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

[Felon]

Good suggestion! I notice that unlike the Piercing Cold feat, it doesn't have a clause about it not working against creatures with the subtype. You can actually burn a fire elemental.

 

[Mort]

4th
Globe of Invulnerability, Lesser
Secure Shelter
Assay Resistance
Channeled Pyroburst
Energy Spheres
Wall of Fire
Wingbind
Celerity, Lesser
Heart of Earth

Evard's black tentacles is an amazing 4th level battlefield control spell and should not be left off, especially if conjuration is a specialty.

 

[Felon]

Evard's black tentacles is an amazing 4th level battlefield control spell and should not be left off, especially if conjuration is a specialty.

True, and it certainly was one of my last and most painful cuts. The deciding factor? A six-member party with lots of melee characters who don't much like their path to opponents cluttered up with the likes of webs and EBT's. Let's face it, if I expect them to tank for me, I've got to accomodate them as well.

 

[Mort]

True, and it certainly was one my last and most painful cuts. The deciding factor? A six-member party with lots of melee characters who don't their path to opponents cluttered up with the likes of webs and EBT's. Let's face it, if I expect them to tank for me, I've got to accomodate them as well.

True and a good point. Still, If you have a cleric (or bard) capable of casting freedom of movement (a great spell on its own) on some of the melee characters the combination is deadly.

 

[Asmor]

Collegiate Wizard is in a sidebar on page 181 of Complete Arcane. Glad I have an OCRed PDF of it, I never could have found it flipping through my book (and yes, I *do* own the book).

Also, thanks to everyone for the advice in here. Working on my first wizard for an upcoming game and I've gleaned lots of insights from this thread.

One thing, regarding the supposed usefulness of False Life... What's the concensus on the polymorph reserve feat from CM? One of the things you can do as a swift action is gain temporary HP equal to your hit dice. Lasts a number of rounds equal to the highest-level polymorph spell you have available, and I think it requires a level 4 minimum one.

Sure, it's not as much HP as false life (probably around 3/4 on average) but being able to top it off with a swift action every round if you so desired seems pretty damn good. It practically ends up giving you DR X/- and energy resistance X, where X is your level.

 

[Drowbane]

Being a focused specialist, I have to slash three schools (not two). Definite keepers are evocation (my specialty), conjuration, and transmutation. Of course, divination can't be dropped, so that leaves necromancy, enchantment, illusion, and abjuration. Which should I keep and why?

Abjuration is the only one of those four that you "can't live without". Necromancy and Enchantment are heavily nerfed by a single spell each (Death Ward, and Mind Blank, respectively).

 

[Quartz]

Brew Potion and Craft Wand are must-have feats. When you go adventuring you want to have bandoleers of scrolls and potions, and a holster of wands. Remember that when you create a wand you don't have to create it fully charged. Do be prepared to start at 7th level instead of 8th - the extra magic items will more than make up for the temporary level difference.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

I got access to the Magic Item Compendium here, but rather than comb through the whole thing, maybe you guys can point out a few nifty items?

I like the Artificer's Monocle. Useful, and I don't think it's too expensive (but I don't have the book with me, so I don't recall the exact price).

 

[TYPO5478]

Here's my 2cp; pardon if I repeat anyone.

Keep Abjuration. Sure you could do without it, but the same goes for any of the other schools you're thinking of dropping. In my opinion, Abjuration has the most useful spells of the four schools you've got to choose from. Sure, as Mistwell points out, false life is great; but who needs extra HP if you never get hit? This should be your goal as a wizard. Surviving the hits you take is secondary to not getting hit in the first place. So, keep Abjuration.

Along those same lines, mithral bucklers are sweet. So are +1 twilight mithral chain shirts. No ASF for either.

I like crafting feats, but you may find differently. I like being able to make magic items for half (usually) of what it costs to buy them. Obviously you get Scribe Scroll for free. Use the hell out of it. Craft Wondrous Item is virtually indispensable, and I'm a fan of Craft Wand and Craft Magic Arms and Armor.

I'd get a Boccob's Blessed Book if you plan on having a large spell repertoire (and it sounds like you do). Even if you have to buy one, it'll pay for itself after scribing 125 pages into it. That's 25 level 5 spells. To put it more practically, that's 2 level 7, 3 level 6, 5 level 5, 8 level 4, and 12 level 3 spells (for a total of 30 spells). Not really that much when you think about it.

Also good for writing wizards are the Quill of Scribing and the Quill of Rapid Scrivening (I think those are in the DMG II and MIC respectively). They make creating scrolls and copying them into your spellbook take a lot less time.

 

[Felon]

Abjuration is the only one of those four that you "can't live without". Necromancy and Enchantment are heavily nerfed by a single spell each (Death Ward, and Mind Blank, respectively).

And let's not forget P from E.

I ultimately kept abjuration. I can get temp hit points from other sources besides false life (which is not so generous anyway).