Wizard Damage?

[Spectre9000]

What's the highest damage you can do as an abjuration wizard in a single round at each spell level? I'm playing one and am curious what people come up with for damage.

[DragonSorcererX]

What's the highest damage you can do as an abjuration wizard in a single round at each spell level? I'm playing one and am curious what people come up with for damage.

Against a single target or split between multiple foes?

[Spectre9000]

Against a single target or split between multiple foes?

Why not both?

[JellyPooga]

What's the highest damage you can do as an abjuration wizard in a single round at each spell level? I'm playing one and am curious what people come up with for damage.

Are we talking potential or average? Do you want to account for hit chances, Saves, etc. or do you just want the spell that has the biggest numbers? Is it solely HP damage you're interested in, or does any incapacitation qualify? Why Abjuration?

For example:
Chromatic Orb: (3d8 base +3d8 for Crit) x2 vs. Vulnerable target, roll max = 96 damage

That's probably the best single target, single round damage you'll get for a level 1 Wizard spell (Inflict Wounds does 120 under similar conditions), but it's reliant on a) getting a critical hit, b) casting it against something Vulnerable to one of the "elemental" damage types and c) rolling max damage. More likely is that it will just do about 13 damage, assuming it hits, which isn't that impressive compared to, say Sleep which is rolling 5d8 (average: 22) with no save or attack roll involved, but doesn't deal actual damage.

[JAL_1138]

Well, at 9th-level spellcasting there's always Meteor Swarm. Four (non-overlapping) 40ft-radius spheres of 20d6 fire + 20d6 bludgeoning (save for half) each. Against something vulnerable to both fire and bludgeoning (I don't know if such a thing exists, but let's assume so for theoretical purposes), a max-damage roll and a failed save would be 480 points of damage.

[Gignere]

You really shouldn't think of direct damage too much with a wizard. You will always appear to do less than the fighter/barbarian/rogue/paladin/ranger. You need to think about indirect damage. For example instead of picking burning hands as a spell known I selected find familiar. I can tell you that my find familiar has done more damage than if I use all my spell slots casting burning hands from level 1 to current level.

Each time when I grant advantage to our rogue so he can sneak attack when otherwise he can't that is my extra damage. Every time the ranger would have missed but got to reroll because my familiar gave her advantage that is my damage. You get the picture, so you need to think more than just your damage. Like casting haste on barbarian that extra attack or missed attacks that would have hit because of his improved AC is your damage.

If you just look at straight DPR for a wizard it is easy to conclude it is not enough. However I think if you take into account all the extra damage helped or created by my spells you will find that the wizard properly played is dealing the most damage of all characters.

[ruy343]

Well... really, this could be taken any number of ways: your question is pretty vague since you don't specify weapon or spell damage. On top of that, selecting an abjuration specialist doesn't preclude them from using damaging spells, as explained above.

That said, if you're wanting to get the most damage from an abjuration spell to fit in with your subclass features, that's a different story. In that case, your first real damaging spell would come from your third level spell Glyph of Warding, which has a high material component cost, so you won't exactly be spamming it (though it is permanent so long as the object upon which it is cast doesn't move, which makes it very useful).

However, as you were instructed above, it's not a good idea to play a wizard to just focus on dealing damage: if that's what you want from a character (lots of options and lots of damage), then you might consider an eldritch knight, paladin, or a blaster caster (like Warlock or Sorcerer).

Wizards (especially ones not focused on evocation) are much better at protecting the party and providing the tools the party needs to succeed. Whenever I play a wizard, people always refer to my character as the "cheat sheet", because I have an answer to everything, and it's a blast! In your case, as an abjurer, look for ways to make your team succeed - trust me: your party will recognize your impact too. There was even one time after my transmuter wizard had died, and the cleric that I had played afterwards had also died (I have bad luck with dice, and the other two teammates were rogues - not a party conducive to others' survival, ok?), the party expended a usage of Wish that they were given just to get my wizard back!

[Spectre9000]

I'm talking DPR including crit and miss chance. Go for an AC of 13 vs AC 22 if you want numbers, imagine +5 to whatever save for spells. Weapons or spells.

I'm going abjuration because of the ward to give me a boost to survivability. I'm also not focused solely on the damaging aspect (a wizard has lots of utility), but it'd be nice to know what my options are and be capable of dealing damage.

[xyianth]

I’m only including spells that a wizard should cast. (i.e. no pure damage spells because that is not an abjuration wizard’s job) I’m also treating ‘damage’ somewhat loosely as a means of disabling creatures; and therefore treating save-or-die spells as damage spells.

0 - ray of frost, frostbite, create bonfire, shocking grasp
1 - sleep
2 - phantasmal force
3 - hypnotic pattern, animate dead
4 - banishment, evard’s black tentacles, polymorph
5 - animate objects, bigby’s hand
6 - disintegrate, sunbeam
7 - plane shift, reverse gravity
8 - dominate monster, incendiary cloud, feeblemind
9 - true polymorph, foresight

rationale:
ray of frost - damage + speed reduction; the speed reduction is surprisingly effective CC for an at-will ability
frostbite - ranged damage plus forced disadvantage; forced disadvantage is the strongest debuff available to cantrips
create bonfire - AoE damage; this is the only effective AoE cantrip that doesn't require you to be next to the enemies
shocking grasp - melee spell attack + free disengage; for when you really need to get away from something (pairs well with expeditious retreat)
sleep - 5d8 hp worth of creatures fall unconscious without saves; let your teammates kill them
phantasmal force - long lasting int save disable that can slowly kill its target; have you seen how frequently int gets dumped? teach 'em why that was a bad idea
hypnotic pattern - AoE save or disable; this is the intelligent person's fireball, it can end entire encounters in 1 action
animate dead - long lasting undead minion control; this multiplies your actions and is fairly cheap to cast safely. never underestimate the damage potential of a bunch of skeleton archers.
banishment - charisma save or die; go look at how many creatures have a good charisma and tell me this won't be useful
evard’s black tentacles - AoE CC + damage; who doesn't love the good ol' standby Evard's Spiked Tentacles of Forced Intrusion
polymorph - a T-rex can do some very effective damage; besides the obvious this also provides great defense and utility options as well
animate objects - 10x tiny objects each deal 1d4+4 each round; that is roughly the same as a disintegrate spell per round except it is not all or nothing and only costs a 5th level slot
bigby’s hand - bonus action control for ranged grapple and crushing; also has useful utility functions
disintegrate - direct damage; only included because the spell is useful for dealing with force effects and tunneling and can be used in a pinch if necessary
sunbeam - the better beam at 6th level; lasts longer and blinds
plane shift - charisma save or die; basically worse than banishment despite being higher level. only included because this spell has great utility uses and can be used in a pinch if necessary
reverse gravity - the AoE no-save just die spell; in favorable situations this spell wins encounters with no chance of failure
dominate monster - make a minion; limited only by your imagination and DM
incendiary cloud - AoE obscured vision + damage; 20' fog cloud that deals respectable damage as well
feeblemind - int save vs absolute decimation of a spellcaster; use this on bards, sorcerers, and warlocks to basically guarantee that they become useless for months
true polymorph - it's polymorph but permanent and usable on objects; if this spell isn't banned it is the best spell in the game.
foresight - drastically improve the DPR of an ally for 8 hours; if you add up the extra damage this spell enables, it likely does more damage than any other spell in the game.

I know this isn't exactly what you were looking for. Feel free to disregard, but I was making a wizard for a game myself when I stumbled on your post and thought I would share my effective spell list with you.

[Gignere]

Ok now I have a better idea of your question.

These are the best damage spells in my opinion by level.

Level 1 - Magic Missile, Sleep, chromatic orb, burning hands and thunder wave.

Starting out your best damage is Sleep but problem is that it is all or nothing. For most reliable it has to be MM. I avoid BH and TW just because as a wizard I try hard to avoid the ranges these spells operate at. Hey splitting the missiles is a passable AoE.

Level 2 - kind of a stinker level wrt damage, scorching ray, shatter. I prefer to upcast MM and pick nondamage options this spell level.

Level 3 whoa the big boys of fireball and lightning bolt, definitely get one or the other not both. Erupting Earth is good too but not nearly as devastating as fireball.

Level 4 another stinker for direct damage but fantastic utility, how can I past up arcane eye, polymorph, dimension door, greater invisibility for a damage spell.

Level 5 some fantastic options animate object this will probably be your go to damage spell if enemies aren't more than 60 feet away, bigby's, cone of cold,

Level 6 chain lightning, disintegrate, sunbeam,

Level 7 prismatic spray is the only one that is worth it but not really the other spells are encounter enders this doesn't do that so not good.

Level 8 so many game changers that are not damaging hard to recommend a damaging spell.

Level 9 your only choice is meteor swarm but once again you can only cast level 9 spells once a day, all the other stuff is just too good wish, prismatic wall, true polymorph, foresight, imprisonment.