Wizard to Grow: The Combat Spellcaster to 500+ points

In prior investigations I took the knight and the swashbuckler to their limits using the published Delvers to Grow modules and concepts. The outcome there was that the knight, many of whose modules are limited (can take X module twice, can take Y once) capped out practically between 500 and 600 points.

The swashbuckler, on the other hand, has useful modules you can take until the cows come home: there’s no practical limit to improving DX (for example) until you hit the maximum campaign limit. Also, the need for the ranged weapon skill to overcome penalties is simply higher with such characters, as the practical range on powerful bows can be many hundreds of yards, and you stack range penalties (–10 at 100yds) with target size penalties (–10 for an eyeslit). Practically, that pushes the viable skill level up into the mid-30s if you want to shoot that far and still hit ridiculously small targets.

(Note: While Tactical Shooting and the Dungeon Fantasy RPG should probably never ever be mentioned in the same breath, the “MoA” rule I invented to make such things as reliable eyeslit shot at 300 yards impossible would cap the shooter’s effective skill at 28 for a regular longbow, which at least forestalls some wackiness.)

In any case, since I’ve done a strong and a fast delver, it’s time to take a look at a smart one.

The Spells!

So, Smart Delvers are all about spells, but the usual way to rack them up is by accumulating a bunch of 1-point spells and then punching IQ+Magery to whatever your natural limits are. You are going to be able to push individual spells up in the free-spend category, and what is more, if one is judicious about it, the substantial maintenance, time, and casting cost savings one gets for every multiple of 5 on effective skill suggest powerful spellcasters are somewhat defined in the heat of battle by what they can do cheaply.

The Cheating!

There are likewise some advantages that probably are not in Delvers to Grow that I frequently will slap on powerful monsters in order to amp up the power of their spellcasting. Specifically, Compartmentalized Mind. That’s 50 points per level in GURPS Basic Set: Characters, and “Monsters Only” in the DFRPG. I’m positive that I should probably discount it a bit for “spells only,” but that temptation is mitigated by the fact that the caster will absolutely get everything they want out of Compartmentalized Mind 1 and more by the time—with GM permission—they’d be badass enough to buy it. For epic-tier adventurers, it would make a nice future two-slot Upgrade Module.

The Races!

One of the things about high-point character designs is that a lot of the racial synergy comes into its own faster; on the other hand, once you get to 500-600 points, you’re more worried about maxima than the journey, so I suspect that in the end, it won’t matter much.

Even so: you’re going to be rirding the synergy wave hard on your journey to badassitude, which probably increases your chance of getting there in the first place.

The Build: Invocation Wizard

We’re going to head straight for human combat caster here. With something like sixteen extra Upgrade Modules that we can allocate, thanks to missile spell mastery and spellslinger type advantages, this is going to be one potent mix.

Start with Disads

As always, I’ll start with the two disad packages.

Misanthrope seems a natural fit for a reclusive wizard. Old Soldier is perhaps atypical, but combat wizards gotta practice, and everyone knows to shoot the spellcaster first, thus Wounded.

So we’ll do that. There are no obvious overlaps or anti-synergies here, so no tweaking needs doing.

Basic Template and Master Module

We slap on the 187-point master template first, and follow it with the Wizard I and II packages, with almost all of that focused on Magery and Energy Reserve in terms of advantages. Again, no real choices here, and no complaints, as you really want to push Magery high anyway.

Skills and Spells require some choices. So dragging over I throw down Sling for no-mana zones and Innate Attack (Projectile) for throwing spells, though this is more a placeholder than anything else—the wizard will pick the spells and then get the right skills to fit. I choose magic items for Hidden Lore specialty because why not; it’s useful to know such things.

At this point I’m exactly 16 points short of where I should be, because I need to allocate 8 to weapon skills and 8 more to non-combat skills from pro template. I’m going to be boring and throw 8 points right into staff (though smallsword or even axe/mace for a baton/wand plus buckler for that all-important block are also good choices, maybe better ones). Then plus up some of the key skills by 3 each (two of them) and 1 each (two more).

I add Spellslinger and Missile Spell Master because those are core capabilities, but other things might also compete. I know I’m winding up with most of these anyway, so…

All The Upgrades

Here we go. The first focus (though this is an end-state thought, not a path-dependent one) is pushing Magery to 6, the usual maximum. What upgrades allow +1 to Magery? Star-Touched and Talented Caster. Talented Caster gives more ER; Star-Touched gives Luck…and that’s darn nice. We’ll do one Star-Touched and two Talented Casters.

Still have 13 modules left.

Note now that the 250-point wizard in DFRPG Adventurers starts at IQ 15, and the 187-point smart delver enters play with IQ 12 without focusing on boosting it. So we have at least three modules, perhaps up all 13 of the 13 remaining, that could go into IQ-boosting traits. And since IQ+Magery is the spellcaster name of the game (and we’re currently sitting at Magery 6), we may very well wish to push to the max. Spells are Hard skills, a 1-point expenditure gets to IQ+Magery–2, so we’re looking for IQ of 16 (so every spell starts at 20) or…IQ 21. Ah, Exploits p. 93 says Wizards can go to IQ 25 and Energy Reserve 20. Excellent. But really, the key breakpoint is IQ 21, and then if we want a base skill of 25 with Very Hard spells, we simply drop an extra point into them, rather than the very expensive IQ.

So we’ll want a minimum of four boosts to IQ, with nine a real possibility here. And hey…four boosts with Smarter Delver actually gives you up to +5 to IQ due to the leftover point slop, or we can do +4 to IQ and +4 to Will, and I like that because there are a lot of resisted spells out there, and one doesn’t want to be reverse-whammy’d and made someone’s plaything. Pushing to IQ 16 (and therefore Per 16) as it is will be good enough. But if we spent eight boosts for Smarter Delver, that gives +9 to IQ and +4 to Will, pushing the Will to the max 25.

Looking around now, we start to run out fast:

• Linguist: Comes with the extremely helpful Scroll Scribbler, but can only be taken once.
• Deft: Boosts to DX, which help fling missile spells and boost a fairly poor base stat; one level of this gets to the the professional full template base of DX 12, so we should do at least one of those…and it also doesn’t say “take it a bunch.”
• Mathlete: Strength comes with HP, which is good. This can also only be taken once. Gives Fit also.

So we’ll do that. First we have two modules for physicality-boosting traits (Deft with Perception, since we’re focusing Smarter Delver on Will and Mathlete), followed by Linguist. Then eight more for the boosts to IQ.

And we’re done.

We now have ST 12, DX 12, IQ 21, and HT 12. All the spells we care to slap on from the core spell lists are at Skill-25 or higher, and we have 63 points to spare.

Room for Improvement

The one-and-done nature of the physicality traits are good for approaching the 250-point professional wizard template, but probably overly restrictive when it comes to moving past that. Also, “buy something that gives more HT” is listed in the Deft upgrade…but there are no upgrades for smart delver that give more HT. Even among pro templates, HT varies from 11-13 to start, and I personally have limited utility for HT more than 13-14 because of quirks in the rules, but there are cases (like resisting poison) where high HT is good.

So, what to do?

Dost Thou Even Lift? Some sort of Gym Rat advantage that would give +1 to both ST and HT, or +2 to either ST or HT, with 5 points distributed among extra HP, FP, or Lifting, Hiking, or Running skills would not go amiss. Since extra FP and HP are constrained by the guideline of 1/3 the base ST or HT, you’re looking at self-limiting in terms of weird deviations from a norm. Even strong and fast delvers, who have outlets for both ST and HT built in, could use this to tune up as needed.

More Skills. The focus on spells (limited number, but useful) and advantages leaves the character a bit skill-poor, and broadening out the character with free-spending from allowed skills from the main profession would not be wasted at all.

Bigger Spell List. Variety for wizards is the spice of life, and bringing a massive spell list to the table is what they do. Dumping a point into a few dozen more spells brings massive synergy. Expanding into buffing spells (two points into Great Haste-25? Yes, please!) would be huge, and worth it. In fact, one would expect this pathway to be something one did along the way, and easily.

Max Out the Energy Reserve. Of course, the real limit on casting is how much mana you have, and there’s zero reason not to push Energy Reserve to the normal maximum of 20, and wheedle the GM to push even higher with good justification. This wizard exits with ER 13, and 7 more is only 21 points, which again is a good use of those remaining 63 to get to the target 600. Also, ER and FP recharge simultaneously, so in terms of getting maximum wizardry per hour (wph) – OK, I kid about wph – this is definitely something you want to do.

MMA Classes. Getting some unarmed combat skills to avoid being grappled, and improved weapon skills for the no-mana eventuality couldn’t hurt. Personally, I’d focus a bit on Wrestling, as if you do FDG it has the best control point boost, and avoiding being grappled (which usually precludes Concentrate maneuvers) is a great idea. One can’t always assume the “front line” will hold, especially if your friends and allies tend to fling themselves at opponents like a herd of crack-addled kittens.