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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Evhelm" data-source="post: 6429706" data-attributes="member: 6781294">Some live experience may be useful here: I'm DM'ing for a party going through LMoP and they've just started fussing their way through Wave Echo Cave. (Some minor spoilers for those of you doing LMoP!)In one encounter, they were ambushed by a swarm of stirges; they were surrounded. The wizard had two of them latched on and draining blood before the rest of the party had really figured out how to react. In desperate hope, the wizard (and here's the important part), as an Evoker, cast Thunderwave. Granted, the stirges have very low health, but this one act managed to destroy all 8-10 stirges in one attack (the Paladin and Rogue had both decided to pull them off rather than attack them for fear of hitting their comrades, and the Cleric had used his round to heal folks). Incidentally, they did fail their save, but even with half damage and no knockback the Wizard would have saved the party from expending many more resources--and maybe a party death--by a single 1st level spell.The key to this combat victory was that the Wizard was an Evoker: Sculpt Spell allowed him hit the stirges but not his comrades.Later on, the party again found itself surrounded, this time by zombies. Again, Thunderwave comes out. This time, the zombies make their save, and the wizard does a measly three damage to each of them. However, that measly three damage was done to eight zombies--so 24 damage in one level 1 spell, to a variety of opponents. It seems like if you're willing (as a non-evoker) to commit to friendly fire, you can still dish out incredible damage. Obviously, this is not the best solution, but it does demonstrate that a wizard--with proper planning (the wizard's forte) can be extremely useful in combat as he is in non-combat situations.</blockquote>

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