Missing Wizard Tip Links

I seem to recall there were already some posts on tips and recommendations for playing Wizards. Does anyone know where these threads are now located?

Thanks!

P.S. I could also use additional advice concerning extant items, as well as what to gain with the Reward Vouchers.

For instance, I would like to have an item with Immunity to Knockdown, but this cannot be purchased with Vouchers. What items with this property are there in game besides the Earthrooted Boots?

*cough* Tempest's Stormshield *cough*

Did a search, couldnt find the threads either...

My basic advice on wizards.... caster levels and casting stat (INT) are your God. Focus on them. Multiclass if you wish, but keep it to a minimum lest your caster levels fall too far behind your hit dice and your spells fail to penetrate spell resistance or do sufficient damage.

Casting stat makes your DCs higher and gets your more spells per day... duh.

You will want CON for hit points too, to make up for the piddly d4 you get. Make it a secondary priority when making gear choices, but dont sacrifice any INT to get CON.

Metamagic is also where arcane casters shine. Extend spell and empower spell are a *must* in my opnion. Maximize and silent spell are also very good, if you get all 4 of these feats, you are capable of memorizing a LOT of a specific spell that you can apply them to (if you have the slots), and in some situations this can be invaluable... nothing says lovin' like having over 24 Greater Missile Storms available, some of which do extra damage

Also, dont specialize in a specific school at creation, as being locked out of ANY spell school is too high a cost to pay for the piddly bonus of +1 spell slot per level.

I DO recommend choosing a school to get spell focus in (best schools are necromancy, evocation, or transmutation), eventually aiming for greater spell focus, and epic spell focus.

I also recommend getting spell penetration, greater spell penetration, and epic spell penetration as soon as you can. Spell resistance will literally kill you in some cases without them.

Invisibility is probably the most powerful utility spell you can know, memorize a lot of them, scribe scolls of them, and get items that have uses of it. It is the best tactical advatage you can have against 99% of enemies.

Lastly, learn every single spell you can get your grubby little hands on, and learn what they do. Experiment. Being a wizard means that preparations is the key to mastery. Preparing properly means having the right tools to accomplish your goals. Trying to fix a car without the right tools will be an exercise in frustration.... combat without having all the spells available to you is very similar. Wizards are able to know all the spells, so take full advantage of this, and memorize what will work when you need it.

Thanks! Lots of good tips here!

What of items? Preferences? Do you enjoy crafting skills and feats?

Normally, I leave crafting for others. But normally, I do not play a mage.

It is also very difficult for me to feel secure with a character that takes more naps than most children or elderly, and is constantly in fear of the next Dispel, Breach, or Disjunction. I mean, Aargyle sometimes forgets about sleep, as the life of a Defender is about constant alertness, and he seldom uses buffs. OTOH, this character scouts each map area for possible indoor locations for rest, and if it were not for Invisibility, his spell effects would light some small suburbs.

An attempt to *bump*, as I am in need of advice, tips, recommendations, etc.

Today for instance, as part of a three member team I was able to help take out a frost covered draco-lich and his minions. However, eventually I was out of spells, charges on devices, and the server was not out of respawns. Result: Temple trip via Lysis bracers.

Potion of Renewal.

If you rest before venturing into a hostile area and manage to burn ALL your spells in that area while not being able to rest, these potions will literally save your life.

And also..... a wizard who is out of spells is a wizard who should be invisible to his enemies, so he can buy the time needed to drink another potion of renewal. In a party, this means everybody goes invis, and waits till each can drink a potion and then rally back to offense. Going invis can also allow the group to regather in a safer or more strategic location before re-engaging.

Good tip! I actually did the invisible drinking part in the second go round with a different team.

But the Renewal elixer also seems to strip any of the long term buffs, so I would guess this would also include the invisible effect too; correct? Thus, it may be better to drink Renewal first, then use Invis to rebuff; right?

Also, as Renewal is Aenea specific and limited in access, are there any other such tips?

Scrolls.

Wizards get the scribing feat for free. Use it. Write up a bunch of invis's for emergencies, A cheap damager for spamming, or a good AoE killer like wail or horrids.

daveyeisley wrote:
My basic advice on wizards.... caster levels and casting stat (INT) are your God. Focus on them. Multiclass if you wish, but keep it to a minimum lest your caster levels fall too far behind your hit dice and your spells fail to penetrate spell resistance or do sufficient damage.

So what is the magic number of caster levels that one shouldn't fall below that creates this problem?

In general?

Enemy spell resistance is *rarely* higher than 32 (due to toolset limitations, which I have devised a rather insidious workaround for, but it is somewhat unfair to casters, so even if and when those enemies make it onto the server, they will be very rare) so this means that to have a 50/50 chance of penetrating it, you must have a bonus of +22 on your caster level check... that can mean 22 caster levels, or it can mean 16 caster levels with all 3 of the spell penetration feats (spell pen, greater spell pen, and epic spell pen for a total bonus of +6).

In addition if you have access to Spell Breach, Greater Spell Breach, or Modenkainen's disjunction you can use them to reduce enemy resistance for a short time. See the spell descriptions for more info.

So for the highest level of SR (32 in all but the rarest cases) you can get away with 17 caster levels as wizard or 18 as Sorceror (for access to 9th level spells), Spell Penetration and Greater Spell penetration (+4 caster level check against SR), and a single casting of Mord's Disjunction (to lower the SR to 22) this will give you a 100% chance to penetrate.

Less than 17 caster levels means that you cant cast 9th level spells including Mord's Disjunction (except from scrolls, which is still a viable but expensive alternative) so you may have a tougher time on the high SR baddies.

Beware of enemies with High Monk-levels, or Aenean subrace SR. If they have enough hit dice, their SR can be well over 32 making your magic much less effective (also Monk-based SR is bugged and cannot be lowered by abjuration spells like Breaches or Mord's).

A final note. Caster levels are important for more than SR. Some of the best spells require caster levels in order to maximize their output, sometimes to between 25 and 40 caster levels required to max out - such as Greater Missile Storm (40), Phoenix's Field of Flame (40), Horrid Wilting (25), Sunburst (25), Glacius' Hypothermia (25), Ice Storm (39), and Meteor Swarm (30).

Links to Spellcaster Info:

Manny's "Magical Theory 101" - Basic use and mechanics

Essential Spells for Arcane Casters

Party-Saving Primer for Arcane Casters

This might be 24th based on Greater Dispel:

http://nwn.wikia.com/wiki/Greater_dispelling

"Most of the spells of a level 24 caster are immune to greater dispelling, as the dispeller's best possible roll is 35 (20+15), while the DC is 36 (12+24). "

The question was regarding a statement I had made about spell resistance, specifically. Though your comment on greater dispel is true, the reality is that a PC is less likely to face greater dispelling than they are an enemy with 32 spell resistance (and even this is not a common thing).

Furthermore, the caster with 24 caster levels will most likely be facing challenges from epic level spellcasters (lower level spellcasting enemies should not present much danger) and these higher level spellcasting enemies are more likely to use Mordenkainen's Disjunction to dispel (if they dispel at all) which will not be hamstrung at all by the PC having 24 caster levels.

Thank you so very much, Dave, for taking the time to communicate all this info. I haven't had the time this evening to study it like I want to, but I will indeed study it all quite carefully, along with my wiki research on SR.

Continuing discussion of my particular character build in my thread Ranara Duauth, Cursed Shadow Mage.