How do I best build a wizard to be effective teammate in combat situations? I don’t necessarily want to be a multiple class build, just don’t want to be the needy useless without spell slots wizard, nor do I want to be the wizard that just throws fireballs.
Well War Magic sort of fills that role as does abjuration but not quite in the way you want. What I can see is you want a Gish (martial who can still do combat magic, I think this is what you want tell me if I’m wrong). For this there are in my opinion a few options but only 1 is wizard. Bladesinger wizard does the Gish thing with multi attack, and I tried my hand at redesigning war magic to be more Gish like (it’s maybe the 3rd or 4th thread of this forum. The other options are Hexblade,Eldritch knight,undead warlock,fiend warlock.
Hexblade-Pros-SAD(read happy),Decent spellcasting,great armour and generally good features Cons-limited spellcasting at a time, often relies on hex for sustainable dpr,very eldritch invocations investment heavy if going melee
Eldritch knight-ProsGood hit die,all armour proficiency’s and weapons,most feats,ACTION SURGE, very solid to great features at every level Cons-limited slow levelling spell casting, best uses magic defensively(shield,silvery barbs,blur,haste etc),requires int
undead lock-Pros-form of dread is amazing,thirsting blade eldritch smite and lifdrinker are insane spike dpr,grave touched gives very good bonus damage, tackier than they look Cons-Warlock casting,no medium armour or martial weapons,heavy eldritch invocation cost if going melee if not then EB all the way
Fiend-Pros-Fireball up to 6 times a day at level 5 :),nice temporary Hitpoints when something dies,gets some resistance at 10th, Hurl Through Hell is the best Cons-Warlock casting,eldritch invocations heavy if going melee , no medium armour or martial weapons
Sorry long post but hope that helps
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And you run, and you run
To catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking
And racingaround
To come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way
But you’re older
Shorter of Breath
And one day closer to death
currently in love with redesigning subclasses send me a message and I will try
If youre looking for 2024 rule, the new Bladesinger Wizard would probably fit your bill the best. For 2014 rules the war wizard, if built out right, could also fit your needs.
Most any subclass will to what you’re trying to do here. I mean, a wizard will generally be useless without spell slots that’s baked into the design (though as the above poster notes, bladesinger might be an exception). But otherwise, it’s not hard to have options besides blowing stuff up.
The way I’d suggest is to get there through spell selection. Make sure you load up on utility spells and rituals in particular. For cantrips, only choose one combat cantrip to start, then take some more general types (prestidigitation, mage hand, mold earth, that kind of thing).
And if you don’t want to just throw around fireballs, maybe don’t even take fireball. Hypnotic pattern is really more effective for clearing out mooks to begin with. But as someone else said, haste can be a great spell, there’s also fly, dispell magic, counterspell, tiny hut ( and that’s just at level 3.
Some subclasses, like divination or abjuration have powers that can let you directly help an ally. But spell selection is really where you’ll see the most variety of choices.
Advantage on initiative, can’t be surprised as easily, etc. You are basically initiative cheating from level 1.
Origin feat: Lucky
3 Luck points / long rest, reroll d20s for “nope, try again.”
So at level 1 you’re already:
INT 17, DEX 15, CON 14
Lucky + Alert
High initiative, built-in reroll shenanigans, good saves / AC trajectory.
Cantrips known (4):True Strike, Mind Sliver, Fire Bolt, Mage Hand (True Strike and Mind Sliver are your tempo and debuff glue; Fire Bolt is your clean ranged filler.)
Level 1 spells (prepare INT mod + 1 = 4 at start): Put these in the book: Shield, Find Familiar, Feather Fall, Detect Magic, Grease, Longstrider. Prepare: Shield, Find Familiar, Grease, Detect Magic.
Role at level 1: scout/control wizard with emergency AC spike. Familiar delivers Help/flanking and triggers.
Level 2 (Wizard 2)
Feature: Arcane Recovery (+ slots on short rest)
Add 2 spells to book:Magic Missile, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter
Prep focus: keep Shield, plus encounter glue (Grease/Laughter) and utility.
Level 3 (Wizard 3): Bladesinger online
Subclass: Bladesinging (martial melee weapons; Blade Song; you attack with INT instead of STR/DEX as per your table’s update)
Add 2 spells:Misty Step, Mirror Image
Prepare:Misty Step, Mirror Image join your core.
Tactics: start fights with Blade Song; you’re now a mobile skirmisher with panic-button reposition.
Level 4 (Wizard 4) — Feat: War Caster (+1 INT)
Advantage on Con saves to maintain concentration; cast with hands full; OA-casting unlocked.
Add 2 spells:Invisibility, Web
Prepare: Web becomes your first great lane control.
Level 5 (Wizard 5)
Tier bump (3rd-level spells): The engine lights up.
Openers: Blade Song → position → Telekinetic shove/pull to align enemies into Web/Pattern/Wall lines or peel threats off allies.
Mid-fight rhythm: Maintain Haste/Pattern/Wall as needed; Counterspell key enemy actions; Steel Wind Strike or Laeral’s Silver Lance to finish soft targets.
Boss lines:Hold Monster after Mind Sliver debuff, or Wall of Force to isolate. Drop Mordenkainen’s Sword or Blade of Disaster to grind a locked target.
Defense: At-will Shield and Misty Step (18th) plus Blade Song keeps you upright while you direct traffic.
Other options:
Shared baseline (all 4)
All of them are:
Bladesinger wizards, 20 INT / high DEX build
Core feats already taken:
4: War Caster
8: Speedy
12: Mage Slayer
16 is where they diverge into their “path” feat
20: Boon of Dimensional Travel because of course nothing is allowed to pin them down
So they all get:
Dumb AC with Blade Song + Shield
Solid DPR from melee + cantrips + Steel Wind Strike + Laeral’s Silver Lance + Blade of Disaster nonsense
Stupid mobility & reaction economy
Wizard spell list filth
Then level 16 feat defines their role.
1. Path of the Warlord – Telekinetic
Feat at 16:Telekinetic
Role: Battlefield commander / controller / shover of idiots
What they do:
Use Telekinetic shove every round to:
Pull enemies into kill zones
Push them off cliffs / out of cover / out of melee with the squishier ‘singers
Stack this with:
Control spells (Web, Sleet Storm, Wall of Force, etc)
Steel Wind Strike & mobility to always be in the smartest place
On the field, this one is:
Calling positions
Collapsing flanks
Fixing bad ally positioning by shoving enemies or clearing space
This is the one that makes the fight look choreographed.
2. Path of the Duelist – Defensive Duelist
Feat at 16:Defensive Duelist
Role: Single-target tarpit & duel monster
What they do:
Park on the scariest melee threat and say:
“You fight me. Nobody else.”
Add Defensive Duelist on top of:
High DEX
High INT
Blade Song
Shield
Turns enemy weapon attacks into “sorry, no” on reaction, repeatedly
Their job:
Lock down bosses, champions, big bruisers
Make sure nothing with a sword, axe, claw or tentacle gets past them to the rest of the group
This is the one who stands in front, spins a sword around, and makes martials cry.
3. Path of the Mind – Telepath / Face / Infiltrator
Feat at 16:Telepathic (or equivalent table-legal telepathy/social feat)
In combat they still bladesing and murder things, but their value spikes when:
You need someone to run ahead unseen
Coordinate silently
Turn encounters into ambushes instead of fair fights
This is the spy / handler / interrogator of the four.
4. Path of the Storm – Damage / Artillery bent
Since 16 is open here, a few choices depending on taste:
Elemental Adept (if you lean hard into one damage type like fire or lightning)
Or a save/defense feat like Resilient (Wis) if your DM is fond of charm/hold/fear
Or even Tough if you want the “I refuse to fall over while I nuke things” angle
Let’s call this one:
Feat at 16:Elemental Adept (Lightning or Fire)
Role: Designated nuker / finisher
What they do:
Specialize in one element (e.g. lightning or fire)
Use:
Laeral’s Silver Lance
Chain Lightning / similar
Shaped AoE and save-based bursts
Ignore resistance to their chosen element via the feat
Focus on deleting clusters or finishing wounded big things that the others locked down
This is the one who says:
“The rest of you isolate it. I’ll erase it.”
Try this Blade singer build:
1. You’re almost impossible to hit when you care
Defensive stack, fully online:
High base AC from DEX 16 + Bladesong (Int to AC on top).
INT 20 so your Bladesong bonus is maxed.
Shield as Spell Mastery at 18:
Cast Shield every round without spending slots.
Any attack that would hit you in the 15–20 range just… doesn’t, forever.
Mirror Image / Greater Invisibility on top when you expect a real fight.
Lucky: 3 times a day you tell the dice “no, roll that again.”
War Caster: advantage on concentration saves, so even when you do get clipped, your spells stay up.
Result: you only take real damage if you’re careless or the DM specifically engineers around your nonsense. Random ogre crits and “I swing three times” stop being a real threat.
How do I best build a wizard to be effective teammate in combat situations? I don’t necessarily want to be a multiple class build, just don’t want to be the needy useless without spell slots wizard, nor do I want to be the wizard that just throws fireballs.
Well War Magic sort of fills that role as does abjuration but not quite in the way you want. What I can see is you want a Gish (martial who can still do combat magic, I think this is what you want tell me if I’m wrong). For this there are in my opinion a few options but only 1 is wizard. Bladesinger wizard does the Gish thing with multi attack, and I tried my hand at redesigning war magic to be more Gish like (it’s maybe the 3rd or 4th thread of this forum. The other options are Hexblade,Eldritch knight,undead warlock,fiend warlock.
Hexblade-Pros-SAD(read happy),Decent spellcasting,great armour and generally good features Cons-limited spellcasting at a time, often relies on hex for sustainable dpr,very eldritch invocations investment heavy if going melee
Eldritch knight-ProsGood hit die,all armour proficiency’s and weapons,most feats,ACTION SURGE, very solid to great features at every level Cons-limited slow levelling spell casting, best uses magic defensively(shield,silvery barbs,blur,haste etc),requires int
undead lock-Pros-form of dread is amazing,thirsting blade eldritch smite and lifdrinker are insane spike dpr,grave touched gives very good bonus damage, tackier than they look Cons-Warlock casting,no medium armour or martial weapons,heavy eldritch invocation cost if going melee if not then EB all the way
Fiend-Pros-Fireball up to 6 times a day at level 5 :),nice temporary Hitpoints when something dies,gets some resistance at 10th, Hurl Through Hell is the best Cons-Warlock casting,eldritch invocations heavy if going melee , no medium armour or martial weapons
Sorry long post but hope that helps
And you run, and you run
To catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking
And racing around
To come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way
But you’re older
Shorter of Breath
And one day closer to death
currently in love with redesigning subclasses send me a message and I will try
If youre looking for 2024 rule, the new Bladesinger Wizard would probably fit your bill the best. For 2014 rules the war wizard, if built out right, could also fit your needs.
Most any subclass will to what you’re trying to do here. I mean, a wizard will generally be useless without spell slots that’s baked into the design (though as the above poster notes, bladesinger might be an exception). But otherwise, it’s not hard to have options besides blowing stuff up.
The way I’d suggest is to get there through spell selection. Make sure you load up on utility spells and rituals in particular. For cantrips, only choose one combat cantrip to start, then take some more general types (prestidigitation, mage hand, mold earth, that kind of thing).
And if you don’t want to just throw around fireballs, maybe don’t even take fireball. Hypnotic pattern is really more effective for clearing out mooks to begin with. But as someone else said, haste can be a great spell, there’s also fly, dispell magic, counterspell, tiny hut ( and that’s just at level 3.
Some subclasses, like divination or abjuration have powers that can let you directly help an ally. But spell selection is really where you’ll see the most variety of choices.
Level 1: Character creation
Point buy:
Background: Guard
You are basically initiative cheating from level 1.
Origin feat: Lucky
So at level 1 you’re already:
Cantrips known (4): True Strike, Mind Sliver, Fire Bolt, Mage Hand
(True Strike and Mind Sliver are your tempo and debuff glue; Fire Bolt is your clean ranged filler.)
Level 1 spells (prepare INT mod + 1 = 4 at start):
Put these in the book: Shield, Find Familiar, Feather Fall, Detect Magic, Grease, Longstrider.
Prepare: Shield, Find Familiar, Grease, Detect Magic.
Level 2 (Wizard 2)
Level 3 (Wizard 3): Bladesinger online
Level 4 (Wizard 4) — Feat: War Caster (+1 INT)
Level 5 (Wizard 5)
Level 6 (Wizard 6) — Bladesinger feature bump
Level 7 (Wizard 7)
Level 8 (Wizard 8) — Feat: Speedy (+1 DEX, speed/mobility benefits)
Level 9 (Wizard 9)
Level 10 (Wizard 10)
Level 11 (Wizard 11)
Level 12 (Wizard 12) — Feat: Mage Slayer (+1 INT)
Level 13 (Wizard 13)
Level 14 (Wizard 14) — Bladesinger feature bump
Level 15 (Wizard 15)
Level 16 (Wizard 16) — Feat: Telekinetic (Warlord path) (+1 INT)
Level 17 (Wizard 17)
Level 18 (Wizard 18) — Spell Mastery
Shield (1st) and Misty Step (2nd) at-will.
Level 19 (Wizard 19) — Epic Boon: Boon of Dimensional Travel (+1 DEX)
Level 20 (Wizard 20) — Signature Spells
Always-on prepared core (adjust around these)
How to pilot the Warlord path
Other options:
Shared baseline (all 4)
All of them are:
Bladesinger wizards, 20 INT / high DEX build
Core feats already taken:
4: War Caster
8: Speedy
12: Mage Slayer
16 is where they diverge into their “path” feat
20: Boon of Dimensional Travel because of course nothing is allowed to pin them down
So they all get:
Dumb AC with Blade Song + Shield
Solid DPR from melee + cantrips + Steel Wind Strike + Laeral’s Silver Lance + Blade of Disaster nonsense
Stupid mobility & reaction economy
Wizard spell list filth
Then level 16 feat defines their role.
1. Path of the Warlord – Telekinetic
Feat at 16: Telekinetic
Role: Battlefield commander / controller / shover of idiots
What they do:
Use Telekinetic shove every round to:
Pull enemies into kill zones
Push them off cliffs / out of cover / out of melee with the squishier ‘singers
Stack this with:
Control spells (Web, Sleet Storm, Wall of Force, etc)
Steel Wind Strike & mobility to always be in the smartest place
On the field, this one is:
Calling positions
Collapsing flanks
Fixing bad ally positioning by shoving enemies or clearing space
This is the one that makes the fight look choreographed.
2. Path of the Duelist – Defensive Duelist
Feat at 16: Defensive Duelist
Role: Single-target tarpit & duel monster
What they do:
Park on the scariest melee threat and say:
Add Defensive Duelist on top of:
High DEX
High INT
Blade Song
Shield
Turns enemy weapon attacks into “sorry, no” on reaction, repeatedly
Their job:
Lock down bosses, champions, big bruisers
Make sure nothing with a sword, axe, claw or tentacle gets past them to the rest of the group
This is the one who stands in front, spins a sword around, and makes martials cry.
3. Path of the Mind – Telepath / Face / Infiltrator
Feat at 16: Telepathic (or equivalent table-legal telepathy/social feat)
Role: Interrogator, scout, information engine
What they do:
Telepathy for:
Silent coordination mid-fight (“focus that one,” “fall back,” “wall going up”)
Pairing perfectly with your War Caster / counterspell / reaction play
Out of combat:
Party face via high INT + social magic
Infiltration, interrogation, lying, reading, manipulating
In combat they still bladesing and murder things, but their value spikes when:
You need someone to run ahead unseen
Coordinate silently
Turn encounters into ambushes instead of fair fights
This is the spy / handler / interrogator of the four.
4. Path of the Storm – Damage / Artillery bent
Since 16 is open here, a few choices depending on taste:
Elemental Adept (if you lean hard into one damage type like fire or lightning)
Or a save/defense feat like Resilient (Wis) if your DM is fond of charm/hold/fear
Or even Tough if you want the “I refuse to fall over while I nuke things” angle
Let’s call this one:
Feat at 16: Elemental Adept (Lightning or Fire)
Role: Designated nuker / finisher
What they do:
Specialize in one element (e.g. lightning or fire)
Use:
Laeral’s Silver Lance
Chain Lightning / similar
Shaped AoE and save-based bursts
Ignore resistance to their chosen element via the feat
Focus on deleting clusters or finishing wounded big things that the others locked down
This is the one who says:
Try this Blade singer build:
1. You’re almost impossible to hit when you care
Defensive stack, fully online:
Result: you only take real damage if you’re careless or the DM specifically engineers around your nonsense. Random ogre crits and “I swing three times” stop being a real threat.
2. You basically ignore positioning rules
Mobility stack:
What that means in practice:
If something pins you in place, it did it with a specific spell or feature designed for that, not “I walked up and grabbed you.”
3. You move other people like chess pieces
Telekinetic is where the “Warlord” part comes from:
Solo, this means:
With a party, you become the annoying bastard who:
Every round, for free, as a bonus action. That’s disgusting.
4. You delete encounters via control instead of damage
You don’t have to kill things fast if they don’t play:
You are a full wizard with a melee kit attached. Solo that means:
You don’t win fights by trading HP. You win by making monsters irrelevant one spell at a time.
5. When you do go in, you hit like a truck
Offense side, late game:
Combos like:
And all of that while you’re still harder to hit than most frontliners.
6. You are a caster’s nightmare
Anti-caster package:
Actual behavior:
You’re the answer to “wizard vs wizard” and “lich vs party.”
7. It’s very hard to keep you dead
You’re not a barbarian, but you’re much harder to permanently remove than you look:
It takes effort and prep for the DM to take you off the board in a way that isn’t obviously targeted.
8. “Stripped naked and thrown in a cell” test
The classic humiliation scenario. You still have:
So play loop becomes:
The only classes that handle this scenario as effortlessly are hyper-built monks and certain rogues. You are in that club.
9. You run entire fights on your tempo
Because you have:
A typical “serious” turn for you at 20 looks like:
You are playing 4D action economy while most monsters are doing “move + attack.”