Clarifications: When I speak about "Scaling" in the video, I am referring to casting these spells at higher levels, both as first level spells, or casting at a higher level. I said that I thought Earth Tremor was purple for evokers but it should be orange, the text is correct. While we are on the topic of misspeaking, I called Catapult a "to hit" spell, though it is actually a saving throw spell.

Here are the ratings & time stamps in text format for quick reference. Red (*) - Not Recommended Orange (**) - Too Circumstantial to warrant preparation Purple (***) - Ok Spells Green (****) - Good Spells Blue (*****) - Must Have Spells Ab - Abjuration Conj - Conjuration Enc - Enchantment Evo - Evocation Ill - Illusion Necr - Necromancy Tran - Transmutation Conc- Concentration Absorb Elements (Ab) (****) (04:46) Alarm (Ab, Ritual) (***) or (*****) for Abjurers (06:32) Burning Hands (Evo) (*) or (***) for Evokers (34:56) Catapult (Tran) (***) bad scaling (48:38) Cause Fear (Necr, Conc) (*) (43:50) Charm Person (Enc) (**) (25:14) Chromatic Orb (Evo) (***) (29:43) Color Spray (Ill) (***) (37:53) Comprehend Languages (Div, Ritual) (****) (18:47) Detect Magic (Div, Conc, Ritual) (*****) (17:43) Disguise Self (Ill) (**) or (***/****) in the right campaign (38:26) Earth Tremor (Evo) (*) or (**) for Evokers (33:35) Expeditious Retreat (Tran, Conc) (***) close to (****), doesn't scale well (44:50) False Life (Necro) (***) close to (**) (42:54) Feather Fall (Tran) (**) or (****) for some characters/campaigns (47:08) Find Familiar (Conj, Ritual) (*****) (10:51) Fog Cloud (Conj, Conc) (****) (13:00) Grease (Conj) (****) (11:18) Ice Knife (Conj) (***) (15:36) Identify (Div, Ritual) (**) (19:44) Illusory Script (Ill, Ritual) (*) (39:27) Jump (Tran) (*) (50:05) Longstrider (Tran) (***) (46:01) Mage Armor (Ab) (*****) (03:20) Magic Missile (Evo) (****) (26:20) Protection from Good & Evil (Ab, Conc) (**) (09:26) Ray of Sickness (Necr) (***) close to (**) (40:50) Shield (Ab) (*****) (01:57) Silent Image (Ill, Conc) (****) or (*****) for 14th+ level Illusionists (35:48) Sleep (Enc) (***** at levels 1-2, maybe 3rd) (20:48) Snare (Ab) (**) (08:20) Tasha's Hideous Laughter (Enc, Conc) (****) (22:12) Tenser's Floating Disk (Conj, Ritual) (**) (16:31) Thunderwave (Evo) (****) or (*****) for Evokers (worse for all at higher levels) (28:15) Unseen Servant (Conj, Ritual) (***) (14:16) Witch Bolt (Evo, Conc) (*) (32:19)

I am highly enthusiastic about the title Optimancers.

17:28 "throw on your spellbook, it is not gonna cost you anything..." 2 hours and 50 gold pieces: *DOUBT*

Unseen Servant and Floating Disk can also be used to recharge Benign Transposition for Conjurers.

There’s something you are forgetting about Catapult. If it misses its initial target, the attack continues to the next target behind them, and if that misses, the next guy past that. Since the attack from the spell doesn’t originate from you, you can use this basically whenever to threaten some solid damage to a number of enemies and the more there are, the higher the odds are something gets hit. It’s also a good spell for a transmuted to use to change their Stone’s effect

[Re: Mage Armour] "if I have access to light armour, maybe I'm a bladesinger or a Hobgoblin...". I laughed. Picture the look on the elf's face when being lumped in with a hobgoblin..

There is one thing you missed about Catapult, that you can line up enemies, so if the first target makes the save, the object flies on, and has a chance to hit the second target, and so on. This makes it a safer bet than Chromatic Orb.

One major benefit of the identify spell that few people seem to realize or talk about is that you can use it on people. if you think someone's acting strange or they're possibly under a spell or they've been charmed and you don't know how to tell for sure, or if you want to find out what an enemy has as a buff on themselves, you can use it to find out. (Since it's a touch spell, you can use it through your familiar as well. And if you had say a spider familiar, it should do a little bit of infiltration and identification from a distance.)

The fact that my familiar can deliver Identify (Range of touch) makes it worthwhile IMO. Example: We have a fighter in our group whom acted intolerably in the early days of our campaign, only to suddenly turn the peace and love dial to 11 (21 would be appropriate DnD terminology I suppose) as if under some sort of spell. There was something sketchy about that new armor he got, and he seemed reluctant to talk about it. I asked him if he could watch my familiar-owl while it was resting on the fighters shoulders for a while... and, bam! Secrets revealed. Quite situational example. Though considering how often there's something potentially dangerous I don't wanna touch, or something in the reach of my familiar/out of reach for me, it makes it a green for me. (Biased Diviner)

I consider myself an experienced player but I am playing a wizard for the first time so these videos are very helpful.

catapult can launch jars of acid or bees and other nasty stuff thats the good thing about it

Catapult is one of those spells that get better the more creative your DM lets you be. Comboing it with a bag of flour and a source of flame and you have an improvised fireball at first level. Best use I ever saw was a player in one of my games comboing with reduce to launch the Kobold Barbarian at the evil wizard who was at the time feeling safe up in his airship.

The end of this. "You may have found a way to make the jump spell really useful." Enter the Harengon 2 years later.

My thoughts on Catapult: In my current campaign, I chose it over magic missile because I always choose magic missile, and taking that spell again just sounded boring (also wands of magic missile are fairly easy to come by, depending on your DM and campaign). I'm now a 4th level wizard and catapult has been both useful and very fun. It will never top magic missile in terms of reliability but there are some tactics you can use to reduce the likelihood that your spell will do nothing at all. Something unique about catapult is that because you're dealing with a physical projectile the spell indicates that if a creature makes its DEX save to dodge whatever you've sent careening across the battlefield then your chosen projectile will continue in a straight line until it meets another creature, who also has to make a DEX save. And so on and so on, until it travels 90ft, hits a creature, or collides with a wall. This ranks it squarely above chromatic orb in terms of reliability, it may not hit your intended target, but if you aim it right it will usually hit a target. This is more useful if you're dealing with lots of minions rather than one big boss, but my DMs do not typically pit us against just a single creature, no matter how powerful. Another really nice advantage is that it does not require you to see the object you wish to magically locomote. So as long as you know where it is, you can target any object of 1 to 5 pounds and send it flying in any direction. So if you know there's a sneaky goblin (or two) that you can't see, but know is hiding behind some fallen debris you can fling a cobblestone laterally into that space to remove that threat, this is something I actually did in my campaign. In this respect, catapult has greater flexibility over magic missile. Now, some people may argue that it could be difficult to reliably find objects you wish to propel using this spell. Some locales do have more potential targets than others, and you might come across some situations where there isn't an object in the right place to fling down the trajectory you need (i.e. there's plenty of books around but none line up with the file you've plotted through two imps and a warlock). There are easy solutions to this, one I've been implementing is using my familiar to drop small metal spheres where I need an object. This should be hard for your DM to argue against if they are so inclined. Most owls, bats, birds, etc. can lift 50% or more of their own body weight, and if you use the lifting and carrying rules in the PHB an owl can lift 22.5 pounds! In addition to using your familiar, you can combine this with the animate objects spell. It does suck that your animated caltrop is destroyed by the impact. But, even though I can't find it anywhere in the rules, I imagine that adamantine objects wouldn't be destroyed by 3d8 damage. There are also some entertaining and effective tactics you can use circumstantially. A rogue may be able to swipe a wizards spellbook and throw it into the air for you to send flying from the battlefield, or you can use it on a flask of alchemist's fire, a flask of acid, a stink bomb, or a smoke bomb (wizards aren't great at throwing things anyways, and I've had DMs call for rolls to throw alchemist's fire before - you don't want to fob that skill check). These are inarguably circumstantial, but imagine the DMs face when his wizard's spellbook is flung 90 ft away - you might be able to grab it for yourself (or have your familiar do so). And, if you're like me, you'll find there's something really exciting about plotting out a line on the mat, threading it through your friends and into your enemies, then rolling the dice to see which poor sop is gonna get a rock to the face. All that being said, I am in no way arguing that this spell is better than magic missile, magic missile is just great. However, I do think it's clearly superior to chromatic orb. And I argue that it may merit a promotion from purple to green. Treantmonk, if you see this I'd really appreciate your thoughts on the matter. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

> Snare: if you know an enemy is coming in a certain tightly-defined direction but they're being very, very leisurely about it. "Hold on, I'm not quite done casting my trap!" "Dooohh, okay!" (Probably it's actually one of those spells intended for NPCs to use on PCs).

I want to see a video dedicated entirely to Spell Mastery sometime. There's just so many amazing options to choose from

I like featherfall for deliberate falling too. If you need to get down from a high spot quickly it is helpful

I’ve used Tasha’s Hideous laughter to knock a dragon out of the sky.

Magic missile is useful at later levels because it forces spellcasters to make three concentration saving throws

There's one thing you forgot about Grease : creatures have to save VS prone when they end their turn in the area, yes, but unlike Sleet Storm, they ALSO have to save when they ENTER the area. So if the map configuration allows you to put a grease on a chokepoint and force enemies to go through it, it can waste one of their turns, since they might not have enough movement remaining to get up right away. For a non concentration lvl 1 spell, that's pretty strong.

I feel as though a Cantrip video would be more helpful since you don't gain very many and they are very useful; like do I want Mage hand or Light? Firebolt or Frostbite? And since you can just write down all the 1st - 9th lv spells you don't have through spell scrolls, you don't really need to pick and choose. So a Cantrip guide would be very much appreciated.

11:59 During great session I was in, we were fighting two skeleton archers hiding in a 60-foot tall tower. My brother, a wizard, cast fog cloud on the tower top, blocking their view. The skeletons then crawled tried to climb down the tower to get out of the cloud. When they got halfway down, my brother cast grease on them causing them to lose their grip and fall all the way to the ground. One landed on its neck (nat 1 on the grease save) dying outright. The other lost almost all health and was an easy kill.

big fan of your videos as wizard is my fav class to play, 2 quick thoughts... suggestion of a name for your fan base or followers; 'apprentices'... and since Alarm is neither concentration or ends if you cast it again, you could cast it multiple times to cover more area (4 quadrants for a much bigger square; 40' x 40') or one for the door and one for the window in a tavern room (get a long rest)

Catapult a flask of oil, or vial of poison, it’s good, also need that grappling hook up a large cliff, 90 feet into the air. It’s also a dex save, what if they make it? Well it keeps going and could hit the next enemy, so one save becomes 2, 3 maybe more. Lastly knocked that miguffin out of the big bads hands? Catapult it away. It’s an amazing spell, at least green by your standards, and blue by mine. I always find a use for it.

I know many spells are DM dependant but Identify is super DM dependant. Ive played under a few DMs and many of them LOVE cursed items or require attuning to get facts and Identify can really save your butt in those areas, usually short rest are an hour and if I recall you need two short rest to know what you need to learn that makes Identify pretty handy. Considering how many DMs seem to hate it I cant really call it less than purple but of course tables vary. *edit* Ok Im dumb and messed up the color code and despite your description I think you did rate the spell properly, I would always want SOMEONE in the party to have it but only one.

Jump and feather fall are fun spells. I don't think they're quite as situational as you make them out to be, but perhaps your games are different. They're both spells that open up options to go places and do things. Oftentimes jump actually allows you to bypass obstacles that other creatures simply can't, which as a wizard who doesn't want to get hit can be very nice (although it tends to rely on having more than my 6 in strength). For no concentration and no action if you cast it ahead of time, it's not half bad. Feather fall I think is fantastic. It comes up pretty often in my games that we're up in a tower, at a cliffside or on a bridge. It is fantastic to have the confidence that you have a way out. The real thing to consider with feather fall though is that while it doesn't come up all of the time, the times that it does it turns a life and death struggle into a situation solved completely with a single 1st level slot as a reaction. The odds are mediocre but the prize is incredible. Perhaps most importantly though is how having this spell influences your team's group dynamic. You can have your barbarian heroically tackle the BBEG off his *Dark Spyre (tm)*, seemingly sacrifing himself, and then save him. You can allow your rogue to attempt the climb of the century with confidence that you can save him if he fails. You can promise your ranger that you'll catch them if they fall to help them conquer their fear of heights. Having feather fall allows you to enable your allies to feel like heroes with amazing taste in allies. That loyalty is something that a charm person can't buy and perhaps more importantly: "You're God after all, let the mortals have their victory!"

I found False Life to be very useful when I was a low level bladesinger. Those temp hit points helped put me more on par with other melee characters at my level. It definitely drops off at higher levels or is replaced by better options (Aid for instance).

Another very useful video. The thing that kills Charm Person for me in 5e is the stipulation that the targets knows they’ve been charmed after an hour. In previous editions, I’d use Charm Person a lot as an out of combat utility spell but with this edition I just don’t see it coming up very often where you can either set it up in advance with a Disguise Self or know you’ll be long gone an hour later. “Hey, wait a minute...those were the droids we were looking for!” Nope.

Catapult isn't for damage. It's for firing your grappling hook up the wall so your party can climb the rope. :)

Optimancer... I get it... But I still feel like an autobot

First of all, thanks for these videos, I LOVE your content! I’m probably going to play a Wizard for the first time in decades thanks to you! Second: I would love a written compendium of all your ratings and such. I watch all the videos but sometimes it would be nice to be able to cross reference faster. Thanks again for the great content!

I love these videos, they are very helpful and get me to think on how I would rank them. For the ones I disagree with I give my reasoning. My ranking is as follows; Abjuration Shield - Blue Mage Armor - Green (Almost blue) Absorb Elements - Green Alarm - Green (I like how it’s a ritual and it’s very useful at low levels but I would drop once I get Tiny Hut, but I agree it’s blue for Abjurers) Snare - Orange Protection from Evil and Good - Purple ( I think it’s ok, probably used more at higher levels) Conjuration Find Familiar - Blue Grease - Green Fog Cloud - Green Unseen Servant - Green (Great for triggering traps and it’s a ritual) Ice Knife - Purple Tensors Floating Disk - Orange Divination Detect Magic - Blue Comprehend Languages - Green Identify - Purple (I feel like this comes up more than people give it credit for) Enchantment Sleep - Green ( Great at 1st level, decent at 2nd level, ok at 3rd and 4th level, outdone by Fireball at 5th level) Tashas Hideous Laughter - Green Charm Person - Purple (kinda hard to use but if you can use it, it can be effective. Probably should not be used in combat) Evocation Magic Missile - Green Thunderwave - Green (agree it’s blue for evokers) Chromatic Orb - Purple Witch Bolt - Red Earth Tremor - Red (Purple for Evokers) Burning Hands - Purple ( is pretty good against strong single targets from my experience and I like how they still take half damage if they save. Thunderwave though better overall is very loud) Illusion Silent Image - Green Color Spray - Purple Disguise Self - Green ( Circumstantial but very effective ) Illusory Script - Red Necromancy Ray of Sickness - Orange ( Chromatic Orb is just better, the poisoned effect is decent but the CON save is easy for many enemies to beat ) False Life - Green ( Temp hit points are never a bad thing, always good for back up) Cause Fear - Red Transmutation Expeditious Retreat - Purple (agree it’s almost green) Longstrider - Purple Featherfall - Green (when you need you really need it, I almost always take it) Catapult - Purple Jump - Orange ( can be useful I found but not that impressive overall, should be a Cantrip but not completely useless)

Catapult is a quasi-line spell, meaning if you line up your targets you get to roll against the next target if you miss -- until it hits. That's why I like it. You can also throw the projectile and use it as a kind of trap, triggering it at weird angles vs. cover etc.

I've been playing DnD for years and the expansive wizard spell list has always stopped me from going that route. Bad spell selections can make this top tier class obsolete in game play. Thank you for these videos and making an intimidating task much easier!

legit been devouring these videos all week, also I think you covered cantrips well in the low-level tactics video, cantrips really aren't game breaking and there aren't traps so the whole, take MI, one offensive cantrip and one utility is guidance enough

Hey, about Alarm restoring the Arcane Ward, and also for the use of Tenser's Floating Disk, remember that you don't have to be stationary to cast a ritual spell, as long as the point your casting on is moving with you (your backpack for alarm, or the already existing disk for the other)

Just found your channel, but I have enjoyed your guides in text for a loooong time. Thanks for making these videos. With Pathfinder 2 coming in August, I was wondering if you plan to produce guides, reviews, etc. for that system. Your Pathfinder 1 wizard guide was epic. Thanks for doing what you do.

Not a lot of surprises there. You're pretty consistent with your approaches. I do have a request though, for future vids. The Wizard list is shared by the EK and AT, but the decisions about spell choice and spell usage is very different. I know this is a Wizard guide. But in the cases that a spell would receive a markedly different rating for the EK or AT than for the Wizard, a little comment to that effect would be much appreciated. This might also help players who MC wizard into a build. TIA

Catapult has some good bits to it that I think makes it a fairly solid spell (but I picked it as a sorcerer primarily for its versatility, especially since mine is transmutation themed, I think purple is right for Wizards). Catapult does ok damage, and can damage objects, like you said, but it also has two interesting interactions in that it works as a fast and long range telekinesis- if the object doesn't hit something it takes no damage, so you can move that object up to 90 feet to you. It also can 'hit' multiple targets if they are in a line, super circumstantial, but since it only stops on a hit, if you can pass through 2 enemies (which is fairly common) or even 3 or more, it will have a much higher chance of hitting, although may not hit the best target. The higher accuracy will help it compete against magic missile and when you consider the other minor benefits, I think it's solid. It reminds me of a first level levitate spell in that it's not amazing all the time, but it's so flexible that it's almost always useful- why I think it's potentially better depending on your class, but less so for Wizards. Also I used Prestidigitation for a 1 hour illusory script. What a bad spell, Pres is already super fun to grab and use, don't get that spell. If your team can't hide a note successfully for an hour, you deserve to get got on it.

Well done. However, I have to point out a very valuable use of Identify that is excellent to have in your book: Cursed Items. A lot of cursed loot has some SERIOUS downsides, and Identify can sidestep this and protect someone from having a serious detriment instead of eating the Curse and risking an encounter

I recently read the alarm spell and my interpretation of it is that it will sound but only for tiny or larger creatures that cross the threshold.

Enjoying the vids! Thanks

Catapult could be nice to throw vials of acid, and you can shoot MacGuffins (which are usually indestructible or magical) towards your group (as long as they aren't being worn). I've used a scroll of Catapult (Didn't feel like putting it in my spellbook) to shoot a weight with a rope attached to it to help us cross a chasm (and the DM didn't rule that the rope took the 3d8 damage, not sure if it should). Wouldn't a fighter have worked too by just throwing it? Probably, but I don't think he could throw the rope that far, or the DM would've asked an attack roll/strength check or something. Honestly it's one of those spells that if you can get a scroll of it's really neat as there are lots of creative uses for it that just don't come up often enough to make it worth preparing.

I feel like Catapult should be at least green because you can target multiple enemies with it but depending on how creative your DM allows you to be I would argue it could even be blue. Launching alchemists fire is the obvious example but I've had DMs that have allowed launching things like daggers or nets at enemies which makes it much more versatile and fun. I could even see some shenanigans with enlarge/reduce coming into play as well although that's more dubious. Also there's utility to think about as well, for example if your bard casts heat metal on an enemies sword and they drop it you could catapult it away which doesn't do direct damage but could leave that enemy with only his fists to fight with which could win you the fight.

Cantrip video probably isn't needed, even if we're greedy. You did separate videos on the ones that involve creative thought.

You may have missed the other use case of identify- identifying people. Specifically, it can be used to identify any spells affecting the target. Weirdly often I need to quickly check if someone is under the effect of suggestion, geas, etc. It can help you confirm your suspicions if you think something is under Nystul's magic aura or instant summons. I actually sometimes keep identify prepared for these events.

Abjuration: (1:54) Shield (3:20) Mage Armor (4:46) Absorb Elements (6:32) Alarm (8:19) Snare (9:26) Protection from Evil and Good Conjuration (10:48) Find Familiar (11:19) Grease (13:00) Fog Cloud (14:16) Unseen Servant (15:37) Ice Knife (16:31) Tenser's Floating Disk Divination (17:42) Detect Magic (18:47) Comprehend Languages (19:44) Identify Enchantment (20:45) Sleep (22:12) Tasha's Hideous Laughter (25:14) Charm Person Evocation (26:18) Magic Missile (28:16) Thunderwave (29:44) Chromatic Orb (32:20) Witch Bolt (33:34) Earth Tremor (34:56) Burning Hands Illusion (35:59) Silent Image (37:53) Color Spray (38:26) Disguise Self (39:26) Illusory Script Necromancy (40:49) Ray of Sickness (42:55) False Life (43:50) Cause Fear Transmutation (44:49) Expeditious Retreat (46:01) Longstrider (47:09) Feather Fall (48:37) Catapult (50:04) Jump

This is probably too late for your level 2 spells video on Friday (looking forward to it, by the way!) but for the first time, I just took Nystul’s Magic Aura. Yes, it’s circumstantial, but if you’re suddenly entrusted with the care of an incredibly powerful magical artefact that dark forces are after, it’s something you’ll want to cast on said artefact every night before bed.

chromatic orb is a good spell for a storm sorcerer. Guaranteed damage even if you miss. and if there are a bunch of minions you can twin spell, if there is a boss with minions you can attack boss and deal damage to the minions, There is also very little risk because you can bonus action fly 10 feet then move as far as you can.

Consider updating this list with the new spells that have come out since this video was made. I’d love to know your thoughts on spells in Strixhaven like ‘silvery barbs’ and other new content like ‘Explorers guide to wildemount’

Just to say I have used Disguise self, to portray a person, the group had not seen before so they knew what he looked liked. A quick photo fit so to speak. It has some uses, and you are correct its circumstantial but not useless.

3:20 If you're an abjuration wizard, casting Alarm as a ritual at the start of the day also procs your ward. So you don't need mage armor for builds that he touched on, who have light or medium armour profiency. This way you don't waste a spell slot for 1AC. Althoigh you can always cast it on a teammate at the beginning of the day, which is always nice for fellow wizards/sorcerers who don't have armour.

Advice on fighting magic resistant enemies please. We didn't have a wizard but we just fought a bone devil with 2 bards, a sorcerer, a rouge 2/Warlock 4, a monk 5 (no magic weapon), and a cleric. Won by lucky crits, but 2 magic resistant enemies would have finished us. I figure wizard advice would be generally applicable.

You can also throw things with catapult though. You can throw a grappling hook with a rope tied to it 90'? Or you can catapult a vial of acid or alchemists fire or oil or skunk scent or holy water or a bagful of ball bearings or a handfull of caltrops or dylithium power crystals or...

One potential reason to cast Alarm in conjunction with Tiny Hut is that it can give you a second chance to see an enemy hunkering down and setting up an ambush for when the spell duration ends or the caster exits it. IIRC the hut may block spell effects but it doesn't block someone from throwing a rock or shooting an arrow from inside of it and hitting something outside of it. Since both Alarm and Tiny Hut are rituals, in very specific circumstances you can set up an ambush point at the cost of no spell resources, while greatly bolstering your ranged weapon specialist allies. Throw in a disposable minion, such as a Tiny Servant, and you can have an ambush without having to rely on memorizing guard patterns or chance. Admittedly, that's more Tiny Hut than Alarm. Alarm could be used to fine-tune when to set off more mundane traps, though.

Another good video, though naturally there are some things I disagree with. Particularly, I think you overlook a few small points about scaling. False life, to start with, scales very well with higher spell slots. The two alternatives you point to, inspiring leader and bear spirit, cap out at 25 temporary hit points at 20th character level. False life provides at least that much out of a 5th-level slot. False life outpaces every other reliable source of THP out there, making it far and away the best necromancy wizard spell at this level. On the other end of things, you correctly observe that thunderwave and earth tremor do not scale well in damage. However, they both have secondary effects which are just as useful at any level, meaning that you can knock away an invisible stalker or make prone a fire giant with a 1st-level slot. Even after the point where they are no longer optimal for dealing damage (which earth tremor never was anyway), they can be worth preparing as cheap tactical options.

Very good analysis. Here are a couple of things I think were missed on some spells: Catapult - This spell really isn't a single target spell. It travels 90 feet in a line, meaning that you can line multiple enemies up with Catapult and have a chance to hit at least one of them. This means that lining 2 or more enemies up with Catapult gives a sort of pseudo advantage (because if the first enemy passes their saving throw, there is a chance the second one fails, and so on and so forth). Given this ability, if you line up 2 enemies with Catapult the average damage is higher than Magic Missile if you consider a 60% chance of an enemy of failing their saving throw (11.34 for Catapult and 10.5 for Magic Missile). This gets more advantageous for Catapult the more enemies you can line up. Sleep - One additional use case for Sleep is to take out a single tough/boss enemy who is somewhat low on HP. There is no attack roll or saving throw to be made, so there is no chance of missing or the boss using a legendary resistance to resist the effect. Since Sleep is spherical it can be placed above the battlefield so as to only hit the intended target with the "hitbox" that extends downward (assuming there is no way to place it on the ground and only hit the intended target). So whereas you'd have to cast 2 or 3 Magic Missile spells to take out an enemy with 22 HP left, Sleep can pretty much do that instantly assuming at least an average roll. This does rely on either knowing or inferring the enemy's HP however.

Great video! Agreed, chromatic orb is overall not better than magic missile... but having been burned ( in all senses of the expression) by a previous bunch of murder hobos I now try to avoid fire spells but the orb is great for breaking regeneration when that is called for 😀

Question about saving throws. Am I understanding this correctly? Lets say I am one on one with enemy and cast tasha's on my turn. Enemy gets a save on the casting. My turn ends. Its now enemy's turn that they spend laughing on the ground. Enemy's turn ends. They get a second save before my turn? This seems to be implied by the wording of a save on casting, and at the end of the enemy's turn. Seems crazy that enemy gets two save opportunities before I can make use of the effect. Only if I have allies after me in the initiative order but before the enemy I cast on can anyone make use of the effect after the first failed save. Am I understanding this correctly?

Loved the vid and made me rethink my opinion of a lot of spells. The one spell I disagree with you on is Catapult. I fully agree with you if you use it on a random object - BUT ... if you use it to deliver a specific payload to a target? In that case it becomes better than chromatic orb, though not quite as good as Magic Missile imo.

This might have come up, but... Protection from Good/Evil, or any other concentration spell, make great potions if you can negotiate their inclusion. Potions of spells don't require concentration, and that makes potions very useful to spell casters in general. It makes my players want to make them, and creates cool sessions where we go slogging for ingredients to make a batch or two at a time -- win/win in my opinion.

I took the Orb for rule of cool and got a crit when I used it for the first time in my first Wizard game. It's okay in an ambush situation, and can have many niche uses. Plus I roll a Divination Wizard, so in some cases I can use portent on it. My concept isn't blaster, just support. But an ally was in trouble and I used Chromatic Orb to help them out. 30 damage on 6d8, quite good though I got lucky, yes.

I find Catapult way better than Chromatic Orb, mainly because it's a telekinetic effect with damage as a rider, some uses: 1. Use special "ammunition" like alchemist fire, bottles of oil or bottles of ball bearings or caltrops. 2. The object doesn't need to be close to you, in some cases you can even dissimulate the casting. 3. In some cases you can use it to bring items closer to you and your allies, or just to take them away from enemies. Just with the second probable target in case the first missed make it already better.

Important note about Feather Fall that's come up in my table: IF YOU ARE IN EBERRON SOMEONE SHOULD TAKE IT. Falling is a huge concern in Eberron: Airships, The Lihghtning Rail, Falling off high area in Sharn or other major cities with verticality (the towers in Arcanix in Aundaire for example) Not i spell you want prepared all the time but it comes up a lot more than in other campaign settings because of things like airships and the lightning rail and the verticality in the cities.You don't need it prepared all the time, but if you're party is gonna be getting on a skycoach or an airship..... or the lightning rail..... yeah maybe think about preparing it. We just had a caster get shoved off a place in the middle city and fell to the lower wards and it was not pretty, they barely survived.

I love yours videos, now i looking for a "Ship Captain" High Elf Wizard, School of illusion. Mirage tipe effects for ship's battles. Naming my ship "The Mirage".

Just thought, maybe you should do a video reviewing all the spells in the additional wizard spells feature in Tasha's.

Alarm requires 1 minute to cast by default, which means 11 minutes as a ritual, which means you can do it about 5 times instead of a short rest. Also technically rests don't require you to not cast spells just that you do nothing strenuous, so depending on the dm ritual casting alarm five times and getting the rest might be fine.

20:00 you haven't played with enough evil DMs. Attuning to an unknown magical item? May god have mercy on your cursed soul. 22:00 Sleep is no save, requires no concentration, starts at 5d8 and scales at 2 dice per level, double what any other spell out there basically gets. Its a Radius spell, so you can place the center above creatures which lets you fairly reliably target single creatures. And it has a 90' range. I have killed so many flying creatures, especially escaping flying creatures with sleep. 90' of falling damage into a quick dirt nap. Its become a fey patron warlock specialty.

I can agree on how situational Identify is. However, I do have a DM who willingly withholds information on magic items until they're identified. Weapons get this treatment even more so. He has expressed a small bit of concern or frustration in that we don't use these items, but when they trigger a bad effect on a low roll, well we're just not interested. My party just doesn't have a flexible spell caster beyond our Bard. We have a Cleric and Paladin, but they're more frontline fighters. I do have the stats to take 1-2 level in wizard just to have a spellbook with rituals, which wouldn't be too bad for my Arcane Trickster, but that's the length I would have to go to in order to get Identify just for the full details of anything magical we pick up.

Interesting on how you like Thunderwave - I understand that it does pretty good damage and covers a great area (for its level), but my personal experience was that the loud sound makes it problematic in many situations (though it could be just to small of an sample size, so maybe I should try it a bit more)

Illusionary script is very useful for making your spell books unreadable/look like a normal book. That's what I use it for.

Illusory script can be used to modify a contract, get a signature, then end the spell so any detection method shows it was legitimately signed for. Fun, but not helpful if Zone of Truth exists in your world's legal system, but that's true of literally all crime. But if you don't think anyone will use ZoT, it's a great con spell. So yeah, still circumstantial but that's probably the most common circumstance for me. That and conning devils into giving you rad rewards in exchange for like... a handshake. If they lack truesight

One level of Wizard and the rest of the way Monk gives you enough speed to cover 90' jumps easily :)

If Wizards (or any other class) could swap out Cantrips I'd care more for a video about them. Until then, a greatest hits list is good enough

Hello there , i wanna ask if its worth to take spell shield if you are War Magic ?

Could you do a video on cantrips

With catapult i dont have to do damage to the object say a enemy drops their weapon i cats catapult on it it goes up to 90 feet away from me spell range plus 60 it moves in a straight line. Now the enemy has to eighter fight me with their weaker fist or take at least 2 turns to get the weapon back pretty good to me.

8:25 "...this isn't a spell you can cast in combat" Laughs in chronurgy.

A DM might let your unseen servant give a potion or goodberry to a comrade, much like Find Familiar, at the cost of a bonus action. A really permissive DM might let you give the command "feed a potion to my fallen allies" without requiring you to renew the command until it does so once.

A great use for Illusory Script is to use it to make 'Psychic Paper' from the Doctor Who series. You'd do this by being a 6th level Illusionist Wizard that is also proficient in forgery. You can now adjust the document to be whatever you want at will. Just arrived in town and you are one corner away from the palace but need a good reason to get in? Take out your scroll that has been pre-sealed using sealing wax and adjust it to fit whatever story you come up with. Maybe you were hired by a local noble to track down a runaway servant, or are an envoy from another nation needing to speak to the queen, if you can write it and have seen a similar document before, you can create that document on the spot. Go up to the guard, walk into the palace :)

Thing you've missed about Catapult: you can chose the point of origin of that attack by using oject laying around f.e behing enemy. Wizzers are known for str as their dumpstat. With Catapult you can throw objects up to 90f. I'm always using this spell to distract someone when i try to sneak aronud. Bonus points for striking creatures that are behind full cover and you don't have a line of sight with them. You just neet to know where they are and have some object that you can throw in a straight line to them. Also, if someone makes their save, the object still moves, so you can try to make a attack with a rock, that even on a passed dex save for one creature, goes further to strike another one. Catapult is a mediocre dmg on low lvl but it comes with a lot of utility.

I think detect magic is an outstanding spell even at higher level, let's say our BBEG Goes invisible but has a magic item on it... You'll see a faint glowing aura in the middle of nowhere giving out his position!

Illusory script is for passing notes back and forth at wizard school

what happened to bladesinger & war mage

Would you consider earth tremor for any class? I thought it would be nice to use it as an eldritch knight to knock enemies prone and get adv. on attacks? I am not that good at theorycrafting and always get carried away by seemingly cool ideas. So I would appreciate your adive. :D Would you consider making a decent spell list for EK? I play a Forest Gnome dex based fighter and have the problem to decide on spells.

One total side note about tasha’s hideous laughter is that it can be really nasty in combination with the opportunity attack from warcaster.

illusory script. DM ruling dependent. Can those that see the real message also see the fake one? Can you designate Anyone other than your party members or anyone other than the "chosen" person may see the message. if so, write some innocent throwing a party letter or some other thing as the base message & the illusion carries the important message. Did this get errata'd or clarified in a ruling?

I think Earth Tremor is pretty cool on Eldritch Knights.

I could be a doofus and completely missed it but does Treant discuss Divination? I’m looking to play a diviner and I’d love to get some input (first time DnD player so I’m pretty green).

Is Earth Tremor worth it for melee wizards. Like a Githyanki Abjurer or a Bladesinger

Magic missile plus hexblade and empowered evocation is insanity, anything with Warlock is insanity.

Fog cloud, find familiar -bat (blindsight), shocking grasp the pesky town guard while you make your escape.

Hi ! A few remarks : For Charm, it's really easy to tell someone you charmed, "calm down they are working for me !", or to your teammates, "let me handle it stay behind", so that you can use your Charm easily. Just by saying, "come with me I will pay you, you won't regret it", you can convince quite all charmed ennemies to guide/help you. And it lasts 1 full hour and doesn't require concentration ! Compared to other 1st level spells, this effect is really crazy + remains reliable later on because the enemy has only a single roll to resist, which is nothing when you have Potent like me ! I feel that having someone guiding me, helping me for only a single 1st lvl spell (and a few gold coins before being killed ;) ) without concentration will remain crazy good, even when I'll be a 10th or a 15th level wizard...

I would only "disagree" with Earth Tremor; having seen it in a 1-year campaign, it is easy to use frequently and useful quite often, both offensively and defensively. Being surrounded by 3-4 enemies and making them fall prone gives them disadvantage on their opportunity attacks. It also gives melee allies advantage for increasing hit and critical chance. Overall, I would rank it one colour above. I agree 100% with all the other ratings and was pleased to see your revised your initial colourification. I admit that I was one of those who looked at it when I first started playing 5e, but did not fully agree with you on various spells.

Thank you.

Spell Mastery: one thing I never see mentioned is PHB Page 115: you can change spells for spell mastery. You DON'T have to limit yourself to only two spells.

Treantmonk - One of the big traps I find with fogcloud is that it generally doesn't even give disadvantage to enemies attacks. It feels like it SHOULD but it doesn't. That's because enemies have disadvantage because they can not see us, but advantage because we can not see them. This makes their attacks a straight roll - all it really does is deny them advantage if they had it. The same in reverse - it makes it so we don't have disadvantage. This might be useful in melee so we can cast at a straight attack roll but generally I don't cast attack roll spells anyway. This is one of the reasons staff of swarming insects is so strong(Only for the wielder of course) - because we can see through the cloud it acts like the darkness example below except it isn't pierced by things such as devils sight. Compare this to Darkness - the same thing would apply except the errata appears to imply that your only blinded if you are trying to see a target inside the darkness. For example (If your in a really really dark area but your staring at someone outside - like near that bright streetlight. You can see them but they can't see you. In this case they are getting disadvantage and you are gaining advantage. BTW - I am so pumped for this entire series and i'm currently playing through as a low level diviner that just hit the mid levels (7). The CC is definitely swinging the fights and the GM is starting to need to make them harder. I am looking forward to that diviner build you have down the line especially!

can you do a video on cantrip? you are amazing!!!

Witch Bolt has a lot of limitations that I can understand why it's just not competitive enough to be worth preparing... but as a scroll it may be worth it. Sometimes the fact that it compels an enemy to retreat 30ft away from you is exactly what you need as it forces them to effectively give up their turn as they take the Disengage action which is fun if your front-line brawler has Sentinel.. Also there's a certain amount of GM metagaming... how would every enemy know that if they moved only 35ft away from the Wizard it would end the spell that otherwise had unlimited duration? How would low-intelligence beasts know that? How would mindless undead know that? Did the DM even attempt an Arcana check for an NPC who could know about the strengths and limitations of Witch Bolt? Try Witch Bolt against players who are new to D&D5e, how many figure out that the witch bolt has unlimited duration and they could so easily end the spell by just retreating. They're probably not which is why the weakness of Witchbolt is mostly causes by the NPCs metagaming.