D&D 5E Help me build the No-Fail Wizard

[BookTenTiger]

The other week the Alchemist / Wizard in the group cast the perfect Chromatic Orb after identifying the weakness of some elementals we were fighting... and missed. It was a bit anticlimactic.

Now characters should miss, it's part of using random dice, BUT it started me thinking:

Can we build a Wizard that never fails?

What spells would you choose for a No-Fail Wizard? All illusions? Buffs? How could you make a Wizard that can have some successful effect any time they cast a spell?

I'm proposing 3 builds: 1st Level, 5th Level, 10th Level.

What race, background, and subclass? What spells in your spell book?

 

[Ancalagon]

Well, there are 3 main cases of "spell failure"

1: the spell attack roll missed
2: the foe made a saving thrown
3: concentration save failed.

You can do all sort of things to improve the above ... but you cannot gain certainty.

Thus, your MOST important tool for a no-fail wizard is to only use spells where none of those failure condition apply. Would this be an effective character? Probably not....

 

[jgsugden]

Look for Treatmonk's Guide to Wizards (God Wizards). He focuses on ways for wizards to always be productive, whether the enemy makes their save or not. He has a variety of resources in a number of locations, but here is one: Treantmonk's Guide to Wizards 5e

 

[CleverNickName]

A character that cannot ever fail sounds pretty dull to me. But I think it can be done.

The best bet would be to use all of your spell slots to cast things that do not require attack rolls AND do not allow save throws, and only one spell comes to mind (magic missile). So most of the time you'll be the party's buff mage, using your spells to cast things like protection from energy and haste on your companions (willing targets, therefore no save throws or attack rolls). In combat, you'll shift to using your spell slots to cast magic missile every round, and using your Reaction to counterspell any of the target's shield spells.

 

[Shiroiken]

Always cast magic missile at anything that doesn't look like a caster, or if facing a caster, only use it within 60 ft so you can counterspell a Shield spell. All spells should either be utility or damage spells that deal half damage on a save. Buffs can be useful, but avoid concentration (especially Haste, which has a negative effect when it ends). Illusions are decent options if you're creative enough to use them on the fly. Conjure and Summon spells might be acceptable, depending on how far you want to take "never fail," since they could miss their attacks.

 

[Stormonu]

The chance that a counter to a given activity or its failure will show up is inverse to the number of times that ability is used.

In other words, don't push your luck with the DM.

 

[Stalker0]

Would summons count? While true that summons might miss, they could provide flanking and tanking.... so you might consider those an "always win" type of spell.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

If "always having some effect" is your goal you want an Evoker, so that when you aren't firing off a leveled spell you can rely on save cantrips and the "enemies still take half damage on save cantrips" ability at level 6. Frostbite is the only option that also makes use of the 10th level evoker ability so I guess you'll play an ice mage (so naturally get the suitable Elemental Adept feat at some point in the future, which is also geared to limiting the ability of cold magic to suck). Evocation is also a strong choice because they can chuck AoEs around their allies, which generally tend to be good "always do something" options both because they are often save for half damage and because multiple targets make it statistically probable that someone won't save.

Obviously there are lots of buffs and noncombat spells that always just work, or at least just work as long as you maintain concentration. I'd focus this character's gameplay on those, but any wizard can use those and the relevant specialtists don't get that much in the way of spell buffs, whereas only Evokers also get to make a few cantrips save for half and use save for half AoEs more freely thus insuring there is basically always something they can do with some degree of success in combat, even when the magic missiles run out.