I'm a Wizard, a character that was premade at level 1 from the D&D Starter Kit, as it had some pre-made sheets.

I know basically how weapons attacks work (a bit), but I'd like to know how to use a magic missile attack during combat.

Greetings! And welcome to D&D! :)

So, basically, think of your wizard's magic as a gun and the spell slots as the ammo for that gun -- you cast a spell (Magic Missile in this case) and you've expended 1 piece of ammo. You cast another spell, and you're now out of ammo and have to resort to using attack cantrips in combat until you replenish your spell slots. Your lvl.1 wizard has 2 spell slots (which you'll get more of as you level up), meaning that you can cast Magic Missile twice before you can no longer cast anything stronger than a cantrip. 

Hope this helps! :)

That's helped a bit, thanks. I'm playing 'To Hell and Back'. I've rolled an initiative score and added my dexterity, and I won. 

Can you tell me what to do next? The enemy is a swarm of wild Boggarts. Do I now roll a 20 and add what if any modifier, then what do I compare it against? The other creature's Armour Class? Here's the stats on the Boggarts....22 hit points:-

Swarm of Wild Boggarts Medium swarm of small fey, chaotic neutral Armor Class 11 Hit Points 22 (5d8) Speed 25 ft., climb 25 ft. STRDEXCONINTWISCHA 12 (+1)12 (+1)10 (+0)8 (-1)12 (+1)12 (+1) Skills Perception +3, Stealth +3 Senses truesight 120 ft., passive perception 13 Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, slashing Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, prone, restrained, stunned Languages Common, Sylvan Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)

If you're casting Magic Missile then you don't need to roll to hit because it auto hits (unless you're using it against a spellcaster casting Shield), so you just need to roll damage.

If you're making a spell attack with something else, Fire Bolt for example, then you roll your d20 and add your spell attack modifier, which as a Wizard is your proficiency bonus plus your Intelligence modifier (Charisma casters and Wisdom casters use Charisma or Wisdom respectively). So, assuming you have an Intelligence modifier of +3, your spell attack roll should be d20+5.

So, using the Fire Bolt as an example, you make the spell attack, roll d20+your spell attack modifier, and if you meet or beat your target's armour class then you've hit it, so go ahead and roll damage.

Yes! That's great! Thanks! (I can hear you say 'No more exclamation points'). 

Now I'll have done both a weapons attack and a spell casting attack. 

I can't wait to try it soon.

(❗).

No problem! Happy to help! I hope you have fun with your game!

(I too am an exclamation point master, haha)

Hi Baldilocks, I've been all over the web and then all over it again, trying to expand my knowledge. I've got another combat question: in the above fight, I spell cast then move away, my speed is 30ft per ?. That's my question : does the speed get reset every round. As a quick spellcaster, (my name is Rael), it would seem easy to kill creatures like these, with a hit and move strategy. It reminds me of Dragons Age on the PC. Can you help please? Help with the speed question, not my taste in video games, that is.

Hey Dave. So, if I understand the question correctly, then no, you really don't need help with your taste in vid--I'm kidding. Yes, you get to move up to your maximum speed every round. As a Wizard though, my advice to you is to find the biggest, thickest piece of cover you can find and stay behind it while casting spells. Failing that, hide behind an appropriately large slab of beef like a Barbarian instead.

EDIT: And failing that...run away! XD

LOL. Good comedy! Thanks a bunch, as a solo player I might be at a bit stuck playing as a wizard, is that what you mean? Can you hide round a corner then pop out then hide behind round the corner again like you see in gun fights in the movies? Yes, that's something to look into. So is getting a partner to play as a barbarian.

Generally, I like the way the dice and rules 'set' like a jello mould into English narration. I used to love playing Fighting Fantasy and Lonewolf when I was younger. Everything gets turned into an algebraic problem!

Back to the point - is the wizard vulnerable because of a hit point problem? ie. It's too low?

So long as you have the movement for it, then sure you can do that. You can move up to 30 feet, so once that's gone it's gone until the next round. Grabbing a few buddies to play your expendable meat shields valued partners and companions is always a good idea, but solo playing as a Wizard is totally doable. 

But to your other point: Wizards are...squishy, yes, but they're supposed to be. They're the support guys and/or glass cannons of the party. They're not the frontliners (not counting Bladesingers) or the big beefy tanks that are designed to soak up a ton of damage and laugh it off like a bad joke. They should stay in the back while they're tossing those fireballs, not smack dab in the middle of a gang of baddies.

But if a low hit point pool is a concern for you then there are ways to crank that up to eleven. For example: have you ever watched Critical Role's Exandria Unlimited: Calamity? One of the players in that show ran an Abjuration Wizard with an 18 in Constitution and she also gave her the Tough feat, and IIRC her Wizard had something like 140-ish hit points at Level 14, which is roughly comparable to a Fighter at the same level, or maybe even a Barbarian. For further comparison, the other Wizard of the party had something like 80-ish HP, which I'd say is slightly above average for a Wizard at Level 14. 

So if you wanted a big, beefy Wizard who won't fold like wet tissue paper whenever someone looks at them funny, then it's doable. I wouldn't recommend it, not unless you have a specific character build in mind, but it's doable. And even so! You should keep your Wizard in the back. XD

Boggarts show their inate skill at spell evasion.

Hi again. I've decided to move the Boggarts up a tree, as 1) we're fighting in a wood and 2) the blighters have a 25ft climb speed.

So can I (acting as a Boggart) use climbing instead of movement (in the Bogart's combat turns).

Character's turn : How will Magic Missile work? Will it still be a guaranteed hit, so I can skip straight to damage or will I need a role to determine if it hits? (Just a thought).

Is this too rare a scenario to be able to search for this situation? 

Also, can a wizard do an 'opportunity attack' at all? Using the range of my Magic Missile spell. Plus the fact they might be moving out of range when the Boggarts climb the trees.

These must be some unusually troublesome Boggarts if you're still fighting them after all this time, haha. Alrighty then, let me tackle each of these questions one-by-one:

I need to brush up on the rules as written but IIRC you can use the Boggarts movement speed however you like, with the understanding that you can't, say, climb 25ft and then move an extra 25ft once you've reached the top in the same round.

Magic Missile is a guaranteed hit, unless you're casting it at a spellcaster who then casts the Shield spell as their reaction, so unless there's a Boggart out there who's handy with a Shield spell I think you're good, lol.

And yes, a Wizard can do an opportunity attack -- it won't be very effective, seeing as you're a Level 1 Wizard, but you can do it, lol. Basically, when a creature triggers an opportunity attack from you, you can make a melee attack against them as your reaction. That said, if you had the War Caster feat, you can cast a spell as your opportunity attack instead, so long as it targets only the creature that triggered the attack. You can't, say, cast Fireball if somebody triggers an opportunity attack from you. Also, if you've already used your reaction on that round, you can't use it again until the next round. So, for example, you can't use your reaction to cast Shield against one attack, then try to hit a fleeing baddie who triggers your opportunity attack in the same round. 

Hope this helps!

Hello. It's taking forever because I've never play D&D before. In Lonewolf (available 1st November 2022) it would have taken about 10 minutes, but that was in the past, about thirty years ago. This combat is far more in depth, and dare I say it, realistic. There's about five stats in Lonewolf, while in DnD it's about a million of them ('If I've told you once, I've told you a million times to not exaggerate!', she yells).

The fight is over, but now I've got to work out XP points, in the story the author states it's gifted by the DM/author, but she still has XP listed on the creatures stat. sheet. I think I'll assume the points come in the narrative.

Got ya. Well, if you're playing it the way my gaming group usually does, you should add the XP either after the encounter or after the session. But yes, it's the DM who deals with the XP and lets you know how much XP to add.

FYI, the combat has finished with the heroes winning without damage! I'm looking at a miniature and map setup soon, to judge distance, and location precisely. Have you ever tried maps?

I found a magic wand called a 'wand of shield'. I've only really tried one spell so far, just an attack during combat. It generally goes : 1) I attack 2) they attack and repeat. Right? I've used the initiative rule before, and an 'attack of opportunity' too.

So my question is: what's the advantage of the wand as I can already cast an shield spell as I'm a level one wizard? I'm using a pre-gen character from the D&D starter pack.

I was really lucky to get this, as I had to make a saving throw to find it.

The stats are : This wand has 4 charges. Etc.

Yep, my gaming group (and several others, I'd wager, lol) and I have tried lots of maps. They and miniatures/tokens are super helpful for visualising encounters and/or dungeon crawls, especially if you're a visual player like me. :)

I'm unfamiliar with a Wand of Shield, personally. I've never encountered it in any of my games (now, Wands of Fireball and Wands of Magic Missile, on the other hand...my DM is good to me, haha). Anyhoo, if it works like most magic wands then once you've attuned to it, it's basically a free Shield spell so long as you have at least 1 charge on it. The advantage is this frees up your spell slots for other spells, which is great for lower levels. Also, it probably doesn't matter since your Wizard's only Level 1, it also allows you to prepare another spell besides Shield.

Hope this helps!

Thanks Mister Baldilocks. I'm now presented with a level up; up to level two. What does this entail, buff-wise?

What do you make of these paper minis? https://geektankgames.com/products/gtg-minis-heroes-set?variant=31533466746946

For the maps, which I'm going to add for this adventure, do you just print them off? What do you use, some kind of clip together map kit or something?

Congrats on the level up! To answer your question, for a Wizard you get a couple of things. First: you learn two new spells of your choice. And second: you get to choose your Wizard's Arcane Tradition, ie: their subclass. Think about how you want to play your wizard and then select their Arcane Tradition accordingly.

OR, you can choose to multiclass into another class like a Fighter. Though I do not recommend it for new players.

Based on what I've seen of them, the paper minis seem decent enough. Though I can't be one to judge since I haven't physically seen them, but the artwork seems alright.

As for maps, it depends on the resources available to your DM. Some print out their maps, others draw them themselves, some buy pre-made maps from their local gaming store and if they have the money for it some DMs even build their maps out of adult legos DwarvenForge tiles and similar. My DM has a few pre-made maps he got from our local store. And as for me...well, my players will take my janky, sharpie-on-graph-paper map and they will like it! XD

Ha,ha. Thanks mate.

Do any of your abilities increase when you level up?

Im still a wizard, going through this book at a scholarly pace befitting my wizardly manner.

Does a 'proficiency of +2' mean an INCREASE or does it just mean ' leave it at +2'? 

(don't know how quotes work here so I'll just copy paste :P )

Do any of your abilities increase when you level up?

No, they do not. There are certain levels that do have this feature though. If you go through the wizard table then you will see at 4th level something called "Ability Score Improvement". You see the same thing at levels 8, 12, 16 and 19. When you reach either of these levels as a wizard, then you can improve one ability score by +2 or 2 ability scores by +1. 

But you don't have to worry about that yet.

Does a 'proficiency of +2' mean an INCREASE or does it just mean ' leave it at +2'? 

Your proficiency bonus (+2 for you) is added to several things like: skills you are proficient in, attack rolls and spell saving DC.
Proficiency means that this is something your character is good at. So when you roll for that, you get to add your proficiency bonus to increase your chances of success (because you are good at it).
It is not an increase of anything, it is something you add on certain d20 rolls. 

Proficiency increases at certain levels. At level 5 for example it becomes +3. You can find this in your wizard table as well.

I hope this helped :)