Making and Playing a Badass Wizard: How?

[Plane Sailing]

Icy Rays (immobile),

A new wizard in my game used this very effectively to bring down a flying creature very nicely.

 

[Conjurer]

Can't. Core only.

I'm looking at the Staff of Ruin, actually. It's hard to disagree with a flat extra +2 to damage for every single spell. As to what other items, not certain.

Ah, didn't notice the core only notice the first time. Still, staff mastery, High Int and Leather Armor do make for a very decent AC.

With Shield & the Staff Mastery defense boost to increase your defenses you can stay near the front lines a long time. Shield being an Encounter and Expeditous Retreat being Daily was the deciding factor for me. You can pick up Dimensional Door as your level 6 utility if you really want a get out of jail free card.

Other equipment? I swear by my Staff of the Warmage: Increasing the area of my spells has come in handy a lot.

 

[Jack99]

One bad-ass gnome wizard coming up as soon as I can put the wife and daughter to bed

 

[Jack99]

Okay, I got a bit sidetracked there. There are a lot of great ideas in this thread, but as I see it, the problem you have is with the choices you want to make. They do not really go well together.

For example. You mention that you are looking at the staff of ruin. Sure, that's a nice one, but I imagine that if you want that staff, you will want the staff implement. In order to benefit from the staff implement, you will need high con. It's possible with a gnome, but might or might not be optimal. However, high con and staff implement suits better for an in-your-face-wizard. You know, close blasts and bursts, with good hp/ac etc. Nothing wrong with that kind of wizard, but a wizard like that does not have much control, as many of the blasts and bursts have little control. Which was also one of the things you wanted to focus on.

Anyway. I am basically saying that some of the choices you mention in the first post do not go that well together.

So I guess my question is, what is it you really want? A controller? A staff-mage? or someone that is a little bit of everything?

Also, there is an issue with certain kind of spells, in PoS - Do you want to know those, or would you rather not?

 

[Rechan]

Okay, I got a bit sidetracked there. There are a lot of great ideas in this thread, but as I see it, the problem you have is with the choices you want to make. They do not really go well together.

For example. You mention that you are looking at the staff of ruin. Sure, that's a nice one, but I imagine that if you want that staff, you will want the staff implement. In order to benefit from the staff implement, you will need high con.

Personally I think all of the implement benefits are crap. I'm not going to build a wizard who revolves around it.

Also, there is an issue with certain kind of spells, in PoS - Do you want to know those, or would you rather not?

I know a few things:
[sblock]White Dragon, the Aboreals have fire vulnerability, the Vecna thingies have resistance psychic.

I don't mind having two cold-based powers when dealing with the dragon. There are too many varied types to take into account.

The biggest concern however is that over on the main board, it's pointed out that PoS doesn't have a lot of wide open spaces; it's cramped and confined. So big, area spread powers don't look as potent.[/sblock]

 

[Jack99]

This one might be fun to play. You could play him as a semi-schizo gnome who can figure out which he likes best, fire or ice!
[sblock=Mr. Fire and Ice]
Str 8, Con 14, Dex 10, Int 21, Wis 13, Cha 12
Feats: Leather, toughness, +2 (might want to consider +1 to cold powers)
At-will: Scorching burst, Ray of Frost
Enc1: Icy Terrain or Chill Strike
Daily1: Freezing cloud, flaming sphere,
Utility2: Shield and whatnot
Enc3: color spray or Icy ray
Daily5: Bigby’s, Web
Util6: dimension door
Enc7: Fireburst
Cold powers for control, fire for damage. He really needs Flaming Sphere memorized in case he runs into a solo monster. So for him, Veteran’s armor might be more than a good idea.
[/sblock]

But I must disagree with you about the whole implement thing. The character below is a staff mage. Between feats, race, multi-class, powers and implement, he has great AC (and good defenses), he can twice per encounter negate an attack, he can SW as a minor, and has some healing as backup, in case things go south. He is very hard to kill, and while he doesn’t control much, he does deal a good bit of damage. Also, since he can actually stand in the frontline for a bit, he has good odds at being able to position things as he want them to be. He is not superoptimized or anything, not by a long shot. But he is focused on certain things that go well together. YMMV ofc.
[sblock=Mr. Inyourface]
Dwarf Wizard
Str 10, Con 16, Dex 10, Int 19, Wis 15, Cha 8
Leather, toughness, improved initiative, cleric multi-class
At-will
Thunderwave, Cloud of Daggers/Magic Missile
Enc1: Burning Hands
Daily1: flaming sphere, sleep
Utility2: Shield and whatnot
Enc3: color spray /fire shroud
Daily5: Bigby’s, Stinking
Util6: dimension door
Enc7: Winter’s Wrath/ fire burst
Items: Staff of Ruin +2, Leather of Resistance +2/Amor of Repulsion +2/Veteran’s Armor +2, Cloak +2
He will have the following stats
To hit +9, damage +8, AC 22, Fort 18, Reflex 19, Will 19
[/sblock]

Cheers

 

[mlund]

Being restricted to Core and only playing a Gnome really does limit your potential to be a badass. The epitome of Badass Wizard is the Human w/ Staff, Leather Armor, Action Surge, Int 20 and 3 At-Wills that all target different Defenses.

He hits. He's amazingly hard to hit back - vs. AC, Ref, Fort, and Will alike. He's got high Con so he doesn't crumble when hit. He walks around the battlefield blasting people out of the way, cutting them to ribbons with invisible forces, and crushing minds.

Orb-happy wizards really don't become stand-outs until Paragon Tier feats open up. They also tend to be dedicated squishies. Gnomes, in particular, have a racial knack for disappearing from view when someone smites them - not badass, IMO.

- Marty Lund

 

[Rechan]

This is what I'm going with:
[sblock]

Gnome Wizard (Staff) 7
AW: Scorching Burst, CoD
E1: Chill Strike
D1: Flaming Sphere, Sleep
U2: Exp Retreat, Shield
E3: Color Spray
D5: Bigby, Web
E7: Flame Burst
Feats: Improved Init, Prof: Leather Armor, Astral Fire, Skill Training: Stealth.
Items: Repulsion Armor +2, Staff of Ruin +2, Medallion of Death Deferred +2, (finally either Burning Gauntlets or Boots of Free Movement).
HP 48, AC 22 Fort 17 Ref 20 Will 17
Str 10 Dex 13 Wis 10 Con 14 Int 20 Cha 13
+10 to hit, +9 dmg (+1 Fire/Radiant)

Edit: Damnit. I don't have enough abilities to make Wisdom viable. So the only real AW I can choose from are MM or RoF. But that 14 Con certainly helps with HP/the staff. Grr.

[/sblock]

 

[Rechan]

Bollucks. The cleric seems to have dropped. And since the controller is the easiest sacrificed, looks like I'm the leader.

 

[Shroomy]

Bollucks. The cleric seems to have dropped. And since the controller is the easiest sacrificed, looks like I'm the leader.

Since you're not getting to play what you want, I think you should negotiate with your DM and play an artificer or bard.