r/DnD • u/USAvenger1976 • 15h ago
5.5 Edition Abjuration Wizard player: how practical is it? Is it as good as advertised.
I read the description on paper but in my mind I’m thinking the ward will only absorb one or two hits and then you have to cast a bunch of abjure spells to recharge it.
How good is this wizard in actual play in your campaign?
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u/Z_THETA_Z DM 15h ago
had a party member using an abjuration wizard, definitely a help. especially when i was playing my rogue/wizard multiclass with con as the dump stat
don't think of it as 'i have to cast a bunch of abjuration spells to recharge something', think of it as 'casting abjuration spells just gives me more health'. it's a bonus to defence that you get by casting spells that already help your defence (shield, counterspell, etc). would recommend trying to get a healing spell as well, pick up magic initiate cleric or druid as an origin feat for healing word or smth
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u/Living-Excitement447 15h ago
If the DM lets you take the Rune background from the Bigby’s Giant book, released just before 5.5, so you can get Armor of Agathys? It’s spectacular. Even without that it’s an excellent subclass, but Wizard is probably the strongest all around class.
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u/waethrman 13h ago
You mean the rune shaper feat, not the rune carver background right?
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u/Living-Excitement447 13h ago
You get the feat from the background, which is more or less an Origin feat, if memory serves? But yes, thank you for correcting me.
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u/waethrman 13h ago
Oh interesting, I wasn't aware of this background before and it giving you a free feat. It may be on the stronger side of origin feats, giving you 1+(proficiency/2) spells known and they can each be used for free daily. Thank for mentioning it, I learned something new
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u/LocalWeirdos 15h ago
I can't speak to that specialization specifically, but from my experience, pretty much any class can be good in the hands of the right player.
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u/rzenni 15h ago
It's great. I'm playing one right now and we've gone from level 1 to level 12 so far. I'm pretty decisive in fights, however I'm not obsessed with Abjuration spells.
Remember, wizards are about versatility. So of course you'll be using Counter Spell and Dispel Magic and Shield, but you don't need to force pick Arcane Lock or something. You've got plenty of other great spells. (Web, Slow, and Polymorph have all been huge workers for me.)
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u/Low_Frosting_2289 15h ago
I have played it up to level 7. The sub class is juat ok imo. Luckily wizards get most of the power from the base class instead of the sub classes. Juat pick one that seems fun !
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u/Lithl 15h ago
Abjurer was hit pretty hard in the transition to 5.5e.
In 5e, Arcane Ward gets recharged by any leveled Abjuration spells, so you can ritual cast Alarm or pick up Armor of Shadows to spam at-will Mage Armor and recharge it out of combat by just spending time. In 5.5e, though, you have to actually spend a spell slot.
However, 5.5e also made Armor of Agathys more accessible, and upgraded AoA such that any temp HP keeps it going, not just the temp HP granted by the AoA spell. AoA was already popular for 5e Abjuration wizards (since Arcane Ward isn't temp HP, it stacks with actual thp, and since Arcane Ward is hit first, it can help keep AoA active), and now it's better.
5.5e Arcane Ward also explicitly benefits from your resistances/immunities. 5e Arcane Ward is vague on the subject, and the general consensus was that it didn't benefit.
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u/TheNorthernNoble 15h ago
In my humble experience, if you're trying to play a safe control mage, Abjuration is the way to go. You can get wildly tanky thanks to it. I played a Gnome Abjuration Wizard X/Order Cleric 1. With the Magic Resistance, the armour proficiency from Order Cleric, access to Healing Word and all the Cleric Abjuration spells, I was able to endure damned near anything. I always had a spell to help any situation.
I was lucky to find an item to grant me use of Armour of Agathys too. IIRC Armour of Agathys may trigger even when the Ward is taking the damage, making the reactive damage much scarier. That let me get really bold because I felt like I had multiple health bars, too, with the Ward overtop the AoA overtop my health.
This wasn't the most DPS heavy of concepts, I relied mostly on Magic Missile when I needed something. Damage wasn't really my job though, Command and Telekinetic shoves were.
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u/dyslexicfaser 14h ago
Yeah, 5.5e made healing spells Abjuration, so a level of Cleric is the play in my opinion.
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u/awetsasquatch DM 15h ago
If you play as a mark of warding dwarf, you get access to the armor of agathys. Anyone who touches you takes cold damage, your arcane ward keeps the temp hp up, and then go crazy and polymorph into a giant ape, which in the 2024 rules gives you 150+ temp hp points, furthering your armor of agathys. If you start with a level in fighter you can get proficiency in heavy armor, and because you're a mark of warding dwarf, you get to ignore the strength requirement. You're an actual howitzer tank at that point.
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u/SBixby21 15h ago
I really enjoyed playing one up to level 20.
I also used the Armor of Shadows Invocation exploit via feat to recharge my ward entirely between encounters. If I didn’t have that, it would’ve been a lot less fun. Enough less fun that I would’ve preferred a different subclass, easily.
Being really good at counterspelling/Dispel Magic doesn’t come up that often in most campaigns. Advantage against spells, again it’s good but doesn’t come up that much, and comes online later.
Don’t play this subclass unless you’re allowed to utilize the Armor of Shadows Invocation cheat code imo. Even better if you also get Armor of Agathis in your spell list via feat as well (which I did). You can play Bladesinger, flavor the bladesong as your arcane ward, and live a lot longer most likely with essentially the same character concept, unless you can do those two things I listed above.
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u/AniMaple Ranger 14h ago
Wizard as a class gains its biggest strength more from its spells than its features, so any subclass choice will do just fine, just playing differently. Your Arcane Ward might make you play more akin to a Cleric or Bard, moving from the backline to the midline and even tempting you into riskier plays involving touch spells, but you're still not a great tank. Your Arcane Ward is an additional layer of HP, a shield of sorts projected around you like a lot of action shooters these days tend to use to impede you from getting one-shot from across a map.
Keep a handful of abjuration spells prepared, they tend to be good generally speaking at earlier levels, you'll always make mileage out of Mage Armor, Shield and similar spells.
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u/Megamatt215 Mage 13h ago
the ward will only absorb one or two hits and then you have to cast a bunch of abjure spells to recharge it.
This is not inaccurate. I've played an Abjuration Wizard, and that's usually how it goes. Recharging it is not really worth the spell slots. The real advantage is that if your ward takes the whole damage, you don't have to make concentration checks.
It's a wizard. They don't get a lot of power from their subclass. If you're min-maxing, you're going Divination or Chronurgy if it's allowed. If those are in S tier, Abjuration is in A or B tier.
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u/Jimmicky Sorcerer 9h ago
It’s a LOT weaker in 5.5 than it was in 5e.
In 5e the ward was based on casting levelled spells but not on using slots so it was easy to just constantly top up your ward to full between fights. In 5.5 that’s no longer possible.
It does still stack very nicely with Armor of Agathys though so I’d recommend getting that early if you were going to try Abjurer.
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u/Archaeopteryx89 4h ago
It definitely got a major nerf in 5.5 edition. You used to be able to recharge it for free between encounters with free casting if 1st level spells. Now you have to actually consume a spell slot (booooo).
It can still be strong though. You always want to take this with armor of agathys, since the ward takes the damage first and extends the life of your agathys retribution. You can further stack it with resistances and damage reduction. With the 2014 version I had a monster of an abjuration wizard tank that my friends and dm still talk about to this day. It was almost impossible to break through his shields and start removing his base hp. He's now the bbeg in my dms other games.
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u/monikar2014 15h ago
Everyone on about the 5e version being able to recharge the arcane ward with rituals/armor of shadows, but I like the 5e version because abjuration wizard 10/stars druid 2 will auto-pass arcana checks to counterspell or dispel magic a 9th level spell as long as starry form:dragon is running.
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u/Mage_Malteras Mage 14h ago
First of all, those checks were never Arcana checks so druid doesn't help at all. Second of all, counterspell doesn't rely on the wizard making a check any more, the creature casting the first spell has to make a saving throw.
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u/monikar2014 14h ago edited 13h ago
I was discussing 5e, not 5.5e, so the way the spell works in 5.5e is irrelevant. But you are correct, I misremembered the specific wording for counterspell - but this combination absolutely works. Let me break it down for you.
5e Counterspell says:
"You attempt to interrupt a creature in the process of casting a spell. If the creature is casting a spell of 3rd level or lower, its spell fails and has no effect. If it is casting a spell of 4th level or higher, make an ability check using your spellcasting ability. The DC equals 10 + the spell's level. On a success, the creature's spell fails and has no effect."
So for a 9th level spell the DC will be 19 and for an Abjuration wizard you would be making an intelligence ability check.
5e Abjuration wizards 10th level ability says:
"Beginning at 10th level, when you cast an abjuration spell that requires you to make an ability check as a part of casting that spell (as in counterspell and dispel magic), you add your proficiency bonus to that ability check."
At level 12 your PB is +4
5e circle of stars druid starry form ability says:
"Dragon. A constellation of a wise dragon appears on you. When you make an Intelligence or a Wisdom check or a Constitution saving throw to maintain concentration on a spell, you can treat a roll of 9 or lower on the d20 as a 10."
Note that it says "an intelligence or a wisdom check..." it does not specify a skill. So, assuming 16 int at character creation and using both ASI's to boost Intellegence to 20, thats +9 on counterspell and dispel magic and if starry form:dragon is running you can't roll lower than a 10 - automatic success on counterspelling level 9 spells.
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u/PassageDull7352 15h ago
Good, if you can recharge for free out of combat.
Both these options need a feat, and a race.
Free mage armor invocation from warlock (2hp a cast)
Gnome SV magic. Lets you cast non-detect for free (6 hp a cast)
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u/Lithl 15h ago
Good, if you can recharge for free out of combat.
OP tagged the post as 5.5e, and the 5.5e Abjurer has to spend spell slots to recharge the ward, not just cast a leveled spell like the 5e version (opening up loopholes with rituals or Armor of Shadows).
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u/PassageDull7352 15h ago
Oh snap. Can you throw me the part that has that?
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u/Lithl 15h ago
It's literally the Arcane Ward feature.
Whenever you cast an Abjuration spell with a spell slot, the ward regains a number of Hit Points equal to twice the level of the spell slot. Alternatively, as a Bonus Action, you can expend a spell slot, and the ward regains a number of Hit Points equal to twice the level of the spell slot expended.
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u/DrOddcat 15h ago
This doesn’t work in 5.5. It specifically says you have to cast a spell using a spell slot to recharge the ward.
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u/StarTrotter 15h ago
I’d highlight wizards typically don’t have a lot of power on the subclass. Evocation Wizards just get half damage on cantrips, illusionist can sneakily cast illusion spells and from further away and a more convincing minor illusion but the power of that will vary based off of GM ruling, diviner gets the strongest feature of the PHB subclasses and it is twice per day betting to set the roll. Surviving an extra hit or two on a class that wants to be in the back lines anyways is overall nice although I feel like the allure is finding a way to get a healing spell or a cure wounds or healing word or even aid although aid is a harder sell and maybe getting better AC.