D&D 5E Treantmonk's Guide to Wizards 5e

[CapnZapp]

I think there is one detail of booming blade that wasn't analised

Ouch!


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[ppaladin123]

I don't know if anyone has already posted this, but I think there is one detail of booming blade that wasn't analised in the Bladesinger cantrips review. For a rogue the cantrip is even better than other classes, because, if you are facing a melee enemy, you can hit it with the cantrip and use your bonus action to move safely away from him. Then he has a choice to make, take considerable damage and go after you or stay put. This makes you eihter take considerably less damage or almost double your damage output per round.

GladiusLegis notes this in his rogue guide...makes arcane trickster (or half-elf/high-elf with free cantrip) a great choice.

 

[polobow]

Why is blindness/deafness blue with portent? Making someone fail the save only counts for one round, as the target will get another save each consecutive round. Why isn't levitate blue instead? If you fumble someone's save with that, the target is screwed for a minute.

 

[CapnZapp]

Why is blindness/deafness blue with portent? Making someone fail the save only counts for one round, as the target will get another save each consecutive round. Why isn't levitate blue instead? If you fumble someone's fail with that, the target is screwed for a minute.

Not a Treeantmonk, but blindness/deafness doesn't require Concentration. That's why it's so good.

"blue with portent" - don't understand what you mean?

Levitate? Used as an attack spell? I guess it does work - if you're out in the open (no cave walls or tree branches to grab hold of), the monster doesn't have a meaningful ranged attack, can't fly, and you catch it when it still is at a distance.

And oh, doesn't weigh more than 500 pounds. And the Games Master doesn't rule it has forward momentum (from running towards you).

And fails its Con save, often a monster's best (especially if it can't fly, use ranged fire or cast spells). And you still must use up your Concentration.

I don't know what rating TAM gave it, but I sure wouldn't give it blue myself.

 

[Zardnaar]

Blindness/deafness also grants advantage to hit them IIRC.

In practice to many things have good con saves so its not as reliable as say hold person although you can hit non humanoids with it.

 

[polobow]

You both make good points, thanks! I'll be taking blindness/deafness in the future.

"blue with portent" - don't understand what you mean?

Treeantmonk changes blindness/deafness's rating to blue if the wizard has portent, a divination school ability.

 

[purplerook]

So given the choice of Firebolt, Minor Illusion, and for the sake of this thought experiment, Vicious Mockery: Which cantrip should you use and when?

As a reminder, disadvantage will generally be the difference between a hit and a miss, approximately 25% of the time.

Minor Illusion is guaranteed to give an enemy disadvantage on their first attack against a particular ally. You spend your turn to block 1 out of 4 monster attacks.
Vicious Mockery has a chance to give them disadvantage. You spend your turn to have around a 50-60% chance to block 1 out of 4 monster attacks, plus a little damage.
Firebolt just does damage.

So there's a spectrum from most defensive in Minor Illusion, to most offensive in Firebolt. Is defense the best strategy, making Minor Illusion the best? What about as you level up and more enemies get Multiattack? One enemy attack becomes less and less significant, and the comparative damage loss from not casting Firebolt becomes larger and larger. Is your damage contribution, relative to your party, so low that blocking 1/4 of one enemy attack is still worth more than Firebolt's damage?

Thanks, this is a good evaluation trade-off of Minor Illusion in combat. However, I think your missed a couple of key aspects of Minor Illusion. First, whoever is behind the illusion - unseen by the creatures(s) - gets advantage on their attacks. Second, the disadvantage/advantage persists until the creature(s) makes an Int (Investigation) save. If you create an opaque, but permeable illusion - e.g., Darkness, Fog - ranged attacks should (may) not count as physical inspection

So, someone gets +5 to AC (disadvantage) and +5 to hit (advantage) for a round. If the ranged attacks do not count as 'physical inspection' you get creature(s) spending an action making a save and if the save fails, you get the +5/-5. Note, this is probably over-powered for a Cantrip and so your DM may figure out a way to dial back the spell - e.g., PC need an action to see through the illusion, and or monster ranged attack counts as physical inspection.

IMO, one of the issues here is that Firebolt scales with level (more damage) while Minor Illusion does not. In fact, higher CR monsters are more likely to have something - e.g., blind sense, good Int, see invisible - that will reduce the effectiveness of Minor Illusion. I would rate Minor Illusion as a lot like Sleep - awesome at early levels, but does not scale well.


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[raleel]

There is a pretty solid argument that darkness and fog cannot be created with minor illusion, as other spells specify "effects" when considering what can be created by illusions, and minor illusion only allows "objects".

My own interpretation and ruling is that the first one will make it by, then it gets what amounts to a save (a passive investigation check). When they make another, anything that pops up in front of that guy between he and his target gets subject to a "free interaction with object" and this dispels the illusion. This makes him immune for the current encounter, and likely other encounters where he knows his foes use minor illusion.

I count ranged attacks as interaction. I allow for a ranged inspection, at a reasonable (thrown weapon, say) range.

Minor illusion is a spell that likes context. It makes more sense out of combat. It's a great spell for providing a place to hide. I think it just loses its combat application at higher levels, as there are more high intelligence monsters. Not a lot more though, and it is just as effective against CR 1/2 hobgoblins as CR8 fire Giants. I think blind sight makes it harder... more of that in iconic higher level foes.

 

[purplerook]

[MENTION=21664]raleel[/MENTION], Thanks for your reply. I am relatively new to 5e and just getting ready to run my first wizard. So, I am checking out the 1st level spells. I agree with you, MI is best out of combat - i.e., for hiding or getting a 1st round surprise attack from behind the illusion. I went back and now see the differences between MI and Silent Image - you mentioned - in that Silent Image can have phenomena vs. object of MI. I like the flavoring in the MI is a utility spell and not a combat (e.g., control spell). I will look for opportunities to apply MI before and or after combat. In fact the out of combat aspects tend towards objects - e.g., Bush, Pillar rather than the phenomena.

What are your thoughts about Silent Image (1st) and Major Image (3rd), they add range and size, but appear to have the same basic saving throws as Minor Illusion. I am trying to figure out when/why I would use Silent Image (1st level slot and concentration) rather than MI in that a moving image with no sound is probably less believable than a static image.

 

[raleel]

[MENTION=21664]raleel[/MENTION], Thanks for your reply. I am relatively new to 5e and just getting ready to run my first wizard. So, I am checking out the 1st level spells. I agree with you, MI is best out of combat - i.e., for hiding or getting a 1st round surprise attack from behind the illusion. I went back and now see the differences between MI and Silent Image - you mentioned - in that Silent Image can have phenomena vs. object of MI. I like the flavoring in the MI is a utility spell and not a combat (e.g., control spell). I will look for opportunities to apply MI before and or after combat. In fact the out of combat aspects tend towards objects - e.g., Bush, Pillar rather than the phenomena.

What are your thoughts about Silent Image (1st) and Major Image (3rd), they add range and size, but appear to have the same basic saving throws as Minor Illusion. I am trying to figure out when/why I would use Silent Image (1st level slot and concentration) rather than MI in that a moving image with no sound is probably less believable than a static image.

Well, silent image also includes creatures and visible phenomenon. Lots of things make that bar and are silent. Fog, for example, or shadow. Creatures can be done and seen at a distance and not heard. They have more options for believability, and thus less likely to be investigated.

And, truthfully, there are very very few monsters that have good investigation skills.