When is "early enough" for Resilient(Wis)?

[sithlordnergal]

More of a forum echo chamber thing I think

In this case I don't think its forum echo chamber issues. I just looked up all the printed spells that target mental saves via D&DBeyond. I have all the books on it, so I have access to all the spells that have been officially printed. For mental saves we have:


Intelligence: Only 9 spells target Intelligence, and only 2 of those are found in the PHB, which is...interesting. The most dangerous/debilitating spells include Feeblemind, Synaptic Static, and Psychic Scream. Psychic Scream is a 9th level spell that deals some damage, but also stuns you, Feeblemind is Feeblemind, and Synaptic Static is basically psychic Fireball that also imposes a -1d6 to attack rolls and ability checks if the target fails their save. So a little bit dangerous, but not overly so. You're not gonna run into Feeblemind that often.


Charisma: 14 spells target Charisma, these have a few more varying effects, with the hard CC of Charisma being Banishment. However, most of the effects change a creature's emotional state in an effect similar to Charm. Divine Word, Bane, and Forcecage are also some standout spells here.


Wisdom: 53 spells in total target Wisdom, and these spells are too varied to make a summation for. Charm, Frightened, Deafened, Incapacitated, Paralyzed, Unconscious...heck, there's even a Wisdom Save spell that causes you to be Prone, thank you Hideous Laughter. Basically, if you want to impart some kind of non-physical condition, good bet is that it'll be a Wisdom save. Heck, spells like Animal Friendship, Charm Animal/Person/Monster, and even Dominate Animal/Person/Monster are all Wisdom saves.


Basically, if the DM uses any sort of mental condition, chances are it'll be a Wisdom save of some sort. As such, you can get screwed over really hard really easily by having a low Wisdom save. And Resilient basically fixes that. I tend to make sure I always take it because of how important Wisdom saves are, doesn't matter if it fits the character or not. The effects from failing a Wisdom save are too debilitating, from the Frightened or Charmed conditions, to just being Incapacitated, Unconscious, or becoming an NPC under the DM's control via Dominate Person.


EDIT:

I odn't think I've ever seen Res: Wis taken, usually PCs with weak Wis scores are aware of it, might even be wary of the effects that target it, but it becomes a group problem. Bless, Cosmic Omen, Paladin Aura, Bardic Inspiration, Inspiration, racial abilities all get pulled in to deal with the problem.

Outside of forum discussion I've never seen such heavy emphasis on Resilient, or even much consideration for feats, be that racial feats, ASIs or free feats I've awarded.

While Bless, Bardic Inspiration, racial abilities, and Paladin Auras can help, they really can't do much if you only have +1 or +2 in Wisdom saves. Not when the DCs start going above 15. Not only that, but you're also forcing your party to build around your weakness in order to counteract it. Paladin Auras and Bardic Inspiration requires there to be:

A) A Paladin, Bard, or Druid

and

B) Require you to be close to the Paladin, or for the Bard/Druid to spend a limited resource on you instead of somewhere more useful.

Meanwhile racial abilities are nice, but again require you to be a certain race and only work on specific debuffs, not all Wisdom saves. As for Inspiration, that's handed out by the DM, and not something you can just have on hand. And not a lot of DMs remember it exist in my experience, not even myself. Which just leaves Bless...which is a decent spell, but its only a d4. Not gonna be that much help when you only have a +1 or +2 to Wisdom saves.



EDIT 2: As for the OP, I tend to take it at level 8, or around that depending on my multiclass build. You start to see those more dangerous DC's by levels 8, 9, and 10, at which point you'll want it. Until then the DCs are low enough that you can actually get by on +2 Wisdom and Bless.