Wizard leveling

[DarkFuneral209]

So I started a new wizard and Im having a hard time to stay alive as well as how to be beneficial in a group setting while at a lower level. Any tips?

[The Rambling Midget]

Always travel with a group. Your direct damage spells will suck at low level, so focus on debuffs and stuns. Grease is great if your party favors ranged weapons, because the slow effect has no save. Daze, in its modified form, is a very useful cantrip. Sleep is also very powerful, because it now effects a higher number of hit dice, and you can get a Coup de Grace on anything with 5HD or less. Don't worry too much about stuff like Clarity until your CL is high enough for it to last longer than potions. Also Haste.

Bring liquor. You'll need to rest a lot.

[DarkFuneral209]

Thanks I'll give that a try with crowd control.

[Aelryn Bloodmoon]

Everything TRM said, with some additions-

Enchantment spells in general are vastly undervalued for some reason. Hold person as a level 3 spell works on a lot more enemies than you might think from levels 5-15 (the highest level achieved that I can speak of). Blind/Deafen is also enchantment, and is a fortitude save, which is a spectacular way to remove an enemy spell-caster's or archer's ability to target you at range.

Confusion is absolutely spectacular with the way most mobs on the server spawn, so long as you get yourself a line of sight to the middle of the group before the party engages. It's a fantastic 'throw one spell and let the party mop up' tactic on those brute-ish monsters...and there will be lots of them, I promise.

And if you must solo, always get the most powerful conjuration spell available. If you're a specialist and can't conjure, get a book of conjuration studies and utilize the spider to the fullest after level 5, that's when shelgarn's blade stops being useful.

At level 13, you can get mordenkainen's sword. If you buff this, at level 15 for +5 GMW, it can compete with a warlock's fiend (tested and proven.)

[The Rambling Midget]

Enchantment spells in general are vastly undervalued for some reason.

Enchantment spells are really only good if you have enchantment focus or a lot of DC boosting gear, because you have extremely limited castings, they generally only affect one target at a time, and if they fail, you've achieved absolutely nothing. They're not even softened up. It's a big gamble.

Also, once you get up to about level 10, you'll discover that everything and their mother has enormous saving throws which will, if you don't have DC gear and spell focus, drop your chance of holding to maybe one in four, if you're lucky.

So, if you want to go for enchantment spells, make sure your gear is decked out for the full +12 INT.

[Aelryn Bloodmoon]

^That's accurate. You can get away with +9 or so, and use a fox's cunning spell for higher DC's. +12 gear is optimal for spell slot maximizing, though. Other than that, I can't argue with the logic- only say that I happened to do just that when I played Ast, so it wasn't a problem for me.

[Rattus_norvegicus99]

I recently just started a low level character. If you see Alastor online the Cordor server, send me a tell and we can meet up for some hunting, if you like.

[vaclavc]

I recommend Slow spell. It works wonders, especially at lower levels.
-V-

[DarkFuneral209]

Thanks guys for the recommendations. Do the summon creature spells level up with you? So if I use a summon creature 2 at level say 20 is the creature as strong or should I be using a higher level creature spell?

Also whats the best familiar to have a training pet?

Thanks.

[The Rambling Midget]

Summoned Creatures do not improve in power. You want to have the highest one possible for maximum effectiveness. The only way to boost that is to take GSF: Conjuration, which allows you to summon a creature one level higher than the spell you cast.

[msterswrdsmn]

On conjuration: The highest level summon isn't always the best. The dire spider is easier to support than the dire bear, as it has more immunities (immunity to mind affecting, immunity to web, etc). Throwing web+fear at a mob will screw with a dire bear, but not a dire spider, for example.

Flame arrow/evards are wonderful low-level offensive options as well. If your a hin/gnome, you're effectively immune to evards and can use it as a mass-paralysis shield if you're getting mobbed.

On enchantment: Its great for crowd control against critters, but it takes some practice. Theres only a handful of spells that work against mind-immune creatures as well (i think blindness/deafness works?). If your playing a non-infinite caster type, preparing lots of hold person/monster is an inefficent use of spell slots; prepare a few and use 'em against the stronger-but-rarer critters. Dominate person/monster can absoltely wreck things if you capture the right critter, but it cuts into your XP as well (it counts as another summon).

Sidenote; confusion is going to be a staple spell for any enchanter. Its a mass AoE stun that, last i checked, is 100% party-friendly as well. Sure, one or two critters will attack, but whether they attack you or each other is a toss up.