D&D 5E Reflections of an 8th Level Wizard

[MonkeezOnFire]

So recently there's been a few threads on the topic of spells and what makes a spell good. I figured I'd add my two cents by going through my spell list and talk about how effective each of my spells have been in actual play.

First some background:
We started with Lost Mines of Phandelvar and then moved on to Out of the Abyss (which has been tweaked to suit starting at lvl 5, it's been interesting). Some spoilers for these adventures may follow as I tell stories about the party's exploits.
My character is based on the starter set wizard, keeping everything except for the initial spell selection and after lvl 1 I advanced my character as I saw fit.
I chose the school of divination, mostly because I thought it's 2nd level ability was very general. I didn't want to specialize in anything in particular.
I increased my intelligence at lvl 4 and lvl 8 to hit the magic number of 20.

So without further ado let's talk spells!

Level 1:

Charm Person: I've cast this spell a couple times and only in minor ways. Our DM rules that this spell doesn't do much against hostile enemies (ie. in combat) and I don't like mind screwing innocent NPCs. That being said I don't think this spell is weak, it just doesn't suit my play style or the character I have created.

Comprehend Languages: A niche utility spell that isn't used a lot, but I like it. I've used it to read inscriptions written in dungeon environments as well as "eavesdrop" on deep gnomes and duergar that think I can't understand them. While we are in the under dark this spell makes it onto my prepared list whenever we're in town.

Detect Magic: My favourite utility spell. This gets cast any time we encounter something odd and whenever we enter the search the room phase after clearing out a dungeon. Our DM also likes to break the rules of this spell whenever it's flavourful such as detecting auras that are out of range if they are substantially powerful. The knowledge of magic school as well as arcana checks allow some very useful knowledge acquisition when adventuring.

Find Familiar: I have a super cool owl scout. Useful for gaining intel about surroundings. I don't use it in combat at all since it's way to easy to kill. Similarly, if we suspect threats are ahead I let the rogue go ahead and do his thing so that I don't have to replace it.

Grease: This is a spell I cast a lot at low levels but as I gained access to higher slots I have mostly stopped preparing. Prone is nice with it giving advantage to our melee users but it's very initiative dependent. You really need your party members to go right after you in order to take use the advantage. But, I fondly remember tripping up enemies and covering choke points with multiple grease areas (no concentration required).

Mage Armor: My experience with this is very skewed since I have a staff that casts it so I don't actually have to expend a spell slot. Still though, I often find myself at the end of the day with at least one lvl 1 slot so I don't see casting this as a big deal. There's no real reason not to cast this once you get more than 3 spells a day. I also did learn this at lvl 1 because I somewhat foresaw this.

Magic Missile: I didn't actually learn this spell, I have a wand of magic missiles. It's very useful as an option against enemies where nothing else in your arsenal is effective. Also great for finishing off low hp enemies, since after all dead is the best condition to inflict.

Shield: The same staff that casts Mage Armor can also cast shield (though I did learn it myself). And yet I don't find myself using it very often any more. Enemies now seem to have very large bonuses to hit and can roll above 20 with some consistency. It's good (and you get so many level 1 picks you might as well pick it up) but I do think it's usefulness diminishes.

Sleep: Like grease this is a spell that worked wonders at low levels but now rarely use, which I think is what most people expect here. I found that it was beneficial to wait a few rounds before actually using this since if anyone is left awake they can easily rouse their allies with minimal disruption. I did have a really cool moment where I won initiative and sent a bunch of stirges to sleep which then fell to the ground to their death. I don't think this trivializes all low level encounters like some assert that it does, but in that case it definitely did!

Thunderwave: This is the only level 1 combat spell that I still regularly prepare. Forced movement is especially useful when you're like me and favor area control spells. Watching enemies struggle to stumble out of a web or a grease only to be blown back in with this is always great. Another notable achievement of this spell was force a bugbear to flee with his tail between his legs after being blown off a steep drop. This spell turns every cliff into an amazing opportunity.

Overall my level 1 spells have served me well but, at the higher levels I struggle to use all my level 1 slots. I keep looking back and seeing if there are any I would want to learn to help solve this problem but there really aren't. I'll admit though that without my good old staff of defense this wouldn't be as much a problem in the first place.

 

[Croesus]

Sleep: Like grease this is a spell that worked wonders at low levels but now rarely use, which I think is what most people expect here. I found that it was beneficial to wait a few rounds before actually using this since if anyone is left awake they can easily rouse their allies with minimal disruption. I did have a really cool moment where I won initiative and sent a bunch of stirges to sleep which then fell to the ground to their death. I don't think this trivializes all low level encounters like some assert that it does, but in that case it definitely did!

Yeah, an interesting quirk of 5E is that sleep is rarely a good spell to use at the beginning of combat. Most creatures have too many hit points and will be unaffected, or minimally affected.

Where sleep can shine is as a finishing move. Take a creature with good hit points, beat it down some, cast sleep, then finish it off. Just be careful not to sleep your own party members.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

Level 2:

Blindness/Deafness: I took this because it's one of the few debuffs that don't require concentration so I can throw them out while I have a battlefield control spell up. Also made a bit better by my divination ability where I can force an enemy to fail a save. I don't use this as often as I'd like though since many underdark creatures have senses that don't rely on sight. Such is life I suppose.

Hold Person: I learned this spell from a scroll in Gracklstugh. I have not cast this spell a single time. Not once. All enemies we have faced have been non-people or have had spell resistance (side note: Gracklstugh was hell. I hate those derro with a passion). I avoided this spell in the first place because of it's narrow application and it turned out my intuition was correct. This spell is either great or literally useless. In my case it has been pretty consistently the latter.

Levitate: Now here is a spell I really like. It's a debuff, it's a defensive buff, it's an exploration tool. Basically, it's a super versatile tool that I prepare a lot. My party questioned me why I would waste a slot to levitate up a cliff instead of first trying to climb it. My answer was basically just "If I can replace a skill check with magic, I'm going to."

Mirror Image: One of the few non-concentration requiring defensive tools which makes it great. It does lose effectiveness when you face a lot of creatures with multi-attack or large hordes. Alas, no spell can replace the need to be cautious as a wizard.

Misty Step: It's teleporting. It's good. But seriously, I've lost count how many times this spell has gotten me out of a tight spot. Also useful in exploration situations to get around obstacles. I once teleported to the other side of a portcullis to look for the switch to lift it. I then got ambushed by invisible duergar, but this spell is still really cool (Gracklstugh truly was hell).

Scorching Ray: My go to blast spell. It's really useful to have a spell that targets AC for when facing creatures that have really strong saves. It's also versatile in that you can deal lots of damage to a single monster or attack many. Also really fun is the way it synergizes with web by giving you advantage on your attacks and then dealing a little extra fire damage if they start their turn in the burning web. This breaks the web though so I save this tactic for when we're pushing to end the fight.

Web: So I've mentioned this spell while talking about how to use other spells and there's a reason for that. This is probably my favourite spell so far. I love area control spells and this does the job wonderfully. Restrained in a great condition to impose for the rogue and warlock in the party. And difficult terrrain is great for slowing down enemies in a bottle neck. Good use of this spell can break up an encounter into smaller more manageable fights.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

Level 3:

Counterspell: It's not often that we encounter enemy spell casters, but when we do I'm glad I have this. Enemies typically get access to higher level spells faster than I do so having a way to deal with that is a good thing. This was pretty much the best thing that I could do against the derro savants (except then they turned invisible, hiding and then launching their lightning bolts. Seriously screw Gracklstugh).

Fireball: The classic AOE blast. I'm not an evocation wizard so it's large area is sometimes a curse. Our fighter likes to get into the thick of things and in order to win fights I've been forced to blast him a couple times. For this reason I really do think that Lightning Bolt isn't a strictly worse option. It allows more finesse. But anyway Fireball is great. The range is absurd and I've great made of being living artillery. I've destroyed an enemy boat before it got into boarding range of us. The DM was smart about this one though. He had some survivors swim over to us and board us. But because they were duergar they were invisible and waited for us to rest before ambushing us. And who was the first to get attacked? It was the skinny elf that broke their shiny boat (GRACKLSTUGH!!!).

Fly: While exploring the underdark we encounter plenty of terrain that isn't navigable by foot. When a levitate won't do it this comes in. It also increased speed so I've used it as a way to weave in and out of combat and as an escape tool. But sometimes it isn't enough and you get chased down by gargoyles who also have 60 ft. fly speeds.

Hypnotic Pattern: AOE control where the target only gets one save. It's certainly powerful. It has the same problem with sleep where you want all enemies to succumb to it or else they can quickly reverse its effects. Charm is also a commonly resisted condition. Or perhaps it isn't, I've kinda just assumed that it won't work on the elementals and oozes we've been fighting. Maybe I should give it a shot. I think the biggest reason I don't use it that often is that I love how web sticks (heh) around and you can force enemies to into it multiple times.

Leomund's Tiny Hut: Utility spell that avoids wandering encounters when we rest. It does it's job to ensure we get enough sleep to renew our resources.

Tongues: I took this after we lost our cleric and we didn't have a good way to parley with the people of the underdark. It's part of my "in town" spell list.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

Level 4:

Arcane Eye: The ultimate scout. I've used this to gain enough information to make this spell worthwhile. The underdark can be an especially unforgiving place to adventure. This spell has also let me look at a medusa. So that's neat.

Conjure Minor Elementals: My DM ruled that he gets to choose exactly what shows up after I choose the mode but I still really like this. The first time I used it in a combat situation I received dust mephits which allowed us to run over a group of basilisks with their blinding breath. Also the benefit from just having extra bodies in combat is actually quite substantial. I've also used this spell to summon a gargoyle to help convince a mephit to work with us. For this display the DM gave us advantage on social skills to convince it to be our guide.

Polymorph: This is definitely a contender for being my favourite spell. I haven't used it much so far but it did allow me to turn the fighter into a t-rex. And that's awesome. It's also a powerful debuff allowing only a single save against it's effect. But I haven't used it in this way so I'm not sure if the DM will have allies of the target attack it in order to revert forms.

 

[pukunui]

Fantastic thread! We need more like this! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Fantastic thread! We need more like this! Thanks for sharing.

Indeed! It's always interesting to read actual reports of how characters played at the table.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Hypnotic Pattern: AOE control where the target only gets one save. It's certainly powerful. It has the same problem with sleep where you want all enemies to succumb to it or else they can quickly reverse its effects. Charm is also a commonly resisted condition. Or perhaps it isn't, I've kinda just assumed that it won't work on the elementals and oozes we've been fighting. Maybe I should give it a shot. I think the biggest reason I don't use it that often is that I love how web sticks (heh) around and you can force enemies to into it multiple times.

Yes, Web is great. Hypnotic Pattern has a somewhat larger area though (especially if you turn the cube on its diagonal to cover a 30' x 50' area), and as you suspect, some things are surprisingly not-immune to charm. Many oozes are immune to charm, but MM elementals are not. See http://www.5esrd.com/gamemastering/...betical/monsters-e/elementals/earth-elemental

-Max

 

[Helldritch]

Your post is quite refreshing. I really appreciate to have a player point of view.

Some of the spells in OoA are at best, not to be used often. If not downright useless.

Charm: Most of your enemies will not have a good save against it. Your DM limitation is what makes that spell mostly useless. Normaly this spell gives you quite a good body guard for it's duration. In OoA. This spell is a bit meh...

Shield: In the hands of a pure caster like you. It needs help to be great. Mage Armor and a good dex could raise your AC to 21 with this spell. A protection ring would make your day and the spell would shine for you. But from your standing point, you are right. Mirror Image is a better spell for you.

Sleep: Sleep is much more useful than you might think. Alone it's not that good. But if it is done after a nice Fire Ball, the spell is much more potent. You pointed it yourself, weakened enemies are much more susceptible to spell. It is a good spell economy to do it that way. Two fire balls or One fire ball and one sleep?

Thunderwave: The dmg is good but the booming sound makes it a bad choice in my campaigns as it will trigger a random encounter roll. 300' feet range is easily double or even more in caverns and water environments. In a dungeon, it is even worse as you will probably alert every room in the floor you're in. If your DM ignore the sound part. That spell is incredible. Otherwise, Burning Hands should be your main choice.

Of your second level spells. Your choices were perfect.

Hold Person: In your case it is more a matter of the adventure itself if the spell is a bit on the weak side. Fighting drows, duergars and derros is not when this spell shines. Otherwise, this spell can be a savior against a big baddy or a boss with no legendary saves. This spell can end combats very fast.

On your third level.
Fire Ball: In this you are right again. Fire ball is much better in the hands of an evoker. In your case, lightning bolt would be way better. The positioning would be much easier.

Fourth level.
Nothing to say. Your comments are right on spot. Stone skin would have been a good choice for you if you get into melee or the victim of ranged attacks. Otherwise some spells might give you better results.

Fifth level: You're not there yet. But a cone of cold could round up your character well.

But I am curious; what are your cantrips? which feat (if any) will you take when you hit level 12?

 

[Timothy Park]

Very much appreciate this thread as I develop 'casters in 5E. Thank you.