Human or Eladrin Wizard

[breschau]

I'm making a wizard and having a hard time choosing between human and eladrin. All other things being equal, for me it's a question of fey step vs the extra at-will power.

Any ideas?

 

[mach1.9pants]

I personally rate the humans. The extra feat beats all the eladrin stuff, and IMO the fey step is better for some one who wants to strike (but it can get you out of trouble I suppose). You only get 2 at wills for AL 30 LEVELS . To me that says if you can get an extra at will go for it. I just reckon that extra flexibility will rock over the life of your character.

 

[Blackbrrd]

Tieflings got a feat (Hellfire blood) that is +1 to hit and +1 to damage on fire/fear spells. I haven't seen a single other feat that gives +1 to hit with spells. After looking at the scaling it looks like you will need to roll 5-15 to hit throughout your career, in which case +1 to hit is roughly equal to +10% damage. Very powerful. The downside is that many monsters have resistance or immunity to fire.

Tieflings also get another nice feat, Ferocious Rebuke, which lets you push targets of your infernal wrath 1 square. (Infernal wrath is a racial encounter power that gives you +1 to hit and +cha mod damage, you can only use it after getting damage)

Tieflings get +1 to hit against bloodied foes

As a wizard, you probably won't be hit too much, but I will bet you at least get hit once per encounter

So, let us say your foes are bloodied, you use infernal wrath on a fire spell, well, then you have +3 to hit with your encounter/daily (fire/fear) power, which is really, really nice.

The extra at will power is nice at low levels, but when you have 4 encounter powers and 4 daily powers, it might not matter so much?

The extra feat isn't a big thing I think, you get plenty of feats, and not many worth taking. (I am not saying useless, I am saying that +1 to damage isn't exactly awesome)

 

[Tony Vargas]

The Wizard has a selection of 5 good at-will attacks. Scorching Burst is an Area at-will, that's a big deal, and good for a controller. Thunderwave is a close attack, so no OA, and it pushes enemies away from you. Cloud of Daggers creates a hazard in one square and can do the best damage if your WIS is good (which it will be, if you want expanded spellbook). Ray of Frost slows the target (again, controllery). And, Magic Missle is unique in being useable as a Ranged Basic Attack (which can be handy).

Not only are they all good, they're all situationally good - having three of them instead of two is pretty cool, making Human Wizards attractive. Stack that and a feat and a skill up against Fey Step and it looks pretty good.


Another consideration is stats. The Eladrin gets DEX/INT, which is theoretically great for a Wand-Wizard - if you like being a Wand Wizard and buying up two stats that are redundant when it comes to shoring up your defenses (both add to AC/REF, but only the higher counts). If you're going Orb or Staff, I'd prefer human.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

I think Humans and Eladrin are pretty even; it sort of depends on what you want out of your character. The extra at-will makes humans a bit more adaptable. If you've got a particular focus you're going for, pick the Eladrin. Also, don't underestimate Fey Step;it's great for escaping, but it also creates very interesting tactical options for a character.

Concerning Orbs: they're broken. Adding your Wisdom bonus as a penalty to target saving throws is too good. It's a great build for a character, but it's gonna get errataed.

 

[kerbarian]

Human, Eladrin, and Tiefling are all good choices.

Humans get an extra at-will, an extra feat, and some nice racial feats.

Eladrin get fey step and +2 dex, which is helpful with wands, init, and in meeting the requirements for Arcane Reach.

Tieflings get the Hellfire Blood feat and +2 cha, which is helpful in meeting the requirements for Spell Focus.

For the wizard I'm planning, I ended up deciding on Eladrin with some thunder powers. Thunderwave and later Thunderlance with Raging Storm, Arcane Reach, Resounding Thunder, and Solid Sound seem pretty nice.

For fire powers, a tiefling with Hellfire Blood is hard to beat.

For a generalist, human offers the most flexibility, though it can be hard to meet some of the feat requirements later on if you start with 20 int and don't get a boost to a secondary stat.

 

[Rith the Wanderer]

I'm having a similar dilemma for my first character but I think it helps to really break it down.

The human wizard has over the eladrin:
+1 fort and ref (eladrin also get the +1 will so they're even on that)
A feat
An at will
And a slightly better language choice

The eladrin has:
A better extra skill (no class restriction unlike the humans)
+2 dex
Free longsword (kinda useless I know, but hey, shiny sword!)
Trance, Fey origin (these are almost neutral as far as advantages)
Fey Step
Low light Vision
+2 Arcana, +2 History (Rituals for arcana make this pretty important)

I really think the Eladrin is the more logical choice, but that damn free at will makes me keep second guessing myself (the feat I couldn't care less about honestly). I always loved collecting spells and to have to choose between the wizard at wills is difficult for me. At first it seemed like there were clearly better options in magic missile and scorching ray, but after thinking about possibilities they're all pretty awesome.

 

[theNater]

I'm making a wizard and having a hard time choosing between human and eladrin. All other things being equal, for me it's a question of fey step vs the extra at-will power.

Any ideas?

Have you factored into your calculations that wizards can aquire teleportation through their spells? Makes fey step seem a little less valuable.

Not much, admittedly. It is a pretty good teleport.

 

[breschau]

Have you factored into your calculations that wizards can aquire teleportation through their spells? Makes fey step seem a little less valuable.

Not much, admittedly. It is a pretty good teleport.

The teleport spells wizards get are dailies. Fey step is an encounter, from 1st level. Hence the question. An extra at-will is always great, but at higher levels, when you have more spells, and more powerful ones, not as much. But a 5-square teleport as an encounter spell, is always useful. With the dailies taking you farther, they're better for actual movement, but in combat?

It's a hard one.

 

[Falling Icicle]

Don't forget the Eladrin's +2 to Arcana and History. The History bonus is useful for some skill challenges and the Arcana bonus is very nice for rituals. Also, the bonus skill Eladrin get can be any skill, while the Humans are limited to class skills for their bonus skill choice. But really, what it comes down to IMO is whether you want an extra at-will power or fey step.

I had the same dilemma (Human or Eladrin) when making my character, and it was a pretty tough choice. But that's a good thing. It means the two races are pretty well balanced. I ended up picking Eladrin, but Human still tempts me.