Anything counts. Any reason is valid. Whether you like the roleplaying potential, or damage potential, or additional spells, or multiclassing. Any option is a correct option as long as you know why you like it.
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I like it I suppose because I like considering the environment around encounters, beyond the NPCs/creatures involved. I like the idea of using or changing the parameters of an encounter to the party's advantage.
Every wizard tradition has its uses, but i prefer Evocation. A wizard is a generalist which means it can fill nearly any role regardless of tradition. An illusionist might be better at battlefield control, conjurers are better at mobility, diviners are better at gathering intelligence, etc etc..... But an Evoker can still solve most of the problems that the other traditions specialize in reasonably well; in addition to being able to drop a fireball directly on top of the BBEG using 3 orphans as a human shields and crisp everything BUT the kids!
At level 10 empowered evocation turns magic missile into one of the best damage scaling spells in the game. Oh and that's not even mentioning how scary cone of cold gets at level 14 with Overchannel. Maxing out the damage on 8d8+Int Mod gives you 64 + 5 = 69 damage per failed save and 35 damage on a successful one. Compare that to the other traditions 36 and 18 per target. At 10 targets you're potentially cutting the combined HP of enemy forces by nearly 700, with nearly zero concern for friendly fire......... THISis simply awe-inspiring. :)
Every wizard tradition has its uses, but i prefer Evocation. A wizard is a generalist which means it can fill nearly any role regardless of tradition. An illusionist might be better at battlefield control, conjurers are better at mobility, diviners are better at gathering intelligence, etc etc..... But an Evoker can still solve most of the problems that the other traditions specialize in reasonably well; in addition to being able to drop a fireball directly on top of the BBEG using 3 orphans as a human shields and crisp everything BUT the kids!
At level 10 empowered evocation turns magic missile into one of the best damage scaling spells in the game. Oh and that's not even mentioning how scary cone of cold gets at level 14 with Overchannel. Maxing out the damage on 8d8+Int Mod gives you 64 + 5 = 69 damage per failed save and 35 damage on a successful one. Compare that to the other traditions 36 and 18 per target. At 10 targets you're potentially cutting the combined HP of enemy forces by nearly 700, with nearly zero concern for friendly fire......... THISis simply awe-inspiring. :)
At 10th level, an Empowered magic missile spell does: 3d4+4+ 5 cast at 1st. Not impressive at all, damage averages 16.
If upcast to 5th level slot, it does; 7d4+7+5=2.5*7+12=29.5 points of damage to ONE person, assuming they do not have Shield, the single most common spell around. It's the only first level spell I cast in combat. Empowered magic Missile is not worth casting, when a Rogue can do a sneak attack of 5d6+weapon+Dex+magic, at range when hidden. Yeah, he may miss, and you may find that 'fighter' to be an Eldritch Knight that knows Shield. Overchannel is a nice boost, but still not enough to make up for the weaknesses of a damage based mage.
Sculpt spell is a NECESSITY when doing area effects, not an improvement. I find attempting to do max damage just wastes your time as a wizard. Fighter types still beat you against a single opponent, and it generally makes more sense to let them do their thing while you control the battlefield. So I prefer rolling my portents and then saying "Oh, too bad, I forsaw you rolled a 3 for my measily 3rd level Hypnotic Pattern, you are out of the battle. Your minions? Well, the DM says three of the 5 of them rolled the save they got, but my friend the Barbarian is killing one of them, my Cleric has held the other two."
I really love the Onomancer wizard because it really encourages a different style of play as a wizard when planning a fight. The Extract Name feature let's you be useful against the random bandits that jump you, but you can also research into rumors about local bandits and potentially hear a name that way. The benefits you get from naming are also desirable, and I really love the Resonances. It's particularly fun because it gives you abilities you can use tons of times a day but you need specific information to make it work. The Resonances are fun because they have good general use like extra damage or temporary HP, but then they have some cool fringe stuff like moving the target or being able to target them without even seeing them. That one it the most interesting ability of them all, I'm my opinion. I just love how it adds to the lore that having someone's name gives you power over them.
At 10th level, an Empowered magic missile spell does: 3d4+4+ 5 cast at 1st. Not impressive at all, damage averages 16.
If upcast to 5th level slot, it does; 7d4+7+5=2.5*7+12=29.5 points of damage to ONE person, assuming they do not have Shield, the single most common spell around. It's the only first level spell I cast in combat. Empowered magic Missile is not worth casting, when a Rogue can do a sneak attack of 5d6+weapon+Dex+magic, at range when hidden. Yeah, he may miss, and you may find that 'fighter' to be an Eldritch Knight that knows Shield. Overchannel is a nice boost, but still not enough to make up for the weaknesses of a damage based mage.
Sculpt spell is a NECESSITY when doing area effects, not an improvement. I find attempting to do max damage just wastes your time as a wizard. Fighter types still beat you against a single opponent, and it generally makes more sense to let them do their thing while you control the battlefield. So I prefer rolling my portents and then saying "Oh, too bad, I forsaw you rolled a 3 for my measily 3rd level Hypnotic Pattern, you are out of the battle. Your minions? Well, the DM says three of the 5 of them rolled the save they got, but my friend the Barbarian is killing one of them, my Cleric has held the other two."
According Jeremy Crawford empowered evocation applies per missile as per the errata. So at first level it does 1d4 + 1 + 5 for 8.5 per missile averaging out to 26 damage that never misses and is never resisted. It's not gonna 1 shot Orcus but its nothing to sneeze at. Shield is a bit of a bother, but those cases are why we have fireball. :) EDIT for clarification: When casting magic missile roll a single d4, add modifiers, then apply that number to each missile; even if multiple are hitting the same target.
Why in the name of Pelor are you bringing up fighter types against a single target in a thread about wizard traditions in response to an example about hitting a swarm of enemies? Sure a fighter massively out damages an Evoker wizard against a single target, but the Evoker can swat away minions pretty quickly, making the fighters job drastically easier. I prefer saying "I foresaw an extra crispy demise for your minions, and now your facing both my Fighter and my Cleric."
I've recently been playing an onomancer wizard, and it's been a lot of fun, while I wouldn't say it's my favorite it's certainly been rewarding to RP. Casting various spells while instead infusing the incantations with the true words of the effects of the spells. My favorite wizard tradition would probably be the Illusion. With a little bit of creativity you can shape your illusions in fantastical ways. Once you get malleable illusions at level 6 things get even more entertaining, my personal favorite is either illusory script, where you can reshape the message you need at will for 10 days, or creation where you can make a scarf and be able to reshape into a 5ft cube of other plant material when needed.
Bladesingers are fantastic, no one excepts the WIZARD to have a sword and turn goblins into some goblin sushi (in my home brew world ,goblin sushi is a delicacy). But overall, all wizards are good.
Gotta go with Chronurgy. I love the manipulation of time idea. It's so interesting as a concept, and it is enjoyable to RP. I love the idea of dunamancy, and the spells are incredibly interesting. I think the graviturgy spells are a bit more powerful, but the chronurgy subclass is cooler. Adding your INT modifier to initiative is incredibly beneficial. Momentary stasis and convergent future are good abilities as well. Arcane abeyance is great, especially if you let your high-CON fighter concentrate on a spell for you. You don't expend a spell slot, and you don't have to concentrate. Also, fortune's favor, tether essence, and time ravage are all great spells. (All of the dunamancy spells are great, these just stand out to me).
I also love Onomancy, Graviturgy (mostly for the spells), Evocation, and Illusion.
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Bladesinger offers a different sort of wizard, with a reliable way to both mitigate damage & maintain concentration.
However, Conjuration is becoming more and more interesting with the recently released "Summon X Spirit" spells...combined with the Conjuration Wizard's teleportation skills, utility with conjuration random tools, and the highly-effective unbreakable concentration on their Conjuration spells...you become a wizard who can summon a wide variety of allies with remarkable staying power & effects.
Bladesinger offers a different sort of wizard, with a reliable way to both mitigate damage & maintain concentration.
However, Conjuration is becoming more and more interesting with the recently released "Summon X Spirit" spells...combined with the Conjuration Wizard's teleportation skills, utility with conjuration random tools, and the highly-effective unbreakable concentration on their Conjuration spells...you become a wizard who can summon a wide variety of allies with remarkable staying power & effects.
The new summon spells really do solve a lot of the key problems for conjurers. I always thought it was odd how their core feature had to be done out of combat.
Bladesinger offers a different sort of wizard, with a reliable way to both mitigate damage & maintain concentration.
However, Conjuration is becoming more and more interesting with the recently released "Summon X Spirit" spells...combined with the Conjuration Wizard's teleportation skills, utility with conjuration random tools, and the highly-effective unbreakable concentration on their Conjuration spells...you become a wizard who can summon a wide variety of allies with remarkable staying power & effects.
The spells are really fun to play with. They're very versatile, and giving them 30 temp. HP and being able to swap places with them just makes them better.
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I went with illusion but not because of anything other than it's hilarious.
The reason bladesinger is so popular is because everyone loves the GISH concept. Divination because Portent is so cool (I initially voted this). Illusion for the gigiles.
The new UA is actually replacing the archivist which was an Artificer subclass, so I don't think Onomancer is off the table yet. It's theme is still very different from the new Scribe mage.
The new UA is actually replacing the archivist which was an Artificer subclass, so I don't think Onomancer is off the table yet. It's theme is still very different from the new Scribe mage.
Quote from the most recent UA: "Regarding other wizard subclasses, we can share that neither of the wizard subclasses we’ve presented in Unearthed Arcana recently—Onomancy and Psionics— will be moving forward in our development process, since they didn’t appeal to enough people and we can explore those subclasses’ themes in other ways."
Onomancy is dead, at least as a Wizard subclass. RIP.
They did say that they can explore the themes of those subclasses in other ways, so I think a Bard subclass would be the best class, besides the Wizard, to replicate the magic of True Naming.
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This is simple, just say what your favorite Wizard tradition is and why.
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It's hard, because I haven't played many or used many yet as a DM.
I'm playing one at level one that I'll take through Transmutation, because I like the look of it. Does that count?
Anything counts. Any reason is valid. Whether you like the roleplaying potential, or damage potential, or additional spells, or multiclassing. Any option is a correct option as long as you know why you like it.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
I like it I suppose because I like considering the environment around encounters, beyond the NPCs/creatures involved. I like the idea of using or changing the parameters of an encounter to the party's advantage.
Every wizard tradition has its uses, but i prefer Evocation. A wizard is a generalist which means it can fill nearly any role regardless of tradition. An illusionist might be better at battlefield control, conjurers are better at mobility, diviners are better at gathering intelligence, etc etc..... But an Evoker can still solve most of the problems that the other traditions specialize in reasonably well; in addition to being able to drop a fireball directly on top of the BBEG using 3 orphans as a human shields and crisp everything BUT the kids!
At level 10 empowered evocation turns magic missile into one of the best damage scaling spells in the game. Oh and that's not even mentioning how scary cone of cold gets at level 14 with Overchannel. Maxing out the damage on 8d8+Int Mod gives you 64 + 5 = 69 damage per failed save and 35 damage on a successful one. Compare that to the other traditions 36 and 18 per target. At 10 targets you're potentially cutting the combined HP of enemy forces by nearly 700, with nearly zero concern for friendly fire......... THIS is simply awe-inspiring. :)
Divination as it goes really well with Stars druid. And I love being a mystical wizard/druid.
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I used to go with Divination, love portents. But Chono is better. My third favorite is Abjuration.
At 10th level, an Empowered magic missile spell does: 3d4+4+ 5 cast at 1st. Not impressive at all, damage averages 16.
If upcast to 5th level slot, it does; 7d4+7+5=2.5*7+12=29.5 points of damage to ONE person, assuming they do not have Shield, the single most common spell around. It's the only first level spell I cast in combat. Empowered magic Missile is not worth casting, when a Rogue can do a sneak attack of 5d6+weapon+Dex+magic, at range when hidden. Yeah, he may miss, and you may find that 'fighter' to be an Eldritch Knight that knows Shield. Overchannel is a nice boost, but still not enough to make up for the weaknesses of a damage based mage.
Sculpt spell is a NECESSITY when doing area effects, not an improvement. I find attempting to do max damage just wastes your time as a wizard. Fighter types still beat you against a single opponent, and it generally makes more sense to let them do their thing while you control the battlefield. So I prefer rolling my portents and then saying "Oh, too bad, I forsaw you rolled a 3 for my measily 3rd level Hypnotic Pattern, you are out of the battle. Your minions? Well, the DM says three of the 5 of them rolled the save they got, but my friend the Barbarian is killing one of them, my Cleric has held the other two."
I really love the Onomancer wizard because it really encourages a different style of play as a wizard when planning a fight. The Extract Name feature let's you be useful against the random bandits that jump you, but you can also research into rumors about local bandits and potentially hear a name that way. The benefits you get from naming are also desirable, and I really love the Resonances. It's particularly fun because it gives you abilities you can use tons of times a day but you need specific information to make it work. The Resonances are fun because they have good general use like extra damage or temporary HP, but then they have some cool fringe stuff like moving the target or being able to target them without even seeing them. That one it the most interesting ability of them all, I'm my opinion. I just love how it adds to the lore that having someone's name gives you power over them.
According Jeremy Crawford empowered evocation applies per missile as per the errata. So at first level it does 1d4 + 1 + 5 for 8.5 per missile averaging out to 26 damage that never misses and is never resisted. It's not gonna 1 shot Orcus but its nothing to sneeze at. Shield is a bit of a bother, but those cases are why we have fireball. :)
EDIT for clarification: When casting magic missile roll a single d4, add modifiers, then apply that number to each missile; even if multiple are hitting the same target.
Why in the name of Pelor are you bringing up fighter types against a single target in a thread about wizard traditions in response to an example about hitting a swarm of enemies? Sure a fighter massively out damages an Evoker wizard against a single target, but the Evoker can swat away minions pretty quickly, making the fighters job drastically easier. I prefer saying "I foresaw an extra crispy demise for your minions, and now your facing both my Fighter and my Cleric."
I've recently been playing an onomancer wizard, and it's been a lot of fun, while I wouldn't say it's my favorite it's certainly been rewarding to RP. Casting various spells while instead infusing the incantations with the true words of the effects of the spells. My favorite wizard tradition would probably be the Illusion. With a little bit of creativity you can shape your illusions in fantastical ways. Once you get malleable illusions at level 6 things get even more entertaining, my personal favorite is either illusory script, where you can reshape the message you need at will for 10 days, or creation where you can make a scarf and be able to reshape into a 5ft cube of other plant material when needed.
Bladesingers are fantastic, no one excepts the WIZARD to have a sword and turn goblins into some goblin sushi (in my home brew world ,goblin sushi is a delicacy). But overall, all wizards are good.
Gotta go with Chronurgy. I love the manipulation of time idea. It's so interesting as a concept, and it is enjoyable to RP. I love the idea of dunamancy, and the spells are incredibly interesting. I think the graviturgy spells are a bit more powerful, but the chronurgy subclass is cooler. Adding your INT modifier to initiative is incredibly beneficial. Momentary stasis and convergent future are good abilities as well. Arcane abeyance is great, especially if you let your high-CON fighter concentrate on a spell for you. You don't expend a spell slot, and you don't have to concentrate. Also, fortune's favor, tether essence, and time ravage are all great spells. (All of the dunamancy spells are great, these just stand out to me).
I also love Onomancy, Graviturgy (mostly for the spells), Evocation, and Illusion.
Please check out my homebrew and give me feedback!
Subclasses | Races | Spells | Magic Items | Monsters | Feats | Backgrounds
Bladesinger offers a different sort of wizard, with a reliable way to both mitigate damage & maintain concentration.
However, Conjuration is becoming more and more interesting with the recently released "Summon X Spirit" spells...combined with the Conjuration Wizard's teleportation skills, utility with conjuration random tools, and the highly-effective unbreakable concentration on their Conjuration spells...you become a wizard who can summon a wide variety of allies with remarkable staying power & effects.
The new summon spells really do solve a lot of the key problems for conjurers. I always thought it was odd how their core feature had to be done out of combat.
The spells are really fun to play with. They're very versatile, and giving them 30 temp. HP and being able to swap places with them just makes them better.
Please check out my homebrew and give me feedback!
Subclasses | Races | Spells | Magic Items | Monsters | Feats | Backgrounds
I went with illusion but not because of anything other than it's hilarious.
The reason bladesinger is so popular is because everyone loves the GISH concept. Divination because Portent is so cool (I initially voted this). Illusion for the gigiles.
My personal favorite is the Chronurgist, close behind is the Necromancer and Diviners respectively.
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Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
I am sad to report that the Onomancer is dead.
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The new UA is actually replacing the archivist which was an Artificer subclass, so I don't think Onomancer is off the table yet. It's theme is still very different from the new Scribe mage.
Quote from the most recent UA: "Regarding other wizard subclasses, we can share that neither of the wizard subclasses we’ve presented in Unearthed Arcana recently—Onomancy and Psionics— will be moving forward in our development process, since they didn’t appeal to enough people and we can explore those subclasses’ themes in other ways."
Onomancy is dead, at least as a Wizard subclass. RIP.
They did say that they can explore the themes of those subclasses in other ways, so I think a Bard subclass would be the best class, besides the Wizard, to replicate the magic of True Naming.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms