It has been some time since I played Pen and paper D&D. During that time I played 2E. However I recently joined a group that will be playing every week. Here is the question.
We are starting at level 5 with 9,000 gold. I read Treantmonk's guide and it was of great help but I am still a bit unsure. I would rather not Specialize, as my DM has all but said that versatility will be key. I am just looking for a solid character that will be strong enough to survive and that I can have fun/be useful with. Nothing that will make my DM weep or that is cheese.
This is what I currently have.
9STR, 20DEX, 14CON, 20INT, 14WI, 15CHA. ( Yes, I got really lucky with my rolls. 6 rolls of 3d6)
Gray Elf.
Feats. Scribe Scroll, Improved Initiative, Sculpt Spell.
Also I will have anywhere from 2-4 flaws. So I have one feat left and 2-4 from the flaws. So what feats would work best and how would you guys choose to spend your gold?
What sources are allowed? What race & class combos are your expected teammates? These will greatly help us in aiding you.
I played a 3.5 campaign as a generalist until about level 10. I noticed I rarely cast Enchantments or Necromancies. I was able to respec as a Transmuter and found the extra buff or flesh to stone to be well worth the loss of versatility. Admittedly, the campaign was full of undead and constructs.
Starting around level 5, you should be powerful enough not to need Enchantments often. Haste allies, slow foes, toss a glitterdust occasionally, and buff with mage armor and mirror image, and you're set!
If you still don't want to specialize, be an Elven Generalist Wizard (racial sub level) from [i}Races of the Wild[/i]. Grab Domain Wizard if you can (Unearthed Arcana) for even more goodness!
If your DM says versatility is key you might want to learn the "open ened" spells. These are the spells that you can do a lot with. EG. fabricate, minor creation, limited wish, etc
Ahh, sorry about the lack of information. To the best of my knowledge we will have one Human Cleric of Shar, one human fighter of Umberlee, another fighter(Race unknown) and a Elven rogue. The group seems to be leaning neutral/evil as far as I can tell.
As for sources, the DM is more or less fine with anything from the 3.5 source-books unless it is obviously overpowered or just silly. The DM follows the "Is this logical, or silly?" when we are discussing spells. So no Punpun(thankfully).
My Dm E-mailed me back and says that if I really don't like the way be plays I can re-spec later. So, I guess I can try a specialist wizard. Conjuration or transmutation seem to be the most recommended. So if I go either of those routes, what would be good feats?
The great thing about Wizards is the versatility. However, versatility with a wizard isn't enhanced by ensuring every spell school is available and represented, it is enhanced by the selection of spells that have versatile use.
For example, a Summon Monster spell can be used for many different purposes. You will be level 5, so consider Summon Monster III:
Need to do Damage? A Fiendish Ape has 3 attacks that do pretty good damage with a decent chance to hit. Carried over 5 rounds, this ends up being impressive damage.
Need to control? The Fiendish Crocodile has improved grab and a decent grapple score.
Need to block? Fighter missing? Summon the Celestial Bison and throw him in front of you. He does good damage, and can take a pounding.
Need to fly? Summon a celestial hippogriff and go for a ride.
Need to debuff? Get a fiendish dire weasal to attach and drain Con. Or, summon a Dretch and have them create a stinking cloud or scare SLA.
This is one spell we're talking about. Memorize it once and you've got an option for any of the above conditions. Make sure your next spell memorized also has multiple uses, and so on. This is the key to real versatility.
A spell like Fireball however, will give very limited choices (burn those enemies a bit, or....yeah, that's about it).
By picking the right spells, you will find yourself very versatile. You will find these spells tend to be in the Conjuration or Transmutation schools. That is why these are the schools most commonly suggested.
Additional memorizations of these kinds of spells (which specialization will give you) will increase that versatility as well as staying power.
Wizards have to pick spells to know.
Wizards cannot generally have every spell known.
Therefore, you will have to choose a limited selection of spells compared to all that is availiable. This means that certain schools of magic are going to be neglected in favor of others.
Ergo, banning said unused schools does not negatively impact your actual versatility because you would never have used their spells in the first place.
It is possible you might need to use scrolls or wands of spells from banned schools, but a few ranks in UMD should help with that.
Wizards have to pick spells to know.
Yes BUT wizards canlearn spells from scrolls.
Even so, you won't be learning tons of spells off of scrolls.
Most likely, anyways.
Thank you all for your assistance so far. Treantmonk, I was unaware that SummonMonster was that useful. I remember it summoning random monsters from a table. That was very good to know.
OK the focused specialist is looking good from the general consensus here. So I have two ways to go. Path one is Conjuration, path two is Transmutation.
Conjuration.
9STR, 20DEX, 14CON, 20INT, 14WIS, 15CHA.
Gray Elf.
Feats. Scribe Scroll(Should I trade this out?), Improved Initiative, Sculpt spell, Cloudy Conjuration, Spell Focus, Spell Penetration.
Transmutation.
9STR, 20DEX, 14CON, 20INT, 14WIS, 15CHA.
Gray Elf.
Feats. Scribe Scroll (points to above note), improved Initiative, Sculpt spell, Spell focus, Spell penetration, (Insert Feat here)
Either way I would give up Enchanting and Necromacy (Or Evocation). Do those look good, or have I missed anything? I am still new to feats so there are quite a few that I do not know about I am sure.
Also, should I switch my Dex and Con rolls? If I do that will give me 18DEX and 16CON.
I would swap Dex and Con - unless you plan to use ray spells a lot. But I'd probably still swap.
Ban Evocation. The Shadow Evocation spell series will let you do most of the important things the school allows, and you can blast things if necessary using Conjuration spells. But really... I just finished a 1-epic campaign as a focused specialist in Conjuration, and my prepared spells for the first four levels were about half dedicated to grease and sculpted grease. I would prepare one lesser orb of fire to make the healer, who used to be the "caster guy" in our group, shut up, and I almost never had to use it. You don't need to blast things when the enemy can't stand up, can't see you, and is exhausted and choking to death while the rogue stands over him and rolls gigantic piles of sneak attack dice. 
Even so, you won't be learning tons of spells off of scrolls.
Most likely, anyways.
I'm not sure this is true at all. Most of my spells known are from scrolls and spellbooks. Especially in Pathfinder (3.5 is great, but Pathfinder is way better) where you scribe a scroll into your book at a greatly reduced time.
Conjuration and Transmutation are both good schools. I personally prefer conjuration at lower levels, then Transmuation at high level, but either choice is good.
You need to give up all 3 schools for focused specialist.
As for Scribe Scroll - personally, I would trade it out (for improved init, and switch your choice of improved init for something else), but I've had a lot of disagreement on this one, so it would depend on whether you think you would use it.
Conjuration and Transmutation are both good schools. I personally prefer conjuration at lower levels, then Transmuation at high level, but either choice is good.You need to give up all 3 schools for focused specialist.
As for Scribe Scroll - personally, I would trade it out (for improved init, and switch your choice of improved init for something else), but I've had a lot of disagreement on this one, so it would depend on whether you think you would use it.
I love Conjuration myself. Transmutation i'm a bit more weary of due to the pathfinder changes, but I still ike a lot of the spells.
Scribe Scroll is generally unneeded... I've never used it, but BUYING scrolls is a good thing. 
Sculpt Spell requires you to know another metamagic feat before you can take it. Heighten Spell or Extend Spell seem the most useful to you. Alternately, if you swap out Scribe Scroll for Augment Summoning, Imbued Summoning might interest you more.
Evocation is mostly blasting, but I enjoy having magic missile at levels 1-4 when that d4+1 or 2d4+2 may push things over the top, or when we fight incorporeal creatures. Wall of force, contingency, chain contingency (Tome & Blood), and sonorous hum (Spell Compendium) are my favorite Evocations.
I'd much rather ban Necromancy or Enchantment. Evo is usually my third pick for banning.
Contingency is about the only thing I miss from Evocation, and you can emulate that with Greater Shadow Evocation at the upper levels, and even get to ignore the expensive focus. I'd much rather keep Necromancy. Ray of Enfeeblement, False Life, Enervation, Command Undead, and Magic Jar are all good spells, and you can't emulate this school with another one.
Of course if you're going to be playing a long stretch in levels 11 to 15, then keeping Evocation for Contingency might be worth it if the Craft Contingent Spell feat is banned. But then again... you might just be better off buying a scroll of Gr. Shadow Evocation every 15 days... It's not that expensive, unless it gets triggered every day or something...
Then again, if you ban a spell school in Pathfinder you don't lose the school, but it takes two spell slots to memorize.
Listen to Treantmonk, doooo it! This guy made me play a focused specialist conjuration wizard with immidiate magic and at level 3 my party of level 3's took on a cadre (24) level 5 monks and only one of us got hurt for 12 damage. It took a lot of spells, but conjuration showed those monks just what web can do!
But one of the key things that he said you do have to remember - versitility does NOT mean having every spell school represented, versitility is what you can do with your spells. For example, there are many spells in Evocation that knock people prone - crowd control, but very few that work as a buff to a party, while Enchantment has buffs to the party as well as some of the best crowd control out there. When you prepare your spells you want to be able to be versitile WITH the spells, it matters not what school they are from - this is why conjuration is so powerful at lower levels.
Then again, if you ban a spell school in Pathfinder you don't lose the school, but it takes two spell slots to memorize.
Jesus Christ... do you HAVE to post something about PATHFINDER in EVERY THREAD ON HERE? The OP didn't mention they were playing Pathfinder!
Seconded.
Edit: post removed.
TM
Seconded on the part about not derailing the thread about Pathfinder. I haven't been here much so I can't say if he's been doing it constantly. The new layout is putting me off a bit.
Edit: Post removed
TM
I'm running a 3.5 Gray Elf Wizard right now (just turned 9th). Be sure to take the 3rd Level Elf Wizard Racial Substitution level. It doubles your bonuses from the familiar, and that's a total of+4 to your fort save with a Rat familiar.
If you don't specialize, take the 1st level Elf Wizard RSL also, you get an extra spell at each level for free and an extra slot at your highest level.
I also took Alacritous Cogitation to be a little more versatile.
When you hit 7th level, if you have Craft Wondrous Item, craft a Boccob's Blessed Book before you even write your new 4th level spells into your book. Then copy all your spells into the Book, and sell the old mundane spellbook for extra cash.
Scribe scroll has come in handy more then I anticipated, but you have to have the DM give you enough time to scribe the scrolls.
I'm pretty sure I've seen him do it before, but I agree that my earlier post was... a bit over the top. Let's just chalk it up to me being in a bad mood. Sorry about that. I'll edit it, and if you guys who quoted me would do the same I'd appreciate it.
I'm pretty sure I've seen him do it before, but I agree that my earlier post was... a bit over the top. Let's just chalk it up to me being in a bad mood. Sorry about that. I'll edit it, and if you guys who quoted me would do the same I'd appreciate it.
I sure will. I'm certainly not immune to a bad mood influencing my posts either
I'm both shameless and impossible to upset. In any case, I'm just trying to spread the good word. Peace.