What are the advantages of a high Con for mage?

[pontus]

There's two psionic feats requiring Con 13

Anyway, anyone knows that the biggest advantage for a wizard with a high Con score is the ability to mock the party rogue for having less hp than your familiar, right?

 

[Akunin]

I actually differ on this point. If making a dwarven mage, I make the CON score his HIGHEST stat, rather than his lowest. Hence, even if I only have a 14 or 15 for INT, then I can still raise it via magical items and via the Ability bonus for each 4th level.

I can see this being a benefit at low levels, but having to wait for those stat increases in irder to get higher-level spells has got to be rough.

I look at the choice this way: If I raise my PCs Constitution, the increase in Hit Points is appled to every die I've earned. If I raise my Intelligence, I don't get those skill points I passed up. Without those extra skill points, you're probably only gonna have Concentration, Spellcraft, and a scattering of assorted knowledges, and not have the points available to buy some of the more useful cross-class skills.

That's one of the nice things about Wizards - their 2 skill points per level are offset by the fact that they get additional points from their primary attribute.

 

[Henry]

So far, I haven't seen a problem with it (possibly because my INT is high to begin with), but the skill points are not a problem for a wizard. For one thing, as long as he has 4 skill points, he can get Concentration, Know(Arcana), Spellcraft, and Scry, and that's the basics he needs as an effective wizard. Other Knowledge skills are just gravy. All he needs is to siphon off about 2 skill points every 4 levels from different skills to spend on an occasional additional language, and he's ready to go. However, I STILL wouldn't try this with an INT of less than 14, because you then run into SERIOUS problems with losing levels of spells for two or three class levels at a time.

I have a mindset that no character HAS to have maxed out skill ranks - it's helpful, but a character can be two or three ranks behind and still be effective, leaving room for a few side-line skills.

As my point earlier, I find it more beneficial to have a higher Fort save and double my hit points than the extra skill points of a higher INT.

 

[Akunin]

As my point earlier, I find it more beneficial to have a higher Fort save and double my hit points than the extra skill points of a higher INT.

Different play styles, I imagine. In games I've been a part of, each party member is expected to be able to climb, swim, and jump with a minimum level of compitency, and Saving throw DCs are very important to the party Wizard. The rest of the party works hard to make sure that Wizard doesn't need to worry about death from Hit Point loss or a failed Fort save.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Tactically speaking, the biggest vulnerabilities of the wiz/sor are HPs and sight. Everything else can easily be fixed by a spell or two.

The added Con directly addresses one of those problems. That is a big deal in my book. The darkvision is a convenience, too.
I

 

[Hejdun]

If there are two fighters and a cleric, you do not need a high CON since they'll act as a barrier between you and your enemies.

Not so!

I have been in that exact situation, one dwarven fighter, one elven fighter, one dwarven cleric, and my elven wizard. My wizard had a 10 con, and therefore stayed back whenever possible. He never really got hurt in melee, but he eventually died before 4th level. Hit points mean everything.

How'd he die? Well, he was almost finished while we were fighting orc archers across the bridge (wizard had already used all defensive spells for the day). He got knocked to -8 or so in that battle. But, it was a nasty firetrap that got him. 19 or something damage to a 6 HP wizard.

Point being, when archers start shooting at you, or the mage starts flinging fireballs at you, you'll want that high constitution. You can't be prepared all the time, and when you aren't, you'll want that extra buffer before death.

 

[The Furious Puffin]

I have played with a Con 18 wizard in the party (Human) It seemed a VERY good idea. He had buckets of hitpoints, vastly more than the party rogue, and could take a hammering in combat when any other wizard (and most thieves) would have died, very important ;-)

Starting with Int: 14 or 15 is okay (I have played a cleric with Wis 14 to start - higher stats in Str and Con) you just have to take create wondrous item at third level and make a headband of +2 int at the first possible moment. Combined with the bonus points you get for levelling up you can then stay ahead of the curve (you have in 19 by 12th level, long before you will need it).

 

[gustavef]

There two good reasons to have a high con for a spell caster:

1) you get more hit points
2) you get more hit points.

Now I know this is only one point, but I though it was important enough to mention twice.

In fact in my current campaing, my Wizard has more hit points then the rogues.

-gustavef

 

[I'm A Banana]

Wizards with low Con are rare...hard to master extraplanar energies with a nasty head cold and a limp.

Wizards with low Dex are also rare. Mage Armor is good, but Marge Armor + 2 is better.

The "dump stat" for most wizards is Cha, which works well for a dwarf. Wizards aren't known as the diplomatic types.

STR is also a bit less important, but useful when you need to hit things.

Wisdom isn't a bad dump-stat, but it affects a lot of often-checked skills like Listen and Spot. A character I have now is an elvish wizard with high Int, low Wis.

IMHO, a low-ish INT at the beginning isn't a problem. As long as you pump ability score increases into it, you can still usually cast level 9 spells when you're able to. Otherwise, it's that much more encouraging to mutli-class.