War Mage Wizard School (Feedback requested)

[locke249]

First time posting, but I'd like some feedback on a Wizard school option I've been working on.

EDIT: Made some changes, which are higlighted in bold underline and italics so as to be obvious. Mainly: swapping the levels for Arane attacks and Improved Mage Armor, detailing what type of damage Arcane Attacks and Final Stand deal, the damage reduction on a critical hit for Improved Mage Armor and altering Improved Mage Armor to be 10 + Dex mod + Int mod. Any further suggestions or C&C are appreciated!

EDIT 2: After further consideration I've changed Improve Mage Armor McNinja's suggestion of 15 + Dex mod.



School of the War Mage
War Mages are a group apart from all other Wizards. While most wizards study one particular school, war mages focus on two in particular: evocation and abjuration, supplementing these spells with a 3rd school: transmutation. War mages are the epitome of magical warfare, skilled with both spell and blade; they focus on keeping themselves alive long enough to deal maximum damage to their enemies.

War Mage
Starting when you select this school at 2nd level, you gain proficiency with 2 martial weapons of your choice.
You add the mage armor spell to your spellbook, if it is not already there. If it is, you may instead add an abjuration spell of 1st level to your spellbook.
Also, starting when you select this school at 2nd level, you may not select spells from any school besides evocation, abjuration, or transmutation when you gain a new level in Wizard.

Arcane Bond
At 2nd level, you learn a ritual that lets you use a melee weapon as your arcane focus. You perform the ritual over the course of 1 hour, which can be done during a short rest. The weapon must be within your reach throughout the ritual, at the conclusion of which you touch the weapon and bond it to you. You cannot be disarmed of that weapon unless you are incapacitated. You can also store the weapon in a pocket dimension, allowing you to draw the weapon seemingly from thin air. Stowing or drawing the weapon requires a bonus action.
You may have 2 bonded weapons at a time, if you bond yourself to another weapon your bond breaks with the one of the other weapons, you choose which one when you bond to the new weapon. If it is stored in the pocket dimension when this bond breaks the weapon is lost in the aether forever.

Arcane Attacks
At 6th level, when you hit with a melee weapon attack you may spend a spell slot to increase the damage. Doing so adds 2d6 Force damage for a 1st level slot, plus an additional 1d6 Force damage for each level above 1st. You must spend the spell slot before making the attack roll, and the slot is spent even if the attack misses.

Improved Mage Armor
Starting at 10th level when you cast the mage armor spell targeting only yourself, your base AC is 15 + your Dexterity modifier.
Additionally, when you are struck by a critical hit you may expend a spell slot to reduce the incoming damage by an amount equal to 5x the expended spell slots level. Once you use this feature you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.

Final Stand
Beginning at 14th level you are always considered to be under the effects of the mage armor spell, even if you are incapacitated.
Also, when you drop to 0 hit points you may spend a spell slot as a reaction. If you do all creatures within 30 feet of you (aside from yourself) take Force damage equal to 5x the level of the spell slot spent. If you do so you cannot benefit from the effects of the mage armor spell until you finish a long rest, at which point it automatically takes effect again.


The idea here is that these War Mages use the mage armor spell to protect themselves to get into the thick of the fight, while still retaining casting ability. I've considered a feature that gives them advantage on Constitution saves to maintain concentration, but I envisioned them as less concentration focused and more blasty.
Any C&C would be much appreciated!

[JNAProductions]

13+Dex+Int.

13+Dex+Int.

That's better than a Barbarian, and you have all the Wizard's various goodies to help keep you alive.

Hell nah.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Welcome to the forum. This is mostly quite good; very combat-focused but then, the wizard chassis offers very little in that regard so I'd say it's a legitimate approach. Are you familiar with WotC's Bladesinger? That occupies a similar thematic niche. The main problem you have is at level 6...

Improved Mage Armor
Starting at 6th level when you cast the mage armor spell targeting only yourself, your base AC is 13 + your Dexterity modifier + your Intelligence modifier.
Additionally, when you are struck by a critical hit you may expend a spell slot to reduce the incoming damage by an amount equal to 3x the expended spell slots level. Once you use this feature you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.

Magical Precision
Starting at 6th level you learn to use magic to attack with deadly precision. You may use your Intelligence modifier for your weapon attack and damage rolls. Additionally, damage from your weapon attacks count as magical for the purposes of overcoming resistances and immunities.

...either of these features, on their own, would be okay. Well, the Improved Mage Armour is obviously too strong, but you could probably get away with something like "when you cast the spell mage armour on yourself, your AC is now 15 + your Dexterity modifier." Conceptually, a defensive boost is reasonable, but what you have at the moment is just too much.

But yeah, you can't have both of these at the same time. If you moved one to another level, you'd have to drop one of the other features. In my opinion, the feature to drop is Improved Mage Armour (and leave everything else as-is) but you may feel differently.

[zeek0]

I agree mostly with the above comments. I'd like to say that your homebrew is well written.

My comment is about denying access to other spell schools. I think that, say, divination has a fantastic application to a war effort, and should not be denied. Instead, I would offer incentives (like the PHB schools) to cast those spells that you seem most thematic.

[zeek0]

I agree mostly with the above comments. I'd like to say that your homebrew is well written.

My comment is about denying access to other spell schools. I think that, say, divination has a fantastic application to a war effort, and should not be denied. Instead, I would offer incentives (like the PHB schools) to cast those spells that you seem most thematic.

[Ninja_Prawn]

My comment is about denying access to other spell schools.

I actually like that element. It gives the school a feel of being a regimented, professional, military thing that emphasises standardisation. Of the official wizard spells, Abjuration, Evocation and Transmutation account for 132 out of 250, so there's still plenty of choice. That's bigger than the whole bard, cleric and warlock lists, and not far behind what druids get. And you could always multiclass...

[McNinja]

Welcome to the forum. This is mostly quite good; very combat-focused but then, the wizard chassis offers very little in that regard so I'd say it's a legitimate approach. Are you familiar with WotC's Bladesinger? That occupies a similar thematic niche. The main problem you have is at level 6...

...either of these features, on their own, would be okay. Well, the Improved Mage Armour is obviously too strong, but you could probably get away with something like "when you cast the spell mage armour on yourself, your AC is now 15 + your Dexterity modifier." Conceptually, a defensive boost is reasonable, but what you have at the moment is just too much.

But yeah, you can't have both of these at the same time. If you moved one to another level, you'd have to drop one of the other features. In my opinion, the feature to drop is Improved Mage Armour (and leave everything else as-is) but you may feel differently.

I don't see anything wrong with using int instead of str or dex mechanically, however I do thing this defeats the purpose of a war mage. Sure, a war mage should put his intellect to good use, but a wizard who also trained for hand to hand combat should, IMO, be sufficiently strong or agile in order to be in close combat in the first place. If you're making a war mage, INT and DEX/STR should be your highest stats. A character who has trained extensively for CQC shouldn't be able to dump either or both of the main physical stats.

Also, I'd change Improved Mage armor to be 15+dex, like the Robe of the Archmage, and move some abilities around:

Delete Magical precision
Move Arcane Attacks to 6th level
Move Imp Mage Armor to 10th level

And then specify what kind of damage Arcane Attacks deals and, if it deals weapon damage, whether it's magical or not.

[zeek0]

I actually like that element. It gives the school a feel of being a regimented, professional, military thing that emphasises standardisation. Of the official wizard spells, Abjuration, Evocation and Transmutation account for 132 out of 250, so there's still plenty of choice. That's bigger than the whole bard, cleric and warlock lists, and not far behind what druids get. And you could always multiclass...

I agree with you, but still believe that other schools (esp. Divination) are arguably even more effective to a war effort.

Perhaps working the theme and flavor to justify the limitation would be warranted. A soldier on the ground and actively fighting would make the most sense,a magic juggernaut, or even an elite SEAL team motif can make sense.

I think there just needs to be some reason why they eschew most of the schools, which are undeniably useful in war at some level or another.

[locke249]

So I'm going to go through and respond to specific things.

Are you familiar with WotC's Bladesinger? That occupies a similar thematic niche. The main problem you have is at level 6...

...either of these features, on their own, would be okay. Well, the Improved Mage Armour is obviously too strong, but you could probably get away with something like "when you cast the spell mage armour on yourself, your AC is now 15 + your Dexterity modifier." Conceptually, a defensive boost is reasonable, but what you have at the moment is just too much.

But yeah, you can't have both of these at the same time. If you moved one to another level, you'd have to drop one of the other features. In my opinion, the feature to drop is Improved Mage Armour (and leave everything else as-is) but you may feel differently.

I'm familiar with Bladesinger, I like it but wanted something that seemed more for the frontline of a fight. If that makes sense.
I agree (as has been said) that the 13 + Dex + Int is OP. What about just changing it to 10 + Dex + Int? That modifies the spell pretty intensely, but makes it more Intelligence dependent. The defensive boost was the core concept I really wanted to build on in my original concept, so I'd really like to keep it.

Also, I'd change Improved Mage armor to be 15+dex, like the Robe of the Archmage, and move some abilities around:

Delete Magical precision
Move Arcane Attacks to 6th level
Move Imp Mage Armor to 10th level

I really like these suggestions, and am going to make the edits to the original post.

And then specify what kind of damage Arcane Attacks deals and, if it deals weapon damage, whether it's magical or not.

Can't believe I missed that, will fix.

I actually like that element. It gives the school a feel of being a regimented, professional, military thing that emphasises standardisation. Of the official wizard spells, Abjuration, Evocation and Transmutation account for 132 out of 250, so there's still plenty of choice. That's bigger than the whole bard, cleric and warlock lists, and not far behind what druids get. And you could always multiclass...

You'll also notice that I specifically only stated it restricts the spells you can select upon gaining another Wizard level. There is still the option of copying any other spells from outside sources into your spellbook. That's largely dependent on the DM, but I think it's a fine way to go about it.
I also agree with you on the idea of it being more regimented, that's what I was going for. The idea being that they focus more on those particular schools, and weapons training. Training with weapons would really cut down on your time to study all magic. That's the idea anyway.

I'd like to say that your homebrew is well written.

Thank you! I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get the phrasing right, so it is much appreciated that it did not go unnoticed. As for your concern on spell denial, I've addressed that above.

[Ninja_Prawn]

I really like these suggestions, and am going to make the edits to the original post.

Just dropping in to say: McNinja's approach works for me too. The balance on this class looks pretty good now.

[McNinja]

First time posting, but I'd like some feedback on a Wizard school option I've been working on.

EDIT: Made some changes, which are higlighted in bold underline and italics so as to be obvious. Mainly: swapping the levels for Arane attacks and Improved Mage Armor, detailing what type of damage Arcane Attacks and Final Stand deal, the damage reduction on a critical hit for Improved Mage Armor and altering Improved Mage Armor to be 10 + Dex mod + Int mod. Any further suggestions or C&C are appreciated!

EDIT 2: After further consideration I've changed Improve Mage Armor McNinja's suggestion of 15 + Dex mod.



School of the War Mage

I'm glad you liked my advice! I'll give this school a shot in the campaign I'll be starting in a couple weeks :)