Why I love Abjuration Wizards in Baldur's Gate 3

[@lincolnvance2350]

You can also take a second level into warlock to pick up the "Armor of Shadows" invocation to cast mage armor at will. This lets you get back all of your arcane ward charges back for free. Just cast mage armor, put on a piece of armor (this makes you lose mage armor), then recast. Rinse and repeat for free stacks outside of combat. This is actually a classic combo in D&D

[@jakestavinsky3480]

Doesn't work in BG3 AFAIK. I tried it and it doesn't let you cast the eldritch invocation if you already have mage armor up. However, now that I think about it, it might get deleted if you put armor on, but I haven't tested that

[@midwest]

@@jakestavinsky3480 Yeah, you have to put armor on then take it off.

[@agrape2887]

​@jakestavinsky3480 I'll take "I didn't read the comment" for 600

[@zoppletee5400]

​@agrape2887 you got a double pointer, so you won 1200

[@gersonbruno8463]

It's anoying as fuck, my friend is doing this build + agathys triggering oportunitty attacks during the fight and after every single one he spends a lot of time to spam unequip - equip - armor of shadows and recharge arcane ward back

[@daveyfunk]

If you use glyph of warding you can do damage and replenish your arcane ward as it's abjuration. Also works better with wet enemies if you choose the lightning or cold effect. Also, 1 level of tempest cleric will get you wrath of the storm, which I think still stacks with armor of agathys and also doubles on wet targets. Can be personal choice but you can go draconic sorcerer and get armor of agathys choosing cold source. If you chose sorc first you'd get con save and so can maybe be preferable to start as sorc for con save and get AoA and then go tempest cleric for the armor prof and wrath of the storm and then 10 levels of abjuration wizard. You might not want higher AC but having the option that cleric gives is good, particularly when starting in the game, and you can mix gear depending on what you find fits best. If you then add fire shield, which retaliates with cold damage, this also adds to damage when hit. So you have AoA+wrath of the storm+fire shield. On wet targets this should all double

[@Ramasez]

This is exactly the build I played with my last run it's fun as hell.

[@Oðrun]

My current angle, aye. The draconic sorcerer level gives you full ESL where the warlock doesn't. Tempest cleric after some wizard levels to get the ball rolling. Apparently Glyph of Warding can work even with Sanctuary running, which would be good for repositioning and/or recharging the Ward.

[@daveyfunk]

@@Oðrun Think I might've seen they've patched Glyph of Warding and Sanctuary but could be wrong. However, without sanctuary it means you can move to encourage opportunity attacks and then use your action for glyph of warding. If you include Stoneskin on this then you get all the damage from the retaliation and glyph but take only half damage from physical attacks. With Sorc you have con save and so benefits that too. I'd suggest cleric after sorc as cleric offers more for earlier levels and you only want to get hit once you get the benefits of retaliation, so you ideally want heavy armour until you have all the benefits of wizard. You'd want to be less squishy and not get hit before that. I'd personally think of your attribute points early, mid and late game and respec them accordingly

[@halapenopepper]

I didn't realise the damage reduction was cumulative like this, and it is in practice far more effective than it first sounded on paper to me. The armor of agathys combo is a VERY cool trick, too. I was going to make him a divination wizard for my next run but this has me rethinking that

[@SnipeOSRS]

I think the armor of agathys is more of a very cold trick, actually.

[@FieldMarshall3]

I ended up taking 2 levels of Warlock. Not only does it give you Armor of Agathys but also access to Armor of Shadows which allows Mage Armor to be cast for free over and over until you are at full stacks, letting you use spell slots for other things. It also gives you Agonising Blast, which means you can go for a full Eldritch Blast damage build (minus the knockback). Pick STR8/DEX14/CON12/INT16/WIS8/CHA16. Dex and con is usually important but since you are relying on the shield its less important. Int 16 allows you to cast Wizard spells without much of a penalty to DC and Cha 16 allows you to get to 20 with your 2 feats for maximum Eldritch Blast damage (+5 from Potent Robe and +5 from Agonising Blast). Pure Abjuration is cool and all but i found myself running out of spell slots a lot and struggled to find something for my Wizard to do when enemies ignored them. Building around Agonising Blast lets you do a lot of damage with your cantrip and also gives you access to all your spell slots so you can do stuff without having to worry about regaining shield stacks.

[@phyose4793]

I love to mix in illusion spells with an Abjuration wizard. At level 3, you can take Mirror Image, Mage Armor, Shield, and Blur and have them all active at once thanks to Blur being the only spell that requires concentration. Assuming that you're using a shield and have a +4 dex, your AC goes rocketing to 30, and creatures have disadvantage to hit you. Since nothing really has a +11 to hit, your enemies will have to roll two natural 20's in a row (thanks to disadvantage) just to hit you. That's a 1/400 or 0.25% chance to just be hit... at level 3. Throw on Blink at level 5, and now suddenly that percentage chance drops in half to 1/800 or 0.125% since you have a 50/50 chance to not even be targetable in the first place. You won't ever experience that many attacks in a single playthrough, so as long as you have the action economy and spells slot to do it with, your wizard should never be hit with weapon or spell attacks. Saving throws....that's a different story. Damned burning ground breaking concentration on blur.

[@halapenopepper]

I feel like if you're stacking spells like that you probably don't even need abjuration subclass, since you're not getting any use out of the ward if you're impossible to hit to begin with

[@aredhanush2300]

@@halapenopepper Wouldnt it help cover for the concentration spell, so even if damage reaches you, its nullified and blur remains on?

[@Byssbod]

​@@aredhanush2300what concentration spells? Ward isn't concentration. What problem are you trying to solve by making people whiff all their attacks against the wizard? You want to get hit

[@chuchubag]

Abjuration and Divination are definitely favorite wizard subclasses right now. They just feel best suited for control and utility based wizards, I love it!

[@Mile2357]

I like them but I like Divination even more. So many fights are easily winnable by changing one or two crucial attack or save throw (either by ally or enemy).

[@LefteyeL]

True, divination isn’t much fun in multiplayer.

[@Technogeist1987]

Seems like it would synergise pretty well with sorcerer, white draconic bloodline. More HP, more armour, resistant to cold, free armour of agathys.

[@lixnix2018]

Arcane Ward is very powerful nullifies so much damages especially against high damage spells

[@CasualVeteranGamer]

Yeah, it's an amazing ability to have many charges in and stops so much damage in total.

[@Byssbod]

I found this build actually kind of frustrating because it relies on your enemies to succeed at the roll. A lot of times they just don't. Unfortunately this game doesn't really reward you much for taking a strong defensive build like this, because you don't really need defenses much. The game doesn't try hard enough to kill you. It only really rewards stacking offensive items on characters that attack three and four times a round. Or that pick tavern brawler. And you can do much more damage faster, simply by playing a standard wizard build with standard aoe lightning and cold spells with fewer hoops to jump through.

[@hrolnir]

I have an Abjuration Wizard in tabletop 5E. She's my baby, Played her for a long time. My first playthrough I made her in BG3, and I was super disappointed to find out that: 1) Dispel Magic isn't even in the game 2) The added proficiency bonus to Counterspell and Dispel Magic was changed to more Arcane Ward spam So yeah, I was big mad about the change after like 100 hours of playing the character, until the first fight after hitting level 10. I mitigated so damn much damage just with reactions through the end of the game that it kind of feels weird NOT to play abjuration in my second playthrough.

[@Sherudons]

Sorcerer dip for unfair shield from a white dragon, you end up with over shields on a cheap thorns shield, dip again for a choice of cleric, fighter or paladin for heavy armour and extra attacks, it requires you to try to die and depending on your choice for combat class, you can quite comfortably run around and hit things. Basically a walking bomb, cast armour of agathys, wear heavy armour, get war caster then salt and pepper as you want.

[@neiljopling4693]

Give Gale Skinburster, Fleshmelter Cloak, Ichorous Gloves, Snowburst Ring, and Hoarfrost boots. And cast fire shield. 30 +2D8 cold, 1D4 acid, noxious fumes for an AoE 1D4 acid, create a 4.5m ice patch and don’t slip on ice, Skinburster lets you add force conduit +2 for every hit up to a max of 7.

[@charlesbryson7443]

I’m running 2 wizards in my run. 2 paladin/10 abjuration wizard, and the standard evocation magic missile master. Adding int bonus to each dart on magic missile is so good.

[@jakestavinsky3480]

Why 2 pally? For smites? Seems kinda meh without extra attack?

[@krelekari]

The simple difference between arcane ward being reduced before temp hp both makes sense and allows for some awesome niche mechanical play! Thats so cool!!

[@marcrainbow1714]

Clever build, as always. I have resisted the temptation of this subclass, but you make a compelling argument. One variation of this concept would be Wizard 10/Warlock 2 getting the warlock invocation for Mage Armor at will, an (admittedly dubious) strategy to build arcane ward charges. I am curious, do cantrips add to the arcane ward charges? One item that would mesh well with this build is the robe available in the second act that grants armor of agathys (I believe at 3rd level). I always appreciate your videos. Thank you

[@CasualVeteranGamer]

It's really hard to pick a wizard subclass I feel. Most of them get some awesome features to help with their school of magic. I didn't test that invocation with warlocks, but if it works then it would be a really good way to build up the charges. I feel like I have read that equipping amour after using the invocation cancels it and then you can recast it again....(3 minutes later)...I just went and tested it and it works. You can recast the invocation if you equip armour, which cancels the mage armour effect. We can then recast it to get another charge, but it is only one charge at a time so is quite tedious, however it is an unlimited source of charges! Casting blade ward doesn't increase the number of charges.

[@marcrainbow1714]

@@CasualVeteranGamer Thank you for the verification. Now you have forced me to start yet another campaign to play this build, perhaps a fighter/wizard multiclass with the the Justice of Tyr greatsword for the shield of faith every short rest and heavy armor damage reduction. I hope you feel sufficiently guilty for feeding my pathology!!!

[@marcrainbow1714]

As an aside, I really have wanted to play a necromancer wizard, but the high incidence of both poison and necrotic resistance or out right immunity with no obvious way to counter said resistances (elemental affinity does not offer poison or necrotic options and there is no poisoner feat implemented in the game) has caused me to shy away from the concept. I know I could generate an undead army, but I am not a fan of that play style. Do you have any ideas? Am I missing options or items that can address this issue?

[@jeremyfusenliu3859]

honestly Wizard with Warlock is a good combo, you can get medium armor if you want and then you also get access to Eldrich Blast which only costs action, best part is that you can upgrade your Eldrich blast to have knock back effect, really good for yeeting enemies at a distance.

[@matheussantinello1177]

Holy shit! Nice combo! Didn't know Arcane Ward nullified all damage! I assumed it was like the Vanilla DnD, where Arcane Ward is just "extra life", and takes the whole damage. This is very powerful, definetly gonna try it on my next run.

[@CasualVeteranGamer]

It doesn't nullify all the damage, it's just with a high number of charges the damage done is usually lower than the damage absorbed. Just have a few charges doesn't block much damage in total, which is why if you're going to use this sort of combo it's really worth having many levels in wizard to get the higher maximum number of charges.

[@Isaax]

I have severely underestimated Armour of Agathys. I was under the impression that it gave you 5 temp HP ONCE and then dealt 5 cold damage ONCE to an enemy. It didn't seem weird to me, seeing as there are garbage spells like False Life that give you 7 temp HP and call it a day.

[@pawzom2564]

If you drop another lvl in wizard for warlock you can get eldritch invocation for mage armor which does not cost a spell slot. I think you can remove that mage armor by puttong on a piece of armor equipment and then take it off then repeat til max charges without having to waste a single spell slot. Means you lose t6 spells though.

[@Yoids]

I plan on playing a cryomancer next, for my evil playthrough. Wizard Abjuration with all cold damage spells possible. Glyph of Frost looks very good since its abjuration and damages at the same time. I dont know if I will use the armour of Agathys trick, maybe I feel its too OP and decide not to.

[@tomsyndicate3279]

Gotta use the frost staff from the underdark too 😮

[@flithbrin]

I haven't been sleeping on abjuration. That was my first pick and I've stuck with it.

[@jameshill2450]

I actually found something recently from Act 1 that I had never seen before. I found a sequence of dialogue options and checks that led to watching one of the Goblins in the camp to stand against Abdirak's wall and get hit a few times. And he got really into it ...

[@LtBoot]

I've been running Gale as 10 abjuration wizard/ 2 knowledge cleric. He gets expertise in a few skills and sanctuary is extremely good in this game.

[@xenocide1307]

If you're just doing a single dip, 1 lvl of White Draconic Sorcerer gets you more than the Warlock dip because it let's you slot Shield permanently now instead of using a crucial Wizard slot to prepare it. It also eliminates the need for Mage Armor.

[@Jessterr2]

1 level of Draconic Sorcerer (white bloodline) gives you Armor of Agathys and doesn't affect your spell slot progression. If you go warlock 2 you can also get the armor of shadows invocation to cast mage armor unlimited number of times. It's boring but it lets you charge your shield to full between fights and without having to short rests. I don't think it's worth it though. 1 level of tempest cleric can give you heavy armor proficiency and ability to inflict damage on reaction. The heavy armor is good for an act 1 armor that reduces all damage that you take by 2, and you can get the heavy armor master for 3 physical damage reduction. It's effective but it takes longer to kill anything because of the high AC. I did it with Sorc 1/Wizard 11. I'll probably take the elemental adept(cold) feat

[@RonnieMyers777]

I got an lvl.10 Abjuration wizard using Arcane Ward. It usually has 6-10 charges but a short rest boosts it to 20charges andddd he can use a reaction on Ally's who get attacked TLDR: Abjuration = free forcefield

[@BL00DYME55]

I don't know anything about popular builds or meta gaming in BG3, this is my first D&D game, and ive just been trying things out and working out what works and what doesnt for me personally. Abjuration does look pretty good, but for people like me Evocation is a godsend just because of 1 passive. Cant remember what it's called off top of my head, but it basically stops friendly fire with Evocation spells. Gale is an AOE beast and I kept killing my party with him for the first half of the game. Then respecced into Evocation and Gale earned a permanent spot in my party after that.

[@gersonbruno8463]

After some time you get used to cast the skills without hurt your team

[@Lindormber]

What's the difference between doing 11 lvl Wizard, then 1 lvl Warlock...and the other way around? Starting with 1 lvl Warlock? For Armor of Agathys.

[@lostsoulman]

Thanks for the build!

[@CasualVeteranGamer]

No problem!

[@sterlinggecko3269]

dip draconic sorcerer, white dragon, for Armor of Agathys, and Shield. all you need for your Abjuration wizard.

[@bpblitz]

Karlach casually hanging out in her underwear seems somehow... In character.

[@Dova722]

Something i noticed and saw in another youtube video is that if you have too much AC and Arcane ward the enemies will skip their moves and not even attack you which sucks Tbh

[@TheDragonHunta]

Weird that they havnt fixed markoheskirs scale. It's currently double its normal size while equipped... odd bug and not sure if larian is aware.

[@Competitiveforlolz]

Two of these with the bonding rings/spell SO fking OP.

[@agitated.tachyon]

How did you get Armour of Agathys on him!? I’m really wanting this on my fighter/abjuration wiz tank without needing to multi class again into Warlock etc, but I saw vendors only sell wizard scrolls plus a few exceptions now. Is there a fixed drop for it or just RNG?

[@DjDoomtrain]

i think i might put a wizzie like this in my sentinel setup :D

[@lamMeTV]

seems like a really fun challenge run!

[@TacoRemixx]

So if you took 2 levels of warlock that had unlimited mage armors. Would that count?

[@CasualVeteranGamer]

After casting mage armour from the invocation you need to equip a piece of armour to lose the mage armour condition. Only after unequipping the armour can you cast mage armour again, which does indeed increase the arcane ward charge by one. If you don't equip a piece of armour you can cast mage armour, but it doesn't increase the charges.

[@funkkymonkey6924]

Meanwhile the divination wizard, just giving the finger to random chance... Banishing the boss because he feels like it.

[@psimas1982]

If you use camp casters, warding bond can make you even more indestructible...

[@vladimirtchuiev2218]

This probably seem to be the way to build a fighter-mage type character, maybe something that can actually take advantage of the (underpowered?) Eldrich Knight subclass, something like 6 EK and 6 abjuration wizard, making him an effective magic-based tank.

[@viktoriyaserebryakov2755]

It's very hard to get and keep stacks without the free ten on rest that you get at wizard ten. I don't know if the combination of damage reduction, reactionary damage and AC on my build is just too much but the AI determines that the best course of action is to pass its turn and refuse to hit me.

[@Nino-bu9mj]

Not sure why ur not cadting fire shield chill along with armor of agathys for even more return damage. Its one of my tactics

[@TheChodex]

I like the outfit on Karlach :D

[@happyninja42]

Is there a way to have that abjuration/shield thing effect your allies when you cast spells on them? or is it forever a self only perk?

[@Chonus]

you can protect allies at lvl 6 abjuration wizard once per turn as a reaction

[@bashiel]

Add Fire Shield or an item that grants Fire Shield on top, and you'll have even more fun!

[@Sheamu5]

Add in fire shield for even more retaliation damage

[@hanks_2210]

In the final fight - my barbarian and karlach were nearly dead. Shadowheart was at 50% HP. Abjuration Gale? Had taken no damage. I turned him into a tank with this specialty.

[@adhochero6619]

don't forget about fire shield (cold)

[@zackzebedi561]

will the damage stack if you use fire or cold shield spell?

[@CasualVeteranGamer]

I didn't try but I don't see why not unless armour of agathys and fire/cold shield somehow overwrite each other.

[@zackzebedi561]

@@CasualVeteranGamer I think they don't overwrite each other cause it doesn't give temporary hp. I'm thinking about doing a melee wizard build using abjuration and skin burster halberd. I think 6 wizard and 6 fighter is a good mix.

[@heathengypsy]

I’ve used the infernal Robe and Armour of Agarthy on my warlock and the damage stacked, they took both cold and fire damage.

[@horsepuncher421]

I always sleep on wizard in general just because I love sorcerer so much but it really looks like I'm missing out on alot of abusable nonsense

[@CasualVeteranGamer]

Sorcerers are a very good class and the twinning/quickened spell metamagics let you do a lot! But wizards do also have their perks!

[@horsepuncher421]

@@CasualVeteranGamer I'll mess around with wizards on my next playthrough, going to be rough with a little devil on my shoulder going "hahaha man this fight would be alot easier if you had a sorcerer who could cast dual haste hmmm"

[@LiamFarleyMA]

​@@horsepuncher421just get a transmutation wizard and make a million speed potions and bloodlust elixirs. Sure the duration is short but if everyone takes one nothing is gonna live three turns anyways and you don't have to worry about concentration.

[@horsepuncher421]

@@LiamFarleyMA going to be totally honest I barely use potions and mostly forget I have a bag of like 60 of them

[@JoaoVitor-qy3ze]

​@@horsepuncher421in my 1st playthrough I barely used potions, but in my 2nd I decided to use more potions and elixirs. They are great, the bloodlust one is a cheat when you fight against many enemies, the oil of accuracy makes my rogue almost always hit with Sharpshooter and much more. It's amazing how many options Larian gave us.

[@atspats112]

This class is 2nd in line when talking about best Tactician Solo classes. 1st would be 3 rogue / 5 ranger.

[@LiamFarleyMA]

What's the benefit to that over picking fighter or something else with more utility. Ranger just seems like a worse fighter/rogue in almost every way.

[@akemotheonly]

okay I came to ask... WHERE DID YOU GET THAT OUTFIT?! I love it, I dont' see it as a default :o is that a mod?

[@audreywinter6910]

My Gale has the same question! He promises to respec to Abjuration right away if he gets that outfit!

[@haoyang4801]

Its the very rare Weave set. Getting from Helisk, Mystic Clarion and Socerry s Fundries. The staff is legendary from SF as well, but legendary

[@akemotheonly]

Thank you!! @@haoyang4801

[@IvanBelcov]

abjuration wiz in missles build = best def and best (after evoc missles wiz) damage in 1 target ;D

[@barcster2003]

In baldurs its almost next level.

[@RotoMarzenia]

Do you know if a Bard's Song of Rest triggers Arcane Ward like a Short Rest?

[@edouthouse613]

it should "You and your party replenish Hit Points and resources as if you had taken a Short Rest."

[@GoodSteve123]

You know if you pick abjuration spells on level up you're kinda negating one of the features of the abjurer. They can scribe abjuration spells for half price.

[@Morden97]

I made an absolutely immortal fighter/abjuration mage lol

[@nicowenis777]

what armor is that it's so cool looking!

[@rossdiggle]

Never thought of this

[@molloch5995]

I **HEAVILY** encourage everyone to use no staff in builds like these, but any returning weapon. When you have no Arcane ward charges left and you throw a returning weapon you refresh charges equal to your wizard level again. Sure, the free cast is cool and all, but 8-10 free charges at any time for no resource cost beats it imo. Or, juts keep one on hand to throw it at a party member when you run out of charges. Also incredibly good in early, since you can get the returning pike in the goblin camp in act 1 already, making you by far tankier then any character, even non casters, should be

[@TheWarBe]

I was going to eventually dual wield ice staff with the cold snap dagger, but if what you say is true with the returning recharge, might need to reconsider.

[@mark3921]

Why would returning weapons refresh charges?

[@XKS99]

Fighter 2 / Abjuration 10

[@MrFuzzyFlippers]

Whats that Robe? looks awesome

[@cole9799]

and he can still cast Fireball and Cone of cold

[@SilverWhitefang]

I wonder if it can be dispelled?

[@heathengypsy]

Looks like I’m gonna respec Gale tomorrow lol

[@jordannng7180]

I actually respecced Lae’Zel to an abjuration wiz with Eldritch Knight. She uses Int to casts spells and if you have the item to boost int to 17, it’s really useful. It makes her a great frontliner who can cast the ward to protect allies. Shield is a great spell for her too.

[@BouncingTribbles]

and I thought adding warlock to a barbarian powerful XD

[@YueXiong93]

can you maintain concentration if it blocks everything

[@edouthouse613]

only roll for concentration when character takes damage that results in loss of HP.

[@Talinthis]

i went evocation cause i am noob. I figured massive explosions not hurting my allies are gud.

[@jeremyfusenliu3859]

honestly why not have sorcerers with Wizard subclass, best of both worlds. Although spells would be the same you can also learn spells from scrolls

[@Qazplmwsxokn]

Whats is the name of the robe?

[@krellin]

well it is broken because there is a way to have a ritual abjuration spell... that you can cast as much as you like while out of combat. there are too many broken builds in this game.

[@jonathanbenoit2010]

How you do it?

[@krellin]

@@jonathanbenoit2010 at level 2 warlocks get Armour of shadows, which lets you cast mage armor as a ritual spell.... infinite and its abj spell, so you can max out your arcane ward without a single spell, before any combat... 100% broken

[@Xylarxcode]

Gale walking into the Flaming Fist barracks like: 'Alright, you maggots, form a line. I came up with a new strategy and you sorry lot are gonna help me test it. Now hit me as hard as you can and if I catch any of you holding back, I'm a shove a fireball down your throat. Now let's do this thing!'

[@stevenluoma1268]

I just dont see how this is even close to as strong as tons of other stuff. Even on tactician.

[@chrisistocool1]

Necromancer is far better. Super summons ftw

[@0DemonKiller0]

Needing to control a whole lot of summons gets annoying after a while, for me at least.

[@cristitanase6130]

Yeah, but who cares what you can do after you finish the game. All those abilities are nice, but you already finished the entire thing.

[@Dante-mw2ez]

Ya this looks so boring, I will stick with evo or gonna try divination.

[@XaadeTheBlade]

Very hacky build, but I mean, you could just.... fireball two times.

[@hssal2]

Thats a boring wizard