The Evoker: A Treantmonk Build Guide
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- Опубликовано: 15 сен 2019
- Today we discuss the Wizard Evoker. This build focuses on area of effect spells, though I briefly discuss the option of a magic missile build that I've heard so much about.
This video will cover the Evoker from levels 1-4, Part 2 will cover levels 5-10 and Part 3 covers from levels 11-20. Please follow the links for the next 2 parts:
Part 2: • The Evoker: Part 2 of ...
Part 3: • The Evoker: Part 3 of ...
If you want to see the final build, you can view it here:
ddb.ac/characters/16360828/FK... 
Игры
I liken Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford as the parents of D&D: If you ask mom for permission and she says no, it's time to ask Dad.
Summary
1: Forest Gnome. SA 8/15/13/14/12/10. Wizard 1: Arcana, History/Investigation,
Fire Bolt, Frostbite, Mage hand, Mage Armor*, Shield*, Absorb Elements*, Thunder wave*, Detect Magic, Find Familiar. Sage: Perception, Stealth. Dagger, Component Pouch, Explorer’s Pack.
2: Wizard 2: Evoker, Alarm, Magic Missile*
3: Wizard 3: Shatter*, Levitate*, Thunder wave(*)
4: Wizard 4: Resilient Constitution, Ray of Frost, Misty Step*, Web
I will say: I played an Evocation Wizard at a table, I rolled 1d4+1 and used it for each missile, the DM (because I rolled a 1 on the dice) insisted I rolled separately, trying to be nice (he understood why I did it though, so it wasn't a mistake on his part). I managed to roll two more 1's.
Thank you for pronouncing Eberron correctly.
After thinking about it, the Magic missile thing makes sense. It is treated as an AoE with a "special" area, the targets. With AoE's the bonus damage is applied to all affected, think a burning hands hitting 3 things would have the same bonus damage. It's just unique because you can focus the magic missile on a single target.
Frostbite gives disadvantage specifically on the next weapon attack, whereas vicious mockery gives disadvantage on next attack roll. Minor difference when facing mostly melee opponents.
After reading Scorching ray "3 rays 2d6 per ray" I understand the writing for magic missile more. I use the 1 d4 x3 in my game
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one.
A note on multiclassing, to Counterpoint the Hexblade/Magic Missile combo, is just how good the Cleric is for a Wizard.
For a 2-level dip in Cleric, you can get armor proficiencies and plenty of customization options an Evoker, or any Wizard, can get behind both thematically and mechanically.
Knowledge: Get that Expertise in Arcana and History your wizard really ought to have, Channel Divinity makes you a true know-it-all.
Life: Heal spells are all Evocation. A TRUE evocation specialist would be good at those too.
Light: Not as much synergy but works with being a Fire specialist
Nature: Move along, nothing to see here
Tempest: Hell yes, max damage on ANY Lighting OR Thunder roll once per short rest? An Evoker can use this on Chain Lighting, whereas without the multiclass they'd have to wait until level 14 and then can only use it on spells 5th level or lower, with potential detrimental effects. Go Evoker 14/Tempest 6 to max out all kinds of spells and use them to move the enemies around.
Trickery: Cast spells from your Invoke Duplicity copy's location. AKA line up those Cones and Lines like a boss, without having to put yourself in the fray
War: In the off chance you decide to use spells that have an attack roll, you can make sure you hit.
Great content, keep em coming
I love the new Artificer Initiate feat for an Evoker. You can get Faerie Fire as an Int spell without costing a level and use your artificer tool as a spell focus. FF with pockets of safety.
Just want to say I'm glad i found your channel. Great content especially for spellcasters. I'd like to make a request for more varied archery and melee builds though. And I'd definitely like to see that single target evoker build at least for t2-t3 play. It'd be nice to see more damaging builds focusing on single target dmg as i feel battefield control is best for aoe.
web's great for adding additional dmg to fireball has it's flammable.
Invisibility, heavy obscurity( like fog loud), full cover( perhaps around d a corner of a wall), being hidden (light obscurity from feat or wood elf) or even a halfling hiding behind a larger creature. Lines of sight can change quite a bit all the time.
Important for all casters. More important for an evoker.
Empowered Evocation with Magic Missile is not a loophole. The feature was not intended to deal the INT damage over and over again in several turns with AoE spells. The damage Roll rules are clear, the feature Is clear, Magic Missile is intended to be a single target spell. No loophole!
Regarding Hexblade's Curse, that's a problem of the Hexblade's frontload aspect.
Khristian Bolano magic missile can hit up to 3 targets, tell me again how it is intended for single targets.
@@dustinsmith2021 It can be spreaded out to different targets but it's clearly meant to be a single target burst spell. Each missile deals laughable damage on its own.
All 1st level spells do crap damage and most offer a save for half. Magic missile has better versatility because the targets don’t need to be clustered together and it has good range.
It does a rarely resisted damage type and offers no save and cannot miss.
@@dustinsmith2021 In fact no one said Magic Missile is a bad spell.
Force is not a "rarely resisted" damage type, last time I checked it IS unresisted and only has 1 immunity.
Auto hit is what makes up for the very low damage, but spreading the damage instead of firing a barrage against a single enemy is kinda a waste. Unless you want to oneshot several villagers without any effort.
Missed opportunity with mage hand to say “some situations require a... LIGHTER touch.”
I think it’s unfair to call Magic Missile + Empowered Evocation a loophole since it seems to be RAI, especially juxtaposed against the fact that they took Scorching Ray + Elemental Affinity away from Draconic Sorcerer.
let's solve some problems with instant microwaving, aka. fireball
Two newer 2nd level spells that could fit this built: Rime's Binding Ice and Vortex Warp
1. Rime's Binding Ice from Fizban's (2nd-level Evocation)
An AoE blasting spell doing 3d8 cold damage against a CON save, similar to Shatter. It has the downside that it's a 30ft cone which is harder to position, but since it's an evocation spell you can use sculpt spells, so this isn't as annoying as for other subclasses. The advantage is that it reduces the targets' movement to 0, no concentration required, until they (or their allies) spend an action to remove the ice blocks or a minute passes. So it can be used to slow the enemies' approach, or to hold them next to your tank.
2. Vortex Warp from Strixhaven (2nd-level Conjuration)
Teleports one other creature within a 90ft range. No size limitation and you can freely choose source and destination as long as you can see it and it's in range. No size limitation, so it works fine for small player races like gnome. Doesn't cause noise (unlike Thunderstep), but can't teleport yourself. So it's perfect for rescuing allies or sending them to attack a particular enemy. Offensive use requires a failed CON save.
Heck yes! Time to blow stuff up! Should be a ... blast to play!
I forgot to post it but I love how you say Ebberon. I have no idea how to say it myself and with those Warforge and their insane AC, I think I'll be fine saying in the base world.
I'm also really happy you included the Sculpt Self details. I find it weird, but I wouldn't be surprised if most DMs were ok with it affecting yourself. Seeing this feature bothers me as my party has an evoker wizard that has used 3-4 fireballs on the party, and did not remember this feature... A real burner. It's hard when fireball hits your wife (she plays with me) and one to two other players, not to use a counterspell on it.
Today we discuss the Wizard Evoker. This build focuses on area of effect spells, though I briefly discuss the option of a magic missile build that I've heard so much about.
This video will cover the Evoker from levels 1-4, Part 2 will cover levels 5-10 and Part 3 covers from levels 11-20. Please follow the links for the next 2 parts:
Part 2: ruclips.net/video/XSzY9H1kjng/видео.html
Part 3: ruclips.net/video/VTPrMfzYc_g/видео.html
If you want to see the final build, you can view it here:
ddb.ac/characters/16359367/5j93eq
Treantmonk's Temple
If you look at the evoker in the essentials kit, it states that Magic Missile is 3(1d4+1) as one of its damage options. Interesting to note that it’s the only time I could find an outright damage equation referenced in a block. It’s also in a DND source aimed at new players.
fireball, lightning bolt, and meteor swarm get boost in efficacy for being “iconic”. Why not let magic missile get a bit of a buff.
The roll from the one dice makes the dice average damage much more random. You also can take into account that maximizes die if 5th slot isn’t possible till lvl 14 for 70 damage against one target.
You also don’t get the benefit til 10th level, as far ast int mod.
SharkForce it’s true that it’s damage is based on its inherent reliability to hit, but there’s also not a lot of ways besides what has been deemed by cheese to build off it.
You can destructive wrath and overchannel lightning bolt. you can overchannel fireball. You can move creatures hit by lightning with thunderbolt strike. You can do additional damages as a storm sorcerers or possibly drive up avg damage with sorcery points.
Not much in the game that effects magic missile except for pure damage buffs... which makes it automatically seem cheesy.
SharkForce the something screwy is the damage from an area effect spell (possibly hitting one creature) being compared to the effectiveness of funneling the damage possible from a magic missile very easily to one target.
A well placed burning hands can out damage a magic missile at lvl 1.
A cloud of daggers can deal comparable damage and lock down a small corridor at lvl 2
A dragons breath can do the same thing as burning hands, and be used multiple times.
There’s all kinds of instances where a little bit of grouping can out damage magic missile even taking into account the single target potential.
A lot of other classes get at will damage options. These specific class features were made with these spells in mind. This is indicated by the sage advice, the lack of changing these abilities after the dragon scorcerer update, and again by the actual printing of the damage equation used in the essentials kit. A product aimed at further teaching the basics of how this edition of the game after the starter kit. People can play and Change what ever different kinds of rules they want as always. House rules help bring people together and made the game their own. But there is something to be said for trying to play the game the way it was designed.
As far as the hex blade goes, that is more of a nod to the potential creations possible with multi-classing to powerful, even for a short rest feature.
77-98 damage from a magic missile at level 11 is definitely too much.
49-70 for a single target for your highest spell slot doesn’t seem bad, especially since you could have cone of colded 5-10 targets for 150-300 damage on average
Maybe also that single burst target damage is usually seen as more valuable with typical encounter design
SharkForce
Firstly it’s not a line of bull for creatures to use shield. Your example of dragons specifically can use shield. All dragons have a natural affinity toward magic and are on some level similar to sorcerers in that regard. The work just is t done for you.
An ancient blue dragon has an avg of 481 hitpoints.
With action surge, hexblade curse, empowered evocation, damage is average of 304 against one target. This is utilizing your 9th and 8th level slots.
This is at 20th level 17 wiz 1 hex 2 fighter...
Also the spell requires sight, like many spells. Have your bad guy have a potion of invisibility...
SharkForce
Firstly you don’t need to counter it.
Secondly it’s a lot easier to counter than you are letting on
Thirdly, there are quite a few more “broken” builds that exist that are wildly more effective and sustainable. Your notions of balance are based on what you think the whole wizard class should be limited to based on how one subclass effects one spell that you don’t agree with the design of.
Again, you are blaming all of this on a spell, and sliding justification on what one class should or shouldn’t be able to do with it.
The culprit to this is multiclassing, not that there’s something wrong with game mechanics.
You are comparing a highly optimized character using variant rules to your misunderstanding of what a fighter is actually capable of.
Almost all of the fighters can burst damage more than any other class in the game.
The damage calculations suggest that basically every fighter subclass is capable of choosing pull the trigger on an action surge, sometimes two turns in a row, and dealing between 100-175 damage a round at level 20.
They also get more feats, hit points, AC than the wizard,hex,fighter multiclass.
You will probably be surprised to know that the 175 high end potential damage is from an elven Eldritch knight utilizing shadow blade and elven accuracy with dex. Can do that 5-6 times a day. Single classes.
This Eberron thing is going to become a meme 😂
Perfect pronunciation of Ebberron
I really like Toll the Dead on Evokers thanks to their 6th level ability applying to ALL cantrips, not just evocation ones. 2d8 (or often 2d12) damage, with half on a save for a cantrip is very nice resourceless damage when you need it
One reason that's come up recently for me to endorse Crawford's "roll 1d4 and each dart deals that d4's damage" is when you want to hit several targets with the missiles. If you want to hit several targets and roll 1d4 per missile, it's more complicated. You can roll a d4 per target as you go from target to target (takes more time than necessary and I'll do anything to cut down on pointless wasting of time). You can roll all X d4s at the same time and pick and choose who takes the most damage (pretty suspect procedure from a DM's perspective). The absolute easiest thing to do is to roll 1d4 and each of the X targets takes 1d4 + 1 damage.
It's mentioned in the video that you have to watch out for your concentration being interrupted while you are under the effects of "levitate". In the spell it says "When the spell ends, the target floats gently to the ground if it is still aloft". Would that mean when it ends for any reason? I assumed it was added to keep someone from levitating a creature 420ft in the air and dropping them for 42d6 damage.
Hi Treantmonk!
As Always: Great Work! Love Your videos!
What do you think about "Earth Tremor" as a 1st-Level Spell for an Evoker?
Yes, you'd have to be fairy near the enemies, and yes, the damage is terrible...
BUT as soon as you are Level 2: Just walk up behind your tank, cast Earth Tremor (or use a ready-action to cast Earth Tremor as soon as your Tanks/Strikers turn beginns if Initiative-order is against you), exclude your Tank and your Meele-Striker from the effect and (slowly) back up (as there is difficult terrain now arroud you).
If at least one enemy fails its save: 1d6 damage (hurray) and Advantage to the Attacks from your Tank and your Meele-Striker.
As well as sticking the enemies more to your Tank, because of the difficult terrain.
1d6 damage + Advantage for your teammates might be more damage than 2d8
And it is the 1st-Level "damaging" Spell with the biggest area of effect (as big as 2nd-Level Shatter, but sadly centered on you)
Stay as you are! :)
Crawford semi-recently tweeted that his tweets are no longer considered RAW. So sometimes aspects of builds are gonna be iffy going forwards, because the Sage Advice Compendium is our only source for RAW clarifications.
Hi Chris, I'm just about to start playing an Evoker and I was curious about your opinion on Ice Knife for that build instead of Thunderwave. It would deal less potential total damage but would have the advantage of a much higher range (and not having to be in the center of the enemy horde to maximize the effectiveness) - the AoE of both spells can benefit from Sculpt Spells to exclude allies.
Scatter might be a good spell for a small wizard, as Thunder Step and Dimension Door are lacking
Shooting off a magic missile as described can go from 7-30; 77-110(spell slot 1;9)
Little late to the party, but what are your thoughts on dipping cleric into this, particularly order cleric? You can cast fireball on top of your party and the bad guy, use evocation wizard to save your allies, then use the order cleric to give them a free attack. A cool "Attack on my signal! Do not worry, you will know what it is...." character.
Even later to the party, but that's not how Voice of Authority works on Order Cleric. You need to target an ally with the spell. AoE's don't target creatures, they target a point in space, so can't benefit from Voice of Authority.
Creatures in your aoe are targeted
Could you make a Magic missile build that is well rounded and not 100% all-in one trick? Goblin fury of the small + Evoker + hexblade + action surge ect.. tone it back to be Slightly OP but still a cool control/blaster mage
Would a one level dip into order cleric work with this? Blasts target our allies but don't harm them, and one of them gets a free attack?
Would it be worthwhile to unprepare absorb elements around that level? Obviously its one of few 1st level spells still relevant at higher levels but it feels like it won't come up much at the lower levels
There is no greater threat to an early level wizard than a group of archers.
What about the Darkness spell for a blaster? Cast it on something you're carrying and safely blast from the dark. Seems like a decent way to use your concentration while you use your actions on blasting.
depends on how you DM rules your line of sight. a lot of aoe spells don't say you have to see the destination of the point you choose, but a DM might rule that you need line of sight. sounds reasonable though
@@lighthadoqdawg , but darkness isn't opaque and just hides what's in it right? So a Blaster in darkness should be able to draw LoS out of it, right?
@@philosopherhobbs darkness as in the lack of lighting isnt opaque but magical darkness via the darkness spell or other means is specifically stated to block even darkvision. it's a ruling that makes you scratch your head because it doesn't work like that IRL. but RAW, only someone with blindsight/devil's sight can do sight based perception checks in magical darkness without auto-failing. and I would think being able to see the spot in which you target for an AOE would count as a sight based check.
granted, there's nothing in the rules saying an aoe spell requires the caster to see the spot they choose to center it. I was merely stating that a DM might rule this if an evoker decided to go around shrouding themselves in magical darkness to avoid being targetted while chucking fireballs lol. it's definitely something you could do though.
@@lighthadoqdawg , I don't know. I think this is a debate I've heard of or been a part of before. Darkness creates a heavily obscured area. Heavy obscurement RAW is “blocks vision entirely. A creature effectively suffers from the blinded condition when trying to see something in that area.” I read the second sentence as explaining how heavy obscuremnt blocks vision. Since darkness only matters when trying to see into it, a Blaster can use it defensively.
The bottom line is heavy obscurement interpreted my way doesn't make sense for fog (which you can't see into or out of) but on your interpretation it doesn't make sense for darkness (which you can't see into but can see out of). The rules don't work well here
@@philosopherhobbs yeah, its an agreed opinion that rules regarding darkness and the darkness spell are completely dumb when interpreted purely by RAW
its not even how seeing in the dark works irl lol
With Magic Missle I have had it both ways at an Adventures League tables though with an evocation Wizard I may play "rules lawyer" to have 1D4+1+INT MOD ×3. With that I would never be upset, even with a 1 on the die.
Remember - when you burn a web it does 2d4 fire damage to the creatures in it. This means if you fireball the web you get a bit of extra hurt out of it.
Yeah, but then you lose the Web. Personally, I’d rather have a Web up than 2d4 damage.
@@QuiescentPilot It's all a matter of tactics. Sometimes you want to lose the web based on conditions on the field.
Paul Susac if I want to lose the Web, I’ll just drop concentration.
@@QuiescentPilot Hey It's not a point of contention. It's just a tactical option, I felt like reminding T.M. of
Paul Susac true. Not trying to be argumentative; just trying to give my own input. I’ve just never been in a scenario where a Web spell was less useful than 2d4 damage to everyone in it.
I thought arcane recovery rounded down with a minimum of 1.
Sorry guys, I was wrong. Thanks for correcting me.
Simon Burling
Arcane recovery
You have learned to regain some of your magical energy by studying your spellbook. Once per day when you finish a short rest, you can choose expended spell slots to recover. The spell slots can have a combined level that is equal to or less than half your wizard level (rounded up), and none of the slots can be 6th level or higher.
For example, if you’re a 4th-level wizard, you can recover up to two levels worth of spell slots. You can recover either a 2nd-level spell slot or two 1st-level spell slots.
they only use 1d4 for magic missile in adventure league!
Al uses raw/rai so your dm should allow you to role once unless they use homebrew rules to nerf everything.
For those of you only looking for 1st level, he starts 2nd level about 20 minutes in.
Are you still going to do an Abjurer guide? Also what to do if your character is OP and your DM essentially makes it so you can't play by making magic of all kinds not work for 10+ rounds every time
Yes, I will be doing builds for every wizard subclass. Conjurer will be this Monday, and the remaining subclasses will be coming out each Monday after that. I think it's Illusionist after Conjurer, the War Mage, then Abjurer, Necromancer and Alteration.
Talk to the DM, change characters, ask to see if group has issues with DM, leave group
Beyond exploiting loopholes (which I would ban), I would point out that 3d4 has a significantly different statistical probability profile than 1d4x3.
So it may very well be that the RAI had a rationale behind it.
Not that I would push to have it done one way or another at a table, and certainly I would want to avoid spawning cheesy builds.
this build feels doable with careful spell sorcerer...
hmm, lemme check the availability...
EDIT: nope, nvm, careful spell only auto succeed saves, not 0-ing the damage lol
How come Ice Knife was not considered? It does the same area as Thunderwave, but is ranged
Yes, that would have been a good choice. Hmmm regretting not doing that now
Ice knife also lacks a verbal component and can be used when in silence.
@@TreantmonksTemple Phew, I thought I had missed something big as it wasn't even mentioned. My GM is very displeased with ice knife as my character manged some double and triple kills with it on phandelver (I'm currenlty only 2 sessions in to dnd, but i've had a lot of time to think). I have picked evocation and one session later realised the GM and I had been incorrectly using sculpt spell on Ice Knife - I didn't understand sculpt spell ONLY effects evocation spells and the GM didn't understand ice knife isn't evocation as it is clearly a blasting spell: ranged + area + damage. I thought it might have been the lack of sculpt spell effectiveness that caused you not to consider it. My GM thinks Ice Knife is the best blasting spell at level 1, but I think they just rolled badly on their dex saves :p
Your videos have really helped me get into this and I am now frustrated that my group is too slow (less than one session a month) and am going to look for more groups in my local area. Yeah, so thanks for all your hard work :)
Sorcerers can exclude others, Metamagic careful spells., sure you might singe some people, but they had it coming for charging in like lunatics, or getting ambushed like nerds
while shatter is nice, wouldn't flaming sphere be a better spell at that level ?
WAYYYY late but Flaming Sphere isnt an evocation spell.
@@aevum6667 no need for it to be an evocation spell to perform well. Even if it doesn't profit from class features it still does more damage for less slots than shatter and control the battlefield a bit
It seems there is another spell being small effects and that is clone. It specifically says medium. I have looked for an exception or clarification but haven't found it. If anyone knows otherwise please let me know.
It says that the coffin must be large enough to hold a medium sized creature; so a small creature will still fit.
This spell grows an inert duplicate of a living, Medium creature as a safeguard against death.
That is the wording used in the last edition printed and as is available on d&d beyond.
My book does not include “Medium,” published 2014. Why would they change it?
Neither does my updated version of D&D spell 5e
I don't know why they would change it. From what I have read several people put it to crawford without reply, and oddly I do not think it is in errata. So maybe it was an editing error that wasn't caught?
am I missing something in regards to empowered evocation. I mean even with an Int score of 20 (+5) that is not that big a damage boost. don't get me wrong I still apply it,its just not that big a boost as I see it.
the problem is dipping into warlock for hexblade's curse
then you're looking at 1d4+1+5+3x3 (30-39) damage that auto hits from a single 1st level slot.
empowered adds 15 damage flat, hexblade curse another 9
force damage
at minimum level 7
with empowered spell alone magic missile's minimum damage jumps from 6 to 21
that adds up majorly when without the modifiers you'd deal 15 max. that's double damage and more on average.
I see you still managed to sneak in mentioning blowing stuff up without being arrested by the RUclips police!
Heres a silly fact: the evoker is actually better at summoning then the conjuration wizard because they can fire off Blasting spells without killing their minions
I see I never made an original comment: algorithm boost!
isnt the point of primordial that you essentially and understand speak all 4?
Primordial was the language of primordials and elementals. The Giant language was a debased form of it. The Abyssal language was a form of Primordial warped and twisted by the evil of the Abyss.
It was also considered a language family, so that the elemental languages Aquan, Auran, Ignan, and Terran were considered a group of dialects of Primordial. They were sufficiently similar that creatures who understood one of those dialects could understand the others as well.
Anyone that thinks magic missile is to OP in the hands of an evocation wizard need to realize that the wizard needs to be level 10. Also the shield spell exists...
And if you're a Wizard using shield too much...reconsider your tactics.
Jonathan Hernandez consider the relevance of that comment.
@@dustinsmith2021 I am.
The magic missle "debate" has me thinking, "what is the cheesiest, min-max build the Arch Optimagus could come up with?"
Usually, you do great videos that focus on a diverse set playstyles that at least consider role-playing elements and try to stay within RAW or RAI.
That's great.... Now go nuts making the most broken atrocity possible. I want Gygax rolling so fast in his grave that we can harness the energy to fuel our cities.
Life cleric with Goodberries.
Master Pixie summoner.
Infinite Simulacrum cheese.
Million-skeleton necromatic armies.
Artificer that makes small pocket-sized devices that consume all of society's attention as they fight upset avians or crush confections... Or watch RUclips videos of their favorite D&D educator.
Something I haven't given any thought....
If we wanna go full math geek here, the MM thing can be solved like this...
[(1d4+1+INTMOD)+(2d4+2)]
Well, the main thing with it is that it’s technically supposed to be [3(1d4+1+INT)].
I think the content you excluded was Eberron ? ( e - ( as in meh) bur - ( as in Raymond Burr or a seed pod with hooks) - ron ( as in Ron Weasly from Harry Potter )
:)
Got it! Meh rhymes with eh I assume? (I'm Canadian so that's easy!). Eh berron.
@@TreantmonksTemple "eh" rhymes with "hay". "Meh" rhymes with ..."meth" as in ...method ;)
Dark schneider doesn't use icen VENOM!!!
I don't know what Chris is smoking, but he often say that a 10-minute spell (in this case, Levitate) may be able last more than one combat. Yet he also often remarks that the DMG references having 5-7 combats a day, and he doesn't know how to fit these in. If when he DMs, he only has 4 or fewer combats in a day, how does he think 2 of them will be 10-minutes apart frequent enough for him to think that a bonus to a 10-minute spell is that it might last 2 combats?
Granted, maybe the party is in one room, fights some orcs, then immediately enters the next room, and fights more. But, if the orcs in the second room hear the orcs in the first room fighting, then they are probably going to come to the first room. To me, that's just a "second wave", not a second combat. Only the new joiners are rolling initiative, not all of the participants.
And yeah, sure, maybe the next set of orcs are 2-3 rooms down, so they didn't hear. Even so, just gathering yourself together after a combat (the archer collecting his arrows), going to the middle (empty) room(s), looking around the room, and then going to the next with the other orc should take 10-minutes. I believe a common rule of thumb is that each room takes at least 10 minutes (more if the party starts interacting with objects, investigating, performing searches, or fiddling with equipment/having conversations).
It feels more like he really likes the spell, so he just wants to add more to it to justify its selection. However, saying that a 10-minute spell may be able to last 2 combats sound like a theory crafting statement not based on practical game play.
It’s very common in dnd to fight inside. It’s also very common to find multiple threats inside a building, that you intentionally want to take on one at a time. Everyone’s experience will be their bias, however, I don’t see why you couldn’t have combats back to back, less than 10 minutes apart. That’s my experience in a lot of campaigns. When combats are very far apart, you’re honna have fewer overall combats that day, which means, mathematically, that you can use that spell slot for that same concentration, because the day is about to end anyway.
The magic missile exploit is just silly. Yes, RAW says you can do it but as a DM I would never allow it. The intent on empowered evocation is that you only apply the bonus once and I think the intent of the ability is more important than weird wording on one spell. Wizard is already the best class, they don’t need to be able to eradicate a single target with an upcast magic missile.