How do you *play* your Vancian wizard?

[Empirate]

I actually like to spend my resources whenever I get a chance with my current Wizard. At lower levels, I couldn't handle more than maybe two encounters with spells anyway, so the other party members didn't even expect me to keep an ace up my sleeve. With slow levelling, I now have enough spell slots to always be able to do something useful with my magic. Which just means I now have the luxury to prepare some pure utility spells from time to time.

In combat, I like to keep things short and to the point. Every round the opposition gets to take another turn is a round fraught with risk. So I usually try to either render them completely ineffective or just blow them to smithereens quickly (slight blasting focus here). Our group uses some houserules including a morale check for enemies, and quickly destroying lots of baddies in a flash of impressive magical energy has turned the tide more than once for this reason. I also specialize in taking out bosses as quickly as possible, who are often a grave danger to everybody else.

In a word, I like to go nova sooner rather than later. It can actually save on party-wide resources in a big way: less healing spent by the Cleric, less arrows spent by the Ranger, less spells spent by me and the Sorceress (who is lower level than me and a player with little D&D experience, so her actions tend to count for less). If I'm less useful in a later fight, at least the rest of the party is still able to pick up the slack because they didn't suffer too much damage in the first few encounters of the day.


I must admit that this playstyle simply seemed more fitting for my character than the "magical miser" thing some people have going on: an impulsive, storm-themed Evoker.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I must admit that this playstyle simply seemed more fitting for my character than the "magical miser" thing some people have going on: an impulsive, storm-themed Evoker.

There is nothing wrong with playing like that, ESPECIALLY since it fits with the "hotheaded blaster" stereotype. Despite my expressed playstyle, I actually have a PC in a now-defunct campaign that would have had an element of that profligacy.

Adragon Von Basten was my first "Mage-Brute": a PHB Sorcerer with a high Cha and Str but low Wis...and who wore scale mail and swung a maul. He was a hothead. He would burn his resources pretty quickly, not just as as a spellcaster, but also- due to his Draconic heritage that included a breath weapon- by breathing gouts of lightning.

 

[Empirate]

I always found the idea of a Stalwart Battle Sorcerer in heavy armor very interesting. Making use mainly of an Improved Familiar, Arcane Strike, heritage feats, and wands might make actual spellcasting wholly unnecessary.

Not the most effective character, but an interesting mechanic and flavor!

 

[Alzrius]

I usually GM, so it's been a while since I last played a spellcaster, and that one was a mage, so I'm not sure you could call it a truly Vancian caster.

It was an interesting experience though, the long "charge-time" to cast a spell meant that my character was actually less effective in combat than a "normal" arcane spellcaster (let alone compared to the fighter in the party), but was exactly the opposite out of combat (where spending a round to gather the spell didn't matter).

As such, I spent more time trying to learn utility spells and defense spells than other kinds...something which the GM, very wisely, kept restricted over the course of the campaign so that my character didn't end up altering the entire game-universe.

 

[Herzog]

I rarely play true spellcasters. Most of the time, I try to power-build fighters, rogues, and in some instances, bards. There's just too much fun in that, and the chance you outperform other (spellcasting) characters is minimal.
I think adding spellcasting can help in some of these builds, but I won't go into that here.

I currently have one caster in play, and she's a sorcerer/wizard/ultimate magus/<some other stuff not applicable to the discussion>.

If there's one thing that an UM has going for it, its the large list of available spell slots. Especially when adding a ring of wizardry....

She has two area's of focus:
1. Long-term (24h) buffs that make sure she has as much protection up as possible, leaving her actions during combat free for combat
2. Blasting. Both AoE and single-target spells, with a decent spread over different kinds of energy damage.

This is in large part due to the fact we also have a Druid and a Shaper(Psion) in the party. We quickly realised we needed to determine who was responsible for what kind of support (blasting, buffing, problem solving...) and I ended up with blasting and some minor problem solving.

In play, I usually try to determine the best spells for the occasion (also depending on whether our warforged fighter has already charged into melee). If nothing appropriate pops up, I skip my turns (taking cover if appropriate or getting into a better position) and use my 'free' time (while the rest is taking their turns) to skim through my list of scrolls, available spells, and other items, to see if something I haven't used in a while could come in handy in the current situation.

It's still fun to suddenly use an item you picked up ages ago that the DM has totally forgotten about in combat, assuming of course it doesn't ruin the encounter for the DM.

I still remember the encounter that kind of bummed our DM (and I still feel sorry for him): Kraken rolling natural '1' on saving throw against polymorph.... That was one angry goldfish

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I always found the idea of a Stalwart Battle Sorcerer in heavy armor very interesting. Making use mainly of an Improved Familiar, Arcane Strike, heritage feats, and wands might make actual spellcasting wholly unnecessary.

Not the most effective character, but an interesting mechanic and flavor!

Well, Adragon was this, but with a standard PHB Sorc! He may not have been optimized, but he was fun and effective!

His spells were either:

1. Utility spells that you didn't need much in combat
2. Lacking in somatic components
3. Stilled*
4. Lightning spells he was going to throw anyway, damn the ASF!!!!*. (And all of his attack spells were lightning based...)

* There WAS a special house rule in play: you could learn a spell with a Metamagically effect on it permanently as a spell of the appropriate level without taking the feat. So an Energy Substituted Burning Hands with lightning could be learned as a 1st level spell distinct from its normal verion, and a Stilled Energy Substituted Burning Hands could be learned as a distinct spell as well.

The regular Metamagic feats were still available. Which means you had the choice of freedom of situational flexibility via the feats or the ability to take feats you really wanted while locking yourself into unusual versions of common spells.

 

[Grogg of the North]

With casters like wizards and clerics I tend to fall into the "I might need it later" trap. Saving resources unless I feel we need them.

If I'm a spontaneous caster like a warmage or a bard, I'll just sling spells all over the place. I've got more in reserve and I don't have to worry about casting my only prepared fireball.

 

[Empirate]

Bards don't usually have such a huge reserve...