Making a badass Wizard using all available WoTC resources

[Caliban]

There is a variant of this build that I've been thinking about that doesn't use a shield. Instead, it takes the Staff fighting feat to turn the staff into a double weapon with the defensive (+1 AC) and off-hand properties. You can then take Two-Weapon Fighting (+1 damage), Two Weapon Defense (+1 AC and +1 Reflex), multi-class into Sword Mage (Initiate of the Blade feat), and take Intelligent Blademaster.

It's more feats, but don't need to buy your strength as high, and a higher wisdom helps your Will defense, and Thunderwave At-Will. And you are getting +4 AC and +2 reflex from your staff, and (with a 22 Int) can make a basic melee attack with a +17 bonus, doing 1d8+10. Not too shabby.

 

[Orcus Porkus]

Encounter =====

Color Spray, Burning Hands, Winter's Wrath, Fire Burst

I'm wondering what's so great about Winter's Wrath... don't you provide concealment for your enemies? Isn't that a bad thing for your ranged attackers?

 

[RigaMortus2]

Why not make the stun-locking Orbizard?

 

[Falling Icicle]

Feats:
1 Leather
2 Toughness
4 Improved Init
6 Raging Storm
8 Staff Fighting
10 (something) replace with Astral Fire at lvl 11
11 Spell Focus
12 Danger Sense

What is this "Staff Fighting" feat I keep hearing about?

 

[weem]

It's from Dragon Mag... Basically allows you to use the staff as a double weapon and gives it the 'defensive' and 'off-hand' keywords.

---edit---

Dragon #368 to be more specific

---/edit---

 

[Victim]

I'm wondering what's so great about Winter's Wrath... don't you provide concealment for your enemies? Isn't that a bad thing for your ranged attackers?

Depends on how many other ranged characters you have; remember that area type powers ignore concealment. And it deals autodamage, so it will almost always kill minions and at least do something. Plus it can work well with Cold keyword stuff - it becomes more more useful if someone is going Wintertouched/Lasting Frost.

Plus it compares favorably to other powers at that level. Fireburst is the same area and does a whole 1.5 initial damage over Winter's Wrath - which has the extra damage. So Winter's Wrath usually does more damage. And cold resistance is less common than fire. Fireburst does have extra range and goes against Ref though. Lightning Bolt is FF safe, but has weak damage. Warwizardry helps out allies, so what little advantage LB has becomes less important. And Spectral Ram is single target and also goes against Fort.

WW is pretty much my go to wizard power at level 7.

 

[weem]

Reflex: 30 (10 +6[level] +6[Int]+3[amulet]+2[shield]+1[staff]+1[human])

Shouldn't it be 29 Reflex (doing the math there)... 10, 6, 6, 3, 2, 1, 1

Also, the Staff is giving an "item" bonus of +1, but isn't the amulet's +3 also an item bonus (in which case they wouldn't stack, and in which case this would be a 28 total)?

 

[Caliban]

Shouldn't it be 29 Reflex (doing the math there)... 10, 6, 6, 3, 2, 1, 1

Looks like it, I was adding it in my head at work.

Also, the Staff is giving an "item" bonus of +1, but isn't the amulet's +3 also an item bonus (in which case they wouldn't stack, and in which case this would be a 28 total)?

The amulet gives an Enhancement bonus to your defenses, so it stacks with an Item bonus. (Magic items tend to give Enhancement, Item, or Power bonuses.)

 

[weem]

Gotcha, very cool thanks I thought I might have missed something with that number so I wanted to clarify. And as for the staff, yea it said item bonus (specifically) but the amulet didn't say so I wasn't sure.

Thanks again!

 

[Elric]

Here's one build I've seen that gives you a very high defense wizard:

Human, +2 Int

Stats at lvl 1

Str 15
Con 13
Dex 8
Int 19
Wis 12
Cha 10

Just to point out, this is 24 points to start with, not 22. But starting with 14 Strength does the trick as well if you start at 12th level, since you can retrain for Heavy Shield proficiency after hitting 11th level.