What are the advantages of a high Con for mage?

[EOL]

2nd most important Wizard Stat

I would say that after intelligence (or charisma for a sorcerer) consitution is the next most important stat. How important depends in large part on the lethality of the game you're playing, but no matter what it's pretty important.

 

[Driddle]

Thanks for the inside info, guys. I'll tyr to put it to good use.

 

[Staffan]

Con is proportionally more important to the hit points of a wizard or sorcerer, because their base hit die is so darn small. Each extra point per die is on average a 40% increase compared to the base, while it's only something like 18% for a fighter and 15% for a barbarian.

 

[DWARF]

Nope, we all noticed that the origional poster of the thread already mentioned that obvious point.

I think you missed my point....

There has to be another reason other than not dying for him to warrant taking it? Personally, I'd figure that'd be enough. And if he can't be bothered to crack the PHB open and check what feats are based off Con....

....then he'll con you guys into doing it for him!

 

[bret]

The best reason for taking a high Con (12 or more) is to give you a chance of surviving the various d6/level spells such as Fireball and Lightning Bolt.

Eventually, your mage will be hit by one of these. Many mages make a mistake at some point in their career and get hit by their own fireball.

 

[maddman75]

IMO - of course your highest score should go on the attribute your spells go off of, Int for wiz, Cha for sorcerer. After than, Dex. Better to not be hit at all than to have an extra couple hit points. After than, Con. Exactly what you get is

- Bonus to concentration check
- Extra hit points
- bonus to Fort save, a wizard's weakness.

And you will likely use concentration more than any other skill.

 

[mmu1]

IMO - of course your highest score should go on the attribute your spells go off of, Int for wiz, Cha for sorcerer. After than, Dex. Better to not be hit at all than to have an extra couple hit points. After than, Con. Exactly what you get is

- Bonus to concentration check
- Extra hit points
- bonus to Fort save, a wizard's weakness.

And you will likely use concentration more than any other skill.

I beg to differ... Unless you plan on using a missile weapon or ray spells a lot, dexterity is nowhere near as important as CON. Between Mage Armor/Shield, various forms of invisibility, blink, mirror image, etc. you can make yourself hard enough to hit that an extra +2 or +3 from Dex will hardly make a difference. On the other hand, a +3 CON bonus(childlishly easy to get, too. Dwarf with a toad familiar, anyone?) means that you'll have more than double the hitpoints of someone with no CON bonus and 60% more than someone with a +1 CON bonus. As someone pointed out, this comes into play the first time you get hit by an area effect spell. Taking high Dex over Con isn't even a consideration unless you're doing it for role-playing reasons.

 

[Henry]

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. Even with 14 INT, he can still get all his top level spells until 11th level (which goes away one level after that) and 18th level, specifically. With INT-boosting items, this can even be further done away with.

However that 17 to 20 CON will be with him his whole career, increasing his Hit Points by 75% to 100%. Plus, higher concentration checks and higher fort bonuses add up to one hideously tough character, for a mage.

One of my favorite recent characters was a Dwarven Evoker with a 20 CON and a 16 INT. Thanks to the extra spells per level, I really didn't miss much, and thanks to the CON, I could contemplate my navel in a hailstorm.

 

[Deedlit]

I would recommend High Dex and a few cross-class ranks in Hide(Or maybe one level of rogue, spending most skill points in Hide).

 

[Fast Learner]

I think you missed my point....

There has to be another reason other than not dying for him to warrant taking it? Personally, I'd figure that'd be enough. And if he can't be bothered to crack the PHB open and check what feats are based off Con....

....then he'll con you guys into doing it for him!

Dwarf, which feats are based on Con?