Abjuration Wizard Gish

[Grear Bylls]

Hey all! For an upcoming AL game, I'm going to be trying out some kind of melee wizard, and decided on some form of abjurer. Using the AL rules, how would you build this. I'm looking at a Fighter 1/Abjurer X, maybe a few more fighter later. Probably Human with GWM. Another cool option seems pure Mountain Dwarf Abjurer, with Heavily Armored at 4. I was wanting to play a Githyanki pure wizard, but I'd lose access to the melee cantrips. Could you guys provide your best builds, strategies, and spell progression, the caveat being Strength based melee wizard?

Thanks in advance!

[PeteNutButter]

GWM is pretty weak without extra attack. I'd suggest either taking 5 levels in fighter for extra attack, forgoing the feat, or going with a different weapon loadout.

I played a Fighter 1/Abjurer 10+ in AL using a staff and shield. Using PAM and Haste allowed me to make a BB/GFB attack and also haste attack followed by the bonus action PAM attack. That nets 3 attacks, one of which is a GFB/BB. The character was/is extremely effective.

The more wizard levels you have, the harder it is for your melee options to be attractive. Making just one attack with a greatsword at -5/+10 is just not nearly as effective as casting spells.

Variant Human (with the first level in fighter) is sadly far stronger than the mountain dwarf option. With the mountain dwarf (no fighter levels) you lose effectively two feats, never get shield proficiency, no con save proficiency, and can't start with a 16 int, all for saving one level.

[CheddarChampion]

I agree with PeteNutButter about variant human being a better pick long term. For a tanky build go variant human fighter 1/wizard X. Stats: 16/8/14/16/10/8. Take polearm master, defense style, booming blade, shield, absorb elements and use a halberd or the like. At wizard 4 take warcaster and switch to quarterstaff and shield.

You can now cast booming blade on your turn and when an enemy moves up to you. Use haste on yourself as mentioned. Further on boost your Int and maybe take resilient (wisdom) to not get dominated.

If that quarterstaff + shield stuff seems cheesy to you (I'd agree) or want to go mountain dwarf wizard X to not miss out on spell progression, do 16/10/15/15/10/10 or 16/8/17/15/10/8. Feats/ASI progression: Heavily armored, STR+1 & INT+1, Resilient (Con), INT+2, INT+2. Take GFB or BB, absorb elements, and shield. For that Gish feel, take damaging concentration spells that you can activate as a bonus action so you can cast your melee cantrip in the same turn. You could also look into Eldritch Knight/Wizard builds to see if that suits you better.

[CTurbo]

I'd go EK Fighter 5/Abjurer 15

Avoid GWM but PAM is a solid choice as is Sentinel.


Fighter 1/Wizard 19 is also strong if you dont want so many fighter levels.


Are you rolling stats or going with point buy?

[opaopajr]

I'd go EK Fighter until I got an Abjuration itch I just must scratch. EK already favors Abjuration & Evocation schools, so you're already good to go as an Abjuration-favoring gish. You get extra attack and action surge, so it's very gish aggressive out of the box.

You need to answer why the need to be an Abjuration Wizard. Is it the challenge to a Wizard in melee? Is it for the Abjurer's school feature? Extra spell slots? Why are you favoring spell casting over fighter-ing?

Answer that and you'll get where you want faster.

[Nifft]

Mountain Dwarf Abjurer. No levels of Fighter -- just Medium armor, a battleaxe or warhammer (with which you get proficiency thanks to being a Dwarf), and a lot of beer. Dex 14, high values in Str and Int, with whatever's left over in Con.

Drow Abjurer. Again, no levels of Fighter -- just high Dex, a Rapier, and a savagely superior sneer.

Is Tortle a viable race for an Abjurer? Or that new Lizard-Dexter?


EDIT: Additionally, consider Paladin 2. If you're only dipping for 2 levels, your low Charisma won't matter much -- no Aura of Cha to saves means you don't care about only having 13 Cha. But being able to Divine Smite with Wizard slots is pretty spiffy, and the heavy armor has good synergy with a Str build.

[KillingTime]

+1 for EK5 - Abjurer
It's basically designed to be use like you seem to be suggesting straight out of the box.

[CTurbo]

I played a high Str(20) Minotaur Abjur wizard before and he was a lot of fun. We only got to like level 7 though. Started Fighter 1 and took Defense. Had 19AC in Plate and grappled and gored the enemies. I didnt buff my grapple(Athletics) in any way though although I would have eventually.

[Grear Bylls]

The reason I'm going Abjurer is for the ward. I'll have lower HPs, and Shield + Absorb Elsments (if I can scribe it) will increase AC/ resistances while refueling my ward.

I want to keep at GWM, as I'll have a familiar to grant advantage. This effectively cancels out the -5.

I don't want to sink more than 4 levels (or even 3) into Fighter, otherwise it doesn't make since to grab the SCAG cantrips.

I also am looking more towards champion for the extra crit dice with a greatsword and Cantrips.

Please, keep the suggestions coming!

[Grod_The_Giant]

As a SCAG user, you'll be doing "single strong attacks" anyway, so doubling down on that with GWM seems...not the best plan-- there's a reason Rogues don't go for Sharpshooter, generally. Instead, I'd look at something like Spell Sniper or (weird as it might sound) Mobile, to make the Booming Blade bonus damage easier to trigger. War Caster + Polearm Master + Booming Blade would also be pretty good.

[Grear Bylls]

As a SCAG user, you'll be doing "single strong attacks" anyway, so doubling down on that with GWM seems...not the best plan-- there's a reason Rogues don't go for Sharpshooter, generally. Instead, I'd look at something like Spell Sniper or (weird as it might sound) Mobile, to make the Booming Blade bonus damage easier to trigger. War Caster + Polearm Master + Booming Blade would also be pretty good.

Unfortunately, you need Spell Sniper for polearm SCaG Cantrips, as the range is 5ft. However, I will look into mobile and war caster. Very cool imo

Also, I don't want to focus on Op Attacks, otherwise I'll sacrifice a defensive spell that turn. I'd rather keep up my defense, and deal big damage on my turn with a greatsword, as I don't care for polearms asthetically.

[Sigreid]

I would do life cleric 1 abj x. Heavy armor, a bit of healing, and the blade cantrips. All without losing spell slots.

[UrielAwakened]

I did build it.

2 levels of Warlock -Hexblade for Darkness combo, medium armor, shield proficiency. Plus you get Armor of Agathys + Arcane Ward cheese and at-will mage armor to fully replenish your Ward whenever you want while walking.

War Caster so you can wield a shield and a longsword and still cast.

Abuse Booming Blade/Green Flame Blade.

Nothing will hit you and you'll have perma advantage more or less.

[Vogie]

Personally I'd go EK 7 / Abjurer X

That way you could use War Magic to blend the spells and attacks together. You can use a GFB attack followed by a Bonus Action attack. Or a firebolt with a bonus action Longbow shot.

[PeteNutButter]

The reason I'm going Abjurer is for the ward. I'll have lower HPs, and Shield + Absorb Elsments (if I can scribe it) will increase AC/ resistances while refueling my ward.

I want to keep at GWM, as I'll have a familiar to grant advantage. This effectively cancels out the -5.

I don't want to sink more than 4 levels (or even 3) into Fighter, otherwise it doesn't make since to grab the SCAG cantrips.

I also am looking more towards champion for the extra crit dice with a greatsword and Cantrips.

Please, keep the suggestions coming!


As a SCAG user, you'll be doing "single strong attacks" anyway, so doubling down on that with GWM seems...not the best plan-- there's a reason Rogues don't go for Sharpshooter, generally. Instead, I'd look at something like Spell Sniper or (weird as it might sound) Mobile, to make the Booming Blade bonus damage easier to trigger. War Caster + Polearm Master + Booming Blade would also be pretty good.

It's a neat idea using a greatsword for huge dice on GFB/BB attacks, but I'd leave that idea to a sorcerer build. Sorcerers could do it twice a round via quicken and [usually] add their cha to GFB if draconic 6+. Combining that with champion is cool as well, but it feels kind of odd stopping fighter 1 or 2 levels before extra attack.

Compare extra attack with BB on a GWM build. With a +1 greatsword (easy to get in AL) your BB will do 2d6+1d8+15 for most of tier 2 with an additional 2d8 rider on BB. Extra attack would deal (2d6+15) x2. Assuming a base 65% hit chance reduced to 40% via GWM but then buffed back to 64% via familiar advantage the BB option does ~17 DPR or 22.7 DPR if the rider procs (which would be very rarely without mobile feat). By comparison the extra attack model does ~23 DPR every round assuming advantage on just one attack via the familiar. Extra attack also has the advantage of increasing the chance you get a crit and proc a bonus action attack.

If you're dead set on the idea I have a Flame Tongue Greatsword (MOAR dice) I'd be willing to trade for a decent enough rare item. You can PM me.

[Grear Bylls]

It's a neat idea using a greatsword for huge dice on GFB/BB attacks, but I'd leave that idea to a sorcerer build. Sorcerers could do it twice a round via quicken and [usually] add their cha to GFB if draconic 6+. Combining that with champion is cool as well, but it feels kind of odd stopping fighter 1 or 2 levels before extra attack.

Compare extra attack with BB on a GWM build. With a +1 greatsword (easy to get in AL) your BB will do 2d6+1d8+15 for most of tier 2 with an additional 2d8 rider on BB. Extra attack would deal (2d6+15) x2. Assuming a base 65% hit chance reduced to 40% via GWM but then buffed back to 64% via familiar advantage the BB option does ~17 DPR or 22.7 DPR if the rider procs (which would be very rarely without mobile feat). By comparison the extra attack model does ~23 DPR every round assuming advantage on just one attack via the familiar. Extra attack also has the advantage of increasing the chance you get a crit and proc a bonus action attack.

If you're dead set on the idea I have a Flame Tongue Greatsword (MOAR dice) I'd be willing to trade for a decent enough rare item. You can PM me.

Thank you so much for the offer! I'll have to build the character, level him up, and proceed to acquire a decent tradable item, but thanks!

I do think I'll pick up mobile. Also, I may go further into fighter, as going higher into wizard really only gives me more Ward HPs, and that's really the idea of the build. However, I'm really looking at Fighter 1/ Abjurer 5 currently. I may plan further, but that's the idea as of yet. 8 levels would probably be best for fighter, nabbing a bunch of ASIs and abilities

Last thing, I won't be able to check this thread again for three days, but he lease keep the suggestions coming!

[Maxilian]

I did build it.

2 levels of Warlock -Hexblade for Darkness combo, medium armor, shield proficiency. Plus you get Armor of Agathys + Arcane Ward cheese and at-will mage armor to fully replenish your Ward whenever you want while walking.

War Caster so you can wield a shield and a longsword and still cast.

Abuse Booming Blade/Green Flame Blade.

Nothing will hit you and you'll have perma advantage more or less.

This combo is quite good, you can take way more damage than most (you basically push your Wizard HP to the that of a Fighter HP and if you count the extra HP given by Armor of Agathys -as a lvl 4 spell-, you will have as much HP as a Barbarian)

Note: If you are going to use the Darkness combo, the Half-elf variant from SCAG (Drow version) its the best option, as it basically give you an extra spell slot to cast Darkness (And some extra goodies)

[opaopajr]

I did build it.

2 levels of Warlock -Hexblade for Darkness combo, medium armor, shield proficiency. Plus you get Armor of Agathys + Arcane Ward cheese and at-will mage armor to fully replenish your Ward whenever you want while walking.

War Caster so you can wield a shield and a longsword and still cast.

Abuse Booming Blade/Green Flame Blade.

Nothing will hit you and you'll have perma advantage more or less.

Good build, properly exploits Ward HP and Temp HP not overlapping.


The reason I'm going Abjurer is for the ward. I'll have lower HPs, and Shield + Absorb Elsments (if I can scribe it) will increase AC/ resistances while refueling my ward.

I want to keep at GWM, as I'll have a familiar to grant advantage. This effectively cancels out the -5.

I don't want to sink more than 4 levels (or even 3) into Fighter, otherwise it doesn't make since to grab the SCAG cantrips.

I also am looking more towards champion for the extra crit dice with a greatsword and Cantrips.

Please, keep the suggestions coming!

Sounds like you more want to play as Conan, greatsword posing and loincloth armor, but as a wizard. Could be fun. Are you more interested in hitting things, or looking cool while you shrug off a hit? Because that gives direction whether to bother with Fighter at all or look at other class features and or spells.

Cleric and Warlock seem rather tailor made for exploiting the Ward HP. Are you sure you can be OK with the greatsword being just for looks? You can Warlock and Pact of the Blade a greatsword, and get extra attacks with Thirsty Blade Invocation at lvl 5. Or Cleric for the armor and a lot more abjuration spells that proc refilling your Ward HP before a Long Rest. Decisions...