The title says it all. I'm not asking what builds to make, or what spells to learn. I'm asking how to improve my raw tactical skill, regardless of the character I'm playing specifically for Wizards since that's why I'm playing right now.
If it helps any, here's the current roster in my party. We're all level 7.
Tactics are extremely roll specific. In general, you may wish to dodge instead of act if your being surrounded by foes, engage carefully with the sturdy characters up front, and investigate. But what works for one character is a mistake for another.
Wizards specifically can use a familiar to scout ahead of the party instead of blindly proceeding, and grant an ally advantage on an attack once per turn with the same. They can take every ritual to offer tons of utility to the party, and with your party, you should focus on control and AoE spells. Things like hideous laughter, fireball, slow, and silvery barb.
Firebolt is solid, but as a wizard you have the most planning for the party, you want to arrange positions in the battlefield, and debilitate the enemy so their harmless, blasting is not the value of a wizard.
Combat is all about the group, first and foremost.
I'd have to stress that, because in the end it's a group game. You can be an ultra tactical person, but if someone does a dumb, the group suffers. This isn't a bad thing at it's core, because its just a core D&D concept. I also say that because there isn't a "you suck" scenario unless you're doing nothing or the group basically dies every combat. If enemies are dying, and the group isn't spending lots of resources after combat to heal up? Congrats, the group doesn't suck. Woooo!
First, you'd look at combat composition of your group to make some determinations. You have a Wizard who specializes in throwing fireballs and making sure the rest of their party doesn't get hit by them. Rogues specialize in getting their sneak die as often as possible, regardless of subclass. You have the "I NEED TO CRIT SHIT" fighter. Hybrid Monk/Fighter, so some ki points and some baseline fighter abilities. I'm gonna leave your cleric/druid out because they're leaving shortly.
WIth the other magic caster leaving, the Wizard role chagnes. Fireball at levels 5-8 is rarely a wrong answer and with that being your subclass shtick, go to town. You're a Wizard though, and what you bring to the table is the ability to maximize the other players OR just pure battle damage. Neither are the wrong choices. Invisibility to set up the rogue is a thing.
Most parties kind of have a semi strategy they use in most combats. Maybe one of those fighters/monks shoves a guy to the ground so they're prone so the other two melee guys can gang up on them and go crit fishing/advantage for the rogue so sneak die. Maybe the Wizard doesn't blow their big stuff early to lure in the group and then drops a big ole fireball.
Out of game stuff? Turn order is important. Knowing when the enemy goes and when your allies go changes things in terms of how they use their abilities. Say the monk uses an attack as part of their attack action to knock a target prone whose turn is right after theirs. Sure, if they succeed they get advantage on their next attack(assuming level 5 in one of their classes) and then their bonus action unarmed strike, but next turn the enemy stands back up. Movement is wasted by the enemy, but what if they didn't want to leave that square? Now it's just ok, I stand up and attack again. Unless you got a crit, you basically wasted an attack. Now, if that enemy has a really high AC and the odds hitting them were pretty low, which is why you tried to shove them prone? Ok, that makes sense because now we're talking about opportunity cost and trying to make sure I do as much damage as possible.
This applies to everyone on the battlefield, not just you. If the fighter who goes after the enemy knocks them prone, now EVERYONE who attacks melee gets that advantage.
It's this constant game of realizing who goes when, what does what and making logical inferences. Small guys don't do a lot of damage, but 21 small guys and one big guy? The small guys are probably a bigger threat just because of sheer numbers. Having everyone on their toes is the real key.
"What spells to learn" is kind of a big part of it. Doubly so if the other caster in the party will be leaving, though a lot of the best tactical options a cleric or druid has in terms of spells aren't available to your wizard.
Regardless, look at the previous combats you were in. What didn't go as well as it could have, and could you have done something better then? Look at the results of your own actions first (particularly as an evoker, since that tends to make your character a blaster more than a controller usually), but also at those of the others: could you have supported them in some way to give them a better chance at success or protect them when they put themselves in harm's way, and would that have outweighed what you did instead?
As an evoker you have Sculpt Spell. The rogue has Evasion, so you can basically disregard them when it comes to friendly fire - Burning Hands or Fireball away at targets they're engaged with. If the monk/fighter ever brings their monk level up to 7, that'll apply to them as well.
If you have a familiar you can use it as a delivery system for touch spells, but you can also direct it to Aid the rogue in combat - doing so will provide them with advantage on their next attack roll, so they'll get to add Sneak Attack damage if they hit (the advantage can be very useful to begin with).
Being the wizard and with the cleric/druid soon to be gone, you'll be the one most likely to be able to provide information about unusual opponents via Arcana, Nature or History checks. Don't sleep on this, knowing a monster's strengths and weaknesses can make all the difference in the world.
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When you say “I suck at combat”, what exactly do you mean? Everyone has different play styles and while you are looking for suggestions for “raw tactical skill regardless of character” different classes really do have different methods. So what’s an example of a combat that went wrong on your end that you are trying to improve on?
I'd say my two biggest weaknesses are positioning (I frequently stand in the wrong spot, meaning that either spells are out of range, or enemies target me instead of the martials) and spell slot management (I never know when it's worth it in a fight to use a spell slot for an attack, ESPECIALLY if it has a random chance to just miss completely). How would you recommend working on that?
I'd say my two biggest weaknesses are positioning (I frequently stand in the wrong spot, meaning that either spells are out of range, or enemies target me instead of the martials) and spell slot management (I never know when it's worth it in a fight to use a spell slot for an attack, ESPECIALLY if it has a random chance to just miss completely). How would you recommend working on that?
As the parties only spellcaster, inherently, you are the biggest threat most times. You just are. A martial character becomes a bigger threat when standing next to you, but you present issues they don't.
So going back to opportunity cost? That means either you're doing things to set up your martials to make them a bigger threat OR saying screw it and heading closer to the fray. Spells are gonna fail and attacks are going to miss. That doesn't change how enemies perceive you. If you throw a level 2 scorching ray out and miss 3 targets, you still put them on notice. They're going to(should?) react appropriately.
I'd say my two biggest weaknesses are positioning (I frequently stand in the wrong spot, meaning that either spells are out of range, or enemies target me instead of the martials) and spell slot management (I never know when it's worth it in a fight to use a spell slot for an attack, ESPECIALLY if it has a random chance to just miss completely). How would you recommend working on that?
If you have a familiar, that can help significantly with your positioning. When to use a spell slot? Buffing an ally doesn't fail/miss (though as an evoker that may not be your strong suit) and using your knowledge of monsters will help you identify their weaknesses and strengths. You're still often going to be at the mercy of the dice regardless though. That's just the nature of the beast.
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
There's a few generally applicable pieces of advice.
1. Focus fire. If you're going to hit something, hit the thing your buddy just hit.
2. Don't waste your control spells. If you have a long-lasting spell, use it on a long-lasting monster. And if the monster is successfully neutralized for a while, use that time to kill other monsters if there are any.
3. There are 8 squares around you. The vast majority of monsters deal the most damage when they're standing in those squares. Fill those squares up with other things whenever possible. Stand next to things that can't hurt you.
4. Most monsters move 30ft for free. If you want to not get hit, end your turn 35 feet away from a monster.
5. Take attacks of opportunity if it means you're not an eligible target for multiattack. Example: a bandit captain can make 3 attacks on his turn. He's adjacent to you. If you Disengage, you can move 30ft and avoid 1 opportunity attack... But then he can move 30ft and hit you 3 times. However, if you instead Dash, you can move 60ft and only get hit once. If he wants to catch you he'll have to Dash also, which means he can't attack. Hopefully with your Dash you can get behind your Fighter or something.
Now for a piece of specific advice: You usually want your first move in combat to be placing a large-area spell effect that either kills a lot of monsters (only works on fragile monsters) or hinders a lot of monsters. Make it easier for your Fighter and Rogue to kill stuff. That'll give you a better return on your investment than trying to kill stuff yourself every turn.
A small consideration, but you might want to start using something like Toll the Dead over Fire Bolt because as a level 7 Evocation Wizard, your save cantrips are guaranteed to do half damage if the target succeeds on the save.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Cast mage armor on yourself before combat, it lasts 8 hours
stay behind your melee fighters / tanks
buff your fighter champion with haste
cast fireball ( huge range) as you are an evocation wizard and can decide not to hit friendlies (sculpt spell I think)
cast more fireballs…
as an evocation wizard magic missile is a clutch spell if I remember correctly. Also it always hits. 1d4+1 doesn‘t sound much but it adds up.At level ten you can add your spellcasting mod to one damage roll and per the rules (confirmed by Crawford) you roll only 1d4 for mm which means every single dart does 1d4+1+your mod damage which should be at least a +4 at level ten.
Quoting Ohpidimancer: "A small consideration, but you might want to start using something like Toll the Dead over Fire Bolt because as a level 7 Evocation Wizard, your save cantrips are guaranteed to do half damage if the target succeeds on the save."
I would have taken that if I had the appropriate book, but until I get that, I'm sticking with the PHB spells.
Good ideas! Just one slight issue I may have found: if you account for the 5 foot reach of most monsters, then they can run 30 feet to get close to me, then use the 5 foot reach to hit me, so I'd need to be 40 feet away to stay safe.
Good ideas! Just one slight issue I may have found: if you account for the 5 foot reach of most monsters, then they can run 30 feet to get close to me, then use the 5 foot reach to hit me, so I'd need to be 40 feet away to stay safe.
Acid Splash has a 60 ft range and Chill Touch has a 120 ft range. Both are from the Player's Handbook and are Wizard cantrips. Chill Touch does necrotic damage, which is rarely resisted. Acid Splash only does d6 in damage, but it can hit two targets at once for a little bit of crowd control.
Remember that you can use your movement at any time during your turn so you can very much emerge from behind cover to cast a spell and then move back behind cover to make it harder to target you on the enemy's turn.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
The title says it all. I'm not asking what builds to make, or what spells to learn. I'm asking how to improve my raw tactical skill, regardless of the character I'm playing specifically for Wizards since that's why I'm playing right now.
If it helps any, here's the current roster in my party. We're all level 7.
High Elf Evoker Wizard (me)
Simic Hybrid Soulknife Rogue
Dwarven Champion Fighter
Custom Lineage Monk/Fighter
Fairy Life Cleric/Druid (will be leaving soon)
Thanks in advance!
Use your spell slots judiciously, think before you cast, is it really necessary? Would a cantrip or the help action make more sense at this time?
Use your feats smartly, you are a high elf, guess what you are eligible for Elven Accuracy. Any time you could roll with advantage, you roll with 3 dice. Hello improved invisibility and you are critting at a very high rate with your cantrips. Crossbow master allows you to cast point blank spells and not take disadvantage.
When you have three or more targets, generally an AE spell is your best option to do the most damage for the party in a turn. You can also use Haste to increase a Barbarian, Fighter, Paladin or Rangers DPS+AC. You can use Slow when you are fighting a nasty monster with multi-attack (this one spell is highly underused). You can maximize your action economy by using Dragon's Breath on your familiar and have the familiar do AE damage during combat. Have web up to prevent baddies from running away for help. Have wall of sand up if you ever need to retreat, when you cast it, yell RUN! The ever so popular Fireball is a necessity a number of encounters in published modules assume you will have access to this. Wall of Fire as written is hella broken, abuse it. Just train your party to push or pull the baddies into the fire and there is no saving throw as written after the wall has appeared (the saving throw only takes place when first cast, otherwise they take damage).
When you need defense, have an escape (misty step, dimension door) handy. Have spells to help you tank, mirror image is good as is blur. However don't just assume blur = AC 20 if you are AC 12, its more like taking you to AC 15ish. Blink w/ mirror image up, although eating a two spell slots, makes it very hard for the bad guy to take you out, and you can do damage without being taken down. Try to get some elven chain, its possible being a high elf. Mage Armor does eat a slot but its AC16.
For positioning, you should always be behind a corner when possible. Never cast a spell, especially a concentration spell when you are out in the open, you will get mobbed and concentration blocked. Eventually the DM will put some monsters into your back to force you to change up your game, that is why you have your escape spells. The only reason for you to advance into melee range is when you are casting a cone spell or the risky touch spell, and even then use your Familiar to do that, not yourself.
Nothing is worse than having a party in D&D that goes all Melee + Control and you have to DM for said party when you are running a mass encounter, it is going to take 2 hours+ when all is said and done, when all it would take is 2 fireballs and the combat ends in 2 or 3 rounds, been there, done that, getting to experience it again DM'ing for my current party.
Good ideas! Just one slight issue I may have found: if you account for the 5 foot reach of most monsters, then they can run 30 feet to get close to me, then use the 5 foot reach to hit me, so I'd need to be 40 feet away to stay safe.
That's a good piece of thinking right there, and it's what you need to do more of to get good at general tactics. "Tactics" is simply the act of predicting what the enemy wants to do and figuring out how to not let them do it. After that, you figure out how the enemy will try to stop you from doing what you want to do, and then figure out how to not let them do that. It's pithy advice on the surface, and I don't know of any specific ways or means to study up for free, but there is a book out there you can get if you're serious: Live To Tell the Tale, which is written by a DM who's made a years-long study of tactics and normally writes monster tactics that make players sit up and take notice.
Insofar as specifics go?
1.) Positioning Keep the range of your most commonly used spells in mind. if you're on a physical tabletop, ask the DM to let you use a ruler or count squares. Eventually you'll get the hang of eyeballing distances, but until then ask to be allowed a few extra moments to measure. Consider preparing spells that have the same range band to make this easier - a lot of spells in D&D have a sixty-foot range, if you mostly stick to those the process becomes easier. Maneuver so that you are, as you said, forty feet away from the worst melee threats but within that spell range of whatever your fighter is attacking. Wizards aren't the main damage dealers in a D&D party - martial characters like fighters and paladins are. be where you can hit what they're hitting or, more importantly, clear smaller, weaker things off of them so they can focus on the big stuff. Especially as an Evoker.
Remember - prioritize your own safety over being aggressive, especially when you're not sure how to be aggressive properly. You can't help anybody if you're dead. if you have to pick between moving to a place where you're mostly safe and moving to a place where you can shoot enemies, pick the first one. Your teammates will thank you for not dying all'a time and making their lives harder. That's a legitimate first-responder rule: "do not add more victims". If you keep yourself safe through staying away from trouble, the others will win eventually. It won't be glorious, but the more you do it the more you'll learn.
2.) Spell Slot Management. Ask yourself this: is the big spellblast you're about to launch likely to kill its target(s)? Are you Fireballing a crowd of weenies that will burn into flinders, a troop of weakened minions you're likely to cull, or a fresh batch of reinforcements that won't fall to a single spell? If you can't end an enemy with your spell or get it into a range where your martials can finish it off with a single Attack action, consider saving the spell. Even evokers can cast controlling or hindering magic instead, or simply attack with their cantrips until a better opportunity comes along. Remember - damage doesn't do a single thing to affect an enemy's ability to hurt you. The only hit point that matters is the last one. Don't blow magic on reducing hit points, blow it on changing Alive into Defeated.
Always have an option to concentrate on. Slow is a solid choice. You don't always have to concentrate on something, but never leave yourself without a way to use concentration. As well, consider how the fight is shaping up. If you don't need to expend a spell, you probably shouldn't. Can your martials handle whatever you're fighting without a problem? Then just hit it with cantrips, conserve your spells. Are the martials really struggling, are people dropping? Time to start throwing kabooms. If there's one single big enemy? Be stingy with your spells. Not only are those the things mostly likely to resist your magic, they're what martial characters are best at fighting. If your party is badly outnumbered? Blow spells on reducing the heard. Be profligate. The quicker you regain the numbers advantage the better off you are.
A lot of good points made here before I got to reply, so I will just add this. Your party is made up of people that are likely to be up close and personal type of combatants, which tends to take away things like fireball and other area of effect spells unless the enemy is at range and you’re first in initiative order. So talk with your party about what you’d like to do so they can work with you. Want to use Enlarge on the fighter? Let them know so they don’t Leroy Jenkins before you get a chance. Want to prep the room with fireball or something else impressive? Let the party know before you get into combat so they can hold their action. Ask if there’s anything they’d like to see to support the party.
The title says it all. I'm not asking what builds to make, or what spells to learn. I'm asking how to improve my raw tactical skill,
regardless of the character I'm playingspecifically for Wizards since that's why I'm playing right now.If it helps any, here's the current roster in my party. We're all level 7.
Thanks in advance!
Tactics are extremely roll specific. In general, you may wish to dodge instead of act if your being surrounded by foes, engage carefully with the sturdy characters up front, and investigate. But what works for one character is a mistake for another.
Wizards specifically can use a familiar to scout ahead of the party instead of blindly proceeding, and grant an ally advantage on an attack once per turn with the same. They can take every ritual to offer tons of utility to the party, and with your party, you should focus on control and AoE spells. Things like hideous laughter, fireball, slow, and silvery barb.
Firebolt is solid, but as a wizard you have the most planning for the party, you want to arrange positions in the battlefield, and debilitate the enemy so their harmless, blasting is not the value of a wizard.
Combat is all about the group, first and foremost.
I'd have to stress that, because in the end it's a group game. You can be an ultra tactical person, but if someone does a dumb, the group suffers. This isn't a bad thing at it's core, because its just a core D&D concept. I also say that because there isn't a "you suck" scenario unless you're doing nothing or the group basically dies every combat. If enemies are dying, and the group isn't spending lots of resources after combat to heal up? Congrats, the group doesn't suck. Woooo!
First, you'd look at combat composition of your group to make some determinations. You have a Wizard who specializes in throwing fireballs and making sure the rest of their party doesn't get hit by them. Rogues specialize in getting their sneak die as often as possible, regardless of subclass. You have the "I NEED TO CRIT SHIT" fighter. Hybrid Monk/Fighter, so some ki points and some baseline fighter abilities. I'm gonna leave your cleric/druid out because they're leaving shortly.
WIth the other magic caster leaving, the Wizard role chagnes. Fireball at levels 5-8 is rarely a wrong answer and with that being your subclass shtick, go to town. You're a Wizard though, and what you bring to the table is the ability to maximize the other players OR just pure battle damage. Neither are the wrong choices. Invisibility to set up the rogue is a thing.
Most parties kind of have a semi strategy they use in most combats. Maybe one of those fighters/monks shoves a guy to the ground so they're prone so the other two melee guys can gang up on them and go crit fishing/advantage for the rogue so sneak die. Maybe the Wizard doesn't blow their big stuff early to lure in the group and then drops a big ole fireball.
Out of game stuff? Turn order is important. Knowing when the enemy goes and when your allies go changes things in terms of how they use their abilities. Say the monk uses an attack as part of their attack action to knock a target prone whose turn is right after theirs. Sure, if they succeed they get advantage on their next attack(assuming level 5 in one of their classes) and then their bonus action unarmed strike, but next turn the enemy stands back up. Movement is wasted by the enemy, but what if they didn't want to leave that square? Now it's just ok, I stand up and attack again. Unless you got a crit, you basically wasted an attack. Now, if that enemy has a really high AC and the odds hitting them were pretty low, which is why you tried to shove them prone? Ok, that makes sense because now we're talking about opportunity cost and trying to make sure I do as much damage as possible.
This applies to everyone on the battlefield, not just you. If the fighter who goes after the enemy knocks them prone, now EVERYONE who attacks melee gets that advantage.
It's this constant game of realizing who goes when, what does what and making logical inferences. Small guys don't do a lot of damage, but 21 small guys and one big guy? The small guys are probably a bigger threat just because of sheer numbers. Having everyone on their toes is the real key.
"What spells to learn" is kind of a big part of it. Doubly so if the other caster in the party will be leaving, though a lot of the best tactical options a cleric or druid has in terms of spells aren't available to your wizard.
Regardless, look at the previous combats you were in. What didn't go as well as it could have, and could you have done something better then? Look at the results of your own actions first (particularly as an evoker, since that tends to make your character a blaster more than a controller usually), but also at those of the others: could you have supported them in some way to give them a better chance at success or protect them when they put themselves in harm's way, and would that have outweighed what you did instead?
As an evoker you have Sculpt Spell. The rogue has Evasion, so you can basically disregard them when it comes to friendly fire - Burning Hands or Fireball away at targets they're engaged with. If the monk/fighter ever brings their monk level up to 7, that'll apply to them as well.
If you have a familiar you can use it as a delivery system for touch spells, but you can also direct it to Aid the rogue in combat - doing so will provide them with advantage on their next attack roll, so they'll get to add Sneak Attack damage if they hit (the advantage can be very useful to begin with).
Being the wizard and with the cleric/druid soon to be gone, you'll be the one most likely to be able to provide information about unusual opponents via Arcana, Nature or History checks. Don't sleep on this, knowing a monster's strengths and weaknesses can make all the difference in the world.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
When you say “I suck at combat”, what exactly do you mean? Everyone has different play styles and while you are looking for suggestions for “raw tactical skill regardless of character” different classes really do have different methods. So what’s an example of a combat that went wrong on your end that you are trying to improve on?
I'd say my two biggest weaknesses are positioning (I frequently stand in the wrong spot, meaning that either spells are out of range, or enemies target me instead of the martials) and spell slot management (I never know when it's worth it in a fight to use a spell slot for an attack, ESPECIALLY if it has a random chance to just miss completely). How would you recommend working on that?
As the parties only spellcaster, inherently, you are the biggest threat most times. You just are. A martial character becomes a bigger threat when standing next to you, but you present issues they don't.
So going back to opportunity cost? That means either you're doing things to set up your martials to make them a bigger threat OR saying screw it and heading closer to the fray. Spells are gonna fail and attacks are going to miss. That doesn't change how enemies perceive you. If you throw a level 2 scorching ray out and miss 3 targets, you still put them on notice. They're going to(should?) react appropriately.
If you have a familiar, that can help significantly with your positioning. When to use a spell slot? Buffing an ally doesn't fail/miss (though as an evoker that may not be your strong suit) and using your knowledge of monsters will help you identify their weaknesses and strengths. You're still often going to be at the mercy of the dice regardless though. That's just the nature of the beast.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
There's a few generally applicable pieces of advice.
1. Focus fire. If you're going to hit something, hit the thing your buddy just hit.
2. Don't waste your control spells. If you have a long-lasting spell, use it on a long-lasting monster. And if the monster is successfully neutralized for a while, use that time to kill other monsters if there are any.
3. There are 8 squares around you. The vast majority of monsters deal the most damage when they're standing in those squares. Fill those squares up with other things whenever possible. Stand next to things that can't hurt you.
4. Most monsters move 30ft for free. If you want to not get hit, end your turn 35 feet away from a monster.
5. Take attacks of opportunity if it means you're not an eligible target for multiattack. Example: a bandit captain can make 3 attacks on his turn. He's adjacent to you. If you Disengage, you can move 30ft and avoid 1 opportunity attack... But then he can move 30ft and hit you 3 times. However, if you instead Dash, you can move 60ft and only get hit once. If he wants to catch you he'll have to Dash also, which means he can't attack. Hopefully with your Dash you can get behind your Fighter or something.
Now for a piece of specific advice: You usually want your first move in combat to be placing a large-area spell effect that either kills a lot of monsters (only works on fragile monsters) or hinders a lot of monsters. Make it easier for your Fighter and Rogue to kill stuff. That'll give you a better return on your investment than trying to kill stuff yourself every turn.
A small consideration, but you might want to start using something like Toll the Dead over Fire Bolt because as a level 7 Evocation Wizard, your save cantrips are guaranteed to do half damage if the target succeeds on the save.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Cast mage armor on yourself before combat, it lasts 8 hours
stay behind your melee fighters / tanks
buff your fighter champion with haste
cast fireball ( huge range) as you are an evocation wizard and can decide not to hit friendlies (sculpt spell I think)
cast more fireballs…
as an evocation wizard magic missile is a clutch spell if I remember correctly. Also it always hits. 1d4+1 doesn‘t sound much but it adds up.At level ten you can add your spellcasting mod to one damage roll and per the rules (confirmed by Crawford) you roll only 1d4 for mm which means every single dart does 1d4+1+your mod damage which should be at least a +4 at level ten.
have shield prepared for dire situations
Quoting Ohpidimancer: "A small consideration, but you might want to start using something like Toll the Dead over Fire Bolt because as a level 7 Evocation Wizard, your save cantrips are guaranteed to do half damage if the target succeeds on the save."
I would have taken that if I had the appropriate book, but until I get that, I'm sticking with the PHB spells.
Take Acid Splash, then! It's pretty good.
Good ideas! Just one slight issue I may have found: if you account for the 5 foot reach of most monsters, then they can run 30 feet to get close to me, then use the 5 foot reach to hit me, so I'd need to be 40 feet away to stay safe.
Acid Splash has a 60 ft range and Chill Touch has a 120 ft range. Both are from the Player's Handbook and are Wizard cantrips. Chill Touch does necrotic damage, which is rarely resisted. Acid Splash only does d6 in damage, but it can hit two targets at once for a little bit of crowd control.
Remember that you can use your movement at any time during your turn so you can very much emerge from behind cover to cast a spell and then move back behind cover to make it harder to target you on the enemy's turn.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Use your spell slots judiciously, think before you cast, is it really necessary? Would a cantrip or the help action make more sense at this time?
Use your feats smartly, you are a high elf, guess what you are eligible for Elven Accuracy. Any time you could roll with advantage, you roll with 3 dice. Hello improved invisibility and you are critting at a very high rate with your cantrips. Crossbow master allows you to cast point blank spells and not take disadvantage.
When you have three or more targets, generally an AE spell is your best option to do the most damage for the party in a turn. You can also use Haste to increase a Barbarian, Fighter, Paladin or Rangers DPS+AC. You can use Slow when you are fighting a nasty monster with multi-attack (this one spell is highly underused). You can maximize your action economy by using Dragon's Breath on your familiar and have the familiar do AE damage during combat. Have web up to prevent baddies from running away for help. Have wall of sand up if you ever need to retreat, when you cast it, yell RUN! The ever so popular Fireball is a necessity a number of encounters in published modules assume you will have access to this. Wall of Fire as written is hella broken, abuse it. Just train your party to push or pull the baddies into the fire and there is no saving throw as written after the wall has appeared (the saving throw only takes place when first cast, otherwise they take damage).
When you need defense, have an escape (misty step, dimension door) handy. Have spells to help you tank, mirror image is good as is blur. However don't just assume blur = AC 20 if you are AC 12, its more like taking you to AC 15ish. Blink w/ mirror image up, although eating a two spell slots, makes it very hard for the bad guy to take you out, and you can do damage without being taken down. Try to get some elven chain, its possible being a high elf. Mage Armor does eat a slot but its AC16.
For positioning, you should always be behind a corner when possible. Never cast a spell, especially a concentration spell when you are out in the open, you will get mobbed and concentration blocked. Eventually the DM will put some monsters into your back to force you to change up your game, that is why you have your escape spells. The only reason for you to advance into melee range is when you are casting a cone spell or the risky touch spell, and even then use your Familiar to do that, not yourself.
Nothing is worse than having a party in D&D that goes all Melee + Control and you have to DM for said party when you are running a mass encounter, it is going to take 2 hours+ when all is said and done, when all it would take is 2 fireballs and the combat ends in 2 or 3 rounds, been there, done that, getting to experience it again DM'ing for my current party.
That's a good piece of thinking right there, and it's what you need to do more of to get good at general tactics. "Tactics" is simply the act of predicting what the enemy wants to do and figuring out how to not let them do it. After that, you figure out how the enemy will try to stop you from doing what you want to do, and then figure out how to not let them do that. It's pithy advice on the surface, and I don't know of any specific ways or means to study up for free, but there is a book out there you can get if you're serious: Live To Tell the Tale, which is written by a DM who's made a years-long study of tactics and normally writes monster tactics that make players sit up and take notice.
Insofar as specifics go?
1.) Positioning
Keep the range of your most commonly used spells in mind. if you're on a physical tabletop, ask the DM to let you use a ruler or count squares. Eventually you'll get the hang of eyeballing distances, but until then ask to be allowed a few extra moments to measure. Consider preparing spells that have the same range band to make this easier - a lot of spells in D&D have a sixty-foot range, if you mostly stick to those the process becomes easier. Maneuver so that you are, as you said, forty feet away from the worst melee threats but within that spell range of whatever your fighter is attacking. Wizards aren't the main damage dealers in a D&D party - martial characters like fighters and paladins are. be where you can hit what they're hitting or, more importantly, clear smaller, weaker things off of them so they can focus on the big stuff. Especially as an Evoker.
Remember - prioritize your own safety over being aggressive, especially when you're not sure how to be aggressive properly. You can't help anybody if you're dead. if you have to pick between moving to a place where you're mostly safe and moving to a place where you can shoot enemies, pick the first one. Your teammates will thank you for not dying all'a time and making their lives harder. That's a legitimate first-responder rule: "do not add more victims". If you keep yourself safe through staying away from trouble, the others will win eventually. It won't be glorious, but the more you do it the more you'll learn.
2.) Spell Slot Management.
Ask yourself this: is the big spellblast you're about to launch likely to kill its target(s)? Are you Fireballing a crowd of weenies that will burn into flinders, a troop of weakened minions you're likely to cull, or a fresh batch of reinforcements that won't fall to a single spell? If you can't end an enemy with your spell or get it into a range where your martials can finish it off with a single Attack action, consider saving the spell. Even evokers can cast controlling or hindering magic instead, or simply attack with their cantrips until a better opportunity comes along. Remember - damage doesn't do a single thing to affect an enemy's ability to hurt you. The only hit point that matters is the last one. Don't blow magic on reducing hit points, blow it on changing Alive into Defeated.
Always have an option to concentrate on. Slow is a solid choice. You don't always have to concentrate on something, but never leave yourself without a way to use concentration. As well, consider how the fight is shaping up. If you don't need to expend a spell, you probably shouldn't. Can your martials handle whatever you're fighting without a problem? Then just hit it with cantrips, conserve your spells. Are the martials really struggling, are people dropping? Time to start throwing kabooms. If there's one single big enemy? Be stingy with your spells. Not only are those the things mostly likely to resist your magic, they're what martial characters are best at fighting. If your party is badly outnumbered? Blow spells on reducing the heard. Be profligate. The quicker you regain the numbers advantage the better off you are.
Hopefully those are start points.
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A lot of good points made here before I got to reply, so I will just add this. Your party is made up of people that are likely to be up close and personal type of combatants, which tends to take away things like fireball and other area of effect spells unless the enemy is at range and you’re first in initiative order. So talk with your party about what you’d like to do so they can work with you. Want to use Enlarge on the fighter? Let them know so they don’t Leroy Jenkins before you get a chance. Want to prep the room with fireball or something else impressive? Let the party know before you get into combat so they can hold their action. Ask if there’s anything they’d like to see to support the party.
He's an evoker, he can get around AE damage for the party a few times.
That's not exactly how Sculpt Spells works.
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