Hi friends, I had the idea to create this topic after contributing to the discussion of Diviner thread.
I don't want to create a new discussion about common and heavily discussed topics like the proper Diviner using Portent on save or suck spells, or Evokers dropping Fireballs without friendly-fire issues and etc. Also, as a rule of thumb, I'm not a big fan of high-level (8+) tactics. Any Wizard can wreck the world with levels 5-6 spells. I believe multiclass are a thing and should be considered, but let's not jump in into the Hexblade abyss once again. Also, please, let's not rely on exotic Ravnica Backgrounds or exotic races as well (like the lovely Mark of Warding Dwarf). Simplicity and effectiveness are the name of the game. I have learned most of these tactics from the Giant in the Playground forum and got a lot of inspiration from Bilbron Bafflestone Powegamer's Tactic Room videos.
What I'm trying to share are creative, simple and effective low to mid-level tactics that any Wizard could add to his repertoire. I'll start sharing some really simple things I have put in practice in my last tables:
Oiled Bonfire This one is pretty simple. Just combine a flask of oil with the Create Bonfire cantrip for 1d8 + 5 damage. You can use your minions (Familiar, Unseen Servant, Tiny Servant, Undeads, etc) to drop the oil at the enemies' square and lit the Bonfire in the same turn. This is available since level one and it's a great resourceless option when you don't have so many spell slots at low levels, when cantrips are more important. This one I have learned from LudicSavant in the GitP forums.
Servant-Service Potion (or "Mini-Healing Word") This is one is also super simple, and the main objective is to prioritize spell slots economy over money. Just use your Unseen Servant to give you potions through your bonus action. It's quite good for Wizards who don't have a lot of usage for bonus actions. It's also available and useful at low levels. This one I have learned from LudicSavant in the GitP forums as well.
Invisible Seduction The first one leveraging a specific sub-class ability. In this case, the amazing Hypnotic Gaze from Enchanters. Once again, available since level 3 and super straightforward. Hypnotic Gaze states that you are able to charm a target that can see OR hear you. What does it mean? You can become Invisible, lockdown an enemy with Hypnotic Gaze and keep hidden, because Hypnotic Gaze is not a spell and doesn't break Invisibility. This is particular awesome with a Goblin, who can use their racial features to get hidden as bonus action. This one I have learned from MaxWilson in the GitP forums.
Nuclear Catapult This one is a little bit questionable and should be up to DM approval. Just cast Catapult in dangerous objects like Acid vials, Alchemist's Fire and etc, generating more damage by doing so.
Fishing Catapult This one is like the above, and also should be properly aligned with a DM. Same principle, but thrown a Net in your enemies, restrain them and apply the lovely 3d8 damage. Creatures getting rid of a Net is not a big problem (DC 10), but it requires an action. It's quite effective. Thanks to Bilbron on highlighting this strategy.
Fisherman Skeletons Another one that any sub-class could do, but Necromancers scale this to another level. It's your basic Skeleton army created from the amazing Animate Dead spell. Once again, get a couple Nets to your skellies (it's also up to DM approval on getting better equipment to your skeletons), make them help each other to mitigate disadvantage and throw the Net at your enemies. +4 to hit is bad, but you can increase the odds by having more skeletons available. The magic number of a Necromancer Animate Dead army is 8, so it's 4 Net throwing trials in order to restrain your enemies. I have learned this tactic from MaxWilson in the GitP forums as well.
Nuclear Ironclad Familiar The final one is exclusive to Abjurers and it's also super effective. I believe everyone is pretty familiar (LOL) with the great combination of Dragon's Breath + Find Familiar. You basically turn your Familiar in a dangerous creature. Main problem is that Familiars are suuuper squishy. One attack and they are gone. Some enemies can simply ignore them if they are just doing some help action or anything. But from the moment your Owl starts spitting fire in a 15-ft cone, they will probably be the #1 target. Flyby can mitigate thata little, but any Kobold/Goblin ranged attack is enough to get your Familiar down. And this is when Projected Ward from Abjurer 6 can change the game. Just project your ward and prevent 15 damage to your familiar, probably getting him up for one or two more rounds, getting the most of Dragon's Breath and simply replenishing your ward by careful spell management. It's quite impressive.
Kamikaze Servant: give the "Unseen Servant" an explosive device. Have them smash it on the ground near a cluster of baddies.
Pay respects.
Watery Doom: cast the "Watery Sphere" spell, and proceed to restrain several baddies inside of it...then shoot a "Lightning Bolt" at it (and anything behind it, as well).
Depends on the table; but my DM gave the restrained enemies inside the Watery Sphere disadvantage on their saving throw, due to the water and "restrained" condition. Zap. Pop goes the water balloon.
Shock & ARGH!: this is a pretty standard tactic; but if you use the cantrip "Shocking Grasp", you can inflict shocking damage within melee range, potentially removing the enemy's ability to retaliate with Opportunity Attacks. If not...you can still "Misty Step" away.
For added devastation, cast "Hold Person" on the target...your "Shocking Grasp" benefits from critical hits granted by "Hold Person" just like melee weapon attacks.
Be Our Guest: have your "Tiny Servant" infiltrate an enemy's base, since they can appear to be nothing more than a common household object. Maybe a knife. Something sharp.
When they least expect it, and your party is in position, have that "Tiny Servant" stab the nearest fool.
Then cast "Animate Objects".
Unleash chaos.
Chug a Lug: Adding to the shenanigans of "Tiny Servant"; animated a beer stein or mug.
Insert poison into the beer mug.
Position the "Tiny Servant" in a place where your target will likely drink from it.
Mission Accomplished, Agent 47.
For less lethal methods, use "Drow Poison" for a chance to render the target unconscious.
Burnin' For You: cast "Animate Objects" on a set of manacles...you can use several.
Have them attach themselves to the nearest humanoid enemies (or anything they can successfully snare).
Then cast "Heat Metal" (it drops concentration on "Animate Objects"; but by then you've got your target right where you want them).
Since the enemy cannot remove the manacles...well...
Nuclear Catapult This one is a little bit questionable and should be up to DM approval. Just cast Catapult in dangerous objects like Acid vials, Alchemist's Fire and etc, generating more damage by doing so.
I've used this one to pretty good effect with my special recipe oil flasks. I took regular oil flasks and added both caltrops and ball bearings. Whoever gets hit with one of these catapulted into them gets covered in oil (+5 fire damage to ever Firebolt or Scorching Ray attack) and risks falling down onto caltrops.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
What I do isn’t a specific tactic. I build my wizards around the rest of the party in order to enhance them. Instead of creating stand alone tactics i create synergies where I enhance other PCs.
Fog Cloud above the party when fighting opponents who can fly, forcing them to engage us on the ground instead of attacking us from the air or casting Mage Armor on a Circle of the Moon Druid for example.
Are you only looking for combat suggestions or do you mean things like the phantom steed / floating disk horse and buggy or using ritual cast gentle repose to keep your monster trophies fresh ( poor Roach).
The unseen servant has a strength of 2 (meaning it can carry up to 30 pounds, which is plenty to carry a bag of holding and/or handy haversack).
It can perform simple tasks that a human could do ("stick this bag into that bag" is a simple task that a human could do).
Sticking something into a bag or holding or handy haversack is an object interaction (handy haversack explicitly states that placing an item into it follows normal object interaction rules, and bag of holding has no specific rule about placing something into it that beats the general object interaction rules).
My recently most used tactics as a Gnome Conjuration Wizard:
The "Hand-to-hold"
Cast reduce on your already small wizard(so only small races, sorry). Use mage hand to hold yourself and float in the air. Fly spell would solve this , too but it saves your slots a little and is available really early.
The Air-Striker
Use the new "Summon Aberration" spell from Tashas to summon a beholderkin - a pretty useful minion that shoots rays out of his eyes. Be a small wizard - like a gnome - climb on his back and fire lightning bolts and other nasties while the beholder carries you up out of any danger and fires his eye rays. Bonus points for Conjuration Wizards that can't drop Concentration. Also this might work for more than one encounter with it's one hour duration. Flying has more uses, too. As a gnome I'm faster (ignoring my 25ft movement speed) and ignoring difficult terrain.
The unseen servant has a strength of 2 (meaning it can carry up to 30 pounds, which is plenty to carry a bag of holding and/or handy haversack).
It can perform simple tasks that a human could do ("stick this bag into that bag" is a simple task that a human could do).
Sticking something into a bag or holding or handy haversack is an object interaction (handy haversack explicitly states that placing an item into it follows normal object interaction rules, and bag of holding has no specific rule about placing something into it that beats the general object interaction rules).
My apologies, I was thinking more about the silliness of dumping bombs out a bag of holding, which is something that has been suggested in other threads.
That being said, who would sacrifice two bags of holding for a one-time bomb like this ? Moreover, the unseen servant can theoretically deal with or carry only one object at a time: "you can mentally command the servant to move up to 15 feet and interact with an object." Moreover, it's speed is ridiculously slow, 15 feet and cannot dash...
I agree that the 15 feet speed is a big drawback for Unseen Servant efficiency, specially if you want to use them to heal allies. That's why it's more like a selfish healing ("Mini-Healing Word") that enables your Wizard to consume a potion with a bonus action. Giving that most Wizards don't have plenty of uses for bonus action, sounds like a good way to make it in the name of action economy.
Unseen Servant
The servant can perform simple tasks that a human servant could do, such as fetching things, cleaning, mending, folding clothes, lighting fires, serving food, and pouring wine.
Hi friends, I had the idea to create this topic after contributing to the discussion of Diviner thread.
I don't want to create a new discussion about common and heavily discussed topics like the proper Diviner using Portent on save or suck spells, or Evokers dropping Fireballs without friendly-fire issues and etc. Also, as a rule of thumb, I'm not a big fan of high-level (8+) tactics. Any Wizard can wreck the world with levels 5-6 spells. I believe multiclass are a thing and should be considered, but let's not jump in into the Hexblade abyss once again. Also, please, let's not rely on exotic Ravnica Backgrounds or exotic races as well (like the lovely Mark of Warding Dwarf). Simplicity and effectiveness are the name of the game. I have learned most of these tactics from the Giant in the Playground forum and got a lot of inspiration from Bilbron Bafflestone Powegamer's Tactic Room videos.
What I'm trying to share are creative, simple and effective low to mid-level tactics that any Wizard could add to his repertoire. I'll start sharing some really simple things I have put in practice in my last tables:
This one is pretty simple. Just combine a flask of oil with the Create Bonfire cantrip for 1d8 + 5 damage. You can use your minions (Familiar, Unseen Servant, Tiny Servant, Undeads, etc) to drop the oil at the enemies' square and lit the Bonfire in the same turn. This is available since level one and it's a great resourceless option when you don't have so many spell slots at low levels, when cantrips are more important. This one I have learned from LudicSavant in the GitP forums.
This is one is also super simple, and the main objective is to prioritize spell slots economy over money. Just use your Unseen Servant to give you potions through your bonus action. It's quite good for Wizards who don't have a lot of usage for bonus actions. It's also available and useful at low levels. This one I have learned from LudicSavant in the GitP forums as well.
The first one leveraging a specific sub-class ability. In this case, the amazing Hypnotic Gaze from Enchanters. Once again, available since level 3 and super straightforward. Hypnotic Gaze states that you are able to charm a target that can see OR hear you. What does it mean? You can become Invisible, lockdown an enemy with Hypnotic Gaze and keep hidden, because Hypnotic Gaze is not a spell and doesn't break Invisibility. This is particular awesome with a Goblin, who can use their racial features to get hidden as bonus action. This one I have learned from MaxWilson in the GitP forums.
This one is a little bit questionable and should be up to DM approval. Just cast Catapult in dangerous objects like Acid vials, Alchemist's Fire and etc, generating more damage by doing so.
This one is like the above, and also should be properly aligned with a DM. Same principle, but thrown a Net in your enemies, restrain them and apply the lovely 3d8 damage. Creatures getting rid of a Net is not a big problem (DC 10), but it requires an action. It's quite effective. Thanks to Bilbron on highlighting this strategy.
Another one that any sub-class could do, but Necromancers scale this to another level. It's your basic Skeleton army created from the amazing Animate Dead spell. Once again, get a couple Nets to your skellies (it's also up to DM approval on getting better equipment to your skeletons), make them help each other to mitigate disadvantage and throw the Net at your enemies. +4 to hit is bad, but you can increase the odds by having more skeletons available. The magic number of a Necromancer Animate Dead army is 8, so it's 4 Net throwing trials in order to restrain your enemies. I have learned this tactic from MaxWilson in the GitP forums as well.
The final one is exclusive to Abjurers and it's also super effective. I believe everyone is pretty familiar (LOL) with the great combination of Dragon's Breath + Find Familiar. You basically turn your Familiar in a dangerous creature. Main problem is that Familiars are suuuper squishy. One attack and they are gone. Some enemies can simply ignore them if they are just doing some help action or anything. But from the moment your Owl starts spitting fire in a 15-ft cone, they will probably be the #1 target. Flyby can mitigate thata little, but any Kobold/Goblin ranged attack is enough to get your Familiar down. And this is when Projected Ward from Abjurer 6 can change the game. Just project your ward and prevent 15 damage to your familiar, probably getting him up for one or two more rounds, getting the most of Dragon's Breath and simply replenishing your ward by careful spell management. It's quite impressive.
A recent discovery:
Kamikaze Servant: give the "Unseen Servant" an explosive device. Have them smash it on the ground near a cluster of baddies.
Pay respects.
Watery Doom: cast the "Watery Sphere" spell, and proceed to restrain several baddies inside of it...then shoot a "Lightning Bolt" at it (and anything behind it, as well).
Depends on the table; but my DM gave the restrained enemies inside the Watery Sphere disadvantage on their saving throw, due to the water and "restrained" condition. Zap. Pop goes the water balloon.
Shock & ARGH!: this is a pretty standard tactic; but if you use the cantrip "Shocking Grasp", you can inflict shocking damage within melee range, potentially removing the enemy's ability to retaliate with Opportunity Attacks. If not...you can still "Misty Step" away.
For added devastation, cast "Hold Person" on the target...your "Shocking Grasp" benefits from critical hits granted by "Hold Person" just like melee weapon attacks.
Be Our Guest: have your "Tiny Servant" infiltrate an enemy's base, since they can appear to be nothing more than a common household object. Maybe a knife. Something sharp.
When they least expect it, and your party is in position, have that "Tiny Servant" stab the nearest fool.
Then cast "Animate Objects".
Unleash chaos.
Chug a Lug: Adding to the shenanigans of "Tiny Servant"; animated a beer stein or mug.
Insert poison into the beer mug.
Position the "Tiny Servant" in a place where your target will likely drink from it.
Mission Accomplished, Agent 47.
For less lethal methods, use "Drow Poison" for a chance to render the target unconscious.
Burnin' For You: cast "Animate Objects" on a set of manacles...you can use several.
Have them attach themselves to the nearest humanoid enemies (or anything they can successfully snare).
Then cast "Heat Metal" (it drops concentration on "Animate Objects"; but by then you've got your target right where you want them).
Since the enemy cannot remove the manacles...well...
I've used this one to pretty good effect with my special recipe oil flasks. I took regular oil flasks and added both caltrops and ball bearings. Whoever gets hit with one of these catapulted into them gets covered in oil (+5 fire damage to ever Firebolt or Scorching Ray attack) and risks falling down onto caltrops.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
What I do isn’t a specific tactic. I build my wizards around the rest of the party in order to enhance them. Instead of creating stand alone tactics i create synergies where I enhance other PCs.
Fog Cloud above the party when fighting opponents who can fly, forcing them to engage us on the ground instead of attacking us from the air or casting Mage Armor on a Circle of the Moon Druid for example.
Professional computer geek
While we're talking about unseen servant shenanigans, I'm almost surprised that ranged bag of holding bombs weren't brought up yet lol.
Are you only looking for combat suggestions or do you mean things like the phantom steed / floating disk horse and buggy or using ritual cast gentle repose to keep your monster trophies fresh ( poor Roach).
How does it not work?
My recently most used tactics as a Gnome Conjuration Wizard:
The "Hand-to-hold"
Cast reduce on your already small wizard(so only small races, sorry). Use mage hand to hold yourself and float in the air. Fly spell would solve this , too but it saves your slots a little and is available really early.
The Air-Striker
Use the new "Summon Aberration" spell from Tashas to summon a beholderkin - a pretty useful minion that shoots rays out of his eyes. Be a small wizard - like a gnome - climb on his back and fire lightning bolts and other nasties while the beholder carries you up out of any danger and fires his eye rays. Bonus points for Conjuration Wizards that can't drop Concentration. Also this might work for more than one encounter with it's one hour duration. Flying has more uses, too. As a gnome I'm faster (ignoring my 25ft movement speed) and ignoring difficult terrain.
I agree that the 15 feet speed is a big drawback for Unseen Servant efficiency, specially if you want to use them to heal allies. That's why it's more like a selfish healing ("Mini-Healing Word") that enables your Wizard to consume a potion with a bonus action. Giving that most Wizards don't have plenty of uses for bonus action, sounds like a good way to make it in the name of action economy.
Unseen Servant
The servant can perform simple tasks that a human servant could do, such as fetching things, cleaning, mending, folding clothes, lighting fires, serving food, and pouring wine.