Ability increase for Wizard: Int or Dex?

[billd91]

Meh. I'd go with Dex and consider becoming an arcane trickster. He's clearly got talent potential mixing rogue and wizardry.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Thanks all. Now I feel like the guy on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" who polls the audience and 98% of them vote for the answer which was obvious to everyone except the buffoon in the spotlight.

Its only a no-brainer from a mechanical standpoint. From a character concept perspective, there could be ample room for examination of this question.

For the record, you're reading the words of a guy currently playing a Sorcerer who wears scale armor for AC21 and is hauling around a Maul... Suboptimal? In many ways, yes...but it captures the PC concept quite well.

 

[Darklone]

For the record, you're reading the words of a guy currently playing a Sorcerer who wears scale armor for AC21 and is hauling around a Maul... Suboptimal? In many ways, yes...but it captures the PC concept quite well.

Reminds me of a real dull and slow char of a friend who rolled high str, dex and con ... and cha. Played a sorcerer with 11 hp at level 1 and a greataxe (Toughness and Greataxe proficiency).

I was surprised how well he did.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Reminds me of a real dull and slow char of a friend who rolled high str, dex and con ... and cha. Played a sorcerer with 11 hp at level 1 and a greataxe (Toughness and Greataxe proficiency).

I was surprised how well he did.

Thats almost what is going on with this PC. In this case, the high stats were Str, Con, and Cha (roll 4d6, drop a dice, then arrange). Since I had already decided beforehand he was going to be casting no-somatic component spells and using a breath weapon, wearing heavy armor was a no-brainer. Especially since he was a no-brainer (his Int is sub 10).

The only problem he had was when he rushed to the defense of a disabled comrade being charged by 2 largish skeletons, and got dropped to exactly 0 on the first blow from the first one while the other continued its charge...

 

[Dingleberry]

My wizard's an academic who is just starting her "field research," so I could easily justify increasing Dex simply by the fact that she's out doing stuff instead of hunched over tomes 24x7. That said, for an academic, increasing Int does make a lot more sense.

I think I have a bit of StreamOfTheSky's inherent discomfort with odd ability scores, plus I don't know if this campaign will even last to level 8 to actually achieve the 22 Int benefits.

If nothing else, I've proven to myself that my original plan of playing something I normally wouldn't (a wizard) is expanding my knowledge of the game.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My wizard's an academic who is just starting her "field research," so I could easily justify increasing Dex simply by the fact that she's out doing stuff instead of hunched over tomes 24x7. That said, for an academic, increasing Int does make a lot more sense.

Well, depending on the particular academic institution (or the PC's particular teachers or mentors), he could have been trained in a regimen that included rigorous physical activity that played to his strengths- in this case, Dex-boosting exercises and drills, or participation in a school-sponsored solo or team sport.

Once he graduates, perhaps his love of that regimen means that he continues to improve both his Dex and Int over time, optimizing neither, but still becoming formidable in both areas.

Perhaps he'd even choose spells for which boosting his Dex makes sense, like those that required ranged touch attacks (rays, orbs, etc.). A boost of his Int still gives him better DCs and more spells, but the Dex boost makes him more accurate.

A RW analog of this would be the career of the late, great guitarist Shawn Lane. Known as one of the fastest (and innovative) guitarists of all time, one of his secrets was that he played piano just as much as guitar. He found that his practice time on piano helped him with his guitar playing.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhkbSBxPYcU&feature=related]YouTube - Shawn Lane talks about speed (Radisson Hotel, 17th Apr 1993)[/ame]