Help with new FR Wizard

[GabrielNotchear]

Hello everybody! It's been a long time since I have played D&D (it was 3.0 last time I played) and I have been asked to join a new campaign. We need something arcane, and I decided to go wizard. The campaign allows most anything published by WoTC, however only allows the Players Handbook base classes. He also gives us the regional FR feat for free at starting. Sooo, here is what I have come up with.

Human Wizard
Specialist Wizard, Conjuration - banning Necromancy and Illusion
STR 7
DEX 14
CON 16
INT 18
WIS 12
CHA 9
I can move around ability scores if it makes sense to.

Feats:
Luck of Heroes (Free Regional)
Spell Focus: Conjuration
Augment Summoning

Spells I am still somewhat unsure on, but so far my list is
Enlarge Person, True Strike, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Persistent Blade, Sleep and Summon Monster I

I was also planning on taking the PHB II Abrupt Jaunt ability in place of my familiar.

Soo, advice, changes, telling me I don't know what I am doing are all appreciated. I was thinking Summoning is rather powerful and wanted to focus on that some, but let me know. Thanks!

 

[udalrich]

If your focusing on summoning, I think there's an ability (possibly also in PHB II) that lets you cast Summon spells as a standard action. That's a nice boost, since it means that even if you take damage on the opponents turn, you don't need to make a Concentration check to finish your summoning.

I'm not certain what Persistent Blade is, but you don't seem to have any spells with attack rolls. That makes True Strike less useful. I suppose you might be able to use it to get out of a grapple, but that seems rather specialized.

You might consider playing a small race. It means you wouldn't get Augment Summoning until level 3, but summoning isn't very effective at first level anyway. Gnome would give you +1 AC from size and +2 Con, improving your hit points and Concentration checks. Halfling would give you +2 AC (from size and Dex) and +1 to all saves.

A small race would give you a penalty to speed and mean that you're never getting out of a grapple by physical means. However, with a strength of 7 and poor BAB, you are still not going to get out of grapples non-magically most of the time anyway. Movement is less important to you than to melee types (until you need to run for your life).

Looking forward a few levels, I think there are some nice feats for summoners in PHB II or Complete Arcane. I know one let's you have a spell precast on your summoned creatures.

 

[GabrielNotchear]

The funny thing is, I chose true-strike without looking at it, assuming that it was something I could cast on party members... I certainly need to look into the changes.

As for the racial change, I very well may look at that. I obviously wont be getting into hand to hand unless something goes wrong, and a higher AC is always good.

Thanks!

 

[Starbuck_II]

If your focusing on summoning, I think there's an ability (possibly also in PHB II) that lets you cast Summon spells as a standard action. That's a nice boost, since it means that even if you take damage on the opponents turn, you don't need to make a Concentration check to finish your summoning.

While I'm not sure there is in PHB 2, but the SRD has it:
Specialist Wizard Variants :: d20srd.org

Trade familiar for standard action summons.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If you are using PHB2, take a look at the Reserve feats down the road. Several of them give bonuses to conjuration spells...many of which also boost the caster levels of your spells, which is always a plus.

In addition, you might consider the Focused Specialist alternative class feature. Goodman Games' guide to powergaming arcane spellcasters was wholeheartedly supportive of specializing Wizards (and presents a nice stats based argument in favor of it), but that book limits itself to PHB options only, so there were no variants or acfs included in their analysis. Still, I'm all in favor of that one- it hasn't burned me yet.

 

[Animal]

i second the small race. grapple won't be an issue if your DM doesn't houserule the Abrupt Jaunt (he might, cause it's broken).
when i play summoners, i usually take Cloudy Conjuration feat (CM) for cool flavour and nice benefit. Master Specialist PrC from the same book is also a solid pick for you. and you can enter it right after 3rd level.

 

[Dandu]

Goodman Games' guide to powergaming arcane spellcasters was wholeheartedly supportive of specializing Wizards (and presents a nice stats based argument in favor of it).

Pardon, but where is this found? I have never heard of it before and am eager to learn more.

To the OP:

So far, you're banned schools are ok - nothing critical has been lost, though I'd have ditched Enchantment before Illusion as I love Mirror Image and Invisibility so.

Spells known are good, ACF is good. Note that there exists a feat called Rapid Summoning, I believe, which means you can have your ACF and summon things quickly.

Here are some guides for playing a wizard.

TLN's Guide to Being Batman
Treantmonk's Guide to Being a God

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Pardon, but where is this found? I have never heard of it before and am eager to learn more.

[ame=http://www.amazon.ca/Power-Gamers-Wizard-Strategy-Guide/dp/0976808501/ref=sr_1_1/185-1157125-0145953?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265154092&sr=1-1]Power Gamers 3.5 Wizard Strategy Guide: Amazon.ca: Power Gamer Strategy Guides, Jason Little: Books[/ame]

Its a nifty read, has statistical analyses for certain aspects of the game, and covers various arcane caster archetypes like Blasters, Saboteurs, Support Specialists, and Controllers.

I don't use all of their advice- I'm not an über-optimizer or anything like that- but when I want to juice up a certain aspect of a particular PC, I'll take a look at it.