Hello guys,

i'm a total newbie to D&D and asked myself what some typical Wizard Armors are that you guys can recommend.

If possible, i want to stick to the traditional style [Robes], instead of going with half plate armor or something like that.

Thanks for your helf in advance !

Best regards,

Galdanor

Wizards usually don't wear armor. They use Mage Armor and Shield to protect themselves in combat. 

Spell: Mage Armor - AC 13 + Dex

Magic Item: Robe of the Archmagi - AC 15 + Dex

Pretty much it as for "wearable" armour/robes. There are more items like Bracers of Defense, Ring of Protection and Cloak of Protection which also boost AC. There are also numerous spells used for various types of defense too.

And of course, the most desirable:

Elven Chain.

This is a Chain SHIRT, not Chain Mail.   It's pretty good AC: 13 + 1 (magic) + upto 2 for Dex  max of AC 16

The reason you can wear it is that it says "You are considered proficient with this armor even if you lack proficiency with medium armor."

The only reason you can't wear armor is that you are not proficient.  So you can wear the Elven Chain.

If you want armour, go mountain dwarf. It may seem silly, but you get medium and light armour proficiency. 

mage armor and shield is all you need at level 1. Magic items can help your AC improve at higher levels.

 You could play a Tortle for AC 17 all the time and not have to prepare those pesky defensive spells

A bonus to STR and WIS does not help a Wizard. This is a bad choice of race.

Unless you plan on quitting before level 6, Mountain Dwarf is a better deal than Tortle.  Rather get the Medium Armor (15 + 2 from dex = 17, and you can get it adamantine and enchanted.

Not to mention that Tortle 's other stuff is inferior to dwarves:  Claws, Survival skill, Hold Breath!, and Shell vs   :Dark vision!, poison resistance!, Battle Axe!, a tool prof, plus history (stone) expertise.   You are giving up 5ft of speed, but get +2 con! instead of +1 wisdom.   All in all a much better deal, as soon as you can afford the expensive Half Plate.

Yes, but STR is usually a dump stat for Wizards.

Go High Elf. With point buy or standard array you could have 16 for Dex and Int. With Mage Armor your AC is 16, which is not bad, and when you need it there's Shield to get AC 21 - which is superior to full Plate amour with physical shield. And this is 1st level. This is more than sufficient. You can also pick up Absorb Elements to greatly reduce damage from elemental "save" type hazards. This means whether you're being attacked by a weapon or ducking a fireball, you've got a reaction that might save your life.

Later you can use Blur and/or Mirror Image when you get to 3rd level, further increasing your defenses against attacks : Mirror Image can give you chance for attacks to miss you completely regardless of attack roll and it doesn't require concentration. The spell Blur imposes disadvantage to attack rolls against you for most enemies. Blur does require concentration but if you're a "blast the enemy" type of wizard this won't be a problem and you can combine with Mirror Image to keep yourself safe.

With these alone you're very likely to be the hardest thing to hit in the party.

You can also give yourself some temp HP with False Life.

For more situations or getaways there's Protection from Evil and Good, Expeditious Retreat, Color Spray, Invisibility, Misty Step, Levitate, Cause Fear, Charm Person (charmed targets are unable to attack you), Fog Cloud, and more!

And that's just 1st and 2nd level spells. There are even more defensive spells at higher levels.

Wizards usually don't have need for armour as between spells and magic items they can get surprisingly tanky.

Not a big fan of Absorb Elements for wizards.  Not to say it isn't a good spell what with the whole gaining elemental resistance for a round is nice but I always feel like I'm not using half the spell since what wizard (that isn't multiclassing) is going to be in melee range to use the +1d6 force dmg on its next melee attack part of the spell

Quote from BramblefootDruid >>

If you want armour, go mountain dwarf. It may seem silly, but you get medium and light armour proficiency. 

 Githyanki get light/medium armor and a bonus to int as well.

Quote from Henchmen1980 >>

Not a big fan of Absorb Elements for wizards.  Not to say it isn't a good spell what with the whole gaining elemental resistance for a round is nice but I always feel like I'm not using half the spell since what wizard (that isn't multiclassing) is going to be in melee range to use the +1d6 force dmg on its next melee attack part of the spell

 
Let's say you're 14th level wizard going against an Adult Red Dragon, and you had a +2 con mod.You took average levelling up so you have a Max HP of 72.

The dragon uses its fire breath. We'll use say it does 62 fire damage for simplicity.

Scenario 1 - No Absorb Elements

Damage: 62 if you fail the save, 31 if you succeed.

Scenario 2 - Absorb Elements is Used

Damage: 31 if you fail the save, 15 if you succeed.

-

By using a simple level 1 spell you've negated between 15 to 31 damage. Without Absorb Elements, if will take 2 uses of Fire Breath to kill you if you kept failing the saves or 3 uses if you kept succeeding. With Absorb Elements it would take 3 uses to kill even if you failed them all but would take 5 uses (FIVE!) to kill you if succeeded on them all.

If the dragon rolled maximum and you failed the save: if you had used Absorb Elements you'd take 54 damage and live. If you hadn't you'd take 108 damage and be instantly dying from the dragon's first turn.

No matter how you look at it, using Absorb Elements can keep you safe and alive for much longer. It instantly halves the damage you take from a wide variety of sources. You don't have many hit points compared to most so the more damage you can easily negate the better.

Absorb Elements and Shield spells are must-haves as far as I'm considered. They've saved my characters lives many times. I don't care if I'm not using the extra 1d6 damage to my next melee attack, - just the fact it can negate half the damage from elemental sources and save your life is frankly all I need from a simple 1st level spell.

It being a 1st level spell is fantastic - because it's cheap and easy to make scrolls of it. As long as the scroll is on your person, not in a backpack or something, you can use it as the reaction - saves using slots. If you ever do get to 18th level, you can choose to use this with spell mastery and never have to use a spell slot, much like a cantrip.

Whenever I see somebody deliberately saying no to spells like Absorb Elements or Shield it's like this in my head:

Spells: Hey, here's a simple spell, easily cast, resource friendly, that could in many situations help save your life.
Person: Nah, I'd rather suffer the large amount of damage to my tiny hit point pool.

Like, really? To me it's utterly whackadoodle. But, to each their own. Good luck against the traps, hazards and dragons that could one-turn-kill you without it. *shrug*

While shield is a must-have, I feel like absorb elements doesn't get as much use in games where the main enemies are undead or humanoids. I would say you should take magic missile and mage armor at level 1, shield at level 2, and a AoE spell at level 4 (Ex. burning hands)

Quote from The_Lightless_One >>

While shield is a must-have, I feel like absorb elements doesn't get as much use in games where the main enemies are undead or humanoids. I would say you should take magic missile and mage armor at level 1, shield at level 2, and a AoE spell at level 4 (Ex. burning hands)

 
We've played some very different games. All games I've played have heavily featured fire, cold etc, damage types and in 5th edition especially Absorb Elements has saved my chars on many occasions. You need to remember it works against traps too, not just enemies, and there are undead that can Fireball you.

Also, why not take shield at level 1? You get 6 spells to start with. I'd say start with Mage Armour and Shield at very least in addition to Magic Missile or such.

In a campaign I'm currently playing, we're level 5 and have had two encounters with creature that deal fire damage. In one of those encounters, the fire damage dealing creature died turn 1.

Quote from Cyb3rM1nd >>

Quote from Henchmen1980 >>

Not a big fan of Absorb Elements for wizards.  Not to say it isn't a good spell what with the whole gaining elemental resistance for a round is nice but I always feel like I'm not using half the spell since what wizard (that isn't multiclassing) is going to be in melee range to use the +1d6 force dmg on its next melee attack part of the spell

 
Let's say you're 14th level wizard going against an Adult Red Dragon, and you had a +2 con mod.You took average levelling up so you have a Max HP of 72.

The dragon uses its fire breath. We'll use say it does 62 fire damage for simplicity.

Scenario 1 - No Absorb Elements

Damage: 62 if you fail the save, 31 if you succeed.

Scenario 2 - Absorb Elements is Used

Damage: 31 if you fail the save, 15 if you succeed.

-

By using a simple level 1 spell you've negated between 15 to 31 damage. Without Absorb Elements, if will take 2 uses of Fire Breath to kill you if you kept failing the saves or 3 uses if you kept succeeding. With Absorb Elements it would take 3 uses to kill even if you failed them all but would take 5 uses (FIVE!) to kill you if succeeded on them all.

If the dragon rolled maximum and you failed the save: if you had used Absorb Elements you'd take 54 damage and live. If you hadn't you'd take 108 damage and be instantly dying from the dragon's first turn.

No matter how you look at it, using Absorb Elements can keep you safe and alive for much longer. It instantly halves the damage you take from a wide variety of sources. You don't have many hit points compared to most so the more damage you can easily negate the better.

Absorb Elements and Shield spells are must-haves as far as I'm considered. They've saved my characters lives many times. I don't care if I'm not using the extra 1d6 damage to my next melee attack, - just the fact it can negate half the damage from elemental sources and save your life is frankly all I need from a simple 1st level spell.

It being a 1st level spell is fantastic - because it's cheap and easy to make scrolls of it. As long as the scroll is on your person, not in a backpack or something, you can use it as the reaction - saves using slots. If you ever do get to 18th level, you can choose to use this with spell mastery and never have to use a spell slot, much like a cantrip.

Whenever I see somebody deliberately saying no to spells like Absorb Elements or Shield it's like this in my head:

Spells: Hey, here's a simple spell, easily cast, resource friendly, that could in many situations help save your life.
Person: Nah, I'd rather suffer the large amount of damage to my tiny hit point pool.

Like, really? To me it's utterly whackadoodle. But, to each their own. Good luck against the traps, hazards and dragons that could one-turn-kill you without it. *shrug*

Again I'm not saying that Absorb Elements doesn't have its uses for the first half of the spell (the resistance to elemental dmg), it's just that there's a whole half of the spell (the +1d6 force dmg on your next melee att) that as a wizard I'm never going to use since who goes into melee range as a wizard?  Just seems wasteful to me.  When I cast spells I want to use as much of it as I can.

That's why I feel like A.E. feels more useful on Druids since at least they're somewhat better at going into melee if they want to

You also forgot Scenario 3: Play an abjurer who at lvl 14 would (at full) have an arcane ward with 33hp and a race that's naturally fire resistant like tielfing or fire genasi

For Druids, absorb elements is extremely useful. But keep in mind, a creature that does an elemental damage type often is immune or at least resistant to that damage type.

Quote from Henchmen1980 >>

Quote from Cyb3rM1nd >>

Quote from Henchmen1980 >>

Not a big fan of Absorb Elements for wizards.  Not to say it isn't a good spell what with the whole gaining elemental resistance for a round is nice but I always feel like I'm not using half the spell since what wizard (that isn't multiclassing) is going to be in melee range to use the +1d6 force dmg on its next melee attack part of the spell

 
Let's say you're 14th level wizard going against an Adult Red Dragon, and you had a +2 con mod.You took average levelling up so you have a Max HP of 72.

The dragon uses its fire breath. We'll use say it does 62 fire damage for simplicity.

Scenario 1 - No Absorb Elements

Damage: 62 if you fail the save, 31 if you succeed.

Scenario 2 - Absorb Elements is Used

Damage: 31 if you fail the save, 15 if you succeed.

-

By using a simple level 1 spell you've negated between 15 to 31 damage. Without Absorb Elements, if will take 2 uses of Fire Breath to kill you if you kept failing the saves or 3 uses if you kept succeeding. With Absorb Elements it would take 3 uses to kill even if you failed them all but would take 5 uses (FIVE!) to kill you if succeeded on them all.

If the dragon rolled maximum and you failed the save: if you had used Absorb Elements you'd take 54 damage and live. If you hadn't you'd take 108 damage and be instantly dying from the dragon's first turn.

No matter how you look at it, using Absorb Elements can keep you safe and alive for much longer. It instantly halves the damage you take from a wide variety of sources. You don't have many hit points compared to most so the more damage you can easily negate the better.

Absorb Elements and Shield spells are must-haves as far as I'm considered. They've saved my characters lives many times. I don't care if I'm not using the extra 1d6 damage to my next melee attack, - just the fact it can negate half the damage from elemental sources and save your life is frankly all I need from a simple 1st level spell.

It being a 1st level spell is fantastic - because it's cheap and easy to make scrolls of it. As long as the scroll is on your person, not in a backpack or something, you can use it as the reaction - saves using slots. If you ever do get to 18th level, you can choose to use this with spell mastery and never have to use a spell slot, much like a cantrip.

Whenever I see somebody deliberately saying no to spells like Absorb Elements or Shield it's like this in my head:

Spells: Hey, here's a simple spell, easily cast, resource friendly, that could in many situations help save your life.
Person: Nah, I'd rather suffer the large amount of damage to my tiny hit point pool.

Like, really? To me it's utterly whackadoodle. But, to each their own. Good luck against the traps, hazards and dragons that could one-turn-kill you without it. *shrug*

 

Again I'm not saying that Absorb Elements doesn't have its uses for the first half of the spell (the resistance to elemental dmg), it's just that there's a whole half of the spell (the +1d6 force dmg on your next melee att) that as a wizard I'm never going to use since who goes into melee range as a wizard?  Just seems wasteful to me.  When I cast spells I want to use as much of it as I can.

That's why I feel like A.E. feels more useful on Druids since at least they're somewhat better at going into melee if they want to

 
That just doesn't make sense to me, if I'm being honest. "Oh no, I won't take this spell that has a feature that is very likely to save my life, because a different feature of it I probably won't use".

I don't use the explosion effect of a Glyph of Warding, but you can be darn skippy that I'm using it's spell-storing feature for it's insanely awesome potential.

Magic Box: "Once per day I can provide you with a million gold, and, optionally, a teddy bear."
You: "I don't like teddy bears, so I'pass."
Magic Box: "The teddy bear is optional, you could just have the money."
You: "But that would be wasting part of what you offer, so I'll still pass."
Magic Box: "But you'd get free money...?"
You: "I said no!"

This is how you're coming across. Now, it's perfectly valid - play how you want with whatever spells you do and don't want. It's just your 'logic' makes my brain go fuzzy, it seems bonkers absurd and I just cannot understand it.