roughly calculated my INT bonus to be around +10 (with +6 INT item and all bonus stats boost going into INT) at level 20 which feels a little... underwhelming. What other ways of boosting INT are there?

Thanks again for any feedback.

 

[Dandu]

Familiar - Toad (for the extra 3 hp)

Take the Rat. +2 to fortitude saves.

Don't use the toad.