We're back with Pathfinder Wizards, and somehow giving Tyler ten more levels of spellcasting has not improved the situation. Ash has evolved from sneaky magical assassin into a nearly undetectable menace who can freeze time and ruin your life before you know he was there. Randall has discovered that there is apparently no such thing as enough bonded-item spell slots. And Tyler's angry robot can now scream at you until you die, drop meteors on your friends, and disintegrate whatever is left. At this point, these aren't adventurers. They're reasons cities have evacuation plans.
SHOW NOTES
We're finishing our Pathfinder 2e Wizard builds, taking Ash, Randall, and Tyler from level 11 all the way to level 20.
At these levels, the Wizard starts showing exactly where its power lives. New class features are few and far between, defenses remain deeply Wizard-shaped, and some of the high-level feat choices are surprisingly thin. But the spells? The spells get ridiculous.
Ash continues turning his Red Mantis Sprite into the world's most irritating magical assassin. Phantasmal Calamity wrecks minds, Redirect Teleportation makes escaping him considerably harder, Duplicate Foe lets him turn your own face against you, and his growing collection of invisibility and stealth abilities eventually makes finding him a campaign objective all by itself. By the time he picks up Disappearance and Legendary Sneak, the plan has basically become: you don't see Ash unless Ash has made a tactical error.
Tyler's Rune Lord continues leaning into wrath, explosions, and increasingly hostile interpretations of spellcasting. Blinding Fury makes enemies literally too angry to perceive things properly, Falling Stars brings the expected amount of meteor-related destruction, and Scare to Death gives his angry robot the possibility of simply yelling at someone until they fall over dead. Naturally, Tyler immediately starts figuring out how to combine that with Sure Strike and Disintegrate because apparently death by terror wasn't conclusive enough.
Randall keeps feeding the Universalist Wizard's bonded-item engine. Superior Bond and Reprepare Spell give him even more ways to keep spells flowing, because the answer to "When do you have enough spellcasting?" is apparently "What kind of quitter asks that question?"
Along the way, we hit some of the Wizard's best high-level toys. Contingency lets you prepare for problems before they happen. Time Beacon lets you rewind a terrible turn and try again. Metallic Meteorite Glyph introduces the exciting tactical concept of repeatedly hitting someone with space rocks. Effortless Concentration frees up actions for sustained spells. Infinite Possibilities gives prepared casters a valuable wildcard when the perfect spell wasn't prepared that morning.
Then we reach 10th-rank spells and restraint leaves the building.
Ash stops time with Freeze Time and starts planning elaborate traps while everyone else stands around unknowingly waiting for reality to resume. Randall grabs Cataclysm because sometimes the correct number of damage types is all of them. Tyler considers Manifestation, giving him access to nearly any spell he could suddenly decide he needs.
There is also an extended disagreement about line of effect after Ash discovers that Phantasmagoria cannot simply murder everyone inside a building without worrying about pesky things like walls. Apparently Pathfinder has rules specifically designed to keep Wizard war crimes within reasonable geographic boundaries. Ash takes the news well.
By level 20, everyone somehow lands on Spell Shape Mastery, turning many of their favorite spell-shaping tricks into free actions. Ash becomes harder to identify, read, locate, or meaningfully interact with. Randall takes Lore specifically about Ash's Sprite, immediately putting himself on Ash's hit list. Tyler takes Too Angry to Die, because there was really no other possible ending for the angry robot.
Twenty levels later, the Wizard remains exactly what it promised to be: fragile, complicated, occasionally frustrating, and capable of solving problems with a spell list large enough to qualify as infrastructure.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- High-level Wizards are still defined more by their spells than their class features.
- The Wizard's defensive and weapon progression remains painfully slow, so positioning and magical defenses continue to matter.
- High-level spellcasting is where the class really comes alive, with options like Contingency, Time Beacon, Phantasmal Calamity, Falling Stars, Disappearance, and a frankly unreasonable number of meteor-related solutions.
- Ash's Red Mantis build becomes an extremely capable infiltrator and assassin built around stealth, deception, illusions, invisibility, and making other people look responsible.
- Tyler's Rune Lord doubles down on damage, persistent effects, intimidation, and the general philosophy that being angry enough should eventually become a damage type.
- Randall's Universalist shows how powerful Drain Bonded Item can become when you keep investing in ways to recover and recycle spells.
- Reprepare Spell trades downtime for reusable low-rank utility, while Infinite Possibilities sacrifices some raw spell-slot power for tremendous flexibility.
- Effortless Concentration is an easy standout for Wizards who rely on sustained spells.
- Scare to Death on an angry Rune Lord is exactly as stupid and wonderful as it sounds.
- 10th-rank spells are deliberately limited, but Freeze Time, Cataclysm, Manifestation, and the other options make that single slot feel appropriately enormous.
- Spell Shape Mastery is a fantastic capstone if your build has invested heavily in spell-shaping feats.
- Free Archetype opens even more directions, including Rogue or Captivator for Ash's assassin, additional spellcasting options for Randall, and apparently more explosions for Tyler.
- Pathfinder's line-of-effect rules are all that stand between civilization and unrestricted Wizard war crimes.
- Most importantly, Tyler got twenty full levels of Wizard and still wanted more.
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Meet the Hosts
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Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix.
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Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme.
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Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy.
Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos.
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Tyler Kamstra
Ash Ely
Randall James
Producer Dan
