Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 6409188" data-attributes="member: 58197">Magic missile sucks except in a very, very few cases (e.g., monsters with resistance or immunity to your regular damage spells, or extremely low-hp monsters where you can kill three at a time). As a high-level wizard, I keep it prepared in case I run into one of those situations, but it's strictly backup. For a low-level wizard, you're much better off with sleep, thunderwave, or burning hands.Hmm, fair point. The meaning of "utility" varies by class, but in the case of the wizard, I find it mostly boils down to a) transportation, b) deception/manipulation, c) concealment, and d) "handyman" tricks like starting fires or opening doors. In some cases you might add e) battlefield control, though I don't find myself using those spells very often.In my experience of playing 5E wizards, I have never once found a spellbook or scroll that I could transcribe. I've been playing entirely with the basic allotment of 6 starting spells, plus 2 each time you level up. In the end, it's not that big a deal. You prepare just as many spells as the cleric, and most of the time you'll keep basically the same loadout from day to day. The choice of which spells to prepare is far more painful than the choice of which to put in your spellbook. And, as I said, the spells you get are much more versatile than anything in the cleric's armory.Here's an example of how I might do spell selection for a 5th-level wizard, assuming Int 18. This is just going off the Basic Rules since I don't have my PHB handy:SPELLBOOKCantrips: Fire bolt, light, mage hand, minor illusionLevel 1: Charm person, detect magic, disguise self, identify, mage armor, shield, sleep, thunderwaveLevel 2: Levitate, suggestion, invisibility, hold personLevel 3: Fireball, counterspellPREPARED SPELLS: Thunderwave, charm person, mage armor, shield, sleep, levitate, suggestion, invisibility, fireballSPELL SLOTS: 4 1st-level, 3 2nd-level, 2 3rd-levelSTRATEGY: For most encounters, use minor illusion early to distract and confuse. Once the enemy wises up, switch to fire bolt. If you see an opportunity, use sleep or thunderwave on clustered enemies. Look for people with access to secure areas or valuable information, and cast charm person on them. Invisibility can do wonders for the rogue's scouting and infiltration. It can also help you escape when things go pear-shaped. Cast detect magic as a ritual to pick out valuable loot.When facing large groups of melee enemies, levitate and fireball are a devastating combination--hover out of reach and lay waste from above. Suggestion, skillfully used, can sow chaos among your foes by making them turn on each other. Shield should be used sparingly; don't cast it just to save yourself a couple hit points, but an actively casting wizard with one less 1st-level spell slot is better than a fully charged wizard lying on the ground unconscious.If you know you're going to be facing an enemy caster, consider swapping one of your lower-level prepared spells for counterspell. If you expect to be tackling a big dumb foe with lousy Wisdom, hold person is worth considering. Disguise self has its limits but can sometimes be very useful indeed, especially with a charmed friend to help you carry off the deception.</blockquote>

Verification