Time Stamps: General wizard class 2:35 Abjurer 5:07 Conjurer 7:08 Diviner 9:13 Enchanter 11:28 Evoker 15:17 Illusionist 17:55 Necromancer 20:38 Transmuter 24:47 Core 8 comparison 28:50 War Mage 30:19 Blade Singer 33:00 Final Ranking 37:04

@esperthebard

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Eric!

@defensivekobra3873

4 жыл бұрын

Usefull, very helpful indeed eric

@buffcwbuff9879

4 жыл бұрын

So helpful! Thank you! How would the Eldritch Knight stack up in your opinion?

@esperthebard

4 жыл бұрын

@@buffcwbuff9879 I do think the EK is quite nice, though in my classes ranking wizard beat the fighter.

@NxtGenDragon

4 жыл бұрын

Do you plan to include the new 2 Wizard subclasses from the Wildemount book

DM: OK. I'll let you try, but you're going to need to roll a 20 to succeed. Diviner: I give him the 20 I rolled earlier for portent. DM *cries*

@ShugoAWay

4 жыл бұрын

Even better is giving 1 you rolled earlier to the bbeg on an important roll

@anthonytorres-cruz1598

4 жыл бұрын

@@ShugoAWay Give your 20 to the BBEG, and your 1 to your fellow player.

@arcanecontent

3 жыл бұрын

@@anthonytorres-cruz1598 Were you the BBEG character in your party all along? If so, I need advice how to pull that off while giving orders to my troops...

@xkillerq

3 жыл бұрын

Of course diviner deserve the 1 spot in the ranking. I play always wizard since 2004. I know the shit.

@arcanecontent

3 жыл бұрын

@@xkillerq Illusionists are pretty op too, but for them to really shine you need access to higher levels. Diviners are useful no matter the level. Chronurgists are an interesting variation on the whole dice controller trope.

DM: Ok, Fighter. What do you want to do? Fighter: I wanna hit the dragon. Divination Wizard: You get a nat 20. DM: *Anger* *Next. Round.* DM: The dragon attacks you, Fighter. Divination Wizard: He gets a nat 1. DM: *Anger intensifies*

@garyco766

4 жыл бұрын

Yes, because the div wiz always rolls his portent dice as nat 20 and nat 1.... Okay, actually never.

@mgb360

4 жыл бұрын

@@garyco766 With 2 portent dice it's a 1% chance, which can definitely happen. There's almost a 20% chance that you get at least one 1 or 20. 2s, 3s, 18s, and 19s are all still quite useful too and could result in essentially the same situation minus the critical damage.

@generaljimmies3429

4 жыл бұрын

My ultimate goal as a Bard is to lay with as many females as I can, with my ultimate goal to lay with a Golden Dragon. I'll have to bring my A-Game. (Starts playing Through The Fire And The Flames on my Lute)

@ksjunkes

4 жыл бұрын

Done that. Felt good.

@caiosergio5775

4 жыл бұрын

@@generaljimmies3429 well. In my party the bard tried to get laid with anything and even had a creature-type-based bingo

you could say diviners have an imPORTENT role

@dreaddinosour3728

4 жыл бұрын

Please stop

@thegodmatteo

4 жыл бұрын

And that is deciding imPOTENT ROLLS

@rangerecho

4 жыл бұрын

I wanna like the comment, but the number of likes is nice as it is.

@MrMegaboss7

4 жыл бұрын

But conjurers have an IMPortent role as well

@amitgabay3721

3 жыл бұрын

Boo!! Get out

Word of advice: never have a bbeg be a wizard of the enchanter school. Bad things happen. Mostly to your players

@AmigoRoberto

4 жыл бұрын

*laughs in enchanter*

@elgatochurro

4 жыл бұрын

I think itd be great, see your player character isnt lilled outright, theyre just under new management now... Really good motivation for the party

@user-qy8kk8yx4q

4 жыл бұрын

@@elgatochurro I'm sorry to say this to you, but if you want to build a villain for a *whole campaign* Just to take away the player's right to control his character (which is also one of his only rights).then you are a awful dm .

@firestorm165

4 жыл бұрын

@Lance Clemings my thoughts precisely

@whitecreamymilk8436

4 жыл бұрын

@Lance Clemings i mean they force dead souls to obey them. If you want proof its evil bring back a womans child as a zombie and go have it shamble to her. (Both are bad but one tortures dead souls and is unnatural and disobeys the natural order of the world.)

I would caution against illusionist as the "best" pick. The DM can hose that specialisation hard if they don't buy into the features.

@brianlav1

4 жыл бұрын

Not only that. In higher levels most monsters become immune to illusion spell or the mind effect spells of enchanters.

@ldl1477

4 жыл бұрын

Oh yeah. I've gotten DM's pretty crabby over minor illusions of mirrors and torches. Its a simple question - do illusions reflect or generate light? One or the other should work, but if your DM is Gamist vs Simulationist, the class can suck hard...

@jobreau1725

3 жыл бұрын

This is why you need to talk to your GM before making your important choices

the fact that you can even make a top ten subclasses of just one class is pretty amazing.

@getthegoons

4 жыл бұрын

Not when the game is 5 years old and has added only one new class in that time. I get they don't want to flood the game with bad Subclasses but we get like 2 a year most years. It's too slow IMO

@dragonballtalk8527

3 жыл бұрын

@@getthegoons the game is like 40 years old little dude

@getthegoons

3 жыл бұрын

@@dragonballtalk8527 speaking specifically about 5e, "little dude".

@thatguy5737

3 жыл бұрын

With how many subclasses there are now you could probably make a top 20

Illusory Reality, or as I like to call it “the looney tunes class feature”.

@DrPluton

4 жыл бұрын

That's how I used Illusions back in 2nd edition AD&D. I played a gnome illusionist/thief. I would conjure up images of tunnels, trick orcs into running in and getting knocked over by the solid rock, and backstab.

@animefan3794

4 жыл бұрын

@@DrPluton Illusory Reality takes it a step further I'd say. They see you run through the tunnel, and then crash into the now solid again rock themselves.

You missed maybe the most important part of Undead Thralls, when you raise skeletons or zombies with Raise Dead you can raise one extra undead per cast. So you get double value out of your level 3 spell slots, and then your undead minions are buffed on top of that. This makes a necromancer wizard capable of raising an entire army of undead, though it's lacking in a lot of other areas.

@hieronymusnervig8712

4 жыл бұрын

This just makes the Necromancer even worse, micromanaging your army sucks for everyone else on the table.

@alexanderstrauss9503

4 жыл бұрын

@@hieronymusnervig8712 Not if you roll like you would in war-gaming, just bring a bunch of dice

@Nikita-vz5wj

3 жыл бұрын

when min-maxed w/ an elf(trance) u can have 30 zombies/skeletons @ 6th level.

I think that "Portent" should had their own tier SS, just super super amazing in EVERY GAME Nice video!

@QuiescentPilot

4 жыл бұрын

Yeah, he only had it at A tier for some reason... must have been a mistake... either that or he doesn't realize its power.

@phobos9071

4 жыл бұрын

​@@QuiescentPilot I consider it tier SS not just because it pure raw power, but because versatility and FUN It's an amazing tool for any charecter and every player I know loves it

@QuiescentPilot

4 жыл бұрын

@@phobos9071 Exactly! I just wrote out a paragraph in another comment explaining its power, but you're so right that it's just so FUN! What sucks more than when you cast a spell and they save and it does nothing? With Portent, not only are they failing against your spell, but YOU'RE MAKING THEM FAIL ("I have foreseen your failure!). Maybe the only thing worse than them succeeding against you is when you get hit by petrification, and fail against it. What's more, if you can get a natural 20 on your Portent, what's cooler than giving an ally an auto-crit ("I have foreseen this moment! Your success is inevitable!")? SUCH a fun ability to have, with such a powerful effect, which you can almost always use.

@Athic

4 жыл бұрын

Yes and no. It has its limitations and a lot of people (that I've played with at least) seem to miss or ignore the fact you have to declare it before the roll. It's definitely great when you get that Nat 20 or a really low roll but sometimes you just get 2 middling rolls that you don't really have much to do with and having to declare it before the roll means you could change a Nat 20 to just a normal hit. It's good, but I agree with A tier.

@QuiescentPilot

4 жыл бұрын

Athic people miss that you have to declare it beforehand? Isn’t the theme of the ability that “I foresaw it; it was inevitable,” not “let’s see what you would get, and maybe change it”? Plus, middling rolls are better than you seem to indicate. A 10 or 11, I’ve seen some argue, are some of the best foretelling rolls. Usually, when you cast a spell, you want to target a saving throw that the target is weak in. Assuming your spell DC is 16 (8+4DEX+4Prof.), a 10 would make most monsters fail any save that they don’t have proficiency in. Plus, while a 10-12 don’t always guarantee success, they’re enough that you can use them to give yourself/allies a consistent decent result. A character can DIE sometimes from a low athletics roll to hold onto something. If you’ve seen Zee Bashew’s “deadliest thing in D&D video,” you may recall that he told of how a couple of low rolls killed off a PC. Most likely, a nat 10 or 11 would have saved him. If I were playing Diviner with Portent in that scenario, I certainly would have given him a middling roll to save him.

*cries in necromancer* Luckily my DM approved of Bone Shard as a 1st level homebrew spell for me so i get to use grim harvest from the start Casting Time: 1 action Range/Area: 30ft. Components: V, S, M (Bones of a corpse which are consumed by the spell) Duration: Instantaneous This spell uses the skeletal remains of a corpse to create a projectile weapon. Choose the corpse of a creature within range. Fragments of bones from the corpse splinter off and fly toward another selected target within range. On a successful ranged spell attack, the target takes 2d6+3 necrotic damage. The corpse a small creature has enough material to cast Bone Shard 1d4 times before deteriorating beyond use. Larger creatures provide an additional 1d4 uses per size category greater than small. The caster of the spell must have knowledge of a corpse's location to be used to cast the spell. Corpses in hard cover such as an enclosed coffin, a block of ice, or buried in mud cannot be used. Corpses buried in soft cover such as loose soil, shallow water, or an open sarcophagus can be used. At Higher Levels. At 2nd level or higher, you may make an additional ranged spell attack when you cast this spell for each slot level above 1st. You can attack the same or a new target. Each additional attack requires a use of material from a corpse.

@mrl9418

4 жыл бұрын

Rpg authors hate wizards! Look how they've been underpowered with time! Wizs should have a top of 9 spell slots per level, no less, and others shouldn't have spells or abilities that basically reproduce spells, at all, except for the cleric and his powers shouldn't be considered magic.

@whoblitzell

4 жыл бұрын

@@mrl9418 This is why I play with the 3pp item ring of wizardry that doubles spell slot levels. legendary ofc

Your estimation of Portent (and thus the Divination subclass) was far below how good it actually is. Portent is one of the best abilities in the game, and certainly better than any of the other subclasses' abilities. Roll low? You just got the ability to make an enemy auto-fail its save against your spell. Roll high? You can give an ally a guaranteed hit on an attack, or you can give anyone (including you) a success on a saving throw. Facing a single target? Cast Polymorph, give them a 6 (not even that low), and turn them into a turtle. Congrats, you just won the entire fight. Not high enough level yet? Forcing someone to fail on a Hypnotic Pattern or even a Web spell can be enough to clinch out a fight on its own.

@riccardocalosso5688

4 жыл бұрын

You can't use portent to substitute a bad roll, you must use it before the die is rolled. That's why you feel it's more powerful, you've been cheating! (joking aside, it's still disgustingly powerful)

@QuiescentPilot

4 жыл бұрын

Kalos the Shieldbearer I never said you could see the result first, so your accusation is baseless and false. Perhaps I should have noted this, since for some reason, it seems like some people don’t read it closely, but I am assuming that people can read the book for themselves. Glad you acknowledge that it’s strong though!

@darklightstudio

4 жыл бұрын

@@QuiescentPilot I got what you meant in the OP, but understand why someone might have read it wrong if they weren't being careful.

@haildorothygale

4 жыл бұрын

I came here to agree and thumbs up with your original post, but dude, why be such a nasty, superior ass to that guy who wasn't even shitty to you? No need to be defensive like that. Chill and un-clench a bit.

@xthebumpx

4 жыл бұрын

I disagree. Portent is super fun, but due to human psychology people overestimate its power. You will get more consistent benefit from many other Wizard subclass features over the course of an adventure. Everyone talks about it as if you always have a 1 or 20 on hand exactly when needed. Biggest surprise to me was Illusory Reality being A instead of S.

Too bad Esper didn't wait a bit for the wizard subclasses in the new Wildemount book. I'd like to see how they compare to the other ones!

@mattmark94

4 жыл бұрын

it's not an official d&d book

@remissscroll8217

4 жыл бұрын

mattmark94 it is tho, it’s an official sourcebook

@davosan6782

4 жыл бұрын

It is absolutely an official sourcebook

@metroid473

4 жыл бұрын

@@malmasterson3890 then bladesinger shouldn't be in this. That's from SCAG, a setting book not dissimilar to guide to wildemount.

@jamesmiller3127

4 жыл бұрын

@@malmasterson3890 The problem here is that you're conflating official *Forgotten Realms* content with official *D&D* content. All of it is official D&D material. Even the Rick and Morty set is official D&D material. This makes mattmark94's comment completely wrong. I remember other people thinking the same thing about Acquisitions Incorporated, which is set in the Forgotten Realms. He is likely confusing it with how the Taldorei setting was unofficial because it wasn't backed by WotC. Whether you meant to or not, you moved the goalposts back from mattmark's original post. This also has no bearing on whether Esper the Bard would feel inclined to talk about it. He DID talk about the Eberron races, but he has thusfar not mentioned the Locathah, Verdan, or Tortles, to my knowledge.

Spell mastery is great for necromancers, i can cast longstrider or mage armor on every single one of my minions for my army, even see invisibillity or darkvision

@ianmorse9381

4 жыл бұрын

Infinite Mirror Image. On your horde.

@caiosergio5775

4 жыл бұрын

It can be applied to any willing creature who isn't wearing armor

@lucario9054

4 жыл бұрын

@Cephandrius mage armor has a range of touch, not self

@Juniper_Rose

4 жыл бұрын

@Cephandrius nope, "a willing creature you touch"

Bladesong not being an S-tier feature? +INT to AC, adv. on acrobatics, +10 speed, and +INT to concentration saves, 2 times per short rest?

@thurismundbotheric7598

4 жыл бұрын

Must use a single handed or versatile weapon in one hand, can't use a shield, and you can't wear medium or heavy armor. So it being given an A is generous.

@YourCrazyDolphin

4 жыл бұрын

@@thurismundbotheric7598 A wizard wearing armor at all is unique to the bladesinger though. It only restricts the wizard if they're multi-class... Which isn't really the point of the video.

@astuteanansi4935

3 жыл бұрын

@@thurismundbotheric7598 Why would you ever use anything else as a wizard? You'll always need a free hand to use an arcane focus and do somatic gestures, so using a two-handed weapon or carrying a shield is kind of out of the question anyways. As for being constrained to light armor, most wizards can't use armor at all to begin with, except dwarves (and this class is normally unique to elves), and the +INT to armor makes that extremely irrelevant. With Mage Armor and just 14 DEX and 16 INT, you end up with 18 armor... as a wizard, as level 2. That's as high as any other class can realistically go that level (very few DMs will authorize a 1.5k full plate at level 1), and it'll keep going up as you increase your stats. A fighter in full plate, shield and Defensive specialization can have up to 21 armor with no enchanted items. A Bladesinger can have up to *23* *AND SINCE YOU'RE A WIZARD YOU ALSO HAVE ACCESS TO SHIELD*

Note to Bladesinger and Extra Attack: Shadow Blade as 3rd level spell, 3d8+dex mod, 2 times a round with possible advantage.

@devin5201

4 жыл бұрын

Hey I was thinking about Shadow Blade a while back, on the damage it says something along the lines of ''when you hit it deals 2d8 psychic damage'' not that the weapons damage die is 2d8 which makes it sound like it wouldn't add your attack mod(Dex in this case) but idk, just a confusion I had.

@sorrowrpg6739

4 жыл бұрын

@@devin5201 shadow blade is still a weapon. You add your mod as always, mister Jeremy confirmed it.

@devin5201

4 жыл бұрын

@@sorrowrpg6739 thanks for the clarification, spell descriptions tend to confuse me.

@garyco766

4 жыл бұрын

Yes, Shadow blade is quite potent. Honestly, Bladesinger is hands down the most powerful wizard class at low levels due to VERY high AC and VERY efficient damage. At higher levels the AC is still top tier, moving them up to top 5 IMO. There is just something really compelling about being a full wizard, and also having an AC of say 30ish with shield spell. This guy has no clue at all about how to rank anything, as I keep experiencing in his videos. Enchanter at 3rd? Maybe 7th or 8th. War wizard is top 3 for sure. He keeps saying it himself, 5E pushes you into being a blaster, hard, and yet he ranks the combat focused mages at 2nd, 7th, and 8th, when I could well rank them 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Has he even tried to play these classes?

@devin5201

4 жыл бұрын

@@garyco766 Esper is the kinda guy that favors storytelling to raw mechanical power, in his classes list for example I think he put the Fighter close to if not the lowest rank and sure the fighter is the blandest class as written but as part of a party there is no class more efficient at hitting hard and hitting often also imo the fighter class tells the classic story of a normal fellow being tossed into an insane world which is such a fun archetype to me.

Diviner is my absolute favorite of the subclasses. I really want to play a dark elf "star augur" of sorts, who is a studied astronomer and scholar of the astral sea.

The only subclass you seemed to take spell availability into account for is the necro, but the conjurer and transmuter also heavily suffer from 5e's very nerfed spell options, which should drastically drop their power level here. Also worth noting that any illusionist is only as powerful as their DM lets them be, and most DMs aren't lenient enough to let them land at #1 like this.

@nicholasroberts8378

4 жыл бұрын

Agreed, even if you have a great imagination most DM I have will not lot you run with crazy illusions meaning they sadly don't have the appeal like standard blaster mages.

@garyco766

4 жыл бұрын

100% agree.

@RaithSienar

4 жыл бұрын

5E in general is just terrible for Wizards due to how much they were nerfed. It's absolutely ridiculous that Sorcerers are the only ones that get access to metamagic. Wizards are supposed to be the MASTERS OF THE ARCANE yet WotC has only named Wizards as the masters of the arcane while actually giving Sorcerers the tools needed to be masters, not to mention with the necessity of using higher level spell slots to cast your lower level spells as powered up versions instead of them powering up automatically like they did in older editions just really makes 5E kinda bad for magic and one of the most boring editions of D&D I've ever played aside from 4th.

@RaithSienar

4 жыл бұрын

@Remy B Yea that shit is terrible, but another terrible design decision I don't think is talked about enough is the lack of spells scaling for free, you have to use a higher level spell slot for them, but the problem is the spells aren't actually balanced around this, and unless it's some utility spell without a higher level counterpart, you're always better off casting a spell that is just naturally higher level instead of wasting a higher level slot to cast a spell that doesn't scale enough to match the one you could have cast instead.

@orionar2461

4 жыл бұрын

@@RaithSienar this is balanced by the fact that spells do higher damage than past editions when you get them. A fire ball does 5d6 when you get it third. It does 8d6 when you get in 5th. We also get cantrips that actually do damage instead of 1d3

"In a way, we are magicians. We are alchemists, sorcerers and wizards. We are a very strange bunch. But there is great fun in being a wizard. " -Billy Joel

@defensivekobra3873

4 жыл бұрын

Who in the world is Billy Joel?

@defensivekobra3873

4 жыл бұрын

@Khashon Haselrig where does he come from, what campaign is he in?

@TheCrispAlien

4 жыл бұрын

@@defensivekobra3873 the real world campaign.

@JamesTheCelestial

4 жыл бұрын

@@TheCrispAlien I don't enjoy that campaign as much as the others. The plague subplot going on is just boring and restrictive.

@cozycr8485

4 жыл бұрын

@@JamesTheCelestial And so cliche

I made a transmutation wizard a while back that experiments with a strange wild magic crystal that gives mutations to critters to close. as it is now he has a moment speed of 70ft 2 sets of wings and 7 fingers among other things. i think his hole obsession with evolution and mutations fits well with his class.

Most KZreadrs just say subscribe please so we can hit (amount), but dang that speech made me want to subscribe again.

@garyco766

4 жыл бұрын

It actually made me want to switch videos, when my eyes recovered from rolling that hard.

Why does everyone always miss that Signature Spells gives them back on a *short* rest. Which is fantastic for counterspell and other utility spells. Also, as someone that's played a lv10 wizard, I'm telling you now, getting 2 extra spells prepared per day at that level is really good. By that level you're probably fighting such a wide range of enemies that you'll actually want to have all of those spells prepared. Plus it helps catch you up to the cleric (who gets to prepare 20+10+Wismod spells per day) at 20+2(spell mastery)+2(signature)+Intmod for about 29 Oh and spell mastery is *fantastic* on your simulacrum

@toshomni9478

4 жыл бұрын

I agree. It's one of my favorite class features, especially when combined with that Catnap spell.

@sipjedekat8525

4 жыл бұрын

Signature spells comes online at lvl 20. 99.99 % of players don't reach that.

@fortello7219

4 жыл бұрын

@@sipjedekat8525 So what? That means you don't need to read the description? Why even mention it then? It doesn't matter how late it comes online, you still need to give it the same respect as any other feature. That means not spreading misinformation.

@sipjedekat8525

4 жыл бұрын

@@fortello7219 dude. You sound agitated, chill out. Most people simply don't give two shits about capstone abilities and since they will never use them, why would they?

Love these subclass ranking videos! Need more of them. Keep up the good work Esper

Bening Trasposition comes back after a conjuartion spell. Do we know of a 1st or 2nd level spell as that? Yes we do. Misty step. At 18, a conjuration wizard can just blink and blink and blink.

@anyoneatall3488

5 ай бұрын

>:)

Illusion Wizards... are gods. Major Image at 6th level becomes permanent until dispelled. So you can just... carry around a bunch of Major Images as stars on your hand or tatoos or hairs or _whatever_, throw them out into a different illusion as an action, oh, and make them solid as a bonus action.

Tactical Wit is quite a bit more than a "minor benefit". Getting +5 to your initiative (eventually, might start at +3 or +4) is *huge* for wizards because it allows them to often go before the bulk of the enemy forces, placing ideal AoE control or damage spells (like Hypnotic Pattern or Fireball) before the enemies can scatter. I personally would also always consider DEX as a wizard's 3rd most important stat because it gives a nice bonus to AC and initiative, and I always strife to get it up to at least 14 when using point buy. That means that a war mage will often have a +7 or higher to their initiative - which is massive for the reasons mentioned above.

@IHateNumbersOnNames

4 жыл бұрын

16 dex, 14 con, 16 int, alert feat. My boy has +11 initiative, fuck it lmao

@Nr4747

4 жыл бұрын

@@IHateNumbersOnNames I'm aiming for the Alert feat. aswell, might wait until a bit later to grab it, though (I'm playing a Half Elf instead of the "usual" Variant Human because I wanted more stats and skills).

Great video! I'm about to play a wizard in a new campaing so it helped me a lot! Thanks. Cheers from Brazil!

Command Undead: Mister Mummylord you and your army work for me now.

Finally. A in depth wizard video.

@mercuryknyght5238

4 жыл бұрын

You might want to check out Treantmonk temple. Its a pretty good youtube channel with a lot of good in depth videos for wizards.

''sound familiar'' oh eat dookie Esper, that did made me chuckle.

I feel that the War Magic Wizard is, by far, the best multiclass option for an Eldritch Knight. Those first two features are amazing for an Eldritch Knight as, once they reach level 7, they can attack as a bonus action when they use a cantrip. Given that Green Flame Blade and Booming Blade exist, they synergize fantastically with Arcane Deflection

im genuinely suprised that diviner landed on the middle of the road, but it my top 3 next to transmuter and conjurer. Great video!

As I said before, the greatest d&d channel on the history of youtube. Another epic tale by an true bard. For me Transmuters are a favorite, because they connect to earthly themes.

These are the best kind of videos you make that means you need to make more of these long to

People get not more intelligent while they age, they get more wise. That is a huge difference.

@unamed1142

4 жыл бұрын

True, although still a scholar having 50 more years for research would help and so lends to elderly arch wizards. People do often confuse life experience for intelligence though.

@irispounsberry7917

4 жыл бұрын

@@unamed1142 Researching really is only good as the sources they are using for reference. That's why elderly hermits are not stereotyped as smart, but elderly wizards in arcane towers sending apprentices (or adventurers!) out for rare books or materials are considered so.

@VilleKivinen

4 жыл бұрын

US Senate disagrees.

@JohnBatman111

4 жыл бұрын

often, not even that

@NikELbErGErBergel

3 жыл бұрын

I dont think thats how dnd5e int works since they have abbilities like religion nature and medicine scale with int implying in 5e int is also measuring knowledge. In the real world we destinguish between fluid and crystallized intelligence and it is generally agreed that fluid decreases with age while cristallized grows. You could maybe call cristallized intelligence wisdom but i think dnd uses those terms differently.

Minor Conjuration has saved the day so many times for me. It's actually incredible being able to just have whatever non-magical common item you might need.

Thanks for the video! I really enjoyed it!

29:59 That's what _I've_ been saying! We need a decent 1st-level damage spell! Our own _catapult_ or _chromatic orb_ or _burning hands._

Illusionist is probably my favorite subclass. A creative player can work miracles with powered up illusions.

Pretty good video, I looked at the the length and said “yeah ok I’ll never make it through the whole video”. I stand corrected. Well done good sir.

Would love to see Chronurgy Magic and Graviturgy Magic added in a separate video and compare them to the other subclasses. Good video by the way. Now, I'm going to watch a lot of them.

I love all Esper the Bard videos.

Great video!

Will you please add an addendum including your thoughts on the Chronurgy Wizard and Graviturgy Wizard?

Just remember. The best wizard subclass is your favorite. Do what makes you happy. just kidding its illusion

@cormorantcolors6791

4 жыл бұрын

I’m putting this in the replies to keep the general feel of the original comment, but I did NOT expect my favorite to actually come out on top.

@AveSicarius

4 жыл бұрын

I think that makes sense in a way. A beings perception is their entire reality. Illusory magic manipulates their perception at the wizards whim. It seems much easier to trick a being into believing a situation is true, rather than creating that situation through one of the other schools. Personally I prefer transmutation, it fulfills what I see as my ideal of "arcane juggernaut". I can warp reality to my whim, and when push comes to shove I can unleash my inner "muscle wizard". But in a "magical duel" I think an illusion school specialist would win. They take control of your senses, and at that point you have already lost!

@garyco766

4 жыл бұрын

There's 2 big problems with illusion: 1) it's only as powerful as the GM allows it to be, it really relies on his goodwill to be effective. 2) it causes a situation where the wizard is CONSTANTLY lobbying the GM to allow his spells to be thoroughly broken and overpowered in some way, which can really interfere with the flow of the game, and feeds back into #1 above.

@kylethomas9130

4 жыл бұрын

@@garyco766 that usually applies to the school of magic in general. Illusionists are underrated in most media, especially AAA games.

@whitecreamymilk8436

4 жыл бұрын

Only if the dm is chill with it.

One of my current characters is a necromancer. He took a one level dip in Death Domain Cleric and always has Inflict Wounds prepared to help Grim Harvest along, plus the Reaper feature of the domain has proven useful. It is a multiclass so I understand it not counting, but it is still fun as hell playing an armored death wizard with an axe and a gaggle of undead minions

Another fantastic video! Allow Necromancers to cast Inflict Wounds. Combine that with a familiar and you are a grim reaping machine. Wizards can also research new spells to fix any deficiencies you feel a tradition has.

Oh neat Wizard rankings. Betting now the Abdjuration features are near the top. Darn looks like I was wrong for the most part, but still a great video. The Grim harvest and Necromancer Wizard multiclass sounds very good for a mid campaign BBEG

@esperthebard

4 жыл бұрын

Abjuration is really good! Honestly most of the wizard subclasses are pretty neck-and-neck.

I'm starting a campaign soon in which I will play a Wizard. I was leaving towards Illusion, but I wasn't sure. Now, I am.

How is Portent not listed as a S tier? It's ridiculously useful, both in a tough combat situation, and in everyday interactions! And the flavor value of playing glimpses of the future into your roleplay is already worth S.

@esperthebard

4 жыл бұрын

If you could decide to use it after the initial roll is made, it would have been S tier. Also its effectiveness is quite swingy. There's no gauranteeing what you'll get on a given day, so the d20 results may not be numbers that actually help much. Still A tier is great though.

@brunobock372

4 жыл бұрын

@@esperthebard it might even be broken if you could use it this way, overpowered.

War wizard- Adding intelligence to your initiative is not a minor benefit. A wizard being able to destroy or control the enemies before they can mobilize is very powerful. Arcane deflection is also always available, even out of combat. You fail a weird save from an environmental effect or a trap, you can use arcane deflection to pass. The power surge mechanic is complicated. It starts off weak because of the limited resources, but you get more charges using Counterspell and dispel magic. It starts off being 3 extra force damage to one creature. The strength of it comes from the incremental scaling, using one dispel magic on multiple spells to get more charges per 3rd level slot, and the fact that it’s damage is limited to once per turn. If you get access to persisting spell effects through cantrips like prestidigitation, light, thaumaturgy, bladeward, guidance, resistance, magic stone, control flame, or shillelagh then you can stack spells on an object or creature to dispel and get a charge for each spell dispelled. At higher levels and INT scores this becomes a similar boost to damage compared to the empowered spell metamatic with 2 key differences. Difference one, it’s single target damage boost only, even when used with an AOE. Difference two, although single target, it raises both the minimum and maximum damage of a spell instead of shifting the damage average upward.

I liked this, you missed the two new ones. I understand this video has been worked on over a period of time so I won’t complain. I would like to see a video like this on Warlock subclasses. Paladins too.

I had a war mage wizard who took light and medium armour proficiency, bought a suit of half plate (which caused him to be permanently encumbered) and specialised in touch spells. Not optimal perhaps, but a good amount of fun.

I think you really underestimated Bladesinger. Treantmonk (who's known for his Wizard Guides) ranks it highly. His take on the subclass is not as a gish but rather mostly still a full caster. Blade Song is a great feature. With 20 int you get a +5 AC and +5 to con saving throws, which is like a Shield Spell and Resilient Con as a 13th level character, and you can stack them even more. For example if you have 16 dex, Mage Armor + Bladesong = 21 AC, which can be 26 AC on reaction using Shield spell. Making you really hard to hit, and even if you do get hit you get a bonus in concentration saves (which you can further stack with Warcaster and/or Resilient Con) making it really hard to lose a concentration spell. Since the Wizard's best spells are mostly Concentration spells, this gives the Bladesinger a huge advantage compared to other subclasses.

I am planing on creating a Magic "Fighter" who learned magic becouse it is dope and he knows his muscles nor his martial knoledge can save him from all situations. I am looking to try to find out which wizard class might be the best for the concept. Due to ability score i can't have spells that need an magic attack roll nor allows for saves

The bladesinger level 6 second attack has been changed to also include a cantrip, so you can use booming blade and such and an attack, making it much more viable.

Why am i honored to have this video so quickly! Wait are you gonna go Into every wizard spell?

@haroldtchicken5871

4 жыл бұрын

Davvy Chappy has a series of videos where he goes over every spell in the context of the class list it's on. Check those out

@defensivekobra3873

4 жыл бұрын

@@haroldtchicken5871 Yeah, i know what the wizard spells do and what davy chappy does, i was just suprised untill it did not happen and i must have misread the title or misheard what he said

In my campaigns (2nd Ed AD&D, 80s-90s), I had an archmage known as Emordra the Green Necromancer. She primarily wore green attire traced with gold (gold color, not actual gold). Spells she wrote made playing a necromancer really worth it. Emordra's Open Wound is a 2nd level spell with no save. It does a mere 1hp per necromancer level + 1d4. Here's the kicker. You bleed 1 HP per round until bandaged or magically healed. Getting hit multiple times by that spell causes a cumulative bleeding level and bandaging, in combat for that round, only removes 1 HP of bleeding per round. The reverse of the spell Emordra's Wound Mending works very similarly to Cure Light Wounds. There are also the Emordra's Shatterbone spells. They only apply to one target and there is no save. Emordra's Shatterbone III, the 3rd level version, does 1d4 per necromancer level +1 per necromancer level. The HP damage is fracturing the skeleton, not really shattering it, so the being must have some kind of skeleton. However, get reduced to 0 HP via the Shatterbone spell and the entire skeleton is shattered into tiny pieces... killing you as you fall into goo. The reverse of all of them is kind of lame. It just mends bone/carapace of the being. Emodra's Shadow Dart is level 1, throwing the dart is part of the casting. The dart is infused with shadow stuff and it hones right at the target. Just like Magic Missile it does not miss. It inflicts the damage of the dart +2 HP per necromancer level. If the target isn't a living being, it only does the dart damage. In short (too late), with the right DM, Necromancers are awesome.

The highest character I ever made in 5e was a necromancer and trust me, making 2 empowered zombies instead of 1 is way better then you discribed. for the rest of the abilities I agree with you.

Well done sir!

Great video, do you have any thoughts on the new chronurgist and graviturgist?

Im playing my second character ever, a high elf necromancer. Really regret choosing such a weak class, i was originally a divination wizard but i switched at lvl 2 because it didnt sound cool

My Current character is a EK/Bladesinger multiclass. I only go two levels into bladesinger, and my eldritch knight is dex based, meaning between the light armor, dex modifier, int modifier, and spells like shield and mirror image, it makes him one of the best tanks I've ever created. i really enjoy playing it.

Good video. So interesting.

For examples of high level undead you can get with the capstone Necromancy feature: Mummy lords if you want a servant that can also raise dead Nightwalkers if you just want Pure Damage (Both have such low int they can't break your control)

Best vids you make right here do more monster videos mr bard sir

8:10 ok so question.. is it simply "must have seen the object" or "must have seen all important details of an object"? and how long must you have seen it in order to recreate it? basically: if i want to recreate a book, as an example, do i have to see the words on every page to get the book or is simply seeing the book (closed) enough to recreate it (and be able to read the recreation). and if i must see every page, can i simply flip every page and look quickly at it or do i have to let my eyes "read" every word first? cuz i can see some uses for information gathering with this spell but if it takes too long it might not be worth it

I feel like a rogue only taking two levels into blade singer wizard would be pretty dastardly. I mean the wording doesn't state you're actually singing or gives you any negatives in stealth.

Good vid good content I told my buddy he was like oh tayo the shield mage

Although not much use can be made of this specific aspect of minor alchemy, turning a weapon into silver (or at least its edge) could prove useful against certain enemies, plus the fact that some DMs would allow the weapon to then be considered a "magical" attack from being somewhat magically influenced. I know it doesn't about to much, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

I played as a palemaster in NWN2, it was great. High ac and hp pool, physical resistance's and immunities, mainly used touch spells to do harm. And it's a feat monster, a feat every 3 levels.

I really think you undersold the necromancer. If played correctly, you can have an undead army of skeleton archers and zombies which can protect you an your party, grapple enemies, and pelt them with arrows. This can be HUGELY powerful.

you made this just as there are now two more wizard subclasses, from the CR Wildmount book.

Anyone know if it would be possible to us illusory reality to make like a door on a wall for example and be able to go through the door thus going through the wall?

How would you rank the Chronurgy Magic and Graviturgy Magic subclasses from the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount?

The extra attack of a bladesinger. "Moreover, you can cast one of your cantrips in place of one of those attacks"

I usually play wizards In an almost crowd control like fashion where I use them to disable, slow, stun, and deter enemies so they’re so bogged down that the party can just throw hit after hit at them with little consequences

@Maximum7077

4 жыл бұрын

Cool. What is the best way /build to do so?

The craziest potential of an evocation wizard is a warlock multiclass. Add into that a single magic item (illusionist's bracers) and at level 13 you have a caster that fire off 6 bolts of 1d10+(up to 10) damage. A race with +2 in any of them, or variant human with +1 for int and cha, with standard array can achieve +7 at this point, and +8 at level 14. At level 20 you won't get a capstone, but doing 8*1d10+10 is pretty epic. It's not that a wizard can't do anything else then cantrip blasting, but this way they can focus on more defensive and versatile spells if they aren't eveporating health pools. The amount of combination you can make a evolock work is to many to even start, because there exist a lot of powerful spell/skill combinations for warlocks when combined with any class.

Personal favorite Signature Spell for wizard: Catnap. Get full benefits of a short rest in 10 minutes, such as Arcane Recovery and Signature Spells which means you get Catnap right back to use on 3 more people.

@xthebumpx

4 жыл бұрын

A lot of people just house rule short rests to be 10 minutes.

Since strixhaven Therme is actually a 2nd lila necromancy Spell, ist called wither and Bloom, so by now there is atleast 1 more loslegen necromancyspell for the wizard

There is a spell called shadow blade worth looking at for any blade singer out there, a weapon with 4 damage dice, that last for concentration, and can be attacked with using attack actions.... and it does Psychic damage! it makes the class 'sing' if you will, just wish there was a weaker version that you could have at lower levels.

Can I multiclass into different branches of wizard? So take 2 levels of Wizard: Diviner then take levels in Wizard:Evoker? As in, I won’t get sculpt spells until level 4?

@jeohranalfhir8366

4 жыл бұрын

Nope you can't But taking 2 or 3 levels in Wizard comes really in handy, as you can use either Conjuration or Divination to get important benefits, and even if your Int is relatively low (you still need a 13 in order to multiclass) there are PLENTY of utility spells (or even non-utility like Sleep) that don't actually use your Int. Really huge in a really combat-focused party.

Master Bard, you have a keen eye for distinguishing our magical breatherns furthered learning. Though I may only have power by the grace of The Lady, I agree they can be quite powerfull. I have no love for those who deal in the unholy powers, but my friend finds portents in his sand gardens, and has saved my skin aplenty. Please continue these fine works. I hope you find health, and a fat purse in your endeavors.

keep in mind fr command undead that you can use it on a nightwalker (MTF) to keep it *permanently* under your control. It has an intelligence of 6 (can't break free) and a -1 to charisma saves, and is a C/R 20. creature. Now, you'll almost never come across one of these things, but if you do.... woe be to your DM. That said, because of this situationality, it being B tier is still very fair imo.

Hey Esper, how would you rank the new revised version of the Blade Singer?

I’d like to see what you think of the chrono/gravity subclasses

Grim harvest At 2nd level, you gain the ability to reap life energy from creatures you kill with your spells. Once per turn when you kill one or more creatures with a spell of 1st level or higher, you regain hit points equal to twice the spell's level, or three times its level if the spell belongs to the School of Necromancy. You don't gain this benefit for killing constructs or undead. You make a great point about inability to use necromancy spells reliably with this feature. You also make a great point about it possibly stacking with dark ones blessing, which leads to another great realization. It isnt limited to wizard spells and so can possibly be used well when multiclassing. That being said you seem to have ignored the best way to use this spell. Ongoing Spell effects that have chances to proc this feature on every other creatures turn. This can be done by using persistent area of effect spells like flaming sphere or spell effects that have a chance to kill if you are damaged like fire shield/armor of Agathys. Necromancer dip to then go cleric or divine soul for spirit guardians could be amazing.

Opinion on the new subclasses in Wildemount? Both rank pretty decently for me but I play a 12th level conjuration wizard/rogue so what do I know :P

Spell Mastery at lvl 18 is probably one of the most valuable abilities you can get. Considering making Shield as your 1st level, as for 2nd level spell, i'd go for either Blindness/Deafness, Invisibility, or Scorching Ray, depending on your type of gameplay. That Shield spell though... Especially if you're going for a War Mage, and get Heavy Armor proficiency (either by dipping into other classes of feats)... yeah, not many that will be able to even hit you.

21:50 necromancer spels ray of sickness and vampiric touch can be upgraded to higher lvl so using ray of sickness at say lvl 5 gets the x3 multiplier if it kills also if a skeleton/zombie created with animate dead kills something isnt that considered death by necromancy spell?

At the 33 minute mark, when you start talking about Bladesinger, you forgot to change the title graphics away from "War Mage"

You miss another benefit of the Abjurer's arcane ward. It's not considered temporary hit-points but rather a separate barrier. As such, if your character has some kind of elemental resistance, like being resistant to fire, your arcane ward doesn't benefit from that resistance, and takes full damage. However, that also means, that when your arcane ward is hit, you're not being hit. As such, as long as your arcane ward is up, you do not have to make any constitution rolls to maintain concentration. Also, whenever you cast an abjuration spell, you recharge your arcane ward by a number of points equal to the spell level I believe. If your abjurer is a deep gnome who takes svirfniblin magic (a solid choice), you can fully recharge your ward whenever not in combat without using any spell slots. Lastly, if you're looking to bind some kind of magical energy (i.e. squeeze a geni for wishes or maintain control of that elemental for more than a couple minutes), you're going to want an abjurer, and not a conjurer. Planar Binding is our bag baby. Don't get me started on wizard duels.

Arcane ward is underrated here, I think. The arcane ward HP doesn’t count as your HP, so it also really helps with concentration. Enemies that hit your ward, but don’t get through it, don’t trigger a concentration check. It’s pretty useful and certainly worth mentioning.

@MrNocturnalEmission

4 жыл бұрын

Watching Lanipators "Roll With Me" show, the wizard in it shows it off very well.

@Matthewcmiel

4 жыл бұрын

@@MrNocturnalEmission cool! Thanks for the recommendation !

I know they aren't published, but where would you rank the various UA Arcane Traditions? Mainly curious about Lore Mastery! Thanks!

wizards can heal mostly themselves with vampiric touch and enervation but you have life transference which can heal other but damaging you so its good for a bit more beefy wizard

Tasha's Bladesinger got a little better due to its multi-attack feature now makes it to where one of those attacks can be used to cast a cantrip.

I tried looking around, does he have a video like this for other 5e subclasses?

Do you think the changes in tasha's to bladesingers would change their place in the ranking? Bladesinger's extra attack now includes a cantrip as part of the attack action, so your bonus action is still available (unlike Eldritch Knight's lvl 7 feature). This in turn synergizes with Song of Victory. Though, I suppose it'd seem weird as to why you'd rather use cantrips with an attack albeit buffed when you're a lvl 14 wizard (hello, synergy with tasha's otherworldly guise!) . Still, the option's neat and definitely feels like it fulfills the gish fantasy even better than ever and can keep up somewhat with the other martials.

5:33 Arcane ward has the ability to completely prevent the wizard from having to make a concentration check. If the all of the damage is absorbed by the ward, the wizard doesn’t make a concentration save. Saves are forced from actually taking damage, not being hit by an attack. Within the same line of thinking, the ward can drastically reduce the save caused by substantial damage taken to make an otherwise impassable concentration save at least passable.

Ok so I’m VERY new to d&d and I’m trying to create a character that’s an old lady who can weave her magic into clothing/armor.... is there a class that she would fit in?