reanjr said:
Well, you have to also take into account all the spells that CAN be cast in armor (have no verbal component). Mage Armor doesn't have the ability to be enhanced to +5 like plate mail does (or Elven Chain for an even lower ASF when you want to try anyway). In my experience, I've not seen a wizard in need of feats. Sorcerers, yes, but not wizards. Most wizard players I've seen at later levels are struggling somewhat to find a feat that they feel they really need. Of course, different play styles puts different stress on things. Wizards are just too easy to take out and make wonderful targets due to their power on top of that. Abjurers are the exception, of course.
I've never found Eldritch Knight to be necessary in the least due to wand use. I'd also like to point out that if your defenses are so high that no one attacks you, it does not make your defenses useless. It's makes them 100% efficient. I've seen this most often with Clerics. Depending on the makeup of the enemy forces, it sometimes is just tactically dumb to attack a cleric who you can't take down, anyway. They have the least damage potential of the four main classes (strangely, in my campaigns it seems the rogue has the highest in most encounters). Also, if you take a 4th or 6th level wizard instead of a 5th level one, the power loss is much less since they still have access to the same spells.
Even a ignoring a fighter dip, taking the feat as a human bonus would give a wizard way more lasting power than the minor dimished ability of one less metamagic or item creation feat.
In my campaign, the wizard is constantly in turmoil over his low number of feats, so it seems that our campaign styles differ. Perhaps you limit wizards strictly to the PHB feats? It seems that way if you think that wizards' only option instead of Toughness is to take Item Creation and Metamagic feats. Also, wizards in my campaign often join organisations that offer prestige classes, which cuts down on several of the wizard bonus feats.
That being said, you pointed out yourself, quite correctly, that the HP gain and AC bonus from your strategy aren't as important at mid to higher levels, but then you suggested +5 full plate, which hopefully doesn't fall into the PCs' hands until those same mid to higher levels. Abjurers are also not usually much more defensively-minded than the average low-level wizard (in fact, Mage Armour is Conjuration, and Shield has been gutted like a fish in 3.5). On to spells with no somatic components: In the PH there are these:
{Blindness/Deafness, Blink, Mass Charm Monster [but none of the other charms], Contact Other Plane, Darkness, Dimension Door, Displacement, Feather Fall, Flare, Geas [both], Hold Portal, Knock, Light, Disjunction, Irresistible Dance, Phase Door, Power Words, Prismatic Sphere, Shout, Suggestion, Teleport, Teleportation Circle, Time Stop, Tongues, True Strike, Ventriloquism, Wail of the Banshee, Wish}
So what do we have? A bunch of 8th and 9th level spells, plus the transport spells, two good protective spells, one terrible 4th level attack spell (Shout), a few out-of-combat curiosities like Hold Portal, and then the three low level active spells True Strike, Blindness/Deafness, and Suggestion. This is extremely restrictive, and it includes only one of the spells my PCs would actually use for levels 1-3.
As for the 100% effectiveness of a prohibitive defense, this is only true if the character is also effective (for instance, keeping the baddies away from the cleric due to high AC is very good, since it ensures more healing for the party). The character in my campaign with high AC was not effective, so his AC was meaningless, and the armoured wizard loses more than one level of spellcasting (since he must continually use his highest level spell slots to memorise spells of one level lower that are Stilled). Most wizards make good targets because they are powerful and easy to kill. This guy is wimpy and more difficult to kill, and if I was fighting him, I would attack someone else. Obviously, the middle-ground is the best place to be. You want a wizard who is as protected as he can be without gutting his own power. Wearing full-plate as a Fighter1/Wizard1, assuming you have good Dexterity (which incurs less of an opportunity-cost than the armour does), only increases AC by 3 over Mage Armour. If your Wisdom is passable, you could instead take the level in Monk rather than Fighter, netting a cool +2 to all saves and another AC increase, making the Full Plate, with its spell failure, seem very silly. Yes, eventually the armour can become enchanted, so that's why you look into spells that give a larger Armour Bonus to AC (Greater Luminous Armour gives +8 armour and the bright light gives melee opponents another -4 to hit you).
A halfling Monk1/Wizard1 with 32 Point Buy can easily have 20 AC after casting Mage Armour, the same AC as if he were wearing non-mithral full plate. If he was really trying, he could get even more AC, and the great thing is that Cat's Grace and Owl's Wisdom both give him +2 to AC (the full-plate guy gets no AC bonus from them).
