General Wizard advice

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Truesight
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Sep 04, 2017 5:52 pm

General Wizard advice

Post by Truesight » Mon Sep 04, 2017 6:18 pm

Hi! New to the server, delighted to see a NWN PW trucking along after all these years.

I want to make a wizard but could use some advice on pitfalls to avoid.
A few general questions to start up:
I have seen references to a minimum of three levels in cross class dips but can't find it in the official rules. Is it just somewhere I haven't seen? From the builds people are posting it appears to be 3 levels as soon as you take it, then no restrictions?
How necessary is discipline, and by extension, a skill dump class and Epic skill focus discipline?

What are the coolest custom epic skill focus feats? Epic transmutation/Divination and Illusion look fun, but the bonus to spells is practically useless, is the teleport/ tricks worth it?

If you had to pick three Epic spell focus schools, what is your pick? Currently I'm looking at Evocation, Enchantment and Necromancy, but looking longingly at Conjuration and Abjuration. I guess infinite spells on offer would be something to look at too, having infinite melfs at level 1 and infinite blindness at level 5 would make levelling a dream.

What kind of DC's are we fishing for?
A generalist human wizard is looking at about 39, if we go full on Shadowmage Sun elf and great int we can hit 44. It sacrifices alot of versatility though.

Best Epic spells? Mummy Dust or Dragon Knight?
Is Hellball/ Greater ruin worth Evocation focus? Grab both?
Epic Mage armour worth the feat at all?

A couple of different stats distributions for consideration

Human
Str:12
Dex: 10
Con: 16 (18)
Wis: 8
Int: 17 (19)
Cha: 8


Sun Elf
Str: 12
Dex: 8
Con: 14 (16)
Wis: 8
Int: 20 (22)
Cha: 8

The elf sacrifices a pre epic feat and one epic feat and HP for +2 DC's and a couple of extra spells.
+2 DC's are nice but feats are so tight with so many good choices for feats on this server.

Thanks for the help!
Last edited by Truesight on Mon Sep 04, 2017 6:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Iceborn
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Re: General Wizard advice

Post by Iceborn » Mon Sep 04, 2017 6:41 pm

You will find that most combinations of these skills and feats are actually pretty good for what they are designed to do or support. Personally, I know that divination is the worst school to specialize in, but it brought me some of the most interesting RP I've had, and the -scry is a very powerful tool, whilst conjuration - you can't go wrong with conjuration.

In the case of multiclassing, you need to take the first 3 levels of every new class in sequence, and afterward you are free to take 1 at the time.

And now, *angelical choir as the links falls from the heavens* a few things you will need:

http://wiki.arelith.com/Category:Classes
http://wiki.arelith.com/Spell_changes
http://wiki.arelith.com/Wizard
http://wiki.arelith.com/Feat_changes
Misc Changes, with the Feats and Skills sublinks.
Available races
Spell Changes
Class Mechanics
Command Guide

Take a look before asking your questions!

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Peppermint
Posts: 1860
Joined: Mon Sep 08, 2014 4:44 pm

Re: General Wizard advice

Post by Peppermint » Tue Sep 05, 2017 12:21 am

Illusion is actually pretty decent in combat, due to Weird/Shades.

Discipline is extremely necessary if you plan to ever PvP. If you don't, you can get by without it (though it'll make life a little harder). Ultimately, though, there's no real reason not to take it. You give up very little.

If you're going for Discipline, you need ESF Discipline as well.

The strongest schools on Arelith are probably Abjuration/Conjuration/Evocation. Abjuration for better dispels and IGMS resistance. Conjuration for better summons. Evocation for Bigby's and better Greater Ruin/Hellball. Illusion is also very good, for reasons mentioned above. Necromancy is decent with Mummy Dust (but not great until then); vampires aren't very tanky, but hit much harder than conjuration summons. Enchantment is great for the enchanting basin (but 'meh' for actual combat). Divination and Transmutation are terrible, RP perks aside. Golems are not good.

~40ish DC is fine for high end 9th level spells. I wouldn't bother with shadow mage. High level content has a lot of opponents that DC-oriented spells are just flat out useless against, forcing mages to fall back on raw damage (e.g. IGMS, Ice Storm). Candidly speaking, shadow mage has its RP niche, but mechanically, it's a trap.

All of the epic spells are useful. Honestly, it just depends on what you're trying to do.

Dragon Knight gives you a very strong, if short duration summon. Very useful in boss fights and in PvP.

Epic Mage Armor makes you a little tankier. Probably the worst of the epic spells, since it won't turn you into a true tank, but gives you a lot more leeway in PvE.

Greater Ruin and Hellball combine to give you a lot of burst, very difficult to mitigate. Mostly useful in boss fights/in PvP.

Mummy Dust gives you access to mummies and vampires, the latter of which are currently the most potent. Not very tanky, but very, very good damage output.

Tetra
Posts: 67
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2017 8:27 am

Re: General Wizard advice

Post by Tetra » Tue Sep 05, 2017 12:57 am

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Last edited by Tetra on Thu Sep 07, 2017 3:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

Truesight
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Sep 04, 2017 5:52 pm

Re: General Wizard advice

Post by Truesight » Tue Sep 05, 2017 3:23 am

Thanks guys super helpful.
On considering the advice I'll go with this:

Human Wild Mage
Str:12
Dex: 10
Con: 16 (18)
Wis: 8
Int: 17 (19) (26)
Cha: 8

1: SF: Conjuration, GSF: Conjuration
2:
3: SF: Evocation
4:
5: GSF: Evocation
6: Extend Spell
7:
8:
9: SF: Illusion
10: GSF: Illusion
11:
12: Maximize
13:
14:
15: SF: Abjuration, GSF: Abjuration
16:
17:
bard 18: Empower Spell
bard 19:
bard 20:
21: Epic Spell: Epic Dragon Knight
22:
23: Epic Spell Focus: Conjuration
24: Epic Spell Focus: Illusion
25:
26: Epic Spell Focus: Evocation
27: Epic Spell: Greater Ruin
28:
29: Epic Spell: Hellball
bard 30: Epic Focus: Discipline

Doesn't have anywhere near as high Int as I could build, but has alot of toys to play with which is nice.

Do I take it late game necromancy/ Enchantment Dominate Monster/ Wail isn't very effective?

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Aero Silver
Posts: 137
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Re: General Wizard advice

Post by Aero Silver » Mon Sep 11, 2017 4:48 pm

Would this build also work for Shadow Mage? I am thinking of focusing on Divination.
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Hunter548
Posts: 1869
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Re: General Wizard advice

Post by Hunter548 » Mon Sep 11, 2017 5:22 pm

Aero Silver wrote:Would this build also work for Shadow Mage? I am thinking of focusing on Divination.
Until shadow mage gets buffed substantially, under no circumstances should you take shadow mage. It's about as bad as original kensai was.

Just play a shar-worshipping wizard.
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