Hello Everyone,

I am thinking of making pure wizard, because i havent played any magic based character before and i want it only wizard just because of higher spell DCs. I will be playing it through at the end of HOTU, so i will be planing it mostly for late game.

1) Skills are not really important but i need advices on feats and which school to focus on.

2) I want to power level but experience gain mechanics confuses me. On my last play, i ended up level 17 at the end of OC, even if i dumped my henchman at the mid of chapter 1 and went only solo afterwards. I only used my henchman to speak and complete their quests. The problem was most of the time i was only getting 4 exp per monster. And yes i had done all the side quests with best possible experience rewards. But seeing the level cap is 20 for OC 17 seemed low for me.

I have read somewhere that experience gain is also affected by the class you play, i.e. priests gain more xp than warriors because its more difficult to play with it. But i think it only affects first few levels? (On last playthrough i was fighter/Cotm/WM with no xp penalty)

I am not sure if its better to go with henchman or even henchman + summon creature rather than solo. Because in solo you level up fast but monsters start giving you 4 exp and you start getting like 1 level per chapter.

3) The gameplay is very differrent to fighter type playing. Now i am only level 3 i am relying my henchman, its pretty effortless but if i will go solo the resting part really irritates me. Since i can only use very few spells per day it feels like i will have to rest after every battle to recharge my spells and move on. Wands are ok but they are not infinite, crafting wand doesnt seem to appeal me because you spend XP! to craft? Some rods are infinite but i think theres only rod frost which actually damages and it only does 5-6 damage:D
So how do we actually play mage style? Do we need to heavily rely on our henchman/summon if we dont want to rest constantly? Or i am missing something else to be reliable for solo.

Edit: Game is NWN 1

There are a couple options here. Illusion is a good choice for specialization, as it only gives up Enchantment. Since most enemies in HotU are immune to mind-affecting spells anyways, this is a pretty easy school to drop. Necromancy gives up divination; there aren't that many useful divination spells, but the see invisibility/truesight spells are annoying to go without and premonition is a really reliable defensive spell.

For feats, make sure you pick up extend spell, spell penetration, and greater spell penetration. Very useful feats all wizards should have. In NWN1, empower and maximize are really important. You don't need the quicken spell feat, since it doesn't stack with haste. In NWN2, this inverts and empower/maximize become optional while quicken spell becomes really important for epic wizards.

Picking up spell focus feats for your favorite spells can be very effective. Spell Focus (Necromancy) is particularly nice if you just want to snuff the lives of your foes. 17 is a normal level to end the OC if playing solo without henchmen. You're not necessarily expected to reach the level cap. XP for defeating monsters scales by your level. This is sort of a self-correction mechanism built into the game; if you're under-leveled you'll get more experience points to catch up, and if you're over-leveled you'll get less. No, the classes all progress at the same rate. The only thing that makes a difference is henchmen and summoned creatures. However, because that just makes you over-leveled you start getting reduced XP for defeating monsters so you can never get very far ahead. At low levels you just don't have many spell slots. Especially if you're building with epic levels in mind (which means your attitude towards intelligence should be "18 or bust") you're going to be pretty useless without spells. As you gain levels you'll get more spell slots and can go for long periods without resting.

There are definitely ways to get more longevity out of your daily spell allotment. First, use spells that incapacitate rather than those that damage. A henchman or familiar (the panther with sneak attack works great) can easily finish off an enemy you've incapacitated, while those you've merely damaged are still just as dangerous as ever.

IMO it's not worth bothering with crafting. The XP cost isn't a big deal, but the stuff you find in the course of your adventures is more than sufficient to meet your needs.

Indeed. Illusion probably is the best specialist wizard choice.

Also import is what spell focus feats to take. Spell focus feats are crucial in NWN1 to boost your spell DCs. (They've been nerfed in NWN2 and can probably be ignored.) You get plenty of feats, so be sure to pick at least 2 greater spell focus feats.

Good choices include:
1] Evocation — This bolsters most of your offensive spells as well as some surprisingly good disabling spells like Cloud of Bewilderment, Stinking Cloud and Sunburst.
2] Necromancy — Everybody loves Wail of the Banshee. Well, except the enemy. And possibly your party members, who will be bored stiff as you kill everything before they can touch it. However, you can leave this until higher levels, since the only good lower level necromantic spells are Fear and (maybe, I don't care for it) Negative Energy Burst. Boost your fireballs first.
3] Conjuration — It only affects a few spells, but this includes the amazingly useful Black Tentacles. Empowered, it remains one of the best killer/disabling spells right to the end. Conjuration focus also bolsters Flame Arrow.

Lesser choices:
4] Enchantment — Amazingly good early on, but gets phased out later. Still nice to cast a Hold Monster spell that is as strong as a level 9 spell. However, if you took the Illusionist specialisation, you can't take this.
5] Transmutation — A surprise hit. This focus only boosts Slow and Flesh to Stone, but that last is -really- nice in hardcore difficulty. Permanent duration, and it affects creatures that are immune to all other kinds of disabling and instant-death spells, like undead. I've won supposedly difficult epic level boss fights by casting this on creatures with loads of immunities. Of course, it's hard to justify taking 2 feats to bolster only 2 spells. I had it on a sorcerer who could spam these spells.

In NWN2, you might consider taking the Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep class. Doesn't reduce your spellcasting power at all. It just costs you a few feats, which you have plenty of. And it lets you empower all your offensive spells for cheap. (Sorcerers get more mileage out of it, though.) Actually, NWN1 does (sometimes) give "squishy" characters like bards, wizards, etc. bonus XP. They count as being lower level and so get more XP. Eventually this stops, but it does help early on. Later patches removed this feature, but it still happens in the OC and in some other modules.

See the wiki for details: http://nwn.wikia.com/wiki/Effective_character_level This is very true for wizards. Disable, then have your fighter companion/summon take care of the enemy. A single cast of Flame Weapon on your henchman can deal 100 times as much damage as a single cast of Acid Arrow, easily. (This is not a hyperbole.)

Crafting is pretty weak, but making a scroll or two can be helpful for those rarely-used spells like Spell Breach.

Anyway, in general I find that wizards are pretty frustrating to play in the OC and expansions. And even moreso in NWN2, where you get put right next to the enemy in cutscenes all the time. There's so much hack and slash going on, and most of the time you have to rely on the henchman to kill stuff.

For NWN1, I much prefer a sorcerer. Blast everything in sight? Yeah, that suits a game that's filled with "Go to this mine and fight 20 identical Orc-groups" quests. The same might go for NWN2, except for the squishiness factor and the haste-nerf. The only way I can enjoy the NWN2 campaign (which does have a pretty good story) is with a character tough enough to survive getting attacked because of cutscenes all the time.

Stinking Cloud is conjuration (it's evocation in AD&D - ie the Baldur's Gate series) Arcane Scholar is basically a no-downsides selection. It gives back more feats that it costs in prerequisites, and the class features are amazing. The only reason not to do it is if you're going for a different prestige class, like the Red Wizard. Interesting; never knew about that one. You don't need to invest in skills for that, and wizards get the relevant crafting feat for free. That's what makes scribing scrolls so good. Just buying them is pretty cheap, though. I know my Fighter/Rogue with UMD had a massive stockpile with more scrolls that he would ever have need for. Even worse when the cutscene dispels all your protection spells, even the ones with incredibly long durations that were supposed to last until you next rest. So. Much. Hate. Fortunately this problem is only in the NWN2 OC and the expansion packs (and user-created modules) tend to be better about it. The difference between Wizard and Sorcerer comes down to taste. It's not like pen and paper where Wizards are clearly the superior of the two (there are a bajillion awesome utility spells in pen and paper, and Sorcerer just doesn't have room for them).

Oops. You're quite right. Oh well. Cloud of Bewilderment is good enough anyway. Power-wise, I'd say sorcerer has the edge in NWN1, since there are so few good spells to choose from anyway and you can abuse meta-magic much more than in P&P. But wizards are potentially more interesting and multiclass much better.

Still, taste is the biggest factor. It also comes down to the style of adventure. In a setting with fewer but more interesting fights, a wizard's flexibility gets a chance to shine. But in a setting with lots of repetitive brute-force fights, sorcerer's spell-spam becomes much more convenient.

So if I had to choose, I'd play a wizard in Shadows of Udrentide and a sorcerer in the OC.

(But actually I'd play neither and just play Almraiven again, with a wizard of course.)

Thanks for the replies!

Seems like playing pure wizard requires at least a summoned creature and/or henchman. Otherwise it will be too rest heavy play style. I hope the XP values wont be too low, i dont wanna end up like level 15 at the end of OC. Is this module for nwn 1?

Lastly, i would like to ask about gear. Are there notable items worth mentioning?I have the habit to quicksave and reload on heavily trapped chests to get best possible gear i need, i know its not appropriate for roleplay style gaming but i get more pleasure from power gaming.

At low levels, yes. You can definitely get away with just your familiar, though. At about level 10 you'll have enough spell slots to blast through many encounters without any summoned or hired help. 1) Items that increase your intelligence
2) Magic Bags (carrying capacity = good; check every new merchant you encounter and buy out any magic bags with 80% or higher weight reduction)
3) Items that increase your intelligence
4) Items that grant immunity to nasty status ailments
5) Items that grant permanent haste
6) Items that increase your intelligence. Don't worry about it; ultimately you'll be liquidating almost everything you find for cash anyways. The merchants have pretty decent stock.

Yep! It's a module especially for wizards. It also has a sequel. Together they're some of the best and most immersive modules I've had the pleasure of playing. They easily get a spot in my top-5 list. (Combined, that is. I wouldn't give them 2 out of 5 spots.)

Note though that the first one plays more like an adventure game with lots of exploration and flavour dialogue and some puzzles and only a few combat sequences. Not too heavy on the story either. It has a good story, but it moves slowly. The game is mostly about the setting and the atmosphere. Don't play them expecting a conventional RPG style experience. (The second has more combat. Still has great, but different, atmosphere. But it's still not something you'd play for the combat.) It's also for very low level characters. You start at level 1 and after two modules and a dozen hours of play I just got to level 6. Definitely, definitely not something that's fun if you're in the mood to power-game. (It does have a lot of fun custom items, though. My favourite was a cloak that at first appears pretty useless, but each time you rest it gains the ability to let you cast a different spell, cycling though a bunch of different ones. You also start out with some fun spell-sequencer items that take a lot of the pain out of playing a low-level caster.)

As for items: what Darvin said, plus items that give you extra spellslots. An amulet of Power is a pretty neat item in the official campaigns. (Gives you level 3, 4 and 5 spellslots I think. And the Spell Penetration feat. Though that won't help if you already took it.) Yeah, pretty much. Resting all the time gets old fast.

As for henchmen/summons in the campaign, though: note that they don't suck as much XP as you'd think, because having them around also tends to boost the number of enemies that spawn. Yeah, it's weird. But that's the way NWN's encounter system works.

Doesn't help with bosses and such, though there you can be cheesy and unsummon your familiar and animal just before landing the killing blow, if you really want to max out XP gain.