Best Wizard spells not on the Bard's spell list?

[Merudo]

It is often said that Wizards have the best spell list in the game.

The Bard's spell list is also very strong. They get many of the Wizard's best spells, some healing spells (Healing Word, Raise Dead, Lesser Restoration, etc), Dissonant Whispers, and some good Druid spells (Heat Metal, Plant Growth, etc).

When comparing the Wizard's list to the Bard's, I noticed the Bard is missing some key Wizard spells. Some of these spells are obvious (Find Familiar, Shield, Wall of Force, Counterspell), but there are many more.

Here's my opinion on the best Wizard spells that are not on the Bard's list:

Cantrips: Firebolt, Toll the Dead

Level 1: Absorb Elements, Find Familiar, Grease, Shield

Level 2: Misty Step, Mirror Image, Flaming Sphere (C), Web (C)

Level 3: Animate Dead, Counterspell, Fireball, Haste (C), Phantom Steed, Slow (C), Thunder Step

Level 4: Arcane Eye (C), Banishment (C)

Level 5: Bigby’s Hand (C), Rary's Telepathic Bond, Telekinesis (C), Wall of Force (C)

Level 6: Contingency

Level 7: Simulacrum

Level 8: Antipathy/Sympathy, Clone, Maze

Level 9: Meteor Swarm, Prismatic Wall, Wish

I would say that the loss of good concentration spells such as Telekinesis or Slow is inconsequential, as the Bard already has amazing concentration spells already. Exceptions are Arcane Eye (scouting) and Wall of Force (best level 5 spell in the game).

More important is the absence of excellent, non-concentration defensive spells: Absorb Elements, Shield, Misty Step, Mirror Image, and arguably Phantom Steed are all powerful defensive spells that the Bard lack.

Damage spells are also lacking: Firebolt, Toll the Dead, Fireball & Meteor Swarm. Cantrips & Fireball doesn't scale well though, and Dissonant Whisper & Synaptic Static can cover damage to some degree. Overall, I don't think this is much of a loss.

A very high level Bard will sorely miss Simulacrum and Wish, but few people play at these levels anyway.

Overall I would say that it's the defensive spells that the Bard is missing most.

[Eldariel]

The problem is there are so many different casters and they have different needs. But I'll give it a go:

Cantrips: Mold Earth, Shape Water, Toll the Dead
1st: Mage Armor, Shield, Find Familiar, Expeditious Retreat, Absorb Elements, Magic Missile
2nd: Misty Step, Web, Earthen Grasp, Rope Trick, Mirror Image, Shadow Blade
3rd: Counterspell, Phantom Steed, Fireball, Animate Dead, Tiny Servant, Magic Circle, Fly, Haste, Slow, Sleet Storm
4th: Summon Greater Demon, Watery Sphere, Banishment, Vitriolic Sphere, Resilient Sphere, Sickening Radiance, Arcane Eye
5th: Wall of Force, Bigby's, Telekinesis, Wall of Stone, Passwall, Wall of Light
6th: Contingency, Disintegrate, Create Homunculus, Magic Jar, Tenser's, Globe of Invulnerability
7th: Simulacrum, Plane Shift, Reverse Gravity
8th: Clone, Demiplane, Antimagic Field, Illusory Dragon, Maze, Mighty Fortress
9th: Wish, Shapechange, Meteor Swarm


The biggest things:
- Minionmancy (Summon Greater Demon, Animate Dead, Homunculi, Familiar, Tiny Servant, etc.)
- Prep spells (Glyph of Warding, Magic Circle, much of the minionmancy)
- Defenses (Shield, Mage Armor, Absorb Elements, Counterspell, Contingency, etc.)
- Utility (Tiny Hut, Rope Trick, Phantom Steed, etc.)
- Mobility (Teleport, Plane Shift, Misty Step, etc.)

[BloodSnake'sCha]

A good way to fix it is to take ritual caster and lore bard for additional magical secrets.

From my perspective lore bard is one of the most powerful subclass available.

[Merudo]

The problem is there are so many different casters and they have different needs. But I'll give it a go:

Thanks for your suggestions!



Cantrips: Mold Earth, Shape Water


Shape Water I don't find very useful, but Mold Earth is amazing to create non-concentration, permanent cover for 1 action.



1st: Mage Armor, Expeditious Retreat, Magic Missile


Mage Armor is a non-issue as the Bard has access to Light Armor.

I find Expeditious Retreat inferior to Longstrider, but some folks such as MaxWilson vouch for the spell.

Magic Missile I find rare worth the spell slot, unless the aim is to break concentration. The damage is just not significant enough.



2nd: Earthen Grasp, Rope Trick, Shadow Blade


Web is superior to Earthen Grasp.

Rope Trick is cool but quickly made redundant by Tiny Hut.

Shadow Blade is only worth it for subclasses with extra attack, IMO.



3rd: Tiny Hut, Tiny Servant, Glyph of Warding, Magic Circle, Fly, Sleet Storm


Tiny Hut is a Bard spell too.

Tiny Servant is overshadowed by Animate Dead

Glyph of Warding can indeed be quite OP, but can typically only be used to defend a location.

Magic Circle can be combined by Planar Binding to get a powerful ally. It's amazing so long as the DM is on board.

Fly is a good buff on a melee character when fighting an enemy with long range attacks.

Sleet Storm is good battleground control, but Plant Growth is typically superior.



4th: Summon Greater Demon, Watery Sphere, Banishment, Vitriolic Sphere, Resilient Sphere, Sickening Radiance, Arcane Eye


Summon Greater Demon is likely a trap for non-conjurers.

The sphere spells are okay, but I'm overall not impressed by them.

Sickening Radiance can likely be replaced by Faerie Fire.



5th: Wall of Stone, Passwall, Wall of Light


Wall of Stone & Light are made redundant by Wall of Force.

Passwall is neat but only rarely useful.

[Eldariel]

Shape Water I don't find very useful, but Mold Earth is amazing to create non-concentration, permanent cover for 1 action.

Mold Earth can also tunnel and essentially give you a burrow speed, which can be very useful. Shape Water can create any objects, which is quite nice.


Mage Armor is a non-issue as the Bard has access to Light Armor.

Mage Armor is better than light armor though. It's 13 AC vs. the maximum 12 from light armor.


Magic Missile I find rare worth the spell slot, unless the aim is to break concentration. The damage is just not significant enough.

On low levels, it's quite decent against hard-to-hit targets. On higher levels there's always the Hexblade/Evoker nonsense to push it into the hundreds of autohit damage. Force type and autohit is a really good combo for otherwise hard to affect enemies.


Web is superior to Earthen Grasp.

Web is a Dex-save, not an Str-one. More than once have I felt the sting of not having a good Str-targeting spell on low levels when fighting enemy Wizards, Drow Mages, Beholders, Mind Flayers, etc. Once Watery Sphere settles in I rarely bother but up until that point it's a great spell (and very slot economical too).


Rope Trick is cool but quickly made redundant by Tiny Hut.

Rope Trick is more for ambushing and surprise as it allows for complete concealment even from most forms of magical detection (as you're on a parallel plane)


Shadow Blade is only worth it for subclasses with extra attack, IMO.

Agreed, but there's a number for both. It's also quite good with Magic Jar'd bodies that get Multiattack.


Tiny Hut is a Bard spell too.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that.


Tiny Servant is overshadowed by Animate Dead

That's true to a degree but it's probably less likely to be problematic in any given settings and you still get plenty usable minions. At the very least it's great later when you get Spell Mastery

Sleet Storm is good battleground control, but Plant Growth is typically superior.

The beauty of Sleet Storm is the sheer size of the effect and that it conceals the area: this allows easily breaking a battle into multiple parts, completely removing a part of the enemy force from combat even if they are flight or teleportation capable.


Summon Greater Demon is likely a trap for non-conjurers.

I find on the contrary: it's a great spell even if you lose Concentration since unless enemy is exceptionally mobile and you're immobile (unlikely), the beast will still generally go after your targets. Combine that with the massively powerful things it can produce (with great tools for solving different problems) and the fact that you can essentially "double Concentrate" for 1d6 turns and I've found the spell to be just bonkers. Hell, you can just walk away and leave your thing smashing whatever needs smashing if you want to avoid losing Concentration but again, in my experience, it's not hard to make sure that the enemy is closer to it than your allies.


The sphere spells are okay, but I'm overall not impressed by them.

AOE Str-save or suck is really good IME. It's basically just an Str-save Dex and there's a lot of scary things with ****ty Str in this game.


Sickening Radiance can likely be replaced by Faerie Fire.

Hmm, completely different effects. Radiance is mostly for when you have a tool to lock an enemy in place for a while: the fact that failing saves causes Exhaustion makes it able to basically kill anything and Radiant damage is rarely resisted.


Wall of Stone & Light are made redundant by Wall of Force.

Wall of Stone can produce permanent fortifications, Light can be put inside Wall of Force for unresistable permanent damage while shooting light beams at Radiant-weak enemies too.


Passwall is neat but only rarely useful.

You can use it to create a 20' pit ground to make an enemy fall deep inside ground with no save. It's one of the better "get outta here"-effects against non-flyers in the game (1 hour duration, no Concentration too).

[Bobthewizard]

Cantrips: Firebolt, Toll the Dead

Level 1: Absorb Elements, Find Familiar, Grease, Shield

Level 2: Misty Step, Mirror Image, Flaming Sphere (C), Web (C)

Level 3: Animate Dead, Counterspell, Fireball, Haste (C), Phantom Steed, Slow (C), Thunder Step

Level 4: Arcane Eye (C), Banishment (C)

Level 5: Bigby’s Hand (C), Rary's Telepathic Bond, Telekinesis (C), Wall of Force (C)


I'd rather have this list plus rituals than the entire bard spell list.



The biggest things:
- Minionmancy (Summon Greater Demon, Animate Dead, Homunculi, Familiar, Tiny Servant, etc.)
- Prep spells (Glyph of Warding, Magic Circle, much of the minionmancy)
- Defenses (Shield, Mage Armor, Absorb Elements, Counterspell, Contingency, etc.)
- Utility (Tiny Hut, Rope Trick, Phantom Steed, etc.)
- Mobility (Teleport, Plane Shift, Misty Step, etc.)

This is a good summary. I don't enjoy minionmancy or complicated prep, but whenever I play a bard, the defense, utility, and mobility always leave me wishing I were playing a wizard.

[Eldariel]

Oh yeah, one huge spell I forgot about: Levitate. The number of times I've used it both, to get up to places and OTOH to put an enemy in the sky as essentially a save-or-die is just surprising. Of course, my last character was a Diviner so that made using it easier. It's also one of the two good Con-save targeting Save-or-Lose effects (the other being Blindness).

In general, level 2 is awesome for offering a good spell to target basically every save except Cha:
Str: Earthen Grasp
Dex: Web
Con: Levitate/Blindness
Int: Phantasmal Force (though Minor Illusion or Silent Image can be better at times since they have no saves)
Wis: Suggestion

Only Cha is really missing (and that remains the case for a while: Banishment only comes on level 4 and it's not even a hard kill against many enemies - Plane Shift on level 7 and Magic Jar on level 6 are great though and of course Shapechange opens up countless ways to Cha **** people).

The beauty of those spells is that none of them (save Blindness, which I don't recommend as your primary anti-Con effect for that very reason) give repeat saves after the opponent fails the initial one too (though Phantasmal Force does unfortunately offer the Investigation checks and Earthen Grasp/Web a Strength-check, but neither is particularly likely from enemies you use those spells against). They're pretty hard CC effects too. Certainly better than Hold Person-type things unless you plan on using all your resources to kill the target quick (and even there, the type restriction bites).

[follacchioso]

Telekinesis is a wonderful spell on a Lore Bard. Any bard gets a bonus from Jack of all Trades; Lore bards can also use Cutting Words, and at high levels, Peerless Skill, and Glibness, to succeed on any contested check. Pick up that Rod of Absorption from the enemy, and crush it on his knee, for a nice retributive strike.