I second this comment. Mark of Warding adds armor of Agythys, as well as 8 other spells known, bonus spell slots for alarm, mage armor, arcane lock 1/day, and +1d4 on investigation and thieves tools rolls and dark vision. At the cost of 1 AC and immunity to disease, and a need to sleep, eat and breathe Not to mention the option to pick up more mark related character options. (If your DM uses the non WotC keith Baker stuff) I would point out that the 1 level you don't take in warlock can be spent in Artificer for an ASI or wizard for 9th lvl spells. The ASI means a feat, making up for the AC drop at minimum.
Right! I did actually look at this and gave it consideration. I should have mentioned it. I think ultimately I decided against because of the AC bump and disease immunity from War Forged (plus I just really loved the idea of a War Forged Artificer for RP purposes) but not discussing in the vid was a fail!
@@DnDDeepDive I can see how not mentioning it made the video easier to lay out. Also worth noting, getting anti life shell on your tank is an amazing tool for stopping enemies from getting past you. Mark of Warding adds that to your wizard list, and allows your clerics to concentrate on other things.
A smart barbarian? A smarbarian! A paladin reveller? A paveller! A ranger of the city? A ritty! A wizard tank? A w...wicked idea for a build. Can't think of a name.
Useful Abjurer tip, courtesy of Treantmonk. Alarm is an abjuration ritual one can use to top the ward out of combat without using spell slots. It's slow and tedious, but it works.
id say thats an out dated optimal thing it was ok in the past but NOW with eldtrich initiate you get at will mage armor granting you a two minute charge time for the ward at level 20 and you can get this early if you play varient human
@@godminnette2 a feat that lets you always keep your ward up instantly after every fight. feats are meant to make you stronger this makes you stronger, plus for a wizard you dont need a ton of feats
@@christophercrafte it won't be instantly if the character is wearing heavy armor. You have to be unarmored to cast Mage Armor, otherwise, yeah, the feat works.
New big brain idea. For the Warlock part go Genie and Dao for the bludgeoning damage, now when you hit with the booming blade you can choose to add your proficiency bonus in bludgeoning damage, now if you have taken Crusher you can move them 5 feet (dealing bludgeoning) so you can move them away from you AND your friends. Meaning if they want to attack anyone (unless they have reach/ranged) they are going to trigger the booming blade damage to come into melee again.
Biceps, pecks, chiseled chin line, university diploma, photos of his kid on the wall. Respect for different cultures and religions visible in the souvenirs from his travels around the world. Yep - definitely a wizard player
Lol. How is that a wizard? i'd wager hes a ranger. Travel, cultures, physical build (homelander!), knowledge about creatures... that screams ranger to me. If we factor in that he has a guitar and iirc likes to write stories then another pick (or multiclass) would be bard. So i'd say colby is a ranger/bard multiclass.
@@DnDDeepDive might be a good discussion/community post? everyone can share what class/classes they are based on their life experience/lifestyle/job/skills/talents. :)
I realise that the controls are only meant to represent how much damage you can survive, but if you cast Armour of Agathys with a 7th level spell slot the Adult Red Dragon would die twice over before it managed to kill you which makes this build even more insane XD
Just got to the part about War Caster, and you'll get no arguments here. In fact, it's actually even less restrictive than you mentioned for artificers specifically. From the basic rules: "A spellcaster must have a hand free to access a spell's material components -- or to hold a spellcasting focus -- but it can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform somatic components." Because artificer spells all require a material component even a Battle Smith with a sword and shield doesn't need War Caster to cast their artificer spells as long as said sword is infused, and thus counts as a spellcasting focus.
I'm pretty new to your channel man, and I've got to say, as a long time dnd min-maxer myself, I love seeing other peoples builds and not needing to do the work myself 😂😂. Big love man, you've got yourself a new loyal viewer
Didn't see this mentioned yet, but... If you either take a second level of warlock or just go for the eldritch adept feat, you can take armor of shadows to get Mage Armor at will and constantly be able to refill your arcane ward to maximum.
You cant ignore celestial warlocks healing ability which adds an additional 2d6 that can be healed as a bonus action to you or an ally. It makes it the clear choice for this build.
I've got a lot of experience with this type of character, It's my favourite to play. Heres my essay There are a few cheesy things you can do with arcane ward, deep gnome gets at-will casting of non-detection, and warlock 2 (Or eldritch adept) gets at-will casting of mage armour, which both heal your ward really fast. I don't really like either but it's there. Couple of things I do differently/ advice: First off, use your roleplaying to taunt, abuse the monsters, pretend to show weak points, boast about how much impact you're having. This will help make you a target and it's spell slot free and fun to do. Especially effective against melee opponents that speak your language. A lot of people have talked about it but Mark of Warding I think is easily the best choice here (AoA, give away a mage armour and set up your ward. That's a whole level you took for warlock). I personally went 1 Artificer/ X Wizard instead of 3 artificer levels, obviously, armourer is still a good choice but I'm not a huge fan for a few reasons. 1) I was quite concerned with keeping spell slot progression, I really felt it when I was testing with warlock when other party members had 3rd/ 4th level slots and I didn't, and 2nd level artificer delays your spell slots a level. 2) The temporary hit points are redundant with Armor of Agathis (AoA) but obviously, It's just a small bonus anyways. 3) Heavy armour only adds a +1 AC which is good but not worth delaying upcasting of AoA or a bigger ward imo (In practice you have much more hit point survivability and against melee opponents I often let them hit me to deal damage from AoA so I think bolstering that adds more to your survivability than AC) 4) The guardian attack will always be worse than casting a spell, however I think it is better than a lot of your cantrip options, but only because of the disadvantage, which is only against 1 enemy once per turn and takes a whole action, not worth it in most cases imo. But I'd still prefer setting up things like total cover for a ranged attacker with minor illusion. And any leveled spell you'd otherwise be casting is a better option. 5) Also delays wizard levels by 2 for great spells including defensive ones like haste, and features like spell resistance and improved abjuration. Just the 1 level in artificer is enough to totally start playing the tank roll. If you are sold on the armourer though I highly suggest delaying level 2 and 3 until you're at least a level 5 wizard, this gets you're arcane ward and AoA up and running earlier and will make you much tankier, not to mention other defensive spells (Shield etc) that you get access to. Also take replicate magic item with an infusion and get a spellwrought tattoo, you can get a 1st level spell to everyone, so over a few days you can give everyone in the party familiars, and on following days tattoo one of the familiars with a bless for concentration free buffing. Other things: Think about places your defences don't cover (Grapples, saves etc) Blade ward is a useful spell for the first time ever, if you're being targeted by B/P/S melee opponents it doubles the 'hp' of AoA, we play that resistance works on arcane ward so it also doubles that. It's basically used when you'd otherwise dodge so not often but it's still good to have. Thorn whip is better than lightning lure, use that instead. Alarm gives you a way to heal your ward for free outside of combat (ritual, 2HP/ 10m so it's quite slow) Fog Cloud is a great defensive tool in a pinch, lots of spells can't be cast when obscured and is a really effective way for your party to hide/scatter when shit hits the fan, also gives disadvantage to hit against any party members with Alert. Misty Step avoids grapples and forced movement (A tactic for getting you out of the way to deal with the party) I like warcaster more than usual because otherwise an opportunity attack from you is very weak and a monster can just run past you to your party and barely take a scratch. I use grease if you've got concentration up, Hideous laughter if you don't, could always booming blade as well. Use summons to increase the things your enemies need to get to before they reach your friends, these can be large and imposing. Summon greater demon is my favourite. Bigbys hand is also great for stopping people reaching the squishys, and getting them away once they do. Also focus on Crowd Control as it's another way to protect your friends. (Web, fear etc) Also your simulacrum is much harder to kill than normal because your arcane ward and AoA still have full hitpoints Level 6 Damage Report: You have 46 Hp, 3rd level AoA (15), 14 Arcane Ward (+Int ASI) 4/3/3 Spell slots 24 AC (Half Plate + Shield + Shield) if using all of them for AoA (you didn't, but you could've haha) gives 193 max hp! Doing it your way is 113. I think you calculated your DTPR wrong, the dragon would need a 20 to hit, which is (55[crit])*.05 = 2.75 I'm assuming you did (37)*.1. I think crits are important because a large majority of hits you take will be crits. Anyways this takes 8 dtpr and so survives 14 rounds which is a lot less, but the gap lessens significantly with higher and lower to hit rolls and any other form of damage that doesn't go through AC. Obviously you can't cast shield 20/14 times, but I'll concede this point haha. Against berserker your dtpr is 6 including crits, mines 9 so that's 13.3 vs 12.6 so much closer (would round both to 13). dtpr is 14 vs fireball for both which is 6 vs 8 rounds (To me :) ). I prefer being tanky in a wide range of scenarios. I could've also used blur or haste here which makes my numbers much better (I'm guessing higher than yours in all cases but I haven't run the numbers) but that's never something I'd actually do unless I had something like a ring of spell storing to offload my concentration. And also ignoring other defensive spells like mirror image that I'm likely to be casting which close the gap.
Just playing devil's advocate here, but saying something isn't a simple melee weapon, but it counts as a simple melee weapon isn't really a clear argument against treating it as a melee weapon for purposes of restrictions. The more salient argument is that the thunder gauntlet is treated as "a simple melee weapon while you aren't holding anything in it," clearly indicating that you can use it to hold things, and while you do so, it isn't a simple melee weapon. This clearly allows for using the gauntlet hand to interact with your component pouch, and a single hand free to interact with the component pouch can also perform the somatic components for a spell.
@@bulldozer8950 I was referring to the fact that one free hand allows you to meet both the somatic and material component requirements simultaneously. Both a material component and a somatic component require a free hand, but a spell that requires both only needs one free hand for casting. PHB pg 203, last paragraph under Material Components
another use of haste that's pretty good: use the dodge action as your main action, hit with your other attack, and now the enemy has disadvantage vs everyone
While giving an opponent disadvantage against everyone is kinda fun, there's a few flaws with this. 1) having Armor of Agathys up makes you the LEAST attractive target if they have disadvantage against everyone. 2) Disadvantage doesn't guarantee a miss. Tied in with the first point, that means everyone who doesn't have over 20AC and a big beefy wall of magic and temp HP between you and their real HP suddenly become much more appealing to swipe at meaning you're suddenly a far less effective target. 3) You're passing on a lot of damage. If you're not taking hits, you're not clapping back with the armor. You're also giving up extra damage from the second attack itself.
When you said that the ward and the temp HP of Armor of Agathys work together i had to go look it up. Wow! I have always loved armor of agathys, but as a warlock only spell it seemed there was always a better use of the precious spell slot. This is like the best of both worlds.
Deep Gnome w. Svirfneblin Magic feat can cast Nondetection at will. Not amazing, until you combo it with the abjurer’s ward, then recharging that for free is pretty awesome. You can do it much more slowly with ritual casting alarm spell.
Colby, I found a little mistake, the artificer multiclass matter of fact adds half your levels rounded UP, so with 3 artificer levels plus 2 levels wizard you'll have slots like a 4th level full caster
Hey man, reading Pg 164 of the PHB it says multiclassing spell casters are rounded down so taking the extra level in artificer than warlock will give the extra spellslots and ASI and get Mark of Warding Dwarf for the Armour of Agathys
Randomly got recommended this video and i am now subscribed! Man your voice is so soothing, and you know your stuff about character building, presenting it in a clear and satisfying way. Time to binge your videos.
I had a light domain cleric/abjuration wizard even split multiclass whose main job was “make sure that neither I, nor my allies get hurt”. Start in cleric to get medium armor/shield access. The arcane ward for abjuration wizards does not say that it needs to be wizard spells that recharge the ward; and clerics have great abjuration spell options to recharge the ward. Multiclassing into dual full-casters is also great for recharging the ward - as it regains HP based on (twice) the spells’ level, and you don’t lose out on spell slot levels (you can up-cast something like Aid that scales quite well).
One of my favorite builds that I’ve made is similar to this. It’s a Conquest Paladin (5 or 6 depending on your preference) and the rest in abjuration wizard. You get pretty good spell progression, the interception fighting style, the find steed spell, armor of agathys, medium and heavy armor proficiency, healing spells, and the ability to smite on top of being a wizard. I call the multiclass a Frost Knight. I made them a Goliath to fit the theme better, but you can go whatever.
Hey, I know this is super late and there's a low chance of you responding, but how did you juggle stats? did you prioritize Intelligence or Charisma or something else?
@@schorfactor7000 Strength and Charisma were highest with 13 INT. I wasn't using many attack or save spells so all INT really helped with was a few extra points of ward health.
Wait, you just merged two classes that I find super boring and made a build that I'm extremely interested in. What sort of sorcery is this? Keep up the good work.
@@DnDDeepDive As cool as this would be. Unfortunately RAW and Sage advice make Armor of Agathys a warlock only spell. Meaning it can only be cast with warlock slots, at the warlock slot level. Also, booming blade has a material component requirement of a weapon valued over 1silver and since your armor is not a "weapon" worth over 1 silver you cannot cast the spell. All in all, those two hurdles kinda take the wind out of the sails. The temporary hit points will be far lower than assumed. The DTPR would be much higher in all scenarios. Sadly RAW breaks this build to nothing.
@@hundrow "Pact Magic. If you have both the Spellcasting class feature and the Pact Magic class feature from the warlock class, you can use the spell slots you gain from the Pact Magic feature to cast spells you know or have prepared from classes with the Spellcasting class feature, and you can use the spell slots you gain from the Spellcasting class feature to cast warlock spells you know." As for the Booming Blade issue, there's definitely an argument to be made that the gauntlet, which counts as a weapon, and is part of the armor, which has a cost of over 1 sp, qualifies for the Booming Blade requirement (as others in these comments have mentioned), but even if your DM decides otherwise, it's definitely not imperative to the build working.
@@ajmacewan7285 I got 2 builds right now that I want to try. This and a Pally2/Swords Bard x. I'm going to start a new campaign soon and will have to choose between the two.
I think is a necessity, makes everything clearer, can even make different sheets at different levels, when feels that the character gets something important that makes the build work, or at the different tiers. But I more than agree with you.
@@federicomassai8927 A $2/month channel membership comes with the perk of character write ups for most of his builds. They are simple and straight forward bullet point style level guides. It isn't DND beyond character sheets, but well worth it to support the channel. Also makes me feel less bad for ad blocker. :)
A year after this video I come looking for an abjuration wizard since I’ve never played one and OF COURSE our D4 master has a build (and a perfect one to my taste, I must say). Your videos always are the best
Having stumbled upon this channel today, I'm very impressed. Enough detail given for any newcomers to the game and still engaging enough for those that have played the game for a long time. Keep up the great work!
Thanks very much and welcome! I try hard to think about keeping it *somewhat* applicable for a broad audience (though I worry that my regular viewers get annoyed when I stop for a brief explanation about a spell or ability for the umpteenth time :P )
@@DnDDeepDive in my opinion you can't go wrong with reiterating rules and class features for clarity sake especially with these in depth builds and character concepts
What an absolutely legendary build for a character. I love the idea of some automaton or construct defending the party throwing shields and spells left and right like some new age Iron Man defense mechanism. Absolutely phenomenally made :D
Infusions can be changed when you level up, not on a long rest. Also consider two levels of Clockwork Soul Sorcerer instead of Warlock. At level 2 you can replace the bonus Alarm spell with Armor of Agathys. It does delay gaining Wizard levels by one, but your spell slot progression isn't shorted.
This only requires a one level dip as you are gaining a sorcerer level at the outset for the multiclass. It’s only if you start sorcerer that you cannot switch out a spell.
Armor of Agathys works really well with warlock. Because of pact magic. it's harder for other classes to use because you need to sacrifice higher and there spell slots for it.
For characters developed with the intention of multiclassing into wizard I like the idea of working out a rational explanation for an acquisition of a spellbook. One good option may be to take the inheritor background which might also account for a variety of a character's tinkering shit. Alternatively, a DM may have a story that could allow discovery of a spellbook but, even if this was the case, if you already had one spellbook, then you'd have two.
You hit the nail on the head about tanking sometimes being hard to quantify. The current character I'm playing in our main campaign is a Bladesinger Wizard with the Mobile feat that zips around the battlefield using Haste. Zipping 50 feet across the battlefield to make 3 (sometimes 4, when I have my dagger out) attacks at an enemy (One of them being Booming Blade) and then immediately sprinting 50 feet away without provoking opportunity attacks is so much fun. But quantifying something like that seems almost impossible to me.
I would reccomend adding Fire Shield (cold) to your spells when you get 4th level spells. Not concentration, long term fire resistance which is one od the most common types of damage. You have so many things to spend your reaction on, casting Absorb Elements a little less often at this point should help a lot. Also because your build has some decent "soft taunts" it will trigger the best part of the spell more often. Adding more "Agathys" to your Armor of Agathys.
Brilliant video! The 4 levels behind the wizard's spell progression hurt too much for my taste. I would just go Hexblade 1 / Wizard 19. Yes the enemy could just ignore me, *if* they could afford it. Apart from Armor of Agathys, Shield and Fire Shield, I would rely heavily on Slow and Tasha's Mind Whip. Slow uses my concentration while crippling up to 6 enemies with one save per round. The ones that make the save get targeted with the upcasted mind whip. Re-cast Slow once enogh enemies have shaken it off and repeat with mind whip. Meanwhile, most enemies can't use reactions and can't move and attack on the same turn, so the rest of the party can just kite them to death while I stand near one or two enemies and can position myself freely. With 16 con, Tough, lvl7 AoA and Arcane Ward I'm looking at 267 HP, which is pretty much on par with a Fighter. Slap a Mirror Image, Blade Ward, Absorb Elements or Ray of Enfeeblement on it if I'm feeling fancy. Come to think of it, with all those reasons to attack me the 18 AC (23 with Shield) does start to sound a bit meager...
Just found the channel, and having hung around with a lot of min-maxers in my time, I *really* appreciate how you refrain from making the "this is the only option" comments. You built a functional build that shines and you still managed to not just allow, but to encourage and highlight, the points where RP could shine through as well! Thank you!
Colby! This is my second youtube comment ever. You've made a tank that can help keep his/her party up and running and can also blast and counterspell ... I love it! Starting with Artificer was inspired, good AC, con saves and better HPs than wizard, so a tanky start. I may actually play this build in my next campaign , as one of our DMs has a heavy hand when it comes to encounter building.
Tortles get crazy AC, buddy of mine playing in a game I'm running is a level 3 fighter with a 19 AC thanks to his shield. With artificer you could end up w a 20 AC at level 2. Great vid!
Wow great guide! Really shows how to maximize tankiness in a way I never thought of with abjurer (which is my main played wizard style). The way I like to do it is a hybrid for some tankiness and also potential for huge dmg. I also like to play in a relatively simple way as I don’t like to multiclass/overcomplicate things, or have to go into long explanations with other players or the DM. This is how I do abjurer: At lvl 1 (always taking wizard levels): Githyanki for medium armor and greatsword proficiency. Prioritize str highest (16), con 2nd (16), dex to 14 (for +2 on med armor), and remaining points into int (12) (because you don’t need much int with my build, having greatsword for dmg). Along the lvls, grabbing these spells most notably: shield/magic missile for lvl 1 spells, which gives you a ranged dmg option that isn’t effected by having low int. magic weapon/mirror image for lvl 2 spells, offense and defense which again isn’t effected by low int. haste/fireball for lvl 3 spells, with fireball as a backup ranged/aoe option that you likely won’t use often. Haste is your bread and butter with my build. At lvl 4 I get the feat Great Weapon Master for potential to do huge burst dmg. So now, at lvl 5 you have ac 14+2 from scale mail, + 2 from haste, which is base 18, or 23 with shield. 19 and 24 if half plate obtained. Not insane but also very high. You have 37 hp with 16 con, plus 11 for arcane ward, = 48 effective hp (if I calculated that right). So if your typical big battle goes like this: turn 1: caste haste, melee attack turn 2: cast mirror image, melee attack turn 3: cast magic missile, melee attack If you simply do medium dmg, it will look like this: Turn one: 2d6 + 3 + 10 for GWM feat = about 20 dmg Turn 2 the same = about 20 dmg Turn 3 is 20 + magic missile (about 10 dmg) = about 30 dmg I know it’s possible to miss, but if hitting your attacks, you are going to avg 70 dmg on your first 3 turns in every big encounter, while having 23 ac with shield spell, 48 hp, mirror image which makes you damn near invincible in many battles anyway, and the guaranteed dmg of magic missile if your attacks do end up missing. Plus, because of the Great Weapon Master feat, your max dmg potential on those first 3 rounds is huge by getting to attack again with your greatsword using a bonus action when critting (hold person spell casted by a friendly teammate would be ideal) or when killing an enemy on each main attack swing. So, max dmg with that standard combo in 3 turns: Turn 1: 12 + 12 + 3 + 10 is 37 on main action, hit again for a max of 37 on bonus action by critting again is 37: = 74 max Turn 2 is the same = 74 max Turn 3 adds magic missiles for a max of +15 = 89 max dmg To sum it up, with an avg dmg of 70 over 3 turns and max potential dmg of 237 over 3 turns, and quite a bit of tankiness, and with fireball in your pocket when needed, that’s how I like to play tanky abjurer. Feel free to tell me your thoughts!
As for multiclassing purposes, artificer levels are rounded up when you take them into account for your total spell caster level. So at Level 6 your build is a 4th level spellcaster +1 into Warlock.
Hey, just a heads up that WOTC changed the wording of Arcane Ward after Rules Answers: July 2015 by Jeremy Crawford was published. It now reads as: "The ward has a hit point maximum equal to twice your wizard level + your Intelligence modifier." Realy awsome build though and super tanky even with the lower ward HP. Extract from Rules Answers: July 2015 by Jeremy Crawford. Does casting alarm as a ritual heal Arcane Ward? Any abjuration spell of 1st level or higher cast by an abjurer can restore hit points to his or her Arcane Ward. As is normal for healing, the ward can’t regain more hit points than its hit point maximum: twice the wizard’s level + the wizard’s Intelligence modifier.
Quick tip if you don’t want to sit around for hours ritual casting Alarm to charge your ward. You can hook yourself up to the Tesla Supercharger that is taking the Eldritch Adept feat. With Armor of Shadows you can spam cast Mage Armor and power up your ward in around a minute.
Armor of Shadows only allows you to cast mage armor on yourself, and mage armor cannot be cast on a creature that is wearing armor. So it will take most characters in heavy armor 15+ minutes to charge up their ward by spamming mage armor (doff armor, cast mage armor a bunch, don armor), but it will take a little more than an hour for warforged, in particular.
So, not sure if you mentioned it, but for an extra action you could also cast fire shield, and get an external fire or cold resistance, because it’s a field AROUND you arguably, and do an extra 2d8 damage when hit. The scenario I have up now is as follows, Level 11 (Same break out as you have currently) 1. Cast armor of Agathys at 5th, giving, 25 temp +25 damage when hit. 2. Ward procs, due to AoA, giving you arcane ward bonus’ (19 at 20int). 3. Cast Fire Shield, gives you fire resistance/ or cold, plus an additional 2d8 damage of said type when hit. 4. When hit, you would deal up 27-41 damage. Have fire/cold resistance, halving incoming damage of that type, then reduce 3 for armor (not sure if before or after), then ward gets hit, then AOA gets hit. Whew. You’d be dealing more damage by being hit than by attacking. You could walk into the middle of a middling army and watch as they all die by hitting you.
Suprised you didn't take 2 Warlock levels or the Eldritch adept feat to get that juicy Armor of Shadows invocation to recharge the Ward outside of combat.
I'v been waiting for this kind of build, I'm so happy. BUT I have a challenge for you. Make an optimized necromancer build. I have no idea how to do it if it should be more support by multi-classing into like idk twilight domain after level 6 necromancer or go full damage and go full wizard necromancer. I would LOVE to see the number crunching on it, possibly the hardest class to optimize in my opinion.
Yes! Sorry the one that allows the player to move around, balm of peace I think it is, but I honestly don't even know how to optimize necromancer at all
@@v1talsign393 they are immune to exhaustion but yes they will die to the dmg if they are within the radius. A good way to place this is basically to put it on the opposite side of the grapplers and the bbeg is at the edge of the radius. So that at least 3 grapplers (assuming bbeg is medium size) are untouched by the sickening radiance.
Thoughts on delaying 1 level into wizard, taking a 4th level in Artificer to get the AIC at 4, take the heavy armor Master Feat, then wizard for 5-6, warlock at 7, wizard on 8-9. We get 1 more AIC and one significantly earlier
Worth considering - I hate delaying the Wiz levels and AoA from Warlock, etc., but I don't mind difficult and interesting choices :). And there are ways to get AoA outside of a Warlock dip, as many have pointed out.
Fighter 2/ wizard 18 Tortle with shield and protection fighting style. Ac 25 with shield spell. Shield master feat. Walk up to a dragon and say " Kneel before me worm, or I will ride your corpse by the end of this minute." Cast meteor swarm, action surge, cast disintegrate. That's how you tank as a wizard!
Forge adept artificer gets armor of agathys. Sure you don't get the special armor you get with the subclass you picked but it keeps you from dipping that level into warlock which will help with spell progression and gives you a +1/+1 magic weapon infusion that doesn't count towards the number of infusions you can have.
Tortle is very good at low level, but the static 17AC can be a bit restrictive at later levels if magic items are in play. 17 AC is the equivalent to half plate with a 14 dex/+2 mod. The static 17AC means you can put the dexterity points into another attribute, but the trade off may not be worth it. Especially with other race features available. +2 mod to dex helps saves against damage, levels 1-4 damage with your light crossbow, and gives a bonus to initiative which is powerful. Tortle does give that same AC while not imposing disadvantage vs stealth rolls which is still a slight buff. Wearing magic armor is restricted though.
@@binolombardi my idea was Tortle enables you to go straight wizard. Go straight con and intelligence. Not having armor proficiency then not wearing armor is fine. From there just work with higher levels of wizard spells to protect you. I bet some combination of multi class could get more for a tortle sure.
@@joshuapicaro8726 the way I think of it, a tortle can only have 17AC+ a shield, if that shield is +3 that’s a 22AC, which sounds nice until you consider that you’d be giving up the ability to wear +3 armor as well...+3 heavy armor and a +3 shield could get you an AC of 26 as any other race, 27 as a warforged, 28 if you somehow had the defensive fighting style as well (probably not worth it on this build tho), tortle is a good race and that starting AC is nice but in the higher levels with magic items I just don’t think they’d keep up quite as well...sure, you could get bracers of defense to add 2 to your AC but that takes up an attunment slot that you might prefer to have something more powerful taking up Tortle I think is best for builds that don’t allow a shield and/or heavy armor, maybe a high level battlesmith artificer would be cool as a tortle since even if you wanted the bracers of defense you’d be getting more attunment slots anyways so it feels like less of a sacrifice
@@HybridHerps for a person with armor it stinks. I rather go full 20 into wizard and not multi class. In some respects that misses some key points in regards to being a tank. But the power from full wizard is to much to deny in my opinion
@@joshuapicaro8726 the only thing is, unless you take a feat you’re not getting proficiency in con saving throws, which kinda sucks tbh. Personally I think a 3 level dip into artificer doesn’t cut into the power of a Wizard too heavily since you’d still have the spell slots of a wizard who’s level 18 when you’re 20th level, and even the mind sharpener infusion is nice for those times where your con save fails. Heck, even just going 2 levels into artificer here you that and you can keep your 18th level wizard ability
I recently played an abjuration wizard (although just straight wizard so not optimized or tanky like this one). One feature I love about it is the improved abjuration feature at level 10 which adds proficiency to checks for spells like counterspell and dispel. Really helps in protecting the party from magical damage. Plus if you ever make it all the way to lvl. 20 and get unlimited super counterspell, I guarantee you your DM will hate you.
I've been flerting with this build a long time, and i find it amazing. One quick change i would do: Since you are using Eberron Stuff, i prefer to go with the Mark of Warding Dwarf instead of Warforged. Yes, you loose 1 AC, but you gain the ability to use heavy armor without the need of STR, AND on top of that, you get Armor of Agathys added to your list, which would make you skip the Warlock dip and the 13 CHA. I think at the end, is a better build overall.
Depends on the spell, for mage armour or spells like find familiar it's fine because it doesn't hurt too much in the long run in terms of getting it once per day.
@@Moleje1337 True. Personally I rule that you can still cast it with your spell slots since it says you learn the spell. But hey, that's me being picky with the word choice.
@@Moleje1337 And if you look at it in artificer initiate it says that you can do that with that spell so, I think that you should in that context be able to too.
If you think you might be tempted to pick up Lightning Lure, don't. Instead, grab Thorn Whip with your Artificer cantrips. Despite having double the range of Lightning Lure (and not relying on the target ending the forced movement adjacent to you in order to deal damage) is a melee attack. And outside of Swarms, the number of enemies that will be resistant (or immune!) to it's damage is quite a bit smaller, which imo nicely counterbalances the drop from d8 to d6.
@@thedude0000 you just need to get the armor of agugaga (horrible name) somehow. Else you need two multiclass which leaves you so far behind with your wizard spells that they lost most of their power. Take fly is great at level 5 but almost useseless at 8 cause the monsters are written with flying enemies in mind. I read in another comment that the mark of warding would solve that problem. Then i agree but i am not sure about three levels of aritficer. Heavy armor has 1 AC more than medium armor and for this you lose two levels of wizard. And usually you find a spare +1 shield untill level 10? But as said in my post have to listen to the video again withouth doing something else have to see if my problems would have been asressed.
@@thedude0000 i ask him when artificer hit which of his build he would change and he said the diviner. No mention of the other builds. Can i somewhere see all my posts the i could show you his answer.
If it counts as a weapon, then your hand is full. If your hand is full, it isn't empty. If your hand isn't empty, then the gauntlet can't count as a weapon. If the gauntlet doesn't count as a weapon, then it's just part of your armor. If the gauntlet is just part of your armor, then your hand is empty. If your hand is empty, then the condition is satisfied for the gauntlet to count as a weapon. If it counts as a weapon...
Super cool. Using a lot of this for a pure wizard build. DM is giving us one free feat and I'm picking variant human. Going Eldritch Adept (armor of shadows) and Magic Initiate (Warlock) for Armor of Agathys. Not a tank, but should give extra cantrips starting out and quicker access to higher level wizard spells.
I suggest a dip into clockwork sorcerer instead of warlock, the subclass spells can be replaced with any abjuration/transmutation on the wiz/lock/sorc list so you can grab spells like armor of agathys, going 6 levels into it gives you bastion of law to have up to 5d8s(replenishable) to cancel damage to keep up your ward and damage against agathys (not to mention the d8s can be given to allies to lean into that protection role).
I’m currently playing an adjuration wizard. I used Goliath as my race, and he managed to pick up a staff of defense and bracers of defense, so my AC without armor(I use mage armor) is 21. I found the stones endurance to be a fantastic addition to the character. I am straight wizard, no multi class, and I probably won’t now that I am one level away from magic resistance, but for a straight up no multi class character, this character is the strongest and most versatile character I have ever played.
I love this one, I've been playing something similar for several months now and it's so great 😃 I'd thought I'd share my take on this 😃 Race : MoM goblin as Fury of The Small in pair with magic missile is a nice finisher and "a dead monster deals 0 damage" Warlock 1 : Undead Patron. The DreadForm's and Gauntlets' effects trigger at the same time. Consistently frightening an enemy forbids them to go pass me. And that does wonders to protect our squishier backliners. Artificer 5 : maybe that's just me but I found extra attack makes the soft taunt easier to land. Also helps the DreadForm to trigger. And then Aid is really necessary in my group. Infusions : the Gauntlets are simple weapons so you can infuse one with Enhanced Weapon. It becomes your arcane focus and clears the somatic components debate. Also, I use replicated magic item to get heavy smoldering armor. It's fun and effective. Final notes : I traded a shield against a rod of the pact keeper my DM let me craft as a downtime. It adds flavor and enhance the undead patron frightening effect 😉
I'm doing this build right now in my campaign (only diff is that I took a 4th level in artificer to get the ability score increase early), and this is the most OP character I've ever played at level 8 (4 artificer, 1 warlock, 3 wizard). Full plate armor (+1 with infusion), +2 shield, Armor of Agathys, arcane ward, absorb elements, and defensive field make the the character monstrously tanky. And on top of that a simple level one shield spell brings his on-demand AC up to 28! The DM can't just ignore him either, because he made the mistake of giving the character access to a pair of Illusionist's Bracers that turn him into an Eldritch Blast machine gun.
I have a pretty similar to this that I think could possibly be ever tanky-er in certain situations. First of all, at first level I took 1 level in forge cleric, which gives the necessary heavy armor proficiency, as well as a +1 bump to AC, and access to healing spells, and shield of faith. My race is a mark of warding dwarf which gives armor of agathys without the warlock, and pumps CON and INT which is what this build needs. Because forge cleric gets all of these abilities at level 1, the character is free to spend the rest of his life taking levels in abjuration wizard. At level 6 he has a base AC of 21, but because of shield of faith, he can have an effective AC of 28. (for the purposes of the tests you gave the difference between 27 and 28 AC doesnt matter much at level 6 because most monsters would have to roll a nat 20 to hit anyways and at that point your AC is irrelevant.) So against a young white dragon I'm just going to trust your math and say that the dragon would average 4 damage a round because the AC is basically the same. With a CON of +3 and the feat tough, taking the average each level, this character would have a base HP of 58. Casting armor of agathys at 3rd level gives him another 15 temp hp, at because he has 5 levels in wizard, the ward has a hp of 13. Now in this set up you would use a 3rd level spell slot to cast armor of agathys, and a 1st level slot for shield of faith, would gives him another 8 hp of ward healing. That gives him an additional 8 spell slots to cast shield with when needed, or to replenish shield of faith, which translates to an additional 30 hp in ward healing. That totals to 124 effective hit points, or 31 rounds to die. Additionally he could use some of those spell slots to cast cure wounds on himself, or blur to half dpr for the next 10 rounds, or cast haste because it's great, but that would take away from spell slots to cast shield and the math gets very complicated so I'm not going to try. Also every turn except the one he cast armor of agathys, he could potentially use his action to take the dodge action would would effectively have dpr, but your character could do that too so I'm not going to count it. I haven't calculated the rest of the fights for higher levels, but I suspect your build would catch up quickly as its main disadvantage at level 6 is not having as many levels in wizard, and this build is lacking as many options for soft taunts and melee attacks, though I think it does make up for some of that by having a little more spell slots. However, at level 20 this character can have both a higher AC and HP, because the 3 extra levels in wizard for the ward outweigh the 3 extra hit points you get by having a couple slightly better hit die, and with shield of faith, haste, and a fighting style, you could bring your AC up to 31. Alternatively, you could take 6 levels in cleric to get an additional +1 AC and fire resistance, but this would sacrifice the ability to learn 8th and 9th level spells.
Alternative build: Take mark of warding dwarf, take first level in Forge cleric and then rest wizard. The only downside is you have to get 13 wisdom and you cant wear thunder gauntlets which are admittedly very good so you will have to rely on cantrips other than booming blade for damage. Other than that you still get +1 to AC and you can wear heavy armor still but you get some awesome spells and 2 levels faster spell progression and access to higher level spells.
I'm not all the way through yet, but no mention I heard of the feat Eldritch Adept (Armor of Shadows) from Tasha's (might have missed it, doing work while I listen.) It allows you to cast mage armor at will, which can recharge your whole arcane ward without expending a spell slot out of battle in just a couple of minutes! Totally worth the feat slot I think
Right, or for a second level in warlock to get Invocations... worth considering for sure! Though if I'm not mistaken, it would cast it as a first level spell, right? And, after the first time you get your ward up for the day, subsequent castings only add 2xspell level in HP, so it wouldn't add a *ton*...
@@DnDDeepDive Depends on how many combat encounters you are getting in a day. If 3-4 in a single day, that could be your whole arcane ward filled up in between each battle, without expending any spell slots that you could still use during a battle. Yes, if only 1 encounter per day, would add nothing overall, but for 5 encounters, could add a total of 8xwizard level+4xInt Modifier. Guess it depends on the DM
Hey man! I like your videos and your analyses of the builds, the way you mathematically calculate unnecessary statistics just to have a basis for comparison. Truly a work of art. I'm not being ironic, I really mean it. It's hard to find grounds for comparison sometimes, and you do a good job with what the system gives you. That said, I believe I've devised a build that MIGHT (not sure, but I would like you to do the math for this one just to make sure) be better than most if not all the tank builds I've ever seen on your channel. Also, I don't have ANY source books outside of the PHB, DMG and Monster Manual, so it may be possible to make this build even better with the new published materials. But I can only build with what I have, so here we go! Here's the character concept: A DEX-based Stout Halfling Arcane Trickster 12 / Bear Totem Barbarian 8. Why is this build so good at tanking? Against Physical Attacks: Mage Armor (cast at the start of the day) + Unarmored Defense + Shield (not the spell, just a regular shield) + Defensive Duelist (at level 12) + 20 DEX + 16 CON + Mirror Image + Rage + Uncanny Dodge in case everything else fails we only take 1/4 of the damage. Once the Mirror images are gone, he will be more likely to get hit, but he has 21 AC at level 4, 22 at level 5, 23 at level 9, which is not too shabby. All with nonmagical equipment. Add a magical Shield and a Cloak of Protection and he can get to 30 AC with a Reaction using Defensive Duelist. Mirror Image isn't concentration, so we can cast it before going into battle or on my first round. After the copies get obliterated, we can't cast it again because we'll be Raging, so it's a once-per-encounter thing. Against DEX-based spells: Danger Sense to get advantage, proficiency in DEX saves from going Rogue at level 1, Lucky in case we fail, and Evasion to take no damage in case we succeed. Lucky only comes at level 20, though, so there's that. If we fail, we have Uncanny Dodge and DR from the Bear Barb so we only take 1/4 damage. Also, we'll normally be first to act with Feral Instincts, Alert and 20 DEX, so Mirror Image should be up most of the time. Offensively, Reckless Attack will ensure that we can generate our own Sneak Attacks, as well as improve accuracy. The extra damage is guaranteed once per round when we need it, because we have advantage on our attacks, although that does give our foes advantage too. The fact that the option is there doesn't mean we need to do this all the time, but when we do, it's 6d6 damage from sneaks + 1d8 +5 (potentially twice with Extra Attack) with a nonmagical weapon. Here's the detailed build: STR 13 / DEX 14 + 2 racial = 16 / CON 15 +1 racial = 16 / INT 12 / WIS 10 / CHA 8 - I used Standard Array, Point Buy could improve it slightly by going INT 14 / WIS 8. 1- Rogue 2- Barb (just for Shield proficiency and Unarmored Defense) 3-9- Rogue to get Evasion and our DEX maxed out ASAP. At 3rd level we get Mage Armor and other utility spells. 10-15- Barb 16-19- Rogue 20- Barb You could potentially pull the Barb level to get earlier Alert, but I don't know how good that'd be. What do you think?
i think you didn't watch colby's tank vids enough by reading this. this is NOT a tank. this is a very sturdy character that DMs will ignore. the 1st improvement i'd suggest before we compare this to colby's builds is to get an actual TANKING mechanic. there's nothing here that makes you a more attractive target than your allies. there's nothing that allows you redirect dmg or reduce dmg dealt to allies. there's nothing here that makes enemies stick to you like sentinel. a good starting point perhaps is switching to ancestral guardians barb so you have a tanking mechanic. you could also switching away from barb if you want to rely on spellcasting defenses. rogues as a default don't have tanking mechanics. the only attractive defensive mechanic is uncanny dodge but if you go the arcane defenses route, shield is better. you also might want to add fighter 2 to be able to tank properly on round 1. your current round 1 looks like this: move towards enemies action: mirror image bonus action: rage enemies ignore the barbarian and go straight towards the squishier enemies. with fighter 2 and ancestral guardians: move towards enemies action: mirror image bonus action: rage action: attack at enemy (to impose disadvantage to attack allies and buff attacked ally with resistance) and you can use grapple as the extra attack to keep that enemy or another close to you reaction: spirit shield an ally who's attacked
@@TheRobversion1 As I stated in the OP, I don't have any source books, other than the core books. That means this Ancestral Guardian isn't available to me. I don't even know what it does. I do understand what you're saying about not having anything that makes enemies attack this character, and I agree with you on that. It would be something to consider. Perhaps I could drop Alert for Sentinel, but it'd invariably come way too late in the build anyway. I was wondering if you could do that sticking only to the PHB and DMG classes, subclasses, races, feats, etc... I'll think about that. Thanks for the input. I don't know if you noticed, but the reason for going Rogue specifically was to explore 2 synergies between these 2 classes: 1- Uncanny Dodge + Barb DR. 2- Reckless Attacks + Sneak Attack. Rogues may not be the 1st option when we talk about tanking in melee, but against damage spells with Evasion they are better tanks than any other class.
Looks like it'd be a fun and tough to kill character! A lot in common with the Rogue Tank I made, for sure. My big concern would be trying to find a way to encourage enemies to attack you instead of your allies... a 3 level dip into Cavalier Fighter could help with Unwavering Mark...
@@DnDDeepDive thanks for the reply, dude. Again, I don't have any of the extra source books. The only Fighter subclasses I have access to are Eldritch Knight, Champion and Battle Master. But I was curious if you could do the whole "how many rounds to die" calculation you normally do with your tanks. I reckon it'd be VERY complicated because you'd need to consider the average DCs of spells you'd be facing at each checkpoint, and then do a composite calculation of something like 75% chance to take 0 damage, 25% chance of taking 1/4 of 8d6 in case of a Fireball, for example. The chance to get hit would also be hard to gauge because of Mirror Image and its diminishing likelihood that it'll actually save your skin after the first and second images are dealt with. That's why I posted this here. I figured if anyone could figure out the math for this scenario, his name is Colby LOL.
@@augustolenzuen800 you mean not available because your dm doesn't allow them or you simply don't know them because you don't have the books? if it's the latter there's alot of free pdfs online as well as sources like dnd wikidot where you can just read the class/spells/feats stuff. i think getting sentinel over alert earlier on is more important. since you've insinuated the lack of feats, this makes fighter more pertinent for the extra asis. defensive duelist is also a very meh feat especially on rogues with uncanny dodge or anyone with access to shield. as far as sticking to phb classes we still have a bunch of options. just not in rogue and barb. one is battlemaster and getting goading attack + protection fighting style. of course just like colby's vid here abjurer's projected ward works in protecting allies. so does the light cleric's improved flare and the nature cleric's dampen elements. paladins have the spell compelled duel (also accessible by lore bards of course). and i'm sure i'm forgetting a couple. yeah i noticed those synergies that you went for. rage + uncanny dodge is great defense. you just need a way to force them to not ignore you/stick to you once you have them in melee. actually, even when tanking spells, rogue isn't the best. that honor belongs to the paladin. though i guess this is campaign dependent as well. if your dm just keeps sendiing fireball mages after you or repeating those few monsters that force dex saves (like dragons) then evasion does shine. but if you base it by the #s of which types of saves as a whole the monster manual forces, dex is not on top of the list. that honor belongs to con saves and the most dangerous effects are will saves. this is why you probably hear colby always talk about getting resilient wisdom or shoring up his con saves. you'll never hear him talk about dex saves. shoring up dex saves/evasion is just a good to have and not an essential.
Will soon be starting our second campaign. Apparently it's a level 1-18 multi quest campaign. Looking for a new built. This is my favourite so far. Like he said, a tank that can rain fire on our enemies. Sounds great.
Using this build for our Witchlight campaign! The colloquial nickname for our party's beloved TA-0 AKA Tao is "Iron Man Dad". I didn't take Warlock since it didn't fit the feel I was going for, but man did I roll well with stats. With a 20 Int and 18 Con and plenty of defensive options, Tao beats out both our Barbarians in terms of tankiness while still competing with our Sorcerer in spellcasting. Fantastic build with so much flavour.
Artificer armor does not act as an arcane focus for wizard or warlock spells. It specifically states, "You can use the arcane armor as a spellcasting focus for your artificer spells."
hey man, i would also mention that you have to pass the arcane armor spell casting focus feature with your DM, as RAW it says that it's for your *artificer* spells, not wizard nor warlock spells. i personally wouldn't mind, but i pretty much bend the rules a bit for the rule of cool (like this spellcasting focus thing) Also, from the wizard spellcasting feature: - Each time you gain a wizard level, you can add two wizard spells of your choice to your spellbook. Each of these spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots, as shown on the Wizard table. the important part is "Each of these spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots", and the "as shown on the Wizard table" part makes reference to the spells slots you have at each lvl, so you could have taken earlier lvl 3 spells (when you obtained lvl 3 spell slots)
Very nice video. I like that it shows how the character build can be useful in all levels, rather than just a minmaxed hack designed for level 20 wielding 80 rare specific magic items. It was very useful as I was considering a tanky construct wizard myself :) Probably evocation though.
A more support backline focus Alternate Build in 2024. Start Tasha's Custom Lineage: Take any Feat that boosts INT. Preferably Fey Touch for Bless and Misty step. This lets you start at an 18 INT. +2 from TCL and +1 from half feat. Take the Rune Carver Background which gives you the Rune Shaper Feat. This allows you to have Armor of Agathys to start, and the other spells later down the road. Start with artificer. Take booming blade and mending. (Take Sanctuary, Absorb elements, and Cure wounds at a higher lv) at LV2, Take the armor infusion on your shield. (Maybe bag of holding, up to you) 3rd LV, Take the Artillerist Subclass. (You use this to utilize your bonus action to give 1d8 + INT temporary HP to all your allies within 10 feet of it. This is an unlimited use feature as long as your cannon is alive and well. So each turn you can effectively give all your allies better heroism as a bonus action) (You also have other forms it can take for more DPS if needed. flamethrower, [burning hands], Force Cannon, to knock creatures away from your enemies and deal 2d8 force damage up to a range of 120 feet. Make sure you cast Sanctuary on yourself after you take an action that effects an enemy. Then take 17 levels of Abjuration Wizard. Make sure to take Tasha's otherworldly guise for additional AC , Flying, and Damage immunities, + extra attack. (If you can find this spell at an earlier level, even better.) And fizbans platinum shield 🛡 ASI>> 1. INT+5, | 2. +2 CON (16), | 3. +2 CON (18), +2 CON (20) Starting Attributes with Point Buy: Strength 10 Dexterity 14 Constitution 14 Intelligence 15 Wisdom 10 Charisma 8
1) If your DM normalizes racial spells to the newer doctrine (can cast racial spells using available slots), levistus tiefling (Armor of Agathis + Fire resist) is an option. It also opens Flames Of Phlegethos which can add +1d4 fire damage to your Armor's cold damage after casting a fire spell (recommend fire bolt). 2) The eldrich invocation, Armor of Shadows, means free recharging of the bubble out of combat. This would cost 1 ASI, if you dont go Warlock 2. Also as an aside-- if the goal is to trigger Armor as much as possible, AC is technically the weaker option to maximizing your ward's survivability since Armor doesn't trigger on a miss.
Much of what is said in this video can actually be applied to a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer (with a bit of Fighter/Paladin/Cleric for heavy armor) due to the Bastion of Law feature. It swaps a bit of bulk for Metamagic and is slightly less versatile (known v prepared spells) but overall is similarly good.
Artillerist can actually go very well with Abjuration Wizard. The Defender Cannon is frankly amazing. Being able to pass out 1d8+INT temp hp to multiple people on potentially every round of the combat using a single bonus action is very powerful for buffing your party. If you have warning that combat is coming, you can spam it until you roll max. Constantly refreshing temp hp, with the arcane ward over it is great. But you miss out on a lot by not going Armorer. No STR requirement for heavy armor, an INT based weapon attack, no need for an Arcane Focus, and that very important taunt is super important for a tank. Using Artillerist would probably be better for buffing your party, but Armorer is the better tank.
For what its worth you would round up your artifice levels for MC spell slots. So at character level 5 you would be a 4th level spell caster not 3rd. Not a huge deal now but it does speed up slot progression by a level
Actually, it rounds down: " *Spell Slots.* You determine your available spell slots by adding together all your levels in the bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, and wizard classes, and half your levels (rounded down) in the paladin and ranger classes. Use this total to determine your spell slots by consulting the Multiclass Spellcaster table." Obviously that is outdated and doesn't include artificer, but the point is it rounds down.
@@Aw3som3-117 believe it or not the artifice class states specifically that you round up. Contrary to the more general ruling. Ill see if I can find the exact passage.
@@JMichaelC98 I'd love to see that if you could find it... I looked myself and was having a hard time finding an exact ruling so assumed it followed Ranger/Pally
@@DnDDeepDive Page 10 of TCE Multiclassing and the Artificer Sidebar: Spell Slots portion -> Add half your levels (rounded up) in the artificer class to the appropriate levels from other classes to determine your available spell slots
I don't think Heavy Armor Master works with Arcane ward. "While you are wearing heavy armor, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage that *you* take from nonmagical weapons is reduced by 3." From the Sage Advice we have this explanation of arcane ward: "An Arcane Ward is not an extension of the wizard who creates it. It is a magical effect with its own hit points." Given this, it would seem that the ward is a separate entity from the wizard, and thus would not benefit from heavy armor master. After all the ward is not wearing the armor ;)
You would have loved the Abjurant Champion prestige class from D&D 3.5... ! Off my head, if an abjuration spell would add AC to your character, you added +4 bonus, then you could quicken all aburation spells of lvl 3 or lower, and they were all doubled in range. So you ended up using the spell Greater Luminous Armor (8 hours at +12 AC), then Shield (quicken, +9 AC for one fight). I remember having a character with levels in Wizard, Bladesinger and Abjurant Champion and I was able to get to 42 AC haha! I miss the old dnd 3.5 times. Optimizing in this edition was INSANE.
i had the idea of making a naga strength based fighter1/wizard with enchanter. Use blind fighting + stinking cloud + sentinel + free grapple constrict attack that restrains enemies + command. And you have a whole slew of ways to keep your enemies rotting in your stinking cloud while you are immune to it.
Coming from Build #90 (Clockwork Soul Sorcerer), the CWS can replace a spell on its subclass-specific spell list with any Transmutation or Abjuration spell available to wizards and warlocks whenever you take a sorcerer level. Armor of Agathys is an abjuration spell and the class feature Restore Order is a lot better than anything a warlock level can get you - you get to cancel advantage and disadvantage as a reaction PB/day.
Colby: A dead monster does 0 damage
Necromancer: Hold my beer
lol!
Zealot Barbarian: WAAAAARRRGGHH!
Actually necromancer summons called undead 🤓
Mark of warding dwarf has armor of agathys as part of their spells of the mark, making it another way to grab that spell without multiclassing.
I second this comment. Mark of Warding adds armor of Agythys, as well as 8 other spells known, bonus spell slots for alarm, mage armor, arcane lock 1/day, and +1d4 on investigation and thieves tools rolls and dark vision.
At the cost of 1 AC and immunity to disease, and a need to sleep, eat and breathe
Not to mention the option to pick up more mark related character options. (If your DM uses the non WotC keith Baker stuff)
I would point out that the 1 level you don't take in warlock can be spent in Artificer for an ASI or wizard for 9th lvl spells. The ASI means a feat, making up for the AC drop at minimum.
Right! I did actually look at this and gave it consideration. I should have mentioned it. I think ultimately I decided against because of the AC bump and disease immunity from War Forged (plus I just really loved the idea of a War Forged Artificer for RP purposes) but not discussing in the vid was a fail!
@@DnDDeepDive I can see how not mentioning it made the video easier to lay out.
Also worth noting, getting anti life shell on your tank is an amazing tool for stopping enemies from getting past you. Mark of Warding adds that to your wizard list, and allows your clerics to concentrate on other things.
@@patrickbarley4716 It also would allow the level 17 report to include spell resistance!
@@ClintonJohnson1 My biggest regret :)
A smart barbarian? A smarbarian!
A paladin reveller? A paveller!
A ranger of the city? A ritty!
A wizard tank? A w...wicked idea for a build. Can't think of a name.
ha ha
a Tizard
A Wankard?? 😂😂😂
A wank?
Wank :D
Useful Abjurer tip, courtesy of Treantmonk. Alarm is an abjuration ritual one can use to top the ward out of combat without using spell slots. It's slow and tedious, but it works.
id say thats an out dated optimal thing it was ok in the past but NOW with eldtrich initiate you get at will mage armor granting you a two minute charge time for the ward at level 20 and you can get this early if you play varient human
@@christophercrafte Genius!
@@christophercrafte Yeah but that costs a feat that you could spend on another feat.
@@godminnette2 a feat that lets you always keep your ward up instantly after every fight. feats are meant to make you stronger this makes you stronger, plus for a wizard you dont need a ton of feats
@@christophercrafte it won't be instantly if the character is wearing heavy armor. You have to be unarmored to cast Mage Armor, otherwise, yeah, the feat works.
New big brain idea. For the Warlock part go Genie and Dao for the bludgeoning damage, now when you hit with the booming blade you can choose to add your proficiency bonus in bludgeoning damage, now if you have taken Crusher you can move them 5 feet (dealing bludgeoning) so you can move them away from you AND your friends. Meaning if they want to attack anyone (unless they have reach/ranged) they are going to trigger the booming blade damage to come into melee again.
Yes. But the most important thing about going genie is the bottle. Its a free item that lets you stack an huge number of glyph of wardings.
Biceps, pecks, chiseled chin line, university diploma, photos of his kid on the wall. Respect for different cultures and religions visible in the souvenirs from his travels around the world. Yep - definitely a wizard player
Ha ha!
Lol. How is that a wizard? i'd wager hes a ranger. Travel, cultures, physical build (homelander!), knowledge about creatures... that screams ranger to me. If we factor in that he has a guitar and iirc likes to write stories then another pick (or multiclass) would be bard. So i'd say colby is a ranger/bard multiclass.
@@TheRobversion1 🤔 You know... that kinda makes sense...
@@DnDDeepDive might be a good discussion/community post? everyone can share what class/classes they are based on their life experience/lifestyle/job/skills/talents. :)
@@TheRobversion1 Yeah, he's both too ripped and too sociable for a wizard.
Level 1:(see above) [artificer 1 & race]
Level 2:(see above) [artificer 2 & infusions]
Level 3:(@14:16) [artificer 3 & sub-class]
Level 4:(@19:26) [wizard 1]
Level 5:(@22:14) [wizard 2 & sub-class]
Level 6:(@25:04) [warlock 1]
Level 7:(see above) [wizard 3]
Level 8:(@38:23) [wizard 4 & ASI]
Level 9:(@42:49) [wizard 5]
Level 10:(see above) [wizard 6]
Level 11:(@51:16) [wizard 7]
Level 12:(@52:05) [wizard 8 & ASI]
Level 13:(@53:17) [wizard 9]
Level 14:(see above) [wizard 10]
Level 15:(@56:08) [wizard 11]
Level 16:(@57:58) [wizard 12 & ASI]
Level 17:(@59:05) [wizard 13]
Talks about wizard level 14 in Final thoughts.
Thanks buddy
Effing MVP! Thank you.
These are super helpful, thank you. Or Tank you.
I realise that the controls are only meant to represent how much damage you can survive, but if you cast Armour of Agathys with a 7th level spell slot the Adult Red Dragon would die twice over before it managed to kill you which makes this build even more insane XD
Just got to the part about War Caster, and you'll get no arguments here. In fact, it's actually even less restrictive than you mentioned for artificers specifically. From the basic rules:
"A spellcaster must have a hand free to access a spell's material components -- or to hold a spellcasting focus -- but it can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform somatic components."
Because artificer spells all require a material component even a Battle Smith with a sword and shield doesn't need War Caster to cast their artificer spells as long as said sword is infused, and thus counts as a spellcasting focus.
While true warcaster is fantasic on armourers. Adv and ability to use booming blade och opprtunity attacks is glorious.
Honestly I would listen to this man read the phone book
and so easy on the eyes, hubba hubba XD
Ha ha, well thanks - :blushy face:
@@MrNemitri it’s true and you should say it
I'm pretty new to your channel man, and I've got to say, as a long time dnd min-maxer myself, I love seeing other peoples builds and not needing to do the work myself 😂😂. Big love man, you've got yourself a new loyal viewer
@@DnDDeepDive no problem man, you'll be glad to hear you've got major fans across the pond too :)
Didn't see this mentioned yet, but...
If you either take a second level of warlock or just go for the eldritch adept feat, you can take armor of shadows to get Mage Armor at will and constantly be able to refill your arcane ward to maximum.
You cant ignore celestial warlocks healing ability which adds an additional 2d6 that can be healed as a bonus action to you or an ally. It makes it the clear choice for this build.
I've got a lot of experience with this type of character, It's my favourite to play. Heres my essay
There are a few cheesy things you can do with arcane ward, deep gnome gets at-will casting of non-detection, and warlock 2 (Or eldritch adept) gets at-will casting of mage armour, which both heal your ward really fast. I don't really like either but it's there.
Couple of things I do differently/ advice:
First off, use your roleplaying to taunt, abuse the monsters, pretend to show weak points, boast about how much impact you're having. This will help make you a target and it's spell slot free and fun to do. Especially effective against melee opponents that speak your language.
A lot of people have talked about it but Mark of Warding I think is easily the best choice here (AoA, give away a mage armour and set up your ward. That's a whole level you took for warlock).
I personally went 1 Artificer/ X Wizard instead of 3 artificer levels, obviously, armourer is still a good choice but I'm not a huge fan for a few reasons.
1) I was quite concerned with keeping spell slot progression, I really felt it when I was testing with warlock when other party members had 3rd/ 4th level slots and I didn't, and 2nd level artificer delays your spell slots a level.
2) The temporary hit points are redundant with Armor of Agathis (AoA) but obviously, It's just a small bonus anyways.
3) Heavy armour only adds a +1 AC which is good but not worth delaying upcasting of AoA or a bigger ward imo (In practice you have much more hit point survivability and against melee opponents I often let them hit me to deal damage from AoA so I think bolstering that adds more to your survivability than AC)
4) The guardian attack will always be worse than casting a spell, however I think it is better than a lot of your cantrip options, but only because of the disadvantage, which is only against 1 enemy once per turn and takes a whole action, not worth it in most cases imo. But I'd still prefer setting up things like total cover for a ranged attacker with minor illusion. And any leveled spell you'd otherwise be casting is a better option.
5) Also delays wizard levels by 2 for great spells including defensive ones like haste, and features like spell resistance and improved abjuration. Just the 1 level in artificer is enough to totally start playing the tank roll.
If you are sold on the armourer though I highly suggest delaying level 2 and 3 until you're at least a level 5 wizard, this gets you're arcane ward and AoA up and running earlier and will make you much tankier, not to mention other defensive spells (Shield etc) that you get access to. Also take replicate magic item with an infusion and get a spellwrought tattoo, you can get a 1st level spell to everyone, so over a few days you can give everyone in the party familiars, and on following days tattoo one of the familiars with a bless for concentration free buffing.
Other things:
Think about places your defences don't cover (Grapples, saves etc)
Blade ward is a useful spell for the first time ever, if you're being targeted by B/P/S melee opponents it doubles the 'hp' of AoA, we play that resistance works on arcane ward so it also doubles that. It's basically used when you'd otherwise dodge so not often but it's still good to have.
Thorn whip is better than lightning lure, use that instead.
Alarm gives you a way to heal your ward for free outside of combat (ritual, 2HP/ 10m so it's quite slow)
Fog Cloud is a great defensive tool in a pinch, lots of spells can't be cast when obscured and is a really effective way for your party to hide/scatter when shit hits the fan, also gives disadvantage to hit against any party members with Alert.
Misty Step avoids grapples and forced movement (A tactic for getting you out of the way to deal with the party)
I like warcaster more than usual because otherwise an opportunity attack from you is very weak and a monster can just run past you to your party and barely take a scratch. I use grease if you've got concentration up, Hideous laughter if you don't, could always booming blade as well.
Use summons to increase the things your enemies need to get to before they reach your friends, these can be large and imposing. Summon greater demon is my favourite.
Bigbys hand is also great for stopping people reaching the squishys, and getting them away once they do.
Also focus on Crowd Control as it's another way to protect your friends. (Web, fear etc)
Also your simulacrum is much harder to kill than normal because your arcane ward and AoA still have full hitpoints
Level 6 Damage Report: You have 46 Hp, 3rd level AoA (15), 14 Arcane Ward (+Int ASI) 4/3/3 Spell slots 24 AC (Half Plate + Shield + Shield) if using all of them for AoA (you didn't, but you could've haha) gives 193 max hp! Doing it your way is 113.
I think you calculated your DTPR wrong, the dragon would need a 20 to hit, which is (55[crit])*.05 = 2.75 I'm assuming you did (37)*.1. I think crits are important because a large majority of hits you take will be crits. Anyways this takes 8 dtpr and so survives 14 rounds which is a lot less, but the gap lessens significantly with higher and lower to hit rolls and any other form of damage that doesn't go through AC. Obviously you can't cast shield 20/14 times, but I'll concede this point haha. Against berserker your dtpr is 6 including crits, mines 9 so that's 13.3 vs 12.6 so much closer (would round both to 13). dtpr is 14 vs fireball for both which is 6 vs 8 rounds (To me :) ). I prefer being tanky in a wide range of scenarios. I could've also used blur or haste here which makes my numbers much better (I'm guessing higher than yours in all cases but I haven't run the numbers) but that's never something I'd actually do unless I had something like a ring of spell storing to offload my concentration. And also ignoring other defensive spells like mirror image that I'm likely to be casting which close the gap.
Is it happening?? It’s happening! I’ve been waiting excitedly for this one!
I remember when we were talking about this one in the comments 👍
Ah yes we were! 😊
Guardian thunder gauntlets aren't simple melee weapons. They are armor that count as simple melee weapons. So somatic components definitely work.
I second! HERE HERE
Just playing devil's advocate here, but saying something isn't a simple melee weapon, but it counts as a simple melee weapon isn't really a clear argument against treating it as a melee weapon for purposes of restrictions. The more salient argument is that the thunder gauntlet is treated as "a simple melee weapon while you aren't holding anything in it," clearly indicating that you can use it to hold things, and while you do so, it isn't a simple melee weapon. This clearly allows for using the gauntlet hand to interact with your component pouch, and a single hand free to interact with the component pouch can also perform the somatic components for a spell.
@@1217BC somatic components only use your hands- no pouch or materials (those would be material components). So somatic components definitely work
@@bulldozer8950 I was referring to the fact that one free hand allows you to meet both the somatic and material component requirements simultaneously. Both a material component and a somatic component require a free hand, but a spell that requires both only needs one free hand for casting. PHB pg 203, last paragraph under Material Components
another use of haste that's pretty good: use the dodge action as your main action, hit with your other attack, and now the enemy has disadvantage vs everyone
While giving an opponent disadvantage against everyone is kinda fun, there's a few flaws with this. 1) having Armor of Agathys up makes you the LEAST attractive target if they have disadvantage against everyone. 2) Disadvantage doesn't guarantee a miss. Tied in with the first point, that means everyone who doesn't have over 20AC and a big beefy wall of magic and temp HP between you and their real HP suddenly become much more appealing to swipe at meaning you're suddenly a far less effective target. 3) You're passing on a lot of damage. If you're not taking hits, you're not clapping back with the armor. You're also giving up extra damage from the second attack itself.
When you said that the ward and the temp HP of Armor of Agathys work together i had to go look it up. Wow!
I have always loved armor of agathys, but as a warlock only spell it seemed there was always a better use of the precious spell slot.
This is like the best of both worlds.
At levels 1 and 2 you could use magic stone with a sling to attack with intelligence
This! Thanks man
Lol. Loved the sad music with the Crawford Tweet behind it.
Right? My friend Mr. Rogers actually edited this time, so that was all him :)
Deep Gnome w. Svirfneblin Magic feat can cast Nondetection at will. Not amazing, until you combo it with the abjurer’s ward, then recharging that for free is pretty awesome. You can do it much more slowly with ritual casting alarm spell.
Colby, I found a little mistake, the artificer multiclass matter of fact adds half your levels rounded UP, so with 3 artificer levels plus 2 levels wizard you'll have slots like a 4th level full caster
Correct! Good catch :)
Hey man, reading Pg 164 of the PHB it says multiclassing spell casters are rounded down so taking the extra level in artificer than warlock will give the extra spellslots and ASI and get Mark of Warding Dwarf for the Armour of Agathys
@@DnDDeepDive Correct me if I'm wrong, otherwise, it's an amazing character dude, keep it up :)
@@cofiwright2589 Thanks! Tasha's specifies that Artificer levels are rounded up, oddly :)
Damn, okay, I stand corrected lol but either way that only makes the build better!
Randomly got recommended this video and i am now subscribed! Man your voice is so soothing, and you know your stuff about character building, presenting it in a clear and satisfying way. Time to binge your videos.
Horray! Thank you and welcome :)
I had a light domain cleric/abjuration wizard even split multiclass whose main job was “make sure that neither I, nor my allies get hurt”. Start in cleric to get medium armor/shield access. The arcane ward for abjuration wizards does not say that it needs to be wizard spells that recharge the ward; and clerics have great abjuration spell options to recharge the ward. Multiclassing into dual full-casters is also great for recharging the ward - as it regains HP based on (twice) the spells’ level, and you don’t lose out on spell slot levels (you can up-cast something like Aid that scales quite well).
One of my favorite builds that I’ve made is similar to this. It’s a Conquest Paladin (5 or 6 depending on your preference) and the rest in abjuration wizard. You get pretty good spell progression, the interception fighting style, the find steed spell, armor of agathys, medium and heavy armor proficiency, healing spells, and the ability to smite on top of being a wizard. I call the multiclass a Frost Knight. I made them a Goliath to fit the theme better, but you can go whatever.
Hey, I know this is super late and there's a low chance of you responding, but how did you juggle stats? did you prioritize Intelligence or Charisma or something else?
@@schorfactor7000 Strength and Charisma were highest with 13 INT. I wasn't using many attack or save spells so all INT really helped with was a few extra points of ward health.
@@theeruler7963 thanks a bunch!
Wait, you just merged two classes that I find super boring and made a build that I'm extremely interested in. What sort of sorcery is this? Keep up the good work.
Ha ha thanks ;)
@@DnDDeepDive As cool as this would be. Unfortunately RAW and Sage advice make Armor of Agathys a warlock only spell. Meaning it can only be cast with warlock slots, at the warlock slot level.
Also, booming blade has a material component requirement of a weapon valued over 1silver and since your armor is not a "weapon" worth over 1 silver you cannot cast the spell.
All in all, those two hurdles kinda take the wind out of the sails.
The temporary hit points will be far lower than assumed. The DTPR would be much higher in all scenarios. Sadly RAW breaks this build to nothing.
@@hundrow "Pact Magic. If you have both the Spellcasting class feature and the Pact Magic class feature from the warlock class, you can use the spell slots you gain from the Pact Magic feature to cast spells you know or have prepared from classes with the Spellcasting class feature, and you can use the spell slots you gain from the Spellcasting class feature to cast warlock spells you know."
As for the Booming Blade issue, there's definitely an argument to be made that the gauntlet, which counts as a weapon, and is part of the armor, which has a cost of over 1 sp, qualifies for the Booming Blade requirement (as others in these comments have mentioned), but even if your DM decides otherwise, it's definitely not imperative to the build working.
@@DnDDeepDive My mistake. PHB 164 for anyone else interested. I tip my hat good sir. I am now in awe.
The Abjuration Wizard barrier really reminds me of the barrier spell from Dragon Age Inquisition. I now want to make a Knight Enchanter build in DnD
What are you waiting for? DO IT! *closes hand into fist*
That is exactly I am looking for! The enchanter knight build and IT SOUNDS QUITE SIMILAR!
THANK YOU DND OPTIMIZED
@@ajmacewan7285 I got 2 builds right now that I want to try. This and a Pally2/Swords Bard x. I'm going to start a new campaign soon and will have to choose between the two.
Like a suped up Rune Knight???
I've been waiting so much for an abjuration wizard build!! Thanks!! 😄
You should make the character sheets on dnd beyond it would be cool to have the references
I think is a necessity, makes everything clearer, can even make different sheets at different levels, when feels that the character gets something important that makes the build work, or at the different tiers. But I more than agree with you.
@@flash1face1 more than true, but still, would be an improvement. Imho
@@federicomassai8927 A $2/month channel membership comes with the perk of character write ups for most of his builds. They are simple and straight forward bullet point style level guides. It isn't DND beyond character sheets, but well worth it to support the channel. Also makes me feel less bad for ad blocker. :)
If you subscribe to the community for 1.99 $ monthly, you get the sheets
@@flash1face1 It's an hour long video so is it really?
A year after this video I come looking for an abjuration wizard since I’ve never played one and OF COURSE our D4 master has a build (and a perfect one to my taste, I must say). Your videos always are the best
Ha ha thanks! Glad you enjoyed :)
Having stumbled upon this channel today, I'm very impressed. Enough detail given for any newcomers to the game and still engaging enough for those that have played the game for a long time. Keep up the great work!
Thanks very much and welcome! I try hard to think about keeping it *somewhat* applicable for a broad audience (though I worry that my regular viewers get annoyed when I stop for a brief explanation about a spell or ability for the umpteenth time :P )
@@DnDDeepDive in my opinion you can't go wrong with reiterating rules and class features for clarity sake especially with these in depth builds and character concepts
What an absolutely legendary build for a character. I love the idea of some automaton or construct defending the party throwing shields and spells left and right like some new age Iron Man defense mechanism. Absolutely phenomenally made :D
Infusions can be changed when you level up, not on a long rest. Also consider two levels of Clockwork Soul Sorcerer instead of Warlock. At level 2 you can replace the bonus Alarm spell with Armor of Agathys. It does delay gaining Wizard levels by one, but your spell slot progression isn't shorted.
This only requires a one level dip as you are gaining a sorcerer level at the outset for the multiclass. It’s only if you start sorcerer that you cannot switch out a spell.
Armor of Agathys works really well with warlock. Because of pact magic. it's harder for other classes to use because you need to sacrifice higher and there spell slots for it.
Necroposting but my swords bard with 1 lvl dip in Hexblade had easier time spending 4lvl slot on AoA than my straight Hexblade
Fantastic build. I think this is probably one of the, if not the most well rounded build to face pretty much any situation defensively. Great job.
Thanks!
For characters developed with the intention of multiclassing into wizard I like the idea of working out a rational explanation for an acquisition of a spellbook. One good option may be to take the inheritor background which might also account for a variety of a character's tinkering shit. Alternatively, a DM may have a story that could allow discovery of a spellbook but, even if this was the case, if you already had one spellbook, then you'd have two.
You hit the nail on the head about tanking sometimes being hard to quantify.
The current character I'm playing in our main campaign is a Bladesinger Wizard with the Mobile feat that zips around the battlefield using Haste. Zipping 50 feet across the battlefield to make 3 (sometimes 4, when I have my dagger out) attacks at an enemy (One of them being Booming Blade) and then immediately sprinting 50 feet away without provoking opportunity attacks is so much fun. But quantifying something like that seems almost impossible to me.
I would reccomend adding Fire Shield (cold) to your spells when you get 4th level spells.
Not concentration, long term fire resistance which is one od the most common types of damage. You have so many things to spend your reaction on, casting Absorb Elements a little less often at this point should help a lot. Also because your build has some decent "soft taunts" it will trigger the best part of the spell more often. Adding more "Agathys" to your Armor of Agathys.
Brilliant video!
The 4 levels behind the wizard's spell progression hurt too much for my taste. I would just go Hexblade 1 / Wizard 19. Yes the enemy could just ignore me, *if* they could afford it. Apart from Armor of Agathys, Shield and Fire Shield, I would rely heavily on Slow and Tasha's Mind Whip. Slow uses my concentration while crippling up to 6 enemies with one save per round. The ones that make the save get targeted with the upcasted mind whip. Re-cast Slow once enogh enemies have shaken it off and repeat with mind whip. Meanwhile, most enemies can't use reactions and can't move and attack on the same turn, so the rest of the party can just kite them to death while I stand near one or two enemies and can position myself freely.
With 16 con, Tough, lvl7 AoA and Arcane Ward I'm looking at 267 HP, which is pretty much on par with a Fighter.
Slap a Mirror Image, Blade Ward, Absorb Elements or Ray of Enfeeblement on it if I'm feeling fancy.
Come to think of it, with all those reasons to attack me the 18 AC (23 with Shield) does start to sound a bit meager...
Just found the channel, and having hung around with a lot of min-maxers in my time, I *really* appreciate how you refrain from making the "this is the only option" comments. You built a functional build that shines and you still managed to not just allow, but to encourage and highlight, the points where RP could shine through as well! Thank you!
Thanks for the feedback and happy to have you here! :)
Colby! This is my second youtube comment ever. You've made a tank that can help keep his/her party up and running and can also blast and counterspell ... I love it! Starting with Artificer was inspired, good AC, con saves and better HPs than wizard, so a tanky start. I may actually play this build in my next campaign , as one of our DMs has a heavy hand when it comes to encounter building.
Awesome! Glad you liked it :P.
Tortles get crazy AC, buddy of mine playing in a game I'm running is a level 3 fighter with a 19 AC thanks to his shield. With artificer you could end up w a 20 AC at level 2. Great vid!
Thank you!
Wow great guide! Really shows how to maximize tankiness in a way I never thought of with abjurer (which is my main played wizard style).
The way I like to do it is a hybrid for some tankiness and also potential for huge dmg. I also like to play in a relatively simple way as I don’t like to multiclass/overcomplicate things, or have to go into long explanations with other players or the DM.
This is how I do abjurer:
At lvl 1 (always taking wizard levels):
Githyanki for medium armor and greatsword proficiency.
Prioritize str highest (16), con 2nd (16), dex to 14 (for +2 on med armor), and remaining points into int (12) (because you don’t need much int with my build, having greatsword for dmg).
Along the lvls, grabbing these spells most notably:
shield/magic missile for lvl 1 spells, which gives you a ranged dmg option that isn’t effected by having low int.
magic weapon/mirror image for lvl 2 spells, offense and defense which again isn’t effected by low int.
haste/fireball for lvl 3 spells, with fireball as a backup ranged/aoe option that you likely won’t use often. Haste is your bread and butter with my build.
At lvl 4 I get the feat Great Weapon Master for potential to do huge burst dmg.
So now, at lvl 5 you have ac 14+2 from scale mail, + 2 from haste, which is base 18, or 23 with shield. 19 and 24 if half plate obtained. Not insane but also very high.
You have 37 hp with 16 con, plus 11 for arcane ward, = 48 effective hp (if I calculated that right).
So if your typical big battle goes like this:
turn 1: caste haste, melee attack
turn 2: cast mirror image, melee attack
turn 3: cast magic missile, melee attack
If you simply do medium dmg, it will look like this:
Turn one: 2d6 + 3 + 10 for GWM feat
= about 20 dmg
Turn 2 the same
= about 20 dmg
Turn 3 is 20 + magic missile (about 10 dmg)
= about 30 dmg
I know it’s possible to miss, but if hitting your attacks, you are going to avg 70 dmg on your first 3 turns in every big encounter, while having 23 ac with shield spell, 48 hp, mirror image which makes you damn near invincible in many battles anyway, and the guaranteed dmg of magic missile if your attacks do end up missing.
Plus, because of the Great Weapon Master feat, your max dmg potential on those first 3 rounds is huge by getting to attack again with your greatsword using a bonus action when critting (hold person spell casted by a friendly teammate would be ideal) or when killing an enemy on each main attack swing.
So, max dmg with that standard combo in 3 turns:
Turn 1: 12 + 12 + 3 + 10 is 37 on main action, hit again for a max of 37 on bonus action by critting again is 37:
= 74 max
Turn 2 is the same = 74 max
Turn 3 adds magic missiles for a max of +15
= 89 max dmg
To sum it up, with an avg dmg of 70 over 3 turns and max potential dmg of 237 over 3 turns, and quite a bit of tankiness, and with fireball in your pocket when needed, that’s how I like to play tanky abjurer.
Feel free to tell me your thoughts!
As for multiclassing purposes, artificer levels are rounded up when you take them into account for your total spell caster level. So at Level 6 your build is a 4th level spellcaster +1 into Warlock.
Hey, just a heads up that WOTC changed the wording of Arcane Ward after Rules Answers: July 2015 by Jeremy Crawford was published.
It now reads as: "The ward has a hit point maximum equal to twice your wizard level + your Intelligence modifier."
Realy awsome build though and super tanky even with the lower ward HP.
Extract from Rules Answers: July 2015 by Jeremy Crawford.
Does casting alarm as a ritual heal Arcane Ward? Any abjuration spell of 1st level or higher cast by an abjurer can restore hit points to his or her Arcane Ward. As is normal for healing, the ward can’t regain more hit points than its hit point maximum: twice the wizard’s level + the wizard’s Intelligence modifier.
for amour of Agathis, clockwork soul sorcerer lets you take it at first level, and also really fits with the war forged-artificer flavour.
Quick tip if you don’t want to sit around for hours ritual casting Alarm to charge your ward.
You can hook yourself up to the Tesla Supercharger that is taking the Eldritch Adept feat.
With Armor of Shadows you can spam cast Mage Armor and power up your ward in around a minute.
Armor of Shadows only allows you to cast mage armor on yourself, and mage armor cannot be cast on a creature that is wearing armor.
So it will take most characters in heavy armor 15+ minutes to charge up their ward by spamming mage armor (doff armor, cast mage armor a bunch, don armor), but it will take a little more than an hour for warforged, in particular.
So, not sure if you mentioned it, but for an extra action you could also cast fire shield, and get an external fire or cold resistance, because it’s a field AROUND you arguably, and do an extra 2d8 damage when hit. The scenario I have up now is as follows,
Level 11 (Same break out as you have currently)
1. Cast armor of Agathys at 5th, giving, 25 temp +25 damage when hit.
2. Ward procs, due to AoA, giving you arcane ward bonus’ (19 at 20int).
3. Cast Fire Shield, gives you fire resistance/ or cold, plus an additional 2d8 damage of said type when hit.
4. When hit, you would deal up 27-41 damage. Have fire/cold resistance, halving incoming damage of that type, then reduce 3 for armor (not sure if before or after), then ward gets hit, then AOA gets hit. Whew. You’d be dealing more damage by being hit than by attacking. You could walk into the middle of a middling army and watch as they all die by hitting you.
Suprised you didn't take 2 Warlock levels or the Eldritch adept feat to get that juicy Armor of Shadows invocation to recharge the Ward outside of combat.
That's what a certain PC just did in critical role calamity lol
@@efrainlopez3782 Laerryn the GOAT.
I'v been waiting for this kind of build, I'm so happy. BUT I have a challenge for you. Make an optimized necromancer build. I have no idea how to do it if it should be more support by multi-classing into like idk twilight domain after level 6 necromancer or go full damage and go full wizard necromancer. I would LOVE to see the number crunching on it, possibly the hardest class to optimize in my opinion.
twilight domain doesn't help optimize animate dead. Maybe you were thinking of the peace domain?
Yes! Sorry the one that allows the player to move around, balm of peace I think it is, but I honestly don't even know how to optimize necromancer at all
@@v1talsign393 check my reply to your other comment. Gave 3 suggestions for optimized builds.
@@TheRobversion1 gotcha, sickening radiance would also effect the necromancers undeads as well yes? Would that last strategy be sustainable if not?
@@v1talsign393 they are immune to exhaustion but yes they will die to the dmg if they are within the radius. A good way to place this is basically to put it on the opposite side of the grapplers and the bbeg is at the edge of the radius. So that at least 3 grapplers (assuming bbeg is medium size) are untouched by the sickening radiance.
I love the idea of the genie warlock. Having your worckshop inside your vessel feels awesome
This build is my favorite of all so far. Absolutely amazing work. I'm truly impressed.
Thoughts on delaying 1 level into wizard, taking a 4th level in Artificer to get the AIC at 4, take the heavy armor Master Feat, then wizard for 5-6, warlock at 7, wizard on 8-9. We get 1 more AIC and one significantly earlier
Worth considering - I hate delaying the Wiz levels and AoA from Warlock, etc., but I don't mind difficult and interesting choices :). And there are ways to get AoA outside of a Warlock dip, as many have pointed out.
Fighter 2/ wizard 18
Tortle with shield and protection fighting style. Ac 25 with shield spell. Shield master feat.
Walk up to a dragon and say " Kneel before me worm, or I will ride your corpse by the end of this minute."
Cast meteor swarm, action surge, cast disintegrate.
That's how you tank as a wizard!
This video has been extremely helpful. I'm starting my first campaign and rolled awful stats and decided to go down the War magic/Armorer route.
Forge adept artificer gets armor of agathys. Sure you don't get the special armor you get with the subclass you picked but it keeps you from dipping that level into warlock which will help with spell progression and gives you a +1/+1 magic weapon infusion that doesn't count towards the number of infusions you can have.
6.17K... 👀
10k here we come! :)
This was a missed opportunity for Tortle!
Tortle is very good at low level, but the static 17AC can be a bit restrictive at later levels if magic items are in play.
17 AC is the equivalent to half plate with a 14 dex/+2 mod. The static 17AC means you can put the dexterity points into another attribute, but the trade off may not be worth it. Especially with other race features available.
+2 mod to dex helps saves against damage, levels 1-4 damage with your light crossbow, and gives a bonus to initiative which is powerful.
Tortle does give that same AC while not imposing disadvantage vs stealth rolls which is still a slight buff. Wearing magic armor is restricted though.
@@binolombardi my idea was Tortle enables you to go straight wizard. Go straight con and intelligence.
Not having armor proficiency then not wearing armor is fine. From there just work with higher levels of wizard spells to protect you.
I bet some combination of multi class could get more for a tortle sure.
@@joshuapicaro8726 the way I think of it, a tortle can only have 17AC+ a shield, if that shield is +3 that’s a 22AC, which sounds nice until you consider that you’d be giving up the ability to wear +3 armor as well...+3 heavy armor and a +3 shield could get you an AC of 26 as any other race, 27 as a warforged, 28 if you somehow had the defensive fighting style as well (probably not worth it on this build tho), tortle is a good race and that starting AC is nice but in the higher levels with magic items I just don’t think they’d keep up quite as well...sure, you could get bracers of defense to add 2 to your AC but that takes up an attunment slot that you might prefer to have something more powerful taking up
Tortle I think is best for builds that don’t allow a shield and/or heavy armor, maybe a high level battlesmith artificer would be cool as a tortle since even if you wanted the bracers of defense you’d be getting more attunment slots anyways so it feels like less of a sacrifice
@@HybridHerps for a person with armor it stinks. I rather go full 20 into wizard and not multi class. In some respects that misses some key points in regards to being a tank. But the power from full wizard is to much to deny in my opinion
@@joshuapicaro8726 the only thing is, unless you take a feat you’re not getting proficiency in con saving throws, which kinda sucks tbh. Personally I think a 3 level dip into artificer doesn’t cut into the power of a Wizard too heavily since you’d still have the spell slots of a wizard who’s level 18 when you’re 20th level, and even the mind sharpener infusion is nice for those times where your con save fails. Heck, even just going 2 levels into artificer here you that and you can keep your 18th level wizard ability
I recently played an abjuration wizard (although just straight wizard so not optimized or tanky like this one). One feature I love about it is the improved abjuration feature at level 10 which adds proficiency to checks for spells like counterspell and dispel. Really helps in protecting the party from magical damage. Plus if you ever make it all the way to lvl. 20 and get unlimited super counterspell, I guarantee you your DM will hate you.
I've been flerting with this build a long time, and i find it amazing. One quick change i would do: Since you are using Eberron Stuff, i prefer to go with the Mark of Warding Dwarf instead of Warforged. Yes, you loose 1 AC, but you gain the ability to use heavy armor without the need of STR, AND on top of that, you get Armor of Agathys added to your list, which would make you skip the Warlock dip and the 13 CHA. I think at the end, is a better build overall.
Just using magic initiate isn't worth it because you can only cast the spell at its 1st level.
Depends on the spell, for mage armour or spells like find familiar it's fine because it doesn't hurt too much in the long run in terms of getting it once per day.
@@quendi5557 In context to the build.
@@Moleje1337 True. Personally I rule that you can still cast it with your spell slots since it says you learn the spell. But hey, that's me being picky with the word choice.
@@quendi5557 I rule it similarly in my games as well for the same reason.
@@Moleje1337 And if you look at it in artificer initiate it says that you can do that with that spell so, I think that you should in that context be able to too.
Creates unkillable wizard, recommends not taking simulacrum because it’s too easy to kill...
I think your bias is showing lol
If you think you might be tempted to pick up Lightning Lure, don't. Instead, grab Thorn Whip with your Artificer cantrips. Despite having double the range of Lightning Lure (and not relying on the target ending the forced movement adjacent to you in order to deal damage) is a melee attack. And outside of Swarms, the number of enemies that will be resistant (or immune!) to it's damage is quite a bit smaller, which imo nicely counterbalances the drop from d8 to d6.
Holy shit I’m 1 minute in and 90% of the way to subscribed. I think you might be my new favourite DnD UA-camr! I love the longer form content too!
Ha ha - thanks Tyler and welcome! :)
Treantmonks abjuration wizard starts woth a level of warlock and the rest wizard
If you look at his Graviturgist build guide, he specifically states that going forward, he'd take Artificer for his Wizard builds.
@@thedude0000 you just need to get the armor of agugaga (horrible name) somehow. Else you need two multiclass which leaves you so far behind with your wizard spells that they lost most of their power. Take fly is great at level 5 but almost useseless at 8 cause the monsters are written with flying enemies in mind. I read in another comment that the mark of warding would solve that problem. Then i agree but i am not sure about three levels of aritficer. Heavy armor has 1 AC more than medium armor and for this you lose two levels of wizard. And usually you find a spare +1 shield untill level 10? But as said in my post have to listen to the video again withouth doing something else have to see if my problems would have been asressed.
@@CaitSith87 I'm not specifically commenting about the video's build.
I'm just responding how Treantmonk said he'll make Wizard builds going forward.
@@thedude0000 i ask him when artificer hit which of his build he would change and he said the diviner. No mention of the other builds.
Can i somewhere see all my posts the i could show you his answer.
@@CaitSith87 Here's the time stamp in his video:
ua-cam.com/video/r8Of0dJaJf8/v-deo.html
If it counts as a weapon, then your hand is full. If your hand is full, it isn't empty. If your hand isn't empty, then the gauntlet can't count as a weapon. If the gauntlet doesn't count as a weapon, then it's just part of your armor. If the gauntlet is just part of your armor, then your hand is empty. If your hand is empty, then the condition is satisfied for the gauntlet to count as a weapon. If it counts as a weapon...
Super cool. Using a lot of this for a pure wizard build. DM is giving us one free feat and I'm picking variant human. Going Eldritch Adept (armor of shadows) and Magic Initiate (Warlock) for Armor of Agathys. Not a tank, but should give extra cantrips starting out and quicker access to higher level wizard spells.
As the DM of our group, I like using these builds vs my PCs! Feels kinda like espionage though.... Thx Colby!!
Ha ha - all apologies to your players! 😉
I suggest a dip into clockwork sorcerer instead of warlock, the subclass spells can be replaced with any abjuration/transmutation on the wiz/lock/sorc list so you can grab spells like armor of agathys, going 6 levels into it gives you bastion of law to have up to 5d8s(replenishable) to cancel damage to keep up your ward and damage against agathys (not to mention the d8s can be given to allies to lean into that protection role).
same way i'd go as well but i'd probably trade out artificer for 2 levels of fighter for action surge and a fighting style like interception.
wasn't a thing when this was made but a MOTM earth genasi would be a good race for this
Shield spell is also an abjuration spell which procs Arcane Ward.....so much synergy! I love it
I’m currently playing an adjuration wizard. I used Goliath as my race, and he managed to pick up a staff of defense and bracers of defense, so my AC without armor(I use mage armor) is 21. I found the stones endurance to be a fantastic addition to the character. I am straight wizard, no multi class, and I probably won’t now that I am one level away from magic resistance, but for a straight up no multi class character, this character is the strongest and most versatile character I have ever played.
I love this one, I've been playing something similar for several months now and it's so great 😃 I'd thought I'd share my take on this 😃
Race : MoM goblin as Fury of The Small in pair with magic missile is a nice finisher and "a dead monster deals 0 damage"
Warlock 1 : Undead Patron. The DreadForm's and Gauntlets' effects trigger at the same time. Consistently frightening an enemy forbids them to go pass me. And that does wonders to protect our squishier backliners.
Artificer 5 : maybe that's just me but I found extra attack makes the soft taunt easier to land. Also helps the DreadForm to trigger. And then Aid is really necessary in my group.
Infusions : the Gauntlets are simple weapons so you can infuse one with Enhanced Weapon. It becomes your arcane focus and clears the somatic components debate. Also, I use replicated magic item to get heavy smoldering armor. It's fun and effective.
Final notes : I traded a shield against a rod of the pact keeper my DM let me craft as a downtime. It adds flavor and enhance the undead patron frightening effect 😉
I'm doing this build right now in my campaign (only diff is that I took a 4th level in artificer to get the ability score increase early), and this is the most OP character I've ever played at level 8 (4 artificer, 1 warlock, 3 wizard). Full plate armor (+1 with infusion), +2 shield, Armor of Agathys, arcane ward, absorb elements, and defensive field make the the character monstrously tanky. And on top of that a simple level one shield spell brings his on-demand AC up to 28! The DM can't just ignore him either, because he made the mistake of giving the character access to a pair of Illusionist's Bracers that turn him into an Eldritch Blast machine gun.
I have a pretty similar to this that I think could possibly be ever tanky-er in certain situations. First of all, at first level I took 1 level in forge cleric, which gives the necessary heavy armor proficiency, as well as a +1 bump to AC, and access to healing spells, and shield of faith. My race is a mark of warding dwarf which gives armor of agathys without the warlock, and pumps CON and INT which is what this build needs. Because forge cleric gets all of these abilities at level 1, the character is free to spend the rest of his life taking levels in abjuration wizard.
At level 6 he has a base AC of 21, but because of shield of faith, he can have an effective AC of 28. (for the purposes of the tests you gave the difference between 27 and 28 AC doesnt matter much at level 6 because most monsters would have to roll a nat 20 to hit anyways and at that point your AC is irrelevant.)
So against a young white dragon I'm just going to trust your math and say that the dragon would average 4 damage a round because the AC is basically the same. With a CON of +3 and the feat tough, taking the average each level, this character would have a base HP of 58. Casting armor of agathys at 3rd level gives him another 15 temp hp, at because he has 5 levels in wizard, the ward has a hp of 13. Now in this set up you would use a 3rd level spell slot to cast armor of agathys, and a 1st level slot for shield of faith, would gives him another 8 hp of ward healing. That gives him an additional 8 spell slots to cast shield with when needed, or to replenish shield of faith, which translates to an additional 30 hp in ward healing. That totals to 124 effective hit points, or 31 rounds to die.
Additionally he could use some of those spell slots to cast cure wounds on himself, or blur to half dpr for the next 10 rounds, or cast haste because it's great, but that would take away from spell slots to cast shield and the math gets very complicated so I'm not going to try.
Also every turn except the one he cast armor of agathys, he could potentially use his action to take the dodge action would would effectively have dpr, but your character could do that too so I'm not going to count it.
I haven't calculated the rest of the fights for higher levels, but I suspect your build would catch up quickly as its main disadvantage at level 6 is not having as many levels in wizard, and this build is lacking as many options for soft taunts and melee attacks, though I think it does make up for some of that by having a little more spell slots. However, at level 20 this character can have both a higher AC and HP, because the 3 extra levels in wizard for the ward outweigh the 3 extra hit points you get by having a couple slightly better hit die, and with shield of faith, haste, and a fighting style, you could bring your AC up to 31. Alternatively, you could take 6 levels in cleric to get an additional +1 AC and fire resistance, but this would sacrifice the ability to learn 8th and 9th level spells.
I think Your path also benifits from 18th level wizard ability for infinite shield spell
Alternative build: Take mark of warding dwarf, take first level in Forge cleric and then rest wizard. The only downside is you have to get 13 wisdom and you cant wear thunder gauntlets which are admittedly very good so you will have to rely on cantrips other than booming blade for damage. Other than that you still get +1 to AC and you can wear heavy armor still but you get some awesome spells and 2 levels faster spell progression and access to higher level spells.
I'm not all the way through yet, but no mention I heard of the feat Eldritch Adept (Armor of Shadows) from Tasha's (might have missed it, doing work while I listen.) It allows you to cast mage armor at will, which can recharge your whole arcane ward without expending a spell slot out of battle in just a couple of minutes!
Totally worth the feat slot I think
Right, or for a second level in warlock to get Invocations... worth considering for sure! Though if I'm not mistaken, it would cast it as a first level spell, right? And, after the first time you get your ward up for the day, subsequent castings only add 2xspell level in HP, so it wouldn't add a *ton*...
@@DnDDeepDive Depends on how many combat encounters you are getting in a day. If 3-4 in a single day, that could be your whole arcane ward filled up in between each battle, without expending any spell slots that you could still use during a battle. Yes, if only 1 encounter per day, would add nothing overall, but for 5 encounters, could add a total of 8xwizard level+4xInt Modifier. Guess it depends on the DM
Hey man! I like your videos and your analyses of the builds, the way you mathematically calculate unnecessary statistics just to have a basis for comparison. Truly a work of art. I'm not being ironic, I really mean it. It's hard to find grounds for comparison sometimes, and you do a good job with what the system gives you.
That said, I believe I've devised a build that MIGHT (not sure, but I would like you to do the math for this one just to make sure) be better than most if not all the tank builds I've ever seen on your channel. Also, I don't have ANY source books outside of the PHB, DMG and Monster Manual, so it may be possible to make this build even better with the new published materials. But I can only build with what I have, so here we go!
Here's the character concept:
A DEX-based Stout Halfling Arcane Trickster 12 / Bear Totem Barbarian 8. Why is this build so good at tanking?
Against Physical Attacks: Mage Armor (cast at the start of the day) + Unarmored Defense + Shield (not the spell, just a regular shield) + Defensive Duelist (at level 12) + 20 DEX + 16 CON + Mirror Image + Rage + Uncanny Dodge in case everything else fails we only take 1/4 of the damage. Once the Mirror images are gone, he will be more likely to get hit, but he has 21 AC at level 4, 22 at level 5, 23 at level 9, which is not too shabby. All with nonmagical equipment. Add a magical Shield and a Cloak of Protection and he can get to 30 AC with a Reaction using Defensive Duelist.
Mirror Image isn't concentration, so we can cast it before going into battle or on my first round. After the copies get obliterated, we can't cast it again because we'll be Raging, so it's a once-per-encounter thing.
Against DEX-based spells: Danger Sense to get advantage, proficiency in DEX saves from going Rogue at level 1, Lucky in case we fail, and Evasion to take no damage in case we succeed. Lucky only comes at level 20, though, so there's that. If we fail, we have Uncanny Dodge and DR from the Bear Barb so we only take 1/4 damage.
Also, we'll normally be first to act with Feral Instincts, Alert and 20 DEX, so Mirror Image should be up most of the time.
Offensively, Reckless Attack will ensure that we can generate our own Sneak Attacks, as well as improve accuracy. The extra damage is guaranteed once per round when we need it, because we have advantage on our attacks, although that does give our foes advantage too. The fact that the option is there doesn't mean we need to do this all the time, but when we do, it's 6d6 damage from sneaks + 1d8 +5 (potentially twice with Extra Attack) with a nonmagical weapon.
Here's the detailed build:
STR 13 / DEX 14 + 2 racial = 16 / CON 15 +1 racial = 16 / INT 12 / WIS 10 / CHA 8 - I used Standard Array, Point Buy could improve it slightly by going INT 14 / WIS 8.
1- Rogue
2- Barb (just for Shield proficiency and Unarmored Defense)
3-9- Rogue to get Evasion and our DEX maxed out ASAP. At 3rd level we get Mage Armor and other utility spells.
10-15- Barb
16-19- Rogue
20- Barb
You could potentially pull the Barb level to get earlier Alert, but I don't know how good that'd be.
What do you think?
i think you didn't watch colby's tank vids enough by reading this. this is NOT a tank. this is a very sturdy character that DMs will ignore. the 1st improvement i'd suggest before we compare this to colby's builds is to get an actual TANKING mechanic. there's nothing here that makes you a more attractive target than your allies. there's nothing that allows you redirect dmg or reduce dmg dealt to allies. there's nothing here that makes enemies stick to you like sentinel.
a good starting point perhaps is switching to ancestral guardians barb so you have a tanking mechanic. you could also switching away from barb if you want to rely on spellcasting defenses. rogues as a default don't have tanking mechanics. the only attractive defensive mechanic is uncanny dodge but if you go the arcane defenses route, shield is better. you also might want to add fighter 2 to be able to tank properly on round 1. your current round 1 looks like this:
move towards enemies
action: mirror image
bonus action: rage
enemies ignore the barbarian and go straight towards the squishier enemies.
with fighter 2 and ancestral guardians:
move towards enemies
action: mirror image
bonus action: rage
action: attack at enemy (to impose disadvantage to attack allies and buff attacked ally with resistance) and you can use grapple as the extra attack to keep that enemy or another close to you
reaction: spirit shield an ally who's attacked
@@TheRobversion1 As I stated in the OP, I don't have any source books, other than the core books. That means this Ancestral Guardian isn't available to me. I don't even know what it does.
I do understand what you're saying about not having anything that makes enemies attack this character, and I agree with you on that. It would be something to consider. Perhaps I could drop Alert for Sentinel, but it'd invariably come way too late in the build anyway. I was wondering if you could do that sticking only to the PHB and DMG classes, subclasses, races, feats, etc... I'll think about that. Thanks for the input.
I don't know if you noticed, but the reason for going Rogue specifically was to explore 2 synergies between these 2 classes:
1- Uncanny Dodge + Barb DR.
2- Reckless Attacks + Sneak Attack.
Rogues may not be the 1st option when we talk about tanking in melee, but against damage spells with Evasion they are better tanks than any other class.
Looks like it'd be a fun and tough to kill character! A lot in common with the Rogue Tank I made, for sure. My big concern would be trying to find a way to encourage enemies to attack you instead of your allies... a 3 level dip into Cavalier Fighter could help with Unwavering Mark...
@@DnDDeepDive thanks for the reply, dude. Again, I don't have any of the extra source books. The only Fighter subclasses I have access to are Eldritch Knight, Champion and Battle Master. But I was curious if you could do the whole "how many rounds to die" calculation you normally do with your tanks. I reckon it'd be VERY complicated because you'd need to consider the average DCs of spells you'd be facing at each checkpoint, and then do a composite calculation of something like 75% chance to take 0 damage, 25% chance of taking 1/4 of 8d6 in case of a Fireball, for example.
The chance to get hit would also be hard to gauge because of Mirror Image and its diminishing likelihood that it'll actually save your skin after the first and second images are dealt with. That's why I posted this here. I figured if anyone could figure out the math for this scenario, his name is Colby LOL.
@@augustolenzuen800 you mean not available because your dm doesn't allow them or you simply don't know them because you don't have the books? if it's the latter there's alot of free pdfs online as well as sources like dnd wikidot where you can just read the class/spells/feats stuff.
i think getting sentinel over alert earlier on is more important. since you've insinuated the lack of feats, this makes fighter more pertinent for the extra asis. defensive duelist is also a very meh feat especially on rogues with uncanny dodge or anyone with access to shield.
as far as sticking to phb classes we still have a bunch of options. just not in rogue and barb. one is battlemaster and getting goading attack + protection fighting style. of course just like colby's vid here abjurer's projected ward works in protecting allies. so does the light cleric's improved flare and the nature cleric's dampen elements. paladins have the spell compelled duel (also accessible by lore bards of course). and i'm sure i'm forgetting a couple.
yeah i noticed those synergies that you went for. rage + uncanny dodge is great defense. you just need a way to force them to not ignore you/stick to you once you have them in melee.
actually, even when tanking spells, rogue isn't the best. that honor belongs to the paladin. though i guess this is campaign dependent as well. if your dm just keeps sendiing fireball mages after you or repeating those few monsters that force dex saves (like dragons) then evasion does shine. but if you base it by the #s of which types of saves as a whole the monster manual forces, dex is not on top of the list. that honor belongs to con saves and the most dangerous effects are will saves. this is why you probably hear colby always talk about getting resilient wisdom or shoring up his con saves. you'll never hear him talk about dex saves. shoring up dex saves/evasion is just a good to have and not an essential.
Will soon be starting our second campaign. Apparently it's a level 1-18 multi quest campaign. Looking for a new built. This is my favourite so far. Like he said, a tank that can rain fire on our enemies. Sounds great.
Using this build for our Witchlight campaign! The colloquial nickname for our party's beloved TA-0 AKA Tao is "Iron Man Dad". I didn't take Warlock since it didn't fit the feel I was going for, but man did I roll well with stats. With a 20 Int and 18 Con and plenty of defensive options, Tao beats out both our Barbarians in terms of tankiness while still competing with our Sorcerer in spellcasting. Fantastic build with so much flavour.
Artificer armor does not act as an arcane focus for wizard or warlock spells. It specifically states, "You can use the arcane armor as a spellcasting focus for your artificer spells."
hey man, i would also mention that you have to pass the arcane armor spell casting focus feature with your DM, as RAW it says that it's for your *artificer* spells, not wizard nor warlock spells.
i personally wouldn't mind, but i pretty much bend the rules a bit for the rule of cool (like this spellcasting focus thing)
Also, from the wizard spellcasting feature:
- Each time you gain a wizard level, you can add two wizard spells of your choice to your spellbook. Each of these spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots, as shown on the Wizard table.
the important part is "Each of these spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots", and the "as shown on the Wizard table" part makes reference to the spells slots you have at each lvl, so you could have taken earlier lvl 3 spells (when you obtained lvl 3 spell slots)
Haha awesome build showing the versatility of the mage with multi-classing. Keep them coming.
Very nice video. I like that it shows how the character build can be useful in all levels, rather than just a minmaxed hack designed for level 20 wielding 80 rare specific magic items.
It was very useful as I was considering a tanky construct wizard myself :) Probably evocation though.
Thanks - glad you enjoyed!
A more support backline focus Alternate Build in 2024.
Start Tasha's Custom Lineage: Take any Feat that boosts INT. Preferably Fey Touch for Bless and Misty step. This lets you start at an 18 INT. +2 from TCL and +1 from half feat.
Take the Rune Carver Background which gives you the Rune Shaper Feat. This allows you to have Armor of Agathys to start, and the other spells later down the road.
Start with artificer. Take booming blade and mending.
(Take Sanctuary, Absorb elements, and Cure wounds at a higher lv)
at LV2, Take the armor infusion on your shield. (Maybe bag of holding, up to you)
3rd LV, Take the Artillerist Subclass. (You use this to utilize your bonus action to give 1d8 + INT temporary HP to all your allies within 10 feet of it. This is an unlimited use feature as long as your cannon is alive and well. So each turn you can effectively give all your allies better heroism as a bonus action) (You also have other forms it can take for more DPS if needed. flamethrower, [burning hands], Force Cannon, to knock creatures away from your enemies and deal 2d8 force damage up to a range of 120 feet.
Make sure you cast Sanctuary on yourself after you take an action that effects an enemy.
Then take 17 levels of Abjuration Wizard. Make sure to take Tasha's otherworldly guise for additional AC , Flying, and Damage immunities, + extra attack. (If you can find this spell at an earlier level, even better.)
And fizbans platinum shield 🛡
ASI>> 1. INT+5, | 2. +2 CON (16), | 3. +2 CON (18), +2 CON (20)
Starting Attributes with Point Buy:
Strength
10
Dexterity
14
Constitution
14
Intelligence
15
Wisdom
10
Charisma
8
1) If your DM normalizes racial spells to the newer doctrine (can cast racial spells using available slots), levistus tiefling (Armor of Agathis + Fire resist) is an option. It also opens Flames Of Phlegethos which can add +1d4 fire damage to your Armor's cold damage after casting a fire spell (recommend fire bolt).
2) The eldrich invocation, Armor of Shadows, means free recharging of the bubble out of combat. This would cost 1 ASI, if you dont go Warlock 2.
Also as an aside-- if the goal is to trigger Armor as much as possible, AC is technically the weaker option to maximizing your ward's survivability since Armor doesn't trigger on a miss.
Much of what is said in this video can actually be applied to a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer (with a bit of Fighter/Paladin/Cleric for heavy armor) due to the Bastion of Law feature. It swaps a bit of bulk for Metamagic and is slightly less versatile (known v prepared spells) but overall is similarly good.
WoW ... Very well thought out and I am very impressed. Well done and thank you for sharing. /encore!
Thanks friend! Glad you enjoyed :)
I enjoy this type of build more than simply optimizing damage output! 😊👍🏻
Oh it's the one I've been looking forward to. Thanks for the video and keep up the good work Colby
Thank you! Will try ;)
I remember requesting this build a few months ago on my other account dizzywithlogic. I knew the numbers would end up being crazy.
Always happy to see a new take on a Wizard. Awesome class, but aside from a few subclasses, Wizards in 5e often feel very similar.
Artillerist can actually go very well with Abjuration Wizard. The Defender Cannon is frankly amazing. Being able to pass out 1d8+INT temp hp to multiple people on potentially every round of the combat using a single bonus action is very powerful for buffing your party. If you have warning that combat is coming, you can spam it until you roll max. Constantly refreshing temp hp, with the arcane ward over it is great.
But you miss out on a lot by not going Armorer. No STR requirement for heavy armor, an INT based weapon attack, no need for an Arcane Focus, and that very important taunt is super important for a tank. Using Artillerist would probably be better for buffing your party, but Armorer is the better tank.
An update to the build, getting the Runecarver feat is a new way to get your hands on Armor of Agathys without the multiclass! Food for thought
For what its worth you would round up your artifice levels for MC spell slots. So at character level 5 you would be a 4th level spell caster not 3rd. Not a huge deal now but it does speed up slot progression by a level
Actually, it rounds down:
" *Spell Slots.* You determine your available spell slots by adding together all your levels in the bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, and wizard classes, and half your levels (rounded down) in the paladin and ranger classes. Use this total to determine your spell slots by consulting the Multiclass Spellcaster table."
Obviously that is outdated and doesn't include artificer, but the point is it rounds down.
@@Aw3som3-117 believe it or not the artifice class states specifically that you round up. Contrary to the more general ruling. Ill see if I can find the exact passage.
@@JMichaelC98 I'd love to see that if you could find it... I looked myself and was having a hard time finding an exact ruling so assumed it followed Ranger/Pally
@@DnDDeepDive Page 10 of TCE
Multiclassing and the Artificer Sidebar: Spell Slots portion -> Add half your levels (rounded up) in the artificer class to the appropriate levels from other classes to determine your available spell slots
@@JMichaelC98 Fantastic! Thanks! More and higher spell slots are always welcome :P
Just found your channel and I enjoy this greatly
Thanks and Welcome!
I don't think Heavy Armor Master works with Arcane ward. "While you are wearing heavy armor, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage that *you* take from nonmagical weapons is reduced by 3." From the Sage Advice we have this explanation of arcane ward: "An Arcane Ward is not an extension of the wizard
who creates it. It is a magical effect with its own hit points." Given this, it would seem that the ward is a separate entity from the wizard, and thus would not benefit from heavy armor master. After all the ward is not wearing the armor ;)
correct. this needs DM fiat to make it work.
You would have loved the Abjurant Champion prestige class from D&D 3.5... ! Off my head, if an abjuration spell would add AC to your character, you added +4 bonus, then you could quicken all aburation spells of lvl 3 or lower, and they were all doubled in range. So you ended up using the spell Greater Luminous Armor (8 hours at +12 AC), then Shield (quicken, +9 AC for one fight). I remember having a character with levels in Wizard, Bladesinger and Abjurant Champion and I was able to get to 42 AC haha! I miss the old dnd 3.5 times. Optimizing in this edition was INSANE.
Nice!
Taking meta magic adept if you can, and focusing on twin spell, makes for epic play with twin spelling haste or polymorph.
i had the idea of making a naga strength based fighter1/wizard with enchanter. Use blind fighting + stinking cloud + sentinel + free grapple constrict attack that restrains enemies + command. And you have a whole slew of ways to keep your enemies rotting in your stinking cloud while you are immune to it.
Coming from Build #90 (Clockwork Soul Sorcerer), the CWS can replace a spell on its subclass-specific spell list with any Transmutation or Abjuration spell available to wizards and warlocks whenever you take a sorcerer level. Armor of Agathys is an abjuration spell and the class feature Restore Order is a lot better than anything a warlock level can get you - you get to cancel advantage and disadvantage as a reaction PB/day.