Need help fluffing my svirfneblin wizard - To MC or not to MC?

[Decstarr]

Hey guys,

I'm NOT looking for any optimization or min/maxing. I rolled great stats (17,16,15,13,8,8) and I want to play a full out utility wizard who is mainly interested in becoming famous, rich and powerful by being some sort of geralt/sherlock holmes type of guy. He'll be a very smart guy, always worried about his "reputation" but he's coming from a rather poor and criminal background. He'll be using a raven familiar which, via use of mimicry, will be fluffed as a parrot to some degree and has the quirk to steal shiny, valuable stuff.

I'll start at 18 Int, 18 Dex, 15 Con, 13 Wis, 8 Str, 8 Cha. (Though the combination of the 4 "low" stats might change if I need it for MC reasons).

We're playing in a 6 player's group and just finished a 2 year campaign with all characters ending up lvl 20, so we are planning to repeat such a long running campaign.

Since I personally think the last 3 levels of Wizard are pretty much garbage, I intend to multiclass. And since I think that multiclassing once you are high level like 17 e.g. kind of loses its potency, I intend to do it early on. My question now is, do you guys have any good ideas on how to do it?

I am currently leaning towards taking a dip into druid at level 2 and 3, to have access to wild shape and the circle of the moon (not for combat use, but for scouting and roleplaying reasons only). Does this plan make sense?
Any other ideas regarding multiclasses that could add flavor to the character? I really want to try to be super utility and RPG on this one since we have a pretty strong dpr group already but no real spellcaster besides our Valor Bard.
Any general ideas with regards to character fluff? Any great ideas on how to use wild shape in interesting scenarios besides the classic "scouting" idea?

[Unoriginal]

If you want to be a Geralt/Sherlock Holmes kind of guy, why not go Rogue (Inquisitive or Mastermind).

[holywhippet]

I'm working on a gnome wizard build at the moment and took a single level of knowledge domain cleric. The extra cantrips and spells are useful enough as clerics get a lot of good spells as cantrips and at level 1. The same build would work for a Sherlock Holmes type as knowledge was a large part of Holmes' abilties as a detective.

[DrowPiratRobrts]

If you want to be a Geralt/Sherlock Holmes kind of guy, why not go Rogue (Inquisitive or Mastermind).

I agree with this. Getting Expertise will be clutch. Alternatively you could also put 3 levels into Mystic for some Psionics shenanigans. I once played a Mystic detective and it was a blast.

Side note: I generally don't like multiclassing as Wizard because it delays your spell progression so much. Something to consider. Will you reach level 20? Will your spells be as effective if you're a Wizard 2/Druid 3 taking on CR 5+ encounters? Maybe. Maybe not. Druid seems like an odd choice for a control Wizard to dip into, but if you like the concept I say go for it! Just food for thought.

[CTurbo]

If he wants to be rich and famous, I'd put the 13 in Cha and take a few Bard levels. Probably Lore Bard, or maybe Glamour. It wouldn't hurt your spell casting progression at all and get you expertise. You can add +1 to Con and Cha at your next ASI. Maybe even put the 13 in Con and the 15 in Cha if you really want to sell it.


But yeah a few Rogue levels would be great too, but will cost you spell slots.

[Decstarr]

Thanks for the input so far!

My first ideas actually were Rogue Mastermind and Knowledge Cleric. I decided against it because both are already represented in the group and I want to avoid stealing spot light from people. But I think I'll talk to the two players again and find out how they feel about it.

In terms of level progression: Sure it'll slow me down and my combat use will be rather limited. But we have a very fight centric lineup with some really strong characters in it so I doubt it is going to be too much of an issue. During fights, I see my character as some kind of Overwatch whose main objective is to help his muscle crew prevail.

Thanks for the input!

[JellyPooga]

Druid is a great Multiclass for Wizard, but I would recommend Land Druid over Moon. Moon offers combat forms, but a Land Druid still gets tasty utility and scouting out of Wild Shape and offers Natural Recovery to lessen the impact of losing out on advancing your Arcane Recovery, not to mention the additional Cantrip and spells prepared. For utility, Land Druid beats Moon by a long shot. If you can afford it, I'd also consider taking Druid up to 5th level; there's some very tasty 3rd level Druid spells that work nicely with whatever School specialisation you go with for Wizard. In addition, 4 levels of Druid gives you the option of gaining a swim speed with Wild Shape.