I always have been a major arcane spellcaster nerd. I tend to gravitate toward wizards in most classic games. Sorcerer in this game is deceptively powerful and can be a lot of fun with its thematic bloodlines and you might thing Arcanist is good, but in reality they all pale in comparison to a true master of magic. Anyway on a more serious note the build I present below offers a classic wizard feel and is viable on even very hard difficulties.
 
 

INTRODUCTION

I always have been a major arcane spellcaster nerd. I tend to gravitate toward wizards in most classic games. Sorcerer in this game is deceptively powerful and can be a lot of fun with its thematic bloodlines and you might thing Arcanist is good, but in reality they all pale in comparison to a true master of magic. Anyway on a more serious note the build I present below offers a classic wizard feel and is viable on even very hard difficulties.
 
 
It is hard not to compare it with the other spellcasters here are your advantages over sorcerers:
 
1. You get way more feats
 
2. You get way more skillpoints and so much bonuses you barely fail anything
 
3. The familiar (hare) is brokenly good
 
4. Thanks to this campaign you get so many spell slots that apart from early game you will never feel you are out
 
5. You get access to higher spell levels a level earlier
 
6. If you spend some gold you get access to all the spells you need instantly
 
7. Free scribe spell feat allows for some cheap, on the fly necessities to be kept in your inventory to not waste slots
 
 
 

ROLE

Your role in the part is to deal damage, control the battlefield with powerful spells and later on you can also summon brutally effective summons.What should be avoided is spending turns casting buffs that a dedicated party member should have casted on you. The best buffs in this game are very short, therefore it is best if you have a dedicated party member for buffing. That is not you on this build. You have some worthwhile buffs you can toss around, but overall it is not needed.
 
 
 

RACE

Recommended: Elf
 
Optimal: Human, Tiefling (Tiefling)
 
Decent: Aasimar (Emberkin), Tiefling (Grimspawn), Dhampir (Vetala)
 
Challenge: Anything that does not give int boost
 
Please no: Negative int
 
 
 

BACKGROUND

Hunter, Mugger, Guard or Pickpocket recommended
 
(Don’t get tricked it is best to pick something that unlocks extra skills as a wizard due to high int and this selection NEVER comes up in RP. Pickpocket is “meta” for extra initiative mainly and you can get decent in trickery, but my personal preference is guard as it unlocks perception and boosts light crossbow for early game.)
 
 
 

ABILITIES

Int -> 19 (increase to 24)
 
Str/Cha -> Dump (like a true nerd)
 
Dex/Con/Wis -> raise them equally to an even number
 
 
 

OTHER CHARGEN PICKS

Hare familiar (the rest of the options do not worth it, if you want a different animal for flavor I recommend the collectible pets, because this one is imba)
 
 
Opposition schools: Necromancy, Enchantment, Divination
 
 
Element: Basically doesn’t matter, though I would not recommend electricity. I usually roll with fire. The reason is that you get an ability as an elementalist to convert all your energy spells into your favored element and relatively early you get a mythic ability that lets you ignore enemy immunity, resistance and even protections. So you can boil demons and elementals with fire which is fun.
 
 
 

SKILLS

Knowlede (Arcana, World, Nature, Religion) MAX
 
Perception MAX
 
There will be some spare due to increased Int, I recommend Persuasion or Mobility
 
 
 

LEVEL PROGRESS (with FEATS)

Class progression:
 
01-05 Wizard (Elemental specialist)
 
06-15 Loremaster
 
16-20 Wizard (Elemental specialist)
 
 
(You basically pick up a useless skill focus in order to gain a metric ton of extra feats and skill bonus to your already impressive skill stats with loremaster)
 
 
01 Spell focus (Evocation) / Spell specialiation (Magic missle)
 
03 Metamagic (Bolster)
 
05 Spell penetration / Skill focus (Arcana)
 
06 Greater spell penetration
 
07 Greater spell focus (Evocation)
 
08 Elemental focus (your element)
 
09 Greater elemental (your element)
 
10 Spell focus (Conjuration)
 
11 Augment summoning
 
12 Superior summoning
 
13 Improved initiative
 
14 Metamagic (Completely normal spell)
 
15 Toughness
 
17 Metamagic (Selective)
 
19 Metamagic (Empower)
 
 
The order of feats after level 6 is optional, some feats can be swapped for racials for cool factor
 
Optional feats: Toughness, Metamagic (Empower), Metamagic (Selective), Metamagic (Completely normal spell)
 
 
Spell focus:
 
Until lvl 08 – Magic missle
 
After lvl 08 – Fire snake
 
After lvl 13 – Chain lightning
 
After lvl 18 – Sunburst/Icy prison – Mass (all sub-optimal at this point)
 
 
 

NOTABLE SPELLS AND TIPS

Core idea: You pick spells that have guaranteed effects and can only be avoided by saving throws, that by the end of the day will be hard to resist even for strong boss types due to the build. Avoid picking up or trying to use anything that requires ranged touch attacks, touch range spells (do not go in melee), spells that are centered around you (nightmare to position, brings you too close). The reason for this is that in the setting even if you pick point blank and precise shot the enemy has very high touch AC and it is not really fun to literally waste limited spellslots to things that flatout miss casuing literal zero damage. You have been warned. 🙂
 
 
Magic missle, especially when bolstered deals absurd damage in this game and is extremely reliable. Only downside is magic resistance is applied per missle and almost everything has that damned thing. Lategame it is less of an issue of course, though then it won’t be your best damage option
 
 
Evocation “good” spells:
 
Magic missle, Fireball, Ligthning bolt, Ice storm (and fire variant), Shout, Cone of cold, Fire snake, Icy prison, Chain lighting, Cold ice strike, Sirocco, Shout – Greater, Icy prison – mass
 
 
Other useful spells
 
Grease -> Always worth to keep it memorized or just in a scroll form because it can turn very difficult fights into easy as joke and is extremely reliable with decent positioning
 
Shield -> To avoid magic missle only
 
Mirror image -> very good defense option that can stay even endgame
 
Dispel magic (And its iterations)-> worth to have, but not your main role, I prefer to keep dedicated partymembers doing it with the dispel feats. That being said if main dispeller is CC-d you want a backup and you could be that
 
Haste -> Normally you shouldn’t buff, but this one is worth to cast nonetheless
 
Summon monster/elemental -> You get a lot of summons from items and paths too, but it is always nice especially after you get the feats for them
 
Greater invis -> can get you out of a sticky situation, concealment is nice
 
Stoneskin -> worth to keep at least a scroll around to avoid face melting
 
 
 

MYTHIC PATH

01 Ascendant element (your picked element)
 
02 Abundant Casting
 
03 Improved abundant casting
 
04 Greater improved abundant casting
 
05 Spell penetration (Mythic)
 
06 Elemental Barrage
 
07 Ascendant summons
 
08 Spell focus (Mythic) – Evocation
 
09 Filler (Toughness (Mythic), Last Stand, Improved initiative (mythic), Master Shapeshifter, Brutality incarnate, Archmage Armor)
 
10 Filler (Toughness (Mythic), Last Stand, Improved initiative (mythic), Master Shapeshifter, Brutality incarnate, Archmage Armor)
 
 
Which path to pick:
 
The best path for this buils is Azata hands down mechanically:
 
1. On mythic 3 you get a cool dragon
 
2. On mythic 4 you can pick up Favorable Magic which synergises with this buils brutally well. No more pesky spell resist and halved damage (or at least extremely rarely)
 
3. It gets some of the more useful spells for any casters in the game -> ode to miraculous magic, water torrent
 
 
For the two options above it would be already worth more than any other paths, but it also offers more, which is insane
 
06 Zippy Magic
 
08 Supersonic speed
 
10 Marvelous endurance
 
 
Other paths:
 
Angel is not recommended mechanically as it is a support focused path and it does not synergize well with the role. It gives some spell damage, but have buffs that you don’t have time to cast and converting our ascended and focused elemental damage is not worth it. (Not part of this guide, but go paladin, cleric, oracle, divine sorc, theurge or something and you will enjoy it way more).
 
 
With demon you get some things that you will likely never use (claws, horns, movement dash/damage to enemy), BUT it buffs your damage, give relevant resistances, has good spells and the aspect buffs work great for you and your party. Not as strong as Azata, but works
 
 
Aeon works okay mechanically, but nothing extraordinary. Good if you want to play lawful, thematically it fits the wizard, but underpowered and flavorless
 
 
Lich is best left to necromancers with necro and summon focus, not to mention it is recommended to pick necromancy as opposing school so you probably want to make a necro for that. Not this build’s forte
 
 
Trickster -> have some synergies with the build, but you are better off with a vivi/wizard/arcane trickster build ray and sneak attack focus, but it works
 
 
Legend -> interesting pick and works good, probably by mixing in sword saint. If Azata would not get favorable magic and offer OP superpowers I would say it would be one of the best options mechanically. So yeah works.
 
 
Devil -> meh
 
Dragon -> meh
 
Swarm -> no clue I never was tempted to try
 
 
 

VARIANTS

A variant for extra AC you could get a single level of sword saint any time after lvl 14, however I do not recommend mixing anything in.
 
The power of the build relies on being a ranged glass cannon (though it is not as glassy as one would think) and diverisfying it is not optimal, for various reasons
 
 
By swapping some mythic feats and abilities around for brutality incarnate, archmage armor, master shapeshifter (probably dodge and mythic dodge), a single sword saint level dip, combined with all 4 geniekind spell and then casting transmute makes you a decent dragon shifter (or demon if you are on that road). It will be a bit gimmicky as it needs setup, but it is okay
 
 

 
 
This is all about Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous – Best Classic Wizard Build & Classes; I hope you enjoy reading the Guide! If you feel like we should add more information or we forget/mistake, please let us know via commenting below, and thanks! See you soon!