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I've been thinking that part of the problem with specialist wizards is a lack of role definition, so I created a spreadsheet breaking down wizard spells by school for reference purposes. Maybe it'll be of use to someone.

Difficulty: PotD Best Team Role: Crowd Control and off-tank dps Team based or solo (if emphasizing defensive talents first) This is more a party based guide and I have played this build in a party but it seems strong enough to solo with a few adjustments. Introduction: The wizard is one of the most versatile classes in PoE, being able to adjust himself or herself on the fly to do whatever is necessary to help the whole party succeed in any hairy battle situation. This guide is aimed at suggesting a wizard build strong across multiple functions (cc, disruption, interrupt, one-on-one melee duelist), no glass noodle, a team-player first and foremost, yet a badass who can in a cinch pull victory from the jaws of defeat should the team be almost overwhelmed, and do so with style to boot . Some of these suggestions for talents etc in this guide will no doubt be familiar to veteran wizard players, and I also have to say my choices for equipment, armor etc, have been done to fit the overall concept of the archetypal in my mind battlemage), to match the overall package. But without further ado, enter the Royal Court Wizard, veritable jack of many trades, and perhaps even master of one or two. Race: Human, it is good for the might bonus and the overall theme of this character is to be best when the battle gets tough so the racial bonus is good. A case can be made for Fire or Moon Godlike but they have to helm and I find that is a bigger con to the needs of this purticular character than their racials. Coastal aumaua can be considered too but that would be a "Court Djinn" Background: Living Lands (Might bonus), noble or mercenary. Stats: Might: Max it Con: 6 Dex: flat Perception: max it Int: Max it (but you want to buff might and perception more) Resolve: 6 Talents: ! = principle to the concept of the class, R = Very Highly recommended O= Optional but good choices In general order I would take them: Arcane Veil ! your bread and butter defensive ability, essential first line of defense especially as you will be spending a lot of time in melee Blast R (team) / Fast Runner ! (if solo) blast - mainly taken for the extra interrupts and any on hit effects from scepter rods and wands Penetrating Blast R/O (team) / Hardened Veil ! if solo! boosting damage a bit from blast does not hurt and your high might takes care of the rest, at range you will cast cc spells mainly anyways and do actual weapon damage in melee anyways this is the most optional of the early talents. Interrupting Blows ! essential talent as you want to be a great interrupter it helps your team when you attack at range and you when you zone in on an enemy in melee, it also comes at the time you get lvl 3 spells and delirious alactricy of motion. Scion of Flame / or Secrets of Rime ! (Choose one at least - Flame if you go more melee, rime if you stick in the back ranks more) fire is good in melee because of firebrand + flame shield, fan of flames and the occasional fireball opener. ice is good because the strongest damage + cc spells at range are ice. all the ninigauth spells basically. Vulnerable Attack R at this point you can start to make your melee attack more devastating if you like those rapiers which you should Two Weapon Style R greater attack speed when dual wielding rapiers Weapon Focus: Noble R you can get accuracy from other sources like eldridge aim, it is nice but I personally take: Hardened Veil O basically means you will only be grazed even at higher levels when this is active which combined from the dr on your armor is quite sufficient Savage Attack O Apprentice Sneak Attack O / Savage attack and Baby SA can be skipped if going more tanky you can take superior deflection I guess and cautious attack. I prefer the "melee" variant in first line here - the concept of this build is to be very competent mob cc, but also be able to dual against the mob boss leaders. Spell Mastery: Level 1: Slicken (cc this good too good to pass up) Level 2: Combusting wounds Level 3: DAoM is probably best although if you think you can just use potions of it you can maybe take Fireball Level 4: Flame Shield or Pull of Eora or Ninigauth Shadowflame (especially on distant rime build) Equipment: Helm: Azalin's Helm Armor: Osric's Family Breastplate (Durgan refined) Gloves: Pilferer's Grip or Forgemaster's Gloves, Ryonas Vambraces Boots: Glanfathan Stalking Boots Rings: Ring of searing flames, ring of deflection, ring of protection are all good generally Belt: Girdle of mortal protection Neck: Liliths Shawl Note this is mid game: I am sure there are some more awesome items before or after depending on how you progress through the game. You want to boost perception, might, and Int. Weapon 1: Gyrd Haewanes Stenas (you get it early, it's great, has super accuracy so what's not to like, and looks good and "fits" (domination chance) on the character!) Weapon 2: Vierina's Leaves + Spelltongue or Sword of Dyonisos + Spelltongue. They are already great without durgan I am sure they would be awesome with it. But it is not necessary to durganize them. potions: regen, llengrath's di or bulwark depending on fight type, spirit shield or paralysis scrolls, figurine How she behaves on the battlefield: generally starts in the back ranks and cc's / disrupts enemies and conserves some of her strength, but if the situation calls for she buffs herself up with alactricy, flame shield, vital essence, arcane veil, martial prowess, switches to dual rapiers and stun interrupts a troublesome target like a battery siren or a brood mother. She dueled against battery sirens and brood mothers for me just fine that way on Potd and I would not consider my skills good enough for solo at this game yet. I am sure in expert hands she would be even more fearsome. I like the breast plate because it fits the "noble court wizard" theme. With pilferer's grip and durgan it is as light as cloth (15% recovery penalty) hella sturdy, has second chance even, and looks awesome. You can have zero recovery with robes but this is not really a "robe" wizard in my mind. Current Grimoire: Totally Badass: Edit: looking at the grimoire again, I will replace kolakoth minor blights with pull of eora though both are really but this wizard just goes into melee should spells be low 85% of the time so kolakoth mb is not really needed.

What I understand about weapon focus is: it works for each category of weapon adding +x acc bonus to the listed weapons. Soulbound weapons are a category per se and any weapon focus taken will add the bonus to the soulbuound ones. Does it mean any weapon focus taken will stack or only one will work and the others suppressed? The Priests' talent works with soulbound weapons and I guess it stacks with the weapon focus. How weapon focus works with wizard's summoned weapons? Are they considered like soulbound weapons? Do they replace the equipped weapon like shapeshifting or maintain the bonuses? Thanks, my Aloth wanna go melee.

Several times now I have almost dropped all wizards from my party as all mobs appear to agro on them without any action on their part. I no longer cast at all with Aloth until the fight is essentially over as chasing the mobs who are trampling their fellows to get at Aloth is tiresome. Fortunately he is usually safely unconscious early on and normal combat sensibilities are restored. I do worry about his health though, the repeated blows to the head can't be any better for him than it is for pro football players. No other casters seem to generate this sort of reaction, either. I can chain cast with clerics before the fighters even get in melee without so much as an eyebrow raised. Have I done something, some setting, "Wizards tank everything yes/no" that I could alter?

I'm only level 5, so fairly early days but so far the Wizard seems very sub par compared to the Druid and other casters. Wizard Pros They have a slightly greater number of spells which they can learn The spells cover a wider variety of effects. Wizard Minus They are restricted to only 4 usable spells per level. True, I can switch spell books in battle but that takes ages (maybe that talent will help) and every second counts playing this on hard. Their damage spells so far have hardly any Foe AoE, only normal AoE. But even with this extra difficulty of landing these normal AoE spell (which I don't mind, that's how I played BG1/2 NWN 1/2), they also seem to do less damage compared to the Druid spells. One example is my level 3 fireball was doing awful damage to Trolls (was around 20's) compared to a number of Druid spells (some of which are Foe AoE) which were doing a lot more (even the level 1 lightning spell Foe AoE was doing more!) Maybe I'm unlucky (plus maybe I need to choose better spells to land for each foe defense) but my Wizard spells seem to be missing a lot more. So are Wizards just sub par (at least in damage wise) or do they get a lot better later on? My main, a Wood Elf Wizard, has 18 Might, 18 Int, 14 Dex etc so I don't think stats are the problem. Does anyone know if they're planning on doing a balance patch for Wizards?

Okay, maybe not chains, but I thought it might be fun to have whips in game that would have melee reach of spears and such. It'd be fun to have a cipher with a pistol style weapon and whip like Indy in these puzzled ruins and things we adventure through. A lot of darker orientated characters might enjoy dishing out painful lashes to their foes before killing them. It'd be a cool weapon and unique. I dunno a fun idea but no neccessity. After watching 20 vids on youtube, really feeling sorry for your version of the wizard class. I was thinking you could give the undead summons of the chanter to the wizard. Everyone says the chanters and ciphers are ruling as casters. A wizard's strength was always his or her worldly knowledge in the mystics of magic (diversity). I think that is why DnD had all sorts of varying schools for them. Everyone has likely adventured and fought the arch villain evil necromancer of various lore before. I know that PoE has it's own lore, maybe there aren't any evil necromancers, but you know the wizzy needs some help At low level, summon spells might be handy to provide that encounter to encounter sustainability and who knows with genies and djinns or devils and angels you could summon whatever in high lvls to further diversfy the class by interacting with the summons. ~Things I liked!: I like the game look, like the monk don't piss me off or I'll dish a world of pain idea, druid hybrid shapeshifting idea, ranger and pet symbiosis idea, song creation of chanters, liked the storybook style arcs that certain places are made special, and like that you're doing your own thing and not feeling the licensing constraints nor creative boundaries of staying DnD. There's a lot to love just watching others play it, but for now I'll play the EE Icewind Dale that's out. Good luck in game making and am sure you have 10000s of requests.

Update by Josh Sawyer, Project Director Welcome to our second class pair update. This week, by popular vote on our forums, we will be looking at the folks who rain down death (figuratively and literally) on the masses: the mob rulers, wizards and druids. Before we begin, I would like to remind our backers to complete their orders on our website if you have not already done so. Many of our backers have filled out their surveys and we've been able to work on implementing their content. Not long ago, Kaz generated these portraits for some of our generous backers. Backer Portraits We've also finished some of the inns that were designed by backers. Hector Espinoza just finished this render of the Celestial Sapling, an inn that is built into an enormous tree. The Celestial Sapling As always, the earlier we get your specifications for the content you've backed, the easier it is for us to integrate into the game. For those of you who backed content, remember that the deadline is March 31st, only two short weeks away! In our next update we'll be showing off some of the cool animations from Pillars of Eternity. Partnership A few minutes ago, Obsidian made an important announcement about a new partnership with Paradox Interactive for Pillars of Eternity. We wanted to give some information to our backers to give you a full understanding of what this partnership means and to let you know that nothing has or will change when it comes to the making of Eternity. Pillars of Eternity is still our product, we're making 100% of the development decisions, and we will still be communicating directly with you every chance we get. So, you are probably asking, why are we doing this? Obsidian is really good at making games. Everyone here is focused on that goal every day and we are heavily invested in our work. That said, Obsidian's focus is in creating games and not in marketing and distributing them. It takes a lot of time and effort to do those things properly - time and effort we want to use to make Eternity the best game it can be. We chose to partner with Paradox because they can help us with those things and really believe in PC games in particular. This lets us spend 100% of our time (and your money) towards making Eternity great. Every dollar you have given us will to go into making the game. We have setup a FAQ on our forums that will go over any questions you may have about what this partnership means for Pillars of Eternity. Please take a look and let us know if you have any other questions. And now, on to the magic of the mob rulers! Mob Rulers While neither wizards nor druids are restricted to offensive spells that target groups or areas, they excel in that arena. Whether it's dishing out elemental damage or inflicting status effects on enemies, both classes have a wide variety of spells to whittle down the hordes. Rangers and rogues are the kings of single-target takedowns, but the mob rulers exist to soften up, slow down, hinder, or otherwise mess up groups of enemies. Both classes focus heavily on spellcasters, but they have slightly different mechanics to how they work. Together with priests, wizards and druids are the "traditional" spellcasting classes that can cast a certain number of spells of each level per rest. As they gain levels in their classes, they can access more powerful spells. Over time, their weakest per-rest spells become per-encounter spells. At very high levels, the weakest spells eventually become at-will abilities, capable of being cast indefinitely. Wizards Typical Wizard Grimoire Wizards are researchers and experimenters. Like animancers, their understanding of the spirit world and soul energy is technical and scientific. For this reasons, wizards have a skill focus in both Lore and Mechanics. Also like animancers, wizards rely on special tools to achieve their effects. Specifically, wizards use grimoires, arcane books made with rare materials that can absorb and temporarily hold fragments of ambient soul energy. Unlike priests and druids, wizards do not personally shape the magic that is released. Instead, their grimoires' spell pages do most of the work. The wizard's specialty is in understanding how to help the magic flow in and out of the grimoire without going haywire. As wizards continue to research, more spells are created every year. Some spells remain in the private collections of individual wizards while others see widespread distribution and can be found in grimoires all over the known world. In game terms, all wizards start with a single grimoire. Even as big as they are, grimoires can only hold a set number of spells from each level. Wizards have the potential to access many more spells than priests or druids, but that potential is restricted by what a grimoire can hold. As a result, experienced wizards carry multiple grimoires with subsets of spells to handle different situations. Grimoires can be switched during combat, but there is an opportunity cost to doing so -- the new grimoire needs to attune itself to the wizard for several seconds before its spells can be used. Outside of combat, wizards can outfit their grimoires with any spells that they have learned. If they come across a spell in an enemy's grimoire, they can choose to learn that spell for the cost (in copper pieces) required to research it. As a result of their varied studies, wizards have access to both "meat and potatoes" spells and more eccentric effects. They excel at area attacks, but also have a healthy number of spells for personal defense and more than a few oddballs in the mix. Occasionally, wizards become known for a particular spell or family of spells that they've invented and their names are inexorably linked with their contributions to magical research. Here are some of the many spells wizards can learn in Pillars of Eternity: Fan of Flames - Creates a short-range cone of fire that does Burn damage to everyone caught inside. (Reflexes) Jolting Touch - Inflicts heavy electrical damage to the target then jumps to the two nearest enemies. (Deflection) Minoletta's Minor Missiles - Launches three missiles of magical energy that inflict Crush damage on a single target. (Deflection) Thrust of Tattered Veils - Generates a precise thrust of Crushing force that does little damage but has a high Interrupt. This fast-casting spell is often used to disrupt enemy actions. (Deflection) Wizard's Double - Creates a single duplicate image of the caster that grants a high Deflection bonus against a single attack. Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon - Inflicts a Corrode effect and restores Stamina to the caster over time. (Fortitude) Ray of Fire - Creates a lingering stream of flames between the caster and target, doing damage to the target and everyone caught in between. (Reflexes) Fireball - Classic, reliable, deadly. That's fireball. (Reflexes) Kalakoth's Minor Blights - Creates a random "blight" in the caster's hand that does Burn, Freeze, Corrode, or Shock damage to the target and anyone caught in the area. After the wizard throws one minor blight, it will continue to spawn additional random minor blights until the spell's duration runs out. (Deflection/Reflexes) Minoletta's Bounding Missiles - As Minoletta's Minor Missiles, but each missile bounces to one additional target, does more damage, and has shorter overall range. (Deflection) Ryngrim's Repulsive Visage - Targets near caster are Sickened and Terrified by the wizard's horrifying appearance. (Will) Dimensional Shift - The caster and one ally are able to immediately switch locations, leaving a shockwave between them. Anyone caught in-between may be briefly Stunned. (Fortitude) Essential Phantom - Summons a ghostly double of the caster that fights with its bare hands, doing Shock damage. Other than the appearance of the caster, it shares no other properties. Minor Arcane Reflection - The caster erects a field of arcane energy around himself or herself, similar to the Arcane Veil. However, Minor Arcane Reflection has the ability to reflect an incoming hostile targeted (only) spell, sending it back to the original caster. The Reflection can try to reflect spells up to 3rd level -- and up to 10 total levels of spells -- before it expires. A failed attempt at reflection counts toward the limit. When an incoming spell targets the caster, the Reflection attacks the enemy's Will. If it succeeds in the attack, the spell is reflected. If two casters both have Arcane Reflections up, the attack can potentially bounce back and forth repeatedly until one caster fails his or her attack -- or exhausts his or her Reflection. Citzal's Spirit Lance - Creates a pike out of magical energy that does Pierce damage and causes a foe-only Blast explosion like wands do. (Deflection/Reflexes) Malignant Cloud - Creates a cloud of virulent poison that does raw damage (ignoring DT) to anyone in the cloud over time. (Fortitude) Arkemyr's Capricious Hex - Targets are randomly subjected to one of several afflictions, each with an equal chance of appearing, although at different durations: Dazed, Sickened, or Paralyzed. (Will) Ninagauth's Freezing Pillar - Slams a huge gleaming shard of ice into the ground, doing Freeze damage to anyone in the immediate area. A circle of frost spreads from the pillar, creating a Freeze hazard that also inflicts the Hobbled affliction on anyone it touches. (Reflexes) In addition to their per-rest spells, all wizards have two basic abilities that serve them well: Blast and Arcane Veil. Blast allows wands, scepters, and wands wielded by wizards to do a small amount of foe-only damage in a small radius around their target. Arcane Veil is an instantaneous ability that dramatically raises the wizard's Deflection for a few moments. Its one weakness is firearms; the Arcane Veil is not able to react to the speed of a bullet before it passes through. Druids Druid Backer Portrait Druids are animists, drawing power through the webs they believe connect all living souls in the world. When not casting spells and transforming into mythical beasts, druids spend a great deal of time in nature, giving them skill foci in Athletics and Survival. Much like priests, druids draw ambient fragments of soul energy toward them and shape their effects through practiced concentration. While druids do not have the diverse spell repertoire of wizards, they have more than enough to handle most problems that come their way. Druids' spells often take the form of natural phenomena -- storms, coiling plants, rapid decay -- to reflect their primal connection to the world. Despite their heavily-offensive nature, they do have a few defensive and healing spells to aid their allies. Druid Stag Form Nature's Mark - Enemies are outlined in pale green light, decreasing their Deflection and Reflexes. (Will) Talons' Reach - Caster creates an oversized projection of beastly talons striking everyone in the area for Slash damage. (Deflection) Tanglefoot - Lingering, sprawling patch of magical vines and other plants Hobbles anyone caught in the hazard. (Reflexes) Winter Wind - Characters in the area are pushed back and take Freeze damage. (Fortitude) Firebrand - Caster wields a massive sword-shaped blade of fire that does Burn damage on a hit. Switching to another weapon ends the spell. Insect Swarm - Targets take Pierce damage over time and have reduced Concentration. (Fortitude) Beetle's Shell - An allied target is encased in a shell that prevents him or her from taking actions (including moving) but will absorb a fixed amount of damage before shattering. Twin Stones - Two boulders fly out from the druid, causing Crush damage as they go. If the boulders strike a solid surface the boulder explodes, doing Pierce damage to anyone in the area. (Deflection/Reflexes) Moonwell - Creates stationary radius in which allies recover Stamina and gain a bonus to all defenses. Overwhelming Wave - Creates a rolling wave of water that smashes everything in its path, causing Crush damage and a Stun. (Fortitude) Firebug - A ball of fire rapidly bounces from enemy to enemy causing Burn damage. It hits up to 8 targets total. (Deflection) Nature's Terror - The druid gains a terrifying electrical aura that causes Shock damage and the Terrified affliction to anyone nearby. (Reflexes / Will) Wall of Thorns - Creates a wall of thorns, which does Pierce damage to anyone in it or who attempts to cross it. (Reflexes) Garden of Life - Plants spring up from downed enemies, generating healing auras around them. Rot Skulls - Summons necrotic skulls into the caster's hands. The skulls can be thrown at targets for Crush damage and a Corrode explosion. (Deflection / Reflexes) In addition to their spells, druids have two base abilities that assist them in dealing with single targets. At character creation, players select a damage type for their Wildstrike passive ability. Wildstrike adds a small secondary amount of damage to all damage-dealing attacks that the druid makes. Druids also all choose a spiritshift form at character creation. This form represents a type of animal spirit with which the druid has developed an intimate level of understanding (wolf, great cat, bear, stag, and boar). A few times a day, they can use this understanding to transform their bodies into a hybridized form between their natural shape and the shape of the creature they are emulating. In these forms, they cannot use any of their normal equipment but can attack with powerful natural weapons. Each form also has a special passive ability that applies while the druid is in that form. Over the course of the game, druids can acquire additional spiritshift forms to give them more options. There are many more wizard and druid spells where these came from. They all add up to give both classes a wide variety of abilities to play with. Please let us know what you think of the flavor and mechanics of these classes in the discussion thread!

Hi all, this is my first post here, and I just wanted to ask if traditional robes are present as equippable gear in the game, like the various robe designs in the Infinity Engine games. Robes as a whole tend to be neglected, so I'm really curious about this; I mostly tend to play as robed casters, and the only robe art I've seen so far in any screenshot are the ones worn by the enemies. Thanks!

Why is it that spell components are never included in dnd video games when it is a natural way of restricting spellcasters, especially when the video game does not use the vatican spell system?

I have but one question about PoE, about an issue very dear to me. Do wizards get to wear pointy hats? I wanted to do that in the IE games, but there weren't any. Obsidian, please fix this glaring omission.

Many people do not like Vancian casting because it causes Wizards to often be passive actors with very limited numbers of actions. They are often torn between the choices of expending their limited and precious resource in an overwhelming manner on an "unworthy" engagement to participate, or throwing darts if not. The problem with non-vancian systems though, is that the frequency and reproducability of spells forces the scope of their effects and potency to be reduced for terms of balance. Enter the Scrolls and Wands. Scrolls allow you to hold infrequently used situtational and utility spells indefinately, without sacrificing spell memorization slots for more practical, desirable, and frequently used spells. Wands allow Wizards to remain a presence on the battlefield for ordinary engagements, so that they can save their "meaningful" spells for dire engagments and scenarios for which they were intended. To step outside of the proverbial convential box, imagine a scroll that is not consumed with use, but merely has a percent chance of being destroyed. My point is, that through the implementation of scrolls and wands, a spell system can be designed with maximum usefulness and originality, while preserving the utility and endurance of spellcasters. Furthermore, from a design standpoint, it is easier to create more consistent rules which limit wands and scrolls, than meticulously balancing out every detail of a spellcasting system without error. So don't forget about scrolls and wands! Food for thought. Ideas? Suggestions? Critiques?

Hi All, I know there has been several games where a debate or discussion was used to instead of a big bad batte finale, must notably with the Transcendent One in PST and with Letho in Witcher 2. But these were just one off instances rather than permeating throughout the game. I was just wondering whether there has been any cRPG where debate/discussion acted as a combat system in itself. Not too sure whether this is workable or not since it might need to be in the form of a card game or something similar to be practical. There are times when playing as a wizard/mage - where I start thinking. Here we are, two powerful archmages standing toe to toe with a major difference of opinion. And all we can do to settle our differences is to start hurling fireballs at each other? How about a civilized discussion or debate? The loser can leave and reassess his position. The winner can proceed with his objectives and get some cool loot. A win-win situation.