The Handyman - aka When to play a Staff Mage

[Squirrelloid]

Purpose: I was starting to think about the Bigby's spells specifically, and then TM20 highlights them as good spells not requiring a save in a thread.  I happen to agree.  The problem is that (1) the top bigby spell is level 15, which is ok for running through epic, but a higher level hand spell would be nice, and (2) they can try to escape against either your Fortitude or Reflex defense.  The silver lining is that the relatively low-level availability and their shear duration makes them good as a schtick because you'll get a lot of use from them each day.  And good fortitude defense means pumping Con, and that sounds like a good time for Githyanki and specializing in a staff implement.

The goal here is to (1) use no spell which allows a save, (2) manage to be a control wizard despite that.  I imagine this will end up with a lot of similarities to the Master of Time from my wizard handbook, except its not an orb mage.

Riff Raff, a handyman, Githyanki Wizard/Blood Mage/Archmage
Attributes:
Str 8 Con 18 Dex 12 Int 18 Wis 12 Cha 10

Wizard features: staff focus, cantrips, spellbook, etc...

At-Will Spells:
ray of frost, scorching burst

Encounter Spells:
1st: icy terrain
3rd: colorspray (close)
7th: winter's wrath
13th: icy terrain -> prismatic burst
17th: winter's wrath -> crushing titan's fist
23rd: no change
27th: colorspray -> forcecage

Daily Spells:
1st: flaming sphere, freezing cloud
5th: bigby's icy grasp*, web
9th: wall of fire, ice storm
15th: flaming sphere, freezing cloud -> bigby's grasping hands*, wall of ice
19th: wall of fire, ice storm -> cloudkill, wall of ice*, retrain previous wall of ice to otiluke's
25th: bigby's icy grasp, web -> elemental maw, bigby's icy grasp*
29th: no changes

Utility Spells:
2nd: shield*, expeditious retreat
6th: wall of fog*, dispel magic
10th: blur*, arcane gate
16th: stoneskin, fly*
22nd: timestop*, mordenkainen's magnificent mansion

Spell Notes:
(1) You can't make attacks with timestop actions, but you can sustain powers that deal damage when you do so... awesome.

Key Feats
Heroic: Ritual Casting (b), Improved Initiative (1), Wintertouched
Paragon:Lasting Frost, Lightning Reflexes, Great Fortitude, Solid Sound

Other Feat notes:
(1)Its probably worth retraining for Lightning Reflexes or Great Fortitude to keep your bigby holds as strong as possible when hitting paragon. (Possibly grabbing both right away using retraining and your available feat at 11th).
(2)Grab defensive feats like Armor Proficiency (Leather) - chances are you can maintain good defenses all around.
(3)You'll have the feats for skill feats or other utility (Jack of All Trades, Linguistics).
(4) You're going to trade out much of your cold mojo by high levels, you might consider retraining wintertouched and lasting frost, but you might not (you still have some cold spells to make it useful).

General Notes:
(1)He pumps con and int every level.
(2)Blood Mage is useful for Bolstering Blood on powers that will do damage over multiple turns.  Destructive Salutation is still good even without the orb focus, and blood pulse can combo wonderfully with the party.  You also have a great constitution score for burning blood.  Your next best choice for paragon path is likely Spellstorm Mage.
(3) You should have topnotch fortitude and reflex defenses to keep creatures locked into those hand spells, which will do extra damage each round from bolstering blood (and can potentially hold a target next to something damaging, like Wall of Ice, should you decide you need to use multiple dailies in one battle).

[brislove]

I'm pretty sure you still want spell focus. salutation and legion's hold alone make it a viable option.

[Squirrelloid]

I'm pretty sure you still want spell focus. salutation and legion's hold alone make it a viable option.

Salutation does, you're right.  He doesn't take Legion's Hold though, he wants his dailies to be Bigby's I, Bigby's II, and Wall of Ice.  Whether or not one spell is worth Spell Focus is something a player will need to decide, I suppose.

[McDungeon]

One thing you may like is Eladrin with this build.  Use dex 14 and str 12 starting to get shield/hide armor specialization in paragon.

This puts them above Handyman's defenses except for fortitude.  And Feywild protection feat can bump up your defenses more.

Also, Spiral Tower pp is easier to take then.

In heroic, use 2 weapons and get the feats 2 weapon fighting/defense.  This will serve you till paragon when you can bust out the shield and hide armor.

[DemonLord57]

I'm pretty sure you still want spell focus. salutation and legion's hold alone make it a viable option.

Salutation does, you're right.  He doesn't take Legion's Hold though, he wants his dailies to be Bigby's I, Bigby's II, and Wall of Ice.  Whether or not one spell is worth Spell Focus is something a player will need to decide, I suppose.

Hmm... I think I'd rather have Legion's Hold than Wall of Ice... the Bigby's have theoretically infinite use in an encounter, (infinite relative to a 10-20 round encounter) as they can be used again and again when the opponent escapes/dies, but Wall of Ice doesn't, unless you manage to keep enemies near the Wall of Ice. Even then, it's mostly just damage. It gets its most effective use out of using it in conjunction with a Bigby's, but I'd rather not have to spend two dailies in one battle.

I hope they come out with another few Bigby's hands in Arcane Power or PHB II. I really like the idea of them. Also, they work quite well for my Tactical Warlord.

[Omen of Peace]

(2) There's nothing stopping you from sustaining a power you just cast - you just can't sustain it more than 1/turn.  This means you can get some free bonus damage from a Bigby's Hand spell by sustaining immediately after casting.

p. 278 - Sustained durations: "Starting on the turn after you create the effect, you sustain..."

I also find it strange that you're foregoing Legion's Hold. Just because your Icy Grasp works better than that of the "average" wizard doesn't mean LH isn't the best (yay for double negations).

[Squirrelloid]

(2) There's nothing stopping you from sustaining a power you just cast - you just can't sustain it more than 1/turn.  This means you can get some free bonus damage from a Bigby's Hand spell by sustaining immediately after casting.

p. 278 - Sustained durations: "Starting on the turn after you create the effect, you sustain..."

The gleemax thread had a lengthy discussion on this point.  I've removed the relevant note (it actually doesn't work), but that isn't the relevant sentence - the sentence following it is.  (Basically, sustaining an effect and a 'sustain action' are actually two different things in the rules, and that sentence just tells you how to sustain an effect (by taking a sustain action), and when you can sustain an effect.  But it tells you nothing about when you can take a sustain action.  Its the following sentence which tells you that additional effects only occur if taking the sustain action actually resulted in sustaining effects, so you can take the sustain action the turn you first use the power, but it doesn't do anything at all).

I also find it strange that you're foregoing Legion's Hold. Just because your Icy Grasp works better than that of the "average" wizard doesn't mean LH isn't the best (yay for double negations).

Because I'm looking for timestop synergy spells, and wall of ice is a great one.  It also works with Wintertouched/Lasting Frost.  Don't get me wrong, LH is really good, but so is Timestop+Wall of Ice... if i had another attack power I'd want to multi-cleric for blade barrier or something (of course, you can sustain your bigby's spell as part of a timestop - its not an attack unless it involves an attack roll =) ).