D&D 5E Mage Armor: A (nearly) must have?

[Shiroiken]

Yes, player tactics are important, but sometimes, the wizard is going to be attacked, whether it be in melee or ranged, or by another caster.

Even in games where you protect the wizard, they're going to get attacked. They still have HP though, which a renewable resource. At lower levels, your few spell slots are too precious to spend on MA, but when you have the spell slots to spend, your HP are high enough to cover the few attacks you take.

 

[JackOfAllTirades]

Even in games where you protect the wizard, they're going to get attacked. They still have HP though, which a renewable resource. At lower levels, your few spell slots are too precious to spend on MA, but when you have the spell slots to spend, your HP are high enough to cover the few attacks you take.

You hope.

 

[jrowland]

Sounds like your GM could use a few pointers. He's obviously not nearly evil enough.

He's evil enough, but I am a more evil DM posing as a player, lol! I out evil him. FYI - Halfling diviner with the luck feat. I am all about dice-denying the DM!

 

[vandaexpress]

This depends on your DM and the frequency with which your mage comes under attack. I very frequently target the party's casters, even if he's behind the front lines, I usually have a few enemies break off and maneuver for a pincer attack and flank the squishy back line, send flyers over the melee'ers to hit the back line etc. At this point, the party sorcerer (who doesn't use mage armor, due to draconic reslience) uses his first level spell slot for shield and absolutely nothing else, he's level 8, but when I think about it, aside from a brief time when he used sleep at very low levels, he has never used any first level spells except for shield. Some sessions he has to cast it 3 or 4 times, and he's a very intelligent/tactical player.

If it were me, playing in my own campaign, I would absolutely use mage armor from the get-go, due to the lethality of combat.

TL;DR: YMMV since it depends on how your DM runs combat encounters. It will either be a waste of a slot or a must-have.

 

[Fanaelialae]

Indeed. I've had parties of 8 and still the mages get attacked pretty regularly. Even if not in melee, ranged attacks are still quite possible.

Many creatures (animals, elementals, etc) have no effective ranged attack and for those that do, I prepare Fog Cloud. You can dart out of the cloud, fireball, and move back in making it quite unlikely you'll be hit, especially if you have Shield and a halfway decent AC (if you have Mage Armor, even better, but in many cases it's overkill). Assuming you have allies who present themselves as more tempting targets, IME the archers will go after them.

 

[HarrisonF]

The cost at levels 1-4 is too high to use mage armor, but after that mage armor is pretty much required unless you find a work around. At the low levels you can probably get by without it. Even if you get attacked, worse case you die and make a new character.

I worked that into an RP reason of my wizard being naive about adventuring. After he finally got really hurt at level 4, he looked into getting mage armor.

 

[slightlyprime]

have your wizard wear loose chains that don't restrict his somantic part of casting and a bag over his head that he can see through, thus making the wizard appear like a prisoner and not a worthy thing to attack, continuously mumble and wave arms around like a crazy prisoner to disguise your spell casting. i feel this would be a cool strategy, now you don't need to worry about armor. or if you are smal like a gnome get carried around in a crate or some sort of bag that gets put down when combat starts, have peep holes so you can see in all directions, now you have cover to grant disadvantage on people attacking you and are hidden. i am assuming that the wizard isn't casting spells that fly from him though rather controler type spells like wall of force and stuff that makes combat nicer for team mates. clever ways to avoid being a target of attacks wil make mage armor unnecessary.

 

[Athinar]

I created a Halfling Rogue/Fighter/Wizard and took one level of Wizard just for the Mage Armor, 2nd Fighter for Surge and +2 Archery, the rest of the levels will be Assassin

The Assassin never leaves home without MA (you can carry more treasure that way, no armor to carry)

 

[77IM]

That's cool, although instead of Wizard you could have gone one more Fighter and gotten Eldritch Knight and still had mage armor and shield. Of course Wizard gets a lot more spells known than EK, and ritual caster, so you've got that going for you.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

have your wizard wear loose chains that don't restrict his somantic part of casting and a bag over his head that he can see through, thus making the wizard appear like a prisoner and not a worthy thing to attack, continuously mumble and wave arms around like a crazy prisoner to disguise your spell casting. i feel this would be a cool strategy, now you don't need to worry about armor. or if you are smal like a gnome get carried around in a crate or some sort of bag that gets put down when combat starts, have peep holes so you can see in all directions, now you have cover to grant disadvantage on people attacking you and are hidden. i am assuming that the wizard isn't casting spells that fly from him though rather controler type spells like wall of force and stuff that makes combat nicer for team mates. clever ways to avoid being a target of attacks wil make mage armor unnecessary.

And that, my friends, is why Disguise Self is an AWESOME spell. Make your mage look like a plate armor-wearing, shield-toting warlord with big glowing longsword. Nobody will want to shoot at him until everyone else is down.