Wizard is Broken | Dungeons and Dragons 5e Guide 

Great video, one correction I noticed is that bladesingers get prof with one “one-handed melee weapon”, it doesn’t have to be simple though.

"a great wizard dies precisely when he means to" this is how we get Liches

My great wizard trick with a wizard came from an earlier edition. I had magic items that gave me high resistances to element magic and spells to do the same. While in a tavern of baddies, I prepped my resistances and cast fireball max level at ground zero. I walked out of the tavern; they didn't.

Played a high level, 13th to 15th level campaign as a loxodon abjuration wizard. First thing I did was make a simulacrum and told it to start making another simulacrum and I'll be back in 8 hours for it to be casted on me for the sake of hit points. I repeated this process over the campaign 5 more times until the final fight where I put them all in a demiplane, long rested, and opened the plane at the bbeg's location. The sight of 6 15th level wizards all coming out of a door to fight with you is priceless. I had 7 hit point pools and 7 sets of spell slots to keep track of.

Wizards are like Batman, give them prep time and they will without question destroy you. Especially if they have simulacrum or wish with simulacrum.

In my campaign I'm playing a wizard. My DM is all for bending some rules here and there. I told him from the get go that I wanted to use firearms in the playthrough. Those don't exist in his created world. That is until my 20int wizard conducted enough research alongside his master. Now my character has tapped into the potency of his arcane magic, harnessing all forms of electricity magic while also wielding an electrically charged magnetized slug rifle. ⚡️ 🌩

Specifically Tortle Wizards. They are the best. Dump STR and DEX; pump CON and INT; WIS and CHA for flavor.

Nah you said Wizards cant be tanks. They can be ANYTHING. Abjuration, Bladesinger, War Wizard, (id argue even conjuration but thats super niche). They can all be built to be tanks. Its awesome

My first character was a gnome wizard! So fun! Before Tashas...she was a tinker gnome and building a mech to ride in.. Advanced tinker feat. I want to play a necromancer at some point too. Drow who just can't let go and even carries the bones of his mother and sister around.

Wizard is, and has always been, my favorite class in D&D. As a fan of fantasy settings, I always gravitate to these characters first, whether they are powerful personages, like Elminster and Halaster Blackcloak (one of my favorite NPCs I got to act out 😁), or less potent practitioners, like Mathew from the Rose of the Prophet Series, or Calandryll of the Godwars series. Sure, there's something to be said about making it to the end of progression, and being able to do things some other characters depend on gods/patrons to do, or simply never can, but I just love the theme. I'm certainly not the smartest person in a room, and I try my best to frown on metagaming, but standing in the room, leaning on my staff, trying to leverage things I know, and powers I've unlocked, while everyone else yammer about how they want to do things is fun. Also, magic is fun! I'm also a total lore hound, on account of the massive amounts of time where playing game wasn't available, or my long-term battle with perpetual DM-itus, where knowing helps, and the mighty wizards of the setting are usually fun. My first 5e character was a simple wizard on the run from his mentor, and my two favorites were variations of the same thing. One of my favorite Backgrounds is Awakened Clone, from Heroes of Baldur's Gate, which is essentially the Clone of a mighty archmage that they never used, or that was defective. Anyway, even without their soul moving into this body, and animating it, it "wakes up". No memories, or abilities, of the original, and now it has to set out and find our why it exists, and who it's meant to be. My first version was a forced clone of Khelban Blackstaff Arunsun, since he's dead in 5e. Was made by one of the Manshoons, in an effort to create a Khelban he could control, and manipulate Water-repellent, but he died before it could happen, and the Blackstaff had a curse placed on him to foil such efforts. Still, he had some of those powers, and people who knew him could recognize him, to different appreciation. A later reskin took out the middle man, and simply was another Manshoon. The Manshoon Wars revealed how there were a number of stasis Clones, and the problems that could cause. This one was made, but the Spellplague prevented him from waking up, and when he did later, Mansion was still active. He was trapped in one of a Manshoon's hidden caches for 12 years, with only the resources (books, diary, food) of that place, until he eventually figured out how to port out with a ring. He had some idea of who "Manshoon" had been, but nor that he sort of was one, and borrowed the name Asmuth for adventuring. A "real" Manshoon discovered him, and decided he wanted a fresh body, not missing an arm, so became an enemy, but other things that could respond to Manshoon also worked for Asmuth, to some really cool results, and other shenanigans ensued. It's just another reason I like wizards; few other beings could allow for such backstories, in circumstances where such involved backstories are welcomed.

I like dwarf wizards. That armor bonus is the chef's kiss.

Playing a Warforged Necromancer currently. It’s a very cool combo and allows for some really fun RP moments.

When I visualize a Wizard casting a spell I see something similar to 'Doctor Strange' and certain anime where when a mage is casting a spell they create magic circles that float in the air, normally in front of their hands where they are directing the spell, and the more powerful the spell the larger and more intricate the circles get even to the point they take a 3D shape around the caster made with multiple circles incorporated into it. The circles are basically the mathmagical formulas and equations needed to cast a spell cause Wizards had to study and practice to tap into the weave of magic in order to preform their spells. Also if the spell is the creation of a certain Wizard who developed it their name is part of the formula as well. Finally each school of magic has it's own layout and even color. So a Wizard casting a cantrip would produce a magic circle the size of their hand, a 1st level spell would be the diameter from their finger tips to their elbow, and the circles would just get bigger and more complicated.

I really appreciate how detailed this Video is Especially the Wizard Sub Classes

... Abjuration wizard steps into a bar and it immediately attacked by a thrown dagger. "Shield!" An arcane ward appears, the dagger bounces off the shield as a second dagger sinks into the ward. The wizard casts thunderwave and walks the hell out of the room.

Aight story time we just entered the bbeg's lair it was this huge build up from the beginning and it was like a castle of sorts and we got to a dining room he was in now it was all melee except for one wizard so of course he tells us to cover him as usual but then he says he casts glyph of warding with the trigger being the number one then he does it again and 2 and again 3 and then just chucks them all at him and just speedreads and says 123 and boom took off a third of his life then the barbarian just chucked him out of the castle somehow and off the cliff it was priceless seeing the dm's face as he described the long awaited bbeg becoming mist on a rock at the bottom after about 12 turns

My first character was back in AD&D 2nd edition, elf wizard. Back then wizards only had 1d4 HP and like one or two spells at first level. I of course picked shocking grasp because nothing says power move like an elf with a penalty to CON, no armor and only 4 HP walking up to a monster and trying to grab it. Anyway my party and I were fighting some monsters in a cave and the DM described the monsters as standing in a shallow pool of water, so I cast shocking grasp and grabbed the water. Shocked all the bad guys and have been hooked on D&D since then.

Love these videos. Playing BG3 right now and I love watching these too

My abduction wizard drives around in a white panel van.

I started a lvl 20+ campaign recently. As a player, I haven’t used a wizard since 3rd edition. Way more options this time around, but I’m going with a necromancer. Should be a blast.

Awesome video! Thank You!

Interesting take on a particular Wizard subclass.... I know you don't cover homebrew (more than understandable), but I built Matt Mercer's Hemomancy Wizard, theoretically ending at level 20 with 20 Constitution, 20 Intelligence, Tough & 222 HP. Right out the gate you can use your body as an Arcane Focus if you're missing at least 1 HP and can receive 1D10 necrotic damage per 50GP of a spell components cost if you cast a spell (say, Chromatic Orb) without the component (such as the Crystal Orb). Perfect example at high levels is the Clone spell. Thing is: the funny thing about the Clone spell is that the diamond needed to create the clone is consumed, but the vessel can be reused after you pop out of it. So if you consume your own HP for the 1,000 GP diamond you'll take an average of 110 HP & a maximum of 200HP with your max HP being 222. That means that in downtime, all your character has to do is create the 5,000 GP vessels (which isn't hard at all with massive funds you'd have by then & Fabricate). The same could be done with any spell of 1,000 GP or less components in the Wizard's spell list like Plane Shift (instantly get out of a fight or your own Demiplane hideouts without the need of a 250 GP Tuning Fork), Create Undead, True Seeing, Teleportation Circle (negate the 18,250 GP you have to spend casting 50 GP a day every day for a year), Magic Circle + Planar Binding (an army of Fire Elementals for almost a year is fun), Scrying & who knows how many others. Now true, most of these are best used outside of combat when you can rest to get the slot & HP back rather than inside a fight, in addition to the fact that Wish makes this all useless at higher levels. HOWEVER, the best high GP spells are still outside of combat spells & not only do you only get 1 Wish per day, you could potentially loose Wish.

Amazing video man... Thank you

I'm going to apologize for not subscribing sooner as I have seen several of your videos already but I thought that I had already subbed. I just happened to glance at it and saw the Subscribe button was still red and I grimaced in embarrassment. Thankfully, that allowed me to crit on the Subscribe button and attune to the notification bell.

This wasn’t 20th level but I played a wizard that went with his party to gain favor of the gods and we had to fight in a back to back arena slogfest where we fought boss after boss and by the time we got to the final boss, my abjuration wizard was the only one left standing and he successfully 1v1ed them by kiting, shutting down their offense and polymorphing into a giant ape when they got too close. It was so epic!

We are all learning, all the time

Bladesingers after lvl 6 work exceptionally well with the new Dragonborn from Fizban. You can take the attack action and replace both attacks with a cantrip and your breath weapon combo giving you great damage at 10 ft range like chill touch and toll the dead. and you can also fly over your enemies to avoid any ground effects.

Hey Chaos. Sharing here my old scribes wizard but updated with a couple of the newer options in case others may find some interesting ideas here. basically the build started as to how to be able to do solo the usual wall of force combos. this was challenging as most spells can't pass through the wall of force so it would be typically a 2 casters combo. the original theme of the build was inspired by someone who sought to combine science and magic together, Jayce from league of legends. However, since i'm changing some options, maybe a new theme is in order. level 10 theorycraft to start and was played till level 16. "hound in a box" artificer 1, scribes 9 harengon asi: gift of the gem dragon (old version had telekinetic), + 2 int key spells: wall of force, faithful hound, tiny servant, magic stone, minor illusion, guidance familiar: owl tactics: pre-combat: use a 4th level slot to create 3 tiny servants. standing orders to take a magic stone from you and throw it at a target you point at. tiny servants stay inside satchel. cast false life with a 2nd level slot (1st levels are valuable for shield/absorb elements) if you want. always have the awakened spellbook moving far ahead of the party. continuous cast magic stone and guidance (for initiative) while walking. stones for magic stone can be modified with magical tinkering for light stones, stinky stone or noisy stone. 1st round: bonus action: move awakened spellbook towards bbeg action: wall of force (sphere) around the bbeg. make sure the awakened spellbook is inside the wall of force as well. free action: point at another target on the field. drop magic stones in satchel tiny servant 1-3: come out of satchel. throw magic stone with advantage 3x. go back inside the satchel. familiar: help an ally reaction: gift of the gem dragon, shield, counterspell or absorb elements as needed 2nd round: bonus action: rabbit hop if needed action: faithful hound through the awakened spellbook beside the bbeg inside wall of force tiny servants: 1-3 do nothing familiar: help an ally now this is where your party can focus on the other targets as you have locked down the bbeg with wall of force and faithful hound. due to the duration, the hound will eventually kill the bbeg. 3rd round: bonus action: magic stone action: minor illusion around yourself (steel crate with small opening, steel golem with openings, etc) to protect your concentration free action: point at another target on the field. drop magic stone in satchel tiny servant 1-3: come out of satchel. throw magic stone with advantage 3x. go back inside the satchel. familiar: help an ally 4th round onwards: bonus action: magic stone action: ray of frost with advantage or mind sliver free action: point at another target on the field. drop magic stone in satchel tiny servant 1-3: come out of satchel. throw magic stone with advantage 3x. go back inside the satchel. familiar: help an ally so simple build and mostly pure class with spell slot progression not delayed. wearing medium armor and shield with most spell slots dedicated to utility and defense. dmg per round is decent at 3d6 + 15. feel free to tell me what you think or ask if you have questions.

I've been wanting to make a Wizard's spellbook a Longsword. Runes etched into the blade, and several spell-circles as part of the hand guard. true this idea might fit an Eldrich Knight better but the idea still sounds fun to play with as instead if rare inks you'd most likely need special gem/stone/ore dust.

Abjuration wizards can be really good tanks if you get access to armorer of agathist

I'd like to point out that War Magic Wizard + Yuan-ti allows you to make a character who can cast an AoE save-or-suck spell like Sickening Radiance and stand in it with almost no chance of ever getting hit by it. War Magic gets some pretty strong boosts to saving throws against spells. Add in advantage against those saves from Yuan-ti and it gets kinda weird.

I strongly recommend Wizard to gain access to armor (preferably medium armor either by playing Mountain Dwarf or dipping Artificer) since Wizard PC would be targeted heavily by opponents. +2 to AC in Arcane Deflection does not sound fun, but it also has option to +4 to Saving Throw which more likely to save PC's butt than other Wizards. On top of that possible +5 to Initiative is godsend to Wizard with any play style.

This is the 2nd video I’ve seen from you. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the content so far and am excited to see more. Liked and subscribed. Shouldn’t entirely dump wisdom modifier. After a wizards concentration is bolstered by a feat or multiclassing, wisdom saves usually leading to incapacitation will likely be the next most encountered problem for concentration. Also, a surprised wizard is a dead wizard. War wizard is best wizard in my opinion. I’ve played one for over two years now. It’s combination of initiative boost and save bonuses almost ensure its efficacy, but it doesn’t seem outright game breaking like divination or chronurgy. 1st level order domain/10th level war wizard atm. We play milestones instead of XP. It’s amazing.

Fantastic video, thanks for sharing you knowledge The music was a bit over your voice

I played a wizard (transmitter) till i was 16th level the game ended at that point. Was a mad pyromancer amd great utility wizard.

I created a wiz for a lvl 20 game and it was tons of fun. Chronurgist 19/twilight cleric 1 with tons of feats. +14 initiative modifier (dex, int from chronurgist, alert feat) with advantage thanks to twilight cleric, enhance ability as an at will spell to be able to cast all the time, usually using wisdom for those juicy advantage on perception tests, also skill expert feat in perception. The end result is initiative of 1d20+14+1d8 from gift of alacrity spell with advantage from twilight cleric (average initiative roll around 32-33), a 29 passive perception check, 300 ft darkvision also from twilight cleric, and wielding staff and shield (war caster feat, shield prof from cleric), with an end AC of 27 or 32 with the shield spell. Once combat starts, switch enhance ability to intelligence to get advantage on counterspell or dispel magic checks. And then you're still a full wizard and chronurgist, so there's two of you (simulacrum), you can't die (clone hidden in your demiplane), and the list goes on and on.

Your voice is really soothing

I'm playing my first wizard. We started at 3rd lvl. Dipped first lvl in artificer for armor and con saving throw Prof and went the rest of the way wizard. Chonurgist wizard and God I'm busted and I'm only gonna get better.....

Now this is the real broken class. lol. i think others may have mentioned this already but i wouldn't dump wis. at least have it as a 12 if you aren't multiclassing into a wis based class or a 14 if you are. my typical ability score spread for a wiz would be dex 14, con 14, int 15 and wis 12 with str and cha as dump stats. among the wizard subclasses, i like the bladesinger, diviner and scribe as i've used them in my optimized builds. necromancer, enchanter and war wizards are strong as well.

A wizard should never choose wisdom as a dump stat imo. Far too many things call for wis saves and you do not have the HP to fail many. It also makes sense for a scholarly mage to learn from experiences and gain in that stat. Personally I'd lose out on strength. If you're in a position to use it you're probably in melee and already dead. Charisma also makes sense as someone who spends their lives with their head in the books likely never practices social skills. Personally my second highest stat is either con (every HP matters!) or dex for precious AC in early game, followed by wisdom As soon as possible purchase the common magic item, the enduring spell book (if your DM doesn't just give it to you at character creation) If purchasing anew you'll have to rescribe your spells into it but the book itself is immune to water damage, becoming dirty or easily damaged or destroyed.

The highest level wizard I ever played was in second edition it was a divination specialist I utilize the spell foresight an awful lot

A tour of your favorite spells would be great!

Might wanna reign in your background music, it seems to like fighting you for auditory dominance.

I've got a 20th level Abjuration Wizard. The Arcane Ward is pretty strong, but the proficiency bonus to dispel and counter spell is way strong. I counter most spells at 3rd or 4th. Last session I used Timestop to help our Monk out of a Forcecage with Anti-magic field, then stood around the group to basically null any spell from the 4 liches we were fighting. 😂

Hey Alex, my brother's youngest grandson(11) is playing his first wizard and I'm frankly scared to death of how he'll do with it. I admit it's his character, but I'll only help him if and only if he asks me for help. My brother's doing his damndest to keep me out of it. Do you also feel worried about this?!?! LMAO

I play Necromancy Wizard as Onmyoji...❤❤

Were they inately gifted? *Sorcerer intensyfies*

I prefer doing this with my wizards 14 necromancer 5 undead warlock pact tome, aspect of moon 1 shadow sorcerer

I really wish there was a sorcerer version of bladesinger.

The background music makes me want to roll a concentration check

3:06 Falling out a two-story window? What's the matter, didn't have Feather Fall prepared, nerd? xD I learned very early in my DnD career (back when 2e was the newest edition) that having some source of Feather Fall is *crucial* to survival!

Blowing things us is entertaining, but there's nothing like controlling the battlefield and making it your own.

2:52 tldr: my high ac bladesinder got went down with 1krit and died cause of the lack of hp :( Me: bladesinger with higher dex (20) then int (16) (for stats did we use the pointbuy from pathinder cause we are a 3man party and that stat boost was very usefull). With mage armor and bladesong reached he 21ac (for savety got he shield prepiared) and nonstop was into frontline cause closely nothing could hit him. My party got into a fight against a stone piller thingy and it just krited my mage on the first turn and my mage just lost all his hp. Most other classes wouldnt die cause they would got more hp at that point. The "healer" of the party didnt go out of wild shape and i rolled a 1 success, 1 fail death save aaand then a nat 1.

Wizards are only squishy if not built right. They can be as tough as they come quite easily.

Pssh back in my day... My wizards had 1D4 hit die and it was rolled at first level plus con bonus...

1.25 playback speed is a gift

Just for the record, Power world kill is generally a really weak 9nth level spell. Its situationally usefull but you only get 1 9nth level spell a day, why would you take power word kill that at most kills one enemy, as opposed to meteor swarm that can easily kill dozens? It also does nothing to any enemy with over 100HP, meaning the big bad boss monsters you would want to use it on the most you cant. Considering there is no way for players to know what HP enemies have Power word kill is the easiest 9nth level spell to whiff completely.

Order of Scribe Tortle might be cool

I am playing a level 15 Enchantment Wizard. She is the most powerful character I have ever played. I don't do much damage but battlefield control is second to none.

Hot damn that's a lot of misspelled subclass names

How do I find out how many spell slots I have

“Dont let it be you” bwahahahahahaha

Wizard is broken? more like PC will be broken trying to play one.

Why summon the remote when I can just say: "Hi jarvis, please play amouranth on twitch" and weird stuff appears automatically. With grreat power comes great responsibility. A good voice control can match some familiars.

‘Dump your wisdom score’… um, what? I would argue a wizard should dump STR. Wisdom is too important to all classes to dump.

3:04 I beg to differ. I made a bladesinger that had I think 29 AC around level 10 before. That's not including shield. I also always cast blur and had luck. I was literally never hit by anything. Only a saving throw could effect me. I got that AC by rolling lucky stats totaling 85 putting a point in barbarian for unarmoured defence and having AC boosting magic items. And that's nowhere near the most tanky you could theoretically be. A wizard with access to wish could wish 25,000 gp a day. They could also cast simulacrum and have their simulacrum cast wish to spawn gold every day up to 2 times ontop of the player doing it. With this cash a wizard could buy robes of the magi. Staff of the magi. Bracers of defence. They could use magic beans and tomes to increase every stat to 30 each. If they where patient they could from the start forgo stat increases and just take feats. With a level in monk or barbarian and the rest in bladesinger wizard 30 of each stat staff of the magi and bracers of defence your save bonus excluding proficiency or advantage such as in maintaining concentration would be +16 Your ac would be 34 base. 10 + 10 from con or wis + 10 from dex +4 from magic items. And that's not including bladesong which brings it up to 44. Or shield which you can endlessly cast with spell mastery bringing it to 49. Then there is luck ontop of that. And blur making it even harder to hit. And your health is ridiculously high. Over 400 if I remember right. And with simulacrum and wish you can give yourself resistance to every damage type. And to make it even more OP you could cast simulacrum. Have your simulacrum use wish to cast a simulacrum copying your form. Have that simulacrum use wish to cast another etc infinitely. Hell you could even true polymorph a simulacrum into yourself freeing up a slot to make another simulacrum and giving them the ability to also true polymorph other simulacrum. Rinse and repeat until you have a exponentially growing army of unstoppable wizard tanks.

I loved Minthara's commentary on Gale in BG3. that she wouldn't waste time getting to know him because he's a wizard and he'd probably be killed soon anyways

The background music is obnoxious, I think the video would be better with no music.

Click bait

Wise should olnly be used to copy spells like simulacrum and sutch anything else is a rediclus wast.

Bro, not every class is broken. Lol!

I don't hear anything?

Mage is not a Wizard... Correct yourself

Ppap

Illusion, at low levels Phantasmal Killer Rocks.

Can I ask why you call this a guide? You summerised and read class features. I don't see any guidance here. This looks like an introduction to me. I feel mislead and my time wasted. You have a nice voice and I don't doubt there is an audience that can appreciate your content. Keep it up (with less clickbaity titles?)!

Am I the only one who thinks spell slots is confusing and would rather have them be referred to as spell charges?

A wizard is the LAST thing a new person should play. 😳🫢 And they are definitely not broken. 🤦🏻‍♂️😆