Townopolis
2010-01-28, 03:41 AM
Half as a thought exercise, and half because I'd like to play this character sometime, I've decided to try and build an incredibly dynamic control wizard in 4e. Of course he will never be as dynamic in his spell selection as a 3e wizard, or a GURPS syntactic magic caster, but I'm going to see what I can get. The point here isn't power, although I wouldn't mind some, the point here is to build for the following elements in order.
A large, dynamic spell selection (through abilities such as spellbook and tome of readiness)
A mastery of rituals
combat control & utility (viability in standard D&D combat)
Being interesting
being a knowledge monkey
... everything else
So I am assembling his elements, but there are a few areas I could use help with, specifically feat and power selection (everything else is pretty darn easy).
Race, Class, Features, Abilities, & Skills
Race: Human - Bonus feat, bonus at-will.
Class: Wizard - The centerpiece of the build
Features: Tome of Readiness - Bonus encounter power that I can sub in during combat? Sure!
Abilities: Str: 8, Con: 14, Int: 18, Dex: 10, Wis: 14, Cha: 13
Skills: Arcana, Dungeoneering, History, Nature, Religion - Sadly, Heal is not on the wizard list.
If I can get a background, I might use it to add Heal to the skill list (mostly for ritual purposes) and pick that instead of Dungeoneering.
Feats
Feats are divided into tiers, but not any particular order, PCs get 6 feats of each tier with humans getting a 7th heroic feat. Feat retraining can change these numbers, but I prefer to avoid it.
First, the Bard decision
Multiclassing into Bard is the only way to unlock the potential to completely master rituals as there are some rituals that only bards can cast. Thus, it is something I must consider. If I am to do this, I have a few options.
1: Bardic Dilletante gives me training in 1 bard skill (heal), and a mediocre heal (I won't be buffing charisma much).
2: Bardic Ritualist gives me the ability to use a bard ritual for free 1/2/3 times a day depending on my tier. However, I get no bonus skill and it also gives Ritual Casting. I could swap the ritual casting out for Alchemist. However, the consensus on that feat is that alchemical items are simply not worth the money.
Whichever one I take, it would open up Bardic Knowledge as a feat, which is the single best skill-booster for this character.
Should I take one? Which one? Or, are bard-only rituals not worth the feat and cost of an instrument?
Heroic
With any luck, I can find a DM who, like myself, gives players expertise for free. However, it's not guaranteed. Here are the feats I'm looking at right now.
Arcane Familar
Expanded Spellbook
Implement Expertise: Tome? (If DM doesn't give it for free)
Bardic Multiclass? (See the Bard decision)
Bardic Knowledge? (See the Bard decision)
Melee Training (See below)
-Expanded Spellbook fits right in with my primary goal of having the biggest spell list around. It isn't particularly powerful and is a bit tricky to use, but as that's going to be the character's shtick, it's worth it.
-Arcane Familiar is there for the interesting value. A book imp gives a bonus to Arcana, History, and a bonus language. He can also serve as a short range scout with his invisibility. In short, it's a bonuses to some ritual rolls and being a knowledge monkey, but mostly is interesting.
-Melee Training seems like an odd choice, and it is. There are a few ideas here, primary among them being that it sort of/kind of gives me a 4th at-will. Using intelligence for attack/damage with a quarterstaff actually gives me a prayer for hitting things and maybe even hurting something with it. Many people suggest people take Thunderwave as it's the wizard's only close/melee option if they're backed into a corner. This gives me another option. However, it does suffer a major weakness in that I would have to have a magical quarterstaff for the attack to remain viable at higher levels
As you can see, I don't have a 6th feat. I can easily fill extra feat slots with Action Surge and other power-booster feats, but I'd like to make sure I'm not missing any utility-bonus feats first.
Paragon
Improved Tome of Readiness (naturally)
Reserve Maneuver (naturally)
Second Implement (Orb of Imposition might be nice)
Spell Focus (enhanced combat control)
I've noticed that feats get a little less interesting on average as you go up in tiers. Improved Tome and Reserve Maneuver are really exciting for the build, as they play to its major point. However, after that, I quickly run out of exciting options.
Epic
Spell Accuracy (combat control finesse)
Arcane Mastery (sounds fun)
Focused Wizardry (makes area spells more flexible)
Again, running out of exciting options. I could fill this out with a bunch of defense boosters like Epic Fortitude and Robust Defenses, but I'd like to listen for more interesting options first.
Powers
As a wizard, I am a controller. My primary concerns in combat are subjecting the party's foes to lockdown and handicap. Being able to take out groups of minions is also nice, but minions are pretty hard for the DM to use anyway, becoming an A-bomb wizard will just make minions scarcer than bears on the Oregon trail. Actually, I've found area spells' ability to **** swarms to be much more useful than their power against minions, and considering how swarms prefer to operate it's usually best to slap a dagger cloud on them anyway. Plus, control is more interesting.
When choosing daily powers, I have often chosen multiple powers that fulfill the same basic role (area control). The minor differences in these powers mean they are more or less advantageous in some situations, however. For example. Sleep would be my default spell, while I would prepare Grease if I was adventuring in an area with significant terrain (especially precipitous drops).
My basic strategy with Tome of Readiness is to stick a spell that will usually be useful in all situations in the tome, then try and select my regular encounter spells with a little more specialization such that, in any given fight, most of my encounter spells will be useful but there will be 1 that I want to swap out for the tome spell.
Heroic
At-Will Phantom Bolt – Targets Will, useful for breaking grab & other things.
At-Will Cloud of Daggers – Targets Ref, double-whammy on swarms. (actually, can anyone confirm that it does work that way?)
At-Will Ray of Frost/Thunderwave – Targets Fort. Slow or a close-range area push.
Encounter 1 Ray of Enfeeblement
Daily 1 Sleep
Spellbook 1 Grease
Expanded 1 Summon Fire Warrior
utility 2 Phantasmal Terrain
Spellbook 2 Summon Shadow Serpent
Utility 3 Maze of Mirrors
Daily 5 Visions of Avarice
Spellbook 5 Glitterdust
Expanded 5 Stinking Cloud
Utility 6 Dispel Magic
Spellbook 6 Invisibility
Encounter 7 Spectral Ram
Daily 9 Face of Death
Spellbook 9 Mordenkainen's Guardian Hound
Expanded 9 Taunting Phantoms
Utility 10 Illusory Wall
Spellbook 10 Mass Resistance
Tome of Readiness Horrid Whispers @ 1, Hypnotic Pattern @ 3.
I'll be working on the next tiers of spells and hopefully have them up tomorrow.
Items
I haven't yet, but I'm planning on seeking out the thread on batman's utility belt and drawing inspiration from that. Spending lots of money on rituals is planned, but would depend on how the campaign plays out.
-This is what I have so far, but of course I have my own prejudices and blind spots. I doubt what I have so far is the best build for my purposes, and I'm hoping some of you have some good suggestions to make it that much better at what it does.
A large, dynamic spell selection (through abilities such as spellbook and tome of readiness)
A mastery of rituals
combat control & utility (viability in standard D&D combat)
Being interesting
being a knowledge monkey
... everything else
So I am assembling his elements, but there are a few areas I could use help with, specifically feat and power selection (everything else is pretty darn easy).
Race, Class, Features, Abilities, & Skills
Race: Human - Bonus feat, bonus at-will.
Class: Wizard - The centerpiece of the build
Features: Tome of Readiness - Bonus encounter power that I can sub in during combat? Sure!
Abilities: Str: 8, Con: 14, Int: 18, Dex: 10, Wis: 14, Cha: 13
Skills: Arcana, Dungeoneering, History, Nature, Religion - Sadly, Heal is not on the wizard list.
If I can get a background, I might use it to add Heal to the skill list (mostly for ritual purposes) and pick that instead of Dungeoneering.
Feats
Feats are divided into tiers, but not any particular order, PCs get 6 feats of each tier with humans getting a 7th heroic feat. Feat retraining can change these numbers, but I prefer to avoid it.
First, the Bard decision
Multiclassing into Bard is the only way to unlock the potential to completely master rituals as there are some rituals that only bards can cast. Thus, it is something I must consider. If I am to do this, I have a few options.
1: Bardic Dilletante gives me training in 1 bard skill (heal), and a mediocre heal (I won't be buffing charisma much).
2: Bardic Ritualist gives me the ability to use a bard ritual for free 1/2/3 times a day depending on my tier. However, I get no bonus skill and it also gives Ritual Casting. I could swap the ritual casting out for Alchemist. However, the consensus on that feat is that alchemical items are simply not worth the money.
Whichever one I take, it would open up Bardic Knowledge as a feat, which is the single best skill-booster for this character.
Should I take one? Which one? Or, are bard-only rituals not worth the feat and cost of an instrument?
Heroic
With any luck, I can find a DM who, like myself, gives players expertise for free. However, it's not guaranteed. Here are the feats I'm looking at right now.
Arcane Familar
Expanded Spellbook
Implement Expertise: Tome? (If DM doesn't give it for free)
Bardic Multiclass? (See the Bard decision)
Bardic Knowledge? (See the Bard decision)
Melee Training (See below)
-Expanded Spellbook fits right in with my primary goal of having the biggest spell list around. It isn't particularly powerful and is a bit tricky to use, but as that's going to be the character's shtick, it's worth it.
-Arcane Familiar is there for the interesting value. A book imp gives a bonus to Arcana, History, and a bonus language. He can also serve as a short range scout with his invisibility. In short, it's a bonuses to some ritual rolls and being a knowledge monkey, but mostly is interesting.
-Melee Training seems like an odd choice, and it is. There are a few ideas here, primary among them being that it sort of/kind of gives me a 4th at-will. Using intelligence for attack/damage with a quarterstaff actually gives me a prayer for hitting things and maybe even hurting something with it. Many people suggest people take Thunderwave as it's the wizard's only close/melee option if they're backed into a corner. This gives me another option. However, it does suffer a major weakness in that I would have to have a magical quarterstaff for the attack to remain viable at higher levels
As you can see, I don't have a 6th feat. I can easily fill extra feat slots with Action Surge and other power-booster feats, but I'd like to make sure I'm not missing any utility-bonus feats first.
Paragon
Improved Tome of Readiness (naturally)
Reserve Maneuver (naturally)
Second Implement (Orb of Imposition might be nice)
Spell Focus (enhanced combat control)
I've noticed that feats get a little less interesting on average as you go up in tiers. Improved Tome and Reserve Maneuver are really exciting for the build, as they play to its major point. However, after that, I quickly run out of exciting options.
Epic
Spell Accuracy (combat control finesse)
Arcane Mastery (sounds fun)
Focused Wizardry (makes area spells more flexible)
Again, running out of exciting options. I could fill this out with a bunch of defense boosters like Epic Fortitude and Robust Defenses, but I'd like to listen for more interesting options first.
Powers
As a wizard, I am a controller. My primary concerns in combat are subjecting the party's foes to lockdown and handicap. Being able to take out groups of minions is also nice, but minions are pretty hard for the DM to use anyway, becoming an A-bomb wizard will just make minions scarcer than bears on the Oregon trail. Actually, I've found area spells' ability to **** swarms to be much more useful than their power against minions, and considering how swarms prefer to operate it's usually best to slap a dagger cloud on them anyway. Plus, control is more interesting.
When choosing daily powers, I have often chosen multiple powers that fulfill the same basic role (area control). The minor differences in these powers mean they are more or less advantageous in some situations, however. For example. Sleep would be my default spell, while I would prepare Grease if I was adventuring in an area with significant terrain (especially precipitous drops).
My basic strategy with Tome of Readiness is to stick a spell that will usually be useful in all situations in the tome, then try and select my regular encounter spells with a little more specialization such that, in any given fight, most of my encounter spells will be useful but there will be 1 that I want to swap out for the tome spell.
Heroic
At-Will Phantom Bolt – Targets Will, useful for breaking grab & other things.
At-Will Cloud of Daggers – Targets Ref, double-whammy on swarms. (actually, can anyone confirm that it does work that way?)
At-Will Ray of Frost/Thunderwave – Targets Fort. Slow or a close-range area push.
Encounter 1 Ray of Enfeeblement
Daily 1 Sleep
Spellbook 1 Grease
Expanded 1 Summon Fire Warrior
utility 2 Phantasmal Terrain
Spellbook 2 Summon Shadow Serpent
Utility 3 Maze of Mirrors
Daily 5 Visions of Avarice
Spellbook 5 Glitterdust
Expanded 5 Stinking Cloud
Utility 6 Dispel Magic
Spellbook 6 Invisibility
Encounter 7 Spectral Ram
Daily 9 Face of Death
Spellbook 9 Mordenkainen's Guardian Hound
Expanded 9 Taunting Phantoms
Utility 10 Illusory Wall
Spellbook 10 Mass Resistance
Tome of Readiness Horrid Whispers @ 1, Hypnotic Pattern @ 3.
I'll be working on the next tiers of spells and hopefully have them up tomorrow.
Items
I haven't yet, but I'm planning on seeking out the thread on batman's utility belt and drawing inspiration from that. Spending lots of money on rituals is planned, but would depend on how the campaign plays out.
-This is what I have so far, but of course I have my own prejudices and blind spots. I doubt what I have so far is the best build for my purposes, and I'm hoping some of you have some good suggestions to make it that much better at what it does.