Abjurer Wizard with Some Front Line Aspirations

[TheHutz]

Hey All,

I'm putting together a character for a heavily modified tomb of annihilation campaign and I was looking at playing an Abjurer wizard with the designs of spending some time on the front lines.

I rolled that following array:

16 15 14 12 11 8

We are mostly sticking to the base races from the PHB. We are also using the talent trees system instead of feats, the document is below:

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnearthedArcana/comments/a0ts3y/introducing_talent_trees_over_100_feats_worth_of/

When we gain an ASI we will also be gaining talent points, it won't be one or the other. I haven't determined yet if we can still trade ASI's for talent points per the pdf.

My questions:

Do I take a fighter level at level one? Heavy armor, shield proficiency, proficiency with all martial weapons, and con saves right off the bat.

Which race? My race basically comes down to either mountain dwarf or rock gnome. Mountain dwarf would give me 17 STR 16 CON and 16 INT. Rock gnome 14 STR, 16 CON 18 INT. I tend to prefer some of the extra benefits of the rock gnome, but that 14 STR will need to be remedied if I ever want Splint or Plate Mail.

Lastly, should I be taking both SCAG cantrips? I won't have warcaster right away, it looks like it will be something I can get around level 5, there's an equivalent in the talent trees pdf. Without war caster it will be tough to sword and board early on.

Any other suggestions are much appreciated.

Thanks!

[PhantomVector]

At least on the subject of taking the SCAG cantrips I think you only need one. I think Green Flame Blade is the preferred since the extra damage it deals isn’t reliant on having the target move or be moved in some way.

I’d personally say go fighter first level, if your DM won’t make it too much of a hassle to grab the wizard levels afterwards. Con saves as a wizard is pretty dope.

Have you considered a Dex build rather then str? You’ll be better off if you have to go unarmored. You can use finesse weapons, maybe consider running bladesinger? It’s sorta designed to be a melee wizard anyways. Of course there is the elf/half elf restriction but the class even says you can totally ignore this. If you go gnome you’ll be pretty long lived who says you haven’t befriended an elf in that time?

It might be too expensive if you’ll only be using it for the first few levels but you might be able to forge an arcane focus into a weapon. So a long sword will function as both weapon and arcane focus.

[CheddarChampion]

Rock Gnome with medium armor would be good - swap 14 Str for 14 Dex.
High Elf would let you be a better fighter but start with less Int: 18 Dex 14 Con 16 Int.

Finally, have you considered one level in cleric instead?
Hill dwarf cleric (subclass that grants heavy armor) 1 / abjuration wizard X:
8 Str, 12 Dex, 16 Con, 16 Int, 16 Wis, 11 Cha
Dwarf lets you wear heavy armor no problem
Hill dwarf gets you bonus HP
Cleric gets you more spell slots and spell options
On the negative side, casting GFB or BB wouldn't be a good option anymore. But you can still cast Shocking Grasp or any cleric cantrip!

[TheHutz]

I've considered DEX but I think encumbrance is going to play a large role in this campaign. Each of us will be allowed to take two crafting specialties and the tools for those will add weight. This paired with many day trying to survive wandering the jungles of Chult makes me think STR may be more useful than usual. I guess some of this could be remedied by Tenser's Disk if I decided to go that direction.

As for the bladesinger, the elf requirement has already been waved, and it would be a good option. My only hang up is I've played a bladesinger before and I was looking for something different, maybe I'll take a look at Cleric.

Thanks for the thoughts!

[Corran]

I see the dilemmas like this:

1) Heavy armor and good/decent STR or medium armor and good/decent DEX?
I'd go with medium armor and dex. The reasons are:
Since you wont be getting extra attack, there is slightly less value in grapple/shove options. Even 1 less AC wont be that bad if you going into melee is not your first instinct. On the other hand, dex saves tend to be more common than str saves, and initiative is very important to casters, if not a little more for non-evoker wizards who can blast but without having the option to exclude allies from the blast (so they usually need to go early and do it before allies and enemies are all bunched up). Personally, I would probably sacrifice an additional AC point for better stealth. Definitely ask your DM before you commit to either approach about armor availability in the campaign.

2) Start with proficiency in CON saves or in WIS saves?
First of all, I would want proficiency in both. Given that, I think resilient con is slightly better than resilient wis. The enswer to this dilemma of course correlates with the following dilemma.

3) What dip? Fighter, cleric or hexblade?
Consider the alternatives to a fighter dip. One level in either cleric (off the top of my head it gives you sanctuary among other things) or hexblade (off the top of my head it gives you AoA and a s/r 1st level slot for mage armor/shield/etc, among other things) will give you useful things.

4) Race?
If you answer the previous dilemmas, choosing a race becomes a lot more straightforward, particularly since you are restricted to Phb races? I think vhuman is pretty good since the starting feat will help you a lot (since I would definitely want both warcaster and resilient, stat bumps aside), but elf or halfelf (if you decide in favor of hexblade) makes a strong contender because if I would appreciate having advantage against charm effects on top of wis save prof (also I like darkvision for characters who are capable of stealth).
Edit: Hill dwarf would be very decent if you go with cleric and heavy armor.

5) Attack stat
I guess this falls into the final details. I wouldn't prioritize the attack stat (DEX or STR) over INT, but I am not sure if I would prioritize it over CON. Depends on a lot of factors, one of which would be if I went for a stealthy character or not, which in turn would dictate how useful DEX would be in calculating my AC.

[Galadhrim]

Of those options, I would take the Rock gnome. It makes you the best wizard, and at the end of the day that is what you are. Get that 18 in Int!

Rock Gnome Fighter 1/Abjurer X
14 12 16 11 18 8

If you like the str build, and you want to be on the front lines, you could get to 15 str with taking heavy armor master. that helps out with your front line aspirations as well. (I looked at the .pdf you linked, it does have heavy armor master in there but does not mention the +1 from str, I'm not exactly sure how that works).

I know you said encumbrance would be an issue. If that is the case, heavy armor is really heavy. You might do better with a middling str score and medium armor

Rock Gnome Fighter 1/Abjurer X
12 14 16 11 18 8
You get your dex bonus to medium armor, you can cast shield as a reaction if you need to, and you have your abjurer's ward.

If wis saves become an issue for you, you are perfectly placed to take resilient wisdom at some point with an 11 in wisdom.

[Talionis]

I would suggest considering Hexblade 1/Abjurer X. You get Medium Armor Proficiency and Swords. Your level 1 of Warlock grants you access to Armor of Agathys (Which is great upcast in higher Wizard slots) and the level one Warlock spell slot will be useful throughout your career for the Shield Spell. At this point you would key off Charisma, Intelligence and Constitution and could be a very spell caster combatant.