This is a Disney prince/princess. Embody that. Innocence, curiosity to a fault, optimism, chivalry, and an overwhelming desire to help others ... while singing about all of it.
Mechanics Gimmick
This character maximizes spell casting options with a maximum number of cantrips and spells available at level 1. While an average spell caster may have 3-4 cantrips this will have 7. Where an average caster may have access to 2 first level spell slots per day this will have access to 5 plus unlimited ritual casts (assuming a short rest for arcane recovery).
You’re a human and attuned to nature. Animals are drawn to you. This gives you magic initiate druid. You’re likely to break out into song (sing a line or two and let it fade away). You were raised in an abbey devoted to the god of your choice (a god of nature, knowledge, magic, or art would fit best). This gives you magic initiate cleric from your acolyte background. You then transitioned to a school of magic to learn to become a wizard. This provides a spellbook which gives you the ability to learn spells at an increased rate and to not have to prepare ritual spells and just leave those in the spellbook to give you maximum versatility. You will have roughly twice as many cantrips as other options. You will also have WAY more spells available each day than pretty much any other build option. Lean into that whole Disney thing. Animals find you. You’re affable and friendly. Everything will always work out for the best. Alternates: A version of this could be done with the sorcerer. Wild magic would fit well. This version would be on a mission of self discovery to learn about the innate powers they were born with. This version would have 2 sorcerer spells prepared plus 1 druid and 1 cleric. They would also have the 8 cantrips. A solid benefit would be the ability to focus on charisma which may come in handy for role play.
A version of this character could be a forest gnome instead of a human. This would replace a skill and the druid spells with minor illusion and speak with animals. It would add darkvision. It would also make the character highly effective against magic attacks with proficiency vs intelligence and wisdom saving throws in addition to advantage vs intelligence, wisdom, and charisma saving throws.
Personality
When someone attacks you and misses you need that triumphant “HAH!” because you knew they had no chance. Go out of your way to help people in need. A spell to mend a beggar’s clothes. A ration given to a child with prestidigitation to taste like chocolate cake. Mage hand to prank someone (it’s not a covertly cast spell, but you get the idea). Sometimes you just need to break out into a song or a dance ... and sometimes happens about twice a day. For sure don’t try to sing a whole song at the table. But, deliver a line or two and let it trail off while the table understands your character is singing (again). You go out of your way to be kind (not to the point of it being a personality flaw). Your flaws are your optimism and your curiosity. Lean into these and let these cause trouble from time to time.
Attributes: Strength: 8
Dexterity: 12
Constitution: 16
Intelligence: 16
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 13 Set up your attributes as you like. Intelligence is primary. Constitution is secondary. Dexterity is tertiary. Charisma, strength, and wisdom are for role play purposes.
Spell suggestions:
You have 7 cantrips to pick (3 wizard, 2 druid, 2 cleric). They’ll all use your intelligence attribute. It may be tempting to take a ton of offensive cantrips. You’ll mostly use one single offensive cantrip and others will rarely come up. Focus on exploring options for role play and out of combat uses. It’ll be more memorable. Cantrips:
Wizard offensive cantrips pick 1-2 (you get 3 total from wizard):
Acid Splash - AOE spell that can potentially hit 4 targets, saving throw spell so no disadvantage to hit adjacent enemies. Averages 3.5 damage per target hit. If you’re hitting 2-3 targets this is effective.
Firebolt - the basic foundation. Long range. Averages 5.5 damage. Can be used to start fires (just like prestidigitation).
True Strike - grab a crossbow and this is very effective. It applies your casting modifier to the damage which is extremely rare. 1D8+3 which averages 7.5 damage. At level 5 this gains +1D6 damage instead of doubling. Assuming you take +2 intelligence at level 4 this would be 1D8+1D6+4 which averages to 12 and it has the ability to critically hit (averaging 20, but is very rare). The spell can be used on adjacent targets, but not with a crossbow (disadvantage with ranged attack on adjacent target).
Toll Of The Dead - 4.5 average on first damage. 6.5 average on follow up attacks. Saving throw instead of attack roll so no critical chance, but can be used on adjacent targets.
Mind Sliver - 3.5 damage. This is more effective than it looks because it’s also a 12.5% decrease on the target’s ability to resist the next saving throw for your spells or your party’s spells. Does stack with bane for -2D4 for saving throws which averages to -25% chance to save
Wizard non offensive cantrips pick 1-2 (you get 3 total from wizard):
Prestidigitation - No spell is more wizard than this. Clean your clothes, flavor food .. it’s THE catch all spell. Use this and feel like a wizard. Be creative.
Minor Illusion - Can be effective. Is never as effective as players hope. It’s still just a cantrip. Think prank more than life altering illusion.
Mending - Generally just a great role play spell. But, it comes in handy for other things on occasion.
Mage Hand - Can be extremely effective in game. Can be used to reach things you wouldn’t otherwise be able to reach.
Light - Don’t be blind.
Blade Ward - Be careful with concentration cantrips. But, it’s almost as useful as mage armor without costing a spell slot (mage armor is +3 and this is +2.5), concentration is a huge cost.
Druid options (pick 2):
Guidance - You only need one person in the party with this. But, you do REALLY want one person in the party with this.
Mending - As above
Resistance - Protecting others is pretty on point.
Spare The Dying - Dying is bad, mmkay.
Druidcraft - Basically more of what prestidigitation does.
Cleric options (pick 2):
Guidance - As above.
Light - As above.
Mending - As above.
Resistance - As above.
Spare The Dying - As above.
Toll of the Dead - As above.
First Level Spells:
When you pick the druid and cleric spells it’s critical that these be spells you want to use absolutely every adventuring day. You don’t want a situational thing that is occasionally useful, you want a critical thing, or a role play choice that will get usage in most gaming sessions.
The cleric and druid spell can each be cast for free once per day. After this you can cast them with spell slots as per normal.
Rituals You start with 6 known spells and can prepare 4 of those. This means you want 2 ritual spells to maximize what you have access to.
You basically don’t need to prepare these AND you can still cast them. As an example: as long as you have 10 minutes for the ritual you can always cast identity on a thing. This means you can learn the spell, and never have it count towards your prepared spells and you still “always” have access to it (there may be instances where you don’t have time to cast a ritual).
Wizard (pick 2 with ritual tag, and 4 without):
Detect Magic (ritual) - find the magic thing
Identify (ritual) - know what the magic thing is
Find Familiar (ritual) - Some people love this. It still costs 10gp worth of consumed materials each time you cast it. It would be very thematic to have a helper animal hanging out.
Unseen Servant (ritual) - Thematic way to have nature help you with tasks outside of combat. Think ... making dinner, cleaning up, preparing camp. Now, flavor it as you singing for 10 minutes and then a bunch of animals show up to help you with your chores. Spending a known spell on this is expensive, but thematic, and it won’t burn through your spell slots.
Shield - Getting punched in the face isn’t fun, and it’s worse when it’s an axe.
Magic Missile - Missing attacks is for warlocks.
Chromatic Orb - Solid way to bypass damage resistance.
Sleep - A pretty peaceful way to end a fight.
Thunderwave - You don’t really want to be close to things.
Witchbolt - You’ll want to flavor this differently. Instead of crackling energy it could be animals gathering from the area swooping in to help you (still doing the same lightning damage ... don’t ruin the balance of your game, just change descriptions).
Druid (pick 1):
Speak with animals - Huge role play opportunities. Talk with your DM about this and make sure they know you’re planning on using it. You could go with forest gnome to get access to this instead of human and drop the magic initiate druid feat.
Cure Wounds/Healing word - I’ve rarely seen a group with too much healing. If you already have 2 players who can heal you may not need a third though.
Faerie Fire - Highly effective to support offensive players. This is a benefit to attack rolls not to saving throws.
Cleric (pick 1):
Bless - It’s a boost to offense and defense.
Healing Word or Cure Wounds - As above.
Sanctuary - Strong role play options as you walk through a battlefield and no one wants to hit you.
Skills:
Background (you get both):
Insight
Religion
Wizard (pick 2):
Arcana - This is kind of your area of study. You kind of need this or you need to embrace being bad in school.
Nature - This is your whole deal. You were born with an affinity towards nature.
Investigation - You study, this is a strong suit of yours.
History - You could work this into your backstory as you’re trying to overthrow that evil queen or wicked witch.
Human (pick 1):
Performance - This would be thematic with your singing, but isn’t needed. There could be fun role play to be found in you always singing and dancing while being terrible at it.
Animal Handling - Thematic and generally just for role play
Perception - Not thematic, just useful.
Investigation - As Above.
Persuasion - Thematic as an extremely likable person.
As an extra bonus you can craft spell scrolls (any spell, including cantrips, which includes your cleric, druid, and wizard spells).
Is this a homebrew class? If so, it is overpowered.
No. Basic 2024 PHB rules. It's just a human wizard with a background, man. There's nothing special going on. Those are standard array attributes (plus the 2/1 background modifiers). There's nothing selected from anywhere outside of the 2024 player's handbook. No weird combos. No mixing 2014 and 2024 rules. No 3rd party books. Just a human wizard with the acolyte background and the magic initiate feat selected twice. Pretty basic.
Wizard grants the spellbook and ability to cast ritual spells from the spellbook without having to prepare it. Any wizard can cast unlimited ritual spells from their spellbook without it counting toward their prepared spells.
Magic Initiate lets you pick either druid or cleric (or wizard) and those spells work with whichever casting attribute you want. You can take it more than once.
Human gives you an origin feat. Every background gives you an origin feat. Every human starts with two origin feats.
Anyone trained with arcana or trained with calligrapher's tools and who has a given spell prepared (spells from magic initiate count as prepared spells) can scribe it into a scroll.
Pretty basic stuff. It's just designed to all reinforce each other. It definitely starts out extremely strong at level 1. By the time you reach level 10 having a couple free first level spells to cast won't be a big deal. If you pick them well, it'll still contribute. But, it won't be a big deal.
Forest gnome can be used instead of human. It loses 1 cantrip but it can pretty much be the same. Technically the forest gnome can cast that first level spell twice per day without spell slots instead of magic initiate giving access to it once per day.
Technically ... you could do this with any ... bard/cleric/druid/sorcerer/wizard/warlock. You wouldn't have the same spellbook advantages. But, the rest of it would still work about the same.
I liked the idea of the human race giving druid spells because it's like those are innate things the character was born with and I think this meshes with the Disney/nature theme. Then, as an acolyte for a specific god they learned some cleric spells, then as a wizard they learned the other spells. There's potential for overlap if the god selected is nature or magic focused and the three different aspects can overlap more cohesively.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that because it works with 6 classes and 2 races that it's not over powered. And, really .. it's not far off if you use an elf or a tiefling, or aasimar. so, 6 classes and 5 races can all do this. That feels ... pretty reasonably balanced.
Got it. I was confused when you said you have 5 spell slots, as that's not how magic initiate works (and that would only bring you to 4 regardless). Also, magic initiate spells can be cast as rituals.
It's the arcane recovery feature (which I'm sure you're familiar with). I feel like it's safe to assume one short rest in each adventuring day. That feature brings wizards to 3 spell slots per adventuring day at level 1 (assuming the short rest). Brings a warlock to 4 spells per day. I think the sorcerer effectively gets an extra spell slot this way through font of magic at level 2 (which is ... what ... 3 combats into an adventure). In hindsight, I should have specified that I assumed one short rest and could have mentioned the class feature.
Being both brief and detailed is ... extremely challenging.
I was trying to convey that this build offers more than others and allowing for a range in what others have. Trying to avoid "yeah but you said 'about 2' and this other thing has 3 and 2 isn't the same as 3". It's kind of a mine field.
But, yeah ... mechanically, I think the build offers a lot. Substantially more cantrips than most other builds, and a pretty significant number of first level spell casts available.
Just as importantly though, i think the personality design would be a lot of fun to play. I've been playing since the 90s. I've never played at a table with a character like this. It feels memorable.
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Max Caster
Personality Gimmick
This is a Disney prince/princess. Embody that. Innocence, curiosity to a fault, optimism, chivalry, and an overwhelming desire to help others ... while singing about all of it.
Mechanics Gimmick
This character maximizes spell casting options with a maximum number of cantrips and spells available at level 1. While an average spell caster may have 3-4 cantrips this will have 7. Where an average caster may have access to 2 first level spell slots per day this will have access to 5 plus unlimited ritual casts (assuming a short rest for arcane recovery).
Human wizard with the acolyte background to take magic initiate cleric and magic initiate druid in addition to the wizard class.
Character Look
https://www.heroforge.com/load_config%3D52573392/
https://www.heroforge.com/load_config%3D52574149/
Character Breakdown
You’re a human and attuned to nature. Animals are drawn to you. This gives you magic initiate druid. You’re likely to break out into song (sing a line or two and let it fade away).
You were raised in an abbey devoted to the god of your choice (a god of nature, knowledge, magic, or art would fit best). This gives you magic initiate cleric from your acolyte background.
You then transitioned to a school of magic to learn to become a wizard. This provides a spellbook which gives you the ability to learn spells at an increased rate and to not have to prepare ritual spells and just leave those in the spellbook to give you maximum versatility. You will have roughly twice as many cantrips as other options. You will also have WAY more spells available each day than pretty much any other build option.
Lean into that whole Disney thing. Animals find you. You’re affable and friendly. Everything will always work out for the best.
Alternates:
A version of this could be done with the sorcerer. Wild magic would fit well. This version would be on a mission of self discovery to learn about the innate powers they were born with. This version would have 2 sorcerer spells prepared plus 1 druid and 1 cleric. They would also have the 8 cantrips. A solid benefit would be the ability to focus on charisma which may come in handy for role play.
A version of this character could be a forest gnome instead of a human. This would replace a skill and the druid spells with minor illusion and speak with animals. It would add darkvision. It would also make the character highly effective against magic attacks with proficiency vs intelligence and wisdom saving throws in addition to advantage vs intelligence, wisdom, and charisma saving throws.
Personality
When someone attacks you and misses you need that triumphant “HAH!” because you knew they had no chance. Go out of your way to help people in need. A spell to mend a beggar’s clothes. A ration given to a child with prestidigitation to taste like chocolate cake. Mage hand to prank someone (it’s not a covertly cast spell, but you get the idea).
Sometimes you just need to break out into a song or a dance ... and sometimes happens about twice a day. For sure don’t try to sing a whole song at the table. But, deliver a line or two and let it trail off while the table understands your character is singing (again).
You go out of your way to be kind (not to the point of it being a personality flaw).
Your flaws are your optimism and your curiosity. Lean into these and let these cause trouble from time to time.
Attributes:
Strength: 8
Dexterity: 12
Constitution: 16
Intelligence: 16
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 13
Set up your attributes as you like. Intelligence is primary. Constitution is secondary. Dexterity is tertiary. Charisma, strength, and wisdom are for role play purposes.
Spell suggestions:
You have 7 cantrips to pick (3 wizard, 2 druid, 2 cleric). They’ll all use your intelligence attribute. It may be tempting to take a ton of offensive cantrips. You’ll mostly use one single offensive cantrip and others will rarely come up. Focus on exploring options for role play and out of combat uses. It’ll be more memorable.
Cantrips:
Wizard offensive cantrips pick 1-2 (you get 3 total from wizard):
Wizard non offensive cantrips pick 1-2 (you get 3 total from wizard):
Druid options (pick 2):
Cleric options (pick 2):
First Level Spells:
When you pick the druid and cleric spells it’s critical that these be spells you want to use absolutely every adventuring day. You don’t want a situational thing that is occasionally useful, you want a critical thing, or a role play choice that will get usage in most gaming sessions.
The cleric and druid spell can each be cast for free once per day. After this you can cast them with spell slots as per normal.
Rituals
You start with 6 known spells and can prepare 4 of those. This means you want 2 ritual spells to maximize what you have access to.
You basically don’t need to prepare these AND you can still cast them. As an example: as long as you have 10 minutes for the ritual you can always cast identity on a thing. This means you can learn the spell, and never have it count towards your prepared spells and you still “always” have access to it (there may be instances where you don’t have time to cast a ritual).
Wizard (pick 2 with ritual tag, and 4 without):
Druid (pick 1):
Cleric (pick 1):
Skills:
Background (you get both):
Wizard (pick 2):
Human (pick 1):
As an extra bonus you can craft spell scrolls (any spell, including cantrips, which includes your cleric, druid, and wizard spells).
Is this a homebrew class? If so, it is overpowered.
No. Basic 2024 PHB rules. It's just a human wizard with a background, man. There's nothing special going on. Those are standard array attributes (plus the 2/1 background modifiers). There's nothing selected from anywhere outside of the 2024 player's handbook. No weird combos. No mixing 2014 and 2024 rules. No 3rd party books. Just a human wizard with the acolyte background and the magic initiate feat selected twice. Pretty basic.
Human - page 194
Acolyte background - page 178
Magic Initiate feat - page 201
Wizard - page 165
Scribe Scrolls - page 233
Wizard grants the spellbook and ability to cast ritual spells from the spellbook without having to prepare it. Any wizard can cast unlimited ritual spells from their spellbook without it counting toward their prepared spells.
Magic Initiate lets you pick either druid or cleric (or wizard) and those spells work with whichever casting attribute you want. You can take it more than once.
Human gives you an origin feat. Every background gives you an origin feat. Every human starts with two origin feats.
Anyone trained with arcana or trained with calligrapher's tools and who has a given spell prepared (spells from magic initiate count as prepared spells) can scribe it into a scroll.
Pretty basic stuff. It's just designed to all reinforce each other. It definitely starts out extremely strong at level 1. By the time you reach level 10 having a couple free first level spells to cast won't be a big deal. If you pick them well, it'll still contribute. But, it won't be a big deal.
Forest gnome can be used instead of human. It loses 1 cantrip but it can pretty much be the same. Technically the forest gnome can cast that first level spell twice per day without spell slots instead of magic initiate giving access to it once per day.
Technically ... you could do this with any ... bard/cleric/druid/sorcerer/wizard/warlock. You wouldn't have the same spellbook advantages. But, the rest of it would still work about the same.
I liked the idea of the human race giving druid spells because it's like those are innate things the character was born with and I think this meshes with the Disney/nature theme. Then, as an acolyte for a specific god they learned some cleric spells, then as a wizard they learned the other spells. There's potential for overlap if the god selected is nature or magic focused and the three different aspects can overlap more cohesively.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that because it works with 6 classes and 2 races that it's not over powered. And, really .. it's not far off if you use an elf or a tiefling, or aasimar. so, 6 classes and 5 races can all do this. That feels ... pretty reasonably balanced.
Got it. I was confused when you said you have 5 spell slots, as that's not how magic initiate works (and that would only bring you to 4 regardless). Also, magic initiate spells can be cast as rituals.
No worries! It was a lot of text.
It's the arcane recovery feature (which I'm sure you're familiar with). I feel like it's safe to assume one short rest in each adventuring day. That feature brings wizards to 3 spell slots per adventuring day at level 1 (assuming the short rest). Brings a warlock to 4 spells per day. I think the sorcerer effectively gets an extra spell slot this way through font of magic at level 2 (which is ... what ... 3 combats into an adventure). In hindsight, I should have specified that I assumed one short rest and could have mentioned the class feature.
Being both brief and detailed is ... extremely challenging.
I was trying to convey that this build offers more than others and allowing for a range in what others have. Trying to avoid "yeah but you said 'about 2' and this other thing has 3 and 2 isn't the same as 3". It's kind of a mine field.
But, yeah ... mechanically, I think the build offers a lot. Substantially more cantrips than most other builds, and a pretty significant number of first level spell casts available.
Just as importantly though, i think the personality design would be a lot of fun to play. I've been playing since the 90s. I've never played at a table with a character like this. It feels memorable.