The Power Gamer’s 3.5 WIZARDStrategy Guide The 100% Official Guide to Kicking Monster Butt and Winning the Game _ Mage Style! Credits Concept Cover & Interior Diagrams Joseph Goodman Andy Hopp Project Lead Editing & Proofing Jason Little Jason Little Writers Editor-in-Chief Glyn Dewey, Jason Little, Joseph Goodman Anthony Pryor The Power Gamer’s 3.5 Wizard Strategy Guide [GMG4311] If you like this book, be sure to Graphic Design look for other Goodman Games products at your local game store. Log on to our website Duncan Fielden for freebies, news, special offers, and more… www.goodman-games.com Table of Contents Introduction: Welcome to the Chapter Six: Wizard Strategy Guide Spell Selection by Archetype What Kind of Mage are You? 4 Blasters 46 Comparing Spell Damage 46 Chapter One: Ability Scores Controllers 53 Abilities and What They Do 6 The Uses of Enchantment 53 Putting It All Together 7 Saboteurs 55 Chapter Two: Races Support Specialist 57 Defensive Buffs 57 Humans 9 Offensive Buffs 58 Dwarves 9 Mobility Buffs 59 Elves 10 Summoning 59 Gnomes 11 Cross-Archetype Spells 60 Half-Elves 12 Half-Orcs 12 Chapter Seven: Equipment Halflings 13 Consumables 64 Other Races 14 Permanent Magic Items 68 Chapter Three: Skills Miscellaneous 72 Sample Mage Kits 73 Skills to Avoid 15 Level 5 73 One Point Wonders 16 Level 10 73 Knowledge is Power 18 The More, the Better 19 Level 15 74 Chapter Four: Feats Chapter Eight: Combat Feat Chains 21 Qualifying the Battlefield 75 Metamagic Feats 21 Qualifying Opponents 77 Crafting Feats 25 Critters 77 Spellcasting Improvements 27 Giant Ants 78 Other Feats of Note 28 Fiends 79 Fool©s Gold 30 Blue Dragon 80 Sample Feat Progressions 32 Terrors 81 Backup Strategies 33 Shadow Mastiffs 82 Toughs 83 Chapter Five: Ogre Mage 84 Classes & Archetypes Undead 85 Mage Metric: CasterLevel Spectres 86 vs. Spell Potency 35 Enemy Spellcasters 86 Wizard vs. Sorcerer 35 Action Plan 88 Familiars 38 Mage Archetypes 40 Appendices Blaster 40 I: Core Spells by Archetype 90 Controller 42 II: Spell Saves vs. Target DCs 92 Saboteur 43 III: Caster Check vs. Target’s Spell Resistance 93 Support Specialist 44 IV: Average Spell Damage by Die Type 94 Introduction Welcome to the Wizard Strategy Guide or Using Arcane Magic to Dominate the Game hen Joseph Goodman approached me about → More Than Just a Weapon: Spells and spell- the development of a Wizard Strategy Guide like abilities (such as those conferred by created to complement the popular Power Gamer’s 3·5 magical items) vary far more than weapons. To WWarrior Strategy Guide, I was immediately interested in min/max a warrior, there are fewer characteristics tackling the topic. I far prefer mages and arcane types or effects to consider when selecting your primary to simple beat sticks — if you can survive the perils of means of dealing damage. A weapon is defined by low levels and really grow into your role. The problems, its base damage, size, reach, critical range and of course, are surviving long enough to get to that stage critical multiplier. Spells have far more factors in your arcane career and then making the most out of impacting their effectiveness. Mages also have your newfound powers. a variety of spell schools to choose from, save DCs to worry about, spell resistance to overcome, I knew this book would be an invaluable tool to players and numerous damage options (direct damage, yearning to master the secrets of arcane magic. But damage over time, indirect damage, buffs that while brainstorming the structure and content of the enhance another’s damage, etc). Wizard Strategy Guide, it soon became clear that the rules and restrictions for optimizing mages are quite → More Combat Options: Each archetype from the different than the rules for warriors — more so than we warrior guide, eventually, deals with how a war- thought at first glance. rior can deal damage to an enemy via ranged or melee combat. Even with feats and maneuvering, it comes down to this fundamental interaction. Warriors, Stand Aside Mages, due to the sheer volume of spells available, have a variety of combat options in addition Warriors, despite the numerous weapons and feat to their formidable damage potential (such as combinations, are far easier to develop if you apply summoning creatures, spells that buff or debuff pure mathematics and statistical probabilities. In many targets, holding targets for others to attack). instances, you can base nearly any warrior optimization around the “hit it harder” principle. You know, the → Metamagic Feats: There is no comparable game principle that states the harder you hit it (the bad guy), mechanic for warriors like the metamagic feats the better you are as a warrior. Well, things aren’t quite for mages. While several of them are “flavor” so simple for mages, since arcane magic can not only feats (as pointed out in this guide), many have a “hit it harder” but perform a wide variety of other useful pronounced impact on spell effectiveness. The functions… such as “don’t let it hit us,” or one of my balance between a metamagic feat’s additional personal favorites “keep it still while the warriors hit casting level modifier and the impact on the spell it harder.” effect are important considerations. These are just a few of the distinctions particular to → Size Really Does Matter: Ahem — party size, that practitioners of arcane magic: is. The larger the party, the more “damage” a mage can inflict through party optimization spells or → Base Attack Bonus: There is no linear benchmark indirect means, such as buffing (bull’s strength), of increasing mage power like there is for the impairing (ray of enfeeblement) or simply locking warrior’s Base Attack Bonus. BAB “stacks” and down foes for the warriors (hold monster). The works the same way whether you’re a single classed smaller the party is, the more pivotal a mage’s fighter or a multiclassed barbarian/ranger. This role may be in damage output. As such, party meant devising a new means of comparing power size is a factor to consider when discussing spell and utility between spell casters of various levels. selection. So in your hands you hold a powerful tool, one that the Five will prove the most useful, in turn, as you build addle-brained fighters won’t understand and barbarians your mage brick by arcane brick. And everyone can’t even read. But in the hands of a mage, this book is will benefit from reading Chapter Eight: Combat to a priceless source of useful information, offering spell pick up some tricks you can apply to your very next optimization tips, tricks to get the most bang for your encounter. buck (er, gold piece) when purchasing equipment, and comparisons of the damage potential for a variety of Finally, the appendixes provide charts and tables of arcane spells and numerous combat strategies. great information, allowing players to see the impact that development options will have on their mage’s abilities — how much extra damage will your fireball Credit where Credit is due do if you increase the required Reflex save by 1? How difficult will it be to overcome a devil’s spell resistance Major kudos to Glyn Dewey and Anthony Pryor for all if I decide to pick up Greater Spell Penetration? And their hard work on this project. We set an ambitious so on. goal to cover a lot of topics while making the informa- tion you need easy to read and easy to find. It had to be insightful and informative, applicable to existing mages or mages built from scratch, and discuss the nuances of What Kind of a mage and his potential as objectively as possible. As you’ll soon find out, Glyn and Anthony did an excellent Mage are You? job. All the while, Joseph’s mantra provided the neces- sary focus to our writing: Similar to the structure of the Warrior Strategy Guide, the Wizard Strategy Guide breaks down the different No matter what you’re writing, it better answer the types of mages into archetypes. These archetypes define core question, “Will this help my mage kick ass?” a particular role that a mage fulfills within a party. Unlike the Warrior Strategy Guide, not every archetype So with that in mind, I’m pleased to present you with is designed for the express purpose of optimizing your the Power Gamer’s 3·5 Wizard Strategy Guide — the damage output, and many can be mixed and matched 100% Official Guide to Kicking Monster Butt and to create mages ready to face anything their GMs can Winning the Game, mage style. Yes, Joseph, this guide throw at ’em. will definitely make your mage kick ass. Since there are only two core classes that directly deal with arcane magic — the sorcerer and the wizard — we Using this Book use archetypes as the basis of discussing the different ways a mage applies his abilities to an adventuring party. Think of this book as a “cheat book” for 3·5 mages. Just While bards technically cast arcane magic, the limited like a cheat book for your favorite video game helps scope of the bard spell list and hybrid class abilities are you unlock killer combos and dominate the game, this too incomparable to the wizard and sorcerer to include guide will help you do the same things with your mage. them in the same conversation. We’ve taken the information from the 3·5 core rules and analyzed all the angles, churned through stats, and In the context of this guide, the term mage refers to compared spells, feats and equipment until our brains either a sorcerer or wizard interchangeably.