TGDB.net - Game news, cheats, solutions, walkthroughs, trainers, saved games and much more!

Races
An Elf or Gnome wizard does not suffer an XP penalty for multiclassing

If you are going to be a Wizard remember you can cast any spell so you need to know what every single spell can do and when to use it.

If you are going to be a Sorcerer you need to know what spells will get you the most mileage.  You will only know a few spells from each level so make your choice very carefully.


*******************************************************************************

  ******************
3- WIZARD CREATION
  ******************

*******************************************************************************
A) RACE
    *******

* ELF: IMO the best race for a wizard.  You get some cool bonuses (sleep immunity, a +2 DEX bonus (great for longbows and crossbows), hardiness vs enchantment spells, weapon bonuses (Bows, Longsword, Rapier), search always on, keen senses, low light vision...) and don't forget that a Wizard is an Elves favored class in case you want multiclassing with no XP penalty. You have a
-2 penalty to CON stat but you can easily beef it up to CON 10 (+0) so no real loss.  Besides a wizard should never put himself in melee combat a lot.
With all these bonuses you can solo without fear of traps and even take out a lower monster or two in melee that happens to get past your spells.  By going solo you level up much much quicker.  This is IMO the only race for a wizard that can solo effectively at the lower levels.

* GNOME: Great race, with lots of spell casting potential and lots of bonuses.
+2 CON can give a few extra HP and upgrade Fortitude saving throws, a thing that wizards and sorcerers usually have need of, small stature will make gnomes harder to hit, and spell focus in Illusion for bonuses to casting and stopping illusion spells - gnomes start automatically with Illusion.  A -2 STR penalty is not a problem for a Wizard.  Again you can beef it up but why when you're not going to engage melee combat.  Wizard is gnome's favored class so again multiclassing with no XP penalty.  One minor note: gnomes can't wield large weapons so no longbows.

* HUMAN: Good choice for a wizard.  No race penalties and two nice race bonuses: 1 extra skill point per level and 1 extra feat at 1st level

* HALF-ELF: Well, they're not humans and they're not elves. They have no stat bonuses or penalties but the abilities they gain are more suited to the rogue-oriented class than a mage.  Could be an interesting spellcaster, though.

* HALFLING: Think Frodo from the Lord Of The Rings.  If you still don't know who Frodo is then you should probably choose a different game.  Much better rogues than mages as rogues are their favored class and their special abilites are geared more towards stealth.

* DWARF: Dwarven Wizard?  Don't even be tempted by the idea of a melee fighting
Wizard.  A dwarf will always wield an axe better than a spellbook.

* HALF-ORC: In one word NO.  NO spell casting bonuses, NO intelligence bonus (instead you get -2 penalty), NO dexterity bonus.  If you really want huge challenge then go for it.


*******************************************************************************
B) ALIGNMENT
    ************

Alignment is supposed to help you make decisions on how your character should act (role-play) when given a choice during the game.  For example you would not expect a Good aligned cleric to indiscriminately kill towns people any more that you would expect an Evil rogue to do a side quest for free.
Although this attribute is not set in stone and good aligned characters can commit evil acts, each action you take can affect this score.  If your
Alignment score gets too far out of range then your character will not be able to go to the next level (level up) when he gets enough experience.  It is therefore, a good idea to keep a eye on this score and make corrections to it if necessary.

Alignment is broken up in to two main categories with 3 levels in each.

Good/Evil                Law/Chaos
*********                *********
Good                     Lawful
Neutral                  Neutral
Evil                     Chaotic

As of this writing I could not get the Law/Chaos Alignment to change no matter what I did so your actions do not appear to have any affect on this part of the Alignment score.

Your actions can change your Good/Evil Alignment score.  Most actions do not appear to have any affect at all on this score and those that do will only sway this 3-5 points in either direction.  I was, however, able to get drastic jumps of 9 points in both directions.  It can depend heavily on the circumstances and NPC character your interacting with.  Some examples are, completing evil or good side quests, bribing NPCs, not accepting rewards for completed side quests, indiscriminate killing of towns people, threatening
NPCs...  If you find your Alignment score is out of position try doing actions that will reposition your score to the one you chose.

Your alignment will also affect the Planar Binding spells.  More specifically what creature you can summon.

Lesser Planar Binding
Good                     Lantern Archon
Neutral                  Red Slaad
Evil                     Imp

Planar Binding
Good                     Hound archon
Neutral                  Green Slaad
Evil                     Succubus

Greater Planar Binding
Good                     Celestial Avenger
Neutral                  Death Slaad
Evil                     Vrock

Most players think the Celestial Avenger is the best summoned creature for the Greater Planar Binding spell so you may want to take this into consideration.

*******************************************************************************
C) ABILITIES
    ************

INT (intelligence) is the most important ability for a wizard.  Your INT affects what spells you can cast and how powerful they are.  Any bonus points over the amount need to cast the spell are used to counter the spell resistance of your opponent.  Say you have a base INT score of 20 and a +3 int magic item and a +2 bonus from a fox cunning spell.  When you cast a level 9 spell the remaining 6 points are factored into overcoming your opponents spell resistance. (20 - 10 - 9 = 1 + 3 + 2 = 6)  Basically you want to max this out to keep your spells from being resisted.  Remember a Wizards power is in his spells.  Do everything you can to make your spells more powerful.  Leave the melee fighting to the professionals.  Try not to have ability penalties in key areas if you can avoid them.

Here are some examples:

Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha   Character Concept
12  12  14  16  10  10    Balanced Spellcaster    (A good all-round mage)
8   12  14  18  10  8     Pure Spellcaster        (90 lbs Powercaster)
8   15  15  16  10  8     Defensive Spellcaster   (Dodge, Dodge, Dodge)
10  12  14  15  12  12    Rogue, Monk Caster      (Good for Multi-class)

There are lots of ways to design a Wizard, but the above list should be enough to get you started.

I wouldn't recommend Multi-classing though because IMO the Wizard doesn't make a particularly strong multi-class character.  With spells being the life blood of a wizard every level in a different class equals spell power lost.  A level of Rogue or Monk may be useful for the added feats.

I'll make some recommendations here:

* STR (Strength): Not very important for a Wizard.  The only thing you gain is more lifting power to carry loot from chests and a small melee bonus.  It is useful for certain types of magic bows but I wouldn't go above 12.  There are Bags of Holding that can make your loot weightless and, as I have said so many times before, a wizard should not engage in melee fighting anyway so don't be afraid to lower this to 8 and have a -1 penalty to add more points to INT and gain more power for your spells.  You'll just have to get used to casting Bulls
Strength on yourself until you find an item to give you a STR bonus.

* DEX (Dexterity): Important.  Allows you to raise your AC a little against any bolts, arrows, or ranged touch attacks.  It also helps your attack with crossbows longbows and shortbows.  Always look for better bows to take advantage of it.  You may want to raise it to at least 13 to take advantage of the Point Blank Shot and Rapid Shot feats.  These feats will be a big help in taking out the monsters that make it through your spells and give you some long range hitting power so you don't have to waste a spell.

* CON (Constitution): 1d4 hit points per level can make it very difficult for a Mage to survive solo.  If your going to try to solo drop some extra points here (12-15) to make your life a little easier.  This should allow you to survive at least 2 hits before dying.  CON also allows you to get some bonuses on Fortitude Saves. This type of saving throw is where a Wizard is the weakest.  Poison attacks from spiders will drive you crazy if this is too low.  Also adds a bonus to concentration (a vital skill for a wizard).

* INT (Intelligence): THE MOST IMPORTANT ABILITY for a Wizard needs. Throw as many points here as you can spare.  Have at least 14 or you won't have the points later on to memorize 9 level spells.  16-17 is pretty decent while 18 will max this out.  The more points you have here the harder your spells are to resist.  The more points you have here the more bonus skill points you get as well so when you level so you can chose some non class skills.  This stat should be your main focus for placing extra points at levels 4-8-12-16-20.

* WIS (Wisdom): This really only serves 2 purposes.  1- it increases Will saves but Wizards have good will saves even without bonuses.  2- It helps you with your heal skill with healing kits.  Unless, at the beginning of the game, you don't mind constantly running back to a Cleric to heal, you should keep this at 10.

* CHA (Charisma): If there was a ever a place to take points from it would be this.  For a wizard in NWN this stat serves only a few minor purposes and that is 1- to persuade NPCs to get side quests, 2- to get added information from them and 3- get a bigger reward.  No bad really but, it is just too easy to increase this stat artificially by using the Eagles Splendor spell and one of many magic items in the game.  You can get two of these from some henchman as reward for helping them during your main quest.  When I played I was able to get virtually every side quest doing this and I had a CHA of 8.
Just cast the spell and keep asking If the NPC won't give you the quest or info the first time and get used to NPC calling you ugly.  By the middle of the game you should be very rich so a little less coin isn't going to hurt you.  I personally don't think a wizard should be pretty anyway.


*******************************************************************************
D) SKILLS
    *********

A Wizard, with his +INT skill bonus will get more bonus points than any other class.  They don't have many class specific skills so you can invest the extra points in other skills and still max out your class specific skills.
This can make for some interesting combinations.

**** The most important skills are:

* CONCENTRATION [CON]: No question about it.  Max it out. This skill allows