I'm about to run a Mark of Mending Dwarf Abjuration Wizard. I rolled insanse stats so I have an 18 con. I also rolled 6,6,6,4 for my hit dice. At lvl 5 I'm going to have 48hp, 15hp of arcane ward, and another 15 temp hp from 3rd lvl Armor of Agythys from Mark of Mending. As a lvl 5 wizard I can go into a fight with 78 effective HP. Eldritch adept just means that I can go into any fight with 15 hp. I think a single feat for 15 hp every single fight at lvl 5 is pretty good, and its only gonna get better. Essentially unless you really get smacked around youre pretty much just healing for 15 out of combat after every single fight without using spell slots.
I've come round to like the idea of rolling stats etc in the group discord in a session zero and taking the rolls in sequence. I once got great rolls at a third attempt in one campaign but it left me disproportionately strong.
I've come round to like the idea of rolling stats etc in the group discord in a session zero and taking the rolls in sequence. I once got great rolls at a third attempt in one campaign but it left me disproportionately strong.
Rolls are potentially great if your looking for Strong and/or really non-standard characters, point buy is kind of middle ground unless you go with a non-standard point buy that changes certain limits and/or the number of points. Array tends to be best suited to have the most consistent party members so you don't have one that is hard to challenge and another that drops dead in a strong wind or to a particularly smelly fart that your trying to balance around.
This discussion is highlighting how powerful an effect feats have on the game, and how much better a build becomes if you take variant human as your base.
As Wizards release more and better feats the game can be projected to become variant human and custom lineage on the one side, and everything else on the other. Racial feats (which shouldn't be given to custom lineage) and personal preference will be the reasons people play the non-feat races.
This discussion is highlighting how powerful an effect feats have on the game, and how much better a build becomes if you take variant human as your base.
As Wizards release more and better feats the game can be projected to become variant human and custom lineage on the one side, and everything else on the other. Racial feats (which shouldn't be given to custom lineage) and personal preference will be the reasons people play the non-feat races.
Except. That's just a matter of false perception. There are a lot of other abilities that are powerful as well that often need to be taken into account.
The Reality is that while a few things can be mimic'd with feats. There are many abilities that come with Races that actually cannot that can be picked up by Variant Human, Or even necessarily Customary Lineage. Some of them might potentially be able to be mimic'd in other ways but the ways are going to be few, often cost resources or even potentially cause problems for builds that racials don't, and usual pretty specific to actually do it in even a semi-useful way.
Darkvision is one that Variant human can't have for example that has a dramatic effect on a fair bit of combat and even some entire settings. Because not being able to see while not codified in quite the way a feat is. Has All kinds of actual indirect problems. Like the inability to wield a 2 handed weapon or a sword and shield at the same time with most light sources they would have to use which can affect both melee and ranged combat for the character. or Potentially a second character as they aid you in your moments of disability.
Now, DarkVision can technically be picked up by a spell, or be dealt with by just one or two rare magical items you can't be guaranteed to get. But even though it is one that is replicatable it still demonstrates how it can be better not to have to need to replicate it. But there are things like stackable damage, particularly of rare damage types, That certain races can add into things and such like that which do not have any kind of easy or real counterpart that can just be picked up. The Feat on the other hand. That can usually be picked up later so that you can have both these kinds of things and the Feat.
This discussion is highlighting how powerful an effect feats have on the game, and how much better a build becomes if you take variant human as your base.
As Wizards release more and better feats the game can be projected to become variant human and custom lineage on the one side, and everything else on the other. Racial feats (which shouldn't be given to custom lineage) and personal preference will be the reasons people play the non-feat races.
Except. That's just a matter of false perception. There are a lot of other abilities that are powerful as well that often need to be taken into account.
The Reality is that while a few things can be mimic'd with feats. There are many abilities that come with Races that actually cannot that can be picked up by Variant Human, Or even necessarily Customary Lineage. Some of them might potentially be able to be mimic'd in other ways but the ways are going to be few, often cost resources or even potentially cause problems for builds that racials don't, and usual pretty specific to actually do it in even a semi-useful way.
Darkvision is one that Variant human can't have for example that has a dramatic effect on a fair bit of combat and even some entire settings. Because not being able to see while not codified in quite the way a feat is. Has All kinds of actual indirect problems. Like the inability to wield a 2 handed weapon or a sword and shield at the same time with most light sources they would have to use which can affect both melee and ranged combat for the character. or Potentially a second character as they aid you in your moments of disability.
Now, DarkVision can technically be picked up by a spell, or be dealt with by just one or two rare magical items you can't be guaranteed to get. But even though it is one that is replicatable it still demonstrates how it can be better not to have to need to replicate it. But there are things like stackable damage, particularly of rare damage types, That certain races can add into things and such like that which do not have any kind of easy or real counterpart that can just be picked up. The Feat on the other hand. That can usually be picked up later so that you can have both these kinds of things and the Feat.
Devilsight from Eldritch Adept is actually a better Darkvision.
Do you have other examples that cannot be replicated? The only one I can think of is flight speed.
This is getting a little off topic but for starters Bugbears get an extra 5 ft reach with their melee attacks, Tortles have built in 17 AC without any ability score requirements or gear.
Goblins have a once per rest damage burst from Fury of the Small, Aasimar have a similar ability that lasts 1 minute. Kobolds have Pack Tactics. There are also race specific feats like Elven Accuracy that requires you to NOT be a V Human.
There are many more examples but I'm lazy but what I'm trying to say is there is life beyond the V Humans and Custom Lineage race.
This is getting a little off topic but for starters Bugbears get an extra 5 ft reach with their melee attacks, Tortles have built in 17 AC without any ability score requirements or gear.
Goblins have a once per rest damage burst from Fury of the Small, Aasimar have a similar ability that lasts 1 minute. Kobolds have Pack Tactics. There are also race specific feats like Elven Accuracy that requires you to NOT be a V Human.
There are many more examples but I'm lazy but what I'm trying to say is there is life beyond the V Humans and Custom Lineage race.
17 AC is possible from the get go with the Mage Armor invocation and an 18 in a starting stat.
Reach is a decent one but honestly a reach weapon is already available for the builds that would want it mostly but that is a good one. Not much a v. human could do to pick that one up.
Fury of the Small is just damage so any damage feat (SS, CBE, etc...) will obtain the exact same result.
Flight from the Aasimir is about the only one that can't be replicated I think....which I mentioned.
Pack Tactics is a good one...but ADV is not really hard to come by and large. There are several feats that can help you generate ADV so much like the damage option the end result is the same.
Elven Accuracy is a good one but ultimately is the point of NOT allowing custom lineage to let you pick "elf but not"
Oh another couple of racial abilities that a feat cannot replicate is Half Orc's Relentless Endurance and Yuan-Ti's/Satyr's Magic Resistance.
Those are good ones....Magic resistance is a mistake IMO but thats besides the point.
Relentless Endurance is a good one though...****y think I can think of is Magic Initiate for Shield spell that would turn a hit to a miss for the same effect.
This discussion is highlighting how powerful an effect feats have on the game, and how much better a build becomes if you take variant human as your base.
As Wizards release more and better feats the game can be projected to become variant human and custom lineage on the one side, and everything else on the other. Racial feats (which shouldn't be given to custom lineage) and personal preference will be the reasons people play the non-feat races.
Except. That's just a matter of false perception. There are a lot of other abilities that are powerful as well that often need to be taken into account.
The Reality is that while a few things can be mimic'd with feats. There are many abilities that come with Races that actually cannot that can be picked up by Variant Human, Or even necessarily Customary Lineage. Some of them might potentially be able to be mimic'd in other ways but the ways are going to be few, often cost resources or even potentially cause problems for builds that racials don't, and usual pretty specific to actually do it in even a semi-useful way.
Darkvision is one that Variant human can't have for example that has a dramatic effect on a fair bit of combat and even some entire settings. Because not being able to see while not codified in quite the way a feat is. Has All kinds of actual indirect problems. Like the inability to wield a 2 handed weapon or a sword and shield at the same time with most light sources they would have to use which can affect both melee and ranged combat for the character. or Potentially a second character as they aid you in your moments of disability.
Now, DarkVision can technically be picked up by a spell, or be dealt with by just one or two rare magical items you can't be guaranteed to get. But even though it is one that is replicatable it still demonstrates how it can be better not to have to need to replicate it. But there are things like stackable damage, particularly of rare damage types, That certain races can add into things and such like that which do not have any kind of easy or real counterpart that can just be picked up. The Feat on the other hand. That can usually be picked up later so that you can have both these kinds of things and the Feat.
Devilsight from Eldritch Adept is actually a better Darkvision.
Do you have other examples that cannot be replicated? The only one I can think of is flight speed.
Devilsight is also extremely limited in it's availability. And if your taking that. Your not necessarily taking other feats. And Devilsight has it's own weaknesses.
Fury of the Small is just damage so any damage feat (SS, CBE, etc...) will obtain the exact same result.
This is an outright lie. These bonuses to Damage are not the same thing as Fury of the Small. Because anything with Fury of the Small can take the damage increases that your claiming are the same and still actually use damage of the small for even more Damage. Same as the Damage that Aasimar put out. It's damage that cannot be just replicated with gear or other feats. Because it can be used in addition to that gear or other feats that the Variant human cannot make up for in any way what so ever. Anything that the Variant Human does to increase their damage a Goblin can also do to gain that same Advantage plus Fury of the Small. This makes Fury of the Small Unreplicatable by feats and gear.
A Goblin with 20 strength, can still take GWM, To get the same damage. They can be enlarged through various means to wield Heavy Weapons and be medium size just like the Variant Human. ETC. They can always in some way match the Variant human. But the Variant Human can never get Fury of the Small.
Also Yes. a Variant Human Can get a reach weapon. But a Variant Human cannot get a reach weapon and then use their racial ability for even further reach. The Bugbear if it chooses to can outreach the Variant Human. it doesn't serve a big purpose on average but it is possible. The Bugbear's version of reach is also a wider usable version of reach because it can be done without specific weapons. Making for much wider possibility of combinations in combat.
This discussion is highlighting how powerful an effect feats have on the game, and how much better a build becomes if you take variant human as your base.
As Wizards release more and better feats the game can be projected to become variant human and custom lineage on the one side, and everything else on the other. Racial feats (which shouldn't be given to custom lineage) and personal preference will be the reasons people play the non-feat races.
Except. That's just a matter of false perception. There are a lot of other abilities that are powerful as well that often need to be taken into account.
The Reality is that while a few things can be mimic'd with feats. There are many abilities that come with Races that actually cannot that can be picked up by Variant Human, Or even necessarily Customary Lineage. Some of them might potentially be able to be mimic'd in other ways but the ways are going to be few, often cost resources or even potentially cause problems for builds that racials don't, and usual pretty specific to actually do it in even a semi-useful way.
Darkvision is one that Variant human can't have for example that has a dramatic effect on a fair bit of combat and even some entire settings. Because not being able to see while not codified in quite the way a feat is. Has All kinds of actual indirect problems. Like the inability to wield a 2 handed weapon or a sword and shield at the same time with most light sources they would have to use which can affect both melee and ranged combat for the character. or Potentially a second character as they aid you in your moments of disability.
Now, DarkVision can technically be picked up by a spell, or be dealt with by just one or two rare magical items you can't be guaranteed to get. But even though it is one that is replicatable it still demonstrates how it can be better not to have to need to replicate it. But there are things like stackable damage, particularly of rare damage types, That certain races can add into things and such like that which do not have any kind of easy or real counterpart that can just be picked up. The Feat on the other hand. That can usually be picked up later so that you can have both these kinds of things and the Feat.
Devilsight from Eldritch Adept is actually a better Darkvision.
Do you have other examples that cannot be replicated? The only one I can think of is flight speed.
Devilsight is also extremely limited in it's availability. And if your taking that. Your not necessarily taking other feats. And Devilsight has it's own weaknesses.
Fury of the Small is just damage so any damage feat (SS, CBE, etc...) will obtain the exact same result.
This is an outright lie. These bonuses to Damage are not the same thing as Fury of the Small. Because anything with Fury of the Small can take the damage increases that your claiming are the same and still actually use damage of the small for even more Damage. Same as the Damage that Aasimar put out. It's damage that cannot be just replicated with gear or other feats. Because it can be used in addition to that gear or other feats that the Variant human cannot make up for in any way what so ever. Anything that the Variant Human does to increase their damage a Goblin can also do to gain that same Advantage plus Fury of the Small. This makes Fury of the Small Unreplicatable by feats and gear.
A Goblin with 20 strength, can still take GWM, To get the same damage. They can be enlarged through various means to wield Heavy Weapons and be medium size just like the Variant Human. ETC. They can always in some way match the Variant human. But the Variant Human can never get Fury of the Small.
Also Yes. a Variant Human Can get a reach weapon. But a Variant Human cannot get a reach weapon and then use their racial ability for even further reach. The Bugbear if it chooses to can outreach the Variant Human. it doesn't serve a big purpose on average but it is possible. The Bugbear's version of reach is also a wider usable version of reach because it can be done without specific weapons. Making for much wider possibility of combinations in combat.
Your right the other damage bonus are just straight better.
Damage is for the most part just damage.
That v human getting CBE is going to be better at 1 for damage then the goblin.
So it's the same for all intents and purposes.
Now if you said their ability to disengage or hide as a BA (Nimble Escape) then you would actually be correct.
Please refrain from calling something a lie unless you know it to be an intentional statement of mistruth. Otherwise, it is simply an inaccurate statement. Calling it a "lie" can feel like a personal attack and it nonconstructive. People can be wrong without lying.
I think the aasimar and goblin damage bonuses are unique in that they can be used to increase the damage for spells. I don’t know of any feats that can directly and reliably increase spell damages.
I think goblin casters are wonderfully potent because of this and the disengage saving misty step slots while preserving the action for leveled casting.
I think the aasimar and goblin damage bonuses are unique in that they can be used to increase the damage for spells. I don’t know of any feats that can directly and reliably increase spell damages.
I think goblin casters are wonderfully potent because of this and the disengage saving misty step slots while preserving the action for leveled casting.
I’m running a Mark of Warding Dwarf Abjurer at level 9 right now and my DM is suffering.
My character sits on top of 38~43 extra protection layer (23 from Arcane Ward and 20 THP from Armor of Agathys upcasted with 4th level slot). Sometimes I’m greedy and I cast Fire Shield as well, which makes more effective at melee than our Barbarian.
Absorb Elements, Shield, Counterspell, Dispel Magic and Banishment are my bread and butter to keep my Ward up and running during combats. If I’m out of spell slots and my Ward is going down, I’m also making clever use of the infamous cantrip Blade Ward to protect the THP from AoA, I believe it’s the only good use case for it.
During downtime I use to cast Alarm as a ritual to replenish the Ward, it’s not so fast as Armor of Shadows, but the opportunity cost of a feat is too much.
One fun note: Arcane Ward + AoA are so effective, that I honestly rolled Concentration checks no more than couple times during the entire campaign. It’s awesome because I can cast a good concentration spells in the beginning (if it’s Banishment, even better) and then activate my build setup, or start the fight doing my setup and after that cast a game-changer spell without worrying so much about damage. It feels really powerful.
I’m running a Mark of Warding Dwarf Abjurer at level 9 right now and my DM is suffering.
My character sits on top of 38~43 extra protection layer (23 from Arcane Ward and 20 THP from Armor of Agathys upcasted with 4th level slot). Sometimes I’m greedy and I cast Fire Shield as well, which makes more effective at melee than our Barbarian.
Absorb Elements, Shield, Counterspell, Dispel Magic and Banishment are my bread and butter to keep my Ward up and running during combats. If I’m out of spell slots and my Ward is going down, I’m also making clever use of the infamous cantrip Blade Ward to protect the THP from AoA, I believe it’s the only good use case for it.
During downtime I use to cast Alarm as a ritual to replenish the Ward, it’s not so fast as Armor of Shadows, but the opportunity cost of a feat is too much.
One fun note: Arcane Ward + AoA are so effective, that I honestly rolled Concentration checks no more than couple times during the entire campaign. It’s awesome because I can cast a good concentration spells in the beginning (if it’s Banishment, even better) and then activate my build setup, or start the fight doing my setup and after that cast a game-changer spell without worrying so much about damage. It feels really powerful.
People forget about the ritual spells to effectively recharge the ward pretty quick....and then you have a huge buff in THP.
AoA is such a great spell...I love having it on most caster builds to discourage things from attacking me. It is especially great with mobs of low damage creatures as you can wipe them out really fast if they swarm you.
I would never allow a custom lineage to count as a pre-existing species. All of a sudden the door is open for a custom Elf that starts with elven accuracy and an 18 in their attack stat. But yes, if you have a DM willing to play game, then custom Svirf is sick. I mean, I just love Svirfneblin so I'm going to think about the gnome path for this build no matter what.
Fair enough, 18 attack stat elven accuracy lvl 1s can be very annoyingly powerful. But I wouldn't totally shut the door on it though because Custom Origin counting for racial feats actually lets people play something they otherwise would not. A good example is somebody at my table who said that she is going to play a Tiefling Pyromancer for our next campaign mainly because she gets to take Flames of Phlegethos as her bonus feat.
Now I feel bad for shutting down my player who wanted Revenant Blade feat as a custom lineage elf. In hindsight I should have just allowed it, the double-bladed scimitar is rare enough i would have liked to GM a player character who wields it
Hello! I have never played an abjuration wizard as I thought their absorption shield seemed a bit slow to charge up. People I have played with all seem to think that abjuration is a bit "meh", and that there are so much better choices for a wizard player. However with the eldritch adept feat, giving the armor of shadows eldritch invocation you suddenly can spam the armor spell to "charge" 2 points per round, without spell slot cost. A quite fast charging while out of combat, so you should be able to always enter every new fight with full shields up.
You experienced wizard players, do you think the abjuration subclass would get alot better by this, or is it not really worth the feat to get it?
You can get the same thing by casting rituals. I think Alarm is abjuration, but I'm not sure right now. It's a very dirty tactic, anyway. Mechanically it works (both mage armor or rituals), but it's a very dirty way to play. As DM, I would talk to you not to do that. But that's up to the DM.
In my opinion, the abjuration wizard's arcane ward works especially well with Armor of Agathys. If you can get that combo (by Magic Initiate, multiclassing, Eberron's dragonmark, or whatever), you're going to be very hard to kill thanks to the massive amount of temporary hit points you're going to get.
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I'm about to run a Mark of Mending Dwarf Abjuration Wizard. I rolled insanse stats so I have an 18 con. I also rolled 6,6,6,4 for my hit dice. At lvl 5 I'm going to have 48hp, 15hp of arcane ward, and another 15 temp hp from 3rd lvl Armor of Agythys from Mark of Mending. As a lvl 5 wizard I can go into a fight with 78 effective HP. Eldritch adept just means that I can go into any fight with 15 hp. I think a single feat for 15 hp every single fight at lvl 5 is pretty good, and its only gonna get better. Essentially unless you really get smacked around youre pretty much just healing for 15 out of combat after every single fight without using spell slots.
I've come round to like the idea of rolling stats etc in the group discord in a session zero and taking the rolls in sequence. I once got great rolls at a third attempt in one campaign but it left me disproportionately strong.
Rolls are potentially great if your looking for Strong and/or really non-standard characters, point buy is kind of middle ground unless you go with a non-standard point buy that changes certain limits and/or the number of points. Array tends to be best suited to have the most consistent party members so you don't have one that is hard to challenge and another that drops dead in a strong wind or to a particularly smelly fart that your trying to balance around.
This discussion is highlighting how powerful an effect feats have on the game, and how much better a build becomes if you take variant human as your base.
As Wizards release more and better feats the game can be projected to become variant human and custom lineage on the one side, and everything else on the other. Racial feats (which shouldn't be given to custom lineage) and personal preference will be the reasons people play the non-feat races.
Except. That's just a matter of false perception. There are a lot of other abilities that are powerful as well that often need to be taken into account.
The Reality is that while a few things can be mimic'd with feats. There are many abilities that come with Races that actually cannot that can be picked up by Variant Human, Or even necessarily Customary Lineage. Some of them might potentially be able to be mimic'd in other ways but the ways are going to be few, often cost resources or even potentially cause problems for builds that racials don't, and usual pretty specific to actually do it in even a semi-useful way.
Darkvision is one that Variant human can't have for example that has a dramatic effect on a fair bit of combat and even some entire settings. Because not being able to see while not codified in quite the way a feat is. Has All kinds of actual indirect problems. Like the inability to wield a 2 handed weapon or a sword and shield at the same time with most light sources they would have to use which can affect both melee and ranged combat for the character. or Potentially a second character as they aid you in your moments of disability.
Now, DarkVision can technically be picked up by a spell, or be dealt with by just one or two rare magical items you can't be guaranteed to get. But even though it is one that is replicatable it still demonstrates how it can be better not to have to need to replicate it. But there are things like stackable damage, particularly of rare damage types, That certain races can add into things and such like that which do not have any kind of easy or real counterpart that can just be picked up. The Feat on the other hand. That can usually be picked up later so that you can have both these kinds of things and the Feat.
Devilsight from Eldritch Adept is actually a better Darkvision.
Do you have other examples that cannot be replicated? The only one I can think of is flight speed.
This is getting a little off topic but for starters Bugbears get an extra 5 ft reach with their melee attacks, Tortles have built in 17 AC without any ability score requirements or gear.
Goblins have a once per rest damage burst from Fury of the Small, Aasimar have a similar ability that lasts 1 minute. Kobolds have Pack Tactics. There are also race specific feats like Elven Accuracy that requires you to NOT be a V Human.
There are many more examples but I'm lazy but what I'm trying to say is there is life beyond the V Humans and Custom Lineage race.
17 AC is possible from the get go with the Mage Armor invocation and an 18 in a starting stat.
Reach is a decent one but honestly a reach weapon is already available for the builds that would want it mostly but that is a good one. Not much a v. human could do to pick that one up.
Fury of the Small is just damage so any damage feat (SS, CBE, etc...) will obtain the exact same result.
Flight from the Aasimir is about the only one that can't be replicated I think....which I mentioned.
Pack Tactics is a good one...but ADV is not really hard to come by and large. There are several feats that can help you generate ADV so much like the damage option the end result is the same.
Elven Accuracy is a good one but ultimately is the point of NOT allowing custom lineage to let you pick "elf but not"
Oh another couple of racial abilities that a feat cannot replicate is Half Orc's Relentless Endurance and Yuan-Ti's/Satyr's Magic Resistance.
Those are good ones....Magic resistance is a mistake IMO but thats besides the point.
Relentless Endurance is a good one though...****y think I can think of is Magic Initiate for Shield spell that would turn a hit to a miss for the same effect.
Aberrant Dragonmark is better for Shield because it recharges on a short rest.
Devilsight is also extremely limited in it's availability. And if your taking that. Your not necessarily taking other feats. And Devilsight has it's own weaknesses.
This is an outright lie. These bonuses to Damage are not the same thing as Fury of the Small. Because anything with Fury of the Small can take the damage increases that your claiming are the same and still actually use damage of the small for even more Damage. Same as the Damage that Aasimar put out. It's damage that cannot be just replicated with gear or other feats. Because it can be used in addition to that gear or other feats that the Variant human cannot make up for in any way what so ever. Anything that the Variant Human does to increase their damage a Goblin can also do to gain that same Advantage plus Fury of the Small. This makes Fury of the Small Unreplicatable by feats and gear.
A Goblin with 20 strength, can still take GWM, To get the same damage. They can be enlarged through various means to wield Heavy Weapons and be medium size just like the Variant Human. ETC. They can always in some way match the Variant human. But the Variant Human can never get Fury of the Small.
Also Yes. a Variant Human Can get a reach weapon. But a Variant Human cannot get a reach weapon and then use their racial ability for even further reach. The Bugbear if it chooses to can outreach the Variant Human. it doesn't serve a big purpose on average but it is possible. The Bugbear's version of reach is also a wider usable version of reach because it can be done without specific weapons. Making for much wider possibility of combinations in combat.
Your right the other damage bonus are just straight better.
Damage is for the most part just damage.
That v human getting CBE is going to be better at 1 for damage then the goblin.
So it's the same for all intents and purposes.
Now if you said their ability to disengage or hide as a BA (Nimble Escape) then you would actually be correct.
Please refrain from calling something a lie unless you know it to be an intentional statement of mistruth. Otherwise, it is simply an inaccurate statement. Calling it a "lie" can feel like a personal attack and it nonconstructive. People can be wrong without lying.
I think the aasimar and goblin damage bonuses are unique in that they can be used to increase the damage for spells. I don’t know of any feats that can directly and reliably increase spell damages.
I think goblin casters are wonderfully potent because of this and the disengage saving misty step slots while preserving the action for leveled casting.
Elemental Adept can but I see your point.
I’m running a Mark of Warding Dwarf Abjurer at level 9 right now and my DM is suffering.
My character sits on top of 38~43 extra protection layer (23 from Arcane Ward and 20 THP from Armor of Agathys upcasted with 4th level slot). Sometimes I’m greedy and I cast Fire Shield as well, which makes more effective at melee than our Barbarian.
Absorb Elements, Shield, Counterspell, Dispel Magic and Banishment are my bread and butter to keep my Ward up and running during combats. If I’m out of spell slots and my Ward is going down, I’m also making clever use of the infamous cantrip Blade Ward to protect the THP from AoA, I believe it’s the only good use case for it.
During downtime I use to cast Alarm as a ritual to replenish the Ward, it’s not so fast as Armor of Shadows, but the opportunity cost of a feat is too much.
One fun note: Arcane Ward + AoA are so effective, that I honestly rolled Concentration checks no more than couple times during the entire campaign. It’s awesome because I can cast a good concentration spells in the beginning (if it’s Banishment, even better) and then activate my build setup, or start the fight doing my setup and after that cast a game-changer spell without worrying so much about damage. It feels really powerful.
People forget about the ritual spells to effectively recharge the ward pretty quick....and then you have a huge buff in THP.
AoA is such a great spell...I love having it on most caster builds to discourage things from attacking me. It is especially great with mobs of low damage creatures as you can wipe them out really fast if they swarm you.
Now I feel bad for shutting down my player who wanted Revenant Blade feat as a custom lineage elf. In hindsight I should have just allowed it, the double-bladed scimitar is rare enough i would have liked to GM a player character who wields it
You can get the same thing by casting rituals. I think Alarm is abjuration, but I'm not sure right now. It's a very dirty tactic, anyway. Mechanically it works (both mage armor or rituals), but it's a very dirty way to play. As DM, I would talk to you not to do that. But that's up to the DM.
In my opinion, the abjuration wizard's arcane ward works especially well with Armor of Agathys. If you can get that combo (by Magic Initiate, multiclassing, Eberron's dragonmark, or whatever), you're going to be very hard to kill thanks to the massive amount of temporary hit points you're going to get.