D&D 5E Treantmonk's Guide to Wizards 5e

[MooreVol]

Question! Wizard (Diviner) taking a level of Bard, is it a good idea? Also SOS, I have little to know idea what Im doing.

Ive only ever Multi classed in 4e where it was a feat, much less with a spell caster. My character Sigrunn, recently got a fancy gown (the dice deemed it so.) and the dice also deemed that she rather liked it (though she's growing into it).

She has a reasonable Cha as it is (14), but I'd be trying to grab "lousy" spells, spells that dont rely on her Cha very much. (was hoping for Mage armor, but alas.) She is currently level 2, I figure that she wants to wait till after 4 to grab the level, but again Ive never done this.

My fighter in my Rise of Tiamat game took a level of bard a while back and it's definitely retarded his track in terms of fighting optimization... BUT it's been fun. He has a CHA of only 14, I think, but he's not using his bard spells on offense (except for the occasional Vicious Mockery). He's just a pompous fighter and a mediocre bard.
I might have regretted it when I was sitting at Fighter 10/Bard 1, but it's had its high points too. Aside from role-playing fun, Healing Word has come in very handy a time or two, as has Heroism. You may not want Heroism as a wizard, but I'm sure there are other spells that aren't dependent upon a high CHA to be effective (though as a Diviner a low CHA won't always be such a handicap).

Might wait till after Level 5 though, that's a big power jump and level 1 Bard spells might be a poor replacement for Fireball, Hypnotic Pattern, Counterspell, etc.

 

[BlivetWidget]

Abjuration school: I think this is the overall strongest wizard school. The reason being that your low tankiness is a god wizards biggest weakness. If your group is dungeon crawling a lot and your wizard can hide in the back row, you don't need much tankiness. But in my group, where most encounters are in open spaces, my wizard gets targeted quite often. Smart opponents should also follow the target the mage tactic. Arcane Ward becomes very helpful in those situations. The Abjurers features are not as flashy as e.g. Portent, but I think the concentration save avoiding extra HP are very strong mechanically.

As you say, it really depends on the group. A number of DMs fall into the metagaming line of thought that, "nobody hurt the wizard in the last fight, so I need to make sure my monsters are hitting him in this one while ignoring the barbarian who's all up in their grill" in a misguided but very human attempt to keep the game "fair." To demonstrate the situationality (if I may coin a term!), in the last campaign I played, occasional application of Shield and Absorb Elements was usually enough to convince the DM he was wasting his time targeting my wizard when the barbarian was smashing people's faces in. YMMV.

"Geek the mage" tactics can also be (but aren't always) metagaming based on the combat utility of casters in previous editions, whereas in 5e, unless you're allowed constant rest breaks, a wizard simply can't sustain the same damage output as a melee class. So smart opponents should not jump to the assumption that they need to geek the mage, unless the mage is well-rested and this is the "big encounter" of the day (metagaming).

That said, I do like the Abjuration school, I just don't think it's head and shoulders above the rest. In a straight wizard duel, probably they are the best, but that describes a very very small percentage of games you'll encounter. As for dealing with other casters in more common scenarios, Watery Sphere is incredibly effective vs the classes where strength is a dump stat (most casters).

But my favorite abjuration ability goes to the Evocation wizard: sculpt spells. Again, arguably dependent on your game, but in the aforementioned one we were usually up against large groups of fragile enemies like skeletons. They would also usually swarm out of a secret door in the dungeon and surround our fighters. Being able to drop fireballs on top of your friends without hurting them is incredibly satisfying and it would take some convincing for me to give that up willingly.


So to summarize: all wizards are awesome, and there exists a game/DM for which each school will outshine the others.

 

[SpoCk0nd0pe]

A number of DMs fall into the metagaming line of thought that, "nobody hurt the wizard in the last fight, so I need to make sure my monsters are hitting him in this one while ignoring the barbarian who's all up in their grill" in a misguided but very human attempt to keep the game "fair." To demonstrate the situationality (if I may coin a term!), in the last campaign I played, occasional application of Shield and Absorb Elements was usually enough to convince the DM he was wasting his time targeting my wizard when the barbarian was smashing people's faces in. YMMV.

Some examples of actual game situations, containing some mild Curse of Strahd spoilers:

Spoiler

Targeting the mage is entirely possible without any metagaming at all. Take a powerful hag and her tree for example. Everyone is sneaking up on the hag. The tree awakes and his branches attack mostly randomly. They random my ass.

The party is sneaking in a werewolf cave. They sneak upon one of them, jump and kill it. The werewolves notice and attack, and they are fast and win initiative. Since the the rest of the pack was somewhere else, the wizard is actually the prime target now.

The party is in an underground room and someone touches a certain crystal ball. Shadows come through the walls attacking the party from everywhere.

Almost half of the encounters in our current and past group are chaotic. It is not related to metagaming at all.

I don't see why targeting the Wizard should be meta gaming. If an opposing wizard disables half your group, you would surely focus on him because it is the tactically most sound course of action. Any being with intelligence 6 or higher and some fighting experience in a fantasy world should know this.

My argument is this:
The Illusionist and Diviner features are very powerful reality altering abilities. But the wizard already has many very powerful reality altering abilities. I generally think a feature that helps in situations where your usual strategies don't work is better then a feature that improves on your usual strategies. Just like a card in MTG that helps when you are loosing is better then a card that is good when you are already winning.

I get why Treantmonk rated the Abjurer only green. He does not really have a god wizard feature. But his feature allows the Abjurer to be god wizard longer in situations where other schools start having problems: when taking damage. This is why I think the Abjurer is mechanically the strongest wizard overall. If your group is mostly opening dungeon doors in formation, YMMV.

 

[BlivetWidget]

Targeting the mage is entirely possible without any metagaming at all. <etc>

I never said it wasn't, just that it often is. There is a big difference between a swarm of enemies attacking the closest thing to them (any wizard worth his salt is going to position himself to mitigate those possibilities. This will not be possible all the time, of course, but efforts should be made), and enemies that willingly take opportunity attacks to push past the fighters in an attempt to geek the mage. Especially when it's a small encounter and the mage is just hanging out at the back, tossing Frostbite into the fray.

And of course you focus on the opposing mage, which is certainly an instance of metagaming: you know that because you are the important players, the opposing mage is at full health with full spell slots, and he's not going to do anything else important that day so he's going to use all the big spells on you. I'm not placing a value judgement on it, just pointing out that the economy of spell slots is not the same for players and NPCs, and we all know it.

My argument is this:
The Illusionist and Diviner features are very powerful reality altering abilities. But the wizard already has many very powerful reality altering abilities. I generally think a feature that helps in situations where your usual strategies don't work is better then a feature that improves on your usual strategies. Just like a card in MTG that helps when you are loosing is better then a card that is good when you are already winning.

I get why Treantmonk rated the Abjurer only green. He does not really have a god wizard feature. But his feature allows the Abjurer to be god wizard longer in situations where other schools start having problems: when taking damage. This is why I think the Abjurer is mechanically the strongest wizard overall. If your group is mostly opening dungeon doors in formation, YMMV.

By the same token, a wizard does not have to be an Abjurer to have access to many very powerful abjuration abilities. Like I said, there is a game style for which each wizard school is top rank. And since they can all use spells from each other's schools, the actual differences between them aren't all that drastic.

 

[Patrick McGill]

I never said it wasn't, just that it often is. There is a big difference between a swarm of enemies attacking the closest thing to them (any wizard worth his salt is going to position himself to mitigate those possibilities. This will not be possible all the time, of course, but efforts should be made), and enemies that willingly take opportunity attacks to push past the fighters in an attempt to geek the mage. Especially when it's a small encounter and the mage is just hanging out at the back, tossing Frostbite into the fray.

And of course you focus on the opposing mage, which is certainly an instance of metagaming: you know that because you are the important players, the opposing mage is at full health with full spell slots, and he's not going to do anything else important that day so he's going to use all the big spells on you. I'm not placing a value judgement on it, just pointing out that the economy of spell slots is not the same for players and NPCs, and we all know it.




By the same token, a wizard does not have to be an Abjurer to have access to many very powerful abjuration abilities. Like I said, there is a game style for which each wizard school is top rank. And since they can all use spells from each other's schools, the actual differences between them aren't all that drastic.

I'll be honest, I play monsters/enemies with pretty consistent strategies. Beasts, animals, monstrous non-humanoids? They attack the closest thing they can, leaping into the fray and dealing death as they can.

Clever goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds? They never ever ever on purpose engage front line warriors. If they aren't fleeing, they are using their abilities to ambush and take down the weakest looking people in the party in an attempt to get the party to withdraw. Goblins use their (essentially Cunning Action) disengage bonus action to dart under the swords of the big beefs to try and take out that spell slinger because that seems like a quicker end to the battle, and because they can grab loot to steal and book it afterwards.

I try to play my monsters like they have brains and tactics. Not that they are smart, but they are consistent, and unless they're big challenge seeking orcs a pitched battle is not where they're going to make their stand anyway. A group of goblins in a fight with a party and there's a dude with no armor throwing fireballs? That's the target, me hearties.

 

[SpoCk0nd0pe]

By the same token, a wizard does not have to be an Abjurer to have access to many very powerful abjuration abilities. Like I said, there is a game style for which each wizard school is top rank. And since they can all use spells from each other's schools, the actual differences between them aren't all that drastic.

That's not the point. Of course every wizard has access to every spell. The argument was meant regarding things you can do. The diviner and illusionist are better at what the wizard is best at anyway: doing his god thing.
The abjurer on the other hand is better at staying in the fight, concentrating on his spells and doing his god thing when taking damage. This is something every wizard is really bad at, but the abjurer is the least bad. Since those are the situations where hits the fan, I think the abjurer has a mechanical advantage over other wizards. He has fewer attack vectors then other wizard types.

To put things back into perspective: I too think all wizard schools are very good. The abjurer is not a melee class. Every wizard is kind of squishy if caught off guard.
But I think when optimizing a wizard, trying to somewhat mitigate his weakness is the optimal choice. I can tell from experience, that the outcome of some battles would have been left to chance if not for the concentration save avoiding extra hp, allowing me to keep the encounter split in half without dice rolls. In other encounters where I made a mistake and took damage, the extra hp allowed me to focus on casting god spells instead of purely defensive spells. I think this is the biggest of the available wizard benefits from school abilities.

 

[BlivetWidget]

That's not the point.

Yes, it is the point. The difference between two wizards will likely come down to the spells they chose to prepare more than their school. And the question of whether it's better to bolster one's weaknesses or lean into one's strengths is as old as our species. We can't say definitively which is the better choice. You prefer the former, I prefer the latter. Society in general has agreed with each of us at various points in history.

A group of goblins in a fight with a party and there's a dude with no armor throwing fireballs? That's the target, me hearties.

Bless their little hearts. If the goblins are up against a wizard with Fireball, he's going to turn to the barbarian and tell him to "Hold my beer and watch this." Cast at lowest level (and without Empowered Evocation), a fireball has a 99.92% chance of instantly vaporizing every single goblin in a 40-ft diameter sphere, around corners and behind cover. Even if the goblins get better initiative rolls, between Mage Armor and Shield a wizard can easily have an AC of 20 or 21 for the turn it takes to just walk away and flambe. By the time an Evoker gets out of those super-squishy low levels, the single, high-CR enemies are scarier than the swarms. And that is where the Abjurer shines, IMHO.

 

[Treantmonklvl20]

The more I play, the more I re-evaluate the Arcane Traditions and change my opinions on which are best. A few things:

• I weight low level powers higher than high level ones. In almost any campaign, this should make perfect sense
• Abilities that are multi-use per rest are always preferable
• Abilities that scale well with level are of upmost import

That said, here's how I would rank the Arcane Traditions (I should also note that I think every Arcane Tradition is good, so just because something is ranked low doesn't mean it's not good for play)

I will start with what I think is the weakest, and work my way to the best.

 

[Treantmonklvl20]

(and yes, I will be updating part 1 of my guide with these thoughts)
Arcane School: Transmutation. Rank 10

Minor Alchemy (2nd level): This is the biggest weakness of this choice. It comes in like a lamb. Turn one material into another temporarily. Not entirely useless but SUPER circumstantial.

Transmuter's Stone (6th level): This ability is good. Even if it was just gaining Con save proficiency it would be good. However, you can switch to Darkvision, Resistance to energy of your choice, or a speed boost. All of which are good (though none as consistently good as the Con Save proficiency). Not a great ability mind you, but good, and good enough reason to make this Arcane Tradition an OK choice.

Shapechanger (10th level): So if you didn't take Polymorph at 7th, 8th or 9th level you get the Polymorph spell as an extra spell. Of course, you DID take Polymorph right at 7th level because you are smart. This allows you to cast Polymorph once without using a spell slot, but only on yourself, and only to a creature with a CR of 1 or less, and only once per rest. So this is circumstantial only, and kind of...not bad. Need to fly somewhere? Easy. Need to swim somewhere? Easy. OK, I'll take it. This is not an optimization note, but I think it's thematically appropriate for a Transmuter.

Master Transmuter (14th level): This power destroys your transmuter's stone (which you can remake after a long rest) which is a hefty price. It also limits this to one use. The effects are all pretty neat, but are they powerful?

Major Transformation: Super circumstantial. Not much I can think of for common uses for this.
Panacea: A very potent heal. Really potent. This is pretty good, but remember the cost.
Restore Life: Raise dead? Yes, definitely useful, and useful in downtime. I would use this before having the Cleric fork out the material components for theirs.
Restore Youth: Super flavorful, but lets face it, in the average campaign, aging is not an issue.

 

[Treantmonklvl20]

Arcane School: Conjuration: Rank 9

Sorry Conjuration, breaks my heart to put you so low, but...

Minor Conjuration (2nd level): Temporarily make a useful item, like a coil of rope, or a box to hide behind. However, if it takes a point of damage, it vanishes. I can think of uses for this, but not a huge amount, and not many that are much better than we could expect from a cantrip.

Benign Transposition (6th level): This ability is good. Teleport yourself, or switch places with an ally. That it recharges when you cast a conjuration spell is useful and cool. The limits are not insignificant. It requires your action, it has a range of 30 feet. Still, it's not a spell, so you can use a bonus action spell, though honestly, when I think bonus action spells, the first one that comes to mind is MISTY STEP, which this is largely duplicating. Still, there are other decent bonus action spells (Magic Weapon for example).

Focused Conjuration: (10th level): The concentration for your conjuration spells can't be broken from taking damage (unless you go down!). This obviously is an ability that immediately makes you think, "OOOH - THAT'S GOOD!". Then again, if we think about it, are our best concentration spells conjuration? I mean Evard's is decent, Conjure Elemental is decent. At higher levels, we don't want to lose concentration on Maze for sure. However, I really think most of us are concentrating on Polymorph or Animate Objects at this level. Maybe a Bigby's Hand. This is decent, but it's not amazing, nor is it protecting our concentration on our best spells.

Durable Summons (14th level): This is our premiere ability and we get 30 temp HP on summoned creatures. Wizards don't make the best summoners, even if we can't lose concentration on those spells due to damage. Conjure Elementals is OK. Conjure Greater Demon is pretty good, but Druids still outsummon Wizards, especially Circle of Dreams Druids. 30 temps is fine though. Not amazing, but I'll take it. Probably of more use when we summon multiple creatures. Generally I avoid that though, not for optimization reasons, but for consideration of my fellow players.