We're only one session in, but I'm very excited about my new triton wizard character.
While much of that is anticipation for the story that is to come - our DM waited until we had our characters figured out and our backstories written to build the campaign, so it should tie into our stories directly - I'm also just excited to play this character.
I got very lucky and rolled some fantastic stats. Including my 3 +1s that I got as a Triton (assigned to different stats than usual, as per the Tasha's rules) I have a Strength of 12, a Dexterity of 14, a Constitution of 17, an Intelligence of 18, a Wisdom of 8, and a Charisma of 14.
And yes, dumping wisdom is a character-focused choice, and I had to fight my min-max-er instincts knowing that Wisdom is generally very useful. My character is a naive recent college grad (well, the equivalent - he's a recent wizard school grad) and is not very observant.
Starting not only with a +4 to my main stat but also just one point away from getting +4 to Constitution, I'm in quite good shape.
Overall, a Wizard, like most classes, gets 5 ability score improvements. I think I'll probably stick to Wizard without any multiclassing (his father and twin sister are more of the artificer persuasion, though I think at most I'd go with Artificer Initiate, rather than actually multiclassing).
Anyway, the plan for level 4 is to bump my Intelligence up to 20, which of course is a high priority for most wizards. Getting a maxed-out spell save DC and spell attack bonus should be quite helpful.
Next, at level 8, I'm going to pick up Resilient: Constitution. This will raise my Con to 18, and also give me proficiency in Con saves, which will help a lot with concentration saving throws. By level 13, I'd have a +9 to Con saves and thus would only ever have to worry if the damage I took from a single hit was over 21.
Now, the question is: what to do with the ASIs at 12, 16, and 19?
Usually, my instinct is to max out Constitution once I've gotten my main stat maxed out, which I could do with just one of those. A wizard with +5 to Con would eventually have 182 HP at level 20, which is pretty respectable for any class (except maybe a Barbarian).
But that said, a +4 to Con is already very high for a Wizard, and I wonder if I'd be better served grabbing some other feats.
I think I'm ok leaving my other stats where they are - the low Wisdom isn't fantastic, but as a wizard I am proficient in those saving throws, so even now I have a positive modifier to saves.
So let's consider a few feats:
Artificer Initiate would allow me to pick up Cure Wounds and use Intelligence with it. This could help shore up our party's healing - we currently lack a Cleric or Druid, our heals just coming from our two Paladins. Cure Wounds is, admittedly, pretty pathetic at higher levels, but it's a decent patch that can get a friend up (and with a familiar, I can cast it by sending the familiar into touch range).
Warcaster is a natural choice for most spellcasters, though its primary appeal - getting advantage on concentration saves - is somewhat less necessary when I have such an enormous bonus to those con saves.
Alert is very much against the current personality of the character, but could also reflect his development as an adventurer. Honestly, +5 to initiative, never being able to be surprised, and enemies not having advantage on attacks against you because you can't see them is a pretty great suite of abilities. Given that I think our other Wizard is going to be a Chronurgist, this would help me keep up in initiative and possibly let the wizards really control the battlefield at the start of combat, and even let us unleash the artillery of fireballs before our melee allies crowd the field.
Gift of the Metallic Dragon is an alternative to Artificer Initiate to get Cure Wounds, and also gives you reaction similar to the Shield spell that you can use a few times per day. Honestly, it's probably a better option for my purposes.
Anyway, this is all pretty far away, but it bears thinking about even early on.
No comments:
Post a Comment