Arcane Deflection sounds good on paper. But not being able to cast leveled spells the next turn is very punishing. And even then it’s just one save that gets a bonus, meaning a level 20 war wizard still has a decent chance of losing concentration against a handful of goblin archers.
And getting power surges is really occasional to start with, but using Arcane Deflection makes it even harder.
Arcane defection is really good. I would rarely if ever use it against anattack roll (use shield) but against saves it is awesome. Fail a hold person spell and you can not do anything on your next turn, (not just not cast levelled spells), and lose any spell you were concentrating on, if you are concentrating on a spell like slow and losing concentration means you recast it arcane deflection can save you the spell slot and do something like a cantrip with your Action, it also means the spell is still in effect from the time you use arcane deflection until your next turn. Depending on your campaign you might not be able to cast levelled spells every turn anyway. There will be occasions when you choose to take the failed save (if the consequences are minor or you are expecting a dragon to breath on you next turn and you really want to be able to cast absorb elements) but it saves my wizards bacon on a regular basis.
You did not mention tactical wit but that is also great. Many AOE have friendly fire, go first and you can cast farie fire, hypnotic pattern or fireball on the group of enemies before they disperse or get into close contact with other party members.
Power surge I admit is weak the damage is small and it does not come up often but the level 2 features more than make up for that.
If you get to level 10 durable magic is fantastic, at this level you are nearly always concentrating on a spell +2 to all saving throws and AC yes please, and if that is not enough you still have arcane deflection.
i agree with everything Jegpeg said, but i would emphasize durable magic as it is pretty sweet. My biggest problem is juggling when i should use deflection and when i should use counterspell
I think optimizers overstate some of it, but its not bad. Optimizers create a basis that is not reflective in most peoples play. For example they make maintaining concentration some peak level must have. So they will take multiple feats, class abilities all around that. But most games you have so few encounters if you lose the spell you just cast another one. Is it nice to resist a hold person or something, sure but how often are those kind of effects coming your way, and how often do you miss the save by 4 or less. Durable magic is pretty dang good though especially with the one hour summon spells in the game. It can become a near constant boost to your Ac and saves, and with the right stats/spells etc gets you a solid base Ac and keeps shield in play for longer than it normally would be.(when monsters start routinely hitting such high ACs 5 points wont do anything.)
I have to disagree with MyDudeicus about protecting concentration not being very important though I admit it might come down to DM style.
I am in campaigns where multiple encounters in a day are normal, I occassionally use virtually all my spell slots in a day more often I use all my high level spots.
A third level character has 2 second level spells, if they use one on hold person and lose concentration, sure they can cast it again but they then have no 2nd level spell slots left, if they get grappled and restrained by the enemy misty step is not an option any more.
At higher levels 2nd level spells are less precious but concentration is likely to be on a higher level spell, maybe something hypnotic pattern, polymorph or wall of force in which case the same thing applies.
As well as using your spell slot recasting using your action, If you are recasting hold person you can not do anything else with your action, that 2nd level spell slot could be used to cast scorching ray on the paralyzed target (either at advantage or, if their AC is low or you have crossbow expert move up to them and got for crit damage 12d6 if they all hit)
Losing concentration means the spell is not in effect at least until your next turn, that paralysed BBEG that you were about to kill might be able to escape with something like dimension door.
How often you fail saves for concentration by 4 or less depends on how often you make them and a lot of this is down to the DM. If the cult leader is paralyzed do the othre cult members attack the high AC fighter standing next to them or go for the wizard who is holding their leader even if it means attacking at disadvantage or taking an op attack. What proportion of enemies have ranged attacks that require saves so they can attack the wizard without penalty. How often is cover available (note if the wizard hides behnd a rock so they have total cover they will not be able to see what is going on and for example cast counterspell is someone tries to dispel the spell the wizard is concentrating on.
The thing is, the style you are suggesting with multiple encounters per day is from their polls not the norm and its overwhelmingly so. I guess multiple in the sense of 2 is not uncommon. But the norm seems to be 2ish encounters and post level 5 which is when concentration starts mattering, You just don't run out of spell slots like that. Sure here and there depending on initiative and when it drops a boss etc might get an action or whatever, but they often wont either way. And that is assuming none of them are throw away encounters where no one feels the need to expend resources. Using primarily published adventures from the time 5e came out to now I can count on one hand the number of times concentration dropped in a clutch moment, and it never brought about a TPK or something similarly dire. And no one in my group optimized to keep concentration. Which sure it is just an anecdote like yours, but again their polling data indicates a small number of encounters per day is the norm.
With one or two encounters per day you might not use all your spells but if the encounters are challenging you will need to use all your high level spells. The last session for my level 9 war wizard after a couple of fairly easy encounters we reached the mini boss fight. I cast wall of force to turn a very hard encounter into 2 moderate one's. If I lost concentration I would not be able to cast it again as it was my one 5th level slot. Whether we would have won if I had is hard to tell, a lot would have depended on when but I suspect we would not have done if I had done so early, we were hurt enough to need to heal up after we had defeated the one's outside the wall of force. I am not saying a TPK my DM is not a murder hobo but we might have had to run away.
A lot does depend on playstyle. A lot of casual games the focus is on roleplay, the combat rarely challenging and neither players nor DM are very tactical in their approach. Optimisers are more likely to play in games where the focus is much more on tactical combat. The DM while not wanting the party to be defeated will do all they can to do so, given the opportunity they will target the wizard rather than the meat shield and the wizard player will need to account for that when making their build
The arcane deflection is a great ability for a melee class who's using spells here and there. For example, I would say an eldritch knight is better if dipping into level 2 wizard to get these features than to go to level 20 in fighter. For that multiclass, arcane deflection has no downside because the eldritch knight is mostly going to use weapon attacks and cantrips anyways.
Arcane Deflection sounds good on paper. But not being able to cast leveled spells the next turn is very punishing. And even then it’s just one save that gets a bonus, meaning a level 20 war wizard still has a decent chance of losing concentration against a handful of goblin archers.
And getting power surges is really occasional to start with, but using Arcane Deflection makes it even harder.
It's punishing - but so is getting hit, and failing a save can be even worse. Arcane Deflection is excellent - just not something you want to use 100% of the time.
Power surge is a ribbon. On the other hand as Arcane Deflection, Tactical Wit, and Durable Magic are all awesome the subclass is a really strong one. (And probably won't be updated given how it overlaps thematically with Abjurer).
Arcane Deflection sounds good on paper. But not being able to cast leveled spells the next turn is very punishing. And even then it’s just one save that gets a bonus, meaning a level 20 war wizard still has a decent chance of losing concentration against a handful of goblin archers.
And getting power surges is really occasional to start with, but using Arcane Deflection makes it even harder.
Arcane defection is really good. I would rarely if ever use it against anattack roll (use shield) but against saves it is awesome. Fail a hold person spell and you can not do anything on your next turn, (not just not cast levelled spells), and lose any spell you were concentrating on, if you are concentrating on a spell like slow and losing concentration means you recast it arcane deflection can save you the spell slot and do something like a cantrip with your Action, it also means the spell is still in effect from the time you use arcane deflection until your next turn. Depending on your campaign you might not be able to cast levelled spells every turn anyway. There will be occasions when you choose to take the failed save (if the consequences are minor or you are expecting a dragon to breath on you next turn and you really want to be able to cast absorb elements) but it saves my wizards bacon on a regular basis.
You did not mention tactical wit but that is also great. Many AOE have friendly fire, go first and you can cast farie fire, hypnotic pattern or fireball on the group of enemies before they disperse or get into close contact with other party members.
Power surge I admit is weak the damage is small and it does not come up often but the level 2 features more than make up for that.
If you get to level 10 durable magic is fantastic, at this level you are nearly always concentrating on a spell +2 to all saving throws and AC yes please, and if that is not enough you still have arcane deflection.
i agree with everything Jegpeg said, but i would emphasize durable magic as it is pretty sweet. My biggest problem is juggling when i should use deflection and when i should use counterspell
I think optimizers overstate some of it, but its not bad. Optimizers create a basis that is not reflective in most peoples play. For example they make maintaining concentration some peak level must have. So they will take multiple feats, class abilities all around that. But most games you have so few encounters if you lose the spell you just cast another one. Is it nice to resist a hold person or something, sure but how often are those kind of effects coming your way, and how often do you miss the save by 4 or less. Durable magic is pretty dang good though especially with the one hour summon spells in the game. It can become a near constant boost to your Ac and saves, and with the right stats/spells etc gets you a solid base Ac and keeps shield in play for longer than it normally would be.(when monsters start routinely hitting such high ACs 5 points wont do anything.)
I have to disagree with MyDudeicus about protecting concentration not being very important though I admit it might come down to DM style.
The thing is, the style you are suggesting with multiple encounters per day is from their polls not the norm and its overwhelmingly so. I guess multiple in the sense of 2 is not uncommon. But the norm seems to be 2ish encounters and post level 5 which is when concentration starts mattering, You just don't run out of spell slots like that. Sure here and there depending on initiative and when it drops a boss etc might get an action or whatever, but they often wont either way. And that is assuming none of them are throw away encounters where no one feels the need to expend resources. Using primarily published adventures from the time 5e came out to now I can count on one hand the number of times concentration dropped in a clutch moment, and it never brought about a TPK or something similarly dire. And no one in my group optimized to keep concentration. Which sure it is just an anecdote like yours, but again their polling data indicates a small number of encounters per day is the norm.
With one or two encounters per day you might not use all your spells but if the encounters are challenging you will need to use all your high level spells. The last session for my level 9 war wizard after a couple of fairly easy encounters we reached the mini boss fight. I cast wall of force to turn a very hard encounter into 2 moderate one's. If I lost concentration I would not be able to cast it again as it was my one 5th level slot. Whether we would have won if I had is hard to tell, a lot would have depended on when but I suspect we would not have done if I had done so early, we were hurt enough to need to heal up after we had defeated the one's outside the wall of force. I am not saying a TPK my DM is not a murder hobo but we might have had to run away.
A lot does depend on playstyle. A lot of casual games the focus is on roleplay, the combat rarely challenging and neither players nor DM are very tactical in their approach. Optimisers are more likely to play in games where the focus is much more on tactical combat. The DM while not wanting the party to be defeated will do all they can to do so, given the opportunity they will target the wizard rather than the meat shield and the wizard player will need to account for that when making their build
The arcane deflection is a great ability for a melee class who's using spells here and there. For example, I would say an eldritch knight is better if dipping into level 2 wizard to get these features than to go to level 20 in fighter. For that multiclass, arcane deflection has no downside because the eldritch knight is mostly going to use weapon attacks and cantrips anyways.
Funnily enough… arcane deflection can be used by a raging barbarian. Could be an interesting build.
It's punishing - but so is getting hit, and failing a save can be even worse. Arcane Deflection is excellent - just not something you want to use 100% of the time.
Power surge is a ribbon. On the other hand as Arcane Deflection, Tactical Wit, and Durable Magic are all awesome the subclass is a really strong one. (And probably won't be updated given how it overlaps thematically with Abjurer).
I tried this once. Wild Magic Barb + War Magic Wizard. It was alot of fun from a roleplaying standpoint, but a little underwhelming mechanically
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