First timer wizard

[Sgt Jiggz]

Hey guys!

I'm pretty new to this tabletop thing, I only started playing 5e with some friends about a year ago but I was hooked immediatley! Anyway ever since I started i've played almost exclusively rogueish type characters except for once when I gave the barbarian a try. None of my characters so far has had any form of casting abilities tough so for my next character I was thinking a wizard. I want to play someone with high utility who got a spell for every situation. Doing a butt ton of damage isn't a priority, I want to be unpredictable and defeat my enemies in weird and conveluted ways.

Can you guys recommend what school I should pick and why, what spells are the most fun/useful and just give general tips for building and playing a caster?:smallbiggrin:

[Burley]

If you want to be a prepared for everything Wizard, many people would say Conjuration, since you can just make tools you need.

Personally, I like the Transmutation school. Instead of constantly preparing for things, just change things into what you want.

Honestly, though, for first casting class consider something non-wizard. There's so much bookkeeping and you can easily lose yourself in options. Plus, when you do have the perfect spell for that certain occasion, you get that dubious look from your DM because "Did you actually prepare that spell today?"
Maybe try Sorcerer first, since you only have to make choices once per level, rather than several times per session.

[Sillybird99]

Wizards have the best ritual casting because they can cast a spell with the ritual tag without having it prepared. Picking ritual utility spells like detect magic and find familiar is a good idea for out of combat utility.

Taking mage armour, shield, or both will boost your defense significantly. Abjuration school will help even more with this.

Spells like fog cloud, sleep, illusions, and grease can change the nature of the battle field with creative use.

I am about to play my first wizard as well, so I have similar questions, but I know that the above spells can be effective.

[CoggieRagabash]

Maybe try Sorcerer first, since you only have to make choices once per level, rather than several times per session.

Bonus points for this strategy if you can ask your DM ahead of time if you can possibly 'rebuild' the character into a wizard at the end of a story, representing your character using ritual and study to make their powers more predictable and controlled (wild sorcerer is especially good for this). I went this route and it was pretty satisfying. Miss the chaotic element, but it segued nicely into her Divination powers (fluffed here less as seeing ahead and more as carefully shunting good and bad fortune).

That said, wizard can be simple enough, at least if you're starting from level one. Give yourself a standard spells prepared list for simplicity's sake, let your DM know what it is and only notify them if you're going to swap something else on a specific day.

[Specter]

Wizard schools summarized:

- Abjuration: Take less damage, prevent enemies from casting better, resist spells more easily.
- Conjuration: Create objects at will, change places with a friend, make your summons more reliable
- Divination: Predetermine a few rolls instead of rolling them, recover spell slots with divination, see better without magic
- Enchantment: neutralize one enemy, make one enemy hit another, target one more enemy with a spell
- Evocation: Avoid friendly fire when blowing stuff, make evocations more harmful, maximize damage of a spell once (without suffering)
- Illusion: Make illusions more convincing, make a part of them real, avoid one attack
- Necromancy: Gain HP killing dudes with spells, create better undead, resist negative energy
- Transmutation: mutate substances, alter your physical form with benefits, turn into beasts

[uraniumrooster]

Hey guys!

I'm pretty new to this tabletop thing, I only started playing 5e with some friends about a year ago but I was hooked immediatley! Anyway ever since I started i've played almost exclusively rogueish type characters except for once when I gave the barbarian a try. None of my characters so far has had any form of casting abilities tough so for my next character I was thinking a wizard. I want to play someone with high utility who got a spell for every situation. Doing a butt ton of damage isn't a priority, I want to be unpredictable and defeat my enemies in weird and conveluted ways.

Can you guys recommend what school I should pick and why, what spells are the most fun/useful and just give general tips for building and playing a caster?:smallbiggrin:

Illusionists are the masters of weird and convoluted strategies. They take a lot of creativity, and your DM has to be at least partially willing to play along with your tricks, but if you can live with those caveats they're a ton of fun.

Basic summary of their abilities:
Improved Minor Illusion - You can make your at-will illusions a little bit more convincing and flexible by combining an image and sound at the same time.
Malleable Illusions - As an Action, change an active illusion without re-casting. It makes you more spell-slot efficient by giving your illusions more mileage, and allows you to subtly change an illusion without needing to actually re-cast it using Verbal/Somatic/Material spell components. When someone sees through one of your illusions, for instance, normally it would become useless, but an Illusionist can refresh it - essentially, re-casting it as a new illusion, but without expending the spell slot. If you get high enough to cast Mirage Arcane (7th-level Spell), Malleable Illusions makes you the ultimate battlefield controller (put your party in a tall fortress with sight lines in all directions, while your foes are stuck down below trudging through swampy difficult terrain, and you can erect walls every turn to block their progress and force them around in circles through a big endless maze... for 10 days... go ahead, you're the master of reality, you can cackle maniacally if you want to).
Illusory Reality - When you cast an Illusion spell, you can make part of it real for a minute. For my money, there isn't a stronger 14th level Wizard ability. Your imagination is quite literally the only limit to what you can do with this ability. Simple examples - your 1st level Silent Image can become an actual wall... or, it can become a door allowing you to actually pass through an existing wall. If you get to a high enough level where Spell Mastery kicks in and you can turn Silent Image into an at-will spell, things get really crazy-fun.

Okay, I'm biased toward Illusionists. This guide (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IeOXWvbkmQ3nEyM2P3lS8TU4rsK6QJP0oH7HE_v67QY/edit?pref=2&pli=1) is great if you want a more balanced look at all the schools though.

[Cwest1230]

I'd just like to start out by making something very, very clear: I am a total wizard nutcase~! Most of what I play are wizards, or just casters in general! :D With that out of the way, I can give you some suggestions.

Evocation wizards are powerful. You add extra damage on your cantrips, eventually, and you can shield people from AOE spells. I've blasted skeletons surrounding an unconcious friend with that one and done a ton of damage without hurting him before. Blasters, as Evocation wizards who focus on... well, blasting, are sometimes called, can deal a large amount of damage, but get outdone by Fighters, Paladins, ect. However, your AOE spells are great! Doing a ton of damage to multiple enemies is pretty good.

Divination is something that I can't really comment on, since I've never really played a Diviner before. The divination spells are all pretty cool, but they don't give you much combat ability, mainly utility.

Necromancers are kinda meh at first. Grim harvest basically lets you heal yourself when you murder... sorry, "kill in self defense," and it CAN be useful. When you reach Level 6, though, you REALLY get something good. At Level 5, you gain 3rd level spell slots- which mean that you can animate the dead, with, you guessed it, animate dead. At Level 6, you get that spell if you don't have it, and you can animate two undead instead of the normal one with the base spell slot.

Transmuters are another one that are pretty much all utility, but Polymorph is REALLY good. True Polymorph is even better, but you have to be like, Level 18 to use it or something.

Conjurers are cool as well. If you play one, Concentration is going to be VERY important. Summoning a Cloud of Daggers? Keep making those Con checks. Summoning Elementals? Make sure you keep your concentration, or they'll come over there and wreck your face. All in all, Conjurers are pretty cool.

Illusionists are EPIC in the right hands. They mainly rely on your imagination... and what your DM will let you get away with. Improved Minor Illusion is SWEET, and the Illusion spells come in handy in combat, and out of it. Being chased? Duck into an alley, and create a wall with Silent Image, maybe some wall decs like Wanted Posters of yourself on it. With a little luck, they'll never know you were there.


As for what you want to do, I'd reccomend Conjurers, Transmuters, or Illusionists. But really, any school of magic can work. Since you want many spells, buff that Int stat- your casting ability, and it affects how many prepared spells you can get.

I'd reccomend spells like Grease, Fog Cloud, and Sleep. At low levels, Sleep is GOLDEN- but you need to make sure you don't put your allies to sleep.

The most important thing to remember is to be creative! Once you're higher level, and you can afford to "waste" prepared spells, then grab as many as you can without stuffing out the most important ones.

Oh, and stock the heck up on rituals. Seriously. They can be cast WITHOUT PREPARING THEM, and they are the MASTER of utility. (You can tell I love my ritutals, can't you?)

On how you act like a wizard, I'd suggest it correspond to your school. If you're a Conjurer, you might perform street tricks and such in your spare time, and constantly conjure random crap. An Evoker might be rash and hotheaded.

Or, you might subvert expectations. A Divination wizard could be (usually) shortsighted and tactless. That Transmuter is USLESS with tools and crafts. The Necromancer is a force for good, who fights evil with evil, and is warm and friendly.

Really, its all up to you. The most important thing is to HAVE FUN!

[Sir cryosin]

I usually only play fighter types but I branched out and I played a wizard for a campaign I think I was level 14 when I retired the wizard and as much fun as it was the bookkeeping can get really really confusing and tiresome sometimes because you can think of 30 different ways to address a situation and a problem butt I don't know which one to pick or well shoot I didn't prepare that spell today no I'm not saying don't play a utility wizard but unless you have experience playing a utility class where you come up with solutions to situations and other stuff like that and you're not mainly focus on one thing then you might be able to play that class A lot better than other people butt if you're not you're going to be very frustrated with it.

[ruy343]

I'm assuming that you're starting at a low level. If so, based on your expressed desires for your character, I would recommend a transmuter or conjurer.

Technically, you can select any spells you want as any class, since most DMs don't enforce the "paying for writing spells into your spellbook" when you level (though, it's reasonable to have a character pay to copy from other wizards).

Why do I choose those two? While diviners have the ability to force rolls, and abjurers can ward their friends, conjuration and transmutation are the two schools with the spells you want, so it would be thematic to play a character who focuses on those areas with their extra abilities. The real question is: which level 2 ability are you most interested in?

Conjuration: make any object that you could imagine that could fit within a small space. You can have a lot of fun with this, but it requires creativity. Its limitations are the creation's small size, low hit points, and the fact that it faintly glows. However, if you need to seal the lid of a barrel to make a bomb, create a small mechanical piece, or create a handy doorstop, all you have to do it blink and it's done.

Transmutation: temporarily transform any object from one material to another (from a select list). This is honestly more useful than it sounds. Limitations: it doesn't last forever, and requires 10 minutes per unit volume you want to transform (though you can transform more than just one unit of volume, it just takes longer, and the effect all ends at the same time (at least, that's how we read it)). Run some rope across a corridor and transform it into an iron rod to clothesline an orc; turn a door's locking mechanism into balsa wood, or transform your whittled shiv into an iron one to break out of prison.

Personally, I really like transmuters - with a little time to prepare, they can do some amazing things.

[BrianDavion]

hoenstly the school you choose is less important, as you're no longer restricted from learning another school., my advice, grab the one that looks like the most fun. all of em have their uses, and it's not like you can't cast fireball if you're not an evoker.

[djreynolds]

Hey guys!

I'm pretty new to this tabletop thing, I only started playing 5e with some friends about a year ago but I was hooked immediatley! Anyway ever since I started i've played almost exclusively rogueish type characters except for once when I gave the barbarian a try. None of my characters so far has had any form of casting abilities tough so for my next character I was thinking a wizard. I want to play someone with high utility who got a spell for every situation. Doing a butt ton of damage isn't a priority, I want to be unpredictable and defeat my enemies in weird and conveluted ways.

Can you guys recommend what school I should pick and why, what spells are the most fun/useful and just give general tips for building and playing a caster?:smallbiggrin:

All the schools are great. Honestly, and divination can be very powerful. Evocation is also good because you can just drop a fireball to solve problems and not kill the fighter. Abjuration is very defensive. Portent, sculpt spell, arcane ward... all are great.

The tough thing about playing a wizard is that you DM understands this. Really, he must provide spells for you to learn. Whether its finding them in loot, or purchasing them, or whatever. That is your power, the spellbook. If he does not, and your campaign begins in the underdark and ends there, and all you fight are mooks and never see any merchants... play a sorcerer then.

So here are my mistakes.

I created a mountain dwarf abjurer. It was okay for many levels until 13th, then he took off. By 12th your intelligence will have maxed out and spells get better. So that is you "Holy Grail", just survive till then.

With standard array, I put a 14 in strength, becoming a 16, thinking I was going to be some gish swinging a warhammer. No, IMO do not do this. Leave strength at a 10 or 12 if you can. Unless you are not a dwarf and are going to get heavy armor somehow.

You will need a minimum of a 14 in dex. Why? Medium armor allows for a +2 dex modifier, so you need at least that if you are going pure wizard and take mountain dwarf for medium armor proficiencies. I had a 10, so my AC with half plate was a 15, which I could've had with mage armor and simply a 14 in dex.

IMO, dump your weapon. Everyone talks and yaps about booming blade and green flame blade. That's another ability, either dex or strength, you have to invest in to hit with. And you need a high intelligence and con. Just use shocking grasp in melee as its a melee spell attack based on your intelligence and it scales well. And use firebolt for ranged cantrip. And now you only need war caster for the 1 in a million chance you get to cast an AoO with a spell and for concentration checks.

Take resilient con over war caster, unless you have found away to get a real shield from a multiclass.

Please prepare feather fall, I know it sounds crazy and you will never use it. I literally failed all of my climbing checks, even with a 16 in strength. It saved my bacon 8 times, seriously, in Out of the Abyss.

When you are fighting demons, do not waste your big spells on lightning bolt or fireball as they are resistant, I found out the hard way. And drow are going to make their dex saves. Hypnotic wave is sweet, and just haste the tank. If you have to, and it is a waste, IMO, just cast magic missile in a higher spell slot.

Never use lightning bolts on any molds or oozes, they just multiply. I didn't know that, I do now.

If you can, do not dump charisma, leave it at 12 and take persuasion skill. Why? You need spell scrolls and your Bard isn't going out shopping for you unless he is very cool.

Must take arcana and whatever other intelligence skills you can. Why? Because you are smart and you need arcana for counterpsell.

Stealth and perception are awesome skills to have, but IMO a luxury. Someone else can stealth and you can use invisibility or gaseous form. If you take elf, then you get perception for free. But persuade is good to have, your spell book is everything.

[RickAllison]

If you want utility, you might ask your DM about using the Artificer archetype from the Eberron UA. I've been having a blast with one of those as a grappler. Some cool points he gets:

1) Potions. Glorious, non-concentration potions. For a few first-level slots, you can give 1d4 hours of an extra 1d4 damage on your monk's four attacks, advantage on your fighter's Shoves, and your paladin the ability to make a bigger wall. Invisibility is great for after you cast a Burning Sphere or similar spell. Mind-reading is just a fun effect to have, and the potion version lets you hand it off to the rogue who is scouting ahead. The ability to essentially hand off spells to your allies (or your familiar!) adds another level of utility to the wizard. Finally, this gives one unique feature that other wizards only get by spending a 9th level spell slot: the ability to heal allies. You sure aren't beating the cleric in that capacity, but don't underestimate the ability to have your owl familiar swoop down and revive an ally with one of your potions.

2) Scrolls. This ability has one small and one large effect, but it is debatable which is which. You gain the ability to use short rests to not only gain spell slots (part of the wizard chassis), but to actually channel the spell from one you didn't have prepared. For example, you might want to cast Legend Lore on a mysterious item, but you didn't prepare that spell. Rather than waiting for a long rest, you can get it back from a short rest if you have the Arcane Reclvery levels! This really helps the wizard truly have a spell for every occasion. The more powerful effect (IMO) is that scrolls do not require spell components, meaning that you can cast spells like Secret Chest which would normally be prohibitively expensive.

3) Magic weapons. At the beginning of a campaign or in a low-magic, giving the +1 could be great. What I am a fan of is the +X arrows, a limited resource that you can use to help your rogue/other archer just a little bit more accurate.

Basically, the Artificer from the UA is a great utilitarian wizard because it adds new dimensions in which to use its powers.