Best feats for a Wizard

[fusangite]

So Shaylon, what feat did you pick in the end?

 

[Thanee]

IME, the best spells to scribe are those that you don't tend to cast during a fight. Detect Magic, Identify, Knock, Invisibility. Mage Armor is also a prime candidate, since the duration lets you spend a scroll in the morning and be armored for the rest of the day without commiting those precious spell slots to it.

Mage Armor would only be good at a high caster level, which makes it more costly.

The best spells are those, which you don't need often, but when you need them, you often do not have the 15 minutes to quickly learn them into one of your open slots (which every wizard should have every day from moderate levels onward). For example, Comprehend Language or True Strike.

Also, naturally, spells, which do not depend on the caster level too much. Haste or Fly, for example, work pretty well from a scroll.

Bye
Thanee

 

[ARandomGod]

regarding potions there purpose is for you to craft an item that doesn't require an action by you to activate. And for the wizard I generally agree you don't save much money but for clerical potions enough helaing potions are used that you can save money in making them voer buying them.

True enough for a cleric. But not a mage...

As for wands if its a low level wand yeah you don't save much just a few hundred GP here and there, but its purpose is to make 50 charges of somehting in a short period of time. i personally think you can get by fine with scrolls because I generally don't need 50 of a spell at low levels and at high levels I'll just take craft staff. Which now that it adds the users stat mod instead of the base stat mod to the DC actually can be useful for a backup for a wider range of things. Still I generally agree with you and almost never make charged items except for a few scrolls here and there.

But wands are low level by definition. Staves are a different story altogether. Maybeif they let wands work at the level of/woth the stats of the person using the wand it would be worth it. But not as is.

And for metamagic, sure wizards can design spells but design a metamagiced spell not so much. I'm not going to let someone design a silent D-Door, all spells at there base should have some component at least without metamagic helping. Empower, um no empower lets you do 15d6 at 10th level no other spell in the game lets you do that I wouldn't let someone research that. Spells consistently do something like 1d6 per level not 5d6+1d6 a level or 1.5d6 a level.

Spells don't entirely do d6 per level, there are exceptions. Notably higher levels. For instance, look at Meteor Swarm. 8d6 bludgeoning to target(s) and 24d6 fire in an area. That's 32d6... and 8d6 doesn't have a save for half. That's only a ninth level spell, so castable at 17th level... significantly more than d6/level. It is, case in point, more than 1.5xd6 per level, even at level 20. Just pointing out that while some spells do d6/level, not all do.

And it's not even only higher level spells. Scorching ray, for instance, does 4d6 at level three. That is, in fact, exactly what you would get if you were to take d6 per level and multiply it by 1.5.

Actually, having a spell be 50% more damaging at two levels higher is a fairly reasonable approximation of the overall power levels of spells. In general, two levels higher is supposed to be MORE than 50% more powerful. Supposed to be.

Quicken effects maybe for some defense spells, but there are no quickened attack spells I'm aware of. The few times quicken is built into a spell its for a spell that would lose its usefullness if it couldn't be done almost like a reflex.

Quicken spells rock. The only way to cast two spells in one round. Which is the point of that ability, as I understand it. Still, that's a pretty expensive ability.

Chain spell for non damaging spells well I guess I'd allow research of mass spells, but if you're going to apply chain spell to lets say 8 spells routinely researchng 8 spells takes a lot of time and money a feat might be the better idea especially since you can apply it to ant single target ranged spell you invent later on. For damaging spells I'd let them invent it at a better level than you can with the feat since they screwed up on that end.

Yea, chain spell... that would be a hard item to research and cost effectively. On the other hand, researching spells takes NO time or money... IF you use your two free spells per level. Where do you think those spells come from? You're in the middle of a dungeon, you have been all along... you obviously managed to research them. (smirk)

don't get me wrong metamagic is certainly a much better option for sorcerers but wizards can still get a good use out of it.

Yea, they can. But in general I say they get the most use of them via the Craft Rod feat, as opposed to taking an actual metamagic feat. You shouldn't need to research (or modify via metamagic) many of your spells if you're a wizard. You should just get appropriate spells for your level. You can know as many as you want, so why not?

So Shaylon, what feat did you pick in the end?

I second that question!

 

[dastardly740]

Well, to contribute to the magic item portion of this discussion. My party didn't have a Cleric, so I took one for the team and made a multiclass Wizard/Cleric, but will only advance the Cleric to no more than 3rd level (I like DweomerKeeper) we are around 11th level now, and I have made 2 cure light wounds wands for City of the Spider Queen. Craft Wand can create 50 cure light wounds for 375GP. Scribe Scroll 50 cure light wounds scrolls is 625GP. 50 potions are 1250GP. And, cure moderate wounds wand is 100d8+150 total healing for 2250GP. Cure light wounds is 50d8+50 for 375gp. Put another way Cure Light Wounds wands result in 300d8+300 healing for 2250. This is needed given our tank has a zillion (ok about over 90) HP now, and even the rogue and monk are up there. More effective would probably be a unlimited use cure light wounds wondrous item... Gloves of Healing perhaps? At 900GP. This seems unbalancing as 120 to 540 hit points per 10 minutes would pretty much stop hit points from being a scarce resource.

Regarding not taking craft wand because craft staff is better. Any spell in a staff has to have a minimum caster level of 8. Therefore, a staff with spells where caster level isn't that important can be very costly. Wands are more economical in this case although it does cost a feat that could be used elsewhere.

There was a mention of Pearls of Power, while the spells I put in wands are typically ones where more than 3 castings before rest are probable, and pearls of power just don't have the same economics in that case, plus you still have to have prepared an instance of the spell for a Pearl of Power using up a spell slot.

As for feats, I took improved initiative, but we started in 3.0 and that seemed ok at the time. If Complete Arcane had existed collegiate spellcaster would have been ideal. I also took point blank shot, I am regretting that now, because it is pretty useless at this level, since my attack isn't good enough to do much to anything anyways. The wand of magic missiles has been useful. But, at this point, more spell resistant foes have made it less effective.

Future feats practiced spell caster (for multiclass), craft arms and armor, craft staff, (Greater) Spell Penetration, Quicken?. As for craft arms and armor if you are proficient in a missile weapon and your DM allows it... A (Cross)bow of true strike +1 could be a decent back up weapon even if it can only be used every other round. At least now the wizard will hit. At higher levels consider making it one or two of flaming, acid, cold, sonic, holy, or force as desired. 2d6, 3d6, or even 4d6 damage every other round could be useful. Maybe spend the money to add Quickened True Strike, but I will have to see how useful the unquickened version is vs available spells. Make the bow holy and a few silver and cold iron arrows can help with those pesky demons and devils.

 

[Klaus]

Really Mage Armor? a spell that you have to cast every day??
that is throwing a lot of cash away at low levels. and detect magic? what else are you doing with your cantrips?

I will agree with the other choices, and include such things as mount, and comprehend language, stuff that wont crop up everyday but might be needed in special circumstance.

For zero-level spells, Acid Orb (coupled with my suggestion of adding 1 to 3 levels of rogue, this simple 0-level spell can pack 1d3+1d6 to 1d3+2d6 acid damage). Also, Disrupt Undead (1d6 ray vs. undead, but YMMV) and Light ('cause there are times when you just need to see your surroundings really fast).

 

[Chimera]

I have to disagree with the idea that Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot are only useful if you're going to be a ray specialist. I don't know about you guys, but I cannot count how many times my Wizard character has used his crossbow in combat! Especially at lower levels where I'm more likely to run out of spells.

 

[Evilhalfling]

For zero-level spells, Acid Orb (coupled with my suggestion of adding 1 to 3 levels of rogue, this simple 0-level spell can pack 1d3+1d6 to 1d3+2d6 acid damage). Also, Disrupt Undead (1d6 ray vs. undead, but YMMV) and Light ('cause there are times when you just need to see your surroundings really fast).

I missed that you had advocated that - I would certainly agree with this rational. I even made a Mage/thief/- future assasin (never played, as campaign went a diff direction) with that as a key concept, as a wand of acid orb was within starting gold limits.

 

[Klaus]

That is one cool build. But I'd have to write a better wiz/rog Prestige Class than the Arcane Trickster (ranged Legerdemain? bleh), like I did with the Bladesinger, which became the Battledancer: http://www.fierydragon.com/DB/DB_DEC03_2003.htm

The behind-the-scenes step-by-step creation process for the Battledancer can be found here: http://www.fierydragon.com/DB/DB_NOV26_2003.htm

 

[Orius]

But, Improved Initative is much better for a wizard. It improves the chanes that you will act first - often the difference between surving or not at any level. If the PC goes first, then casts shield or mage armor his survival chances are a whle lot better, especially at first level.

Or expedious retreat. The wizard doesn't have to run faster than the monster, he just has to run faster than the rest of the party....

My son is currently playing a wizard and has finally reached 7th level. He took toughness at first level for the same reason, and Improved Initiative as his human bonus feat. He has since focused on taking item creation feats whenever possible.

Yeah, item creation is one of the really big reasons I like to play the wizard. Every wizard starts with Scribe Scroll, so that's a big advantage there. Another choice of mine would be to take Craft Wand immediately at 5th level to crank out lots of magic missile and fireball wands. Metamagic is good in it's own way, but wizards really don't benefit from them during the first few levels as many of them bump the effective level of spells.

 

[Thanee]

...a better wiz/rog Prestige Class than the Arcane Trickster...

Shhh, Arcane Tricksters are cool!

Bye
Thanee