Buy Stone Flesh rings

[hcobb]

The only reason you wouldn't buy a Stone Flesh ring as your first magic item (not counting potions) is if you accidentally selected non-Wizard during character creation (You'll know better than to make that mistake the next time around) and so need to buy a magic weapon to deal with all the monsters that are only damaged by staves or other magical weapons.

For only $4k the Stone Flesh ring stops more damage types than +4 armor (ITL 108) for half the cost. Poison is one of the few things it doesn't defend against (ITL 125) and even that needs to either get past the Stone Skin or be delivered as a gas bomb. (As a wizard you'll of course have a high enough IQ to spot such traps, especially if Alertness is one of your only talents.)

Next get weapon expertise (for whatever form your staff is, most likely Dagger) and with a 5-die defend you'll have only a one in almost eight thousand chance of getting hit for triple damage. As a wizard you'll be able to combine the Defend option with either occult staff zaps or maintaining damaging creations so unlike whatever non-wizards are called, you're capable of stacking offensive and defensive options together.