D&D 5E (2014) Wizard Brainstorm

[OB1]

May want to consider Fire Genasi as your race. +1 Int, +2 Con and fire resistance

I just started Avernus last week with a Fire Genasi Divine Wizard, and very happy with the choice so far!

 

[BlivetWidget]

I also love doubling down on my casters with Magic Initiate. For Wizard that would let you start with 5 cantrips and have another ritual spell know for your book and get one free casting of it per day. I'd recommend Detect Magic. You can then cast it once per long rest as a standard action without burning a spell slot, and it's in your spellbook so if you need it again later you can ritual cast it.

I like to do the same thing, but I feel like Mage Armor is the better choice. A wizard is going to be casting Mage Armor once per adventuring day anyway as a spell tax no matter what their level. So having a free 1/day Mage Armor is effectively +1 level 1 spell slots. Then you can save your slots for the situational spells like Shield, Absorb Elements, Feather Fall, etc. And depending on the group's definition of adventuring day, it can also effectively be +1 spells prepared.

Since Detect Magic is a ritual, you can already cast it without using a spell slot, so there's not much benefit to being able to cast it as an action. A lot of people think there's an imaginary rule that you have to stand still to perform a ritual, but there's no rule about that; you just have to spend your action and concentrate. And just look at the long list of things you still can do while still spending your movement and action on other things: PHB | Combat | Other Activity on Your Turn. So the party wizard can literally have their Detect Magic going uninterrupted while exploring.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

I haven't completely read through Descent into Avernus yet but if I had to take a wild guess at some point you will be fighting devils which means magic resistance. I played through Out of the Abyss which similarly featured a lot of encounters featuring magic resistance enemies and I found that it's always useful to have a strong buff spell to fall back on when you can't get anything else to stick. Haste is great and I wish I had picked it up at some point. Instead I had to settle on dealing half damage with Polymorph (since the beast's attacks aren't magical). But it turns out that half of t-rex damage is still pretty good damage...

 

[5ekyu]

Whats up guys!

For the last few days I've been wondering/asking you guys about which Class I should roll for a new campaign (Probably Descent into Avernus, no spoilers btw XD).
I've been all over the place, considering rolling Rogue, Warlock, Sorcerer... and I finally decided to roll Wizard. Cause thats a Class that I've always been interested about, but I thought I didnt have experience enough to play (played 5 unfinished campaigns, somewhere around 40 sessions)... but screw it, Im going for it! haha

Now that I made up my mind, I'd like your opinion about Subclasses, Races, Backgrounds and General Tips that you think its important.
So far from what I read about, I liked Divination and Evocation for Subclasses. The Races probably High Elf, Half-elf and Variant Human. Backgrounds couldnt settle on these.

So what do you guys recommend and what tips can you give to a first time Wizard?

For a setting like Avernus, I would go for conjurer. Its ability for gear on demand, easy reuse porting and such seems to me a good fit for a somewhat post-apoc setting.

After that, I would avoid evoker, diviner is great. Transmute might be good for its stone at 6th which is very very adaptable.

In order, I would rec conjure, trans, diviner for that setting.

For race, any of the int bonuses are fine. If tiefling variants are allowed and one of those is + int that's great.

But for an odd approach - you can go conjure and avoid spells that need spell attacks or saves and be very very effective. That can reduce need for high int almost completely. So, then you open up lots of options for races and scores.

I think there was a youtube on a mountain dwarf variation like that. Armor, weapons, lotaa of hp and spells to boot.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

My recommendation playing a wizard is to be a wizard. None of that namby pamby focus on one or two tricks so you can blow up the world and trip titans easier nonsense.

What you need, first and foremost, is prestidigitation. No self-respecting wizard should be without it. What you need next is every spell ever created. You have never met a spell you don't want to know. It doesn't matter if you are LG and the spell summons Orcus. You need it in one of your many spellbooks, because some day you're going to need to know some obscure information contained within it, or use that spellbook to lure an Orcus cultist to their doom, or some such.

Ask your DM what his thoughts are about enemy wizards having spellbooks. If he insists that NPC "mages" that use the wizard spell list do not in fact have spellbooks that can be plundered, play a chaotic stupid kender/gnome hybrid vengeance paladin sorlock instead, and kill every single "mage" you come across before he/she/it has the chance to even cast a single spell.

Assuming your DM is neutral or good and allows you to plunder spellbooks, make sure you have plenty of money for copying spells. Remember, you may only be able to afford to copy the best spells now, but that book is now yours and will be forever, and ever, and ever. One day you will master all of its secrets, and then you will place it in your steadily expanding library.

At some point you will learn to create your own scrolls. Regardless of which magic item creation system your DM chooses to let you use, this is only worth doing with low level spells. And do this you must. Not every low-level spell can be cast as a ritual, and you must have backups for those that can't, since you cannot prepare all of them every day.

Remember this important proverb: "You did not fail because of the challenge you faced. You failed because of the spell you did not know."