About to play a campaign in the underdark and we have a Kenku rogue, svirfneblin cleric (likely grave), a lizardman Barbarian, a half Drow Fighter and myself a Drow Wizard.
Now I know much of choosing a subclass is all about personal preference but I am trying to make an informed choice and I’d appreciate people’s feedback on each of the choices that interest me. Currently I’m mainly interested in transmuter as it fits well into my characters background as a guild merchant/artist from Ssamath, yet every guide I’ve come across mostly says transmuter is utter garbage. I’d like some opinions both supporting that and refuting it if possible. I personally think it would be cool to change stone to wood and carve it, copper coins to silver, stone to firewood, metal doors to salt, etc.
The other two are war wizard and necromancer. War wizard seems bland to me by itself but I think it would fit well with the idea of of a Wizard of a ruling house. In addition the starting perks seem super useful in combat compared to most other sub classes of wizard. Any interesting builds or ways to make warcaster not so bland?
Necromancer has the most cultural Connotation flavorwise but seems pretty lackluster especially until fifth level where I’d finally be able to summon undead. Is there anyway to make this subclass not so ****** at early levels or something that can be done to make it seem... more necromancer-y?
Thank you for any feedback and insight into this character creation. Role playing ideas or how to be a viable member to the party, or telling me to TPk are all welcome. Thanks All!
The school that you pick means a lot less than which spells you pick. Every school has some advantages over the others, don’t stress over it and pick the one that you’ll have the most fun with.
Then wouldn’t divination arguably be the most fun based on a sort of general consensus? I’d find it fun as well but don’t care for the flavor of divination with this character concept
Divination is perceived to be the most powerful because of the portent ability. That’s why it’s so popular. I’m currently playing a School of Conjuration Wizard and at 3rd level his ability is strictly an out of combat utility ability and I’m having a blast with him. I’m glad I picked Conjuration over Divination!
Everyone has their own opinion and favorite schools. In my view, the arcane traditions are all good, they're just not equally good at the same things. Play what you want to play--you'll be far more satisfied in the long run.
Transmutation is fantastic for exploration, utility, and role-play, although it offers less for combat. As Tim says, however, you can always supplement your tradition's spells with those from other schools. Nothing is stopping you from taking fireball, for example.
Something fun and ridiculous you can do is take the keen mind feat and go with a conjuration wizard. With keen mind you can accurately recall anything you've seen in the past month basically, and the conjuration wizard can make things that aren't bigger then 3 ft, they are destroyed when they take damage, 10 lbs, last an hour, etc. Basically this fun little combo let's you do something like study a very important map for like 30 seconds, destroy it, and you can create perfect replica's of it. Memorize your favorite book and poof it out of nowhere to read when you have time to kill. Or if you got locked in a dungeon but you got a good look at the jailers key, you can make a duplicate of it, etc. etc. I would inform your DM before hand if you plan to do this, cause it would suck on his end if you sprung it up out of nowhere. But it's powerful depending on the campaign, flavorful, and gives lots of good roleplay opportunity's.
In relation to your actual post, it really doesn't matter. Everything is game dependent. Maybe your transmuter wizard would have had a key moment to use their power that would affect the story significantly. Maybe you would be able to upgrade your copper to silver to buy more stuff. Or maybe your'e doing a lot of close quarter fights and you would be targeted more then you like so war wizard would have been perfect. Or maybe you want to combo with your potential grave cleric and have fun in character fights over whether faith based necromancy or wizardry based necromancy is better and you tag team your horde of minions to hold the front lines and work together. Each class will have its chance to shine in each campaign in one way or another, so it really comes down to what the character would do/be and how you envision your character to interact with the world around them.
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About to play a campaign in the underdark and we have a Kenku rogue, svirfneblin cleric (likely grave), a lizardman Barbarian, a half Drow Fighter and myself a Drow Wizard.
Now I know much of choosing a subclass is all about personal preference but I am trying to make an informed choice and I’d appreciate people’s feedback on each of the choices that interest me. Currently I’m mainly interested in transmuter as it fits well into my characters background as a guild merchant/artist from Ssamath, yet every guide I’ve come across mostly says transmuter is utter garbage. I’d like some opinions both supporting that and refuting it if possible. I personally think it would be cool to change stone to wood and carve it, copper coins to silver, stone to firewood, metal doors to salt, etc.
The other two are war wizard and necromancer. War wizard seems bland to me by itself but I think it would fit well with the idea of of a Wizard of a ruling house. In addition the starting perks seem super useful in combat compared to most other sub classes of wizard. Any interesting builds or ways to make warcaster not so bland?
Necromancer has the most cultural Connotation flavorwise but seems pretty lackluster especially until fifth level where I’d finally be able to summon undead. Is there anyway to make this subclass not so ****** at early levels or something that can be done to make it seem... more necromancer-y?
Thank you for any feedback and insight into this character creation. Role playing ideas or how to be a viable member to the party, or telling me to TPk are all welcome. Thanks All!
The school that you pick means a lot less than which spells you pick. Every school has some advantages over the others, don’t stress over it and pick the one that you’ll have the most fun with.
Professional computer geek
Then wouldn’t divination arguably be the most fun based on a sort of general consensus? I’d find it fun as well but don’t care for the flavor of divination with this character concept
Divination is perceived to be the most powerful because of the portent ability. That’s why it’s so popular. I’m currently playing a School of Conjuration Wizard and at 3rd level his ability is strictly an out of combat utility ability and I’m having a blast with him. I’m glad I picked Conjuration over Divination!
Professional computer geek
Everyone has their own opinion and favorite schools. In my view, the arcane traditions are all good, they're just not equally good at the same things. Play what you want to play--you'll be far more satisfied in the long run.
Transmutation is fantastic for exploration, utility, and role-play, although it offers less for combat. As Tim says, however, you can always supplement your tradition's spells with those from other schools. Nothing is stopping you from taking fireball, for example.
Something fun and ridiculous you can do is take the keen mind feat and go with a conjuration wizard. With keen mind you can accurately recall anything you've seen in the past month basically, and the conjuration wizard can make things that aren't bigger then 3 ft, they are destroyed when they take damage, 10 lbs, last an hour, etc. Basically this fun little combo let's you do something like study a very important map for like 30 seconds, destroy it, and you can create perfect replica's of it. Memorize your favorite book and poof it out of nowhere to read when you have time to kill. Or if you got locked in a dungeon but you got a good look at the jailers key, you can make a duplicate of it, etc. etc. I would inform your DM before hand if you plan to do this, cause it would suck on his end if you sprung it up out of nowhere. But it's powerful depending on the campaign, flavorful, and gives lots of good roleplay opportunity's.
In relation to your actual post, it really doesn't matter. Everything is game dependent. Maybe your transmuter wizard would have had a key moment to use their power that would affect the story significantly. Maybe you would be able to upgrade your copper to silver to buy more stuff. Or maybe your'e doing a lot of close quarter fights and you would be targeted more then you like so war wizard would have been perfect. Or maybe you want to combo with your potential grave cleric and have fun in character fights over whether faith based necromancy or wizardry based necromancy is better and you tag team your horde of minions to hold the front lines and work together. Each class will have its chance to shine in each campaign in one way or another, so it really comes down to what the character would do/be and how you envision your character to interact with the world around them.