building a 13th level mage

[ruleslawyer]

I'm with Forrester here; wizard is the way to go, IMHO. Your party is somewhat weak on spellcasting capability in general, and it therefore is important to play someone with a spell for every situation; the wizard is that character.

I'll assume that your party is good or neutral, in which case the shadow adept/red wizard route probably isn't the correct way to go. I'd go either straight wizard, Wiz5/Incanatrix8 (barred school: Conjuration), or Wiz5(divination or evocation specialist)/Mage of the Arcane Order 8. Get Craft Wondrous Item in addition to your Scribe Scroll bonus feat, and make useful support and defensive items (bracers of armor, etc.) to offset the need for extra spell use during the day. Scribe as many scrolls of fireball, lightning bolt, and other basic combat spells as you can; this allows you to equal or overbalance the sorcerer's ability to function as an endless artillery engine.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Your party is somewhat weak on spellcasting capability in general, and it therefore is important to play someone with a spell for every situation; the wizard is that character.

I agree that the party really needs a wizard more than a sorcerer, but what he's asking for is more sorcerer than wizard. An artillery platform and buffing caster is best made a sorcerer - you only need a few spells per level. It all comes down to what you want - a tank or a toolkit.

 

[eXodus]

well i have decided i want to be making magical items for the party as well, so i think that wizard is the way to go.

i will have to load up on those handy item creation feats and figure out exactly what sort of magical items i want to create.

for the wizard himself i think i will be needing things like haste, bulls strength, cats grace, and other buffer spells in wand form. so create wand is a must.

i am thinking of making magical arms and armor but there are just so many spells required to build really badarse magical weaponry.

 

[reapersaurus]

well i have decided i want to be making magical items for the party as well, so i think that wizard is the way to go.

Can't the sorcerer also create items?

Really, the answer to the question lies in how much time do you want to spend researching ALL the spells in 3E?
If you want to take a lot of time and know every spell, and choose amongst them every in-game day, than choose wizard.

If you want to be able to jump in to 3E magic, and concentrate more on the character and not the spell-mechanics, choose the sorcerer.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Wizards get free item creation feats (3 by level 10), so they're much better at it then sorcerers.

I like sorcerers, and hey've been very popular in my group (much more so than wizards), but you can certainly concentrate on the character more than the mechanics with either class.

 

[Gaiden]

With your party already having high firepower with barbarian and monk as well as a fighting cleric I would definitely go wizard over sorcerer.

Here is an example of a 13th level wizard

Elf with point blank shot, and rapid shot casts haste, empowered cat's grace, tensor's transformation using +5 (or some equivalent at for that level) mighty +4 composite long bow - now more effective then your barbarian at missle weapon firing - you have only used 3 spells

with chain spell - your chained hold person now has a chance of immoblizing an entire group

definetly get craft woundrous item - so many cool items you can make its ridiculous - boots of leaping and striding, ki straps, and monk's headband for the monk, some items increasing speed and defenses of barbarian.

can have tons and tons of scrolls already made up with pitily experience costs

might consider craft arms and armor to outfit your party

have greater dispelling available for any magic fight

can make lenses of trap detection so you don't need a rogue (you already can see secret doors as an elf)

have darkvision cast on you with permancy

have a contingencied teleport

make a crystal ball to scry on whomever it is that is your enemy sending in your invisible familiar if necessary polymorphed into a fly if the enemy can see invisible creatures

Take energy sub and energy admixture so that you can have a fireball that does 10d6 fire and 10d6 acid/cold/electric/sonic for a last minute resort for attack power

Have a ring of camouflage and ring of jumping

Have a cloak of protection

Have bracers of defense

Make a scarab golembane (all) for each of your fighters and yourself (they are excessively cheap).

Make your own golem.

Lastly take leadership and have a cohort that's a druid so he can awaken his animal companions for more scouts and allies as well as have shambling mounds guard your stronghold that is located in some elven forest with glyphs all over the place from your cleric friend.

 

[UD]

My fave type of mage:

Dual Specialist aka Incantrix PrC

Spell Focus, greater Spell Focus
Spell penertration
Spellcasting Prodigy

Ugh!

 

[Outergod]

i may well be joining a already in progress 3e game where the characters are all 13th level.

I think I'd take:
- Human
- 1/2 Celestial Template
- 1 level of Monk
- 1 level of Sorcerer
- 8 levels of Wizard (specialist - Necromancer w/ Divination as prohibited...just for fun)

Why? 1/2 Celestial for the incredible stat bonuses - I believe the +20 points to stats, energy immunities, and bonus spell-like abilites are well worth the +3 ECL ...oh yeah...and +1 Natural Armor which, combined with the 1/2 Celestial's +4 Wisdom points and high scores in Wis, Dex and Int will give the character an AC of 18-22 at 1st level w/ no armor....just Dex and Wis (from the level of Monk)

Take True Strike and Something Else(?) as Sorcerer spells cuz you're going to loose them when you specialize at a Necromancer and give up Divination (substitute any Specialization and Sor spells you feel are appropriate) - Plus, as stated in Tome and Blood you can use spell completion and spell trigger items as a Sor for things you might otherwise have lost when you specialize.

In the long run you'll loose 5 levels of Wiz...which hurts...but it would be damn fun to play.

Outergod

 

[Outergod]

Re: Re: building a 13th level mage

I think I'd take:
- Human
- 1/2 Celestial Template
- 1 level of Monk
- 1 level of Sorcerer
- 8 levels of Wizard (specialist - Necromancer w/ Divination as prohibited...just for fun)

Why? 1/2 Celestial for the incredible stat bonuses - I believe the +20 points to stats, energy immunities, and bonus spell-like abilites are well worth the +3 ECL ...oh yeah...and +1 Natural Armor which, combined with the 1/2 Celestial's +4 Wisdom points and high scores in Wis, Dex and Int will give the character an AC of 18-22 at 1st level w/ no armor....just Dex and Wis (from the level of Monk)

Take True Strike and Something Else(?) as Sorcerer spells cuz you're going to loose them when you specialize at a Necromancer and give up Divination (substitute any Specialization and Sor spells you feel are appropriate) - Plus, as stated in Tome and Blood you can use spell completion and spell trigger items as a Sor for things you might otherwise have lost when you specialize.

In the long run you'll loose 5 levels of Wiz...which hurts...but it would be damn fun to play.

Outergod

Oh yeah...and as stated above...take Incantatrix for the dual specialization when you're able.

Very Naughty.

Outergod

 

[eXodus]

i would never ever in all of my days even think about taking the half-celestial template.

munckinism is just not my bag. especially for no other reason then just for the sheer power of it.

and as far as the powergaming sorcerer and monk levels, that too is not my bag.

i am deciding to go with a straight human wizard.

yeah, i know. kind of flavorless, a little vanilla. but i will make up with that with my stellar charactarization and background for the character.