I guess you can still cheese with Shield at high levels by creating a Homunculus with Create Homunculus and asking it to ride around on your head between encounters and make Unarmed Attacks against you for 0 damage once per round until your Ward is full... or you could just ride around on the back of the wagon ritually casting Alarm every 11 minutes.
I’ll never stop promoting Half-Orc or Hobgoblin Wizards. You don’t need Int at all. Maze, PWK, invulnerability, Soul Cage, Tenser’s, Bigby grasping and imposing hand, etc etc.
A war mage with a shield can easily hit 30 AC without using a spell slot and just magic items. And the saves will be very potent too.
I'm right there with you on low Int wizards, but War Mage is one of the subclasses that's more Int-dependent than many of the others, and its reaction feature is pretty incompatible with Shield which isn't ideal.
I'm right there with you on low Int wizards, but War Mage is one of the subclasses that's more Int-dependent than many of the others, and its reaction feature is pretty incompatible with Shield which isn't ideal.
The benefit for Intelligence is really only initiative, which is the least-important of the features. Instead, you get +2 AC/+4 Saves reaction that can be used during Tenser’s Transformation, which is the bread and butter of this sub-type. With a shield and plate and durable magic you’re hitting a base AC of 28-32 (boosted to 30-34 AC) so the Shield spell becomes irrelevant.
Better yet... while in Tenser’s you get save proficiency in Str and Con, making it even more lucrative.
Limits you to cantrips on rounds you use its Arcane Deflection reaction. That means for a low-int Wizard, it's limited you to Green Flame Blade or Booming Blade specifically, or to using a basic attack or feature from another class. There are lots of helpful things that a low-int wizard can do during combat, but a single cast of Booming Blade probably isn't one of them. And on top of that, this Arcane Deflection is strictly inferior to Shield, and riskier than Absorb Elements, which makes it a tough sell.
Bonus to your Initiative rolls based on Intelligence = no bonus at all.
Power Surge storage is based on Intelligence. Low Intelligence = only 1 surge.
10th level AC boost while holding concentration = OK! Yes, +2 AC at level 10!
Level 14 ability only does something if you use Arcane Deflection, which again, is a pretty crap position to be left in as a low-int wizard.
Sure, if you're subject to a Tenser's Transformation then all of a sudden Arcane Deflection doesn't look so bad, and you're much more likely to use the level 14 boost. But you can't do that until level 11, and even then very very few times per day even if you're burning higher level slots on it. Very niche situation to build yourself around, considering that even then, you won't be performing as well as an Eldritch Knight (better attacks and tankier, didn't need smarts) (doesn't get Tenser, but really already is Tenser all day every day), Abjuration Wizard (much tankier and more able to help party, doesn't need smarts), or Blade Dancer (much tankier, needs smarts and elf) would be in that situation, so why have you put yourself through an entire career as a War Mage just to be the worst at what you're built to do??? All of those classes are at least still effective without Tenser's Transformation, while a (low Intelligence) War Mage is just limping along dreaming of a day they can be competent. Heck a Bard could probably make a better Tenser than a War Mage
I don't want to sound like I'm dumping on War Mage entirely, they're fine... they're just poor Wizards if you're dumping Intelligence, especially because doing so leaves you stuck as a pure Wizard with no way to multiclass.
A Warforged Fighter/Wizard that starts with 15/8/17/14/8/8 (four points to play around with, there's really no reason not to start with Int 16, but this is a proof of concept that low Int is ok). They will end with maxed Strength (for the Blade cantrips and basic attacks) and Constitution. 240 HP (+50 THP when Tenser), 22 AC (24 when Tenser, 26 when using Arcane Deflection) (or 26 when Hasted, 28 when using Arcane Deflection), and advantage on Con saves for concentration due to Warcaster. Higher AC's with magic items of course, but that's baseline. They will attack twice per round by default without Tensers, and even on any round where they use Arcane Deflection, they have the option of doing a Blade cantrip + another attack. They have Action surge as well. They can only cast Tenser 2/day, but in addition to that they can cast Haste 8 more times per day, which is arguably a much better spell than Tenser anyway. And really their intelligence can be 16 instead of 14, to be able to still have a pretty decent chance at landing a save now and again.
That is all strictly better than a pure War Mage with sub-13 intelligence. You can build an Orc Abjuration Wizard with 6 intelligence and he's fine and chonky, but you just can't build a 6 intelligence War Mage without being much much worse than you would be with 13+ Int and multi'd into Fighter.
My daughter had a level 3 Hobgoblin Onomancer. Took a dip into Artificer to gain medium armor and shield. She is pretty tanky at 16 with studded leather and shield. She is looking to get a breastplate which will jump her up to 18.
I don't want to sound like I'm dumping on War Mage entirely, they're fine... they're just poor Wizards if you're dumping Intelligence, especially because doing so leaves you stuck as a pure Wizard with no way to multiclass.
A Warforged Fighter/Wizard that starts with 15/8/17/14/8/8 (four points to play around with, there's really no reason not to start with Int 16, but this is a proof of concept that low Int is ok). They will end with maxed Strength (for the Blade cantrips and basic attacks) and Constitution. 240 HP (+50 THP when Tenser), 22 AC (24 when Tenser, 26 when using Arcane Deflection) (or 26 when Hasted, 28 when using Arcane Deflection), and advantage on Con saves for concentration due to Warcaster. Higher AC's with magic items of course, but that's baseline. They will attack twice per round by default without Tensers, and even on any round where they use Arcane Deflection, they have the option of doing a Blade cantrip + another attack. They have Action surge as well. They can only cast Tenser 2/day, but in addition to that they can cast Haste 8 more times per day, which is arguably a much better spell than Tenser anyway. And really their intelligence can be 16 instead of 14, to be able to still have a pretty decent chance at landing a save now and again.
That is all strictly better than a pure War Mage with sub-13 intelligence. You can build an Orc Abjuration Wizard with 6 intelligence and he's fine and chonky, but you just can't build a 6 intelligence War Mage without being much much worse than you would be with 13+ Int and multi'd into Fighter.
This hits on the ultimate War Mage build. Stop thinking about things like cantrips. You don’t need attacks outside of Tenser’s Transformation because they’re a waste of time to be honest. You can survive in any party in the early stages buffing your companions and they’ll love you for it. Haste, Greater Invis, etc.
Next step, good spot on Fighter level 1. That gets you Medium Armor and lets your mage grab Polearm Master and Heavy Armored. You need 13 Int to make it happen but after that you’re almost untouchable.
At the end, you are at a BASE (no magic items) with Tenser’s Transformation:
AC: 23, 25 with Arcane Deflection reaction.
Saves: 6/8/5/10/9/1, 10/12/9/14/13/5 with Arcane Deflection reaction.
Damage: 3 Attacks, all with Advantage at +10. Average damage of d6 (3.5) + 2d12 (13) + 4 = 20.5 per hit, 19.5 for the 3rd attack. That’s 60.5 per round and 9.75% chance of crit.
Once you throw any magic items (Belts of Giant Strength, Staff of Power, Rings/Cloaks of Protection), you start to see where this build shines. You don’t need Counterspell while in TT because nothing will hit you, no spell will get past your saves, and damage will multiply very quickly. I say this as someone that’s played this one to level 20 and found it quite broken. Things like Power Surge and Tactical Wit are really irrelevant because Arcane Deflection (with Deflecting Shroud) and Durable Magic are so overpowered.
GReat. Your theoretical Tenser's Transformation specialist is good in a fight exactly twice a day, and outside of said fight is pretty much entirely useless for anything you'd normally want a wizard for. You have really high armor class and damage more or less equivalent to a cleric spending a fifth-level slot to cast Holy Weapon on your wizard stick, save you can't cast during the effects of TT.
Why is this a good idea?
Don't get me wrong, I love Tenser's Transformation. It's one of the most sheer funspells in D&D and it can make for amazing moments of Pumuscle-inspired bravery...on bards. Or as an emergency fallback for a wizard with an otherwise more sensible game plan.
For a min-max perspective, without multiclassing, a Hobgoblin Abjurer would be far more effective than either dwarf. Hill Dwarf trades +1 Intelligence for a dump stat, requires a dip or a feat just to gain proficiency in light armor, and if you're not proficient then you cant cast spells. The dip delays your spellcasting, so by default it's definitely inferior to a hobgoblin wizard mechanically speaking. Mountain Dwarf is proficient in medium armor, but has +2 strength wasted, and wasted proficiencies in strength based weapons like hammers and axes. The cons heavily outweigh the pros.
Compare this: +2 HP, +1 Intelligence is custom made for a tank wizard, and proficiencies with light armor on top of that. No dip required, but if you want medium armor you can take a feat to be as good as the guy in plate. On top of all of that, you have 2 choices of martial weapons of any kind, so instead of the wasted hammers you can go heavy crossbow and a rapier, using your dexterity modifier
I don't want to straw man your argument, but the Hobgoblin just seems inferior in every possible way to a Hill Dwarf or Warforged building for the same thing.
Str-based Hobgoblin Plate Wizard still has to start Fighter (or, dip Cleric) or it wastes too many feats to have good stats, so all you've really achieved is losing 20 HP compared to a Dwarf (possibly even more if you didn't take Fighter at 1, since a Dwarf can comfortably dip Cleric at later levels for Heavy Armor, but Hobgob would have had to sacrifice starting Con or Int to get to 13 wis), or +1 AC compared to a Warforged.
Dex-based Hobgoblin Medium Armor Wizard can choose between dipping one level of Fighter + 1 feat for medium armor mastery, or two feats; dwarfs and warforged only have the Fighter + 1 feat option. Either way medium armor is a trap, the feat intensity means you haven't maxed Con and haven't taken Tough, so why even bother? And again, you're -20 HP or -1 AC compared to the other two options.
Dex-based Hobgoblin Light Armor Wizard doesn't need any feats or multiclass, hurray! But as a pure wizard you only have 5 feats, which is only worth +10 stats at most, and you're starting at 15/17/16 (12 below maxing all three). So either you've stopped at 18 Dex, or 18 Con, or 18 Int... and haven't taken Tough, so again this was strictly inferior to the Str-based build as far as tankiness is concerned. And the Dwarf and Warforged against have +20 HP or +1 AC over you because they dipped one level of Fighter and caught up (dwarf will have one less modifier in one of the three stats though, you've pulled slightly ahead in that regard).
Could spend even longer drilling into the minutia... but if we're talking about Defensive builds, Hill Dwarf (HP) or Warforged (AC) are strictly superior to Hobgoblin if you want high intelligence too. If you're fine leaving Int at 13 (or even lower) and playing a dummy wizard that self-buffs, then the differences shrink (though that Dwarf will always have +20 more HP, and Warforged always +1 more AC), but then one starts to wonder why the Hobgob's +1 Int was so important?
I believe at least, hobgoblin is better. Your stats would be 8/14/16/16/12/8 or 8/14/14/16/13/10
That means hobgoblin CAN comfortably multiclass into cleric (with one build) and in either do fighter. And you said the dwarf would have to spend an ability score improvement on Intelligence, so it evens out, at least in that regard. Plus, as a dwarf, you would be more strength inclined, in either subrace. Hobgoblins can pick up rapier proficiency, though, so in melee, they can be able to retaliate, then flee.
Now I find a middle ground is a Githyanki. It gets a boost to strength (the only bad part) an Intelligence boost, medium armor proficiency, and proficiency with shortswords, longswords, and greatswords, so with weapons, you could be strength-based or dex based.
I don't want to straw man your argument, but the Hobgoblin just seems inferior in every possible way to a Hill Dwarf or Warforged building for the same thing.
Str-based Hobgoblin Plate Wizard still has to start Fighter (or, dip Cleric) or it wastes too many feats to have good stats, so all you've really achieved is losing 20 HP compared to a Dwarf (possibly even more if you didn't take Fighter at 1, since a Dwarf can comfortably dip Cleric at later levels for Heavy Armor, but Hobgob would have had to sacrifice starting Con or Int to get to 13 wis), or +1 AC compared to a Warforged.
Dex-based Hobgoblin Medium Armor Wizard can choose between dipping one level of Fighter + 1 feat for medium armor mastery, or two feats; dwarfs and warforged only have the Fighter + 1 feat option. Either way medium armor is a trap, the feat intensity means you haven't maxed Con and haven't taken Tough, so why even bother? And again, you're -20 HP or -1 AC compared to the other two options.
Dex-based Hobgoblin Light Armor Wizard doesn't need any feats or multiclass, hurray! But as a pure wizard you only have 5 feats, which is only worth +10 stats at most, and you're starting at 15/17/16 (12 below maxing all three). So either you've stopped at 18 Dex, or 18 Con, or 18 Int... and haven't taken Tough, so again this was strictly inferior to the Str-based build as far as tankiness is concerned. And the Dwarf and Warforged against have +20 HP or +1 AC over you because they dipped one level of Fighter and caught up (dwarf will have one less modifier in one of the three stats though, you've pulled slightly ahead in that regard).
Could spend even longer drilling into the minutia... but if we're talking about Defensive builds, Hill Dwarf (HP) or Warforged (AC) are strictly superior to Hobgoblin if you want high intelligence too. If you're fine leaving Int at 13 (or even lower) and playing a dummy wizard that self-buffs, then the differences shrink (though that Dwarf will always have +20 more HP, and Warforged always +1 more AC), but then one starts to wonder why the Hobgob's +1 Int was so important?
I'll agree to the +20 HP or the +1 AC, as long as every thing else is equal on the dex hobgoblin build vs the str warforged/hill dwarf builds. That said, you either go Medium Armor Master as a feat or suck it up and take an additional +1 AC loss from best in class Heavy Armor to best in class medium armor. I'm pretty sure you factored that but some newer people may not know that. The number of ASIs doesn't change from a pure wizard to a X1/Wizard19 build. Again, just clarifying in case someone misinterprets what you were saying. That means that a 8 15 17 16 8 8 hobgoblin and a 15 8 17 16 8 8 warforged (or str at 16 and int at 15, if you wish) are in the same boat, both maxing 1 primary stat to 20 and leaving the other 2 at 18 or maxing 2 stats and leaving one at 16 with 4 ASIs. The fifth ASI would go to Tough. The Hill Dwarf 15 8 17 15 9 8 would be a half feat off that pace and would max at something like 18 8 20 17 9 8 if taking tough or settling for the half tough racial and going 18 8 20 18 10 8 with the 5th ASI.
I doubt think that either path is necessarily better, depending on what your emphasis is on this bulky wizard. Warforged probably sits that medium between offense and defense the best, and probably would make the better +1 int racial for a dex build, depending on your preference between the other racial bonuses, particularly if the fighter1 to start is taken. Hobgoblin probably pushes ahead on pure wizard, but pure wizard will be squishier AC wise and HP wise (losing 2-4 HP to a Fighter 1 dip depending on when the fighter was taken, 4 if 1st level like it should be for this build) or will lack some stats as Chicken_Champ pointed out. Which means you'll need to determine how much melee you'll be doing and how often your saves and to hit bonuses will come into play for your casts. You'll probably want one of those maxed out for offense. Maxing both means leaving your constitution lower, and you might as well leave it at 16 to bump one of your dump stats. But, OP, is that what you really envisioned with a bulky wizard?
I believe at least, hobgoblin is better. Your stats would be 8/14/16/16/12/8 or 8/14/14/16/13/10
That means hobgoblin CAN comfortably multiclass into cleric (with one build) and in either do fighter. And you said the dwarf would have to spend an ability score improvement on Intelligence, so it evens out, at least in that regard. Plus, as a dwarf, you would be more strength inclined, in either subrace. Hobgoblins can pick up rapier proficiency, though, so in melee, they can be able to retaliate, then flee.
Now I find a middle ground is a Githyanki. It gets a boost to strength (the only bad part) an Intelligence boost, medium armor proficiency, and proficiency with shortswords, longswords, and greatswords, so with weapons, you could be strength-based or dex based.
One of your 8s on the first array would be a 9 or your 12 would be a 13 if you are doing point buy.
Edit: Nevermind, point buy math is apparently harder than I can handle in my head atm.
What are we building for with those stats? If it's Heavy Armor why the heck with the 14 Dex? So probably Medium Armor... the Hill Dwarf can wear breastplate as a Wizard 1/Cleric 1 with those stats no problem. The Hobgoblin Wizard 1 can't multi into cleric until 4th level, at which point they'll need to either take a +1 Wis feat (there's none you want), or do a +1 Wis/+1 Con. That wouldn't be the end of the world, because they'll want to take Resilient (CON) at some point since they didn't start fighter.... but the dwarf is going to take that feat too, either way you'll end at 20 with 8/14/20/20/13/8, proficiency in Con saves, and no Tough. The Dwarf still has 20 more HP and started wearing real armor and using shields 3 levels earlier, while the Hob had light armor during level 1 and had +1 spell attack/save over the dwarf until level 5. Oh yeah and once again Medium armor was actually a trap, because you've only got AC 19 now instead of AC 20 in Plate (which would further hurt the Hob by slowing him down). Soooo... point to Dwarf I think, since the whole point of this is discussing tanky mages?
As for Gith... the Str is only useful if you're going for Heavy Armor, and if you're going for Heavy Armor, the hands down best way to get it is with Fighter or Cleric instead of with a feat, and if you're doing that then the Gith's proficiencies made no difference soooo all you've really done is taken 2 away from your Con or Int?
I get the temptation to pick up armor proficiency with Cleric instead of Fighter (be it light, medium, or heavy you're shooting for), but apart from Order and maybe Death, I'm not sure that any of their level 1 features will ever have a chance at being as relevant and useful to a tanky mage over their career as Second Wind , Defensive fighting style, and Con Save proficiency would be from starting Fighter 1.
I'll agree to the +20 HP or the +1 AC, as long as every thing else is equal on the dex hobgoblin build vs the str warforged/hill dwarf builds. That said, you either go Medium Armor Master as a feat or suck it up and take an additional +1 AC loss from best in class Heavy Armor to best in class medium armor. I'm pretty sure you factored that but some newer people may not know that. The number of ASIs doesn't change from a pure wizard to a X1/Wizard19 build. Again, just clarifying in case someone misinterprets what you were saying. That means that a 8 15 17 16 8 8 hobgoblin and a 15 8 17 16 8 8 warforged (or str at 16 and int at 15, if you wish) are in the same boat, both maxing 1 primary stat to 20 and leaving the other 2 at 18 or maxing 2 stats and leaving one at 16 with 4 ASIs. The fifth ASI would go to Tough. The Hill Dwarf 15 8 17 15 9 8 would be a half feat off that pace and would max at something like 18 8 20 17 9 8 if taking tough or settling for the half tough racial and going 18 8 20 18 10 8 with the 5th ASI.
I doubt think that either path is necessarily better, depending on what your emphasis is on this bulky wizard. Warforged probably sits that medium between offense and defense the best, and probably would make the better +1 int racial for a dex build, depending on your preference between the other racial bonuses, particularly if the fighter1 to start is taken. Hobgoblin probably pushes ahead on pure wizard, but pure wizard will be squishier AC wise and HP wise (losing 2-4 HP to a Fighter 1 dip depending on when the fighter was taken, 4 if 1st level like it should be for this build) or will lack some stats as Chicken_Champ pointed out. Which means you'll need to determine how much melee you'll be doing and how often your saves and to hit bonuses will come into play for your casts. You'll probably want one of those maxed out for offense. Maxing both means leaving your constitution lower, and you might as well leave it at 16 to bump one of your dump stats. But, OP, is that what you really envisioned with a bulky wizard?
Edit: based on your reply, maybe so.
All the math is hurting my head, but a 14/10/17/15/9/8 dwarf (or equally, an 10/14/17/15/9/8 dwarf, if that's your poison) gets to 20 Int and 20 Con in four feats, leaving one for Tough. So long as they started as Fighter at level 1, they have Con proficiency, Heavy Armor, and +1 AC from fighting style. If they don't start at Fighter at 1, then the most HP-optimal way to get heavy armor is to go 8/12/17/15/14/8 and take a Cleric subclass at a later level that gives Heavy. But that will cost you Con proficiency and a +1 AC from fighting style, so it's a poor move in exchange for one measly spell slot and some cleric cantrips.
They're not a half feat behind in any situation other than if you're building for Dex-based armor (light or medium) and starting 8/15/17/15/9/8, because that situation leaves you with three odd-integer stats that you want to increase. That's the only situation where having your +1 be in Wisdom instead of Intelligence (or Dex) hurts you.... and its a trap build anyway to go for Medium Armor Master on a wizard, and light armor is pointlessly redundant with Mage Armor, so why even plan around that?
I'll agree to the +20 HP or the +1 AC, as long as every thing else is equal on the dex hobgoblin build vs the str warforged/hill dwarf builds. That said, you either go Medium Armor Master as a feat or suck it up and take an additional +1 AC loss from best in class Heavy Armor to best in class medium armor. I'm pretty sure you factored that but some newer people may not know that. The number of ASIs doesn't change from a pure wizard to a X1/Wizard19 build. Again, just clarifying in case someone misinterprets what you were saying. That means that a 8 15 17 16 8 8 hobgoblin and a 15 8 17 16 8 8 warforged (or str at 16 and int at 15, if you wish) are in the same boat, both maxing 1 primary stat to 20 and leaving the other 2 at 18 or maxing 2 stats and leaving one at 16 with 4 ASIs. The fifth ASI would go to Tough. The Hill Dwarf 15 8 17 15 9 8 would be a half feat off that pace and would max at something like 18 8 20 17 9 8 if taking tough or settling for the half tough racial and going 18 8 20 18 10 8 with the 5th ASI.
I doubt think that either path is necessarily better, depending on what your emphasis is on this bulky wizard. Warforged probably sits that medium between offense and defense the best, and probably would make the better +1 int racial for a dex build, depending on your preference between the other racial bonuses, particularly if the fighter1 to start is taken. Hobgoblin probably pushes ahead on pure wizard, but pure wizard will be squishier AC wise and HP wise (losing 2-4 HP to a Fighter 1 dip depending on when the fighter was taken, 4 if 1st level like it should be for this build) or will lack some stats as Chicken_Champ pointed out. Which means you'll need to determine how much melee you'll be doing and how often your saves and to hit bonuses will come into play for your casts. You'll probably want one of those maxed out for offense. Maxing both means leaving your constitution lower, and you might as well leave it at 16 to bump one of your dump stats. But, OP, is that what you really envisioned with a bulky wizard?
Edit: based on your reply, maybe so.
All the math is hurting my head, but a 14/10/17/15/9/8 dwarf (or equally, an 10/14/17/15/9/8 dwarf, if that's your poison) gets to 20 Int and 20 Con in four feats, leaving one for Tough. So long as they started as Fighter at level 1, they have Con proficiency, Heavy Armor, and +1 AC from fighting style. If they don't start at Fighter at 1, then the most HP-optimal way to get heavy armor is to go 8/12/17/15/14/8 and take a Cleric subclass at a later level that gives Heavy. But that will cost you Con proficiency and a +1 AC from fighting style, so it's a poor move in exchange for one measly spell slot and some cleric cantrips.
They're not a half feat behind in any situation other than if you're building for Dex-based armor (light or medium) and starting 8/15/17/15/9/8, because that situation leaves you with three odd-integer stats that you want to increase. That's the only situation where having your +1 be in Wisdom instead of Intelligence (or Dex) hurts you.... and its a trap build anyway to go for Medium Armor Master on a wizard, and light armor is pointlessly redundant with Mage Armor, so why even plan around that?
The only way that a light armor build beats mage armor is if you have the +1 studded leather and want to save the spell slot or have a better magical studded leather. That's hard to design a build around and I agree. My assumptions were that you were trying to keep the three stats close. If you aren't then the build is decidedly less MAD. I'm not sure why you'd have either 14 and 10 build over a 15 and 8 outside of acknowledging that it would be a half feat off and trying to maximize the stats otherwise. Of course, that would also mean that you'd lose the 10 ft of speed on a non dwarf, but the hill dwarf gives that a one finger salute.
Edit: it does mean that the hill dwarf won't be as gifted in melee, which may or may not matter outside of AoOs since Warcaster is off the table, unless we sacrifice another ASI for it or settle for it over Tough.
GReat. Your theoretical Tenser's Transformation specialist is good in a fight exactly twice a day, and outside of said fight is pretty much entirely useless for anything you'd normally want a wizard for. You have really high armor class and damage more or less equivalent to a cleric spending a fifth-level slot to cast Holy Weapon on your wizard stick, save you can't cast during the effects of TT.
Why is this a good idea?
Don't get me wrong, I love Tenser's Transformation. It's one of the most sheer funspells in D&D and it can make for amazing moments of Pumuscle-inspired bravery...on bards. Or as an emergency fallback for a wizard with an otherwise more sensible game plan.
With 90 damage per round, high AC, amazing saves for ten minutes... - means you can kill CR 23+ creatures *with ease* twice a day. If you play tier 4 at all, you’d realize that this absolutely ruins the balance at top tier play. You’re doing Barbarian stacked damage, defending and saving better than your Paladin, and at the end of the day ... you’re still a level 19 wizard.
Bards absolutely do not combine the damage and saves that a Wizard does unfortunately - Charisma being one of the worst saves along with a glaring lack of Wisdom saves... and they definitely don’t get the continuous AC that the War Mage does.
Not trying to be facetious, but if you think a Cleric using Holy Weapon does an average of 90 damage per round with a near 100% hit rate you’re not even in the same ballpark. 90 damage per round is broken. That’s 900 damage a minute, 9000 damage in ten minutes. All with ridiculous saves and 30+ AC.
After all this? You’re still a level 19 wizard with access to Spell Mastery (unlimited shield, magic missile, whatever)... that you would offer this as a nonsensical game plan is actually kind of laughable. You can maintain haste and every other host of buffs on your allies AND sit in the middle of a melee with impunity all day. This is not sensible? And when you’re bored, you can cast one 6th level spell and wreck a couple armies when you’re bored.
I obviously can’t convince anyone of this, but I retired this character after finishing most of the sourcebook tier 4 modules. I found it rather disappointing because the rest of the party didn’t seem to matter anymore. I would spend 3 hours buffing my party in all manner of ways, and then TT the final BBEG for a couple rounds.
Variant human, +1 to con and int and bonus profession at lvl 1 resilient - constitution. Get lvl 1 as a life cleric and then go full wizard.
In total: +2 con +1 int Prof. with wis, cha and con saves Heavy armor skill Not loosing any spell slot progression 3 extra cleric cantrips, and a few prepared cleric spells (healing has bonus to it)
Either go for half plate, shield, shield of faith (spell), a +2 modifier to dex and getting the shield spell for wizard, or go for more strength, dump dex and go for heavy armor. Without magic armor you could temporarily max out at AC 26 in medium armor and AC 27 in heavy armor when you cast your shield spel.
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I guess you can still cheese with Shield at high levels by creating a Homunculus with Create Homunculus and asking it to ride around on your head between encounters and make Unarmed Attacks against you for 0 damage once per round until your Ward is full... or you could just ride around on the back of the wagon ritually casting Alarm every 11 minutes.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
I’ll never stop promoting Half-Orc or Hobgoblin Wizards. You don’t need Int at all. Maze, PWK, invulnerability, Soul Cage, Tenser’s, Bigby grasping and imposing hand, etc etc.
A war mage with a shield can easily hit 30 AC without using a spell slot and just magic items. And the saves will be very potent too.
I'm right there with you on low Int wizards, but War Mage is one of the subclasses that's more Int-dependent than many of the others, and its reaction feature is pretty incompatible with Shield which isn't ideal.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
The benefit for Intelligence is really only initiative, which is the least-important of the features. Instead, you get +2 AC/+4 Saves reaction that can be used during Tenser’s Transformation, which is the bread and butter of this sub-type. With a shield and plate and durable magic you’re hitting a base AC of 28-32 (boosted to 30-34 AC) so the Shield spell becomes irrelevant.
Better yet... while in Tenser’s you get save proficiency in Str and Con, making it even more lucrative.
War Mage:
Sure, if you're subject to a Tenser's Transformation then all of a sudden Arcane Deflection doesn't look so bad, and you're much more likely to use the level 14 boost. But you can't do that until level 11, and even then very very few times per day even if you're burning higher level slots on it. Very niche situation to build yourself around, considering that even then, you won't be performing as well as
an Eldritch Knight (better attacks and tankier, didn't need smarts)(doesn't get Tenser, but really already is Tenser all day every day), Abjuration Wizard (much tankier and more able to help party, doesn't need smarts), or Blade Dancer (much tankier, needs smarts and elf) would be in that situation, so why have you put yourself through an entire career as a War Mage just to be the worst at what you're built to do??? All of those classes are at least still effective without Tenser's Transformation, while a (low Intelligence) War Mage is just limping along dreaming of a day they can be competent. Heck a Bard could probably make a better Tenser than a War Magedndbeyond.com forum tags
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I don't want to sound like I'm dumping on War Mage entirely, they're fine... they're just poor Wizards if you're dumping Intelligence, especially because doing so leaves you stuck as a pure Wizard with no way to multiclass.
A Warforged Fighter/Wizard that starts with 15/8/17/14/8/8 (four points to play around with, there's really no reason not to start with Int 16, but this is a proof of concept that low Int is ok). They will end with maxed Strength (for the Blade cantrips and basic attacks) and Constitution. 240 HP (+50 THP when Tenser), 22 AC (24 when Tenser, 26 when using Arcane Deflection) (or 26 when Hasted, 28 when using Arcane Deflection), and advantage on Con saves for concentration due to Warcaster. Higher AC's with magic items of course, but that's baseline. They will attack twice per round by default without Tensers, and even on any round where they use Arcane Deflection, they have the option of doing a Blade cantrip + another attack. They have Action surge as well. They can only cast Tenser 2/day, but in addition to that they can cast Haste 8 more times per day, which is arguably a much better spell than Tenser anyway. And really their intelligence can be 16 instead of 14, to be able to still have a pretty decent chance at landing a save now and again.
That is all strictly better than a pure War Mage with sub-13 intelligence. You can build an Orc Abjuration Wizard with 6 intelligence and he's fine and chonky, but you just can't build a 6 intelligence War Mage without being much much worse than you would be with 13+ Int and multi'd into Fighter.
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My daughter had a level 3 Hobgoblin Onomancer. Took a dip into Artificer to gain medium armor and shield. She is pretty tanky at 16 with studded leather and shield. She is looking to get a breastplate which will jump her up to 18.
This hits on the ultimate War Mage build. Stop thinking about things like cantrips. You don’t need attacks outside of Tenser’s Transformation because they’re a waste of time to be honest. You can survive in any party in the early stages buffing your companions and they’ll love you for it. Haste, Greater Invis, etc.
Next step, good spot on Fighter level 1. That gets you Medium Armor and lets your mage grab Polearm Master and Heavy Armored. You need 13 Int to make it happen but after that you’re almost untouchable.
At the end, you are at a BASE (no magic items) with Tenser’s Transformation:
AC: 23, 25 with Arcane Deflection reaction.
Saves: 6/8/5/10/9/1, 10/12/9/14/13/5 with Arcane Deflection reaction.
Damage: 3 Attacks, all with Advantage at +10. Average damage of d6 (3.5) + 2d12 (13) + 4 = 20.5 per hit, 19.5 for the 3rd attack. That’s 60.5 per round and 9.75% chance of crit.
Once you throw any magic items (Belts of Giant Strength, Staff of Power, Rings/Cloaks of Protection), you start to see where this build shines. You don’t need Counterspell while in TT because nothing will hit you, no spell will get past your saves, and damage will multiply very quickly. I say this as someone that’s played this one to level 20 and found it quite broken. Things like Power Surge and Tactical Wit are really irrelevant because Arcane Deflection (with Deflecting Shroud) and Durable Magic are so overpowered.
Throw in magic items and you get things like 30+ AC, 15/18/16 in the Primary Saves with a reaction (Dex/Con/Wis), and doing 80-100+ average damage per round. (See calculations here: http://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/tips-tactics/52011-the-highest-possible-damaging-builds?comment=58)
https://ddb.ac/characters/11290166/gQBuy2
Disagree if you want, I got bored of min-maxed stuff like this and stopped playing him because it just ruined the team-based play that makes DnD fun.
GReat. Your theoretical Tenser's Transformation specialist is good in a fight exactly twice a day, and outside of said fight is pretty much entirely useless for anything you'd normally want a wizard for. You have really high armor class and damage more or less equivalent to a cleric spending a fifth-level slot to cast Holy Weapon on your wizard stick, save you can't cast during the effects of TT.
Why is this a good idea?
Don't get me wrong, I love Tenser's Transformation. It's one of the most sheer fun spells in D&D and it can make for amazing moments of Pumuscle-inspired bravery...on bards. Or as an emergency fallback for a wizard with an otherwise more sensible game plan.
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For a min-max perspective, without multiclassing, a Hobgoblin Abjurer would be far more effective than either dwarf. Hill Dwarf trades +1 Intelligence for a dump stat, requires a dip or a feat just to gain proficiency in light armor, and if you're not proficient then you cant cast spells. The dip delays your spellcasting, so by default it's definitely inferior to a hobgoblin wizard mechanically speaking. Mountain Dwarf is proficient in medium armor, but has +2 strength wasted, and wasted proficiencies in strength based weapons like hammers and axes. The cons heavily outweigh the pros.
Compare this: +2 HP, +1 Intelligence is custom made for a tank wizard, and proficiencies with light armor on top of that. No dip required, but if you want medium armor you can take a feat to be as good as the guy in plate. On top of all of that, you have 2 choices of martial weapons of any kind, so instead of the wasted hammers you can go heavy crossbow and a rapier, using your dexterity modifier
Here's my favorite build, by LudicSavant, called the "Iron Wizard": http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23837856&postcount=45
I don't want to straw man your argument, but the Hobgoblin just seems inferior in every possible way to a Hill Dwarf or Warforged building for the same thing.
Str-based Hobgoblin Plate Wizard still has to start Fighter (or, dip Cleric) or it wastes too many feats to have good stats, so all you've really achieved is losing 20 HP compared to a Dwarf (possibly even more if you didn't take Fighter at 1, since a Dwarf can comfortably dip Cleric at later levels for Heavy Armor, but Hobgob would have had to sacrifice starting Con or Int to get to 13 wis), or +1 AC compared to a Warforged.
Dex-based Hobgoblin Medium Armor Wizard can choose between dipping one level of Fighter + 1 feat for medium armor mastery, or two feats; dwarfs and warforged only have the Fighter + 1 feat option. Either way medium armor is a trap, the feat intensity means you haven't maxed Con and haven't taken Tough, so why even bother? And again, you're -20 HP or -1 AC compared to the other two options.
Dex-based Hobgoblin Light Armor Wizard doesn't need any feats or multiclass, hurray! But as a pure wizard you only have 5 feats, which is only worth +10 stats at most, and you're starting at 15/17/16 (12 below maxing all three). So either you've stopped at 18 Dex, or 18 Con, or 18 Int... and haven't taken Tough, so again this was strictly inferior to the Str-based build as far as tankiness is concerned. And the Dwarf and Warforged against have +20 HP or +1 AC over you because they dipped one level of Fighter and caught up (dwarf will have one less modifier in one of the three stats though, you've pulled slightly ahead in that regard).
Could spend even longer drilling into the minutia... but if we're talking about Defensive builds, Hill Dwarf (HP) or Warforged (AC) are strictly superior to Hobgoblin if you want high intelligence too. If you're fine leaving Int at 13 (or even lower) and playing a dummy wizard that self-buffs, then the differences shrink (though that Dwarf will always have +20 more HP, and Warforged always +1 more AC), but then one starts to wonder why the Hobgob's +1 Int was so important?
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I believe at least, hobgoblin is better. Your stats would be 8/14/16/16/12/8 or 8/14/14/16/13/10
That means hobgoblin CAN comfortably multiclass into cleric (with one build) and in either do fighter. And you said the dwarf would have to spend an ability score improvement on Intelligence, so it evens out, at least in that regard. Plus, as a dwarf, you would be more strength inclined, in either subrace. Hobgoblins can pick up rapier proficiency, though, so in melee, they can be able to retaliate, then flee.
Now I find a middle ground is a Githyanki. It gets a boost to strength (the only bad part) an Intelligence boost, medium armor proficiency, and proficiency with shortswords, longswords, and greatswords, so with weapons, you could be strength-based or dex based.
D&D is a game for nerds... so I guess I'm one :p
I'll agree to the +20 HP or the +1 AC, as long as every thing else is equal on the dex hobgoblin build vs the str warforged/hill dwarf builds. That said, you either go Medium Armor Master as a feat or suck it up and take an additional +1 AC loss from best in class Heavy Armor to best in class medium armor. I'm pretty sure you factored that but some newer people may not know that. The number of ASIs doesn't change from a pure wizard to a X1/Wizard19 build. Again, just clarifying in case someone misinterprets what you were saying. That means that a 8 15 17 16 8 8 hobgoblin and a 15 8 17 16 8 8 warforged (or str at 16 and int at 15, if you wish) are in the same boat, both maxing 1 primary stat to 20 and leaving the other 2 at 18 or maxing 2 stats and leaving one at 16 with 4 ASIs. The fifth ASI would go to Tough. The Hill Dwarf 15 8 17 15 9 8 would be a half feat off that pace and would max at something like 18 8 20 17 9 8 if taking tough or settling for the half tough racial and going 18 8 20 18 10 8 with the 5th ASI.
I doubt think that either path is necessarily better, depending on what your emphasis is on this bulky wizard. Warforged probably sits that medium between offense and defense the best, and probably would make the better +1 int racial for a dex build, depending on your preference between the other racial bonuses, particularly if the fighter1 to start is taken. Hobgoblin probably pushes ahead on pure wizard, but pure wizard will be squishier AC wise and HP wise (losing 2-4 HP to a Fighter 1 dip depending on when the fighter was taken, 4 if 1st level like it should be for this build) or will lack some stats as Chicken_Champ pointed out. Which means you'll need to determine how much melee you'll be doing and how often your saves and to hit bonuses will come into play for your casts. You'll probably want one of those maxed out for offense. Maxing both means leaving your constitution lower, and you might as well leave it at 16 to bump one of your dump stats. But, OP, is that what you really envisioned with a bulky wizard?
Edit: based on your reply, maybe so.
One of your 8s on the first array would be a 9 or your 12 would be a 13 if you are doing point buy.
Edit: Nevermind, point buy math is apparently harder than I can handle in my head atm.
What are we building for with those stats? If it's Heavy Armor why the heck with the 14 Dex? So probably Medium Armor... the Hill Dwarf can wear breastplate as a Wizard 1/Cleric 1 with those stats no problem. The Hobgoblin Wizard 1 can't multi into cleric until 4th level, at which point they'll need to either take a +1 Wis feat (there's none you want), or do a +1 Wis/+1 Con. That wouldn't be the end of the world, because they'll want to take Resilient (CON) at some point since they didn't start fighter.... but the dwarf is going to take that feat too, either way you'll end at 20 with 8/14/20/20/13/8, proficiency in Con saves, and no Tough. The Dwarf still has 20 more HP and started wearing real armor and using shields 3 levels earlier, while the Hob had light armor during level 1 and had +1 spell attack/save over the dwarf until level 5. Oh yeah and once again Medium armor was actually a trap, because you've only got AC 19 now instead of AC 20 in Plate (which would further hurt the Hob by slowing him down). Soooo... point to Dwarf I think, since the whole point of this is discussing tanky mages?
As for Gith... the Str is only useful if you're going for Heavy Armor, and if you're going for Heavy Armor, the hands down best way to get it is with Fighter or Cleric instead of with a feat, and if you're doing that then the Gith's proficiencies made no difference soooo all you've really done is taken 2 away from your Con or Int?
I get the temptation to pick up armor proficiency with Cleric instead of Fighter (be it light, medium, or heavy you're shooting for), but apart from Order and maybe Death, I'm not sure that any of their level 1 features will ever have a chance at being as relevant and useful to a tanky mage over their career as Second Wind , Defensive fighting style, and Con Save proficiency would be from starting Fighter 1.
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All the math is hurting my head, but a 14/10/17/15/9/8 dwarf (or equally, an 10/14/17/15/9/8 dwarf, if that's your poison) gets to 20 Int and 20 Con in four feats, leaving one for Tough. So long as they started as Fighter at level 1, they have Con proficiency, Heavy Armor, and +1 AC from fighting style. If they don't start at Fighter at 1, then the most HP-optimal way to get heavy armor is to go 8/12/17/15/14/8 and take a Cleric subclass at a later level that gives Heavy. But that will cost you Con proficiency and a +1 AC from fighting style, so it's a poor move in exchange for one measly spell slot and some cleric cantrips.
They're not a half feat behind in any situation other than if you're building for Dex-based armor (light or medium) and starting 8/15/17/15/9/8, because that situation leaves you with three odd-integer stats that you want to increase. That's the only situation where having your +1 be in Wisdom instead of Intelligence (or Dex) hurts you.... and its a trap build anyway to go for Medium Armor Master on a wizard, and light armor is pointlessly redundant with Mage Armor, so why even plan around that?
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The only way that a light armor build beats mage armor is if you have the +1 studded leather and want to save the spell slot or have a better magical studded leather. That's hard to design a build around and I agree. My assumptions were that you were trying to keep the three stats close. If you aren't then the build is decidedly less MAD. I'm not sure why you'd have either 14 and 10 build over a 15 and 8 outside of acknowledging that it would be a half feat off and trying to maximize the stats otherwise. Of course, that would also mean that you'd lose the 10 ft of speed on a non dwarf, but the hill dwarf gives that a one finger salute.
Edit: it does mean that the hill dwarf won't be as gifted in melee, which may or may not matter outside of AoOs since Warcaster is off the table, unless we sacrifice another ASI for it or settle for it over Tough.
With 90 damage per round, high AC, amazing saves for ten minutes... - means you can kill CR 23+ creatures *with ease* twice a day. If you play tier 4 at all, you’d realize that this absolutely ruins the balance at top tier play. You’re doing Barbarian stacked damage, defending and saving better than your Paladin, and at the end of the day ... you’re still a level 19 wizard.
Bards absolutely do not combine the damage and saves that a Wizard does unfortunately - Charisma being one of the worst saves along with a glaring lack of Wisdom saves... and they definitely don’t get the continuous AC that the War Mage does.
Not trying to be facetious, but if you think a Cleric using Holy Weapon does an average of 90 damage per round with a near 100% hit rate you’re not even in the same ballpark. 90 damage per round is broken. That’s 900 damage a minute, 9000 damage in ten minutes. All with ridiculous saves and 30+ AC.
After all this? You’re still a level 19 wizard with access to Spell Mastery (unlimited shield, magic missile, whatever)... that you would offer this as a nonsensical game plan is actually kind of laughable. You can maintain haste and every other host of buffs on your allies AND sit in the middle of a melee with impunity all day. This is not sensible? And when you’re bored, you can cast one 6th level spell and wreck a couple armies when you’re bored.
I obviously can’t convince anyone of this, but I retired this character after finishing most of the sourcebook tier 4 modules. I found it rather disappointing because the rest of the party didn’t seem to matter anymore. I would spend 3 hours buffing my party in all manner of ways, and then TT the final BBEG for a couple rounds.
Variant human, +1 to con and int and bonus profession at lvl 1 resilient - constitution. Get lvl 1 as a life cleric and then go full wizard.
In total:
+2 con +1 int
Prof. with wis, cha and con saves
Heavy armor skill
Not loosing any spell slot progression
3 extra cleric cantrips, and a few prepared cleric spells (healing has bonus to it)
Either go for half plate, shield, shield of faith (spell), a +2 modifier to dex and getting the shield spell for wizard, or go for more strength, dump dex and go for heavy armor. Without magic armor you could temporarily max out at AC 26 in medium armor and AC 27 in heavy armor when you cast your shield spel.