So I rolled a pretty lucky Wizard, and I had no real plans going into it, but I was thinking of dipping into Warlock for 1 or two. Currently level 4 wizard, and took the Warcaster feat for the fun of it and war magic school, but I'm planning on picking up Abjuration at level 6.
I have +4 Int, +4 Charisma, +1 Dex, +1 str, +3 wisdom
I was thinking of dipping 1 or two into Warlock Hexblade and grabbing Armor of Agathys and Agonizing blast, and running with medium armor and a shield.
I'm a bit confused how Armor of Agathys really works though, since wouldn't I have to use up my wizard high level spell slots to cast it to recharge my arcane ward?
The other option seems to be armor of shadows, but other than the refill of my arcane ward, I'd be losing AC compared to picking up some med armor and a shield.
Or am I still better off just sticking to pure wizard or using a different class dip to take advantage of my +4 Charisma
So I rolled a pretty lucky Wizard, and I had no real plans going into it, but I was thinking of dipping into Warlock for 1 or two. Currently level 4 wizard, and took the Warcaster feat for the fun of it, but I'm planning on picking up Abjuration at level 6.
Picking up Abjuration at level 6? Didn't you grab that at level 2?
I was thinking of dipping 1 or two into Warlock Hexblade and grabbing Armor of Agathys and Agonizing blast, and running with medium armor and a shield.
I'm a bit confused how Armor of Agathys really works though, since wouldn't I have to use up my wizard high level spell slots to cast it to recharge my arcane ward?
You just have to cast an abjuration spell to start the ward and refresh it. You can cast Armor of Agathys using a wizard or a warlock spell slot and it'll charge your ward. The higher slot you use, the more it charges the ward.
Personally I like pure wizard. I think it's fantastic. You could have picked the Mark of Warding Dwarf and still gotten access to Armor of Agathys. Even without it, Abjuration wizards are fantastic!
Err, yeah, I think i got a bit confused and misread. Disregard the whole abjuration thing, I guess it's too late for me to change that now. I ended up picking war mage instead.
I was thinking there was still benefit to taking 1 or two into warlock to get medium armor, shields and eldritch blast though, it'd be a much more powerful cantrip than firebolt and I find myself running out of spell slots quite often in a campaign with no opportunity for rest. Having +4 charisma would make a difference here over general recommendations where eldritch blast isn't worth it, wouldn't it?
I also find myself using arcane deflection a lot, so having a powerful cantrip would be helpful
While you'd have a better cantrip, you're going to be two levels behind on getting wizard spells and other features. War mage is already strong defensively. While the armor proficiencies are also nice, the war mage, and wizards in general, have plenty of strong defensive spells and abilities that you'll be better off using. Missing out on shields and medium armor is offset by spells like mage armor, shield, mirror image, and whatever else. That's my two cents anyway. Pure wizards are great!
If you can rework your School with your DM, I strongly recommend Abjuration or Evocation.
An Abjurer can combine his Arcane Ward with Armor of Agathys and literally ruin any melee encounter your DM planned.
As an Evoker, you can combine Hexblade Curse (and Hex to a lesser extent) with good single target spells to make them great like Magic Missile, Scorching Ray and Melf’s Minute Meteor. Evokers are great AoE blasters, but somehow lack consistent single target damage. Once you reach level 10 and get Overchannel, your Magic Missiles will be really scary. Suppose you upcast Magic Missile with a 5th level spell slot, you would cause 1d4+1 (Magic Missile) + 4 Prof (Hexblade Curse) + 5 INT (Overchannel) x 7 (upcasted) = avg 84 unmissable never resisted Force damage.
While you'd have a better cantrip, you're going to be two levels behind on getting wizard spells and other features. War mage is already strong defensively. While the armor proficiencies are also nice, the war mage, and wizards in general, have plenty of strong defensive spells and abilities that you'll be better off using. Missing out on shields and medium armor is offset by spells like mage armor, shield, mirror image, and whatever else. That's my two cents anyway. Pure wizards are great!
Yeah, I'm not so worried about end game stuff at least, I don't think i'll get to level 15 even, but I guess losing out on level 4 or 5 spells for a little while would suck. But my DM seems to like long encounters with little time to rest, and any time we try we get interrupted, so I'm having a rough time maintaining all those defensive spells and still have anything left to even cast that's not a cantrip by the time I get to some tougher fights. Think there's another 1 level dip I can take that can take advantage of my high roll for charisma or wisdom?
If you can rework your School with your DM, I strongly recommend Abjuration or Evocation.
An Abjurer can combine his Arcane Ward with Armor of Agathys and literally ruin any melee encounter your DM planned.
As an Evoker, you can combine Hexblade Curse (and Hex to a lesser extent) with good single target spells to make them great like Magic Missile, Scorching Ray and Melf’s Minute Meteor. Evokers are great AoE blasters, but somehow lack consistent single target damage. Once you reach level 10 and get Overchannel, your Magic Missiles will be really scary. Suppose you upcast Magic Missile with a 5th level spell slot, you would cause 1d4+1 (Magic Missile) + 4 Prof (Hexblade Curse) + 5 INT (Overchannel) x 7 (upcasted) = avg 84 unmissable never resisted Force damage.
I'd love to, but I've been told that's not allowed ;) That sounds rather powerful though !
Well, you can still do half of this combination with Hexblade Curse only (Overchannel only plays after level 10+ anyway), so you can leverage even the crit-fishing possibility of the ability with Scorching Ray and Melf’s Minute Meteor, for instance.
I gave this advise in the Chronurgy thread, but it also applies to War Wizards. Since you have a great bonus to your initiative and you’ll probably act first more often, be prepared to throw your most powerful spells (who can potentially cause friendly-fire) as a combat opener, before your melee allies engage in close-quarters with the enemies. Things like Sleep, Thunderwave, Web, Fireball (!), Hypnotic Pattern, etc. This is the main reason Alert is a very good feat for Wizards. So whenever you go really well in initiative, be ready to wreak havoc as fast as possible.
I would get only 1 level of Hexblade as well to not impact spell progression.
Eldritch Blast is better at the hands of a full Warlock who can improve it with other Invocations or with a Sorcerer who can do scary Quicken Spell and throw 4 EBs at once.
Of course this cantrip would be good to you, but you are a Wizard and you should have better things to do with your versatile and long spell list available.
Throw 2 EBs or blind the enemies with a Fog Cloud? Or perhaps restrain most of them with Web? Or fully paralyze the Orc with Hold Person? Or try to Levitate the Dire Troll?
Artificer, Cleric and Hexblade are very good dips to Wizard because grant medium armor & shield prof and other benefits. As I said, Hexblade Curse + Magic Missile can be really powerful! I consider Hexblade dip superior to Artificer and Cleric for a offensive styled Wizard.
Hi,
So I rolled a pretty lucky Wizard, and I had no real plans going into it, but I was thinking of dipping into Warlock for 1 or two. Currently level 4 wizard, and took the Warcaster feat for the fun of it and war magic school,
but I'm planning on picking up Abjuration at level 6.I have +4 Int, +4 Charisma, +1 Dex, +1 str, +3 wisdom
I was thinking of dipping 1 or two into Warlock Hexblade and grabbing Armor of Agathys and Agonizing blast, and running with medium armor and a shield.
I'm a bit confused how Armor of Agathys really works though, since wouldn't I have to use up my wizard high level spell slots to cast it to recharge my arcane ward?
The other option seems to be armor of shadows, but other than the refill of my arcane ward, I'd be losing AC compared to picking up some med armor and a shield.Or am I still better off just sticking to pure wizard or using a different class dip to take advantage of my +4 Charisma
Thanks!
Picking up Abjuration at level 6? Didn't you grab that at level 2?
You just have to cast an abjuration spell to start the ward and refresh it. You can cast Armor of Agathys using a wizard or a warlock spell slot and it'll charge your ward. The higher slot you use, the more it charges the ward.
Personally I like pure wizard. I think it's fantastic. You could have picked the Mark of Warding Dwarf and still gotten access to Armor of Agathys. Even without it, Abjuration wizards are fantastic!
Err, yeah, I think i got a bit confused and misread. Disregard the whole abjuration thing, I guess it's too late for me to change that now. I ended up picking war mage instead.
I was thinking there was still benefit to taking 1 or two into warlock to get medium armor, shields and eldritch blast though, it'd be a much more powerful cantrip than firebolt and I find myself running out of spell slots quite often in a campaign with no opportunity for rest. Having +4 charisma would make a difference here over general recommendations where eldritch blast isn't worth it, wouldn't it?
I also find myself using arcane deflection a lot, so having a powerful cantrip would be helpful
While you'd have a better cantrip, you're going to be two levels behind on getting wizard spells and other features. War mage is already strong defensively. While the armor proficiencies are also nice, the war mage, and wizards in general, have plenty of strong defensive spells and abilities that you'll be better off using. Missing out on shields and medium armor is offset by spells like mage armor, shield, mirror image, and whatever else. That's my two cents anyway. Pure wizards are great!
If you can rework your School with your DM, I strongly recommend Abjuration or Evocation.
An Abjurer can combine his Arcane Ward with Armor of Agathys and literally ruin any melee encounter your DM planned.
As an Evoker, you can combine Hexblade Curse (and Hex to a lesser extent) with good single target spells to make them great like Magic Missile, Scorching Ray and Melf’s Minute Meteor. Evokers are great AoE blasters, but somehow lack consistent single target damage. Once you reach level 10 and get Overchannel, your Magic Missiles will be really scary. Suppose you upcast Magic Missile with a 5th level spell slot, you would cause 1d4+1 (Magic Missile) + 4 Prof (Hexblade Curse) + 5 INT (Overchannel) x 7 (upcasted) = avg 84 unmissable never resisted Force damage.
Yeah, I'm not so worried about end game stuff at least, I don't think i'll get to level 15 even, but I guess losing out on level 4 or 5 spells for a little while would suck. But my DM seems to like long encounters with little time to rest, and any time we try we get interrupted, so I'm having a rough time maintaining all those defensive spells and still have anything left to even cast that's not a cantrip by the time I get to some tougher fights. Think there's another 1 level dip I can take that can take advantage of my high roll for charisma or wisdom?
I'd love to, but I've been told that's not allowed ;) That sounds rather powerful though !
Well, you can still do half of this combination with Hexblade Curse only (Overchannel only plays after level 10+ anyway), so you can leverage even the crit-fishing possibility of the ability with Scorching Ray and Melf’s Minute Meteor, for instance.
I gave this advise in the Chronurgy thread, but it also applies to War Wizards. Since you have a great bonus to your initiative and you’ll probably act first more often, be prepared to throw your most powerful spells (who can potentially cause friendly-fire) as a combat opener, before your melee allies engage in close-quarters with the enemies. Things like Sleep, Thunderwave, Web, Fireball (!), Hypnotic Pattern, etc. This is the main reason Alert is a very good feat for Wizards. So whenever you go really well in initiative, be ready to wreak havoc as fast as possible.
I would get only 1 level of Hexblade as well to not impact spell progression.
You dont think the 2nd level to get agonizing blast is worth it? Otherwise wouldn't it be better to dip into cleric or something?
Eldritch Blast is better at the hands of a full Warlock who can improve it with other Invocations or with a Sorcerer who can do scary Quicken Spell and throw 4 EBs at once.
Of course this cantrip would be good to you, but you are a Wizard and you should have better things to do with your versatile and long spell list available.
Throw 2 EBs or blind the enemies with a Fog Cloud? Or perhaps restrain most of them with Web? Or fully paralyze the Orc with Hold Person? Or try to Levitate the Dire Troll?
Artificer, Cleric and Hexblade are very good dips to Wizard because grant medium armor & shield prof and other benefits. As I said, Hexblade Curse + Magic Missile can be really powerful! I consider Hexblade dip superior to Artificer and Cleric for a offensive styled Wizard.