Khrysophylax

Wizards get a little bit more bearable at higher levels, but they're entirely built around crowd control and debuffing; to a degree even more so than in D&D itself. Their nuking options are rather lackluster compared to the Druid's, which gets a large variety of interesting AOE spells, including a number that are foe-only. And even at high levels, it mostly comes down to having the ability to spam Slicken in every fight. Not exactly all that interesting, IMO. I wish the other spells had a bit more "oomph." But Telmorial is correct; in spite of the annoyance I sometimes feel when playing a 'hobbled' mage class, I really am enjoying the game. The atmosphere and story is just fantastic, in my opinion.

I'd like some of the Wizard direct-damage spells to be buffed, as well. Right now the Druid is the best nuker in the game and the Wizard should at least be able to give him a run for his money at times. Sure, spamming Slicken after level 9 is plenty cheesy, but sometimes I really do just want to sling some Fireballs and Corrosive Clouds. Barring that, as an inveterate Mage player I'm most looking forward to higher tiers of spells: Horrid Wilting, Finger of Death, etc, and especially epic spells (Xth level in the spellbook UI right now). Definitely thinking of Time Stop, Comet, and so on.

I'm quite looking forward to higher levels and even epic content, myself (following the D&D formula, the X level slots in the spell lists should probably be 'epic' spells). Would very much like to see PoE-versions of Finger of Death, Horrid Wilting, etc.

I really am hoping the devs will consider rebalancing the classes in future classes (it'd be nice if one of them were to drop by to comment on this), and making low-level Wizard gameplay more 'fun' in general. Let's be honest; it's going to be a long time before most people reach level 9 and have access to per-encounter 1st level spells. Until that time you're reduced to crummy auto-attacks and some really ineffective spells compared to the amazing stuff Priests and especially Druids get. They may share the Vancian spellcasting limitations as well, but their spells are just all-arund better, IMO. Especially the Druid having a access to a bunch of Foe-Only AOEs, shapeshifting, summons, etc. I'm not terribly optimistic, though. It almost feels like this is WAD, a sort of reaction against BG2. I hope I'm wrong, though.

Yeah, I can/do understand why some may like it and find it engaging. It just doesn't fit my playstyle very well is all. I guess it starts to become a little too much pause/chr. commanding micromanagement for my tastes. This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I agree. This combined with the spell hoarding the game encourages means I basically 'sit out' most fights, which doesn't seem right, IMO. I always liked the fact that you could turn off friendly fire altogether on Normal mode in NWN2, which is what I'm playing ATM anyway in Pillars. It also doesn't seem fair that a lot of the Druid AOE spells seem to be Foe-Only, so that just makes them that much better than Wizards. I too dislike excessive micro-management. IMO, one of the best things Neverwinter Nights brought to this genre of RPG were functional AI scripts (or scripting mods, as it happens) so that you didn't have to micro-manage every one of your party members in every fight. With mutliple spellcasters it can just become aggravating; I'd like my party to be able to take care of themselves for a while so I can try to actually use my mediocre Wizard for once.

Well said. I'm feeling rather ambivalent about my current Wizard as well; between constantly hoarding spells and being unable to use most of them well due to AOE probelms, I just feel... somewhat useless. You also can't really pre-buff because buffs have such a short duration, and I am loathe to waste one of my very few spells per rest on a buffing spell I may not even need (and which won't save me from an angry charging paladin in my face anyway). It's especially saddening hearing about all the fun Cipher and Druid players are having with all their tools, while I'm just sitting here plinking away with my wand and spamming the crummy Arcane Barrage in every fight. I miss the feeling of playing a competent, powerful Sorcerer in BG2 and NWN2, really.

Yes. If you take a look at a Wizard's grimoire, you can see there are "spell levels" going all the way up to 10th level (epic spells?). I'm assuming this is a hint that they will either add levels going up into the 'epic' range (20ish) in future expansion(s) or they will be using the PoE engine for a future sequel, possibly using the same character, very much a la Baldur's Gate 2.