Abjuration Gish Ability Score spread

[Chemistrywizard]

I'm about to start a game in a few weeks and i'm planning on playing an abjuration wizard, i'll do custom lineage (Taking the telekinetic feat at level 1) 1st level Hexblade warlock and then 19 levels of abjuration wizard, and i wanted some feedback on what i should set my ability scores to, i'm debating between these 2 sets, 8/16/12/16/10/13 or 8/14/12/18/10/13, i'm planning on spamming booming blade with a rapier and then pushing them away with telekinetic (plus the standard armor of Agathys + abjuration ward combo), so i just wanted to as which ability score spread everyone thinks is better since i'm having a hard time making up my mind, thanks in advance to any replies.

[kazaryu]

I'm about to start a game in a few weeks and i'm planning on playing an abjuration wizard, i'll do custom lineage (Taking the telekinetic feat at level 1) 1st level Hexblade warlock and then 19 levels of abjuration wizard, and i wanted some feedback on what i should set my ability scores to, i'm debating between these 2 sets, 8/16/12/16/10/13 or 8/14/12/18/10/13, i'm planning on spamming booming blade with a rapier and then pushing them away with telekinetic (plus the standard armor of Agathys + abjuration ward combo), so i just wanted to as which ability score spread everyone thinks is better since i'm having a hard time making up my mind, thanks in advance to any replies.

personally, if i was planning to do a frontline wizard i'd go con first, then int. in your case you want to do the attacking thing so i'd say con first then cha. but thats just because i really wanna play a wizard that has as much meat as a barbarian....

[RSP]

If you’re planning on being in melee, Dex, and then Con, might be best. Int is, I’m assuming, needed for your Telekinesis BA Shove, but I’d rather successfully hit on the BB attack in the first place then worry about connecting on the Shove (which obviously matters less if there’s no BB effect).

Con or Int, as an Abjurer, and with AoA tHPs can probably be swapped, depending how much you want to be able to stay in melee, but your plan seems to suggest you can Int>Con, or Con>Int. At least early on, it sounds like your slots are going to AoA rather than spells that rely on Int, so that seems less a factor.

[J-H]

What does your Hexblade patron think of being ignored for the entire game in favor of book learning?

[Witty Username]

I would recommend taking a look at treantmonk's abjurer build for advice, hobgoblin hexblade/abjurer. It sounds like a lot of what he discusses in his build would be useful advice.

I think he did 14, 14 for his str/dex spread. But it was more of a caster. So you may want a 16 for one of them.

[RogueJK]

Hexblade 2/Abjurer 18

STR 8
DEX 14+2
CON 12
INT 15 (+1 Telekinetic)
WIS 10
CHA 13

Take Telekinetic (INT) at 1st, Warcaster at Abjurer 4, and +2 INT at Abjurer 8.

Hexblade 1 -> Abjurer 5 -> Hexblade 2 -> Abjurer X.

Level 1 (Warlock 1): Wear medium armor and use a shield for 18 AC. Wield a rapier, with something like throwing daggers as a ranged backup. Learn Armor of Agathys and Shield, plus a couple out of combat utility cantrips like Mage Hand (combos with Telekinetic for 60' range) and Prestidigitation. Your CHA is middling, so don't take any Warlock attack/save spells. You won't have a free hand for casting in combat anyway. You're basically a medium armor rapier fighter with a BA shove effect, some extra AoA temp HP each short rest, and a couple utility cantrips.

Level 2-3 (Wizard 1-2): Sell the medium armor. Learn some Wizard attack/save cantrips and 1st level Wizard Spells, including Absorb Elements, Mage Armor, and Magic Missile. Use Mage Armor plus a shield for 18 AC. Magic Missile works nicely with Hexblade's Curse, automatically doing 3d4+3 plus 3*Proficiency Bonus in damage to a target. Stow your weapons. Since you don't have Warcaster yet, you'll mostly want to stick to using a Wizard save cantrip like Toll The Dead or a Wizard melee cantrip like Shocking Grasp instead of a weapon, because you'll need to keep a hand free for spellcasting, especially for use reaction defensive spells like Absorb Elements and Shield.

Level 4 (Wizard 3): Learn some 2nd level Wizard spells, such as Web and Levitate. Start upcasting Armor of Agathys into a 2nd level slot, since there aren't any useful 2nd level Abjuration spells. And now you also have the option to upcast Magic Missile alongside Hexblade's Curse for 4d4+4 plus 4* Proficiency Bonus in automatic damage.

Level 5 (Wizard 4): Learn Booming Blade. Now that you have the Warcaster feat and can cast spells with both hands full, start using Rapier + Booming Blade for melee. You can also make Booming Blade Opportunity Attacks now.

Level 6 (Wizard 5): Learn some 3rd level Wizard spells, most notably Counterspell because it's great and it's an Abjuration spell, plus other useful ones like Fireball and Hypnotic Pattern. You can potentially upcast Armor of Agathys into 3rd level slots, but the value of upcasting starts diminishing due to the number of excellent 3rd level spells out there.

Level 7 (Warlock 2): Learn the Armor of Shadows invocation for free recharge of your Arcane Ward at will. You also now no longer need to prepare the Mage Armor spell or burn a daily spell slot to cast it. For your 2nd invocation, take something useful like Devil's Sight, Eldritch Sight, Mask of Many Faces, or Misty Visions. You also gain a 2nd short rest recharging 1st level spell slot for Shield/Absorb Elements use. You can learn a third Warlock 1st level spell, but pickings are pretty slim due to your middling CHA... Protection from Good/Evil is about as good as it gets, and is an Abjuration spell to boot.

Level 8+ (Wizard 6+): Continue as Abjurer.


The two big downsides to this build are:

A) You'll quickly reach a point in mid Tier 2 and especially into Tier 3 where you have better things to do with your action than wade into melee with a single Booming Blade Rapier attack, especially since you can't really spare any ASIs to keep your DEX score scaling upwards. So you're investing a lot into being decent at something that's only going to be somewhat useful for the first portion of the character's career.

B) As a melee gish, you really, really want a higher CON than 12. Mainly for Concentration checks, since you will have the additional HP buffers of Armor of Agathys and Arcane Ward. Warcaster's Advantage helps a bit, but with only a +1 to your Concentration checks, you'll still lose Concentration fairly regularly even with Advantage. Unfortunately, you can't spare anything higher than a 12, since the character is so MAD, needing a high INT, fairly high DEX, and 13 CHA already. And you don't really have an ASI to spare for Resilient CON until possibly Character Level 14, which is fairly late to be all that useful.

[Witty Username]

Here is a link to that treantmonk guide, now that I am at my computer and remember (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ecc83o4O4FQ)

I misremembered the str he used 8.

Either way very close to the build you are thinking of.