Staple 1st-level spells for wizards

[Doug McCrae]

Protection from X, Shield, Mage Armor, Identify, Enlarge Person, Magic Missile, Charm Person and Ray of Enfeeblement stay useful for a long time. Color Spray is good early on. I personally rate Unseen Servant but no one else does. Grease is good but too slapstick for my taste.

Evocation and necromancy are the schools you can most easily do without, long term.

 

[Jhaelen]

How about the list of suggested wizard spells from PHB2?

magic missile, mage armor, charm person, color spray, silent image, disguise self, enlarge person, alarm

 

[Simm]

Pretty goo but I'd drop alarm, why do you think we have fighters.

 

[Nifft]

Grease is good but too slapstick for my taste.

It's true. With great power comes great comedy.

Evocation and necromancy are the schools you can most easily do without, long term.

Back in 3.0e, I'd agree in a heart beat, but now...

- Contingency? Wall of Force?
- Astral Projection!!!

There is a range of levels where lack of Necromancy and Evocation will hurt relatively little, particularly if your game allows Complete Conjurer or Conjuration Compendium, but they have some really good stuff too.

Sad as it is to say, Illusion has both some of the coolest spells, and the spells you can generally live without. Enchantment got a nice boost with the Power Words, but there are still too many things immune to its effects.

Has anyone ever played a Wizard who dropped Transmutation? Back when Transmutation had teleport it was unthinkable... but now Conjuration is the must-have school, and Transmutation is merely huge and flexible.

How about dropping Abjuration? You'd need to have a trustworthy Cleric in the party to cover for you, but it could work out.

How about the list of suggested wizard spells from PHB2?

I'd be interested in seeing your (or anyone else's) suggestions for spells from PHB2. I've got the book but haven't spent as much time looking at the spells as I should.

Thanks, -- N

 

[Felon]

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.

I dunno, I think obscuring stuff with clouds of mist is a little too situational. I really think a staple's should be as simple and direct as it gets. It's OK if it's not the strongest choice, that there are less obvious but superior options available.

I'm basically syncing up with what Monte Cook wrote about wizards in his journal a year or two ago. He said that one of his cohorts (Skip Williams, I think) used to argue that wizards should belong to a caste of character classes that reward players with a comprehensive knowledge of the game (particularly spells). Monte, OTOH, felt that this was part of the "ivory tower" thinking about D&D that he didn't like, and that while that was all well and good to reward mastery of the rules, no class should be considered unapproachable or weak by players just because they lack said comprehensive knowledge.

I see even in this thread the attitude such-and-such a spell isn't all that great because it can be assumed that any wizard worth his salt should know of other stuff that's better. You're right, mages shouldn't be getting attacked under ideal circumstances. There are probably better defensive options. Likewise, fireballs aren't as great as some initially think they are because of the difficulty in placing them without hitting an ally. Scorching ray seems great, especially compared to, say, melf's acid arrow, but short range, spell resistance, and the commonality of fire resistance can all work against the former moreso than the latter. But fireball and scorching ray can still be considered staple evocation spells all the same. Staples aren't necessarily the most powerful of their ilk, just the most basic and reliable.

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?

If they ever lose the dumb 100 gp material component, I'd be tempted to go with identify as a staple. I still have no idea how characters are supposed to identify all those 50 gp potions they're running into without breaking the bank.

 

[TracerBullet42]

I still have no idea how characters are supposed to identify all those 50 gp potions they're running into without breaking the bank.

Spellcraft check (DC 25) will identify potions.

 

[ElectricDragon]

DC 25 at 1st level can be pretty nigh impossible. I once had a party store nearly 10 potions unidentified before someone made that DC. That was a nightmare of paperwork for me (the DM) as also the rogue sometimes picked one at random and drank it in combat (from frustration: "okay, rogue, you get your choice of the blue potion or the green one"). Identify was considered too costly for such cheap magic.

Ciao
Dave

 

[Jack99]

I don't recall me suggesting making wizards more powerful, but I did discuss at length the staple quality. So, gotta wonder how you quoted the whole thing and then missed the point. At any rate, if you have a blanket disagreement with improving the wizard class in any way, then this may not be the thread for you :\

Sorry for the late reply. I dont believe that I missed the point of your thread, but when you talk about lowering the level of spells, in order to have staple spells from each school, in my book, you are making the wizard more powerful.

Anyway, I didnt mean any offence to your suggestion, merely disagreeing. I do wonder why you point out that I didnt get the point, when it seems that most other posters didnt either, since they are naming spells that dont scale with level.

TBH lots of spells dont scale with level, at least not as such. Doesnt take away how useful they are, merely how useful they are agianst certain creatures/NPCs. Several nonscaling spells are just as useful at level 20 as at level 1

 

[tricky_bob]

I agree with the other posters regarding Mage Armour NOT being all that good. If you really need the AC buy a wand and use pre-combat, otherwise Mirror image-Obscuring Mist-Levitate are better defensive options IMO.

 

[Zurai]

Back in 3.0e, I'd agree in a heart beat, but now...

- Contingency? Wall of Force?

Shadow Evocation Or, more accurately, the Greater version.