Tasha's Cauldron of Everything new build idea (Heavy armor scribe wizard)

[Mandarin]

Alright so here is the concept. Making an order of scribes wizard with all the new things we can do with racials in the new shiny book. The beautiful thing about this build is you can pretty much drop Strength and Dex and still be a super tanky wizard.

Mountain Dwarf- +2 to Intel, +2 to Con.
Drop the extra weapon proficiencies for tools. We now have 5 tool proficiencies including the dwarf one. We also can wear heavy armor without the movement penalty... but where do we get that?

1 level- forge domain cleric... well now we have 6 tool proficiencies! We also have heavy armor and a shield. Assuming we get full plate at level 1 (Which we wont but why not wish) and with the forge domain +1 armor, we are walking around at 21 ac at level 1.

Level 2 and on- Order of the Scribe wizard. Our spellcasting has not been hurt, we do miss that sweet level 20 thing from wizards but in exchange we get guidance, some heals, but most importantly that heavy armor, shield and a free +1 to it along with another crafting skill. Being a heavy armor wizard with 21 AC at level 2 sounds cool right?

Now, which crafting for order of the scribes?

Well Forge picks one for us with Smith Tools

Dwarf narrows down another to brewers or mason.. I choose brewers.

4 more? Well I am a scribe, so Forgery, Cartographer?, Calligraphy?, and I think the final one will be tinker.

What do we spend our ASI's on? No idea! Maybe get our intel up to 20... after that? What do you think?

[Wraith]

Jeweller's Tools might be a good idea. You tend to need them if you're crafting magical items, like rings, necklaces, Pearls of Power, etc, which can be a really good fit for a Forge Cleric.

As for ASI's, can't really go wrong with Shield Master if you want to be tanky. I'd probably go for that over Heavy Armour Master, but when your AC reaches the point where only Critical Hits are going to affect you then the latter will probably pay off more in the long run.

[Mandarin]

Jeweller's Tools might be a good idea. You tend to need them if you're crafting magical items, like rings, necklaces, Pearls of Power, etc, which can be a really good fit for a Forge Cleric.

As for ASI's, can't really go wrong with Shield Master if you want to be tanky. I'd probably go for that over Heavy Armour Master, but when your AC reaches the point where only Critical Hits are going to affect you then the latter will probably pay off more in the long run.

Yeah I think it might depend on what my stats are.. not sure if it will be point buy or rolling for stats just yet. Do you think those would be better as a wizard than something like Warcaster or Resilient Con?

About the tools. I am really torn on what to do here. I want to make a character that is this awesome crafter with all these tool proficiencies. Currently playing with the idea of maybe switching it to this really devious poison maker? Take poisoner's kit, Alchemist Kit, Herbalism kit, and cooking? With brewing, I would be able to find poisons for every sort of thing and ways to deliver them. Looking over the poisons in the DMG... loving the idea of specialing in these poisons... maybe somehow working in a contact with the black market... might work that into the background.

[Wraith]

Yeah I think it might depend on what my stats are.. not sure if it will be point buy or rolling for stats just yet. Do you think those would be better as a wizard than something like Warcaster or Resilient Con?

Either are a good choice I think, depending on what specific role you want.

I read your build and thought it would be a super-tough tank who can conveniently also cast spells, in which case Heavy Armour/Shield Master would probably get more mileage.

If it's meant to be the other way around and you're preferring to be a powerful mage who incidentally can wear heavy armour, then yes - War Caster is probably the strong choice. You don't need the +CON so much for bonus hitpoints, and War Caster has more benefits aside from the concentration reroll.

Ultimately I'd probably try to get one of each and have the best of both worlds, but that's going to be level 13+ so maybe not practical depending on your game. :smallsmile:


Looking over the poisons in the DMG... loving the idea of specialing in these poisons... maybe somehow working in a contact with the black market... might work that into the background.

Poisons are really cool, but I've tried to be a poisoner before and the one thing that struck me is just how expensive the ingredients can be. If your GM is the sort to insist that you account for that as well as the cost of your spells' material components, the cost of trying to do both can be prohibitively expensive - not to mention, as a Wizard X your best delivery system for poisons is probably a light crossbow with a comparatively small To Hit bonus.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't do it, but on balance your spells are probably going to be better than most poisons so I don't know when you're going to be using them, compared to say, a Rogue or Bard.

Of course if your GM is happy to let you quest for ingredients or just give you an allowance to use, none of that will matter. Just something to consider, though :smallsmile:

[Sol0botmate]

If you want heavy armor wizard just go 1 Forge Cleric/19 Abjuration Wizard and pick Mark of Warding Dwarf from Eberron as race.

You have 21 AC, Ward, Armor of Agathys on top, +1 INT, +2 CON. On level 4 take +2 INT, on level 8 take Svirfneblin Magic, on level 12 +2 INT. You don't have to worry about your Concentration as in 9/10 cases nobody will get through you Ward + AoA temp. HP before combat ends.