My DM has told us that we are going to be starting one of two new modules, either Curse of Strahd or Out of the Abyss. He wants to surprise us. (I think it's going to be Out of the Abyss from the hints he's been dropping). Now I don't know much about these adventure modules having never played them, but my DM has told me that they are both extremely hard and for us to prepare for the likelihood that we will die. So since we are all rolling out new characters I've been leaning really heavily towards making a Wizard. But I'm a bit hesitant because at their first few levels they are extremely squishy.
So has anyone here played either of these adventures ? Would a Wizard be good for either one ? Our current team layout Is (me) a Wizard, A Dragonborn Bloodhunter, and Halfling Monk, and a yet to be determined (but probably) a Rogue of some kind. Any feedback would be extremely helpful and appreciated!
I’m playing a wizard in Tomb of Annihilation right now and he’s doing just fine. I’m playing him as a super high intelligence character, meaning he has 3 or 4 plans ready for when things go wrong. He’s only been hit once because he fights cautiously and he uses every single ability that he has to help the party, especially himself, alive.
Just plan ahead, have your wizard research, and pick his school carefully. Divination or Evocation aren’t always the best for surviving believe it or not.
I planned on making him a super intelligent character as well, and playing him as buff\debuff support wizard. Going to go school of Transmutation. His "flaw" is that he is easily distracted by the chance at more knowledge. I don't intend on doing much attacking with him. I'm just worried about keeping him alive if these modules are as deadly as my DM says they are going to be....
I don't know what you mean by not doing much attacking, but this is a really dangerous module. You are going to need to carry your weight in the combat.
Well..... I guess I mean I had this idea to try to play a more supportive role Wizard within the group. Casting buffs on the party and debuffs on whatever enemies we encounter. Throwing out Fog Clouds to hide in and putting enemies to Sleep. You know that kind of stuff. I'll still be chucking out Firebolts as necessary. Cuz you can only concentrate on one spell at a time. But I really was just hoping I'd be able to be more of a battlefield controller and make it easier for the rest of my group to do what they do so we can end battles quicker and take less damage in the process. You get what I'm looking to try and do?
Focus on keeping the other members of your party alive too. That's part of surviving yourself, especially in challenging adventures. I'd consider the School of Abjuration since you don't have anyone in the party who can cast healing spells, learn False Life which will be useful for the first 3-4 levels, and invest in 50 GP healing potions every chance that you get. You can use your familiar to administer a healing potion when someone else get's knocked unconscious without losing your normal action.
Abjuration was basically 1b to Transmutation's 1a for me. I mostly went the Transmutation way because of a bunch of fun role play ideas I had for it. However everything you said is great and basically what I want to be doing. By buffing my party members and debuffing the enemy it should be easier to keep everyone alive. Well at least I hope so. LoL
I’m talking about more than just buffing. A member of my party was falling and I didn’t know Feather Fall so I cast Web between 3 trees underneath him and it caught him instead of him landing on the ground. Sort of like a trampoline. He still took some damage, but it was a lot less than he’d have taken if he would have fallen 50’ more and the DM ruled that it was half damage due to the web being a 20’ cube. You won’t have enough spells to do everything so be creative with the ones you have when it’s possible.
Hell yeah Tim! That's great stuff right there! That's the exact kind of Wizard I'm looking\hoping to be.
The whole reason I made this post was basically that, I really wanted to make\be a Wizard but I was just a little worried that his low AC & HP would handicap me out the gate in a "supposedly" more dangerous campaign.
If the party makeup is as you outlines (monk, blood hunter, rogue) then you have two potential 'quasi tanks' unless they have superduper starting stats in which case tanks. Then a melee or close range damage dealing rogue. I suspect if thats the case your DM will have to doctor a lot of whats supposed to happen as you have not taken a doctor in the party.
Wizards are a great ally, but they are slow starters, missing the metamagic of the sorcerers in exchange for their subclasses abilities. The right subclass can really help, but none will be great every time. In that party / those adventures spend as much time as possible hiding (you may not have the numbers or line holding capacity to prevent everyone being a target of the surprise attack / rain of missiles but if your hiding you might not be one of the opening volleys pin cushions. Choose your subclass well - by that I mean choose one that fits your style of play and game: Dont be a necromancer if your never getting to 6th level / the party / townsfolk will kill undead and their animators on sight. Dont be an Illusionist if your party tends to ignore subtlety and run through your illusions, hopefully you catch my drift.
The wizards starting benefit is being able to cast every ritual spell they know as a ritual without having to prepare them - this is absolutely pointless if your party doesnt give you time to do it / doesnt short rest / only does one or two fights a day. If that is the way they play you will regret not being the spell casting equivalent of a tank turret - the sorcerer.
Focus more on keeping the other players alive than on keeping yourself alive and just stay out of melee and out of stupid situations like tightrope walking without a net and you’ll be much more survivable than you think even with a low AC and almost no HP.
Definitely helps! Thank's for the input. Still not sure if the one guy is going to play a Rogue. We just guessed that because that's all he wants to play. However we have all been trying to convince him to play a Cleric. Hahaha.
Focus more on keeping the other players alive than on keeping yourself alive and just stay out of melee and out of stupid situations like tightrope walking without a net and you’ll be much more survivable than you think even with a low AC and almost no HP.
That's my plan Tim! Thanks for all your advice. I can't wait to start this campaign. We're all waiting on the "Rogue" guy to get his schedule together so we can start this thing already.
I am playing a high elven Bladesinger in Curse of Strahd currently and she is doing great so far. We have been playing for half a year. The party is level 4. She is very intelligent and cautious, but also bold and heroic. She is still a wizard, but I play her like a fighter/wizard, flexing as needed for long range spell support and melee battlefield control. So it is completely doable.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
My DM has told us that we are going to be starting one of two new modules, either Curse of Strahd or Out of the Abyss. He wants to surprise us. (I think it's going to be Out of the Abyss from the hints he's been dropping). Now I don't know much about these adventure modules having never played them, but my DM has told me that they are both extremely hard and for us to prepare for the likelihood that we will die. So since we are all rolling out new characters I've been leaning really heavily towards making a Wizard. But I'm a bit hesitant because at their first few levels they are extremely squishy.
So has anyone here played either of these adventures ? Would a Wizard be good for either one ? Our current team layout Is (me) a Wizard, A Dragonborn Bloodhunter, and Halfling Monk, and a yet to be determined (but probably) a Rogue of some kind. Any feedback would be extremely helpful and appreciated!
I’m playing a wizard in Tomb of Annihilation right now and he’s doing just fine. I’m playing him as a super high intelligence character, meaning he has 3 or 4 plans ready for when things go wrong. He’s only been hit once because he fights cautiously and he uses every single ability that he has to help the party, especially himself, alive.
Just plan ahead, have your wizard research, and pick his school carefully. Divination or Evocation aren’t always the best for surviving believe it or not.
Professional computer geek
I planned on making him a super intelligent character as well, and playing him as buff\debuff support wizard. Going to go school of Transmutation. His "flaw" is that he is easily distracted by the chance at more knowledge. I don't intend on doing much attacking with him. I'm just worried about keeping him alive if these modules are as deadly as my DM says they are going to be....
I don't know what you mean by not doing much attacking, but this is a really dangerous module. You are going to need to carry your weight in the combat.
Well..... I guess I mean I had this idea to try to play a more supportive role Wizard within the group. Casting buffs on the party and debuffs on whatever enemies we encounter. Throwing out Fog Clouds to hide in and putting enemies to Sleep. You know that kind of stuff. I'll still be chucking out Firebolts as necessary. Cuz you can only concentrate on one spell at a time. But I really was just hoping I'd be able to be more of a battlefield controller and make it easier for the rest of my group to do what they do so we can end battles quicker and take less damage in the process. You get what I'm looking to try and do?
Focus on keeping the other members of your party alive too. That's part of surviving yourself, especially in challenging adventures. I'd consider the School of Abjuration since you don't have anyone in the party who can cast healing spells, learn False Life which will be useful for the first 3-4 levels, and invest in 50 GP healing potions every chance that you get. You can use your familiar to administer a healing potion when someone else get's knocked unconscious without losing your normal action.
Professional computer geek
Abjuration was basically 1b to Transmutation's 1a for me. I mostly went the Transmutation way because of a bunch of fun role play ideas I had for it. However everything you said is great and basically what I want to be doing. By buffing my party members and debuffing the enemy it should be easier to keep everyone alive. Well at least I hope so. LoL
I’m talking about more than just buffing. A member of my party was falling and I didn’t know Feather Fall so I cast Web between 3 trees underneath him and it caught him instead of him landing on the ground. Sort of like a trampoline. He still took some damage, but it was a lot less than he’d have taken if he would have fallen 50’ more and the DM ruled that it was half damage due to the web being a 20’ cube. You won’t have enough spells to do everything so be creative with the ones you have when it’s possible.
Professional computer geek
Hell yeah Tim! That's great stuff right there! That's the exact kind of Wizard I'm looking\hoping to be.
The whole reason I made this post was basically that, I really wanted to make\be a Wizard but I was just a little worried that his low AC & HP would handicap me out the gate in a "supposedly" more dangerous campaign.
If the party makeup is as you outlines (monk, blood hunter, rogue) then you have two potential 'quasi tanks' unless they have superduper starting stats in which case tanks. Then a melee or close range damage dealing rogue. I suspect if thats the case your DM will have to doctor a lot of whats supposed to happen as you have not taken a doctor in the party.
Wizards are a great ally, but they are slow starters, missing the metamagic of the sorcerers in exchange for their subclasses abilities. The right subclass can really help, but none will be great every time. In that party / those adventures spend as much time as possible hiding (you may not have the numbers or line holding capacity to prevent everyone being a target of the surprise attack / rain of missiles but if your hiding you might not be one of the opening volleys pin cushions. Choose your subclass well - by that I mean choose one that fits your style of play and game: Dont be a necromancer if your never getting to 6th level / the party / townsfolk will kill undead and their animators on sight. Dont be an Illusionist if your party tends to ignore subtlety and run through your illusions, hopefully you catch my drift.
The wizards starting benefit is being able to cast every ritual spell they know as a ritual without having to prepare them - this is absolutely pointless if your party doesnt give you time to do it / doesnt short rest / only does one or two fights a day. If that is the way they play you will regret not being the spell casting equivalent of a tank turret - the sorcerer.
Hope that helps and have fun.
Focus more on keeping the other players alive than on keeping yourself alive and just stay out of melee and out of stupid situations like tightrope walking without a net and you’ll be much more survivable than you think even with a low AC and almost no HP.
Professional computer geek
Definitely helps! Thank's for the input. Still not sure if the one guy is going to play a Rogue. We just guessed that because that's all he wants to play. However we have all been trying to convince him to play a Cleric. Hahaha.
That's my plan Tim! Thanks for all your advice. I can't wait to start this campaign. We're all waiting on the "Rogue" guy to get his schedule together so we can start this thing already.
I am playing a high elven Bladesinger in Curse of Strahd currently and she is doing great so far. We have been playing for half a year. The party is level 4. She is very intelligent and cautious, but also bold and heroic. She is still a wizard, but I play her like a fighter/wizard, flexing as needed for long range spell support and melee battlefield control. So it is completely doable.