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

[Treantmonklvl20]

So yeah, I've totally started a YouTube channel. First video is spell evaluation of course. Next 9 will also be spell evaluation (one for each level of spells and cantrips). Hope you'll check it out!
Treantmonk's Temple

I've completed a Wizard Guide for those interested. Hopefully some of you find it useful.

Treantmonk's Guide to Wizards (part 1)

Treantmonk's Guide to Wizards (part 2)

UPDATE: Elemental Evil options now included in both parts. Skip to the bottom to see this content.

UPDATE 2: I have evaluated the SCAG Bladesinger and cantrips, find them in the link below:

Bladesinger/Cantrips from SCAG

A new levelup guide for God Wizards is here.

 

[EroGaki]

Nice!!

I've personally sworn off wizards in 5e, but I was hoping you'd put out a guide.

 

[Celtavian]

Variant humans for casters aren't so bad. Variant human for martials with heavy armor taking Heavy Armor Mastery early on is kind of a pain and vastly superior to nearly every other martial. It really depends on the class and feat taken. No Darkvision can be a huge hindrance in many environments. Your DM may ignore light conditions often, making it a minor hindrance. If I'm playing a stealthy skirmisher, I much prefer to have Darkvision. Light kills stealth in a great many environments adventurers find themselves in.

From a power gamer standpoint, I do prefer the Forest Gnome as I get minor illusion and speak with small animals for free. The MI cantrip is indeed awesome and speaking with small animals can be very helpful. Though using MI to put myself in a box isn't particularly useful as the enemy can attack me with no real penalty and swing through the box as though it weren't there. I found the cantrip immensely helpful while scouting and ambushing. The way illusions work in this game makes it not particularly useful for actual combat. Your DM may adjudicate the ability differently than mine. This might change if they come out with some good caster feats. About all they have right now is Alertness. I haven't found initiative to be as important as it was in 3E.

Nice to see the guide being updated for 5E. I'm going to look over the spell list tonight while I'm at work. See if I can find anything interesting I haven't yet used. I've run a wizard to 16th level. It is nice to see D&D return a large portion of their power.

 

[PnPgamer]

Thank you! Ive missed your colorcoding so much, seemingly these new guys have thought up to use "gold" as best ane black as mediocre and be as confusing as heck.

I have to point out though that your assesment of the shapechanger under transmuter school is missing a fact. It uses polymorph which is different from wild shape, it does not allow you to retain your mental ability scores and thus is way weaker than you give it credit for.

Also the portent ability under divination school should be blue, it is usable in ANY situation and ANY target. You can make enemies roll badly to a disintegrate for example. You can make ally make that save against hold person. The very definition of "god" ability

 

[HarrisonF]

So happy to see this finally come out!

A few spells I disagree on:

* Grease: This is more meh to me -- I would move it down a slot. If you cast it on someone, in the best case, they will waste a turn. If they fail the save, they fall prone, then get up and walk out of your grease. It is only really useful in a choke point so others don't just go around it.

* Ray of sickness: Meh again. The double to-hit and save makes it almost never work.

* Web: Better. Anchor points aren't required if you just do a 5 foot layer across the surface. It is also better at restraining than Evards since it only allows for Str checks to escape. My biggest complaint is that restrained doesn't happen until the opponents turn.

* Phantasmal Force: Much better than you say. It targets Int, which is really bad for a lot of monsters. It only allows for 1 saving throw, and then investigation checks as their action. You can often get restrain-like effects with this (depends on DM though).

 

[Leatherhead]

I don't get why people think Fog Cloud is good, Silent Image makes it almost completely redundant. And the best part is, people can't touch fog anyway, making it almost impossible to disbelieve.

Oh, and have you looked at the Elemental Evil spells yet?

 

[Treantmonklvl20]

PnPgamer: Rereading, I agree about Portent and have changed the rating and comments
HarrisonF: Good point of Phantasmal Force, I've reconsidered my rating and comments
Leatherhead: I would argue its very easy to touch fog.

 

[Minsc]

Nice guide. Thank you!!

 

[PnPgamer]

PnPgamer: Rereading, I agree about Portent and have changed the rating and comments
HarrisonF: Good point of Phantasmal Force, I've reconsidered my rating and comments
Leatherhead: I would argue its very easy to touch fog.

I thank you deeply for considering my feedback.

 

[Blue]

Thank you much for the guide!

Your point about concentration is spot-on: what spell will I be concentrating on, then plan everything else with flexibility (non-concentration). It really splits the spells into two different camps.

Quick feedback:

• Ability scores: If you are using point buy, a pair of odds isn't too bad. A 15/13 (pre-racial) is a point cheaper than 14/14, and both can be boosted at 4th.
• Variant Human: I think you mean "addition" instead of "edition" in the first paragraph.