Min Max a Wizard

[Crothian]

We are going to start Age of Worms soon and none of the other five players wants to play a Wizard and I think we will need one. So, I've decided to not use my original character idea and make a Wizard. The thing is I've played a lot of Wizards so there is no real concept I'm excited about. And as a player that never min maxes it occurs to me there are some cool powerful options out there I haven't realized.

Age of Worms is known for being the toughest Adventure Path out there so I want a Wizard that is powerful and equal to the task. I should be able to use pretty much anything published for 3ed, so what are the most powerful builds out there?

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

It'd really help if you had some kind of idea of what you wanted. My personal favorite mage build is the Shadowcraft Mage, which gets its main ability at level 10 and caps off at level 12, leaving plenty of room for other prestige classes (and you can do some of Master specialist or others before entering at level 8). If you want to get downright cheesy/broken about it, at the upper levels, use Arcane Disciple (Luck domain) for the "Miracle trick." It basically lets you create a shadow illusion of a miracle spell, without any of the costs or actually dealing with the ramifications of asking a deity's help (as it's an illusion). Build, with all possible fixings, is described here: Shadowcraft Mage Handbook - Wizards Community

If that's not to your liking, I'll just list some generally powerful options:

Abrupt Jaunt (PH2), which conjurors can get for a familiar, is incredibly broken. Int times per day, immediate action teleport out of harm's way.

[Insert name] (C.Champion) is an alt. class feature for wizards that can be gained instead of a bonus feat at levels 5+. It allows you to spontaneously drop a prepared spell for a divination spell you know of the same level or lower, as much as you want per day.

Master Specialist (C.Mage) is an amazing prestige class for some specialists, worthless for others (poor Evokers, always taking up the rear end). Conjuration, Abjuration, Illusion, Enchantment, and Necromancy all get great benefits, but the one I find most attractive is the Abjuration. At the 10th class level, you can 3/day place personal abjuration wards on other creatures. How would the party Figher like his own personal antimagic field? Mind you, 10th level in the class is about level 14, still well before the end of the AP.

 

[Crothian]

I've been thinking about it and an Enchanter would be fun espceially with the Power Word Spells.

So, I'm looking for opinions of good feats for the Wizard, good optional class stuff, bad ass enchantment spells, and prestige classes if you will. I'm looking through some stuff here but it seems I've lent out many of my Wizard oriented books since I wasn't originally planning to play one.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Corsair]

I've been thinking about it and an Enchanter would be fun espceially with the Power Word Spells.

So, I'm looking for opinions of good feats for the Wizard, good optional class stuff, bad ass enchantment spells, and prestige classes if you will. I'm looking through some stuff here but it seems I've lent out many of my Wizard oriented books since I wasn't originally planning to play one.

Thanks for the help.

Enchantment has some serious problems with it, especially at higher level of play. Many things are outright immune to it, or have very high saves. Also, the power words kinda suck (with the exception of the probably misprint in Power Word Pain in Races of the Dragon).

General rule of thumb: Conjuration is bestest.

 

[Crothian]

Because of the orb spells?

Good point about things being immune to enchantment stuff. Age of Worms has lots of undead and that would be bad. I wasn't even thinking of that.

Conjuror can be fun and I like the Abrupt Jaunt.

 

[stonegod]

Conjuration would work pretty well. Unlike Savage Tide, where there are several places that nerf it (especially near the end), AoW doesn't nerf conjuration. So summoning/teleportation work well (or, at least, don't have any particular weaknesses).

Wizard/Master Specialist [CompMag]/Malconvoker [CompScound] is a good combo there is you want to go the summoning route.

 

[Crothian]

What is the Malconvoker? I don't remember that one.

 

[stonegod]

What is the Malconvoker? I don't remember that one.

Its from Complete Scoundrel. It allows easier and more powerful summoning of evil outsiders assuming you can bluff them appropriately. The flavor is "tricking evil into doing good", but my character's take (a pirate wizard in Savage Tide) is more "tricking evil into working for me."

Some links from the WotC boards:
- Mastering the Malconvoker
- Master Summoner
- Summoner's Guide

Of course, have some boom spells as well: Summoning doesn't always help...

 

[Crothian]

Some people have way too much free time. Thanks!!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'd go for a Transmuter- if you can't get it yourself, you can buff your partymates. Keep your Evocation or Conjuration, ditch your Enchantment and Illusion or some such.

In addition, I'd seriously consider Focused Specialist. I know you have to give up the additional school, but you get those extra spells...

(However...where is Thanee, the Über Mage Optimizer?)

OTOH, I know its not min-maxed, but one thing you can do is take a single level of Sorc before any Wiz levels, representing a natural talent who decided to go the academic route for more flexibility.

Take a Draconic Heritage or Infernal Heritage Sorcerer with the associated breath weapon Feat. Any arcane spell slot you have, you can then convert into a BW that does 2d6/spell lvl per target in the area.

Then make whatever style and content of Wiz you want- even a Diviner. If you happen to memorize a spell that isn't useful as is, you can always breathe it at your foes.