How to Play a Divination Wizard in Dungeons and Dragons 5e 

I DM'd for a Divination Wizard who roleplayed her magic as using magical mathamatics, essentially predicting the outcomes of events through mathamatical theory. The player was, at the time, a Actuarial Science Major, so it was pretty funny to see them getting into mixing the jargon of their field with magical mumbo jumbo talk.

Wizard: “I cast disintegrate on the BBEG.” DM: “Alright I will just roll a saving throw to-“ Wizard: “You fail.” DM: “You wot m8?!”

Concept: A divination wizard so powerful that they discover that they're in a game.

The divination wizard is the only wizard who will prepare Disintegrate regularly. Dex save? You rolled 4. Good luck.

Me and the cleric in our high level one shot: Cleric: “eh, fuck it, I’m gonna try for a guiding bolt at 7th level” Me: “you roll a natural 20” Entire table: *surprised pikachu* Me: “enjoy your 20d6”

How to play a Divination wizard: "You're about to say... "

Divination Wizard: "I went forward in time, to view alternate futures. To see all possible outcomes of the coming conflict." Rogue: "How many did you see?" Divination Wizard: fourteen-million six-hundred and five." Artificer: "How many did we win?" Divination Wizard: "One."

I think that flavor-wise, Alert is an incredible feat for a Divination Wizard. Being surprised in combat would ruin the idea of someone tied to seeing the future.

"Knowing is half the battle. The other half is violence!"

Scrying is the best divination spell because it provides a reason to go up an NPC and say, ”Give me a lock of your hair.”

*Rolls a 1 and a 20 for portent* I'm about to end this DM's whole career

I'm currently playing a divination wizard and I love it so much. Her background is an astronomer and she gets her predictions from the stars.

With the new Unearthed Arcana "Class Feature Variants", Wizards now get Augury and Divination added to their spell list, with your DM's permission. A few extra goodies.

Divination Wizard: hey I’ve seen this one before Bbeg: what are you talking about? It’s brand new

"No, I *am* seducing that goddamn dragon." -a Halfling Divination Wizard with Lucky

Hello! So I’m currently playing as a Divination Wizard and styled him as a private detective. He’s a Var. Human with the Observant feat boosting my Intelligence. His ability scores are: 8 Str, 12 Dex, 13 Con, 15 Int, 14 Wis, and 10 Cha. Spells like detect thoughts, locate creature, Comprehend language, and his signature Mind Spike are his most vital spells. It’s been really fun to play him! Just wanted to share this.

Mind Spike is a great Divination spell. Its the only divination damage dealer and can be upcasted multiple times to recycle spell slots.

There is one perfect spell for Divination Wizard. Levitation. Just one saving throw with a duration of 10 minutes. If enemy has only melee attacks, they will stay in the air for 10 minutes to be killed without risk with ranged attacks

I like paladins. A while back I played with a divination wizard in the party. On one memorable occasion, still as a relatively low-level party, they pocketed a couple of 20s on their diviniation dice. I had all my spell slots ready, with searing smite prepped and divine smites ready to go. Then we were sprung by a surprize troll in a treasure room. That fucker should have TPKed us, but it went down on the second round. Just... Yes. Very yes.

Just hit level 2 with my divination wizard. I'm excited. We had an incident with some bandits that I almost single handedly disarmed via sleep spells. We only had to fight the leader in the end of what was supposed to be a make a deal or die scenario. I'm leaning more towards battlefield control and utility than blasty and it's been very rewarding so far.

I hope this doesn’t hurt your feeling but I really like listening to your videos to fall asleep. You guys are just so chill and speak with a cool rhythm and I also love dnd so yeah

Divination: "Look at me, I am DM now."

Yuan Ti race never gets love in this channel +2 Charisma, +1 Intelligence, Magic Resistance and Poison Immunity!

If you want an incredibly detailed breakdown, level by level. Treantmonk has some great Wizard videos.

‘Master of Fates and Manipulator of the future’? I just wanted to roleplay a librarian...

This video came out at the perfect time since I'll be playing a divination wizard soon

Sad to see no discussion of the Expert Divination + Mind Spike combo, letting you deal damage with Divination spells all day long.

The ability we're all here for... and that ability is called: port. Chugging port, to be exact. Drunkass divination wizard should be a concept. Also, divination wizards using Contact Other Plane are the D&D system's airline pilots.

I'm playing a hobgoblin diviner wizard in the "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" campaign; when he uses his Portent ability, he quotes Thanos in "Infinity War" just snapping his fingers and saying "Reality can be whatever I want".

Add in that wizards just received the spells Augury and Divination just makes them even better.

Something you guys missed in spells is mind spike. The only divination spell that deals damage. It deals like 3d8 psychic damage, and it's second level making it perfect to upcast and get slots back to cast itself again and again.

An idea to play around with maybe: Ranger with 2 levels in Divination wizard. Doesn't believe in predictions/foresight, and keeps dismissing their unexpectedly good shots as anything ranging from "years of practice" to "eh, lucky shot".

I’m planning on using a Divination wizard in a one-shot, this video was very informative! I’m still relatively new to D&D, so I’m practically jumping all over the place to look for tips on things

I like the idea of the portent feature being more of a gift (or curse) that functions like premonitions rather than deducing the future with your arcane knowledge. Like at the end of a long rest you have jumbled and disjointed recollections of your dreams, and it’s only in the moments before the action is carried out that you realize “this is the moment I dreamed about.” That style also makes the application of the portent rolls easier to roll play so you don’t have to pretend like you know when it’s meant to be used. It could be something like the paladin saying, “I move toward the fiend and take a mighty swing, igniting radiant flames along my great sword” and before the DM can even call for a roll the wizard shouts out “I had a vision of this moment! Your blade stuck true and crippled the terrible creature!” and that’s how they offer up a nat 20

My current Divination Wizard plays on the trope of being a Seer, based loosely on Sybil Trelawney from Harry Potter. My teenage gnome has been blessed/cursed with "sight" in a family with a certain magical lineage. The last seer was his gt gt gt grandmother. The family are prominent in agriculture and have used the family gift to gain advantage on crops and such. He is very shy, reclusive and nerdy. At school they call him Mole because he spends so much time in the large underground library. They even burned his spellbook but he was presented with an old one that had been hidden away for a long time. This spellbook is helping him unlock more than the ability to see further; to use the mind like a weapon, to be as cutting as the mightiest blades. To turn his fear back to those that try to terrorise him. To use Psychic magic. On the other side, because he is of the forest gnome variety and with the family business, he utilises earth based magics and a lot of frost spells, given how cruel and unforgiving they are to crops. He especially likes Maxis Earthen Grasp and Erupting Earth for some combat control. He is narratively creating a spell formula in honour of his blade wielding companions by watching them fight, hoping that should he need it, he can emulate their grace and power. His spells are drawn in the air and the symbols form into circles and dials that he then manipulates into a final cast flourish Currently level 6 but i have had the privilege of clutching some important portent uses. using a 20 on one of my own Chromatic Orbs to keep an enemy at bay. Love what you guys bring to the table for insight and things to always consider. I hadnt thought of the Divination Domino Effect but now i will.

10:20 damn, I had to double check that. I had no idea death saves were technically saving throws and can be "Portented". Wow, good to know. 15:30 I made a vuman w/ Lucky feat. Div Wizard, too! Currently lvl 9 and LOVING it. It's really hard to pick spells because I've never been a caster this high and, unlike my character, I can't see the future to know what to pick! Great video guys, thanks :)

Concept idea: a divination wizard that's high on information, and constantly overstimulated. So half the time he's staring off into space.

Ah, you think I want to be a master of fates, an all-knowing genius, predictor of all futures? Nah, I just want to roll well for once.

My party had a Div-Wiz in it. He said things like, "Luck is my blade!" all the time. I was playing a half-orc barbarian who really enjoyed watching the wizard set up huge elaborate traps to kill powerful foes that took into account everything the enemy could do. I would wait for him to be done setting everything up, then when the monster showed up I would throw my magic great axe into the head of the monster, buffed by the Cleric, bard, and buffed by the paladin. Often we would one-shot the monster before it even made it to the trap area. Drove the Div wiz *crazy*.

I like playing my Wizards as utility casters so Divination is always great. I also find that Divination has a much broader spectrum for backstories and RP compared to the other sub classes which is a nice way to play them and never get bored by it.

Awesome subclass! Please, do Illusionist wizards next, I think they are the most forgotten of all :(

You guys make every class sound amazing

I've been playing Diviner/Divination since it was introduced as an option (even when it required trading out other schools of magic or some other clunky, earlier version of D&D trade-off). The 5e version is absolutely my favorite. It was rewarding to hear you both agree that it's the best subclass for Wizard so far.

The beards look extra spectacular today. Kelly is in the lead though!

I only got to play him for two sessions cause I’m a forever DM but I made a divination wizard who used tarot cards to cast spells. I even paired each spell with a major arcana card! He was an urchin and used spells like fog cloud, grease, and mirror image to act like more of a rouge while using portent to make sure the job got done. The Hermit card is now infamous among my friends because fog cloud never works out how I hope it will but I use it regardless because it’s fun.

Dudes. I was really inspired by the build murray animated spellbook video to play a divination wizard. Your guide is well timed. You guys are awesome. Keep up the videos.

I would love to see you guys talk about all the types of wizards, specifically illusion. I would like to make a stealthy wizard.

My favorite character was a Wild Magic Sorc 1/ Divination Wizard 2/ Lore Bard 7. Master of chaotic fate! Muwahaha! Hail Beshaba!

I started playing a Divination Wizard/Cleric of Knowledge Variant Human for our D&D one shot games. So far she has been the “murderer” in our murder mystery game and made a deal with the devil by ensuring she got the rest of the party out of the blood contract by arranging their deaths and resurrections. She is a very cool character to play but she does find herself in the most worst situations where she has to make hard choices and do bad things in order to accomplish the greater good. And with feats and skills she can speak nine languages, has passive perception of 21 and passive investigation or 22 and expertise on Arcana and History.

It may be a bit niche, but I went with the Observant feat. It fits the “see all” motif. Plus, you can read lips, so with Arcane Eye you may be able to understand what people are saying.

Nobody: Monty: I decided to go with the variant human (Has he ever picked anything NOT variant human?)

In at least one previous edition, Divination Wizards were really only useful for NPCs. Now they are not only viable PC options, they're actually really cool! Love it.

7:00 Immediate retrubution for spelling portent wrong, as it pops up on the screen correctly just seconds later. =P

Love it when you guys open with a story. So exciting.

Really love these more spec specific character guides! More wizard spec videos! :D

I played d&d one time when I was about ten, many years ago. A friend's stepdad dm'd for my friend, my younger brother and myself. I was enthralled. Years later I started collecting table top games and books, mostly white wolf games. Learning d&d on my own was very intimidating and I had no one else to play with or to mentor me so I passed on it for many years. I bought the 5th edition core rule books and a set of dice a couple years ago thinking I would finally learn it and see if my kids would find it as enjoyable as I did. Turns out my daughter wasn't interested at all and my son didn't find it much fun since he was the only player. About a month ago I was talking to my brother on the phone and he brought up that night, decades ago, that we played d&d and how much fun we had. Then he said, "you know, we should get that and see if our kids would enjoy it".....I was instantly overjoyed at the prospect. So I'm 40 years old and finally really delving into d&d. I'm playing a character along side with my son and two nephews and my brother is dm'ing. We're all hooked and having a blast together. I've been helping my brother with the rules as we play. I just want to say that you guys have helped me understand everything so much and not just with the rules. Thank you so much for all these videos. You guys rock.

Divination is one of my favorite wizard specs style-wise, and I’m happy it’s considered fairly powerful from my understanding. As always greatly appreciate the video! Oh, another question- you guys had a “How to play an X Race” series which was a favorite for me. Did you guys do Elf? I can’t find it if so- I always loved elves and half elves, so I’ll keep my eye out for that video regardless.

I was so excited when I saw this pop up on my RU-vid notifications because I've been hoping that you guys would do this. I'm currently playing a ghastwise halfling diviner, Kismet, who uses a tarot deck as his arcane focus. I'm also apparently picking up quite the menagerie with Emrpess, my little elf owl familiar, Bobo (my riding mastiff), and Karma (my blink dog puppy--I eventually want to train him to bite people in the ass). I've had a blast, even though my portents tend to be a middling affair, rather than consistently high and low.

Just as I start looking at making a divination wizard, too! It feels like one of us knew this would happen... Depending on how you want to play it, I feel like you could take the gambler background and add on to the “lucky” feeling. A wizard that abuses their gift could add some spice to the campaign by pushing those tough decisions simply because they can’t stop themselves or because they already know the outcome. Love the videos, guys. 🤘

I think of Merlin as a Divination Wizard. He supposedly lived backwards in time, which allowed him to see the future.

I really liked that little roleplay you guys did at the beginning. Would be cool if you made a video of cool quote ideas. like "“Not today demon, for today I have seen your future and your fate rests in my finger tips”

I had great success with bestow curse as a divination wizard, basically crippling multiple big bads in campaigns with forced failed saving throws

you get a like for the effort in that first minute of the video. Never ever let anyone talk you out of keeping these in your videos

As always, you have provided great tips for players to play a specific Class/Subclass! Thank You Dungeon Dudes!!

named my div wizard "Nostro Dominus" no one ever gets it

I once played a divination wizard flavored as a "Time Wizard" getting to rewind time and try again. He had the alert and lucky feats, had a familiar (for help spamming) allowing me to rewind time (gain advantage). Most of his spells were time themed. Divination magic, teleportation magic, paralyzing magic, necromancy, haste/slow, etc.

Halfling, lucky feat, Divination school. Control that die!

You guys and your perfect timing. Im playing a Githyanki Div Wiz for a homebrew setting that starts with Tomb of Horror. As the scrub I am, I'm multiclassing into Paladin, Conquest Oath. Arcane Restoration, Div Wiz slot regain in combo with Divine Smite. Owning up to the Divination aspect, too, taking all the good div spells. He's a follower of Mystra, who was stuck in a state of limbo/stasis while using a higher level Divination spell when Spellplague happened. Part of Mystra's essence is now a part of him. To retrieve it, followers of her found my character and it was there Mystra gave my character the choice to either die, so she could gain back part of her essence, or I use it with discipline and under her guidance. Tired of stasis and the rough life of a Gith before that, he was more than willing. For his look, he looks very magey and Paladin-like. All while embodying tribal psychological warfare tactics. His helm is a three-faced crescent moon mask, with an elegant feminine face on all sides. Looking forward to it, as I am this episode Edit: I'm also running around with a reflavored Sun Blade and Dancing Sword that's a reflavored greatsword. I chose a greatscythe, crescent blade glowing like a moon and stars, like his Sun Blade

My favorite subclass by far, closely followed by Lore Bard. Was waiting for you guys to do this video.

I like his point on extra Wisdom for better perception. Very good point, thematically speaking.

MIND SPIKE!!! It's a divination damage spell that can be up cast for recovering spell slots.

Great video. Would love to see you guys make a guide on Eldritch Knight.

Yeah, I have a Halfling Divination Wizard and took the Lucky feat at 4th level. I went with the Criminal background. He uses his abilities to get himself out of scraps and to manipulate games of chance to his favor. I love playing him! So much opportunity to assist the party and manipulate the situation.

This video has given me an idea for a quite cheeky tactic: have your fighter or something get some blood off an enemy, then cast Suggestion telling them to return to their master, so they are prepared for when the party comes. Then just Scry on them. BOOM! You instantly know who the BBEG is, roughly where he might be, and more! SIDENOTE: The mythic prophet Cassandra, from the city of Troy, had a different, arguably more interesting ability: she could see the future, but was cursed so no one would believe her.

I played as a Svirfneblin Divination Wizard (Niebelungulaid Feldsparnum) with the Observant Feat. Coming from the underdark he was paranoid and anxious which fit a divination wizard really well. High int and good wis combined with the Observant feat meant that it was very difficult to hide things from him or to surprise him. But you nailed it that Divination wizards are God Casters. This is one of the most fun characters I've played recently.

I really wanted to play a Divination Wizard in the last campaign I was a player in, but bypassed it because I felt in my gut that the DM would reduce or outright negate my effectiveness during the campaign. Played Abjuration instead, and my gut was proven right.

Thanks for the great video and explanation for eh higher level features, as well as how the subclass actually plays. Vey helpful.

I love it ive used it to hand low rolls to a party member's Summon Greater Demon before and told them i saw this demon in my dreams don't worry it's gonna be under your control for a bit. IT was awesome. And mine is a halfling with bountiful luck and is a ton of fun.

Great video! Honestly I always thought the Divination Wizard would be a boring class to play, But I never looked into them, I think after watching this video I may look at it for my next character

I am currently playing in a campaign as a divination wizard who made his living (prior to adventuring) as a private eye/finder of lost things/protector of valuable things. Background: Urban Bounty Hunter with specialization of high society/nobility. Spell choices prominently feature abjuration (to hide/protect) and divination (to seek/reveal). Also, you didn't mention Mind Spike. It's your multipurpose regain spell slot tool. Easy way to start the regain spell slot cascade. Tremendously fun!

I have a Chaotic Neutral Mountain Dwarf Runecarver background Wizard who is planning on School of Necromancy and primarily uses Acid & Poison Magic as well as the Necromancy which might be an interesting counter to Divination.

Soooo, I like mixing the idea of Divination wizard, lucky feat, and multiclassing into bard for their inspire mechanic to create the ultimate "luck mage"!

I'm making a Divination Wizard while watching this video and taking a slightly unorthodox approach by blending the Oracle's Supernatural Gifts as a background to add to the deeper flavor of a diviner. On top of having a d10 to add to a skill check once per long rest, if your DM doesn't mind working with your piety throughout the story, you'll also have access to augury, divination, commune & a +2 to Int or Wis and a +2 to the cap of the chosen ability. I also went out in left field for my racial choice with the Astral Elf. It may not net me Lucky from the gate but being an Astral Elf gives you the choice of one of three cantrips (Why would you pick anything other than Astral Fire) from the start, giving you an attack cantrips and freeing you up for another wizard cantrip at first level. Astral Elf also starts with Starlight Step which is the ability that I think will give me the damage avoidance and mobility I may need in dire situations. And to top it all off you get to choose a new skill and a new weapon or tool proficiency after every long rest that lasts until your next long rest, which is of course only 4 hours because elves.

My character at the moment is a Dwarven Divination wizard. So much fun. Con 17, int 15. Level 4: 18|16, then lucky. Love it. Damage: magic missile;shield, med armor. Portent is even better, with a decent armor. One could argue to get lucky first and attribute later, but for the roleplaying:great.thx for your thoughts!

I have a Divination Wizard with the Inspiring Leader feat. I reflavoured it so instead of giving the party a speech, he reads each of their fortunes, allowing them to avoid the worst possible future.

I was honestly very disappointed to not hear them discuss how amazing the 2nd level Divination spell Mind Spike is. Not only is it the only offensive Divination option out there, requiring a Wisdom saving throw for full or half of 3d8 damage to the target, but if they fail the saving throw then for the next hour you know where the target is (when you're both on the same plane) and them turning invisible has no effect on you. Furthermore it's a GREAT spell to up-cast, dealing an additional 1d8 damage per level, and when used together with Expert Divination it can really allow your Divination Wizard to hold their own in combat by both maintaining damage output and your spell slot counts, things that can be hard for a Divination Wizard to do at times. Overall I feel not mentioning this gem of a Divination spell, from Xanathar's Guide To Everything, was a huge oversight.

I’m currently playing a divination wizard who is basically the exact opposite of everything you said the should be. He gets distracted easily, never plans out much of anything, keeps the save spells prepared all the time, and so far we have eroleplayed his portent as some higher thing interfering and forcing my character to do something, also he is a compulsive klepto because he was raised on the streets and had to steal to survive. Only reason he is a portent wizard is because he is trying to locate his sister so he has dedicated his life to Magic’s that will help him with that. So most of his magic spells either allow him to find someone or help in his thievery. He’s a lot of fun to play

Divination Wizard casts contact other plane "Will we defeat the bad guy? "Maybe some day." DV "When will I defeat him?" "Outlook unclear." DW "Ok this is my last question so where is his stronghold?" "Ask again later." DW "..."

I would and I think other people would really enjoy seeing a video on how to go about creating Homebrew content including classes sub classes and races. just some general guidelines for how to Homebrew based on your own experiences I think would be very helpful. I'm personally setting out to create a Homebrew race, Homebrew class, and Homebrew spells and weapons. This process so far has been daunting and overwhelming even for an experienced player like myself. I think a lot of people in the community could benefit from your guys's input on how you go about making Homebrew content.

My first 5e character was a divination wizard. We didn't make it to a super high level, but i had planned on taking the Lucky feat. I was excited to have 3 rerolls and 2 forced rolls a day.

I have a Divination Wizard who I want to flavor as a chronomancer. The idea will be that time is the existence of heat (even if it isn't true it sounds cool and can be true in a fictional universe). She'll be able to explain away taking fire spells as speeding up time in the area causing intense heat, ice spells by doing the reverse, and spells that do necrotic damage as her ripping the time out of someone. I also see many Divination Wizards as being very airheaded, much like Luna Lovegood. You're seeing so many realities and variants of the future and past, as well as the present in different perspectives that it's hard to tell what's real in front of you.

I currently have a level 3 kalishtar divination wizard who is often to shy to speak with her actual voice. I do like the idea of being a battlefield controller instead of "I am fireball" thank you for the help! 😁

I would love a video on enchantment wizard, as new DM I want one of my minor villains to be one using charms and modify memory to manipulate others around him

This is a super helpful video. I've been debating on swapping my (UA) Lore Wizard to Div thanks to TCE and allowing subclass swapping during the campaign. Because of this, and personal preferences, I had a feeling a Div Wizard would be fun and now I'm going to talk to my DM about swapping.

I don’t know, the new Onomancy wizard is really strong too. It gets almost metamagic like abilities, lots of ways to power up different schools of magic, and the ability to learn true names is terrifying.

As a Divination wizard I regularly tattoo my Portent rolls on to my body in a quasi-Memento sort of way. It's mostly RP elements, but the DM can drop in random information and helps explain why my familiar is called Sammy Jankis.

Personally, I like to have Divination as a two-level dip. Portent is really great, and if you go for a utility Wizard without spell attacks (which is possible with how many goddamn spells they have), you only really need 13-14 intelligence.

I built a Half Elf Divination Wizard whose focus was on becoming a Royal Court advisor and spy master. Working with a Rogue and Shadow Monk, we had one amazing spy team.

0:48 "not today Satan, not today!" Cit. Bianca del Rio

Next video should be about the new unearthed arcana variations for most of the classes. Wizards released a 13 page pdf. on new class attributes adds more depth to the classes especially the Ranger class.