Building my first 3rd-edition wizard. What are the essentials?

[Someone]

I recall some feat that allows a wizard to learn more than the alloted two spells per level. Anoyone know where I can find it? I've combed Complete Arcane for it, and I can't think of where the heck else to look.

Since this campaign is Red Hand of Doom, I don't think I'll have the time to do a lot of studying, so even material cost aside, such a feat would be handy.

I think it's called Collegiate wizard, and is in Complete Arcane (though it isn't in the Feats section)

Wait, I found it here:

Collegiate Wizard

You have undergone extensive training in a formal school for wizards.

Prerequisites: Int 13, wizard level 1

Benefit: You begin play with knowledge of six 1st-level spells, plus 1 per point of Intelligence bonus. Each time you gain a wizard level, you may add four spells to your spellbook. You gain a +2 bonus on all Knowledge (arcana) checks.

Normal: 1st-level wizards begin play with knowledge of three 1st-level spells, and add two spells per level to their spellbook.

Special: You can take this feat only as a 1st-level character.

 

[Felon]

Giving up THREE schools? Sounds dangerous to me. I personally couldn't bear to ever give up three. As I see it, you never EVER give up Abjuration, losing Dispel Magic and its cousins is a one-way trip to Suicideville, population: YOU.

And yet I've seen party after party flourish with no arcane caster at all to speak of, much less one that packed dispel magic. Is it useful? Very. Suicide without it? No. I've seen parties with no dedicated healer, no dedicated tank, no trapfinder...I think the game has become pretty resistant to party defecits of any kind.

I'd rather cut my own damn arm off than give up Invisibility, so Illusion stays.

Meh. If I want invis, I can always drink a potion. Maybe get one of those eternal wands. Frankly, invisibility is one of those things where mages put all of their eggs in one basket and get cocky. I guess if you fight lots of low-magic humanoids, it's viable, but invisibility is far from foolproof.

And if I was ever to give up Conjuration or Transmutation, my fellow players would lynch me, since that means losing teleportation magic and Haste.

My character won't be the passive buff dispenser--a role I've seen them relegated to all too often--but I agree that any thought of losing either of those two schools is totally ferkakte.

I'll reiterate what's been said, if you want to nuke, Warmage is the way to go.

I've already gone over the warmage issues ad nauseum. The repetoire of nuking spells is too limited as-is, and the means to expand it is wanting. Heck, even your own analysis of spell essentials (dispel magic, invisibility, haste) undermines this last bit of advice.

 

[Felon]

I think it's called Collegiate wizard, and is in Complete Arcane (though it isn't in the Feats section)

Wait, I found it here:

I'm not the hugging type normally, but...aw, c'mere.

Thanks!

 

[Felon]

OK, let's get into the endgame here.

You're an 8th-level wizard. You've got 27,000 gp burning a hole in your pouch.

Go on a shopping spree!

 

[Felon]

So far, here's what I'm looking at:

Amulte of Tears (+1 Nat Armor added) 6500 gp
Circlet of Mage (+2 Int bonus added) 4300 gp
Infinite Scrollcase 2000 gp
Anklet of Translocation 1400 gp
Arcanist's Gloves 500 gp
Metamagic Rod (either Energy Sub or Sculpt Spell)

 

[Mistwell]

So far, here's what I'm looking at:

Amulte of Tears (+1 Nat Armor added) 6500 gp
Circlet of Mage (+2 Int bonus added) 4300 gp
Infinite Scrollcase 2000 gp
Anklet of Translocation 1400 gp
Arcanist's Gloves 500 gp
Metamagic Rod (either Energy Sub or Sculpt Spell)

Is your DM not charging you to scribe your spells into your spellbook?

Again, if you are being charged based on the rules, I think it's not really a matter of opinion on buying a blessed book. It simply IS cheaper to buy it than to not buy it.

 

[Felon]

Is your DM not charging you to scribe your spells into your spellbook?

Again, if you are being charged based on the rules, I think it's not really a matter of opinion on buying a blessed book. It simply IS cheaper to buy it than to not buy it.

I took Collegiate Wizard, which gives me lots of spells (Master Specialist helps a little too). I've got nine 3rd and 4th level spells right now. That will do for now.

The catch with the blessed book is that I then have to figure out at what point I could legitimately start cramming spells into it. The Magic Item Compendium is not a help here, since it says that a blessed book is a 13th-level item.

Since the RHoD campaign isn't going to allow me a lot of time to even scribe scrolls (the Quill of Scribing from Complete Mage is a godsend), much less spend nights at inns writing new spells into my book, the benefit of Collegiate Wizard is even more than just money.

 

[Mistwell]

I took Collegiate Wizard, which gives me lots of spells (Master Specialist helps a little too). I've got nine 3rd and 4th level spells right now. That will do for now.

The catch with the blessed book is that I then have to figure out at what point I could legitimately start cramming spells into it. The Magic Item Compendium is not a help here, since it says that a blessed book is a 13th-level item.

Since the RHoD campaign isn't going to allow me a lot of time to even scribe scrolls (the Quill of Scribing from Complete Mage is a godsend), much less spend nights at inns writing new spells into my book, the benefit of Collegiate Wizard is even more than just money.

I found around 9th level or so the blessed book was cheaper than scribing into your spellbook. YMMV. And I agree, collegiate wizard does help offset the cost of scribing. I still suspect you will find more than enough spells you want to have access to, to justify the cost of the BB. But, you could be right that the feat is just enough to save your cash for other items.

 

[Felon]

I suspect you're right, I will be eyeballing the blessed book for some time to come, but you know, I'm working with that 27k in an Excel spreadsheet, and I gotta say it goes fast!

I had some pretty ambitious purchases set up, but gradually stuff like the blessed book fell away. No runestaff of fire either.

Here are the spells I currently have in ye old spellbook:

1st
Benign Transposition
Bigby's Helping Hand
Dawnburst
Feather Fall
Identify
Jet of Steam
Mage Armor
Magic Missile
Mount
Orb of Acid, Lesser
Orb of Cold, Lesser
Protection Against Evil
Shield
True Casting

2nd
Combust
Darkvision
Fly, Swift
Electric Loop
Electric Vengeance
Levitate
See Invisibility
Snowball Swarm

3rd
Dispel Magic
Fireball
Glowing Orb
Leomund's Tiny Hut
Lightning Bolt
Mage Armor, Greater
Manyjaws
Regroup

4th
Arcane Eye
Assay Resistance
Celerity, Lesser
Channeled Pyroburst
Energy Spheres
Globe of Invulnerability, Lesser
Heart of Earth
Leomund's Secure Shelter
Wingbind

Still at a pretty raw stage, particularly with regards to the lower-level spells. Not bad considering I haven't spent a dime on scribing more spells.

 

[DM_Matt]

If you are a serious fire specialist, you should consider not only Energy Substitition, but Scorching Spell (or whatever its called), from Sandstorm. It's a +1 metamagic feat that makes fire spells ignore fire resistance, do half damage to those with fire immunity, and double damage to those with the cold subtype instead of 1.5.