This is a total power gamer combo, but one of players suggested it and i'm trying to figure out if this is even legal.
Lets the character is a level 20 wizard - School of Abjuration ... race does matter at this point lets just assume they have a 20 intelligence.
The level 2 ability for the School of Abjuration reads as follows.
Arcane Ward
Starting at 2nd level, you can weave magic around yourself for protection. When you cast an abjuration spell of 1st level or higher, you can simultaneously use a strand of the spell’s magic to create a magical ward on yourself that lasts until you finish a long rest. The ward has a hit point maximum equal to twice your wizard level + your Intelligence modifier. Whenever you take damage, the ward takes the damage instead. If this damage reduces the ward to 0 hit points, you take any remaining damage.
While the ward has 0 hit points, it can’t absorb damage, but its magic remains. Whenever you cast an abjuration spell of 1st level or higher, the ward regains a number of hit points equal to twice the level of the spell.
Once you create the ward, you can’t create it again until you finish a long rest.
Lets say at some point the wizard also took the feat. Magic Initiate Warlock, and they took the spell Armor of Agathys.
Now for the Power gaming ...
The player casts Armor of Agathys at the 9th level giving the wizard 45 temp hit points and when the wizard is hit by a melee attack the creature takes 45 points of cold damage. But ... casting this spell also sets off the Arcane Ward ... giving the wizard a ward strength of 45.
So shouldn't the ward take the damage instead of your temp hit points? would this trigger the damage from the armor ? When it fails the player could simply cast Armor of Agathys at the 8th level .... and on and on.
1.) Magic Initiate lets you cast the spell at its base level unless it is a class spell. Armor of Agathys is not a class spell for Abjurers. So, it will be cast as a 1st level spell. It will provide 5 temp hit points and inflict 5 points of damage.
2.) The abjurer's ward will be applied first. This should make the Armor of Agathys' temp hit points last a bit longer. Even if the attacker's sword blow doesn't penetrate the Abjurer's ward, the attacker will still take damage from the Armor of Agathys as long as the Armor's temp hit points remain.
Yes, the ward would take damage instead of the temp HP. And yes, every time you are hit your opponent should hits you takes 45 HP of cold damage until the 45 temp HP are gone. The only “catch” that you missed is you won’t recharge the arcane ward to its full HP capacity by casting one spell, it takes more spells than that to fully recharge the arcane ward.
That’s a powerful combination, but it requires that the wizard stay in melee so you’re risking a lot of melee damage when you use it.
You will need another way to add Armor of Agathys, such as Mark of Warding (you'll need to homebrew copy the spell and add wizards to the spell list, probably renaming it Armor of Agathys - Mark of Warding.
Yes, casting Armor of Agathys at 9th level will give you 45 temp hp and an arcane ward of 45 hp.
The arcane ward does not stop anyone hitting you, it just mitigates damage when they do. So yes, the first time you are hit the damage is deducted from the Ward and attacker gets 45 damage. When the Ward drops to 0 any other damage deducts fro your temp HP and when they're gone the armour ends.
Keeing your Ward up will be a challenge - it only recovers equal to twice the level of the spell - which would be max 18 hp with level 8 spell, then 14... and so on. Most times you take damage they'll one-hit remove the ward and often have carry-over to those temp HP. This means you're having to constantly cast your protection spells every turn, and relying on the armor to damage opponents. Given you could be fireballing their faces off or boosting your allies this isn't a good option for DPS. Frankly, you have better options for using your 9th level spell slot. Like turning your ally into a huge freakin' dragon (True Polymorph) or Foresight or Wish or so on.
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Keeping your Ward up will be a challenge - it only recovers equal to twice the level of the spell - which would be max 18 hp with level 8 spell, then 14... and so on.
Well, if you pair that with the new Eldritch Adept feat and use that to take Armor of Shadows, you can go into any fight with a completely full Arcane Ward.
The problem with the OP's original idea is using Arcane Initiate to pick up AoA. You can only cast it once per day as a first level spell. You can't cast it with your wizard spell slots.
If you have spell slots, can you use them to cast the 1stlevel spell you learn with the Magic Initiate feat? Yes, but only if the class you pick for the feat is one of your classes. For example, if you pick sorcerer and you are a sorcerer, the Spellcasting feature for that class tells you that you can use your spell slots to cast the sorcerer spells you know, so you can use your spell slots to cast the 1st-level sorcerer spell you learn from Magic Initiate. Similarly, if you are a wizard and pick that class for the feat, you learn a 1st-level wizard spell, which you could add to your spellbook and subsequently prepare. In short, you must follow your character’s normal spellcasting rules, which determine whether you can expend spell slots on the 1st-level spell you learn from Magic Initiate.
However, you can get AoA a few different ways. One, you can multi-class into warlock. Or, you can go with Mark of Warding dwarf. With the Tasha's rules, you can max your int out early. Get the eldritch mind feat to pick up armor of shadows to start all fights with a fully charged ward, and profit.
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As a Mark of Warding Dwarf you don’t even need Tasha’s customizable origins. You have the perfect stats for a Wizard already: +2 CON, +1 INT. You also have free casts of Mage Armor and Alarm once a day. If you manage your resources tightly, you don’t even need to get Armor of Shadows, you have plenty Abjuration spell worthing cast, specially AoA which is the whole point of the build.
If you're wading into combat with AoA, you want to raise your dex as well for better AC. The extra hp from one point of con will reduce a single hit, by one/level. A single point of AC will potentially reduce multiple hits, by their entire amount.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Fun idea. Too bad all it takes to break it is a simple Dispel Magic, no check, and you're down a 9th level spell slot. Fair trade if you ask me.
that is not how counterspelling works, if you cast armor of agathys using a 9th level spell slot it is considered a 9th level spell and thus you will need a 9th level dispel magic or an bard with the glibness spell to dispel it without needing a check
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That is incorrect. Globe of Invulnerability does remove a spell off of a target just because you get close to them. The exact wording of the spell is as follows:
"An immobile, faintly shimmering barrier springs into existence in a 10-foot radius around you and remains for the duration.
Any spell of 5th level or lower cast from outside the barrier can’t affect creatures or objects within it, even if the spell is cast using a higher level spell slot. Such a spell can target creatures and objects within the barrier, but the spell has no effect on them. Similarly, the area within the barrier is excluded from the areas affected by such spells.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 7th level or higher, the barrier blocks spells of one level higher for each slot level above 6th."
So first, you cannot move with the barrier as it is immobile. It stays exactly where you cast it, centered on you. Though it does not say if you can move in and out of the globe, it does say that spell is immobile which means it doesn't move. Secondly the spell says that spells cast from outside the barrier can't affect creatures or objects within it. No we know for a fact that this means that while you can be targeted by spells cast by anyone outside the globe, the spell will not affect you. However, this does not mean that a spell cast on a target outside the globe that then moves into the globe loses the spells effect or that something like Armor of Agathys can't deal damage to you once they're within the globe.
Besides the MI problem of only casting at LVL 1 Armor of Agathys
The fact is you would have to hit the Wizard with a Melee attack so you could bring down the Ward HP and the AoA HP with Ranged attacks after the bad guys see one of their buddies take all that cold damage they would likely switch to ranged attacks imo
And if that's what a Wizard wants to do with there 9th lvl spell slot? I'd say you got off easy considering The 9th lvl spells available to wizards 💥💣
Besides the MI problem of only casting at LVL 1 Armor of Agathys
The fact is you would have to hit the Wizard with a Melee attack so you could bring down the Ward HP and the AoA HP with Ranged attacks after the bad guys see one of their buddies take all that cold damage they would likely switch to ranged attacks imo
And if that's what a Wizard wants to do with there 9th lvl spell slot? I'd say you got off easy considering The 9th lvl spells available to wizards 💥💣
Just cast Fog Cloud, Warding Wind or Pyrotechnics to neutralize ranged attacks.
AoA + Arcane Ward makes your Wizard an insane melee threat. If your enemies ignore you, it’s fine, because your primary job is to win battles for your party with things like Sleep, Hold Person, Levitate, Web, Hypnotic Pattern, Slow, Banishment, Polymorph, Animate Objects, Wall of Force, etc.
What’s the best way for team monster to avoid that? Try to kill you as fast as possible. At least force you to lose concentration. If they hit you at melee, they will suffer. They cannot effectively target at range. If they cast a spell against you, you are one of the most effective Counterspell / Dispel Magic users. The Abjurer of Agathys is tremendously sturdy.
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This is a total power gamer combo, but one of players suggested it and i'm trying to figure out if this is even legal.
Lets the character is a level 20 wizard - School of Abjuration ... race does matter at this point lets just assume they have a 20 intelligence.
The level 2 ability for the School of Abjuration reads as follows.
Lets say at some point the wizard also took the feat. Magic Initiate Warlock, and they took the spell Armor of Agathys.
Now for the Power gaming ...
The player casts Armor of Agathys at the 9th level giving the wizard 45 temp hit points and when the wizard is hit by a melee attack the creature takes 45 points of cold damage. But ... casting this spell also sets off the Arcane Ward ... giving the wizard a ward strength of 45.
So shouldn't the ward take the damage instead of your temp hit points? would this trigger the damage from the armor ? When it fails the player could simply cast Armor of Agathys at the 8th level .... and on and on.
1.) Magic Initiate lets you cast the spell at its base level unless it is a class spell. Armor of Agathys is not a class spell for Abjurers. So, it will be cast as a 1st level spell. It will provide 5 temp hit points and inflict 5 points of damage.
2.) The abjurer's ward will be applied first. This should make the Armor of Agathys' temp hit points last a bit longer. Even if the attacker's sword blow doesn't penetrate the Abjurer's ward, the attacker will still take damage from the Armor of Agathys as long as the Armor's temp hit points remain.
Yes, the ward would take damage instead of the temp HP. And yes, every time you are hit your opponent should hits you takes 45 HP of cold damage until the 45 temp HP are gone. The only “catch” that you missed is you won’t recharge the arcane ward to its full HP capacity by casting one spell, it takes more spells than that to fully recharge the arcane ward.
That’s a powerful combination, but it requires that the wizard stay in melee so you’re risking a lot of melee damage when you use it.
Professional computer geek
You will need another way to add Armor of Agathys, such as Mark of Warding (you'll need to homebrew copy the spell and add wizards to the spell list, probably renaming it Armor of Agathys - Mark of Warding.
Yes, casting Armor of Agathys at 9th level will give you 45 temp hp and an arcane ward of 45 hp.
The arcane ward does not stop anyone hitting you, it just mitigates damage when they do. So yes, the first time you are hit the damage is deducted from the Ward and attacker gets 45 damage. When the Ward drops to 0 any other damage deducts fro your temp HP and when they're gone the armour ends.
Keeing your Ward up will be a challenge - it only recovers equal to twice the level of the spell - which would be max 18 hp with level 8 spell, then 14... and so on. Most times you take damage they'll one-hit remove the ward and often have carry-over to those temp HP. This means you're having to constantly cast your protection spells every turn, and relying on the armor to damage opponents. Given you could be fireballing their faces off or boosting your allies this isn't a good option for DPS. Frankly, you have better options for using your 9th level spell slot. Like turning your ally into a huge freakin' dragon (True Polymorph) or Foresight or Wish or so on.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Well, if you pair that with the new Eldritch Adept feat and use that to take Armor of Shadows, you can go into any fight with a completely full Arcane Ward.
The problem with the OP's original idea is using Arcane Initiate to pick up AoA. You can only cast it once per day as a first level spell. You can't cast it with your wizard spell slots.
https://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/SA_Compendium_1.01.pdf
If you have spell slots, can you use them to cast the 1stlevel spell you learn with the Magic Initiate feat? Yes, but only if the class you pick for the feat is one of your classes. For example, if you pick sorcerer and you are a sorcerer, the Spellcasting feature for that class tells you that you can use your spell slots to cast the sorcerer spells you know, so you can use your spell slots to cast the 1st-level sorcerer spell you learn from Magic Initiate. Similarly, if you are a wizard and pick that class for the feat, you learn a 1st-level wizard spell, which you could add to your spellbook and subsequently prepare. In short, you must follow your character’s normal spellcasting rules, which determine whether you can expend spell slots on the 1st-level spell you learn from Magic Initiate.
However, you can get AoA a few different ways. One, you can multi-class into warlock. Or, you can go with Mark of Warding dwarf. With the Tasha's rules, you can max your int out early. Get the eldritch mind feat to pick up armor of shadows to start all fights with a fully charged ward, and profit.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
As a Mark of Warding Dwarf you don’t even need Tasha’s customizable origins. You have the perfect stats for a Wizard already: +2 CON, +1 INT. You also have free casts of Mage Armor and Alarm once a day. If you manage your resources tightly, you don’t even need to get Armor of Shadows, you have plenty Abjuration spell worthing cast, specially AoA which is the whole point of the build.
If you're wading into combat with AoA, you want to raise your dex as well for better AC. The extra hp from one point of con will reduce a single hit, by one/level. A single point of AC will potentially reduce multiple hits, by their entire amount.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Fun idea. Too bad all it takes to break it is a simple Dispel Magic, no check, and you're down a 9th level spell slot. Fair trade if you ask me.
that is not how counterspelling works, if you cast armor of agathys using a 9th level spell slot it is considered a 9th level spell and thus you will need a 9th level dispel magic or an bard with the glibness spell to dispel it without needing a check
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
But it is how Globe of Invunerability works. Cast the 6th level spell on your self and get close to the guy and his Armor of Agathys goes away.
That is incorrect. Globe of Invulnerability does remove a spell off of a target just because you get close to them. The exact wording of the spell is as follows:
So first, you cannot move with the barrier as it is immobile. It stays exactly where you cast it, centered on you. Though it does not say if you can move in and out of the globe, it does say that spell is immobile which means it doesn't move. Secondly the spell says that spells cast from outside the barrier can't affect creatures or objects within it. No we know for a fact that this means that while you can be targeted by spells cast by anyone outside the globe, the spell will not affect you. However, this does not mean that a spell cast on a target outside the globe that then moves into the globe loses the spells effect or that something like Armor of Agathys can't deal damage to you once they're within the globe.
Besides the MI problem of only casting at LVL 1 Armor of Agathys
The fact is you would have to hit the Wizard with a Melee attack so you could bring down the Ward HP and the AoA HP with Ranged attacks after the bad guys see one of their buddies take all that cold damage they would likely switch to ranged attacks imo
And if that's what a Wizard wants to do with there 9th lvl spell slot? I'd say you got off easy considering The 9th lvl spells available to wizards 💥💣
Just cast Fog Cloud, Warding Wind or Pyrotechnics to neutralize ranged attacks.
AoA + Arcane Ward makes your Wizard an insane melee threat. If your enemies ignore you, it’s fine, because your primary job is to win battles for your party with things like Sleep, Hold Person, Levitate, Web, Hypnotic Pattern, Slow, Banishment, Polymorph, Animate Objects, Wall of Force, etc.
What’s the best way for team monster to avoid that? Try to kill you as fast as possible. At least force you to lose concentration. If they hit you at melee, they will suffer. They cannot effectively target at range. If they cast a spell against you, you are one of the most effective Counterspell / Dispel Magic users. The Abjurer of Agathys is tremendously sturdy.