1 combat cantrip can be enough, but it depends upon what cantrip it is and what type of wizard you are. You want to get a rarely-resisted damage type, so that rules out Fire bolt and poison spray two high damage cantrips. Ray of frost might work, but cold can be resisted. Ultimately, it is up to you and your specific campaign. For example, if you are not fighting undead than Chill Touch can be a powerful combat cantrip with a helpful attack rider.
Even with a Warlock and Eldritch Blast I like to take two damage dealing cantrips. One that requires an attack roll and one that requires a saving throw and I like to have two different damage types too because of damage resistance and immunity. Which cantrips you take doesn't seem to matter much to me, but what matters is having a cantrip that targets saving throws to use against an enemy that is wearing full plate mail and a cantrip that requires an attack roll to use against an enemy that makes every single saving throw.
1 combat cantrip can be enough, but it depends upon what cantrip it is and what type of wizard you are. You want to get a rarely-resisted damage type, so that rules out Fire bolt and poison spray two high damage cantrips. Ray of frost might work, but cold can be resisted. Ultimately, it is up to you and your specific campaign. For example, if you are not fighting undead than Chill Touch can be a powerful combat cantrip with a helpful attack rider.
I don't understand "if you are not fighting undead". Chill Touch is highly effective against undead as it negates their regeneration and imposes disadvantage on their attacks.
143 undead monsters: 55 are resistant, 37 immune, 51 have no damage resistance/immunity.
Even without actually causing damage, the cantrip is very effective at keeping you safe from them (whether it does damage or not, if you hit they get disadvantage to all attacks against you until the start of your next turn) and for preventing any healing or regeneration (take that, vampires!).
It's definitely worth consideration even if going against undead.
-
If you suspect battle it is best to have:
a cantrip that is an attack
a cantrip that uses a saving throw
at least 2 damage types unless you have a feature that lets you change damage type or bypass resistances.
By varying your approach to damage dealing you can be more effective in combat. High AC? Use the save type. Strong saves? Use the attack. Fire resistant? Use cold. And so on.
You should also consider the "other effect" a cantrip may have. Even if the cantrip doesn't cause damage, if you hit the "other effect" still applies. Ray of Frost is great for slowing the enemy down, frostbite's imposed disadvantage might just save you or an ally - certainly from a crit at any rate!, chill touch negates regen and healing - trolls are nothing to you now, and fire bolt can set things alight at a long distance making it great for fiery traps.
However, your role in the group may be less about combat and more for support or utility in which case you're fine sticking with just the one cantrip. Even if it is one you can't use in one battle, you should have other spells to use and can save it for a different battle. Of course, this might get frustrating if you're in a battle-heavy campaign. So it also depends on the type of campaign you're in.
Ultimately, there's no right way or wrong way. Some don't even take combat cantrips at all if their focus is support as their levelled spells will serve much better. An Illusionist Wizard is probably more effective with Minor Illusion than they'd ever be with Firebolt if they're creative. An Enchanter wizard would get more use from Charm and Domination spells to control enemies. Conjuration wizards are probably better hiding at the back while their summoned minions do the fighting. Bladesingers will be very heavily relying on stabbing people with super-buffed magic blades than using cantrips. And so on.
If you have no front line (Barbarians, Fighters and Paladins, some Blood Hunter builds) you might want to take more combat cantrips unless you have enough mid-line (Monks, Rogues, Hexblade Warlocks, etc) to make up for it. Although, again, even this may vary if you don't see much combat anyway.
TL:DR; it depends too much on your playstyle and the campaign you're in to give a simple answer.
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1 combat cantrip can be enough, but it depends upon what cantrip it is and what type of wizard you are. You want to get a rarely-resisted damage type, so that rules out Fire bolt and poison spray two high damage cantrips. Ray of frost might work, but cold can be resisted. Ultimately, it is up to you and your specific campaign. For example, if you are not fighting undead than Chill Touch can be a powerful combat cantrip with a helpful attack rider.
I don't understand "if you are not fighting undead". Chill Touch is highly effective against undead as it negates their regeneration and imposes disadvantage on their attacks.
143 undead monsters: 55 are resistant, 37 immune, 51 have no damage resistance/immunity.
Even without actually causing damage, the cantrip is very effective at keeping you safe from them (whether it does damage or not, if you hit they get disadvantage to all attacks against you until the start of your next turn) and for preventing any healing or regeneration (take that, vampires!).
It's definitely worth consideration even if going against undead.
-
If you suspect battle it is best to have:
a cantrip that is an attack
a cantrip that uses a saving throw
at least 2 damage types unless you have a feature that lets you change damage type or bypass resistances.
By varying your approach to damage dealing you can be more effective in combat. High AC? Use the save type. Strong saves? Use the attack. Fire resistant? Use cold. And so on.
You should also consider the "other effect" a cantrip may have. Even if the cantrip doesn't cause damage, if you hit the "other effect" still applies. Ray of Frost is great for slowing the enemy down, frostbite's imposed disadvantage might just save you or an ally - certainly from a crit at any rate!, chill touch negates regen and healing - trolls are nothing to you now, and fire bolt can set things alight at a long distance making it great for fiery traps.
However, your role in the group may be less about combat and more for support or utility in which case you're fine sticking with just the one cantrip. Even if it is one you can't use in one battle, you should have other spells to use and can save it for a different battle. Of course, this might get frustrating if you're in a battle-heavy campaign. So it also depends on the type of campaign you're in.
Ultimately, there's no right way or wrong way. Some don't even take combat cantrips at all if their focus is support as their levelled spells will serve much better. An Illusionist Wizard is probably more effective with Minor Illusion than they'd ever be with Firebolt if they're creative. An Enchanter wizard would get more use from Charm and Domination spells to control enemies. Conjuration wizards are probably better hiding at the back while their summoned minions do the fighting. Bladesingers will be very heavily relying on stabbing people with super-buffed magic blades than using cantrips. And so on.
If you have no front line (Barbarians, Fighters and Paladins, some Blood Hunter builds) you might want to take more combat cantrips unless you have enough mid-line (Monks, Rogues, Hexblade Warlocks, etc) to make up for it. Although, again, even this may vary if you don't see much combat anyway.
TL:DR; it depends too much on your playstyle and the campaign you're in to give a simple answer.
Woops, I forgot that it gave undead disadvantage. May bad. I was mainly saying to not use it because I thought necrotic was a typical resistance of undead.
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A fool pulls the leaves. A brute chops the trunk. A sage digs the roots.
There are a significant number of undead that have resistance to necrotic. For this reason it is a good idea to have some spells besides chill touch to use against undead.
I agree with Tim. On my Arcane Cleric 1 / Transmutation Wizard 4 I have eight cantrips but only two attacks. Firebolt for Spell Attack and Toll the Dead for Saving Throw. The rest of the cantrips are utility.
I generally like to have 1 ranged attack roll cantrip and 1 saving throw cantrip on every character I can set up that way (preferrably different damage types depending on theme). I doubt I would go much beyond that though, and the rest of my cantrips would be of some form of utility.
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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.
I generally like to have 1 ranged attack roll cantrip and 1 saving throw cantrip on every character I can set up that way (preferrably different damage types depending on theme). I doubt I would go much beyond that though, and the rest of my cantrips would be of some form of utility.
That's what I do as well. If you'd want to push it and have three attack cantrips, then you can go with a melee cantrip just shocking grasp, but the saving throw spell also fills this niche of melee spells since they it's not an attack role. Though I'd personally go with a utility cantrip over a third damage.
I generally like to have 1 ranged attack roll cantrip and 1 saving throw cantrip on every character I can set up that way (preferrably different damage types depending on theme). I doubt I would go much beyond that though, and the rest of my cantrips would be of some form of utility.
That's what I do as well. If you'd want to push it and have three attack cantrips, then you can go with a melee cantrip just shocking grasp, but the saving throw spell also fills this niche of melee spells since they it's not an attack role. Though I'd personally go with a utility cantrip over a third damage.
I nearly edited my post to say just that, and decided not to. I /do/ like to have shocking grasp on my arcane casters because it takes away the reaction of whatever enemy got in my face so I can move away without an OA. If I feel tight on my cantrips though, I'll rely on my save spell if I get stuck in melee.
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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.
Rule of thumb, and I've only been using 5th Edition for about 2 years now, but you always want at least one damaging Cantrip.
Cantrips such as Minor Illusion, Prestidigitation, Friends, Light, Message, Mending and Mage Hand are almost always solid picks for a Wizard, and depending upon the setting, spells like Shape Fire, Earth and Water can be amazingly effective, be it helping players slowly but effectively digging their way out of the Under-Dark, stopping a ship sinking by forcing water to not fill the ship's hold, stopping fires spreading through a forest.
Other Cantrips can deal damage, but sometimes it is their utility rather than the damage or damage-type that's important. Firebolt is the main-stay of so many Wizards because of the wording. You can use this Cantrip to target literally anything. A rock blocking your path. A Gnoll trying to eat your horse. That one person who always called you a nerrrrrrrrrrd in college. If it is a creature or an object, you can smack it upside the head with a bolt of fire at up to 120 feet, and it only gets stronger as you do. Even if the target is resistant, you're still dealing a nice whack of damage and contributing while the rest of the party is decorating the room with it's innards.
Infestation might have a very commonly resisted damage-type, but the other effect of the spell? Random movement that, while not causing Attacks of Opportunity, can force the creature to move away, or towards, your allies or a natural hazard, setting up for somebody else to deliver some more punishment on their turn.
Acid Splash is limited in that it can only be used to attack creatures, but it is one of the few multiple-target spells with a decent range that a Wizard will have access to at lower levels, and throwing am acidic loogie at your enemies never gets old.
Chill Touch is, as has been previously mentioned, an amazing spell that can not only deal a nasty type of damage, but is very effective against Undead even if they're resistant or even immune to Necrotic damage and makes them less effective at murdering your friends, and a oft-overlooked detail, it prevents the regaining of hitpoints until the start of your next turn. Become the bane of Trolls, Hydras and Healers alike by just spamming the damn thing on the badly injured enemies while your Cleric laughs hysterically and spams Toll the Dead and does even more damage than normal on targets that have low will saving throws.
Frostbite and Ray of Frost are two very useful Cantrips in that, despite the saving throw required and being restricted to 'creatures' as the sole legal target, they debuff the target and inflict penalties that a canny party can abuse the ever-lovin' beejeebus out of. Frostbite, used on more fragile targets or targets that might not have good Constitution saves, not only deals damage but applies Disadvantage on their next weapon attack roll they make. It can be the difference between that Kenku Rogue making their sneak-attack on your flanked Fighter or not. Ray of Frost doesn't have a Saving Throw attached to it, but it can lower the speed of the target by 10 feet until the start of your next turn, and that can make all the difference between a fragile or wounded party-member getting the heck outta dodge or getting caught and pounded into the masonry of the dungeon.
For the TL:DR, Cantrips are solid, reliable damage, but a Wizard shouldn't be totally reliant upon them for damage. Spells like Catapult, Vampiric Touch and ye olde crowd favourite, FIREBALL, are what a Wizard uses to deal their damage when they have to, and that versatility of spells is where the Wizard shines, even if they aren't the blasty type. Fighting a Hydra? Toss out a Fireball and you've got that scene of Burning Godzilla vs Ghidora. Cast Transmute Rock on the ceiling above a Clay Golem, get around it's pesky Spell Resistance, trap it under a heaping heck of thick, clinging mud, then either cast the spell again or actively 'dispel' it with Dispel Magic and trap the Golem under 40 square feet's worth of a single piece of stone that is form-fitted to the Golem's body. Heck, Banish the rival Wizard, surround their entry-point with explosives or similar shenanigans, then ready an action to let loose as soon as the Banishment ends and Team Rocket is blasting off again! their backside into submission.
Cantrips are then for fun and flavour and to stop forcing Wizard and other Spellcaster Classes from bogging down the campaign from ten minutes of agonizing over if they should burn a precious spell-slot to deal with a minor threat rather than a major one just to contribute to the fight, when they can just cast a Cantrip, do respectable damage and save their spell-slots for utility and/or actually fun things.
My usual go-to cantrips are Minor Illusion, Mind Sliver, some utility one (Mold Earth, Mage Hand, Light, Message, Friends, etc) and just one offensive focused. From levels 1-4 I usually get Create Bonfire because Concentration is not so crowded. Beginning from 5 and after understanding the game play of my DM, I usually change for Toll the Dead (2d12 is nice!) or Ray of Frost/Frostbite.
Thanks to Tasha’s, however, Wizards can improvise a lot with cantrips and this is awesome!
Rule of thumb, and I've only been using 5th Edition for about 2 years now, but you always want at least one damaging Cantrip.
Cantrips such as Minor Illusion, Prestidigitation, Friends, Light, Message, Mending and Mage Hand are almost always solid picks for a Wizard, and depending upon the setting, spells like Shape Fire, Earth and Water can be amazingly effective, be it helping players slowly but effectively digging their way out of the Under-Dark, stopping a ship sinking by forcing water to not fill the ship's hold, stopping fires spreading through a forest.
Other Cantrips can deal damage, but sometimes it is their utility rather than the damage or damage-type that's important. Firebolt is the main-stay of so many Wizards because of the wording. You can use this Cantrip to target literally anything. A rock blocking your path. A Gnoll trying to eat your horse. That one person who always called you a nerrrrrrrrrrd in college. If it is a creature or an object, you can smack it upside the head with a bolt of fire at up to 120 feet, and it only gets stronger as you do. Even if the target is resistant, you're still dealing a nice whack of damage and contributing while the rest of the party is decorating the room with it's innards.
Infestation might have a very commonly resisted damage-type, but the other effect of the spell? Random movement that, while not causing Attacks of Opportunity, can force the creature to move away, or towards, your allies or a natural hazard, setting up for somebody else to deliver some more punishment on their turn.
Acid Splash is limited in that it can only be used to attack creatures, but it is one of the few multiple-target spells with a decent range that a Wizard will have access to at lower levels, and throwing am acidic loogie at your enemies never gets old.
Chill Touch is, as has been previously mentioned, an amazing spell that can not only deal a nasty type of damage, but is very effective against Undead even if they're resistant or even immune to Necrotic damage and makes them less effective at murdering your friends, and a oft-overlooked detail, it prevents the regaining of hitpoints until the start of your next turn. Become the bane of Trolls, Hydras and Healers alike by just spamming the damn thing on the badly injured enemies while your Cleric laughs hysterically and spams Toll the Dead and does even more damage than normal on targets that have low will saving throws.
Frostbite and Ray of Frost are two very useful Cantrips in that, despite the saving throw required and being restricted to 'creatures' as the sole legal target, they debuff the target and inflict penalties that a canny party can abuse the ever-lovin' beejeebus out of. Frostbite, used on more fragile targets or targets that might not have good Constitution saves, not only deals damage but applies Disadvantage on their next weapon attack roll they make. It can be the difference between that Kenku Rogue making their sneak-attack on your flanked Fighter or not. Ray of Frost doesn't have a Saving Throw attached to it, but it can lower the speed of the target by 10 feet until the start of your next turn, and that can make all the difference between a fragile or wounded party-member getting the heck outta dodge or getting caught and pounded into the masonry of the dungeon.
For the TL:DR, Cantrips are solid, reliable damage, but a Wizard shouldn't be totally reliant upon them for damage. Spells like Catapult, Vampiric Touch and ye olde crowd favourite, FIREBALL, are what a Wizard uses to deal their damage when they have to, and that versatility of spells is where the Wizard shines, even if they aren't the blasty type. Fighting a Hydra? Toss out a Fireball and you've got that scene of Burning Godzilla vs Ghidora. Cast Transmute Rock on the ceiling above a Clay Golem, get around it's pesky Spell Resistance, trap it under a heaping heck of thick, clinging mud, then either cast the spell again or actively 'dispel' it with Dispel Magic and trap the Golem under 40 square feet's worth of a single piece of stone that is form-fitted to the Golem's body. Heck, Banish the rival Wizard, surround their entry-point with explosives or similar shenanigans, then ready an action to let loose as soon as the Banishment ends and Team Rocket is blasting off again! their backside into submission.
Cantrips are then for fun and flavour and to stop forcing Wizard and other Spellcaster Classes from bogging down the campaign from ten minutes of agonizing over if they should burn a precious spell-slot to deal with a minor threat rather than a major one just to contribute to the fight, when they can just cast a Cantrip, do respectable damage and save their spell-slots for utility and/or actually fun things.
Excellent writeup. I usually go with one all in damage cantrip (mostly [Tooltip Not Found] or Eldritch Blast) and one more control oriented damage cantrip if a have extra slots.
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A fool pulls the leaves. A brute chops the trunk. A sage digs the roots.
In play I got along fine with just fire bolt with my enchanter and we were fighting a lot of demons.
Sure they resisted the damage, so it was effectively 1d5, since many of the with a rider cantrips do 1d6 its not that different especially since the riders aren't that impressive. And its not that long until you have enough spells and your spells are so much better than the cantrips you are only using cantrips in fights where the party has it in hand fine without expending resources or any more resources. So, whatever in the fight your fighters and rogues were going to steam roll from the get go or from that point on you didn't contribute much.
If I'm playing a damage-focused build, I usually take an attack roll cantrip and a saving throw cantrip. Otherwise I only really need one. That being said though, my current character's only damaging spells are ones that I've come across during the campaign, so I don't have any damaging cantrips at all (though I just came across a spellbook with mind sliver in it and my DM is allowing me to copy cantrips like I would leveled spells).
One attack spell and one save is generally a good way to go. Keep in mind cantrips aren't usually actually changable unless your DM allows it because they don't use spell slots and most abilities that allow for that talk about spells that use spell slots. That said, most DM's don't usually notice or complain as long as you have the right number of cantrips in the end.
My variation to this that I do sometimes and more on Clerics in particular is to do two save spells but make sure they are different save types that are likely to work on different types of characters. Such as something that works well against a mental stat and the other against a physical stat. Both wis and Dex are common saves on Cantrips.
One should be a cantrip that let's you make an attack roll. this is stuff like fire bolt, chill touch, and ray of frost. This will be used most of the time. If you can attack with weapons, you may not need this cantrip.
The next one would be a save cantrip like Toll the dead or mind sliver. use this when you would have disadvantage on attacks.
A wizard naturally gets 5 cantrips, so I would take one attack cantrip and one save cantrip. If you get more via feats or races, I would suggest half of your spells be attack cantrips, each dealing a different damage type. More than 4 is overkill. My go-to 4 when I have 8 spells are: Toll the Dead, Firebolt, Ray of Frost, and Mind Sliver.
Jessbruffett - If you're playing with Tasha's optional rules, then fret not. You can change out a wizard cantrip on every long rest. So you can decide that maybe a second damage dealing cantrip maybe beneficial or decide later that you want a more utility spell.
Other than that, I usually have 2. One for melee and one for range. While as a wizard you usually don't want to be within melee range, sometimes the DM will deem the creatures want to target the squishy spellcaster in the back. So I have Shocking grasp so that I can hit them and keep them from using a reaction to AoO on me as I run for safety else where. Then I like a good range spell like Firebolt or Mind Sliver depending on the enemies and the spells I currently have prepared.
Is 1 combat/damage cantrip enough for a wizard or should I keep taking 2? If 1 is does it matter which one?
1 combat cantrip can be enough, but it depends upon what cantrip it is and what type of wizard you are. You want to get a rarely-resisted damage type, so that rules out Fire bolt and poison spray two high damage cantrips. Ray of frost might work, but cold can be resisted. Ultimately, it is up to you and your specific campaign. For example, if you are not fighting undead than Chill Touch can be a powerful combat cantrip with a helpful attack rider.
A fool pulls the leaves. A brute chops the trunk. A sage digs the roots.
My Improved Lineage System
Even with a Warlock and Eldritch Blast I like to take two damage dealing cantrips. One that requires an attack roll and one that requires a saving throw and I like to have two different damage types too because of damage resistance and immunity. Which cantrips you take doesn't seem to matter much to me, but what matters is having a cantrip that targets saving throws to use against an enemy that is wearing full plate mail and a cantrip that requires an attack roll to use against an enemy that makes every single saving throw.
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I don't understand "if you are not fighting undead". Chill Touch is highly effective against undead as it negates their regeneration and imposes disadvantage on their attacks.
143 undead monsters: 55 are resistant, 37 immune, 51 have no damage resistance/immunity.
Even without actually causing damage, the cantrip is very effective at keeping you safe from them (whether it does damage or not, if you hit they get disadvantage to all attacks against you until the start of your next turn) and for preventing any healing or regeneration (take that, vampires!).
It's definitely worth consideration even if going against undead.
-
If you suspect battle it is best to have:
a cantrip that is an attack
a cantrip that uses a saving throw
at least 2 damage types unless you have a feature that lets you change damage type or bypass resistances.
By varying your approach to damage dealing you can be more effective in combat. High AC? Use the save type. Strong saves? Use the attack. Fire resistant? Use cold. And so on.
You should also consider the "other effect" a cantrip may have. Even if the cantrip doesn't cause damage, if you hit the "other effect" still applies. Ray of Frost is great for slowing the enemy down, frostbite's imposed disadvantage might just save you or an ally - certainly from a crit at any rate!, chill touch negates regen and healing - trolls are nothing to you now, and fire bolt can set things alight at a long distance making it great for fiery traps.
However, your role in the group may be less about combat and more for support or utility in which case you're fine sticking with just the one cantrip. Even if it is one you can't use in one battle, you should have other spells to use and can save it for a different battle. Of course, this might get frustrating if you're in a battle-heavy campaign. So it also depends on the type of campaign you're in.
Ultimately, there's no right way or wrong way. Some don't even take combat cantrips at all if their focus is support as their levelled spells will serve much better. An Illusionist Wizard is probably more effective with Minor Illusion than they'd ever be with Firebolt if they're creative. An Enchanter wizard would get more use from Charm and Domination spells to control enemies. Conjuration wizards are probably better hiding at the back while their summoned minions do the fighting. Bladesingers will be very heavily relying on stabbing people with super-buffed magic blades than using cantrips. And so on.
If you have no front line (Barbarians, Fighters and Paladins, some Blood Hunter builds) you might want to take more combat cantrips unless you have enough mid-line (Monks, Rogues, Hexblade Warlocks, etc) to make up for it. Although, again, even this may vary if you don't see much combat anyway.
TL:DR; it depends too much on your playstyle and the campaign you're in to give a simple answer.
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Woops, I forgot that it gave undead disadvantage. May bad. I was mainly saying to not use it because I thought necrotic was a typical resistance of undead.
A fool pulls the leaves. A brute chops the trunk. A sage digs the roots.
My Improved Lineage System
There are a significant number of undead that have resistance to necrotic. For this reason it is a good idea to have some spells besides chill touch to use against undead.
I agree with Tim. On my Arcane Cleric 1 / Transmutation Wizard 4 I have eight cantrips but only two attacks. Firebolt for Spell Attack and Toll the Dead for Saving Throw. The rest of the cantrips are utility.
I generally like to have 1 ranged attack roll cantrip and 1 saving throw cantrip on every character I can set up that way (preferrably different damage types depending on theme). I doubt I would go much beyond that though, and the rest of my cantrips would be of some form of utility.
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
That's what I do as well. If you'd want to push it and have three attack cantrips, then you can go with a melee cantrip just shocking grasp, but the saving throw spell also fills this niche of melee spells since they it's not an attack role. Though I'd personally go with a utility cantrip over a third damage.
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I nearly edited my post to say just that, and decided not to. I /do/ like to have shocking grasp on my arcane casters because it takes away the reaction of whatever enemy got in my face so I can move away without an OA. If I feel tight on my cantrips though, I'll rely on my save spell if I get stuck in melee.
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
Yes, 1 is enough unless you only care about doing damage.
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Rule of thumb, and I've only been using 5th Edition for about 2 years now, but you always want at least one damaging Cantrip.
Cantrips such as Minor Illusion, Prestidigitation, Friends, Light, Message, Mending and Mage Hand are almost always solid picks for a Wizard, and depending upon the setting, spells like Shape Fire, Earth and Water can be amazingly effective, be it helping players slowly but effectively digging their way out of the Under-Dark, stopping a ship sinking by forcing water to not fill the ship's hold, stopping fires spreading through a forest.
Other Cantrips can deal damage, but sometimes it is their utility rather than the damage or damage-type that's important. Firebolt is the main-stay of so many Wizards because of the wording. You can use this Cantrip to target literally anything. A rock blocking your path. A Gnoll trying to eat your horse. That one person who always called you a nerrrrrrrrrrd in college. If it is a creature or an object, you can smack it upside the head with a bolt of fire at up to 120 feet, and it only gets stronger as you do. Even if the target is resistant, you're still dealing a nice whack of damage and contributing while the rest of the party is decorating the room with it's innards.
Infestation might have a very commonly resisted damage-type, but the other effect of the spell? Random movement that, while not causing Attacks of Opportunity, can force the creature to move away, or towards, your allies or a natural hazard, setting up for somebody else to deliver some more punishment on their turn.
Acid Splash is limited in that it can only be used to attack creatures, but it is one of the few multiple-target spells with a decent range that a Wizard will have access to at lower levels, and throwing am acidic loogie at your enemies never gets old.
Chill Touch is, as has been previously mentioned, an amazing spell that can not only deal a nasty type of damage, but is very effective against Undead even if they're resistant or even immune to Necrotic damage and makes them less effective at murdering your friends, and a oft-overlooked detail, it prevents the regaining of hitpoints until the start of your next turn. Become the bane of Trolls, Hydras and Healers alike by just spamming the damn thing on the badly injured enemies while your Cleric laughs hysterically and spams Toll the Dead and does even more damage than normal on targets that have low will saving throws.
Frostbite and Ray of Frost are two very useful Cantrips in that, despite the saving throw required and being restricted to 'creatures' as the sole legal target, they debuff the target and inflict penalties that a canny party can abuse the ever-lovin' beejeebus out of. Frostbite, used on more fragile targets or targets that might not have good Constitution saves, not only deals damage but applies Disadvantage on their next weapon attack roll they make. It can be the difference between that Kenku Rogue making their sneak-attack on your flanked Fighter or not. Ray of Frost doesn't have a Saving Throw attached to it, but it can lower the speed of the target by 10 feet until the start of your next turn, and that can make all the difference between a fragile or wounded party-member getting the heck outta dodge or getting caught and pounded into the masonry of the dungeon.
For the TL:DR, Cantrips are solid, reliable damage, but a Wizard shouldn't be totally reliant upon them for damage. Spells like Catapult, Vampiric Touch and ye olde crowd favourite, FIREBALL, are what a Wizard uses to deal their damage when they have to, and that versatility of spells is where the Wizard shines, even if they aren't the blasty type. Fighting a Hydra? Toss out a Fireball and you've got that scene of Burning Godzilla vs Ghidora. Cast Transmute Rock on the ceiling above a Clay Golem, get around it's pesky Spell Resistance, trap it under a heaping heck of thick, clinging mud, then either cast the spell again or actively 'dispel' it with Dispel Magic and trap the Golem under 40 square feet's worth of a single piece of stone that is form-fitted to the Golem's body. Heck, Banish the rival Wizard, surround their entry-point with explosives or similar shenanigans, then ready an action to let loose as soon as the Banishment ends and Team Rocket is blasting off again! their backside into submission.
Cantrips are then for fun and flavour and to stop forcing Wizard and other Spellcaster Classes from bogging down the campaign from ten minutes of agonizing over if they should burn a precious spell-slot to deal with a minor threat rather than a major one just to contribute to the fight, when they can just cast a Cantrip, do respectable damage and save their spell-slots for utility and/or actually fun things.
My usual go-to cantrips are Minor Illusion, Mind Sliver, some utility one (Mold Earth, Mage Hand, Light, Message, Friends, etc) and just one offensive focused. From levels 1-4 I usually get Create Bonfire because Concentration is not so crowded. Beginning from 5 and after understanding the game play of my DM, I usually change for Toll the Dead (2d12 is nice!) or Ray of Frost/Frostbite.
Thanks to Tasha’s, however, Wizards can improvise a lot with cantrips and this is awesome!
Excellent writeup. I usually go with one all in damage cantrip (mostly [Tooltip Not Found] or Eldritch Blast) and one more control oriented damage cantrip if a have extra slots.
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In play I got along fine with just fire bolt with my enchanter and we were fighting a lot of demons.
Sure they resisted the damage, so it was effectively 1d5, since many of the with a rider cantrips do 1d6 its not that different especially since the riders aren't that impressive. And its not that long until you have enough spells and your spells are so much better than the cantrips you are only using cantrips in fights where the party has it in hand fine without expending resources or any more resources. So, whatever in the fight your fighters and rogues were going to steam roll from the get go or from that point on you didn't contribute much.
If I'm playing a damage-focused build, I usually take an attack roll cantrip and a saving throw cantrip. Otherwise I only really need one. That being said though, my current character's only damaging spells are ones that I've come across during the campaign, so I don't have any damaging cantrips at all (though I just came across a spellbook with mind sliver in it and my DM is allowing me to copy cantrips like I would leveled spells).
One attack spell and one save is generally a good way to go. Keep in mind cantrips aren't usually actually changable unless your DM allows it because they don't use spell slots and most abilities that allow for that talk about spells that use spell slots. That said, most DM's don't usually notice or complain as long as you have the right number of cantrips in the end.
My variation to this that I do sometimes and more on Clerics in particular is to do two save spells but make sure they are different save types that are likely to work on different types of characters. Such as something that works well against a mental stat and the other against a physical stat. Both wis and Dex are common saves on Cantrips.
2 is usually fine.
One should be a cantrip that let's you make an attack roll. this is stuff like fire bolt, chill touch, and ray of frost. This will be used most of the time. If you can attack with weapons, you may not need this cantrip.
The next one would be a save cantrip like Toll the dead or mind sliver. use this when you would have disadvantage on attacks.
A wizard naturally gets 5 cantrips, so I would take one attack cantrip and one save cantrip. If you get more via feats or races, I would suggest half of your spells be attack cantrips, each dealing a different damage type. More than 4 is overkill. My go-to 4 when I have 8 spells are: Toll the Dead, Firebolt, Ray of Frost, and Mind Sliver.
Jessbruffett - If you're playing with Tasha's optional rules, then fret not. You can change out a wizard cantrip on every long rest. So you can decide that maybe a second damage dealing cantrip maybe beneficial or decide later that you want a more utility spell.
Other than that, I usually have 2. One for melee and one for range. While as a wizard you usually don't want to be within melee range, sometimes the DM will deem the creatures want to target the squishy spellcaster in the back. So I have Shocking grasp so that I can hit them and keep them from using a reaction to AoO on me as I run for safety else where. Then I like a good range spell like Firebolt or Mind Sliver depending on the enemies and the spells I currently have prepared.
I have played through 14th level. I started with Shocking Grasp and Fire Bolt. Used Shocking Grasp ONCE.
Partly because I took Elemental Adept (Fire) - so resistant creatures took full damage. And partially because I learned Misty Step.
Someone got close enough for me to want to use Shocking Grasp, I Misty Stepped away.
When Something was immune to Fire, I used leveled spells.