if the OP is truly set on making a wizard that can tank hits, I am looking at a fighter MC abjuration wizard. I am taking hill dwarf to help prop up my hit points and so I can dump str while still wearing heavy armor. You'll have to annoy your party by making them stop long enough to recharge your abjuration ward with Alarm (you can't use the armor of shadows trick while wearing armor). Use a shield. You're likely going to need to get warcaster or use item interaction cheese to cast some of your spells, but we're trying to force a square peg into a round hole here. Between plate, shield, and the shield spell, your AC should be good. You have your abjuration ward to soak damage when hits can't be avoided, and hill dwarf will allow you to take the hits that get through better than other races would.
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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.
Yeah it can work. Here are a few off the top of my head that can be tanky.
Mountain dwarf and change the Strength stat to Int. You're a wizard, so you'll still want high Int and you're a tank wizard so you'll want high Con. Look for adamantine medium armor to keep yourself from getting 1 shot with a critical hit. Good subclasses include Abjuration and War. Bladesinging doesn't work with medium armor so skip that one if you go this route.
Variant human to grab Toughness. That basically turns your hit points into that of a fighter. Bladesinger becomes a good option in this case because you're not relying on armor so survive. You could get 16 in DEX and INT with mage armor and you're looking at an AC of 19 right off the bat. Trouble is that you can't always be in blade song which means your AC is 16 the rest of the time.
If multiclassing is on the table, as crzyhawk said Figther/Abjuration Wizard is a really tanky option. You take dip one, two, three, five, or 7 levels in fighter to make it work. You could go 4 but might as well go 5 at that point for Extra Attack. You could also go 6 but at that point might as well go 7 for War Magic. Just depends on how tanky you want to be. If you take fighter to 3, Eldritch knight will help your spell progression a little as they're a 1/3rd caster.
Mark of Warding Dwarf Abjuration wizard can be hella tanky too. You'll need to be using Armor of Agathys which pairs really well with the Arcane Ward. Basically, if your ward and AoA are both up and you get hit with an attack, your ward takes the damage first but they still take damage from AoA. So if you use a second level spell slot at level 3 you get 10 extra hit points and your ward will soak up 9 damage. If you get hit for 5 points of damage, your ward eats all of it and the attacker takes 10 points of damage. It's a pretty neat interaction although enemies would probably stop attacking you.
Your quip about war caster being available to all wizards is moot since it's clear to the reader that the build is Bladesinger (for AC) and Warcaster (for reaction spell and the cult of the booming blade).
Thanks for proving my point though. If it's so clear that Mephista's post is bladesinger is for AC and Warcaster is for reactions with booming blade then how is it moot to bring up every wizard can warcaster-booming blade again?
And I'll repeat. I was not ignoring any part of what the Bladesinger brings to the table. I pointed out that other wizards could use warcaster in the same way, to punish people that want to ignore you. Which is a factually true statement.
Appreciate you trying to jump down my throat, but you undid yourself there.
When you write, "Any wizard can warcaster-booming blade. Not a bladesinger exclusive" in response to Mephista, Mongolian and I see you as correcting Mephista when they didn't need to be corrected. It was clear in their original formulation that blooming blade is in no way dependent upon bladesinger. I mean in the context of your comment, why else would you lead with that? .
Somewhere there's a thread about people not able to admit error and become intractable about it....
Bladesinger with Warcaster and Booming Blade is where my money is. Bladesingers get great AC by default, and Warcaster lets you punish people for trying to ignore you.
Of course, I'm also biased that I want someone called a tank to be able to actually act like a tank, and not just add AC.
Bolded for relevance:
Mephista is essentially claiming the other ideas that had been presented don't really act like a tank. The difference in their concept? Warcaster to punish people for ignoring you.
At that point, yes I think it is completely fair to point out that any wizard can accomplish this. Thus implying any of the builds that had been presented could have warcaster and booming blade and act like a tank in the way they saw fit.
MidnightPlat, I'm sincerely sorry for my language in a different thread. It was completely unnecessary and hurtful. But you've used it as an excuse to try and bird-dog me. Please stop. There was absolutely nothing wrong with what I said in response to Mephista. I'm tired of being picked apart for this and I'm sure everyone still trying to contribute to the thread is too.
Brewsky did you go moderately armored and then heavily armored? My instinct would have been to stop at medium but that's cool. What level would you pick that up?
Definitely take Moderately and Heavily armored. My original AL character was Half-orc and used a Fighter level, but if you go pure Wizard you can do a few things:
- completely sacrifice intelligence too to make it even more strength specialized.
- faster spell progression and also Wiz 20 Class Feature
A couple of notes:
- Don’t take Fighter first level - Tenser’s gives you Con saves proficiency and this doubles up if you take it. With Wizard levels first and Res-Dex you can get proficiency in Dex/Con/Wis/Int.
- War Wizard specific abilities help in combat and saves without using spells. In AL, grabbing cloaks and rings of protection and some strength belt will make you an absolutely juggernaut
My brain had not even been able to wrap around the idea of dumping intelligence. It makes a lot of sense once looking at your spell choices. Huh. I'll be thinking about this one. Cool build, thanks for the share.
My brain had not even been able to wrap around the idea of dumping intelligence. It makes a lot of sense once looking at your spell choices. Huh. I'll be thinking about this one. Cool build, thanks for the share.
Yeah, the only thing Intelligence helps with is DC and spell variety - the number of spell slots is not affected at all. The TT spell is so overpowered when it’s designed into the build - so while TT is active this build would have +14 Con saves, and a reaction would bump that up to +18.
Damage is immense - +11 to hit with advantage is incredibly powerful (hits every time and higher chance of a crit), and you get three attacks with TT and PAM active. And each attack does 2d12 additional force damage on top of all the normal damage. And then the temp HP on top of that...
The spell choice is very specific - using Soul Cage preciously to allow you to heal while TT is active, for example. Non-concentration spells like Mind Blank, Water Breathing, Rary’s Bond. Free Deflecting Shroud damage...
And you’ll have +7 on the Con save for exhaustion - with a reaction to bump that to +11 too. So in rare cases it’ll cause you one exhaustion point (but unlikely to have two).
edit: just for reference - your DM will want to see all of your stats in an AL game so just make sure to have everything documented haha. Paladin smite-like damage every turn is going to look suspicious. Haha
Did you play this build from a low level or did you drop in with TT?
Played AL from level 1 to 20. Low levels you just use magic missile at range, or run in and bust some heads once you have mirror image or blur. It’s kinda flimsy until you start getting the better armor Feats.
You know I constantly forget about magic missile (and its lack of attack rolls) because the two wizards I've played didn't have it. I think my difficulty wrapping my head around this wizard build of yours comes from my bias towards the class. I'm basically always looking to make a wizard a devious and scheming controller with very few direct damage spells. It's really cool to know you were able to function from 1-20 though. Thanks for all of the useful information.
I know War Magic has a lot to offer this build, but I'm kind of obsessing about porting it over to a Necromancer. I like the idea of using zombies and skeletons to bolster the build's ability to tank and provide protection for its allies. Nothing like some meat shields when trying to protect a squishy.
You know I constantly forget about magic missile (and its lack of attack rolls) because the two wizards I've played didn't have it. I think my difficulty wrapping my head around this wizard build of yours comes from my bias towards the class. I'm basically always looking to make a wizard a devious and scheming controller with very few direct damage spells. It's really cool to know you were able to function from 1-20 though. Thanks for all of the useful information.
I know War Magic has a lot to offer this build, but I'm kind of obsessing about porting it over to a Necromancer. I like the idea of using zombies and skeletons to bolster the build's ability to tank and provide protection for its allies. Nothing like some meat shields when trying to protect a squishy.
Necro is solid! Definitely because you have a whole bunch of attacks to roll each round 🙂
Also, you could go with Transmuter as well, because the Transmuter’s Stone could make the Con save for TT far more likely to succeed.
if the OP is truly set on making a wizard that can tank hits, I am looking at a fighter MC abjuration wizard. I am taking hill dwarf to help prop up my hit points and so I can dump str while still wearing heavy armor. You'll have to annoy your party by making them stop long enough to recharge your abjuration ward with Alarm (you can't use the armor of shadows trick while wearing armor). Use a shield. You're likely going to need to get warcaster or use item interaction cheese to cast some of your spells, but we're trying to force a square peg into a round hole here. Between plate, shield, and the shield spell, your AC should be good. You have your abjuration ward to soak damage when hits can't be avoided, and hill dwarf will allow you to take the hits that get through better than other races would.
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
Yeah it can work. Here are a few off the top of my head that can be tanky.
When you write, "Any wizard can warcaster-booming blade. Not a bladesinger exclusive" in response to Mephista, Mongolian and I see you as correcting Mephista when they didn't need to be corrected. It was clear in their original formulation that blooming blade is in no way dependent upon bladesinger. I mean in the context of your comment, why else would you lead with that? .
Somewhere there's a thread about people not able to admit error and become intractable about it....
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Bolded for relevance:
Mephista is essentially claiming the other ideas that had been presented don't really act like a tank. The difference in their concept? Warcaster to punish people for ignoring you.
At that point, yes I think it is completely fair to point out that any wizard can accomplish this. Thus implying any of the builds that had been presented could have warcaster and booming blade and act like a tank in the way they saw fit.
MidnightPlat, I'm sincerely sorry for my language in a different thread. It was completely unnecessary and hurtful. But you've used it as an excuse to try and bird-dog me. Please stop. There was absolutely nothing wrong with what I said in response to Mephista. I'm tired of being picked apart for this and I'm sure everyone still trying to contribute to the thread is too.
Definitely take Moderately and Heavily armored. My original AL character was Half-orc and used a Fighter level, but if you go pure Wizard you can do a few things:
- completely sacrifice intelligence too to make it even more strength specialized.
- faster spell progression and also Wiz 20 Class Feature
A couple of notes:
- Don’t take Fighter first level - Tenser’s gives you Con saves proficiency and this doubles up if you take it. With Wizard levels first and Res-Dex you can get proficiency in Dex/Con/Wis/Int.
- War Wizard specific abilities help in combat and saves without using spells. In AL, grabbing cloaks and rings of protection and some strength belt will make you an absolutely juggernaut
See my AL character below if you want!
https://ddb.ac/characters/11290166/3EN29z
My brain had not even been able to wrap around the idea of dumping intelligence. It makes a lot of sense once looking at your spell choices. Huh. I'll be thinking about this one. Cool build, thanks for the share.
Yeah, the only thing Intelligence helps with is DC and spell variety - the number of spell slots is not affected at all. The TT spell is so overpowered when it’s designed into the build - so while TT is active this build would have +14 Con saves, and a reaction would bump that up to +18.
Damage is immense - +11 to hit with advantage is incredibly powerful (hits every time and higher chance of a crit), and you get three attacks with TT and PAM active. And each attack does 2d12 additional force damage on top of all the normal damage. And then the temp HP on top of that...
The spell choice is very specific - using Soul Cage preciously to allow you to heal while TT is active, for example. Non-concentration spells like Mind Blank, Water Breathing, Rary’s Bond. Free Deflecting Shroud damage...
And you’ll have +7 on the Con save for exhaustion - with a reaction to bump that to +11 too. So in rare cases it’ll cause you one exhaustion point (but unlikely to have two).
edit: just for reference - your DM will want to see all of your stats in an AL game so just make sure to have everything documented haha. Paladin smite-like damage every turn is going to look suspicious. Haha
Did you play this build from a low level or did you drop in with TT?
Played AL from level 1 to 20. Low levels you just use magic missile at range, or run in and bust some heads once you have mirror image or blur. It’s kinda flimsy until you start getting the better armor Feats.
You know I constantly forget about magic missile (and its lack of attack rolls) because the two wizards I've played didn't have it. I think my difficulty wrapping my head around this wizard build of yours comes from my bias towards the class. I'm basically always looking to make a wizard a devious and scheming controller with very few direct damage spells. It's really cool to know you were able to function from 1-20 though. Thanks for all of the useful information.
I know War Magic has a lot to offer this build, but I'm kind of obsessing about porting it over to a Necromancer. I like the idea of using zombies and skeletons to bolster the build's ability to tank and provide protection for its allies. Nothing like some meat shields when trying to protect a squishy.
So much drama over my simple statement! Woah.
Necro is solid! Definitely because you have a whole bunch of attacks to roll each round 🙂
Also, you could go with Transmuter as well, because the Transmuter’s Stone could make the Con save for TT far more likely to succeed.
5th level baldesinger build:
Race: hill dwarf (Dwarven toughness)
class: bladesinger 5
20 (d6 wizard)
15 (+3 con with point buy)
5 (dwarven toughness)
10 (tough feat)
50hp with 17AC (+2 dex and +3 int and studded leather) or 22 with shield spell. All crits are avoided from slivery barbs
I used TCoE optional rules