Wizardly Defenses

[Kamickalo]

What are the best ways for wizards to build good defenses, especially in DF?

-Heavy armor is far too encumbering for your average wizard
-Blocking spells will eat up FP very quickly, and seem like more of a last resort
-Active defenses will be mediocre at best
-Fortify is too costly to purchase beyond level one

Are there any creative solutions for how wizards should avoid being slaughtered?

EDIT: On a side note, am I the only one who finds it a little strange that pixies in DF have ST 5 and HP 1?

[simply Nathan]

Originally Posted by Kamickalo

Are there any creative solutions for how wizards should avoid being slaughtered?

Light armor or heavily armoring important locations like the torso and skull. Nothing says a wizard can't be wearing a heavy skull cap or a coif under his pointy hat or hooded cloak. The Fortify spell may be expensive past the first level, but one level can still make an important difference even on heavy armor or DR 0 clothing.

Active Defenses are probably going to be decent, on par with other characters who aren't front-line attackers like thieves, druids, innkeepers, etc (thieves get a somewhat better Dodge as a side-effect to buying lots of DX for their skills). Invest in a shield and make your staff a Light Club or even a Short Staff instead of a Quarterstaff for a +1 or +2 to Parry and Dodge even if you're not going to learn the Shield skill (which is Easy). Shields with a +3 Defense Bonus are probably too heavy for your wizard, especially if he's going to be wearing a little armor.

As for spells, it's good to at least have some sort of blocking spell for an emergency situation (Blink is my favorite in the category).

Steelwraith will protect you from the majority of weapons used by intelligent, tool-using monsters, just not those who happen to be swinging clubs around instead of axes, maces, or swords. Deflect Missiles or Return Missiles is a surefire defense against projectiles launched from a projector (but not throwing weapons). The spells Armor and Shield will boost DR and Active Defenses respectively. I don't recall the rules for Force Dome but I hear it's a very useful one.

Originally Posted by Kamickalo

EDIT: On a side note, am I the only one who finds it a little strange that pixies in DF have ST 5 and HP 1?

Nope, but the game mechanical reasoning seems mostly to be that the few extra points from those last -4 HP are better spent on some of the Pixie's other abilities and ST 5 is really about the lowest of the low you should ever go on a PC who wants to contribute meaningfully to looting and slaying.

Look at the minimum ST for weapons. If a Pixie had six levels of the Huge Weapons (SM) Perk he could use small knives, daggers, wooden stakes, shuriken, and that's about it. So the scaled-down weapons Pixies actually tend to use should be about equivalent to those in range and damage, and these are some of the smallest weapons humans get meaningful use out of.

[Gnome]

DF Wizards have better defenses than anyone if built right.
Carry a shield for the DB and cast Haste 3 at the start of combat. The starting DF Wizard's Dodge 9 just became 14 or higher (and another +3 on top of that when retreating!). This gets even better if you have Walk on Air or Flight to take you either out of reach or at a significant bonus to defenses from height differences. Cast Missile Shield to deal with ranged attackers trying to shoot you down, Shield if your Dodge needs to be even better than 14.
And the good Blocking spells are well worth the energy, as you often get a bonus beyond simply defending. Invest heavily in FP and ER (if your GM allows you to buy ER) to be able to afford the right buffs and Blocking spells, and your Wizard will be nigh unhittable.

[mlangsdorf]

In addition to the above, bring friends (ie, the other PCs) that have large shields, the Shield-Wall training perk, and the Sacrificial Parry perk. Let them defend for you.

A Wizard standing behind a well-armored Knight is a nigh-unhittable target, and the Knight can use his defenses to protect the wizard, so it doesn't matter as much if the wizard is slow and clumsy.

[Gnome]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

In addition to the above, bring friends (ie, the other PCs) that have large shields, the Shield-Wall training perk, and the Sacrificial Parry perk. Let them defend for you.

A Wizard standing behind a well-armored Knight is a nigh-unhittable target, and the Knight can use his defenses to protect the wizard, so it doesn't matter as much if the wizard is slow and clumsy.

Excellent point. In our group those have become easily the two favorite picks in terms of combat perks.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Kamickalo

EDIT: On a side note, am I the only one who finds it a little strange that pixies in DF have ST 5 and HP 1?

No, I find it hilarious. They're disproportionately strong to a ridiculous degree because magic, and I don't see any reason why DF should have a problem with that. My last DF game featured a bar fight in a pixie tavern that saw pixies doing (literal) flying uppercuts to punch PCs in the face to good effect, and also a 9"-tall ST 12 / HP 13 Pixie Barbarian.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Kamickalo

EDIT: On a side note, am I the only one who finds it a little strange that pixies in DF have ST 5 and HP 1?

If you were expecting them to be realistic, you'll be sorely disappointed :D All the small fey are disproportionately strong, and it gets more extreme the smaller they are.
They're not mortals of any kind, so they already don't conform to the laws of physics. It's also consistent with fictional portrayals of the wee folk I've seen, where they're sort of "ant like" in their ability to sling around improbably big things.

[simply Nathan]

It's not like Jerry the Mouse with his ST 8/HP 10 body before toon physics Injury Tolerances, which is where my "tiny character doing violent things" frame of reference works from. Also tends to simply soak up the -6 for using oversized melee weapons, being Telegraphic and/or All-Out to compensate for the further penalties of being slightly under-ST or the improvised weapons having to-hit penalties. Or sometimes he just uses an SM-6 smallsword.

And he's got cousins who are even stronger.

[arnej]

Our top mage in Jason's Wandered Roads campaign has gotten a ton of mileage out of Body of Air. Easy to maintain, no penalties to cast in 4e, diffuse. And you can fly.

What's not to love?

arnej

[PK]

Our wizard has Missile Shield-20, Haste-20, and Shield-20 for zero-maintenance immunity to ranged attacks and +3 Dodge vs. most else. She wears DR 3 light plate torso armor (+2 Fortify = DR 5) and DR 2 fine leather limb armor (+1 Fortify = DR 3), for at least somewhat decent DR; it's not that heavy after Lighten. And she wields a staff which gives her Parry 12 (with Shield 1 on). She also retreats without hesitation and has a potent enough power item that she can save all of her FP for Feverish Defense.

Is that still squishy? Yeah, it is. But we also protect the hell out of her, often assigning the cleric's divine servitor (our main healer) to shadow her and keep her alive, since she's also buffing us!