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break into the wizards tower on the day he blew all his spells on divination..... he isn't there when you get to the end

Man. This is by far the best DnD channel on youtube. No offense to Nerdarchy or Matt Coleville or Dawnforged Cast - I still watch a ton of their videos. But Web DM is just the best. I could, and have, listen to you guys talk about DnD all day. Keep up the good work. P.S. If it would help you make more than one video a week I'd gladly support you guys on Patreon.

So who else is super keen for Mr Pruitt to upload his 5e spelljamer campain setting stuff? Because I for one would love to play that setting

"On a normal day, a wizard may not have many offensive spells, if at all" (paraphrase) - yep, that's what a Staff of Power or a Staff of the Magi is for.

I played an illusionist as a mid level party villain and he was very fun. He was based of his desire to make the world beautiful. He looked like a magician (top hat, suit and magic wand) with a V for Vendetta mask and had a posh British accent.

My bladesinger went toe to toe with an adult black dragon and the dragon retreated to heal twice and was killed the third time

I'm playing as one bard (con artist pretending to be a cleric) in a two bard party and Vicious Mockery is my favorite cantrip from an RPing perspective. The other bard has it and he was a little timid with his insults until I layed in and it empowered him. By the end of our first session, we reached a part where our attempt to fool warriors for a dragon cult didn't work and the other cleric just shouted "your mother is a whore!" as an attack. :D This is after I used "I saw your mother get dogpiled by Ogres last night. She looked bored." as an attack.

I want to play a Divination so bad. The Portent ability is awesome and The Third Eye is great.

5e is my first roleplay system, and in my third campaign, when I told him I wanted to play an Eldritch Knight/Wizard Multi-class...I had the same reaction as your 'off-screen' guy. Dm: Oh so you want to play a Gish character. Me: What the hell is a Gish?

I wish you would have talked more about the power of illusionist. I am playing my first illusionist in 5e and its pretty crazy. It seems that my power is equal to only my imagination.

This class is my absolute favorite class because you can customize it to the absolute max with your overall spell selections.

I've kind of fallen for the Conjurer, actually. True, that school needs more spells. If I'm a wizard specializing in the art of conjuring, I think I should be able to conjure more creatures than just elementals. Especially since it takes forever to get those spells. At the very least, I should be able to bring in woodland creatures. Just something to use until my character gets to 4th level magic, and I can start calling forth elemental beasts. (I also wish there was a spell that let you summon ghostly allies, but that's another matter). Still, it has quite good features to go along with it. Conjurers are teleporting all over the place, they can eventually have conjured allies without worry for losing Concentration. But I think the feature I love most is arguably the "weakest": Minor Conjuration. You can just make an object appear, as simple as you please. It's something I like because it's evocative. I imagine conjurers who conjure stools so they can sit down anywhere, or who bring out tools for every occasion. Need to break a chain? The wizard just summoned a pair of bolt cutters. Need a door opened? The wizard has you covered with a crowbar. Got stripped of weapons and locked in a cell? The wizard can supply one of the front liners with a shortsword or whatever.

Okay since this was brought up once or twice and even asked in the bloopers after the regular session. A Gish comes from the Githyanki Soldiers of early editions and describes their fighting style which uses both magic and steel. Fun fact in our home-game we always called them "Tenser/s", those who know why get an extra gummypoint.

Conjuration schools Benign Transposition paired with misty step is something to look at. It is a pretty effective combo for move the right people into the right places

At our table (I normally DM, but have inspired my players to start running their own games), we have a few home rules for the evoker. I, personally, love the concept, but hated the execution, specifically how bad I felt Potent Cantrip was and how I felt that Empowered Evocation came a little late. So we homebrewed that potent cantrip would apply to attack roll based Evocation cantrips as well (so the Wizard doesn’t feel stupid for realizing that they took Firebolt, Ray of Frost, or Shocking Grasp and then realizing that it would have been mechanically better to get acid splash or create bonfire, which also doesn’t make sense to me as those are conjuration spells. I know that the SCAG and XGtE introduced a few, but I just felt like this worked better). Additionally, they get to add their Int mod to one Evocation damage roll at level 6. Then at level 10, they ignore resistance to the damage of Evocation spells (only Evocation spells. The demon still resists the damage of an incendiary cloud) and they get to reroll damage rolls of a 1 for their Evocation spells.

You're a wizard Web DM!

My personal favorite is playing an Enchantment Wizard. I do enjoy playing support but mostly it's because I love magic item creation an creating something new. I once made a dnd version of a green lantern ring. My DM had a rogue steal it lmao.

You guys are simply awesome. I am in awe of the knowledge and experience you bring to these segments. You take what could be sometimes be considered dry material and really energize it ! Great balance of information, puns and personal experiences. A+ guys. I was wondering if you might cover a topic for me (unless I missed it already ) I am a returning DM (it's been years-nay, decades !) I wonder if you have any advice on encounter challenge balance in published adventures. Or more to the point , adjusting difficulty up/down on the fly. My players are rolling through enemies but I don't want to swing the pendulum too far the other way. It seems like a fine line between the players steamrolling and a TPK.... thanks in advance !

Just re-watching this video and it's made me realize we still haven't gotten an illusion video! Would love to see your guys take on it

thanks guys for these class reviews. i still come back to these

please please PLEASE do an illusion episode. it's something I can never think of how to utilize until after the session.

A comment about Wizards day-to-day spell list... I like to think of Cantrips as what the party would be facing off against when a wizard is unprepared. Cantrips are the Wizards' side-arm (sword or hand gun). When the Wizard brings the real spells (their spear or rifle) then shit gets real! I think the wizard's towers should alert the wizard to the party's presence, so the wizard can get away and prepare for the counter-attack, which will come when the party is in the middle of a fight or in a compromised position...

It's thanksgiving and I am grateful for WebDM!

I really love your show! Me and my friends started up playing DD again 2 years ago. Felt good to dust of the dice after ten years on the shelves. 5th edition is a really good edition for getting new players into the game. Anyway just wanted to say that I really love enjoy your channel, you guys give me great inspiration for my campaign and how I should run it. thx and peace from Norway!:D

ohhh please do an episode on illusionists!

I love these in-depth class videos

Maybe for Necromancers they can use a corpse a total number of times equal to the corpses original Constitution modifier to a minimum of 1. So if a creature had a Con of 10 or lower it could only be used once, meanwhile a creature who had a Con of 20 could be used 5 times. Each time the undead minion dies the number of times it can be used again is reduced by 1. Each time more pieces and chunks of flesh are missing, and when all "charges" are used up the corpse is no longer whole enough to be used and is useless.

I was looking for this video yesterday on your channel and here it is!

Hold person is called the fight ender at our table. I have it on my Bladesinger and use it every time, and since our DM can't roll well against my lowish DC save (14). Once again, awesome episode! Can't wait for yinz to talk about Sorcerers! I just started a Storm Sorcerer in a second game and loving it!

even if I can't watch the whole video as soon as it comes out, I always open it up really quick just for the A1 intros

So sad, I am almost caught up on all of the videos. Now I will have to wait a week for a new episode lol. Binged most of them

The overpowered end game of the wizard was always the reason I thought they were the most interesting class. It was the potential for greatness even though the early game was torturous at times.

And a Happy thanksgiving to all of you at Web DM too, figured we might be skipping a week, not complaining that you didn't :D. Thanks for the long hours recording and all the time editing to Travis, Jim and Pruitt.

I'm really enjoying this series. The only thing I wish you would have talked about here is is the Theurgist sub-class from Unearthed Arcana. Maybe eventually you could do a whole video on Unearthed Arcana material, especially now that it seems that they are planning to go class by class and put out several new sub-class for each a month for a while. Love the channel, keep up the good work!

Planning to run against the mainstream and play a 14 Int 14 Wis Wizard with the Sailor background. These videos are very helpful!

Would love to see that illusion episode you suggested here. Having a hard time DMing them

I found the bit on Animate Dead house rules for necromancers interesting, since I'm playing a necromancer in a campaign now. Which I regretted later on when I realized the campaign was in a city with some rather strict laws about necromancy. There corpses could only be used once... but to make up for it, the DM let me reanimate non-humanoids (except for fiends, fey, celestials, other undead, and things that were incorporeal). So once we hit level 6 I immediately obtained a quartet of undead giant frogs. And later, a couple of "flail slugs" (flail snails after we removed their shell). That was fun... even though there were several missions where I just couldn't bring them along because it wouldn't make us viewed very well by civilians. ...Of course, eventually we hit a point in the campaign where we were traversing the dream world, so then it was back to humanoids for me and no civilians to worry about. Finally we're at the point where I'm really beginning to see how powerful this subclass can be. When you have a bunch of minions that can all take the standard combat actions... heck I remember one fight, our bard cast Dissonant Whispers on a guard surrounded by zombies, and the guard ran away and got killed by opportunity attacks.

You've never hated something more than something you once loved. 5e taught me what a non abusive relationship with a tabletop system could be like. 3.5 hurt me, it cut me deep. Disgustingly powerful spellcasters ruined never seemed like a problem at the time, but now I've seen the light, and I will NEVER GO BACK.

Great video guys! Really loving the attention to detail on your uses for the different classes. I was wondering... do you folks plan on doing a video of your various House Rules for D&D 5E? I personally would love to see that! :D

WE NEED ANOTHER CAMPAIGN ON THIS CHANNEL

There is nothing in the world that makes more of a love/hate relationship with DMs than a wizard with a sense of humour and some creativity.

Great video, I'm a lover of the Wizard class as well. You mention the Animate Dead spell is strictly a once only spell until you chose to modify it at your table, but I wanted to draw your attention to the fact that it stated you can cast this spell again before the 24 hour duration to maintain control of the target. Otherwise it is set off as a free-willed undead. I figured I'd let you know in case you play or run for a necromancer in the future. Love your channel!

I modeled the Wizard Class in my homebrew HEAVILY after Gandalf & Radagast in the movies. They will never master very high-level spells but will have a much more diverse selection to draw from, can fork & multi-cast spells, be somewhat better in melee combat, have a potential small army of animal resources, plus be the ONLY Class that can counter spells...

Man going back to this. You guys really should do the Illision show

with me, I find the good compromise is to have the wizard use non-combat spells in interesting combat-related ways. he was going to do some landscaping so he uses move earth to get himself high ground or out of reach while he blasts with his wand or ring he was carrying because he didn't have offense prepared today. or he has traps set up and uses mage hand to activate, failsafes he can activate with cantrips because he doesn't plan. make him have minions, golems, elementals to attack while he just flees. it adds that strategic element you mentioned. finding his defenses and preparing, or learning that day when he's doing his plan, so all his spells are going to have to be devoted to that ritual. though I'll always say any caster worth thier salt that has a teleportation spell available always keeps one prepared. just one, just in case.

about to go to sleep and just checked my sub box cause i wasn't sure great way to end the day thanks guys

This series is a double edge sword for me. On one hand I love the in depth analysis but then I sit here confused on what I should play with next. The idea of a high level divination wizard that stays close by to their scrying crystal at home base sounds really appealing to me. If some extra crowd control or firepower is needed I can teleport in do what I have to do then retreat back to base so I can finish reading my smut novel lol. Also I would love a separate video talking about illusionist and how to run them in a game.

Special mention should go to levitate, only one save when spell is cast, if they fail then they're floating 20ft in the air for the duration of the combat. Works really well against a tanky bad guy as you can just pepper him with ranged attacks.

The new wizard from unearthed Arcana seems both CRAZY and really fun. With a high level Lore Master you can make a fantastic villain of chaos or an ally that always knows how to exploit weaknesses. Imagine if you will a Tidal Wave made out of sound (thunder damage) that targets charisma or intelligence. Now imagine it a mile away from the caster. A big bad wizard just wrecked shop on an entire town with a very strange method that provides mystery and intrigue.

I had never heard of GNS before watching this video, but I looked it up just now. It's a really interesting theory and I think a video about it could be really enlightening.

Finally! my favorite class :)

Just considering spells like Hold Person and the fact that they paralyze... Paralysis gives advantage to hit, and if you hit and you're within 5 feet it's an auto critical. Pair that with Half-orc characters, or with rogues, or a fighter that's getting multiple attacks in... Even at low levels it seems very worthwhile, with the added bonus that it could persist over multiple turns. The caveat is that you do need a strong frontline to get the most benefit out of the spell.

I needed to comment something very off topic. First video of the channel, but this was amazing. Antonius Stark, the Iron Maiden. I see what you did there.

That last point was actually really good

About to start a campaign as a Divination Wizard. She's never going to have the punch of a Sorcerer, but like the sheer level of options is gonna be fantastic. I'm really looking forward to Fabricate later on. Plus, my DM is allowing Portent + Lucky feat later, which looks really solid.

I just found you guys and my take on the "Simulation" view is this, The whole game is a simulation. It's a ROLE playing game.

Hey I love your videos, I know you've made videos on tyranny of dragons and oota, but you could please make a formal ranking of the current adventures for 5e? Thanks!

Dwarven Abjurer! I play one in Pathfinder and would love to port them to 5e

I LOVE this channel. recently started playing. I'm not even the DM and the knowledge/advice I've gained from here has improved our play 10 fold.

In reference to the tail end of the video in which you guys go into how a wizard wouldn't have a full combat list ready. I'd contend that a powerful wizard would be aware of the party and be forewarned by agents, his spells, and other means of the party's impending arrival. He would then if it is to be a boss fight would call his best servants and prepare his strongest spells for the coming battle. Also I'd just say that the baddy is just so good he can have both as far as the players know, when has evil ever played by the rules when it doesn't benefit them. ;)

I've made a few random generators for D&D using a program called Twine, and that alternating wizard spell list you mention has some great potential! I might have to make that my next twine build ^.^ y'all are great inspiration

Transmuters got skipped.

a really twisted direction to take the necromancers "reuse" concept is to have him/her use a loved one multiple times, always as a final defense. Just imagine the face of the player when he realizes the necromancer is still around, he WILL be wanting to find this guy, he has his loved one in unholy torturous slavery.

YES! do a show only about illusions, that would be great! It's one of the most flexible schools of magic, allowing for many intresting twists. (I get you're gonna work through all the PC classes first, but afterwards (or maybe even as a bonus vid? huh? ;) you should really do it)

A thousand times yes on the Illusions show.

One problem with any necromancer is that if they are limited to one use per body, they are going to need find new bodies which can be problematic. That said, there are multiple ways to get around that. One time, I had a wagon covered with hidden compartments that I stuffed with bodies and incense. Other ways to get a similar effect, would be to put bodies in a portable hole, or something of the like.

I play a necromancer wizard in my campaign that I play with my family, and my dad (who is our dm) put us against a bunch of lizardfolk, 6 normal lizardfolk, 1 queen and a shaman. He looked at us and was like "this fight is going to be really hard, so if anything happens then I don't want any complaining" (which is a nod to my brother as he complained when his first character died) and I looked back at him as I went first in the initiative roll and said "I cast fireball" and I killed every last lizard on the field. He gave up and walked out.

I have been looking forward to this video coming up. Next Thursday I am going to start playing my Necromancer.

I quite like the Harry Potter idea. My son and I have been thinking on that recently (how Voldemort is a lich and whatnot). I do wonder if it's feasible to make brooms of flying quite as common as they've got.

Paldin 8/Wizard 12 Abjuration/Oath of Crown. Extra smite, better dispelling, five feats, pure tanking ability. Your ward plus the oath of crown tanking ability could work wonderfully. Go 20 con with a hill dwarf and durable.

im new in d&d and if i could play a story with you guys, i would be so happy

Yes do the illusions show!

I personally think that If you want to dip into a class for armor when you are a spell caster just dip into cleric. You'll get a couple of useful spells and abilities. Spare the dying cantrip is also nice. And you'll get that heavy armor proficiency

Would love to hear about Barbarians. Not really playing them, but balancing as a DM against the ever present bear totem Barbarian. Cheers

Made my first wizard abjurer, only 2nd level so far. Human, urchin background. Made moreso for the backstory rather than power gaming. It has some cool utility. I'm not so much a glass cannon, but at later levels I will be able to be great for anti wizards and protecting npcs with my ward. So far a lot of fun

Love your guys' stuff. Great vids guys. I know this is NOT your area of expertise perse, BUT I play Neverwinter Nights 2 (using close to 3.5 ed rules) and I was wondering what Jim (I think that's his name) thought about my Favored Sorcerer concept. He is a Charisms-based multi caster that works towards the following: Divine spells AND Arcane spells; Arcane Scholar maxed to get all the METAMAGIC feats I would want (would shoot for Extend/Improved Empowered-Maximize-Quicken/POSSIBLY Silence OR Still OR Persist for obvious reasons). He would ONLY be able to barely cast level 9 arcane spells, level 6 divine spells, and my DC would be pissall BUT, since I have to build for the spells I would have to "know", I would focus on several NO SAVE spells, bonus if I can squeeze in No Spell Resistance spells. The goal in spell choices would be: to increase my AC, attack bonus, and saving throws to high levels (NOT MAX, as that is unrealistic to cast all those before a fight); spells that heal (not necessarily only Cure spells but enough to help the Cleric out, so remove disease/neutralize poison/restoration/etc); and, to have various damage types (some fire, ice, physical, magic, divine, negative/positive, etc) that could spread across MANY levels because of the Metamagic bumps (plan on ANY spell level and down for the arcane side to be able to be cast at normal level, +1, +2 or +3 level as well). As the spells I would most likely need for damage would require a TOUCH attack check, I would go DEX as my second highest attribute, and go for gear that increases Charisma, Dexterity, and Wisdom for obvious reasons. Thoughts? Suggestions that keep me in this theme? I thought of a Favored Bard or a Bard/Sorcerer, but bards in NWN2 get so much better if you take them to level 21 and then I would miss out on a ton of metamagic stuff. Just so you know that levels, it would be a Favored Soul 12/Sorcerer 8/ASoCK 10 for a final level 30 toon (leveled up any way that makes sense really).

Don't do it, Garfielf. That's our pet dog Odie.

Wizards do it by the book.

Best of both worlds. High level evil wizard guarded by lower level battle mage whose job it is to always be prepared to fight. Then make a unique dynamic evil wizard who is less than fully prepared

im making a campaign were necromancy works weirdly, all raised undead become sentient so if you rise an enemy you are just revving as an undead, but in turn party members can be resurrected as undead

@1:22~~Are you not, or are you, describing Player advancement? I always thought that that's what the Wizard was for. Once you played up to that point, it then became your turn to run a session and let the DM come in while your character was off doing something lonely-ish and the DM got to not have to be burdened with always playing down to your party and he had an opportunity to shine, without being able to fudge behind the screen. Like in D&D you couldn't become a Bard or a Druid just by being a class. But when you finally got there, you'd had so many other ways you'd wanted to take the group but the epic plot of D Master, only let you write them down and incorporate them into your own adventure and then the DM could take a break and SHINE playing his favorite class in your short campaign. You have achieved Bardhood, now while your character can go to the Battle of the Bands, you player will guide us through the Battle of the Bands session, and your Bard gets to be the hero of the group when needed. Or you have achieved Druid, kinda, while your character takes off for mortal combat, you player lead us through what you have been jotting down and putting together and we'll bring some girls to play in your forest of Pan. Thieves started a guild...Fighters got a Castle and a dungeon to clear. Clerics got a Shrine they had to build into a Temple, and surround the Temple with the people who look to the Castle for protection, the Thief became the Mayor, and the Paladin became the Circuit Justice...and everything would calm down when the Paladin showed up for his stay. People that didn't want to advance any further would get a henchman to take over, because sometimes 12th level is some mighty monsters.

I looked over Abjuration magic, but it seems some of the most helpful spells that were abjurations were cleric spells. Maybe I am reading this edition wrong, but it seems that they would have issues in game. Just to be clear, I don't allow multiclassing for my campaigns but dual classing is okay as long as it's a one time permanent decision. I am not looking to make a abj/fighter either (campaign rules about armor and magic once again for balance). Is there a sourcebook that could show a good way to make one? Or should I make a custom class?

Do you have the cosmic Druid circle posted anywhere? I’d love to look into playing it.

Regarding abjurers, I think that past tenth level they are the most obnoxious things to fight against, but can be a blast to play. I like to think of them as the "no fun wizard" ever since a one shot I ran where the party abjurer ruined the powerful wizard that was the villain. Every time he shot out a powerful spell it would get countered and every ward was dispelled. I do think, however, that if you plan properly they can be avoided. And as a complete dickhead I love to see a person writhe under the weight of my counterspells.

My biggest problem with the wizard, is how the spell book works. you have to get lucky enough to find them in the world if your M even puts them there. All the other casters who prepare spells just have access to all of the as soon as they reach the level required to cast a new spell level.

you never got around to that video about illusions did you? I'd like to see that

Would you guys post your diviner druid rules? i'm very interested in the idea

Alternate between pressing the 2 and 3 keys really fast and Pruitt says "iPhone". This is what I do in between Web DM episodes.

For the Animate dead you can make it to where they degrade per-raise. By this I mean if it starts as a zombie then next time it could be a Skeleton, etc.

Hey guys! I've really been enjoying your videos. I'd love to hear your take on the recent(ish) Unearthed Arcana "rework" of rangers.

An idea for a wizard centric game could be recreating the Holy Grail War (fate/stay night series) where everyone makes a caster type character to serve as them then roll to chose classes and create a second character for that class to serve as the servant and talk with the DM to make the noble phantasms. So, it becomes a free-for-all battle involving a lot of secrets.

"Once you get to 12 to 15th level" For 5E, never even got past level 4. Played one Pathfinder campaign and one 4e where we got to 8th level, but we started at level 6 in those campaigns.

I played 5th edition for about 1 year now and none of my players played with a wizard.

Ah, yes. My favorite class that unfortunately I haven't seen in play in 5e. Thank you once again gentlemen.

So as a bard I dipped into wizard for 2 levels can I now use rituals from the higher level lists?

Pruitt, how did you end up putting Aristades together? The no-damage Diviner sounds amazing to me.

I have yet to see a Diviner Wizard at any table yet, and I find that remarkable. The 5E Diviner has that "Deadlands/Seventh Son" ability to really mess with dice. Make a Halfling Diviner with the Lucky feat and you have someone who will forever double-check the d20 mechanic. You would have your pre-rolled Diviner dice, your Lucky racial mechanic and three uses of the Luck feature in the Lucky feat. I'd make mine a "King Willy"-esque Voodoo priest, top hat and all, and have him calmly step aside from attacks with "I saw that comin'..." EDIT: I have yet to see an Illusionist run properly. The reason being that the class demands a huge amount of creativity. If you can't come up with good ideas, then you'll struggle with how things will look. We've had one at our table who only wanted to distract with illusions, but couldn't come up with reasonable threats that could distract. That then generated arguments where he felt his creations should work when the DM...as well as the rest of the party...saw them as a ten to fifteen minute arguments to try and prove why a sock puppet is a greater threat than the barbarian burying his axe in your chest. Illusionists need to be able to create plausible illusions at lower level before they get to the point where they start warping reality. Or if you're going to create something silly, make it something that at least gives the target the inability to see or focus - like a sack over it's head or a wall of fire in front of it. Save the "huge dragon from out of nowhere" creations for when that sort of thing could be reasonable. I haven't see a Transmuter used well either, oddly. A Transmuter could make locked doors or swimming foes' lives difficult. Transmuting an iron lock to wood makes it easy to smash, or making a locking metal pin that's holding up a massive chain into wood then makes the pin break and the chain falls. Conversely, carving a wooden stake and then turning it to silver gives a friend a weapon against a Lycanthrope. If an opponent is clinging to a wooden plank for flotation and you turn it to copper...that bad boy is going to sink like a stone. So long as you stick to the size constraint of this ability, and keep that materials list true to the description, you have a lot of utility. The best our Transmuter could muster was the try and turn iron items to silver and then sell it for a profit...until that hour ran out and we had to leave town. Both examples, strangely, were Gnome Wizards. The non-creative Illusionist and the shyster Transmuter. Neither lasted long.

I was just curious (you mentioned at 17:35) how you have 7 simulacrums? Doesn't it specify in the spell that the second time you cast it, your first one breaks down?

I'm just starting a gnome wizard and his thing is he wants to make automatons. It sounds similar to the transmuter you described. Is there anything about transmuters that make them especially good at that, or was it just that character?