Abjurer Theory 2024

What does every level get a wizard? Two or more wizard spells of appropriate level added to their spellbook. I believe that can be amazing in game. Class performs differently depending on how available spell scrolls, short rests and others things are.

Have you had remarkable experiences with the wizard class? Would like to exchange information and learn more if possible. One time a character spent more than one round casting a damage spell the target was immune to, I was younger and got upset over it :3 Use faster options when lacking useful data. Previous characters have been to locations that limit or alter spell effects. Planar travel, teleportation beyond current dungeon floor, terrain manipulation and others may not work at all depending where you are, please remember location is very important, some may be too narrow for anyone bigger than medium size to pass through. Consider planning a bard and have your wizard prepare more wizard spells than your bard, I mean, if they deemed a spell worth preparing, maybe it should go in the spellbook. Ease up on spells that have higher backfire/friendly fire potential since players usually dislike poorly used spells outside player versus player (PVP). Fear, haste, etc may cause adverse effect; fireball, etc damages; grease, cloud of daggers, wall of force, etc may get in the way; fog cloud, darkness, antimagic field, etc can hinder allies; summon fiend, simulacrum, demiplane with additional creatures inside, etc may cause DM to adjust combat difficulty by considering them summons the way they'd adjust encounter based on opponent's summoning. Please be mindful of both allies and enemies at the same time when you do your thing, because, sometimes, it could harm more than do good; if you're the DM, intentionally backfiring non-playable character's spells can make the fight easier or harder while showing players exactly what happens.

Wizard is the ideal class to cast spells that offer their party the chance to rest, please check with DM before getting any of these: Rope trick, leomund's tiny hut, wall of force combined with someone else's prayer of healing in combat, mordenkainen's magnificent mansion. Arcane recovery may give limited slot back and memorize spell change one preparation, some classes, like sorcerer, need to gain a level to replace one preparation.

Which spells would you consider for abjurer progression from 1st to 20th levels? I'd delay mage armor and shield to 3rd character/class level since they're both abjuration spells savant would apply for them, if acquired specifically with scrolls and not with level up then would decide savant on the spot (preferably taking into account stuff that's happened up to that point in the adventure, maybe you have access to interesting homebrew, idk), would also delay counterspell and dispel magic indefinitely since class gives both at 10th level. Delay tactic eases planning of higher level character creation and provides options to look forward to at lower levels. If starting at higher level, maybe get more rituals if that's acceptable, also consider preparing water breathing if the entire group's relying on it deep underwater before enemy casts dispel magic outside counterspell scroll range, talk to DM about waterproofing scrolls if that seems relevant. A spell I missed dearly this year is dimension door, DM's wife wouldn't have had to roll another death save with a failure if the wizard had added it to their spellbook, prepared and cast dimension door on our cleric after the walls went up; as far as I'm concerned, starting at 7th class level, every wizard should always keep dimension door prepared starting, indeed, at 7th class level, just in case they need it; it's desirable to go the entire day feeling you wasted the preparation on dimension door because, if you didn't need it, everyone around you is probably alive or else you may have cast dimension door to get yourself and one other ally to safety or used the slot on something better :D Years ago a likable character's end could have been avoided by anyone preparing remove curse, everyone had days and levels to do it. I believe it would be annoying for a resurrected character to deal with the negative effects of the raise dead or resurrection spells duplicated by the wish spell, so optionally prepared gentle repose with wish revivify gets them none of those negative effects although resurrection gives back all hit points, the debuff's gonna be noticeable should there be insufficient time to remove it all.

Human species alert, tough origin feats 15+2=17 intelligence at 1st character level, expertise arcana skill, war caster general feat 17+1=18 intelligence, resilient constitution general feat at 8th level, 18+2=20 intelligence ability score improvement general feat at 12th level, speedy general feat requires at least 13 dexterity or constitution, desperate resilience epic boon from forgotten realms: heroes of faerûn if allowed. Look for darkvision spell scroll and goggles of night.

Level 1: Witch bolt, false life, fog cloud, feather fall, find familiar, detect magic; level 2: tenser's floating disk, longstrider; level 3: (mage armor, shield) rope trick, see invisibility; level 4: misty step, cloud of daggers; level 5: (remove curse) leomund's tiny hut, slow; level 6: fly, water breathing; level 7: (otiluke's resilient sphere) polymorph, dimension door; level 8: fire shield, fabricate; level 9: (circle of power) wall of force, one of the following three: bigby's hand or jallarzi's storm of radiance or yolande's regal presence; level 10: (counterspell, dispel magic always prepared) rary's telepathic bond, one of the three mentioned last level; level 11: (contingency) disintegrate, tasha's bubbling cauldron; level 12: true seeing, gentle repose; level 13: (your abjuration choice) finger of death, mordenkainen's magnificent mansion; level 14: teleport, plane shift; level 15: (mind blank) antimagic field, maze; level 16: demiplane, power word stun; level 17: (prismatic wall) wish, shapechange; levels 18+: true polymorph, meteor swarm, darkvision, phantom steed, etc.

Preparation progression resourcing specific components: Level 1: Witch bolt, false life, two replaceable spells; level 2: longstrider; level 3: replace false life with rope trick, see invisibility, mage armor, shield; level 4: replace witch bolt with cloud of daggers, misty step; level 5: slow, one replaceable spell; level 6: fly, feather fall; level 7: replace longstrider with polymorph, dimension door; level 8: fire shield; level 9: wall of force, one replaceable spell; level 10: circle of power, spell breaker always prepares counterspell, dispel magic; level 11: disintegrate; level 12: true seeing; level 13: finger of death; level 14: mordenkainen's magnificent mansion; level 15: mind blank; level 16: two replaceable spells; level 17: prismatic wall, wish, gentle repose; levels 18+ masteries longstrider, see invisibility, signatures fly, slow. Possible preparations at 20th level: (mastery longstrider) mage armor [01], shield [02], feather fall [03], (mastery see invisibility) rope trick [04], misty step [05], cloud of daggers [06], gentle repose [07], (breakers counterspell, dispel magic, signatures fly, slow) water breathing [08], dimension door [09], fire shield [10], otiluke's resilient sphere [11], wall of force [12], circle of power [13], contingency [14], disintegrate [15], tasha's bubbling cauldron [16], true seeing [17], mordenkainen's magnificent mansion [18], finger of death [19], teleport [20], plane shift [21], mind blank [22], antimagic field [23], prismatic wall [24], wish [25].

20th level preparations only equipped with clothes and an arcane focus (no spellbooks!), maybe someone else wanted a simulacrum of this character or there's a different reason: (mastery longstrider) mage armor [01], shield [02], fog cloud [03], feather fall [04], detect magic [05], (mastery see invisibility) misty step [06], cloud of daggers [07], darkvision [08], (breakers counterspell, dispel magic, signatures fly, slow) water breathing [09], leomund's tiny hut [10], phantom steed [11], dimension door [12], fire shield [13], polymorph [14], rary's telepathic bond [15], wall of force [16], circle of power [17], disintegrate [18], finger of death [19], (prepare but never cast antimagic field [20] if the caster is a simulacrum! maybe have the simulacrum create the spell scroll or something) mind blank [21], demiplane [22], power word stun [23], prismatic wall [24], wish [25].

This thread is part of another: 2024 Battle Performance https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/tips-tactics/231317