Starting a Wizard

Introduction
A wizard is an arcane spellcaster, similar to a sorcerer, but with a few key differences:


 * A wizard learns spells from scrolls, expanding his library of known spells, and can learn every arcane spell in the game, unlike a sorcerer that can only learn a few but cast them more often.
 * A wizard's spells are powered by his Intellect and requires a component to be cast.
 * The wizard can cast Repair spells, healing Warforged characters without the penalty imposed on Cure spells.
 * The wizard has a very limited selection of simple weapons, and can only wear cloth armour, heavier armour incurs a chance of arcane spell failure.

These factors typically force the wizard out of melee to the back row, contributing to battle with his ranged spells and his crossbow. If a wizard is getting involved in melee combat, something has gone wrong (unless you are playing an uncommon Wizard build that focuses on melee).

Races
A wizard's main ability scores are Intelligence and Constitution.

Drow have a +2 racial bonus to Intelligence. Humans and half-elves can take racial enhancement that increases their Intelligence by 1. These three races have the potential for highest DC.

Warforged are a great choice thanks to good hit points and reliable self-healing via arcane Repair/Reconstruct spells.

Elf wizards suffer from reduced constitution; however, the Elven Arcanum racial enhancement can help especially first-life wizards to penetrate Spell Resistance in end game/epics.

Multiclassing
Wizards have a powerful capstone. Properly built and geared, pure wizards are some of the most powerful characters in DDO. Yet, some wizards take levels in other classes to increase their survival and self-sufficiency.

Two levels of Rogue are the most common dip for wizards. Thanks to their high intelligence, wizards have enough skill points to maximize trap skills. More importantly, a second rogue level grants Evasion, particularly useful when combined with Insightful Reflexes. Rogue levels are usually taken at level 1 (to maximize skills) and 9 (after learning firewall). Such wizards should always take Insightful Reflexes and dump dexterity. They have little use for dexterity.

As a variant of rogue dip, some wizards choose to take two monk levels, for Evasion but also for two bonus feats (often Toughnesses).

Attributes
Strength is typically not a useful stat for wizards. Some wizards might increase their Strength in order to haul more loot without becoming burdened, and others might increase it in order to be more resistant to strength sapping effects, like Ray of Enfeeblement, Ray of Exhaustion, or Ability Damaged to Strength.

Dexterity helps a wizard to avoid being hit in combat by any of the many enemies who may become enraged by your damaging spells and charge past the melee combatants to attack you. A few points into dexterity will only help at low levels, however. It also helps to protect you from becoming helpless from the condition Ability Damaged to Dexterity.

Constitution is always helpful for any character. More Constitution equates to more hit points, and a higher Fortitude save, which are otherwise very low on a wizard.

Intelligence affects a Wizard's casting ability. Higher Intelligence leads to higher spell point totals, higher save DCs for the spells he casts, and more spells known at level one. The great majority of Wizards start with 18 or 20 Intelligence. (20 is only available to Drow elves.)

Wisdom affects a Wizards Spot skill and his Will save. Higher is better, but very few Wizards have a Wisdom score higher than 12.

Charisma affects many skills that Wizards can find useful. Haggle, Diplomacy, and Use Magic Device can all be useful, if you plan for it.

Feats
Wizards are not a feat-starved class; in addition to the regular 7 feats they get 5 wizard bonus feats, at levels 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20. The following feats might be more appropriate for more experienced wizards: Traps which should generally be avoided:
 * Toughness is a useful feat for most wizards. Extremely well-geared characters might live without it.
 * Take feats required to qualify for your selected prestige enhancement. All wizards should select a prestige path to follow.
 * Extend Spell doubles the duration of your buffs. It does not affect the duration of offensive spells. If you party with melee characters, they will enjoy the extended buffs that you can provide.
 * Heighten Spell, Spell Focus, Greater Spell Focus: These feats increase the difficulty class to resist your spells. Most players select one or two schools to specialize in.
 * Empower Spell and Maximize Spell increase the damage dealt by your spells.
 * Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration are important at higher levels to pierce magical defenses of certain creatures' Spell Resistance.
 * Shield Mastery (requires Shield Proficiency) allow your character to mitigate a lot of damage.
 * Insightful Reflexes - Use Intelligence modifier instead of Dexterity for Reflex saves
 * Quicken Spell is a must-have for wizards that can heal with spell points, e.g. Warforged with Reconstruct. Other wizards can benefit from this feat as well.
 * Wizards that underwent True Reincarnation can benefit from Past Life Feats, e.g. wizard.
 * Eschew Materials - the convenience generally doesn't justify the increased SP cost or the feat cost; just carry around 1K components for every level, and check them periodically.
 * Combat Casting
 * Mental Toughness and Improved Mental Toughness offer limited benefit and generally are not recommended.
 * For Pale Masters - A prerequisite for Wraith form, but not for Lich, Vampire, or Zombie form
 * A prerequisite for the Archmage line

Skills
Many skills can be useful to a Wizard, under the right circumstances. Plan ahead, before you make the character, as far as which skills you'd like to be able to use. Some of the frequently helpful include:

Balance allows a character to get up after he's been knocked down in combat. Since preventing the knockdown requires either high Strength, high Dexterity, or the divine spell Freedom of Movement, investing in this skill can help you to stand back up sooner after some creature does knock you down.

Concentration will allow you to cast spells while being hurt. If you take damage while casting, you have to roll a Concentration check, and the higher your bonus is, the better your chances to succeed. Failure means you used the spell points but the spell did not come into effect.

Diplomacy can allow you to convince enemies to leave you alone. If the party runs into a large group of enemies and one or more of them comes after your wizard, you can activate the Diplomacy skill to convince them that some other member of the party is a bigger threat, and they will leave you alone. This skill can be very useful, but it works only sporadically until you have a great many points invested.

Haggle will allow you to purchase supplies at slightly lower prices. Since Wizards have to purchase inscription materials in order to scribe spells, and they will continue to purchase these at all levels, Haggle can be a very good investment. Just a few points can really go a long way.

Jump: A moderate investment combined with the Jump spell will allow you escape when mobs surround you.

Use Magic Device allows the wizard to use race restricted equipment designed for another race, and allows him to use scrolls and wands made for divine casters such as Paladins and Clerics. Wizards can use Arcane magical devices like scrolls and wands without this skill.

Enhancements
Your class enhancements are geared towards your spells, so after you grab the extra spell points, enhance whatever spell or spells you find yourself using most. If Burning Hands is your go-to spell, take Elemental Damage Boost to improve all fire and cold spells. You can always reset your enhancements for a small fee, so play around and see what works for you.

General considerations
The consensus opinion on starting Intelligence seems to be that a starting score of 17 to 18 is necessary. Starting with an Intelligence score of 18 maximizes a Wizard's starting DC and grants a few bonus spell points. The spell point advantage is minimal, but the higher save DC is very important. Having a higher DC for all of a Wizard's offensive spells reduces the chance that enemies will succeed at full or partial saves, making the Wizard more effective overall.

One school of thought says that an Intelligence of 17 is the maximum utilization of a character's ability increases. Most of the time, if a character puts all of their effort into improving Intelligence, a starting score of 18 will yield an oddly numbered final score, while a starting score of 17 will yield an evenly numbered final score (the even result being the maximum utilization of resources). Therefore, a starting Intelligence of 17 with the current level cap of 20 you could achieve an INT of 22 before applying tomes, class enhancements, or item bonus's. This is not true since the release of Menace of the Underdark and level cap increase to 25, as you get 6th level increase at lvl 24.

Not all Wizard players believe that a high Intelligence is key. Some players choose to avoid using offensive spells in favor of using buff spells almost entirely. These Wizards often play multiclass characters to gain fringe combat abilities to be able to both buff other players and contribute to combat without being forced to utilize offensive spells.

Conclusion
As a Wizard you can learn every arcane spell, this means the ability to pick and choose which spells to memorize before going on a quest, making a Wizard very versatile.

Arcane spells fall under one of five categories:

1. Offensive spells like Magic Missiles and Burning Hands, every Wizard needs some kind of offensive spell if they plan on doing any damage that wont result in their quick death.

2. Buffs (spells that aid yourself and your allies) such as Haste or Cats Grace, Stoneskin or Shield.

3. Debuffs (spells that hinder enemies) such a Ray of Enfeeblement, Bestow Curse or even Break Enchantment (can be used to remove curses/magic effects from your party or buffs from your enemies).

4. Repair spells that can heal Warforged (keeping yourself alive means keeping other party members alive first).

5. And finally crowd control spells such as Web or charm spells, this type of spell limits the number of attacking enemies or at least hinders their approach.

Wizards are one of the most versatile classes in the game, able to be the most dominant in crowd control spellcasting (along with the Bard class), or secondmost in damage output after the Sorcerer Savant. Pick and choose which spells and Enhancements suit your play type.