Advice for a beginner Wizard Conjuror please

[vandurlast]

This is my first run through and ill be playing on normal/easy.
If you don't mind Ill just explain my concept and reasoning so that more experienced players can comment and point out any flaws and pitfalls to avoid.

Lawful Neutral Human (Taldan) of the super arrogant Noble variety.
I really like to pass Knowledge/Skill checks in RPGs and really, really love when Diplomacy and Charisma checks get passed to my benefit.

To this end i chose a Wizard because he has high Intelligence naturally and can choose the Snake familiar to give himself a nice early boost to Persuasion. How important is it that the Main Character (MC) can pass these checks on his own rather than just relying on the Bard NPC? I have no clue but i'm not sure i want to risk it.

Human because i dont see a reason not to and the extra starting Feat let me grab Persuasion nice and early.

Conjuror because in the TTRPG magic rules I hate wasting a lot of spells on attacking every round. I actually feel bad when i waste several spells that could have been infinitely repeatable melee attacks if id just rolled a Fighter or Paladin. I figure a Conjurer can throw some Pets into melee, buff somebody then sit back and cast weak (but spammable) Cantrips from a safe distance.

Oppositions Schools i chose Necromancy (yuck) and Enchantment. I don't know if i'm missing much by opposing those schools, but surely it cant be anything that vital.

The Wizard Feats i chose at creation were
1)Spell Focus: Conjuration because ...i don't know what it does or if its useful. Please advise if this is a waste and if i should also grab Greater Spell Focus: Conjuration.
2)Augment Summoning because surely that sounds useful right?

As for spells i grabbed Mage Armour, Shield, Grease, Magic Missile, Protection from X, Burning Hands to fight swarms with, Enlarge Person because it sounds like good buff to cast on barbarian allies and Shocking Grasp in case enemies get into melee with me.

Already i can see the start is much harder than it was with a Fighter or Paladin. Surely this will even out later when i have a full party?

OK that's it i think, comments please.

[CHAO$$$]

Persuasion is the most useful skill on MC due to a handful of checks being MC only.

Opposition schools are solid. Get Divination as opposition over necromancy if that is available here. (Dont have all the combinations memorized).
Either way as long as your opposition schools are NOT conjuration or illusion youre good.

Spell focus and greater focus are excellent as is "heighten" metamagic. Those increase spell DC for CC spells. (DC = basically difficulty to resist)
Grab stinking cloud at rank 3. Use heighten metamagic on it. Its one of the best CC spells in the game. Make sure to cast delay poison communal on your party before fighting inside your stinking cloud.

Getting grease at level 1 is great. One of the best spells early. Same thing as stinking loud - DC based. Just dont walk into it. Grease makes the early game on unfair a lot easier.
@harder early game - use that spell. It solves a lot of problems.

Dont waste spellslots on spells that use to-hit. They are not worth using. Your casters should solve problems with CC, AoE and enemies that are too hard to hit. Enemies that you can hit can easily be disposed of by your weapon classes.

[JonWoo]

Low level casters start out weaker than martial characters, just how it is. Once you get to level 5/6 depending on your casting type and get 3rd level spells things really start to open up.

As for your build, fear not, conjuration isn't just good it's great. Conjuration is easily at the top end of spell schools. It has good spells that target all 3 saves for both damage and CC and summoned creatures can really help to swarm and kill some enemies or to just put some fodder out. The 8th level teleport is also great to have in case your character gets into a bad spot. Necromancy and enchantment are fine to give up.

Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus are always great picks for spells you intend on using and since they're requirements for Augment Summoning and Superior Summoning which are both fantastic feats for summon spells you're even better off picking them.

As far as persuasion checks, you're going to have some that only you can roll for so putting a few points into charisma and pumping skill points into it won't hurt. Being a high intelligence class you should have a decent amount of skill points to spend as well. Usually when checks are made however the game just chooses your highest stat character for the check so your wizard probably won't always be the one making them. However there are times when you get to pick who is making a check as well.

Some good spells to use would be the pit spells and glitterdust. They target different saves, reflex and will respectively, and are great crowd control spells and the pit spells can be good for causing damage as well.

[=[NK]= Col. Jack O'Neil]

I don't like summoners so I play my conjuration as no summons. High Int to increase your dc's are important. If you think you'll be doing ranged attacks with cross bow or cantrips then point blank and precise shot are important (cantrips are much easier to hit as it targets touch ac).

I'd really recommend playing with mods that add in a lot of missing spells from the table top, and turn based mode allows you to take advantage of pathfinders tactical battles better, as well as allowing 5" steps. One of the mods also changes Web spell to be conjuration as it should be, not a transmutation spell.

Anything to boost your conjuration spell dc is good.

Yeah starting levels for casters involves staying at range and staying alive. The real fun comes later, again why mods are important as they really flesh out the way the game should be played.

[Doombringer]

I prefer Abyssal Sorcerer for summon spammer, but wizard conjurer will do fine.

Get superior summoning if you ever plan on casting spells that summon more than 1 creature/cast. It won't matter until higher level, so no need to take it until later.

Spell specialization can be useful. Also, it lets you switch the spell every level.
(Must have spell focus in the spell school to pick a spell.)

[SarmatII]

Inquistor's sub with Monster Summoning is also really strong. Lots of summons per day and they last a long time. I find they make better summoners.

[Dixon Sider]

Use grease. It's so OP, and fun.

[=[NK]= Col. Jack O'Neil]

Originally posted by Dixon Sider:

Use grease. It's so OP, and fun.

It's also not implemented as it should be and actually is over powered in comparasion to other spells. Which is rich hearing Dixon say it as he bags out the modded spells saying they're OP, which they're not.

[Remove skull merchant]

Originally posted by =NK= Col. Jack O'Neil:

Originally posted by Dixon Sider:

Use grease. It's so OP, and fun.

It's also not implemented as it should be and actually is over powered in comparasion to other spells. Which is rich hearing Dixon say it as he bags out the modded spells saying they're OP, which they're not.

well you meet a lot of four legged enemies.

[=[NK]= Col. Jack O'Neil]

Originally posted by Infinite cup of Serbian water:

Originally posted by =NK= Col. Jack O'Neil:

It's also not implemented as it should be and actually is over powered in comparasion to other spells. Which is rich hearing Dixon say it as he bags out the modded spells saying they're OP, which they're not.

well you meet a lot of four legged enemies.

I don't follow. What does that have to do with anything??

[Remove skull merchant]

Maybe I thought quadrapeds would be more stable and less likely to fall in Grease like in real life. Maybe this game is very limited and doesnt include this fact.

[JonWoo]

Originally posted by Infinite cup of Serbian water:

Maybe I thought quadrapeds would be more stable and less likely to fall in Grease like in real life. Maybe this game is very limited and doesnt include this fact.

The table top rules do. It's +2 to the DC for each leg above 2. As far as Kingmaker goes though, IDK.

[=[NK]= Col. Jack O'Neil]

Originally posted by Infinite cup of Serbian water:

Maybe I thought quadrapeds would be more stable and less likely to fall in Grease like in real life. Maybe this game is very limited and doesnt include this fact.

They should get a bonus, but that still doesn't have anything to do with grease being op compared to tabletop in that it makes everyone roll to trip every round regardless of if they move.

[LordSerion]

Stinking Fog is the single greatest spell for conjurers. Sure, you need a protection from poison so it won't hurt you, but that's a small price for it.

You should pick Necro or Illusion as a secondary school for the insta-kill spells. Animate Dead is great for reinforcement/shield and Weird works great at cleaning mobs.

[Holylin]

but .... there is only fireballl !!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmAub3iRWaU