The Evoker: Part 2 of a Treantmonk Build Guide

[@TreantmonksTemple]

Today we discuss the Wizard Evoker. This video is Part 2 of a 3 part series. In Part 1 there is an overview of the build and discussions of levels 1-4. In part 3 we discuss the higher levels. If you haven't seen part 1 of this series, I suggest watching it before this part: Part 1: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jGXcpWOvZ52hoLs For the final portion of this build, the link to the next part is here: Part 3: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jIWzo4Ccr76Wlck If you want to see the final build, you can view it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jIWzo4Ccr76Wlck

[@SharanjitPaddam]

Summary 1: Forest Gnome. SA 8/15/13/14/12/10. Wizard 1: Arcana, History/Investigation, Fire Bolt, Frostbite, Mage hand, Mage Armor*, Shield*, Absorb Elements*, Thunder wave*, Detect Magic, Find Familiar. Sage: Perception, Stealth. Dagger, Component Pouch, Explorer’s Pack. 2: Wizard 2: Evoker, Alarm, Magic Missile* 3: Wizard 3: Shatter*, Levitate*, Thunder wave(*) 4: Wizard 4: Resilient Constitution, Ray of Frost, Misty Step*, Web 5: Wizard 5: Fireball*, Melf’s Minute Meteors*, Magic Missile(*) 6: Wizard 6: Counterspell*, Leomund’s tiny hut 7: Wizard 7: Polymorph*, Storm Sphere*, Shatter(*) 8: Wizard 8: ASI INT x2, Vitriolic Sphere*, Fire Shield* 9: Wizard 9: Cone of Cold*, Wall of Force*, Fire Shield(*) 10: Wizard 10: Light, Rary’s Telepathic Bond, Telekinesis*

[@n33d135]

Just fyi, I'm pretty sure it's minute (my newt) as in small/tiny rather than minute (min it) the unit of time. English is weird but since they're small meteors and the spell actually lasts 10 minutes I think this makes the most sense.

[@thenightowldude]

I was just going to point this out. Now if only he could say Eberron correctly...

[@BreakingStarGames]

@@thenightowldude what are you talking about? He said it perfectly in part 1

[@fortunatus1]

@@thenightowldude lol yes. It's Ebb er on.

[@joespacemonster]

Yep

[@Ciberbuster]

With a blaster I would always look for ways to deal more damage. I'll consider spells like animate objects, just for the damage. Also would look for ways to restraint creatures so sickening radiance kicks. I'd work with the party for them to use abilities that stun and paralize to negate those dex saves.

[@paulmiller6431]

Thanks for the video! I always find your videos informative and help me consider builds I have never tried before.

[@binolombardi]

Did you consider taking thunderclap as a cantrip? -It’s evocation -hits multiple enemies that wanna swarm you. -You can protect one ally from it -You get to add int to damage eventually -passes for half eventually too -can be used in conjunction with misty step for a mini Thunderstep. -you can do this indefinitely at 18th level and out damages the 3rd level slot of thunderstep

[@KhristianBolano]

The problem is that if you're being swarmed you shouldn't cast this cantrip, you should get out of there since your AC and HP is probably low. You're not a Fighter or a Paladin, you also have Concentration to mantain, and it targets Constitution which is literally the worst save to target statistically.

[@binolombardi]

Khristian Bolano The point of my comment was that the cantrip be used In conjunction with misty step, so you could do decent damage as well as escape via bonus action teleportation. I’ll try to be more clear in the future with better bullet formatting.

[@KhristianBolano]

@@binolombardi oh that's a nice idea, though Evokers are already kinda full of cantrips to pick. It's hard to make it fit

[@simonburling3762]

Wall of Force, one DM I was playing with, restarted his campaign with a different group and banned it

[@binolombardi]

Shatter is really good for destroying non magical objects. Evocation wizard is the best with it too. Only takes a few moments and slots to topple an entire tower.

[@Wanderingsage7]

Second tier wizards are honestly neat, but still vulnerable to archers, especially hidden archers. There's wall of wind granted.

[@greghamilton9505]

Everyone is vulnerable to hidden archers lol. That’s why you have mage armor and shield

[@davidpirkola1547]

Hi Chris! Thanks for the videos. I know you're not a fan of Sickening Radiance, but it's way better for evokers.

[@KhristianBolano]

I still have to watch part 3. I have some opinions about your spell choices: 1) Fireball is of course amazing and the great area works wonderfully with Sculpt Spell. 2) Here's where I don't agree with you: Melf's Meteors. I see that you can save the Meteors for the situations where you really can get High mileage of what we can call "mini fireballs", and the fact it's a lasting thing makes It a better use of a slot.. But Is It actually Better than just casting a Fireball? At the end of the day, all the Meteors in total deal more damage than a Fireball but it's spreaded out in turns, requires concentration, and have a much less radius. Plus, they deal Fire damage which is already covered. It's still a blasty spell so It fits the theme, but I don't like the choice at all. I would have gone for Slow. It's a really good debuff spell, the only Resistance it's going to meet Is High Wisdom saves, and it debuffs Dexterity saves as well. Our Dex based AoE spells will be drastically Better if Slow Is active. Slow also reduces speed and makes enemies much weaker, which surely helps because our aoes can hit more enemies and we're also Better protected against aggression. 3) I really like Storm Sphere, High damage spell + Battlefield control and good damage type. 4) Vitriolic Sphere is much Better than a 4th level Fireball but unless the enemy is resistant to Fire you can just cast Fireball at 3rd level and still get really good damage. I don't think it's worth to pick this up. Since I removed the Meteors, we can pick Wall of Fire if we Need the huge area of damage plus battlefield control. Or we can pick Sickening Radiance: Radiant damage Is good, less damage and area than Wall of Fire but It also debuffs the enemies by giving them exhaustion. If the enemy is Tough to kill, the exhaustion Will make things much worse for it. And Sculpt spell really makes things awesome: you can ask the Fighter or the Barbarian to Simply grapple the enemies and keep them in the radiance. Sculpt spell Will do the job. 5) A Wizard can be a good Wizard even without Polymorph. I wouldn't pick It honestly since Evokers are much more specialized than other wizards in terms of spell picks. 6) Wall of Force Is Indeed powerful but much like Polymorph It doesn't get mileage out of our features. If we pick other good Evocation spells we'd still be good Wizards. I'd go for Bigby's Hand: It Is true that we already have Storm Sphere, but it's a better spell in terms of versatility AND damage. Also, no one seems to notice that It scales VERY well in damage. At higher levels, if I wanted to deal single target damage as a bonus action, an upcast Bigby's Hand Will Always be very strong.

[@KhristianBolano]

@@sharkforce8147 even if you get to use something with your bonus action, its damage overall is only a bit higher than Fireball. It's a Fireball that requires concentration that spreads its damage over several turns in pin-pointed locations, which is not a bad thing per se, but I still don't like it that much since I can already take Fireball in the first place.

[@malchir4036]

Storm sphere's problem is that it's a concentration spell. There are far better uses for concentration than damage dealing, even as an evoker. Same with MMM. Vitriolic sphere is meh. If you can't blast it with fireball, why not just use other types of spells? I know the concept of the build in the video is pure blaster, but you don't have to be. Polymorph is one of the most OP and fun spells in the game. Toss your nearly dead dwarf tank into a pack of enemies and get a T-rex at lvl 8. Blast his enemies with fireball while he stays out of the fire. You might get a pissed off dwarf after, but that's how an evoker do. Wall of force is kind of boring. It reminds me of pre-school "you don't get to play". Great if you want to betray certain party members though.

[@KhristianBolano]

@@malchir4036 Storm Sphere is a concentration crowd control + bonus action damage, it really has no problems. If it didn't require concentration it would have been super overpowered. Better damage dealing? Well, in some situations a Wall of Fire will deal more damage, those situations are when the enemy is not immune/resistant to Fire and when the Wall can reliably apply the damage (requires proper environment, positioning and possibly some party coordination). Aside from the Sphere CC (which will abuse corridors), the bonus action damage is easier to apply. I don't like Vitriolic Sphere either, but there may be situations where you need a concentrationless damage spell that isn't Fire type, and with your 4th level slots Vitriolic Sphere is the most damaging one. It could be argued though that Erupting Earth or even Tidal Wave would be better choices, because of the nice additional effects despite the lower damage. No one said Polymorph is a bad spell or anything similiar, I just said that I'm basically on the whole opposite part of Treantmonk's mentality. Just because I'm a Wizard I don't have to pick Polymorph, Wall of Force and Minor Illusion (I'll always take Find Familiar though). Wizards are great also because of things such as huge spell versatility and the nice subclass features, eccetera eccetera. I'm playing an evoker, I don't have to pick Polymorph just because I'm a Wizard. I prefer to stick to the specific character concept rather than the general Wizard theme. If I was a more CC or buff/debuff-focused Wizard I would always at least consider Polymorph.

[@malchir4036]

@@KhristianBolano "Storm Sphere is a concentration crowd control + bonus action damage, it really has no problems. If it didn't require concentration it would have been super overpowered" Halving movement is pretty meh as crowd control, and the damage isn't that great. Sculpt spell also only applies to the turn the spell is cast, so you might annoy your melee allies. The bonus action also counts as a spell(I've seen some people argue against it but our storm sorcerer convinced us it is) so no other spellcasting if you want to use it. Before the evocation nerf this spell was OP, now it's a 2 star spell.

[@KhristianBolano]

@@malchir4036 Difficult terrain is very good for you since you're 99% a frail party member as a Wizard. Enemies that have their strongest attack in their melee option (most monsters) won't be able to get you so easily, and escaping is also kinda difficult. It's also very strong in tight spaces and the area is very large. It may annoy your melee mates, chances are that enemies will either stay inside the sphere which grants you advantage on the bonus action attack, or they're outside, which doesn't annoy anyone. Melee characters often have Strength saving throw proficiency or some kind of bonus on them. Fighters, Rangers and Barbarians have them by default, Paladins add their Charisma to them because of Aura of Protection and they're mostly strength based. In the case you don't have a good Strength save such as most Warlocks (that will be less if the Eldritch Armor UA invocation gets released) then it's just 2D6 damage if you end your turn inside the sphere. Really hard to actually annoy your party members, as it's just a topping. Sculpt Spell doesn't specify that it only works on the first turn. It says that the chosen creatures automatically succeed against the saving throws of the spell and they take no damage if they would do as a result of succeeding, so if you're an Evoker that 20ft area of 2D6 damage against a Strength save is completely safe for your allies, unless your DM wants to make it worse for some reason. By RAW Sculpt spell works like this. Finally, the bonus action from Storm Sphere doesn't count as your bonus action spell cast. This is simply because you're not casting any spell. The spell casting occurs when you spend your spell slot to cast the spell, every other interaction with that spell is not a spell cast.

[@Banejbt]

Aw yeah, Storm Sphere and Vitriolic Sphere. I always pick those when I have an excuse to.

[@nickm9102]

I understand why you chose Fireball for the build but I personally choose Lightening Bolt because if I battle a 5th lvl Wizard or higher I expect to see 3 spells for me to scribe Fireball, Counterspell, and Dispel Magic. And I save to scribe them but If I don't have a scroll or spell book by lvl 6 I take Counter and Dispel.

[@joaosol7234]

Thoughts on greater invisibility for this build? Since evokers don't rely as much on concentration, we could use it for a great defense while blasting all day long

[@TreantmonksTemple]

Couldn't we get basically the same benefit from blur? (Assuming most blasts we cast won't involve an attack roll)

[@joaosol7234]

@@TreantmonksTemple not exactly, greater invisibility also protects you from targeted ability's and even in terms of being attacked, the opponent automatically misses you if he shoots in the wrong direction, what you can deceive him to by moving after casting your spells.

[@KhristianBolano]

@@joaosol7234 People can't target you with spells and abilities that require you to see your target, but invisibility doesn't protect you from regular attacks. RAW people still know your exact position unless you succesfully Hide from them, because you still leave traces and sounds. I don't think it makes a lot of sense and a lot of DMs don't go for this ruling at all, but by RAW you still need to take the Hide action. On the other hand you can always take the Hide action while invisible, and reasonable DMs that still go for the official ruling will probably give you advantage in that.

[@MethosJK9]

Greater invisibility also prevents spells you cast from being countered as the countering caster has to see the spell being cast.

[@jessebruffett]

Mathematically toll the dead is better for an evoker because of Potent Cantrip than even Frostbite with Potent Cantrip AND Empowered Evocation. Toll the dead has more damage potential as you gain tiers as well. The real shame and possibly by design, is that there isnt a good save based evocation cantrip thats available to wizards unless you HB one. Personally I'd love to see a lightning based save cantrip in the d8 or d10 range that isnt the dumpster fire that is lightning lure. That or see potent cantrip altered so that ALL damage dealing cantrips, attack and save, deal half damage on a missed attack or successful save.

[@ianchamberlain9487]

For this build, how do you feel about Elemental Adept (Fire) at 4 instead of warcaster? So many of the good damage spells for wizards are Fire, and Fire is the most commonly resisted element. This would let you no longer need to be as versatile in your damaging spell selection and open you up to more options for your other spells, especially at the 3rd and 4th spell levels.

[@TreantmonksTemple]

I think I talked about that, I prefer the damage-type versatility. Concentrating on fire kind of screws you if you are going against fire immunity.

[@ianchamberlain9487]

@@TreantmonksTemple That makes a lot of sense and I agree long term is the way to go. I guess I just saw that it was almost all fire damage at level 5 and started trying to think of how to solve that problem for the campaign I'll be playing in, which is Avernus and will likely have a lot of fire resistance. However, using an entire ASI to solve a 1 or 2 level problem on thinking about it does seem like overkill.

[@KhristianBolano]

Actually, Elemental Adept in Fire is one of the worst element options along with Poison. If something is resistant to Fire it's gonna be very obvious, so just cast another spell instead.

[@MethosJK9]

@@KhristianBolano poison isn't an elemental option.

[@jag519]

Why not take sickening radiance?

[@minibuscus2]

Hi my man, the build link to dnd beyond is a vid link to part 3. This is the same on all videos

[@TreantmonksTemple]

Thanks for letting me know. I'll get that fixed this afternoon

[@ts25679]

Please forgive me if this makes me a pedant, but is it not mi-nute meaning small meteor?

[@philosopherhobbs]

Taking polymorph was a cop-out. It's powerful, I get it, but it doesn't fit flavor-wise with your "elementalist" at all. Same thing with Wall of Force. Wall of Earth makes more sense for your "elementalist."