Wizards, need your input.

[FadedC]

Yes, Con is Essential, Wisdom, 2E junk it, 3 E Junked it every time. Will save is mitigated by Iron will, Magic Items at higher levels High Dex was AC, Now replaced with INT, High CHA, Actually perfered sorcerer (Def sorcer=Wizard clone sans selection subed for brute force but oh well, let me play the type of character I like). Either way, I was not crippled by class features that did nothing thanks to me placing my abilities where I felt I like them. BTW read the man in black for a charismatic wizard who messes with destiny, Sneaky bastard too. 3E woulda been an early adopter spy master to go with that magic.

You know you don't have to put points into wisdom for a wizard. Only 2 at will powers and orb mastery use it. You don't have to be an orb master, you said you liked high con and that's really strong for staff masters. Your staff can even look like an orb if that's important to your character concept for some reason. Charisma is also very strong for wizards because of the spell focus feat.

Taking orb mastery and complaining you need to put points into wisdom is like taking weapon finese and complaining you have to put points into dex. It's just one of many options for a wizard, and they one of the more versatile classes when it comes to assigning their stats (though they will always want a very high int).

 

[Amphimir Míriel]

edit: nevermind

 

[Otterscrubber]

Well I've run a few test fight with a 24th level wizard I tried to convert over from 3.x sorcerer as best I could. Initially I thought he would not be that great, especially in one on one encounters, but after running a few fights with him in 1:1 pit fight against other monster his level the wizard does quite well. Now he's just about as tough as it gets in a fight where he can blow all his defensive spells, stoneskin, resistance, blur but what might be jarring as he can only do them once per day. In a longer adventure it takes some getting used to the fact that you can only cast one fireball and then you'll have to rest. I played a sorcerer before and he could cast pretty much whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted so its a very different experience but it works out in my opinion.

The don't dish out as much single target damage, but they are surprisnigly durable, one of the few classes whose primary stat adds to their AC. This makes a big difference, espeically combined with their abilities to mitigate many forms of damage or avoid hits with displacement. Also, they can throw a lot of these defenses on teammates and help keep their defenders alive with great effectiveness if they are not the ones being targeted.

 

[Saeviomagy]

My only problem with wizards is that a handfull of spells that do classic D&D wizard things would have been great. They really need more powers than other classes to make spellbook valuable and keep wizards diverse.

Like daily self-polymorph that lets you melee for one encounter (5 min as a troll or umberhulk once per day could be balanced, cool and a useful option). Or some classic transmutation powers, rock to mud is begging for action in 4E to make difficult terrain. Letting disintegrate destroy force conjurations. That sort of thing.

While the wizard being primarily an evoker/nonsummoning conjurer in 4E is fine, a little more variety in their spells would be awesome.

The problem is that often "awesome" means "does everything with a single spell that some other character was doing with their entire class".

The umberhulk/troll idea for instance: how do you make it worthwhile as a daily without making the fighter obsolete? Turning yourself into a fighter with no daily or encounter powers is going to be crap. Turning yourself into a fighter with dailies and encounter powers is going to be too good. Moreover, how good the spell is will depend on how many encounter powers and dailies you've already spent. I suppose maybe you could use some method for converting your dailies and encounter powers into umberhulk powers or whatever, but it sounds way too complicated to be a quick thing in a fight, which was always the other problem with polymorph.

And, of course, you're stealing the fighter's schtick, all the while holding firmly onto your own.

I agree entirely on rock to mud though - very much a controller power (although probably better as "create mud"). Well, except there are spells that already have a similar effect. I guess if you're really set on it, you could just redescribe one of them.