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My first Wizard, opinions please.
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<blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 2763695" data-attributes="member: 2011"><p>Here's my opinions.</p><p></p><p>1) Keep the leather armor. The people who recommended that you ditch it seriously do not know what they are talking about. I have played first level Dwarven Wizards and leather armor is a big boon for a slow moving PC. You can always take it off when you have the Mage Armor spell up pre-combat. The spell failure chance is low enough that you will probably only fail a few spells before second or third level when you can ditch it. If the combats are so close that those spells mean the difference between life and death anyway, then you are already dead due to sheer bad luck day.</p><p></p><p>2) Keep the Obscuring Mist spell. Opponents typically cannot hit what they cannot see.</p><p></p><p>3) Consider taking the Shield spell instead of Mage Armor. Although the duration tends to only be one combat, Shield does stack with the Leather armor getting your AC up to 19 when necessary. You can always get Mage Armor at second level and later on, you can put the Shield spell on a scroll for emergencies. The alternative of the Mage Armor spell plus a shield prevents you from using the crossbow and having an AC of 19 at the same time.</p><p></p><p>4) Drop the Ray of Enfeeblement spell and replace it with either Sleep or Color Spray. Possibly affecting one opponent once per day is not very strong.</p><p></p><p>5) Drop Magic Missile for either Burning Hands or Summon Monster I.</p><p></p><p>6) Consider preparing two offensive spells per day instead of one defensive and one offensive. If you are in combat, you are close to dead anyway. My suggestion is to take Sleep / Color Spray as your first prepared spell most days (situational dependent) and then Burning Hands / Summmon Monster I as your second (or sometimes take Grease instead of one of these). Most of the time, use a light crossbow most rounds until the situation is dire. If opponents come up to you, use Burning Hands. If the group gets outnumbered, use Sleep or Color Spray. Personally, I like defense over offense in DND, just not as a first level Wizard. In order to get to second level, you have to prevent any opponents from taking you out. A high AC will not do that at first level because anyone can get lucky. At second level, your hits points will tend to protect you for a few rounds as necessary. At first level, they will not.</p><p></p><p>7) Consider switching the 12 Str and 8 Cha (i.e. getting 10 in both stats). Your character should not ever be fighting. But, dumping Cha will not help the character at higher level. Granted, if you want to have a fighting Dwarven Wizard, then the Str is more important (course, if you go that route, you should consider making the Wizard a specialized wizard like an illusionist).</p><p></p><p>8) Drop Point Blank shot. Sure, it helps a little at first level, but not enough to use up a feat that by 4th level or so, you will almost never use again. A better choice might be Spell Mastery followed by Signature Spell for higher level instead of weapon feats. Silent spell is good later on too (at higher level, always have at least one Silent spell prepared). There are a lot of good wizardly choices. Don’t screw yourself at high level, just to have a little boost at low level.</p><p></p><p>9) As for your future feats, I've always considered Improved Initiative to be vastly overrated. Typically, it usually only allows you to beat one or two opponents per combat (who you would have not beaten anyway) and the chances of that being a spell caster (or the BBEG) are not usually great in most combats. I don't know how many times that I have seen arcane types with Improved Initiative delay or ready an action, hence, lowering their init anyway because going first or early is often not the best option.</p><p></p><p>10) Take at least one rank in the Tumble skill (more if you can afford it). It will save your bacon some day and you have a decent Dex to help it out. In addition to sometimes letting you tumble past a group surrounding you so that you can either get away or cast a spell (without having to cast defensively and risk losing the spell), if you can get it to 5 ranks someday, it will up your Fighting Defensively / Total Defense for those rare occasions when you need to do that.</p><p></p><p>11) Once you get some experience, put your defensive spells (like Shield or Mage Armor if you keep that, and Obscuring Mist) on scrolls. Don’t put offensive spells on scrolls (at least not at first level).</p><p></p><p>12) Forgot to mention. Put your fourth level ability score add in Con. Don't bother ever upping the Wis. Up Int at 8th level and onwards.</p><p></p><p></p><p>But most of all, have fun with your character. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="KarinsDad, post: 2763695, member: 2011"] Here's my opinions. 1) Keep the leather armor. The people who recommended that you ditch it seriously do not know what they are talking about. I have played first level Dwarven Wizards and leather armor is a big boon for a slow moving PC. You can always take it off when you have the Mage Armor spell up pre-combat. The spell failure chance is low enough that you will probably only fail a few spells before second or third level when you can ditch it. If the combats are so close that those spells mean the difference between life and death anyway, then you are already dead due to sheer bad luck day. 2) Keep the Obscuring Mist spell. Opponents typically cannot hit what they cannot see. 3) Consider taking the Shield spell instead of Mage Armor. Although the duration tends to only be one combat, Shield does stack with the Leather armor getting your AC up to 19 when necessary. You can always get Mage Armor at second level and later on, you can put the Shield spell on a scroll for emergencies. The alternative of the Mage Armor spell plus a shield prevents you from using the crossbow and having an AC of 19 at the same time. 4) Drop the Ray of Enfeeblement spell and replace it with either Sleep or Color Spray. Possibly affecting one opponent once per day is not very strong. 5) Drop Magic Missile for either Burning Hands or Summon Monster I. 6) Consider preparing two offensive spells per day instead of one defensive and one offensive. If you are in combat, you are close to dead anyway. My suggestion is to take Sleep / Color Spray as your first prepared spell most days (situational dependent) and then Burning Hands / Summmon Monster I as your second (or sometimes take Grease instead of one of these). Most of the time, use a light crossbow most rounds until the situation is dire. If opponents come up to you, use Burning Hands. If the group gets outnumbered, use Sleep or Color Spray. Personally, I like defense over offense in DND, just not as a first level Wizard. In order to get to second level, you have to prevent any opponents from taking you out. A high AC will not do that at first level because anyone can get lucky. At second level, your hits points will tend to protect you for a few rounds as necessary. At first level, they will not. 7) Consider switching the 12 Str and 8 Cha (i.e. getting 10 in both stats). Your character should not ever be fighting. But, dumping Cha will not help the character at higher level. Granted, if you want to have a fighting Dwarven Wizard, then the Str is more important (course, if you go that route, you should consider making the Wizard a specialized wizard like an illusionist). 8) Drop Point Blank shot. Sure, it helps a little at first level, but not enough to use up a feat that by 4th level or so, you will almost never use again. A better choice might be Spell Mastery followed by Signature Spell for higher level instead of weapon feats. Silent spell is good later on too (at higher level, always have at least one Silent spell prepared). There are a lot of good wizardly choices. Don’t screw yourself at high level, just to have a little boost at low level. 9) As for your future feats, I've always considered Improved Initiative to be vastly overrated. Typically, it usually only allows you to beat one or two opponents per combat (who you would have not beaten anyway) and the chances of that being a spell caster (or the BBEG) are not usually great in most combats. I don't know how many times that I have seen arcane types with Improved Initiative delay or ready an action, hence, lowering their init anyway because going first or early is often not the best option. 10) Take at least one rank in the Tumble skill (more if you can afford it). It will save your bacon some day and you have a decent Dex to help it out. In addition to sometimes letting you tumble past a group surrounding you so that you can either get away or cast a spell (without having to cast defensively and risk losing the spell), if you can get it to 5 ranks someday, it will up your Fighting Defensively / Total Defense for those rare occasions when you need to do that. 11) Once you get some experience, put your defensive spells (like Shield or Mage Armor if you keep that, and Obscuring Mist) on scrolls. Don’t put offensive spells on scrolls (at least not at first level). 12) Forgot to mention. Put your fourth level ability score add in Con. Don't bother ever upping the Wis. Up Int at 8th level and onwards. But most of all, have fun with your character. :D [/QUOTE]
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