D&D 5E Help me make a Master of Minor Magic

So, I like cantrips. While I'm not fond of a lot of the aspects of 5E (concentration, short durations, and the tiny number of spell slots), I love cantrips.

To that end, I want to create a character who can get as many as possible.

I'm joining a game in a couple of weeks. We start at 6th level, and I rolled some pretty good stats: 12, 12, 12, 13, 16, 14.

I'll have to multiclass in almost every casting class for this to work, but I'm unsure what order I should pick up which class.

Any thoughts or ideas on creating my Master of Minor Magics.

Blow your feat on Magic Initiate for 2 cantrips and one 1st level spell. Go Wizard list, definitely take Find Familiar as your 1st-level.

I think at least 2? levels of Knowledge Cleric (I think you get bonus cantrips for that one) then possibly 3 levels of Warlock, going Master of the Tome (for 3 more cantrips, steal from Druid) and then 1 level of Wizard.

You should also grab Spell Sniper and take one of the cantrips that require an attack roll.

Start playing as a race that gets a cantrip. High Elf, Drow, Tiefling, Water/Fire genasi.

Depending on how much you want to MC ... Sorcerer has the best basis for cantrips, I think. That, and three levels of Warlock for Pact of the Tome can give you a lot of cantrips. I'm currently playing a Fire Genasi Bard/Warlock, who's got 2 bard cantrips, 2 Warlock, 1 from Spell Sniper, 3 from Tome ... cantrips for almost every situation! Personally feel like multiclassing more would make him fall behind too much, but if your primary concern is many cantrips, then Sorcerer is always great.

Assuming you go variant human for magic initiate and have 13+ in INT, WIS, and CHA, taking one level of each gives 19 cantrips at level 6.

M. Initiate = 2
Light/Nature Cleric = 4
Bard = 2
Druid = 2
Sorcerer = 4
Warlock = 2
Wizard = 3

But if you count the at will use of non-cantrips from a Warlock's eldritch invocations, it would be better to skip the bard & druid levels for more warlock. This gives 20 at-will spells at level 6.

M. Initiate = 2
Light/Nature Cleric = 4
Sorcerer = 4
Wizard = 3
Warlock = 2
Book of Shadows = 3
E. Invocations = 2

You need three levels of warlock to get the Book of Shadows, Voort.

Okay, so I've been running the numbers, and here's what I have:

If I go Warlock 4, Sorcerer 4, Fighter 3 (Eldritch Knight), Rogue 3 (Arcane Trickster), Wizard 2 (Illusionist), Cleric 1, Druid 2, and bard 1, as well as starting out as a tiefling, I can net 32 cantrips. Those numbers are including Magic Initiate and Spell Sniper, of course.

The question is, if I were to go that route, which levels should I start as for a 6th level game? And which cantrips would be the most beneficial at that time?

How do you feel about ritual spells? Although they are not cantrips, they can be cast an unlimited number of times per day if you take the time. A level of wizard could earn you three cantrips, plus SIX rituals. Alarm, Detect Magic, Find Familiar (rarely cast, but permanent), and Identify are all pretty useful. Although a Pact of the Tome warlock can use any ritual with an invocation, that requires much more than a single level dip.

32 cantrips is only 3 less than all 35 of them. So the question you have to ask is just which 3 cantrips do you not want.

Mechanically, consider starting with fighter or sorcerer for the Con saves. You can decide amongst them based on whether you want the heavy armor, and extra hit points of the fighter, or you want the Charisma save of the sorcerer. Sorcerer actually seems like a cooler starting concept for a master of magics to me, but most people will tell you the fighter is mechanically superior. Go with what you like.

I recommend 1 level of sorcerer, 3-4 levels of warlock (the versatility will be great, since you aren't going to have much vertical power from any class), and 1 level of whatever.

Pact of the Tome will make sure you can start with the cantrips that you want most. For the attack cantrips, you will want them all to use the same ability modifier. Choose charisma, so that you can snag attack cantrips with Pact of the Tome. You'll have to plan ahead to make sure you aren't caught having to take an attack cantrip with your cleric, wizard, fighter, or rogue levels.

With your levels of warlock you should snag eldritch blast and the Agonizing Blast invocation. Pick up hex as a 1st level spell. As long as Charisma is your main stat, you now have all the at-will firepower you are going to need for the entire game. You can relax and not worry about your DPR (if that was something you worried about anyway). So just pick whatever cantrips seem the most fun to you.

EroGaki said:

You need three levels of warlock to get the Book of Shadows, Voort.

Click to expand...

Yeah, the 2nd build is Warlock 3/Wizard1/Cleric 1/Sorcerer 1.

Voort said:

Yeah, the 2nd build is Warlock 3/Wizard1/Cleric 1/Sorcerer 1.

Click to expand...

Oh, I see. I thought the numbers represented levels, rather than cantrips known. My apologies.