Which wizard school should I choose.

[Throne12]

I also wanted some advice in playing a wizard. The party consists of Minatar samurai fighter, shifter whispers bard, half-orc Str kensai Monk, Gnome assassin rogue. So damage is undercontrol. So I'm looking into playing a support style yes. I'm set on wizard so plz don't suggest another class. Playing a fully support character is a different then my usual stay. As I normally playing a damage dealer that support every now and then.

[MilkmanDanimal]

Hogwart's. Heyoooooooooooooo . . .

Anyways, if you want more support, Divination is always great; roll a couple d20s, and replace other rolls with them. Always useful. Also, if you want more of a control aspect, highly recommend Illusion.

[Appleheart]

Wizard Subclasses generally have relatively limited impact on the playstyle of the character, as the core power of the class comes from the core kit.

Abjurer and War Wizard both have some nice defensive perks. War Wizard especially is a great defensive generalist wizard (imo).

If you want to support though, Diviner Wizard would most likely be the way to go. You can use Portent to help save to support the team, and is probably the most all around strong and useful Wizard subclass ability.

[noob]

I heard Divination school was quite good.

[Sigreid]

Abjuration is a solid one letting you protect your damage dealers. If you go Deep Gnome you not only get a boost to your main stat but at level 4 can take a feat that will let you recharge your ward between fights.

[Man_Over_Game]

There are a few ways you could define "support".


Abjuration, for instance, has the most threat prevention possible for a Wizard, with specialized shielding effects and an enhanced Counterspell.
Divination has the most RP-focused abilities in the game, since you can afford to cast high level Divination spells for more information, which in turn fuels low level slots for combat. It basically means you can afford to spend spell slots out of combat, and you should.
Illusion is good for a more social/influential style of support, where your creativity can shine. As opposed to mitigating negative effects or obtaining knowledge for your teammates, you manipulate environments to suit your allies.



Due to the fact that your team has virtually no healing, I'd recommend going Abjuration over anything else. You can combine your self-protecting Ward with Life Transference as a great way to heal one of your allies for massive amounts of HP.

[Keravath]

Consider taking your first level in cleric and the rest in wizard. This increases your support abilities with heals and bless which can be scaled with higher level slots and also gives you access to your choice of medium or heavy armor, shields and in some cases martial weapons. All of these can make your wizard a little more supportive and durable at the cost of one level.

In addition, your party has SINGLE target damage covered but not AoE damage. The bard will get hypnotic pattern (if they take it) which is great crowd control at level 5 (plus shatter if they take it at level 3) but they are pretty limited. The wizard has a spellbook and so will have a much larger spell selection and can adapt between AoE damage, crowd control and support depending on what they prepare each day. Haste might be a good spell for example with your party composition.

As for choices, each wizard brings something useful to the table.

Evoker - can shape AoE damage around your front line. There is nothing nicer than being supportive by damaging lots of opponents at the same time.

Divination - portent can be used to make that one important saving throw or attack either hit or miss depending on the numbers. Preventing a crit that could take out one of your front line fighters can be very useful. Changing a important saving throw from a fail to a success or vice versa for an opponent can also be very effective.

Anyway, I think your team could use a bit more healing (the bard could take healing word but they might not have done so) and AoE damage so I would be tempted to go level 1 cleric followed by Evoker wizard. (An evoker can still cast haste and crowd control spells just as well as any other wizard but they can also drop AoE evocation spells safely on the party).

[SirGraystone]

I have a gnome Cleric 1 (Knowledge) / Wizard 5 (Divination) and have a great fun with him so far, Portent is great use.

"You can replace any attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made by you or a creature that you can see with one of these foretelling rolls."

Casting hold person on the villain use your low portent on his save, your paladin try to persuade the kobolds to surrender use your high rolls for her persuasion check.

[Lyracian]

The two questions to answer are
- What level are you starting play?
- What level are you likely to finish at?

Level 14 Illusory Reality is very powerful at high levels but if you are playing from the start and end the campaign when you get to level 15 you will not get a lot of use out it. Transmuter's Stone is another nice mid-level ability to buff a character.

Top Three
Abjuration: Ward is similar to having temporary Hit Points and great if you want a Wizard engaging in Melee. At level six you can use it to protect others.
Divination: Best all rounder with Portent letting you control the outcome of opponents spell saves or your own party.
Probably the best level two ability but the extra arcane recovery at level 6 is rather limited as you will not cast many divination spells.
Enchantment: Hypnotic Gaze and Charm let you control targets and Split Enchantment lets you take out two enemy with single target spells like Laughter. Wonderful for a (de)buff based Mage.

[Chronos]

Transmuter can also support other characters directly, by lending out your Philosopher's Stone: The buff goes to whoever's carrying it, not necessarily you.

[Throne12]

The two questions to answer are
- What level are you starting play?
- What level are you likely to finish at?

Level 14 Illusory Reality is very powerful at high levels but if you are playing from the start and end the campaign when you get to level 15 you will not get a lot of use out it. Transmuter's Stone is another nice mid-level ability to buff a character.

Top Three
Abjuration: Ward is similar to having temporary Hit Points and great if you want a Wizard engaging in Melee. At level six you can use it to protect others.
Divination: Best all rounder with Portent letting you control the outcome of opponents spell saves or your own party.
Probably the best level two ability but the extra arcane recovery at level 6 is rather limited as you will not cast many divination spells.
Enchantment: Hypnotic Gaze and Charm let you control targets and Split Enchantment lets you take out two enemy with single target spells like Laughter. Wonderful for a (de)buff based Mage.

Starting at lv 3

Idk I'll be leaving for a few months so not to high right now.

Also DM dont like multi class unless there is a reason.

[sophontteks]

Its not a very high-damage party.

Whispers bards do not do well dealing damage, not at all. I'd be concerned that this bard may try to be like a rogue and end up a liability.

Similiarly, the strength monk is an odd choice. Without a high dex and wisdom, his AC is going to be very low. And you guys have very little healing, so he's another possible liability as well.

The fighter is a good tank and single target dps, and the rogue is good single target dps.

I'd go either war or abjuration. Aim to be self sufficient and fill whatever holes the party has.

[Throne12]

Its not a very high-damage party.

Whispers bards do not do well dealing damage, not at all. I'd be concerned that this bard may try to be like a rogue and end up a liability.

Similiarly, the strength monk is an odd choice. Without a high dex and wisdom, his AC is going to be very low. And you guys have very little healing, so he's another possible liability as well.

The fighter is a good tank and single target dps, and the rogue is good single target dps.

I'd go either war or abjuration. Aim to be self sufficient and fill whatever holes the party has.

The monk got the DM to let him use str and con for AC. DM likes str monks and have said several times there should be a option for str monks.

[Man_Over_Game]

The monk got the DM to let him use str and con for AC. DM likes str monks and have said several times there should be a option for str monks.

Tell him to check out my Prestige Options homebrew. One of the options is playing an Open Palm monk using Strength instead of Dexterity for your Monk features, designed to multiclass fluidly with Barbarian.

I chose specifically Open Palm because it requires Wisdom to utilize, requiring the build to be somewhat MAD. This keeps the overall power level of a Barbarian/Monk down while still making it a strong/fun choice.

[Helldin87]

For simplicity I say go with evocation. Blue on Blue is a real concern and you are the supporting cast! Any damage you do to your allies is the opposite of helpful so preventing that makes some sense.

For wizards the school of magic is certainly important but I feel like the sublcass does much less to DEFINE the class than say a cleric or a warlock. You are supporting based on your prepared spell selection and the rituals you commit to learning (and paying for in some cases).

[sithlordnergal]

Here's what I would suggest:

Go Divination Wizard, Portent is probably one of the most powerful support skills in the game, and it will always be helpful. Even if you roll really low, you can use it to force an enemy to fail something. It doesn't even take an action to use, so you're not losing out on action economy.Sure, you only get two per long rest, but it is still extremely useful to have. Not to mention, Expert Divination at level 6 and The Third Eye at level 10 are also excellent abilities.

Speaking of Expert Divination, take the Mind Spike spell. It is a 2nd level Divination spell that deals 3d8 psychic damage with a fairly useful rider. If the target fails their save, you always know their location. They cannot become hidden from you, and it gains no benefit from the Invisible condition. It is a bit wonky, and I'd ask the DM, but there may be an argument to be made that you can still target such a creature with other spells. Mostly because of this:

Mind Spike: The target can't become hidden from you, and if it's invisible, it gains no benefits from this condition against you

Invisibility:An invisible creature is impossible to see without the aid of magic or a Special sense. For the purpose of Hiding, the creature is heavily obscured. The creature’s location can be detected by any noise it makes or any tracks it leaves.
Attack rolls against the creature have disadvantage, and the creature’s Attack rolls have advantage.

Mind Spike says it gains no benefits from the Invisible condition...and one benefit of the condition is that they are impossible to see. So you might be able to work it to where you can see them if they failed the save, and can target them.

[Snowbluff]

NOt enough suggestions of Evocation. Sculpt Spell alone is very good, and you need to know why, read spells like sickening radiance , fireball, wall of fire. Not having to aim is great. Oh, and they get stuff to buff damage as well, I guess.

[Shuruke]

I had lots of fun with my charmer wizard who was a snake charmer that learned to use it on any creature thats not inherently immune to charms.

Hypnotic gaze is a really fun ability and if you are a race that can get prodigy or you take 1 rogue for expertise (I took 2 for the disengage bonus action if hypnotic gaze didn't work)

Instinctive charm is lots of fun as well and if your allies are ok with it you can be up near them with mirror image or blur up for added fun.

Split enchantment came in handy twice

Once was for the dream spell and that was lots of fun

Second was on uses of the cause fear spell which came up pretty often and was nice

Campaign didnt make it higher than 11th level though

In the end find something u wanna do theatrically it was lots of fun to talk like Kaa from jungle book and have my character playing a flute in front of people as they slowly follow and mimoc his head movements as he occasionally whispers poisons into their mind.

Got us past a few npcs on few occasions and was really interesting.

[Particle_Man]

My first choice would be divination.

That said, you could go for evocation - if you do I recommend that you call your character Tim the Enchanter.

[Throne12]

NOt enough suggestions of Evocation. Sculpt Spell alone is very good, and you need to know why, read spells like sickening radiance , fireball, wall of fire. Not having to aim is great. Oh, and they get stuff to buff damage as well, I guess.

I said I dont want damage. I'll be taking very little to no damaging spell.

[Keravath]

I said I dont want damage. I'll be taking very little to no damaging spell.

The choice of course is yours. :)

... but I've played in a party when the evoker wizard was present and when they weren't. Most of the time they tended to play a support/back line/as far back as possible role, however, the party consisted of mostly melee or ranged single target damage (fighter/barbarian/rogue/warlock etc) and there were several fights with lots of opponents when area of effect damage made the fight much easier/saved everyone. Since a wizard can scribe any spell of their class ... I would recommend not ignoring collecting damage spells even if you don't often prepare them.

[Edgerunner]

Having played a Divination Wizard to LvL 16 in the past I can say that I loved it. I also took Treantmonk's guide to Wizards to heart and I never regretted it. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IeOXWvbkmQ3nEyM2P3lS8TU4rsK6QJP0oH7HE_v67QY/edit

[Dalebert]

Surprised no one has mentioned necromancer. Give him a little charisma and the leadership feat. Your skellies (and later stronger undead) get crazy tough and can be fodder to interpose between mobs and allies. They do surprisingly good dmg with your features too. If attacks aren't effective in a certain case (high ac or resistant to non-magical) they can team up to grapple or stand next to allies and assist. Rogues love their own pretty skelly!

Life Transference actually suffers when you're a Necro but maybe your DM will allow you to not use your Resistance on it. Then you can kill things to heal yourself. However, if you can get your hands on a ring of spell Storing, you can have a skelly cast it for you!

[Vogie]

If UA is available, Theurgy. You all need another healer or that Bard is probably going to die, doubly so if they try to be a melee whispers bard, followed immediately by everyone else.

If not, a Bladesinger or war wizard will give you a huge defense boost. With Bladesinger, You'll be faster, get light armor, and +Int to AC and concentration bonuses twice per short rest. Then go nuts with normal spells. With War Wizard, you have to be more selective in using your Deflection, but you get empowered Dispel Magic & counterspell at 6.

[Sigreid]

Hogwarts. A wizard with options should chose Hogwartz.

[Yakmala]

Based on the available non-UA choices, here are some of my favorites.

Evoker: I can't begin to tell you how much better your quality of life will be with Sculpt Spells. Being able to drop AoE's on enemies without having to worry about party position is a godsend. Overhannel is fun for boss fights, especially if someone can land Hold Person/Monster on the enemy first.

Divination: One of the most popular choices, mainly due to Portent. And don't get me wrong, Portent is amazing. Forcing the Big Bad to roll a 1-2 on their save at a crucial moment is a game changer. But keep in mind that at higher levels, a lot of those big bads are going to have legendary saves that will spoil your fun. Expert Divination is also really really good, especially since the introduction of Mind Spike in XGE. Used properly, you can double your number of spell slots per day.

Abjuration: Wizards and squishy. A dead wizard is no good to anyone. Abjuration greatly increases your survival. And Arcane Ward can be mixed with another source of Temporary HP, such as Armor of Agthys or a feat like Inspiring Leader. The downside of Abjuration is you might start thinking you can tank. Spoiler Alert: That tends to end badly.

Bladesinger: Want an armor class so high it will make your DM want to flip the table in rage? Bladesinger is your sub-class. Much like Abjuration, some Bladesingers think they are tanks. You are still better off playing the Bladesinger like a traditional ranged spellcaster, just one that is a lot harder to harm.

[Mikal]

Surprised no one has mentioned necromancer


Seeing as how this thread is nearly two months old since the last post before you posted I find this extra amusing.

[Dalebert]

Seeing as how this thread is nearly two months old since the last post before you posted I find this extra amusing.

Weird. I'm sure I didn't go more than two pages in.

[TheUser]

I also wanted some advice in playing a wizard. The party consists of Minatar samurai fighter, shifter whispers bard, half-orc Str kensai Monk, Gnome assassin rogue. So damage is undercontrol. So I'm looking into playing a support style yes. I'm set on wizard so plz don't suggest another class. Playing a fully support character is a different then my usual stay. As I normally playing a damage dealer that support every now and then.

Knowing what level ranges you're going to occupy helps us greatly. 2-5 Diviner. 5-11? Necromancer. 11-17? Illusionist. But if it's a bigger range like 1-14 Abjurer might be best.

Also "support" can take many forms. Necromancers provide minions which can simply be responsible for holding large tower shields in front of party members for cover, or use the help action lots. They can also heal very well using life transference and since the recover easily with grim harvest it's no skin off their back. Or maybe you wanted fire support like 4 skeleton archer providing covering fire while your allies reposition.

I guess what I'm saying is you should play necromancer...