Pathfinder 1E First pathfinder character

[eurytion]

I've played a couple of times with some friends from school using a pre-gen character from the beginner box and need help making my own. I was thinking either a wizard or sorcerer. Not sure which would be better or what race to choose. Also if I go with a wizard i don't know what school to choose...any ideas

 

[Donal Graeme]

Personally, I am a huge fan of Wizards. Pathfinder made the Sorcerer a lot better than it was in 3.5, but you just can't beat the flexibility of a Wizard. The real question is, what kind of Wizard do you want to be? A blaster sounds cool, but isn't as useful as it would appear to be. Since you are new to this, I am going to recommend a support role Wizard, whose job is to back up the other party members and provide a flexible magical response to any situation.

Since I don't know if you are using point-buy or an array system, I won't bother with listing ability scores. Instead, I will offer as much other advice as I can.

Class: Wizard

Race: Elf- Elven Magic and Immunities make for great wizards

Favored School: Conjuration- Conjuration is arguably the strongest school, and has a host of useful abilities. Plus summoned monsters are just plain great.

Prohibited Schools: Necromancy and Divination- Necromancy has too many evil spells in it to a good choice for anyone who is good, and is still questionable for a neutral character. Divination spells, while useful, are with few exceptions mostly for out of combat, in which case the double spell slot taken isn't going to cripple you.

First Level Feat: Spell Focus (Conjuration)- this enables you to get Augment Summoning at third level.

Arcane Bond: Familiar (I'm not a fan of bonded items, the penalty if they are lost/stolen/destroyed/etc. is huge) Raven or bat are solid choices- a Raven can speak a language, which makes it useful for working with the party, and a bat has blindsense, which can help when dealing with invisible opponents and many illusions.

1st Level Spells: Mage Armor, Grease, Summon Monster I are the obvious choices.

Without knowing your intelligence modifier, I won't know exactly how many other spells you will know at first level. Here are the others to add, in descending order of importance:

Magic Missile, Color Spray, Shield, Charm Person, Enlarge Person

 

[tylermalan]

Welcome!

So, on the "optimization" front, Donal has got your ticket. He's right enough about all of what he says, and following his advice is a good idea.

But my advice would be to play whatever you want! When I started playing D&D, I thought it would be so awesome to play an Elven Rogue, and that's what I did! And it WAS awesome! You'll have the most fun, in my opinion, if you just go with whatever strikes your fancy the most.

 

[IronWolf]

But my advice would be to play whatever you want! When I started playing D&D, I thought it would be so awesome to play an Elven Rogue, and that's what I did! And it WAS awesome! You'll have the most fun, in my opinion, if you just go with whatever strikes your fancy the most.

I agree with this. Worry less about optimization and more about what character concept sounds cool to you. It will be more fun to play in the long run.

 

[marcielle]

Optimization is REALLY not that relevant unless you hit the high/low ends or are in an intentionally high Op game where you generally fight things near double your level and crazy stuff like that. Eg. Max Op Wiz/ Thrown together monk.
You should (usually) have a fun time regardless of your Op level so don't let that influence you.

Don't forget Archtypes. Some of those play RADICALLY different.

For wizard schools you might wanna look at your group.
Unless you guys are careful and coordinate.Evocation + lots of meelee = Friendly Fire.

Conjuration can bog down your battles if your group is large( multiple animal companions/more than 5 members/ summoner)

Necromancy can get you in trouble if you have a Paladin on board.

Other than that, let Rule of Cool be your guide.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

I also have to voice my opinion in favor of what you WANT to play and what you think would be the most FUN for you. My first character was a half-elven ranger and that was over a decade ago, I still remember him fondly. I echo the others in saying that you don't need to min/max or optimize your build if it's your first time playing a character, half the fun is figuring it out for yourself and immersing yourself in the books to see what the class you pick can do.

BUT, if you want to optimize there are plenty of guides and handbooks out there written by guys who theory-craft and put the stuff to use to try to break the game or have the most powerful characters imaginable.

 

[Donal Graeme]

I guess I feel a little silly after reading everyone else's responses, as I had written a short blurb about playing what you want but dropped it to reduce the wall of text I had already written.

What sounds fun to you is the ultimate expression of "optimal." Play whatever character you like that your GM is ok with, and you can't go wrong.

 

[eurytion]

I kind of worded my first post weird. I wasn't asking for what to pick I was asking for the differences between things. Besides the number of spells and having to prepare the spells what is the difference between a sorcerer and a wizard. And what is the pros and cons of the different schools.

 

[Derfmancher]

eurytion, The biggest difference to me is that a sorcerer casts from memory and does not carry around a spell book. In general terms a wizard has more spells available but a sorcerer is more focused. However wizards can also be very focused indeed. I would say it would be difficult to make a utility sorcerer effective however.

As far as schools and the various benefits it depends entirely on what sort of caster you want to play. Necromancy is commonly taken as an opposition school (at least in the games I have seen) because the character dislikes the practice in general.

Bloodlines are the sorcerer counterpart to schools. They dictate what spells you will have, and how your character will play.

 

[kitsune9]

Go with the wizard. Given that there's only four base classes in the beginner box, that's what I'd go with. My second choice would be the fighter.