A level 20 Wizard of each school vs each other in combat

I'd definitely need to see some rules for the fight. We just dropping 2 Wizards in an arena? Can they buff up, summon things first as long as it's within their daily allotment of spells? If we are just dropping two wizards into a ring and rolling initiative, then I'd have to go with Abjurer. They can counterspell all day with a 3rd level spell and have a reasonable chance of working even on 9th level spells.

But if they can prep a bit before hand then I'd probably have to go with a Necromancer. At 20th, using all 3rd-9th slots they can summon 128 Skeletons that will be 33hp each, with a melee and ranged attk of +4 to hit that does 1d6+8 damage each. I'd probably save the 8th and 9th slot for something else, like Foresight actually, but even then they still have 98 minions. Actually I'd probably keep that reserved for a 9th Lvl counterspell to the inevitable Meteor Swarm which could eat up that army. Also if he gets to use his Arcane Recovery before the fight he gets another 10 spell levels back, which I'd also likely bank for some non Animate Dead spells.

Either way that army can do some serious damage. Of course the other wizard might just fly away, or whatnot, depending on the rules of the duel there are some ways to counter that, mostly by avoiding. But barring that, the auto advantage on Saves and Resistance to spell damage the Abjurer gets puts them way ahead of other casters in a magic duel.

Gwarok said:

I'd definitely need to see some rules for the fight. We just dropping 2 Wizards in an arena? Can they buff up, summon things first as long as it's within their daily allotment of spells? If we are just dropping two wizards into a ring and rolling initiative, then I'd have to go with Abjurer. They can counterspell all day with a 3rd level spell and have a reasonable chance of working even on 9th level spells.

But if they can prep a bit before hand then I'd probably have to go with a Necromancer. At 20th, using all 3rd-9th slots they can summon 128 Skeletons that will be 33hp each, with a melee and ranged attk of +4 to hit that does 1d6+8 damage each. I'd probably save the 8th and 9th slot for something else, like Foresight actually, but even then they still have 98 minions. Actually I'd probably keep that reserved for a 9th Lvl counterspell to the inevitable Meteor Swarm which could eat up that army. Also if he gets to use his Arcane Recovery before the fight he gets another 10 spell levels back, which I'd also likely bank for some non Animate Dead spells.

Either way that army can do some serious damage. Of course the other wizard might just fly away, or whatnot, depending on the rules of the duel there are some ways to counter that, mostly by avoiding. But barring that, the auto advantage on Saves and Resistance to spell damage the Abjurer gets puts them way ahead of other casters in a magic duel.

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The point was to drop ALL of the Wizards in an arena to fight each other.








Man this must be one bored Sorcerer to force all these poor Wizards to fight each other like this lol

CTurbo said:

How does the one concentration spell ruin things?

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It means the primary ability of the War Mage, being much more likely to go first, is automatically neutered without any reason.

southjersey said:

It means the primary ability of the War Mage, being much more likely to go first, is automatically neutered without any reason.

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How does concentration nerf war mage, exactly?

Each archmage stares the others down, fingers itching toward spell component pouches, wands, and staves. A strong wind blows a tumbleweed across the field of battle as robes and beards flap wildly, a stark contrast with the still, steel gaze of these arcane titans.

Simultaneously, each wizard dives behind their fighter buddy, warcries of “Protect the squishies!” ring out as each takes the dodge action.

The fighters sigh, hefting their weapons...

Caliban said:

Divination. They saw the fight coming and prepared accordingly. ...

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Dannyalcatraz said:

My thoughts exactly.

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I know.

Well I'm not at all surprised that "Whoever wins Initiative" is winning because honestly it's probably the best answer. It kinda defeats the purpose of this activity though so I wish I would have left it out.

The results are about what I expected though.

Divination. I see that "Whoever wins initiative" has the most votes. Well, with a diviner, it's likely that one of their portents will allow them to win initiative. On top of that, it's likely that one of their portents will allow the Diviner to inflict a failed save on one of their spells, particularly if it's a save-or-suck spell.

CTurbo said:

Well I'm not at all surprised that "Whoever wins Initiative" is winning because honestly it's probably the best answer. It kinda defeats the purpose of this activity though so I wish I would have left it out.

The results are about what I expected though.

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Since they are all starting within 50'-60' feet of each other, I don't think winning initiative will help. That just means you are going to be the first to be counterspelled (range: 60').

Assuming they are all in a big ring, even moving 30' back will probably still leave the mage in counterspell range of at least 2 other wizards. If they are in an arena type situation and can't get any farther away from each other, then it's really going to be a matter of luck - the first few round are just going to be a flurry of counterspells or attempts to cast spells that don't seem worth countering but will give you an advantage in later rounds.

The one concentration spell should be something like Improved Invisibility or True Sight, or possibly even just Fog Cloud or something similar to block LOS to you can try to get a spell off without being countered.

If they have magic items it become vastly more complicated. Staff of Swarming Insects becomes more valuable than a Staff of the Magi in this situation.

I think I'd still give the edge to Divination, mainly because with 3 to 6 portents (if they can have a simulacrum) they can portent their own initiative with a high roll, make someone else's counterspell fail (if it's not an automatic counter), etc. But with 8 other wizards, they'll run out of portents quickly, and possibly be ganged up on immediately.

9 wizards, all in counterspell range is just too hard to predict.