BEST WIZARD SCHOOL? Detailed Subclass Guide for Baldur's Gate 3

[@halfmanhalfcool]

I love how he gives a tl;dr/summary in the beginning. Won my subscription

[@wy8999]

Mine too.

[@benp23]

Same

[@bernardo6360]

same

[@Just_a_Jape]

Gale as divination wizard consistently turned the tide of entire fights in my tactician run. Making clutch attacks land when they need to or guaranteeing cc on a huge threat is just so good.

[@DCM68W]

in-chracter save-scumming we love to see it

[@robertfaulkner1824]

Abjuration is the best hands down. Pure wizard. You can throw the ward to your Allies too. The counterspell is better. You can negate more than 20 damage of yourself or any ally once per round as a reaction. If you think divination is good take this to level 12. You get to decide so much on the battlefield

[@Mrwarspite1]

A great use case for the followers you can buy is to grab the wizard and make them a transmuter specifically to make all your potions. You always leave them in camp but they do all your crafting for you.

[@itstoxicqt]

That's what I'm using gale for atm since my pc Is a necromancer wizard

[@gchristopherklug]

What advantage would that give?

[@calliopedanceparty]

@@gchristopherklugwhen you make a potion, you get a very high chance of getting a duplicate potion

[@gchristopherklug]

@@calliopedanceparty do you mean when you do it in camp?

[@calliopedanceparty]

@@gchristopherklug I think they have to be in your party to craft but don’t *have* to stay at camp. But since here’s not much else to use them for, they kind of just end up just hanging out in your camp the whole time and so it’s easier to just craft with them there and then switch back to someone else before you leave camp.

[@rollinbaker9469]

I specifically subscribed because of the way you do your videos - an synthesis of the conclusions up front if I'm in a hurry, and the rest of it to listen to when I have time to enjoy it. Thoughtful, and well done! I rarely subscribe to these channels, and you got me with that well-designed format with your listeners in mind.

[@kerrydaniels8460]

You summarized that perfectly. Bis format is GREAT. I'm a noob. I just wanted a quick "these will work well" and outski. He gave me that and more if needed within 30 seconds. Will likely subscribe myself.

[@bernardo6360]

im playing wizzard but i feel like i enjoy sorcerer more

[@3Xzyle]

I like your style with giving the answer right away and then going into the details.

[@kerrydaniels8460]

Yo, I just wanna say, you did a GREAT JOB at explaining this stuff in the FASHION that you did. You started it em with a "Hey, you just want to kick some ass and not have to worry about going through the whole vid right now choose these", but also gave the full rundown for those that wanted it. I'm not a wizard main and a complete noob in general. Your tutorial WAS PERFECT for me. I just wanted to know wtf I do with gale. Fun part was that I now understand wtf is going on with charm and stuff like thst too, because I do run a bard. I'm not a guy that likes to choose solely on maxing every little whatever. I like to just choose what works well enough while having something fun with not being overly complex. Thanks!

[@Karste1n]

Wizard gang rise up

[@ragnar3434]

They nerfed every flying ability and spell, so i doubt it

[@curiouswind9196]

We love casting spells

[@CharliMorganMusic]

Shadow money wizard gang. We love casting spells.

[@rclsm1021]

I’m a filthy Sorlock but Wizards are pretty aight

[@charlesbryson7443]

11bard/1 wizard count?

[@azurearcade342]

Potion crafting feels so limited when you consider the fact that a lot of plants don't respawn. I really wanted to create and alchemist style character but I'm pretty hesitant to do it.

[@GSpotFrenzy]

Recruit the halfling wizard and make them your potion monkey.

[@charlesbryson7443]

You can go to the dwarf chick in themyconid colony to buy ingredients.

[@Herr.Mitternacht]

It's very limited indeed.

[@Blakobness]

As a potion crafter you'll want to get very familiar with shops, as that's how you're going to replenish a lot of your ingredients. But if you're going to shops, you can often just buy or steal the potions and elixirs you want anyways, so the crafting system in itself just expands the probability that you'll be well stocked, as if a vendor doesn't sell the exact potion you want, he might have the ingredients for it. Some ingredients are just hard to find.

[@Sparticulous]

Steal supplies from merchants every day, or use the exploit to reclass, steal back your money and then steal from the merchant for each level

[@ericnewman4462]

Abjuration - Can make you incredibly tanky. Combine with armor of Agathys and fire shield to make a retaliation tank, great for a fighter/caster hybrid kind of character. Take 0 damage, deal 20 to the guy that tried to hit you. Evocation - Intellect modified added to damage on a per-hit basis for spells. This works incredibly well with magic missile or scorching ray as the subclass ability is per missile or per ray. Transmutation seems to be for some guy who hangs out at camp and just gives you a transmuter stone.

[@austin51280]

Armor of agathys feels almost useless. It's literally gone anytime you get hit. It's basically just a one time use disguised as long term. Atleast in my experiences. Especially on tactition.

[@ericnewman4462]

@@austin51280 Cast it at a higher level. Also, if you have a bunch of stacks of Arcane Ward, you should be taking very little or no damage, and dealing ( 5 x spell level) if damage on each hit you receive. I also think this stacks with fire shield.

[@FallenFromGlory]

ward makes agathys a lot better but it's generally not worth the spell slot.

[@josephkasmarcik2895]

@@FallenFromGlory You really need to look up the abjuration wizard that uses that spell as there main damage dealing spell. they become all but untouchable as they make enemies attack by intentionally invoke attacks of opportunity. The ward prevents agathy from being used up coupled with other effects such as blade ward and you just destroy enemies while taking no damage.

[@FallenFromGlory]

​@@josephkasmarcik2895I have played dnd for years, and yes I'm aware of the strength of abjuration wizards, it's very cool- don't get me wrong- but at those levels it's just suboptimal yknow. It still clears the game with easy but not ass efficiently as others, does it do above 2k nova damage? No.

[@wallywest2360]

I'm playing an evo wizard with the feat that ignores resistance to a specific element (fire for me). I'm pretty much a fireball machine that can lob them right in the middle of my party without damaging any of them. I just completed the fight with a certain wizard in BG and treated it as a 1v1 between my character and him. Was a lot of fun.

[@dontsweatit866]

I subbed for the tl:dw alone. Thanks for appreciating my time and being a homie.

[@slawless9665]

37:20 a good use of Transmuter is for a 5th character who never leaves camp, I strongly recommend looking up the Camp Butler in the Steam Community Guides which only requires 2 levels of Transmuter and puts the rest into Bard levels, but also the Stone from Transmuter 6 is nice for a 5th character because the Stone persists even when the character isn't in your party. If you're really looking to get maximum value you could get a bunch of hirelings and make four Transmuters who stay in camp to give a stone to each party member, but that's more work than I want to put in every long rest.

[@paullucas9536]

Correction at 19:30 aura of hate is oathbreaker level 7, not level 6 (aura of protection is 6 and is the class feature, subclass is 7 for paladins) so the synergy between oathbreaker and necromancy wizard isnt really there, especially since it would make paladins even more MAD

[@slawless9665]

one idea I had for Illusionist (that I haven't actually tested yet) is a glass-cannon build that uses Minor Illusion to force all enemies to shift their cone of vision away from you so that you can hide and retreat to a safer location before attacking again, maybe a multiclass Rogue to be able to Minor Illusion AND hide AND dash/attack all in the same turn

[@celestialowl8865]

The sleeper usecase is that you can use it alongside concentrated blast for free 3-36 damage as a cantrip by level 2

[@jlinus7251]

My Tav was a divination wizard. Portent rolls really saved me so much grief. I would love a Chronomancy subclass since I play that in my irl dnd campaigns

[@Jim-Bagel]

I play a chronomancer by save scumming

[@404Dannyboy]

@@Jim-Bagel In reality we are all such chronomancers, even if we don't want to admit it.

[@tunaSuprise]

Love how the pertinent info/TLDR is right in the beginning.

[@dasphoenixable]

Evocation has always been a personal fav. I also go out of my way to avoid that site after all the stuff came out about them, pity they still come up first a lot. At least I’m assuming that’s who you’re talking about.

[@Greyjap0]

What site is this?: I’d like to avoid it if negative stuff about it is spreading around.

[@orphancrippler9526]

@@Greyjap0 Fextralife.

[@italianspartacus]

I just don't want to be a source of free traffic when the other BG3 wiki has a ton of people working really hard on it!! I always link to them when I can :)

[@drunemeton]

@@italianspartacusBG3 dot Wiki is amazing! There’s really no comparison.

[@richardyoung3462]

My Evoc builds now tend to do one of two options, either multiclassing into Warlock for 2 levels and making CHA 14 or 16, or still doing the CHA and just taking the Warlock Initiate Feat. Either build combined with the Robe you get in the 2nd Act that lets you add your CHA bonus AGAIN to any Cantrip spell damage dice makes all of your Cantrips better, and can really make EB a great spell slot saver.

[@kevinleonard6855]

Thank you. I just started my first play through of BG3. Your videos have been very helpful in getting me caught up with the mechanics, mythology and play styles. I still have a lot to learn. But I starting from a good base.

[@oliorogue]

I agree with your take on abjuration. It is my fave and I multiclass into fighter w goading taunt

[@danf6975]

I subscribed after I saw your first video, purely because of your video format, and how you upfront, the knowledge, and I usually end up watching the whole video. Many of us get tired of the usual way that people make videos that force you to slog through the video Not by Choice

[@FlyingFox86]

It would have been nicer if the conjuration school added create water as a normal spell. Because now you're limited to a single cast per short rest. Which isn't all that bad, you can short rest a lot. But you also can't upcast it to cover a larger area. And wizards have no way to gain the spell through other means.

[@rollinbaker9469]

I admit, I'm a bad person. I just modded the version the wizards get (which is different from anyone's else's) to ignore that, and made it a bonus action. It feels a lot more useful now :) OP, possibly, but I still finding myself preferring sculpt spells, because that's ALWAYS useful, from your first thunderwave from the second rank on.....

[@FlyingFox86]

@@rollinbaker9469 Sculpt spells is great. Also, that damage boost from your intelligence at higher level is pretty spicey. Even if you don't focus primarily on evocation spells, evocation school is a great pick.

[@noseriouslyimserious4073]

Lmaoo I LOVE the subtle shade thrown @ that Fextralife loser. A+++ ya earned my sub for that alone. Lmaooo

[@common_undead]

where?

[@keenanmccracken6758]

Conjuration is cool because of all the teleporting around you can do. Squishy wizard up in the rafters sees their ally go down, they benign conjuration swap with downed ally, then misty step away. Conjure water can also get enemies wet (giggity) to deal double damage on cold or lightning damage. Build around cold or set up your storm sorcerer for huge damage

[@dianabialaskahansen2972]

Didn't try out all of them, but my own experience is that Evocation is just bonkers. Swarmed by lots of enemies and Gale would just target an ally in the middle of it all with fireball and watch the world burn, but no allies took damage.

[@MarcosGarcia-et1qu]

I've become interested in wizard lately and I'm very thankful for this video

[@Anschlagen]

Was already planning to do a Straight Wizard run, but now even more keen!

[@oachkatzlschwoaph]

That's quite a change from a gay wizard run 😂

[@brockstephens7961]

Ah nice, glad to see this video reuploaded :)

[@italianspartacus]

Had to fix an editing error :)

[@johnmahaney4778]

The abjuration info is just what I was looking for. Thanks!

[@197mmCannon]

Abjuration secretly OP. Once you get glyph of warding you can use that as an offensive spell and recharge your ward. If you want to multiclass you can do one level of dragon lineage sorcerer to get armor of agathys. Abjuration spell that recharges your ward and also gives you temp hit points and anyone that hits you takes cold damage. You can take cleric or fighter levels to get heavy armor and now you are harder to hit, resisting damage (if you get the right armor) and any time they successfully hit you, the damage just goes to temp HP and oh yeah, they take damage for hitting you. Realistically what ends up happening is the AI knows it will get jacked up if they target the wizard so they just target someone else. I made Gale sorcerer 1 and the rest Abjuration wizard and he just stands around CCing folks and casting spells and he mostly just gets ignored by the AI because they know there’s no point.

[@daveyfunk]

Exactly this. I don't think he knows how to build the abjuration wizard as he talks about multiclassing into fighter which doesn't make the most of the abjuration class. The benefit is turning it into a retaliation tank. Even without muticlassing you still have fire shield for retaliation, glyph of warding for attack, stone skin to reduce damage and they all boost your arcane ward. BUT a dip into Sorc and you get AoA and if you upcast that to the highest spellslot you get extra life making you the tankiest on the field and you deal unavoidable damage if hit and so you simply force opportunity attacks. Add a level of Tempest Cleric and you then get wrath of the storm, AoA and fireshield You then still have all the defence of shield and counterspell and can still use fireball and anything else if you want. If you had 4 abjuration wizard with 1 level of sorc and 1 level of temp cleric you're absolutely untouchable. No other wizard subclass is as strong as that. Level 8-10 you can solo the game with the build above. It's arguably the strongest build in the game. 1 level temp cleric also makes you tankier for early game with heavy armour but you can then change to lighter armour or use mage armour as your retaliation builds up and you actually want lower AC to force hits and get retaliation damage more.

[@Poppa_Capinyoaz]

So if you did that x4?

[@goatgoat944]

interesting do you recommend starting off as sorc or getting it later on like lvl 2/3 ?

[@daveyfunk]

@@goatgoat944 My personal choice would be Sorc 1st for con save, 1 or 2 levels Temp Cleric. 1 gets you heavy armour prof, shield prof, wrath of the storm, 2 levels gets you destructive wrath which then means you can get full damage from glyph of warding (lightning) when you get that, which is an abjuration damage spell. or any other lightning spell. Rest would be wizard. You might want to respec when you start going wizard to get int. Go for support spells from sorc and cleric. 1 sorc/1 cleric/10 wizard gets you improved abjuration. 1 sorc/2 cleric/9 wizard gets you destructive wrath

[@goatgoat944]

got the stat weights for before and after respec for me? you've convinced me to give it a whirl! haha@@daveyfunk

[@Karina-winsmore]

About conjuration. Raven familiar can fly quite a distance. You can fly it somewhere and then use benign transportation to swap places with it.

[@0110100001101111]

Your BG3 videos are really the best ones out there! Thanks for explaining, I played Wizard but never 100% understood what I was doing..

[@Gheshy]

Abjuration+that draconic bloodline that gives you armor of agithes. Up cast it using a free cast ability and kill all who dare touch you

[@freman007]

White Dragon.

[@borjinator]

Oh baby I'm excited for this one!

[@skylarguimond]

I think it was your video that helped me be ok with just picking a party comp and running one play through with them. However... Now I want to start a new playthrough and include a wizard in my party.

[@sev1120]

For Abjuration, it isn't purely defensive. Sure, until 5th level abjuration spells are defensive, but once you reach level 5, ans later 7, you gain access to Glyph of Warding and Banishment, two very good offensive abjuration spells

[@Hekk.]

Glyph is kinda bad, usually there are better options to cast at that level. Banishment is great... sometimes.

[@theenbee8222]

The Transmutation school ability of shapechanger seems to be unfinished or lackluster compared to other spells which alter your character's form. The CR limit is very low and it doesn't have the same capabilities as effects like polymorph or wildshape. Could be wrong about this but I'm not sure it even allows you to enter tiny areas; it certainly could have been better.

[@ShermTank7272]

Abjuration also synergises well with Warlock. Specifically, the invocation "Armour of Shadows" at level 2. Armour of Shadows lets you cast Mage Armour for free. So, you can cast Armour of Shadows, get one stack of Arcane Ward, equip a piece of armor to dispel the buff, rinse & repeat until you get maximum Arcane Ward stacks.

[@stratpatgames]

Really appreciate the breakdown of the subclass features

[@lydiasteinebendiksen4269]

The nerdy adhd energy in this video is making me happy. I'm a D&D dungeon master going on six years and I have over a hundred hours in bg3, I don't need this video for the facts. I need this video for the joyful vibes it brings, positive nerd energy

[@DrabWallDevice]

Necromancer! Gale's good at making friends.

[@walterkrueger5947]

Until you get to act 2 and do 0 damage to the shadows.

[@gregorde]

Abjuration is pretty noob friendly too. The ward is handy.

[@eldritchraz]

Found that abjuration wizard works extremely well multiclassed with war/tempest cleric Right now running just 1 level cleric and 11 in wizard, get heavy armor and all weapon proficiencies, as well as all my spell slots and wizard subclass features, can do fun things like use sanctuary/shield of faith, it's been super strong

[@MisterMacky]

This quickly became my favorite BG3 channel, great guides, take my sub!

[@daveyfunk]

The benefit of Abjuration Wizard is turning it into a retaliation tank and so you don't want to spec into fighter. Even without muticlassing you still have fire shield for retaliation, glyph of warding for attack, stone skin to reduce damage and they all boost your arcane ward. BUT a dip into Sorc and you get AoA and if you upcast that to the highest spellslot you get extra life making you the tankiest on the field and you deal unavoidable damage if hit and so you simply walk up to melee enemeies and force opportunity attacks. Add a level of Tempest Cleric and you then get wrath of the storm, AoA and fireshield You then still have all the defence of shield and counterspell and can still use fireball and anything else if you want. If you had 4 abjuration wizard with 1 level of sorc and 1 level of temp cleric you're absolutely untouchable. No other wizard subclass is as strong as that. Level 8-10 you can solo the game with the build above. It's arguably the strongest build in the game. 1 level temp cleric also makes you tankier for early game with heavy armour but you can then change to lighter armour or use mage armour as your retaliation builds up and you actually want lower AC to force hits and get retaliation damage more.

[@bvav9678]

I’m doing an abjuration wizard in a group game and it’s surprisingly tanky even at low levels. Mage armor plus dex modifier and a shield give me decent ac. Mage armor gives me ward and false life for some bonus hit points and I’ve got a nice buffer before enemies get to my actual hp. In combat I can use the shield spell to not only dodge attacks but also to replenish the ward. Got a mix of control and damage spells from there and it’s been working quite nicely.

[@daveyfunk]

@@bvav9678 If you take a dip into Sorcerer first this gives you con save and also take the draconic sorcerer that gives you Armor of Agathys. This makes Abjuration OP as you have the tankyness of Abjuration but if someone hits you they take cold damage. This makes you even tankier as melee attackers tend not to go for you, but you can also force opportunity attacks from melee attackers to force damage on them. If you wet them then they take double damage, so you upcast AoA using your highest spell slot and mobility is your best attack to force opportunity attacks. You could use your action to cast blade ward to reduce physical damage when you don't have a good option to attack with a spell

[@unholyxeras8182]

for the abjurer, a couple of potential dips that can make it nutty - first off, Warlock 2. Subclass doesn't matter, Charisma doesn't matter too much either cos we're here for two things...Armor of Agathys, an Abjuration spell that gives you 5 temp hp per spell level and deals 5 damage per spell level as long as you still have some of the temp HP. the damage reduction from the Abjuration ward makes this really really strong, as you take almost no damage as long as you can keep the ward filled, but anything that hits you take the full amount of damage back. We also want the invocation Armor of Shadows. This lets us cast Mage Armor at will. Thats a level 1 abjuration spell...so you can always have a full strength ward at no resource cost Another strong multiclass option is Cleric. We get a bunch of good spells that don't care too much about wisdom but are super valuable, like bless, cure wounds, healing word etc, keep full spell slot progression and get easy access to Heavy Armour proficiency with just a single level dip, but we could actually go with good wisdom, get 5 levels of cleric and now we can be almost indestructible on the frontline concentrating on spirit guardians, with a spiritual weapon out and just generally being too much of a nuisance to ignore. You could potentially combine these and take heavy armor master for more damage reduction on nonmagical physcial damage, which is most damage, but it comes at the cost of ward strength if you drop too many wizard levels. If they ever increase the level cap with expansion or something though I think warlock 2/cleric 5/abjurer X would be crazy strong

[@rollinbaker9469]

And, if you want to, get the headband of intellect almost immediately, and respec to get that WIS, or that CHA and lean into either of those two choices!

[@unholyxeras8182]

@@slawless9665 armour of shadows let's you cast mage armour at will...it lasts till long rest, but it cancels when you put armour on, so you keep taking your amour off, casting mage armour then putting your armour back on till the ward is full. It's admittedly a bit of a pain, and completely unusable in combat, but it lets you start each fight with a full ward which can then be topped up by other abjuration spells as needed You also get 2 short rest level 1 spell slots and the most important thing, access to armour of agathys letting you deal lots of damage for getting hit even though your mitigating almost all of the incoming damage. Basically, you want at least 1 warlock level anyway just for that spell, though 1 level of white draconic sorceror would be another option if you didn't want armour of shadows

[@lechecbb]

Thank you so much for this vid. I went into my current run set on a DU necromancy/shadow monk build but, since I'm not going past lvl 6 in wizard, I feel like I'm not making the best use of what the subclass has to offer. Act 2 has especially been rough, and would of been rougher if not for going into monk. I was on the fence about abjuration, but I think it actually might fit better with my tav, especially after your explanation. Cheers mate!

[@Yasuke001]

yuuhhh thanks for fueling my BG3 addiction bro

[@fernywerny1]

I want to play every class but damn there’s so much versatility with wizard. Abjuration actually sounds op

[@freman007]

I steal/buy all the scrolls I can and feed them to my Gale so that he has a full toolbox.

[@tylervincent2559]

That's my plan for my Tav. I like the idea of having a face that is a jack of all trades

[@CaptainBanjo-fw4fq]

I think I’ve found out a way to round out my “Nude Brood” playthrough with an abjuration wizard. This should supplement my planned barbarian, monk and sorcerer.

[@insomniacresurrected1000]

I am on like my 5th playthrough, have been periodically restarting since the early access. I am now playing a multiclass Bard/Wizard. And I have never been asked about the schools. Somehow I want a variety of spells.

[@bartnauwelaerts4283]

In my opinion the "savant" ability at level 2 should be expanded to also include the ability of learning all spells of your school, even those that are not usually wizard spells. That would go a long way to actually differentiate the wizards schools from each other and avoids stupid things like a conjuration wizard having to take a level of another class simply to conjure water. Hopefully someone will create a mod that'll do something like that :)

[@Sotanaht01]

Too strong. They already have powerful enough abilities, what with Evocation being the god of single-target damage, abjuration being literally unkillable, and transmuation sitting in camp giving out free buffs and making tons of potions.

[@kingofpotato9]

I would love if wizards where more dedicated to a singular school or small group of schools. It'd make the subclass choice way more impactful. But Letting evo wizards become the best healers in the game might end up being too much

[@deanwalker5367]

I'm an old school DND player from the 80's so forgive me for asking: Why does it cost gold to scribe a spell? Who is being paid? Is the gold lost to the ether or something? It doesnt make sense.

[@drunemeton]

5e states that it’s spent on special paper and special ink for your spell book.

[@deanwalker5367]

​@@drunemetonah ok cheers! Thanks for the reply.

[@declanmorden]

I love divination iwzard so much, my main Tav is a Wizard and Divination was my go to. I'm starting a Gale origin playthrough and while I usually keep Gale as Evocation I am definiltye going to play him as divination for the origin playthrough.

[@rosswoodland6449]

Great video. Thank you. always stuggled to get a grasp on the different schools of magic, this helped a LOT. :)

[@umaralrubai]

thanks for the upfront info bro, really appreciate it.

[@tofu_golem]

To me, the main reason to make a wizard character is that this is the only class with intelligence as the primary ability. This lets you breeze through all intelligence-based skill checks in dialog. Yeah, I know. I could technically use Gale for that, but I have a weird preference for using my main as the party face.

[@common_undead]

I find charisma with a proficiency in insight to be most useful for that, but realistically, just keep a wiz, a wisdom character, a charisma character and a melee brawler in your party and you're good to go (as long as you have someone on the team who can disarm traps and open locks).

[@FallenFromGlory]

charisma is enough for that, you could also just get the int somewhere else, like the headband of intellect

[@dairyqueen8402]

36:40 I love this reference so much

[@tsulkalu4589]

Illusion is better in Pathfinder, because you can imitate spells from different schools of magic, and if enemy fail check on illusory fireball for example, that spell will do full damage like normal version of fireball. Don`t think that Larian will add that because looks like content work on this game ended, but that is good idea for mod creators how to buff Illusionist in lore friendly way.

[@fiveforbiting]

Best wizard school is: Fuck school, just be born awesome.

[@Hailstormful]

Abjuration wizard goes pretty hard making sure nobody on the team dies, plus Glyph of Warding is secretly kinda busted...

[@heresgriffy]

thanks for the advice, going evocation. Liked the video and closing the vid after one and a half minutes. will be back later

[@jakewarman7277]

Abjuration is definitely the best if you mix with the first level in blue dragon sorcerer for armor of agathys. If you do this at level 12 you can take heavy armor master you can have an arcane ward of 20 so you reduce damage by minimum of 23 not including any gear that would reduce it further and reflecting a full 6th level aoa. For 30 plus fire shield (Cold). This is doubled of they are wet for roughly 80 damage that you can inflict by running around taking of attacks of opportunities and you can still sling spells as an action and or bonus action.

[@agitated.tachyon]

Currently running a 1 Fighter / 5 Wizard (abjuration) / 1 Warlock, aiming for 1F, 9W, 2W. Heavy Armor, shields, Infinite mage Armor to charge up arcane ward (valid RAW in 5e), level 5 Armor of Agathys, plus abjuration spells like blur and shield; I block any damage I don’t want to take, and anytime I choose to let melee damage in, they barely do anything and get nuked by AoA 😈

[@DiEaBoLiK83]

If you want content ideas, spell tier lists would be nice. Maybe gear ones too.

[@charlesbryson7443]

Evocation and abjuration are my favorites

[@crossc1988]

Abjuration doesn't have to be just defensive...if you find a way to get Armor of Agathys it will SEVERELY increase your potency as a spellcaster. Its abjuration, and it deals x amount of damage to melee attackers as long as the temp hp holds. Heres the thing though, that temp HP doesn't take damage first...your arcane ward does. So, you can literally pump up your charges (there are cheese tactics to doing this, but non cheese works just fine) and trigger reaction attacks and basically force enemies to explode, while u take no damage. Its quite overpowered.

[@egyptian316]

Illlusionist is a rogue's best friend. You need to be using that Minor Illusion bonus action to get the enemies facing the right way, to set up stealth attacks. It sounds specific, but almost everyone is using Astarion, so why not get that bonus damage?

[@christinehede7578]

How do you know almost everyone is using Astarion? I am on my third play through and have used him the most in this last one. I still leave him in camp a lot.

[@egyptian316]

@@christinehede7578 Just basing that on anecdotal evidence. :) It's a lot easier to do a lot of things in-game if you have a rogue in the group, and he's a decent one.

[@christinehede7578]

@@egyptian316 never used him at all in my first two play throughs, used him more this time but only for the occasions when you have to roll a thirty to lockpick

[@ArthKryst]

My fav is Abjuration because my wiz can use Armor of Agathis (2lvls to warlock) and provoke opportunity attacks and do free damage while taking none. Not only that, Dual wielding makes my Abjuration wizard get more broken because of the staves my wiz can now equip is crazy giving more attacking opportunity.

[@xeroterragoth1866]

Sorry, I laughed at the Ice Knife bit lol I also thought it was an evocation spell until I hit a few allies with it 🤣

[@xeroterragoth1866]

Also, pretty sure I used the Ilithid Charm multiple times without short/long resting, so IMHO it's better than the enchantment version.

[@techninja3001]

4 abjuration wizards with 1 level dip in dragonic sorcerer (for that ice shield) and 1 in War cleric (for heavy armor and shield). Basically unstoppable party. 27-30 AC , tons of fake hp and wards plus shield!

[@Re3Ns]

How do you deal with ranged enemies and casters?

[@techninja3001]

@@Re3Ns the wizards all have access to lots of spells.

[@anormos7270]

I absolutely love 7 eldritch knight/5 abjuration mage

[@dennislee5882]

Abjuration is freaking ridiculous! My Gale is a draconic sorcerer 8 and abjuration wizard 4, has 21 AC with robes on and 8 stacks of Arcane ward up nearly all the time. Tankiest wizard ever lol. I don't even care about the damage I'm missing out on from Evocation as Magic missile + spellmight gloves and lightning staff obliterate everything.

[@Blakobness]

The level 10 conjuration perk is kind of nice since you essentially don't need to take Warcaster or Resilient: con to maintain conjuration spells freeing you up to try out some other feats (take your ability enhancements earlier, maybe try Defensive Duellist, Spell Sniper), and looking at the spell lists conjuration spells are usually very critical spells that you're going to want to keep up. Almost all of the AoE area denial or lockdown spells are Conjuration. Web, Stinking Cloud, Cloud of Daggers, Sleet Storm, Evard's Black Tentacles, and Cloudkill, conjuration essentially does lockdown much better than Enchantment. Call Lightning while a conjuration spell, is unfortunately not in the Wizard's arsenal. Along with Insect Plague, and Hadar's Hunger; and they're to high level a spell to multiclass into their respective classes and still have lvl10 wizard, and I've not seen them as scrolls. The real downside away from "it doesn't make my conjuration better", is that this doesn't come online until level 10; all of your early level lockdown spells will not see use from this ability until you're progressed quite far into the game, meaning you'll get the best out of Conjuration after a respec from something else. Hard sell for a player going into the game for the first time, to be sure. I ran Gale as an Evoker for simplicity, but now that I'm more acclimated to the game I kind of like the risk of and having to plan for friendly fire more than letting a class perk negate that. In my next playthrough I'll probably run Gale as a Conjurer or Diviner, but multiclass him out of Diviner at 6 because I don't think the lvl10 ability is really that great. Not sure what a great switch would be though. I could drop the levels in Rogue, I'm kind of interested to see how Wizard/Arcane Trickster meshes out. But at that point it might as well be Astarian instead. There are too many sources of See Invisibility and Darkvision to take four more class levels just to get it even more on tap.

[@Hekk.]

Just multi with cleric or eldritch knight, maybe even ranger or paladin - no stat restrictions on BG3 ;)

[@Blakobness]

@@Hekk. I'm not so much worried about stat restrictions, just with what would really synergize well.

[@vampiregoat69]

LOL your wizard looks like the EATER OF DOUGHNUTS

[@tylervincent2559]

Damn that's harsh lol. Different people different tastes!

[@cyrylkowalczyk9392]

Thanks to scroll scribing wizard have great multiclassing potential with cleric. Depending on school you preffer it is a good idea to recognize when the bonuses you get start to be underwhelming. The only schools that get really good effects at level 10 are Evocation, Enchantment and Abjuration. Diviners, Necromancers and Tranamuters can switch to cleric as early as level 6 without loosing much.

[@bobnewkirk7003]

you can cheese it a little bit with gear and a level 1 dip in cleric and wizard. I played through on a Spore druid (10) with a dip in each, and ended up having a pretty wild list of spells by the end.

[@hasseo195]

Evocation is the most usefull school, from what i had to yet. The enemy are gathering so often around my people, that i need the safe zone of the evocation part. Otherwise, wouldnt wizard be able to even use any aoe spells in that situation. The other school im interested is necromancy. Because, i simply like the idea of beeing one. But, at the same time did it not feel fitting to me, to summon other beeings (dont a fun of dragging other in my problems).

[@common_undead]

Hey, amazing video as usual. I've been listening in off and on on multiple videos because you do a really good job explaining things to someone who's new to 5E and bg3 and have given me multiple ideas for building out satisfying roleplay appropriate characters. What follows is a bit of a rant regarding some of the things about the wizard subclass that I feel exasperated trying to build with. The conjuration school annoys me quite a bit. Mainly because I feel like it's abilities would allow for a very cool gish with an Eldtrich Knight that can do battlefield control very effectively, zipping to places, having cc capabilities, dishing decent damage in melee and being able to swap places with squishier or hurt allies . But unfortunately there's not enough support for the idea I feel. Like you go eldritch knight 6/conj. wizard 6. You still get 3 feats + all the martial essentials (heavy/medium armor prof., martial weapons, extra attack, a fighting style), but now you can also cast any 3rd level wizard spell. And after casting an abjuration spell, you can teleport or swap places with your cleric or sorcerer who got jumped by an enemy that you didn't see coming. Here's where the issue mainly lies: 1) The teleportation requires an action and not a bonus action like misty step, or jump, or dash (via the boots of speed or multiclassing into rogue), and so to close the gap effectively, you'd have to cast a conjuration spell on 1 round, teleport on the next, and only then can you start being effective in melee. It's much easier and more convenient to have misty step on hand via items or otherwise, or just use fly since wizards already have access to that. 2) The wizard spelllist for conjuration spells (and conjuration spells in general), are quite lack luster at level 3 or below. Wizards/EKs can only use these conjuration spells at level 3 or lower: fog cloud, grease, ice knife, find familiar, misty step (already better than the teleport that you can get from conj. wiz), flaming sphere, web, cloud of daggers, sleet storm or stinking cloud (currently bugged, but could potentially be really good). Most of these spells are either directly outclassed by others that require a lower level spell slot, or spells that can nuke something from across the battlefield and eliminate threats that way without ever needing to come into melee. The first one is by far the bigger issue, since the spells can still have some niche uses. But it feels very cumbersome to go, "oh my sorcerer got jumped, let's use grease or ice knife to slow them down so we can teleport/swap places next turn and then fight on the grease/ice knife the turn after that", instead of just going evocation and throwing a fireball or something else to deal significant damage to the threat and then using fly or misty step to close the gap on the same turn normally. Also (more rant, sorry): why isn't darkness a conjuration spell? Some of these categories don't make sense in my opinion. Especially since hunger of hadar and evard's black tentacles are conjuration spells.

[@PapaTanduo]

I like abjuration and evocation... abjuration gives you and your aliies great defence which is nice... but if you wanna be a real kick ass massive damage wizard : evocation hands down. theres nothing better then dumping 2 uped fireballs (haste) on your melee fighteres and seeing everything around them vaporize while they keep standing without a scratch !!

[@italianspartacus]

Abjuration is damn fun!

[@JohnVanderbeck]

The only thing that sucks in my mind about abjuration is that your ward is based in WIZARD level not character level

[@funkkymonkey6924]

Dont discount Conjuration, not losing your concentration saves your action economy along with your spell slots. Also you can do a lot with the lvl 2 and lvl 6.

[@colmortimer1066]

I have a nice Eldritch Knight character I have been thinking a bout, using some spells and a lot of shield reaction, but that Abjuration class looked interesting, if I add 4 levels of wizard, I would lose 1 attack, a re-roll on saving throws, and eldritch strike that with give disadvantages on spell saves. But I would gain 3 rd level slots, and 2 4th level, be able to scribe scrolls, and have 8 max arcane ward...there would also be some hp loss. It's a tough choice with arcane recovery I have double the spells per day, I would assume I will use a lot of first level shield spells, so would recover those. I'll probably play the Eldritch Knight for a bit, and at level 5, 7, and 9 I'll consider to go my 4 wizard levels or not, based on if I feel I need more spells/slots, these levels are right after I get a feat. Also, I need to make Gale a diviner sometime, my current game I went conjuration and he's okay..I do like the school just not the bonuses.

[@aaronprince2229]

Awesome video

[@climhazzard115]

Having a hard time deciding on which one to use for Gale, considering his story. I've respecced him more times than all my other party members, lol. I guess I'm leaning towards Abjuration or Divination. I don't need any more glass cannons in my party, so evocation is out; and though necromancy is strong, it doesn't seem fitting for Gale.

[@johnbryant6690]

War, Tempest or Lift Cleric + Abjuration wizard. 12 lvls of pure caster AND heavy armor.

[@Sideway8]

I've got the asshole who led the goblins to the druid grove stuffed in my travellers chest at camp _just waiting_ for when my necromancer hits level 6 lol

[@slawless9665]

10:00 you mentioned Blade Ward in combination with Abjurer - this does not work as Blade Ward is a cantrip; Abjuration spells need to be at least level 1 to add that much to your ward. At Warlock level 2 one possible Eldritch Invocation you can choose will give access to one extra use of Mage Armor (must target self) per long rest that doesn't use up a spell for a little extra benefit. Probably not worth it on its own but if you're already building a multiclass Pact of the Blade tanky Warlock, it might be worth considering adding 2 or 6 levels of Abjurer.

[@italianspartacus]

You're totally right man I correct this in an upcoming video

[@feveredmushroomHD]

Wizards We tank We damage We win 🔥

[@dai7v7]

K so as a Transmutation wizard I can't make my brother into a suit of armor, but can I make a talking dog tho?

[@italianspartacus]

Today is a good day for rain 😢

[@Warrigt]

What did fextralife do?

[@melaniabladeofmiquella]

I came here looking for an answer too, this goes deeper than either of us ever imagined

[@chrisgee8441]

Aura of hate is 7, so sadly no necro combo… but being oathbreaker with a necro/spore companion…

[@Obi_Jawn_Kenobi]

What site didn’t you want to promote? You mentioned it in the beginning.

[@n.lischko1312]

You're not going to turn your brother into a suit of armor lol 😂

[@25xxfrostxx]

I can't bring myself to play anything but Transmutation. It's just too good.

[@Hekk.]

But it doesn't do anything? It just makes alchemy better and give you CON saves prof.. ?

[@25xxfrostxx]

@@Hekk. The transmuter stone gives multiple bonuses 9I prefer movement speed) and a medicine check makes double potions. For some of the elixirs and later game potions, that's huge due to the component rarity.

[@asleepinthewoods3178]

@@Hekk. If you are willing to purchase specific materials, and don't want to cheese huge stacks of items with pickpocketing, it can end up feeling really good. Besides the blue jay (lol), it is a subclass where getting value out of both class features is very easy. If you don't break the game with camp followers, then a transmuter wizard with cleric dip gets: double potions craft (dark urge background has medicine prof), transmuter stone, high armor class from cleric heavy armor/shield+staff, can concentrate on bless, hide behind sanctuary, and end up providing a lot between there level one slots and items they produce - all with minimum wizard finger wiggling during combat

[@danmcnamara4640]

personally i like abjuration, because arcane ward is nice

[@geherrit1989]

Level 6 oathbreaker and level 6 wizard - sadly does not get the mentioned aura of hate whis is a level 7 class feature

[@TOSUnbound]

Was the third eye blind reference a mistake or a subtle joke thrown in? lol I can never tell

[@bobnewkirk7003]

19:20 Build doesn't work. Oathbreaker needs level 7 for AOH, so there is no way you can pick up a 6 level split with Necromancer/Spore for improved minions. Additionally, Aura of Hate specifies "Melee weapon attack" and almost all minions use Unarmed Attacks or Ranged attacks. Really bummed me out when i tried to put one together.