The greatest of stars: Wizard

[Danceofmasks]

It's quite balanced.
As far as damage goes, though, warlocks are behind the ranger and rogue.
Unless you pull crazy stunts like using shadow walk + stealth + minions of malbolge.
Throw in other stuff like dire radiance or tendrils of thuban, and you got some crazy tech.

I used to be dubious about starlocks, but now I'm not so sure.

 

[Prestidigitalis]

This post reminds me of a question I've been wondering about for a few weeks: Is it possible to build an effective front-line Wizard?

Here are some ideas on one approach.

Boost AC with Leather Armor and staff focus. Boost HP with Toughness and a good Con score. Boost healing with Multi-class Cleric, Durable, and Quick Draw + lots of healing potions. Try to keep a Cleric at your back.

Focus on "close" powers (no OA) like Thunderwave that are most powerful when no allies stand in your way. Take Utilities like Shield and Displacement that turn away attacks. Take Improved Initiative to make sure you get the first shot in.

You could even do something radical like being a Dwarf for the Con bonus and the Wisdom bonus (think Thunderwave). You'd hit a bit less often but because the idea is to ALWAYS be able to use your AoE attacks, you'd still do lots of damage.

This idea will work better with (for example) an Archer Ranger than a Two-Weapon Ranger or a Rogue, because the latter two desperately want to mix it up with your opponents, which will bring about the conditions that make AoE targeting difficult.

This concept would probably work more for a War Wizard than for a Control Wizard, but that's only if it works at all -- which I'm not too sure about. Has anyone taken a stab at it in a real game?

 

[James McMurray]

The fact that people are arguing either side bodes well for its overall balance. Either that, or people will argue about anything on the interwebs.

A little of both.

 

[magustenebrarum]

OK,
The ability to pump up magic missile because it's a basic attack is also nice.

What do you mean by this?

 

[Danceofmasks]

@Prestidigitalis

It's a nice idea, and sure, every character can benefit from being a little more hardy, but hit point total is always going to be a Wizard's weakness.

Everyone gets hit. It's unavoidable in 4e.
With a low HP total, getting hit often means losing more than a surge worth of HP.
Two hits later, the cleric is out of healing.

It's also an approach that could hamper party dynamics.
Now, while it's reasonable for a defender to invest the half million in a ring of regeneration, it's a lot more difficult to justify the expense for a Wizard.
Not saying you can't, but such items inherently benefit classes that draw fire more than classes that are designed squishy.

That said, so long as every character is reasonably effective, the party is going to be functional.
I'm just saying such a build would probably be better off being a Swordmage with Wizard MC.

 

[lukelightning]

I played for the first time this weekend, and played a tiefling wizard with an INT of 20; I took the feat "hellfire blood" giving me a +1 to hit and damage with all fire spells. I didn't use magic missile at all; even vs. a single target scorching burst was better (only .5 hp lower damage on average than magic missile, but I had a +1 to hit with it). The tiefling's +1 to hit bloodied creatures was very useful as well.

Another thing I learned was that flaming sphere rocks! For one encounter I pretty much spent the whole time lying prone on the ground, sending my burning sphere of fiery badassness to wipe out minions, damage the brutes, and generally steal the show! I liked the mechanics of using my actions to move the flaming sphere; it felt like I was channelling or possessing the flaming sphere, my poor defenseless body safe across a chasm in the bushes. I did have to crawl around a bit to make sure I could reach things with my flaming sphere, though.

 

[Tony Vargas]

We've been going through Keep on the Shadowfell, and one thing I've noticed is that the large, comparatively open battlegrounds provided in the module allow enemies to remain fairly dispersed, making it hard for a wiz to catch many foes in a burst 1 or blast 3. So the potential for large total damage across multiple enemies hasn't been realized, so far.

 

[lukelightning]

making it hard for a wiz to catch many foes in a burst 1 or blast 3.

I am just happy to get 2 enemies in a blast. When they start charging in and clustering around your defender, you can get a lot of chances to get at least a couple enemies. Or more if you don't care about friendly fire.

 

[brehobit]

Good god, have you even played this game at all? Wizards cannot do big damage to single figures consistently, their shtick is basically to kill weenies (aka Minions) in the early rounds of combat. I'm currently playing in three separate campaigns, each with a wizard, and the thing that is most obvious is that the wizard has a very narrow, specific role in the game. No way in heck is he "the best" class, he's got his role like any other.

Honestly, just seeing you type those words makes me 99% sure you have not even played the game and are just dancing around with contextless calculations.

You're missing the fact that the wizard's powers tend to have nothing which consistently just wallops individual characters. The majority of his combat powers are weak area attacks with interesting rider-effects while his non-combat ones are interesting reality-warping effects.

A wizard cannot Evasive Strike to shift out of the way of several attackers and then pound one for 2[W]+stat, force every enemy on the board to get pulled next to him only to wallap each one for a full attack AND mark them until the next turn (Come and Get It), can't heal anyone (the first reason your suggested all-wizard party will be turned to paste in the first few encounters) and simply can't fight toe-to-toe with a "boss" character of any kind for any amount of time.

Seriously, get a few games under your belt and come back here, I guarantee you'll have a different opinion.

Thanks for the vote of confidence!

I've been running KotSF for a while. I'm finding that the wizard is huge even against a single opponent. With flaming sphere he's doing something like 8.5 auto damage a round (no miss) plus his magic missile for 11 that hits a bit more than half the time. No striker can keep that kind of damage up over a long fight. And with his 18 AC, staff power and shield power he's pretty hard to tag also. The marking by the fighter or paladin helps too...

Oh, and the wizard encounter powers rock!

 

[Saeviomagy]

Thanks for the vote of confidence!

I've been running KotSF for a while. I'm finding that the wizard is huge even against a single opponent. With flaming sphere he's doing something like 8.5 auto damage a round (no miss) plus his magic missile for 11 that hits a bit more than half the time. No striker can keep that kind of damage up over a long fight. And with his 18 AC, staff power and shield power he's pretty hard to tag also. The marking by the fighter or paladin helps too...

Oh, and the wizard encounter powers rock!

A focussed rogue hits his foe on a 2+, for 1d4+2d8+8 every round, just with his at wills. At range, that might dip down to hitting on a 4+ for 1d4+2d8+8 every round.