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

[CapnZapp]

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.

Three spells where the style of campaign says more about their utility than the actual effects.

Comprehend Language: in some campaigns, most intelligent creatures talk Common. And those that do not talk languages some party member knows (such as a Dwarf having learned a little of the language of his arch-enemies, the Orcs, to better insult them).

In other campaigns, such as an Underdark campaign, everyone and their mother talks in a new strange language. And nobody knows Common. This spell and Tongues become nigh mandatory then.

Of course, you might have players like mine that take every opportunity to conveniently "forget" the language barrier and act as if everybody understands everybody else... and never learn/prepare a spell such as this, bringing the campaign to a full stop each and every time the DM remembers to uphold the language barrier. Possibly in the hopes he'll hand-wave any language issues in the future... sigh.

No, seriously - just like with traps, some groups doesn't enjoy the nitty gritty inconvenience of a realistically polyglot world. In such groups, this spell might well be worthless.

Detect Magic: some DMs (like me) don't have the patience for players wasting their time mucking about with items found. I prefer to state directly what it is they have found. Consequently, nobody needs to cast this spell (or Identify). Which is alright with me.

Find Familiar: as long as your familiar doesn't die, you don't need to take up a precious prepared slot with this.

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.

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.

Mage Armor: exactly. If you have it, you use it. It's almost like a spell slot tax. Congrats on the Staff...!

Shield: trust me when I say this spell never gets out of style. Thee is not a single character of any class or level that isn't helped by being able to get an extra +5 AC for the price of just your reaction.

Sure, if the DM rolls 20+ when attacking you, you're SOL, but it should be much more common that he or she rolls a hit which Shield can turn into a miss.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

Thanks everyone for your kind words and the xp.

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

Cantrips:

Light: While I am an elf and can see in the dark we do have others in the party without this ability. Also light is still helpful with dark vision as it allows you to see in the darkness that extends past where the light ends therefore increasing vision. I've also used this on a stone to roughly gauge the depth of bodies of water.

Mage Hand: The "I ain't gonna touch that" spell. I've used it to interact with suspicious stuff as well as combine it with light cast on a stone to get a better look at odd details on cavern ceilings.

Message: Doesn't get cast very often but is useful for coordinating actions with the party in confrontational social situations or in sneaky situations. I've also used it to whisper to NPCs when I don't want the rest of the party to hear me.

Minor Illusion: I tend to forget about this in combat situations. I've used it as a distraction to lure some goblins to a random bush for a turn. Also used as a roleplaying tool by having my wizard create visuals of things when I talk about them.

Ray of Frost: My attack cantrip of choice. I value control over damage (the other party members are built for damage) so I like the disruptive nature of it. It's fun to throw up a web, then launch this at enemies and watch them struggle. The small range has been annoying early on when I didn't have other options, but now I bust out the wand of magic missiles if I want to damage something far away.

Feats:

I haven't taken any feats yet, but I've recently starting to think about this. Because the dice switching mechanic of Portent is so fun, I think I might just go for Lucky for even more shenanigans. Though Lucky isn't as powerful since it can only affect my own d20 rolls, rerolling saves is really attractive.
I'm not a big fan of a lot of the other feats aimed at casters. I'm pretty good at avoiding aggro so War Caster isn't necessary. Spell Sniper and Elemental Adept are more for attacking than for control. Magic Initiate could be neat to pick something up from another class, but I'm not sure what a good pick would be.

An interesting thing I've noticed is that I often throw out the plans that I had for higher levels when I finally get there. Experiencing play has shifted my priorities and what I want so I often find myself not picking up spells that I found myself drooling over a few levels ago. As such, I've started looking forwards less and less.

 

[Helldritch]

Nice choice of cantrips. Good in RP and Combat. I like that. I was wondering if you would have taken Firebolt or not.
In essence you're more of an utility/support caster than a canon. Again, I like that. It's a nice change from my own group.

Hope to see your comments upon your arrival at 9th level.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Thanks everyone for your kind words and the xp.

You've earned it!

Great thread. Thanks for sharing. I'm posting here so I can easily find future updates.

 

[cmad1977]

Jeez. I wanna do this for my barbarian. Nice.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Rhenny]

I like this thread too.

Of course, how effective spells are often depends on the type of game/campaign and/or the way the DM balances combat, interaction and exploration.

Personally, when I play a wizard, I love to take the spells that save our bacon or give me contingencies when things go badly. I love rope trick and Leo's hut. Feather fall is another one that is great to have even if it is used sparingly. I like hanging on to it in case we all have to jump from high places or we end up falling, which would spell certain doom if we can't fly or levitate.

I think sleep is also better than expected because it does not involve a saving throw. If a creature is low hp it just ends it (at least for 1 round until an ally can awaken it). This is a great way to take down the injured bad dude that does a lot of damage to the party because when your allies attack it, they gain advantage and their hits crit (at least until the creature regains consciousness). When I played Lost Mines of Phandelver, our fighter got one shot killed by the bugbear in the caves. We all started to panic. My wizard made it up to see what had happened and then casted sleep on the bugbear (yes..it had been wounded by the fighter so it was more likely that my spell would work against it). Lo and behold, the bugbear fell asleep and we were able to mop up the few goblins and wolf that remained. Unfortunately, we couldn't save the dead fighter, but his player loved it anyway.

 

[Qbert]

It turns out I too have an 8th level wizard, a high elf conjurer I am currently playing.

Here's my take:

Cantrips - Firebolt, Minor Illusion, Friends, Message, Mage Hand - I used minor illusion a few times in social situations and once to hide myself behind an image of a bush in battle, Friends was useful once when I needed something from an npc i didn't like or care about, message i used a few times to speak to a party member w/o an npc hearing me, Firebolt and Mage Hand have been useful often.

Prepared in the spell list below means spells I currently have prepared, chosen indicates ones I chose at level up. The rest I found via spell books or scrolls. I find the challenge in playing this wizard to be preparing the correct spell for the appropriate time, rather than the number of available spells. One general comment about conjurer, minor conjuration seems like such a cool ability but I haven’t used it. I have had a few ideas for it but it hasn’t worked out in play. I’d be interested in hearing how others have used it. (I don’t like using it for spell components, which if allowed, would be one good use for it) Benign Transposition has been very useful and has negated the need for Misty step for me.

1st Level – Prepared: Shield and Absorb Elements – two incredibly useful spells when needed but it chafes me to prepare them and then not need them, which happens often. I need to get some use out of 1st level slots however.

Chosen: Shield, Absorb Elements, Grease, sleep, unseen servant, Magic Missile, Silent Image, Comprehend languages – Of these I used unseen servant the most out of any for roleplaying a snobish wizard who scoffs at manual labor. Grease, Silent Image and Magic missile were very useful at lower levels and I used them extensively but have removed them from my prepared list in favor of higher level spells. Comprehend Languages has been all but useless due to a warlock of the tome in the party with awakened mind and eyes of the rune keeper. Sleep burned me several times when I thought creatures were low enough in hp that multiple would go down but got only one or even none with a bad roll.

Mage armor, Chromatic Orb, Burning Hands, Color Spray, Detect Magic, Disguise Self, Ice Knife, Earth Tremor, Catapult, Charm Person, Alarm, Identify – Identify has made item identification slightly faster and more reliable than before, Alarm was useful a few times while camping, I used Detect Magic and Ice Knife once each but I haven’t prepared anything else on this list. I have a chain shirt crafted from dragon scales for A/C so mage armor offers no benefit.

 

[Qbert]

2^nd Level – Prepared: Scorching Ray, Blindness/Deafness – concentration free debuff is rare and useful, single target blast stronger (most of the time) than firebolt. I need something to use my second level slots on, so these fit the bill.

Chosen: Invisibility, levitate, mirror image, scorching ray – Invisibility and levitate have both been great utility picks. Levitate allowed me to float up and out of the reach of a giant electric eel, and use my mage hand to retrieve an amulet from a floating corpse. It jumped to try and get me but I was just high enough (and pressed against the ceiling of the cavern) to escape it’s reach. Invisibility has been great for scouting obviously but also as a defensive spell. If something closed into melee with me casting invisibility and running away has worked every time except once against ghosts. Mirror image I have only used once. In general I find I don’t need to cast defensive spells very often, especially now that I have on demand teleport to get out of dodge when needed.

Cloud of Daggers, Suggestion, Web, Arcane lock, Detect thoughts, Blur, Ray of enfeeblement, Hold person, Melf’s acid arrow, Aganazzar’s Scorcher, Max’s Earthen Grasp, Continual Flame, Crown of madness, Locate Object, Rope Trick – I was able to choose one uncommon item after completing a quest for a baron and chose a wand of web, (I was debating btwn. this or pearl of power, but with the amount of use I got out of web I think I made the right choice) which became my most used spell by far up until I learned Hypnotic Pattern. Then after that when we faced Drow I used it again. Web is a great spell. My party commonly set the web on fire as soon as we didn’t need the cc anymore for the extra damage. I once caught a young dragon’s wings in a web and sent it crashing to the earth. Suggestion has been another very useful spell both in battle and occasionally in social situations. I have used detect thoughts, hold person, and Max’s earthen grasp once. Each seem very niche and hard to justify preparing. Crown of madness, ray of enfeeblement, arcane lock, melf’s, aganazzar’s, continual flame all seem terrible. Rope trick would have been useful but our party found a magic hut that we carry around and rest in if needed. Cloud of daggers I had prepared for a while a low levels but I could never find a situation where I could keep an opponent stuck in the same place long enough to make it worthwhile w/o already having used up my concentration.

 

[Qbert]

3^rd level – Prepared and Chosen: Counterspell, Fireball, Hypnotic Pattern, Melf’s Minute Meteors – We play counterspell as an arcana, nature, or religion check to identify the spell being cast, (DC=10+spell level). That has worked quite well and I find counterspell success or failure to be the swingiest single factor in any battle. If my counterspell against the opponents cc, aoe damage, or mass heal works, the battle is easy after that, if it fails, I am out a high level spell slot for no benefit. It’s very fun. Vs one BBEG two successful counterspells meant he went down with barely a whimper in two rounds, while in a battle vs. drow an Evard’s Black Tentacles and a Mass cure wounds caused our party significant casualties when my counterspells failed. Hypnotic Pattern and Fireball are great, but finding a way to fit in the AOE w/o hitting members of my party frequently poses a challenge. My plan is to eventually take the alert feat to help deal with this problem by going before our brawlers run into battle. That is why I took melf’s. The aoe is easier to avoid hitting party members or at least reducing the number hit when i roll too low on initiative to cast a big aoe, and I can still cast other non-concentration spells with my action.

Clairvoyance, Lightning Bolt, Sending, Dispel Magic, Tidal Wave, Wall of Sand, Wall of Water, Vampiric Touch, Haste, Bestow Curse, Glyph of Warding – Clairvoyance has not been needed due to adequate scouting with or without invisibility. Sending has been used extensively for out of combat utility and roleplaying. I prepared Lightning Bolt along with Fireball for a while to try and vary up the shapes of my aoe’s but dropped it b/c I never used it. I have thought of using Haste on either our barbarian or fighter but have never estimated it to be as useful to use my concentration on that rather than on a cc.

4^th Level – Prepared and Chosen: Conjure Minor Elementals, Banishment, Watery Sphere, Polymorph, Vitriolic Sphere – I found Vitriolic Sphere luckily b/c I would have been in a bind whether to choose that or one of the other spells. Even though it is similar to fireball it does slightly more damage (over two rounds as long as they don’t save) than a fireball upcast into a 4^th level slot and I like having two types of aoe damage. I haven’t used conjure minor elementals or watery sphere yet, but I’m really looking forward to grabbing powerful spellcasters or archers in my sphere while we clean up their guards, and the many in and out of combat applications conjure minor elementals will give me. Banishment hasn’t worked yet in two tries due to bad luck, I also plan to get conjure elemental so this will be useful in case I lose control of one. Polymorph I’ve only used once, but it was to turn our fighter into a trex right after he went down and then was healed but still had low hp against a void dragon. Now with full t-rex hp he ripped the dragon to shreds in an epic scene.

Confusion and Hallucinatory Terrain round out my 4^th level spells, but I have yet to prepare these and doubt I will, as watery sphere seems to be a better cc and the applications of hallu. Terr. Seem very very situational.

Overall I find myself contributing to battles with blasting more than I anticipated due to worrying about my aoe cc spells hitting my party. It’s been fun though. I plan to take Rary’s Telepathic Bond and Seeming next level to add something different to my mix of abilities. I want to play around with telepathic communication in combat and social situations and turn the party into different looking creatures for infiltration and possible combat applications. I can make everyone look like the enemy during a battle for instance, and not worry about the party’s ability to distinguish friend from foe due to telepathy.

 

[nexalis]

Thanks for posting this. It's the most useful thread I've encountered on these boards in a long time, and I would love to see more threads like it.