Problem with high level wizards....

[Otterscrubber]

Don't get me wrong, i've been loving 4e so far. But I did have this 23rd lvl wizzie in 3.5 that i'm trying to convert over. Wizards basically have 4 encounter powers, 4 dailys, and then their at wills. Seems like any fight that goes more than 4 rounds and you're eating into your precious dailys or reduced to using your at-wills which aren't that great. And honestly, I'm not that impressed with some of the encounter powers. Doing 5d6+int is high for a lot of them, many are even less, and you only get one of them then you have to use a completely different encounter power. The monsters seem to have A LOT of HP. I mean my lvl 23 wizards will run out of spells against a lvl 4 black dragon for crying out loud. These spells will take a long time to drop even lvl 10 mobs, much less lvl 23 ones that I will likely be fighting. What am I missing here?

 

[Incenjucar]

What am I missing here?

Damage isn't your primary purpose, and you should use your dailies more often.

 

[neceros]

You're supposed to be part of a team. Wizard power has been brought in line with everyone else. Can't be the hog of the show, anymore. You still do a ton of damage.

 

[Otterscrubber]

Damage isn't your primary purpose, and you should use your dailies more often.

Ya, that can dish out some more, but one good fight and now your out of dailys. Are wizards supposed to only be good for one decent fight before they have to sleep for 8 hours? I'm sure the other classes can make this same complaint I guess. Obviously haven't played a high level game yet, but just trying to convert over and I'm seeing what looks to be a problem; namely that our group will have to rest after anything resembling a tough encounter.

 

[Incenjucar]

Sorry, I actually meant at-wills. A bit late here.

 

[Kzach]

Also, by 23rd-level, you're into epic levels. And believe me, things start getting really uber at epic levels.

Even in paragon every class should have at least one power that renews other powers. I've statted up a 16th-level fighter who has the power to renew any previously used encounter power, any time he gets a crit! So in combat, I'd tend to use my biggest damaging encounter power fairly early on so that it'll get renewed during the combat

 

[Pistonrager]

I believe the part of the point that was trying to be made with power structuring is that, YOU DON'T NOVA! you do decent damage all the time, and have a few cool tricks up your sleeve.

Like others have said... you're part of a team. the 4-5 of you should hit a bunch for a bunch of damage each round, not rely on one person(3.5 spellcasters) to do all the killing.

 

[hong]

Wizards are controllers, meaning they focus more on killing big mobs of minions, and hindering other monsters. Warlocks are what you want for single-target arcane damage, I believe.

 

[Sitara]

Wizards got the nerf stick very, very bad. Its understandable in intent, but the execution went way beyond expectations. At least, upon first glance.

ANyhow, this thing about 'controllers' is getting very annoying. All the other classes too have roles but they still basically do what they did in earlier editions and in many cases do it even better (i.e. the fighter fights on the front lines and now thanbks to his dailies and encounter exploits can dish tons of damage, far more than 3e). But the wizard...now players are being forced to play this 'controller' guy who only slows enemies down/confuses them just so the rest of the party can defeat them.

Fireball now, is a sad, sad joke. I can already see a ton of fixes being put out in supplements. Furthermore, this now invalidates actions of key npc's. I mean, how exactly did elminster survive alone in hell given that his powers are so mcuh weak; how did raistlin take on half the dragon queens army, etc.

 

[WhatGravitas]

Furthermore, this now invalidates actions of key npc's. I mean, how exactly did elminster survive alone in hell given that his powers are so mcuh weak; how did raistlin take on half the dragon queens army, etc.

Elminster in hell? Well, wasn't he imprisioned or something like that?

And Raistlin? Could he do that in 3E? Against an army? Hardly. In 4E, the army consists of minions. Which are a wizard's forte.

Also: From the way people read the spellbook entry, wizards seem to have the ability to circumvent the normal level limit on spells - they can prepare several top-level dailies (though no duplicates). This is huge.

Cheers, LT.