Wizard build for small group

[Nobby Nobbs]

Hello everyone,

I'd like some help in building a wizard for a group of 3 players, the other 2 are a warrior and a ranger. We purposely decided to play without a dedicated healer, since we have a friend who occasionally joins us with a cleric, so being a good controller with some durability is pretty much mandatory, even if I wouldn't stress too much the "durable" aspect, in fact I'd rather be able to put out some serious damage when the need arises.

This character will be a level 13 wizard, race-wise I'm not objecting any, although my preference usually goes to elf-like creatures (such as an Eladrin), I wouldn't oppose too fiercely a human one if it's that much better.

Our DM is a blast to play with, he can toss out encounters where we are more often than not one dice roll away from a total party wipeout or a glorious victory and he modified his monsters to have less hp and defenses for higher damage output (thus shortening the encounters considerably). I was playing a monk, but I'm not satisfied with the class (I started it at level 10, before that I was the DM), so we agreed to change the class to one more useful for this group.

Details: - I have a few magic items that I'll keep, per our agreement, while some will be changed to be good for a wizard (monk ki focus item is obviously a candidate). Feel free to point out some items I may find good for the build, I'll talk with the DM and see if I can have them.

- Battle mage seemed a good Paragon path to me, maybe for the "auto heal from unconscious" special power, but bloodmage was also tempting for "helping out".

- Our warrior is a true tank, it takes a lot of pain to drop him and so far he could withstand things that would have vaporized every other character in no time.

- The ranger is well built for very high ranged damage and quite a lot of survivability. - My ideal wizard would make ample use of AE attacks and spells that tend to control dangerous monsters, but as I said helping with big damage bursts wouldn't be considered a bad thing <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.png" border="0" alt="" title="Big Grin" smilieid="4" class="inlineimg" />

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: sorry for the formatting, seems my nice paragraphs have been eaten by a goblin.

 

[Herschel]

I'd go one of two ways, both hybrids.

Hybrid Bard gives you some healing and they have a lot of controller-like abilities. You can use the same implements for a lot of powers too.

Hybrid Swordmage would give you durability, especially useful if the fighter gets in to trouble or the ranger is an archer.

I HATE archer rangers in small groups. They really aren't worth much in resource management unless they step up for prime shot and take some hits, etc. If you go pure controller, I'd seriously try to have the ranger player play a leader and have the part-timer play the striker.

Leader/Defender really is the heart of a party. The rest fill in after them. Strikers come last.

 

[LightPhoenix]

I'd go the opposite route - focus on control and damage exclusively. Watering down what the Wizard is good at isn't going to help the party (even if the Wizard makes a decent Hybrid). If you really want extra healing, take one of the multi-class feat.

Also, what sources are you allowed to use? It sounds like it's PHB only from your first post.

 

[Herschel]

I understand where you are coming from, but with an archer also I feel there's really too much room for a lone defender to cover as the entire front line by himself unless they can fight often in narrow areas.

Ideally I'd run the party as Fighter, Leader (Battle cleric, warlord or bard), Wizard.

 

[AngryMojo]

I'm going to vote for the control route. If you've already got a striker in the group and no leader, keeping enemies locked down and out of melee is going to be important.

 

[Nobby Nobbs]

I should add a few things: we play D&D since winter 1985, red box, expert, companion and master boxes to follow, we even did a small campaign with Wrath of the Immortals (original gold box).

Since we really enjoy the 4e, we got all our friends to play with us, but due to the fact we are not so young anymore, life struck us with many good things, including children and families, so with our limited playing time, we try to have fun, but different from standard, sessions with the 3 of us plus our DM and add friends as they can come by.

My question was more pointed towards the small details, such as what powers would you pick, which feats to support them better and eventually which pieces of gear to further enhance the controlling career my wizard is going to start.

While I don't oppose spending 1 feat to multiclass for a single spell (e.g. a heal of sorts), I'm not in favour of a fully hybrid build, I prefer specialized classes, just personal preference.

P.S.: thanks for the welcome

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Go for control wizard,I would take Orb Mastery and control powers.
If you want some healing then multiclass bard would be worth iit.

 

[LightPhoenix]

I understand where you are coming from, but with an archer also I feel there's really too much room for a lone defender to cover as the entire front line by himself unless they can fight often in narrow areas.

While Wizards are no longer glass cannons, you really don't want to be on the front lines even with a more defensive build (Staff/Leather/Thunderwave).

My question was more pointed towards the small details, such as what powers would you pick, which feats to support them better and eventually which pieces of gear to further enhance the controlling career my wizard is going to start.

While I don't oppose spending 1 feat to multiclass for a single spell (e.g. a heal of sorts), I'm not in favour of a fully hybrid build, I prefer specialized classes, just personal preference.

The big feat that you want to take as a Wizard is Improved Initiative. You really want to be going early in the first round so you can use your area bursts while your allies (and you) are not in the thick of things. Armor Proficiency (Leather) is a pretty good feat as well - it adds a lot to a Wizard's defense.

Powers really depend on what you want your Wizard to do (and what books you're allowed to use). I would recommend Thunderwave; it doesn't draw Opportunity attacks and shoves enemies away. Scorching Burst is your basic fireball-like spell, but if you're using Essentials Freezing Burst does the same damage and slides enemies. Winged Horde may be useful, since it stops enemies from making opportunity attacks - nice if an ally needs to make a tactical withdrawal. For Dailies, a lot of people like Sleep, but personally I find Flaming Sphere a lot more useful.

 

[Lord Phoenix]

are you sure you want to build a wizard, have you considered making a sorcerer instead or maybe as hybrid?

 

[Maximilia]

I play a 8th level eladrin wizard, so I can't comment on the higher levels, but I can tell you what has helped my survivability at the lower levels.

Assuming the GM is not limiting choice of feats or powers so you have the entire DDI to go through, here's some I would recommend:

Mine is a Staff of Defense wizard. The extra con helps with hit points, and the higher your con, the better the immediate interrupt for the SoD. Shield for your first utility is vital (and Expeditious Retreat is also good), and Wizard's Escape for your second. Any sort of immediate interrupt to negate damage is good, especially since you don't have a healer to heal you. I can tell you from experience a defensive wizard build is a bit frustrating for a GM, hehe.

The second thing you'll want to concentrate on is control (obviously). Color Spray is beautiful for an encounter, Blast 5, and on a hit dazes enemies. I took Force Orb for the first encounter power, and it's alright, but I am considering changing it out. It does do a fair amount of ST target, and has splash damage for adjacent enemies, but no secondary effects. The last encounter power I have is Twist of Space, which is useful for moving enemies around.

For dailies, Flaming Sphere is an excellent choice. Phantom Chasm and Rolling Thunder also look interesting, and I was planning on retraining to try those out (my GM has got to hate me--I retrain about every level to test stuff out and see what works for us). For the next daily, I really love Stinking Cloud (especially since it blocks LOS so it can be useful for evasion as well). However, some of the others look interesting as well. I can definitely tell you to avoid Fireball--it really blows compared to some of the other dailies out there. The next (at 9th) that I was looking at will likely be a conjuration of some sort and probably Wall of Fire, for a defensive sort of thing that also does damage.

For feats, for an eladrin at least, I can definitely tell you that Twist the Arcane Fabric is VERY useful for getting allies out of your blast or burst radius and repositioning them favorably. Implement Expertise (or Versatile Expertise) is another must (every plus helps), as well as Defensive Mobility. Just like a 'lock, movement is key. Keep in mind you need to try and control the battlefield either by repositioning enemies/allies, or somehow affecting enemies' abilities to do damage (ie, dazes and stuns are awesome, things to protect allies or block LOS from archers). Another thing to look for is to try and make sure your attacks can potentially attack different defenses instead of just Reflex. Thunderwave is a really good at will to have, and as much as I hate "Magic Hittle", it does allow you do to a set amount of damage every round no matter what. It rather annoys me that you can't get criticals off of it though.