Generalist Wizard Help

[Face-Beard]

Hey there people!

If anyone out there still plays, or remembers how to play D&D 3.5 [just kidding], I need some expert advice here.

My DM is putting together a new campaign based in the Forgotten Realms [Damara] and I am going to play a wizard. He and I have been gaming together now [with about 5 other individuals] for about 10 years and we take turns in the DM chair. This will be my first time, in all these years, running a PC wizard in one of his campaigns.

Herein lies the problem; he loves and favors warriors, and has a hate-on for wizards; thinking them to be overpowered, and that the people playing them are out to steal all the glory for themselves......which, granted, can be true based on who is running the character.

My challenge is to create a generalist wizard [he frowns on me specializing....since he takes little time to research spells and he knows the spellcasting classes are my bread and butter] that satisfies my love of arcanist builds while not triggering his "optimizer/powergamer" alarm.

Here's what's on the table:

Spells at Level-up: PHB only [outside sources will only be available through adventure....if at all]
[*]Feats: The "Complete" Line of Books are on the Table [with the exception of the Complete Mage.....Grrr], as well as most Forgotten Realms Books [unless area specific....the entire campaign will be taking place in Damara]
[*]Metamagic Feats: I'm Allowed only Four of these.......
[*]Item Creation Feats: I must take at least one...though He'd prefer I take two...
[*]PRC's: The only one on the table for me right now is Archmage.....

So....how to make a badass wizard without "seeming" like one......

Any suggestions?

[Starmage21]

You rolled Wizard. Job is basically done from there. You're a Tier 1 class, even without prestige classes. Adding prestige classes that dont suck is only going to increase your already formidable list of options.

[PaucaTerrorem]

Depending on the rest of the party go either God wizard or Summoner.

[Face-Beard]

I guess I should have been more specific.....

Which four [I can only take four] Metamagic Feats do you think I can get the most use out of?

Which two item creation feats should I invest in?[my DM is insisting I take these and use them....to slow down my progression me thinks]

I'm thinking: Empower Spell, Split Ray, Quicken Spell, Extend Spell, Craft Wondrous Item, and Craft Staff.

BTW: Damaran society frowns upon summoning magic....so roleplay rules out heavy use of summoning magic.

[PaucaTerrorem]

Maybe Brew Potion instead of Craft Staff? Become the Wandering Apothecary. Make buff potions for your melee mates and save your slots for the really useful spells.

[Juntao112]

Craft Wondrous Item, Craft Wand, Craft Contingent Spell.

Don't forget to be an elven generalist.

[Toliudar]

It would help to know what levels you think that the campaign is going to take you through. A lot of metamagics only really hit their stride in the upper levels, unless you're cheesing out terribly - and based on the DM's existing predilections, it doesn't sound like you want to be reaching to maximize optimization.

To add to the buffing ability of the wizard at higher levels, Chain Spell is a great option (combines with the Reach ability of Archmages to be able to spread the love of single target spells around. Powerful but not scene-stealing.

[Talar]

Sculpt Spell out of Complete Arcane is a great mm feat. I love using it with my current wizard. Also spell focuses are nice if you find yourself using a ton of conjuration spells and such, also are required for Archmage. If you want a craft 'stick' I would go with wands. You could try pulling a fast one and go for Craft Contingent Spell if you want. IIRC it is labeled an item creation feat.

[Face-Beard]

The campaign is starting at level 1, and we will play it until far into epic [if we survive]; which is standard for our group.
Most of the time, if I do a character map, I build from lvl 1 - lvl 20.

Update: My DM would prefer that I play a "Gandalf" type wizard, and not steal all the glory from the rest of the party [my knowledge of metamagics and spell combos is greater than his] with meta-magick'ed one shot, one kill kinds-o-spells.

So it looks like I'll be regulating myself to battlefield control and buff/protection kinds of magic ....with the occasional, "Oh crap, the fighters went down, guess I'll have to bring the hurt!", blast/save-er-suck spell.

*sigh*

[Zanos]

Treantmonk's Guide covers in depth the role of support wizard. It advocates strongly for a play style that supplements non-casters in your party and being incredibly effective while taking very little actually glory for yourself. Honestly BFC is so much more effective than blasting with fireballs and lightning bolts that if your DM is paying attention, he'll notice you are far and away the most powerful party member. I doubt he will though, because many people don't see anything beyond how much health damage you did.

As far as specific advice goes.
Metamagic: Extend, Sculpt. Still and Silent spells if you think your DM will try to cheese you with grapples/silenced areas. Unfortunately the complete mage ban rules out Metamagic School Focus, because it's very good with sculpt.

Item Creation: Craft Wondrous Item is far away the leader here. If you want to irritate your DM some ask your party for 75-90% of the items value to craft it. You're pouring your life force into it after all. Insist that your DM follow the experience tables, and then abuse the fact that lower level characters get more experience. A character one level behind with a massive pool of magic items due to crafting can be much more formidable than one of the appropriate level if you use your experience wisely.

Craft Contingent Spell is the best feat in the game. I doubt it's what your DM was looking for, but contingent spells are very powerful and can make you extraordinarily difficult to harm.

Forge Ring is decent. Many rings have powerful and unique effects.

Craft magic arms and armor is actually surprisingly good for wizards. There's a large number of passive weapon/armor properties you can utilize to decent effect.

Other Feats:
If your DM is going to deny you spells outside of leveling, grab the Collegiate Wizard feat from Complete Arcane as well. This gives you four spells to add to your spellbook at every level up, and 6+ Int mod level 1 spells when you start. Or play a Sorcerer instead.

[Gildedragon]

For crafting: etch schema is actually pretty good. like a scroll but lasts longer, and fairly easy to activate

[Droningbass]

If you haven't created your character yet, I would recommend you consider a couple options for your first level.

-The Elf Wizard Racial Substitution Levels from Races of the Wild (pg. 157) are great for a Generalist Wizard at Level 1 and 3 (the level 5 option isn't really that great, comparably). The first substitution level lets you learn an extra spell of any school at every level you advance as a Wizard, and allows you to prepare one bonus spell per day of any level (up to the highest that you can cast) from any school. The third substitution level lets you double the bonus you receive from your familiar, which can be a lifesaver if you chose one that gives you a bonus to saves (like the rat or weasel)! Any elf qualifies for these racial substitution levels, even Gray Elves.
-Depending on how important having a huge spellbook is to you, it might be worth taking the Collegiate Wizard feat from the Complete Arcane (pg. 181). This feat lets you start off with 2 bonus spells in your spellbook and also lets you add 2 extra spells to your spellbook whenever you level up as a Wizard. As an added bonus, you also get +2 to your Knowledge (Arcana) checks. You can only take this feat at your first level.
-Another option for a first-level-only feat would be Spellcasting Prodigy feat from A Player's Guide to Faerun (pg. 44). This feat allows for you to treat your primary spellcasting attribute (Int, in the case of your wizard) as if it were 2 points higher for the purpose of Bonus Spells per day and Spell Save DCs.

I think that the Metamagic Feats that you're looking are great. Extend Spell, Empower Spell, and Quicken Spell are a few of my favorites, and are probably the most useful overall. If you *have* to take an Item Creation Feat, the most useful one throughout an entire campaign would be Craft Wondrous Item (my first recommendation) followed considerably by either Craft Staff or Craft Magic Arms/Armor. If you are not interested in taking these feats, you do get one from the very beginning as a Wizard (Scribe Scroll)... if you're looking to get out of having to be an artificer on a technicality.

I was going to suggest that you look into the Residual Magic feat to really take advantage of your metamagic feats, but then I realized that you couldn't use anything from the Complete Mage... seems like an odd restriction to me... any reason why that's been banned?

[Gildedragon]

going changeling and taking elven generalist 1 and 3 and changeling wizard 5. Your familiar becomes an extremely versatile asset.

[Piggy Knowles]

Sculpt Spell, Extend Spell and Quicken Spell are typically the three most useful MM feats for your average wizard. Pick a fourth that seems fun and you 're golden.

As for creation feats, it's hard to beat Craft Wondrous Item and Craft Contingent Spell.

[Droningbass]

going changeling and taking elven generalist 1 and 3 and changeling wizard 5. Your familiar becomes an extremely versatile asset.

How does that work, Guigarci? Those are, indeed, awesome class features when brought all together. But does a changeling qualify for other racial substitution levels and racial prohibited feats? Where can I find that?

Sorry in advance for branching off from the original conversation, but this is awesome if its possible!

[Gildedragon]

How does that work, Guigarci? Those are, indeed, awesome class features when brought all together. But does a changeling qualify for other racial substitution levels and racial prohibited feats? Where can I find that?

Sorry in advance for branching off from the original conversation, but this is awesome if its possible!

It is possible via the (Changeling only) Racial Emulation feat, as part of its benefits it states: "...Though you do not gain any of the humanoid's traits you are considered to be a member of that race for all other purposes..." RoE 110

You take it at level one and voila! ultrageneralgeneralist!

[Jeff the Green]

going changeling and taking elven generalist 1 and 3 and changeling wizard 5. Your familiar becomes an extremely versatile asset.

Even better with one or more of Improved, Celestial, Dragon, Planar, or Stitched-flesh Familiar. The changeling 5 substitution level doesn't restrict it to the normal options, just to what you could normally get.

[Gildedragon]

Even better with one or more of Improved, Celestial, Dragon, Planar, or Stitched-flesh Familiar. The changeling 5 substitution level doesn't restrict it to the normal options, just to what you could normally get.

Or Living Spell familiars...

[Jeff the Green]

Or Living Spell familiars...

True, but a 7/10 prestige class is a lot bigger investment than a feat. If you're planning on Spell Sovereign anyway, though, you'd be a fool not to consider changeling.

[Face-Beard]

My DM has a severe hate-on for overpowered [or even moderately powerful] casters.

Many of your suggestions are good, but have been taken off the table.

Collegiate Wizard was one of the first feats asked for, and consequently, denied. Any materials from 3.0, other than Forgotten Realms specific materials, that have not been updated for 3.5 are not allowed. Racial substitution levels [for any race] are not allowed. He has even gone so far as to limit what races can take what classes for this campaign; Wizard is Human only. Our group tends to only allow PHB races and races specific to a campaign setting [those that are unique to it]. Kobold, Dragon, Changeling, Pixie.....all that stuff is not allowed. We tend to go for more "realistic" [that's laughable because this is D&D and Fantasy] character design with a heavy emphasis on role-play [he who role-plays his character well receives tons of adhoc Xp], so non-standard races and builds [cherry picking/level dipping into classes and PRC's for easy access goodies is not allowed] are frowned upon. Normally I'm okay with this [I'm used to it], but I get rather aggravated when it comes time for me to play an arcane spellcaster because out come all the new house rules regarding my character......huff, huff.

Anyway, I got this list of requirements the other day from my DM:

Wizard: Damaran Human only

Feat Books: PHB, PHB II, CA, CD, CW, CS, PGtF, Faiths & Pantheons, MoF, Races of Faerun, BoED, DMG, Draconomicon, Waterdeep, LM, Savage Species

PRC's Available to Wizard: Archmage, Geometer, Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil, Celestial Mystic, Sentinel of Bharrai, Arcane Devotee, Effigy Master, Holy Scourge [only thing available from CM]

Additional Rules: Maximum of (4) Metamagic Feats [lvls 1-20], Must Take (2) Item Creation Feats, No "metamagicing" a single spell to make it a gamebreaker [ie. arcane thesised, metamagic school focused, easy metamagicked, practical metamagicked, empowered, split, chained, enervation and such].

So....that's what I'm working with...

[Piggy Knowles]

My original suggestion should still work fine under those parameters:

Sculpt Spell, Extend Spell and Quicken Spell are typically the three most useful MM feats for your average wizard. Pick a fourth that seems fun and you 're golden.

As for creation feats, it's hard to beat Craft Wondrous Item and Craft Contingent Spell.

[Face-Beard]

Craft Contingent Spell has been house-ruled to allow only one crafted contingent spell per character. In the wizard's case, he could have one crafted contingent spell, and one contingency [per the spell] active. It's still a good feat choice even though it has been shot with the nerf cannon.

Looks like I'm taking the following: Extend Spell, Empower Spell, Sculpt Spell, Quicken Spell, Craft Wondrous Item, and Craft Contingent Spell [though I'd still really like to have Split Ray].

[Zanos]

Take all seven levels of intiate of the sevenfold veil and just laugh all the way to the bank.

Honestly it seems like your DM is going to basically prevent you from adding new spells to your spellbook aside from your two at level up. Considering his gigantic hate-on you might want to just go with a Sorcerer to have a better time. A wizard with only spells from level ups is pretty bad.

I sincerely doubt you'll have fun playing a Wizard if your DM bans you from investing character resources in complementing your weaknesses, even if it's from his allowed books(Collegiate Wizard in this case).

[jiriku]

If he's allowing initiate of the sevenfold veils, you should ask him ahead of time if he knows that it's very strong on defense. You don't want to get nerfed during gameplay a year from now when he suddenly realizes you have abilities that can hard-stop unprepared monsters.

You might consider Fell Drain in place of Empower. Empower is mostly just going to get you more damage. Who cares about damage? Haste the party and then go grab an extra slice of pizza if you want damage. Fell drain sonic snap is a 2nd-level no-save debuff on a stick. Fell drain magic missile will debuff up to five targets at once, and fell drain kelgore's grave mist will give a whole pack of foes both fatigue and a negative level while simultaneously functioning as area denial. With no saving throw. Fell drain extended belker claws will suck the life out of a boss monster over the course of a fight, again without a save. Your biggest challenge may be to use it sparingly enough that he doesn't just turn every encounter into a parade of constructs and undead.

I wonder if you might actually be happier playing a beguiler, since you'd get real class features and a guaranteed list of spells known. I'd be seriously concerned about playing a wizard in this environment; if he restricts your ability to learn new spells and then goes on a nerf-binge during gameplay, you may find yourself without any effective options.

[Werephilosopher]

Collegiate Wizard was one of the first feats asked for, and consequently, denied. Any materials from 3.0, other than Forgotten Realms specific materials, that have not been updated for 3.5 are not allowed. Racial substitution levels [for any race] are not allowed. He has even gone so far as to limit what races can take what classes for this campaign; Wizard is Human only.

It looks as if your DM isn't going to see your character as "balanced" unless it's nerfed into oblivion. The first thing I'd ask is whether your party will find ample scrolls and friendly spellcasters willing to let you copy spells- if not, either demand the party ranger never find arrows, the fighter never find better armor, etc. or else just stop trying to build a sufficient caster. It seems his mind is set on ruining them.