How to level a wizard ? (feats, PrC...)

[drdevoid]

There's a full caster progression on the ray specialist PrC in Complete Scoundrel, Spellwarp Sniper?, which, among other things, grants precise shot.

 

[hanniball]

Also, someone told me something about a feat named Spellcasting Prodigy. Is it any good for such a build ?

It's decent if you're using the 3.0 version printed in the FRCS. The updated one in Player's Guide to Faerun isn't worth a slot, IMO.

My recommended feats for a Human Evoker 20:

Improved Initiative (Human), Extend Spell (1), Energy Substitution: Acid (3), Sculpt Spell (Wiz 5), Arcane Mastery (6), Quicken Spell (9), Twin Spell (Wiz 10), Craft Contingent Spell (12), Craft Rod/Staff/Wondrous*(Wiz 15), Extraordinary Spell Aim (18), Craft Rod/Staff/Wondrous*(Wiz 20)

*Some DMs do not allow for custom staves to be created, skip this feat if this is the case.

Either way...just my 2 cp

 

[Quartz]

Item creation feats are your friend. Metamagic feats are for sorcerors or high level wizards.

For L5, take Brew Potion; for L6, Craft Wand; at L12, Craft Staff. You're an Evoker, so bring on that Wand of Lightning, bring on the Wand of Fireballs! And you've got a bandoleer of potions and scrolls. Improved Initiative is good for L9 (get the jump on the enemy), and at L10 try Energy Substitution - acid or sonic.

Don't worry about being half a level behind the rest of the party: you'll gain XP faster and they'll be grateful for those spells you're tossing with such abandon.

 

[Grenouillebleue]

Thanks everybody for all your answers. This really helped me shape this character up - I'm not that used to wizards so that was pretty nice.

Last step would be the spells to memorize each day. With 18 int and spellcasting prodigy, I have currently:

5 level 0 spells (1 being evocation)
6 level 1 spells (1 being evocation)
5 level 2 spells (1 being evocation)
4 level 3 spells (1 being evocation)

For dungeon crawling, here's the list I support:

Level 0
3 x Detect Magic
1 x Light
1 x Detect Poison

Level 1
3 x Kelgore Fire Bolt
2 x Burning Hands
1 x Detect Secret Passages

Level 2
1 x Mirror Image
2 x Flaming Sphere
1 x Invisibility
1 x Alter Self

Level 3
2 x Fireball
1 x Haste
1 x Dispel Magic


Is it an ok-list for a 5-level evoker ? Anything I could add or change ?

 

[Destil]

Depending on your scroll collection and your spellbook I'd drop detect poison, 2 detect magic, detect secret passages, 1 burning hands and 1 flaming sphere for 'free' spell-slots you can use to prepair any utility spell the party is lacking by resting for 15 min. If you have a nice cross-selection of scrolls, don't have much utility in the spellbook or are expecting a truly grueling day of back-to-back combats it's not worth it. But I rarely put my own spell casters at 100% every morning (I think my 5th level druid only prepairs about 60% of his daily allotment these days).

EDIT: I'd also, if you have it, take color spray, grease or even shocking grasp instead of the 1st burning hands. Melee is not your place: an escape hatch would generaly be more usefull if you have more than one target in range, and if you only have one opponent beating on you why let them roll a save?

 

[Harm]

Item creation feats are your friend. Metamagic feats are for sorcerors or high level wizards.

It depends on the sort of access you have to buying magic items in your campaign. If you have fairly lenient rules to buying magic items then all the creation feats give you is the ability to trade XP to save a little gold.

I hate to sound stupid, but what's spell compendium ?

Assay is in Complete Arcane as well, which was on your list. It dramatically reduces the usefulness of the penetration feats in my mind.

I'd recommend using Spell Compendium. A lot of spells did get cleaned up going from Complete Divine (and probably the other books) to Spell Compendium. Theres a few that make me cringe at how powerful they were originally (not that giving sound lance wasn't bad enough.)

I cannot take it earlier since it requires +3 Fortitude.

Ouch, yuck. Another reason to take Great Fortitude I guess.

I like the retraining rules form players II. Screwing up a feat choice early on really isn't a problem.

 

[airwalkrr]

If you want to be cheesy, Sudden Maximize is the way to go.

 

[Grenouillebleue]

Aaah yeah, that was to be my next question ! How would you rate all the "sudden" feats ?

They look nice but the 1/day limitation kinda sucks.

Sudden Empower, Sudden Maximise, Sudden Quicken... look nice.

 

[Darklone]

The sudden feats depend a lot on how many encounters per day your campaign has. They are very nice to have if you need a little extra whomp and if you can spare the feats... usually chars going for PrClasses need their feats for the entry requirements.

Sudden Empower and Sudden Maximise are kewl since the prerequisites are soo easy. Sudden Quicken ist strong, but look at all the prerequs...

 

[wildstarsreach]

Hello,

I'm currently playing a low-level wizard in a weekly campaign and reached level 5 yesterday (which nets me a free meta-feat). Level 6 will also give me a new feat.

This got me to wonder what the "best" feats for a wizard would be. I'm assuming a regular full-spellcasting evoker here (barred schools enchantment and necromancy), not a gish or an arcane trickster or any other non-pure caster.

I know going straight Wizard 20 isn't as powerful as taking PrCs but for the sake of argument, let's assume that I'll be doing juste that.

What feats are useful for such a character and in what order would you take them ? Also, what metamagic feats do you usually take and at what level ?

Here are some feats I deemed of value, but I have no clue as to when to take them.

I'm human, which gave me an extra feat at first level.

1) Spell focus (evocation), Able Learner
3) Greater Spell focus (evocation)
5) Still Spell*
6) Spell Penetration
9) Improved Toughness
10) Empower Spell*
12) Greater Spell Penetration
15) Silent Spell, Quicken Spell*
18) Improved Initiative
20) Maximise Spell

I can use PHB I & II and Complete Arcane/Adventurer/Fighter/Divine.

My stats at level 5, with the +1 from level 4, are:

STR 10
DEX 13
CON 16
INT 18
WIS 14
CHA 12

1) Collegiate Wizard, Improved Initiative
3) Spell Penetration
5) Empower*
6) Sudden Maximize*
9) Improved Toughness
10) Greater Spell Penetration
12) Forge Ring
15) Sudden Empower*, Craft Wonderous Item
18) Energy Substitution
20) Split Ray

This is the way in which I would go but it's resource management. These would be my choices. That does negate that your choices aren't good. Just different play styles.