Stat Priority for Wizard
Priority:
- INT
- DEX
- CON
- WIS
- CHA
- STR*
* Ignored, left at 8.
DEX and CON are interchangeable because you can also buff stats with magic and gear. There are bubble spells for HP, and spells for stats and AC to shore up weaknesses. The great thing about DnD games is you can role play your stats and get away with it because there’s always a spell for every occasion. Don’t let people tell you that you can’t use a melee finesse weapon as a Wizard either.
I went through the entire EA experience with finesse weapons for my Wizard, and instead of just standing there watching my ranged cantrips miss on high dex targets or my melee cantrips do less than ideal damage on resistant ones, I teleported up to them and stabbed them along side a rogue to aid in the rogue’s sneak attacks (to give my rogue advantage) while my fighter and cleric handled the other, heavier enemies.
Silence does exist in this game, and a higher dex and a finesse weapon means, you don’t have to stand there like an idiot or waste your time leaving the area of silence when you’re already armed.
You can start with something like that: 8 / 16 / 15 / 17 / 8 / 14 and use the stats bonusses from lvl4,8,12 to get to 8 / 18 / 16 / 20 / 8 / 14.
-> you will get 4 ac from dex, 3 from mage shield buff and maybe 2-3 if Larian added the defense bracers later on = 20 ac+ and you can use this char for persuation / pick pocket / lock pick
Alternatively multiclass 1 lvl into i.e. fighter or paladin to get heavy armor + shield proficiency and you can ignore dex all along and go for 10 / 10 / 16 / 17 / 8 / 15. With that you will have ~17 ac armor, 3 ac shield = 20 ac+
ps: concerning wis saves, it doesn’t matter if you have -1,0,1 or even 2 in wisdom bonusses, that’s a difference of 10-20%, even a cleric, druid with high wisdom gets regulary destroyed by wisdom based effects.
You can totally do a decent CHA and WIS build with your Wizard, man. Just don’t neglect to put bonuses on INT at the very least. If you don’t care about being easier to hit, then you can shore it up with spells. You can make sure you have tanks in the party by making them spec into battle master or a Paladin with the devotion oath for the taunts. If you don’t care too much about HP, you can also balloon your HP at the start of heavy encounters with false life etc. I really mean you can do whatever you want. There are also subclasses and multiclass solutions if you prefer things that way too.
I was never really getting hit often enough in EA with two of my members casting crowd control to aid in diminishing enemy hit rates. I had one pure tank, and my cleric was tank number 2.
I think that as long as your INT is capped, anything else is just personal. IF you want your mage to be more of a dialogue and story character, by all means go CHA with INT, and throw in WIS for the investigation or insight rolls. As long as, with your party backing you up, you can enjoy the game and still feel like a Wizard, you did it your way. That’s the magic of role playing to me. Besides, if you do things “their” way, or best spec, I think you might miss out on paths you want to take.