D&D 5E Can I get Feedback on my Wizard?

[The_Animus]

So I've played past versions of D&D several times (2 and 3 I believe) and was DM for a couple sessions as well but it has been a while since I last played and I'm hoping to get some feedback.

I'm making a level 1 Wizard Human with the feat variant. Technically I think being a Gnome would be stronger (Gnome Cunning is so awesome...) but doesn't really fit as well with the personality and play style (if you think this isn't the case please explain!). The party will consist of myself, a Half-elf Warlock, and a Dragonborn Druid. So yeah all casters....

Stats were rolled and assigned as follows.
Str: 11, Dex: 13, Con: 14, Int: 16, Wis:14, Cha:15 and I was thinking of placing my 2 points from Human into Dex and Cha, making them 14 and 16 respectively.

The character is based around the ability to manipulate people whether through Enchantment or Illusion as well as skills such as deception, persuasion and such. If you've ever seen the show 'The Mentalist', it's basically like Patrick Jane but with Illusion and Enchantment magic to aid his charlatan antics.

As far as my choice for feat, the following seem good: Lucky, Observant, Actor, Resiliant (dex and/or con), War Caster. I could use some advice on this.

I'm also having a hard time deciding which school I will want to pick upon reaching level 2. Illusion and Enchantment would obviously work well considering what I'm going for, but because you aren't limited to spells from your school Abjuration and Evocation also seem like decent options. Abjuration to make me tanky (especially given the all magic using party) or evocation to dish out dmg and spare allies that dmg when illusion/enchantment just won't work.

Oh and background I'm considering charlatan or noble. Charlatan needs no explanation. Noble is a possibility because I see it being easier to influence people if you have a title and political influence.

So yeah just looking for some feedback/advice. If there is any other info I can give that might help determine a good route to go just ask.

Thanks!

 

[scruffygrognard]

A lot of your choices should be based on how you're going to define your character. Here are some thoughts on your guy:

1] Human is a solid choice for any character. The variant works really well, especially since you rolled well for your ability scores.
2] Your ability score placement looks good to me for a charming charlatan wizard. I'd definitely boost INT as much as possible, so I'd boost INT to an 18. After that I'd raise DEX by one point, to a 14. The Actor feat fits your idea and would raise your CHA to a 16.
3] I'd go with the Charlatan background and have your character pass himself off as a noble.
4] If you're thinking of multiclassing, 2 levels of Bard would net you the Jack of All Trades ability, light armor proficiency, and another skill. You'd keep your full spell progression, though you'd trade access to higher level spells for access to more low level spells.

 

[The_Animus]

The idea of taking charlatan and pretending to be a noble is great!

Unfortunately the human feat variant states "Two different ability scores of your choice increase by 1." So I can't raise INT to 18 until I hit lvl 4.

For my first feat I've narrowed it down to either Actor as you suggest, or Lucky. The Actor feat is nice and works well for my character but it also only gives advantage on deceit rolls where I am impersonating someone else. The Lucky feat gives 3 advantage rolls per long rest to whatever I want. Eventually I want both, but at least initially it seems like Lucky allows me to do what Actor does anyway but can also be used in other situations.

I'm hoping that aside from taking 2 INT twice to eventually bump up to 20 INT total I will be able to use all the others as feats get Lucky, Actor, and Resilient twice for DEX and CON. The problem is figuring out initial allocation such that I min/max my attributes in the end.

For instance as an alternate stat placement I'm considering: 11 STR, 14 DEX, 14 CON, 16 INT, 13 WIS, 15 CHA. Human's 2 attributes would be put into DEX and CON making them 15 each. This way when I eventually get the Actor, Resilient (CON & DEX) feats my finals stats will eventually be 11, 16, 16, 20, 13, 16. Whereas with my stat allocation in the OP i have better bonuses initially but lose out in the end with 11, 15, 15, 20, 14, 17 having 1 less bonus from dex and con. So is it worth being stronger early on but weaker end game or vice versa.

Probably won't multiclass. Narrowed down the magic school choice to Abjuration, Illusion, or Enchantment.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Mistwell]

Depends on what kind of campaign you're looking at. But, our wizard and our rogue (arcane trickster) both get plenty of mileage out of illusion spells.