Wizard Archetype for WD:DH&DotMM (and Mizzium Apparatus)

[Butler2102]

So I'm stepping out of the DM seat after a few years and getting to be a player again. My buddy is going to run Waterdeep Dragon Heist and Dungeon of the Mad Mage, and I'll be playing a wizard! I'm excited to experience this class to the fullest (hopefully to level 20, as is the plan, and something we successfully achieved in my game).

That being said, I can't for the life of me land on an Arcane Tradition. What wizard subclass do you think would be most fun in these games? UA content is allowed.

Diviner, Conjuration, maybe Bladesinger, Theurgy (tempest, knowledge, or order), and Lore Master are standing out. But I'm certainly open to being sold on others.

Additionally, I already know I'm playing an Elf and I'll be starting with a Mizzium Apparatus (item from the Ravnica book, a gift for DMing our previous games), which opens up the spell list a lot and makes anything that boosts Arcana checks really valuable. We're starting at level 3.

With all that in mind, what subclasses would you recommend. I'm really indecisive about these things, so I need someone to really sell me haha. Thanks!

[Rukelnikov]

It depends heavily on what type of wizard you wanna play, wanna be a controller? Divination, Illusion or enchantment all work, wanna be a nuker? Evocation has some decent stuff for what it does, etc.

My recommendation though, would be not to play Lore Master, even with 0 min max it's ludicrously OP.

[mephiztopheleze]

When in doubt: Divination.
When not in doubt: Still probably Divination. The Portent ability is the single most pants-on-head-retarded overpowered ability I've ever seen introduced into DnD short of Manipulate Form.

The other options I personally consider as Top Class are Abjuration and Illusion*. Conjuration also has some rather nice quirks at higher levels.

Necromancy and Transmutation are, imo, pretty garbage.

*NOTE ON ILLUSION: You need to know your DM a little before going down this route. If your DM is just gonna blow through every Illusion you create, then it's a useless choice. If your DM is prepared to let you get creative with your Illusions, it's a truly top notch path to go down.

[Keravath]

I'd suggest whatever you feel like playing ...

1) Divination has the cool portent ability. Two dice/long rest that you can assign before the roll is made. On a typical adventuring day with multiple combats and a couple of short rests, it doesn't go far. It also doesn't work against legendary saves unless you want to try to force a target to use one up. It can save a critical hit at a clutch moment or if you roll a 20 it can become a critical hit for your paladin. So it has a significant fun factor but it is not OP.

(The only time it becomes OP is when groups have 1 combat/long rest and the diviner can choose to use both die rolls in one fight and even then it needs the right circumstances to be useful)

2) Illusion has the cool higher level abilities that let you make the illusions real. In this case, imagination can be a very useful ability since if you can come up with good uses it can be very effective.

3) Abjuration can be quite tanky. This is especially true if you can come up with an at-will abjuration spell that you can cast over and over to recharge the ward after each combat. Common choices are the deep gnome spellcasting feat giving them non-detection at will and the warlock invocation allowing casting of mage armor at will. Either of these can be used to fully recharge the ward (and its temp hit points) in a couple of minutes. In addition to that, abjuration is also good at counterspelling and a couple of other abilities.

4) Evocation can be really good too. The ability to shape your spells means that you can safely cast a fireball on the front line troops and exclude your party members from the effects. You also get to add int modifier to evocation spell damage later on. The spell shaping ability is useful from level 2 to 20 and lets you use some nice damaging spells in close combat.

Keep in mind that all of these schools are basically icing on the cake. All wizards have access to all the spells so every wizard can do damage, debuff, crowd control or whatever you like ... all that matters are the spells you have in your spell book and what you have memorized that day. The individual schools add flavor.


Finally, you may want to consider taking your first level in cleric. Thematically, either knowledge cleric or arcana cleric works really well with a wizard. The basic cleric chassis provides proficiency in medium armor, shields and simple weapons which significantly increases the wizard armor class (especially when combined with the shield spell).

There is also a bump in first level hit points. You pick up 4 or 5 first level cleric spells (depends on whether your wisdom starts at 13 or 14) which can include bless and healing word which are both really useful party support spells even if the party already has a dedicated healer. Knowledge gives you expertise in two int skills chosen from Arcana/History/Religion/Nature which can be very useful. Arcana gives you proficiency in the arcana skill and a couple of additional wizard school cantrips (on top of the cleric ones) where you could pick things like Prestidigitation or Mage Hand ... freeing the Wizard cantrip slots for damaging spells. You also get three cleric cantrips of which Guidance is probably a top pick. The character is also a full caster for spell slot progression.

The downside is that your spells and ASI will be acquired one level later. However, on balance, it seems to be mostly worthwhile, at least something to consider.

[JackPhoenix]

To add to Keravath, the one level of cleric would also open up cleric spells as option for Mizzium Apparatus. All of them, when you'll get the slots.

[Mercurias]

I like most of the Wizard classes, but for your setup I would personally play an Illusion Wizard. So long as your DM gives illusions a fair shake, they're a powerful and pretty well-rounded school to specialize in, and the specialization features end up being pretty wild at higher levels.

An Enchanter would also be a fairly good choice for a character who locks enemies down and, at later levels, dominates enemies to use them against their fellows.