Casters as defenders

[Harrysonford]

What builds or tricks help a full caster defend the whole party?
I mean other than obvious ones like abjurer wizard.

Your insight would be greatly appreciated :)

[Aett_Thorn]

Well, removing the ability of enemies to attack, either single-target or AoE, will prevent party damage (So things like Hold Person, Hypnotic Pattern, etc).

Restricting enemy attacks with spells such as Slow would also help.

Launching a Fireball into the enemies, and then sitting back and using your spell slots for Shield as the DM sends all of the creatures your way in retaliation would help the party.

[LeonBH]

Be an Illusionist Wizard. Pre-cast Mirage Arcane. Use Malleable Illusions. Be God (virtually).

[Tboy1492]

Be an Illusionist Wizard. Pre-cast Mirage Arcane. Use Malleable Illusions. Be God (virtually).

As long as the enemy isn’t immune to illusions.

Not my party, but a different one under the same DM went to go take care of this evil bard illusionist in the forest long ago. Everything was going so smoothly that a player got suspicious. So he made an active will save, dm has been keeping passive saves the entire time. He passed and woke up, was atbthe camp at the forests edge, whole journey in the forest was an illusion.

Never underestimate the illusions!

Edit: do they still have wall spells in 5e? If so you might be able to erect a wall to protect the party momentarily (or longer)?

[NecessaryWeevil]

Not sure how good summoning is in 5E, but you could summon a bunch of meat shields.

[Zene]

I was kind of surprised to find, on my caster with high dex and Alert (so tends to go early in initiative), that Slow and Confusion are pretty darn effective in turning what would otherwise be very deadly fights into something the party felt virtually no threat from.

This particular build was a sorclock with Subtle Spell and Quicken (so can avoid counterspells, or could use repelling blast to knock enemies into range if necessary, followed by a quickened Slow or Confusion). But the range of both spells is over 60' (they're 90' and 120', but I forget which is which), so if you're playing in open fields a lot you could probably get by without Subtle. Careful metamagic might be better. This guy was a draconic sorcerer, which didn't help, but a wild sorcerer could get both advantage on the initiative roll and could Bend Luck to affect one of the opponent's saving throws.

And of course Wizards get these spells too, and a Bard gets one and can steal the other with magical secrets. Might be some neat combos or synergies in those classes, not sure.

Oh and Arctic Land Druids get both spells, and they also get the *amazing* and underrated control spell Plant Growth, plus healing, plus new XGE spell(s?) that cause the land itself to animate and attack or restrain your enemies... so they're definite contenders too for this "defense via control" strategy.

[LeonBH]

As long as the enemy isn’t immune to illusions.

Not my party, but a different one under the same DM went to go take care of this evil bard illusionist in the forest long ago. Everything was going so smoothly that a player got suspicious. So he made an active will save, dm has been keeping passive saves the entire time. He passed and woke up, was atbthe camp at the forests edge, whole journey in the forest was an illusion.

Never underestimate the illusions!

Edit: do they still have wall spells in 5e? If so you might be able to erect a wall to protect the party momentarily (or longer)?

You can't be immune to illusions. You can have truesight, but even that doesn't bypass Mirage Arcane since it has a tactile component as well.

The power of Mirage Arcane is even if you know it's all in your head, you still can't shake it off. You still must interact with it.

That said, it's a 7th level spell, so it's supposed to be powerful. :smallsmile: