I didn't say you didn't find ANY magic items, I said you don't get to choose them.
There's a big important difference.
Maybe the DM seeded treasure himself. maybe he rolled randomly, maybe he used a pre-written adventure. The point is... you don't get a Haversack, a Headband of Intellect, a Wand of Knock and Boots of Speed just because you asked for them.
For this exercise we are outlawing crafting feats. Which is a specific set of feats that is extremely dependent on the broken economy system. And on the amount of treasure found. If someone wants to make TWO of these uber-wizards, one without crafting feats other than scribe scroll and one WITH crafting feats and crafted items following the crafting rules. Just so we can see if crafting is even over-powered or not.
I like this idea. For a much longer exercise, stevelabny, the person claiming Wizards are vastly overpowered could prepare a series of published scenarios from L1 to L10. If we're concerned about a cheat here, the list goes to a neutral arbitrator in advance. It is assumed the wizard gets his pick of arcane items (on the assumption only he can use them), likely gets stuck with arcane items because no one else can use them, but does not get his pick of items others could use. Post the L1 wizard. Then post the treasure gained to L2. Then the Wizard levels up. So on to L10. And let him have crafting feats under this model. There's the organic wizard.
As to "what if the fighter doesn't get his specialized weapons", perhaps a fighter growing in such a setting doesn't use specialization feats at all. There are lots of other feats. Maybe he isn't a fighter at all, but a Barbarian or a Ranger.
And a side note about expected wealth, and fighter items being consumable. In magic shop land, a wizard who stocks up on scrolls bought/found and casts from scroll...those were consumed. A fighter who buys/finds a +1 sword and then a +2 sword, still gets to sell his +1sword. And a mid-high level wizard being made with tons of scrolls? If he had been built up as a 1st level character who was that dependent on scrolls, he probably wouldnt have his full expected wealth by higher levels.
If we assume MagicMarts, then the Fighter should be able to augment the existing sword, not sell it for half and buy a new +2 one. And I agree on that scroll reliance issue. If the wizard is largely reliant on consumables, and the fighter focuses on non-consumables, the fighter will have more wealth, and the wizard less, at later levels. Whether the fighter has more than WBL, or the wizard less, or both, depends where you assume consumables are used as a standard.
And out of those scrolls that are found...how many of them will be from the list that the wizard already has? How many of the new spells will come with failed spellcraft rolls?
As a point of order, the Wizard can take 10 on a spellcraft check, so he should never fail a roll for a spell at his level, assuming he max'es spellcraft.
And like I said, my first post only said no to the crafting feats. A 10th level wizard only has TWO possible crafting feats. So if someone really wants to burn a good chunk of their money and a feat or two and a few specific spells to craft the items, okay...let's see that too.
The organic wizard becomes interesting in this regard.
Umm, by RAW in 3e, the "magic mart" is the default. If you look in your DMG, when they list the bit about creating towns and whatnot, they list a GP Limit for a given settlement. The presumption that you can buy anything that is equal to or lower than that GP limit is right there. It's not like this comes out of nowhere.
So let's see a third Wizard, with MagicMart in full swing. Let's see all three comparables, for Wizard and Fighter both. If removal of MagicMart is the answer to balance, it seems a simple enough fix.
Also, your feat limitations are a bit strange as well. I've got scribe scroll plus two bonus feats, either of which can be crafter feats. I've also got four more feats from class which potentially can be crafting feats. Possibly one extra if I'm human. I can, by 10th level, if I choose, have pretty much every crafting feat that exists in the game.
Let's vet that. The Wizard gets Scribe Scroll at L1, so that's automatic. The others have level requirements. Brew Potion L3; Magic Arms L5; Rod L9; Staff L12; Wand L5; Wondrous Item L3; Ring L12; Scroll L1 but that's automatic. 25% you can't have at all by 10th level. None can be taken at 1st, so the human's bonus feat is irrelevant. The other five will require all of your post-L1 feats (2 bonus and one each at L3, L6 and L9), but is do-able.
Show me the fully statted Wizard
at each of levels 1 to 10 assuming you can buy whatever you can afford. Let's go with MagicMart. Let's assume unlimited down time. Offsetting these, though, you never find an item you keep - everything costs full price, except what you craft yourself. You can Take 10 on Spellcraft, so you should not fail any spell rolls, but remember you need to be able to take 10 for items you craft. Let's audit the character.
Now, really, the only ones I need are Scribe Scroll (which I start with) and Craft Wand. Craft Wonderous is a nice one to have too. Makes for getting those Haversacks and Headbands a breeze.
Your build. You pick the feats and the items. But, as stevelabny said, core only. If you want, provide a second example where you can pick from anywhere, but all that really proves is that OPTIONAL rules should be vetted, and selectively added as appropriate to the specific campagn. I think we also need some attrition of those scrolls you rely on at each and every level. What's a fair proportion of those scrolls you scribe that get used up over the course of the level? I think it depends on which scrolls you scribe - utility spells only get used if the situation comes up (caveat - where's the added power if they are never used? that means they are never needed!) but offense/defense/buff scrolls likely get used up much faster.
We're also assuming no item is ever lost, stolen, broken, sundered, etc.
Again, I'd point something out here. "Unlimited scrolls" isn't what's been talked about. It's spending a minor investment (30% of wealth by 7th level - even less as levels go up) to completely bypass the Vancian limitations on my class. Heck, it costs less to have that hundred scrolls than it does to add the Flaming quality to the fighter's +1 sword.
Oh, that reminds me - comparable fighters are assumed to have access to an item crafter as well, with his choice of as many Craft feats as your wizard takes. It's a team game.
Likewise, the PHB indicates that it should be fairly easy to gain access to borrowed spellbooks for scribing low-level spells. Again, it suggests there may be difficulties with high-level spells, but that's not actually relevant here.
To me, it should be exactly as easy as it is to get a PC to lend his spellbook out to a stranger.
By stating that the Wizard hasn't found any spell books or scrolls in 10 levels of adventuring, you've moved from looking at an 'organic' example to looking at what happens in a game where the DM specifically sets out to screw over the Wizard.
We started 3.0 with a party including a sorcerer, not a wizard (though our rogue multiclassed for Arcane Archer). My recollection was that many arcane adversaries were sorcerors - I remember looking for spell books pretty often specifically because the sorcerer wouldn't take them, so we could sell them. I found few if any - that was using the earliest published modules, IIRC. Modules tend to skew to scrolls of curatives, IIRC, and a lot more potions than one would expect.
But, again, use a "buy what you like" model. Let's see that.
