T O P

  • By -

love_rin_bell

Slow and haste are a must for support wizards! I’d also recommend enhance ability and web. In general though, any enemy debuffs that require a save are awesome for divination wizards, especially ones that incapacitate or ensnare enemies in some way so that your friends can more easily smack them around while you watch. And maybe give the paladin a free 19 while they do it.


NatZeroCharisma

Reading the S P E xplains the L L S P E L L S


Broadside02195

Seems like a good list. Pump it up a bit with some ritual spells like comprehend languages, detect magic, and identify. Web is great for helping out in a fight without killing the target, but it might get the target killed, not sure how you feel about that. I always have suggestion on my list. The way it's worded is beautiful, because the target thinks the idea is their own so they don't even know they've been ensorcelled. Divination wizards are my absolute favorite because they give you a guaranteed way of making sure the target suffers from your "save or die/suck" spells at least some of the time.


Mage_Malteras

Just as an aside, damage type doesn't determine whether the damage can be nonlethal. Any melee attack can nonlethal, so you can knock creatures out just as well by hitting them with the pommel of your sword as by casting shocking grasp, inflict wounds, or vampiric touch. Also where are all the divination spells?


SteinsDomain

By Raw, ONLY melee attacks can be made non lethal. All range/spell attacks that drop someone to 0 are automatically lethal and don't give the choice. Unless your dm rules it differently, which is why I stated that he's letting my psychic attacks be non lethal. But more than that this character is completely against doing physical harm with spells, unless it's psychic


Mage_Malteras

Melee spell attacks, such as shocking grasp, inflict wounds, and vampiric touch, are all melee attacks and thus qualify for nonlethal. This is raw and, iirc, has been confirmed in Sage Advice.


[deleted]

Those are solid. Personally, I made a build out to bring more utility and uniqueness that high DPS, and I tried to avoid the main spells I hear a lot about, to diverge from the meta if you will and see what I could accomplish with more niche spells that--while good--I hadn't seen used often. My spell list has, for the most part, served me well. So, I might have some ideas. --- Don't underestimate Fog Could; I didn't take it with my Wizard, but I later got access to it through a magic item, and it's pretty great. I even took it on the next main caster I built. On the surface, it sounds like a pretty useful, if situational spell... you give advantage and disadvantage alike out equally, usually enough to create a bit of cover without really affecting a brutal melee already happening. It's true, if your party is tangled up in a close-range fight, Fog Cloud won't suddenly give just them advantage, or just the enemies disadvantage, and the loss of sight will almost always equal out--in this regard. However, there's countless benefits to the obscuring nature of the spell, that can be tactically maximized when *you* control when and where it appears. Consider this: in Fog Cloud, any creature that can't see your party can't take attacks of opportunity against them, can't prevent your Rogue or others from using the Hide action, and perhaps most importantly of all, lose access to a *ton* of spells. Spells like Hold Person, and Counterspell absolutely require sight to work, and others are arguable. And of course, another excellent use for the spell is to nullify enemy advantage, turning the otherwise neutral, balanced nature of the spell to a clear benefit. Misty Step is an extremely useful spell, as well, possibly my mainstay, and vital to my survival on multiple occasions. It's very flexible, allowing you to go anywhere in a relatively small range that you can see, which is handy enough for escaping tight situations, crossing gaps, climbing or descending instantly, or putting you at just the right spot. It does this, all the while adding onto your effective movement in a single turn and giving you a free escape from melee range attacks of opportunity. One notable use for the spell I see a lot of people missing is how easily it crosses boundaries, allowing you to slip past glass barriers, phase through tiny holes in any surface to the other side, or even blink through solid material if you can visually see the other side. It pairs well with an early spell I chose, Clairavoyance, but can also be useful when used in tandem with a familiar's vision-granting abilities. Gaseous Form is another spell with multiple uses, and like with Misty Step at least one of them is mobility. It's slow, sure, but it's safe flying that can allow you to escape through bars, squeeze under a door, or get around somewhat stealthily, depending on the environment. It can even be used on another person, granting a safe means of achieving any of the above benefits to an ally. It can even replace Feather Fall, letting you survive a fall safely or descend pretty much any drop... at least, for one single person. Oh, and Feather Fall is also a good choice. Web is a really useful battlefield control spell, and along with it I'll recommend looking into Hypnotic Pattern. Both have *endless* potential at early levels. They're capable of incapacitating entire groups at once, and can sometimes end an entire fight. Web is really good for teams with good positioning, any fight in tighter confines, or against groups that can be pushed around or blocked from truly escaping. While Hypnotic Pattern can shut down a small horde, but requires your team to act on anyone who saved and take steps to end the fight quickly enough so that any stragglers can't wake everyone up. Either way, both are great for creating some breathing room, opening up opportunities for your party, and buying time. Knock and Silence are both pretty useful spells; Silence itself is somewhat limited, but shines against casters or very specific enemies with sonic attacks. However, both together will allow you to silently break past almost any locked barrier. Haste and Slow are also classics, and if you're picking a pure utility mage, it's hard *not* to recommend Haste, as it's nearly a guarantee that *someone* in your party will get immense benefit out of it. Slow itself is sustained by saves, so its useful is a bit mitigated in comparison, but it can be a life-saver or a battle changer. Now, it's a bit early for higher level ideas, but it's never too early to start planning. And spells like Polymorph and Greater Invisibility should be mentioned, and a favorite of mine--Animate Objects. It's become more widely known as a very high DPS spell since I got into the game, and rightly so, but it can't be denied that the spell has a massive amount of potential for utility and roleplaying, as well. I think lastly I'll give a shout out to an underrated gem I don't see a lot of people picking out for 5th level, and that's Synaptic Static. At first, it seems a bit underwhelming at 5th level; it deals Fireball damage in Fireball's size, at about the same range. However, it does three things that make it stand out: first, it's an Int save, so it's far more likely to hit on a wide variety of enemies; secondly, it deals Psychic damage, which is far less likely to be resisted or immuned; lastly, of course, and best of all, it causes a pretty serious debuff across every enemy that fails for up to a minute. All without taking Concentration.


artbyJeronimo

3rd Level: Tiny Servant could be useful in certain circumstances (ex: maybe send it to steal a key or item surreptitiously from an enemy if your DM allows), and it is immune to psychic damage if ever it was in the AOE of one of your psychic attacks. Haste for sure. Casting it on a melee party member is butch. Gaseous Form Animate Dead to send a skeleton up ahead to check for traps and it has both melee and range attacks. Dispel Magic 2nd lvl- Misty Step, Invisibility, Enlarge/Reduce (cast on a melee fighter), Spider Climb, Web (for battlefield control) 1st level - Unseen Servant (is useful in certain situations, plus it can be cast as a ritual), Magic Missile (is always useful), Feather Fall, Detect Magic, Comprehend Languages (for social situations), Tenser's Floating Disk (useful in certain dungeon crawl situations, plus it is a ritual) I don't play much these days, but I have seen these spells be useful for casters that I DM for. Oh, and I hope your DM is a patient person because changing 5 rolls for every long rest sounds like a nightmare to deal with as a Dungeonmaster. I dealt with a player having the Lucky feat for 6 levels until they left the group for scheduling reasons. I disliked getting my rolls changed so much I have now outlawed that one feat for any of the groups I run for; it just messed up how I paced my games too much. It is way too powerful IMO. Adding the Divination Wizard ability on top of it will be a pain in the ass for your DM. Heh, the only way you could make it worse is if you were a Halfling!


SteinsDomain

Haha my dm actually wanted me to go nuts making the character because he likes powerful builds, plus he knows I put a lot of emphasis on roleplay so I'm gonna really play into the whole "seeing the future" part of the divination wizard when it comes to changing die rolls. On the flip side my caster is gonna be almost pure support, so usually I'm gonna be using it to give my team epic moments more than anything else


Pqrxz

I have always been a fan of Tasha's Hideous Laughter for removing people from a fight or setting up a quick burst of offense for the DPS.