Pinball Wizard [3.5]

[SixthDeclension]

So, I'm starting a campaign soon, and actually playing. Throughout most of my time on Char-op, lurking and rarely posting, the majority of my focus has been on melee, be it gishes or bruisers. Now, because our party needs it, I plan on playing a full on utility wizard. For all intents and purposes, I could go straight wizard 20 and be perfectly fine with it. But I come to you to suggest a fun, useful, and exciting wiz build.

I was thinking along the lines of an enchantment focus(Control my enemies!), using a little necromancy and a tad bit of blasting.
32 PB, Books are 3.5, no mags.

[Edit] Forgot about starting level. 5, but should go for a little.

[Risada]

It's feat hungry, but you could grab Eschew Materials, Snowcasting, Cold Focus/Greater CF and Draconic Aura (energy-cold) to make those enchantments good enough (and possibly your other stuff as well)...

The above takes up 5 feat slots... the rest is your pick...

[Omen of Peace]

Check out zarzak's Enchanter Handbook (back on WotC).

I'm a bit disappointed - I hoped the thread would be about Chain-ed Greater Slides (SC) with a Trapsmith in the party to create bright thingies that make people squeal/rebound/...

Enchanter 3/Master Specialist 2 is a solid start (alternatively Enchanter 5 for Spontaneous Divination), continue with more Master Specialist and a Mindbender dip.

[woodenbandman]

Master thrower for ricocheting shenanigans with tripping would be funny.

For a real wizard though it's really easy, just pick spells that kill enemies with little point in rolling damage or a saving throw (IE pick a good mix of fort, ref, and will SoDs) and a few buff spells. My favorite 3rd level spell is haste, but that's just me.

I've come up with a pretty sweet build that loses one caster level, but it gains some cool binding abilities, and the awesome Vestige Metamagic (the wizard's DMM, but less feat intensive). Build is Gnome Binder1/Focused illusionist 3/Anima Mage10/Shadowcraft Mage5/anything 1. I like Mindbender. You take Improved Binding at first level, then go straight for the throat with Quicken Spell and Persistent Spell. This is the best way to get persistent shapechange as it only requires 2 feats and doesn't rely on broken items or rules (besides the classes themselves  )

Sure, you lose a caster level, but that's what Ioun stones are.

oh the point of this, by the way, was that you can blast or summon practically at will and you can also control the battefield with cool stuff like cloudkill and such. Not to mention that you can get away with effectively not banning any schools, so you can still do some enchanting focus.

[Omen of Peace]

I've come up with a pretty sweet build that loses one caster level, but it gains some cool binding abilities, and the awesome Vestige Metamagic (the wizard's DMM, but less feat intensive). Build is Gnome Binder1/Focused illusionist 3/Anima Mage10/Shadowcraft Mage5/anything 1.

That's one of JaronK's favorite builds, I believe. He was always recommending it in the SCM thread.

Not to mention that you can get away with effectively not banning any schools, so you can still do some enchanting focus.

With a focused illusionist, not losing any school !?

[Endarire]

Enchanters drop in usefulness around level 7-12 when you're expected to face lots of things with medium to high Will saves.  Also, undead and constructs are immune to most enchantments.

I pitied the would-be enchantress in one game I DMed.  She was able to use one controlling enchantment- charm person- once in 21 levels.

[woodenbandman]

Oops, I forgot focused gives you one more banned school, doesn't it? Oh well, ditch necromancy, evoc, and conjuration, that's still effectively only 1 banned school, and you can practically spontaneously cast from conjuration and evocation.

[TheWordSlinger]

Yeah. If you really want to go the Charming route, I would suggest a Psion (telepath), but I'm sure you thought I'd say that.
As for your wizard, Conjuration is as often better at controlling enemies than Enchantment. Grease easily trumps Charm Person for taking combatants out of the fight, even if you assume that the enemy you charm is able to kill off another foe. Also, Grease is especially useful against the undead, a type that enchanters have a hard time dealing with. Defensively, Obscuring Mist can stop as many attacks as Sleep in many cases. Outside core Conjuration gets nifty stuff like Benign Transposition or Wall of Smoke. And we're still only talking first level spells...
Second level enchantment does have the tasty Ray of Idiocy, but this is when Conjuration gets both Web and Glitterdust...so this level is pretty close. The only good third level Enchantments are Heroism and Ray of Dizzyness, whereas Conjuration gets all kinds of tasty goodies like Sleet Storm, Summon Monster III (Celestial Bison/Fiendish Ape), and Phantom Steed, to name a few.
Basically, if you're wanting to play a utility wizard, I suggest you look over Treantmonklvl20's Guide which dan2 has so kindly transferred over to our boards here.
Edit: Also, thank you so very much for getting that song stuck in my head....