I'm playing a gnome enchantment wizard in a recently-started Eberron campaign, and I'm setting out to do something not necessarily new, but definitely uncommon - I'm making a wizard who doesn't do damage - most likely, the most damaging spell I'll probably end up using will be sleet storm flaming sphere (edited to reflect a mistake that was pointed out). Rather, I'm focusing entirely on supporting the other party members by controlling the battlefield and giving them the advantage that they crave (and with two rogues and a barbarian, you know they're craving it). It's somewhat inspired by Treantmonk's "god wizard" play style.
What are your thoughts on this style of play? Have you ever played a wizard like this yourself?
Possible. But most support spells of value are concentration. So round after round you'll be doing very little. I would encourage a cantrip. Many have additional features: frostbite imposes disadvantage on an attack, ray of frost reduces speed, fire bolt ignites flammable material (great to combine with web spell, oil traps etc), infestation makes them move 5 ft, chill touch prevents healing, shocking grasp stops reactions, and mind sliver imposes -1d4 to their next save. There's probs one or two I forgot. Point is these not only let you damage round after round while you concentration spell holds, but they also offer battlefield control and can make great combos. Holding a Slow spell ? Ray of Frost to make them even slower. Mind sliver to reduce chance of our target breaking free of your spell. As mentioned: web them and then ignite the web for a fiery trap.
You mention sleet storm (which doesn't deal any damage at all, btw) - this is great as it creates a large area of difficult terrain with chances of them falling prone. Ray of Frost and Mind Sliver pair very well with this.
So, yeah, if you don't get some of these cantrips, your combat is basically going to be you doing nothing for a few rounds at a time.
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Its totally possible and alot of fun if you do it right. You could go enchantment, illusion or divination very easily and have it be alot of fun. id recommend 1 damaging cantrip that also debuffs, id recommend mind sliver but take all your other cantrips to be flavor and utility for your concept.
Possible. But most support spells of value are concentration. So round after round you'll be doing very little. I would encourage a cantrip. Many have additional features: frostbite imposes disadvantage on an attack, ray of frost reduces speed, fire bolt ignites flammable material (great to combine with web spell, oil traps etc), infestation makes them move 5 ft, chill touch prevents healing, shocking grasp stops reactions, and mind sliver imposes -1d4 to their next save. There's probs one or two I forgot. Point is these not only let you damage round after round while you concentration spell holds, but they also offer battlefield control and can make great combos. Holding a Slow spell ? Ray of Frost to make them even slower. Mind sliver to reduce chance of our target breaking free of your spell. As mentioned: web them and then ignite the web for a fiery trap.
You mention sleet storm (which doesn't deal any damage at all, btw) - this is great as it creates a large area of difficult terrain with chances of them falling prone. Ray of Frost and Mind Sliver pair very well with this.
So, yeah, if you don't get some of these cantrips, your combat is basically going to be you doing nothing for a few rounds at a time.
Whoops, good call on sleet storm lol. I think I blended the effects of sleet storm and ice storm in my brain. In that case, flaming sphere is probably the most damaging spell I'll have.
Cantrips wouldn't work well for my play strategy though (except as something to use when nothing else would be more useful), but I appreciate the suggestion. Generally, my actions are taken up by maintaining hypnotic gaze on an enemy while concentrating on a spell. Divide and conquer the enemies with an AoE such as web, then further lock down another enemy with hypnotic gaze as the webbed enemies trickle out. That way the rest of the party only has a couple enemies to deal with at a time.
Great thread! I’ll illustrate my point giving the example of my current Hobgoblin Wizard (that I already mentioned a little bit at the homonymous topic) who completely neglected the warfare mindset of his race, and after some tragic events, decided to make a perpetual vow of non-violence.
My character is at level 2 and I chose the Divination school in order to perform the classic “God Wizard” style crafted by Treantmonk. As of now, I didn’t select a single cantrip or spell capable of doing damage, and I’m basically running with this setup:
Cantrips:
- Mold Earth (to create foxholes, difficult terrain and different kinds of exploits to give advantage or cover to my allies)
- Minor Illusion (same principle as Mold Earth during combat + some utility out of combat)
- Light (couple humans in our party)
Spells:
- Shield (staple for defense)
- Find Familiar (best ritual in the game, usually to give Help Action to allies)
- Unseen Servant (put some usage to my bonus action, usually to give potion to allies or drop some caltrops/ball bearings in the field)
- Sleep (killer spell at low level)
- Grease (depending on initiative order, can be a game-changer to my melee allies against prone targets)
Vicious Mockery is exclusive to Bards! But thanks to reborn this great thread once again.
I just reached level 3 with my pacifist Hobgoblin Wizard while ago and changed Mold Earth to Mind Sliver. Selected Hold Person and Web as my 2nd level spells — doing really great.
I figure I ought to give a little bit of an update now that I've had time to play with the character. We recently finished the ERLW introductory adventure, Forgotten Relics. We started at level 3 and we're currently level 4. So far, the play style is working exactly as I wanted.
First, here's my current spellbook:
Cantrips:
Friends
Gust
Message (from mark of scribing)
Minor Illusion
Minor Web (a neat little Spider-Man style cantrip that our DM created and has been tweaking as needed)
1st Level:
Absorb Elements
Alarm
Detect Magic
Feather Fall
Find Familiar
Mage Armor
Shield
Tasha's Hideous Laughter
Tenser's Floating Disk
2nd Level:
Hold Person
Mirror Image
Misty Step
Nystul's Magic Aura (well, not quite - I haven't scribed it into my spellbook from the scroll yet)
Web
So, here are my initial thoughts. Hypnotic gaze has been fantastic so far. It's essentially forced our DM to include at least two opponents in every combat because I can completely take one of them out of the fight until everything else is handled. Tasha's hideous laughter has been phenomenal as well for the same reason; it's a great single-target lockdown spell, which is exactly what I wanted. I haven't had a chance to use hold person, but web has worked well for my divide-and-conquer tactics as well - even if it doesn't hold every enemy for the whole duration, they trickle out over a couple rounds for the party dispatch one or two at a time (or, alternatively, the other party members can get easy advantage against the webbed enemies). Our DM buffed some encounters to compensate for us starting the adventure at level 3 instead of level 1, but even with that the encounters are extremely manageable with smart resource management. The other party members (shifter assassin rogue, tabaxi swashbuckler rogue, and mountain dwarf bear totem barbarian) have been playing more tactically than I would have expected as well, and they've been appreciative of the advantage I can give them with spells.
I plan on rounding out my spellbook versatility by looking for utility spell scrolls whenever possible (especially while we're still in Sharn), as many of my free spells from levelling up will likely be geared toward more battlefield control, though not entirely.
Great thread! I’ll illustrate my point giving the example of my current Hobgoblin Wizard (that I already mentioned a little bit at the homonymous topic) who completely neglected the warfare mindset of his race, and after some tragic events, decided to make a perpetual vow of non-violence.
My character is at level 2 and I chose the Divination school in order to perform the classic “God Wizard” style crafted by Treantmonk. As of now, I didn’t select a single cantrip or spell capable of doing damage, and I’m basically running with this setup:
Cantrips:
- Mold Earth (to create foxholes, difficult terrain and different kinds of exploits to give advantage or cover to my allies)
- Minor Illusion (same principle as Mold Earth during combat + some utility out of combat)
- Light (couple humans in our party)
Spells:
- Shield (staple for defense)
- Find Familiar (best ritual in the game, usually to give Help Action to allies)
- Unseen Servant (put some usage to my bonus action, usually to give potion to allies or drop some caltrops/ball bearings in the field)
- Sleep (killer spell at low level)
- Grease (depending on initiative order, can be a game-changer to my melee allies against prone targets)
As soon as you said "hobgoblin wizard" I immediately thought about Treantmonk's abjurer lol. I've fallen in love with the "god wizard" style now that I've had a chance to play with it for a bit. I'm noticing that a lot of my character concepts that I've had lately have been geared toward that style as well, even if they're not actually wizards. It's just so much more appealing to help the party succeed overall rather than being the one bringing the crazy damage.
Great thread! I’ll illustrate my point giving the example of my current Hobgoblin Wizard (that I already mentioned a little bit at the homonymous topic) who completely neglected the warfare mindset of his race, and after some tragic events, decided to make a perpetual vow of non-violence.
My character is at level 2 and I chose the Divination school in order to perform the classic “God Wizard” style crafted by Treantmonk. As of now, I didn’t select a single cantrip or spell capable of doing damage, and I’m basically running with this setup:
Cantrips:
- Mold Earth (to create foxholes, difficult terrain and different kinds of exploits to give advantage or cover to my allies)
- Minor Illusion (same principle as Mold Earth during combat + some utility out of combat)
- Light (couple humans in our party)
Spells:
- Shield (staple for defense)
- Find Familiar (best ritual in the game, usually to give Help Action to allies)
- Unseen Servant (put some usage to my bonus action, usually to give potion to allies or drop some caltrops/ball bearings in the field)
- Sleep (killer spell at low level)
- Grease (depending on initiative order, can be a game-changer to my melee allies against prone targets)
As soon as you said "hobgoblin wizard" I immediately thought about Treantmonk's abjurer lol. I've fallen in love with the "god wizard" style now that I've had a chance to play with it for a bit. I'm noticing that a lot of my character concepts that I've had lately have been geared toward that style as well, even if they're not actually wizards. It's just so much more appealing to help the party succeed overall rather than being the one bringing the crazy damage.
Yeah, I was heavily inspired by Treatmonk as well. Main difference is that my Hobgoblin Wizard is a Diviner. I do have a build for an Abjurer, but it’s a Mark of Warding Dwarf — this little guy is really dangerous. heheh.
You can do amazing battlefield control characters with Bards, Clerics and even a classic Fighter Battlemaster!
If you allow me a recommendation, since you are not finding good opportunities to leverage Hold Person, probably due to Humanoid restrictions, Levitate is a really good option to completely shut down a melee enemy. CON save is a problem, but it’s feasible. Flaming Sphere is quite good as well because you can move it around with your bonus action while saving your action to keep Hypnotic Gaze up!
Great thread! I’ll illustrate my point giving the example of my current Hobgoblin Wizard (that I already mentioned a little bit at the homonymous topic) who completely neglected the warfare mindset of his race, and after some tragic events, decided to make a perpetual vow of non-violence.
My character is at level 2 and I chose the Divination school in order to perform the classic “God Wizard” style crafted by Treantmonk. As of now, I didn’t select a single cantrip or spell capable of doing damage, and I’m basically running with this setup:
Cantrips:
- Mold Earth (to create foxholes, difficult terrain and different kinds of exploits to give advantage or cover to my allies)
- Minor Illusion (same principle as Mold Earth during combat + some utility out of combat)
- Light (couple humans in our party)
Spells:
- Shield (staple for defense)
- Find Familiar (best ritual in the game, usually to give Help Action to allies)
- Unseen Servant (put some usage to my bonus action, usually to give potion to allies or drop some caltrops/ball bearings in the field)
- Sleep (killer spell at low level)
- Grease (depending on initiative order, can be a game-changer to my melee allies against prone targets)
As soon as you said "hobgoblin wizard" I immediately thought about Treantmonk's abjurer lol. I've fallen in love with the "god wizard" style now that I've had a chance to play with it for a bit. I'm noticing that a lot of my character concepts that I've had lately have been geared toward that style as well, even if they're not actually wizards. It's just so much more appealing to help the party succeed overall rather than being the one bringing the crazy damage.
Yeah, I was heavily inspired by Treatmonk as well. Main difference is that my Hobgoblin Wizard is a Diviner. I do have a build for an Abjurer, but it’s a Mark of Warding Dwarf — this little guy is really dangerous. heheh.
You can do amazing battlefield control characters with Bards, Clerics and even a classic Fighter Battlemaster!
If you allow me a recommendation, since you are not finding good opportunities to leverage Hold Person, probably due to Humanoid restrictions, Levitate is a really good option to completely shut down a melee enemy. CON save is a problem, but it’s feasible. Flaming Sphere is quite good as well because you can move it around with your bonus action while saving your action to keep Hypnotic Gaze up!
I knew I couldn't be the only one wanting to play a mark of warding abjurer lol. It's such an obvious synergy I'd be surprised if that were the case. Not to mention, the ability to stack armor of agathys with arcane ward is enough to make a warlock green with envy.
So far the only reason I haven't had a chance to use hold person is because I just got the spell. We've mainly been fighting humanoids so far, but we just haven't had much combat since we leveled up and I learned hold person. The main reason I took it was in preparation for split enchantment, and given our history of opponents so far it will likely still find some use for a little while. Levitate is on my scroll shopping list, though. As far as flaming sphere goes, I'm still debating whether to take it. It's a great use of my bonus action each round and is a solid control spell, but I really like the conscientious objector vibe that my character has got going so far. Maybe something for the shopping list just to have in case it's needed.
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I'm playing a gnome enchantment wizard in a recently-started Eberron campaign, and I'm setting out to do something not necessarily new, but definitely uncommon - I'm making a wizard who doesn't do damage - most likely, the most damaging spell I'll probably end up using will be
sleet stormflaming sphere (edited to reflect a mistake that was pointed out). Rather, I'm focusing entirely on supporting the other party members by controlling the battlefield and giving them the advantage that they crave (and with two rogues and a barbarian, you know they're craving it). It's somewhat inspired by Treantmonk's "god wizard" play style.What are your thoughts on this style of play? Have you ever played a wizard like this yourself?
Possible. But most support spells of value are concentration. So round after round you'll be doing very little. I would encourage a cantrip. Many have additional features: frostbite imposes disadvantage on an attack, ray of frost reduces speed, fire bolt ignites flammable material (great to combine with web spell, oil traps etc), infestation makes them move 5 ft, chill touch prevents healing, shocking grasp stops reactions, and mind sliver imposes -1d4 to their next save. There's probs one or two I forgot. Point is these not only let you damage round after round while you concentration spell holds, but they also offer battlefield control and can make great combos. Holding a Slow spell ? Ray of Frost to make them even slower. Mind sliver to reduce chance of our target breaking free of your spell. As mentioned: web them and then ignite the web for a fiery trap.
You mention sleet storm (which doesn't deal any damage at all, btw) - this is great as it creates a large area of difficult terrain with chances of them falling prone. Ray of Frost and Mind Sliver pair very well with this.
So, yeah, if you don't get some of these cantrips, your combat is basically going to be you doing nothing for a few rounds at a time.
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.
Its totally possible and alot of fun if you do it right. You could go enchantment, illusion or divination very easily and have it be alot of fun. id recommend 1 damaging cantrip that also debuffs, id recommend mind sliver but take all your other cantrips to be flavor and utility for your concept.
This honestly will work fine you'll probably end up being the support character of your parties dreams...
Whoops, good call on sleet storm lol. I think I blended the effects of sleet storm and ice storm in my brain. In that case, flaming sphere is probably the most damaging spell I'll have.
Cantrips wouldn't work well for my play strategy though (except as something to use when nothing else would be more useful), but I appreciate the suggestion. Generally, my actions are taken up by maintaining hypnotic gaze on an enemy while concentrating on a spell. Divide and conquer the enemies with an AoE such as web, then further lock down another enemy with hypnotic gaze as the webbed enemies trickle out. That way the rest of the party only has a couple enemies to deal with at a time.
One of our party's players was a Fire Genasi "pacifist" Wizard...
It was an amusing theory..."Tasha's Hideous Laughter" was they're best friend.
There were times, however, where the player lamented not being able to use damaging spells.
Ultimately, they had to "break" their pacifism by using their racial "Produce Flame".
I'd say it's clunky; but doable.
Great thread! I’ll illustrate my point giving the example of my current Hobgoblin Wizard (that I already mentioned a little bit at the homonymous topic) who completely neglected the warfare mindset of his race, and after some tragic events, decided to make a perpetual vow of non-violence.
My character is at level 2 and I chose the Divination school in order to perform the classic “God Wizard” style crafted by Treantmonk. As of now, I didn’t select a single cantrip or spell capable of doing damage, and I’m basically running with this setup:
Cantrips:
- Mold Earth (to create foxholes, difficult terrain and different kinds of exploits to give advantage or cover to my allies)
- Minor Illusion (same principle as Mold Earth during combat + some utility out of combat)
- Light (couple humans in our party)
Spells:
- Shield (staple for defense)
- Find Familiar (best ritual in the game, usually to give Help Action to allies)
- Unseen Servant (put some usage to my bonus action, usually to give potion to allies or drop some caltrops/ball bearings in the field)
- Sleep (killer spell at low level)
- Grease (depending on initiative order, can be a game-changer to my melee allies against prone targets)
i would recommend vicous mockery it's a solid debuff cantrip
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Vicious Mockery is exclusive to Bards! But thanks to reborn this great thread once again.
I just reached level 3 with my pacifist Hobgoblin Wizard while ago and changed Mold Earth to Mind Sliver. Selected Hold Person and Web as my 2nd level spells — doing really great.
Mind Sliver is awesome!
I figure I ought to give a little bit of an update now that I've had time to play with the character. We recently finished the ERLW introductory adventure, Forgotten Relics. We started at level 3 and we're currently level 4. So far, the play style is working exactly as I wanted.
First, here's my current spellbook:
So, here are my initial thoughts. Hypnotic gaze has been fantastic so far. It's essentially forced our DM to include at least two opponents in every combat because I can completely take one of them out of the fight until everything else is handled. Tasha's hideous laughter has been phenomenal as well for the same reason; it's a great single-target lockdown spell, which is exactly what I wanted. I haven't had a chance to use hold person, but web has worked well for my divide-and-conquer tactics as well - even if it doesn't hold every enemy for the whole duration, they trickle out over a couple rounds for the party dispatch one or two at a time (or, alternatively, the other party members can get easy advantage against the webbed enemies). Our DM buffed some encounters to compensate for us starting the adventure at level 3 instead of level 1, but even with that the encounters are extremely manageable with smart resource management. The other party members (shifter assassin rogue, tabaxi swashbuckler rogue, and mountain dwarf bear totem barbarian) have been playing more tactically than I would have expected as well, and they've been appreciative of the advantage I can give them with spells.
I plan on rounding out my spellbook versatility by looking for utility spell scrolls whenever possible (especially while we're still in Sharn), as many of my free spells from levelling up will likely be geared toward more battlefield control, though not entirely.
As soon as you said "hobgoblin wizard" I immediately thought about Treantmonk's abjurer lol. I've fallen in love with the "god wizard" style now that I've had a chance to play with it for a bit. I'm noticing that a lot of my character concepts that I've had lately have been geared toward that style as well, even if they're not actually wizards. It's just so much more appealing to help the party succeed overall rather than being the one bringing the crazy damage.
Yeah, I was heavily inspired by Treatmonk as well. Main difference is that my Hobgoblin Wizard is a Diviner. I do have a build for an Abjurer, but it’s a Mark of Warding Dwarf — this little guy is really dangerous. heheh.
You can do amazing battlefield control characters with Bards, Clerics and even a classic Fighter Battlemaster!
If you allow me a recommendation, since you are not finding good opportunities to leverage Hold Person, probably due to Humanoid restrictions, Levitate is a really good option to completely shut down a melee enemy. CON save is a problem, but it’s feasible. Flaming Sphere is quite good as well because you can move it around with your bonus action while saving your action to keep Hypnotic Gaze up!
I knew I couldn't be the only one wanting to play a mark of warding abjurer lol. It's such an obvious synergy I'd be surprised if that were the case. Not to mention, the ability to stack armor of agathys with arcane ward is enough to make a warlock green with envy.
So far the only reason I haven't had a chance to use hold person is because I just got the spell. We've mainly been fighting humanoids so far, but we just haven't had much combat since we leveled up and I learned hold person. The main reason I took it was in preparation for split enchantment, and given our history of opponents so far it will likely still find some use for a little while. Levitate is on my scroll shopping list, though. As far as flaming sphere goes, I'm still debating whether to take it. It's a great use of my bonus action each round and is a solid control spell, but I really like the conscientious objector vibe that my character has got going so far. Maybe something for the shopping list just to have in case it's needed.