Critique my 1st-level Wizard spells, pls.

[Speely]

My first wizard in 5e. Please give me feedback. I plan to go Bladesinger, btw. We are starting Dragon Heist and going into Dungeon of the Mad Mage, so yeah.

Notable Ability scores:
Dex: 15
Int: 17
Planning to take this to Dex 16/Int 18 at level 4.

High Elf so extra cantrip.

Cantrips: Frostbite, Booming Blade, Mage Hand, Minor Illusion.

(Yeah, I have no Fire Bolt or Prestidigitation. Sue me. I think Frostbite has better utility than Fire Bolt, and our Bard has Prestidigitation. Taking Booming Blade because Bladesinger and our group could use some off-tanking in a pinch.)

1st level spells known: Find Familiar, Cause Fear, Grease, Shield, Mage Armor, Sleep.

Sleep is only there as a a way to deal with lowbies in Waterdeep. I feel like it's worthwhile for low levels, but I am open to suggestions from more experienced wizards.

Please advise as to better spell/cantrip choices for someone basically filling in a fifth-wheel role. Our party is pretty good for tanking, support, and skulking. I am looking to shore up the utility/control and AoE aspects.

I give zero craps about damage, as you might have guessed ;) The choice of Bladesinger is mostly to help my concentration spells stick so I can be a better controller.

[Unoriginal]

If you don't care about damage but want to be an high-concertration controller, then are you sure that Bladesinger is the subclass for you rather than, say War Mage?

Other than that, I'd say both Mage Armor and Shield are too redundant at first level (you can get both later on if you want, but as your starting setup...).

Why not take Color Spray or another control spell instead of either Shield or Mage Armor?

[Speely]

Good points! I decided Bladesinger because of both the speed increase, the AC boost, and the better Concentration save. While it's not an ideal setup, it's pretty good. I know War Wizard gives similar and situationally-better benefits, but I like the benefits of Bladesong offer more.

I will consider your thoughts about Color Spray vs Shield/Mage Armor. I can see how these spells can be redundant at low levels.

[Unoriginal]

Note that it doesn't have to be Color Spray in itself, just any control spell.

And to be fair, Shield and Mage Armor aren't completely redundant, as they do stack. It's just that you're investing a good share of your known spells into personal defense rather than in active capacities.

[Speely]

Note that it doesn't have to be Color Spray in itself, just any control spell.

And to be fair, Shield and Mage Armor aren't completely redundant, as they do stack. It's just that you're investing a good share of your known spells into personal defense rather than in active capacities.

Nah, I hear you. At that level, more control makes more sense than more personal defense.

Thanks for the advice!

[sithlordnergal]

So, your level 1 spells seem pretty good from what I can tell. Grease and Sleep make for fine battlefield control spells, and can deal with opponents without killing them. Which if you are playing dragon heist, that is an option you want.

That said, your cantrips need a bit of work. I would advise against taking Frostbite for your cantrip. Sure, it has the disadvantage for an attack roll thing that Vicious Mockery has, but a target needs to make a Con save. You generally want to avoid forcing monsters to make Con saves, as they usually have higher then average Con modifiers.

Personally I would swap Frostbite out for Chill Touch or Ray of Frost. Both cantrips use d8's for their damage. Ray of Frost lowers the target's speed by 10, which adds some more battlefield control for you. Meanwhile Chill Touch does necrotic, which is rarely resisted, stops the target from regaining hp for a round, meaning regeneration stops, and if the target is undead it imposes disadvantage on attack rolls against you.

Note "attack rolls", i.e. the disadvantage works for all attack rolls an undead would make against you.

[Dark Schneider]

I don't see Grease so great. They could prone 1 round, against archers is useless, they are protected against your archers, and in their turn they can stand up and attack you. Also your melee allies can prone if try to close them for attack while prone.
Against melee foes, OK they could lose their 1st round for attacking because the prone possibility or the difficult terrain, but not so much advantage if they are a bit distributed, because AoE is 10-foot cube.
I'd take False Life and use it at max lvl (up to 5) before any hard combat (like big boss or important enemies). Avoiding to be knocked down is very good as you save your allies (like Cleric) to lose their turn get you up. Also the HP False Life grants to you using certain spell slot lvl is about the same the Cleric needs to use for healing you, but not losing any turn (yours and the Cleric one) for being knocked down.

You should keep Frostbite if your are going to get evocation as school, because it gets Potent Cantrip and Empowered Evocation. If not the case, get another one.

[Merudo]

I don't see Grease so great. They could prone 1 round, against archers is useless, they are protected against your archers, and in their turn they can stand up and attack you. Also your melee allies can prone if try to close them for attack while prone.
Against melee foes, OK they could lose their 1st round for attacking because the prone possibility or the difficult terrain, but not so much advantage if they are a bit distributed, because AoE is 10-foot cube.

You should keep Frostbite if your are going to get evocation as school, because it gets Potent Cantrip and Empowered Evocation. If not the case, get another one.

Yeah, area control spells are nice, but as far as Grease go it's rather weak.

Also, I'd swap Cause Fear with Tasha's Hideous Laughter.

[Galactkaktus]

Some mistakes i did in my spell selection for my wizard.
1. picking mage armor at level 1 it's too expensive to use mage armor with only 2 spell slots. Better to get it at level 2 and start using it at level 3 when you get alot more spell slots.
2. I really wish i had grease and/or tasha's hideous laughter since my 1st level spell slots is a resource that is only used for mage armor and shield i very often have several of them left with nothing good to do with them.

My recommendation would be to take.
Shield, Find familiar, Magic missile(great way to force concentration checks), Grease/tasha and the rest rituals.

[Zanthy1]

I would drop Mage Armor and pick up Tasha's Hideous Laughter. If you're going Bladesinger you get light armor proficiency, and your 1st level slots are precious right now. Shield is fantastic, because you only need to cast it if you're gonna get hit, so hopefully never. I will second the above mentioning of dropping frostbite for Chill Touch, only because one of my DMs plays his NPCs similar to how PCs play, whereas they carry healing pots and have healers sometimes. Plus if there are undead, it does the same thing as frostbite but with a better than of dealing damage.