Post/Author/DateTime	Post
daen 10-08-07, 01:11 PM	The DM I play with has asked me to make a wizard at first level, who can fill the party's caster role. I know that the wizard has all 0 lvl spells and if your int is high enough you get a bonus spell. My question is what 1st level spells would be best for a completly unknown campaign.
InkBlot 10-08-07, 01:19 PM	First, read the Logic Ninja's Guide to Wizards - Making the Most of What you Have (When What You Have Is Already Ridiculously Good) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18500). The Wizard and his Adventuring Buddies, AKA "Those Chumps Who Hit Things For You, Stop Things From Hitting You, And Heal You When You Need It, While You Do All The Important Stuff" The traditional adventuring party has four people, filling the roles of Meat-Shield, Skill-Monkey, Heal-*****, and Batman. You're--as Frank Miller put--the ******* Batman. Your job is to do whatever it is that needs doing, unless it falls into the category of "hitting things", "healing things", or "using skills that aren't Knowledge or Spellcraft". Since this is D&D, "whatever it is that needs doing" will mostly be killing things (and, of course, not getting killed yourself). To this end, you will cast spells that help you and your poor, ignorant, inferior companions (read: party), and hamper your enemies. Your Utility Belt You cast spells (well, either that, or hoard them all, not wanting to waste them, and therefore wind up sucking). Spells can do lots of different things ... Second, know that a wizard never has to prepare all his spells in the morning. You can leave spell slots blank and prepare them later in the day, when you know what challenges you're going to face. It only takes 15 minutes to prepare 1/4 of your spells. I usualy prepare 1/3 of my wizard's spells as general purpose utility, debuff, and buff spells (in that order). Later in the day, sometimes after already having survived one encounter, I prepare half the rest of the slots. I always try to leave one slot open just in case. If a spell is only useful outside of combat, in situations when you know you'll have a few minutes, then never prepare it in the morning. If nobody's trying to kill you, then it doesn't matter if it takes one round or 15 minutes to open a door with knock.
The_Shaman 10-08-07, 01:30 PM	The DM I play with has asked me to make a wizard at first level, who can fill the party's caster role. I know that the wizard has all 0 lvl spells and if your int is high enough you get a bonus spell. My question is what 1st level spells would be best for a completly unknown campaign. Any restrictions on classes, books, and the like? I'm a fan of the RotW elven generalist substitution levels - at least the first two - but it might not be ok in your campaign.
Treantmonklvl20 10-08-07, 02:29 PM	The first step to optimizing is to not play a generalist (you run out of spells way too fast) - how committed are you to that? (Diviner specialist only loses one school - can lose evocation with little to no pain). The second step is to consider posting this on the Char Op thread. LogicNinja's guide is a good start though. He goes through the spell lists level by level picking out some of your best options. He REALLY likes rays though. A wizard using his guide will often end up geared towards these spells (which is a good choice - but does pigeonhole you to some extent)
robitusinz 10-08-07, 03:18 PM	Thing is, Rays are typically your best spells. Saving Throws are a Generalist's worst enemy. Without the benefits of Spell Focus, you want to be able to get the most bang out of your buck with your spells, and Rays are money. Also, as it's been said, not preparing ALL of your spells at once is a great idea.
peteyrock 10-08-07, 03:41 PM	Simple. At first level, you only have 4 hit points (generally speaking). Mage Armor will make it much harder to hit you at such low level encounters. Throw in Color Spray and the enemies will be easy takedowns for the combat-heavy characters; not to mention it's really hard for them to hit you when they can't even attack. Just make sure you nail as many of them as you can with the cone.
LoneFlame 10-08-07, 03:48 PM	Play a Domain Wizard from Unearthed Arcana (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#wizardVarian tDomainWizard). It's like specializing, but without the drawbacks.
Gnarl 10-08-07, 04:41 PM	The DM I play with has asked me to make a wizard at first level, who can fill the party's caster role. I know that the wizard has all 0 lvl spells and if your int is high enough you get a bonus spell. My question is what 1st level spells would be best for a completly unknown campaign. Here are some of the good ones: Sleep Mage Armor Grease Identity Magic Missile Cause Fear Ray of Enfeeblement (must have) Enlarge Person (if you have a fight with trips, bull rush or grapples) Magic Weapon (to make scrolls just in case)
The_Shaman 10-08-07, 05:44 PM	Thing is, Rays are typically your best spells. Saving Throws are a Generalist's worst enemy. Without the benefits of Spell Focus, you want to be able to get the most bang out of your buck with your spells, and Rays are money. Also, as it's been said, not preparing ALL of your spells at once is a great idea. Good call on the domain wizard, he's good (elf generalist is still good though). As for rays, imo it's a tradeoff, though - saves vs making attack rolls. At least at first rolls are weaker than saves - at lvl 1-3, no class can expect to have more than a +7 (presuming 18 dex/wis/con and a good progression)on a save without magic items, and a wizard with a good int score can easily get a DC of 15+. With rays, the attack roll becomes 1 or 2 + dexterity vs 10+dex, which is likely to be a little worse or at least no better. Rays become somewhat better later on as heavily armored and/or large + monsters appear, but touch AC can also improve with deflection/dodge/insight/sacred AC items, so it's not as simple as it might seem. Ideally, you want spells that require neither save no attack rolls: solid/acid fog, for example, or black tentacles. I'm most partial to spells that don't require an attack, but it depends. BTW, at level one, color spray and shield can be as useful as any of the above, but they are a little situational: shield has lower duration than mage armor, while color spray requires you to get close to the fray. Another thing: ymmv, but before lvl 3 or even better, 5, magic missile is sub-par. It doesn't do much damage and DRs don't appear that often. Granted, a guaranteed hit is nice, but it comes into its own when it does more than an average of 6 points of damage.
GnomeNinja5 10-08-07, 06:04 PM	Hail of Stone from the Spell Compendium (and Complete Arcane, I think) is a beautiful 1st-level offensive spell, as it deals as much damage as Burning Hands from at least 100 ft away, and doesn't allow a save (instead it's a ranged touch attack). The 5 gp item is steep, though.
Treantmonklvl20 10-08-07, 06:24 PM	Hail of Stone from the Spell Compendium (and Complete Arcane, I think) is a beautiful 1st-level offensive spell, as it deals as much damage as Burning Hands from at least 100 ft away, and doesn't allow a save (instead it's a ranged touch attack). The 5 gp item is steep, though. It is an excellent spell - but also be warned it is a full round casting
Nephlite 10-08-07, 07:11 PM	Ray of Clumsiness: Ray of Enfeeble but dex penalty: enemies easier to hit. Shield Bearer can be useful after a few levels: Makes any shield provide AC bonus to an ally: good for two-handed weapon users. Now he can eat his cake and still have it. Nice buff. But not very good at level 1 since Dur 1 rd/level. Color Spray is nice though range is lower Protect from evil: can be good, though if have a Cleric: he can use it instead for you.
daen 10-09-07, 08:28 AM	You've all been very helpfull, and I thank you. I dont have alot of time to respond or read through all of what was posted, but I'll look through the domain wizard and check out the rest of the posts probobly tomorrow. Thanks again.
runestar 10-09-07, 08:48 AM	Specialization is not a bad idea, but bear in mind that you have scribe scroll, which can be used to increase the number of spells you have at any 1 time. At 1st lv, a scroll containing a 1st lv spell costs just 12.5gp and 1xp to create. Also, if you are playing in a FR campaign, certain regions let you start with 6 1st lv spell and 1 2nd spell scrolls. Very useful for expanding your repertoire. You should have ample firepower to see your way to 2nd lv.:)