It is very dependent on initiative order. If I'm near the fighter you cast the spell at me and my turn comes up before the fighter all I need is my action, stab you. Where it comes into play is if I cast it, the people next to the enemy go first, they stab and walk away. Now the enemy is generally stuck with move to close with no real action. Basically if the enemy's action comes up before the people around him, you got a 3d6 damage 2nd level spell off, and if your fighter would normally have a reason to withdraw they now can attack and move away or double move away. Because after the first round most enemies aren't going to be using there move action much and most don't have a bonus action.
That doesn't seem like it's initiative dependent at all. It seems more like it's player's communication dependent more than anything. You can certain work your enemies to make it work for you. If every player in your game is staying static every turn, then there is a whole different problem with encounters. So no this is not initiative dependent because you'd be amazed at how easily this spell can control the enemy if everyone just thinks or communicates.
That doesn't seem like it's initiative dependent at all. It seems more like it's player's communication dependent more than anything. You can certain work your enemies to make it work for you. If every player in your game is staying static every turn, then there is a whole different problem with encounters. So no this is not initiative dependent because you'd be amazed at how easily this spell can control the enemy if everyone just thinks or communicates.
I agree.
1 Wizard - casts TMW
2 Baddie - attacks Fighter
3 Ally Fighter - attacks Baddie and walks away
1 Wizard - casts TMW
2 Baddie - can only move
The only downside is that it takes one more round to basically take effect, but it’ll still work.
This really depends on how you want to play this character. For example, if you want to play a very social character, you may want to play an enchanter. However, enchanter wizards are only good for interacting with enemies because if an ally discovers you cast charm person on them, they will view it as a betrayal. Abjurer is good if the DM isn't afraid to cast fireball on your spellcasters. Shield can provide hit points to your arcane ward on a reaction. Enchanter is more of a support character than a abjurer. Most enchantment spells are buffs and debuffs, whereas abjuration spells often buff only you. I have recently played a charismatic abjurer with enchantment spells and I noticed I used abjuration more on my own character when in direct combat, but mostly used enchantment when aiding my allies. Another thing to consider is that all wizard spells are accessible to all classes, you can play an enchanter with abjuration or vice versa.
Sorry, I know this is a lot of text, you don't have to read all this, but if you do, I hope it helps. Have a nice day! ;)
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I don't ever mean to be rude in my replies, I just have trouble resisting a good argument ;P
I think Armor of Agathys is a trap for PC Abjurers. Sure, it looks amazing on paper. In reality, most enemies might fall for it once. Then, they’ll be actively avoiding you and they’ll be zeroing in on your fellow party members.
You want them to waste their attacks, not redirect them to your party members.
I politely disagree. An Abjurer with AoA shouldn’t be a tank or a simple damage sponge. You have good survivability, but Barbarians and Fighters are far more durable. You are full fledged Wizard capable to bend the reality with your spells. A single battlefield control spell can end hard encounters. You should be the #1 target. The difference is that you just have effective ways to keep yourself alive and melee brutes will suffer whenever they hit you. But to this point, War Caster, Booming Blade and even a DEX 14 can punish enemies trying to avoid you.
As amazing as Armor of Agathys is, as GM, I welcome your PC Abjurer with AoA to move into melee where they can be grappled.
To be honest, as an Abjurer with AoA, I would love to be grappled. Being grappled doesn’t prevent me to cast spells and I would even put myself prone to allow my enemy to hit me and take 2d8 (Fire Shield) + 15 (upcasted AoA) by doing this.
Being grappled does, in fact, prevent you from casting spells with somatic components according to Crawford Twitter. Meanwhile, your fire shield will inflict damage on the grapple attack, but once the attack is made, subsequent rounds don't require an attack. So, the grappler takes 2d8+15 damage and you have your movement dropped to zero and are limited to spells without somatic components.
Personally, and I acknowledge that this isn't RAW, I'd also say you can't cast spells with material components either,. After all, how are you going to access and manipulate those material components when your hands are held?
Since your abjurer suddenly has Fire Shield on them, I''ll use the same philosophy and say my grappler has had his buddy cleric cast silence on him.
makes sense, at some point you have to ask what is the point of components if they can't be stopped.
The material components rule would make more sense with a component pouch or component with a cost and/or is consumed. An arcane focus would almost always be in a wizards hand, so I'm not sure grappling them would change that unless they drop it or have it knocked out of their hand when they get grappled.
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I don't ever mean to be rude in my replies, I just have trouble resisting a good argument ;P
I never would have thought they had an infinite HP combo at 4th level. I thought you would only get that a 18th with a pure wizard. That's a really good multiclassing combo. Reminds me of Sorcerer-Warlock with short rest sorcery points and extra spell slots.
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I don't ever mean to be rude in my replies, I just have trouble resisting a good argument ;P
I play a Lawful Evil Orzov Abjurer. There is an evil way to use any magic, from the obvious meteor swarm on a city, to the less obvious healing of armies and restriction of healing to force people into specific courses of action. It can be used the other way as well, using illusions and enchantments to entertain and evocation to warm homes. Always keep that in mind when deciding alignment.
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I don't ever mean to be rude in my replies, I just have trouble resisting a good argument ;P
Couldn't see the tweet. But Nowhere in the Grappling rules or Grappled condition does it say anything that you cannot cast spells. Grapple is a vague term.
Grabbing someone by the wrist is a grapple. You have a hold of them and they cannot move out of their 5' square (speed zero). But they can still attack and have a hand free to cast.
Grabbing a person by the collar of their shirt, part of their armor, etc.. is also a grapple, you don't even have to have their arms pinned to grapple them.
You have two hands so can grapple two people. Grabbing two street urchins who tried to cut your purse, by the scruff of their necks, are grapples. All of their limbs are free to try and escape or attack. But it's still a grapple.
Putting the mind flayer in a headlock, is also a grapple (watch out for those tentacles).
The term grapple is not strictly defined so I don't see a reason why you couldn't cast a spell.
Unless I am missing something in the rules that didn't come up searching it here.
Going through both the PHB, DMG and XGtE, I could not find a rule or an optional rule that states that a grapple can be used to keep a spellcaster from using somatic or material components.
As for the tweet by Jeremy Crawford that is mentioned above, I was unable to see it but I did find a tweet that did go over grapple being used to stop somatic and material components in spell casting. As you can see below.
Though this is tweeted by Jeremy Crawford this does not make it raw as it was stated in one of his tweets in December of 2019. Below though is a snippet from the Sage Advice Compendium version 2.6 (Which I believe to be the latest edition, correct me if I'm wrong though).
As you can clearly see, it is specifically stated that "The grappled condition limits movement, NOT attacks, spellcasting and the like." (Emphasis added). So there you go. You cannot use grappling as a way to limit a caster's ability to cast spells. The tweet was just a rule that Jeremy Crawford uses, but not something that is Raw. Though I do admit, I wouldn't mind making a feat that could in fact allow a grapple to hinder a spellcaster's ability to use Somatic and Material components (this would be a great addition to Mage Slayer feat that tends to be lacking.)
The only way I can think of would be to stop actions entirely with an incapacitation spell, but that defeats the point for the most part. Material components in a components pouch can be stolen by an arcane trickster rogue, removing a spell from their arsenal. Stealing sulfur could stop them from casting fireball, for example. The spell creation, could be used to make replicas that would fail to work if you plan the battle in advance. An arcane focus bypasses both of these methods however.
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I don't ever mean to be rude in my replies, I just have trouble resisting a good argument ;P
The only way I can think of would be to stop actions entirely with an incapacitation spell, but that defeats the point for the most part. Material components in a components pouch can be stolen by an arcane trickster rogue, removing a spell from their arsenal. Stealing sulfur could stop them from casting fireball, for example. The spell creation, could be used to make replicas that would fail to work if you plan the battle in advance. An arcane focus bypasses both of these methods however.
I actually really like the idea of replacing spell components with ones made from the creation spell. You could do something similar with Fabricate and Spell focuses for those enemies or PCs that use those instead of a component pouch. Great little prank to pull on the party. Have an enemy rogue swap out a spellcaster's focus with a mundane fabrication so that the next time they go to cast a spell through their focus, it fails to work.
I think Armor of Agathys is a trap for PC Abjurers. Sure, it looks amazing on paper. In reality, most enemies might fall for it once. Then, they’ll be actively avoiding you and they’ll be zeroing in on your fellow party members.
You want them to waste their attacks, not redirect them to your party members.
I politely disagree. An Abjurer with AoA shouldn’t be a tank or a simple damage sponge. You have good survivability, but Barbarians and Fighters are far more durable. You are full fledged Wizard capable to bend the reality with your spells. A single battlefield control spell can end hard encounters. You should be the #1 target. The difference is that you just have effective ways to keep yourself alive and melee brutes will suffer whenever they hit you. But to this point, War Caster, Booming Blade and even a DEX 14 can punish enemies trying to avoid you.
As amazing as Armor of Agathys is, as GM, I welcome your PC Abjurer with AoA to move into melee where they can be grappled.
To be honest, as an Abjurer with AoA, I would love to be grappled. Being grappled doesn’t prevent me to cast spells and I would even put myself prone to allow my enemy to hit me and take 2d8 (Fire Shield) + 15 (upcasted AoA) by doing this.
Being grappled does, in fact, prevent you from casting spells with somatic components according to Crawford Twitter. Meanwhile, your fire shield will inflict damage on the grapple attack, but once the attack is made, subsequent rounds don't require an attack. So, the grappler takes 2d8+15 damage and you have your movement dropped to zero and are limited to spells without somatic components.
Personally, and I acknowledge that this isn't RAW, I'd also say you can't cast spells with material components either,. After all, how are you going to access and manipulate those material components when your hands are held?
Since your abjurer suddenly has Fire Shield on them, I''ll use the same philosophy and say my grappler has had his buddy cleric cast silence on him.
Misty Step says hello (or really any of the Step Spells) since it easily breaks a grapple and has no somatic or material components, verbal only.
Abjuration wizards can now pick up eldritch adept and get the free mage armor to have a full arcane ward entering every fight. Of course, if you're in those 1x combat per day campaigns, this doesn't matter at all.
My favorite build for the enchanter is 1 artificer / x enchantment wizard. I'll list the benefits below:
1. you get constitution saving throw proficiency for your concentration checks. Warcaster is now optional!
2. you get medium armor and shields - 18 AC!
3. you get a cure wounds for your familiar to deliver
4. you get the spells: Guidance, Thorn Whip, Cure Wounds, Faerie Fire and Sanctuary. All of these are awesome for a wizard, but, specifically, you can hypnotic gaze a creature on the front line and then cast sanctuary(no concentration!) on yourself as a bonus action - with an 18 AC! I'd still use my first turn to cast a control spell like Web/Hypnotic Pattern/Slow/Faerie Fire. After that, i'd build the telekinetic feat into the package so you can continue to bonus action move people, and go goblin to bonus action hide/disengage as necessary.
5. Artificer 1 doesn't slow your spell slot progression down at all. You will be behind 1 level in wizard spells known, but it's worth it here.
Twinning Tasha's mind whip at higher levels is a great use of those extra level 2 slots you don't always use up, and makes save or suck spells less painful. Other low level spells good to twin: Suggestion & Tasha's hideous laughter. The dominate spells are decent paired with silvery barbs and twin. As for social or long term shenanigans: Geas and modify memory scream fun when twinning. As for control spells: Otto's Irresistable Dance and Feeblemind(on a pair of casters) are great contenders for twinning. There's even an argument for power word:stun since it can be twinned.... but nah it's still just a bad spell.
Enchanters being able to use their lvl 2, lvl 6 AND lvl 10 abilities with no actual specific resource limitation is excellent in a difficult campaign where a DM will push your resource management. Granted, not many DM's are good at this, but for those rare campaigns.
The introduction of Silvery Barbs makes the level 2 and level 6 abilities (hypnotic gaze and instinctive charm) that much more reliable. Note that silvery barbs isn't eligible for twinning because it targets 2 things(also gives advantage as well). You cannot twin hideous laughter and then twin silvery barbs at both targets as a reaction.
Alter memories is no where near as powerful or considered useful because it's a social ability. But, you can do some fantastic social shenanigans with it. Making creatures do things for you without knowledge they are affected is a great way to make people insane or constantly assign blame and fault for your actions onto NPC's.
Abjuration wizards can now pick up eldritch adept and get the free mage armor to have a full arcane ward entering every fight. Of course, if you're in those 1x combat per day campaigns, this doesn't matter at all.
My favorite build for the enchanter is 1 artificer / x enchantment wizard. I'll list the benefits below:
1. you get constitution saving throw proficiency for your concentration checks. Warcaster is now optional!
2. you get medium armor and shields - 18 AC!
3. you get a cure wounds for your familiar to deliver
4. you get the spells: Guidance, Thorn Whip, Cure Wounds, Faerie Fire and Sanctuary. All of these are awesome for a wizard, but, specifically, you can hypnotic gaze a creature on the front line and then cast sanctuary(no concentration!) on yourself as a bonus action - with an 18 AC! I'd still use my first turn to cast a control spell like Web/Hypnotic Pattern/Slow/Faerie Fire. After that, i'd build the telekinetic feat into the package so you can continue to bonus action move people, and go goblin to bonus action hide/disengage as necessary.
5. Artificer 1 doesn't slow your spell slot progression down at all. You will be behind 1 level in wizard spells known, but it's worth it here.
Twinning Tasha's mind whip at higher levels is a great use of those extra level 2 slots you don't always use up, and makes save or suck spells less painful. Other low level spells good to twin: Suggestion & Tasha's hideous laughter. The dominate spells are decent paired with silvery barbs and twin. As for social or long term shenanigans: Geas and modify memory scream fun when twinning. As for control spells: Otto's Irresistable Dance and Feeblemind(on a pair of casters) are great contenders for twinning. There's even an argument for power word:stun since it can be twinned.... but nah it's still just a bad spell.
Enchanters being able to use their lvl 2, lvl 6 AND lvl 10 abilities with no actual specific resource limitation is excellent in a difficult campaign where a DM will push your resource management. Granted, not many DM's are good at this, but for those rare campaigns.
The introduction of Silvery Barbs makes the level 2 and level 6 abilities (hypnotic gaze and instinctive charm) that much more reliable. Note that silvery barbs isn't eligible for twinning because it targets 2 things(also gives advantage as well). You cannot twin hideous laughter and then twin silvery barbs at both targets as a reaction.
Alter memories is no where near as powerful or considered useful because it's a social ability. But, you can do some fantastic social shenanigans with it. Making creatures do things for you without knowledge they are affected is a great way to make people insane or constantly assign blame and fault for your actions onto NPC's.
Tasha’s Cauldron definitely was a grand boon to the Bubble Shield Wizard build!
Your suggestions for an Enchantment Wizard / Artificer multiclass has re-ignited my interest in the subclass: those are some fascinating combinations.
One other thing to note in all these builds - abjuration and enchantment spells are limited at every level (enchantment less so than abjuration) leaving lots of space for other types of spells in your repitoire. There is nothing really to prevent you from being say an abjuration who also focuses on enchantment spells giving you almost the best of both worlds. Your ward lets you get close to use the enchantment spells but you do lose the enchanter abilities. The other way isn’t as useful I grant. So abjure + other school spells grants a lot of protection as well as variability while enchanter is more focused.
I would still play an abjuration wizard as a control wizard. The only commonly used spells to mid-combat refuel your bubble(outside of mage armor/eldritch adept out of combat shenanigans) are shield, absorb elements, dispel magic, counterspell and banishment. Shield is fairly common use but only restores 2 points. Counterspell, dispel magic and banishment are all great but very situational... banishment at lvl 4 might only restore half of your bubble.
Alternatively you can do build shenanigans to get armor of agathys and update and try to play a tank - a niche build that I wasn't as impressed with in gameplay(creatures just didn't hit me as often). If your DM metagames too much you can play this style, but really be a control wizard in disguise that never gets hit
So, yes, like every wizard you should never just focus on the specific spells of your school specialization. The abjuration wizard is a strong subclass though, the biggest reason to play it is the improved counterspells and spell resistance in a higher level campaign... and until 17th level(+6), sorcerers are probably still better counterspellers with magical guidance.
Also, none of the abjuration wizard abilities are bad... in fact they're all good, which isn't common. Well except for the abjuration savant... but I don't really count those.
If you are dipping Warlock for AoA why not get Armor of Shadows invocation to replenish your ward for free whenever you want, best outside combat
I had the idea of having a paranoid Deep Gnome abjurer with the svirfneblin magic feat. Before level the feat, I'd have Alarm that I'd cast ritually to make sure I wasn't being followed. After the feat, I'd have Nondetection to be able to cast at will on myself to make sure I wasn't subject to divination magic or scrying. Having Armor of Shadows would be interesting as well. A two level lock dip for celestial patron to get some healing, Armor of Shadows, something like Fiendish Vigor, a couple more utility cantrips and a 1st level spell slot that resets on a short rest could be interesting, even if it does stall wizard progression and spell slot progression. It would be on flavor for the paranoia to drive the deep gnome to seek out additional protections.
I'm finishing out a 1-20 campaign on an Abjurer right now and I cannot recommend it enough. It's a very protective way to play a wizard, and your abilities can be clutch. There's something to be said for adding your Proficiency bonus on a counterspell when you don't know what they are casting or you don't want to risk a high level spell slot to forgo a roll to counter or dispel. Advantage on saves vs. spells and half damage from magic are great defensive tools too.
idk if its been said or not, but going stars druid 2 and abjuration wiz 10 leads to a basically always counterspell and dispel magic king. (min 10 rolled on int check if in dragon form, +5 int mod, + prof bonus =19 at lvl12). Another fun thing (as has been pointed out) is mark of warding dwarf and lvl 4 take eldritch adept for mage armor with 100% abj wiz. fun masochist build mwahahaha!
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It is very dependent on initiative order. If I'm near the fighter you cast the spell at me and my turn comes up before the fighter all I need is my action, stab you. Where it comes into play is if I cast it, the people next to the enemy go first, they stab and walk away. Now the enemy is generally stuck with move to close with no real action. Basically if the enemy's action comes up before the people around him, you got a 3d6 damage 2nd level spell off, and if your fighter would normally have a reason to withdraw they now can attack and move away or double move away. Because after the first round most enemies aren't going to be using there move action much and most don't have a bonus action.
That doesn't seem like it's initiative dependent at all. It seems more like it's player's communication dependent more than anything. You can certain work your enemies to make it work for you. If every player in your game is staying static every turn, then there is a whole different problem with encounters. So no this is not initiative dependent because you'd be amazed at how easily this spell can control the enemy if everyone just thinks or communicates.
I agree.
1 Wizard - casts TMW
2 Baddie - attacks Fighter
3 Ally Fighter - attacks Baddie and walks away
1 Wizard - casts TMW
2 Baddie - can only move
The only downside is that it takes one more round to basically take effect, but it’ll still work.
If you are dipping Warlock for AoA why not get Armor of Shadows invocation to replenish your ward for free whenever you want, best outside combat
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
This really depends on how you want to play this character. For example, if you want to play a very social character, you may want to play an enchanter. However, enchanter wizards are only good for interacting with enemies because if an ally discovers you cast charm person on them, they will view it as a betrayal. Abjurer is good if the DM isn't afraid to cast fireball on your spellcasters. Shield can provide hit points to your arcane ward on a reaction. Enchanter is more of a support character than a abjurer. Most enchantment spells are buffs and debuffs, whereas abjuration spells often buff only you. I have recently played a charismatic abjurer with enchantment spells and I noticed I used abjuration more on my own character when in direct combat, but mostly used enchantment when aiding my allies. Another thing to consider is that all wizard spells are accessible to all classes, you can play an enchanter with abjuration or vice versa.
Sorry, I know this is a lot of text, you don't have to read all this, but if you do, I hope it helps. Have a nice day! ;)
I don't ever mean to be rude in my replies, I just have trouble resisting a good argument ;P
The material components rule would make more sense with a component pouch or component with a cost and/or is consumed. An arcane focus would almost always be in a wizards hand, so I'm not sure grappling them would change that unless they drop it or have it knocked out of their hand when they get grappled.
I don't ever mean to be rude in my replies, I just have trouble resisting a good argument ;P
I never would have thought they had an infinite HP combo at 4th level. I thought you would only get that a 18th with a pure wizard. That's a really good multiclassing combo. Reminds me of Sorcerer-Warlock with short rest sorcery points and extra spell slots.
I don't ever mean to be rude in my replies, I just have trouble resisting a good argument ;P
I play a Lawful Evil Orzov Abjurer. There is an evil way to use any magic, from the obvious meteor swarm on a city, to the less obvious healing of armies and restriction of healing to force people into specific courses of action. It can be used the other way as well, using illusions and enchantments to entertain and evocation to warm homes. Always keep that in mind when deciding alignment.
I don't ever mean to be rude in my replies, I just have trouble resisting a good argument ;P
Couldn't see the tweet. But Nowhere in the Grappling rules or Grappled condition does it say anything that you cannot cast spells. Grapple is a vague term.
Grabbing someone by the wrist is a grapple. You have a hold of them and they cannot move out of their 5' square (speed zero). But they can still attack and have a hand free to cast.
Grabbing a person by the collar of their shirt, part of their armor, etc.. is also a grapple, you don't even have to have their arms pinned to grapple them.
You have two hands so can grapple two people. Grabbing two street urchins who tried to cut your purse, by the scruff of their necks, are grapples. All of their limbs are free to try and escape or attack. But it's still a grapple.
Putting the mind flayer in a headlock, is also a grapple (watch out for those tentacles).
The term grapple is not strictly defined so I don't see a reason why you couldn't cast a spell.
Unless I am missing something in the rules that didn't come up searching it here.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
Going through both the PHB, DMG and XGtE, I could not find a rule or an optional rule that states that a grapple can be used to keep a spellcaster from using somatic or material components.
As for the tweet by Jeremy Crawford that is mentioned above, I was unable to see it but I did find a tweet that did go over grapple being used to stop somatic and material components in spell casting. As you can see below.
Though this is tweeted by Jeremy Crawford this does not make it raw as it was stated in one of his tweets in December of 2019. Below though is a snippet from the Sage Advice Compendium version 2.6 (Which I believe to be the latest edition, correct me if I'm wrong though).
As you can clearly see, it is specifically stated that "The grappled condition limits movement, NOT attacks, spellcasting and the like." (Emphasis added). So there you go. You cannot use grappling as a way to limit a caster's ability to cast spells. The tweet was just a rule that Jeremy Crawford uses, but not something that is Raw. Though I do admit, I wouldn't mind making a feat that could in fact allow a grapple to hinder a spellcaster's ability to use Somatic and Material components (this would be a great addition to Mage Slayer feat that tends to be lacking.)
The only way I can think of would be to stop actions entirely with an incapacitation spell, but that defeats the point for the most part. Material components in a components pouch can be stolen by an arcane trickster rogue, removing a spell from their arsenal. Stealing sulfur could stop them from casting fireball, for example. The spell creation, could be used to make replicas that would fail to work if you plan the battle in advance. An arcane focus bypasses both of these methods however.
I don't ever mean to be rude in my replies, I just have trouble resisting a good argument ;P
I actually really like the idea of replacing spell components with ones made from the creation spell. You could do something similar with Fabricate and Spell focuses for those enemies or PCs that use those instead of a component pouch. Great little prank to pull on the party. Have an enemy rogue swap out a spellcaster's focus with a mundane fabrication so that the next time they go to cast a spell through their focus, it fails to work.
Misty Step says hello (or really any of the Step Spells) since it easily breaks a grapple and has no somatic or material components, verbal only.
Abjuration wizards can now pick up eldritch adept and get the free mage armor to have a full arcane ward entering every fight. Of course, if you're in those 1x combat per day campaigns, this doesn't matter at all.
My favorite build for the enchanter is 1 artificer / x enchantment wizard. I'll list the benefits below:
1. you get constitution saving throw proficiency for your concentration checks. Warcaster is now optional!
2. you get medium armor and shields - 18 AC!
3. you get a cure wounds for your familiar to deliver
4. you get the spells: Guidance, Thorn Whip, Cure Wounds, Faerie Fire and Sanctuary. All of these are awesome for a wizard, but, specifically, you can hypnotic gaze a creature on the front line and then cast sanctuary(no concentration!) on yourself as a bonus action - with an 18 AC! I'd still use my first turn to cast a control spell like Web/Hypnotic Pattern/Slow/Faerie Fire. After that, i'd build the telekinetic feat into the package so you can continue to bonus action move people, and go goblin to bonus action hide/disengage as necessary.
5. Artificer 1 doesn't slow your spell slot progression down at all. You will be behind 1 level in wizard spells known, but it's worth it here.
Twinning Tasha's mind whip at higher levels is a great use of those extra level 2 slots you don't always use up, and makes save or suck spells less painful. Other low level spells good to twin: Suggestion & Tasha's hideous laughter. The dominate spells are decent paired with silvery barbs and twin. As for social or long term shenanigans: Geas and modify memory scream fun when twinning. As for control spells: Otto's Irresistable Dance and Feeblemind(on a pair of casters) are great contenders for twinning. There's even an argument for power word:stun since it can be twinned.... but nah it's still just a bad spell.
Enchanters being able to use their lvl 2, lvl 6 AND lvl 10 abilities with no actual specific resource limitation is excellent in a difficult campaign where a DM will push your resource management. Granted, not many DM's are good at this, but for those rare campaigns.
The introduction of Silvery Barbs makes the level 2 and level 6 abilities (hypnotic gaze and instinctive charm) that much more reliable. Note that silvery barbs isn't eligible for twinning because it targets 2 things(also gives advantage as well). You cannot twin hideous laughter and then twin silvery barbs at both targets as a reaction.
Alter memories is no where near as powerful or considered useful because it's a social ability. But, you can do some fantastic social shenanigans with it. Making creatures do things for you without knowledge they are affected is a great way to make people insane or constantly assign blame and fault for your actions onto NPC's.
Tasha’s Cauldron definitely was a grand boon to the Bubble Shield Wizard build!
Your suggestions for an Enchantment Wizard / Artificer multiclass has re-ignited my interest in the subclass: those are some fascinating combinations.
One other thing to note in all these builds - abjuration and enchantment spells are limited at every level (enchantment less so than abjuration) leaving lots of space for other types of spells in your repitoire. There is nothing really to prevent you from being say an abjuration who also focuses on enchantment spells giving you almost the best of both worlds. Your ward lets you get close to use the enchantment spells but you do lose the enchanter abilities. The other way isn’t as useful I grant. So abjure + other school spells grants a lot of protection as well as variability while enchanter is more focused.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
I would still play an abjuration wizard as a control wizard. The only commonly used spells to mid-combat refuel your bubble(outside of mage armor/eldritch adept out of combat shenanigans) are shield, absorb elements, dispel magic, counterspell and banishment. Shield is fairly common use but only restores 2 points. Counterspell, dispel magic and banishment are all great but very situational... banishment at lvl 4 might only restore half of your bubble.
Alternatively you can do build shenanigans to get armor of agathys and update and try to play a tank - a niche build that I wasn't as impressed with in gameplay(creatures just didn't hit me as often). If your DM metagames too much you can play this style, but really be a control wizard in disguise that never gets hit
So, yes, like every wizard you should never just focus on the specific spells of your school specialization. The abjuration wizard is a strong subclass though, the biggest reason to play it is the improved counterspells and spell resistance in a higher level campaign... and until 17th level(+6), sorcerers are probably still better counterspellers with magical guidance.
Also, none of the abjuration wizard abilities are bad... in fact they're all good, which isn't common. Well except for the abjuration savant... but I don't really count those.
I had the idea of having a paranoid Deep Gnome abjurer with the svirfneblin magic feat. Before level the feat, I'd have Alarm that I'd cast ritually to make sure I wasn't being followed. After the feat, I'd have Nondetection to be able to cast at will on myself to make sure I wasn't subject to divination magic or scrying. Having Armor of Shadows would be interesting as well. A two level lock dip for celestial patron to get some healing, Armor of Shadows, something like Fiendish Vigor, a couple more utility cantrips and a 1st level spell slot that resets on a short rest could be interesting, even if it does stall wizard progression and spell slot progression. It would be on flavor for the paranoia to drive the deep gnome to seek out additional protections.
I'm finishing out a 1-20 campaign on an Abjurer right now and I cannot recommend it enough. It's a very protective way to play a wizard, and your abilities can be clutch. There's something to be said for adding your Proficiency bonus on a counterspell when you don't know what they are casting or you don't want to risk a high level spell slot to forgo a roll to counter or dispel. Advantage on saves vs. spells and half damage from magic are great defensive tools too.
idk if its been said or not, but going stars druid 2 and abjuration wiz 10 leads to a basically always counterspell and dispel magic king. (min 10 rolled on int check if in dragon form, +5 int mod, + prof bonus =19 at lvl12). Another fun thing (as has been pointed out) is mark of warding dwarf and lvl 4 take eldritch adept for mage armor with 100% abj wiz. fun masochist build mwahahaha!