I am trying to make a Halfling wizard. He is a traveling magician, except he actually knows magic. He has a top hat. What spells would be good for a performing magician? We are starting at lvl 4 so anything up to level 2 spells.
I reckon you want Cantrips like minor illusion and prestidigitation and go in that vein - spells you can wow the crowd with and not hurt anyone. This will feed into the way you approach encounters. Levitation, illusion, light spells, etc. Conjuration, evocation, illusion, transmutation, enchantment.
Maybe he has a Hat of Wizardry from XGtE? The ability to cast a cantrip that you don't know once a day could be part of his collection of magic tricks?
First, was there a reason you chose wizard over bard (or even sorcerer)? As I would think that class be more inclined with your character concept, especially since you picked a CHA based race (presuming you went lightfoot). Second, I'd say what spells your character may use be based off what kind of magician they are. For example, a conman type could differ from a showman type.
Regardless, I love the concept and have even entertained (pun intended) the idea in the past. So to say I have a bit to say about this would be an understatement but since you are only going up to 4th level, things can be kept brief.
SPELLS Cantrips: Control Flames, Dancing Lights, Mage Hand, Minor Illusion, Prestidigitation, Shape Water 1st Level Spells: Charm Person, Color Spray, Disguise Self, Find Familiar, Silent Image, Sleep, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Unseen Servant 2nd Level Spells: Alter Self, Detect Thoughts, Enlarge/Reduce, Invisibility, Knock, Levitate, Magic Mouth, Pyrotechnics, Skywrite, Suggestion
All the above spells can in some way be used to enthrall, shock and entertain your audience. For example, you could use find familiar to perform the classic "pull a rabbit out of my hat" move. Or you could use charm person, sleep, suggestion or tasha's hideous laughter as part of a hypnosis trick. Where as other things are good for set up, such as using skywrite and pyrotechnics to advertise your show to the surrounding area. With magic mouth being an interesting talking prop gag or assistant along with your familiar, mage hand and/or unseen servant. Also if you want to go for a more macabre circus kind of thing, you could play up discovering all sorts of oddities in your travels such as strange spirits you create via dancing lights or go the whole "freak" angle by using alter self.
Besides that, if you chose conjuration as your arcane tradition you could easily pull off all sorts of tricks with the minor conjuration feature from pulling something out from behind a person's ear to disappearing tricks. As well as generally amazing the crowd by popping things in and out existence as casually as they breathe. Plus if you are going to be a magician, you definitely will want to consider making your character stand out and a bunch of the common magic items introduced in Xanathar's Guide to Everything definitely would do that in addition to upping other parts of your magicians game.
Honestly you can do a lot with just mage hand, minor illusion, prestidigitation and thaumaturgy. That way you won't expend spell slots when you roleplay.
In terms of actually fighting monsters with skills he may have picked up on the road and mastered, then this is what I'd pick from all of the spell slots:
1st:
Disguise Self
Expeditious Retreat
Unseen Servant (this would be really fun as a magician)
Wow! I didn't expect to get such a huge response! Thank you everyone who has participated.
I ended up choosing find familiar for the rabbit thing, as well as suggestion, prestidigitation, minor illusion, and mage hand. I don't remember the rest right now.I am more of a showman, and I chose wizard because I wanted to have flexibility in which spells I chose. I am interested in hearing more of your ideas KarpMageddon.
Wow! I didn't expect to get such a huge response! Thank you everyone who has participated.
I ended up choosing find familiar for the rabbit thing, as well as suggestion, prestidigitation, minor illusion, and mage hand. I don't remember the rest right now.I am more of a showman, and I chose wizard because I wanted to have flexibility in which spells I chose. I am interested in hearing more of your ideas KarpMageddon.
What would you like to hear more about? Also could you describe your character more? Like the tradition you chose, your background and what not. As it'd help me better tailor what I have to say on the subject to suit your specific needs.
I can't really say yet as we have not completely finished our characters. I do know my background is an entertainer. Also, the campaign is set in an ancient greece-like place. I will probably be an illusionist, but I am not completely sure. I am pretty new to DND, with a completely new DM as our old one finished his two month campaign. The old DM will still be around, so I suspect he will help out.
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I am trying to make a Halfling wizard. He is a traveling magician, except he actually knows magic. He has a top hat. What spells would be good for a performing magician? We are starting at lvl 4 so anything up to level 2 spells.
I reckon you want Cantrips like minor illusion and prestidigitation and go in that vein - spells you can wow the crowd with and not hurt anyone. This will feed into the way you approach encounters. Levitation, illusion, light spells, etc. Conjuration, evocation, illusion, transmutation, enchantment.
Maybe he has a Hat of Wizardry from XGtE? The ability to cast a cantrip that you don't know once a day could be part of his collection of magic tricks?
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Wary the wizard who focuses on homebrew, for he can create nightmares that you wouldn't even dream of
Prestidigitation would be a great spell for this guy!
If you don't know what it is, it's essentially very basic magic, and it has the following uses:
This is the sort of thing that would wow a crowd, but not be hard to cast (it's a cantrip,) and it has some cool, creative uses!
First, was there a reason you chose wizard over bard (or even sorcerer)? As I would think that class be more inclined with your character concept, especially since you picked a CHA based race (presuming you went lightfoot). Second, I'd say what spells your character may use be based off what kind of magician they are. For example, a conman type could differ from a showman type.
Regardless, I love the concept and have even entertained (pun intended) the idea in the past. So to say I have a bit to say about this would be an understatement but since you are only going up to 4th level, things can be kept brief.
SPELLS
Cantrips: Control Flames, Dancing Lights, Mage Hand, Minor Illusion, Prestidigitation, Shape Water
1st Level Spells: Charm Person, Color Spray, Disguise Self, Find Familiar, Silent Image, Sleep, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Unseen Servant
2nd Level Spells: Alter Self, Detect Thoughts, Enlarge/Reduce, Invisibility, Knock, Levitate, Magic Mouth, Pyrotechnics, Skywrite, Suggestion
All the above spells can in some way be used to enthrall, shock and entertain your audience. For example, you could use find familiar to perform the classic "pull a rabbit out of my hat" move. Or you could use charm person, sleep, suggestion or tasha's hideous laughter as part of a hypnosis trick. Where as other things are good for set up, such as using skywrite and pyrotechnics to advertise your show to the surrounding area. With magic mouth being an interesting talking prop gag or assistant along with your familiar, mage hand and/or unseen servant. Also if you want to go for a more macabre circus kind of thing, you could play up discovering all sorts of oddities in your travels such as strange spirits you create via dancing lights or go the whole "freak" angle by using alter self.
Besides that, if you chose conjuration as your arcane tradition you could easily pull off all sorts of tricks with the minor conjuration feature from pulling something out from behind a person's ear to disappearing tricks. As well as generally amazing the crowd by popping things in and out existence as casually as they breathe. Plus if you are going to be a magician, you definitely will want to consider making your character stand out and a bunch of the common magic items introduced in Xanathar's Guide to Everything definitely would do that in addition to upping other parts of your magicians game.
Honestly you can do a lot with just mage hand, minor illusion, prestidigitation and thaumaturgy. That way you won't expend spell slots when you roleplay.
In terms of actually fighting monsters with skills he may have picked up on the road and mastered, then this is what I'd pick from all of the spell slots:
1st:
2nd:
3rd:
4th:
5th:
6th:
7th:
8th:
9th:
3D Artist - www.charliepharis.com
Wow! I didn't expect to get such a huge response! Thank you everyone who has participated.
I ended up choosing find familiar for the rabbit thing, as well as suggestion, prestidigitation, minor illusion, and mage hand. I don't remember the rest right now.I am more of a showman, and I chose wizard because I wanted to have flexibility in which spells I chose. I am interested in hearing more of your ideas KarpMageddon.
I can't really say yet as we have not completely finished our characters. I do know my background is an entertainer. Also, the campaign is set in an ancient greece-like place. I will probably be an illusionist, but I am not completely sure. I am pretty new to DND, with a completely new DM as our old one finished his two month campaign. The old DM will still be around, so I suspect he will help out.