All Wizard Party? How does it survive early levels?

[RUMBLETiGER]

Everyone knows that Wizards weild the power to warp reality itself, bend the world and those in it to their will, etc, etc.

Everyone also knows they're really squishy, most especially at level 1.

Any suggestions for how a 4 Wizard party might be built to survive the first few levels without some osrt of Meat Shield class?

I've considered either really pumping Initiative to kill enemies before they get a chance to react, or some form of rapid summoning to gain a meatshield. Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[Set]

Any suggestions for how a 4 Wizard party might be built to survive the first few levels without some osrt of Meat Shield class?

You mention Rapid Summoning, which suggests you might have access to Unearthed Arcana stuff. A conjuror and / or a necromancer (with the bone minion option) can definitely help with some of that. An enchanter moving into a thrallherd or leadership role (and using charm person and diplomacy and a hireling or two, until he's got the good stuff) can also fill that gap.

More than one person stacking up sleep, hypnotism and / or color spray can leave your all-wizard group woefully unprepared for an undead or vermin or swarm-y encounter, 'though, so I'd caution against having both an illusionist *and* an enchanter in the group.

Enchanter (headed for some minion-master-y role), Conjuror (rapid summoning), Necromancer (skeletal minion), Evoker (headed for force missile mage / argent savant?) might be a fun mix.

 

[GameDaddy]

Potions, Scrolls, & Magic Items?... as well as followers and hirelings of course...

 

[Crothian]

They are wizards, so play them smart. Don't get in over your head. Don't get cornered. Always have an escape option. It would probably help if they avoided serious dungeon crawling for a while.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Pick your battles, don't let your battles pick you. By controlling the where and when your party fights, you improve your odds. Think of The 300...but with a Disney ending.

Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em- running away can be your best option.

Use gear to improve your offense & defense.

Bring your AK-47s to the knife fight. Moreso than any other party demographic, the adage about offense being your best defense is key for a low-level all wizard party- win quickly, or go home...to Valhalla.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

How might level 1 Wizards prepare to survive 1 or 2 serious-but-level-appropriate hits in the process of fighting or retreating?

 

[Celebrim]

Hire a few 0th level men at arms as meat shields.
Use that int to cross class into a few levels of animal handling, and buy a few war dogs.
You're all likely to have good dex. If you aren't casting a spell, you should be providing fairly effective ranged fire.
Lots of crowd control spells. Sleep is particularly effective in the all wizard party, at least, so long as you only encounter things that need sleep. Color spray is also pretty good, though it has a devestatingly short range and in practice can get you into trouble when it randomly doesn't work and now you are in melee.
Consider taking Toughness as a feat. I'm skeptical of the all wizard concept because at least at my table, pure arcane casters typically don't survive. If you don't take Toughness, the most success I've seen is burning a level of spellcasting ability start as a 1st level fighter (with attributes of a wizard), and then full wizard from then on out. The extra hit points have in practiced proved essential to surviving the low levels.
As soon as you have XP, burn it to make scrolls for all of your utility spells so as to maximize your offensive power.
Make sure you have at least one person who can make wonderous items and/or rings because, unless your DM is particularly generous with magic items or has magic marts, you won't have enough defensive items to go around.

Beyond that, it's more a matter of what rules abuses that your DM allows. There is a ton of brokenness out there to abuse.

 

[Dandu]

Have good dex, mage armor, throw up an obscuring mist (miss chances affect attacks, not necessarily spells), and cast Grease and Sleep at the enemy until they are disabled enough that you can coup de grace them with a scythe?

 

[gwyllgi]

you'd have to have at least one minionmancer, which without the artificer leaves necromancer, if al of you take the variant class features presented in UA i think you all should be specialized enough that there are a wide variety of things you can do to survive, You don't need omni wizards because if you all work as a group you'll do just as good as one, but with more hit points and the ability to be in four places at once.

 

[xigbar]

Abrupt Jaunt helps. Summoning is preferred at low levels, and creep up behind the summons with an Illusionist to color spray the enemies.