What 4th-level spells should any Wizard have?

[Hypersmurf]

I'd put Enervation top of my list... even more so for a sorcerer than a wizard.

No save! Stackable! Empowerable!

Zap zap zap you're dead!

-Hyp.

 

[Thanee]

Dimension Door and Polymorph.

Greater Invisibility is great, but not even close to the usefulness of these two.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

Rary's Mnemonic Enhancer allows a wizard to leverage an open fourth level slot at the end of the day to prep some extra spells on the next day. Leave a slot or two open and if you haven't had to prep them at the end of the day, prep Mnemonic Enhancers and have some extra firepower on the next day. Any time you are gearing up for an assault, this will prove very helpful.

I always wondered, what's the point of this spell, because during the day you use it, it's simply not worth it. Didn't think about it in the way, that it actually gives you extra slots, I always thought it keeps your 4th level slot occupied - so to say - meanwhile, but it surely doesn't seem to be that way. That application is actually pretty useful then.

Bye
Thanee

 

[shilsen]

I'd put Enervation top of my list... even more so for a sorcerer than a wizard.

No save! Stackable! Empowerable!

Zap zap zap you're dead!

-Hyp.

What the blue guy said. For my arcane casters (unless one has necromancy as a banned school), enervation always tops the list.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Definitely. Enervation is one of the best set-up spells in the game too (in addition to its offensive properties). Nothing sets up a finger of death better than -4 to all your saves from 4 negative levels.

What the blue guy said. For my arcane casters (unless one has necromancy as a banned school), enervation always tops the list.

 

[Victim]

Hmm, I like Dimension Door now. I didn't vote for it because I forgot that the new version doesn't daze the caster after using it - before, I prefered using Teleport to escape grapples and such since the caster could drop another spell the same round via haste or quicken.

Enervation is nasty, especially against casters. Losing high level spells really hurts.

Black Tentacles is much simpler now, and still strong against casters. In some ways, the older version was better since all the tentacles could aim at one guy. But the new damage immunity is a nice change.

Stoneskin is good. 250 gp isn't all that much if you expect some intense combat, and the materials based DR should make foes able to bypass your defense much rarer.

Scrying can still provide good intel, and also lets the wizard keep track of allies during downtime.

Greater Invisibility is one of the spells that can change the game. Offense and defense in one nice package.

Other good spells:

Confusion: amazingly disruptive against groups of enemies.
Polymorph: if I didn't hate the idea of characters fighting as monsters all the time, I'd have voted for this one.
Solid Fog: great combos with damage over time spells.

Non-core:
Acid Orb: Good damage, rare energy type, and a strong secondary effect.
Fire Orb: like acid orb, but has a better condition with the drawback of one of the most common energy types.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I always wondered, what's the point of this spell, because during the day you use it, it's simply not worth it. Didn't think about it in the way, that it actually gives you extra slots, I always thought it keeps your 4th level slot occupied - so to say - meanwhile, but it surely doesn't seem to be that way. That application is actually pretty useful then.

Wand of Mnemonic Enhancer.

-Hyp.

 

[Urbanmech]

I picked Greater Invisibility, Dimensional Door, Stoneskin, and Polymorph. Those 4 just topped my list for aiding in an arcane caster and their parties survival and versitility.

I had to keep myself from just going down the line and picking Confusion, Black Tentacles, Enervation, Scrying, Wall of Fire (double damage to undead and no save!), and Wall of Ice. Sometimes a little restraint is a good thing.

 

[Thanee]

Wand of Mnemonic Enhancer.

That costs more than wand of <enter third level spell of choice here>, right?

Well, maybe not, if you start figuring in high caster levels, but still, doesn't seem like an overly useful idea.

Retain: You retain any spell of 3rd level or lower that you had cast up to 1 round before you started casting the mnemonic enhancer. This restores the previously cast spell to your mind.

This application, however, is so bad, they could also just remove it from the spell description!

Anyways, can you benefit from multiple Mnemonic Enhancers?

Or is the following the only limit?

In either event, the spell or spells prepared or retained fade after 24 hours (if not cast).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Hypersmurf]

That costs more than wand of <enter third level spell of choice here>, right?

Well, maybe not, if you start figuring in high caster levels, but still, doesn't seem like an overly useful idea.

But that's exactly the point.

A wand of fireball at CL10 costs 22,500gp. A wand of mnemonic enhancer at 21,000 lets you prepare an extra half-dozen fireballs at your own CL14, which have a Save DC of 24 once your amazing Int and Spell Focus: Evocation are taken into account (rather than DC 14)... and tomorrow when you're fighting the fire elementals, you can prepare an extra couple of Protection from Energys (again, using your own caster level to determine how much damage they absorb, not the CL5 of an off-the-shelf wand) and a Haste...

It might not be something you'd want to use every day. But it gives quite a bit of added flexibility over deciding months in advance which scrolls to scribe, or which wands might come in handy, and using one's own save DCs and feats can't be a bad thing.

-Hyp.