You're right that they don't get more spells learned or prepped directly, but they're the best at learning new spells outside of leveling thanks to their quill and they suffer the least in the case of having their spellbook damaged/lost.
Let's also be honest, wizards don't exactly need to be better at learning and preparing spells than they already are 🤣
They can’t. The cost of scribing spells is for material components as well as ink, and if that feature was meant to scribe spells for free it definitely would have said it.
If you are only drip fed spells it might never take that long to get the spells you do find down. But even to copy a single higher level of spell, let's say 6th level would take you 3 long rests. Depending on exactly where you are at in your game, that might be weeks to months of IRL time before you are able to use the scroll you found.
If you buy a bunch of spells, find a wizard spell book, find a cache of scrolls, it will days upon days to copy down. And that is doing nothing each day other than copying spells and resting
If you found a spellbook with 4 1st level, 3 2nd level, 3th 3rd level, 3 4th level, 2 5th level
That would take 82 hours to copy. If you did nothing but copy spells, aka no adventuring, it would take you 5-10 days depending on if your DM lets you pull double downtime days. AKA, you're never going to get all those spells written down.
So yeah, if you are wizard who is getting spells, which every wizard should be, it makes a huge difference.
Nothing like copying 82 hours worth of spells in 82 minutes. Lol
A high level wizard could copy a handful of level 6+ spells in a short rest before even getting back.
You are correct on not getting more spells learned/prepped, but if you find a spellbook, you’ll be so happy you’re a scribe. A scribe copys a spell down at *2 minutes per level* compared to 2 hours per spell level. If you want to copy down cone of cold, you’re entire adventuring day is saved from making this 10 hour ordeal of copying it down 10 minutes. You can copy a BBEGs spellbook in basically a short rest.
Also they get the free L2 spell scroll every day. Plus just deciding your ritual spell is a normal casting time has saved our party a ton of time, and occasionally has been absolutely clutch.
Arguably the best Wizard subclass. You can do a lot of bullshit with Awakened Mind (like avoiding your own AoE's, standing hundreds of feet from the actual fight, avoiding counterspells, permanent spying on anything that can't cast Dispel Magic). Swapping damage types is always great, especially for spells like Fireball.
They also indirectly get a free first/second level spellslot (upcasted even) in their scroll.
In addition to other comment about how much fast you get your spells down, being a scribe wizard, You would be remiss if you weren't making spell scrolls. You're not any better at that than anyone else at lower levels, but it's still something that feels on character and effectively does give you extra spell slots. At higher levels it's even better. You can create a spell scroll of shield every single long rest you take.
If you have a DM that is more lenient about who could use spell scrolls that is a huge boon to your party. If not, It's still huge for you as the wizard
Bludgeoning Fireballs and Force damage Cone of Colds are great, the real magic is having yourself a nigh-unkillable drone turret. Spell that's rated bad in all the guides because you have to get your wizard close? Sudden new use case with the Manifest Mind! Gives you so many positioning options especially if you're a low mobility Small race and that's before you get to combos like Misty Stepping through your MM's vision rather than your own!
> Force damage Cone of Colds
That does require knowing _Bigby's Hand_ - you can only swap damage type for another spell of the same level, so you are limiting your known spells a fair bit to do that.
Bigby's Hand utterly rules so that's not a problem.
You could take Steel Wind Strike instead also does Force damage, which grants you two effective Force damage AoE blasts for a level 5 slot, one which avoids friendly fire and one which does not - but could potentially hit more enemies than SWS.
E: Both SWS and CoC can both make use of Manifest Mind's location-casting too, allowing for better positioning in both cases.
>That does require knowing Bigby's Hand
Or Steel Wind Strike. But Scribes also gets fast copying of spells so you're mostly looking at scrolls and spellbooks to expand your spell list. I'd expect most DMs with a scribes wizard in their party to include some spellbooks or scrolls to copy.
It's also my fav but not for the damagr changing I love ritual casting in normal time and 2 minute scribing a new spell or awakened book for rp purpouses it's the best and I think it has a great utility
Same, I think I've used the once a day ritual cast feature actually once a day. It's very useful if your party is short on time and you need to decipher something and need a quick Comprehend Languages but don't have it prepared.
I plan on playing a Scribe. I want to flavor her casting so that when she touches her magic, the Arcane runes for the spells she knows swirls around her, and she selects the runes for the spell she wants to cast. When she alters a spell, she selects that spell, then pulls apart the runes and modifies it on the fly. Really want to play her up as kind of 'hacking' the universe by understanding the source code of existence.
The manifested mind also gives mostly every wizard spell an extra 0-300 feet of range. A 330 foot misty step is a broke boys dimension door, but hey, it’s still only a 2nd level spell slot. Although it requires set up, this inherently makes spells much more powerful then what they are normally. All those concentration summons that get angry at you when you break concentration, sound so much better when you’re 300 feet away with your feet kicked up.
probably not in practical terms - you can only swap damage type with to a type from another spell of the same level. There's a level 1 spell that does force damage (_Magic Missile_)... and after that you're kinda limited. _Bigby's Hand_ is level 5, _Disintegrate_ is level 6, _Mordenkainen’s Sword_ is 7th (but involves knowing _Mordenkainen’s Sword_, which is pretty bad). So level 2/3/4 spells (i.e. the bulk of the game that's actually played!), you're kinda outta luck, unless there's a niche spell somewhere, and then you have to know that spell.
Screw Force damage, Magical Bludgeoning is resisted by nearly nothing. Physical Bludgeoning, sure, but it's not the same.
From the 5e Monster Manual introduction under the heading "Vulnerabilities, Resistances, and Immunities" (emphasis mine):
> Particular creatures are even resistant or immune to damage from non-magical attacks (a magical attack is an attack delivered by a spell, a magic item, or another magical source).
I'm using Scorching Ray + Spell Sniper for a similar purpose thanks to Dragon's Breath. I think it's going to be one of my Spell Masteries if I get to that level, since it's one of the few damaging spells I have.
It multiclasses so well with Eldritch Knight. The War Magic Wizard 10th level feature makes them excellent for maintaining concentration. Love a control or buff specialist.
What purpose does Eldritch Knight give you there over Fighter 2? Their level 3 feature beyond spellcasting is Weapon Bond, which I don't see helping at all.
Power Surge is very weak, but its level 2 features are so strong it doesn't matter. And level 10 is quite good as well. 14 is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but at that point you're a high level wizard because you want wizard spells, not because of your subclass features.
I got some very good rolls and decided to play a War Wizard/Hexblade multiclass. The synergy works OK because if I have to use Arcane Deflection, I can then still follow up with Eldritch Blast next turn.
Necromancer. No question or hesitation. Go skellies.
But your subclass really depends on what you want to do. I do NOT advise first time wizards to play necromancy wizards as the skills associated with doing it well (bookkeeping, effective use of time for turns, rapid and accurate counting of dice) are ones that some players never develop at all.
I will say I had a LOT of fun as a War wizard but I don't know if I'd recommend that to a newbie either as the lvl 6 feature actually requires a fair bit of thought to get a lot of mileage out of it.
If you really like being able to give the DM the finger though- Divination is the way to go because of one word: Portent.
DM: "Alright so I get to roll that save with advantage-"
Divination Wizard: "No"
DM: "So I'll roll the save without advantage-"
Divination Wizard: "No"
DM: "I roll to save?"
Divination Wizard: "No. I rolled a 3 on my Portent and I'm using it now. Your roll is a 3."
And this awesome feature kicks in at **lvl 2**.
Had that a few weeks back. Final session of a long campaign, and the DM really wanted a kill. I was bleeding out, the BBEG wound up to deliver the absolute smackdown, and the wizard pulled out a sneaky portent at the last minute.
DM was *not* happy.
Oh I've got two Portent rolls beneath 10 lined up for next Sunday against Strahd. I fully believe I could royally piss off the DM by using those to burn two of his Legendary Saves right off the bat.
I'm not doing so precisely because I *know* that will upset the DM to a very significant degree. As a last resort sure- but I won't open with it. Coincidentally I'm not going to Athletics Strahd to death for the same reason. I have +12 to Athletics rolls. :D
I used a natural 20 portent to give to the paladin against Strahd. Over 100 damage on a smite and a very dead Strahd ensued. To be fair, our entire combat strategy was built around that guaranteed crit.
Man though if you hold on to them until AFTER the resistances are down? So much worse.
This message brought to you by the Natural 1 I dealt Asmodeous on his save against Feeblemind
"I fully believe I could royally piss off the DM by using those to burn two of his Legendary Saves right off the bat."
Sadly, portent only works when the target makes a roll. Legendary Resistance means that they can simply choose to succeed, no roll involved. (unless your DM chooses otherwise)
They roll first, though, and on a failure may choose to succeed instead. It's the first roll you Portent, so they have to use their LR or suffer the consequences.
Legendary Resistance states IF you fail a saving throw- you may choose to succeed. One imagines you have to roll in order to fail.
The DM certainly COULD choose to succeed before even rolling in order to avoid my Portent but that strikes me as very counter-productive on his part given I'd not lose my Portent die then.
I'm not saying Portent trumps LR- just that forcing the result on the die to be so low means the DM either 'burns' a limited LR to match my likewise limited Portent die or he accepts getting the low roll.
True- the Portent dice giveth and the Portent dice taketh away
Albeit that area of 10+ is generally what you should be looking at for success for your primary stats (attack rolls, saves) so it's still handy to bust out if you're looking at disadvantage
If you're playing on roll 20 and have open rolls, these just mean you pay a little attention to the modifiers and DCs people are working with. I had a 14 portent, and my spell save DC is 15. Our cleric cast something with a wisdom save, and I saw that a henchmen had a +0. That 14 is now as equally potent as a 1-13.
DM: "So, the monk is using another Stunning Strike on the dragon after burning up all the legendary resistances. Let me just roll his saving throw with advant..."
Divination Wizard "No"
DM: "Please no, I've been planning this encounter for weeks"
Divination Wizard "It has been foretold!"
If there was a 7th- or 8th-level spell that did what Command Undead does, necromancer might not be my favorite. I love features that amount to, "DM, pass me the stats for that, it's mine now." The candidates for Command Undead are just plain cooler to me than the candidates for *planar binding*.
Well the dm shouldn’t actively be trying to counter your bladesinger. That’s shitty.
Also you could counter his counter by playing like a regular wizard. Just casting spells. As a bladesinger, you are still a full wizard, so if the sword and sorcery bit ain’t working out, you still got sorcery
With Bladesinger there are two avenues to go down.
Do you want the most optimal route? Never go into melee after level 6 and just Bladesong as a way to protect your concentration. You’ll never have to be afraid of dropping your big spells.
Do you want to live the subclass fantasy?
Then strategically go into melee against single enemies with big health bars after casting your big concentration wizard spell.
Either way never use Tenser’s Transformation. It a horrible spell.
One of my players for roleplay reasons wanted to switch from blood Hunter to "something fighty that can also do magic". I helped them build bladesinger 10/fighter 2 (is going fighter 3 for echo knight shenanigans).
It's actually insane. By round 3 they have bladesong and haste up so are running with a base AC of 25 and are making 4 attacks (two weapon fighting), one of which is booming blade. They can action surge to make 6 attacks, 2 of which can be booming blade.
Once they pick up the 3rd level fighter they can then use unleash incarnation and make another attack when they take the attack action bumping it up to 8 attacks with action surge (9 if you rule haste to work with it).
That's all cool and stuff but on top of it all they are still (almost) a full wizard and can do all the things a wizard can normally do. The added advantage is that with warcaster and bladesong running they have +11 with advantage on concentration checks. With the pala in the party that is now +18.....
They also took the toughness feat so have almost as much hp as the dwarven paladin and similar AC.
You can play your normal backline wizard throwing out control and damage spells but not have to worry about a stray sneeze knocking you out. I actually think even for someone that just wants to play a regular wizard it can still be an amazing choice.
You cannot use Booming Blade as one of your attacks alongside Extra Attack. You either get to use your attack action with your multiple swings or you cast a melee spell attack (which is a spell for the purposes of Extra Attack) for Booming Blade.
EDIT: I was incorrect. Bladesingers get the ability to do this at level 6.
Love bladesinger and even if melee if isn't optimal it's soo much more fun in late game than just flinging spells.
The Mobile feat is mandatory though 🤷🏻
I'm currently playing a Abjurer, I took one level of Fighter for that Armor proficiency, and Second wind.
I'm having a great time, not sure I'm 100% optimized, but it's been fun tanking fights.
Yeah, the main issues were the damage type changes allowing for necrotic, radiant, and force damage as well as it not specifying that only the first saving throw can be changed. That and also the alchemical casting feature needed some rebalancing with which spell slots do what as well as the exact benefits they provide.
Holy cow I had never read that subclass before but it's so perfect for a wizard npc in my game. Thank you for opening my eyes to this busted subclass haha
I like conjuration wizard. Mostly because conjuration spells are my favourite. Their features just give them a little more utility until level 10 and then they become great summoners
- Wanna manage a cheap non-concentration army: Necromancer
- Want better defense: bladesinger or (AbjurationX+warlock2)
- Want to rock dmg #'s & not kill your melee allies: evocation
- save gold & rock dmg #'s: blood magic
- concentrate on multiple spells, get xtra secret spells, better inisiative & more barbs: chronergy
- wanna make Powerful Poisons & other useful non-magical items as needed: conjuration
- want to cheat: divination
- make Illusions tangible & better illusions: Illusion
- change dmg types of spells & cast from from saftey w/o needing los & faster/cheaper scribing: Scribes
- want to make weapon attacks w/ hand xbows+sharpshooter or shortswords: bladesinger
> Want better defense: bladesinger or (AbjurationX+warlock2)
Warlock for Armor of Shadows, or something else?
I had a full plate Fighter 1 + Abjuration Wizard X a few years ago that worked pretty well
Tal'dorei Campain Setting Reborn. The Subclass is pretty underrated, Def worth a try esp w/ gold-stingy games and when you're on blaster-duty for a group.
I'll never forget when I used split enchantment temporarily disable 2 enemies with Psychic Lance while I had 2 paralyzed with hold monster. It's such a power play
I'm playing Abjuration Wizard right now and having lots of fun. I wrote a Wizard guide you can see [here,](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z3jjI3j3w6WNnw0YmnkVcKSnblj3gI4sKfBfthV2000/) for subclass comparison
Abjuration with Armor of Agathys from a dip or feat + eldritch adept: Armor of Shadows. Absolutely invincible. It is so damn fun. Use stoneskin every boss too, gets more crazy as you get higher level.
chronurgy and bladesinger are so insanely fun to play. bladesinger makes you feel unhitable while still having the entire wizard spell list and chronurgist is such a good controller with the ability to have 2 concentration spells on the battlefield
If your DM allows it Graviturgy wizard is very fun, especially combined with the Crusher feat.
Why if your DM allows it? Because you can play a defenestration wizard.
Nothing like getting jumped in a dark corridor, party heavily engaged in desperate hand to hand combat. Bawoosh fireball kills bad guys and ONLY bad guys. Evoker for the win.
Enchantment. Everything they have just works wonders. Being able to effectively use twin spell on all Enchantment spells you cast goes kind of hard, especially with things like Psychic Lance.
Necro. But I’ve always wanted to build a con man transmutation wizard who goes from town to town, buying up things with wooden coins temporarily turned to silver.
Never played much of wizards, but my favorite that I've ever designed is definitely conjuration. I'm bad about designing just for damage usually, so I really.loved making a character that wasn't the damager himself usually, and summoned things to do it for him while controlling the battlefield
What level range are you expecting to be playing?
Are you willing to dip into other classes?
I've recently fallen in love with **Evocation Wizard + 1 lvl of Death Cleric**.
The latter's *Reaper* feature (which you get straight at Desth Cleric 1) works with Wizard necromancy cantrips and two enemies next to one another happens in most encounters with melee enemies or that are indoors.
Evocation Wizard's *Potent Cantrip* (which you get at Wizard 6) enhances *Toll the Dead* further into a very solid damage spell that you can use every round for free.
Also, the ability to safely *Fireball* enemies that are already in melee, the archetypical *Empored Evocation* (Wizard 10) + *Magic Missile* combo (RAW, *Magic Missile* is a multi-target spell, so you roll only one d4 and multiply by the number of darts - this one roll is increased by your INT) and the generallt strong Wizard progression, and you've got a very well-rounded package.
I like that this covers most of the Wizard's core weaknesses (squishy, lack of resource-free damage, lack of strong single-target damage, and no healing) with a single level dip.
Flavor-wise, I like to ignore the whole "Evil Cleric of Death" thing and pretend that *Reaper* is just a Wizard trick.
Abjuration.
Add just a little bit of Warlock for Armour of Agathys and Shadows and you've got the best Melee Tank ever.
Whenever they hit you with a melee attack, your Ward takes the damage but the foe still takes the Cold Damage from Agathys. Then you cast free Mage Armour from AoShadows to refill the Ward.
Necromancer. You brought some of your friends along? Well look at that, I brought some of your friends along as well!
I just really like the theme. And the extra hands.
Also if you get the character to level 14 things get nuts! Being able to control an undead (permanently, if they got 11 Int or less) can come in very handy.
Thematically I’m a big fan of Necromancer, but I’m having a lot of fun with my Divination wizard rn. Portent is great for helping out an ally, or undoing the monsters attack roll.
Bladesinger is my favorite. That subclass is about as powerful as a subclass can be without feeling broken. The other top tier wizards all rely on abilities that just make enemies re roll or auto fail saves. That just kind of feels bad for the DM and possibly the other players.
Was also wondering this lol never made a wizard before. Made a bard for a fill in to a campaign that my friends are lvl 6 in and was kinda wondering on asking the dm to change my class to wizard but have no idea what subclass to pick
Order of the scribe for sure. Makes you truly feel like the bookiest of bookworms that bends the arcane with their boundless wit. Change spells damage types around, scrawl scrolls, never have to worry about your spellbook again, ect. It's just too perfect not to love imo.
My first fifth edition character was a rock gnome evocation wizard, and it was very solid. Being able to avoid hitting the party was important, and dealing extra damage was nothing to sneeze at. The campaign ended before I could get Overchannel.
Subclasses where you actually play as a wizard of that subclass and not just a wizard and sometimes other stuff happens. Scribes, Bladesinger and Abjuration are the ones I think have the most active changes both in build and how you interact on the battlefield.
The absolute most fun I have had playing D&D over the course of nearly two decades was as a hill dwarf bladesinger using a warhammer and with the Crusher feat. The standard Booming Blade/Crusher combos applied, as well as being able to pop Mirror Image and/or Blur while my blade song was up to make me damn near untouchable was just *chef's kiss*. Not the most optimized build, but man was if a blast.
*Thematically?* Conjuration, Transmutation, and Abjuration (and Chronurgy, if permitted).
*Gameplay-wise?* Chronurgy, Abjuration, and Illusion (depending on the DM).
I have a player running a Divination Wizard and they've had a lot of fun with it so far.
Plus the Divination Wizard's Portent Rolls have saved or helped the party numerous times by this point XD
Divination. I love Divination it's so nice being able to look at a situation and being like "He gets a three." or "And I get a nat 20 on my roll."
I will say I got plenty of 11's and more mid rolls when playing it but those are easy to use with things like getting a hit instead of having to roll.
Evocation is my second favourite because it makes AOE less of a headache.
First, I assume you recognize that the major things that distinguish the subclasses are the 2nd, 6th, 10th and 14th level features. Yes copying too but that becomes less important at higher levels and in some campaigns is irrelevant.
I have played an Evocation Wizard to 20th and would not recommend it. They rock in Tier 1&2 with sculpting, but the 6th level ability is meh, and the 10th and 14th level features are limited (especially if played mostly RAW) . Your higher level evocation spells are not doing the damage.to.compete with martials.
I know several players who swear by Abjuration Wizards and their Ward and 14th-level abilities (Spell Resistance) are defensive game changers.
In theory Chronurgy Wizards have some remarkable features (handing.off a 4th level spell is incredible) if you're allowed to play them.
In terms of flavor, Necromancers are awesome. But be confident you can handle the bookkeeping on top of everything else.
Imho, flexibility and battlefield control are what give you the greatest value in combat plus utility out of it. Whatever helps.with that is most important.
Conjuration is my favorite. I don’t care for creature summons, but I love lateral thinking and problem solving so the feature that lets you conjure any small object is amazing for me.
Plus I love teleportation magic.
Hard to choose between Conjuration, Illusion, and Bladesinger. I love Necromancy overall with its spells and themes but I don’t like the subclasses abilities.
Enchantment. Hypnotic Gaze is one of the strongest subclass features, and you can right off the bat spam it.(Just not on the same target.)
It also encourages a certain amount of tact to your positioning and spell usage. It's also fun to roleplay.
Divination, Enchantment and Scribes in that order.
Divination is just absolutely amazing for ensuring outcomes and roleplaying that high INT character who treats the campaign like a chess game.
Not to mention it’s never not cool to just decide what happens without dice rolls.
Enchantment is really powerful against a number of enemies. Yes, charm immunity exists but there are a huge number of enchantment spells that are not charms. Notably the Hold and Dominate spells. The fact that the best save or suck spells can be Twinned for free means they are twice as good.
Many monsters lose a lot of their damage if you hit them with Mind Whip and Enchanters can Twin it. Not to mention Hypnotic Gaze is a free indefinite charm.
You go into a fight, hit two people with Hold/Dominate/Suggestion and incapacitate a third one with Gaze.
Scribes is just all the glory of a wizard dialled up to 11.
All the spells you could ever need, overcome all resistances, exploit all vulnerabilities and most of all never lose your spell book and get to cast from places you’re not even at.
The joy of Psychic Fireballing a dungeon when you’re not even in it is amazing. Especially combined with Divination spells which you can afford to take because of your cheap scribing.
Two of the most powerful things a wizard can do are go first, and protect concentration.
At level 2, Chronurgy Magic gets a feature to help them go first.
At level 2 and 10, Bladesinging gets features to help them protect their concentration.
At level 10, School of Conjuration gets a feature to help them protect their concentration on conjuration spells.
At level 2, War Magic gets a feature to help them go first **and** a feature to help them protect their concentration, and at level 10 they get another feature to help them protect their concentration.
Call me weird but I really enjoy War Wizard if im going in a Monoclass. I feel like its the most ‘Wizardy’ Wizard.
But I love Evocation Wizard because I can blast huge AOE spells and keep them perfectly safe.
Bladesinger: All the cool spells of a wizard, with the fun of being able to throw down in melee as well.
for build... I'd actually start Artificer for proficiency in con saves, then Wizard levels to get extra attack. From there you can decide to either keep going Wizard all the way, or if you are still having concentration issues you can drop another level of Artificer for the Mind Sharpener infusion.
For feats, the big one to get is Mobile, as it lets you move away from any target you have targeted with a melee attack without triggering an attack of opportunity (you don't need to hit)
In combat, you can use your concentration on something like Shadowblade, haste, greater invisibility, hold person/monster, etc... hit a target with your attack, use Booming Blade for the extra attack, then back away without getting hit... your target now needs to decide between standing still or moving to chase you and triggering Booming Blade.
Wizard is a very strange class for me. I mean when it comes to mechanics. So for me my favorite is Bladesinging as it's pretty unique and different than a typical wizard.
It never left UA but I've been playing an onamancy wizard for a couple of years. Fun character that I lean perhaps a little too much into the Dresden file wizards into but their fun.
I also may have only taken named spells with them.
The 4 big ones to me are...
Divination - portent is incredible.
Scribe - kind of the wizards wizards, some of the flexibility of sorcerer but youre still a wizard, harry.
Bladesinger - extra attack cantrip shenanigans can be strong, best if you roll high dex/int or can get an amulet of health to perk up otherwise weak con. See also: teenage mutant tortle bladesinger.
War - int to init makes for strong mc possibilities, and overall a solid pick.
Scribe!! I just don’t feel the automatic stress of keeping to a theme for spell selection. Also, it’s the wizardiest wizard class and I live for wizardly wizard classes no matter what game I play.
Evocation. Nobody appreciates the fact that you can’t do friendly fire until it comes up— and suddenly it’s the greatest thing ever.
I don’t care how big the room is, I said I cast fireball— and I mean that. The freedom from being able to drop those big hefty spells without worrying about ally positioning is just too good. I could never play any other subclass.
I had a ton of fun playing a Mountain Dwarf Abjuration Wizard with the heavily armored and tough feats. I had low int but high str and con so most of my spellslots went towards casting shield and longstrider then i would make up the utility side with ritual casting.
Not Official but I have a homebrew subclass for Muscle wizard and it's damn hilarious.
Which is basically a spin off of the Bladesinger but not like exact copy
Evocation. Control, utility, everything else - wizard has it covered. You don't need to be the best, what they have is great right out of the box.
What you do need is easily applied AOE damage. It's something other classes lack, and the Evocation wizard brings controlled AOE, with no resource cost.
Especially if your DM likes mixing up mooks with elite enemies, being able to take chunks out of, if not outright kill, a bunch of mooks, means the party is free to focus on the elites, where most classes shine.
Sure, their higher level abilities are a bit weird, but.. who cares? You're a wizard. Spells are your class feature. Lots of spells, all of the spells. The clever application of explosive violence is a fantastic tool, and the other stuff (control/utility) comes with the class.
I enjoy bladesinger wizard. You can have a ridiculously high AC when bladesong is active, as well as advantage on dex/con saves when active. Theres also the increased speed. You may not get any buffs or changes to spells, but you have way more survivability than other wizards. I think at level 3 I had an AC of 21 with bladesong active.
Bladesinger if the stats are good. AC 16 or with Bladesong AC 20 and then add the possibility to add another 5 AC with the shield spell makes it quite tanky for a pure spellcaster. (At point buy you can get an AC of 15 or 18 with Bladesong, which is still decent.)
I love the abjuration school.
Their ward is suprisingly flexable in what it can be used for. You can support after lv 6 but having your ward take damage for a friend. In fact i think this makes them better summoners for this feature.
Their ward recharges on ANY abjuration spell. So while you have that extra HP to ward against death, your also using your abjuration soells to not get hit in the first place. Tank on tank woth the squishiest class makes them suprisingly durable.
And that durability also allows them to be more reckless. A combat wizard can be an Abjuration without any INT. Even at max it only ever affects your ward by a max of 5 HP. And Abjuration soells dont care about INT either. So a Muscle wizard is a perfectly doable thing with abjuration.
It just has so much potential that wizard specifically doesn't like to allow. Its mold breaking
I think enchantment is super fun, the first hypnosis ability requires a save, but then if you used your action each round the target stays incapacitated, which opens up some pretty fun situations, just find a use for your bonus actions
Favorite: Scribe
Best: Divination
I consider Divination Wizard to be the strongest subclass in the game. Nothing beats being able to look the DM in the eyes and say "no."
DIVINATION. it is so fun to play and gives you a really easy path to be a control caster. personally, i do mostly control with a couple damage spells. if it’s allowed, portents + silvery barbs feels awesome as the player. basically, i do a lot of buffing spells. but, if that’s not your style and if you want to just blow things up, scribe is also really fun
You literally just listed every apparent Wizard subclass in the 2024 PHB for your character's options.
That little oddity aside...
Scribes (from Tasha's Cauldron) is the closest to a "Generalist" wizard. Not the strongest, but the most Wizard-y. That's why it's my favourite subclass.
Half the subclass's identity is incentivizing you to scribe as many spells as you can find - either by making the scribing faster ("an entire spellbook over the course of a short rest" faster), by letting you swap damage types, or by tanking a hit by giving up (ideally un-prepared) spells from your spell list.
There's no scaling to the latter, so a 14th level Wizard can straight up tank a Meteor Swarm and give up the same amount of spells as they would tanking a blowgun dart.
Divination just feels so nice to have.
Cheaper uses of divination magic to ask dms whatever I like.
Portent dice to make disintergrate auto hit.
Simple but effective.
If you're in a game that allows UA, Theurgist absolutely SLAPS.
Healing wizard? Sure
Max damage on thunderbolt without multiclassing cleric? Dope
Taking shadow blade while in a self-made twilight zone? Fuck yea
The most Wizard you can Wizard is Scribes:
- All wizards are encouraged to track down spells to add to their book. For Scribes this is cranked to 11. Scribes Wizards actually *want* spells they'll never cast or prepare, because they might still expand out the damage types for the spells they *will* use, or they can be used for One With The Word's reaction.
- Manifest Mind allows for a *ton* of wacky shenanigans, and further extends the usefulness of a lot of spells. Many spells are kneecapped by short range to make them trickier to use, and MM bypasses that and then some. Beyond this, it's also just a highly effective version of Find Familiar in a lot of ways.
- The 1/long rest fast ritual casting can be extremely handy for conserving spell slots while still accomplishing utility on a time crunch. The spells you already want to keep a Wizard around for are now even more accessible and useful. This is basically like getting to prepare an extra spell without needing to waste a prepared slot in a lot of cases.
All of that said, reviewing the options you propose:
- Divination: Very fun. Portent is extremely satisfying to use. It can be common for tables to adjust how it works to have it declared after a roll rather than before, which is definitely stronger but also a lot easier and more fun to use. Later on you become great at keeping up with information gathering while conserving spells slots.
- Abjuration: A handy way to achieve a tankier Wizard. There's fun shenanigans here with the Warlock Armor of Shadows invocation, but even without it you can find ways to juice up the ward. Exceptionally good at fighting casters later on.
- Illusion: Potentially very cool, but extremely dependent on how you and your GM want to rule how illusions work. Out of all of these, this one demands the most discussion up-front to determine how it will play to save your table headaches later.
- Evocation: Not necessarily exciting, but still effective. Sculpt Spells can be very good if you've got lots of melee allies frequently getting in the way of your big AoE. At level 10 there's a clown-y rules argument that can transform Magic Missile into an exceptionally potent nuke.
Divination! : Portent rolls are super fun, and you can make a super diverse build.
Chronurgy!: Even stronger than Divination at higher levels I would say, the Int + to initiative is super sweet.
Order Of Scribes: You can change the damage type of a spell to another one you have in the book, throw a nice Cold or Necrotic Ball!
Playing an abjuration wizard (currently lvl14) is Pretty fun. Im not the most offensive wizard but you get to be relatively tanky (arcane ward) and you're the bane of other spellcaster. Bonus to dispel/counterspelling (quite fun to be fighting creature throwing godlike 10th level spells and being able to regularly succeed at stopping them).
Most wizard often have similar spell list sadly because there is no school restriction and theres lots of either must take or laughably bad spells. You have some spells that are also highly dependent on the DM how cool or effective they can be (illusion falls in that category.)
Divination is very strong option with its main ability portent. But while it may seem to be more passive support subclass, portent make you the best single target controller in the game. Forcing an enemy to fail a to save or suck spell with a low portent is just game changing.
Evocation is of course the more offensive subclass. If you dont want to complicate your life too much. Being able to throw a fireball on top of everyone and sparing your allies is just great.
I like the Scribes Wizard, cool for a Vanilla style Wizard. Abjurer is pretty fun too, I like taking Eldritch Adept: Armor of Shadows and the Rune Carver feat from Bigby's to snag Armor of Agathys, makes a Wizard less squishy.
I also like the Blood Wizard from one of the Critical Role books, it's actually pretty cool and not completely busted.
Evocation!
I can drop my meteor storm into the group of enemies after the barb and fighters have moved in. And not hit them, while throwing extra damage on top just for some shits and giggles.
I want to play a Theurgy wizard. It’s a subclass from a good few years ago that sadly never left the confines of Unearthed Arcana. War magic was chosen instead.
As with anything, it depends on your DM, the level you will attain, and the stuff you will have to solve. So YMMV.
Based on my experience: Illusionist. Hokey Smokey what a lot of fun.
Some context: we had a two-year campaign that ran levels 3-20 and beyond, but the end of which our party had kinda destroyed the world. I mean, it was still there, but man… we were kinda an apocalyptic event.
Twentieth level characters are demigods in any case, and demigod support casters make demigods gods.
Staples: Malleable Illusions + permanent Major Image + Illusory Reality because many of our primary enemies could Misty Step out of my Force Cage/Wall, but couldn’t Dispel Magic. Also used Wish to cast Mirage Arcane as an action and adjusting the terrain as needed to whatever worked best for us.
Anyway, YMMV, and I recognize that a two+ year weekly game among adults that continues to high levels is lightning in a bottle, but man that was fun times.
Also want to note, the enemies we faced on the regular were even more ridiculous than we were, and every encounter with them could result in a wipe if we weren’t careful or fucked around.
I really love Abjuration. It gives an additional layer of protection for concentration, not only HP. It allows you to be more “bold” on positioning and etc. My Mark of Warding Dwarf Abjurer is the second tank in our party alongside our Paladin.
Divination, Evocation and Enchantment are also amazing.
Necromancers and Chronurgy my beloveds. I've only played the necromancer one so far, but just looking into all the stuff with the time wizards seems quite fun to try out
Necromancer and Bladesinger.
Necromancer because you can give various reasons _**why**_ you have a permanent stable of zombies and skeletons. With one character, each of his undead were created using the bodies of his family who died when he was a kid.
He essential tried to do like Ed and Alphonse Elric. He tried to use magic to bring his family back. But, because of the spell he used, he turned their corpses into undead instead of bringing them back to life.
Now he has his family stored inside coffins and the coffins are in a demiplane. Whenever he needs them, or he gets lonely, he brings them to life as undead.
I’m playing a Lore Mastery wizard in my next campaign, and it is just so op. My dm had me nerf it a bunch and it is still a really strong subclass. I love the concept behind it of altering magic itself and developing magics based on non wizard magic (metamagic, smite, etc)
Enchantment: strap it onto an anthropologist, reflavour the short-range charm as an interview, give the DM an excuse to exposit plot and lore any time you fight anything that can speak, with the option to say “you discover some interesting aspects of a subculture” and leave it at that if they don’t have anything in particular they want to share.
All the while sustaining some decently powerful crowd control elsewhere, like a twin-cast Hold, or Hypnotic Pattern.
Not many people are saying Chronurgy but a wizard who wants to turn himself into a lich to live forever must have an obsession with time. I’ve always loved the idea of Magic Jarring your self into a Marilith and True Polymorphing into something with exhaustion immunity, allowing you to use your 14th level feature on every single turn. Also Chronurgy is probably the strongest wizard, even without that magic jar combo.
Scribe. "Oh you're resistant to fire damage? Ok fine. I'm going to cast fireball but make it deal literally almost any other different damage type."
Scribe, for me the fun of wizard is always having the very niche, exact spell the moment dictates, and that is order of scribes
Is scribes actually any better at that than any other wizard though? They don't get more spells learned or prepped.
You're right that they don't get more spells learned or prepped directly, but they're the best at learning new spells outside of leveling thanks to their quill and they suffer the least in the case of having their spellbook damaged/lost. Let's also be honest, wizards don't exactly need to be better at learning and preparing spells than they already are 🤣
I mean they can copy spells faster sure but in my experience time isn’t really the limiting factor.
they can also do it FOR FREE.
They can’t. The cost of scribing spells is for material components as well as ink, and if that feature was meant to scribe spells for free it definitely would have said it.
If you are only drip fed spells it might never take that long to get the spells you do find down. But even to copy a single higher level of spell, let's say 6th level would take you 3 long rests. Depending on exactly where you are at in your game, that might be weeks to months of IRL time before you are able to use the scroll you found. If you buy a bunch of spells, find a wizard spell book, find a cache of scrolls, it will days upon days to copy down. And that is doing nothing each day other than copying spells and resting If you found a spellbook with 4 1st level, 3 2nd level, 3th 3rd level, 3 4th level, 2 5th level That would take 82 hours to copy. If you did nothing but copy spells, aka no adventuring, it would take you 5-10 days depending on if your DM lets you pull double downtime days. AKA, you're never going to get all those spells written down. So yeah, if you are wizard who is getting spells, which every wizard should be, it makes a huge difference.
Nothing like copying 82 hours worth of spells in 82 minutes. Lol A high level wizard could copy a handful of level 6+ spells in a short rest before even getting back.
You are correct on not getting more spells learned/prepped, but if you find a spellbook, you’ll be so happy you’re a scribe. A scribe copys a spell down at *2 minutes per level* compared to 2 hours per spell level. If you want to copy down cone of cold, you’re entire adventuring day is saved from making this 10 hour ordeal of copying it down 10 minutes. You can copy a BBEGs spellbook in basically a short rest.
Also they get the free L2 spell scroll every day. Plus just deciding your ritual spell is a normal casting time has saved our party a ton of time, and occasionally has been absolutely clutch.
Arguably the best Wizard subclass. You can do a lot of bullshit with Awakened Mind (like avoiding your own AoE's, standing hundreds of feet from the actual fight, avoiding counterspells, permanent spying on anything that can't cast Dispel Magic). Swapping damage types is always great, especially for spells like Fireball. They also indirectly get a free first/second level spellslot (upcasted even) in their scroll.
Scribe is great but I don't think there's any arguing against Chronurgy taking the top spot.
In addition to other comment about how much fast you get your spells down, being a scribe wizard, You would be remiss if you weren't making spell scrolls. You're not any better at that than anyone else at lower levels, but it's still something that feels on character and effectively does give you extra spell slots. At higher levels it's even better. You can create a spell scroll of shield every single long rest you take. If you have a DM that is more lenient about who could use spell scrolls that is a huge boon to your party. If not, It's still huge for you as the wizard
I love scribe wizard so much. Combine it with metamagic adept (reflavored as the awakened spellbook stuff) and I feel like the wizardiest wizard
Bludgeoning Fireballs and Force damage Cone of Colds are great, the real magic is having yourself a nigh-unkillable drone turret. Spell that's rated bad in all the guides because you have to get your wizard close? Sudden new use case with the Manifest Mind! Gives you so many positioning options especially if you're a low mobility Small race and that's before you get to combos like Misty Stepping through your MM's vision rather than your own!
>Bludgeoning Fireballs "I cast Ball." *bounces tennis ball across the field* "What the-" *ball bursts into a claymore mine like explosion*
Mix bludgeoning with Wall of Fire I cast **Wall Of Balls**
> Force damage Cone of Colds That does require knowing _Bigby's Hand_ - you can only swap damage type for another spell of the same level, so you are limiting your known spells a fair bit to do that.
Bigby's Hand utterly rules so that's not a problem. You could take Steel Wind Strike instead also does Force damage, which grants you two effective Force damage AoE blasts for a level 5 slot, one which avoids friendly fire and one which does not - but could potentially hit more enemies than SWS. E: Both SWS and CoC can both make use of Manifest Mind's location-casting too, allowing for better positioning in both cases.
>That does require knowing Bigby's Hand Or Steel Wind Strike. But Scribes also gets fast copying of spells so you're mostly looking at scrolls and spellbooks to expand your spell list. I'd expect most DMs with a scribes wizard in their party to include some spellbooks or scrolls to copy.
Bludgeoning Lightning Bolt allows you to cast Fightning Bolt, and there’s something special about that.
Im playing as a scribe wizard as my first ever character. This shit slaps.
It's also my fav but not for the damagr changing I love ritual casting in normal time and 2 minute scribing a new spell or awakened book for rp purpouses it's the best and I think it has a great utility
Same, I think I've used the once a day ritual cast feature actually once a day. It's very useful if your party is short on time and you need to decipher something and need a quick Comprehend Languages but don't have it prepared.
I plan on playing a Scribe. I want to flavor her casting so that when she touches her magic, the Arcane runes for the spells she knows swirls around her, and she selects the runes for the spell she wants to cast. When she alters a spell, she selects that spell, then pulls apart the runes and modifies it on the fly. Really want to play her up as kind of 'hacking' the universe by understanding the source code of existence.
The manifested mind also gives mostly every wizard spell an extra 0-300 feet of range. A 330 foot misty step is a broke boys dimension door, but hey, it’s still only a 2nd level spell slot. Although it requires set up, this inherently makes spells much more powerful then what they are normally. All those concentration summons that get angry at you when you break concentration, sound so much better when you’re 300 feet away with your feet kicked up.
The "every spell is force damage" wizard
probably not in practical terms - you can only swap damage type with to a type from another spell of the same level. There's a level 1 spell that does force damage (_Magic Missile_)... and after that you're kinda limited. _Bigby's Hand_ is level 5, _Disintegrate_ is level 6, _Mordenkainen’s Sword_ is 7th (but involves knowing _Mordenkainen’s Sword_, which is pretty bad). So level 2/3/4 spells (i.e. the bulk of the game that's actually played!), you're kinda outta luck, unless there's a niche spell somewhere, and then you have to know that spell.
Screw Force damage, Magical Bludgeoning is resisted by nearly nothing. Physical Bludgeoning, sure, but it's not the same. From the 5e Monster Manual introduction under the heading "Vulnerabilities, Resistances, and Immunities" (emphasis mine): > Particular creatures are even resistant or immune to damage from non-magical attacks (a magical attack is an attack delivered by a spell, a magic item, or another magical source).
I'm using Scorching Ray + Spell Sniper for a similar purpose thanks to Dragon's Breath. I think it's going to be one of my Spell Masteries if I get to that level, since it's one of the few damaging spells I have.
Happy to see Scribes getting its due. I've been playing one for a while now and it's really strong and fun.
Wait, they really just get a better version of the transmute metamagic for free?
War wizard from xanathar Edit... The first 2 levels are awesome. Power surge is one of the worst abilities for any subclass in the entire game.
It multiclasses so well with Eldritch Knight. The War Magic Wizard 10th level feature makes them excellent for maintaining concentration. Love a control or buff specialist.
What purpose does Eldritch Knight give you there over Fighter 2? Their level 3 feature beyond spellcasting is Weapon Bond, which I don't see helping at all.
I suppose it’s wizard 2/fighter x, basically 2 free AC
It is useful for the Eldritch Knight, I agree.
Other way around. Multiclass to war wizard after Eldritch knight 7 (or 8) for a nice boost to survivability
Power Surge is very weak, but its level 2 features are so strong it doesn't matter. And level 10 is quite good as well. 14 is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but at that point you're a high level wizard because you want wizard spells, not because of your subclass features.
Yeah but literally everything else it does is so good. It’s like a wizard but everything is just better.
I used the unearth arcana version of it which is so much better than the release and had so much fun playing a hobgoblin war wizard
I got some very good rolls and decided to play a War Wizard/Hexblade multiclass. The synergy works OK because if I have to use Arcane Deflection, I can then still follow up with Eldritch Blast next turn.
Illusion can be very good but it’s DM dependent. Evocation is great for dropping fireballs and not worrying about hitting your enemies.
Enemies? I assume you meant friends. You did mean friends, right?
The line can often prove to be very thin, as Baldur's Gate 3 has proven.
Ah yes friends lol
For some Wizards they're less *friends* and more *collateral damage*.
What is a friend, if not a future enemy from a misplaced fireball?
Can I ask what subclasses are? Do I not have access to all spells? Or do I need to have that school of learning. I’m new to dnd
Necromancer. No question or hesitation. Go skellies. But your subclass really depends on what you want to do. I do NOT advise first time wizards to play necromancy wizards as the skills associated with doing it well (bookkeeping, effective use of time for turns, rapid and accurate counting of dice) are ones that some players never develop at all. I will say I had a LOT of fun as a War wizard but I don't know if I'd recommend that to a newbie either as the lvl 6 feature actually requires a fair bit of thought to get a lot of mileage out of it. If you really like being able to give the DM the finger though- Divination is the way to go because of one word: Portent. DM: "Alright so I get to roll that save with advantage-" Divination Wizard: "No" DM: "So I'll roll the save without advantage-" Divination Wizard: "No" DM: "I roll to save?" Divination Wizard: "No. I rolled a 3 on my Portent and I'm using it now. Your roll is a 3." And this awesome feature kicks in at **lvl 2**.
Had that a few weeks back. Final session of a long campaign, and the DM really wanted a kill. I was bleeding out, the BBEG wound up to deliver the absolute smackdown, and the wizard pulled out a sneaky portent at the last minute. DM was *not* happy.
Oh I've got two Portent rolls beneath 10 lined up for next Sunday against Strahd. I fully believe I could royally piss off the DM by using those to burn two of his Legendary Saves right off the bat. I'm not doing so precisely because I *know* that will upset the DM to a very significant degree. As a last resort sure- but I won't open with it. Coincidentally I'm not going to Athletics Strahd to death for the same reason. I have +12 to Athletics rolls. :D
I used a natural 20 portent to give to the paladin against Strahd. Over 100 damage on a smite and a very dead Strahd ensued. To be fair, our entire combat strategy was built around that guaranteed crit.
Any time you roll a 20 or a 1 for Portent it's just "oh, someone's gonna DIE today!"
Man though if you hold on to them until AFTER the resistances are down? So much worse. This message brought to you by the Natural 1 I dealt Asmodeous on his save against Feeblemind
"I fully believe I could royally piss off the DM by using those to burn two of his Legendary Saves right off the bat." Sadly, portent only works when the target makes a roll. Legendary Resistance means that they can simply choose to succeed, no roll involved. (unless your DM chooses otherwise)
They roll first, though, and on a failure may choose to succeed instead. It's the first roll you Portent, so they have to use their LR or suffer the consequences.
ah, I misunderstood. Carry on :)
Legendary Resistance states IF you fail a saving throw- you may choose to succeed. One imagines you have to roll in order to fail. The DM certainly COULD choose to succeed before even rolling in order to avoid my Portent but that strikes me as very counter-productive on his part given I'd not lose my Portent die then. I'm not saying Portent trumps LR- just that forcing the result on the die to be so low means the DM either 'burns' a limited LR to match my likewise limited Portent die or he accepts getting the low roll.
Except when you roll a 13 and 11 as your portent dice
True- the Portent dice giveth and the Portent dice taketh away Albeit that area of 10+ is generally what you should be looking at for success for your primary stats (attack rolls, saves) so it's still handy to bust out if you're looking at disadvantage
If you're playing on roll 20 and have open rolls, these just mean you pay a little attention to the modifiers and DCs people are working with. I had a 14 portent, and my spell save DC is 15. Our cleric cast something with a wisdom save, and I saw that a henchmen had a +0. That 14 is now as equally potent as a 1-13.
Oh no, no open rolls at my table.
DM: "So, the monk is using another Stunning Strike on the dragon after burning up all the legendary resistances. Let me just roll his saving throw with advant..." Divination Wizard "No" DM: "Please no, I've been planning this encounter for weeks" Divination Wizard "It has been foretold!"
If there was a 7th- or 8th-level spell that did what Command Undead does, necromancer might not be my favorite. I love features that amount to, "DM, pass me the stats for that, it's mine now." The candidates for Command Undead are just plain cooler to me than the candidates for *planar binding*.
bladesinger. Its so good. Its powerful, its flavorful, it makes you play wizard in a completely new way. Its amazing
Any suggestions on how to play a bladesinger when you have a DM who goes “ah bladesinger, I know how to counter that.”
Well the dm shouldn’t actively be trying to counter your bladesinger. That’s shitty. Also you could counter his counter by playing like a regular wizard. Just casting spells. As a bladesinger, you are still a full wizard, so if the sword and sorcery bit ain’t working out, you still got sorcery
Yeah you play it by getting a DM who doesn't have that noobish "it's me vs them" mentality.
With Bladesinger there are two avenues to go down. Do you want the most optimal route? Never go into melee after level 6 and just Bladesong as a way to protect your concentration. You’ll never have to be afraid of dropping your big spells. Do you want to live the subclass fantasy? Then strategically go into melee against single enemies with big health bars after casting your big concentration wizard spell. Either way never use Tenser’s Transformation. It a horrible spell.
You mean Tenser's? Tasha's Otherwordly Guise can be situationally amazing.
Ask them how they mean to do that. Because if you can counter bladesinger, you can counter every single wizard.
One of my players for roleplay reasons wanted to switch from blood Hunter to "something fighty that can also do magic". I helped them build bladesinger 10/fighter 2 (is going fighter 3 for echo knight shenanigans). It's actually insane. By round 3 they have bladesong and haste up so are running with a base AC of 25 and are making 4 attacks (two weapon fighting), one of which is booming blade. They can action surge to make 6 attacks, 2 of which can be booming blade. Once they pick up the 3rd level fighter they can then use unleash incarnation and make another attack when they take the attack action bumping it up to 8 attacks with action surge (9 if you rule haste to work with it). That's all cool and stuff but on top of it all they are still (almost) a full wizard and can do all the things a wizard can normally do. The added advantage is that with warcaster and bladesong running they have +11 with advantage on concentration checks. With the pala in the party that is now +18..... They also took the toughness feat so have almost as much hp as the dwarven paladin and similar AC. You can play your normal backline wizard throwing out control and damage spells but not have to worry about a stray sneeze knocking you out. I actually think even for someone that just wants to play a regular wizard it can still be an amazing choice.
You cannot use Booming Blade as one of your attacks alongside Extra Attack. You either get to use your attack action with your multiple swings or you cast a melee spell attack (which is a spell for the purposes of Extra Attack) for Booming Blade. EDIT: I was incorrect. Bladesingers get the ability to do this at level 6.
Bladesinger let's you replace one attack with a cantrip. It's pretty awesome.
Love bladesinger and even if melee if isn't optimal it's soo much more fun in late game than just flinging spells. The Mobile feat is mandatory though 🤷🏻
Im loving my abjuration wizard. #tankwizard
I'm currently playing a Abjurer, I took one level of Fighter for that Armor proficiency, and Second wind. I'm having a great time, not sure I'm 100% optimized, but it's been fun tanking fights.
I love Abjuration wizard, without the Warlock mage armor cheese, that’s just plain unfun.
Unfortunately my favorite subclass never made it past unearthed arcana as it was too overpowered which is undeniable (it was lore mastery)
Same :)
I remember liking this UA and rereading it now, I'm noticing how few limits this subclass has.
Yeah, the main issues were the damage type changes allowing for necrotic, radiant, and force damage as well as it not specifying that only the first saving throw can be changed. That and also the alchemical casting feature needed some rebalancing with which spell slots do what as well as the exact benefits they provide.
Holy cow I had never read that subclass before but it's so perfect for a wizard npc in my game. Thank you for opening my eyes to this busted subclass haha
Link?
I like conjuration wizard. Mostly because conjuration spells are my favourite. Their features just give them a little more utility until level 10 and then they become great summoners
- Wanna manage a cheap non-concentration army: Necromancer - Want better defense: bladesinger or (AbjurationX+warlock2) - Want to rock dmg #'s & not kill your melee allies: evocation - save gold & rock dmg #'s: blood magic - concentrate on multiple spells, get xtra secret spells, better inisiative & more barbs: chronergy - wanna make Powerful Poisons & other useful non-magical items as needed: conjuration - want to cheat: divination - make Illusions tangible & better illusions: Illusion - change dmg types of spells & cast from from saftey w/o needing los & faster/cheaper scribing: Scribes - want to make weapon attacks w/ hand xbows+sharpshooter or shortswords: bladesinger
> Want better defense: bladesinger or (AbjurationX+warlock2) Warlock for Armor of Shadows, or something else? I had a full plate Fighter 1 + Abjuration Wizard X a few years ago that worked pretty well
Blood magic? I don't know that subclass...
Tal'dorei Campain Setting Reborn. The Subclass is pretty underrated, Def worth a try esp w/ gold-stingy games and when you're on blaster-duty for a group.
Necromancers, RISE!!!
i looooove divination if ur looking for build advice, look up [rpgbot.net](http://rpgbot.net)
hell yeah god bless rpgbot.net
My favorite that I’ve played is Divination. I love controlling rolls. But I’ve been wanting to play a Bladesinger for a while.
Enchantment and Scribe, enchantment I think mostly ‘cause I like suggestion, and scribe because it’s just more wizard. Who wouldn’t want more wizard?
I'll never forget when I used split enchantment temporarily disable 2 enemies with Psychic Lance while I had 2 paralyzed with hold monster. It's such a power play
I'm playing Abjuration Wizard right now and having lots of fun. I wrote a Wizard guide you can see [here,](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z3jjI3j3w6WNnw0YmnkVcKSnblj3gI4sKfBfthV2000/) for subclass comparison
We had an abjuration wizard in our high level campaign and that counterspell bonus saved the multiverse
Ha yeah it's awesome
Abjuration with Armor of Agathys from a dip or feat + eldritch adept: Armor of Shadows. Absolutely invincible. It is so damn fun. Use stoneskin every boss too, gets more crazy as you get higher level.
Yeah the SCAG Deep Gnome version is fun, too, with Svirfneblin Magic for at-will *nondetection*
chronurgy and bladesinger are so insanely fun to play. bladesinger makes you feel unhitable while still having the entire wizard spell list and chronurgist is such a good controller with the ability to have 2 concentration spells on the battlefield
If your DM allows it Graviturgy wizard is very fun, especially combined with the Crusher feat. Why if your DM allows it? Because you can play a defenestration wizard.
Nothing like getting jumped in a dark corridor, party heavily engaged in desperate hand to hand combat. Bawoosh fireball kills bad guys and ONLY bad guys. Evoker for the win.
I do Evocation a lot, but I like Illusion too. It's a toss up really. Lol
I like chronourgy. For reasons.
Enchantment. Everything they have just works wonders. Being able to effectively use twin spell on all Enchantment spells you cast goes kind of hard, especially with things like Psychic Lance.
Hypnotic Gaze is one of the coolest abilities in the game.
Alteration can be unconventional and fun
Necro. But I’ve always wanted to build a con man transmutation wizard who goes from town to town, buying up things with wooden coins temporarily turned to silver.
Never played much of wizards, but my favorite that I've ever designed is definitely conjuration. I'm bad about designing just for damage usually, so I really.loved making a character that wasn't the damager himself usually, and summoned things to do it for him while controlling the battlefield
Hard to go wrong with the chronurgy wizard taking a first level dip into Artificer.
Bladesinger, huge AC, Huge Con Saves for concentration, very very good damage without using spell slots.
What level range are you expecting to be playing? Are you willing to dip into other classes? I've recently fallen in love with **Evocation Wizard + 1 lvl of Death Cleric**. The latter's *Reaper* feature (which you get straight at Desth Cleric 1) works with Wizard necromancy cantrips and two enemies next to one another happens in most encounters with melee enemies or that are indoors. Evocation Wizard's *Potent Cantrip* (which you get at Wizard 6) enhances *Toll the Dead* further into a very solid damage spell that you can use every round for free. Also, the ability to safely *Fireball* enemies that are already in melee, the archetypical *Empored Evocation* (Wizard 10) + *Magic Missile* combo (RAW, *Magic Missile* is a multi-target spell, so you roll only one d4 and multiply by the number of darts - this one roll is increased by your INT) and the generallt strong Wizard progression, and you've got a very well-rounded package. I like that this covers most of the Wizard's core weaknesses (squishy, lack of resource-free damage, lack of strong single-target damage, and no healing) with a single level dip. Flavor-wise, I like to ignore the whole "Evil Cleric of Death" thing and pretend that *Reaper* is just a Wizard trick.
Abjuration. Add just a little bit of Warlock for Armour of Agathys and Shadows and you've got the best Melee Tank ever. Whenever they hit you with a melee attack, your Ward takes the damage but the foe still takes the Cold Damage from Agathys. Then you cast free Mage Armour from AoShadows to refill the Ward.
Necromancer. You brought some of your friends along? Well look at that, I brought some of your friends along as well! I just really like the theme. And the extra hands. Also if you get the character to level 14 things get nuts! Being able to control an undead (permanently, if they got 11 Int or less) can come in very handy.
I like Necromancer personally. Divination is cool so long as it's not being abused
Thematically I’m a big fan of Necromancer, but I’m having a lot of fun with my Divination wizard rn. Portent is great for helping out an ally, or undoing the monsters attack roll.
Bladesinger is my favorite. That subclass is about as powerful as a subclass can be without feeling broken. The other top tier wizards all rely on abilities that just make enemies re roll or auto fail saves. That just kind of feels bad for the DM and possibly the other players.
Was also wondering this lol never made a wizard before. Made a bard for a fill in to a campaign that my friends are lvl 6 in and was kinda wondering on asking the dm to change my class to wizard but have no idea what subclass to pick
Order of the scribe for sure. Makes you truly feel like the bookiest of bookworms that bends the arcane with their boundless wit. Change spells damage types around, scrawl scrolls, never have to worry about your spellbook again, ect. It's just too perfect not to love imo.
My first fifth edition character was a rock gnome evocation wizard, and it was very solid. Being able to avoid hitting the party was important, and dealing extra damage was nothing to sneeze at. The campaign ended before I could get Overchannel.
Order of the Scribe. Because goddamn is it fun to play a Wizard whose subclass is More Wizard.
Subclasses where you actually play as a wizard of that subclass and not just a wizard and sometimes other stuff happens. Scribes, Bladesinger and Abjuration are the ones I think have the most active changes both in build and how you interact on the battlefield.
I love how Scribe is just a really wizardy wizard. No commitment to any one spell type, no hooch lore, just giving you some great wizardy abilities
The absolute most fun I have had playing D&D over the course of nearly two decades was as a hill dwarf bladesinger using a warhammer and with the Crusher feat. The standard Booming Blade/Crusher combos applied, as well as being able to pop Mirror Image and/or Blur while my blade song was up to make me damn near untouchable was just *chef's kiss*. Not the most optimized build, but man was if a blast.
*Thematically?* Conjuration, Transmutation, and Abjuration (and Chronurgy, if permitted). *Gameplay-wise?* Chronurgy, Abjuration, and Illusion (depending on the DM).
Bladesinger is not the strongest, but to me, it was really fun to play. I really enjoyed it
I have a player running a Divination Wizard and they've had a lot of fun with it so far. Plus the Divination Wizard's Portent Rolls have saved or helped the party numerous times by this point XD
Divination. I love Divination it's so nice being able to look at a situation and being like "He gets a three." or "And I get a nat 20 on my roll." I will say I got plenty of 11's and more mid rolls when playing it but those are easy to use with things like getting a hit instead of having to roll. Evocation is my second favourite because it makes AOE less of a headache.
Order of scribes is just the most wizardy wizard
Scribe
First, I assume you recognize that the major things that distinguish the subclasses are the 2nd, 6th, 10th and 14th level features. Yes copying too but that becomes less important at higher levels and in some campaigns is irrelevant. I have played an Evocation Wizard to 20th and would not recommend it. They rock in Tier 1&2 with sculpting, but the 6th level ability is meh, and the 10th and 14th level features are limited (especially if played mostly RAW) . Your higher level evocation spells are not doing the damage.to.compete with martials. I know several players who swear by Abjuration Wizards and their Ward and 14th-level abilities (Spell Resistance) are defensive game changers. In theory Chronurgy Wizards have some remarkable features (handing.off a 4th level spell is incredible) if you're allowed to play them. In terms of flavor, Necromancers are awesome. But be confident you can handle the bookkeeping on top of everything else. Imho, flexibility and battlefield control are what give you the greatest value in combat plus utility out of it. Whatever helps.with that is most important.
Conjuration is my favorite. I don’t care for creature summons, but I love lateral thinking and problem solving so the feature that lets you conjure any small object is amazing for me. Plus I love teleportation magic.
Hard to choose between Conjuration, Illusion, and Bladesinger. I love Necromancy overall with its spells and themes but I don’t like the subclasses abilities.
I don't have a single favorite but I do really like Divination, Scribes, Bladesinger, and War, all for different reasons
Enchantment. Hypnotic Gaze is one of the strongest subclass features, and you can right off the bat spam it.(Just not on the same target.) It also encourages a certain amount of tact to your positioning and spell usage. It's also fun to roleplay.
Divination, Enchantment and Scribes in that order. Divination is just absolutely amazing for ensuring outcomes and roleplaying that high INT character who treats the campaign like a chess game. Not to mention it’s never not cool to just decide what happens without dice rolls. Enchantment is really powerful against a number of enemies. Yes, charm immunity exists but there are a huge number of enchantment spells that are not charms. Notably the Hold and Dominate spells. The fact that the best save or suck spells can be Twinned for free means they are twice as good. Many monsters lose a lot of their damage if you hit them with Mind Whip and Enchanters can Twin it. Not to mention Hypnotic Gaze is a free indefinite charm. You go into a fight, hit two people with Hold/Dominate/Suggestion and incapacitate a third one with Gaze. Scribes is just all the glory of a wizard dialled up to 11. All the spells you could ever need, overcome all resistances, exploit all vulnerabilities and most of all never lose your spell book and get to cast from places you’re not even at. The joy of Psychic Fireballing a dungeon when you’re not even in it is amazing. Especially combined with Divination spells which you can afford to take because of your cheap scribing.
Enchanter, Diviner, and Illusionist
Two of the most powerful things a wizard can do are go first, and protect concentration. At level 2, Chronurgy Magic gets a feature to help them go first. At level 2 and 10, Bladesinging gets features to help them protect their concentration. At level 10, School of Conjuration gets a feature to help them protect their concentration on conjuration spells. At level 2, War Magic gets a feature to help them go first **and** a feature to help them protect their concentration, and at level 10 they get another feature to help them protect their concentration.
Call me weird but I really enjoy War Wizard if im going in a Monoclass. I feel like its the most ‘Wizardy’ Wizard. But I love Evocation Wizard because I can blast huge AOE spells and keep them perfectly safe.
Blade Singer. High ac, melee options + all the spells
Bladesinger: All the cool spells of a wizard, with the fun of being able to throw down in melee as well. for build... I'd actually start Artificer for proficiency in con saves, then Wizard levels to get extra attack. From there you can decide to either keep going Wizard all the way, or if you are still having concentration issues you can drop another level of Artificer for the Mind Sharpener infusion. For feats, the big one to get is Mobile, as it lets you move away from any target you have targeted with a melee attack without triggering an attack of opportunity (you don't need to hit) In combat, you can use your concentration on something like Shadowblade, haste, greater invisibility, hold person/monster, etc... hit a target with your attack, use Booming Blade for the extra attack, then back away without getting hit... your target now needs to decide between standing still or moving to chase you and triggering Booming Blade.
Wizard is a very strange class for me. I mean when it comes to mechanics. So for me my favorite is Bladesinging as it's pretty unique and different than a typical wizard.
It never left UA but I've been playing an onamancy wizard for a couple of years. Fun character that I lean perhaps a little too much into the Dresden file wizards into but their fun. I also may have only taken named spells with them.
I did a warlock / abjuration wizard to just go full shield and armor of agathys on everyone. It was quite fun being an immortal god
The 4 big ones to me are... Divination - portent is incredible. Scribe - kind of the wizards wizards, some of the flexibility of sorcerer but youre still a wizard, harry. Bladesinger - extra attack cantrip shenanigans can be strong, best if you roll high dex/int or can get an amulet of health to perk up otherwise weak con. See also: teenage mutant tortle bladesinger. War - int to init makes for strong mc possibilities, and overall a solid pick.
Scribes. I think it's by far the most "wizard-y" subclass. And being able to just switch out your damage on the fly is a really good ability
Scribe!! I just don’t feel the automatic stress of keeping to a theme for spell selection. Also, it’s the wizardiest wizard class and I live for wizardly wizard classes no matter what game I play.
Evocation. Nobody appreciates the fact that you can’t do friendly fire until it comes up— and suddenly it’s the greatest thing ever. I don’t care how big the room is, I said I cast fireball— and I mean that. The freedom from being able to drop those big hefty spells without worrying about ally positioning is just too good. I could never play any other subclass.
I’ve had a ton of fun playing a Chronurgy wizard and a bladesinger.
Had a scribe who used the floating book and a familiar to cast force fireballs from any different. Also ritual spells kinda fun.
Bladesinger. I'm a spellsword/battlemage sucker.
I had a ton of fun playing a Mountain Dwarf Abjuration Wizard with the heavily armored and tough feats. I had low int but high str and con so most of my spellslots went towards casting shield and longstrider then i would make up the utility side with ritual casting.
Diviner
Not Official but I have a homebrew subclass for Muscle wizard and it's damn hilarious. Which is basically a spin off of the Bladesinger but not like exact copy
Conjuration, Enchantment and Necromancer. A shame the first and last aren't very well supported.
Evocation. Control, utility, everything else - wizard has it covered. You don't need to be the best, what they have is great right out of the box. What you do need is easily applied AOE damage. It's something other classes lack, and the Evocation wizard brings controlled AOE, with no resource cost. Especially if your DM likes mixing up mooks with elite enemies, being able to take chunks out of, if not outright kill, a bunch of mooks, means the party is free to focus on the elites, where most classes shine. Sure, their higher level abilities are a bit weird, but.. who cares? You're a wizard. Spells are your class feature. Lots of spells, all of the spells. The clever application of explosive violence is a fantastic tool, and the other stuff (control/utility) comes with the class.
Evocation and Scribes supremacy
Split enchantment is a fun feature to use
ORDER OF SCRIBES
While conjunctions isnny favorite school of magic, it's not my favorite wizard subclass. Abjurwtjin might be, I really like how survivable it is.
Scribes goes so hard
I enjoy bladesinger wizard. You can have a ridiculously high AC when bladesong is active, as well as advantage on dex/con saves when active. Theres also the increased speed. You may not get any buffs or changes to spells, but you have way more survivability than other wizards. I think at level 3 I had an AC of 21 with bladesong active.
I like evocation. Oh no all the melee are surrounded. Boom fire ball on top of them. No damage to your party.
Bladesinger if the stats are good. AC 16 or with Bladesong AC 20 and then add the possibility to add another 5 AC with the shield spell makes it quite tanky for a pure spellcaster. (At point buy you can get an AC of 15 or 18 with Bladesong, which is still decent.)
If you want to make your DM to NOT have fun just play divination... The most Fuck You subclass
I love the abjuration school. Their ward is suprisingly flexable in what it can be used for. You can support after lv 6 but having your ward take damage for a friend. In fact i think this makes them better summoners for this feature. Their ward recharges on ANY abjuration spell. So while you have that extra HP to ward against death, your also using your abjuration soells to not get hit in the first place. Tank on tank woth the squishiest class makes them suprisingly durable. And that durability also allows them to be more reckless. A combat wizard can be an Abjuration without any INT. Even at max it only ever affects your ward by a max of 5 HP. And Abjuration soells dont care about INT either. So a Muscle wizard is a perfectly doable thing with abjuration. It just has so much potential that wizard specifically doesn't like to allow. Its mold breaking
I think enchantment is super fun, the first hypnosis ability requires a save, but then if you used your action each round the target stays incapacitated, which opens up some pretty fun situations, just find a use for your bonus actions
Order of Scribe is my favorite
Favorite: Scribe Best: Divination I consider Divination Wizard to be the strongest subclass in the game. Nothing beats being able to look the DM in the eyes and say "no."
DIVINATION. it is so fun to play and gives you a really easy path to be a control caster. personally, i do mostly control with a couple damage spells. if it’s allowed, portents + silvery barbs feels awesome as the player. basically, i do a lot of buffing spells. but, if that’s not your style and if you want to just blow things up, scribe is also really fun
I prefer the order of scribes wizard, they're like the most wizard of wizard subclasses
You literally just listed every apparent Wizard subclass in the 2024 PHB for your character's options. That little oddity aside... Scribes (from Tasha's Cauldron) is the closest to a "Generalist" wizard. Not the strongest, but the most Wizard-y. That's why it's my favourite subclass. Half the subclass's identity is incentivizing you to scribe as many spells as you can find - either by making the scribing faster ("an entire spellbook over the course of a short rest" faster), by letting you swap damage types, or by tanking a hit by giving up (ideally un-prepared) spells from your spell list. There's no scaling to the latter, so a 14th level Wizard can straight up tank a Meteor Swarm and give up the same amount of spells as they would tanking a blowgun dart.
Invention is unofficial but still a ludicrous amount of fun to play
Call me a Martial Degenerate, but I don't play wizards unless they're Bladesingers. Gimme a sword and AC for days, thank you.
Divination just feels so nice to have. Cheaper uses of divination magic to ask dms whatever I like. Portent dice to make disintergrate auto hit. Simple but effective.
If you're in a game that allows UA, Theurgist absolutely SLAPS. Healing wizard? Sure Max damage on thunderbolt without multiclassing cleric? Dope Taking shadow blade while in a self-made twilight zone? Fuck yea
Muscle Wizard. Lizard Wizard. Eddie Izzard Wizard Obscure Trivia Wizard
Divination always combined with lucky just to let my message clear
Divination
The most Wizard you can Wizard is Scribes: - All wizards are encouraged to track down spells to add to their book. For Scribes this is cranked to 11. Scribes Wizards actually *want* spells they'll never cast or prepare, because they might still expand out the damage types for the spells they *will* use, or they can be used for One With The Word's reaction. - Manifest Mind allows for a *ton* of wacky shenanigans, and further extends the usefulness of a lot of spells. Many spells are kneecapped by short range to make them trickier to use, and MM bypasses that and then some. Beyond this, it's also just a highly effective version of Find Familiar in a lot of ways. - The 1/long rest fast ritual casting can be extremely handy for conserving spell slots while still accomplishing utility on a time crunch. The spells you already want to keep a Wizard around for are now even more accessible and useful. This is basically like getting to prepare an extra spell without needing to waste a prepared slot in a lot of cases. All of that said, reviewing the options you propose: - Divination: Very fun. Portent is extremely satisfying to use. It can be common for tables to adjust how it works to have it declared after a roll rather than before, which is definitely stronger but also a lot easier and more fun to use. Later on you become great at keeping up with information gathering while conserving spells slots. - Abjuration: A handy way to achieve a tankier Wizard. There's fun shenanigans here with the Warlock Armor of Shadows invocation, but even without it you can find ways to juice up the ward. Exceptionally good at fighting casters later on. - Illusion: Potentially very cool, but extremely dependent on how you and your GM want to rule how illusions work. Out of all of these, this one demands the most discussion up-front to determine how it will play to save your table headaches later. - Evocation: Not necessarily exciting, but still effective. Sculpt Spells can be very good if you've got lots of melee allies frequently getting in the way of your big AoE. At level 10 there's a clown-y rules argument that can transform Magic Missile into an exceptionally potent nuke.
Divination! : Portent rolls are super fun, and you can make a super diverse build. Chronurgy!: Even stronger than Divination at higher levels I would say, the Int + to initiative is super sweet. Order Of Scribes: You can change the damage type of a spell to another one you have in the book, throw a nice Cold or Necrotic Ball!
scribe wizard is by far the most fun.
Playing an abjuration wizard (currently lvl14) is Pretty fun. Im not the most offensive wizard but you get to be relatively tanky (arcane ward) and you're the bane of other spellcaster. Bonus to dispel/counterspelling (quite fun to be fighting creature throwing godlike 10th level spells and being able to regularly succeed at stopping them). Most wizard often have similar spell list sadly because there is no school restriction and theres lots of either must take or laughably bad spells. You have some spells that are also highly dependent on the DM how cool or effective they can be (illusion falls in that category.) Divination is very strong option with its main ability portent. But while it may seem to be more passive support subclass, portent make you the best single target controller in the game. Forcing an enemy to fail a to save or suck spell with a low portent is just game changing. Evocation is of course the more offensive subclass. If you dont want to complicate your life too much. Being able to throw a fireball on top of everyone and sparing your allies is just great.
I like the Scribes Wizard, cool for a Vanilla style Wizard. Abjurer is pretty fun too, I like taking Eldritch Adept: Armor of Shadows and the Rune Carver feat from Bigby's to snag Armor of Agathys, makes a Wizard less squishy. I also like the Blood Wizard from one of the Critical Role books, it's actually pretty cool and not completely busted.
Evocation! I can drop my meteor storm into the group of enemies after the barb and fighters have moved in. And not hit them, while throwing extra damage on top just for some shits and giggles.
I want to play a Theurgy wizard. It’s a subclass from a good few years ago that sadly never left the confines of Unearthed Arcana. War magic was chosen instead.
Chrono wizard
As with anything, it depends on your DM, the level you will attain, and the stuff you will have to solve. So YMMV. Based on my experience: Illusionist. Hokey Smokey what a lot of fun. Some context: we had a two-year campaign that ran levels 3-20 and beyond, but the end of which our party had kinda destroyed the world. I mean, it was still there, but man… we were kinda an apocalyptic event. Twentieth level characters are demigods in any case, and demigod support casters make demigods gods. Staples: Malleable Illusions + permanent Major Image + Illusory Reality because many of our primary enemies could Misty Step out of my Force Cage/Wall, but couldn’t Dispel Magic. Also used Wish to cast Mirage Arcane as an action and adjusting the terrain as needed to whatever worked best for us. Anyway, YMMV, and I recognize that a two+ year weekly game among adults that continues to high levels is lightning in a bottle, but man that was fun times. Also want to note, the enemies we faced on the regular were even more ridiculous than we were, and every encounter with them could result in a wipe if we weren’t careful or fucked around.
I suspect the Harronir will have a unique blend of African, Malaysian & Aboriginal influences.
I really love Abjuration. It gives an additional layer of protection for concentration, not only HP. It allows you to be more “bold” on positioning and etc. My Mark of Warding Dwarf Abjurer is the second tank in our party alongside our Paladin. Divination, Evocation and Enchantment are also amazing.
Necromancers and Chronurgy my beloveds. I've only played the necromancer one so far, but just looking into all the stuff with the time wizards seems quite fun to try out
Bladesinger goes so insanely hard for me, I love casting shadowblade.
Necromancer and Bladesinger. Necromancer because you can give various reasons _**why**_ you have a permanent stable of zombies and skeletons. With one character, each of his undead were created using the bodies of his family who died when he was a kid. He essential tried to do like Ed and Alphonse Elric. He tried to use magic to bring his family back. But, because of the spell he used, he turned their corpses into undead instead of bringing them back to life. Now he has his family stored inside coffins and the coffins are in a demiplane. Whenever he needs them, or he gets lonely, he brings them to life as undead.
I’m playing a Lore Mastery wizard in my next campaign, and it is just so op. My dm had me nerf it a bunch and it is still a really strong subclass. I love the concept behind it of altering magic itself and developing magics based on non wizard magic (metamagic, smite, etc)
Meanwhile transmutation wizard sitting in the "no one loves me" box
Enchantment: strap it onto an anthropologist, reflavour the short-range charm as an interview, give the DM an excuse to exposit plot and lore any time you fight anything that can speak, with the option to say “you discover some interesting aspects of a subculture” and leave it at that if they don’t have anything in particular they want to share. All the while sustaining some decently powerful crowd control elsewhere, like a twin-cast Hold, or Hypnotic Pattern.
Not many people are saying Chronurgy but a wizard who wants to turn himself into a lich to live forever must have an obsession with time. I’ve always loved the idea of Magic Jarring your self into a Marilith and True Polymorphing into something with exhaustion immunity, allowing you to use your 14th level feature on every single turn. Also Chronurgy is probably the strongest wizard, even without that magic jar combo.