I'm trying to go through the game as a wizard WITHOUT relying on Promethean Magic or Blood Magic, and I'm finding it rather difficult as wizards are just too squishy. What wizard style skill sets would you recommend? I'm really wanting to use Mathemagic since it seems really useful and Staves since a lot of those weapons help out wizards. I'm also considering Ley Walker (to replace Blood Magic for my mana regeneration needs), Psionics (For...pushing I guess?), Magic Training (for its stat boosts), and Tourist. What would be a good seventh skill, or what should I replace? Are there any skill trees in the Steam Workshop that you would recommend for a classic wizard?
Radiant wizard is a good one, although with the higher levels of it you go poof from a single melee attack. It works well with keep away skills like burglary and mathemagic's teleport should work well with it. I would also swap magic training with magical law and maybe throw in fleshsmithing or psionics for a heal and some utility. In the beginning you should use the light dart and zombies to get your first level which will be in let walker. Now you have near infinite mana and can start with whatever skill you want.
Sorry for double posting, but if you really want staves you could go for a gish, which is a melee/magic user. For that I would recommend egyptian magic because its super strong with melee and has a great aoe, fleshsmithing for the heal and shield plus some useful damaging spells and minions, viking wizardry for the buffs and useful spells, staves of course, alchemy can be useful, ley lines to fuel spells, magical law for utility, maybe psionics, or mathemagic. You can also throw in some warrior stuff like berserker rage or battle geology.
Staves gives you, in its entirety, 4 and 6 . Unless you're using them to hit things, which doesn't sound like what you're asking for. You could find much better ways to spend points on a caster build. You could try necronomiconomics, Egyptian magic, magic law, emomancy... there's plenty of options besides promethean and blood mage, but I don't know why you're avoiding those so I don't know what to suggest. Clarify?
Pushing and Pyrokenisis. And charming monsters once you get to a high enough level. It might be a bug, but there's no minimum cost for that last skill, so it's possible, and actually quite easy thanks to its good scaling, to reduce it to 1. But mostly the fire. at .75, not only is it the single best scaling spell in the game, but since it only costs 4 mana, it's also the most cost efficient. You don't have any AoE attacks right now, so I'd suggest adding some, but that's basically Promethain's cup of tea, and you're not using that. There's probably a mod skill that adds some, but I don't use a lot of them, so I don't know. Fleshsmithing gets some, but only after a bunch of completely dead levels for a pure wizard. What's the AoE on My Chemical Explosion? Is that just a 1 square thing, or more? And I'd suggest throwing in Wild Magic somewhere if you plan to use a lot of Psionics. Cheap spells + abilities that go off when you cast a spell = lots of free shit. Plus there's 33.
Gish: Necronomiconomics Ley Walker Tourism Emomancy Astrology Unarmed Communism Use Unarmed+Guerilla Strike to survive long enough to earn My Chemcial Explosion, then keep going to Mark of the Black Eyeliner. Then grab Mark of Chthon and Pact of Fleeting Life, and keep kicking things to death with occasional Chemical Explosions to soften up hordes. Eventually, drive up Astrology to Celestial Aegis and start dropping Tenebrous Rifts everywhere there's more than three enemies while continuing to use solo mobs to keep your HP up via vampiric boots to the head. Das Nuker: Egyptian Magic Ley Walker Magic Training Alchemy Perception Staves Battle Geology Use Staves + Plutonic Fist to survive until you get Call the Sandstorm. Then use Extraplanar Concentration + Thaumaturgic Tap to keep your mana up while you blast the hell out of everything with Sandstorm. Eventually, use The Glyph Of The Eye Of Ra plus a phat Staff to beat the hell out of any solo mobs (to conserve mana) while you continue to Sandstorm blindly into any door you open.
I just want to second what Nacho said, the real gem in Psionics is Pyrokinesis. A Psionics+Mathemagic build is very viable and was in fact my first win the game (GRPD, only 10 floors though). For reference, my full build was: Psionics: the main spells used here were Pyrokinesis (spam this as your main attack), Healing Crystals and the shove spell for getting items of islands and breaking walls. Narcosomatic Induction (1st level spell) will also greatly help in clearing the first floor. Mathemagic: Great 1st level spell (random teleport). Next two levels are subpar, but then you get the buff, the amazing controlled teleport and Recursive Curse, which will be your big hitter and eventually what you will kill Dredmor with. Support: Leylines and Blood Magic (I used both since this is a very mana hungry build), Alchemy (for Healing, Mana and Invisibility potions mainly - use in emergencies), Archaeology (trap sight and free exp) and Tourist (trap sight and sight radius- I can't overstate how important sight radius is for any long range nuker). Goal is to rush to Pyrokinesis (at second level however I took the amazing Leyline Siphoning to ensure that I always have mana to cast), then get IBTAM and See the Sights, then full on Mathemagic to Recursive Curse and finally the second level of Alchemy. After that you can go for whatever you feel like, since your main build is complete. I was also worried at first that the lack of AoE would be a problem, but this was not the case-Pyrokinesis takes care of everything non-fire resistant, Teleport and Alchemy keeps you safe and for everything else there's Recursive Curse (the spell that gives on cursing!). Hope this helps and good luck!
Oh, I missed that you were allowing mod skills. In that case: Radiant Wizard Wind Magic Ley Walker Wild Magic Mana Mastery Fleshsmithing Tourist This is pretty much the classic D&D 'crazy nuker wizard'. Radiant Wizard and Mana Mastery both give solid single-target, mana-efficient low-level nukes. Fleshsmithing gives ample pets to help keep everything off your back. Ley Walker + Tourist give you a nice boost to mana regen right off the bat. Fleshsmithing gives you the best heal in the game, and Mana Mastery amplifies that by healing you 1 HP every spell you cast. Wind Magic gives you some sweet teleports and decent nukes as well as the classic short-range knockback effect that Radiant Wizard begs for. Wild Magic...well, it's wild magic.
My first dred kill depended on Mathemagics and Psionics, and lots and lots of mana regeneration. I got through the mid game by being able to use psychokenetic shove EVERY TURN; just keep smashing that monster into the wall over and over until it dies. This was back in the day when psychokenetic shove cost 1 mana minimum. I remember it was a real son-of-a-bitch getting out of dungeon level 1, until I figured out I could sleep things, and then trigger gargoyle traps to kill them for me... I was too weeny to kill a lil' batty. Late game, mathemagics has all the answers you need. Recursive curse + teleport = win, whatever your problem is. Psionics is just to get you there; I found no need to get even nerve staple.
