Enchantment wizard multiclass with healing?

[Aalbatr0ss]

I don't know if "optimization" is the right term, because no-one our this game is really optimizing, but...

We're picking up an old game that started years ago when I barely understood 5e. My character is a 5th level enchantment wizard (8 STR, 10 DEX, 12 CON, 16 INT, 13 WIS, 16 CHA). She is the party face and has Actor + Inspiring leader feats. Other party members are: 1) open hand monk, 2) swashbuckler rogue, 3) moon druid. The moon druid is our tank, and we have no other healing. The campaign is a "dangerous sandbox", and combats get pretty brutal for our group. Leveling is slow, and I doubt it will go beyond ~ 12th level.

Is there any way it makes sense to multiclass this enchanter as a bard or maybe divine soul sorcerer? Not looking to be a full healer, but it seems worthwhile to at least get healing word on someone who isn't wild-shaped for all of combat. I'd been thinking of taking 3 levels for eloquence bard, which could help my poor save DC (14) and add some healing/utility to the group.

Other option is (life?) cleric 1 for some armor and healing word, then go back to wizard (AC = mage armor + 0).

This would obviously be less powerful than straight wizard, but I'm more interested in keeping the whole group alive than raw power. (The characters are all childhood friends and someone is dropping almost every combat)

Any suggestions? I don't need to know how this character should have been built. I've played a lot of 5e since then. Thanks!

EDIT: I should have mentioned this... DM banned artificer as being too "high tech" for our campaign, or I would have been an armorer in 3 levels without blinking.

EDIT 2: Semi-resolved based on Khrysaes’s suggestion. DM let me retcon out of the actor feat. So INT18 / CHA 15. May take life cleric 1 at next level.

[Anymage]

Changing your race for an established character strikes me as unlikely.

Losing multiple wizard levels will hurt, so you're looking for something that ideally gives you your best stuff with one level dip. Three levels of eloquence bard, for instance, would put off those yummy high level spells for quite a while even if upcasting is an option. So look for something with a strong first level.

Cleric is probably the best of the bunch. Armor and shield proficiencies give them a major leg up, most of the first level domain powers are nice even for a dip, and having one preparation slot you can pick each day will give flexibility. (Life clerics get Bless and Cure Wounds for free, plus I expect you'll have Healing Word always prepped. That gives one flex slot.) Bards are okay with light armor, a skill proficiency, and bardic inspiration, but the former isn't really better than mage armor and the latter is long rest based until fifth level.

Druids and sorcerers don't really bring enough to be better than those two, while locks are only worthwhile if you dip two levels for EB and invocation support. Which seems like an appreciable departure from your concept.

[Khrysaes]

I would ask if you can change out the actor feat, for maybe magic initiate (driid) and pick up good berries Otherwise, 1 life cleric will get you a bit of healing. And works well with good berries. Your druid could also do this. Since they are a moon druid ask them to spend the slots before long resting on good berries, that will help a lot on between fight healing.

If both of you have 1 life cleric and can cast good berries, that would be something like 40hp per spell.

[Aalbatr0ss]

Cleric is probably the best of the bunch. Armor and shield proficiencies give them a major leg up, most of the first level domain powers are nice even for a dip, and having one preparation slot you can pick each day will give flexibility. (Life clerics get Bless and Cure Wounds for free, plus I expect you'll have Healing Word always prepped. That gives one flex slot.) Bards are okay with light armor, a skill proficiency, and bardic inspiration, but the former isn't really better than mage armor and the latter is long rest based until fifth level.


Thanks. This makes sense. I was resistant to letting the 16CHA go to waste, but it works for RP.

[Incorrect]

Eberron has the Mark of Healing.
Maybe you can consult with your GM, to change your race slightly or take that as a feat?
It will make you a decent healer

[Burley]

Why not multiclass into Artificer? You'll get access to a few heal/support spells and you'll still be working off of Intelligence. A Wizard suddenly wanting to dabble in potions makes more sense than a wizard suddenly studying bardic lore or becoming a devout Loltheran.

Battlesmith works pretty well for an enchantment Wizard, too. At 3rd, you'd get Heroism and Shield as bonus spells, and you get an Iron Defender (robo-pet) that can help tank and you get to use Int for melee attacks (which is useful as 5e support characters have a lot of Touch spells).

[Eldariel]

Thanks. This makes sense. I was resistant to letting the 16CHA go to waste, but it works for RP.

Divine Soul isn't bad if you wanna go Cha class instead. The level 1 ability is nice and they have carte blanche to Cleric spells, with Bless as a free spell known. Though you'll eventually want two levels to really make much of it; Font of Magic is the big selling point once you pick Metamagic Adept.

[chiefwaha]

3 levels for Artificer Artillerist. You get Cure Wounds as one of your spells right away, and get the protector eldritch cannon at 3rd level, which can prevent an absolute ton of HP damage with just a bonus action. I'm assuming you have a familiar, and while it doesn't work quite as well as Healing Word, use it to do Cure Wounds as a touch spell. Better HP than sorcerer, plus you get armor proficiency and keep your casting ability as INT.

[Burley]

while it doesn't work quite as well as Healing Word, use it to do Cure Wounds as a touch spell. Better HP than sorcerer, plus you get armor proficiency and keep your casting ability as INT.

It works BETTER than healing word.
Healing Word is 1d4 per spell level plus mod. Cure Wounds is 1d8 per spell level plus mod. Having a familiar deliver healing spells is a great tactic, but, if we're going strictly by the book, your familiar has its own turn in initiative, so, you'll have to do a bit of planning and hoping your familiar goes before you in combat (you can always hold your turn to reorder yourself).

[chiefwaha]

It works BETTER than healing word.
Healing Word is 1d4 per spell level plus mod. Cure Wounds is 1d8 per spell level plus mod. Having a familiar deliver healing spells is a great tactic, but, if we're going strictly by the book, your familiar has its own turn in initiative, so, you'll have to do a bit of planning and hoping your familiar goes before you in combat (you can always hold your turn to reorder yourself).

Well it's an action rather than a bonus action... And RAW does not allow reordering of initiative in that way, so getting your familiar into position to use its reaction to heal is sometimes difficult.

[SharkForce]

if all you want is healing, why not look into the healer feat? it'll probably do what you want better than any 1-level dip, at any rate...

[Aalbatr0ss]

Why not multiclass into Artificer? You'll get access to a few heal/support spells and you'll still be working off of Intelligence. A Wizard suddenly wanting to dabble in potions makes more sense than a wizard suddenly studying bardic lore or becoming a devout Loltheran.

Battlesmith works pretty well for an enchantment Wizard, too. At 3rd, you'd get Heroism and Shield as bonus spells, and you get an Iron Defender (robo-pet) that can help tank and you get to use Int for melee attacks (which is useful as 5e support characters have a lot of Touch spells).


3 levels for Artificer Artillerist. You get Cure Wounds as one of your spells right away, and get the protector eldritch cannon at 3rd level, which can prevent an absolute ton of HP damage with just a bonus action. I'm assuming you have a familiar, and while it doesn't work quite as well as Healing Word, use it to do Cure Wounds as a touch spell. Better HP than sorcerer, plus you get armor proficiency and keep your casting ability as INT.


I should have mentioned this... DM banned artificer as being too "high tech" for our campaign, or I would have been an artificer subclass in 3 levels without blinking. Thanks for the suggestion though, I agree this is most logical path in most campaigns.


I would ask if you can change out the actor feat, for maybe magic initiate (driid) and pick up good berries Otherwise, 1 life cleric will get you a bit of healing. And works well with good berries. Your druid could also do this. Since they are a moon druid ask them to spend the slots before long resting on good berries, that will help a lot on between fight healing.

If both of you have 1 life cleric and can cast good berries, that would be something like 40hp per spell.

Ok. This actually worked. DM let me retcon out of the actor feat. Funny, I hadn't thought to just ask...

But instead of taking another feat I just used it to get my INT up to 18 like a proper L5 wizard. Doesn't solve the healing problem, but at least she's a better wizard. I may still do the 1 level Life Cleric dip, as suggested by Anymage. In the meantime, maybe I can use my 15 CHA to persuade an NPC cleric to join our party?

[Rav]

I should have mentioned this... DM banned artificer as being too "high tech" for our campaign, or I would have been an armorer in 3 levels without blinking.



Ok. This actually worked. DM let me retcon out of the actor feat. Funny, I hadn't thought to just ask...

But instead of taking another feat I just used it to get my INT up to 18 like a proper L5 wizard. Doesn't solve the healing problem, but at least she's a better wizard. I may still do the 1 level Life Cleric dip, as suggested by Anymage. In the meantime, maybe I can use my 15 CHA to persuade an NPC cleric to join our party?

Take a single level in Order Cleric. Snag Bless and Healing Word for your 1st level spells. This won't get you to be the healer-y-est healer but instead lets you be a better supporting enchanter. See, your new 1st level cleric ability Voice of Authority will let your allies make attacks as reactions whenever you tag em with a spell. So when you healing word someone, they get to attack. When you bless them, one of them gets an attack. In effect, you get to 'magically direct' not only just enemies with your enchantments, but your allies too!

Plus the medium/heavy/shield armor proficiency will help keep you alive with those low dex/con scores. Bonus intimidate/persuasion proficiency also adds into your role.

[MrStabby]

I would suggest 1 level of bard.

1 level of Bard can get you:

Healing word
Dissonant whispers
Command (if Tasha's allowed)
Vicious Mockery

Healing word adds that little bit of healing to bring people back into the fight and a little touch of bardic inspiration should help wih saves etc. to keep people in the fight...

Everything else is enchantments which you might enjoy twinning later. If you need to conserve spell slots you can do a lot worse than Twinned Viscious Mockery as an at will option and if you are just wanting to keep a lid on your spell slots slightly, getting some effective free upcasting of (really good) low level spells is also pretty awesome.

If you did want to take a second level of bard you could - song of rest is kind of healing and getting a bit of a boost to initiative will also help you get those control spells down before enemies do bad things to your party.

[Aalbatr0ss]

Take a single level in Order Cleric. Snag Bless and Healing Word for your 1st level spells. This won't get you to be the healer-y-est healer but instead lets you be a better supporting enchanter. See, your new 1st level cleric ability Voice of Authority will let your allies make attacks as reactions whenever you tag em with a spell. So when you healing word someone, they get to attack. When you bless them, one of them gets an attack. In effect, you get to 'magically direct' not only just enemies with your enchantments, but your allies too!

Plus the medium/heavy/shield armor proficiency will help keep you alive with those low dex/con scores. Bonus intimidate/persuasion proficiency also adds into your role.

Huh. I hadn’t really given order domain a look. But damn… This would work with my party. And it fits the character. She is lawful good. She’s young and thought the world was supposed to be safe/orderly, and is dismayed that none of the “authorities” are stepping up to confront threats. This really works thematically.

[Burley]

I should have mentioned this... DM banned artificer as being too "high tech" for our campaign, or I would have been an artificer subclass in 3 levels without blinking. Thanks for the suggestion though, I agree this is most logical path in most campaigns.


Not to beat a dead horse, but what about the Alchemist Artificer. They just brew potions. It's pretty low tech.

[Aalbatr0ss]

Not to beat a dead horse, but what about the Alchemist Artificer. They just brew potions. It's pretty low tech.

I tried that in a desperate last ditch effort even though I didn’t really want to play an alchemist. Still banned.

[Khrysaes]

Huh. I hadn’t really given order domain a look. But damn… This would work with my party. And it fits the character. She is lawful good. She’s young and thought the world was supposed to be safe/orderly, and is dismayed that none of the “authorities” are stepping up to confront threats. This really works thematically.

If you have the spell Silvery Barbs, through whatever means, you can grant your allies attacks as your reaction, AND give them advantage

[Aalbatr0ss]

If you have the spell Silvery Barbs, through whatever means, you can grant your allies attacks as your reaction, AND give them advantage

I somehow missed that this was an enchantment spell everyone’s been discussing so vigorously. I’ll give it some thought… We’re playing our first session since August tonight. Maybe I’ll see how DM feels about it. They’re a little old-fashioned about D&D (in a good way).

I see why the discussion is heated, but this spell IS right in line with my character’s style. She’s manipulative and spends a lot of resources on save-or-suck enchantment spells. So far about half our big fights have ended with cantrips + hypnotic gaze after I’ve run out of spell slots.

[Khrysaes]

I somehow missed that this was an enchantment spell everyone’s been discussing so vigorously. I’ll give it some thought… We’re playing our first session since August tonight. Maybe I’ll see how DM feels about it. They’re a little old-fashioned about D&D (in a good way).

I see why the discussion is heated, but this spell IS right in line with my character’s style. She’s manipulative and spends a lot of resources on save-or-suck enchantment spells. So far about half our big fights have ended with cantrips + hypnotic gaze after I’ve run out of spell slots.

Not only is it thematic with an enchanter wizard, what with being an enchantment spell. If you take 1 level of order cleric, you can use healing word as a bonus action and grant someone an attack using their reaction, and using silvery barbs as your reaction to grant someone ELSE an attack with their reaction. So a small bit of healing, though not as good as being a mark of healing halfing and/or life cleric

Also, look into the spell "Wither and bloom" also from Strixhaven, it is a wizard spell that can give some healing.

[Aalbatr0ss]

Not only is it thematic with an enchanter wizard, what with being an enchantment spell. If you take 1 level of order cleric, you can use healing word as a bonus action and grant someone an attack using their reaction, and using silvery barbs as your reaction to grant someone ELSE an attack with their reaction. So a small bit of healing, though not as good as being a mark of healing halfing and/or life cleric

Also, look into the spell "Wither and bloom" also from Strixhaven, it is a wizard spell that can give some healing.

Nice! It looks like hasting the swashbuckler rogue, then healing him as needed may be the way to go, since each one of those is another free sneak attack with voice of authority. And he’s usually the first to go down. I’ll just turn the rogue into a blender.