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Note: This is under construction. Help me out with links, builds, strategies and anything you can think of that would prove useful.

[SBLOCK=Changelog]
12-16 September 2007:
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[*]Worked on Prestige Classes.
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31 August 2007:
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[*]Added Schools of Magic.
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23 August 2007:
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[*]Updated feats section.
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17 August 2007:
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[*]Updated equipment section.
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16 August 2007:
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[*]Updated equipment section.
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13 August 2007:
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[*]Updated class abilities section.
[*]Updated prestige classes section.
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11 August 2007:
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[*]Updated spells section.
[*]Updated class abilities section.
[*]Updated prestige classes section.
[*]Huge code cleanup and restructure.
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31 July 2007:
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[*]Created Tactics section. Added Counterspelling and Dispelling.
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27 July 2007:
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[*]Updated the spells section.
[*]Updated the classes section.
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26 July 2007:
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[*]Updated the attributes/races section.
[*]Updated the equipment section.
[*]Created the comparisons section.
[*]Created the spells section.
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25 July 2007:
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[*]Updated the attributes/races section.
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23 July 2007:
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[*]Created equipment section.
[*]Updated the classes section.
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22 July 2007:
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[*]Updated feats section.
[*]Archetypes section changed due to popular demand.
[*]Created skills section.
[*]Created races/classes section.
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8 July 2007:
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[*]Updated class abilities section.
[*]Created feats section.
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7 July 2007:
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[*]Thread created.
[*]Created archetypes section.
[*]Created class abilities section.
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[/SBLOCK]

Wizard Features:
[LIST]
[*]Low base attack bonus.
[*]Good will save progression.
[*]2+intelligence modifier skill points.
[*]Proficient with the club, dagger, heavy crossbow, light crossbow and the quarterstaff.
[*]Not proficient with any kind of armor or shield.
[/LIST]
Class Features:
[LIST]
[*]Summon Familiar: Familiars can be a huge boon to their masters. A handbook on familiars is located here, written by me.
[*]Scribe Scroll [SUP]PHB[/SUP]: Wizards get scribe scroll as a bonus feat. Scribe scroll can be handy creating scrolls with spells that are not regularly used but still are important to carry around. Also many prestige classes have an item creation feat listed as a requirement.
[*]Bonus Feats: Wizards get some bonus feats at 5th and every five levels thereafter. The feat must be a metamagic, item creation feat or spell mastery.
[*]Spells: Wizard's greatest asset is their spells. They will be discussed extensively in a later section.
[/LIST]
Schools of Magic:

An interesting wizard feature is the ability to specialize in a certain school of magic by giving up access to others. By doing so you gain a mild bonus to spellcraft checks to learn a spell from his speciality and an extra spell per spell level, but they can only be used to store spells of your chosen school. So, is this worth it or no? Consider that by specializing you gain an extra 45 spell levels, which is a significant amount. The main problem to this however, is which schools to give up.
The best choice if your spell selection isn't limited (as in, you have access to spells outside the SRD, like spell compendium) is to be a diviner. What is great about diviners, is that they only give up one school to specialize, while all other specialties require to give up two.
[LIST]
[*]Abjuration: This school is all about protect, block and banish. Some of the most useful spells are contained in this school. It is considered a poor choice to give it up, because you lose the extremely useful Dispel Magic spell.
[*]Conjuration: Another useful school that contains spells you cannot give up. Dimension Door, Teleport, Summon Monster and Gate spells are considered top quality.
[*]Divination: This is the only school you are not allowed to give up.
[*]Enchantment: This is the first option of your potential banned schools. It has a series of spells that are useful and probably irreplaceable, like Dominate and Charm spells. However, other spells in this school, which include mainly buffs and disabling spells, are easily replaced by other schools.
[*]Evocation: This school includes mainly direct damage spells. Although it isn't worth it, it is generally popular to new players. Even if you need evocation spells, Shadow Evocation/Greater can help emulating them. The most useful spell of this school is probably Contingency and while it has other good spells, this is the best choice of a prohibited school probably.
[*]Illusion: This is usually suggested as a prohibited school, but you lose great spells like Invisibility/Greater and Shadow Evocation. I think it's a poor choice to give that up.
[*]Necromancy: This is a school, that although it has spells that are
useful, providing you with a variety of tactics (fear, enervation, ray of exhaustion), buffing you (false life), outright killing people (finger of death, wail of the banshee) or being the base of some potentially broken stuff (clone, magic jar), you can actually drop. Be sure however that as you gain levels, it will be obvious that dropping this
[*]Transmutation: There is absolute no way to substitute this school's spells. It contains a wide selection of utility, combat and social spells you just can't pass: Enlarge Person, Alter Self, Spider Climb, Blink/Greater, Fly, Haste, Polymorph, Polymorph any Object and Shapechange.
[/LIST]
Thus your best choices to dump are enchantment and evocation. The best speciality is probably diviner who drops only one school (evocation is the best choice). Other great specialities are the transmuter and the conjurer.

Alternative Class Features:
[LIST]
[*]Immediate Magic [SUP]PHB II[/SUP]: I am reluctant to this alternative feature. Familiars have much more applications. However the conjuration ability is probably worth it.
[*]Focused Specialist [SUP]CM[/SUP]: This has its applications, but isn't generally worth it. Having three schools banned and three of your specialist school per day, may be handy.
[*]Drakken Familiar [SUP]DM[/SUP]: Your familiar gains the dragonblood subtype and a breath weapon instead of the ability to deliver touch spells. Pretty much equal, depending on your ability scores.
[*]Wizard of Sun and Moon [SUP]Dungeonscape[/SUP]: This is a bad feature. You trade
your familiar for the ability to cast different spells per day depending on your surroundings.
[*]Domain Granted Power [SUP]CC[/SUP]: This is an interesting ability. Some domain powers are really powerful and some even grant feats outside the metamagic/item creation types. This is a really interesting ability that expands a wizard's potencial.
[*]Spontaneous Divination [SUP]CC[/SUP]: I'd always pick this unless i can't fulfill requirements. Powerful ability that gives you sorcerer-like power for divination spells. Moreover it waives the need of spending money or picking divination spells.
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Substitution Levels:
[LIST]
[*]Gnome Illusionist [SUP]RoS[/SUP]: While nothing important changes from class skills, bonus skill points or hit die point of view, these levels really provide nice abilities and it's a great base for shadowcraft illusionists [SUP]RoS[/SUP]. Remember that you must be a specialist wizard in order to pick these substitution levels.
[LIST]
[*]1st level: You get silent image as a 0 level spell, which is great for shadowcraft illusionists [SUP]RoS[/SUP]. Combined with earth spell [SUP]RoS[/SUP] and heighten spell [SUP]PHB[/SUP] you get a caster level boost. On top of that you also get other illusion spells at a lower than normal level.
[*]5th level: The ability to double the duration of illusions. As an added bonus, if the spell has duration concentration, you get a 1d4 bonus to its duration after you stop concentrating on it. The tradeoff is the 5th level wizard feat and the two free spells known at that level.
[*]10th level: Nice ability, but not anything to die for. Also this halts you from acquiring prestige classes.
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[*]Elven Wizard [SUP]RotW[/SUP]: There are two points to this. First you cannot specialize, which is not automatically a problem, but it does limit you. Second you need to be an elf. These substitution levels are probably the best out there for specialist wizards, especially the first one, to which you lose virtually nothing. As an added bonus you get search as a bonus class skill.
[LIST]
[*]1st level: You get a bonus spell known at each level and a spell slot at the highest you can cast, making you unable to specialize.
[*]3rd level: Double your familiar's granted bonus, but your familiar loses the ability to deliver touch spells and the ability to speak with animals of its type. Generally this significantly reduces your familiar to a more passive role, but the bonuses are great and variable.
[*]5th level: What makes this level great is that even if you don't pick it, it gives you extra versatility. It may come handy to choose a different feat than your wizard ones, to fulfill requirements or get in a prestige class earlier.
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[*]Planar Wizard [SUP]PlH[/SUP]: These substitution levels have two main problems. One, you need to travel regularly through the planes for them to be effective. Two, most of the levels come in mid and late levels, forcing you to take many levels in the class.
[LIST]
[*]6th level: Nice ability if you are plane traveling a lot, and the trade isn't that great.
[*]10th level: This is a pretty strange ability. You give your two boinus spells known for the level and your wizard feat in exchange for extra magical ability against targets of the opposite alignment than the one you choose to imbue your spells with. The added descriptor to your normal spells can also help.
[*]14th level: This has potential for really broken effects, but you really have to take fourteen whole levels as a wizard. Another point is that you lose a 7th level spell slot to this, which is not that hot. Lastly, it takes a standard action to channel the planar essence, making it not very helpful in combat (unless you are using quickened spells or swift/immediate/free action spells).
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[*]Changeling Wizard [SUP]RoE[/SUP]: Changeling wizard substitution levels give extra skill points, extra class skills (bluff, disguise and sleight of hand) and interesting abilities.
[LIST]
[*]1st level: The important ability in this level is dual specialization. If this means that you must absolutely specialize, then it isn't that hot. However if you can choose if you want to specialize or no, like normal wizards, this level is of top quality. Actually since it states that: This substitution feature replaces the standard wizard's specialization option. you can discard it if it doesn't suit you. As a note, dual specialization may be interesting in conjunction with focused specialist [SUP]CM[/SUP], according to how your DM interprets it. Bottom line, if you are a changeling, this is of top quality.
[*]5th level: Limited Spell Knowledge does limit your selection, but it nets you a bonus spell, of schools that are important. However the important ability this substitution level provides is morphic familiar with which you literally acquire every familiar in the book. The selection can be really huge with the improved familiar feat. The main problem to this though, is that it doesn't mention which abilities are acquired by your familiar's new form. Still, you do gain the granted benefit, which can prove great based on the situation you face, as your familiar can alter its form as a full-round action.
[*]10th level: If you are going for this, you are going to be taking quite a few levels in the wizard class. Moreover its a nice ability, but i don't think its worth the feat nor the levels to get it.
[/LIST]
[*]Dukar [SUP]CoV[/SUP]: Dukars are a nice idea, but in fact they suck. They give you a bonus class skill, swim, and various abilities that are either useless or require to many levels in the wizard class to be effective.
[LIST]
[*]5th level: Lose your standard spells known gained. You get two bonus spells but only from two selected schools, chosen when your first dukar level is gained. Also gain a claw that can be extended and retracted as a swift action by giving up your bonus feat.
[*]10th level: Again gain the special bonus spells the dukar get and a coral power. All the powers from the list seem useless, none are worth the exchange of a feat.
[*]15th level: Ditto.
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[*]High-One Warrior Wizard [SUP]CoV[/SUP]: These substitution levels are from the Champions of Valor Web Enhancement, located here. This is actually a multiclass substitution levels, since you need at least two paladin levels to acquire them. They offer diplomacy, handle animal, heal and ride as bonus class skills. With the cityscape web enhancement, located here, you can trade ride and handle animal for gather information and tumble.
[LIST]
[*]2nd level: You get to stack your wizard and paladin levels to determine only how many times per day you can use your smite evil ability. Even though this only costs a 1st level spell, remember that you don't get your wizard level as a bonus to damage and your charisma bonus isn't going to be high enough to help your attack roll. Also note that smite evil requires a melee attack.
[*]4th level: Give a second level spell to reduce arcane spell failure by 20%. This combined with other arcane spell failure reducers, can make you able to wear even heavy armor.
[*]5th level: Interesting for alternative supermount builds, however it is bad for two reasons: Your wizard and paladin levels don't stack for the abilities of your pets and you need to progress your paladin levels to five to get a special mount.
[/LIST][/LIST]
Wizard Variants:
[LIST]
[*]Combat Wizard [SUP]UA[/SUP]: Lose your scribe scroll [SUP]PHB[/SUP] and bonus wizard feats, and gain fighter bonus feats at 1st and every five levels as wizards do. Great for fulfilling requirements and to the gish types.
[*]Domain Wizard [SUP]UA[/SUP]: By giving away your ability to specialize, you can be a domain wizard. You gain an extra spell per level and add a domain spell to spells known when you are able to cast it. Apparently you don't give up anything and there are domains with really good spells. In addition spells casted from your domain slots get a +1 bonus to their caster level.
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Specialist Wizard Variants [SUP]UA[/SUP]:
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[*]Abjurer Variants:
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[*]Resistance to Energy [SUP](Su)[/SUP]: Once per day, by giving up your familiar, you gain resistance to a selected energy type equal to 5 plus 1/2 of your abjurer class level. It lasts for one hour. I don't think that this is worth the trade.
[*]Aura of Protection [SUP](Ex)[/SUP]: Raise a protective barrier against the first attack or spell that will target you. You gain a deflection bonus to your armor class and a resistance bonus to all saving throws equal to your intelligence modifier. To gain this ability you give away your bonus feats. Whenever you gain a bonus feat, you get an additional use of this ability.
[*]Spontaneous Dispelling [SUP](Ex)[/SUP]: By giving away your bonus spells normally gained by being a specialist, you gain the ability to lose prepared spell energy to cast dispel magic or its greater counterpart. The downside to this is that you spend one more spell level to cast it spontaneously, but you can use a readied action to counterspell.
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[*]Conjurer Variants:
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[*]Rapid Summoning [SUP](Ex)[/SUP]: Trade your familiar to reduce the casting time of summon monster spells to just a standard action. This is actually a very nice ability, despite the fact that you are losing your familiar
[*]Enhanced Summoning [SUP](Ex)[/SUP]: This is a good trade. You give your bonus feats away, but you get augment summoning [SUP]PHB[/SUP] as a bonus feat at first level. At later levels your summons get harder at being dispelled and additional bonuses to their strength and constitution. Especially if you plan dipping wizard, augment summoning seems a lot better than scribe scroll.
[*]Spontaneous Summoning [SUP](Ex)[/SUP]: Lose a spell to cast any summon monster spell of lower level. You trade this for the extra spells normally gained for being a specialist wizard. Unless you want to fulfill a requirement for a certain feat or prestige class, you can't normally access due to lack of summoning spontaneously, this is ok but otherwise below average.
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[*]Diviner Variants:
[LIST]
[*]Enhanced Awareness [SUP](Ex)[/SUP]: By giving up your familiar you gain a number of small bonuses, none of which are important.
[*]Bonus Feat List: This does give you additional options, but i can't see how you could use it if you don't want to fulfill requirements. The best feat provided is probably improved initiative and blind fight, which is listed as a requirement usually.
[*]Prescience [SUP](Ex)[/SUP]: Add an insight bonus to any attack roll, saving throw, skill check or level check you make once per day plus one for each five class levels. This is a special immediate action, a free action that can be taken out of turn effectively. As a trade, you lose your additional spells for being a specialist wizard. While this is a nice ability, the trade off is questionable.
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[*]Enchanter Variants:
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[*]Cohort: Give up your familiar and gain a cohort plus additional bonuses if you select the Leadership [SUP]DMG[/SUP] feat. Nice alternative to your familiar, but note that you will gain it at 6th level.
[*]Social Proficiency [SUP](Ex)[/SUP]: By giving up your bonus feats you add many skills to your class skill list and a +2 competence bonus on checks involving one of these skills (bluff, diplomacy, gather information, intimidate and sense motive). Every five levels thereafter you gain an additional bonus to a different skill. Great if you plan to have less than five levels as wizard and want to get an expanded skill list.
[*]Extended Enchantment [SUP](Su)[/SUP]: Usually enchantment spells have nice durations and losing your additional specialist spells is a bad trade to just extend enchantment spells.
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[*]Evoker Variants:
[LIST]
[*]Energy Affinity [SUP](Ex)[/SUP]: +1 caster level with a chosen energy type for the price of your familiar. Not worth it at all, since there are even feats that do the same job a lot cheaper.
[*]Energy Substitution [SUP](Ex)[/SUP]: A free action that can be used once per day for each five levels attained, lets you change the energy descriptor and the effects of a spell to that of a different type.
[*]Overcome Resistance [SUP](Ex)[/SUP]: Lose your extra spells as a specialist wizard for the ability to lower a target's resistance to energy as a free action. The times per day that this can be used are enough, but the downside is that it only applies to a single target. In any way i don't think that it's worthy of the trade.
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[*]Illusionist Variants:
[LIST]
[*]Chains of Disbelief [SUP](Ex)[/SUP]: Opponent's can't help other creatures disbelief your illusions. You have to give up your familiar to this, and while it is a nice ability i doubt that it is competent.
[*]Shadow Shaper: This feature offers some interesting abilities at later levels, but only a few bonuses in the start. The hide class skill can help fulfilling requirements. The 5th level ability isn't worth the trade of a wizard feat however, and the rest abilities are a pretty much equal trade.
[*]Illusion Mastery [SUP](Ex)[/SUP]: This is actually nice. Not only you gain two bonus spells known when you unlock a new spell level, but you also master them as if having spell mastery [SUP]PHB[/SUP] with them. That nets you 18 spells known and mastered for your 45 total spell levels (your bonus spell slots for being a specialist). Some builds may even benefit more from the mastered spells (such as magelord [SUP]LEoF[/SUP] builds).
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[*]Necromancer Variants:
[LIST]
[*]Skeletal Minion: This is worth the trade. The skeleton can use weapons since it was a warrior in its previous life and has the normal undead qualities. The important part is that "The skeleton has a number of Hit Dice equal to the necromancer's class level", which is perfect, since it will gain actual hit dice and advance its saves (but not skills or feats). The minion also gains some extra bonuses based on your level. The two abilities are pretty much equal, but note that you don't lose anything for losing your minion. Also note that it can probably be awakened, but that's a DM's call.
[*]Undead Apotheosis [SUP](Ex)[/SUP]: This is a bad trade. Sure in the end you wind up with light fortification [SUP]DMG[/SUP], but you do have to take twenty levels of wizard and lose all your feats to abilities that only add bonuses to saving throws. The 10th level ability is nice in some situations though.
[*]Enhanced Undead [SUP](Ex)[/SUP]: Nice ability which buffs up your undead even more. Keep in mind that the bonuses to attributes are enhancement, which don't stack with others. As a trade you give up your specialist bonus spell slots.
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[*]Transmuter Variants:
[LIST]
[*]Enhance Attribute [SUP](Ex)[/SUP]: Give up your feats for an ability that can give a +2 enhancement bonus to one of your attributes "on-the-fly". It would be considerably stronger if the type of the bonus was unnamed. Definitely not worth the familiar trade.
[*]Spell Versatility [SUP](Ex)[/SUP]: Not only you can make a certain spell available to you by choosing a spell from a prohibited school, you also make it transmutation, probably gaining additional bonuses (such as caster level). Worth the trade and makes specialization easier.
[*]Transmutable Memory [SUP](Ex)[/SUP]: So you can load up rings of wizardry [SUP]DMG[/SUP] and pearls of power [SUP]DMG[/SUP] of low spell levels (which are definitely cheaper) and prepare higher level spells? I would definitely trade nine 1st level spells for a 9th level one. The loss of additional spells isn't worth it though, although you do get to memorize spells from other schools.
[/LIST]
[/LIST]

Wizards receive a low amount of skill points per level. However if you consider that most wizards have a starting intelligence of 15-16 they easily get 5+ skill points when they level up. They aren't exactly skill monkeys, but they can max out several useful skills.

[LIST]
[*]Concentration: This is very useful. Of course, theoretically, it would be best that you wouldn't have to make concentration rolls in the first place. This skill makes you able to avoid losing spells to stressful situations.
[*]Craft: While crafting is for lowly peasants, there are quite a few prestige classes that list it as a requirement. Crafting alchemical items can be quite efficient at low to mid levels.
[*]Decipher Script: Nice skill, but you can always use your spells to duplicate it. No need to spend skill points in this one.
[*]Knowledge: Now this is something important. Intelligence will be one of your highest attributes and knowledges provide useful information on your opponents. The best course of action is for the party to split the various knowledges that creature types are related to. However since you have the skill points to spend, you can take quite a few. Consult the chart below for creature types and areas of knowledge relation:
[LIST]
[*]Arcana: Constructs, Dragons, Magical Beasts.
[*]Dungeoneering: Aberrations, Oozes.
[*]Local: Humanoids (Native local humanoids probably)
[*]Nature: Animals, Fey, Giants, Monstrous Humanoids, Plants, Vermin.
[*]Religion: Undead.
[*]Planes: Outsiders, Elementals.
[/LIST]
As you can see, the nature area of knowledge provides tremendous amount of information on creatures. A close second is Arcana, which every wizard should have, since it's the area related to his own profession. Knowledge on the planes offers quite a few information, since outsiders are a pretty large category. Knowledge on religion area is quited limited, but no one can neglect undead.
[*]Profession: I'd dump this. You can gain a lot more by selling your spells or crafting stuff. Also wisdom isn't actually important to you.
[*]Spellcraft: This is one of the skills you would like to max out. Its applications are many and help identifying opponent's magical defenses, counterspelling, following tracks, learning new spells, identify potions and generally understand magical effects. Every wizard should possess this.
[/LIST]

[LIST]
[*]Appraise: Not exactly needed to wizards, but some times it's required for fulfilling requirements. Also thematically fits to the wizard figure.
[*]Balance: 5 ranks in this will ensure that you won't be flat-footed when balancing. A rogue can easily disable with high sneak attack damage at low to mid levels. Of course this is not the way to deal with such threats directly, but every little bit helps.
[*]Disable Device/Search: They're intelligence based and you can gain trapfinding by dipping to roguish classes. You can fill in the trapfinder role this way relatively easily and by not making a huge sacrifice.
[*]Disguise: Wizards are crafty individuals. Appearing as the cliche wizard with the big hat and the robe, is probably going to draw enemy fire. This skill helps you survive this. The best part is that spells like disguise self, alter self and shapechange grant you huge bonuses to creating disguises.
[*]Escape Artist: The grapple check is base attack bonus + strength modifier + size bonus, not particularly the wizards' forte. You can escape from a grapple by giving up an attack, while making an escape artist check to escape is a standard action. Since your base attack bonus is bad anyway, you will have as many as two attacks, so these two are pretty much the same. Using escape artist is superior, since you benefit from dexterity a lot more than strength and spending skill points in it are not that required, since custom magic items and spells help boost the check.
[*]Forgery: It can have some serious roleplaying hit and it's intelligence based. Stealing the seal of the local lord and forging documents can boost your wealth, but it entirely depends on the choices you make in game and on your DM.
[*]Hide/Move Silently: Hide is a skill that you can easily pump e.g. by being small and wearing magic items. Also enemies that cannot see you cannot actively harm you, which is great considering how fragile wizards are. Note that you should use these to stay away from danger, not to scout around.
[*]Listen/Spot: Although the general wizard figure is usually aloof and doesn't pay much attention to his surroundings, spending some ranks in these two can help against surprising situations. Wizards are all about preparation.
[*]Tumble: Great skill. The ability to get into a better position without provoking attacks of opportunity and casting your spell safe from harm is probably better than casting on the defensive.
[*]Autohypnosis: Wow, this has great uses, even if it is keyed off wisdom. The DCs are relatively low, so it's worth it to spend some cross class skill points into this.
[*]Use Magic Device: Many uses have a fixed DC, which you can hit easily with a few ranks and some items. Also your familiar benefits from this greatly if it can speak.
[*]Use Psionic Device: As above.
[/LIST]

[LIST]
[*]Collector of Stories [SUP]CS, Mental[/SUP]: Great bonus to identifying creatures, a role that wizards usually fulfill. Requires Knowledge (any) 5 ranks.
[*]Conceal Spellcasting [SUP]CS, Manipulation[/SUP]: Not that good since it is based on your sleight of hand check, which can't get really high since it's not on your class skill list. It's an interesting trick though. Requires Concentration 1 rank, Sleight of Hand 5 ranks, Spellcraft 1 rank.
[*]Easy Escape [SUP]CS, Manipulation[/SUP]: This actually offsets the bonus your opponent gains from his size to the grapple roll (well at least if you are medium sized). That said you can easily escape and cast a spell to somewhere safe. Requires Esacpe Artist 8 ranks.
[*]False Theurgy [SUP]CS, Manipulation[/SUP]: Trick opponents into thinking you are casting a different spell. Nice if you are dealing with counterspellers a lot and want to get an important spell through. Requires Bluff or Sleight of Hand 8 ranks, Spellcraft 8 ranks.
[*]Magical Appraisal [SUP]CS, Mental[/SUP]: This is great, because identify's material component is expensive. Also it has a casting time of 1 hour. Essentially you spend 2 skill points for a spell-like ability. Requires Appraise 5 ranks, Knowledge (Arcana) 5 ranks, Spellcraft 12 ranks.
[*]Swift Concentration [SUP]CS, Mental[/SUP]: One of the greatest skill tricks for wizards, this will enable you concentrate on powerful spells while being able to employ spells to deal with other threats. Requires Concentration 12 ranks.
[/LIST]

This section isn't dedicated only on listing the best spells out there for wizards, but also to present information that will make you able to identify if a certain spell is good or bad.

[SBLOCK=Save-Based Spells:]Unless you are a fairly experienced player you will probably have a problem selecting the right spells at each level. There are spells that deal with specific creature types, but what if someone wants to be prepared no matter what? What spells should he memorize for the day when he reaches a certain level? Even worse what saving throws should his spells allow?
A way to cover this problem is to consult the graph below:



This actually presents the creatures' (of a certain challenge rating) average scores (in saves and SR). Data come from CubeKnight's creature filter and as you can see there are records from lots of different source books.

Fortitude saves are almost always the best saving throws. Even though after mid levels they sometimes are equal to will saves, they never fall below that limit.
On the other hand, will saves are the worst saves at early levels, but they get significantly boosted at mid and late levels.
Reflex saves are probably the worst saves there are. At low levels they are better than fortitude saves, but at mid and higher levels will saves are superior. Reflex saves are significantly lesser at high levels, not the difference between fortitude (23 on average) and reflex (16 on average).

So to wrap it up:

Low to Mid Levels (1-10 CR):
[LIST]
[*]Fortitude > Will
[*]Fortitude >= Reflex
[*]Reflex >= Will
[/LIST]
Mid to High Levels (11-20 CR):
[LIST]
[*]Fortitude >= Will
[*]Fortitude >> Reflex
[*]Reflex <= Will
[/LIST]
So now selecting your spells should be relatively easier. If you study the graph, from low to mid levels your will-based spells are less likely to be resisted. The same goes for reflex-based spells and high levels. Mind you, i am not suggesting that fortitude-based spells are bad, just that they are less likely to be effective (that is actually correct, since most save or die spells fall into this category).
[/SBLOCK][SBLOCK=Difficulty Class:]Simply put, for your spell to be effective you want your opponent to score on his d20 saving throw check a number less than your DC minus his save bonus:



For example, a 1st level wizard with 18 intelligence casts sleep. Thus, his difficulty class is 15 (10 + spell level + int modifier). His target is a 1st level fighter with a fortitude saving throw of 5 (2 base + 3 con modifier). Using the above formula we have: 1d20 check < 15 (DC) - 5 (Save) = 10. So for the wizard's spell to be effective, the fighter must score a number between 1 and 9. Since a 20 is a critical success however, this is too, factored in.
Now what is the chances of the spell to land? We have nine numbers between 1 and 9. That's 9 times out of 20, so the chances that the spell succeeds are 45%.
The best chance you will ever get is 95% for your spell to be effective. That's because a natural 20 is always a success. To raise the effectiveness of your spells, you can either a) reduce your opponent's saving throw b) increase your save DC. That said, pumping up your intelligence isn't always the optimal way to go, but the mainstream one. There are lots of effects that reduce your opponents' saving throws, cheap and efficiently.

Now assume a wizard with 18 intelligence in a party of 4. Let's see what his chances are when facing creatures of a challenge rating equal to his party members' average level. Note that we assume that he is using his best spell available:

[SBLOCK=Early/Mid chances for spells:]
CR 1
[LIST]
[*]Fort: 60%
[*]Reflex: 70%
[*]Will: 70%
[/LIST]
CR 3
[LIST]
[*]Fort: 60%
[*]Reflex: 65%
[*]Will: 65%
[/LIST]
CR 5
[LIST]
[*]Fort: 50%
[*]Reflex: 55%
[*]Will: 60%
[/LIST]
CR 7
[LIST]
[*]Fort: 45%
[*]Reflex: 55%
[*]Will: 60%
[/LIST]
CR 9
[LIST]
[*]Fort: 40%
[*]Reflex: 55%
[*]Will: 60%
[/LIST][/SBLOCK]
After studying the results, we come to the following conclusions:
[LIST]
[*]If the result of DC - Save is less than or equal to 0, you always fail to affect your target, except for a critical miss. Results in 5% chance of success.
[*]If the result of DC - Save is higher than or equal to 20, you can only lose to a natural 20. That gives you a 95% chance of success.
[*]If the result is 0 < DC - Save < 20, then your chance of success is calculated by dividing the result by 20 and multiplying by 100 %. For example i have a result of 10. That divided by 20 results in 0,5. We now multiply it by 100% and get: 50% chance of success.
[*]Of course, all wizards should try to maximize their DCs to their full potential. That means the biggest chance of success, 95%. Every point of penalty you apply to your opponents' saves results in a 5% raise in your chance of success, but it is capped at 95%. Every point of bonus DC you get, again, is a 5% raise to your chance, with the same limitation.
[/LIST]
If we use again the iconic 18 starting intelligence wizard, his intelligence is going to be (after using tomes and powerful magic items): 18 (starting) + 5 (tome) +5 (levels) +6 (headband of intellect) = 34. This is a +12 modifier, meaning that your DC for x level spells is: 12 + x. Assuming a y saving throw bonus we have:



As you can see above, to reach the maximum chance of success, we need to have:



Remember that x is the level of the spell. Spell levels belong to: [1, 9]. So we have: D = { (x,y) belong to Z : 1 <= x <= 9 and y <= 8-x }. If a pair of (x,y) fulfills this requirement, then you'll have maximum chance of success with a starting intelligence of 18 and all the normal benefits you can acquire (items, not including classes and racial mods). Seems pretty limited, since if we use a 1st level spell for example (x=1) then your opponent's saving throw bonus can't be greater than 1 (y<=1).
[/SBLOCK][SBLOCK=Spell Resistance:]Enter spell resistance. Many creatures possess this ability and can prove quite the nuisance, since a creature will be protected even more by your spells. The main formula is:



As you can see now you are making the check, so the higher you score, the better. You calculate your chance of success by: Calculate: 21 + your CL - his SR. Divide the result by 20 and multiply it by 100%, and you have your chance of success.



e.g. A wizard with caster level 10 targets a SR 19 opponent. 21 - 10 + 19 = 12. 12/20 * 100% = 60%. So the wizard's chance of success will be 60%. Which actually means that if you score anything greater than or equal to a 9, you succeed.

A tricky part worth noting is: what if a spell requires both SR and saving throw check? What are my chances of success then? Well simply multiply the success chances between them and you'll have the new one.

e.g. A wizard with CL 10 and intelligence 18 targets an SR 19 and 1 saving throw bonus opponent. What is his chance of 1st level spell that requires both checks to succeed?
[LIST]
[*]Saving throw part chances: 15 - 1 = 14. That is the equivalent of a 70% chance of success.
[*]Spell Resistance part chances: 21 - 19 + 10 = 12. That's 60% chance of success.
[/LIST]
Final calculation: (60/100)*(70/100) = (4200/10000) = (42/100) = 42% chance of success.

Even though the numbers will vary, this is an example of high chance rolls. When you have to make both checks however, as you can see, the chances to succeed are a lot less.
[/SBLOCK][SBLOCK=Touch Attacks:]There are spells that require ranged or melee touch attacks to hit their targets. Failure to do so means your spell is lost. Let's study the touch attacks by challenge rating chart:



As you can see, touch ACs are high in low challenge ratings and they gradually fall even more. This is not the case with normal AC ratings, which are constantly rising.
We assume a wizard with no other bonuses to his attack roll than his BAB. Wizards have bad BAB progression, but since touch AC scores get worse as you will be gaining levels, it will be easier for you to get touch spells through. So at first level they get a 45% chance of success, while at twentieth level you get a 95% chance.

To calculate the chances of your success, use the following formula:



Calculate 21- (AC - attack bonus) and divide that by 20. Multiply by 100% and then you get your chances.

Again, as with spell resistance, there are spells that require both a touch attack and a spell resistance check. There are even those who require all three of these rolls. To calculate your overall success, multiply all your separate chances together.

For example, you have a 50% chance of beating SR and a 60% of beating touch AC. Your opponent has a 40% chance of saving against your spell. That means that you get: (50/100)*(60/100)*(40/100) = (50*40*60/1000000) = 12% barely.

A special note, even if you got 95% separate chances of success (which is the higher chance you will ever get) for each roll, you get: (95/100)*(95/100)*(95/100) ~= 85,7%. That said, spells that require many rolls to succeed are naturally inferior to those that require just one. So to maximize your chances of success you don't only need high DCs for spells, but spells with a small number of required rolls, too.
[/SBLOCK][SBLOCK=Concentration Checks:]Concentration is a skill that generally wizards need to max out and this is because many effects linked to spells require concentration checks. Should you fail to concentrate on your spell, you are most likely going to lose it. The player's handbook provides detailed information on page 170 on concentration checks, that will cover almost all cases.
Most notably:
[LIST]
[*]Injury while casting a spell: In case of continuous damage, you should be able to succeed. The problem here is if damaged by attacks or, even worse, enemy spells. Since opponents can ready an action to "when the enemy starts casting a spell", they will be able to affect even those spells that require a standard or move action to cast. Miss chance, invisibility and damage reduction can help lessen the inflicted damage, thus making your concentration check easier.
[*]Distraction by spell: Mundane attacks only get 1/2 of the inflicted damage dealt to the concentration check's DC. Note that this is not the case with spells that deal damage. They actually add all the inflicted damage to the check. Thus, even a lowly magic missile [SUP]PHB[/SUP] spell (which if of 9th and higher caster level has a damage of 10-25, resulting in an average damage of 17,5) will boost your concentration check to 27,5 + level of the spell you're casting, nothing to scoff at.



This graph shows how the damage of a spell, which deals 1d6 points of damage per caster level, scales compared to your concentration check with no modifiers.
[/LIST][/SBLOCK]

[SBLOCK=Wizard 6/Incantatrix 10/Olin Gisir 4:]
[code]Wizard 1 Otherworldly
Wizard 2
Wizard 3 Iron Will
Wizard 4
Wizard 5 Extend Spell
Wizard 6 Flyby Attack
Incant 1 Sculpt Spell
Incant 2
Incant 3 Craft Wand/Staff
Incant 4 Chain Spell
Incant 5
Incant 6 Quicken Spell
Incant 7 Persistent Spell
Incant 8
Incant 9 Extraordinary Concentration
Incant 10 Repeat Spell
Olin G 1 Craft Wand/Staff
Olin G 2 Spell Mastery/Arcane Thesis/Extraordinary Spell Aim
Olin G 3
Olin G 4 Metamagic Feat[/code]
[LIST]
[*]Dragonborn of Bahamut Fire Elf
[*]BAB +10
[*]Saves 6/6/16
[*]Uses the elven wizard substitution levels on 1st and 3rd.
[*]Assumes you enter the Olin Gisir with +6 intelligence modifier.
[/LIST]
[/SBLOCK]