a first level wizard in 5th edition can do a lot more stuff than a first level wizard from 3rd edition and way, way more stuff than a wizard from 1st or 2nd edition. The low level play is way more fun with 5th edition than any other edition in my experience so far
5e is all about action economy, if you can deny 3 enemies their action and movement for 1 turn by using your action, that's worth your action - I think whether to cast haste or slow for example depends on how many opponents you are fighting...if you're in a boss fight, maybe haste your fighter because if the boss makes his save you wasted your action...but against a swarm of minions, every failed save is compound interest on your investment
There was this thing doing the rounds on message boards about how certain wizard specialisations fight, and when it got to Diviners the answer was "they don't, because they saw you coming before you even knew you were."
Man. This is by far the best DnD channel on youtube. No offense to Nerdarchy or Matt Coleville or Dawnforged Cast - I still watch a ton of their videos. But Web DM is just the best. I could, and have, listen to you guys talk about DnD all day. Keep up the good work. P.S. If it would help you make more than one video a week I'd gladly support you guys on Patreon.
JPrulnc So it IS a money issue ;) if you guys had more views (more ads revenue) you guys could do this full time! :D Or would you guys rather stick with your day jobs then YT every day?
I played an illusionist as a mid level party villain and he was very fun. He was based of his desire to make the world beautiful. He looked like a magician (top hat, suit and magic wand) with a V for Vendetta mask and had a posh British accent.
I'm playing as one bard (con artist pretending to be a cleric) in a two bard party and Vicious Mockery is my favorite cantrip from an RPing perspective. The other bard has it and he was a little timid with his insults until I layed in and it empowered him. By the end of our first session, we reached a part where our attempt to fool warriors for a dragon cult didn't work and the other cleric just shouted "your mother is a whore!" as an attack. :D This is after I used "I saw your mother get dogpiled by Ogres last night. She looked bored." as an attack.
"On a normal day, a wizard may not have many offensive spells, if at all" (paraphrase) - yep, that's what a Staff of Power or a Staff of the Magi is for.
I've kind of fallen for the Conjurer, actually. True, that school needs more spells. If I'm a wizard specializing in the art of conjuring, I think I should be able to conjure more creatures than just elementals. Especially since it takes forever to get those spells. At the very least, I should be able to bring in woodland creatures. Just something to use until my character gets to 4th level magic, and I can start calling forth elemental beasts. (I also wish there was a spell that let you summon ghostly allies, but that's another matter). Still, it has quite good features to go along with it. Conjurers are teleporting all over the place, they can eventually have conjured allies without worry for losing Concentration. But I think the feature I love most is arguably the "weakest": Minor Conjuration. You can just make an object appear, as simple as you please. It's something I like because it's evocative. I imagine conjurers who conjure stools so they can sit down anywhere, or who bring out tools for every occasion. Need to break a chain? The wizard just summoned a pair of bolt cutters. Need a door opened? The wizard has you covered with a crowbar. Got stripped of weapons and locked in a cell? The wizard can supply one of the front liners with a shortsword or whatever.
5e is my first roleplay system, and in my third campaign, when I told him I wanted to play an Eldritch Knight/Wizard Multi-class...I had the same reaction as your 'off-screen' guy. Dm: Oh so you want to play a Gish character. Me: What the hell is a Gish?
I wish you would have talked more about the power of illusionist. I am playing my first illusionist in 5e and its pretty crazy. It seems that my power is equal to only my imagination.
Okay since this was brought up once or twice and even asked in the bloopers after the regular session. A Gish comes from the Githyanki Soldiers of early editions and describes their fighting style which uses both magic and steel. Fun fact in our home-game we always called them "Tenser/s", those who know why get an extra gummypoint.
Good guess, but it has nothing to do with the gloves :) But on that note, GMs you should think about reading some of Sandersons books they usually have interesting world building and magic systems
Close enough, yes. In the original Greyhawk campaign setting, the Mage Tenser (one of the eight) always wanted to be a fighter but didn't have the physical prowess therefor he just invented spells that made him a fighter :D
At our table (I normally DM, but have inspired my players to start running their own games), we have a few home rules for the evoker. I, personally, love the concept, but hated the execution, specifically how bad I felt Potent Cantrip was and how I felt that Empowered Evocation came a little late. So we homebrewed that potent cantrip would apply to attack roll based Evocation cantrips as well (so the Wizard doesn’t feel stupid for realizing that they took Firebolt, Ray of Frost, or Shocking Grasp and then realizing that it would have been mechanically better to get acid splash or create bonfire, which also doesn’t make sense to me as those are conjuration spells. I know that the SCAG and XGtE introduced a few, but I just felt like this worked better). Additionally, they get to add their Int mod to one Evocation damage roll at level 6. Then at level 10, they ignore resistance to the damage of Evocation spells (only Evocation spells. The demon still resists the damage of an incendiary cloud) and they get to reroll damage rolls of a 1 for their Evocation spells.
You guys are simply awesome. I am in awe of the knowledge and experience you bring to these segments. You take what could be sometimes be considered dry material and really energize it ! Great balance of information, puns and personal experiences. A+ guys. I was wondering if you might cover a topic for me (unless I missed it already ) I am a returning DM (it's been years-nay, decades !) I wonder if you have any advice on encounter challenge balance in published adventures. Or more to the point , adjusting difficulty up/down on the fly. My players are rolling through enemies but I don't want to swing the pendulum too far the other way. It seems like a fine line between the players steamrolling and a TPK.... thanks in advance !
Conjuration schools Benign Transposition paired with misty step is something to look at. It is a pretty effective combo for move the right people into the right places
And a Happy thanksgiving to all of you at Web DM too, figured we might be skipping a week, not complaining that you didn't :D. Thanks for the long hours recording and all the time editing to Travis, Jim and Pruitt.
A comment about Wizards day-to-day spell list... I like to think of Cantrips as what the party would be facing off against when a wizard is unprepared. Cantrips are the Wizards' side-arm (sword or hand gun). When the Wizard brings the real spells (their spear or rifle) then shit gets real! I think the wizard's towers should alert the wizard to the party's presence, so the wizard can get away and prepare for the counter-attack, which will come when the party is in the middle of a fight or in a compromised position...
My personal favorite is playing an Enchantment Wizard. I do enjoy playing support but mostly it's because I love magic item creation an creating something new. I once made a dnd version of a green lantern ring. My DM had a rogue steal it lmao.
I found the bit on Animate Dead house rules for necromancers interesting, since I'm playing a necromancer in a campaign now. Which I regretted later on when I realized the campaign was in a city with some rather strict laws about necromancy. There corpses could only be used once... but to make up for it, the DM let me reanimate non-humanoids (except for fiends, fey, celestials, other undead, and things that were incorporeal). So once we hit level 6 I immediately obtained a quartet of undead giant frogs. And later, a couple of "flail slugs" (flail snails after we removed their shell). That was fun... even though there were several missions where I just couldn't bring them along because it wouldn't make us viewed very well by civilians. ...Of course, eventually we hit a point in the campaign where we were traversing the dream world, so then it was back to humanoids for me and no civilians to worry about. Finally we're at the point where I'm really beginning to see how powerful this subclass can be. When you have a bunch of minions that can all take the standard combat actions... heck I remember one fight, our bard cast Dissonant Whispers on a guard surrounded by zombies, and the guard ran away and got killed by opportunity attacks.
Great video guys! Really loving the attention to detail on your uses for the different classes. I was wondering... do you folks plan on doing a video of your various House Rules for D&D 5E? I personally would love to see that! :D
Hold person is called the fight ender at our table. I have it on my Bladesinger and use it every time, and since our DM can't roll well against my lowish DC save (14). Once again, awesome episode! Can't wait for yinz to talk about Sorcerers! I just started a Storm Sorcerer in a second game and loving it!
I'm really enjoying this series. The only thing I wish you would have talked about here is is the Theurgist sub-class from Unearthed Arcana. Maybe eventually you could do a whole video on Unearthed Arcana material, especially now that it seems that they are planning to go class by class and put out several new sub-class for each a month for a while. Love the channel, keep up the good work!
This series is a double edge sword for me. On one hand I love the in depth analysis but then I sit here confused on what I should play with next. The idea of a high level divination wizard that stays close by to their scrying crystal at home base sounds really appealing to me. If some extra crowd control or firepower is needed I can teleport in do what I have to do then retreat back to base so I can finish reading my smut novel lol. Also I would love a separate video talking about illusionist and how to run them in a game.
Great video, I'm a lover of the Wizard class as well. You mention the Animate Dead spell is strictly a once only spell until you chose to modify it at your table, but I wanted to draw your attention to the fact that it stated you can cast this spell again before the 24 hour duration to maintain control of the target. Otherwise it is set off as a free-willed undead. I figured I'd let you know in case you play or run for a necromancer in the future. Love your channel!
Maybe for Necromancers they can use a corpse a total number of times equal to the corpses original Constitution modifier to a minimum of 1. So if a creature had a Con of 10 or lower it could only be used once, meanwhile a creature who had a Con of 20 could be used 5 times. Each time the undead minion dies the number of times it can be used again is reduced by 1. Each time more pieces and chunks of flesh are missing, and when all "charges" are used up the corpse is no longer whole enough to be used and is useless.
I have yet to see a Diviner Wizard at any table yet, and I find that remarkable. The 5E Diviner has that "Deadlands/Seventh Son" ability to really mess with dice. Make a Halfling Diviner with the Lucky feat and you have someone who will forever double-check the d20 mechanic. You would have your pre-rolled Diviner dice, your Lucky racial mechanic and three uses of the Luck feature in the Lucky feat. I'd make mine a "King Willy"-esque Voodoo priest, top hat and all, and have him calmly step aside from attacks with "I saw that comin'..." EDIT: I have yet to see an Illusionist run properly. The reason being that the class demands a huge amount of creativity. If you can't come up with good ideas, then you'll struggle with how things will look. We've had one at our table who only wanted to distract with illusions, but couldn't come up with reasonable threats that could distract. That then generated arguments where he felt his creations should work when the DM...as well as the rest of the party...saw them as a ten to fifteen minute arguments to try and prove why a sock puppet is a greater threat than the barbarian burying his axe in your chest. Illusionists need to be able to create plausible illusions at lower level before they get to the point where they start warping reality. Or if you're going to create something silly, make it something that at least gives the target the inability to see or focus - like a sack over it's head or a wall of fire in front of it. Save the "huge dragon from out of nowhere" creations for when that sort of thing could be reasonable. I haven't see a Transmuter used well either, oddly. A Transmuter could make locked doors or swimming foes' lives difficult. Transmuting an iron lock to wood makes it easy to smash, or making a locking metal pin that's holding up a massive chain into wood then makes the pin break and the chain falls. Conversely, carving a wooden stake and then turning it to silver gives a friend a weapon against a Lycanthrope. If an opponent is clinging to a wooden plank for flotation and you turn it to copper...that bad boy is going to sink like a stone. So long as you stick to the size constraint of this ability, and keep that materials list true to the description, you have a lot of utility. The best our Transmuter could muster was the try and turn iron items to silver and then sell it for a profit...until that hour ran out and we had to leave town. Both examples, strangely, were Gnome Wizards. The non-creative Illusionist and the shyster Transmuter. Neither lasted long.
I really love your show! Me and my friends started up playing DD again 2 years ago. Felt good to dust of the dice after ten years on the shelves. 5th edition is a really good edition for getting new players into the game. Anyway just wanted to say that I really love enjoy your channel, you guys give me great inspiration for my campaign and how I should run it. thx and peace from Norway!:D
with me, I find the good compromise is to have the wizard use non-combat spells in interesting combat-related ways. he was going to do some landscaping so he uses move earth to get himself high ground or out of reach while he blasts with his wand or ring he was carrying because he didn't have offense prepared today. or he has traps set up and uses mage hand to activate, failsafes he can activate with cantrips because he doesn't plan. make him have minions, golems, elementals to attack while he just flees. it adds that strategic element you mentioned. finding his defenses and preparing, or learning that day when he's doing his plan, so all his spells are going to have to be devoted to that ritual. though I'll always say any caster worth thier salt that has a teleportation spell available always keeps one prepared. just one, just in case.
The overpowered end game of the wizard was always the reason I thought they were the most interesting class. It was the potential for greatness even though the early game was torturous at times.
I modeled the Wizard Class in my homebrew HEAVILY after Gandalf & Radagast in the movies. They will never master very high-level spells but will have a much more diverse selection to draw from, can fork & multi-cast spells, be somewhat better in melee combat, have a potential small army of animal resources, plus be the ONLY Class that can counter spells...
I looked over Abjuration magic, but it seems some of the most helpful spells that were abjurations were cleric spells. Maybe I am reading this edition wrong, but it seems that they would have issues in game. Just to be clear, I don't allow multiclassing for my campaigns but dual classing is okay as long as it's a one time permanent decision. I am not looking to make a abj/fighter either (campaign rules about armor and magic once again for balance). Is there a sourcebook that could show a good way to make one? Or should I make a custom class?
The new wizard from unearthed Arcana seems both CRAZY and really fun. With a high level Lore Master you can make a fantastic villain of chaos or an ally that always knows how to exploit weaknesses. Imagine if you will a Tidal Wave made out of sound (thunder damage) that targets charisma or intelligence. Now imagine it a mile away from the caster. A big bad wizard just wrecked shop on an entire town with a very strange method that provides mystery and intrigue.
I needed to comment something very off topic. First video of the channel, but this was amazing. Antonius Stark, the Iron Maiden. I see what you did there.
Just considering spells like Hold Person and the fact that they paralyze... Paralysis gives advantage to hit, and if you hit and you're within 5 feet it's an auto critical. Pair that with Half-orc characters, or with rogues, or a fighter that's getting multiple attacks in... Even at low levels it seems very worthwhile, with the added bonus that it could persist over multiple turns. The caveat is that you do need a strong frontline to get the most benefit out of the spell.
Necromancer is such a fun class to play, i am playing an orc necromancer and he is so much fun. He ended up kiting and trolling an ex-pc troll that was pissed that we had abandoned him after his father dumped his worthless arse on the party. After the battle i raised both the troll and his father as zombies, and use him as my chair, especially since we are heading to the northern area.
I am going to try and maybe not have a horde of zombies because I want the fighters to have fun too. So my focus is going to be having four undead with really good armor and weapons over time. I like skeletons more than zombies since zombies need more instructions to function. I heard a good move is to have a undead with two bags of holding then running up to a boss and stuffing one bag into another thus forming a Astral Plane rift.
Hey, you mentioned that the illusions are real for the wizard at one point, what trait are you referring to there? I checked illusory reality but that a part of the illusion becomes real period, not just for you. I'm working on an illusionist and want to know if I'm missing something
You've never hated something more than something you once loved. 5e taught me what a non abusive relationship with a tabletop system could be like. 3.5 hurt me, it cut me deep. Disgustingly powerful spellcasters ruined never seemed like a problem at the time, but now I've seen the light, and I will NEVER GO BACK.
Playing 3.5 right now and this is how I feel. Sorcerer goes in, fireballs, and does garunteed 16 damage, probably 32 if save is failed. I need to switch systems again.
Paldin 8/Wizard 12 Abjuration/Oath of Crown. Extra smite, better dispelling, five feats, pure tanking ability. Your ward plus the oath of crown tanking ability could work wonderfully. Go 20 con with a hill dwarf and durable.
HEy guys, did you end up doing a segment on Illusions alone? I just found 5e after not playing d&d for a long time (3rd was such a bummer). I rolled up an illusionist and i'd like to benefit from what you have to say. Thanks
My favorite thing about wizards is that they are the most powerful when they let others do the fighting for them. While wizards can put out insane amounts of damage, I much prefer buffing the party in different ways to allow them to eclipse the damage I would be able to do. Blaster casters are sorcerers or warlocks, battlefield control is all wizards!
Nothing against the Wizard, but the same can be said of any of the full casters. It may be more accurate to say that the people who chose to play a Wizard have a wider array of playstyles, some of which really shine in the back row. But then, Clerics, Druids, and Bards get more support ability than outright blasting, and even a Sorcerer could be built as a 100% support caster.
I had never heard of GNS before watching this video, but I looked it up just now. It's a really interesting theory and I think a video about it could be really enlightening.
About to start a campaign as a Divination Wizard. She's never going to have the punch of a Sorcerer, but like the sheer level of options is gonna be fantastic. I'm really looking forward to Fabricate later on. Plus, my DM is allowing Portent + Lucky feat later, which looks really solid.
Special mention should go to levitate, only one save when spell is cast, if they fail then they're floating 20ft in the air for the duration of the combat. Works really well against a tanky bad guy as you can just pepper him with ranged attacks.
I was just curious (you mentioned at 17:35) how you have 7 simulacrums? Doesn't it specify in the spell that the second time you cast it, your first one breaks down?
I have a question to pose you guys: hypothetically, say you have a Ring of Spell Storing, and you also have a Druid Magic Initiate which give you Cure Wounds as your once-a-day first-level spell. If you spent five days putting a Cure Wounds a day into that ring, would that character be feasibly allowed to utilise all of those Cure Wounds at once as a fifth-level spell? Basically, I'm asking about stacking the same spell on itself to increase the spell-level- would that work given the rules of spells and the Ring of Spell Storing in the PHB?
Rings of spell storing allow you to store X levels of spells in them. RAW, you could only store 5 1st level Cure Wounds in it. This would allow for better heal over time since each Cure Wounds adds the appropriate modifier and you get 20-25 extra hp, it's worse for burst healing since it's an action each time. You might be able to argue your DM into letting you make it a 5th lv cast but I myself would not. Instead, maybe have a party member cast Mass Cure Wounds into it, or if you're trying to come out of encounters with more HP, just a couple of blasting spells. Destroying your enemies prevents more damage than healing can recover, at any level.
GNS not GnS. As in Gamist, Narrativist and Simulationist type of RPG . It' comes from an attempt to create a "unified theory" of RPGs by a guy whose name escapes me. Problem was he not only described those three as "aspects to which gamers are attracted" which was done previously in something called the "Threefold Model", he also postulated that they are mutually exclusive for some reason. Controversy was born and it exists to this day. I have no clue why inputting simulationist elements to a campaign would spark controversy. Personally while I try to keep a healthy balance for me the simulationist aspects make or brake the suspension of disbelief in any game.
YES! do a show only about illusions, that would be great! It's one of the most flexible schools of magic, allowing for many intresting twists. (I get you're gonna work through all the PC classes first, but afterwards (or maybe even as a bonus vid? huh? ;) you should really do it)
I play a necromancer wizard in my campaign that I play with my family, and my dad (who is our dm) put us against a bunch of lizardfolk, 6 normal lizardfolk, 1 queen and a shaman. He looked at us and was like "this fight is going to be really hard, so if anything happens then I don't want any complaining" (which is a nod to my brother as he complained when his first character died) and I looked back at him as I went first in the initiative roll and said "I cast fireball" and I killed every last lizard on the field. He gave up and walked out.
I quite like the Harry Potter idea. My son and I have been thinking on that recently (how Voldemort is a lich and whatnot). I do wonder if it's feasible to make brooms of flying quite as common as they've got.
a really twisted direction to take the necromancers "reuse" concept is to have him/her use a loved one multiple times, always as a final defense. Just imagine the face of the player when he realizes the necromancer is still around, he WILL be wanting to find this guy, he has his loved one in unholy torturous slavery.
@1:22~~Are you not, or are you, describing Player advancement? I always thought that that's what the Wizard was for. Once you played up to that point, it then became your turn to run a session and let the DM come in while your character was off doing something lonely-ish and the DM got to not have to be burdened with always playing down to your party and he had an opportunity to shine, without being able to fudge behind the screen. Like in D&D you couldn't become a Bard or a Druid just by being a class. But when you finally got there, you'd had so many other ways you'd wanted to take the group but the epic plot of D Master, only let you write them down and incorporate them into your own adventure and then the DM could take a break and SHINE playing his favorite class in your short campaign. You have achieved Bardhood, now while your character can go to the Battle of the Bands, you player will guide us through the Battle of the Bands session, and your Bard gets to be the hero of the group when needed. Or you have achieved Druid, kinda, while your character takes off for mortal combat, you player lead us through what you have been jotting down and putting together and we'll bring some girls to play in your forest of Pan. Thieves started a guild...Fighters got a Castle and a dungeon to clear. Clerics got a Shrine they had to build into a Temple, and surround the Temple with the people who look to the Castle for protection, the Thief became the Mayor, and the Paladin became the Circuit Justice...and everything would calm down when the Paladin showed up for his stay. People that didn't want to advance any further would get a henchman to take over, because sometimes 12th level is some mighty monsters.
I personally think that If you want to dip into a class for armor when you are a spell caster just dip into cleric. You'll get a couple of useful spells and abilities. Spare the dying cantrip is also nice. And you'll get that heavy armor proficiency
In reference to the tail end of the video in which you guys go into how a wizard wouldn't have a full combat list ready. I'd contend that a powerful wizard would be aware of the party and be forewarned by agents, his spells, and other means of the party's impending arrival. He would then if it is to be a boss fight would call his best servants and prepare his strongest spells for the coming battle. Also I'd just say that the baddy is just so good he can have both as far as the players know, when has evil ever played by the rules when it doesn't benefit them. ;)
I'm just starting a gnome wizard and his thing is he wants to make automatons. It sounds similar to the transmuter you described. Is there anything about transmuters that make them especially good at that, or was it just that character?
Hey I love your videos, I know you've made videos on tyranny of dragons and oota, but you could please make a formal ranking of the current adventures for 5e? Thanks!
I've made a few random generators for D&D using a program called Twine, and that alternating wizard spell list you mention has some great potential! I might have to make that my next twine build ^.^ y'all are great inspiration
One problem with any necromancer is that if they are limited to one use per body, they are going to need find new bodies which can be problematic. That said, there are multiple ways to get around that. One time, I had a wagon covered with hidden compartments that I stuffed with bodies and incense. Other ways to get a similar effect, would be to put bodies in a portable hole, or something of the like.
So 5E is my first entry into Pen and paper roleplay. So Wizards always have me confused on their rules, and I was hoping this would answer my questions on them. So they can learn more magic then whats on their list of spells?? It says they learn magic more easily, and I've never seen his truly take effect. How dose it work?? Can I learn druid spells And how? Is it only from scrolls, or can I spend time with a high level pc or NOC with knowledge and learn new spells as a wizard?
Love your guys' stuff. Great vids guys. I know this is NOT your area of expertise perse, BUT I play Neverwinter Nights 2 (using close to 3.5 ed rules) and I was wondering what Jim (I think that's his name) thought about my Favored Sorcerer concept. He is a Charisms-based multi caster that works towards the following: Divine spells AND Arcane spells; Arcane Scholar maxed to get all the METAMAGIC feats I would want (would shoot for Extend/Improved Empowered-Maximize-Quicken/POSSIBLY Silence OR Still OR Persist for obvious reasons). He would ONLY be able to barely cast level 9 arcane spells, level 6 divine spells, and my DC would be pissall BUT, since I have to build for the spells I would have to "know", I would focus on several NO SAVE spells, bonus if I can squeeze in No Spell Resistance spells. The goal in spell choices would be: to increase my AC, attack bonus, and saving throws to high levels (NOT MAX, as that is unrealistic to cast all those before a fight); spells that heal (not necessarily only Cure spells but enough to help the Cleric out, so remove disease/neutralize poison/restoration/etc); and, to have various damage types (some fire, ice, physical, magic, divine, negative/positive, etc) that could spread across MANY levels because of the Metamagic bumps (plan on ANY spell level and down for the arcane side to be able to be cast at normal level, +1, +2 or +3 level as well). As the spells I would most likely need for damage would require a TOUCH attack check, I would go DEX as my second highest attribute, and go for gear that increases Charisma, Dexterity, and Wisdom for obvious reasons. Thoughts? Suggestions that keep me in this theme? I thought of a Favored Bard or a Bard/Sorcerer, but bards in NWN2 get so much better if you take them to level 21 and then I would miss out on a ton of metamagic stuff. Just so you know that levels, it would be a Favored Soul 12/Sorcerer 8/ASoCK 10 for a final level 30 toon (leveled up any way that makes sense really).
+JPruInc If you guys do more live plays, could you guys be a bit more... natural? I mean I don't mind you all eating while playing so long as you aren't munching into the mic? The Coven of Razel-Sinn just felt a tiny bit... lifeless? to me. I think it might be more enjoyable if you guys seemed like you were having more fun with the game, just 'cause it felt a little staged with everyone being so quiet.
Gnol Mahp To be fair, that was shot in two eight hour sessions over a weekend. Many in the group weren't comfortable being on camera. And speaking of that, we could not move very much or we would block each other's shot. So taking all that into account and still trying to role-play a character, I'm happy it came out as well as it did. We have discussed a different set up for the next shoot that would free everyone's movement up, and allow for more natural role-playing. I hope we can make that happen sooner rather than later.
JPruInc Yeah, sorry if it sounding insulting or anything. I kind of figured it was sort of something like that? But yeah, it just did feel a bit unnatural, but overall it was a decent live play,
Best of both worlds. High level evil wizard guarded by lower level battle mage whose job it is to always be prepared to fight. Then make a unique dynamic evil wizard who is less than fully prepared
Made my first wizard abjurer, only 2nd level so far. Human, urchin background. Made moreso for the backstory rather than power gaming. It has some cool utility. I'm not so much a glass cannon, but at later levels I will be able to be great for anti wizards and protecting npcs with my ward. So far a lot of fun
"Once you get to 12 to 15th level" For 5E, never even got past level 4. Played one Pathfinder campaign and one 4e where we got to 8th level, but we started at level 6 in those campaigns.
How do you avoid getting mauled as a wizard? you have really low HP as well as AC so whats to stop an enemy from just running up to you and downing you super fast? Mainly how do you accomplish this in tight spaces like corridors or buildings?
An idea for a wizard centric game could be recreating the Holy Grail War (fate/stay night series) where everyone makes a caster type character to serve as them then roll to chose classes and create a second character for that class to serve as the servant and talk with the DM to make the noble phantasms. So, it becomes a free-for-all battle involving a lot of secrets.
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a first level wizard in 5th edition can do a lot more stuff than a first level wizard from 3rd edition and way, way more stuff than a wizard from 1st or 2nd edition. The low level play is way more fun with 5th edition than any other edition in my experience so far
5e is all about action economy, if you can deny 3 enemies their action and movement for 1 turn by using your action, that's worth your action - I think whether to cast haste or slow for example depends on how many opponents you are fighting...if you're in a boss fight, maybe haste your fighter because if the boss makes his save you wasted your action...but against a swarm of minions, every failed save is compound interest on your investment
break into the wizards tower on the day he blew all his spells on divination..... he isn't there when you get to the end
That makes a lot of sense actually.
There was this thing doing the rounds on message boards about how certain wizard specialisations fight, and when it got to Diviners the answer was "they don't, because they saw you coming before you even knew you were."
Or he's got all kinds of summoned stuff waiting for you because he has collected scrolls for years.
@@AGrumpyPanda "They saw you coming, now you're fighting a team of Barbarians."
Any wizard worth their salt can stall a party in their tower long enough to get a new spell list, with all their spells available.
Man. This is by far the best DnD channel on youtube. No offense to Nerdarchy or Matt Coleville or Dawnforged Cast - I still watch a ton of their videos. But Web DM is just the best. I could, and have, listen to you guys talk about DnD all day. Keep up the good work.
P.S. If it would help you make more than one video a week I'd gladly support you guys on Patreon.
Brian Romano
Thank you for the kind words. It's not really a money issue. Time and availability are more our foe.
JPrulnc
So it IS a money issue ;) if you guys had more views (more ads revenue) you guys could do this full time! :D
Or would you guys rather stick with your day jobs then YT every day?
Agreed. The before mentioned channels I subscribe to, but I eagerly await only these two gentlemen.
I wish the Dawnforged cast guy wasn't creepy.
Brian Romano agreed. I've watched many of their videos twice, some three or four
So who else is super keen for Mr Pruitt to upload his 5e spelljamer campain setting stuff? Because I for one would love to play that setting
Did he ever release it??
I played an illusionist as a mid level party villain and he was very fun.
He was based of his desire to make the world beautiful. He looked like a magician (top hat, suit and magic wand) with a V for Vendetta mask and had a posh British accent.
They are called Guy Fawkes masks. And anyone who wears them is a tool and immature.
James McCaffrey still a nice movie though!!
I'm playing as one bard (con artist pretending to be a cleric) in a two bard party and Vicious Mockery is my favorite cantrip from an RPing perspective. The other bard has it and he was a little timid with his insults until I layed in and it empowered him. By the end of our first session, we reached a part where our attempt to fool warriors for a dragon cult didn't work and the other cleric just shouted "your mother is a whore!" as an attack. :D
This is after I used "I saw your mother get dogpiled by Ogres last night. She looked bored." as an attack.
"Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!"
Your father smells of Elderberries.
When you get roasted so hard it causes physical harm
"On a normal day, a wizard may not have many offensive spells, if at all" (paraphrase) - yep, that's what a Staff of Power or a Staff of the Magi is for.
My bladesinger went toe to toe with an adult black dragon and the dragon retreated to heal twice and was killed the third time
I've kind of fallen for the Conjurer, actually. True, that school needs more spells. If I'm a wizard specializing in the art of conjuring, I think I should be able to conjure more creatures than just elementals. Especially since it takes forever to get those spells. At the very least, I should be able to bring in woodland creatures. Just something to use until my character gets to 4th level magic, and I can start calling forth elemental beasts. (I also wish there was a spell that let you summon ghostly allies, but that's another matter).
Still, it has quite good features to go along with it. Conjurers are teleporting all over the place, they can eventually have conjured allies without worry for losing Concentration. But I think the feature I love most is arguably the "weakest": Minor Conjuration. You can just make an object appear, as simple as you please. It's something I like because it's evocative. I imagine conjurers who conjure stools so they can sit down anywhere, or who bring out tools for every occasion. Need to break a chain? The wizard just summoned a pair of bolt cutters. Need a door opened? The wizard has you covered with a crowbar. Got stripped of weapons and locked in a cell? The wizard can supply one of the front liners with a shortsword or whatever.
5e is my first roleplay system, and in my third campaign, when I told him I wanted to play an Eldritch Knight/Wizard Multi-class...I had the same reaction as your 'off-screen' guy.
Dm: Oh so you want to play a Gish character.
Me: What the hell is a Gish?
Kurtis Banks Gish is a fighter mage. Hope is not too late!
I want to play a Divination so bad. The Portent ability is awesome and The Third Eye is great.
I wish you would have talked more about the power of illusionist. I am playing my first illusionist in 5e and its pretty crazy. It seems that my power is equal to only my imagination.
So how did your illusionist do? 1 year later
Okay since this was brought up once or twice and even asked in the bloopers after the regular session.
A Gish comes from the Githyanki Soldiers of early editions and describes their fighting style which uses both magic and steel.
Fun fact in our home-game we always called them "Tenser/s", those who know why get an extra gummypoint.
DummyUrD reckoners series? Steelheart/firefight/calamity?
Good guess, but it has nothing to do with the gloves :)
But on that note, GMs you should think about reading some of Sandersons books they usually have interesting world building and magic systems
DummyUrD because Tenser's a wizard whose spells can make him a better fighter than the party fighter?
Close enough, yes.
In the original Greyhawk campaign setting, the Mage Tenser (one of the eight) always wanted to be a fighter but didn't have the physical prowess therefor he just invented spells that made him a fighter :D
DummyUrD mistborn series right?
This class is my absolute favorite class because you can customize it to the absolute max with your overall spell selections.
At our table (I normally DM, but have inspired my players to start running their own games), we have a few home rules for the evoker. I, personally, love the concept, but hated the execution, specifically how bad I felt Potent Cantrip was and how I felt that Empowered Evocation came a little late. So we homebrewed that potent cantrip would apply to attack roll based Evocation cantrips as well (so the Wizard doesn’t feel stupid for realizing that they took Firebolt, Ray of Frost, or Shocking Grasp and then realizing that it would have been mechanically better to get acid splash or create bonfire, which also doesn’t make sense to me as those are conjuration spells. I know that the SCAG and XGtE introduced a few, but I just felt like this worked better). Additionally, they get to add their Int mod to one Evocation damage roll at level 6. Then at level 10, they ignore resistance to the damage of Evocation spells (only Evocation spells. The demon still resists the damage of an incendiary cloud) and they get to reroll damage rolls of a 1 for their Evocation spells.
You guys are simply awesome. I am in awe of the knowledge and experience you bring to these segments. You take what could be sometimes be considered dry material and really energize it ! Great balance of information, puns and personal experiences. A+ guys.
I was wondering if you might cover a topic for me (unless I missed it already ) I am a returning DM (it's been years-nay, decades !) I wonder if you have any advice on encounter challenge balance in published adventures. Or more to the point , adjusting difficulty up/down on the fly. My players are rolling through enemies but I don't want to swing the pendulum too far the other way. It seems like a fine line between the players steamrolling and a TPK.... thanks in advance !
Just re-watching this video and it's made me realize we still haven't gotten an illusion video! Would love to see your guys take on it
Conjuration schools Benign Transposition paired with misty step is something to look at. It is a pretty effective combo for move the right people into the right places
even if I can't watch the whole video as soon as it comes out, I always open it up really quick just for the A1 intros
PingPongPope
Thank you. This one was a little more subdued.
thanks guys for these class reviews. i still come back to these
And a Happy thanksgiving to all of you at Web DM too, figured we might be skipping a week, not complaining that you didn't :D. Thanks for the long hours recording and all the time editing to Travis, Jim and Pruitt.
Sean H
And we give thanks for all of you guys/gals out there for wanting to listen to our ravings.
please please PLEASE do an illusion episode. it's something I can never think of how to utilize until after the session.
You're a wizard Web DM!
yer lol
It's thanksgiving and I am grateful for WebDM!
Daniel Phipps
We're grateful for you!
A comment about Wizards day-to-day spell list... I like to think of Cantrips as what the party would be facing off against when a wizard is unprepared. Cantrips are the Wizards' side-arm (sword or hand gun). When the Wizard brings the real spells (their spear or rifle) then shit gets real! I think the wizard's towers should alert the wizard to the party's presence, so the wizard can get away and prepare for the counter-attack, which will come when the party is in the middle of a fight or in a compromised position...
My personal favorite is playing an Enchantment Wizard. I do enjoy playing support but mostly it's because I love magic item creation an creating something new. I once made a dnd version of a green lantern ring. My DM had a rogue steal it lmao.
that's so cool and flavorful! plus many campaign hooks
WE NEED ANOTHER CAMPAIGN ON THIS CHANNEL
Dragoon
I agree. And we're working on it.
I LOVE this channel. recently started playing. I'm not even the DM and the knowledge/advice I've gained from here has improved our play 10 fold.
I found the bit on Animate Dead house rules for necromancers interesting, since I'm playing a necromancer in a campaign now. Which I regretted later on when I realized the campaign was in a city with some rather strict laws about necromancy. There corpses could only be used once... but to make up for it, the DM let me reanimate non-humanoids (except for fiends, fey, celestials, other undead, and things that were incorporeal). So once we hit level 6 I immediately obtained a quartet of undead giant frogs. And later, a couple of "flail slugs" (flail snails after we removed their shell). That was fun... even though there were several missions where I just couldn't bring them along because it wouldn't make us viewed very well by civilians.
...Of course, eventually we hit a point in the campaign where we were traversing the dream world, so then it was back to humanoids for me and no civilians to worry about. Finally we're at the point where I'm really beginning to see how powerful this subclass can be. When you have a bunch of minions that can all take the standard combat actions... heck I remember one fight, our bard cast Dissonant Whispers on a guard surrounded by zombies, and the guard ran away and got killed by opportunity attacks.
Great video guys! Really loving the attention to detail on your uses for the different classes.
I was wondering... do you folks plan on doing a video of your various House Rules for D&D 5E? I personally would love to see that! :D
Tim Orr
I will put that on the list.
Hold person is called the fight ender at our table. I have it on my Bladesinger and use it every time, and since our DM can't roll well against my lowish DC save (14). Once again, awesome episode! Can't wait for yinz to talk about Sorcerers! I just started a Storm Sorcerer in a second game and loving it!
So sad, I am almost caught up on all of the videos. Now I will have to wait a week for a new episode lol. Binged most of them
There is nothing in the world that makes more of a love/hate relationship with DMs than a wizard with a sense of humour and some creativity.
I'm really enjoying this series. The only thing I wish you would have talked about here is is the Theurgist sub-class from Unearthed Arcana. Maybe eventually you could do a whole video on Unearthed Arcana material, especially now that it seems that they are planning to go class by class and put out several new sub-class for each a month for a while. Love the channel, keep up the good work!
This series is a double edge sword for me. On one hand I love the in depth analysis but then I sit here confused on what I should play with next. The idea of a high level divination wizard that stays close by to their scrying crystal at home base sounds really appealing to me. If some extra crowd control or firepower is needed I can teleport in do what I have to do then retreat back to base so I can finish reading my smut novel lol.
Also I would love a separate video talking about illusionist and how to run them in a game.
ZeriocTheTank
We've discussed It and will probably do a show strictly for Illusions and how to handle them.
Great video, I'm a lover of the Wizard class as well. You mention the Animate Dead spell is strictly a once only spell until you chose to modify it at your table, but I wanted to draw your attention to the fact that it stated you can cast this spell again before the 24 hour duration to maintain control of the target. Otherwise it is set off as a free-willed undead. I figured I'd let you know in case you play or run for a necromancer in the future. Love your channel!
Maybe for Necromancers they can use a corpse a total number of times equal to the corpses original Constitution modifier to a minimum of 1. So if a creature had a Con of 10 or lower it could only be used once, meanwhile a creature who had a Con of 20 could be used 5 times. Each time the undead minion dies the number of times it can be used again is reduced by 1. Each time more pieces and chunks of flesh are missing, and when all "charges" are used up the corpse is no longer whole enough to be used and is useless.
I have yet to see a Diviner Wizard at any table yet, and I find that remarkable. The 5E Diviner has that "Deadlands/Seventh Son" ability to really mess with dice. Make a Halfling Diviner with the Lucky feat and you have someone who will forever double-check the d20 mechanic.
You would have your pre-rolled Diviner dice, your Lucky racial mechanic and three uses of the Luck feature in the Lucky feat. I'd make mine a "King Willy"-esque Voodoo priest, top hat and all, and have him calmly step aside from attacks with "I saw that comin'..."
EDIT:
I have yet to see an Illusionist run properly. The reason being that the class demands a huge amount of creativity. If you can't come up with good ideas, then you'll struggle with how things will look. We've had one at our table who only wanted to distract with illusions, but couldn't come up with reasonable threats that could distract. That then generated arguments where he felt his creations should work when the DM...as well as the rest of the party...saw them as a ten to fifteen minute arguments to try and prove why a sock puppet is a greater threat than the barbarian burying his axe in your chest.
Illusionists need to be able to create plausible illusions at lower level before they get to the point where they start warping reality. Or if you're going to create something silly, make it something that at least gives the target the inability to see or focus - like a sack over it's head or a wall of fire in front of it. Save the "huge dragon from out of nowhere" creations for when that sort of thing could be reasonable.
I haven't see a Transmuter used well either, oddly. A Transmuter could make locked doors or swimming foes' lives difficult. Transmuting an iron lock to wood makes it easy to smash, or making a locking metal pin that's holding up a massive chain into wood then makes the pin break and the chain falls. Conversely, carving a wooden stake and then turning it to silver gives a friend a weapon against a Lycanthrope. If an opponent is clinging to a wooden plank for flotation and you turn it to copper...that bad boy is going to sink like a stone. So long as you stick to the size constraint of this ability, and keep that materials list true to the description, you have a lot of utility.
The best our Transmuter could muster was the try and turn iron items to silver and then sell it for a profit...until that hour ran out and we had to leave town.
Both examples, strangely, were Gnome Wizards. The non-creative Illusionist and the shyster Transmuter. Neither lasted long.
I really love your show! Me and my friends started up playing DD again 2 years ago. Felt good to dust of the dice after ten years on the shelves. 5th edition is a really good edition for getting new players into the game. Anyway just wanted to say that I really love enjoy your channel, you guys give me great inspiration for my campaign and how I should run it. thx and peace from Norway!:D
with me, I find the good compromise is to have the wizard use non-combat spells in interesting combat-related ways. he was going to do some landscaping so he uses move earth to get himself high ground or out of reach while he blasts with his wand or ring he was carrying because he didn't have offense prepared today. or he has traps set up and uses mage hand to activate, failsafes he can activate with cantrips because he doesn't plan. make him have minions, golems, elementals to attack while he just flees.
it adds that strategic element you mentioned. finding his defenses and preparing, or learning that day when he's doing his plan, so all his spells are going to have to be devoted to that ritual. though I'll always say any caster worth thier salt that has a teleportation spell available always keeps one prepared. just one, just in case.
The overpowered end game of the wizard was always the reason I thought they were the most interesting class. It was the potential for greatness even though the early game was torturous at times.
I was looking for this video yesterday on your channel and here it is!
Tim Peterson
Persistence pays off!
ohhh please do an episode on illusionists!
Don't do it, Garfielf. That's our pet dog Odie.
I modeled the Wizard Class in my homebrew HEAVILY after Gandalf & Radagast in the movies.
They will never master very high-level spells but will have a much more diverse selection to draw from, can fork & multi-cast spells, be somewhat better in melee combat, have a potential small army of animal resources, plus be the ONLY Class that can counter spells...
I looked over Abjuration magic, but it seems some of the most helpful spells that were abjurations were cleric spells. Maybe I am reading this edition wrong, but it seems that they would have issues in game. Just to be clear, I don't allow multiclassing for my campaigns but dual classing is okay as long as it's a one time permanent decision. I am not looking to make a abj/fighter either (campaign rules about armor and magic once again for balance). Is there a sourcebook that could show a good way to make one? Or should I make a custom class?
The new wizard from unearthed Arcana seems both CRAZY and really fun.
With a high level Lore Master you can make a fantastic villain of chaos or an ally that always knows how to exploit weaknesses.
Imagine if you will a Tidal Wave made out of sound (thunder damage) that targets charisma or intelligence. Now imagine it a mile away from the caster. A big bad wizard just wrecked shop on an entire town with a very strange method that provides mystery and intrigue.
Man going back to this. You guys really should do the Illision show
I needed to comment something very off topic. First video of the channel, but this was amazing. Antonius Stark, the Iron Maiden. I see what you did there.
Just considering spells like Hold Person and the fact that they paralyze... Paralysis gives advantage to hit, and if you hit and you're within 5 feet it's an auto critical. Pair that with Half-orc characters, or with rogues, or a fighter that's getting multiple attacks in... Even at low levels it seems very worthwhile, with the added bonus that it could persist over multiple turns. The caveat is that you do need a strong frontline to get the most benefit out of the spell.
I have been looking forward to this video coming up. Next Thursday I am going to start playing my Necromancer.
LordDoom1985
Awww shit. Someone is about to start raising Cain. (Make sure Cain is dead first.)
Necromancer is such a fun class to play, i am playing an orc necromancer and he is so much fun. He ended up kiting and trolling an ex-pc troll that was pissed that we had abandoned him after his father dumped his worthless arse on the party. After the battle i raised both the troll and his father as zombies, and use him as my chair, especially since we are heading to the northern area.
shallendor
That's awesome!
I am going to try and maybe not have a horde of zombies because I want the fighters to have fun too. So my focus is going to be having four undead with really good armor and weapons over time. I like skeletons more than zombies since zombies need more instructions to function. I heard a good move is to have a undead with two bags of holding then running up to a boss and stuffing one bag into another thus forming a Astral Plane rift.
Would love to see that illusion episode you suggested here. Having a hard time DMing them
Planning to run against the mainstream and play a 14 Int 14 Wis Wizard with the Sailor background. These videos are very helpful!
Hey, you mentioned that the illusions are real for the wizard at one point, what trait are you referring to there? I checked illusory reality but that a part of the illusion becomes real period, not just for you. I'm working on an illusionist and want to know if I'm missing something
You've never hated something more than something you once loved.
5e taught me what a non abusive relationship with a tabletop system could be like.
3.5 hurt me, it cut me deep. Disgustingly powerful spellcasters ruined never seemed like a problem at the time, but now I've seen the light, and I will NEVER GO BACK.
Playing 3.5 right now and this is how I feel. Sorcerer goes in, fireballs, and does garunteed 16 damage, probably 32 if save is failed.
I need to switch systems again.
Paldin 8/Wizard 12 Abjuration/Oath of Crown. Extra smite, better dispelling, five feats, pure tanking ability. Your ward plus the oath of crown tanking ability could work wonderfully. Go 20 con with a hill dwarf and durable.
That last point was actually really good
HEy guys, did you end up doing a segment on Illusions alone? I just found 5e after not playing d&d for a long time (3rd was such a bummer). I rolled up an illusionist and i'd like to benefit from what you have to say. Thanks
My favorite thing about wizards is that they are the most powerful when they let others do the fighting for them. While wizards can put out insane amounts of damage, I much prefer buffing the party in different ways to allow them to eclipse the damage I would be able to do. Blaster casters are sorcerers or warlocks, battlefield control is all wizards!
Brad t
And that's the versatility that the Wizard brings to the table, so to speak.
Nothing against the Wizard, but the same can be said of any of the full casters. It may be more accurate to say that the people who chose to play a Wizard have a wider array of playstyles, some of which really shine in the back row.
But then, Clerics, Druids, and Bards get more support ability than outright blasting, and even a Sorcerer could be built as a 100% support caster.
I had never heard of GNS before watching this video, but I looked it up just now. It's a really interesting theory and I think a video about it could be really enlightening.
About to start a campaign as a Divination Wizard. She's never going to have the punch of a Sorcerer, but like the sheer level of options is gonna be fantastic. I'm really looking forward to Fabricate later on. Plus, my DM is allowing Portent + Lucky feat later, which looks really solid.
Special mention should go to levitate, only one save when spell is cast, if they fail then they're floating 20ft in the air for the duration of the combat. Works really well against a tanky bad guy as you can just pepper him with ranged attacks.
Transmuters got skipped.
oof
No they mentioned it
I was just curious (you mentioned at 17:35) how you have 7 simulacrums? Doesn't it specify in the spell that the second time you cast it, your first one breaks down?
I have a question to pose you guys: hypothetically, say you have a Ring of Spell Storing, and you also have a Druid Magic Initiate which give you Cure Wounds as your once-a-day first-level spell. If you spent five days putting a Cure Wounds a day into that ring, would that character be feasibly allowed to utilise all of those Cure Wounds at once as a fifth-level spell? Basically, I'm asking about stacking the same spell on itself to increase the spell-level- would that work given the rules of spells and the Ring of Spell Storing in the PHB?
Rings of spell storing allow you to store X levels of spells in them. RAW, you could only store 5 1st level Cure Wounds in it. This would allow for better heal over time since each Cure Wounds adds the appropriate modifier and you get 20-25 extra hp, it's worse for burst healing since it's an action each time. You might be able to argue your DM into letting you make it a 5th lv cast but I myself would not.
Instead, maybe have a party member cast Mass Cure Wounds into it, or if you're trying to come out of encounters with more HP, just a couple of blasting spells. Destroying your enemies prevents more damage than healing can recover, at any level.
Wait... Why would people get angry at you for saying simulationist? I'm missing something...
yeah or that "GnS" reference... what was that?
GNS not GnS. As in Gamist, Narrativist and Simulationist type of RPG . It' comes from an attempt to create a "unified theory" of RPGs by a guy whose name escapes me. Problem was he not only described those three as "aspects to which gamers are attracted" which was done previously in something called the "Threefold Model", he also postulated that they are mutually exclusive for some reason. Controversy was born and it exists to this day. I have no clue why inputting simulationist elements to a campaign would spark controversy. Personally while I try to keep a healthy balance for me the simulationist aspects make or brake the suspension of disbelief in any game.
kevin piasecki
Ron Edwards is the guy's name.
YES! do a show only about illusions, that would be great! It's one of the most flexible schools of magic, allowing for many intresting twists. (I get you're gonna work through all the PC classes first, but afterwards (or maybe even as a bonus vid? huh? ;) you should really do it)
I play a necromancer wizard in my campaign that I play with my family, and my dad (who is our dm) put us against a bunch of lizardfolk, 6 normal lizardfolk, 1 queen and a shaman. He looked at us and was like "this fight is going to be really hard, so if anything happens then I don't want any complaining" (which is a nod to my brother as he complained when his first character died) and I looked back at him as I went first in the initiative roll and said "I cast fireball" and I killed every last lizard on the field. He gave up and walked out.
I quite like the Harry Potter idea. My son and I have been thinking on that recently (how Voldemort is a lich and whatnot). I do wonder if it's feasible to make brooms of flying quite as common as they've got.
I love these in-depth class videos
a really twisted direction to take the necromancers "reuse" concept is to have him/her use a loved one multiple times, always as a final defense.
Just imagine the face of the player when he realizes the necromancer is still around, he WILL be wanting to find this guy, he has his loved one in unholy torturous slavery.
fiddlewheelx
That's some sadistic shit and I love it. Talk about motivation for the party.
@1:22~~Are you not, or are you, describing Player advancement? I always thought that that's what the Wizard was for. Once you played up to that point, it then became your turn to run a session and let the DM come in while your character was off doing something lonely-ish and the DM got to not have to be burdened with always playing down to your party and he had an opportunity to shine, without being able to fudge behind the screen. Like in D&D you couldn't become a Bard or a Druid just by being a class. But when you finally got there, you'd had so many other ways you'd wanted to take the group but the epic plot of D Master, only let you write them down and incorporate them into your own adventure and then the DM could take a break and SHINE playing his favorite class in your short campaign. You have achieved Bardhood, now while your character can go to the Battle of the Bands, you player will guide us through the Battle of the Bands session, and your Bard gets to be the hero of the group when needed. Or you have achieved Druid, kinda, while your character takes off for mortal combat, you player lead us through what you have been jotting down and putting together and we'll bring some girls to play in your forest of Pan. Thieves started a guild...Fighters got a Castle and a dungeon to clear. Clerics got a Shrine they had to build into a Temple, and surround the Temple with the people who look to the Castle for protection, the Thief became the Mayor, and the Paladin became the Circuit Justice...and everything would calm down when the Paladin showed up for his stay. People that didn't want to advance any further would get a henchman to take over, because sometimes 12th level is some mighty monsters.
I personally think that If you want to dip into a class for armor when you are a spell caster just dip into cleric. You'll get a couple of useful spells and abilities. Spare the dying cantrip is also nice. And you'll get that heavy armor proficiency
In reference to the tail end of the video in which you guys go into how a wizard wouldn't have a full combat list ready. I'd contend that a powerful wizard would be aware of the party and be forewarned by agents, his spells, and other means of the party's impending arrival. He would then if it is to be a boss fight would call his best servants and prepare his strongest spells for the coming battle. Also I'd just say that the baddy is just so good he can have both as far as the players know, when has evil ever played by the rules when it doesn't benefit them. ;)
I'm just starting a gnome wizard and his thing is he wants to make automatons. It sounds similar to the transmuter you described. Is there anything about transmuters that make them especially good at that, or was it just that character?
Ah, yes. My favorite class that unfortunately I haven't seen in play in 5e. Thank you once again gentlemen.
Liam
Glad to provide!
My friend's first 5e character was a Wizard (I forget what kind). It worked pretty well. I mean, he died. But you know.
Hey I love your videos, I know you've made videos on tyranny of dragons and oota, but you could please make a formal ranking of the current adventures for 5e? Thanks!
I've made a few random generators for D&D using a program called Twine, and that alternating wizard spell list you mention has some great potential! I might have to make that my next twine build ^.^ y'all are great inspiration
Michael Liesch
I'll have to look that program up. Thanks!
One problem with any necromancer is that if they are limited to one use per body, they are going to need find new bodies which can be problematic. That said, there are multiple ways to get around that. One time, I had a wagon covered with hidden compartments that I stuffed with bodies and incense. Other ways to get a similar effect, would be to put bodies in a portable hole, or something of the like.
So 5E is my first entry into Pen and paper roleplay.
So Wizards always have me confused on their rules, and I was hoping this would answer my questions on them.
So they can learn more magic then whats on their list of spells?? It says they learn magic more easily, and I've never seen his truly take effect.
How dose it work?? Can I learn druid spells And how?
Is it only from scrolls, or can I spend time with a high level pc or NOC with knowledge and learn new spells as a wizard?
Alternate between pressing the 2 and 3 keys really fast and Pruitt says "iPhone". This is what I do in between Web DM episodes.
Bronson
Thanks?
Love your guys' stuff. Great vids guys. I know this is NOT your area of expertise perse, BUT I play Neverwinter Nights 2 (using close to 3.5 ed rules) and I was wondering what Jim (I think that's his name) thought about my Favored Sorcerer concept. He is a Charisms-based multi caster that works towards the following: Divine spells AND Arcane spells; Arcane Scholar maxed to get all the METAMAGIC feats I would want (would shoot for Extend/Improved Empowered-Maximize-Quicken/POSSIBLY Silence OR Still OR Persist for obvious reasons). He would ONLY be able to barely cast level 9 arcane spells, level 6 divine spells, and my DC would be pissall BUT, since I have to build for the spells I would have to "know", I would focus on several NO SAVE spells, bonus if I can squeeze in No Spell Resistance spells.
The goal in spell choices would be: to increase my AC, attack bonus, and saving throws to high levels (NOT MAX, as that is unrealistic to cast all those before a fight); spells that heal (not necessarily only Cure spells but enough to help the Cleric out, so remove disease/neutralize poison/restoration/etc); and, to have various damage types (some fire, ice, physical, magic, divine, negative/positive, etc) that could spread across MANY levels because of the Metamagic bumps (plan on ANY spell level and down for the arcane side to be able to be cast at normal level, +1, +2 or +3 level as well). As the spells I would most likely need for damage would require a TOUCH attack check, I would go DEX as my second highest attribute, and go for gear that increases Charisma, Dexterity, and Wisdom for obvious reasons.
Thoughts? Suggestions that keep me in this theme? I thought of a Favored Bard or a Bard/Sorcerer, but bards in NWN2 get so much better if you take them to level 21 and then I would miss out on a ton of metamagic stuff. Just so you know that levels, it would be a Favored Soul 12/Sorcerer 8/ASoCK 10 for a final level 30 toon (leveled up any way that makes sense really).
Dwarven Abjurer! I play one in Pathfinder and would love to port them to 5e
Finally! my favorite class :)
Marcus Dagenais
It's certainly a good one.
So as a bard I dipped into wizard for 2 levels can I now use rituals from the higher level lists?
Wizards do it by the book.
What's your preference, on top of it, or have it floating over you?
Would love to hear about Barbarians. Not really playing them, but balancing as a DM against the ever present bear totem Barbarian. Cheers
Alexander Challman
Just add more choppa against a bear totem. They're beasts in combat.
I loved your "Coven of Razel-Sinn."
You keep talking about these other games and characters you've played. Any plan on posting more live game play?
Frank Robins, Jr.
We are looking into getting y'all more live play. I promise.
+JPruInc I was wondering the same thing, Great news! Thank you, guys!
+JPruInc If you guys do more live plays, could you guys be a bit more... natural? I mean I don't mind you all eating while playing so long as you aren't munching into the mic? The Coven of Razel-Sinn just felt a tiny bit... lifeless? to me. I think it might be more enjoyable if you guys seemed like you were having more fun with the game, just 'cause it felt a little staged with everyone being so quiet.
Gnol Mahp
To be fair, that was shot in two eight hour sessions over a weekend. Many in the group weren't comfortable being on camera. And speaking of that, we could not move very much or we would block each other's shot. So taking all that into account and still trying to role-play a character, I'm happy it came out as well as it did. We have discussed a different set up for the next shoot that would free everyone's movement up, and allow for more natural role-playing. I hope we can make that happen sooner rather than later.
JPruInc Yeah, sorry if it sounding insulting or anything. I kind of figured it was sort of something like that? But yeah, it just did feel a bit unnatural, but overall it was a decent live play,
I just found you guys and my take on the "Simulation" view is this, The whole game is a simulation. It's a ROLE playing game.
Best of both worlds. High level evil wizard guarded by lower level battle mage whose job it is to always be prepared to fight. Then make a unique dynamic evil wizard who is less than fully prepared
Made my first wizard abjurer, only 2nd level so far. Human, urchin background. Made moreso for the backstory rather than power gaming. It has some cool utility. I'm not so much a glass cannon, but at later levels I will be able to be great for anti wizards and protecting npcs with my ward. So far a lot of fun
Do you have the cosmic Druid circle posted anywhere? I’d love to look into playing it.
"Once you get to 12 to 15th level"
For 5E, never even got past level 4. Played one Pathfinder campaign and one 4e where we got to 8th level, but we started at level 6 in those campaigns.
Pruitt, how did you end up putting Aristades together? The no-damage Diviner sounds amazing to me.
you never got around to that video about illusions did you? I'd like to see that
How do you avoid getting mauled as a wizard? you have really low HP as well as AC so whats to stop an enemy from just running up to you and downing you super fast? Mainly how do you accomplish this in tight spaces like corridors or buildings?
Hmmm...
Well what I usually do is have a party member.
A thousand times yes on the Illusions show.
An idea for a wizard centric game could be recreating the Holy Grail War (fate/stay night series) where everyone makes a caster type character to serve as them then roll to chose classes and create a second character for that class to serve as the servant and talk with the DM to make the noble phantasms. So, it becomes a free-for-all battle involving a lot of secrets.
I played 5th edition for about 1 year now and none of my players played with a wizard.
(As Haggrid) You're a Wizard. lol.
Enjoying your all's videos.