Making and Playing a Badass Wizard: How?

[DracoSuave]

Core = PHB

...for players. If you're not the player, it's not a core resource. Unlike in other editions, there is literally nothing that a player needs to play in the DMG or Monster Manual.

But regardless...

Tiefling would be a great race for a 'bad-ass' wizard.

Hellfire Blood, bonus to Intellegence, Bloodlust, all elements lead to a war wizard that is certainly not weak by any stretch of the imagination.

And for the record, Mearls said that the at-wills for wizards were not -controlling- enough. That's not the same as saying they are weak, rather, he pointed out the damage was actually decent for what they do.

 

[MwaO]

You don't actually need to do much with str. When you add an additional 3 dice to thunderwave, it starts to approximate a daily. In Epic, you're doing 6d.

That makes up for the loss of the paragon path options.

Having to keep up Int, Wis, Str and Con to get the most out of your build = not fun, though.

 

[On Puget Sound]

No problem, you can still have your gnome wizard and heal the party too!

GNOME CLERIC (multiclass wizard) - 7
STR 8
CON 12
DEX 10
INT 15 +2 +1 = 18
WIS 17 +1 = 18
CHA 11 +2 = 13
includes bump at level 4

FEATS:
Lv1: Arcane Initiate
Lv2: Toughness
Lv4: Novice Power
Lv6: Defensive Mobility
POWERS:
Racial: Fade Away
1 At Will: Lance of Faith, Sacred Flame
1 enc: Divine Glow
1 enc (wiz): Thunderwave
1 daily: Beacon of Hope
2 util: Divine Aid (enc)
3 enc: Command
5 daily: Consecrated Ground
6 util: Cure Serious Wounds (daily)
7 enc (wiz): Fire Burst

lots of controllery here.

EDITED: Yes, yesnomu, I somehow mixed up laser clerics and radiant pallies in my head. Fixed it.

 

[yesnomu]

No problem, you can still have your gnome wizard and heal the party too!

GNOME CLERIC (multiclass wizard) - 7
STR 8
CON 10
DEX 13
INT 15 +2 +1 = 18
WIS 14
CHA 15 +2 +1 = 18
includes bump at level 4

You seem to be pumping Cha instead of Wis. Mistake?

 

[Pickles JG]

You seem to be pumping Cha instead of Wis. Mistake?

Maybe he meant Bard It would be a decent fit for a Leader/wizard unlike cleric.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Hence why I wrote (and you quoted, no less) "Being restricted to Core and only playing a Gnome really does limit your potential to be a badass."

Sorry, the way the sentence was written (with every other component of 'epitome of badass wizard being actually in the PHB) made it look as though you were including 'targetting 3 different saves' as part of the Core stuff)