I'm playing my first campaign as a Wizard, trying to emulate what would be a Good-hearted Necromancer.
The problem I'm running is that in the player handbook there are too feel instances of Necromancy spells. Also, since I'm good hearted I'm banning all of those that would raise the undead. Currently we are approaching 5th level so I'm thinking about which magics to take.
The problem is: 5th level has 3 necromancy magics for Wizards: Animate Dead, Bestow Curse and Vampiric Touch. Of these 3, I can't use Animate Dead and the two others are spells where I need to be near my opponent to hit it. Discussing with the DM, casting Bestow Curse by channelling it via the Familiar may be a possibility, but Vampiric Touch is a no go since it's a range Self spell.
To complicate things, my Constitution is 10 because while creating the Character I didn't know Constitution was that important. So my question would be: how can I manage to cast spells that require me to be near enemies to be effective while still staying alive? Is it possible? Is False Life, for example, a viable deterrent?
1) To protect yourself the most obvious spell are mage armour and mirror images. Mage armour lasts 8 hours, so you almost always use it. In any case, if you are low in defence, work with the other players, make them do the first move.
2) Talk with the DM and see if he/she allow you to convert some ranged spell into a necromancy ranged spell. An obvious suggestions would be to convert Acid Arrow to Necrotic Arrow: same spell, same damage, it changes only the type of damage from acid to necrotic. This way you have a offensive ranged spell for a necromancer. (But you've got to convince the DM).
Yeah, I have Mage Armor. Since my dex bonus is +3 my AC is 16, which is not too bad. Also, I'm a halfling, so interpretation wise I don't think, unless the monster is very intelligent, that it will attack me while there is a huge dwarf with a gigantic broadsword wasting it down.
The thing is, can I improve my chances of survivability even further? One strategy I thought for example was:
- When we get to level 9, I can cast Bestow Curse as a level 5 spell and give the enemy disadvantage on attacks against me. Then I can combo it with Vampiric Touch since at slot-5 Bestow Curse does not require Concentration.
- When we get to level 14 our dwarf gains an ability that makes enemies attack others in his vicinity with disadvantage.
Thanks for the answer. If you or anybody else have furthers suggestions please let me now. Of course I'm not looking for guarantees, just ways I can improve my possibilities of staying alive.
I would suggest to consider the cantrip Frostbite (From the Elemental Evil supplement). Does 1d6 ice damage on a failed CON save and the target has disadvantage on attack rolls till the end of his/her next turn. (It is a cantrip but it is good for the spell economy).
You might also consider to blind the enemy: Fog Cloud, Blindness, Darkness...Of course disadvantage on attack rolls does not stack, so choose one of these methods according to the encounter difficulty.
Frostbite would be great for me (for other reasons too - I'm a necromancer just in title, for game stats I'm an Evoker and I don't have a cantrip for Potent Cantrip, we've decided this after I said I wouldn't raise undead). But we're restricting ourselves to the PHB in this campaign, so I'm not sure how my DM would feel about it.
Fog Cloud, Blindness and Darkness all require concentration. Vampiric Touch requires concentration too, and I can't concentrate on two spells.
As for the converting magics, I would have to ask my DM, but I don't feel good about it. The problem is that, even though I would not do it, it makes the game exploitable. Almost every monster in the game is resistant to some type of magic, but none is resistant to Force, for example. So if I want to become the strongest wizard in the world, I just exchange all my magic for Force damage and bypass all resistances. For interpretation purposes, I could just change my magic for necrotic. However, I don't know if for example they made fire damage deal more damage than necrotic damage because much more monsters are resistant to fire.
For Fog Cloud, Blindness and Darkness, yes they require concentration but when you cast them ,you can attack with chill touch (cantrip 1d8 necrotic damage, range 120 feet).
As per the conversion, I meant just one or two spell to convert (and yes probably with one or two dice of damage less).
I would guess that the feat Spell Sniper would double the range of Vampiric Touch so that you could be within 10 feet of your target and use it, instead of the customary 5 feet for melee attacks. This could help keep you just out of melee range when casting Vampiric Touch.
No, it’s range is still Touch. Spell Sniper only doubles the range of ranged spells. The Sorcerer’s Distant Spell Metamagic gives Touch spells a range of 30’, and Spell Sniper will double that.
Part of the difficulty you're having is that the Necromancer subclass is designed around Not being in the front of the battle. The clerics dealing with the dead also don't get access to heavy armor, so I think this was an unintentional design choice.
Since you are a halfing and have a +3 to DEX, you might want to invest 2 levels in Rogue to get a bonus action dodge/disengage/etc. after you pick up the Warcaster feat (assuming you don't already have it).
Otherwise, you might also consider spells like Blink to make yourself ethereal 1/2 the time and Pyrotechnics, which lets you blind opponents without using concentration.
You might consider using Blur. It requires concentration, but you don't have to jump through a lot of hoops to give enemies disadvantage when attacking you.
Thanks for the response. In the end I had a lot of success with shield and mage armor, though I sacrificed my level 1 memorized spells for that it made a surprisingly durable wizard when I needed to get closer to enemies. The combination of Halfling + mage armor already gave me a DC 16 AC, and if I needed to catch Shield it would increase this to 21, which at lower levels meant I could tank to an extent.
Blindness isn't a concentration spell by the way. It is one of the reasons it is such a great spell as you can use it in conjunction with your concentration spells. It is also a great spell to upcast to 3rd or 4th level affecting multiple targets.
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Hello,
I'm playing my first campaign as a Wizard, trying to emulate what would be a Good-hearted Necromancer.
The problem I'm running is that in the player handbook there are too feel instances of Necromancy spells. Also, since I'm good hearted I'm banning all of those that would raise the undead. Currently we are approaching 5th level so I'm thinking about which magics to take.
The problem is: 5th level has 3 necromancy magics for Wizards: Animate Dead, Bestow Curse and Vampiric Touch. Of these 3, I can't use Animate Dead and the two others are spells where I need to be near my opponent to hit it. Discussing with the DM, casting Bestow Curse by channelling it via the Familiar may be a possibility, but Vampiric Touch is a no go since it's a range Self spell.
To complicate things, my Constitution is 10 because while creating the Character I didn't know Constitution was that important. So my question would be: how can I manage to cast spells that require me to be near enemies to be effective while still staying alive? Is it possible? Is False Life, for example, a viable deterrent?
Any help will be hugely appreciated
I have two suggestions here:
1) To protect yourself the most obvious spell are mage armour and mirror images. Mage armour lasts 8 hours, so you almost always use it. In any case, if you are low in defence, work with the other players, make them do the first move.
2) Talk with the DM and see if he/she allow you to convert some ranged spell into a necromancy ranged spell. An obvious suggestions would be to convert Acid Arrow to Necrotic Arrow: same spell, same damage, it changes only the type of damage from acid to necrotic. This way you have a offensive ranged spell for a necromancer. (But you've got to convince the DM).
Hi, thanks for the suggestions:
Yeah, I have Mage Armor. Since my dex bonus is +3 my AC is 16, which is not too bad. Also, I'm a halfling, so interpretation wise I don't think, unless the monster is very intelligent, that it will attack me while there is a huge dwarf with a gigantic broadsword wasting it down.
The thing is, can I improve my chances of survivability even further? One strategy I thought for example was:
- When we get to level 9, I can cast Bestow Curse as a level 5 spell and give the enemy disadvantage on attacks against me. Then I can combo it with Vampiric Touch since at slot-5 Bestow Curse does not require Concentration.
- When we get to level 14 our dwarf gains an ability that makes enemies attack others in his vicinity with disadvantage.
Thanks for the answer. If you or anybody else have furthers suggestions please let me now. Of course I'm not looking for guarantees, just ways I can improve my possibilities of staying alive.
your Bestow Curse strategy is solid.
I would suggest to consider the cantrip Frostbite (From the Elemental Evil supplement). Does 1d6 ice damage on a failed CON save and the target has disadvantage on attack rolls till the end of his/her next turn. (It is a cantrip but it is good for the spell economy).
You might also consider to blind the enemy: Fog Cloud, Blindness, Darkness...Of course disadvantage on attack rolls does not stack, so choose one of these methods according to the encounter difficulty.
Hi, filcat, thanks for all the answers.
Frostbite would be great for me (for other reasons too - I'm a necromancer just in title, for game stats I'm an Evoker and I don't have a cantrip for Potent Cantrip, we've decided this after I said I wouldn't raise undead). But we're restricting ourselves to the PHB in this campaign, so I'm not sure how my DM would feel about it.
Fog Cloud, Blindness and Darkness all require concentration. Vampiric Touch requires concentration too, and I can't concentrate on two spells.
As for the converting magics, I would have to ask my DM, but I don't feel good about it. The problem is that, even though I would not do it, it makes the game exploitable. Almost every monster in the game is resistant to some type of magic, but none is resistant to Force, for example. So if I want to become the strongest wizard in the world, I just exchange all my magic for Force damage and bypass all resistances. For interpretation purposes, I could just change my magic for necrotic. However, I don't know if for example they made fire damage deal more damage than necrotic damage because much more monsters are resistant to fire.
Anyway, thanks for all the answers.
You are welcome.
For Fog Cloud, Blindness and Darkness, yes they require concentration but when you cast them ,you can attack with chill touch (cantrip 1d8 necrotic damage, range 120 feet).
As per the conversion, I meant just one or two spell to convert (and yes probably with one or two dice of damage less).
Enjoy your wizard!
Think I found what I was looking for: Mirror Images. :-)
I would guess that the feat Spell Sniper would double the range of Vampiric Touch so that you could be within 10 feet of your target and use it, instead of the customary 5 feet for melee attacks. This could help keep you just out of melee range when casting Vampiric Touch.
No, it’s range is still Touch. Spell Sniper only doubles the range of ranged spells. The Sorcerer’s Distant Spell Metamagic gives Touch spells a range of 30’, and Spell Sniper will double that.
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Part of the difficulty you're having is that the Necromancer subclass is designed around Not being in the front of the battle. The clerics dealing with the dead also don't get access to heavy armor, so I think this was an unintentional design choice.
Since you are a halfing and have a +3 to DEX, you might want to invest 2 levels in Rogue to get a bonus action dodge/disengage/etc. after you pick up the Warcaster feat (assuming you don't already have it).
Otherwise, you might also consider spells like Blink to make yourself ethereal 1/2 the time and Pyrotechnics, which lets you blind opponents without using concentration.
You might consider using Blur. It requires concentration, but you don't have to jump through a lot of hoops to give enemies disadvantage when attacking you.
Thanks for the response. In the end I had a lot of success with shield and mage armor, though I sacrificed my level 1 memorized spells for that it made a surprisingly durable wizard when I needed to get closer to enemies. The combination of Halfling + mage armor already gave me a DC 16 AC, and if I needed to catch Shield it would increase this to 21, which at lower levels meant I could tank to an extent.
Blindness isn't a concentration spell by the way. It is one of the reasons it is such a great spell as you can use it in conjunction with your concentration spells. It is also a great spell to upcast to 3rd or 4th level affecting multiple targets.