Wizard only dwarf gish, is it viable?

[Blas_de_Lezo]

Taking into account playing at every level since 1st, is it too crazy to build a wizard-only dwarf gish?

Intelligence won't be so necessary until higher leves (when you could grab un uncommon 19 int magic item).

Example

Standard array
Mountain Dwarf
Abjuration Specialist

Str 17 (15+2)
Dex 10
Con 16 (14+2)
Int 13
Wis 12
Cha 8

Versatile martial weapon proficiencies
Medium armor profiency

So mage armor isn't needed

Spell plan until 8th level:
Cantrips: Blade Ward, True Strike, Friends
1st level: Feather Fall, False Life, Alarm, Find Familiar, Shield, Sleep, Protection from Evil, Abjure Elements, Magic Missile, Alarm
2nd level: Invisibility, Mirror Image, Magic Weapon, Rope Trick
3rd level: Haste, Counterspell, Glyph of Warding, Blink
4th level: Banishment, Fireshield

Feats:
At 4th level grab Heavy Armor Proficiency and add +1 Strenght.
At 8th level Warcaster or increase Strenght to 20

Tactics would be entering into melee and using defensive spells to evade attacks and shield to block attacks and regain hit points. Abjuration rituals can be used to restore Arcane Ward for free.

I know just 1 level of fighter fixes many things, but I want to play full wizard, the question is, is this playable? Is there a better dwarf build? Or this is not an option at all?

[MaxWilson]

5E is designed to be accessible to casual players. If your DM relies on DMG guidelines for encounter construction, there is no PC build I have ever seen which is not viable, aside from completely absurd things like a Str 8 Dex 8 Con 8 melee-specialized Champion.

Yes, a dwarf wizard gish is viable.

[Spectre9000]

Replace True Strike with Booming Blade(BB) or Green-Flame Blade(GFB) from Sword Coast Adventurers Guide. True Strike sucks in practice.

When you say Shield to block attacks, do you mean the spell Shield, or an actual physical Shield, cause no where in your build do you gain Shield proficiency.

Also, there's only one abjuration ritual, which is Alarm. If you want to replenish Abjuration Ward, take a two level dip into Warlock and pick up the invocation "Armor of Shadows" for at will Mage Armor casting. You'd also get Armor of Agathys, which stacks with Abjureration Ward, and Hex.

If you want to Gish, starting off as a Fighter 1 is going to be your best bet.

Basically, you could go Fighter 1/ Warlock 2/ Abjurer Wizard 17. Eldritch Knight Fighter 7/Warlock 2/Abjurer Wizard 11 is also very good, as you can use GFB/BB then attack again as a bonus action from War Magic. You'd also still get 6th level spells, and a 7th level spell slot.

However, if you wanna go full Wizard, you're gonna have a rough time. Bladesinger was built to be the Wizard Gish Archetype, but I personally don't like it, and it feels really underpowered.

[GraakosGraakos]

I played mountain dwarf abjurer and it was so incredibly fun. It's not optimal, but a decent intelligence score and leaving Str at 16 and you'll have a blast. I went with

Str 16 (14+2)
Dex 10
Con 15 (13+2)
Wis 12
Int 15
Cha 8

I went resilient Con and then pumped Int the rest of my ABIs. I forget what level we played to, but doing lots of rituals and spells that focus on utility and buffs was awesome. Enlarge/Reduce is your friend. So is Enhance Ability Con on yourself. It and your ward will cushion you really well.

Flavorwise I made my dude a reluctant genius that only wanted to be a mighty warrior like his cousins and uncles.

[lebefrei]

Viable and optimal are quite different. Yes, your plan is viable. However, assuming that you finish strength, your damage will be 1d10+5 at level 8. This begins to become questionable. As another said, you need to at least take a weapon attack cantrip from SCAG to keep up in melee.

You will still have the lowest hit die, no possiblity to wear a shield, and the lowest melee damage possible (clerics have divine strike at that point, and most everyone else has a second attack). But if you really want to mix straight wizard with melee, you'll at least have a scaling attack now.

[coredump]

Away from books.... I would look at finesse weapons and a Dex build instead.

[CaptAl]

Drop true strike for Booming Blade. It's kinda weak until it levels up at 5th but it's a decent movement denial spell with no save DC, especially if you take the mobile feat or are willing to risk the AoO.

You'll want to pick up Improved Invisibility too. Perma advantage for you and disadvantage for the bad guys is awesome. Your save DC for anything will be low through your entire career making spells like banishment a huge risk. Boom or bust, baby.

Your damage will never be spectacular with this kind of build, but with a Maul/Great sword and either Green Flame Blade or Booming Blade from the SCAG you'll be respectable in melee.

[Final Hyena]

One thing to consider is that you're relying on a specific magic item to overcome your builds Int deficiency. You should check with your DM, that you can fairly reliably get one.

[Addaran]

Blade Ward and True Strike really aren't that great. But they could be used if you plan to take quicken, so you can still do something that round (blade ward) or get advantage next turn.
Though, True Strike is concentration, so as soon as you start using haste, magic weapon, etc it's horrible.

Definitively get one of the SCAG cantrip. At lvl 5, it will always boost your damage to make up for lack of extra-attack or cleric-like bonus damage.


Away from books.... I would look at finesse weapons and a Dex build instead.

If you go dex build, there's no reason to pick Dwarf. The str bonus will be wasted, they aren't proficient with finess weapons and you won't be easing his armor profeciency (maybe light armor, but then Mage Armor is better). Going with a dex race would be better.

[Klorox]

If you take one of the melee cantrips from SCAG, you'll be perfectly fine with only one attack.

I'd look at using a finesse weapon and starting with a 14 DEX.

Even as a gish, your priority will probably be boosting INT with ASI's.

[Addaran]

If you take one of the melee cantrips from SCAG, you'll be perfectly fine with only one attack.

I'd look at using a finesse weapon and starting with a 14 DEX.

Even as a gish, your priority will probably be boosting INT with ASI's.

He could go the "dump int EK" way too. From his list, only banishement and possibly Glyph of Warding have saves?
If he uses mostly buffs, non-casting stat cantrips and out-of-combat utility spells, he doesn't need int that much.

[Klorox]

One thing to consider is that you're relying on a specific magic item to overcome your builds Int deficiency. You should check with your DM, that you can fairly reliably get one.
what item?

He could go the "dump int EK" way too. From his list, only banishement and possibly Glyph of Warding have saves?
If he uses mostly buffs, non-casting stat cantrips and out-of-combat utility spells, he doesn't need int that much.

Very true. But if you're planning on any spells that require saves, it's a very good idea to pump that main stat.

[RickAllison]

what item?

He mentioned the Headband of Intellect in the OP, the one that sets Intelligence at 19.

[Addaran]

Very true. But if you're planning on any spells that require saves, it's a very good idea to pump that main stat.

Obviously. But the OP mentionned gish specifically.
If i was to make a dwarven mage, i'd probably just play it like a normal wizard but tougher. 8+2 in str is nice, medium armor means i can have only 14 dex and good AC. Max int and very good con would mean i'm tough as hell. Probably a good "warmage" character.

[Klorox]

He mentioned the Headband of Intellect in the OP, the one that sets Intelligence at 19.

I missed that, thanks!

That being said, if you really can get that, dump INT to 8 and boost DEX. JMO.

[djreynolds]

Taking into account playing at every level since 1st, is it too crazy to build a wizard-only dwarf gish?

Intelligence won't be so necessary until higher leves (when you could grab un uncommon 19 int magic item).

Example

Standard array
Mountain Dwarf
Abjuration Specialist

Str 17 (15+2)
Dex 10
Con 16 (14+2)
Int 13
Wis 12
Cha 8

Versatile martial weapon proficiencies
Medium armor profiency

So mage armor isn't needed

Spell plan until 8th level:
Cantrips: Blade Ward, True Strike, Friends
1st level: Feather Fall, False Life, Alarm, Find Familiar, Shield, Sleep, Protection from Evil, Abjure Elements, Magic Missile, Alarm
2nd level: Invisibility, Mirror Image, Magic Weapon, Rope Trick
3rd level: Haste, Counterspell, Glyph of Warding, Blink
4th level: Banishment, Fireshield

Feats:
At 4th level grab Heavy Armor Proficiency and add +1 Strenght.
At 8th level Warcaster or increase Strenght to 20

Tactics would be entering into melee and using defensive spells to evade attacks and shield to block attacks and regain hit points. Abjuration rituals can be used to restore Arcane Ward for free.

I know just 1 level of fighter fixes many things, but I want to play full wizard, the question is, is this playable? Is there a better dwarf build? Or this is not an option at all?

NO.

I have played a mountain dwarf abjurer, stopped at 14th level.

Here are my errors, do not commit them

Mistake 1, I had a high strength. You have 1 attack, GFB or BB, still does not compete with a fireball that does damage to a bunch of people.

Mistake 2, high strength, why? All dwarves can use heavy armor without penalty for low strength. So why have a high strength? So you can swing your warhammer for 1d10 vs shocking grasp that does 1d8 and scales?

So, you are not a GISH because you do not have enough attacks to be one, for that play an Eldritch Knight with level of abjurer wizard to obtain arcane ward and some different spells, or bladesinger

Play an armored caster. Put an 8 in strength and it will become a 10. Good enough. Now you have medium armor, right, half plate is a 15 AC and spam shield when you need it. Even 2nd level spell slots can be used.

Go weaponless, you heard me, its in the way. Now you only need war caster for advantage on concentration checks and to use cantrips for AoO. Or if you can get the shield proficiency somehow. Shocking grasp works just fine in melee, or use fire bolt at disadvantage in melee.

Grab resilient con at some point, after you maxed out intelligence, you will need it so you do not have to recast blur or haste or PFGE.

Make sure to take athletics as a skill, its not much but it may help getting knocked on your butt. The only reason for you to have anything in strength really as a wizard.

Now if you want use GFB or BB in melee, then you will need a high strength/dex to just hit. But you must max out intelligence, it affects all of your spells.

Feats, if you are staying pure wizard, so for sake of this you are, you must make out intelligence first. Period. You can live with medium armor.

So here your stats 27 point buy in Str 8 (becomes a 10)/ Dex 14 (now that half plate is AC17, good enough)/ Con 15(becomes a 17)/ Intelligence 15 (has to be because you get no racial bonus and by 12th it will be a 20)/ Wisdom 12/ charisma 8

Grab the sailor background, get athletics (protection purposes) and perception and take observant at 12th with +1 in intelligence
Then at 16 grab war caster and 19th grab resilient con.

This is the way to do it, if you do not multiclass. If you are going to multiclass and still want to play a dwarf, go hill dwarf and just grab life cleric at some point or nature cleric, and get heavy armor and shillelagh.