Your other intelligence casters are Artificers and Arcane Trickster/Eldritch Knights.
If you take your first level as Artificer you'll get access to some level 1 Artificer spells, Constitution save proficiency, and light/medium armour and shield proficiencies. Also, because Artificers get their level 1 spells at level 1, unlike the other half casters Paladin and Ranger who have to wait for level 2, you don't actually lose spell slots when you switch to Wizard at level up.
One level of Artificer is all the multi-classing I'd do with a Wizard though. Most times I wouldn't bother. Wizards as full casters, and more so than most other casting classes, live and die by the spells they have access to, and those come by leveling up as a Wizard.
Depending on your taste, build the character with either Rogue or Fighter stats as best you can, keeping Int high. Then the Eldrich Knight Fighter or the Arcane Trickster Rogue (or another rogue class, but the Trickster allows you "free" additional Wizard spells) My suggestion for any MC is to plan for at least 4 levels, to get the ASI which is usually much needed for MC. Otherwise, seek a 1 level dip if you want, for flavor and pick whatever class appeals to you. MC to Sorc could be fun, enabling you to twin, or subtle some Wizard spells might be fun. No indication or hint, then BOOOM . Counterspell THAT!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Talk to your Players.Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
So, I have a character who’s primarily going to be a wizard, though I want to multiclass her.
Does anyone have recommendations for beginners on multiclassing wizards?
Like all multiclass plans, it helps knowing how many levels you're going, but if you're going to 20, you can usually afford up to 2 levels of dipping - Wizard 20 is not a very good capstone and Wizard 19 is an ASI and an L6 spell slot. Wizard 18 is an actually good ability. If you don't mind giving it up, you can afford 3 class levels without losing access to L9 spells - those unlock at Wizard 17.
Spellcaster progression slows down noticeably from levels 12 to 16. If you're going in willing to give up even more high-end spellcasting, you can afford up to 9 multiclass levels. Wizard 12 is just an ASI with literally no other benefits, for example. But this usually isn't done with Wizard - it's more popular with Charisma builds.
The most generic good answer I can give you is Fighter 2 - Action Surge is so good on a Wizard it's commonly regarded as worth everything you give up for it, but also usually if you're doing this you start off with Fighter for the superior save proficiencies, bonus hit points, etc. So it's best to plan out the build and start out at Fighter 1 - when you take Fighter 2 is up to you. You can probably legally be a Fighter/Wizard since most Wizards are Int/Dex/Con. Similarly, you could grab Fighter 3 for Eldritch Knight or Rogue 1-3 for Arcane Trickster, but these are of highly niche interest and most likely to be combined with Bladesinger, War Mage, or Abjurer.
Also of potential interest are Artificer 1 (superior proficiencies in saves and armor, on top of nice things like +2 cantrips known - but Artificer 1 is a very bad level and most builds like this don't stop at Artificer 1), Artificer 2 (infusions), and Artificer 3 (subclass benefits, but since you'll be bailing on Artificer, not having access to scaling can be tough, depending on what you pick - Artillerist will scale just fine, for example).
I'll agree with the above 2 levels of fighter for action surge is a solid choice. Opening a fight with 16d6 of fireball sort of ends things a lot quicker, and that's not bothering to be creative with spell combos.
If you can, picking up 2 levels of fighter for action surge and armor can be a good way to turn you into a sort of war mage.
Going sorceror for metamagic could also be fun, and really increase your spells known beyond your spellbook. I would focus on picking up a bunch of utility spells and things like Magic Missile that won't make you bother with a different spell save dc/spell attack modifier. You also keep increasing spell slots for upcasting (since most spells between 5 and 8 are a little underwhelming anyways).
Honestly there is not much you can do optimally with wizards in terms of multiclassing.The suggest classes work the best, Artificer, EK, and AT. Fighter can be alright for a 2 to 3 level dip, but 3 levels isn't the greatest as there are not a lot of fighter subclasses outside of EK that synergize well with wizard. You should consider what you are giving up for what you are gaining and if it is worth it.
So things to consider also are is how the long the game will be going? It may be worth it more if you aren't going past level 8 or 10 versus 20 where 8th and 9th level spellcasting are options. Additionally, is it thematic to your character? For instance, my divination wizard was a intelligence soldier in his younger years. So he would be out in the field gathering intelligence and learning thing lay of the land and what to be aware of, and after becoming a wizard he and his partner would help others with monsters or other problems ala a Witcher type of character. So while it may not be the best choice, 2-3 levels in ranger are a possibility for him because of the overall theme of the character.
Hey. DnD newcomer here.
So, I have a character who’s primarily going to be a wizard, though I want to multiclass her.
Does anyone have recommendations for beginners on multiclassing wizards?
Your other intelligence casters are Artificers and Arcane Trickster/Eldritch Knights.
If you take your first level as Artificer you'll get access to some level 1 Artificer spells, Constitution save proficiency, and light/medium armour and shield proficiencies. Also, because Artificers get their level 1 spells at level 1, unlike the other half casters Paladin and Ranger who have to wait for level 2, you don't actually lose spell slots when you switch to Wizard at level up.
One level of Artificer is all the multi-classing I'd do with a Wizard though. Most times I wouldn't bother. Wizards as full casters, and more so than most other casting classes, live and die by the spells they have access to, and those come by leveling up as a Wizard.
Depending on your taste, build the character with either Rogue or Fighter stats as best you can, keeping Int high. Then the Eldrich Knight Fighter or the Arcane Trickster Rogue (or another rogue class, but the Trickster allows you "free" additional Wizard spells) My suggestion for any MC is to plan for at least 4 levels, to get the ASI which is usually much needed for MC. Otherwise, seek a 1 level dip if you want, for flavor and pick whatever class appeals to you. MC to Sorc could be fun, enabling you to twin, or subtle some Wizard spells might be fun. No indication or hint, then BOOOM . Counterspell THAT!
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
Like all multiclass plans, it helps knowing how many levels you're going, but if you're going to 20, you can usually afford up to 2 levels of dipping - Wizard 20 is not a very good capstone and Wizard 19 is an ASI and an L6 spell slot. Wizard 18 is an actually good ability. If you don't mind giving it up, you can afford 3 class levels without losing access to L9 spells - those unlock at Wizard 17.
Spellcaster progression slows down noticeably from levels 12 to 16. If you're going in willing to give up even more high-end spellcasting, you can afford up to 9 multiclass levels. Wizard 12 is just an ASI with literally no other benefits, for example. But this usually isn't done with Wizard - it's more popular with Charisma builds.
The most generic good answer I can give you is Fighter 2 - Action Surge is so good on a Wizard it's commonly regarded as worth everything you give up for it, but also usually if you're doing this you start off with Fighter for the superior save proficiencies, bonus hit points, etc. So it's best to plan out the build and start out at Fighter 1 - when you take Fighter 2 is up to you. You can probably legally be a Fighter/Wizard since most Wizards are Int/Dex/Con. Similarly, you could grab Fighter 3 for Eldritch Knight or Rogue 1-3 for Arcane Trickster, but these are of highly niche interest and most likely to be combined with Bladesinger, War Mage, or Abjurer.
Also of potential interest are Artificer 1 (superior proficiencies in saves and armor, on top of nice things like +2 cantrips known - but Artificer 1 is a very bad level and most builds like this don't stop at Artificer 1), Artificer 2 (infusions), and Artificer 3 (subclass benefits, but since you'll be bailing on Artificer, not having access to scaling can be tough, depending on what you pick - Artillerist will scale just fine, for example).
I'll agree with the above 2 levels of fighter for action surge is a solid choice. Opening a fight with 16d6 of fireball sort of ends things a lot quicker, and that's not bothering to be creative with spell combos.
If you can, picking up 2 levels of fighter for action surge and armor can be a good way to turn you into a sort of war mage.
Going sorceror for metamagic could also be fun, and really increase your spells known beyond your spellbook. I would focus on picking up a bunch of utility spells and things like Magic Missile that won't make you bother with a different spell save dc/spell attack modifier. You also keep increasing spell slots for upcasting (since most spells between 5 and 8 are a little underwhelming anyways).
Honestly there is not much you can do optimally with wizards in terms of multiclassing.The suggest classes work the best, Artificer, EK, and AT. Fighter can be alright for a 2 to 3 level dip, but 3 levels isn't the greatest as there are not a lot of fighter subclasses outside of EK that synergize well with wizard. You should consider what you are giving up for what you are gaining and if it is worth it.
So things to consider also are is how the long the game will be going? It may be worth it more if you aren't going past level 8 or 10 versus 20 where 8th and 9th level spellcasting are options. Additionally, is it thematic to your character? For instance, my divination wizard was a intelligence soldier in his younger years. So he would be out in the field gathering intelligence and learning thing lay of the land and what to be aware of, and after becoming a wizard he and his partner would help others with monsters or other problems ala a Witcher type of character. So while it may not be the best choice, 2-3 levels in ranger are a possibility for him because of the overall theme of the character.