My first Wizard, opinions please.

[Parlan]

Infiniti2000 and Angerland thanks for the support in me not calling anyone stupid, which wasn't the intent.

Don't worry, your intent was clear to everyone else reading it.

 

[KarinsDad]

That would be the crossbow for offense.

The 16 Int wizard gets 3 - 0 and 2 1st level spells.

At first (and low levels) the use of 0-level spells should not discounted (assuming the enconter is against appropriate level foes, i.e., no higher than 4 HD). Daze works real well and buying time. Disrupt Undead is good for those what should be relatively few undead encounters at low levels (or at least few undead per encounter).

As far as armor goes, as someone else pointed out get a heavy shield instead (same AC bonus and it can be dropped or equipped with a move action and it stacks with mage armor.

If he has a Heavy Shield, he is -2 to hit with any melee weapon, he is still has an arcane miss chance but now 15%, and cannot use both that and use a crossbow. This is a very sub-optimal suggestion. He should not even waste gold on a heavy shield.


Daze can work well at low level. But, look at the math:

The Wizard has a 16 Int. Daze is a 0th level spell. Even against an opponent with +0 Will, it means that the Wizard has a 40% chance of affecting him if the Wizard does not wear the leather armor. Wearing the Leather Armor, the Wizard has a 36% chance of affecting the opponent with the Daze spell.

This is a 4% difference compared with a 10% AC difference and that's against an opponent with a +0 Will. Against higher Will saves, it's even less of a difference (e.g. against a 10 Wisdom enemy first level Wizard or Sorcerer, it will be 30% versus 27%).

So one time in 25 (assuming you never cast Daze on an opponent with higher than a +0 Will), the Daze would work when not wearing Leather as opposed to not working when wearing Leather. Do you really think that between first and second level, a PC will actually cast 25 Daze spells where this will on average make a significant difference?


You have to look at the overall odds, not just "He has a 10% arcane spell failure chance". A lot of his zeroth level spells are not going to matter most of the time anyway.

The math is against your position.

 

[Patlin]

We did say to stay behind the rest of the party for support right?

On a dare from our DM, we're playing a 4 mage party. *Everyone* is trying to stay behind the rest of the party for support, and it gets pretty comical...

You can't always count on your buddies to bail you out.

 

[KarinsDad]

On a dare from our DM, we're playing a 4 mage party. *Everyone* is trying to stay behind the rest of the party for support, and it gets pretty comical...

You can't always count on your buddies to bail you out.

That's cool!

 

[ExMachina]

A few notes:
The riskiest choice I think is actually the choice of playing a unspecialized wizard.
Sure, losing 2 spell schools is hard (I prefer Diviners for that reason), but the extra spell per day is nice (though for Diviners, it is more "nice to have" than actually powerful, I admit).
A Generalist is probably a suboptimal choice, but this might be compensated by the good stats. And Generalist at least allows the Wizard to have a incredibly wide spell reportoire with no lacks. Certainly a nice choice to "train" playing a caster, since there will be no spell you haven't looked at to know if you should copy/learn or memorize it...

I haven't seen it mentioned ,although I admittedly scanned some of the longer winded posts. But you might consider a domain wizard from Unearthed Arcana.

 

[interwyrm]

In my opinion, as a generalist, you should probably play more of a support wizard than an offensive one. I'm assuming there are some fighter-types in your group. Enlarge person could be really useful. It lasts one minute per level, and ups a friend's reach and damage. It's also not a 'critical' spell, meaning that if it doesn't go off you are omgimscrewed.

Which leads me to my next point. Wearing armor in this case is probably a good idea. Hey, and especially, when you can, get a mithral buckler for some extra ac with no asf. While you're at it, consider picking up craft magic arms and armor. It's a very dwarfey thing to do.

Also, if I remember right, casting from scrolls has no asf. So what you should do is memorize spells with looong durations, or no somatic component. Have scrolls ready for anything else you might need. Then wear whatever armor you feel like. You'll end up with no asf, good ac, a dwarfey look, and the ability to cast any spell you need. The downside is the gold and xp cost. Really though, as a wizard, you're going to need to make scrolls too. Craft wand is also a good bet, as I don't think wands have asf either.

I wouldn't even be against this wizard wearing heavier armor in the future.

 

[irdeggman]

On a dare from our DM, we're playing a 4 mage party. *Everyone* is trying to stay behind the rest of the party for support, and it gets pretty comical...

You can't always count on your buddies to bail you out.

I agree with KarinsDad on this one - that is so Kewl.

Sort of a three Stooges thing only with both Shemp and Curly.

 

[KarinsDad]

I agree with KarinsDad on this one - that is so Kewl.

Careful. We wouldn't want to be seen agreeing.

 

[irdeggman]

Careful. We wouldn't want to be seen agreeing.

Yeah people will start to talk. The next thing you know cats sleeping with dogs and a stay puff marshmellow golem is threatening everyone.

 

[KarinsDad]

Yeah people will start to talk.

PS. Sorry about the stupid comment. I just took what you said wrong. You seemed to indicate that any player who had his Wizard take armor will by default make poor tactical decisions because the PC has a good AC.