Wizard Build Suggestions (PHB ONLY!)

[MadLordOfMilk]

The original character concept should work fine

Worse case, ask (beg?) the DM to let you reroll the same character with a new build because you realize the one you chose didn't really fit the concept you were aiming for

General advice from me still screams: "FOR THE LOVE OF [insert deity of choice here], PICK A NON-KNOWLEDGE SKILL" but that's really a matter or preference. I just felt like I made a mistake with that when I first started playing 4e.

 

[Danceofmasks]

You already have your build, and it's nice enough.
Personally, I'm starting to really like the staff wizard ('cos I've been playing one recently).
My lv 27 orbizard's game wrapped up, so now I'm playing another wizard.
(I think I have a wizard problem)

Anyhow, consider my idiotic build ... a 1 trick pony
(I'm taking out all non PH stuff)

Tiefling staff wizard, lotsa int, other stats more or less irrelevant (i.e. consider more int. if in doubt, get more int. really, more int).
Hellfire Blood
Scorching Burst, Burning Hands, Flaming Sphere, Fire Shroud
Gloves of piercing (for those rare encounters that is full of fire resistant foes)

Use whatever magical implement you can get your hands on. Higher plus is better than any powers or properties.
Nonmagical staff is good enough to get your class features from ('cos they don't require you to attack with it)
There are, of course, brokenly powerful staffs out there ... but they're in adventurer's vault, yo.

Backup plan: uhh ... umm ... Magic Missile the darkness?

 

[tiornys]

Before you give up on Magic Missile entirely, it's worth checking out the Warlord's potential to grant basic attacks. Warlords in general are excellent at this, but the PHB only Inspiring Warlord might not have much at all. If it does grant a reasonable number of basics, some of which you could benefit from, then it might be worth having (or retraining into) Magic Missile. That's pretty much the only reason I'd recommend it, though.

t~

 

[KarinsDad]

No, I think paranoia is largely not required with 4e expansions and power books. Not that there is literally NO increase in power with new books but its very slight and the main effect is a LOT more build choices.

I have to totally disagree with this. I think the expansion books add a considerable amount of power. Most of it is in new classes, but a lot is in feats, powers, and items.

As a simple example, how many Wizards now take Phantom Bolt or Illusory Ambush instead of Cloud of Daggers? They target Will and just generally help out the party more.

A single feat, power, or item might not make a big difference, but the cumulative effect of minor gains by multiple feats, powers, and items make a big difference.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I think your original build is pretty solid Gak. You'll have options for most situations and a solid ability to disrupt the other team's game plan. It should work out fine.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I disagree with KarinsDad. There is no considerable power creep.

 

[Destil]

No, there's some power creep, but it's really more like option creep for most things. With just the PHB there's often a clearly 'best' option, and the books just give you generally more options in line with it, but nothing really better. Oppertunity costs keep power level pretty similar.

The exception is feats and magic items, because these were both fairly week in PHB1 and there's no way you'd be able to fill all the slots with the best ones.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Power creep is there .. but mainly with borked unintended combos.
"I can impose a -16 on saves at mid paragon" was a significant issue, for instance .. bad enough for errata to get slapped on a few items.

 

[DracoSuave]

Plus, with the modularity of D&D4, you can consider individual elements a lot easier than 3e. In 3e, you'd have to look at the entire system surrounding an option, and try to figure out if the option or the system was broken... big headache. In 4e, everything using the same mechanic makes eyeballing broken options a lot easier.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Yeah, its usually easy to see what a problem is and mostly not too hard to fix them. The whole save penalty "orb locking" thing is probably about the thorniest issue in the game and the only reason its not trivial to fix is that REALLY fixing it means gutting a pretty interesting wizard build. Normally problems are more like "Bloodclaw weapons pump out too much damage", well duh, nerf them...