Survival Techniques
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Quintessential Wizard II: Advanced Tactics
Survival Tactics
wizard is a complicated character to create, play and develop. Magic being what it is, Players must familiarise themselves with the Spells chapter of Core Rulebook I as they write new spells on their character sheets, for many spells are rule sets of their own, obeying their own logic and standing as satellites to the core rules that all other characters abide by. With the whole spectrum of arcane magic at their behest, wizards must make many hard choices in their adventuring careers. Knowing what spells to learn and prepare is only one part of the task of playing a wizard; once a Player becomes used to his character’s powers and flexibility, he must now face the choice of deciding what role the wizard will play. His choice of spells to learn and prepare depend as much on the character’s personality as on tactical decisions made out-of-character; no Games Master will blame a wizard that is not into abjuration if he prepares dispel magic when he knows that the party will face another spellcaster.
General Options
Wizards are more than the spells in their spellbooks; they need a foundation in the form of their personal interests, personality and actual character before they start building their spellcasting persona around their core being.
Choosing Skills
Because of the staggering power of their magic, wizards have the lowest amount of skill points for a class. But there is a catch to this – wizards are very smart. As Intelligence is the wizard’s prime ability score, putting points in it has the secondary effect of increasing the character’s skill points, giving the character the effective skill points of a druid or even a bard. The wizard’s focus on knowledge is considered in his class skills, as he and the bard are the only ones to have all the Knowledge skills as class skills. As the wizard has few other class skills, he is in the position of being the party’s walking reference library. The Player should consider his character concept before assigning skill points, as the wizard is not particularly gifted in this area, even if he does have extra points due to his Intelligence modifier. A wizard should assign points in skills that somehow reflect his personal interests and upbringing. A seeker of lost lore will have more ranks in Decipher Script than an action-oriented wizard, who will focus more on Concentration. If the character is training to become a court wizard, then Knowledge (nobility and
royalty) is the way to go, while Craft (alchemy) is vital for the laboratory-type who will later grow into a crafter of magical items. Deviating from the bookworm or artisan type generally implies choosing cross-class skills and here the wizard must be even more choosy. Wizards usually combine and complement their choice of skills to the style of magic they will develop (especially if they specialise). An enchanter, for example, will find it very useful to have Bluff and Diplomacy, while a diviner will be better served by Search, Spot and Sense Motive. Regardless of any of his choices, a wizard should always devote skill points towards keeping Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft maxed out, as these two skills will determine his effectiveness in many official and alternate rules regarding magic. Spellcraft is particularly vital, as it allows the wizard to add discovered spells to his spellbook.
Choosing Feats
After the fighter, the wizard is the class that receives the most bonus feats during his career, enabling him to choose a direction and hone his capabilities as a wizard. Like a fighter, the wizard has many choices to specialise or generalise, although the choices are not as numerous as the fighter’s. With the whole range of metamagic feats, both in Core Rulebook I and in many d20 supplements, the wizard can shape his magic to his liking. He could also pursue a career in crafting magical items. Wizards have the advantage that their bonus feats do not normally organise in trees, so he rarely needs to have a particular feat in order to have another, with his caster level being the only real limitation to Item Creation feats. Considering that item creation costs quite a lot of money and experience, these feats are normally taken at later levels, when created items can be sold for quite a price, doubling the character’s investment, not to mention increasing their usefulness. Wizards gain the Scribe Scroll feat for free at 1st level, and no wizard should be shy about writing a few of his rarely prepared spells on one, so that he can stop worrying whether he will need the spell on a given day or not. If he does, he can always read from the scroll instead of wasting spell slots that accomplish things more suited to the wizard’s current conditions. As for character feats, the wizard should choose Metamagic and Item Creation feats only if he is in a hurry to learn them, as he will have additional chances from his
