Hobgoblin War Mage?

[TexasHays]

Hey everyone, I would love some advice on this new character.

First here are my rolled stat numbers: 17, 15, 13, 11, 10, 7. We're starting this campaign at level 6 and I'll have roughly an extra 500-600 gold to buy nonmagical gear.

I fell in love with the idea of the War Mage from Xanathar's: namely, the idea of a mercenary veteran wizard with some armor proficiencies (I specifically do not want heavy armor, I just can't envision my wizard with it (I'm not concerned with min/maxing too much))

I've had a few ideas of how to mechanically match up with my RP vision and I have a few ideas.

1. (Variant human) The first idea was a one level dip in Cleric to get medium armor while not losing any spell slots. For this, I decided on Death Cleric because of the boost in necro cantrip damage which will help boost damage on the turns I use the War Mage reaction for the AC/Saving Throw boost and lock myself out of full spells for that round. However, to do that I will need a 13 Wisdom and I feel that the nerf to either Dex or Con isn't worth it.

2. (Variant human) The second idea is to take one level of fighter, either 1st level or later since I don't need the heavy armor prof. That would give me medium armor, second wind (which definitely makes sense as a mercenary veteran used to battle), and Defense fighting style which can give me 18 AC at the beginning of the campaign without a shield (I dont see my guy using a physical shield). Starting as fighter gives me CON saving throw which could free up my variant human feat for something else. Not much downside to this except it does hurt my spell slot progression a little. However, I don't know if I'm feeling it to be honest.

3. Hobgoblin! No multiclass needed (though death cleric still sounds interesting, not sure I like the MAD nature of multiclassing into cleric). I get light armor proficiency right away, +2 CON, +1 INT. Which means with my lvl 4 ASI I can have 20 INT, 15 DEX, 15 CON and then pick up Resilient (CON) and Moderately Armored at level 8 and 12 (not sure which to take first), to give me +3 in both, medium armor, and prof in CON saving throws.

I'm kinda torn by all these options, so I'm seeking other opinions! Which of these three do you prefer, or an amalgamation of them, or something completely different? The only thing I'm 100% set on is War Mage and medium armor (and no dwarf), so if you have a different way of getting there, let me know! Thanks!

[jaappleton]

Ok, you're starting at lv6.

I've played a ton of casters. Bard, a lot of Clerics, and a few Wizards, and a couple Warlocks.

Here's my advice:

Screw Cantrips. If you're relying on Cantrips to do your dirty work, you messed up somewhere. The only exemption to this is, of course, Warlock.

Now, Death Cleric of course makes their cantrips (namely Toll the Dead) immensely better. Twice as good, to be precise.

For a Wizard? You have more spells than anyone, you have the biggest spell list in the game. If you're falling back on your Cantrips, again, something went wrong.

And I'm letting you know, if you MC as a spellcaster, you're going to hate missing out on the next level of spells when you should get them. For example, at lv7, if you're a full caster, you get 4th level spells. But if you're Wizard 5 / Cleric 1, you need two more levels of Wizard to cast those 4th level spells. Sure, you picked up a couple 1st level Cleric spells, but you're late on Greater Invisibility, Banishment, Blight, Wall of Fire, Sickening Radiance, Dimension Door, Summon Greater Demon...

[TexasHays]

You're exactly right! Which is why I'm leaning towards option 3 to avoid multiclassing at all. Death cleric helps on those rounds of War Mage when I've used the AC/Saving throw bonus and thus can not cast anything but a cantrip that next round. But, that's likely going to be a rare use case and shouldn't happen more than once or twice an encounter so, while it does make those rounds better, it has all the downsides you pointed out.

Thanks for the perspective! I'm the type of person who would definitely be annoyed at having to wait an extra level for more powerful spells. Plenty of guides point out the power of a cleric or fighter dip for wizard but I agree with you, its probably not worth it (for me).

[jaappleton]

There's one other caveat, though. And I forgot about this, so forgive me, that's my fault.

Arcane Deflection.

Basically, if you use it, you're stuck using Cantrips next round.

I believe that was your worry to begin with; If you're going to be restricted to Cantrips, you want your Cantrips to be decent.

This is going to sound crazy...

If you're targeted by an attack, and you're not Concentrating on a spell you want to keep going, you need to decide if you want to try to take the hit. 99% of the time, personally, I'd cast Shield well before I use Arcane Deflection. If its going to be a normal hit and not something devastating like a Dragon is swiping at me, I'll likely just take the hit.

Really, the only reason to use Arcane Deflection is for the +4 to Concentration. The +2 to AC isn't worth it.

At lv6, you're approaching a point where your 1st level slots should be almost exclusively for defensive spells (Absorb Elements and Shield). Beyond that, outside of combat, utility only (And even then, you should be using Rituals to save your slots). And you've got 4 of the first level spell slots, and you shouldn't be near the front lines anyway.

TL; DR
Don't use Arcane Deflection for the +2 to AC, it's almost never worth it

[Temperjoke]

One thing to be careful about is that a hobgoblin PC can fit in your DM's campaign or not, since hobgoblins are often one of the more common "monsters" serving bad guys or being the bad guys. Since one of the big things you seem to be looking for is medium armor, Mountain Dwarves get Light and Medium armor proficiency as a racial feature. They get racial +2 bonuses to CON and STR which means you can put your low scores into those categories to help minimize the impact of them. And thematically, I can see a dwarf war mage as much as a hobogoblin.

[TexasHays]

jaappleton: Yeah, that was the feature I was referring to and that makes sense, plus I'll still have access to Shield and other evasive spells so it shouldn't come up too much.

Temperjoke: Definitely. It won't be a problem for this campaign though, we were already introduced to a lot of the setting info and I've run it past my DM. Dwarf definitely deserves a second look, but the classic Hobgoblin devestator is definitely pulling at my heartstrings.