How wizards are powerfull exactly?

[Malaficus Shaikan]

People keep claiming wizards are powerfull but i dont see it.
Both cleric and druid have good spells untop of there class bonuses.
Wizard cant heal, has poor survivability and most of its spells are useless 90% of the time.
It seems to me that everything a wizard can do a cleric or druid can do better.

Compaire to a fighter or rogue they seem better but disrespectfully all magic classes are better then braindead idiots swinging a big piece of metal around.
Any anyone can learn to pick locks or disarm traps with high enough intelegence.

[Eisenfell]

Originally posted by Gorith:

Originally posted by Malaficus Shaikan:

As for wish abuse.
As i said in my experiance most dm will screw you over if you wish for anything remotely usefull.
Ow you wish for compleet imunite to damage.
Congratulations you are turned into lava.
You have to be very very very very carefull.
As most dm dont like wish because it basicly makes your charater a dm.

If your DM is doing this you need to find a new DM because they don't understand what being the DM is about. Roleplaying is a Co-operative storytelling experience. Everyone at the table should be working together to tell an engaging story. The DM is there to bring the world to life and to weave the story each PC wants to tell into the plot. No one at the table should ever be trying to "beat" anyone else at the table.

Now Wizards and their OPness in 3.5 and why it doesn't translate into NWN2. Thre simple reasons. First lack of proper divination spells. A 3.5 wizard can wake up and prepare only a small part of his spells then as the party gets ready to enter a dungeon or something the wizard can use some of his stock of divination scrolls to divine some information about what the party is about to get into then prepare the rest of his list accordingly (Takes an hour). In NWN2 you simply can't do something like that. The second reason they don't translate is perception. The majority os players in videogames tend to associate being powerfull with damage and damage output isn't what makes wizard powerfull. If you want evocationist blaster a sorcerer makes a better one for the average person. The wizard is powerfull because of their ability to prepare for what is coming up and their ability to throw "save or suck" at hostiles. This starts at level one with things like sleep, daze, ray of enfeeblement, etc. Third is that videogames absolutely suck when it comes to the social utility spells. In a TT game you could use a silent still charm person to help your social rogue/bard/paladin with a particularly stuborn guard or haughty noble, You could dominate an assasins guild member who tried to kill you and use him as a mole, or use disguise self to impersonate a visiting prince. The restrictive nature of videogames when compared to the imagination prevent things like that.

dont forget the simplest of reason , munchkin ♥♥♥♥ like "kaza no kama" will outside of this game never find its way on a D&D table. a 1d4 weapon with three times 5d6 elemental dmg , slamming down 90 dmg per hit and that 14 times a round , ofc a mage looks amusingly small next to that...NWN2 programmer just forgot the weapon swing cap. and thrown too mighty enchants into the mix.

[lordofbones002]

I guess I don't really understand this discussion, if we are talking about wizards in NWN not being powerful enough, have you never seen a wizard just haste +maximized greater missile storm, as many as needed to get the job done? For anything not a fighter or barbarian subtype, that's just like instant death, 240 damage per spell, 2 spells per round, you do the math.

[kover.balint]

I donno, never tried TT D&D, but in this game, wizards do look whack to me. Yes, from a dmg standpoint. If I need support, divine spells work better than arcane ones 9 times out of 10, for me at least.
But as far as damage goes... "We are surrounded by bandits, my fireball will incinerate them!" "Ooops, they all reflex saved for 0 dmg, that was my only rank X spell slot, guess Im back to peashooters... or I leave everyone here, rest 5 sec and come back for another fireball"
So very not my style.

[icepac]

One thing people keep overlooking when talking about Wizard is the Familiar :
Familiar can cast all wizard touch spell (aggro and buff). This allows the wizard to stay completely out of reach of the battle and still influence said battle.
While it's true that lower level familiar have horrible stats (6 int to start!!), most of the touch spells do not require spell save (shocking grasp, vampire and glass dopple)
The Familiar will also level up their int as the wizard progresses.
Finally, while the wizard can't cast while it's familiar is casting, they can still use wands and other magical object making them quite the 1-2 punch !

So the idea is to park your Wiz WAY out of range (So you don't need to buff him/her) buff your familair (if you have time) then use Fam to cast offensive touch, while your Wiz can cast CC and AoE from a safe distance(when need be). Familiar having extra-evasion makes it safe to cast AoE even on highest difficulty. While you're casting with your Familiar, you can still use Wands with your wizard...

So here is a general combat algo for a Wizard :
1- Summon Creature (to tank)
2- Get Wizard in long range distance from nearest ennemy
3- Buff Familiar (if possible) (For ex. : Displacement, mage armor etc)
4- Buff Summoned (if possible)
5- While Summoned is occupying your foe, use Familiar to cast touch spells
6- At same time use Wands on wizard (if possible)

Also, best teammate and best Tank for a Wizard is a Bard (Cuz bard will buf both the Familiar and the Summoned unit of the Wizard)

Hope that helps

My 2 cents