People Who Kill Wizards Good

[Sparky McDibben]

So I'm pitching a campaign for a new group, starting at first level where they play characters who are hunting and destroying evil wizards. And some neutral wizards. And maybe evil clerics. And possibly the occasional druid who wanders into the crossfire.

So I'd like to lay out subclasses who have no more than half-casting and are really good at shutting down casters. Thoughts?

[Damon_Tor]

Paladin for their aura, especially ancient oath paladins.

Monks are great at breaking concentration and stunning, and have good saves as well. Shadow monks can cast silence.

[sithlordnergal]

Oath of the Ancients Paladin is the Subclass you're looking for. If you max out your Charisma, you'll have +5 to all saving throws, but that's not the good part. The good part comes at level 7.

Oath of the Ancients gives you resistance against spell damage. So if you manage to make the save, the damage of any spell that hits drops to 1/4th of what it did. To put it this way, I was playing out of the Abyss. Our party managed to tank a Meteor Swarm at about level 10 with relative ease thanks to my Aura.

If you really, really, REALLY wanna give casters a big middle finger, play a Yuan-Ti. They have advantage on all saving throws vs. Magical Effects, this includes spells and non spells. So you'll have advantage to your saves, +5 to saves, and resist the spell damage.

[Flashkannon]

Anyone with Mage Slayer, really. Also of note, Rogues. Well, to the unprepared wizard at least, an Assassin Rogue can match them hit die for damage die.

[Sigreid]

A fighter with sharpshooter can ruin their day.

[nickl_2000]

The most effective ways to kill a wizard are

1) hit it from so far away that they can't cast spells at you. So, fighter, rogue, or ranger with sharpshooter.

2) ambush them and hit hard in the first round, since they have poor AC send HP. So, gloom stalkers or assassin.

3) lock them down so they can't cast. Shadow monks with stun and silence, ATs with hold person, EKs in the same boat. Anyone who can cast darkness or other obscuring spells to break line of sight. Or someone with the sleep spell who can drop it just in the wizard.

4) Resist the damage. Monks getting all saves and evasion, rogue with evasion, ancient paladins, yuan tis, gnomes, etc.

5) Move before them in initiative.

If I were customizing a party I would focus on 2 and 3, but also have all the others.

Ancients Yuan Ti Dexadin
Shadow Monk
Gloom Stalker Ranger
AT Rogue.

You have enough healing between the ranger and paladin. You have lock down with the monk and AT, and you have ambush with the gloom stalker, Paladin, and AT. It would be a pretty strong anti caster team.

[stoutstien]

Often over looked is the monster Slayer ranger. At later levels it one big magic users nightmare.

[Throne12]

Anyone with the Silence spell.

[Lunali]

Tabaxi monk, move from out of range to melee in a single turn, while disengaging to prevent AoO from guards, stunning strike to lock them down. As you level you get evasion, charm breaking, good saves, save rerolls, and at the highest levels, invisibility to prevent targetting and resistance to most damage.

[stoutstien]

TBH Mage Slayer is a good way to get optimized Wizards to laugh at you and thank you for not taking a feat that's actually better against them, like Alert or something.

At least that's how I generally feel when I'm playing a Wizard and someone uses Mage Slayer against me.

No, you are right. As written the feat is mostly useless.
Make all the 5ft limits into 15ft and at least it has a niche.

[Damon_Tor]

No, you are right. As written the feat is mostly useless.
Make all the 5ft limits into 15ft and at least it has a niche.

I would leave the range as-is but allow the reaction attack to counter the triggering spell.

[Kane0]

Barbarian: Zealot, Totem (Eagle)
Bard: Any, but specifically Lore
Cleric: Any, but specifically Arcana
Druid: Any
Fighter: AA, EK
Monk: Any
Paladin: Any
Ranger: Monster Hunter, Horizon Walker
Rogue: AT, Inquisitive
Sorcerer: Any, but specifically Shadow
Warlock: Any, but specifically Fey or GOO
Wizard: Any, but specifically Abjurer or Diviner

[Sparky McDibben]

Barbarian: Zealot, Totem (Eagle)
Bard: Any, but specifically Lore
Cleric: Any, but specifically Arcana
Druid: Any
Fighter: AA, EK
Monk: Any
Paladin: Any
Ranger: Monster Hunter, Horizon Walker
Rogue: AT, Inquisitive
Sorcerer: Any, but specifically Shadow
Warlock: Any, but specifically Fey or GOO
Wizard: Any, but specifically Abjurer or Diviner

Hey man, thanks for the list; I really appreciate it! If you could, can you drill in on the half-casters (or less) and tell me why you would recommend them?

Thanks to everyone else! These are really good ideas; I especially love the buffs to the Mage Slayer feat. Good calls!

[stoutstien]

I would leave the range as-is but allow the reaction attack to counter the triggering spell.

Didn't want to step on monster slayers capstone. I guess the ranger doesn't need to be within 5ft but still let's a lot of the air out of the whole subclass.

[Fable Wright]

The things that shut down Wizards are:
1. Silence, and being grappled to stay in the silence.
2. Breaking line of sight, through magical darkness or fog. (Most spells need line of sight.)
3. Getting one shotted in the surprise round.

Rangers can do the first. Shadow Sorcerer and Warlock can do the second. Gloomstalker and Assassin (or the infamous fighter/gloomstalker/assassin multiclass) can do the third.

[tomjon]

Don’t forget bards are the best at counter spells

[CheddarChampion]

I would leave the range as-is but allow the reaction attack to counter the triggering spell.

I personally rule that the attack hits prior to the spell goes off. Misty Step? Still get hit. Hold Person? Still get hit.

This way the feat is real good on Swashbucklers, Paladins, GWM... extra damage if they try anything .

Even without that ruling, if a mage casts shield you get an extra attack against them (though their AC is higher).

[darknite]

"The Fellowship of those Who Kill Wizards, and maybe Clerics, Especially if they're Evil, but Sometimes Not."

Has a catchy ring to it. :smallbiggrin:

[sophontteks]

Drunken master monks. For one Ki they gain flurry, 10 movement, and disengage. This gives them Immunity to reaction attacks to run past the front line, the speed to close in without dashing, and a total of three attacks to break concentration. Then add stunning fist to each of the attacks until it sticks. Completely shuts the wizard down.

Monks are overall among the best, if not the best, anti-wizards as highly mobile flankers with powerful single-target CC. They can also run up walls to get at hard-to-reach wizards. And monks have amazing saving throw bonuses to resist any magical counter attack.

[Sparky McDibben]

"The Fellowship of those Who Kill Wizards, and maybe Clerics, Especially if they're Evil, but Sometimes Not."

Has a catchy ring to it. :smallbiggrin:

I was just going to see if I can get them to call it "Look, Accidents Happen, You Nerds." :)

[Contrast]

I'm playing a gnome zealot barbarian who intends to pick up Shield Master at some point.

Really shores up what is normally quite a large weakness (admittedly at the cost of a lot of damage).

[Kane0]

Hey man, thanks for the list; I really appreciate it! If you could, can you drill in on the half-casters (or less) and tell me why you would recommend them?

Thanks to everyone else! These are really good ideas; I especially love the buffs to the Mage Slayer feat. Good calls!

An important thing when fighting casters is having answers to their spells. For example, Forcecage means you need to have access to teleportation such as Misty Step, which is achievable for half casters (Pally and Ranger) and partial casters (EK and AT).

More specifically:
Barbarian (Zealot): Level 6 rerolling saves is nice, but you really want this because Mages can sometimes just kill outright and being rezzed on the cheap is a great benefit. No more need to fear a lot of the nastier spells as long as you aren't subject to something like Disintegrate or Immolation. In fact if the mage burns their limited spell slots on nuking you rather than a teammate that's a net win, since you're back in action and no worse for wear one revivify later or whatever.

Barbarian (Totem): Bonus action dash for the monk's thing of closing fast, but you probably want to grapple (at advantage with Rage) instead of stun.

Fighter (Arcane Archer): Banishing, Grasping and Shadow arrows are all amazing for shutting down important targets, and there's also free magic attacks and rerolling attacks to boot.

Fighter (Eldritch Knight): Access to spells in order to fight on the same playing field as the casters, the actual features are more about making sure you lay into the targets better which isn't glorious but hey, someone's gotta do it.

Monk (any): Step 1 run up to mage, step 2 spam stunning strike. Wait for the party to waste the helpless squishy while you go mop up the stragglers. Any subclass is just gravy.

Paladin (any): Cha to saves is a big deal, especially when you share it around to your party. Ancients resists magic, Devotion negates charms, Vengeance can chase fleeing targets, Conquest fear can immobilize prey, etc

Ranger (Monster Hunter): Three features (7, 11 and 15) basically built around mage-killing, synergizes very well with the feat

Ranger (Horizon Walker): Aforementioned Misty Step plus other movement features that allow you to do the monk thing of closing fast and applying pressure to a caster trying to stay out of melee. The planar/portal stuff is neat flavoring and might actually come up if you have planeshifting or soemthing, and the force damage is a good way to bypass some mage defenses like Stoneskin

Rogue (Arcane Trickster): Access to spells in order to fight on the same playing field as the casters, the actual features are situational but useful when they come up

Rogue (Inquisitive): This one is all about finding your prey rather than fighting them, though you can still do that too. Remember that casters have access to things like Disguise Self from level 1 so this might actually be an important point depending on the game and DM style.

[Lunali]

Drunken master monks. For one Ki they gain flurry, 10 movement, and disengage. This gives them Immunity to reaction attacks to run past the front line, the speed to close in without dashing, and a total of three attacks to break concentration. Then add stunning fist to each of the attacks until it sticks. Completely shuts the wizard down.

Monks are overall among the best, if not the best, anti-wizards as highly mobile flankers with powerful single-target CC. They can also run up walls to get at hard-to-reach wizards. And monks have amazing saving throw bonuses to resist any magical counter attack.

You can only use the ki for that after you make your attack action so you only get immunity to reaction attacks on the way out.

[sophontteks]

You can only use the ki for that after you make your attack action so you only get immunity to reaction attacks on the way out.
Whoops. Good catch.

I still like it though :smallbiggrin:

[Crgaston]

A Thief can use Fast Hands to steal a component pouch or other item while still having an Attack action.

Anyone can Disarm a caster of their focus and then use an Object Interaction to pick it up or kick it away, but a Battlemaster with Disarming Attack can do so while still dealing damage. They are also the only ones who can do so without using their entire Action.

Grappling builds are handy to make sure a caster stays in the Silence are of effect.

[moonfly7]

Some possibly good but most likely terrible suggestions:
Artificers get cantrips but go up to only 5th level in slots, so I think they're half casters. They can add some great magical utility, and equip the party with helpful items and infusions, plus if you take anything but archivist you can add another warm body to help out at level three.

For a nice heavy damage without magic, try taking a barbarians lifting capacity to around 1000 or more pounds, it's really not that hard as a goliath with 20 strength can lift 1,600 and adding bear totem to that gives you 2,400, well over a ton. Then just take the tavern brawler feat for improvised proficiency, and Chuck massive 1000 pound boulders at the enemy. A wizard won't survive more than two of those, guaranteed.

[Vorpalchicken]

"The fellowship for people who kill wizards good and want to learn how to kill other things good too"