Wizard build help

[veers559]

I am trying to build a grey elf wizard for a piracy 3.5 D&D game. I am pretty new to build a wizard. Trying to play a character outside my comfort zone.

Any ideas on this build? Please keep it simple for me.

[Eldariel]

What level are you starting on? Any idea on how strong a party you'll have? How much power would you want?

[Mike Miller]

Also, what sources? How new to 3.5 are you?

[RNightstalker]

It is a pretty open-ended request. We can go a lot of different directions, the biggest thing you can help us help you is what do you want your pirate grey elf wizard to do?
Front line blaster?
Wise old sage?
Crowd control/party buffer?

I would definitely check out Stormwrack: Mastering the Perils of Wind and Wave (August 2005) that has a flavor for the sea.

[SirNibbles]

Piracy lends itself well to blasting. You can engage at absurd ranges with devastating accuracy.

[daremetoidareyo]

If you're blasting, the ships mage feat from stormwrack is right up your gulley.

[ExLibrisMortis]

There's a prestige class in Towers of High Sorcery that I like to recommend to wizards in naval campaigns: the Sea Mage. Its signature ability reads as follows:

At 2nd level, the sea mage learns to instill a portion of his magical power in a sailboat or other sea-going vessel of up to 75 feet in length (including rowboats, keelboats, or longships). Once per day, when the sea mage is preparing his spells, he may imbue a number of spells equal to his sea mage level into the boat itself. The maximum level of any spell to be imbued is one less than the highest level spell the sea mage can cast, and imbued spells use up spell slots like other prepared spells.

The sea mage casts an imbued spell as normal (including requiring all verbal, somatic, and material components), but, so long as he is in contact with the boat at the time, he and the boat are considered to be one for the purposes of determining the spell’s range. Specifically, touch spells can be directed to any target in contact with the boat, and any point in or on the boat can serve as a spell’s point of origin.

So theoretically you could be firing lightning bolts from the bowsprit while sitting inside the ship, or something.

N.B. The 4th-level Imbue Ship ability removes the "75 feet" restriction.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

If you're blasting, the ships mage feat from stormwrack is right up your gulley.

Right up your galley?

EDIT: Also, I'll second the recommendation for Stormwrack, and tell your DM to check out the narrative naval combat mechanic if they haven't already (greatly streamlines ship battles while making them feel more like Pirates of the Caribbean, so an all around win in my book). Back on the subject of casting, the Stormcaster prestige class from the same book is pretty cool, both flavorful and powerful.

[Malphegor]

Here's some nautical thaumaturgical information for ya!

Feats: Ship's Mage (Stormwrack)- your spells can no longer harm the ship you're attuned to, and you've got +1 Caster level whilst on the ship


Spells:

Submerge Ship (level 7, Stormwrack)- your ship's now capable of being a submarine!

Detect Ship (level 3, Stormwrack)- you now can be the ship's radar for detecting hadozee vessels off the starboard bow!

Raise from the Deep (level 4, Spell Compendium)- point at a target or object, it now rises back to the surface of the water at 150feet/round (mixed with submerge ship, this spell gets very... interesting. Dive underneath an enemy vessel, then once you're happy you're directly below them, rise from the deep!)

Basically any spell that controls the wind or allows you to ensure the crew have supplies is useful.

Consider getting craft wondrous item- most of the explosives, especially the Heroes of Battle magic items, are wondrous items, so if you want cannons on your ship, that's the way to go.

[SirNibbles]

There's a prestige class in Towers of High Sorcery that I like to recommend to wizards in naval campaigns: the Sea Mage. Its signature ability reads as follows:


So theoretically you could be firing lightning bolts from the bowsprit while sitting inside the ship, or something.

N.B. The 4th-level Imbue Ship ability removes the "75 feet" restriction.

How does that work with Flanking/Touch Spells?

[ExLibrisMortis]

How does that work with Flanking/Touch Spells?

Flanking requires threatening, so you wouldn't flank through the ship, generally speaking. However, when you are holding the charge on a touch spell (or do you hold the charge in the ship?), you might just be threatening the entire ship, which could open up possibilites for AoO builds, and indeed enable flanking.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

I'd suggest using the Landlord feat (Stronghold Builder's Guide) to make a ship your stronghold. Turn it into a ship-in-a-bottle, using shrink item to stow it when not in use.

Ancestral Relic (BoED) might also be good, here, especially given how long sea voyages tend to take, so you can invest heavily into one piece of equipment while traveling and not have to worry about finding merchants out in the middle of the sea.

Personally, my favorite casting-type class in a seagoing campaign is shaper psion (especially on a warforged with buoyancy built into his own body). There's so much going for shapers it's ridiculous. And a lot less complexity than a wizard has.

Of course, druids are crazy-go-nuts, too, given they have huge control over things like the weather.

[Malphegor]

This actually reminds me, I saw in a book somewhere once a compass that was literally the Pirates of the Carribean compass- always points in the direction of the thing you desire, but you’ve got to do a check to prevent stray thoughts and whims changing your desires. Might have been a concentration check.

I’ll have to see if I can find it. Easy enough thing to make a custom item of though, slap a X charges per day Augury or some other divination spell onto a compass with craft wondrous items and work from there.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I've always thought that a ship would be an ideal candidate for a custom Legacy Weapon.

Speaking of magic ships, check out Kingdoms of Kalamar: Salt and Sea Dogs if you can for some sweet ship options. The mundane options are especially nice, but don't discount the enhancements.

[SirNibbles]

Flanking requires threatening, so you wouldn't flank through the ship, generally speaking. However, when you are holding the charge on a touch spell (or do you hold the charge in the ship?), you might just be threatening the entire ship, which could open up possibilities for AoO builds, and indeed enable flanking.

"If you’re considered armed, you threaten all squares into which you can make a melee attack" - Rules Compendium, page 18

"To touch an opponent, you must succeed on an attack roll to make a melee touch attack.
...
Touching an opponent with a touch spell is considered to be an armed attack" - Rules Compendium, page 126

You can make an armed melee attack from a square, therefor you threaten that square, therefore you can flank (at least on your turn when you are casting the spell). That's my interpretation.

"Specifically, touch spells can be directed to any target in contact with the boat, and any point in or on the boat can serve as a spell’s point of origin." - Towers of High Sorcery, page 35

"Some spells have a target or targets. You cast these spells on creatures or objects, as defined by the spell. You must have line of sight to or be able to touch the target, and you must specifically choose that target." - Rules Compendium, page 134

"Line of sight establishes whether you can see something else represented on the battle grid. Presupposing you can see, determine line of sight by drawing an imaginary line between your space and the target’s space.If any such line isn’t blocked, then you have line of sight to the target, and if it’s a creature, it has line of sight to you. The line isn’t blocked if it doesn’t intersect or even touch squares that block line of sight.
...
If line of sight to a target is completely blocked, you can’t cast spells or use other abilities that require line of sight to the target. When line of sight is blocked by something that doesn’t otherwise physically block or prevent an attack that doesn’t require line of sight (such as fog), you can still make that attack, but your target is treated as if it were invisible (see page 76). If line of sight is partially blocked, such as by the corner of a building, attacks work normally, but the target’s AC increases due to the cover." - Rules Compendium, page 81

Line of Sight might also come into play. It's a bit hard sometimes with a battle grid since your player usually has information your character wouldn't, but how would you resolve attacks where the opponent is obscured? I would lean towards not being able to hit someone you can't see with a targeted spell or touch/ray, but you could try to guess where they are and hit them with an area effect. If they're partially obscured, do they still get a bonus for cover? Again, the player can see better than the character sometimes which may make things a bit weird.

_______________

Back to the main topic...

For a naval campaign, you might want to pick up the Amphibious template (Stormwrack, page 135). LA +0 gets you the ability to breathe water and a Swim speed at the cost of -2 Dex.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Line of Sight might also come into play. It's a bit hard sometimes with a battle grid since your player usually has information your character wouldn't, but how would you resolve attacks where the opponent is obscured? I would lean towards not being able to hit someone you can't see with a targeted spell or touch/ray, but you could try to guess where they are and hit them with an area effect. If they're partially obscured, do they still get a bonus for cover? Again, the player can see better than the character sometimes which may make things a bit weird.

Yep, all that you wrote looks right, and I also agree that LoS is an issue. You could put a clairvoyance sensor under the crow's nest or something, that would at least let you see most things on deck.


I find the idea of using Stormguard Warrior + Evasive Reflexes on a Sea Mage quite compelling... you'd get an AoO every time any enemy on board (that you can see and is within reach of the ship) provokes. That's a great way to repel boarders.

[Ramza00]

Yep, all that you wrote looks right, and I also agree that LoS is an issue. You could put a clairvoyance sensor under the crow's nest or something, that would at least let you see most things on deck.


I find the idea of using Stormguard Warrior + Evasive Reflexes on a Sea Mage quite compelling... you'd get an AoO every time any enemy on board (that you can see and is within reach of the ship) provokes. That's a great way to repel boarders.

The problem with a Clairvoyance Sensor is the long casting time and the short duration.

Chain of Eyes (2nd level Wizard) or Eyes of the Zombie (2nd Level Wizard) allows you to use another being sight as your own. Thus use a familiar, or another crew mate, or an undead zombie to provide Line of Sight. Both of these spells have hour long duration * caster level. Due to it being such a low level spell and high duration, it is quite easy to have all day benefits (16 hours). What a rod of extend lesser (3,000 GP if you buy it) makes a 5th level wizard have duration of 10 hours, a 8th level wizard 16 hours. Plus two more uses of the rod of extend lesser for example for your Mage Armor and 1 other thing.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Third Eye: Sense only costs 24,000 gp, manifests clairvoyant sense at will, has infinite range, and can let you see practically anywhere.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/it...tems.htm#sense
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/po...oyantSense.htm

Very useful in large, open areas, especially when things like weather and intervening land masses are major factors.

[ExLibrisMortis]

The problem with a Clairvoyance Sensor is the long casting time and the short duration.

Yeah, I was going to look up chain of eyes but then decided that the point was clear regardless :P.

[Ramza00]

Third Eye: Sense only costs 24,000 gp, manifests clairvoyant sense at will, has infinite range, and can let you see practically anywhere.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/it...tems.htm#sense
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/po...oyantSense.htm

Very useful in large, open areas, especially when things like weather and intervening land masses are major factors.

I forgot how Psionics does everything better.

Yeah, I was going to look up chain of eyes but then decided that the point was clear regardless :P.

👍

[SirNibbles]

Since the OP hasn't responded, I'll just go ahead and make him a basic Wizard using the Elite array.

Amphibious Gray Elf Wizard
Str: 8
Dex: 13
Con: 14
Int: 17 (+1 to 18 at 4th)
Wis: 12
Cha: 8

A few spells you might want, especially considering long range naval engagements:
Molten Strike (Heroes of Battle, page 127); long range AoE that sets enemies and their gear on fire.
Glitterdust (Player's Handbook, page 236); standard Wizard fare, medium range AoE blind.
Kelgore's Grave Mist (Player's Handbook II, page 116); another popular Wizard spell thanks to no save AoE fatigue and 1d6/round damage

If you know what kind of enemies your DM likes to use, pick up Bane Magic (Heroes of Horror, page 119) for the correct type of enemy for extra damage. It's especially potent with continuous damage AoEs like Grave Mist and Molten Strike. At higher levels you have even more spell options, of course.

For closer ranges, just get your basic Wizard stuff like Grease and Magic Missile.