Buffing Wizards?

[Starfox]

It looks like my Wizard player is giving up at level 6. The payoff for having the least hit points ain't enough for the player. Looking at a Swordmage now. I'll let him try playing that for a session if he decides to try it. Its not such a big cange, the character has been using a sword and close powers a lot.

Anyway, this is bad news for the wizard as a class. I am thinking of unobtrusive ways to buff the class. I feel the wizard inherents are very weak, and this could perhaps get them on their feet again.

Arcane Precision: You can omit a one square from the
area of effect of any of your area or close wizard powers.

I iknow the feat this is based on is epic, but wizards really need this ability.

Comments?

 

[Sadrik]

It looks like my Wizard player is giving up at level 6. The payoff for having the least hit points ain't enough for the player. Looking at a Swordmage now. I'll let him try playing that for a session if he decides to try it. Its not such a big cange, the character has been using a sword and close powers a lot.

Anyway, this is bad news for the wizard as a class. I am thinking of unobtrusive ways to buff the class. I feel the wizard inherents are very weak, and this could perhaps get them on their feet again.

Arcane Precision: You can omit a one square from the
area of effect of any of your area or close wizard powers.

I iknow the feat this is based on is epic, but wizards really need this ability.

Comments?

Is there anything that is going to break the game from freeing up all of the feats from their tier requirement? I don't think so. So your vote for me is go ahead.

As far as boosting them:
+1 die of damage to every spell
or
as a standard action recharge an encounter power

Both are very valid, options.

 

[disarray2]

I play a wizard and we just hit lv 6. I've found it frustrating and built myself a swordmage as a possible replacement yesterday. Until you said him, I wondered if my DM was on here.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I doubt it will break anything. I'm wondering though why people are having such problems with their wizards. In our campaign the wizard actually seems like the best all around character.

There could be a few things you might consider in terms of making best use of your wizard though.

Definitely use your Ritual Caster ability. It obviously won't come in handy ALL the time, and it isn't a combat thing, but by 5th level there are over 20 available rituals, some of which are pretty handy, like Brew Potion, Knock, and Arcane Lock for sure.

There are definitely power differences between the level 1 daily attack powers in particular. Flaming Sphere seems to be getting quite a (I say deserved) reputation as being more powerful than the others, and in many ways is the best daily available to any class at level 1. Stinking Cloud at level 5 daily is a guaranteed minion kill, and nasty all around.

Although the Staff of Defense Implement Mastery is not at all shabby I think it also helps to take Orb of Imposition. Offense is just about always the best defense.

It may be worthwhile to learn light shield proficiency. Another option would be a parrying dagger (AV item). Definitely get yourself the best enhancement bonus implement you can find.

One thing that seems true about wizards. Because so many of their powers are damage dealing area effects the benefits of enhancements to hit and damage (particularly) are really multiplied. Starting with a 20 INT is thus fully worth doing, especially since the wizard is probably the most single stat focused class in the game. The same goes for any other types of enhancements you can get, such as magic implements. the Raging Storm feat, etc. Whereas a fighter with a +1 damage bonus is going to do an extra ONE point, the wizard can easily do an extra 2-3 or more points more damage with the same bonus.

If you are just getting pounded on in combat, then perhaps you DO want to boost your defenses some (well, who doesn't). Shield is pretty for that! Other things you can do, but they should be reasonably obvious.

 

[DanmarLOK]

I'm working the following into my game and the wizard player enjoyed the changes. Due note that this is a casual table where 'almost doing the same damage as me and I'm the striker? No [bleep] way!" is not something that would even be considered. After getting the players to level 3 the wizard to me as the DM the way I design and run encounters comes off as weak and without effect. I'm not going to pump every single encounter up with minions that clump together in tight groups to get around what I see as a flaw in the design in the 'controller' class that as written is more about the 'low damage large area' class.

Anyway, these so far seem to nudge the wizard upwards in the 'fun to play for the player without overshadowing anyone' and that's the kind of table I try to run. The wizard is now dropping scorching bursts to force creatures to shift and pushing them back to open the enemy lines up and in general is having more fun with her class. And given that the wizard is played by my wife that helps me in other areas...

[Snipped from a blog post of mine]

Wizard Problem: Wizards feel… lite. They certainly don’t feel very controllery. Hell the cleric with its Guardian of Flame is more controller than wizards and fighters are WAY more controller than wizards are. Wizards primary ‘controller’ function seems to be killing minions, which if you don’t have many minions in a combat isn’t that great a function. Single target damage is subpar, AOE damage is subpar with smart targets which I typically do because bunching up is almost ALWAYS a bad idea and anyone who survives to adulthood will probably know that. They don’t feel very controllery either in the much more accepted use of the term as applicable to online gaming.
Answers (more like things to think about) -
Bump Magic Missile to use d6’s not d4’s. The d4’s feel like a holdover from the g.o.d. (good ol’ days) to keep it feeling like magic missile and frankly I just don’t like d4’s with their pointy little ass shape. It also doesn’t increase in power till level 21? WTF? That makes it less and less useful for 20 levels?! An average of 5 + Int against a level 19 monster is a little… well you get the idea. Also as a controller while every power doesn’t need mass controlling abilities I think a force based attack might have a little bit of impact to it.
Magic Missile (KOC Rewrite) -
Magic Missile
At-Will * Arcane, Force, Implement
Standard Action Ranged 20
Target: One creature
Attack: Intelligence vs. Reflex
Hit: 2d6+Intelligence modifier force damage; target of size medium or lower is pushed 1 square (save avoids). Increase damage to 3d6+Intelligence modifier at 11th level. Increase damage to 4d6+Intelligence modifier at 21st level.
Special: This power counts as a ranged basic attack. When a power allows you to make a ranged basic attack, you can use this power.

Scorching Burst - Let’s make it more of a controlling spell rather than simply a minion killer. Have it create a 1 square zone at center square that burns for a full round. That lets the wizard keep a square of fire up as kind of minor wall of fire with really weak damage to damage creatures or more importantly force them to go around it or shift out of the way.
Scorching Burst (KOC Rewrite) -
Scorching Burst
At-Will * Arcane, Fire, Implement
Standard Action Area burst 1 within 10 squares
Target: Each creature in burst
Attack: Intelligence vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d6+Intelligence modifier fire damage.
Increase damage to 2d6+Intelligence modifier at 21st level.
Special: Creates a 1 square zone at the center of the blast that lasts till the end of the wizard’s next turn. Any creature passing through or ending its turn in this zone takes fire damage equal to the wizard’s Intelligence modifier.
Increase zone damage to Intellgence modifier x 2 at 21st level.
Cloud of Daggers (KOC rewrite) - Add a sustain on it. This would let the wizard have up to 3 of these up but at that point they’re not able to do anthing else. If they ‘juggle’ the CoD’s they can then constantly keep bad guys moving around, forcing shifts which opens up OA’s and the like and makes them much more controllery than before.
Cloud of Daggers
At-Will * Arcane, Force, Implement
Standard Action Area 1 square within 10 squares
Target: Each creature in square
Attack: Intelligence vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d6+Intelligence modifier force damage
Increase damage to 2d6+Intelligence modifier at 21st level.
Effect: The power’s area is filled with sharp daggers of force. Any creature that enters the area or starts its turn there takes force damage equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1). The cloud remains in place until the end of your next turn (see special). You can dispell it as a minor action.
Special: You can sustain the Effect as a minor action.
The whole purpose of these changes is to make the wizard more about control, if not the actual creatures at least their avenues of approach and direction of attack. While yes there’s now some overlap with Scorching Burst and Cloud of Daggers,the fact that you can now sustain Cloud of Daggers with a minor makes it a different power niche IMO. And to be honest Laura (Darta) doesn’t have CoD so it’s a moot point, I’m just adding it here for completeness.
Dailies - Allow the Wizard their normal uses per day but instead of memorizing from their selection set they get to choose at any time. While the ‘have to memorize per day’ is yet another nod to the g.o.d. as a DM I’m just not really liking the flavor of it. It requires way too much guess work and when you guess right then it’s just an “oh okay” feel but when you guess wrong it’s a “well ” feel and as a result not fun.

 

[Kzach]

Yet another chance to pimp my Wizard changes!

http://kzach.wdfiles.com/local--files/mortalis/wizards.pdf

 

[Garthanos]

Yet another chance to pimp my Wizard changes!

http://kzach.wdfiles.com/local--files/mortalis/wizards.pdf

I am going to have to try those meta magics of yours out some time... I really like the idea of Wizards manipulating there own magics...

Characters with magical talents might also be able to use some of them for a single type of spell. Somebody with a gift in Necromancy or Cryomancy... might always for instance taint there magics energy admixture whether they like it or not...

 

[Tuft]

Definitely use your Ritual Caster ability. It obviously won't come in handy ALL the time, and it isn't a combat thing, but by 5th level there are over 20 available rituals, some of which are pretty handy, like Brew Potion, Knock, and Arcane Lock for sure.

I play a bard in the OP's campaign, so we have two ritual casters in it. In addition, Starfox has written something like twice as many rituals as those listed in the PH as house-rules, so there are rituals available aplenty. I love non-combat magic, and would like nothing more than use all those rituals I've learned, and so would the wizard in question...

...and there is almost never any opportunity or "camera time" for the rituals, and definitively no "awesome". "Yay! I've just spent 20 hours replenishing the healing potions that were spent the last battle...".

I think there is something basically wrong with the ritual mechanics.

 

[Garthanos]

In addition, Starfox has written something like twice as many rituals as those listed in the PH as house-rules, so there are rituals available aplenty.

I would like to see those Rituals. For me rituals seem like an opportunity to shape the nature of the everyday world, by access or lack of access to rituals it determines what the world is like and how people live in it...People without the Raise the Dead ritual or with it being much higher level ;-), makes life different. When it takes a quest into the underworld by those who knew them best to connect to a soul.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I play a bard in the OP's campaign, so we have two ritual casters in it. In addition, Starfox has written something like twice as many rituals as those listed in the PH as house-rules, so there are rituals available aplenty. I love non-combat magic, and would like nothing more than use all those rituals I've learned, and so would the wizard in question...

...and there is almost never any opportunity or "camera time" for the rituals, and definitively no "awesome". "Yay! I've just spent 20 hours replenishing the healing potions that were spent the last battle...".

I think there is something basically wrong with the ritual mechanics.

I think the ritual mechanics are great! They accomplish a whole bunch of things in one package, and do away with a whole slew of problems that long casting time spells had in earlier additions.

The DM doesn't have to worry any more about weird ad-hoc uses of 'non-combat' spells in a combat situation anymore, which were often the source of a lot of abuse in the old days. This also allows rituals to be freed up of most of the odd limitations some of those spells had tacked onto them to prevent said abuse.

MANY of the rituals should be quite useful in a variety of situations. Any number of them can be used to buff the party for instance (potion brewing being the most straightforward example). Magic Circle is great if you know you will soon be in a defensive battle. Make Whole can have a number of creative uses. Phantom Steed can be nice. Silence, Tenser's Disk, Water Walk, Leomund's Chest, Knock, Hallucinatory Item, the various Eyes, Arcane Lock... These are only ones that can have a fairly material effect on combat at low level if used creatively.

Also from the DM's perspective rituals are a great catch-all explanation for things that happen off stage. I know that doesn't help PCs, but it is a nice virtue of the concept in general.

Once you get into the Paragon Tier it gets even better. The wizard with a good repertoire of rituals really starts to become the go-to man for solving all sorts of "little problems".