Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Strong Wizard Builds
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Kalendraf" data-source="post: 1664233" data-attributes="member: 3433"><p>I've seen some powerful wizards played in the campaigns I DM. In each case, it's really not due to skills, feats or spells, but much more due to their stats and race.</p><p></p><p>First of all, Elves make terrible choices for wizards. Why? The -2 con penalty cripples them too much. So although their racial favored class is Wizard, this just isn't the optimal race to use for a wizard. So what is?</p><p></p><p>Dwarves make really good wizards. From fantasy roots, there's not much precedence for this, but with the 3.5 rules, they are simply one of the best races available. Why? +2 con bonus is invaluable. On top of that, they get the +2 saves against spells and poisons (useful for someone likely to be targetted at range by the enemy) and darkvision lets them be useful underground w/o light sources. Also, they are medium size, letting them use regular sized weapons. Besides having a high intelligence, pump the constitution and then finally dex. With a high con (say 16 or so), the dwarf wizard can typically have as many or more hit points than clerics or rogues in the party. Meanwhile, the -2 penalty on charisma is minor as its largely a dump stat for most wizards.</p><p></p><p>Theoretically, gnomes should also make decent wizards, but for some reason they aren't as good. Though the do get the +2 con bonus, their racial modifiers are nowhere near as good as the dwarfs. Low light vision is handy, but it almost always less useful than darkvision. And being small-size means they have to use smaller-sized weapons. The -2 penalty on strength is slightly more noticeable than the -2 charisma for dwarves.</p><p></p><p>While int-enhancing gear (Headbands of Intellect, etc) is highly desireable, the wizard should make it a priority to find Con-boosting items (Amulet of Health, etc). Armor class is also important, but you shouldn't be getting involved in melee, attacks, and any ranged attackers should be dealt with swiftly. If you have a choice between an AC-booster and a Con-booster, I'd take the Con item first.</p><p></p><p>Wizards or sorcerers with low con values may survive for a while, but eventually area effect and other damage spells or attacks will catch up with them. It doesn't matter how cool your feats, skills and spell list is if you're not alive to use them.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Kalendraf, post: 1664233, member: 3433"] I've seen some powerful wizards played in the campaigns I DM. In each case, it's really not due to skills, feats or spells, but much more due to their stats and race. First of all, Elves make terrible choices for wizards. Why? The -2 con penalty cripples them too much. So although their racial favored class is Wizard, this just isn't the optimal race to use for a wizard. So what is? Dwarves make really good wizards. From fantasy roots, there's not much precedence for this, but with the 3.5 rules, they are simply one of the best races available. Why? +2 con bonus is invaluable. On top of that, they get the +2 saves against spells and poisons (useful for someone likely to be targetted at range by the enemy) and darkvision lets them be useful underground w/o light sources. Also, they are medium size, letting them use regular sized weapons. Besides having a high intelligence, pump the constitution and then finally dex. With a high con (say 16 or so), the dwarf wizard can typically have as many or more hit points than clerics or rogues in the party. Meanwhile, the -2 penalty on charisma is minor as its largely a dump stat for most wizards. Theoretically, gnomes should also make decent wizards, but for some reason they aren't as good. Though the do get the +2 con bonus, their racial modifiers are nowhere near as good as the dwarfs. Low light vision is handy, but it almost always less useful than darkvision. And being small-size means they have to use smaller-sized weapons. The -2 penalty on strength is slightly more noticeable than the -2 charisma for dwarves. While int-enhancing gear (Headbands of Intellect, etc) is highly desireable, the wizard should make it a priority to find Con-boosting items (Amulet of Health, etc). Armor class is also important, but you shouldn't be getting involved in melee, attacks, and any ranged attackers should be dealt with swiftly. If you have a choice between an AC-booster and a Con-booster, I'd take the Con item first. Wizards or sorcerers with low con values may survive for a while, but eventually area effect and other damage spells or attacks will catch up with them. It doesn't matter how cool your feats, skills and spell list is if you're not alive to use them. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Strong Wizard Builds
Top