Wizard AEO and Party members

[Nyvea]

Hello!
Im playing D&D with my Wizard Nyvea for two years now. We started with 4th edition but went to 5th very quick. I’m loving it. In all RPG/MMO games I played over the years I was a wizard/mage so I love to play it out now. She is close to my heart.

When I started the 5th edition of char creation a notices that most of the spells are affecting all creatures. That means also my party members. We have 2 melee fighters and most of the time they stand “in the way”. Because I care (in RL en RP and cause I’m Lawful good) for these people I can’t put myself to it to cast AOE or so when they are in way but that makes playing her really hard.

Over the years I already changed the alignment of Nyvea to good because she learned a lot and also changed as a person, this makes it a little easier to burn/electrocute my party members but I still don’t want to kill them. (Did this almost 2 times already)

So long story short, how do other wizards keep their party members “area of effect”

Thank you!

p.s. sorry for the bad English, it's not my native language.

[Mhl7]

Wait, line of sight should not be a problem. The problem should be Area of Effect.

That said, there is a subclass feature of the Evoker (level 3, I Guess) specifically designed for that.

Also, try to put yourself or the center of the spell in the good position so that your party members are unaffected. That's what our wizard does most of the time.

[Strill]

You take the Alert Feat to improve your chances of going before your party members.

[Nyvea]

Wait, line of sight should not be a problem. The problem should be Area of Effect.

That said, there is a subclass feature of the Evoker (level 3, I Guess) specifically designed for that.

Also, try to put yourself or the center of the spell in the good position so that your party members are unaffected. That's what our wizard does most of the time.

Thanks! Changes it to Area of Effect. I will look in to the Evoker.

[Nyvea]

Wait, line of sight should not be a problem. The problem should be Area of Effect.

That said, there is a subclass feature of the Evoker (level 3, I Guess) specifically designed for that.

Also, try to put yourself or the center of the spell in the good position so that your party members are unaffected. That's what our wizard does most of the time.

Is this what you mean?
S c u l p t Sp e l l s
Beginning at 2nd level, you can create pockets of
relative safety within the effects o f your evocation spells.
When you cast an evocation spell that affects other
creatures that you can see, you can choose a number
of them equal to 1 + the spell’s level. The chosen
creatures automatically succeed on their saving throws
against the spell, and they take no damage if they would
normally take half damage on a successful save.

That is only for Evocation spells...

[Flashy]

Is this what you mean?
S c u l p t Sp e l l s
Beginning at 2nd level, you can create pockets of
relative safety within the effects o f your evocation spells.
When you cast an evocation spell that affects other
creatures that you can see, you can choose a number
of them equal to 1 + the spell’s level. The chosen
creatures automatically succeed on their saving throws
against the spell, and they take no damage if they would
normally take half damage on a successful save.

That is only for Evocation spells...

Right, which should cover basically all of the really critical burning/zapping wizard spells.

It's also the only option for protecting allies from your area of effect spells in the 5e wizard. There are no other Wizard abilities which allow you to do anything similar.

[Ninja_Prawn]

It's also the only option for protecting allies from your area of effect spells in the 5e wizard.

You could multiclass into sorcerer and get the Careful Spell Metamagic, but yeah. The general idea is that avoidance of friendly fire is the major tactical challenge for blasty mages - allow me to quote Angry (http://angrydm.com/2014/10/the-angry-guide-to-kickass-combats-part-3-lets-make-some-fing-fights-already/) (emphasis mine):


Finally, there’s Mialee. Mialee is a glass cannon. She can dish out a lot of hurt at range and she’s very versatile in the hurt she can dish out. She can disable, weaken, or just damage opponents, sometimes over a big area. But she is extremely vulnerable. She cannot stand toe-to-toe with the enemy for any length of time. She also loses some versatility when she has to work around her party members, especially when there are small numbers of opponents. Once Jozan, Lidda, and Ragnar have closed in with the enemy, her options are reduced to avoid endangering her friends.

The thing to do, in my opinion, is reduce your reliance on AoE spells. Carry something like Hold Person or Chain Lightning that you can switch to when friendly fire becomes a problem.

[ShirAhn]

Right, which should cover basically all of the really critical burning/zapping wizard spells.

It's also the only option for protecting allies from your area of effect spells in the 5e wizard. There are no other Wizard abilities which allow you to do anything similar.


This helps allot, an alternative could be to position the spells in such a way it does not harm your teammates. Players can cast the spells fairly dynamicly, specially when on higher grounds.

Also, templates can help allof when determing if you would hit/miss friendlies. You could cut them out of paper for some of your most used spells and use them to position the spells as optimal as the scenario allows.

http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/19400/what-is-a-radius-on-a-square-grid

[Aett_Thorn]

Something that came up in our group last session was also this: keep in mind that you're playing in three dimensions.

We play out combat using a grid, meaning that we play on a two-dimensional surface for determining where our characters/the enemies are. However, the game world is in three dimensions. For this example, we were fighting a group of three Hill Giants. Sorc wanted to lob a fireball that would hit two of them, but was having a hard time on the grid trying to find a place to move that would get him line of sight on a spot that would hit the giants, but not our party members. That's when I pointed out that he should aim up. We were fighting 15' giants, and out party members were no more than 6' tall that were in the way. Fighting outside, caster could just aim the center of the AoE above the giants, and hit them both with no worries about hitting party members.

[MrStabby]

To cover the really obvious point - just on the small chance it was missed: you can aim the centre of the effect behind the enemy so that it overlaps the enemy but doesn't impact on friendly players. Only in tight corners is this really a problem.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Only in tight corners is this really a problem.

Or if your tank is literally surrounded. Or your area is a cone/line. Or you don't have line-of-sight to points behind the enemy lines. Or the range to reach them... Creative spell placement can help, sure, but there's a limit to what you can achieve with it.

[Nyvea]

Thank you all for the tips!

[Orion3T]

Also, remind your fellow players that they can ready actions. If the group is facing a big group of enemies which are ideally placed for a fireball, maybe the fighter should not rush in before the mage has chance to let loose.

Instead, they can move to a safe distance away from the enemies, forming a defensive line, and ready an action to attack any enemy that comes within range. Sure, they might lose an attack or not get to use their own special ability, but if the mage can deal 8d6 damage to a whole bunch of enemies the payoff might well be worth it.

Or instead of readying a melee attack, use a range attack. Lob an alchemist's fire or use some of those other ranged gadgets which (in my experience) don't get used that much. Chuck some caltrops down? Be creative!

In short, suggest to your party members that you can be of more use if they plan around your abilities and don't get in the way rather than feeling the need to rush in and engage.

Improving your own initiative should also help in this regard - if you get to go first, then you can let loose then they go in and mop up the stragglers.