Character Creation

So you get four NWP (nonweapon proficiencies) from your Int (or weapons, of you were so oddly inclined), plus four from being a wizard, plus one from your kit (either agriculture or fishing).

The reason it says Languages in the Int stat is because NWPs are an optional rule, which wraps up languages alongside stuff like fishing and astrology.

You get one weapon proficiency from being a wizard, from a more fun list of weapons! Bow (any), dagger, knife, spear, dart, sling.

Bow is the only decent choice obvi. 1d8 damage for a sheaf arrow and 2 attacks per round? No contest.

If you need the list of NWP, here it is.

Are you sure? I was using the Wizard Spells Appendix in the Player's Handbook to pick them all. I know it doesn't make my character very powerful, but they might end up being a useful utility character.

I mean to say that you have too many. You should have a total of six in your spellbook. The selections looked just fine!

Took the bold decision to not take any languages! Figure a peasant mage has more practical matters to attend to! Agriculture, navigation, eh… singing. (Might change that one!)

@KCC, looks like you really just need one Weapon Proficiency, as well as six spells (four of your choice, in addition to Detect Magic and Read Magic). This link is the list of spells you can choose from. Or, if you'd prefer, I can select a handful for you.

Sleep, Charm Person, Grease and Phantasmal Force are my personal quadfecta.

It's really not. It's an actively bad spell. BUT it's full of flavor, which is neat. But the whole "lose your familiar, lose a point of Con" is risky AF.

That's what I liked about 2E over 5E. A familiar could grant you some cool stuff, but it was not without risk. The "disposable familiars" in 5E makes me sick.

You forgot the part where if the familiar dies you make a system shock roll or die yourself! Not to mention the 1000gp casting cost of the spell...

Whiff! Just buy a parrot.

It is not a forgiving game, and they don't use padded gloves with the wizards.

Just buy ten wardogs!

Ten war dogs are the best familiar you can have as a wizard! Same bonus to surprise plus they can rip apart most single HD enemies that come your way!

I have a couple of funny stories about find familiar. My group was playing in the Forgotten Realms and, upon reaching Arabel, my wife's character decided that she wanted a tressym familiar. A tressym is a flying cat and they are greatly prized as familiars. I told her that she would have to cast the spell and take her chances just like everyone else, but that if the result was a "special", it would be a tressym. So she scrimped and saved to get the 1,000 gp worth of components. The night that she was ready to cast, she went out to a large field outside of Arabel and seeded the field with plates of chopped fish (several hundred gold pieces worth)! I decided that if she got any result other than special, it would be a cat, and a result of "no familiar" would stand.

She cast the spell and fell into a deep sleep (being exhausted by 20+ hours of spellcasting). She awoke to the sound of meowing. Incredibly loud meowing! She opened her eyes and there was her new familiar, a tressym. But in the field were hundreds of cats and tressym! She had lured every stray, pet, and familiar in Arabel out to the field! The local mages were quite put out with her, not to mention a few dozen pet owners.

On another occasion, my bard cast find familiar. The GM rolled the dice in secret and my character awoke with a great weight upon his chest. Opening his eyes, he saw a giant lynx staring back at him. I was ecstatic! Then my bard heard the voice inside his head; "I spend weeks gathering components, waste a day casting the spell, and what do I get? A bard!" Turns out that the lynx was more intelligent than my character. For the rest of the campaign, we argued about who was whose familiar!

Haha those are good ones! Did you wife ACTUALLY roll the special result?

Yep, sure did. She's always been lucky with dice.

So I started asking questions like this to some other players in my home 2e game, and I think they add a lot to the vibe, even if they don't actually mean anything. The original question was to my Dwarf players, about what color their hoods are. So...

@KCC and @Phil_Ozzy_Fer, what color robes do your wizards wear?

@dominion451, what color gems or precious metals does your elf covet?

@umbraldragon and @Carabas, does the blood of kings flow through your veins?

@WhtKnt, what commonplace luxury is Trina never found without?

Daughter’s birthday today, so I didn’t get to my spells. But I reckon I’ll take the mix of those suggested above!

Oh, Odilo for sure where straw/tan colored robes, and a broad straw woven hat!

Hmmm. I would say Trina is very interested in personal hygiene so she would likely seldom be found without a bar of soap.