What's a Caster Without Spells To Do?

[Bedrockgames]

At low levels ths can be a killer (especially in earlier versions like 1E). With such a low hp total, i think mages are better off sticking with ranged attacks when spells run out. Always handy if you have wand or scroll.

 

[Evenglare]

@ OP : Play 4th edition so this sort of thing doesnt happen. That's what I do.

 

[Grogg of the North]

Yeah, that reminds me of the fight when I (accidentally! That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!) nuked said Sorceress. I spent three rounds hanging in the air, invisible, doing nothing, waiting until the similarly invisible big bad would appear (no See Invisible for either one of us). Rest of the group was busy taking out a bunch of mooks, I was saving the big guns for the BBEG. Doing nothing can be surprisingly effective if it means you get the first shot in against an unprepared BBEG who didn't see you coming. If you can make sure that first shot is also the last...

I nuked the paladin with my warmage. He was surrounded by goblins and was pretty sure he could take my spell. Except for that natural 1 on the save. And the Warmage's Edge. He was at -9 when the druid popped a Cure Minor into him.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Does not compute. How else do you know that the day is over?

Things don't have the decency to stop trying to kill you. =)

 

[ppaladin123]

@ OP : Play 4th edition so this sort of thing doesnt happen. That's what I do.

Pathfinder has unlimited cantrips too...so you can throw globs of acid or rays of frost for 1d3 damage. Still magical and will get you through the first couple of levels until you have enough wands, scrolls, and spell slots to never worry about running out of magic again.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Pathfinder has unlimited cantrips too...so you can throw globs of acid or rays of frost for 1d3 damage. Still magical and will get you through the first couple of levels until you have enough wands, scrolls, and spell slots to never worry about running out of magic again.

1d3 damage is pretty weaksauce, and at those low levels, your BAB is low enough you'll actually miss a lot of touch attacks.

A big part of the Quadratic Wizard is they start off very weak. IMO, this isn't a good thing, hence threads like this, which boil down to "how to make my 2nd-level wizard not suck".

The Pathfinder wizard specializations usually give you something halfway decent though, which you can usually toss a few times per day, based on your Int score. At least PF tried. That's something missing in 3.x though.

 

[Samloyal23]

Try oh, I don't know, how about THINKING. How many times did Gandalf or Merlin actually resort to casting spells? They spent most of their time gathering information and giving advice. Wizards are the nerds of the fantasy world, they have the Big Brains, put them to use! Wizards are advisers, riddle-masters, problem solvers, and lore masters. They KNOW STUFF. Knowledge skills and other intelligence based skills are way under utilized and do a lot to avoid a fight before it even happens.

 

[billd91]

The acid splash may not be super powerful, but it's often better than a dagger since it is more likely to hit and only averages .5 hp less damage. But that's not all you can do. If guidance is on your list, you can be a pretty good support for a fellow PC even if you're out of offense.

 

[Hussar]

I gotta admit, I don't understand the whole, "Pull out your crossbow" thing.

It is totally understandable in AD&D when monsters had maybe 30-40 HP at even high levels. When an ogre only has 19 hp, smacking it for a d6 makes sense. Sure, no worries.

But, in 3e? Why bother? That d6 from your bow (as an example) isn't going to do anything. I mean, an average ogre in 3e has 29 HP. You could shoot arrows at it all day long and not really do much. You've gone from being kinda effective to pretty much wasting your time. D3 acid splash damage? Really? That's the solution?

Do people just stick with really low level monsters all the time where doing nickel damage actually matters? Most critters in 3e have about 10 HP/CR, give or take. By CR 4, nothing a wizard can do with a weapon is going to affect that combat in the slightest.

Other than maybe tanglefoot cheese, but, that's because tanglefoot bags are horribly broken.

Do you honestly feel like you are contributing to combat by hitting something for a d3 points of acid damage?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Every HP matters. Every last one.

My aforementioned buddy killed a dragon with a Ray of Frost- it was the last possible attack that could hit it as it fled. Its next bit of movement would have put it out of range of anyone else in the party.

Going back to my very first game of D&D back in 1977, it was a wizard and my fighter who were the only ones left. After his last spell was used- Magic Missile- he started using his quarterstaff. Damn good thing, too- his dice were hot while mine went stone cold. He whittled away on it with his toothpick while my 2hd sword snicker-snacked on air.

Then it et him, leaving me to fight it alone. With both of us at 4HP, we got simultaneous initiative. He hit, I didn't. (I was hooked.)

Yeah, I lost the fight, but that mage's stick-thwacking out victory within reach.

Also, this:

We were attacked by Harpies, and the quick-thinking Druid hit them with an Entangle as they did a strafing run through some foliage- snagged them all!

That was when the dice went sour.

We only had a few PCs with ranged weaponry- a guy with a bow, a guy with a throwing hammer, one with a sling, and the Wiz had a dagger.

The guy with the Hammer is venturing into the area of the Entangle to retrieve his hammer and the Wiz' dagger.

Most of the to-hit rolls were low. When we did hit, no attack did more than 3HP damage. We finish off the first Harpy just as the Entangle is starting to expire...

So the Druid does Entangle #2...and our futility continues. The dice continue to stay as low as a soldier under fire.

The guy with the Hammer is, by now, having to venture into the area of the Entangle to retrieve arrows that have missed. The PC with the sling is now using rocks.

Harpy #2 is near death but still fighting and Harpy #3 is untouched when Entangle #2 is expiring, so the Druid pops Entangle #3.

My PC and the hammer-thrower are apologizing to the Harpies- in character- for the cruel deaths that we are inflicting upon them...especially after the hammer-thrower retrieved the Wizard's dagger out of the still-living Harpy#2 so the Wizard could throw it again. But he doesn't leave the Entangle area until after he stabs the dying Harpy with that dagger to finish it off.

By now, all of the arrows have been used, either striking the Harpies or being broken downrange. EVERYONE ELSE IS THROWING ROCKS.

The last Harpy dies just before Entangle #3 does.

All of this time, our DM has been flabbergasted- absolutely red faced and flustered- at the action. "F$%^&ing Entangle! That spell is broken!" *rant*rant*rant*

To which the Druid's player huffily responded "Well, it was either that or Create Food & Water! The Harpies could have had a meal and a bath!"

LOLs abounded.