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

Mistwell said:

Wow.

Not sure why it's not an attack, but that is a distinction Crawford makes.

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It's because it does not require an attack roll. Toll the Dead is not an attack either.

That said, although supported by the rules, DM's are not always going to let it fly, nor will all players (including me) be ready to exploit what is basically a loophole to let a familiar take offensive actions in combat.

As for the value:

1) The big draw here is that the familiar can use it's action to use the spell, but keep in mind we are talking about a small cone of fairly low damage
2) The Wizard will need to maintain concentration on this spell. That's a fair cost for a fairly small attack 1/round.
3) The familiar is squishy as hell. This is not a hard spell to remove - one magic missile for example.
4) Also, there is the initial action to set this up

So overall, I think it's OK. Saving that action every round is good, but the effect is OK at best. Spending concentration on this is a significant factor, as is the ease in killing the familiar. Let's also keep in mind that the familiar's action wasn't useless before, so this isn't being activated for free, we are still using up an action to do it that could have been used for other things.

Mainly though, I probably would avoid the combo simply because a lot of DM's are going to either assume it's illegal, or think it's an exploit of the rules. I tend to avoid things like that, there's enough amazing things I can do.

Treantmonklvl20 said:

It's because it does not require an attack roll. Toll the Dead is not an attack either.

That said, although supported by the rules, DM's are not always going to let it fly, nor will all players (including me) be ready to exploit what is basically a loophole to let a familiar take offensive actions in combat.

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I like the imagery, personally, of a fire-breathing cat or bird. And from a balance perspective there's not a hugely significant trade-off between letting a familiar use it and letting an animated corpse or tiny servant use it. From a DM perspective of course, I think it's entirely fair and appropriate for enemies to start targeting familiars the moment said familiars become a credible threat.

Why was Evards Black Tentacles downgraded to purple?

Leatherhead said:

I don't get why people think Fog Cloud is good

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You don't see why a spell that basically negates all advantage and disadvantage on the battlefield is powerful?

As I was reading your spell rating, I noticed one spell in particular that was rated very low. Mirage Arcane. I may be wrong in it's application but personally I view it as one of the most powerful spells for an illusory wizard. If you know where you are going to fight, you are capable of using you're action to change the illusion (malleable illusion) as long as you are able to see it, and technically, the entire mile is the illusion. You could change it and get a wall of stone or box of stone and effectively trap a enemy. There is no save to the spell (unless you have truesight), making it effectively a cage that they are unable to break. And as far as I know, it doesn't matter if they are aware that they are dealing with an illusion, because it continues to affect them otherwise. I may be mistaken on the wording at some point, if so, please make me aware, thanks.

I'm surprised you rate Glyph of Warding so poorly.

If nothing else it's great for allowing you to bypass concentration with a bit of prep time ("bit" being relative, unless Wished, of course).

Sure it's intended to be used as a trap, but you can use it to set up a bunch of arcane fortifications keyed only to your allies.

Edit: A fun, if impractical, use is for Delayed Fireball, especially in a none to visible area.

Is there a war magic multi class guide?

Noxumbra said:

Is there a war magic multi class guide?

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If there is, it probably doesn’t fit the god wizard archetype.

Love your work Treantmonk, you've really influenced my play and increased my enjoyment of wizards!

@Treantmonk: do you have a guide to a druid equivalent of the God Wizard?