building a 13th level mage

[SpikeyFreak]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: building a 13th level mage

Sounds good Spikey...didn't really want to start a war w/ you anyhow because I'm well aware that you have excellent ideas and are right on the ball.

Outergod

And I should have looked at the Celestial Template before I posted because that was some good advice.

--Warm and Fuzzy Spikey

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Human Wizard is an excellent choice.

Improved Initiative is a must. I recommend Spell Penetration as well because SR can be a real pain at those levels.

Craft Wondrous Items is a very good idea. Cannot go wrong with your basic vanilla +x items (stats, saves, skills).

Extend spell is quite useful. If you leave a higher level slot open, you can multiply Extend Endure Elements so it last days.

Silent spell is a solid choice, too. With a small party there will be lots of times you will all choose to be invisible and sneaky.

You have 9 Feats total. I would start with something like:
Scribe Scroll (free)
Improved Initiative
Craft Wondrous Item
Spell Penetration
Extend spell
Silent spell

Think about adding these:

Great Fortitude: Don't laugh. You are playing in a smallish party. Missing a Fort save can be a real bummer. This is a hedge against bad luck that might wipe out the party.

Still spell: A little extra stealth. But a Stilled Silent Dispel Magic, Dimension Door, or Teleport can get you out of some nasty situations, e.g. grappled by a Dragon in a Silence spell zone.

Quicken spell: Good mostly for some extra offensive oomph. But maybe you badly want to cast three Fireballs in a single round while Hasted?

Expand spell: Another way to add some offensive oomph. An Expanded Fireball/Lightning Bolt is a 5th level spell that does ~15d6 damage. This is very useful for 9th/10th/11th level Wizards. You do not really need it at your level, but it worth considering. Keep in mind that even if you don't use it regularly when preparing spells, this is a good choice for "in case of emergency" scrolls.

Craft Wands: If you do a lot of fighting, this is a good choice. You can afford to buy a decent wand or two with cash. But if you want a good selection with carefully chosen spell levels, you will impoverish yourself without this Feat.

Pick up a Familiar. The two weaknesses of Wizards are low HPs and fighting in obscured vision. Therefore pick up either Toad (+2 to your Con) or Bat (familiar has 120 ft. Blindsight and can tell you where to dump the Fireball when you are blinded).

Personally think that Specialist Wizards are more stylish than the Generalists, but the Generalist is a fine strategic choice. I think the significant advantage of Specialists is the extra slots give you more mileage out of your metamagic Feats (even more so for Sorcerors).

Generalist: Pick up Craft Wands and make yourself 2 or 3 wands. You need to hedge against running out of offensive spells. But you have breadth and you can build up a scroll library that can solve any possible problem.

Evocationist or Transmuter: The most obvious choices. Conjuration is probably the easiest to part with. The downside is you are losing out on Power Word Stun, one of the most useful tactical combat spells in the game, and you lack mists and the more permenant walls to shape the battlefield with. Shadow Conjuration is a superb substitute, its flexibility more than making up for taking up a 4th level spell slot.

Divinationist: Drop Necromancy. This is a good minmax choice. You get a extra spells for losing a very small number of spells off your list. Now some levels do not have useful combat spells to fill that Divination slot. No worry; use metamagic on a lower level spell you do like. I promise you will get style points if you innocently cast a spell early in combat and then confidently deliver a melee/touch attack 4 rounds later due with your Extended Extended Extended Extended True Strike.

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

If you can use the FRCs and FR magic book,

Abjur 5/Incantrix 8 (The incantrix can also be found in the WotC website)

Feats to Look For: Extend-Persistant Metamagic feats (must have), Spell Girding, and possibly go the improved init, counterspel, and then reactive counterspell route.

The Trick: Use the instant metamagic ability of the incantrix, using Persistant Spell combined with either the 5th level spell Kiss of the Vampire (or Death, I don't have the book on me) or my personal favorite-Fiendform. This will grant you (if the first) Enervation by touch, DR, Gaseous Form, and some other neat abilities for the whole day at will, or Teleport w/o Error at will, as well as other powerful and miscellaneous abilities like Charm Monster at will (Erinyes) as well as some other powerful attack forms (like firewall). Maybe pick up a quicken spell-like ability (teleport or somesuch) to help your group.

Ways to Help the Group: Dispel Magic is great, especially when you get your Improved Metamagic, then you can pick up the empower spell so for a 5th level slot you could roll 2d20+13 (average 33) to dispel, which is on par with the greater dispel except its not as reliable but it can reach higher odds. Charm Monster at will is a very powerful. Teleport w/o Error can make you your groups best friend but be careful if your DM starts myseriously wanting ot kill you

 

[eXodus]

ridley:

you have some really good advise. i was planning almost entirely of taking most of those feats.

have you any thoughts on the feats from tome & blood? there seems to be some pretty interesting ones in there.

also i need me one of those fancy familiars. but which one? something avian would be awfully cool.

 

[RogueJK]

I'd go with an Air Elemental familiar. Just take any creature as your familiar, and then find or buy a scroll of "Elemental Familiar". This is a spell from the Wizards.com Spellbook. It can be found at http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20011109a Make the creature into an Air Elemental.

This gives you the new benefit of +2 to your initiative (which replaces whatever benefit the familiar gave you previously such as +2 to CON from a Toad.) Plus, your familiar now has a base speed of 100 feet and Flyby Attack, perfect for delivering touch attacks for you.

 

[eXodus]

going to go with a air elemental raven as my familiar. that will be cool on the style side of things.

the dm is allowing it. rock on!

now i need to pick feats.

Scribe Scroll (free)
Improved Initiative
Craft Wondrous Item
Spell Penetration
Extend spell
Silent spell

as ridley's cohort suggested i will take these ones, as well as what? hmmm. so many choices. i love the energy metamagic feats in the tome & blood. they are so tasty.....

 

[eXodus]

rolled my ability scores...

here are the scores i rolled for my human wizard, modified by level advancements.

str12, dex15, con13, int20, wis 14, chr16.

amazing scores i might say!

ok. now back to the matter at hand.

i need some gear. yep. i need me some of them there fancy magical devices.

i have 110,000gps worth of goodies. right now i am looking at needing things to boost my ac, saves, speed, and intelligence.

ring of protection +2 (8,000), amulet of natural armor +2 (8,000), boots of striding and springing (2,500), cloak of resistance +3 (9,000), headband of intellect +2 (4,000).

any other goods that people would suggest lay them on me. i am trying to not necessarily min-max this character but to simply optimize his survivability. yes, there is a difference.

thanks a lot folks!

 

[Larcen]

Re: rolled my ability scores...

..but to simply optimize his survivability....[/B]

I think with his levels, and his spells, and his feats, and his stats, and his familiar, and his magical items, I don't think survivability is an issue anymore. At this point, go with STYLE.

Then again, I've never met your DM.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Sorry, I do not know the Tome & Blood material.

Your idea for a familiar sounds like a lot of fun. Stylish, too.

Find out if the DM will let you make you own gear. It is a recommended optional rule in the DMG. Costs xps but will save you tons of cash so can afford to fatten your spell book.

My personal opinion is a Wizard usually need HPs more than AC, but that may not be the case in your campaign. Get an amulet to boost your Con +4 or plan on casting an Extended Endurance on yourself every morning.

Maybe get a Headband of Intellect +4; it will get you an extra 7th level and 3rd level spell.

Pick up a 9th level Wand of Magic Missiles. Can't go wrong with that.

Heward's Handy Haversack makes your scroll library accessible during combat. Gloves of Storing, same idea.

I like the Cloak of Displacement (but Resistance is probably more important). Robe of Blending is useful. Many high-level monsters can penetrate Invisibility, but not Hide.

You can afford a major Ring of Elemental Resistance. Minor resistance is just not that great considering the expense and the kind of damage that will fly around at your level.

 

[Chris Nagle]

Ring of Elemental resistance, minor, Fire (16,000gp)
Bracers of Armor +4 (16,000gp)
Boots of Speed (8,000gp)

These are a good start for extra protection and actions.