Please criticize and give advices to my 1st-level Wizard Build

[Nifft]

I still say Thunderwave isn't really that great. It sounds awesome in some theoretical sense but truthfully its very hard to target a blast 3 into a melee and not hit your allies. The push also sounds cool but it usually has tactically marginal consequences. Pushing an enemy that is in melee with you just means they get to charge you next time their turn comes up.

Thunderwave has saved my Wizard's butt several times. I've used it to push enemies into pits, and to push flankers off of the Fighter (so he could retreat). I've used it to push enemies away from my Wizard (so I could then go run behind the Fighter). It's also good that it targets Fortitude, since the most frequent critters who make it into melee range with my Wizard have been Skirmishers, and those have a low Fort defense.

It's an awesome power that's brilliant in practice.

Forget about Armor Proficiency. Your a wizard, you're squishy, accept that. Take Shield as your utility spell at level 2. It will usually deflect the worst damage and all you need to do is survive the combat as you will almost never bottom out on surges. Use cover wisely (remember your allies grant it vs ranged attacks) and you'll be OK. Later on you can worry about your defenses but a +2 AC for a feat is not worth it for a non-melee character at level 1.

My Wizard has won our party several fights by being the last dude standing. His HP suck, so his resilience is almost entirely due to not being hit. Armor helped greatly, as did the Shield spell, and his Staff of Defense class feature.

In my experience, getting +2 to AC for a single feat is a damn good use of that feat.

I will agree that flaming sphere is an excellent spell, and would might be a good contender for the go to first level daily. Im kind of surpised that no one has advocated a sleep spell, however. I know sleep is risky, in that if they make their first save you end up with a daily for a one round slow, but the possiblily of infliciting the strongest status effect on the game on mulitple targets is amazing.

The truth of D&D is that monsters save more often than not, and powerful monsters -- the ones you actually care about putting down -- save VERY frequently. I tried to like Sleep, but it was usually a waste of an action.

It's a bad spell -- it is either mostly worthless (for most PCs), or utterly broken (in the hands of a twinked-out Orb Wizard). It should be removed from the game.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Destil]

There's almost no reason not to take Winged Horde if you're allowed to by the DM. It has all of the upsides you could ask for (Psychic, enemies only, no AoO kicker) and no down-sides. It's flat out better than scorching burst in every way. The only argument may be to get a mix of fort/reflex/will, but there's other good reflex-targeting powers.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Thunderwave has saved my Wizard's butt several times. I've used it to push enemies into pits, and to push flankers off of the Fighter (so he could retreat). I've used it to push enemies away from my Wizard (so I could then go run behind the Fighter). It's also good that it targets Fortitude, since the most frequent critters who make it into melee range with my Wizard have been Skirmishers, and those have a low Fort defense.

It's an awesome power that's brilliant in practice.

My Wizard has won our party several fights by being the last dude standing. His HP suck, so his resilience is almost entirely due to not being hit. Armor helped greatly, as did the Shield spell, and his Staff of Defense class feature.

In my experience, getting +2 to AC for a single feat is a damn good use of that feat.

Yes, but you won't GET into those situations if you exercise good battlefield control beforehand. This is a point that seems lost on many wizard players. If the enemy is in your wizard's face and outflanking your allies, then the wizard has already failed his primary mission.

I'm not saying getting a +2 AC for a feat is BAD. In fact I agree it is a great use of a feat, at the right time. Its not worth compromising your character's main function in order to get it though. There will of course always be situations where the wizard is getting pummeled by artillery or a lurker pops up, etc. I just think armor prof is one of those things I'd aim for as a 3rd feat after Improved Initiative and probably Implement Expertise (kind of a toss up there and really starts to depend on the sorts of opponents you face).

Unlike other classes the wizard really seems to benefit a LOT from focusing laser-like on his role.

 

[Nifft]

Yes, but you won't GET into those situations if you exercise good battlefield control beforehand.

I see. The goblins that came from the cave behind me did that because I'm a bad player. How helpful of you.

I'm not saying getting a +2 AC for a feat is BAD. In fact I agree it is a great use of a feat, at the right time. Its not worth compromising your character's main function in order to get it though.

It's not the first feat I'd take either, but it is a good one, and I have enough faith in the reader to be able to sort them himself, once he knows which few are really good.

He won't be taking the Shield spell at 1st level either, so you were actually discussing his whole early progression. In that context, Leather Armor is a damn good feat.

Cheers, -- N

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I see. The goblins that came from the cave behind me did that because I'm a bad player. How helpful of you.

It's not the first feat I'd take either, but it is a good one, and I have enough faith in the reader to be able to sort them himself, once he knows which few are really good.

He won't be taking the Shield spell at 1st level either, so you were actually discussing his whole early progression. In that context, Leather Armor is a damn good feat.

Cheers, -- N

Eh, well, if you got ambushed from behind then SOMETHING didn't go right !

Leather armor is a decent feat, I just look at it this way. At level 1 you're pretty limited and you need to do your primary job well. You can't cover all the angles. At level 2 you'll pick up a utility and shield is usually the best one to have and it will help cover your AC (plus in some ways its almost better than a +2 AC since it helps all your defenses and its +4, though admittedly only for one round).

My point really is you pretty much have to play the odds at level 1. Its a choice between taking a feat that will help you in EVERY situation like Implement Expertise or at least pretty much every encounter like Improved Initiative vs taking a feat that will help you out once in a while like Leather Proficiency. Odds are if the character focuses on doing his controller function to the max he'll be less likely to even need the +2 AC so its not like its really an either/or choice. Offense is the best defense, especially at the first level where you have the greatest chance of things going wrong if you don't hit etc.

IMHO this is also why I don't care for staff wizards. I think its the weakest option because it doesn't contribute to the character's role.

 

[kerbarian]

I was also building a 1st-level wizard and looking at feats. For some reason, I don't like Improved Initiative. It's a solid feat, and a wizard probably gets the most use out of it, so I put together some numbers to see if I could justify not taking it.

For my example, I'm looking at a 1st-level human wizard with 20 Int, Winged Horde, Enlarge Spell, and one other feat. Trying to be generous to Improved Initiative, the wizard can attack 3 enemies with Winged Horde if he goes first, and on subsequent actions he can attack 2 enemies with enlarged Winged Horde. The example combat lasts 5 rounds, and the wizard effectively gets a free round if he wins initiative vs. the monsters (also slightly generous to Improved Initiative).

Assuming a 50% chance to hit, the first round average damage (if he wins initiative) is 12.75, and on the other rounds it's 6.5. The best case for Improved Initiative is that it turns a relative -2 initiative (38.25% chance to win initiative) into a +2 (61.75%).

So the baseline damage for the combat is 12.75 * .3825 + 5 * 6.5 = 37.38.
The damage with Improved Initiative is 12.75 * .6175 + 5 * 6.5 = 40.37.

Improved Initiative is worth 3 extra damage, on average, for that example combat.

For comparison, Implement Expertise increases all damage by 10% (55% vs. 50% chance to hit), which is worth 3.7 extra damage in the example combat.

A +1 damage feat (Dark Fury, or Weapon Focus for a staff wizard) increases the first-round average damage to 14.25 and the later damage to 7.5, for overall damage of 14.25 * .3825 + 5 * 7.5 = 42.95. That's 5.6 extra damage for the combat.

For simplicity, I've assumed all the monsters act on the same initiative, and I've ignored crits and encounter and daily powers. Ignoring encounter and daily powers is definitely an issue when you're talking about a feat that gives you a better chance for a big first-round spell. For a first-level wizard, I don't think there are any encounter area spells that are significantly better than Winged Horde, but it could help for a daily.

So I'd say that if you're planning to use an area daily (e.g. Sleep), then Improved Initiative is a good feat for that one combat per day. Most of the time, there are better choices. It's still a solid feat for a wizard -- just not one of the first I'd pick up.

Of course, this would all start to change once you get beyond 1st level. There are better spells available for that first round, but there are also other feats that start becoming more attractive, like Dual Implement Spellcaster.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Interesting analysis Kerberian

I think it misses the intangible dimension though. The real purpose of the wizard is to disrupt the DM's battle plan. Getting in there first and slapping some nice conditions on some of the enemy or changing the terrain of the battlefield can have a HUGE impact. Its not possible of course to quantify that in terms of numbers. In fact I think this is a core issue with people's dissatisfaction with wizards is that of all classes the wizard is the one that can least be quantified in general.

I think of it like this. Suppose that first action you get to take is to drop say Storm Pillar into a spot where there is a choke point that controls access to the enemy being able to move some of their forces up to attack right away. Those forces may have to take the long way around or be blocked from being able to threaten the party's flank or rear. Even if its not that clear cut if you can delay 2 enemy melee combatants out of say 4 in the encounter for a round that can deny the enemy a good amount of action economy and make it a lot easier for the party ranger, rogue, etc to get in and flank those monsters that do manage to move up.

Its not a level of advantage that gives certainty in any way, you could still roll bad for your initiative and get nothing out of the feat or you could miss or there could simply be a situation where there's no real advantage to going first.

So yeah, I don't think Improved Initiative is decisively the only best choice of feat. Implement Expertise will always be very tempting of course and you can hardly go wrong taking it. Enlarge Spell is a pretty strong choice too. Arcane Reserves definitely deserves consideration as well. Some of the other racial arcane feats are interesting as well, like Twist the Arcane Fabric for an Eladrin wizard or Elven Arcane Precision for an elf wizard or Action Surge for a human wizard.

Its cool though, there's no one perfect formula for a build

 

[Nifft]

Eh, well, if you got ambushed from behind then SOMETHING didn't go right !

Yep, things not going right happens in combat.

And that was me doing something wrong because ... why?

At level 2 you'll pick up a utility and shield is usually the best one to have and it will help cover your AC (plus in some ways its almost better than a +2 AC since it helps all your defenses and its +4, though admittedly only for one round).

If Shield covered all your defenses, it would be even better than it already is -- what it actually does is give you a +4 to AC and Reflex.

The Staff interrupt is the one that covers all of your defenses.

-- N

 

[Danceofmasks]

I'm playing a lv 13 staff wizard at the moment.
Leather + Staff of Ruin + Defensive Staff + Dual Implement Spellcaster + Shield + Wizard's Escape + Mass Resistance ...

It takes a AC-orientated defender to even compete with staff wizard on the subject of being nigh impossible to kill.

 

[Turtlejay]

The issue I have with you analysis Kerbarian is that a wizard's role is not to do moar damage. Sure, every party member contributes damage, and that is important, but you should be more concerned about your role. Controllers have a tough-to-define role, one that sometimes means minion killer, and sometimes means condition creater. The root of it is, you harass the enemy. You make it hard for him to do his job well by splitting and scattering them. Damage is part of it, but not the whole picture.

Jay