TOPIC: Classes other than Barbarians

I'm just wondering why there is almost nothing that increases intelligence? Wizards, Bards and Monks should have some powerful class only tokens to bring them up to Barbarian status. Who wants to play the other classes if they are weak? I would like to make a powerful wizard, bard, or monk, but the tokens for them are pretty weak. Just saying.

Hello David,

Within TD rules / mechanics the intelligence stat does essentially nothing. There are many tokens which increase the powers of spellcasters though - these either directly impact spellcasting abilities like giving you the ability to cast more spells, or tokens which benefit spell damage in particular or ranged damage in general:

tokendb.com/damage-bonus/spell/

tokendb.com/damage-bonus/ranged/ (Skip over the various weapons and ammunition in this list).

You can build a very powerful Wizard that does more damage than a Barbarian with the right tokens. Matthew gave some great lists.

If you use a Mystic Staff, you can build high INT to increase the +hit on it.

tokendb.com/?fwp_token_search=Mystic%20staff

I have an idea for a Wizard build for people who normally play classes that slide. A Mystic Staff and Hat of Intellect plays heavily into that.

I believe that next year's new familiar slot will be enhanced by higher Intelligence. You'll be able to equip two familiars if you have INT > 16.

Waiting for a few of the players who play Wizard (I don't) to chime in but I think they have the ability to do more damage than a Barbarian.

From my experience, at NM / Epic levels, the Wizards are easily the biggest damage dealers. Ashenne's and MEC drive their damage through the roof. In terms of damage potential, I would rank the classes roughly as:

Wizards
Monk
Ranger
Druid
Barbarian
Rogue
Fighters
Paladin
Cleric and Bard

Wizards and monk do crazy damage. Bards do not, but Bards make everyone else better so it balances.

Elf Wizard has some subtle but powerful buffs.
The Uncommon token "Medallion of Energy" lets you cast Alertness before every room -- meaning the party gets +10 initiative, which translates to 1-2 party extra attacks per run. That's one heck of a party buff.
At the Ultra-Rare level, get the +2 Staff of Power to accomplish the same thing but free up the neck slot, plus the Charm of Spell Swapping to let you turn spells you won't use into attacks.
At the Relic level, get the Mage Medallion and Ring of Expertise. First round each combat, use the Quicken power (-5 HP) to cast two Level 1 attack spells in one round: One Quickened from the card and one from the Ring of Expertise. If your build doesn't automatically hit incorporeals, choose Magic Missles -- they will hit almost any foe so you don't have to wait for the Bard's Lore check to start your casting.
Happy hunting!

Then there's the once per game of: Ring of Spell Storing + Quicken + your standard action. With that you can open the final room with a a MEC'd fireball, quickened Magic Missle, and throw some acid at them! Really big pop.

Fury is pretty splashy, but the consistency of wizards on top of the ability to go over the top makes them S tier.

Monk - Most individually powerful class in the game at typical Epic difficulty builds, having built-in defenses other classes don't get along with two attacks.

Bard - Most powerful party class at any level with better instrument or even just being 5th level on Normal runs without instrument. The reality is that bard with WLL at NM/Epic is doing like 100+ damage a round in a full party - it just shows up in other classes' numbers. Even in Double Down runs (5 classes), still expect first class desired for bardsong's to hit bonus. Besides damage output, has useful support tools.

Wizards - Don't miss, massive spike damage though, like other classes (*cough* rogue), drops off massively once combat goes a challenging number of rounds at high difficulty, not actually that squishy with UR+ tokens as can just focus [sic] on spell damage and CON/HP. At sealed level of play or close, highly useful for not missing with attacks, though can run out of spells. IMEs, naked wizard didn't do well in rm7 fights because run into antimagic, can't cast spells, spell resistance, or whatever magicscrew the dungeon had, but that was a different era of play. For some strange reason, where wizards do far more damage now than back then, the rm7 magicscrew is far less common now than it used to be.