Help me keep my wizard alive (I fail at life)

[E-mail]

Hi there!

I am a proud optimizer, and I am considered to be the best character builder amongst my friends. However, last session my wizard was knocked into the negatives no less than three times despite my best efforts, and I realize that it might be time to look at my strategies.

The game is set in the DLCS, and I played a level 3 wizard exploring a haunted mine with a level 3 fighter and a level 3 cleric. My build so far is as follows:

1; Abjurer 1 Spell Focus: Abjuration, Precocious Apprentice, Improved Initiative (replaces Scribe Scroll)
2; Abjurer 2
3; Master Specialist 1 Quicken Spell (I chose it here because I need two metamagic feats as a prereq for the Wizard of High Sorcery PrC at level 7)

My forbidden schools are: Necromancy and Enchantment

My spell loadout are:

0th: 1x Resistance, 2x Detect Magic, 2x Light
1st: 2x Protection from Evil, 2x Grease
2nd: 1x Resist Elements, 2x Glitterdust

I have 16 HPs.

I know that my build is sound, though some of you might object against banning Necromancy instead of Evocation, so I must be failing at my strategy. Please evaluate the following four scenarios, and tell me what you would have done diffrently:

1) While entering the dungeon, I let the fighter and the cleric walk in front of me, leaving a 5 ft. gap between the two of them and between each of them and the wall. I walk directly behind the fighter as he springs a trap, and a schyting blade shoots out of the wall. It missed him but hit me for 21 points of damage, and I was rendered unconcious and dying.

2) Later we found a small room with a medium sized demon-like statue in the middle, and we are all asked to roll spot checks which we fail horribly. I cast Detect Magic just to be sure, but nothing in the room registers as magic. Finally, I have the fighter walk up to the statue and wave his hand in front of its eyes and slap it in the face, but nothing happens. I decide to walk throgh the room behind the others, but as I walk past the statue it full attacks me, knocking me into the negatives, and as neither the fighter or the cleric could harm it it kept attacking me untill I was at -16 before it turned its attention to the tanks. The cleric eventually figures out that a Magic Weapon spell was nessecary to defeat it, and "by coincidence" they find a scroll of Raise Dead and a diamond in the next room. We also find a letter in which the gargoyle is ordered to attack tresspassing wizards before attacking anyone else.. which explains why it didnt react to the fighter at first.

3) Even later we encounter 4 hobgoblin zombies who attacks us two by two, and I send the tanks off to destroy one group each. While they are trading blows, I decide to buff each of them with a Protection from Evil, but as I walk up behind the fighter to cast my spell, one of the zombies fell him with a critical hit and the other moves on to strike me down. The cleric proceeds to turn the zombies with his last attempt of the day, and he saves me with a CLW at -9.

What am I doing wrong?

[Callix]

Pissing off the DM? To be honest, that's something that you need to talk about with your players and DM. I take it you didn't sign up for a game of "kill the wizard".

One thing that might be really annoying him is the Precocious Apprentice early entry trick; he feels that you've taken the gloves off, so he can do what he likes with you. Frankly, wizards are strong enough without that sort of thing. Still, you banned Necromancy over Evocation, so it's not like you've pulled out all the stops.

The hobgoblins seems to have been bad luck, but the squishy-hating trap and the wizard-hunting gargoyle seem like DM vs Player, and there's no way to win that. Talk to your DM, and see if there's anything about your character or play that's annoying him.

[E-mail]

This guy dosent really care about builds at all, as long as they fit into his campaigns flavor wise, so I doubt that I am pissing anyone off here. And even if he felt like taking the gloves off, I doubt that he would have placed that scroll fo raise dead for me in the next room.

The schyte thing was bad luck, the DM always intended to have a trap that would threat anyone in the left side of the hall if triggered, I just chose the wrong tank to walk behind. I dont know what the gargoyle thing was about though, I dont really see how I could have survived there.

[Omen of Peace]

For 1) and 2) a trapfinder would have helped... Perhaps you can find a NPC along the way with trapfinding skills ? Or if you can change your build you could go Spellthief 1/Wizard X into Unseen Seer... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

For 3) did you Grease one of the groups ? One of the goal of battlefield control is to divide and conquer : strand 2 of them in the Grease and concentrate fire on the others. It may not have saved you - I don't know the layout of the room - but in the right circumstances you could have the 2 tanks between you and the enemy.

Overall, I don't think you made a big mistake. Low-level wizards are squishy...

[Sinfire Titan]

Your DM is actively trying to kill you. Your options stand as:

1: Hammergun. 'Nuff said.

2: Talk with him, and tell him that you are not enjoying his campaign due to him always singling you out with encounters. Ask why he does this, and try to compromise. (You pussies.)

3: Leave the campaign and start your own. And make sure to be a man about it.

[X-Codes]

Your DM is actively trying to kill you. Your options stand as:

That's a bit of an overreaction.

Anyway, my steps to squishy wizard salvation:

1) Toad familiar @ level 1.
2) Lots of Constitution (looks like you have 14-16)
3) Roll HP, don't take the average.
4) MAGE ARMOR, MAGE ARMOR, MAGE ARMOR!!!  At level 3, you might even want to Extend it (100% better than Quicken Spell since you can... you know... use it.)

Honestly, your biggest error thus far was casting Protection from Evil against the zombies instead of Grease.  Low Dex, bad Reflex saves, and partial actions each turn makes it awesomeness^2 in that situation.

[ninjarabbit]

The problem seems to be that you have too many defensive spells and not enough offensive spells. Protection from evil and resist elements are good spells but can be rather useless at times.

Quicken spell is a wasted feat at level 3. Extend spell and sculpt spell would be the better choices there.

I also think you would have been better off being a transmuter or conjurer. The transmuter can buff the tanks with spells like enlarge person to kill things faster. The conjurer has the battlefield control spells and can use the abrupt jaunt ability to save his butt, which alone would have helped prevent some of your problems. There's only so much you can do as an abjurer.

[Slate]

Point-by-Point

1) Nothing you can do here, really.  As a level 3 character without Improved Uncanny Dodge there's about 0 you could do here besides raising your AC and hoping you don't get hit.  No harm no foul, traps vs. party with no trap finder.  I do this to my parties rarely but it WILL happen at least once per campaign - not my fault they did not take a class with anti-trap features.  Ask your DM if it is going to be a heavy trap campaign and take 1 level of Beguiler etc or simply deal with the fact you will get hosed rarely.

2) I did something similar to a party with a gargoyle pretending to be a statue.  They failed their spot checks and when they turned their backs it attacked the closest, squishiest character.  I'm assuming your DM did the same, not out of malice, but out of accurately playing the monster.   I assure you, an evil creature that has surprise would go for the unarmed, old (venerable), guy without any armor whatsoever over the 2 other guys in your party with what - full-plate? Sorry, makes sense to me.  I penalize players for FAILING - that happens regardless of edition and game system.  Roll better as a party IMO, and see if your DM will let you take "Teamwork Benefits" as described in the PHB2.  I know they're not super hot and you would not have access to them at level 3 but it's a thought.  Another thought would be to see if you could have used the Aid Another action on the check and try and buff up the Cleric's (assuming he has the best Spot check) check instead of making your own roll.  Minor suggestions.

3) You screwed up here.  Grease would have been an extremely effective save-or-lose vs. zombies who have terrible Reflex Saves/Balance Checks/ and only can take partial actions each turn.  Also Abrupt Jaunt from being a Conjurer could have saved you here.

So there you have it.

[Ieniemienie]

Go conjuration focused as suggested by  Ninjarabbit, then take the alternative class feature of PHB2 iirc, to exchange your familiar for Immediate Jaunt > as an immediate action teleport 10ft, up to your int modifer times as day.

[AndyJames]

If you don't want to change, I would suggest Web instead of Glitterdust in your load out. You are exploring a mine...

[bkdubs123]

I must continue to agree with the majority of posters here in saying that you've basically done nothing wrong, there's really nothing else to be done to decrease a 3rd level Wizard's squishiness, but also that grease certainly was the better choice than wasting two rounds with Prot. Evil. I also find it alarming that the gargoyle didn't register as magic. I've never personally used a gargoyle, so I don't know how it works (it was a gargoyle?), maybe they aren't magical at all. Of course there's also the fact that the gargoyle was specifically ordered to KILL you, and that you "happened" to find the scroll and diamond only suggests that the DM suddenly realized that he did something dumb.

[Achiever_Type]

Ok, so wizards with second level spells can be better AC'd then many other classes.  Mage armor(Luminous armor if you are a good guy) + alter self (troglodyte)+ shield(when it looks like a long/tough battle).  Yes, this eats precious spell slots.  But thats 10+4+6+4+dex ac, at least 24. With an addition -4 to melee attacks with luminous.   At level 3, most things will not reliably hit ac 24, let alone 28.  Glitterdust is a great offensive spell.  Grease is a great offensive spell.  But why abjurer if you are going to mem "God-like"(Treantlvl20 here) spells?  Mirror image can help too. 

Spells like Wall of Smoke and Cloud of Bewilderment really helped my young wizard soar through low levels, and were potent still in level 7-9 game play.  Invisibility can save your ass too.  Also don't be afraid to hang WAY back, at your maximum effective range after a move action. 

[The_Mad_Linguist]

Wait, do you have resist energy or endure elements?

[Alastar]

abjurer is pretty good for IotSFV