I played in a one shot recently with a plate wearing Wizard of the War Mage. With a shield, and concentrating on a spell (level 10 war mage feature), I was typically walking around combat with a 22AC, and a shield spell to back it up. It felt very tough, and I felt like throwing my character into the middle of fights just to see if he would get hit.
I’ve always built a wizard that takes as much defensive power as possible. Mage armour, shield spell, high constitution, bladesinging or war mage. Now I really want to give the opposite a try. A Fragile glass cannon where offence is the best defence.
Now I understand wizards are normally fragile, but a normal wizard doesn’t have the stopping power I’m looking to achieve. Are there options to take as a wizard which pushes offensive abilities above the normal or is the offence capabilities similar to that of the war mage build previously mentioned, and there isn’t any reason not to go into that defensive style?
Even unarmoured wizards can achieve considerable defenses with their spells like Mage Armour, Shield, Absorb Elements, Misty Step, Mirror Image / Blur, Fire Shield and more. You get a couple more options if you are a Mark of Warding Dwarf since you can also select Armor of Agathys and Antilife Shell. There are also magic items that help such as Ring/Cloak of Protection, Bracers of Defense, Cloak of Displacement and Dragon Masks. An Abjurist wizard can take it even further with damage-soaking wards and magic resistance.
Offensively, you have Hold Person/Monster to halt enemies and grant advantage and autocrit to the whole party against that enemy. Take control of enemies to make their strength yours with Dominate spells. You can blow them up with Fireball, make them sizzle with lightning bolt, and you have access to the most powerful damage-dealing spells in the game like Disintegrate, Finger of Death and Meteor Swarm. You also have the most dangerous spells like Cloudkill and Sickening Radiance as well as the ability to lock them into the AoE with Forcecage. Eventually they can use Wish to reshape reality itself.
I just don't understand you saying "doesn't have the stopping power". A certain warlock build and Paladins can achieve burst damage greater than a wizard against a single enemy. Otherwise, and against groups of enemies, Wizards have the greatest damage output and destructive abilities beyond all others. You can turn people to dust and destroy towns with a wave of a hand. Seriously, how much more stopping power than you need?
I mean, you could go Evoker and overchannel 5th level spells. Do you know how useful a 5th level overchanneled Magic Missile's instant auto-hit 70 force damage can be? How about the Conjuror sending waves of their buffed up kamikaze mephit-bombs and entourage of perma-bound elementals? How about the Abjurist who can just walk through enemy fire like it was nothing and shut down enemy mages easily?
Really not sure what more you want in terms of stopping power.
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Really not sure what more you want in terms of stopping power.
Perhaps I’m asking something from the wizard class of which other classes are more suitably designed. The Evocation speciality that maximises damage is probably the closest to the theme I’m going for, yet only once a long rest for a level 14th character(unless you wanna sacrifice health). But a sorcerer can reroll damage dice more than once per long rest with metamagic. And a Death Cleric can add 5+(2xlevel) of necrotic damage two to three times a short rest. And a tempest cleric can choose to maximise lightning damage for a channel divinity, which is recovered on short rest.
I’m seeking a way for a book studied wizard to have those moments of choice to go big. Perhaps I’ve underestimated something with the wizards evocation level 14 ability. For the class that’s a cornerstone of fantasy worlds, they don’t seem to be able to keep up in this way. And if you go with evocation, your unable to make the most of that ability unless you have an okay health pool to fuel it.
I don’t want to play a character that makes everyone else’s game less fun by having to spend recourses healing my glass cannon just so I can have multiple big powerful magic displays.
I played in a one shot recently with a plate wearing Wizard of the War Mage. With a shield, and concentrating on a spell (level 10 war mage feature), I was typically walking around combat with a 22AC, and a shield spell to back it up. It felt very tough, and I felt like throwing my character into the middle of fights just to see if he would get hit.
I’ve always built a wizard that takes as much defensive power as possible. Mage armour, shield spell, high constitution, bladesinging or war mage. Now I really want to give the opposite a try. A Fragile glass cannon where offence is the best defence.
Now I understand wizards are normally fragile, but a normal wizard doesn’t have the stopping power I’m looking to achieve. Are there options to take as a wizard which pushes offensive abilities above the normal or is the offence capabilities similar to that of the war mage build previously mentioned, and there isn’t any reason not to go into that defensive style?
Even unarmoured wizards can achieve considerable defenses with their spells like Mage Armour, Shield, Absorb Elements, Misty Step, Mirror Image / Blur, Fire Shield and more. You get a couple more options if you are a Mark of Warding Dwarf since you can also select Armor of Agathys and Antilife Shell. There are also magic items that help such as Ring/Cloak of Protection, Bracers of Defense, Cloak of Displacement and Dragon Masks. An Abjurist wizard can take it even further with damage-soaking wards and magic resistance.
Offensively, you have Hold Person/Monster to halt enemies and grant advantage and autocrit to the whole party against that enemy. Take control of enemies to make their strength yours with Dominate spells. You can blow them up with Fireball, make them sizzle with lightning bolt, and you have access to the most powerful damage-dealing spells in the game like Disintegrate, Finger of Death and Meteor Swarm. You also have the most dangerous spells like Cloudkill and Sickening Radiance as well as the ability to lock them into the AoE with Forcecage. Eventually they can use Wish to reshape reality itself.
I just don't understand you saying "doesn't have the stopping power". A certain warlock build and Paladins can achieve burst damage greater than a wizard against a single enemy. Otherwise, and against groups of enemies, Wizards have the greatest damage output and destructive abilities beyond all others. You can turn people to dust and destroy towns with a wave of a hand. Seriously, how much more stopping power than you need?
I mean, you could go Evoker and overchannel 5th level spells. Do you know how useful a 5th level overchanneled Magic Missile's instant auto-hit 70 force damage can be? How about the Conjuror sending waves of their buffed up kamikaze mephit-bombs and entourage of perma-bound elementals? How about the Abjurist who can just walk through enemy fire like it was nothing and shut down enemy mages easily?
Really not sure what more you want in terms of stopping power.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Perhaps I’m asking something from the wizard class of which other classes are more suitably designed. The Evocation speciality that maximises damage is probably the closest to the theme I’m going for, yet only once a long rest for a level 14th character(unless you wanna sacrifice health). But a sorcerer can reroll damage dice more than once per long rest with metamagic. And a Death Cleric can add 5+(2xlevel) of necrotic damage two to three times a short rest. And a tempest cleric can choose to maximise lightning damage for a channel divinity, which is recovered on short rest.
I’m seeking a way for a book studied wizard to have those moments of choice to go big. Perhaps I’ve underestimated something with the wizards evocation level 14 ability. For the class that’s a cornerstone of fantasy worlds, they don’t seem to be able to keep up in this way. And if you go with evocation, your unable to make the most of that ability unless you have an okay health pool to fuel it.
I don’t want to play a character that makes everyone else’s game less fun by having to spend recourses healing my glass cannon just so I can have multiple big powerful magic displays.