Low-Int Wizard

[Avigor]

Challenge: Create a strong plan to get a Wizard to level 20 with the below Restrictions (tried to think of everything but I might've missed something):

You are not allowed to *ever* have an Intelligence above 9 by any means (yes the entire point is that Intelligence is your dump stat); note that in-game attribute reduction (I'm not even sure off the top of my head if it's possible to RAW permanently reduce Intelligence) is not allowed as a means to get around this (note that playing an Orc is part of character creation, not an in-game event).
Use standard array attributes (so only Intelligence takes the penalty, unless you make a Kobold and dump Strength as well).
Background can be from any official 5e book or customized per PHB rules from the options within PHB and SCAG.
You may be any official race that does not grant an Intelligence bonus above +1.
Spells may be selected from any official 5e book.
Wizard tradition may be from any official 5e book.
Remember the impact of a Intelligence penalty when making your choices!
Feats from official 5e books are allowed with the exception of Magic Initiate which is forbidden, Spell Sniper which may only choose a wizard cantrip, and feats which increase Intelligence must be carefully dealt with to avoid increasing your Intelligence to 10 or higher.
No multiclassing.


What is your path to epic status? An RP concept would also be nice.

I'm still working on my own idea for this; I'm thinking a Variant Human (either Alert, Lucky, or Prodigy) Diviner Charlatan loosely based off of Mr. Emelius Browne from Bedknobs and Broomsticks (one day, the bogus spells he was conning people with actually started working for him, and he has no idea why!). Barely started to form the idea and decided to post it and see what the Playground thinks would be the best means to do this and still contribute to the party effectively.
EDIT: Whoops, realized I used the wrong feat name for Magic Initiate... d'oh!

[Greywander]

Off the top of my head, I think one effective way to go about this would be with an Abjurer playing a support roll. It also gives you a bonus to Dispel Magic and Counterspell, making them less sucky.

Some of your restrictions seem kind of unnecessary. If INT is being dumped, then we're already disincentivized against spells that use attack rolls or saving throws, but there might still be a reason for us to want to take those spells. Fireball, for example, is save for half, and half damage might be good enough for us to want to take it. A lot of illusion spells are also still effective, as it requires an enemy to spend an action to examine an illusion. Even if they see through it, you at least waste their action, and not every creature will think to examine an illusion unless they already have reason to doubt it. I don't think it's necessary to restrict spell or subclass choices; restricting INT to be less than 10 should be sufficient.

I'm assuming a Headband of Intellect is also not allowed.

[MightyK]

Necromancer.

Wizards don't really need int outside of spell DC or spell to hit.

Summon minions to fight for you and you never notice your low int.
Use magic missile a lot.

[Genoin]

Have to agree that the disincentive from having the low int is good enough, you dont need to make a rule saying no attack or saving throw spells.

The decision to take them and be able to use them effectively even with the low attribute is a form of skill expression.

[AdAstra]

The general key to low-casting-stat casters is to focus on the following types of spells and character abilities.

-Buffs-rarely require saves or spell attacks, while allowing you to contribute offensively.

-Some form of at-will damage. Booming Blade is my first choice, but Clerics can also do well enough with just Divine Strike.

-Utility-same as above. Rituals especially tend to have useful effects that don't rely on your casting stat. In addition, a lot of these scale very well. Don't be afraid to look into poorly-rated spells like Darkvision or Longstrider. They're long-duration buffs that don't require concentration.

-Good staying power/survivability-you're often going to be concentrating on buffs, so you'll often be a prime target for a cunning GM. AC and Con help avoid hits and maintain concentration. Shield/Absorb Elements and Misty Step can significantly improve survivability and help get you out of tight spots. Mountain Dwarf is a great way to get decent armor, in addition to useful stat boosts.

[Gignere]

Brainstorming about it, it’s actually not that difficult to do. At low levels you’ll focus on buffing spells and attack using melee cantrips or bow and arrow. At higher levels you’ll be a haste, polymorph, minion specialist. At tier 3 gameplay you’ll start rocking the Tenser’s transformation. At tier 4 wish comes into play and the game breaks even if you have negative int.

[wilhelmdubdub]

how about shadow blade, you dont use int to attack

[Bobthewizard]

This would be hard at low levels. You can prepare one spell at level 1 and then you don't get to add any more at level 2. You would prepare one spell per level again starting at 3.

At low levels, you'll mostly be using a light crossbow or booming blade since it doesn't rely on INT. I'd start with sleep at level 1. Or fog cloud would work well with a goblin's bonus action hide.

At level 2, I'd either go conjuration or necromancy since minions don't rely on your intelligence.

At level 3, enlarge/reduce might be better than shadow blade. It works on your crossbow so you can stay at range.

At 4, I'd go back and add mage armor and shield, dropping sleep.

Then at 5, you can jump into either conjuration spells with summon lesser demon or necromancy with animate dead.

Focus on minion spells from there except for no save crowd control spells like wall of force and forcecage.

[CNagy]

Mountain Dwarf
War Wizard
Str: 16 Dex: 10 Con: 20 Int: 8 Wis: 12 Cha: 14

Level 4: Feat-Magic Initiate (Warlock) <Eldritch Blast, Toll the Dead, Hex> (This is almost cheating, lol)
Level 8: Feat-Heavily Armored
Level 12: Feat-Resilient (Con)
Level 16: Con +2
Level 19: Feat-Tough

HP: 222
AC: 18 (non-magical full plate), 20 (while concentrating on a spell), 22 (reaction/Arcane Deflection) or 26 (reaction/Shield)

At level 1, you might as well grab a Save/Half cantrip and then focus on the elemental cantrips, utility cantrips, etc. Rituals are going to be a big focus for this Wizard's entire career.
At level 4, you gain some damaging cantrips that key off of a better stat and Hex. So... you suddenly gain some damage output.

Past the early levels, it isn't too hard to survive.

Edit: Only the first two feats are central to the idea. The other ASIs can be whatever you want, really.

[Avigor]

Off the top of my head, I think one effective way to go about this would be with an Abjurer playing a support roll. It also gives you a bonus to Dispel Magic and Counterspell, making them less sucky.

Some of your restrictions seem kind of unnecessary. If INT is being dumped, then we're already disincentivized against spells that use attack rolls or saving throws, but there might still be a reason for us to want to take those spells. Fireball, for example, is save for half, and half damage might be good enough for us to want to take it. A lot of illusion spells are also still effective, as it requires an enemy to spend an action to examine an illusion. Even if they see through it, you at least waste their action, and not every creature will think to examine an illusion unless they already have reason to doubt it. I don't think it's necessary to restrict spell or subclass choices; restricting INT to be less than 10 should be sufficient.

I'm assuming a Headband of Intellect is also not allowed.


Have to agree that the disincentive from having the low int is good enough, you dont need to make a rule saying no attack or saving throw spells.

The decision to take them and be able to use them effectively even with the low attribute is a form of skill expression.

Yup, HoI would put Int above 9 and is thus not allowed (if nothing else, RP that the increased IQ gives you depression or something, smarter people are statistically more likely to suffer such after all lol). I must admit I do almost like Abjurer, especially at higher levels when you can throw your shield over an ally, albeit I also love the free roll replacement of Diviner, so... And yeah I'll go ahead and remove the outright restriction on using such spells...


Necromancer.

Wizards don't really need int outside of spell DC or spell to hit.

Summon minions to fight for you and you never notice your low int.
Use magic missile a lot.


The general key to low-casting-stat casters is to focus on the following types of spells and character abilities.

-Buffs-rarely require saves or spell attacks, while allowing you to contribute offensively.

-Some form of at-will damage. Booming Blade is my first choice, but Clerics can also do well enough with just Divine Strike.

-Utility-same as above. Rituals especially tend to have useful effects that don't rely on your casting stat. In addition, a lot of these scale very well. Don't be afraid to look into poorly-rated spells like Darkvision or Longstrider. They're long-duration buffs that don't require concentration.

-Good staying power/survivability-you're often going to be concentrating on buffs, so you'll often be a prime target for a cunning GM. AC and Con help avoid hits and maintain concentration. Shield/Absorb Elements and Misty Step can significantly improve survivability and help get you out of tight spots. Mountain Dwarf is a great way to get decent armor, in addition to useful stat boosts.


Brainstorming about it, it’s actually not that difficult to do. At low levels you’ll focus on buffing spells and attack using melee cantrips or bow and arrow. At higher levels you’ll be a haste, polymorph, minion specialist. At tier 3 gameplay you’ll start rocking the Tenser’s transformation. At tier 4 wish comes into play and the game breaks even if you have negative int.


This would be hard at low levels. You can prepare one spell at level 1 and then you don't get to add any more at level 2. You would prepare one spell per level again starting at 3.

At low levels, you'll mostly be using a light crossbow or booming blade since it doesn't rely on INT. I'd start with sleep at level 1. Or fog cloud would work well with a goblin's bonus action hide.

At level 2, I'd either go conjuration or necromancy since minions don't rely on your intelligence.

At level 3, enlarge/reduce might be better than shadow blade. It works on your crossbow so you can stay at range.

At 4, I'd go back and add mage armor and shield, dropping sleep.

Then at 5, you can jump into either conjuration spells with summon lesser demon or necromancy with animate dead.

Focus on minion spells from there except for no save crowd control spells like wall of force and forcecage.

Bonus to Enlarge/Reduce: you can either buff an ally or debuff an enemy with it in addition to buffing yourself. Works best if someone else in the party is rolling a lot of crits, to double that bonus 1d4.

Yeah I figured buffs, summons, and the various int-ignoring spells would probably be best. I'm not sure about Necromancer however because I suspect that it'll be rare for the killing people with spells to happen with this build, rendering that first ability dead weight, but yeah I can definitely see that working mechanically. The question is the RP for that... maybe a school dropout? shrug

Which reminds me, I should probably add a line about having some kind of RP concept for the character would be nice as well...

EDIT:

Mountain Dwarf
War Wizard
Str: 16 Dex: 10 Con: 20 Int: 8 Wis: 12 Cha: 14

Level 4: Feat-Magic Initiate (Warlock) <Eldritch Blast, Toll the Dead, Hex> (This is almost cheating, lol)
Level 8: Feat-Heavily Armored
Level 12: Feat-Resilient (Con)
Level 16: Con +2
Level 19: Feat-Tough

HP: 222
AC: 18 (non-magical full plate), 20 (while concentrating on a spell), 22 (reaction/Arcane Deflection) or 26 (reaction/Shield)

At level 1, you might as well grab a Save/Half cantrip and then focus on the elemental cantrips, utility cantrips, etc. Rituals are going to be a big focus for this Wizard's entire career.
At level 4, you gain some damaging cantrips that key off of a better stat and Hex. So... you suddenly gain some damage output.

Past the early levels, it isn't too hard to survive.

Edit: Only the first two feats are central to the idea. The other ASIs can be whatever you want, really.

Nice; I had noticed that War Wizard would improve durability, albeit I hadn't thought of using Dwarf for an early armor boost. Granted, you're also relying on Magic Initiate, which I meant to forbid (as an extension to the multiclassing restriction, which is based on an interpretation of the multiclassing rules as requiring the listed stats to multiclass out of said class in addition to needing them to multiclass into the listed class) but accidentally gave the wrong name (nobody called me out on Practiced Spellcaster? lol wow that was such a stinky brain fart, were people just worried about "he who smelt it dealt it"? jk).

[CNagy]

Nice; I had noticed that War Wizard would improve durability, albeit I hadn't thought of using Dwarf for an early armor boost. Granted, you're also relying on Magic Initiate, which I meant to forbid (as an extension to the multiclassing restriction, which is based on an interpretation of the multiclassing rules as requiring the listed stats to multiclass out of said class in addition to needing them to multiclass into the listed class) but accidentally gave the wrong name (nobody called me out on Practiced Spellcaster? lol wow that was such a stinky brain fart, were people just worried about "he who smelt it dealt it"? jk).

Might want to forbid Spell Sniper outside of Wizard cantrips, too, then.

[FabulousFizban]

Brick the Orc

Orc wizard 5

HP: 45

str: 16
dex: 10
Con 16
int: 6
wis: 12
cha: 13

Feats:Toughness

cantrips: blade ward, mold earth, mending
prepared spells: absorb elements, mage armor, shield
ritual spells: alarm, detect magic, comprehend languages, find familiar, tenser's floating disk, unseen servant

equipment: club

Meet Brick, your new best tank. Brick is very simple, mage armor/shield for a high AC, absorb elements to reduce energy attacks, and blade ward to reduce everything else. Go stand next to an opponent and use a bonus action to hit them offhand with your club. If you don't want absorb elements, you could also prepare blur or mirror image instead.

[Avigor]

Might want to forbid Spell Sniper outside of Wizard cantrips, too, then.

*facepalm* done lol


Brick the Orc

Orc wizard 5

HP: 45

str: 16
dex: 10
Con 16
int: 6
wis: 12
cha: 13

Feats:Toughness

cantrips: blade ward, mold earth, mending
prepared spells: absorb elements, mage armor, shield
ritual spells: alarm, detect magic, comprehend languages, find familiar, tenser's floating disk, unseen servant

equipment: club

Meet Brick, your new best tank. Brick is very simple, mage armor/shield for a high AC, absorb elements to reduce energy attacks, and blade ward to reduce everything else. Go stand next to an opponent and use a bonus action to hit them offhand with your club. If you don't want absorb elements, you could also prepare blur or mirror image instead.

oooh, showing off by tanking! :smallbiggrin: downside is AC drops if combat goes too long or is too spread out throughout the day... Mountain Dwarf might be better than Orc for more consistent durability. Also, what Tradition?

[FabulousFizban]

*facepalm* done lol



oooh, showing off by tanking! :smallbiggrin: downside is AC drops if combat goes too long or is too spread out throughout the day... Mountain Dwarf might be better than Orc for more consistent durability. Also, what Tradition?

abjuration seems fitting. the ward is basically just extra hit points (like a free +16 to con!). you could go war for the bonus to AC and con saves, but it uses a reaction which means no shield/absorb elements, and you're not really concentrating on spells anyway (unless you take blur (which i would start prepping at 6th lvl)) and your con save is already good. though it actually synergizes pretty okay since you don't burn slots with the AC boost.

mage armor lasts 8 hours, and you really have nothing to spend all your spell slots on other than shield/absorb elements. So, I mean, ten castings a day of shield is pretty good. Again though, War Tradition might be better.

PROTIP: every time you cast shield you recharge your ward. this means over the course of the day the ward is basically an extra pool of about 30HP. show me a lvl 5 barbarian with 75HP!

I went orc for the drop in int since we are doing a low-int wizard.

also, i've switched the stats to even out the saves since brick is about reliability.

16
12
16
6
10
13
so the saves are +3, +1, +3, +1, +3, +1. lol
character benefits enormously from heroism and shield of faith. hint hint wink wink bard and cleric.

[HiveStriker]

That's real easy imo.

1. Abjurer: pick Booming Blade, Shadow Blade, max DEX and CON, buff yourself with Mirror Image and Haste (to be later replaced by Greater Invisibility), be a beast that lands Sentinel while enemies are crying.

2. Necromancer: bland, hard to play as non Chaotic Evil, but works the easiest.

3. Transmuter : use all buffs spells, using your stone to either buff your own concentration or someone else. At level 10 use and abuse Polymorph to contribute, and ensure nobody dies with the "relive" ability.

4. Diviner: pick a few save spells to use with your Portent ability, otherwise play like Transmuter.

[Bobthewizard]

I think if you can't max INT you want to pump DEX for AC and then CON for HP. So I'd take a race with bonuses to DEX and CON - goblin, stout halfling, shader-kai, half-elf, human off the top of my head. I like goblin for the bonus action hide or disengage. Mage armor plus 20 DEX gives you the same AC as the mountain dwarf with heavy armor but a better to hit role for booming blade or crossbow, although mountain dwarf certainly would work for a conjurer. The orc build above looks fun except you wouldn't get a second prepared spell until level 4 which seems tough to play.

I'd go conjuration since summons don't use your INT and I don't want play a necromancer.

Here's the spells I would prepare by level
1- sleep
2- none since negative INT modifier.
3- enlarge/reduce
4- shield, mage armor, (drop sleep), +2 DEX
5- summon lesser demon
6- fly or haste
7- polymorph, absorb elements, (drop enlarge/reduce)
8- dimension door, +2 DEX
9- wall of force
10- conjure elemental, animate objects (edited after replies below)
11- scatter
12- arcane eye, conjure elemental, Res. CON
13- force cage
14- teleport
15- maze
16- mind blank, +2 CON
17- wish
18- true polymorph
19- soul cage, alert
20- foresight

The rest of my spells would be rituals or off-day spells.

[EdenIndustries]

3. Transmuter : use all buffs spells, using your stone to either buff your own concentration or someone else. At level 10 use and abuse Polymorph to contribute, and ensure nobody dies with the "relive" ability.

If you're referring to the level 10 feature of Transmuter to cast Polymorph without a spell slot, it's only into a beast of CR 1 or lower. So while you can certainly contribute, broadly speaking, that feature definitely won't help you in combat.

[HiveStriker]

If you're referring to the level 10 feature of Transmuter to cast Polymorph without a spell slot, it's only into a beast of CR 1 or lower. So while you can certainly contribute, broadly speaking, that feature definitely won't help you in combat.
Forgot about that bit, it's true I rarely use in fight as a "free cast".
I was thinking of both uses though: outside combat to help scout/travel/transport/spy, and in combat, you still cast cast it as your regular spell so you can definitely (and should in some situations) Polymorph either yourself or a pal. :)

[Gignere]

I think if you can't max INT you want to pump DEX for AC and then CON for HP. So I'd take a race with bonuses to DEX and CON - goblin, stout halfling, shader-kai, half-elf, human off the top of my head. I like goblin for the bonus action hide or disengage. Mage armor plus 20 DEX gives you the same AC as the mountain dwarf with heavy armor but a better to hit role for booming blade or crossbow, although mountain dwarf certainly would work for a conjurer. The orc build above looks fun except you wouldn't get a second prepared spell until level 4 which seems tough to play.

I'd go conjuration since summons don't use your INT and I don't want play a necromancer.

Here's the spells I would prepare by level
1- sleep
2- none since negative INT modifier.
3- enlarge/reduce
4- shield, mage armor, (drop sleep), +2 DEX
5- summon lesser demon
6- fly or haste
7- polymorph, absorb elements, (drop enlarge/reduce)
8- dimension door, +2 DEX
9- wall of force
10- conjure elemental
11- scatter
12- arcane eye, Res. CON
13- force cage
14- teleport
15- maze
16- mind blank, +2 CON
17- wish
18- true polymorph
19- soul cage, alert
20- foresight

The rest of my spells would be rituals or off-day spells.

No Tenser’s Transformation or Animate Objects. These two spells outside of wish are dumb as a brick wizards top picks.

[JNAProductions]

No Tenser’s Transformation or Animate Objects. These two spells outside of wish are dumb as a brick wizards top picks.

Animate Objects is a brutally good spell.

Tenser's Transformation... Isn't.

[Gignere]

Animate Objects is a brutally good spell.

Tenser's Transformation... Isn't.

For a negative int Wizard thats stacking attack stat and con it’s good.

[Keravath]

Melee bladesinger using shadow blade? Boost dex? Take support spells?

Play a wizard who was forced by his parents into wizard school to uphold the family tradition when all they really wanted to do was fight. Use a hand crossbow for a ranged weapon compatible with bladesong. Booming blade might also be useful if you want to make melee attacks. Maybe combine it with Tensor's transformation later.

Up to you if you want to wear a headband of intellect if one ever falls into your hands. The character won't need it since most of their spells will not depend on int or will be save for half damage so they still do something even if the target passes the saving throw.

[Bobthewizard]

Animate Objects is a brutally good spell.

Tenser's Transformation... Isn't.

Completely agree. I'll adjust the spells above to include animate objects. I got so caught up in making a conjurer I forgot about it.


For a negative int Wizard thats stacking attack stat and con it’s good.

Not sure Tenser's is worth your concentration. 50 THP is great. But the damage increase over booming blade doesn't seem worth your concentration. The weapon and armor proficiencies are almost useless. Proficiency in CON saves is good but I would take resilient CON at 12 anyway. I'd rather concentrate on something else to shut down an encounter instead of on defense and a little damage. Maybe it's worth it on a melee build, but I don't think I would take it on a conjurer.


Melee bladesinger using shadow blade? Boost dex? Take support spells?

Play a wizard who was forced by his parents into wizard school to uphold the family tradition when all they really wanted to do was fight. Use a hand crossbow for a ranged weapon compatible with bladesong. Booming blade might also be useful if you want to make melee attacks. Maybe combine it with Tensor's transformation later.

Up to you if you want to wear a headband of intellect if one ever falls into your hands. The character won't need it since most of their spells will not depend on int or will be save for half damage so they still do something even if the target passes the saving throw.

I wouldn't go blade singer with a low INT since you'd only get +1 AC and +1 to concentration saves. Seems like war or abjuration would be better melee builds.

[HiveStriker]

Not sure Tenser's is worth your concentration. 50 THP is great. But the damage increase over booming blade doesn't seem worth your concentration. The weapon and armor proficiencies are almost useless. Proficiency in CON saves is good but I would take resilient CON at 12 anyway. I'd rather concentrate on something else to shut down an encounter instead of on defense and a little damage. Maybe it's worth it on a melee build, but I don't think I would take it on a conjurer.



I wouldn't go blade singer with a low INT since you'd only get +1 AC and +1 to concentration saves. Seems like war or abjuration would be better melee builds.
Bolded part: fully agree. I think a simple Haste or Greater Invisibility would sustain a melee Wizard much better than Tenser's Transformation honestly.
Italic part: that's the exact reason why I didn't mention it either: half the goodness of Bladesinger is the extra resilience. If you don't get it because you dump INT, whatever you want to play there are simply better archetypes.

[SLOTHRPG95]

Human (non-variant) Wizard, w/ Noble background. Basically, far enough down the line that they're not gonna inherit the family titles, so they're packed off to the wizarding academy (like sending your third or fourth son into the priesthood). He's not really good at it, though. Fortunately, he's still a natural-born leader, and supports the party just fine.

Starting array: Str 10 Dex 16 Con 16 Int 9 Wis 10 Cha 15
ASI progression: 4th Resilient (Con), 8th +1 Con, +1 Cha, 12th Inspiring Leader, 16th Tough, 19th Con +2

At first, you only prepare Mage Armor, and basically act like a hireling with a crossbow. Except also you can ritual cast plenty of fun things, outside of combat, and also you're not a terrible face. At second, it's pretty much the same thing, but now you can keep up Mage Armor even when you sleep. At 3rd you finally get to pick Enlarge/Reduce or Invisibility (depending on the day) to throw on a party member. Basically, just a buffer trying to be non-squishy enough to not die. Inspiring Leader at 12th means you're eventually bringing plenty of sweet THP for the whole party, which is kind of like buffing in its own way. I'd go Conjurer, so that starting at 10th level you can reliably summon risk-free, but if you want to stay straight buffer, then Abjurer to be a bit beefier and pick up War Caster at some point. Other than that, there's plenty of fine spell advice in above posts that I'm not going to repeat for the umpteenth time.

[EdenIndustries]

I think it'd be fun to do Illusion School and pick up the Actor feat and really lean into the illusions. Basically play the character as if you really wanted to be a bard but accidentally became a Wizard instead.