First time wizard

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I am new to the D&D world. I played mostly FPS before this. Then Diablo I and II, Warcraft and Starcraft. My first D&D was BG1 and 2. Now I am doing NWN. In BG1,2 I always made my PC into a mostly melee character. In BG1 I mainly used characters with ranged attacks and one tank. In BG2 I switched to half tanks and half ranged, since ranged attacks are less effective. But I never used a wizard in my party because all the rules with magic are overwhelming for me. In NWN I have also used all melee characters. I don't even make use of all the items I find that can let me cast magic because melee works without them and I just plain forget to use them.

So now I have decided to learn to play a wizard and learn all the magic spells and counter-spells. I am starting SOU as a level 1 wizard. I have some questions about the playing style. What I mean is from a role-playing perspective. I could just cheese my way through by sleeping after every room and casting lots of melee summons, but I want to role-play better than that.

1. Do you try to kill mostly with magic, or mostly rely on melee summons and party members? As a starting wizard I can barely kill a kobold with my level 1 magic. I have to use my crossbow and without my familiar and Dorna I would die trying to just kill a rat. I guess it will get a lot better as I level up.

2. How often do you rest? The offensive spells are used up very fast. With my melee characters I just keep going with very few sleeps. It does not seem like you can go a whole day using magic. I would not like to rest more often than after a full game day.

3. Do you rely on scrolls a lot to supplement your learned spells?

 

1) Not for the first few levels. When you get to level 5, you'll get level 3 spells (eg Fireball) which will vastly increase your offensive power. However, even at this point you'll have to either rest a lot or be competant with your trusty crossbow.

2) Spellcasters have to rest more as even with regenerative items they still rely on resting, unlike warriors. I'm afraid you'll simply have to accept more resting to play as a mage class. If you are good with a ranged weapon (as my bow-wielding elven mage was) then you'll cut down on resting a fair bit due to less spell usage.

3) Personally, no. Some people do but I just tend to sell them if I already know the spell- they are a small, light-weight source of gold.

 

I personally play a battle-oriented wizard, with a level of fighter taken early. This buys you ability to wear armor and use shields; adding the first level mage armor and shield spells, it means that the wizard can have a really high AC early on. So then I can play decoy; let the bad guys concentrate on me, while my henchman, familiar and summon (if I feel the need for a summon) tear them to pieces.

Oh, and wizards can take expertise (high intelligence). That's another +5 to AC early on. I think this feature is quite unbalanced the way is implemented in NWN.

I don't even worry about direct damage spells till I get to level 10 or so. At lower levels (5 to 8), you have very few fireballs you can memorize, and they do pitiful damage. So I go mainly with buffs (take extend spell feat, and put the lev II buffs in the lev III spell slots) and disabling spells (like fear, confusion, sleep at low levels). The crowd control spells have the added advantage that you won't fry your allies. Of course, use them only when you fight a relatively large mob. This way, you can easily go a full day without needing to rest.

Moreover, the magic system is very simple in NWN compared to BG. You don't really need to counter-spell, or try to get rid of enemy mage protection (like breach) - at least not till relatively high levels-. I find much easier just to bash through a hostile mage's stoneskin (which is not very good protection, anyhow), than to try and memorize enough spell breaches/dispells to be useful.

 

In the early levels, memorize buffing spells, e.g. Mage Armor, Prot. from Evil, Shield, Bull's Strength, Flame Weapon, Ghostly Visage. Summon I (a wimpy little Dire Badger) is extremely helpful in the early going. Familers are very helpful too. The Imp, Hellhound and the Mephits make decent tanks for the first few levels.

Eventually, you'll find lots of scrolls and wands to supplement your limited spellbook. By HOTU, feats like Scribe Scroll and Craft Wand become very helpful and are worth the GP and XP cost.

 

Craft Wand is your friend. Wands of Negative Energy Rays are very useful even in the last stages of SoU, and if you can afford the cost of a wand of Evard's Black Tentacles... I rarely needed to sleep with my wizard during Chapters 2 and 3, after I crafted a couple of wands. Just ensure to have 4 points at least in Craft Weapon to find large bones for the wands.

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You could have a look at my wondrous Colthrun's Arcane Crafting Book for more info.

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Or visit bioware forums. They have a lot more detailed character builds there.