How to create an Ice Mage?

[pangoo209]

Me and my friends are trying to go from a homemade system to 5e, and I'm helping my friends to create a system. The majority of them have gone well and we will be using them soon, but one player wants to have an ice magic user. What class would be the best for this sort of thing, and how could I go about helping her to make this?

By no means are these characters built exceedingly well or min/maxed by the way, i'm just unsure about what class would fit this play style.

[Naanomi]

Nothing is a great fit but... arctic druid, white dragon sorcerer, or evoker wizard are your basic choices

[Ninja_Prawn]

If you're into homebrew, I have a stack of ice-themed stuff here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?480638-The-Witch-of-Winter-(for-RavenJovan)&p=20505579&viewfull=1#post20505579) and here (https://www.patreon.com/posts/tundra-update-7377427). Perhaps you'll find some inspiration in there!

[Maxilian]

Use the Water Sorcerer and modify spells (only the damage type, so they will do cold damage)

[RickAllison]

For spells that can be redone as ice themed, look back in the older threads. Search for cryomancy or cryomancer. You will find lots of older threads on this.

[Ninja_Prawn]

For spells that can be redone as ice themed, look back in the older threads. Search for cryomancy or cryomancer. You will find lots of older threads on this.

It is kind of spooky how often this comes up. Not that I'm upset at the opportunity to plug my stuff!

[Specter]

Draconic Sorcerer (silver) with Elemental Adept (cold). Many metas are good, but Empowered and Quickened stand out for damage. That way you can toss Cones of Cold even in Yetis and White Dragons fearing little retaliation.

[SethoMarkus]

Step One: Strip (nearly) naked.
Step Two: ???
Step Three: "Aisu-Meiku...!"

[DragonSorcererX]

Step One: Strip (nearly) naked.
Step Two: ???
Step Three: "Aisu-Meiku...!"

HA! I see what you did there!

But yeah, as others said Silver/White Dragon Sorcerer (because that Speed Reduction thing from Water Sorcerer is not worth when losing +CHA bonus to attacks).

[SethoMarkus]

Seriously now, if I were making an ice-based spellcaster, I would probably either use the new UA Sea Sorcery Sorcerer, or fluff a Warlock (probably Blade, Undying or Fiendish changed to Cold damage) to use ice-themed abilities.

[Azreal]

Step One: Strip (nearly) naked.
Step Two: ???
Step Three: "Aisu-Meiku...!"

You sir win an internet from me.

[RumoCrytuf]

Me and my friends are trying to go from a homemade system to 5e, and I'm helping my friends to create a system. The majority of them have gone well and we will be using them soon, but one player wants to have an ice magic user. What class would be the best for this sort of thing, and how could I go about helping her to make this?

By no means are these characters built exceedingly well or min/maxed by the way, i'm just unsure about what class would fit this play style.

Play a White Dragon Sorcerer with Elemental Evil spells. One of my players is doing this exact thing actually. Go for it!

[NecroDancer]

Artic Druid is a VERY good choice for an ice mage.

[Dalebert]

Draconic Sorcerer (silver) with Elemental Adept (cold). Many metas are good, but Empowered and Quickened stand out for damage. That way you can toss Cones of Cold even in Yetis and White Dragons fearing little retaliation.

Pretty sure white dragons are immune to cold; not just resistant. Elemental Adept is no help there.

[jaappleton]

I find the lack of decent AoE Cold spells to be a massive problem.

Lightning has Lightning Bolt, Fire has more spells than necessary. Cold gets... left out in the cold, so to speak.

A good first level spell is Ice Knife. For Cantrips, you have Frostbite and Ray of Frost, both of which are actually really good. Beyond that first level spell? You really don't have anything until Cone of Cold. And that SUCKS, it really does. There's Ice Storm at lv4, but that's bludgeoning.

Now, you don't need a Cold damage spell at every level. You don't. But you do need SOMETHING between Lv1 and lv6.

My suggestion? Reflavor the spell Shatter. Change Thunder to Cold. Keep everything else. And change Ice Storm to Cold.

Here's a decent thematic spell layout:

Ice Knife, Grease
Hold Person, Misty Step, Shatter
Sleet Storm, Slow
Ice Storm
Hold Monster (That's 5th level, right?)
Cone of Cold

Each is thematic. The 'Hold' spells can be treated as freezing an opponent.


EDIT: For the record, Snilloc's Snowball Storm is a completely garbage spell. It sucks. A lot. It's terrible in all the worst ways.

[JellyPooga]

Here's a decent thematic spell layout:

Ice Knife, Grease
Hold Person, Misty Step, Shatter
Sleet Storm, Slow
Ice Storm
Hold Monster (That's 5th level, right?)
Cone of Cold

I'll add a few;

1st: Armour of Agathys, Chromatic Orb, Entangle ("grasping ice/snow drift"), Fog Cloud, Faerie Fire (fluff as "glittering ice")
2nd: Cloud of Daggers (ice shards), Gust of Wind, (Icicle) Spike Growth

Basically anything that deals Piercing damage can pretty much be substituted for an icicle or shard of ice, anything that slows, restrains or paralyzes a foe can be fluffed as being held in ice and anything that creates difficult terrain can be fluffed as snow drifts of ice fields. There's more on offer than it seems at first blush; being an "ice mage" isn't just about dealing Cold damage...

But I'll second the notion of an Arctic Druid being a solid candidate; they've got pretty much everything you could want right out of the box.

[Douche]

Depends what you want out of it. In my view, Ice mage builds in RPG tend to be the "crowd control" path, as they tend to include slow effects, root, etc.

Though in D&D you don't really have that in terms of ice. Hold person, entangle.

[StoicLeaf]

I'd simply go through the spell list and see what you think would fit well for cold and then adapt them.
Some frost spells give the target disadvantage on the next shot or reduce movement speed, factor that in but perhaps deduct some damage.

[Specter]

Pretty sure white dragons are immune to cold; not just resistant. Elemental Adept is no help there.

Damn. Well, can't have everything.

[Joe the Rat]

That's why you branch out in damage types. Piercing and bludgeoning. And necrotic. Necrotic can do a passable "supernatural cold" to radiant's "supernatural burning." You don't get any of the element boosts (dragon sorcerer, elemental adept), but that's a small cost for freezing out a white dragon's soul by channeling the power of the utterdark.

Wind effects are fair game as well.

[JellyPooga]

And necrotic. Necrotic can do a passable "supernatural cold" to radiant's "supernatural burning." You don't get any of the element boosts (dragon sorcerer, elemental adept), but that's a small cost for freezing out a white dragon's soul by channeling the power of the utterdark.

I hear Death Domain Clerics are good for that...

[Addaran]

That's why Ice Storm is nice. No matter how many cold damage dice it does, you get your +cha so you aren't losing when you use it. But against cold immune monsters, it's still about half damage (more if you upcast).