why are wizards so weak?

[Plane Sailing]

the mage can avoid getting hit in the first place. With things like Spell Immunity, various elemental protections, the dispels, the globes, contingency, spell turning and others, you cna protect yourself from various spell powers.

Spell Immunity? Isn't that a Cleric only one, like most of the good protective spells?

 

[Sejs]

So, who's at the door, Cubish One?

Oh, just this guy who keeps trying to sell me aluminum siding. I don't know how many times I'm going to have to tell him I don't need any.


Besides, the horizontal stripes would just make me look fat.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I've got a player who is very, very unsure about trying a spellcaster. The warmage is her first shot at it, and I'm looking forward to see how it plays out. The lure is that she doesn't have to select spells -- not daily, and not every level. She also has one task to perform: kill things. And, she gets to wear some armor, up to mithril full plate at 8th level.

It's fun. Granted, you can't do anything but hurt people, but that's all a fighter can do, anyway.

There is a lack of defenses, but that's why you have a cleric or wizard in the party, as you'd better not be the only caster a group has.

Brad

 

[ForceUser]

It's fun. Granted, you can't do anything but hurt people, but that's all a fighter can do, anyway.

Believe it or not, a fighter has many more options than simply hurting people. With the right feats, a fighter can disarm you, pin you, sunder your weapon, dart across the battlefield with great mobility, crank his AC to an astronomical degree at the expense of attack power, negate attacks on his mount, cause you to cower or run away in fear, stun you, blind you, or weaken you. That's a much greater range of potential versatility.

All that said, yeah, most fighters just concentrate on being good at hurting people. But unlike the warmage, they do have other options.

 

[WizarDru]

Spell Immunity? Isn't that a Cleric only one, like most of the good protective spells?

Yes, although a wish can grant Spell Immunity (but not it's greater counterpart).

But really, I was thinking in terms of a party: there's a good chance that the party has a cleric, and many of his buffs help everyone. If there isn't, the wizard still should have a lot of defensive magic items...particularly in the arcanists case, as they don't spend money on armor and weapons, generally.

 

[Felon]

But really, I was thinking in terms of a party: there's a good chance that the party has a cleric, and many of his buffs help everyone. If there isn't, the wizard still should have a lot of defensive magic items...particularly in the arcanists case, as they don't spend money on armor and weapons, generally.

Well, they spend money on other stuff. That's another thing that doesn't get factored into those fighter/wizard damage-output comparisons. A fighter can be expected to have magic weapons, but seldom does anyone give the wizard, say, a rod of metamagic.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

All that said, yeah, most fighters just concentrate on being good at hurting people. But unlike the warmage, they do have other options.

Warmages have more options than killing people.

They can also break stuff-- and if you look at their spell list, they have a lot of flexible, specific options for breaking stuff.

It's not subtle, and it's not quiet, but it can be awfully handy in the hands of a clever player.

 

[Elf Witch]

In all the games I have played in I have never once heard any complaint that wizards are weak. I have never seen it either. Sure they are a little fragile at the lower levels but as they get higher they make up for it.

At the higher levels casters just rule. It's the fighter who starts getting over shadowed espically if you have a DM who allows caster classes yet calls thw game low magic and cuts down on magic items.

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

Warmages have more options than killing people.

They can also break stuff-- and if you look at their spell list, they have a lot of flexible, specific options for breaking stuff.

It's not subtle, and it's not quiet, but it can be awfully handy in the hands of a clever player.

Don't forget looting treasure, the last part of the trifecta of classic adventuring. Do the get Magehand or Levitate?

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Warmages have more options than killing people.

They can also break stuff-- and if you look at their spell list, they have a lot of flexible, specific options for breaking stuff.

That brings me back to my military geography class. "War is about killing people and breaking things." Ah...

Brad