Wizard Advice for New DM

[dbm]

There have been lots of good points in this thread so far. I would re-iterate the comment on making lots of scrolls. These give the mage some much needed extra fire power in the first couple of levels for negligable XP costs. The coin can get a little draining, however, so the rest of the party agreeing to cover the wizard's costs out of treasure before dividing it up can be very helpful here.

Also, the character build is very important. If you are playing a wizard, you really want an effective intelligence of 22 to get a second bonus first-level spell. This can be done in FR with 18 Int, Sun Elf and Spell Casting Prodigy feat. It really helps the wizard have lots of spells and makes the DCs harder, meaning each spell is more likely to count for something.

Also, mages can often have a decent Dex, and should always be equiped with a bow or crossbow. Ok, he might not hit every round, but at low levels the difference in BAB between a wizard and a cleric for example (who most people agree can fight) isn't that great.

As others have already noted, you have many more options in 3.x as a wizard - you just need to capitalize on them.

Dan

 

[Lhorgrim]

Great advice folks. Thanks.
The scroll advice may really help the situation. I have to plead guilty on being stuck in a 2E mindset about item creation. It just totally skipped my mind that he could create scrolls so easily, and for so little cost in 3.5. I'll discuss that with him today and let you know how it goes.
As for resting, I think he became dissapointed in the character early and was not putting any effort in to making him succeed. Sort of a self fulfilling prophecy type of thing.
Once again, thanks for all of the great advice. I'm still getting used to many of the concepts of 3.x, and I'm sure that many of the things that are common knowledge to you are things that I haven't put 2 and 2 together about yet. It is wonderful to have a resource like this to get guidance and support from people with more experience.

 

[Henry]

Once again, thanks for all of the great advice. I'm still getting used to many of the concepts of 3.x, and I'm sure that many of the things that are common knowledge to you are things that I haven't put 2 and 2 together about yet. It is wonderful to have a resource like this to get guidance and support from people with more experience.

No problem - any time!

A side anecdote in our current game - We have several players playing things they normally wouldn't play; I who am a cleric buff am playing a straight fighter, one friend who plays rangers is playing a wizard, another friend who loves fighter/rogues is playing straight rogue, another who plays fighters is playing a druid, etc.

The player of the Rogue has been getting disappointed with his Rogue for lack of effectiveness in combat. I explained flat-footedness in more detail, tuned him into the virtues of improved initiative and sneak attack, reminded him that tumbling more often can get him into very effective positions for both him AND me, etc. His face looked like I had hit a light switch. Sometimes all it takes is that spark of info, that "look at the world from another angle", and it can really turn their viewpoint around.

Again, good luck.

 

[rich]

just in case you're still looking for options, I played a low-level elf/wizard (evoker) recently, and I chose "Point Blank Shot" for my first feat, which applied to her bow and to her "ranged attack" spells (rays). I was expecting her to be mostly useless in combat for the first few levels, so I was pleasantly surprised when she actually took out some bad guys with a couple ray spells and her bow... I put her highest ability scores in Int and Dex, with Con next (she hides behind the others when she can). Her usefulness in Knowledge skills (esp Arcane) came in pretty handy as well...
Anyways, I expected her to be really weak for the first few levels, so I was happy when it turned out better. I haven't gotten to the higher levels yet, but it looks like wizards can be pretty daunting after a while...