UA: Conjurer

 Yes, we've hit the Wizard subclasses, and here we're going to be talking about the four 2014 PHB subclasses that were cut from the 2024 PHB. These were always bound to get a 2024 revision, so I'm not surprised to see them here.

I also have a special place in my heart for the Conjurer - in my original D&D campaign, my best friend played a Conjuration Wizard, and among those three original players (we did eventually get three other players to join the party before the campaign fell apart, so I guess I've tended to default to 6-player parties) he's the one who I still play with (we live in the same apartment, and we've been friends for like 23 years).

Anyway, Conjurers are, I'd argue, one of the really classic wizard archetypes, and while Divination probably overshadows most other wizard subclasses, this has always been a pretty good one. Notably, 2024 saw a pretty radical redesign of a lot of conjuration spells. While flexibility has gone down, their consistency has gone up. Perhaps more than any other Wizard (except maybe Necromancers, which we'll get to) Conjuration is going to be the subclass focusing on keeping up a powerful concentration spell.

Of course, Conjuration is also the school of teleportation magic, and we're going to get some related features for that as well.

Let's get into it:

Level 3:

Benign Transposition allows you to, as a Magic action, teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see. You can also choose a space within range occupied by a Medium or smaller creature, and if that is creature is willing, you can both teleport, swapping places.

You can use this feature once per long Rest, but you can also restore a use of it by expending a spell slot of 2nd level or higher.

    This comes earlier - it used to come at 6th level. However, there's a slight nerf, in that rather than recharging this when you cast a Conjuration spell (of 1st or higher level), you now just have to expend a spell slot to get it back. That said, a 2nd level spell slot is what you spend on a Misty Step, so while this is less action-friendly (the spell being a bonus action,) the fact that you can swap with an ally adds some functionality here. I'd still likely take Misty Step, but this gives you some cover if you want to unprepare it.

Conjuration Savant has received the same redesign as the 2024 PHB ones, now giving you a free Conjuration spell for your spellbook every other level.

    As a note, one feature is lost here, which is Minor Conjuration. However, I think that feature largely existed just to give you something to actually get at 2nd level in the old version, and you can get a similar effect with Prestidigitation anyway. I think getting Benign Transposition earlier is worth losing this one.

Level 6:

Distant Transposition buffs your Benign Transposition. The range increases to 60 feet, and you regain your use of it on a Short rest as well as a long rest.

    This is actually quite nice - getting more uses of it per day is great, but the range increase also makes it more significant in-combat. 30-foot teleports are great to get out of melee range or a restraint/grapple, but 60 starts to really put some serious distance between you and your foes.

Durable Summons gives creatures you summon using a spell slot (guess this doesn't work with an enspelled staff) temp HP equal to twice your Wizard level when they first appear.

    This comes way earlier, as it previously came at level 14. The amount of temp HP starts off lower - the old version was a flat 30 - but at higher levels, this will scale up to eventually become 40 Temp HP. I'm pretty positive on this one - 12 Temp HP at level 6 is decent, and could effectively negate one or two hits. If you figure you've got a Fey Spirit (Summon Fey being one of the better "Summon" spells) summoned at 4th level (which would be doable only a level after getting this feature,) you would be giving them 14 Temp HP on top of their 40 base HP, increasing their effective staying power by about a third.

    This feature, admittedly, was very powerful when conjuring lots of smaller creatures - if you brought in a whole bunch of Mephits with the old version of Conjure Minor Elementals, those 30 Temp HP would multiply to potentially 240 or something. Given that creature-conjuring spells now tend to get you just one bigger creature, this isn't quite what it once was. But it's still decent.

Level 10:

Focused Conjuration prevents you from losing concentration on a Conjuration spell when you take damage.

    This is unchanged from 2014, but it's also a pretty big deal - especially as you get to higher levels, damage can sometimes hit magnitudes where it's just impossible to maintain concentration. Taking a 94-damage ancient red dragon's fire breath (assuming you don't go unconscious) won't take your summoned air elemental away, which is pretty great.

Level 14:

Quick Transposition allows you to use Benign Transposition as a bonus action. You can also use Benign Transposition as a reaction when a creature makes an attack roll against you, but only to swap places with a willing creature. The creature that takes your place then becomes the target of the attack instead.

    First off, this makes Benign Transposition straight-up better than Misty Step, and you can just permanently un-prepare that spell once you get this feature. The defensive aspect of this is also interesting. Actually, the ideal scenario would be if you could charm a foe and get them to willingly take your place, but the more likely scenario is that you'll get your heavily-armored Paladin or Fighter to take the hit, or your raging Barbarian. Wizards are among the squishiest of classes, so almost anyone would be better as the target of an attack.

Overall Thoughts:

I always liked Conjuration as a Wizard subclass, and I think that this does a great job of building on the decent 2014 version, expanding out its capabilities.

The subclass does an admirable job of balancing the two sides of the Conjuration coin - the "bamf"-ing aspect and the summoning aspect, which it also did in 2014. A solid and reasonable update. It gets my approval.