Most "powerful" base spellcasting class

[heimdallw32]

The primary advantage wizards have is their versatility. Compared to a Sorcerer, a Wizard has fewer spells per day, but has a much wider selection, and gains new spell levels sooner (Levels 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17) than a Sorcerer (4 6 8 10 12 etc). A wizard can learn every spell in the game, while a Sorcerer has a much smaller selection.

Which is the 'most powerful' really ends up depending on the module. In a module where magic items capable of casting spells as well as scrolls are plentiful, then the Sorcerer and Warlock can potentially edge ahead. Especially if items with immunities are plentiful.

However, Wizards also excel at multiclassing, there are several PrCs that boost the Wizard's power drastically, the primary ones being the Archmage and Red Wizard of Thay. The Red Wizard in particular can potentially boast spell DCs in the neighborhood of 50-60ish, and this carries over to Epic spells of the same school. A Necromaner Red Wizard, for instance, can cast Momento Mori or Tolodine's Killing Wind with very high DCs. The Archmage class plays more towards the Wizard's versatility and allows one to alter the energy type in a spell (fireball that does cold damage instead, lightning bolt that does acid damage instead, ect) and can ignore the dangers of full-PvP setting servers (spell shaping = can cast AoE without harming friendlies).

I'm sure other folks can think of other combinations. Oh, and you can't forget the Lich either...the Demilich in particular is, basically, neigh-invulnerable and still has most of the power of a high level Wizard. i.e. overpowered (though that's intended)

Though at lower levels, the warlock and sorcerer do hold an advantadge, especially in the single digit levels, where a wizard's spell arsenal is tiny and expended quickly.

[Dark_Ansem]

that's what I thought: warlock-sorcerers are more powerful at the beginning, but wizs and other more "complicated" classes excel in the long run

[ChestRockwell]

I realize this is an old thread, but I couldn't help wanting to share my 2 cents and it didn't seem like it was something worth creating an entirely new topic about.  Just when it comes to the discussion of what is better a Sorcerer or Wizard.

People will point out how that while sorcerers can cast more spells per day, the wizards are more versatile because they can learn a lot more spells.  I agree with that, but the thing is I just never saw that as an advantage..at least not in NWN(at least, the original campaign and official expansions).  The reason being that if you know what you are doing you don't need a great amount of versatility here.  A wizard can learn a good number of offensive spells overall, while at the same time taking a few key non-offensive spells like stoneskin, premonition, a spell mantle, and then a spell or two that allows for dispelling magic. 

You can blast your way through most enemies without having to really get versatile, very few enemies are resistant to more then 1-2 of the elemental damages in the game and even the ones that are resistant to more then 1-2 are still susceptible to straight up magical damage.  Especially once you get access to level 9 spells and get Time Stop.  If you combine that with Isaac's Greater Missile Storm you will be nigh unstoppable, you can stop time and you usually have enough time before it ends to cast about 3 spells.  The greater missile storm can generate a maximum of 20 missiles, which means as soon as the time stop ends 60 magic missiles will suddenly appear and slam into all the enemies around.  This is especially devastating if used on a single enemy.

[Calirion]

The other thing to keep in mind for warlocks is that one of the elemental essences (acid, I think) is not affected by spell resistance. Once you acquire that particular essence you can just keep blasting away until you destroy an opponent who might well have resisted some pretty strong wizard spells.

I might pick wizard for role-playing reasons, or I might pick wizard if I were evil and wanted to become a demilich. Because demiliches acquire a lot of spell-like abilities they can use at will, as well as considerable resistance to most forms of damage (and all spells), they are clearly stronger than warlocks. In almost any other scenario, though, a warlock is going to be stronger because of the unlimited ability to re-use invocations without resting.

Prestige class choices are very limited, but there is no law that says one needs a prestige class. I have successfully played several base class builds.

[Calirion]

Oh, I forgot about epic spells. Yes, that is an area of advantage for wizards (and sorcerers) that warlocks can't match.

On the other hand, let's not forget that warlocks do have UMD as a class skill. With just a few points in that skill, a warlock can use any spell scroll in the game. True, they can only cast at the level of the scroll, so a wizard could still cast more powerfully, but a warlock could cast any spell in the game given the right scroll, an advantage that few classes have, and one that compensates to some degree for spells being more powerful than invocations.

At whatever point the eldritch theurge and eldritch disciple with epic progression become part of the game, those are the only prestige classes a warlock could ever need. Then you can have inexhaustible invocations AND the ability to cast high level spells. It almost makes up for not being a demilich...