Staple 1st-level spells for wizards

[IanB]

Charm person would already seem to fill the bill for an enchanter.

 

[Felon]

IMHO mage armor is crap. It's the first to go when the PC can afford some decent bracers. The godsend in Conjuration is grease, and perhaps mount if you have a lenient DM.

When do PC"s get their hands on bracers of armor +4 in your campaigns???

 

[Felon]

Charm person would already seem to fill the bill for an enchanter.

Yeah, I think it's pretty close. There's a scaling issue, as with color spray, that will deter its use against higher level folks, and it basically gets trumped by charm monster.

 

[Darklone]

You can still stun with color spray regardless of HD.

And it's one of these spells where metamagic feats increasing the area rock. Save DC can be amusingly high...

The spell simply rocks. Especially if the rest of the big group you're playing with consists of rogue/multiclass dudes.

 

[Mistwell]

I wouldn't call mage armor a staple. Mostly because there are advanced versions of the spell (a +6 version and a +8 version), and ways to wear armor (like mithril chain, perhaps with an enchantment on it) and other things that make mage armor less useful at higher levels. Heck you can even get Elven chain with the Twilight enhancement and thistledown, and have a 0% Arcane Failure Chance just like Mage Armor, and a better AC.

 

[Felon]

Folks, please bear in mind the topic of the original post. This isn't about listing personal favorites, or spells that are effective when used creatively. The staples are the meat-and-potatoes, the stuff the newb can use and feel effective until the more subtle and devilish spells.

That makes illusion a tricky school to come up with a staple for, since it's the once that's most geared towards creative, abstract thinking. Color spray would be good if it could somehow affect more targets (that would compensate for any easy saving throw).

 

[Felon]

I wouldn't call mage armor a staple. Mostly because there are advanced versions of the spell (a +6 version and a +8 version), and ways to wear armor (like mithril chain, perhaps with an enchantment on it) and other things that make mage armor less useful at higher levels.

Point-taken on the scaling versions (didn't know there was a +8 one).

Of course, wearing twilight mithral chain and the like is an advanced concept. It's OK to trump a staple with advanced concepts.

 

[Mistwell]

Point-taken on the scaling versions (didn't know there was a +8 one).

Of course, wearing twilight mithral chain and the like is an advanced concept. It's OK to trump a staple with advanced concepts.

Fair enough, I was still wrestling with what you meant by staple but I think I got yah now. And, given that, I think mage armor qualifies as a staple.

I disagree with silent image being an advanced concept, however. You can create an image of anything you can imagine. Now while some of the more useful applications might take advanced experience with the game, the basic concept isn't very advanced I think.

 

[Winding Road]

I don't think mage armor is the staple spell for conjuration either. It's nice, but ideally a magic user isn't getting into melee anyway. My choice would be obscuring mist. It protects not only the wizard, but potentially the whole party. I've found it to be the only thing standing between a low-level group and a TPK on more than one occasion.

What about divination? True strike is a majorly useful spell, but not so much to low-level arcanists. The other spells on there are nice, but not really "must-have," with the possible exception of identify. But that can be relegated to NPCs; no need for the PCs to worry overmuch about it. Really, detect magic is the staple low-level divination spell. If we're lowering spell levels in other schools to get their staple spell to 1st-level, shall we raise detect magic for the same effect?

 

[Nifft]

When do PC"s get their hands on bracers of armor +4 in your campaigns???

Late as expected, but the marginal improvement over +2 or +3 isn't worth the spell-slot IMHO.

OTOH, grease shoots through golems...

Cheers, -- N