Favorite (Most fun?) Wizard School (And spells, if you want to share!)

[nirurin]

I'd like to hear some feedback. Thinking of making a Wizard, and going all out on the more fun spell options. Tensors Transformation, Summon Lesser/Greater Demons, Animate Objects/Undead, Tiny Servant, all the various crowd control and damage options too, etc etc.

So just curious what people's favourite School would be. I'm currently leaning towards Bladesinger, as they get all the usual access to the Wizard spells as well as some nice survivability options and an occasional bit of melee fun.

Abjuration is being a bit of a contender though, as the Arcane Ward seems like it might be a useful tool. Not sure how it would compare to bladesinger though.

Necromancer and Conjurer get honorable mentions for the fun of summoning, but again I feel this is more in theory... I hear bad things about summons lol

[MxKit]

If you're wanting to be able to melee sometimes and are playing an elf/half-elf or your DM is willing to waive that bit of fluff for you, Bladesinger is quite good. Definitely not a frontliner, but since you're not expecting it to be, it should be good for you.

Abjurer and War Magic are also fairly strong, though, if you want to be able to get into melee sometimes, so you could go with either if your DM wants to keep the race restriction of Bladesinger and you don't want to go elf it up.

Necromancy summons are kind of hard to do much with, ime, but Conjure X summons can be very cool depending on a)what you want out of them and b)your DM. If they let you control what you want to summon, obviously that's "the ideal," and (again ime) a lot of DMs will be willing to work with you especially if you make it clear up front you want specific summons for flavor reasons rather than power reasons. If they want to control what you summon, it can be more iffy but still a lot of fun, especially if they still let you control the CR and number of creatures you want, but even if they don't. If they want to control what you summon specifically to make sure you never get anything strong out of it, that's going to suck hard.

My personal favorite Wizard subclasses are Divination and Transmutation, though Illusion comes close. Divination is just so satisfying, getting to roll your portent dice, getting to regain spell slots whenever you cast divination magic, getting to choose from some amazing forms of sight every rest. Transmutation isn't the strongest subclass, but the transmutor's stone alone is great, and so flavorful that I love building a character idea around it. Illusion is powerful as hell if you do cast a lot of illusion magic, and depending on your DM illusions can be incredibly powerful; Illusory Reality by itself also feels like a "god wizard" thing without actually making the Wizard god-level overpowered, giving it some great flavor as well as being very strong.

[Lombra]

I'm charmed by the enchantment school, I find it's flavor so bittersweet and intreasting.

I also like necromancy, the recycling theme fits me really well :biggrin:

War wizard is also very cool in my opinion, a good alternative to bladesinger and goes well with so many character concepts.

[nirurin]

If you're wanting to be able to melee sometimes and are playing an elf/half-elf or your DM is willing to waive that bit of fluff for you, Bladesinger is quite good. Definitely not a frontliner, but since you're not expecting it to be, it should be good for you.

Abjurer and War Magic are also fairly strong, though, if you want to be able to get into melee sometimes, so you could go with either if your DM wants to keep the race restriction of Bladesinger and you don't want to go elf it up.

Necromancy summons are kind of hard to do much with, ime, but Conjure X summons can be very cool depending on a)what you want out of them and b)your DM. If they let you control what you want to summon, obviously that's "the ideal," and (again ime) a lot of DMs will be willing to work with you especially if you make it clear up front you want specific summons for flavor reasons rather than power reasons. If they want to control what you summon, it can be more iffy but still a lot of fun, especially if they still let you control the CR and number of creatures you want, but even if they don't. If they want to control what you summon specifically to make sure you never get anything strong out of it, that's going to suck hard.

My personal favorite Wizard subclasses are Divination and Transmutation, though Illusion comes close. Divination is just so satisfying, getting to roll your portent dice, getting to regain spell slots whenever you cast divination magic, getting to choose from some amazing forms of sight every rest. Transmutation isn't the strongest subclass, but the transmutor's stone alone is great, and so flavorful that I love building a character idea around it. Illusion is powerful as hell if you do cast a lot of illusion magic, and depending on your DM illusions can be incredibly powerful; Illusory Reality by itself also feels like a "god wizard" thing without actually making the Wizard god-level overpowered, giving it some great flavor as well as being very strong.


I do think the Bladesinger is meant to be the most 'frontliner' of all the casters though, can't think of another one that would be any more survivable except maybe a Valor Bard who puts all his points into strength and heavy plate ... but even then the bladesinger will have much higher AC. I'd be tempted by the Inspiring Leader or the Toughness feats though, just to pump up the HP pool a bit.

I have to say I do really like Portent, but I get put off by it being only 2 dice per long rest. Thats two attack rolls out of what... a hundred? And you have to choose *before* the roll, so you might be forcing a fail/pass on a roll that was going to fail/pass anyway (probably happens like a third of the time or something) so really you're only getting the full use of one dice a day. Seems weak, especially compared to the Lucky Feat.

[MxKit]

I do think the Bladesinger is meant to be the most 'frontliner' of all the casters though, can't think of another one that would be any more survivable except maybe a Valor Bard who puts all his points into strength and heavy plate ... but even then the bladesinger will have much higher AC. I'd be tempted by the Inspiring Leader or the Toughness feats though, just to pump up the HP pool a bit.

Oh, I feel like if you're talking full casters, the Valor Bard, Swords Bard, and Bladesinger work the best as frontliners, I just feel like they work even better as... secondliners? Whatever you'd call the characters that can go into the front line to help out the frontliners when needed, and pull back to the back lines when needed. And I feel like Bladesingers will just always be more powerful as casters than as melee combatants, and so tend to work best played as "caster with melee capabilities," but YMMV on that.


I have to say I do really like Portent, but I get put off by it being only 2 dice per long rest. Thats two attack rolls out of what... a hundred? And you have to choose *before* the roll, so you might be forcing a fail/pass on a roll that was going to fail/pass anyway (probably happens like a third of the time or something) so really you're only getting the full use of one dice a day. Seems weak, especially compared to the Lucky Feat.

Two at first, eventually three at lv14, yes! It's not as powerful as the Lucky feat for sure, but it's still great for ensuring really important things happen the way you want them to, and it's really satisfying for me even being limited. Also, IMO, it's made even better by the fact that you can have it and the Lucky feat. At some point I'm going to triple down and play a Halfling Diviner with the Lucky and Second Chance feats, I swear. Maybe even Bountiful Luck, too. Not even for power's sake, just for the flavor of it all, but I imagine it'd also be pretty powerful!

[nirurin]

Oh, I feel like if you're talking full casters, the Valor Bard, Swords Bard, and Bladesinger work the best as frontliners, I just feel like they work even better as... secondliners? Whatever you'd call the characters that can go into the front line to help out the frontliners when needed, and pull back to the back lines when needed. And I feel like Bladesingers will just always be more powerful as casters than as melee combatants, and so tend to work best played as "caster with melee capabilities," but YMMV on that.



Two at first, eventually three at lv14, yes! It's not as powerful as the Lucky feat for sure, but it's still great for ensuring really important things happen the way you want them to, and it's really satisfying for me even being limited. Also, IMO, it's made even better by the fact that you can have it and the Lucky feat. At some point I'm going to triple down and play a Halfling Diviner with the Lucky and Second Chance feats, I swear. Maybe even Bountiful Luck, too. Not even for power's sake, just for the flavor of it all, but I imagine it'd also be pretty powerful!



I have to say, after I wrote that reply to you, I then went back to Diviner and looked at it and considered the merits of taking that + the Lucky feat lol. Even considered Halflings, though I'm not a big fan of Halflings as a race (even though their ability is so good).

Are there actually any good / fun diviner spells that would make decent use of the reclaimed spell slots though? Most of the spells I tend to like the look of are summons or animate objects or things like steel wind strike or tensors transformation... which I think are all conjuration except for tensors which is transmute I think...

[MxKit]

I have to say, after I wrote that reply to you, I then went back to Diviner and looked at it and considered the merits of taking that + the Lucky feat lol. Even considered Halflings, though I'm not a big fan of Halflings as a race (even though their ability is so good).

Haha. great minds think alike! Really though, I do think Diviner is powerful even with the limitations on their portent, but even more than the power I think I like them for the fact that they're one of the Wizard classes that really feels like it... allows a specific attitude from the Wizard? Divination, Enchantment, Illusion, Necromancy, and Transmutation are the Wizard schools that imo really lend themselves towards a character who believes that if they learn enough, they can just change the workings of the universe so that certain laws of reality are just meaningless to them. Divination's specific "all"-seeing, fate-altering shtick is maybe my favorite flavor of that.


Are there actually any good / fun diviner spells that would make decent use of the reclaimed spell slots though? Most of the spells I tend to like the look of are summons or animate objects or things like steel wind strike or tensors transformation... which I think are all conjuration except for tensors which is transmute I think...

Hmmm, I actually do like arcane eye, clairvoyance, and scrying as spying/scouting spells, true seeing is always nice, and detect thoughts can be pretty useful. Legend lore can be a fun/flavorful choice so being able to cast it without feeling too wasteful slots-wise is nice. Locate creature and locate object can likewise be useful on occasion and when they are, getting a spell slot back would feel pretty nice; same with see invisibility which you might almost never need but will really like when you do need it. Mind spike is neat and might well be worth casting if you can get spell slot back for casting it. And of course foresight is a big one; you can't recover the 9th level spell slot, or even an 8th level one, but automatically being able to get a 5th level spell slot back when you cast it is still pretty good.

Mostly, I'd say the divination spells aren't really earth shaking or anything, but they tend to be useful or very flavorful to have, and Expert Divination kind of encourages actually playing that role for your party. Since I'd be a Diviner mostly to be That Guy, it works really well for me to be able to give myself or someone else in the party truesight for an hour (especially if I already have ethereal sight or invisibility sight via The Third Eye) and immediately get back a 5th level spell slot for fireball purposes, it really gives even more incentive to do stuff like that.

ETA: That said, if you're not that interested in playing that role for the party, it might not be as fun for you! If a lot of the spells you're looking at are conjuration, it might honestly be worth going Conjurer if only for the Focused Conjuration class ability at lv10. If you do decide to play around with summoning, your summons will also get an extra 30 (temporary) hit points eventually, which is a nice bonus. Or Transmuter, just for the transmuter's stone giving you proficiency in Constitution saving throws (as well as potentially other things, but lbr, that's what it's going to be used for most often), and eventually letting you raise the dead without expending a spell slot. Or, as you've said, Bladesinger for the melee possibilities!

[LeonBH]

Illusionist and Diviner. They are the two wizard schools that have lots of room for creative play.

[gloryblaze]

Mind Spike works great with the recycled slots, it's a solid low level damaging Divination.

[nirurin]

Mind Spike works great with the recycled slots, it's a solid low level damaging Divination.

Isn't it very weak? Though I guess you can upcast it and then recast it with the recycled slot.

[MxKit]

Isn't it very weak? Though I guess you can upcast it and then recast it with the recycled slot.

3d8 isn't too bad for a 2nd level spell, imo, and it's nice that it does half that damage even if they make their Wis save. Even nicer that it does psychic damage, since that's not commonly resisted. As you said, you can upcast it too, but its most interesting part is the rider; it may not come up very much, but making it so you can find the enemy for a solid hour even if they try to hide from you, turn invisible, or get out of the battle would be pretty nice in some situations. If you're fighting enemies that use hit-and-run tactics, like goblins, or ones that can teleport away or turn themselves invisible or toss up a covering fog or something, mind spike at them and be able to find and/or hit them without problems when they pull their tricks, and be able to cast, say, shield free of charge because of it.

I'd still definitely put it as "neat" rather than "great," necessarily, but I feel like with the spell slot recycling it becomes much more usable because you're not losing out on much by casting it, and sometimes you can finagle it to really help you out if you need a spell slot of a particular level.

[Arkhios]

Although I haven't played a wizard in 5th edition since playtest, I just recently saw someone play an Abjurer pretty much the same way I would (mountain dwarf in heavy armor, posing as a "fighter")

Other than that, I would definitely play a War Wizard any day. In fact, I'm even planning to multiclass my paladin into War Wizard, no matter what (even with my base int 11; obviously going to invest one ASI just because).

[nirurin]

Although I haven't played a wizard in 5th edition since playtest, I just recently saw someone play an Abjurer pretty much the same way I would (mountain dwarf in heavy armor, posing as a "fighter")

Other than that, I would definitely play a War Wizard any day. In fact, I'm even planning to multiclass my paladin into War Wizard, no matter what (even with my base int 11; obviously going to invest one ASI just because).

I'm curious, why are you so interested in the War wizard? The power surge is incredibly underpowered (to the point of uselessness), and the deflecting shroud at 14 is only ok, but using it requires using your Arcane Deflection, which means no spellcasting, so probably a net loss in damage or utility done.

If the damage boosts were Wizard level, than it might be ok, or if Power Surge gave you like 3x uses per counterspell (gain a power surge per level of the spell used) then it might be balanced.


Edit: By comparison, the best part of War Magic is the Deflection, which gets you +2AC and +4 against magic saves at the expense of your reaction and no spells (except cantrips) being cast for a whole turn.
Bladesinger gets you up to +5 to your AC basically permanently (two fights per short rest, so pretty much available whenever you need it), and it doesn't use your reaction so you can ALSO get +5 from Shield for a +10 to AC, and still be able to cast spells during your turn.

War Magic gets you (at level 14), +7 damage to a single spell per use of counterspell or dispel magic. At -BEST-, that is probably going to add up to +35 damage per day.
Bladesinger at 14 gets you +5 damage per swing of your sword, permanently. So even if you only use your sword in one or two fights per day, you'll still end up dealing more than 50 damage extra per day. And it doesn't cost you any spell slots, the Power Surge requires you spending all your level 3 slots on counter/dispel.
Abjurer at 10 gets you a big buff to Counterspells. NO bonus damage, but almost guaranteed counterspell vs +7 damage after a counterspell... which would you choose?


War Magic Deflection is good if you're low on slots for a Shield spell, or if you're attacked by something that beats your AC by 1.
Tactical Wit is good for the iniative.
The rest seems like it should be doubled in order for it to be useful.

[Arkhios]

I'm curious, why are you so interested in the War wizard? The power surge is incredibly underpowered (to the point of uselessness), and the deflecting shroud at 14 is only ok, but using it requires using your Arcane Deflection, which means no spellcasting, so probably a net loss in damage or utility done.

If the damage boosts were Wizard level, than it might be ok, or if Power Surge gave you like 3x uses per counterspell (gain a power surge per level of the spell used) then it might be balanced.


Edit: By comparison, the best part of War Magic is the Deflection, which gets you +2AC and +4 against magic saves at the expense of your reaction and no spells (except cantrips) being cast for a whole turn.
Bladesinger gets you up to +5 to your AC basically permanently (two fights per short rest, so pretty much available whenever you need it), and it doesn't use your reaction so you can ALSO get +5 from Shield for a +10 to AC, and still be able to cast spells during your turn.

War Magic gets you (at level 14), +7 damage to a single spell per use of counterspell or dispel magic. At -BEST-, that is probably going to add up to +35 damage per day.
Bladesinger at 14 gets you +5 damage per swing of your sword, permanently. So even if you only use your sword in one or two fights per day, you'll still end up dealing more than 50 damage extra per day. And it doesn't cost you any spell slots, the Power Surge requires you spending all your level 3 slots on counter/dispel.
Abjurer at 10 gets you a big buff to Counterspells. NO bonus damage, but almost guaranteed counterspell vs +7 damage after a counterspell... which would you choose?


War Magic Deflection is good if you're low on slots for a Shield spell, or if you're attacked by something that beats your AC by 1.
Tactical Wit is good for the iniative.
The rest seems like it should be doubled in order for it to be useful.

Did it ever cross your mind that not everyone thinks and plans ahead their characters in the most uber overpower munchkin way possible?

Why am I interested in War Magic? Because it's got cool flavor.

[nirurin]

Did it ever cross your mind that not everyone thinks and plans ahead their characters in the most uber overpower munchkin way possible?

Yup, because nine times out of ten the choices I make are the ones that seem the most fun. Even considering a Bladesinger is the furthest from "munchkin" (I hate that phrase, it's so remedial) that you can get in this game.

My point was that, compared to what is considered the worst of the Wizard schools, War Magic seems to be -even worse-. And it doesn't even have fun mechanics to make up for it... you get a minor AC boost and an Initiative boost and thats it. Nothing else.

So yeh, cal me a munchkin for thinking that class options should be fun. Though I'm pretty sure that word is -meant- to mean min/maxing a character to be as cheesily overpowered as possible. In which case... doesn't really work with anything I said at all.

That would be a Deep Gnome Abjurer, or a Lucky Diviner. Or, in fact, a Paladin/Sorcerer. Or a Sorcerer/Paladin.

Unless you were just being rude and obnoxious to me because I pointed out the reasons why the new War Magic class was badly designed. My point was that that was the way it appeared to me (after an extremely cursory read-through), and then I hoped someone (maybe even you, if capable) could point out where I had made a mistake and that the School actually had redeeming features.

As your response was a knee-jerk "omg yoo noob munchkin minmax gtfo" I guess that means that there aren't any redeeming features.

Edit - Just to add that you edited your post after I wrote this, so it now sounds slightly less obnoxious. Mildly.

[Laserlight]

It depends on whether you want to be blasty or a god wizard or what. I'm playing a god wizard diviner and am enjoying it a lot. Sure, you only get two uses of Portent a day, but you use them when they're important. No wasting a crit on a goblin that you would have killed anyway.

Polymorph is a really fun spell. We had a 4x Deadly fight a couple of days ago, and I polymorphed one of our party--without asking him, I just said "I move here, I do my bonus action, and for my action, let's see...Sean, you're a T Rex." His eyes got wide and he grinned and waded into the melee. If you have a large plastic dinosaur mini that you can pull out, that just makes it more better.

Polymorph plus Portent is also fun. When a dragon attacks your airship and his breath weapon takes half your party to single digit HP, it's extremely convenient to be able to say "I Polymorph the dragon into a trout. Oh, and the dragon's saving throw is a five. I watch the dragon fall a thousand feet to the rocks below." It didn't kill him but it did persuade him to go away.

[nirurin]

It depends on whether you want to be blasty or a god wizard or what. I'm playing a god wizard diviner and am enjoying it a lot. Sure, you only get two uses of Portent a day, but you use them when they're important. No wasting a crit on a goblin that you would have killed anyway.

Polymorph is a really fun spell. We had a 4x Deadly fight a couple of days ago, and I polymorphed one of our party--without asking him, I just said "I move here, I do my bonus action, and for my action, let's see...Sean, you're a T Rex." His eyes got wide and he grinned and waded into the melee. If you have a large plastic dinosaur mini that you can pull out, that just makes it more better.

Polymorph plus Portent is also fun. When a dragon attacks your airship and his breath weapon takes half your party to single digit HP, it's extremely convenient to be able to say "I Polymorph the dragon into a trout. Oh, and the dragon's saving throw is a five. I watch the dragon fall a thousand feet to the rocks below." It didn't kill him but it did persuade him to go away.


Hah yeh, Polymorph is definitely going on my spell list. So many uses!

[Arkhios]

Yup, because nine times out of ten the choices I make are the ones that seem the most fun. Even considering a Bladesinger is the furthest from "munchkin" (I hate that phrase, it's so remedial) that you can get in this game.

My point was that, compared to what is considered the worst of the Wizard schools, War Magic seems to be -even worse-. And it doesn't even have fun mechanics to make up for it... you get a minor AC boost and an Initiative boost and thats it. Nothing else.

So yeh, cal me a munchkin for thinking that class options should be fun. Though I'm pretty sure that word is -meant- to mean min/maxing a character to be as cheesily overpowered as possible. In which case... doesn't really work with anything I said at all.

That would be a Deep Gnome Abjurer, or a Lucky Diviner. Or, in fact, a Paladin/Sorcerer. Or a Sorcerer/Paladin.

Unless you were just being rude and obnoxious to me because I pointed out the reasons why the new War Magic class was badly designed. My point was that that was the way it appeared to me (after an extremely cursory read-through), and then I hoped someone (maybe even you, if capable) could point out where I had made a mistake and that the School actually had redeeming features.

As your response was a knee-jerk "omg yoo noob munchkin minmax gtfo" I guess that means that there aren't any redeeming features.

Edit - Just to add that you edited your post after I wrote this, so it now sounds slightly less obnoxious. Mildly.

Your response felt (at the time) not-so-little condescending towards a personal choice that was different from yours. Your opinion is, of course, your own. But that doesn't mean my choices have any less value than yours (and vice versa). In my personal opinion War Magic Tradition is cool and fun, and honestly I don't see why would I have to explain why I feel that way. I just do. Clearly it's not your opinion, as you just implied, but that's fine. Just, please refrain from telling people who disagree with your opinions that their choices basically suck, ok? That's not nice. Like, at all. In my honest opinion, if someone created bad athmosphere on this matter in the first place, it was you with the first reply. I may have responded in a slightly obnoxious manner, but the feeling was mutual at that point. I guess I was wrong and I apologize.

For the record, no, my response wasn't along the lines of "omg yoo noob munchkin minmax gtfo". Instead, it was (at least intended as) nonpersonal exaggeration by generalising. I didn't say you were a munchkin, per sé.

[nirurin]

Your response felt (at the time) not-so-little condescending towards a personal choice that was different from yours. Your opinion is, of course, your own. But that doesn't mean my choices have any less value than yours (and vice versa). In my personal opinion War Magic Tradition is cool and fun, and honestly I don't see why would I have to explain why I feel that way. I just do. Clearly it's not your opinion, as you just implied, but that's fine. Just, please refrain from telling people who disagree with your opinions that their choices basically suck, ok? That's not nice. Like, at all. In my honest opinion, if someone created bad athmosphere on this matter in the first place, it was you with the first reply. I may have responded in a slightly obnoxious manner, but the feeling was mutual at that point. I guess I was wrong and I apologize.

For the record, no, my response wasn't along the lines of "omg yoo noob munchkin minmax gtfo". Instead, it was (at least intended as) nonpersonal exaggeration by generalising. I didn't say you were a munchkin, per sé.


Well I'm sorry if it sounded that way, but my response was just because you said you would choose War Magic any day, no arguement, like it was clearly the best thing ever... without actually giving any reasons as to why. And I couldn't see any reason for it. If it's just because you like the backstory of the War Mage that's fine, it's a good enough reason by itself, it was just the way you said it that made it sound like it was a no-brainer decision and it made me assume I had missed something or completly misread the abilities for the class.

Apologies if I was dissing your choice, if you like it the most just-because then thats fine too. Play what makes you happy. I'm about to start a campaign that is likely to run the full 20 levels so thats why I'm here trying to make sure I end up choosing a fun option for Wizard, and not spending the next year thinking of ways to murder my own character.

[Evret_Jakpot]

I'm playing a Stout Halfling Divination Wizard with the Lucky Feat, acolyte background and want to multiclass into either cleric or bard for more dice control. It's been really fun and my teammates like me because I make their characters shine that much more. My deity is Lady Luck and my goal is to find the Luck Blade and return it to her temple.

-Evret Jakpot

[TheUser]

Necromancer is very underappreciated; the first ability at level 2 allows for some absurd healing with the right spells. Any spell that deals damage on the turn of the opponent and/or continually (flaming sphere, vampiric touch, wall of fire, evard's black tentacles etc) lets you keep yourself topped off during most encounters.

The critical aspect to playing a strong necromancer comes in two ways, the first is not going overboard with minions; you don't want to put all your eggs in one basket. Leaving yourself catastrophically vulnerable to AoE or the limitations of undead is a good way to hamstring your PC under the wrong circumstances.

Secondly is to learn and prepare spells that enhance your minions ability to murder people (and your allies I guess....). Spells like grease, web, slow and evard's black tentacles will allow you to have your minions attacking at advantage (or against -2 AC for slow).

Picking up Inspiring Leader at level 8 isn't critical but it helps a lot (+8 temp hp to each skeleton is a solid buffer).

If you want to keep your turns quick you can also create a table of AC values that translate into DPR of a skeleton so you don't have to roll 8-10 times per turn just to hit (probably more work than you're willing to do).

[Tboy1492]

Currently playing an elf abjuration wizard, converting from 3.5 in a rather precarious situation. Pinned to a wall with equivalent of two failed saving throws, and his turn is next. Ranger used a healers kit to stabilize him but now has spells because of the conversion, dm isn’t letting us backtrack that bit so it’s a 50/50 if I actually get to play him (death saving throws no joke)(last of a race as well, with a story I wanted to see through).

The ward seems like a very nice ability, plays into what I was going to do with him anyway in mass combat (making mass shield wards and barriers and help with magic defense in combat) now it looks like the class option is designed just for it.

[jas61292]

This is a question that has no real good answer, as it is so much up to player opinion.

Some people love bladesinger. I find it dreadfully boring, as it does nothing to improve your casting, and it doesn't actually make you much of a front line, since even incredible AC doesn't help enough when you have a d6 hit die and Con is tertiary at best. Really, it's a sub class that gives you good defense, but not enough reason to want to put yourself into situations that use it any more than other wizards.

Similarly, a lot of people like divination. And if having an I win button on occasion is fun for you, you might like this. But I find that incredibly dull, as there is no thought or nuance to just saying an enemy fails a save.

On the other hand, my personal favorites are probably Illusion and Enchantment, as I find those spells the most fun, with the most to do and think about beyond "exactly what it says in the description." So a subclass that improves upon those abilities is exactly what I would have fun with.

But really, there is no wrong choice.

[MintyNinja]

As someone mentioned earlier, Mountain Dwarf Abjurer. Carry an Axe into battle and fling spells from the midline.

[sithlordnergal]

Heh, I have played Necromancers, Abjurationists, Transmuters, and Diviners. So far, my absolute favorite Wizard subclass is Divination, no questions asked. You may only get two Portents, but that's not an issue. No matter what, those two portents will be useful at some point in your adventure. I generally save them for big boss fights, or very deadly encounters. They can completely change an encounter from being unwinnable to a cake walk, especially when combined with a "save or suck" spell like Fear.

They can make you one of the most effective debuffer in the game if you rolled low and use them in the right encounter. It can also save party lives if you rolled high, and they failed a skill check that their life depends on.

As for spells, my favorites are:

Shield: because +5 AC when you have a natural 21 ac is insane

Tasha's Hideous Laughter: auto-knocks an enemy prone and makes them unable to act. Even better, the save made on their turn is done at the end of their turn. Fun fact, Ropers are not immune to prone, or laughter.

Chromatic Orb: 3d8 damage with a damage type of your choice between acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, or thunder. All for a first level spell slot, and it only requires a one time purchase of a 50gp gem.

Blur: This is sort of my go-to defensive spell because of the disadvantage it imposes on attack rolls against me. That said, my Wizards are always multiclassed with something that can use Heavy Armor, so they generally have an ac of 20-21, and can boost it to 25-26 with Shield. So forcing disadvantage is a better use of my slots then Mirror Image.

Fear: Just...look at the spell description. Look at it closely. Then realize the implications when cast by a wizard who can force you to fail your save with Portent. Savor it, love it, watch as your DM rages, unable to do anything for the duration of your spell.

Phantasmal Force: Very DM dependant and very dependant on your own imagination. But hey, if your DM actually pays attention to illusions, you could use it to make a second version of your meat shield appear. It might cause the enemy to target the illusion instead.

Animate Object: Just bring bags of ball bearings. Bring them and watch as things are pummeled for 10d4+40

[ImproperJustice]

I’m currently running a level 6 War Wizard and it really “fits” for me.

The init bonus and save bonus from arcane deflection have kept me in fights, where I would otherwise have been disabled.

Power surge is definitely underwhelming but for my current play group, I have settled into the role of anti-mage. Maybe that’s what I like about the tradition is that I feel less like a “God wizard on the hill” and more like a tactical wizard in the trenches who works as part of a team.

I’m running a heavy spell load that disables or debilitates enemies so my heavy martials can move in unopposed and clean up.

In our last session, I went toe to toe with an enemy Warlock.
Arcane Deflection shielded from his first spell, and on the following round he slipped an evard’s tentacles past my Counterspell, but I dispelled it the following round freeing my allies.
Whom we then curbstomped together the following round.

I have been able to jump into the front lines with a power surge shocking Grasp occasionally to open a path for a wounded ally to escape and I have the ability to tank for a round or two as needed.

All in all, I like the flavor of the tradition quite a bit. That certainly does not diminish anyone else’s chosen tradition either.

[Oramac]

I admit I didn't read the whole thread, so I apologize if it's been said.

IMO, Divination is by far the most fun school. Hands down, no question. Just being able to say "he rolls a 1" after the DM says "Baddie McBadderson makes a devastating attack against you" is worth the price of admission.

I once played in a group that took full advantage of this, and it was quite possibly the most fun I've ever had in D&D. Five players, all starting at 5th level.

All playing Halflings; All taking the Lucky Feat when able.

Tempest Cleric 2 / Divination Wizard 3
Lore Bard 2 / Divination Wizard 3
Divination Wizard 5
Divination Wizard 5
Divination Wizard 5

So we reroll all 1's (Halfling), 10 Portent dice, and 15 Lucky dice (once everyone gets the feat).

Our DM hated us. It was glorious.

[fbelanger]

I Will be offbeat but I played a standard human evoker.
I made good use of the unusual phantasmal killer, but also
Web, blindness, bigby’s hand.
I also have good memories for chain lightning and hold monster.

[Spore]

Illusionist is pretty nifty to be honest. I would have said Enchanter but their school abilities are made for combat where I would not use enchantments. I feel enchantments are to avoid combat or social interactions.

Illusions have a good utility both inside and outside of combat and you usually have not quarrel with the group's divine caster in terms of supporting. I usually enjoy debuffing too so necromancy would be a good pick too though I feel the reaping ability goes against the whole debuffing theme of the class and if you want a necromancer without undead you still get forced down a undead control ability.

[XmonkTad]

Illusionist is the one I find the coolest. Malleable illusions plus Illusory Script just seems like so much fun!

Only one I've actually played though was a diviner. It was great fun. I felt like I could do my divining shtick all day thanks to regenerating spell slots.