Relearning 4th Edition

[Jacob Marley]

History - In June of 2008 I picked up the newly released PHB, DMG, MM, and Keep on the Shadowfell, as did a friend of mine. Together, over the next couple of months, we played through H1 with the pregens and started into H2. In November of 2008 we set the game aside until after the holiday season. For various reasons we never restarted the game. Since then, I have played in a couple of Encounters events as well as a session or two of a Friday night pick-up game. Aside from those events and a few conversations I have had with [MENTION=78357]Herschel[/MENTION] at our FLGS, the first three years of 4th Edition has largely past me by.

Recent - A few weeks ago I was out to dinner with my girlfriend, her friend, and her friend's boyfriend. During the conversation, it came up that we both play D&D. He mentioned that his group was just starting a new campaign and invited me to join. At first, I was reluctant to join in as I already play in two 3.5 campaigns every other Sunday, as well as playing board games and M:tG a couple of times a month. However, my girlfriend was supportive of the idea as that meant that she could hang out with her friend while we played D&D. So, I agreed.

Now - As I mentioned above, I really have not played that much since 2008 and what I have played has always been pregens. I have access to the PHB (with the errata) and the contents of the first year of Dragon Magazine. What I lack is an understanding of how to build and play a proper character. I understand the basics of the system: roles, AEDU, skill challenges, etc. I also understand basic ideas like putting your highest stat into your primary attack, etc.

I am interested in playing a Wizard. What I am looking for is some recommendations of powers, feats, and skills that would be good to take (given what I have access to) along with any tips or strategies for playing the character.

Thanks!

 

[tiornys]

Generically in building: accuracy is extremely important--you want to hit so you can apply your strong control elements to the enemy. Expertise and Superior Implement (Accurate) are the most common ways to boost this. Initiative is also important, as control is best applied before the enemy gets a chance to act. Unarmored Agility is a very nice defensive boost, although a conservatively played Wizard in some parties can get away without it.

Attributes: most Wizard builds don't need a huge investment in a secondary stat. Consequently, stat allocation is often based on which feats you want to qualify for, and when. The highlights: Enlarge Spell requires Wis 13, and most Wizards will want this as soon as they can fit it in. Dual Implement Spellcaster requires Dex 13, and it's a good feat for Wizards who care about damage, starting in late heroic/early paragon tier. Spell Focus requires Cha 13, and is (obviously) nice if you intend to apply a lot of save ends effects. Improved Tome of Readiness requires Con 13, and is a very strong but cheezy way to use a daily utility in every encounter. Wizard Implement Expertise requires Dex 15 and Wis 15 and isn't available until epic tier. Remember that you get +1 to all stats at paragon and at epic. edit: obviously, your Int is by far the most important--see accuracy note above. Optimizers will insist on a starting 20 for most Wizard builds, though 18 is definitely sufficient.

Generically in play: ideally, you want to team up with the defenders to keep the rest of the monsters off of your strikers and leaders while they carve up their priority targets one at a time. Action denial obviously helps, forced movement puts them next to your defenders or otherwise in poor positions (or helps expose a priority target), and debilitation makes their attacks less threatening. Typically, you want to control as many enemies as possible (which is why Enlarge Spell is so good). This incidentally makes you good at swatting minions, but that's not your primary job.

There are basically three good paths you can take as a Wizard, each with multiple variants. You can go for pure control, where you get a lot of action denial and enemy manipulation but very low damage. You can go for a blaster build, where you deal strong AoE damage with minimal to moderate control elements. Or you can go for a meld, where you get good control and deal decent damage.

The first and third option are fairly straightforward, although there are certainly some tricks out there. The second is extremely easy to do badly; there are some specific options you'll want to exploit in order to be effective with it (alternately, just be a Sorcerer).

So, which of those sounds more appealing to you? Advice for each category will differ by a fair amount.

t~

 

[Jacob Marley]

Thanks for the reply, [MENTION=17633]tiornys[/MENTION]!

Where are the feats Enlarge Spell, Dual Implement, etc. located? I flipped through my PHB and I did not see them.

Right now I am looking at being mostly a control wizard with very little in the way of damage. (I believe that was your first option, tiornys.) In looking at the suggested build in the PHB, it suggests Improved Initiative and Human Perseverance for feats, Cloud of Daggers and Thunderwave for my at-wills, Icy Terrain as my encounter, and Sleep as my daily; are these still good options? Regarding my implement, the orb seems like it should be best (it even mentions Cloud of Daggers in its write-up). Am I right on that?

I was told that the campaign was going to last through Heroic Tier and not to worry about Paragon Paths or Epic Destinies. How much should this change my approach to making a character?

Lastly, the DM suggested I come up with a list of items I might want for the character, any suggestions on what would be good for a pure controller wizard?

Thanks!

 

[Rechan]

Be aware that a good chunk of the PHB1 wizard stuff is sub par. It was put out before the designers had a solid handle on what "Controlling" meant. Initially they thought it meant "hitting multiple targets". That's went by the wayside.

Control is about messing up your enemy. Moving them out of position, and locking them down so they can't move into better positions. The biggest Control effect is status effects. It's also about shaping the battlefield. The best status effect is Dazed. If you can't get Dazed, then prone, weakened or immobile works.

Flaming Sphere. It is a scary, scary daily power for a first level wizard.

It also helps if you have powers that can attack different ability scores. One that goes for Will, one that goes for Ref, and for Fort. The best that goes for Will is likely Phantom Bolt (a ranged psychic attack that moves the target 1? Yessir please). There are also some later wizard powers that are "Smart" scorching bursts - a Will-targeting illusion power that only hits enemies in the burst, as opposed to your allies. I forget which issue of Dragon these illusion powers came out.

If you want to go pure scorched earth, there's one Daily power I cannot recommend enough. Missile Mastery or something like that - basically, it is a minor action that allows you, for the rest of the encounter, to cats a Magic Missile as a minor action. The wizard in our group had this power and he became a striker for the session, given the amount of damage he was routinely putting out.

 

[Spatula]

What kind of wizard do you want? How do you see the character?

Personally, I would make a human for the extra at-will spell. Choose staff or orb mastery and avoid wand mastery. Staff mastery gives you a defense boost, orb mastery helps your important daily effects to stick to a target.

Don't take ray of frost. AoE spells are your friend, but it's good to have a single-target spell or two for those times when you can't avoid hitting your allies. When picking daily spells, look for those that last the encounter (e.g. flaming sphere) or that can take multiple foes out of the fight (sleep).

For feats, there's not much to recommend for casters in the PHB1. Leather armor proficiency is a good defense boost.

 

[Kzach]

I wouldn't say the control wizard is straightforward. A lot of the control elements require staging, timing and intelligent placement. Much harder than a blaster.

 

[tiornys]

I wouldn't say the control wizard is straightforward. A lot of the control elements require staging, timing and intelligent placement. Much harder than a blaster.

Harder to play, I agree. Easier to avoid traps when building, is what I meant.

[MENTION=89537]Jacob Marley[/MENTION], are you limited to the PHB only, or do you have access to other books. Enlarge Spell, Dual Implement Spellcaster, and Improved Tome of Readiness are all from Arcane Power. Superior Implements are from PHB3, as is Unarmored Agility. Various flavors of Expertise feats first appeared in PHB2, with improved versions in Dragon and in both Heroes of the Fallen Lands and Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms.

If you're PHB only, I recommend Scorching Burst, Thunderwave, and your choice of Cloud of Daggers or Magic Missile. Icy Terrain is good, as is Sleep. Improved Initiative, Leather Armor Proficiency, and Action Surge would be my top feat recommendations.

If you have access to full content (such as the online Character Builder), I'd recommend Winged Horde, Beguiling Strands, and one of Storm Pillar, Freezing Blood, or Stone Blood for your at-wills. Hypnotism, Illusory Obstacles or Orbmaster's Incendiary Detonation for your encounter. Sleep or Phantom Chasm for your daily. Enlarge Spell and either Orb Expertise or Staff Expertise for your feats.

t~

 

[Kzach]

The Essentials Mage is what I've been spending a lot of time on lately. Probably the most time I've ever spent on any class build. This is my recommendation.

Firstly, I recommend buying a subscription to DDI. One month if you're not sure you're going to play long-term or not.

Secondly, play an Essentials Mage, not a Wizard. It's listed as "Arcanist (Mage)" and the original Wizard is now "Arcanist (Wizard)".

Choose Enchantment as your first school. Illusion will be your next school.

Go human and put the bonus +2 into INT.

STR 8, DEX 10, CON 11, INT 20, WIS 14, CHA 10.

Background: Auspicious Birth.

Theme: Order Adept (this is important for later on due to the extra spells).

For your level-up ability bonuses ALWAYS put one of the points in Intelligence. The other points can go anywhere but I highly recommend using 4th and 8th to Charisma so that at 11th-level you'll have a 13 Charisma to qualify for Spell Focus.

1st-level feats: World Serpent's Grasp and Enlarge Spell.

1st-level spell choices

Cantrips: Light, Spook, Suggestion.

At-Wills: Hypnotism, Beguiling Strands, Stone Blood.

Encounters: Charm of Misplaced Wrath, Grasping Shadows.

Dailies: Spirit Rend, Sleep.

At 2nd-level take Improved Initiative.

At 4th-level take Expanded Spellbook.

At 6th-level take Staff Expertise.


Try to get Mnemonic Staff as a magical item as well as an Orb of Nimble Thoughts.

Make sure to choose Dispel Magic AND Refocus at 6th-level.


Between Refocus and your Mnemonic Staff, you can swap out two spells for any other two spells in combat. That is awesomely powerful when combined with Order Adept and Expanded Spellbook, not to mention the fact that eventually the Mage can memorise all spells.

Tactics for this build are basically set up around slowing and immobilising targets enmasse and then hitting them enmasse again to add the prone effect from World Serpent's Grasp. It's also about positioning targets with forced movement effects for maximum AOE carnage. Beguiling Strands alone is a battlefield changer when you're targeting Will and pushing anything you hit up to 5 squares.

 

[Dungeoneer]

Thanks for the reply, [MENTION=17633]tiornys[/MENTION]!

Where are the feats Enlarge Spell, Dual Implement, etc. located? I flipped through my PHB and I did not see them.

Talk to your DM about this, but using just the PHB is highly limiting, and a lot of what's in it has been errata-ed. Strongly recommend that you use one of the character builders to create your character. That will give you access to all the kinds of goodies people are mentioning and many more.

If this all seems overwhelming, do what the poster above recommended and create a Mage, the 'new' wizard class from the Essentials line.

Welcome back.

 

[Quickleaf]

Also be aware that many of the wizard spells have changed since printing of the PHB, notably magic missile is auto-hit and several powers have effects on a miss. For the latest errata go to the Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Official D&D Updates Archive).