Stone of Good Luck also gives a bonus to counterspell and dispel checks.

A Quarterstaff is not an Arcane Focus Staff. But most Arcane Focus Staves can be used as a Quarterstaff. DMG pg140: “Unless a staff's description says otherwise, a staff can be used as a quarterstaff.”

Take a background that provides 10 gold. Take the Scholar's Pack. Buy an explorer's pack with the 10 g and sell back the extra backpack for some spare change.

I've found that the Ring of Spell Storing is particularly powerful in the hands of your fighter or rogue. Let your fighter haste herself for once, you have a wall of force to concentrate on!

My group uses house rule: Each character can attune a number of items equal to their proficiency bonus. Not overpowered at low level. High levels deserve to enjoy the goodies they have earned.

Worth note: In Eberron you can use a Shard as an Arcane Focus (or build it into your focus if you go for a cool looking staff) AND it also will replace material components worth the same value if they are not consumed, and in some cases some that are consumed. As an example, Identify requires a 100 GP pearl, not consumed. A shard worth 100 GP will work in its place. This may change, or be expanded, in Shadows of the Last War in November.

EVERY mag should get a ring of spell storing. Fill it with Find Familiar Pass it around the party. Now every member of the party can have a familiar

Thank you so much for all your guides. I’m pretty new to play D&D but I’ve always wanted to. I know wizard was a difficult class to get into but I really wanted to give one a go. Thanks to you, my second ever character was a wizard. I’m currently having a blast playing him and your guides are REALLY helpful. You honestly deserve way more subscribers. You make everything so easy to understand and makes the daunting class of wizard so easy to get into.

Wowzers! Your thoroughness is extremely pleasant to my detail oriented soul. Keep up the good work sir!

Scroll scribing is a thing in 5e since mordenkainen. So you can scribe one of those circunstancial spells in the spellbook then remake a new scroll. As well starting a collection for emergency, probably in an handy havresack. I'll also advise to buy a second empty spellbook and use it to make a copy of our spellbook to be safe

Remember the Gloves of Plot Device. It makes your player invincible, able to automatically pass all saving rolls, gives double advantage on initiative, unlimited Luckys, makes every hit a crit, spells that require concentration instead are automatically sustained for the duration of the spell, and increases you level 9 spell slots by 15. Of course, we only give this to our 5 year old kids and we don’t tell them. “What do you want to do next?” “I’m going to cast fly AND gravity so I can crush them!” “Oh, they are squished and can’t get out. It looks safe now. Are you going inside the room?” “I can’t, I’m scared.” “What do you need to do so you aren’t scared?” “The monster needs to be gone.” “You teleport the monster far, far away.” “I’m gonna go inside!”

Im so glad you do these guides! You spot things i never would have seen! Thanks again!

I love the item bag of flour. Ideal anti invisibility

Tome of the Stilled Tongue gets absolutely insane over time. Use it with Sunbeam for a 1-turn nova of 12d8 radiant and blindness on a Con save in a 60ft line. Or just use it as Wish #2, with the side bonus of being an uncounterable bonus action.

More magic item analysis please. If you're looking for video topics, this is definitely one with revisiting! Would love to see some analysis of bad magic item choices. Would also be great to see a breakdown for other classes. Of course a systematic analysis like you did with spells would be terrific too. And how about a build guide for if you get to start a game or campaign with one or more magic items. All your builds assume no magic items, but of course that's rarely how games play out. I am hungry for more of this type of analysis from you.

"obviously, we're never going to be *choosing* our legendary magic items" Laughs in Adventurer's League

kek, I broke my Staff of the Magi when the Tarrasque swallowed me

This is a great video. I think it help gel my thoughts on how you run wizards more than your God wizard series. The specific tactics and preservation of concentration was very clearly a priority. Thanks very much.

Bag of Tricks is really a fun item! Had a couple of interesting NPCs come out of it in a one shot I ran. Nice to know TM’s assessment of these items is in line with mine! When I build characters to level 20 (almost always, even though I haven’t reached it in a game yet) I like to self-indulgently imagine what magic items they’ve picked up. A lot of these are frequently on those lists, especially the robe of the archmage.

I hadn’t thought of giving my familiar a ring and also never thought of the swarm of insects. Thanks for the great ideas. Though, we normally give our front line fighter the extra spell storing items and fill it with shield spells. This has come in pretty nicely.

One item that I think is very often overlooked and very underrated, even for a Wizard, is the clockwork amulet. It's a common magic item, doesn't require attunement, and it allows you to take 10 on one attack roll, once per day. Now, if you know what you're doing, you will basically always hit on a 10, and if you're wielding weapons, or even just firing off a Fire Bolt, having a guaranteed hit in your pocket can be very handy, especially with such a low opportunity cost.

I’m really looking forward to this Fog Cloud video. I always find myself asking if I am really using to the fullest.

Magic items and wizards? What could possibly go wrong with that?

I played a human wizard (abjurer) and had the helm of teleportation but we reskinned it to be gloves of teleportation. They were such an amazing item. I don't even think they should be rare. Very rare probably

If your playing/manage to convince your DM to let you play a Warforged, I'd recommend getting the scholars pack over the explorers kit as the only thing useful to you in the explorer's kit is the 50 ft. of rope. With the scholars pack you can choose what your 'book of lore' is about, and most RP DMs love when you do this and will often let you have advantages on history/religion checks if that book is related in any way.

Playing through a Dungeon of the Mad Mage camapign right now. With the explicit magic item buying builds and the boon of gold from doing Waterdeep: Dragon Heist before that + Undermountain items sold or found, I've been able to grab a set of items that has made me make a pretty effective control mage that's surprisingly tanky. I'm running a Svirfneblin Abjurer with a Dex of 16, so by adding a Ring of Protection, Cloak of Protection & Bracers of unarmored defense. That's 20 AC with Mage Armor (basically always) A ton of disposable ward HP (I've hitting 1k damage prevented at level 12) equal to a d10 hit dice effectively means I dodge a ton of concentration saves. And I've found that just putting on AC and a bit of save bonus gives me the small edge in most situations to keep crucial lockdown spells concentrated. Loving 5e wizard.

personally speaking, if i'm a wizard in a party with a monk, I personally would let them have the bracers because they are more likely to be up in close combat.

In the right campain you can have access to Shield Guards. They are the best friends a Wizard can have. They double as a meat (iron) shield for you and spell storing ring-like. Plus if you hug him enough, you always have that sweet +2 bonus to AC. It regenerates by itself but knowing how to or knowing who may be able to fix it would be nice.

One important distinction between the scholar's pack and the explorer's pack: one weighs 10 lbs and the other weighs 59. If you're a wizard with dumped strength, all those weights quickly start adding up. Even more so if you're using encumbrance.

The Staff of Power is, IMO, one of the top three most powerful items in the game for its rarity. Consider that, before we even LOOK at the charged abilities of the staff, it gives you: 1. +2 attack and damage. 2. + 2 AC 3. +2 saves 4. +2 spell attack. If the staff only had these items, it would be insanely good. It's effectively a +2 weapon, a Cloak of Protection, a Ring of Protection, and a +2 Wand of the War Mage, all rolled into one attunement slot. Another way to look at it: a Defender weapon gives you a total of +3 divided between attack and AC. It's a Legendary item, and that's all it does. The Staff of Power gives you a +4 divided between attack and AC, and that's just a small fraction of its powers. We could quibble over whether being able to shift the bonus balances out that extra +1, but at the least, the Staff is the equal of a Defender weapon--and THEN you add in +2 saves, +2 spell attack, AND all of the charged abilities.

Talking about the bag of holding here is my group's priority: 1) Give it to the sneaky guys like rogues or rangers or shadow monk: they might need an item to do whatever they need to do 2) give it to low STR characters and casters like wizards and sorcerers. They actually have time to use the bag since they usually are away from the thick of the fight. 3)Give it to the other characters 4)Give it to the druid: once merged in the wildshape it's gone

Stone of good luck also adds +1 bonus to the counterspell and dispel magic checks :)

Using high magic character creation rules, I made Doom armour. +2 armour, boots of flying, helm of comprehend languages, ring of spell storing and cloak of protection. And because I’m an 18th level wizard my free 1st and 2nd levels are shield and scorching ray. My AC is 26! (27 if I don’t want helm of language and I swap for ring of protection.)

Stories like 36:15 and stories like the god wizard make me wanna ask you to tell more stories on your channel. I don't know if others would be interested but I surely would be interested in you telling dnd stories.

I wish my DM was a bit more generous with magic items for my wizard. The items from this video are so cool.

Just saying, going back in time you introduce yourself as Treantmonk. Love that you changed to Chris here :) love your videos.

Stone of good luck also gives +1 to counterspell, dispel and telekinesis - or any spell really that calls for an ability check.

The Bag of Tricks can be shared. If 3 different characters pull an animal out of it that gives the party 3 actions per round.

So, a thing about spell scrolls: It's a very good idea to keep 1 of each of your spells in scroll form. This way you can persuade other wizards to trade scrolls with you, since wizards are always hungry for more spells, are able to still be useful in emergencies if your resources are spent. Yes, it takes time and money, but for most spells it's a useful resource and increases your utility. Ofc you won't be able to carry every spell scroll on your person at all times, but still you can store most of them in the bag of holding or your home base, carrying only the most useful/important ones with you.

On the Bag of Tricks. During a semi-recent campaign, we had to deal with cultists of Tiamat in a ziggurat. Our rogue peeked into a room and saw it was full of cultists. As everyone else debated the plan, I turned to the ranger (he had the Grey Bag) and said to throw whatever comes out of the bag into the room then hold the door shut. Worst case: distraction. Best case: akin to throwing a frag grenade into a port-a-potty. So we do this tactical breach, he heaves the ball in only to hear hellish screams of terror and tearing noises. We open the door and see a Dire Wolf and puddles of blood. We felt damn brilliant, because the DM expected us to fight through rooms, not essentially "frag and clear" the room o' cultists. Then again, he also didn't expect me to use Summon Greater Demon near the Annis Hag boss.

I think you have misread the part about material components that are consumed. It just states that for components that are consumed, you need new one for each casting of the spell, which is addendum to the previous sentence about costly material components, you can still use arcane focus instead of components for those as long as it has no gold cost. Not that it really makes a huge difference since only spells that actually have non-costly material components that are consumed (not all wizard spells) are Druid Grove, Globe of Invulnerability, Protection from Evil and Good, Snare

Just keep in mind everyone this list was before Tasha's cauldron of everything. So no Arcane Grimoire for instance. Which I assume would make the list.

Wow Chris your wizard will need 2 bags of holding to hold all the stuff you’re commandeering.

Staff of Swarming Insects even says that nobody can see inside it but you, which means it does not obscure vision at all for the caster. It's quite ridiculous but a large radius which sometimes is too big given the space the party is in. Important to note the caster can see out of it, which is "incredible".

Finally ended up getting a rare magic item from the list - a ring of spell storing. Obtained it fairly late in the campaign and gave it to my Simulacrum (having reached 13th level). Now the simulacrum that never regains spell slots has a bit more longevity with casting defensive spells on itself, as its half HP is a bit of a weakness in combat. Having those extra spells it can use that can be regained seems better than any other use case - I don't think my DM would allow it to be used by my owl familiar.

Personally, I'm one who favors the Boots of Flying over Broom of Flying, especially at lower levels. Sure, it takes an attunement slot, has a time limit, and doesn't give you as much speed, but the time limit is a reasonable one, you most likely won't need more than the 30 feet you're likely to get for speed in most battles, and most importantly, it doesn't cause one of your hands to be preoccupied in order to utilize the flying speed. Now, the item description doesn't explicitly *say* that the broom actually does require this, but essentially all iconography shows users of such magic items using one hand to stabilize themselves, and considering you are balancing on top of a relatively narrow, unstable object in order to use the broom, it would not be unreasonable for many DMs to interpret the item's use in this way. That could very well be quite detrimental to a wizard, should they want to use spells that have both somatic and material components. Obviously, this will depend upon who your DM is, and thus what their policy is, but if I have the choice, I tend toward erring on the side of caution on this matter. The tangential benefit of the featherfall effect is nice, as well.

If you have the spell section of the Player's Handbook memorized and you wanna vastly increase your flexibility, beg your DM for the glorious Mizzium Apparatus! The weakness of wizards is you need to go out and learn all of the obscenely powerful wizard spells? Just replicate any spell's effects at the low, low price of an occasional technomagical explosion!

Deserves a big like

I love this show

Not sure if you're still monitoring comments but with the new Tasha's book adding more items I think it's become more difficult to rank/prioritise items and really pick the standouts. The items that let you have more flexibility on re-preparing spells, and bonuses to save DCs of your spells are the ones that seem hard to weight up versus others. Are you planning on making a new video to sort of review the new Tasha's items with reference to what is currently available? I.e. what is better - A +2 to AC from bracer's of defence, or a +2 to save DC from Arcane Grimoire, an Atlas of Endless Horizons. The part I really struggle with is weighting up the four main choices of magic items that can use your attunement: mobility/defence, stronger save DCs, more spell preparations or allowing you to change them, and misc. utility.

Horn of Valhalla come with conditions. So you want to make sure it's one where your wizard can meet the proficiency requirements. Otherwise everyone's going to have a bad time!

A mundane item that is pretty good is ball bearings or caltrops you can just give to your familiar.

@treantmonk's Temple If you could pick any gear for your enchantment wizard, what magic items and equipment would you pick? Also since it seemed like you actually played your enchantment wizard, what gear and level did you end with, and is that game still going?

5 players just took out animated rotting sunken ship we found in an area affected by a portal to the feywild at an archdruids tomb. we were lvl 6 now level 7. got 3100g, an irons of billaro, belt of dwarvenkind, wand of lightning bolts, wings of flying and staff of swarming insects. i kinda caused the thing to collapse on 3 party members knocking them unconscious at the end so i was only allowed to pick last. my divination god wizard got what he wanted luckily. the staff of swarming insects. this is looking like a lot of fun

I have a question, my DM believes that the rod of absorption can infinitely absorb spells as long as it is not above 50, but I thought the rod only at maximum is able to absorb 50 levels of spells and it stops absorbing that isn't affected how much spell energy remains in the rod. Thanks!

Awesome video. Some details that was missing: Stone of Good Luck also gives a bonus to counterspell and dispel magic. Weapon of Warning doesn’t need attunement. Ring of Spell Turning advantage on saves against spell only work against spells that target only you, different from Mantle of Spell Resistance or Scarab of protection

I'd guess the broom of flying is uncommon because it is ridden rather than worn, meaning you can fall off of it. Still, this is easy enough to mitigate with a harness or certain spells.

Got here from your god wizard doc, I'm loving your content. But could you add some visual indications on screen? Like, in this case it'd be nice to have the item name on screen in case it sounds really cool halfway through and you didn't listen to the name.

Question on giving your familiar attunement required magic items. Does that use your own attunement slots or does your familiar have their own 3 attunement slots?

Since I play AL, I can buy Staff of the Magi, and I have Staff of Power unlocks for DMing in this season. I just take warcaster because my hands are full with staves.

Ring of spell storing says "This ring stores spells cast into it, holding them until the attuned wearer uses them." Can a familiar be attuned to it in order to use the ring to cast its spells?

When I read the description of The tome of the stilled tongue and it says that you can use it to cat a spell with out the spell slot, it doesn't have a spell level limit. Does this mean you could use to cat 2 9th level spells or is that going to far?

Most dms ( in my experience) allow you to buy any common magic item at almost any amount if you’ve got the gold

Hit me with that Robe of Eyes, Fam.

Cloak of Billowing is great, give it to an NPC along with a pointed cap and a fake white beard and tell them to shout "abracadabra" then they'll be targeted with attacks, not you.

How dose the ring of spell storing interact with the scribe scroll spell or the modify spell spell. From the one dnd play test?

Great list. The elvish chainmail is cool but if one dons it they lose their mage armor spell.

Like first, then watch

I would like to say that staff of the magi also gives you spell resistance.

I know it's not RAW, I know most tables don't care, but I will always rule that Broom of Flying needs a hand to hold on to. Which still makes it one of the best uncommon items in the game, particularly for wizards, but not universally better than winged boots

What do you think of the Wand of Paralysis as a rare item? Nothing in the description of the item do mention a "hold" spell, so my guess is that no concentration is required (unless I missed something huge). Up to 6 times per day since i would never use the last charge.

I think that something like a monk would have lowest con or maybe a ranger that focuses on wis

I haven't spoken to the DM yet but I feel most would have problems with a familiar wearing a ring of spell storing. I have an opportunity soon to buy one for 12k gold and/or an amulet of health for slightly less 8k . If the DM says no for a familiar using the ring does it still make sense to pick that up first or does the pick become a lot less good because of concentration and I should just skip it and get the amulet of health and move on?

i personally find the spell storing ring + find familiar not very smart, strategically and socially. the more obvious spell effects get noticed immediately by the enemy and the can target your familiar. Also just imagine the joy of a barbarian or fighter who finally gets to cast some spells aswell. it can still be "your" item if you're the one fueling it. Havin a misty step or thunderstep in there is potentially life saving if a frontliner gets surrounded and potentially blocking off the healer.

Thank you.

Great video, but I have a little nitpick The horn of valhalla requires you to have weapon and armour proficiencies otherwise the berserkers attack you. It's very bad for wizards. Also if you already have controll spells it's better if an all uses some of the battlefield controll items.

so, it isn't an Arcana check to be able to cast a scroll? I mean, okay I guess for balancing reasons but still, that's kind of in Arcana's wheelhouse WOTC.

for the ring of spell turning, it says if you roll a 20... doesn't say this is a natural 20 on the die, but it could be interpreted that way... could also be interpreted if you roll a 20 or higher, meaning final roll after all bonuses (proficiency and magical, and any others that would apply etc.)

There are multiple problems with the statements in this video. 1. The suggestion that component pouches have a limitless supply of no-cost consumed components. A few minutes of research quickly dispels this notion. 2. Missing the fact that Arcane Focus staffs automatically serve as quarterstaves according to RAW. 3. The Horn of Valhalla section is missing very important information. The only version of the Horn that Wizards can safely use is the Silver. Anything higher requires various combinations of proficiencies, else the summoned warriors turn hostile. Additionally, Wizards gain no special benefits from using the horn (even if they can do so safely) compared to any other class. 4. Suggesting that Wizards gain more benefit from Cloak of Displacement because they get attacked less. This is quite literally the opposite of the correct thought process. The person who benefits most from the Cloak of Displacement is the person who is on the front-lines, who gets frequently attacked, and who has a high AC already. Give the cloak to your front-line Fighter, Paladin, or even Cleric, if your goal is to maximize it's benefit.

My DM keeps wanting to nerf my attunement magic items. The Wizard hat he has enforced that I had to pick 1 specific cantrip and it can only be used for that specific cantrip. I just got a ring of spell storing at our last session and he was talking about maybe enforcing that all the slots of it have to be used for the same spell. He gave the example of 5 stored Shield spells or 5 magic missiles. Like, that is a drastic nerf.

why wouldn't something that casts magic or a magic effect be a magic focus?

Have you ever played a Wizard who had his spellbook stolen? You'd lose the ability to change your memorized spells, and your ritual spells - it would be a hit and something you'd want to end, but not totally disabilitating. I think it would make an interesting, challenging session or two, but I wouldn't want it as a regular threat/occurance.

If you can, buy a Healer's kit.

I'm curious about the amounts of money your groups earn. I impoverished my Cleric for one use of Revivify and Stone to Flesh and had to pass the hat for the powdered silver for a Magic Circle. At level 10.

I have started the druid after loss of my previous character. Our GM now pissed that party have no need to buy or carry food with them.

On the Staff of Swarming Insects: the cloud of insects is super nice because yes, it's heavy obscurement, but the person who used the staff to make the cloud can see through it! A downside (for the rest of the party) is that the cloud stays for 10 minutes with no way to turn it off, unless you stuff the staff in a bag of holding or portable hole or something.

Hat of Wizardry works just as well as Ruby of the War Mage for purposes of the melee war mage... Yesno?

There are a bunch of rules that, I think, less people pay attention to, including: What's in your hands. Verbal and somatic components. Darkvision doesn't mean bright light infinitely in every direction. Carrying capacity. So I should probably watch your video on things in hands. Also, do you have any ideas for how to actually remember that those rules exist? Because everyone at my table tends to ignore them.

What about manual of iron golem you can heal it with a fire bolt and they are nearly indestrucible. You have something like a wall of fire that it sits in while throwing fireballs. So your enemies take a ton of damage and your golem won’t die

So, if I'm Cleric 1/ Wizard 1, what's a good way to cast my spells in the case I still want to have a shield?

Are any of these wizard specific or are they open to at least all arcane casters?

I know this is an old Vijeo, but question for any of the community that catches this... Pearl of Power. 5-6 level party... give it to the Utility (14 int Conjuration) Wizard, or the Party Paladin?? As the wizard in this scenario, I really think it'll help the Party more on that Pally. Thoughts?

Personally I actually think the fighter, monk or rogue should get the ring of spell storing. They have nothing to concentrate on. Imagine the fighter with nothing to concentrate on gets the ranger to fill it with hunters marks. Your basically turning a non caster into a half caster for the cost of an attunement slot.

Love Love LOVE learning that familiars can attune and use a Ring of Spell Storing, using your DC but not your action or concentration. It doesn't even use your attunement slot, since it's the familiar that attunes to it! Indeed, would kill a party member for one now.

are these ranked at all?

Is there a place we can download your guides in written format

It seems, from which items you favor and the specific comments on each, that you rank defense>slots>DC. Is this accurate? If so, can you explain? The reason I ask is that I'd have ranked them DC>defense>slots, and am wondering if I missed something in my consideration. TIA

Stop misinforming people. Material (M) Casting some spells requires particular objects, specified in parentheses in the component entry. A character can use a component pouch or a spellcasting focus (found in “Equipment”) in place of the components specified for a spell.

Question. Can you have an Arcane Focus and a component pouch at the same time?

Doesn’t the ring of spell storing need to be worn by the person using in? It says this: “While wearing this ring, you can cast any spell stored in it,” on the roll20 srd. How could you put it on your familiar?