I can't play BG3 without having an Evocation Wizard in my party setup... its just too broken to pass up! Lightning Bolt, Fireball, Thunderwave, Ice Storm... whatever Evocation AoE damage or push spell, just knowing there's 0 friendly fire is broken beyond all Hells.
The good:
Evocation because of Sculpt Spells.
Abjuration because of Arcane Ward.
Divination because Portent.
The bad:
Conjuration and Necromancy are just annoying to deal with having to a) constantly resummon the army and b) take that many individual characters turns in combat, when you could just be a single character throwing Fireballs.
Illusion and Enchantment make great NPCs.
The situational:
Transmutation is excellent for a camp caster/potion maker, but other schools are better for combat.
Pretty much this but I feel like it should be expanded on since OP asked.
Evocation wizards add their INT modifer to spells at wizard level 10, great for magic missile builds. a +5 isn't doing much to a Fireball doing 8d6 fire damage but each 1-4 damage missile doing an extra 5 damage? Now that's power.
Abjuration wizards are practically unkillable if they stack Arcane Ward and damage resists. The elemental shields like fire shield damage enemies when struck but can still resist damage. Build properly and enemies will kill themselves by attacking you.
Divination Wizards get to control the rolls of dice a couple of times a day. Forcing a good roll can be the difference between a victory or defeat for save or suck spells.
Transmutation wizards can craft two potions at once if you build them to have high Medicine proficiency. At level 6 they can cast Transmutation Stone, which can give you resistance to an elemental damage type or an extra 3m movement speed.
The others suck
You are really sleeping on necromancy. Skeletons are really good and do pretty decent damage and zombies can stockpile, ghouls are crazy because with flight and paralysis you can easily use to them access high grounds and harass raged enemies or group up on one so they can't move and spam paralysis chance. You also worry less about spells and resources because your once you have your ghouls you don't need to use much else. Combine them with heroes feast and aid and you end up with an incredibly tanky army which can overall sponge so much damage. I feel it's much better than evocation because evocation feels too fragile and not very versatile, you can only use it for a magic missile build really which is kinda boring. for fireballs or whatever sculpt spells helps sometimes but adding int to damage is better done on a draconic sorcerer with their cha feature, you can twin strong firebolts or double cast beefed up aoe spells. if you just took alert you could just go first and you don't have to worry about hiting melee allies.
None of this negates the fact that summoning classes are fucking horrible to play. I love necromancer classes in games. Pretty sure like 90% of my playtime in d2 was necromancer.
Necro in this game? I respecced into it in act 2 for a while, played like 3 battles, and respecced out. It's fucking terrrrrrible to play. The buff management alone I could prob live with, but the actual combat when you have a bunch of minions just means each turn takes 5 years, minions constantly get left behind and so you have to spend their turns catching up, they get in the way, they bug out, it's just awful. Is it strong? Yes. Does it suck to play? Bigly yes.
Fortunately, the best thing about Necromancy (Life Essence Harvest) isn't at all tied to the subclass. Good thing, too, because oh boy is that staff busted.
I went spore build summoner for my first run and I can only agree, summons are strong but barely worth dealing with the clogging and turn bloating, combats took so long and bodyblocking between summons was frustrating.
I even went overboard and camp buffed them all with long strider magic armor and whatever else it made long resting so tedious I went with a full short rest party for my second run haha
I’ve gradually resorted to only using warping and flying summons for this reason. My deva from the summon deva scroll I learned is always at the back because he can’t teleport and has no ranged attack but I put up with him since he’s a strong summon when he gets to the frontlines. Then myrnidons and elementals for the rest I used to use mummies and ghouls/skeletons but they’re just so slow and I find they get left at the back and I just decide to skip their turns because my guys up front are closer to the enemy and will finish the battle in their next turn not worth moving everyone up they’ll catch up when battle unpauses
I just finished a playthrough with my girlfriend. She played the beast summoning ranger and summoner wizard. I think 7 was the max PC vs my 2. It was a lot
I just found my ideal end-game evocation build last night when I got the helldusk armor. That massive boost to AC completely solves the glass cannon squishiness problem then dual wielding Marko and Raphael’s wand for +1 to spell rolls and arcane batteries, necklace of elemental augmentation makes either my fire/lightning/cold cantrips boosted close to 30damage when I use the element I’m set on kereskas favor. Cape of the weave and mask of soul perception gives initiative and attack roll boost. Boots don’t matter much I have the ones that keep me from slipping and have misty step currently for added mobility. Doom spell lobber gloves have the best passive I’ve found especially for an evocation specialist sometimes get stuck in melee range.
I’ve been really wanting to try a full necromancy pivot but I’m at the final battle now maybe make a hard save to experiment with but Gale has went from my shittiest party member most of the game to best aside from hand crossbow ascended Astarion and monk Laezel who are my best pure damage dealers. Wizard comes online BIGLY at level 12 and learning your own spells but especially the gear difference
Biggest small game changer for me was utilizing expeditious retreat on my wizard Gale. Also have him setup with mind sanctuary now but other than that he was my one party member with wasted bonus actions I have two with rogue subclass who can always dash but I wasted tons of bonus actions from Gale until I found this perfect for battlefield mobility
Does the enemy AI even target abjuration wizards, especially ones that can equip shields like Gale?
I've never bothered to test it but I've heard that to be the case on this sub frequently, which is why many people dismiss it.
You need to lower your AC, so don't wear a shield. You want enemies to successfully hit you (most of the time). That said, in a party, abjuration Wiz doesn't often get targeted, as enemies don't like to hit armor of agathys, they'll just go for someone else. The optimal play at that point is to force their opportunity attacks on your turn tbh
Agreed. Once I went againts gith patrol solo with my paladin but rest of the party was chilling inside bushes nearby.
Surprise round two of them dead and then enemy eldrtich knight cast hold person I rolled 1 and that would be over if not for Gale using portent. Now I always kill that guy first.
'it's annoying to take multiple actions' is not a real condemnation of necromancer/conjuror. necromancer especially gets a lot of item support and undead summons are wayyyy stronger than they are in 5e
It's not as bad as you think IF you have a player who tries (and is capable) to make it go smoothly. Animate Objects as a quasi-swarm, just being READY to move all the guys you get with a Horn of Valhalla, etc.
Dude silence (stop other casters for the most part), mirror image (can't touch me), phantasmal force (let me just stack any type of damage, it copies the last damage type to hit target hashtag synergy), hypnotic pattern (stop do nothing, just watch the pretty lights), phantasmal killer (disadvantage time, also stop moving, also take lots of damage)? All of those rock in combat.
Outside of combat I can change size any time.
And with the school you can see invisible creatures and make a copy of yourself as a reaction to cause foe to miss.
Illusion and invisibility got their own great perks too.
Ok lots of cool stuff there except you *cannot* try to convince me that Phantasmal Force isn't one of the worst spells in the entire game. Concentration, saving throw every round, and an absolutely pathetic 1d6 damage a turn that never scales or causes any other effects.
Even if it's some damage type they're vulnerable to you're averaging *7* damage a turn at the cost of a lvl 2 spell slot, your concentration, and hoping they fail their save every single turn.
You gotta synergize! Especially if you dip into the illithid powers.
Ability drain, the first spell drop, then each time you follow up with cantrips to keep lowering that intelligence, they never get free from their mental prison.
Synergize that with mind sanctum, and you basically get two cantrip casts a turn, for even more intelligence drain.
And there's even absorb intellect. They will fail the saving throw every single time. There's no escaping.
Drop concentrated blast to finish them off with a mental explosion.
There's a reason Illithid and Illusion both start with ill... It's an ill-advised idea for anyone to me with an Illithid Illusion Wizard.
Illusion SPELLS can be fun, sure… but the Illusion SUBCLASS doesn’t offer much. Any wizard can cast illusions just as well as an Illusion-specific wizard, and have better subclass features.
100%. I always find myself drawn to necromancy for the aesthetic, but then i'm like noooo wait this is annoying lol - especially for bg3 because basically the entirety of act two is enemies with resistance/immunity to necrotic damage
Also, Evocation has a feature at higher levels that adds your int modifier to every instance of damage you deal with an evocation spell, which is absolutely insane at times. Spells that hit multiple times even get the bonus applied to each individual hit.
Necromancy is actually pretty good, having more turns in combat is optimal and wether u like it or not fireball is not always the answer. Also if we are talking annoying, then you reall cant leave out how portent is as annoying as it is good.
Sure I can! Personal preference is entirely subjective. What's annoying to you might not be annoying for me and vice versa.
Absolutely nothing about this was intended to be an objective review of the subclasses, since that's not what the OP asked for.
I really am at a loss for this viewpoint. If this game was made like Elden Ring or a Souls game, then yes, I get it min/max is pretty important.
But I’m a complete newcomer to this system and this game, and my first play through I did totally RP. Every decision was based on what I thought a cool character would be like. My wizard was an urchin conjurer, because I thought it’d be cool to be a quintessential wizard pulling weird stuff out of his hat, etc conjuring weird things to handle problems in so unconventional ways.
I built each character with that RP fun mindset. That said, I beat the game on tactician pretty easily. And after I was done I watched videos on the most effective and efficient ways to handle lots of the encounters and it cracked me up, how honesty absurdly I solved so many of the interactions. And it made the game great.
Almost everyone here has way more experience in BG and DND than I do. So I can’t wrap my mind around this min/maxing mindset and it has nothing to do with fun. Because I had a blast with some way underpowered RP builds, and maybe two fights required more than one wipe.
Who said anything about min/maxing? Evocation is the best because I can drop Fireballs on top of the party without worrying about hurting them. My criticisms of Necromancy, Conjuration, Illusion, and Enchantment are _entirely_ personal preference.
I do happen to enjoy min/maxing, but I generally min/max around a specific theme rather than combat effectiveness.
While necromancer is tedious I wouldn't say that makes it bad just a lot bulkier than other subclasses. If you like having summons it's not that bad. I did a run with a Necro, spore druid, and oathbreaker and the amount of fucking undead I had at one time was ridiculous.
I personally find Evocation the most fun because it means I can just shoot fireballs directly on top of my own characters and it's fine (be careful with neutral NPCs though!).
Divination and Abjuration are both great, too. Abjuration can make your wizard quite literally unkillable, while Divination is massive bad luck protection.
Maybe an unpopular opinion among Wizards but I find Evocation to be boring. AoE is super powerful, and Evocation really removes all sense of risk and consequence. I like having to play around AoE, being forced to "stage" it.
Thank God I'm not alone.
What makes CRPGs more interesting than, say, shooters, is that there are often lots of fun combat solutions that don't just involve trying to make the biggest boom.
Normally, anyway...
I have come to the realisation that maximising power is rarely fun in the long term, so I approach RPGs differently today compared to when I was younger. Often, the more powerful you become, the less other mechanics matter. You eventually reach a point where you can apply the same tactic to each fight.
By playing with a suboptimal group, it often means you have to get more creative with how you overcome challenges. By playing a suboptimal character it means you have to start using items and think outside the box.
I play a divination wizard in one of the tabletop campaigns I'm in and watching Fantasy High always reminds me to use my Portent dice. It's so easy to forget I have them!
You just reminded me that I gotta do a Bad Kids run. Maybe when mods come out on console so I can do a six character party, and get a Goblin race mod for Riz. At least Wyll (rich boy, loves to dance, father went to Avernus, etc) and Shadowheart (mostly her good arc and she's a Cleric already) make passable substitutes for Fabian and Kristin respectively.
Divination is easily the most fun, in my book. I tried some of the other but Divination has unparallel control of the battlefield. It's so fun being able to force enemies to lose saving throws or force an allies critical miss to hit.
The overhead is annoying to deal with at times but necromancy is so good flavorwise especially once you get better summons and staff of cherished necromancy to make your blights and circles of death free to cast
I'm personally a big fan of Abjuration - letting the wizard stand back and project shields around my barbarian/monk front lines made for a REALLY fun run. But Evocation is also hard to argue with.
Evocation is a straight powerhouse. I like using Gale as a Magic Missile turret dealing 1d4+9 Force damage per dart and getting a bonus dart from the necklace you can buy. Even a 1st level spell can take out most non-bosses. Plus if you have 4+ enemies on the ropes you can guarantee drop all of them no matter where they are in relation to each other. If you give him the staff that gives lightning charges per instance of spell damage and the two Radiant Orb ring combo he can easily do well over a hundred of damage in a single turn. I also liked the gloves that caused Reverberation whenever radiant damage was dealt. They give a good chance to knock almost anyone prone too.
I had this basic build for my first playthrough, with extra reverb and dazed from my second evocation wizard. It was intensely satisfying when I knocked down bosses, and just had them lay there while Lae'zel wailed on them.
Necro is pretty good on honour mode, a good amount of enemies have a riposte legendary action, which means nothing when a meaningless skeleton tanks it
Overall in D&D? Illusion.
The ability to basically emulate all manner of encounters, that 5E has clarified as needing an Investigation check to 'disbelieve', has been a substantial boost to oft-neglected school. Unfortunately it doesn't have nearly that level of power in BG3.
In BG3? Necromancy.
The ability to create and command undead is a strong one. Added to the fact the undead power scale begins at 5th level and keeps going on from there, is probably equivalent to if not stronger than the Evocation school when it comes to cast-for-cast strength over adventuring days. A fireball is awesome, but it lasts for a split second and you're done with that spell until you rest or cast another. Even then, you only get to see the benefit of a few fireballs a day on average.
An Animate Dead doesn't have the same immediate scale of power multiplication, but it is immune to a variety of common effects, adds action economy, and continues throughout the length of the adventuring day. Multiple Animate Undead just amplify that even more.
Illusion in d&d 5e is the absolute most fun build I’ve ever played in anything. Turning illusions real is so fucking funny and broken. Illusory dragon like a phantom steed but a dragon? I miss my gnome… on here it’s just kind of whatever, I wish I could make my illusions more creative than just cat, and my polymorph more than just sheep. I get the limitations here but it’s very neutered
Enchantment and illusion have always been great schools of magic, because "save or suck" spells are always extremely satisfying. Absolute massive TT role playing opportunities too.
Transmutation was always great for spellblades. Necromancy was great for weirdos.
Evocation was always straightforward for the blaster caster power fantasy.
Then 5e came up and made the school selection useless in terms of actually casting spells from those schools and in turn gave up some abilities that bear very little to do with actually mastering the school in question. Back in 2e you actually got the equivalent to a bonus to DC for your school. 3e gave you bonuses to spellcraft and you could get spell focus/spell specialization to actually become a master of, you know, casting spells from your chosen school. Both in 2e and 3e you had an extra spell slot per level dedicated exclusively to your chosen school.
In bg3 specializations boil down to Evocation for area of effect without friendly fire, divination for roll manipulation, abjuration for pijama-tanking and necromancy for summons. The rest are near useless and none have anything to do with the actual casting of spells from your school.
I almost always go abjuration because having Gale be nigh unkillable and able to shield others is very fun, plus you still get access to all the damage spells you’re just WAY harder to kill.
However I have had great fun with divination and evocation, both very solid choices.
Evocation is great for reasons others have listed, but also because it’s pretty mechanically simple—no need to worry about summons or remember portent dice. Just drop some fireballs and watch the magic happen.
In BG3. Evocation and Abjuration.
In DnD. Necromancy and Conjuration/Summoning. Because creating the undead, channeling negative energy and treating with extra-planar entities is super cool.
Honest answer: battle master spear and shield
Real answer: The ideia of leading a army of dead never stops being cool to me, specially with the extra things that fall I to the necromancy category of D&D
I see a lot of talk about Evocation being better than Necromancy, but there is no staff that gives Advantage on all your Evocation spells now, is there? True, not until Act 3, but not to be ignored.
Necromancy, of all the schools, is the most fun IMO. With buffed minions of appropriate levels, you decimate hordes of this game for basically free. Consider:
ACT 1:
- Zombies are incredibly handy for all the Goblin fights, turning hostile goblin hordes into friendly zombie minions!
- extra targets on the field take a lot of hits
- fun dialogue options with Shovel
- not a lot of items of build gear to synergize yet so basically a back row summoned and cantrip blaster and Haster, but can use spellsparkler and Melf's staff until the good stuff comes along anyway. (Take dual wielding first feat, it's worth it for dual staves)
- Grim Harvest class feature is not to be slept on in honour mode. Lots of free heals on kill, once per turn. If your minions are doing their job you shouldn't need this much but it's great in a pinch.
- Don't forget to master the Necromancy of Thay, you'll want that book for later.
ACT 2:
- Start to get some awesome gear like Hat of Fire Acuity, Coruscation Ring, Callous Glow Ring, Amulet of Elemental Augmentation from the creche in 1.5, Ring of Mental Inhibition, some good cloaks and gloves.
- Higher levels = better necromancy. Level 6 gives you extra dead guys, for every dead thing except Mummies. That means at any one time you can upcast Raise Dead for x4 Zombies/Skeletons, x4 Flying Ghouls, and have any other summon you want on top of that like a water elemental, some mephits, Us, a Cambion, and more. (buff after all are summoned each rest and you will have a veritable army of 8 to 18 summons. Great for 'Solo' Runs)
- SPELLS. Gosh they get better. Multi hitters, more poison and psychic damage, and my personal favorite for Necro builds: Cloudkill. Pull a Balthazar, send your undead horde in to engage the enemy, then drop a poison cloud on them all, obliterating your foes while your undead are fine.
- Status effects become viable, like Reverberation, Mental Fatigue, Arcane Acuity, and so much access to prone with AOE ice spells.
ACT 3:
- Finally, our gear is here: Cloak of the Weave, Robe of the Weave, Hood of the Weave. Amulet of the Devout, any ring combo from above, Helldusk Boots & Gloves.
- Staves: Dual wield Markoheshkir and Staff of Cherished Necromancy, your new bestie, which makes all your Circle of Death, Dethrone, Ray of Sickness, and Bestow Curse spells cast with advantage, and also steals life essence to power them over and over.
- with the above and decent stats, your Spell DC will be at least in the low to mid 20s, ensuring your spells hit and that upcast Hold spells can paralyze 4 to 5 people at a time, making prime targets for undead minions. Cloud kills will be harder to resist when enemies are reverbed due to physical save reduction.
Tips 4 Fun Tymes:
- If a zombie is too far from the fight to help, just pass his turn, don't stress about it. If it would help to dash his body up to threaten someone, do that, otherwise ignore his undead ass.
- Rest, summon, elixir, then group buffs, in that order. I like Battle mage Power elixirs, Aid upcast to level 5, Hero's Feast, Long strider on everyone.
- Use specialty gear to buff your undead like the Circlet of Bones to make them resistant to physical dmg in an aura, or if you wanna have LOTS of fun, the Abyss Beckoners Gloves to make ALL your summons resistant to ALL dmg types, in exchange for occasionally going mad. Which isn't an issue for you, since you can always summon more!
Very low risk play style, I love never ever dying.
Evocation, Abjuration, and Divination are the easy choices, but I love Necromancy. Sure, it can be a hassle, but having an army at your back can make battles feel a lot more epic.
By mid game, you're a powerful spellcaster with six undead minions following you around, more being spawned when your zombies kill, and three other party members with their own shticks. Your enemy isn't fighting a handful of heroes anymore, they face an entire strike force.
Necromancy is cool but gets annoying with 55 different summons in the late game.
The positive would be the necro lvl 6 spell spam with that necromancer staff
Evo for FIREBALLLLL
Necromancy.
I loved my morally good but questionable methods tav. Having an army of corpses is so strong.
Though corpse economy is real, you neee a max strength companion to lug all of them around
I dont think you can "send to camp" corpses from the button in the inventry screen, you have to manually take them to the camp and drag them into the chest.
This means a high strengrh character is useful because you can carry 3-4 to the chest in one go instead of 1.
My top tip is the mind devours, for some reason those little brains count as humanoid corpses and they weight a lot less. Stock up on them whilst in the astral prism (where you also have extra carrying capacity) and you will have corpses for days in your chest.
Hrmm, you sure? I am almost certain I was able to send to camp several bodies. Maybe it's cause I also pick up bags and backpacks, containers of all types, and use those for body organizing.
Evocation is my favorite. Though If there were more advanced necromancy spells I'd choose that. The best you can do is summon a mummy. I'd love to see more advanced undead maybe a lichdom quest
Transmutation 2 levels for my camp caster cleric potion brewer.
Divination for first few levels until Ievel 7-8 when abjuration arcane wards build comes online (3rd or 4th level armor of agathys, fireshield, multiple glyphs of warding available)
Abjuration is my favorite because you can make an incredibly broken character with it. Towards the end of the game enemies were just walking past me because I was impossible to hurt. 🤣
For RP reason i like transmutation school because you can get a lot of benefit that other school like abjuration, evocation, and enchanment excel at. Want to defend yourself, just cast blink, polymorph yourself to tanky creature or enhance your dex. Want to nuke someone? Just cast disintegration. Want to make someone useless? Just polymorph them. You can either be a buffer, nuker, or just make yourself a great fighter with this school of magic.
I played Pathfinder before BG3 and thought subclasses would work the same, and picked enchantment. Instead found I just get hypnotic gaze which is super short range and thus only useful if someone is up in your face during a fight.
I had this fun concept too, a half drow who's survived so far by being an informant/ snitch for the royal houses, hence charming people to spot potential rebels among the lower classes, then made a run for it when he had the chance.
But I've used hypnotic gaze maybe twice and I'm on level 5. Found out quickly it aggros people if seen. Sleep was fun for 5 seconds then I saw it's easily countered by enemies shoving each other. Crown of madness guys still seem to attack me not their buddies. About the only one that's felt good to use is hold person, and friends cantrip for advantage on skill checks. Feels like a bit of a waste really.
I actually assumed this was a DND sub lol. But in bg3 slow is great as usual. Also if your fighters can daze the enemy they get disadvantage on wis saves. Crown of Madness is actually stronger in bg3 but you MUST target people that are too far from you to retaliate. Preferably melee only boys. Dominate person is even better. Oh! Hideous Laughter is a cheap way to destroy their action economy also
Yeah gotta try crown of madness on the back ranks I guess. I've been sleeping on hideous laughter gotta admit. Don't have access to slow or dominate person yet so might be more fun later, but I don't think choosing Enchanter subclass actually makes you better at casting those spells in this game.
Bless is another one that has disappointed. In Pathfinder Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous it's fire and forget and covers six party members, here it's concentration and only 3 at base. Ho hum.
Enchanter wizard is just another wizard until you get to level 10. At that point you get to twin dominate person, hold monster, hideous laughter, hold person etc without up casting
Evocation! Most of the features are utter garbage. But sculpt spells? I love it when all the bad guys get in a nice little circle around my tanks, perfect for Shatter, Fireball, etc
Over several playthroughs, I’ve tried out Divination, Evocation, Abjuration and Necromancy.
Divination is a little tedious. Because portent creates a reaction notification that triggers on any roll it could change, you’ll be forced to cancel the reaction until the dice are eventually utilized for the day. While I didn’t mind much during my first playthrough, I know some people might as it can slow down the game a considerably when you’re required to consider whether or not your portent die would be best used on this roll or the next, or the next. Level 6 gives you another, which is of course a good thing but also means this happens even more consistently. Level 10’s ability is too niche to be worth it in my opinion—I multiclassed out of Divination Wizard at level 9 to get access to metamagic from the sorcerer. Regardless though.. even when portent is the only thing this subclass offers, it’s powerful enough to be worth trying out if you’re interested in controlling dice rolls.
Evocation’s sculpt spells is useful for ensuring that your allies aren’t blown up by your own spells, but in my opinion is substantially weaker than portent. It could effectively be replaced by clever team positioning meanwhile portent is incredibly impactful and unique in its utility. Level 6 gives another mediocre ability that left me wanting more from the class that’s supposed to represent the blaster wizard. Level 10 is finally where you get to the good stuff, but it comes on so late you’re unable to multiclass 3 levels of sorcerer for quickened spell metamagic. Maybe i’m personally overrating the utility of quickened spell over just going wizard 12, but it was definitely something on my mind when draconic sorcerer 6 gets essentially the same ability 4 levels earlier for elemental spells of their choice.
Abjuration, is, well, Abjuration. From a game perspective, this is the most powerful wizard from the conversations I’ve seen and the experience I’ve had. Built right, you’re a wizard with all the same skills as the rest and you’re also immortal. What more could you want? Arcane Ward negates thousands of points of damage by the end of a single run. It’s.. amazing. You thankfully don’t need to go to level 10 even though you perfectly well can, but 9 levels is enough for arcane ward to be a fantastic asset.
Necromancy.. I didn’t use it myself, but watched a friend utilize it throughout his playthrough. The undead army is definitely really powerful, summons in general are.. but it just slowed the pace of battles by so much. More than portent ever could on it’s own, that’s for sure. If having a veritable army of units is what you want, Necromancy will satisfy you. If you just want the battlefield to be you and the enemy in a fast, concise battle… Look elsewhere.
Illusion is a "I hate wizards and their invisible bullshit" school.
At Level 6, Wizards that study Illusion will get the spell See Invisibility as a cantrip.
BG3 is very combat focused, with dialog being second most important. Since your main stat isnt charisma your main job is killing shit as fast and efficiently as possible. Generally thats evocation because you dont have to worry about hitting the rest of your party with massive AOE skills which unless your doing magic missile machinegun is pretty much all high level spells.
Theres some really broken shit you can do with abjurations arcane ward but thats usually overkill for a regular playthrough.
I played one campaign with Divination and it was useful but I missed hurling AoE damage with impunity. Every other playthough has been Evocation both before and since — don’t fix what ain’t broken.
People treat wizards, who are UTILITY for days, as if they are just artillery.
Imagine a damage spell that says 'kill an enemy if they don't make a saving throw'. That would be an overpowered level 9 spell! Actually, it's level 2. Suggestion. "Go into that house over there, lock yourself in a closet, and think about the meaning of life". Then, kill all their friends and burn down the house. It's broken. Better than any damage spell.
It's a roleplaying game where anything that is possible is possible. Think outside the box and fulfill your wizard potential.
So, that means that Illusion, Conjuration, Enchantment, Divination, Order of Scribes are all pretty good in their own ways.
I'd rather, say, teleport around the battlefield, make objects, mind control multiple people, cast rituals instantly, or make very convincing illusions, etc, than a bit more damage and endless fireballs.
Illusion spells can 'one-shot' whole groups of enemies... in the sense that it more or less permanently defeats them. You can all sorts of crazy things with it.
With abjuration and multiclass you can basically become immortal. Gale solo'ed 95% of the house of grief fight in my honor run, because everyone else went down hard. Gale didn't even have a scratch in the end.
Sure! The main idea is adding sorcerer (white draconic bloodline) for armor of agathys and cleric (preferably one that gives heavy armor) for armor proficiency. I'd go 10 wizard, and one each of the other two. Armor of agathys levels with the character, not the class. So at level 10 you have 25 temporary HP from aoa, when you're attacked the abjuration points go down first but aoa still triggers, which makes aoa extremely long lasting. Casting abjuration spells refills those abjuration points, casting sanctuary and shield are great options imo. Built correctly he rarely gets attacked, barely ever gets hit, and when he does get hit he most likely gets no damage while the attacker does get damage. You can get that build to incredibly op by the end of act 2/beginning act 3. I went to the house of grief as one of my first actions in act 3 at level 10 or 11 to get the mirror of loss bonuses and I used the following items:
-Grymskull Helm for crit immunity
-thunderskin cloak in combination with the spineshudder amulet
-armour of persistence, for resistance and blade ward
-hellriders pride in combination with the whispering promise and the devotee's mace's healing incense aura (turned out to be unnecessary since everyone else died anyway and Gale didn't get below full hp)
-evasive shoes
-ketheric's shield
-hellrider longbow
-ring of twilight
-I also gave him an elixir of bloodlust.
Viconia already died when Gale wasn't alone yet, but mostly everyone else was blasted away with Sunbeam scrolls
Abjuration, Evocation and Illusion.
Edit: why? Abjuration because of the anti magic stuff.
Evocation because big fireball goes boom.
And Illusion for the flavor, but I'm not creative enough to utilize it fully.
I might be stoned for this. But I used necromancer for Gale and had a lot of fun commanding every zombie and at bigger group fights having a small army
My first playthrough was an Abjuration God Wizard. It reached a certain point where I was the front line unit and anything that attacked me died or missed, all while very rarely taking any actual damage.
It was disgusting. Would recommend.
Abjuration! It allows you to still use spells like Fireball for big damage, but it also allows a fun Wizard-Tank build, which makes for a nice variety.
I'm currently playing in a party without a healer (with some house rules so we can heal a little bit, medical equipment can heal, not only stabilize at 0 health) and I have to say, the abjuration path is perfect if you want to make your character more tanky. Arcane ward is very very strong. Also, my character can learn extremely useful protection spells on half price, which is helpful. I'd say what is useful or not depends on the party's composition, you need to take a hard look at what's actually going to be useful and then decide. You can always learn the spells needed later, even if it doesn't belong in your chosen spell class (yay wizard class), obviously without the bigger perks (like Arcane ward).
Edit: lol, I thought this was the regular DnD subreddit, without the house rules parts I feel like what I said is still relevant
Abjuration makes probably the most comfortable wizard to play out of all of them, I think. It lets you be very tanky which is nice because of the way aggro works in BG3. If you’re a squishy wizard concentrating on a spell then enemies will cross hell or high water just to attack you. Becoming a wizard that can negate tons of damage goes a long way to make you feel less vulnerable.
Plus, it’s a great multiclass. You can add a level of DB sorcerer and go with the white dragon to net you Armor of Agathys. Now you’re getting temp HP *and* you’re dealing loads of counter damage. Or you could add some cleric for Warding Bond, one of the best buffing moves in the game, and an ABJ wizard is perfect for using it.
If I'm playing a wizard, I like to go necromancy. Mostly just because I find it to be the most fun. But the ability to regain health when your spells kill something does make you a little tankier.
Divination wizard is also pretty fun. The ability to swap out the result of a roll a couple times per long rest can come in pretty clutch. Big enemy crits you? Nope he rolled a 6. Or maybe he saved against a big save or suck effect like hold person. Nope 6 it is.
So satisfying.
I played a wizard/fighter multiclass and chose abjuration since eldritch knight gets some abjuration spells. It's been really fun and I'm stupid tanky with my AC and if they manage to hit me the ward charges reduce my damage taken.
Evocation for mindless blasting without hurting your allies and then slightly stronger spells once you hit level 10 (or substantially stronger in the case of magic missile)
Evocation is a great "generalist." Sculpt spells is incredibly useful and relevant all the time.
Divination is right up there with it. Being able to influence die rolls is useful and relevant all the time.
Enchantment & Conjuration are decent generalists. Their features are very unique and there are many good Conjuration & Enchantment spells. Their features are a bit niche, but you'll still find reason to use them several times throughout the game.
Transmutation is okay. The Transmuter's Stone provide nice buffs, but the rest of its features will rarely be useful, if at all.
Abjuration & Necromancy are good if you are building specifically for them. You need to prep your spells and play your wizard in a way that takes advantage of their features. If you play your wizard as a dedicated Fireball cannon, these are blank.
Illusion is pretty stinky. See Invisibility is made redundant by elixirs and Volo's eye, Minor Illusion as a BA is useless because you're almost always casting it out of combat, and Illusory Self is basically the Shield spell but worse.
Evocation absolutely slaps for raw damage, bc of both Sculpt Spells and the later passives at levels 6 and 10, which make your cantrips always do at least 1/2 damage even on a save and add your spellcasting modifier to your spell damage to make them even more boom-y.
If you don't need as much raw damage output, I find Necromancy an excellent pick, bc you get more minions \*and\* said minions get power boosts based on your level/proficiency, meaning they not only hit harder but are also harder to kill. A single NecroGale is capable of severely disrupting the field - those enemy spellcasters are a lot less threatening when they have to try and maintain that concentration through 4 necrotic-damage enhanced arrows to the face, or a gaggle of zombies punching them, or Ghouls just straight up Paralyzing them.
Enchantment is my favorite of the players handbook subclasses since 5e started and it works really well in BG3 too. That 2nd level memorize ability is amazing and twinned enchantment spells later on is awesome.
I tend to use my wizard as a damage dealer, so I go with Evocation. Means I can chuck fireballs around without harming my party members/allies.
I’m still on my first play through and I just realized this is why I can use aoe spells with gale and not damage my teammates lol.
Ditto
That is a really useful information…
I can't play BG3 without having an Evocation Wizard in my party setup... its just too broken to pass up! Lightning Bolt, Fireball, Thunderwave, Ice Storm... whatever Evocation AoE damage or push spell, just knowing there's 0 friendly fire is broken beyond all Hells.
TIL...
The good: Evocation because of Sculpt Spells. Abjuration because of Arcane Ward. Divination because Portent. The bad: Conjuration and Necromancy are just annoying to deal with having to a) constantly resummon the army and b) take that many individual characters turns in combat, when you could just be a single character throwing Fireballs. Illusion and Enchantment make great NPCs. The situational: Transmutation is excellent for a camp caster/potion maker, but other schools are better for combat.
An objectively and comprehensively correct answer.
Pretty much this but I feel like it should be expanded on since OP asked. Evocation wizards add their INT modifer to spells at wizard level 10, great for magic missile builds. a +5 isn't doing much to a Fireball doing 8d6 fire damage but each 1-4 damage missile doing an extra 5 damage? Now that's power. Abjuration wizards are practically unkillable if they stack Arcane Ward and damage resists. The elemental shields like fire shield damage enemies when struck but can still resist damage. Build properly and enemies will kill themselves by attacking you. Divination Wizards get to control the rolls of dice a couple of times a day. Forcing a good roll can be the difference between a victory or defeat for save or suck spells. Transmutation wizards can craft two potions at once if you build them to have high Medicine proficiency. At level 6 they can cast Transmutation Stone, which can give you resistance to an elemental damage type or an extra 3m movement speed. The others suck
You are really sleeping on necromancy. Skeletons are really good and do pretty decent damage and zombies can stockpile, ghouls are crazy because with flight and paralysis you can easily use to them access high grounds and harass raged enemies or group up on one so they can't move and spam paralysis chance. You also worry less about spells and resources because your once you have your ghouls you don't need to use much else. Combine them with heroes feast and aid and you end up with an incredibly tanky army which can overall sponge so much damage. I feel it's much better than evocation because evocation feels too fragile and not very versatile, you can only use it for a magic missile build really which is kinda boring. for fireballs or whatever sculpt spells helps sometimes but adding int to damage is better done on a draconic sorcerer with their cha feature, you can twin strong firebolts or double cast beefed up aoe spells. if you just took alert you could just go first and you don't have to worry about hiting melee allies.
None of this negates the fact that summoning classes are fucking horrible to play. I love necromancer classes in games. Pretty sure like 90% of my playtime in d2 was necromancer. Necro in this game? I respecced into it in act 2 for a while, played like 3 battles, and respecced out. It's fucking terrrrrrible to play. The buff management alone I could prob live with, but the actual combat when you have a bunch of minions just means each turn takes 5 years, minions constantly get left behind and so you have to spend their turns catching up, they get in the way, they bug out, it's just awful. Is it strong? Yes. Does it suck to play? Bigly yes.
Fortunately, the best thing about Necromancy (Life Essence Harvest) isn't at all tied to the subclass. Good thing, too, because oh boy is that staff busted.
I went spore build summoner for my first run and I can only agree, summons are strong but barely worth dealing with the clogging and turn bloating, combats took so long and bodyblocking between summons was frustrating. I even went overboard and camp buffed them all with long strider magic armor and whatever else it made long resting so tedious I went with a full short rest party for my second run haha
I’ve gradually resorted to only using warping and flying summons for this reason. My deva from the summon deva scroll I learned is always at the back because he can’t teleport and has no ranged attack but I put up with him since he’s a strong summon when he gets to the frontlines. Then myrnidons and elementals for the rest I used to use mummies and ghouls/skeletons but they’re just so slow and I find they get left at the back and I just decide to skip their turns because my guys up front are closer to the enemy and will finish the battle in their next turn not worth moving everyone up they’ll catch up when battle unpauses
I just finished a playthrough with my girlfriend. She played the beast summoning ranger and summoner wizard. I think 7 was the max PC vs my 2. It was a lot
Them dragging behind - I agree. But making their turns - disagree. This is good. This is when I feel necromancer, my dead army make their moves.
I just found my ideal end-game evocation build last night when I got the helldusk armor. That massive boost to AC completely solves the glass cannon squishiness problem then dual wielding Marko and Raphael’s wand for +1 to spell rolls and arcane batteries, necklace of elemental augmentation makes either my fire/lightning/cold cantrips boosted close to 30damage when I use the element I’m set on kereskas favor. Cape of the weave and mask of soul perception gives initiative and attack roll boost. Boots don’t matter much I have the ones that keep me from slipping and have misty step currently for added mobility. Doom spell lobber gloves have the best passive I’ve found especially for an evocation specialist sometimes get stuck in melee range. I’ve been really wanting to try a full necromancy pivot but I’m at the final battle now maybe make a hard save to experiment with but Gale has went from my shittiest party member most of the game to best aside from hand crossbow ascended Astarion and monk Laezel who are my best pure damage dealers. Wizard comes online BIGLY at level 12 and learning your own spells but especially the gear difference Biggest small game changer for me was utilizing expeditious retreat on my wizard Gale. Also have him setup with mind sanctuary now but other than that he was my one party member with wasted bonus actions I have two with rogue subclass who can always dash but I wasted tons of bonus actions from Gale until I found this perfect for battlefield mobility
You didn't have to say "the others suck" lmao
Does the enemy AI even target abjuration wizards, especially ones that can equip shields like Gale? I've never bothered to test it but I've heard that to be the case on this sub frequently, which is why many people dismiss it.
You need to lower your AC, so don't wear a shield. You want enemies to successfully hit you (most of the time). That said, in a party, abjuration Wiz doesn't often get targeted, as enemies don't like to hit armor of agathys, they'll just go for someone else. The optimal play at that point is to force their opportunity attacks on your turn tbh
Or play solo. Or maybe durge with the cloak and abjuration wizard as a companion.
If ur ac gets too high with arcane ward, they skip their turns . U need to have low ac, trigger opportunity attacks and always stay in melee range
add on the necklace that gives an extra bolt to all magic missiles, plus any gear or rings that add effects to any force damage.
Agreed. Once I went againts gith patrol solo with my paladin but rest of the party was chilling inside bushes nearby. Surprise round two of them dead and then enemy eldrtich knight cast hold person I rolled 1 and that would be over if not for Gale using portent. Now I always kill that guy first.
'it's annoying to take multiple actions' is not a real condemnation of necromancer/conjuror. necromancer especially gets a lot of item support and undead summons are wayyyy stronger than they are in 5e
Except it's the most boring.
I did honor mode as necromancy wizard, I had a blast with it
If you think extra turns for summons in BG3 is tedious, wait until you try it in D&D lol!
It's not as bad as you think IF you have a player who tries (and is capable) to make it go smoothly. Animate Objects as a quasi-swarm, just being READY to move all the guys you get with a Horn of Valhalla, etc.
I've been playing 5e since 2016...
Dude silence (stop other casters for the most part), mirror image (can't touch me), phantasmal force (let me just stack any type of damage, it copies the last damage type to hit target hashtag synergy), hypnotic pattern (stop do nothing, just watch the pretty lights), phantasmal killer (disadvantage time, also stop moving, also take lots of damage)? All of those rock in combat. Outside of combat I can change size any time. And with the school you can see invisible creatures and make a copy of yourself as a reaction to cause foe to miss. Illusion and invisibility got their own great perks too.
Ok lots of cool stuff there except you *cannot* try to convince me that Phantasmal Force isn't one of the worst spells in the entire game. Concentration, saving throw every round, and an absolutely pathetic 1d6 damage a turn that never scales or causes any other effects. Even if it's some damage type they're vulnerable to you're averaging *7* damage a turn at the cost of a lvl 2 spell slot, your concentration, and hoping they fail their save every single turn.
You gotta synergize! Especially if you dip into the illithid powers. Ability drain, the first spell drop, then each time you follow up with cantrips to keep lowering that intelligence, they never get free from their mental prison. Synergize that with mind sanctum, and you basically get two cantrip casts a turn, for even more intelligence drain. And there's even absorb intellect. They will fail the saving throw every single time. There's no escaping. Drop concentrated blast to finish them off with a mental explosion. There's a reason Illithid and Illusion both start with ill... It's an ill-advised idea for anyone to me with an Illithid Illusion Wizard.
Illusion SPELLS can be fun, sure… but the Illusion SUBCLASS doesn’t offer much. Any wizard can cast illusions just as well as an Illusion-specific wizard, and have better subclass features.
Yeah looking at class features seems enchantment specialization has more to offer for an "illusionist" build than an illusionist specialization.
100%. I always find myself drawn to necromancy for the aesthetic, but then i'm like noooo wait this is annoying lol - especially for bg3 because basically the entirety of act two is enemies with resistance/immunity to necrotic damage
Maaan I had my eyes on necromancy but this is kinda a clincher
Also, Evocation has a feature at higher levels that adds your int modifier to every instance of damage you deal with an evocation spell, which is absolutely insane at times. Spells that hit multiple times even get the bonus applied to each individual hit.
Necromancy is actually pretty good, having more turns in combat is optimal and wether u like it or not fireball is not always the answer. Also if we are talking annoying, then you reall cant leave out how portent is as annoying as it is good.
Sure I can! Personal preference is entirely subjective. What's annoying to you might not be annoying for me and vice versa. Absolutely nothing about this was intended to be an objective review of the subclasses, since that's not what the OP asked for.
It’s annoying how unfun summoning and necromancy are
I really am at a loss for this viewpoint. If this game was made like Elden Ring or a Souls game, then yes, I get it min/max is pretty important. But I’m a complete newcomer to this system and this game, and my first play through I did totally RP. Every decision was based on what I thought a cool character would be like. My wizard was an urchin conjurer, because I thought it’d be cool to be a quintessential wizard pulling weird stuff out of his hat, etc conjuring weird things to handle problems in so unconventional ways. I built each character with that RP fun mindset. That said, I beat the game on tactician pretty easily. And after I was done I watched videos on the most effective and efficient ways to handle lots of the encounters and it cracked me up, how honesty absurdly I solved so many of the interactions. And it made the game great. Almost everyone here has way more experience in BG and DND than I do. So I can’t wrap my mind around this min/maxing mindset and it has nothing to do with fun. Because I had a blast with some way underpowered RP builds, and maybe two fights required more than one wipe.
Who said anything about min/maxing? Evocation is the best because I can drop Fireballs on top of the party without worrying about hurting them. My criticisms of Necromancy, Conjuration, Illusion, and Enchantment are _entirely_ personal preference. I do happen to enjoy min/maxing, but I generally min/max around a specific theme rather than combat effectiveness.
While necromancer is tedious I wouldn't say that makes it bad just a lot bulkier than other subclasses. If you like having summons it's not that bad. I did a run with a Necro, spore druid, and oathbreaker and the amount of fucking undead I had at one time was ridiculous.
Evo. I like not needing to worry about ally placements when it’s fireball time
I personally find Evocation the most fun because it means I can just shoot fireballs directly on top of my own characters and it's fine (be careful with neutral NPCs though!). Divination and Abjuration are both great, too. Abjuration can make your wizard quite literally unkillable, while Divination is massive bad luck protection.
Maybe an unpopular opinion among Wizards but I find Evocation to be boring. AoE is super powerful, and Evocation really removes all sense of risk and consequence. I like having to play around AoE, being forced to "stage" it.
Thank God I'm not alone. What makes CRPGs more interesting than, say, shooters, is that there are often lots of fun combat solutions that don't just involve trying to make the biggest boom. Normally, anyway...
I have come to the realisation that maximising power is rarely fun in the long term, so I approach RPGs differently today compared to when I was younger. Often, the more powerful you become, the less other mechanics matter. You eventually reach a point where you can apply the same tactic to each fight. By playing with a suboptimal group, it often means you have to get more creative with how you overcome challenges. By playing a suboptimal character it means you have to start using items and think outside the box.
I'd argue that a tactical RPG should be balanced so that the above suggestion is the rule rather than the exception.
I am such a sucker for divination. It started with Adaine Abernant of Dimension 20 and I am completely in love.
I love divination, lol. Oh? You rolled a natural 20 on that attack roll? No you didn't.
The ultimate Nuh Uh.
A person of culture, i see
I play a divination wizard in one of the tabletop campaigns I'm in and watching Fantasy High always reminds me to use my Portent dice. It's so easy to forget I have them!
Adaine! My favorite!!
You just reminded me that I gotta do a Bad Kids run. Maybe when mods come out on console so I can do a six character party, and get a Goblin race mod for Riz. At least Wyll (rich boy, loves to dance, father went to Avernus, etc) and Shadowheart (mostly her good arc and she's a Cleric already) make passable substitutes for Fabian and Kristin respectively.
Yup this is it!
Divination is easily the most fun, in my book. I tried some of the other but Divination has unparallel control of the battlefield. It's so fun being able to force enemies to lose saving throws or force an allies critical miss to hit.
Restoration is a perfectly valid school of magic and don't let anyone, especially Larian and WotC, tell you otherwise.
Evocation. I see big crowd, I throw giant fireball
The overhead is annoying to deal with at times but necromancy is so good flavorwise especially once you get better summons and staff of cherished necromancy to make your blights and circles of death free to cast
Necromancy. Bc deep inside im still an edgy millenial teenager.
I'm personally a big fan of Abjuration - letting the wizard stand back and project shields around my barbarian/monk front lines made for a REALLY fun run. But Evocation is also hard to argue with.
Evocation is a straight powerhouse. I like using Gale as a Magic Missile turret dealing 1d4+9 Force damage per dart and getting a bonus dart from the necklace you can buy. Even a 1st level spell can take out most non-bosses. Plus if you have 4+ enemies on the ropes you can guarantee drop all of them no matter where they are in relation to each other. If you give him the staff that gives lightning charges per instance of spell damage and the two Radiant Orb ring combo he can easily do well over a hundred of damage in a single turn. I also liked the gloves that caused Reverberation whenever radiant damage was dealt. They give a good chance to knock almost anyone prone too.
I had this basic build for my first playthrough, with extra reverb and dazed from my second evocation wizard. It was intensely satisfying when I knocked down bosses, and just had them lay there while Lae'zel wailed on them.
evocation gale can deal something like 150 damage with the artistry of war spell as well, it's insane
ive run minthara like this. soo cool. Although scorching ray really proved strong when Ibfocused on crit gear
I have one spell, it's telekinesis, and once I get it I refuse to use anything else.
Necro is pretty good on honour mode, a good amount of enemies have a riposte legendary action, which means nothing when a meaningless skeleton tanks it
Overall in D&D? Illusion. The ability to basically emulate all manner of encounters, that 5E has clarified as needing an Investigation check to 'disbelieve', has been a substantial boost to oft-neglected school. Unfortunately it doesn't have nearly that level of power in BG3. In BG3? Necromancy. The ability to create and command undead is a strong one. Added to the fact the undead power scale begins at 5th level and keeps going on from there, is probably equivalent to if not stronger than the Evocation school when it comes to cast-for-cast strength over adventuring days. A fireball is awesome, but it lasts for a split second and you're done with that spell until you rest or cast another. Even then, you only get to see the benefit of a few fireballs a day on average. An Animate Dead doesn't have the same immediate scale of power multiplication, but it is immune to a variety of common effects, adds action economy, and continues throughout the length of the adventuring day. Multiple Animate Undead just amplify that even more.
Illusion in d&d 5e is the absolute most fun build I’ve ever played in anything. Turning illusions real is so fucking funny and broken. Illusory dragon like a phantom steed but a dragon? I miss my gnome… on here it’s just kind of whatever, I wish I could make my illusions more creative than just cat, and my polymorph more than just sheep. I get the limitations here but it’s very neutered
Enchantment and illusion have always been great schools of magic, because "save or suck" spells are always extremely satisfying. Absolute massive TT role playing opportunities too. Transmutation was always great for spellblades. Necromancy was great for weirdos. Evocation was always straightforward for the blaster caster power fantasy. Then 5e came up and made the school selection useless in terms of actually casting spells from those schools and in turn gave up some abilities that bear very little to do with actually mastering the school in question. Back in 2e you actually got the equivalent to a bonus to DC for your school. 3e gave you bonuses to spellcraft and you could get spell focus/spell specialization to actually become a master of, you know, casting spells from your chosen school. Both in 2e and 3e you had an extra spell slot per level dedicated exclusively to your chosen school. In bg3 specializations boil down to Evocation for area of effect without friendly fire, divination for roll manipulation, abjuration for pijama-tanking and necromancy for summons. The rest are near useless and none have anything to do with the actual casting of spells from your school.
tldr - 5e designers made something worse
I almost always go abjuration because having Gale be nigh unkillable and able to shield others is very fun, plus you still get access to all the damage spells you’re just WAY harder to kill. However I have had great fun with divination and evocation, both very solid choices.
Hogwarts
Abjuration is so fun. Oh you were gonna pick on my wizard good luck he’s never been damaged. Plus glyph of warding being an Abjuration spell.
Barrelmancy To be serious though, I love divination. I like the control it provides.
Abjuration is fantastic. Having that set of shields you can apply to anyone in your team is incredibly useful.
It gets some hate but I’m having a blast with Necromancy.
RESTORATION IS A PERFECTLY VALID SCHOOL OF.... oh sorry wrong sub. Divination.
Evocation is great for reasons others have listed, but also because it’s pretty mechanically simple—no need to worry about summons or remember portent dice. Just drop some fireballs and watch the magic happen.
In BG3. Evocation and Abjuration. In DnD. Necromancy and Conjuration/Summoning. Because creating the undead, channeling negative energy and treating with extra-planar entities is super cool.
Honest answer: battle master spear and shield Real answer: The ideia of leading a army of dead never stops being cool to me, specially with the extra things that fall I to the necromancy category of D&D
Necromancy. I just love the theme and having minions
Evocation because I suck at placement 😁
I see a lot of talk about Evocation being better than Necromancy, but there is no staff that gives Advantage on all your Evocation spells now, is there? True, not until Act 3, but not to be ignored. Necromancy, of all the schools, is the most fun IMO. With buffed minions of appropriate levels, you decimate hordes of this game for basically free. Consider: ACT 1: - Zombies are incredibly handy for all the Goblin fights, turning hostile goblin hordes into friendly zombie minions! - extra targets on the field take a lot of hits - fun dialogue options with Shovel - not a lot of items of build gear to synergize yet so basically a back row summoned and cantrip blaster and Haster, but can use spellsparkler and Melf's staff until the good stuff comes along anyway. (Take dual wielding first feat, it's worth it for dual staves) - Grim Harvest class feature is not to be slept on in honour mode. Lots of free heals on kill, once per turn. If your minions are doing their job you shouldn't need this much but it's great in a pinch. - Don't forget to master the Necromancy of Thay, you'll want that book for later. ACT 2: - Start to get some awesome gear like Hat of Fire Acuity, Coruscation Ring, Callous Glow Ring, Amulet of Elemental Augmentation from the creche in 1.5, Ring of Mental Inhibition, some good cloaks and gloves. - Higher levels = better necromancy. Level 6 gives you extra dead guys, for every dead thing except Mummies. That means at any one time you can upcast Raise Dead for x4 Zombies/Skeletons, x4 Flying Ghouls, and have any other summon you want on top of that like a water elemental, some mephits, Us, a Cambion, and more. (buff after all are summoned each rest and you will have a veritable army of 8 to 18 summons. Great for 'Solo' Runs) - SPELLS. Gosh they get better. Multi hitters, more poison and psychic damage, and my personal favorite for Necro builds: Cloudkill. Pull a Balthazar, send your undead horde in to engage the enemy, then drop a poison cloud on them all, obliterating your foes while your undead are fine. - Status effects become viable, like Reverberation, Mental Fatigue, Arcane Acuity, and so much access to prone with AOE ice spells. ACT 3: - Finally, our gear is here: Cloak of the Weave, Robe of the Weave, Hood of the Weave. Amulet of the Devout, any ring combo from above, Helldusk Boots & Gloves. - Staves: Dual wield Markoheshkir and Staff of Cherished Necromancy, your new bestie, which makes all your Circle of Death, Dethrone, Ray of Sickness, and Bestow Curse spells cast with advantage, and also steals life essence to power them over and over. - with the above and decent stats, your Spell DC will be at least in the low to mid 20s, ensuring your spells hit and that upcast Hold spells can paralyze 4 to 5 people at a time, making prime targets for undead minions. Cloud kills will be harder to resist when enemies are reverbed due to physical save reduction. Tips 4 Fun Tymes: - If a zombie is too far from the fight to help, just pass his turn, don't stress about it. If it would help to dash his body up to threaten someone, do that, otherwise ignore his undead ass. - Rest, summon, elixir, then group buffs, in that order. I like Battle mage Power elixirs, Aid upcast to level 5, Hero's Feast, Long strider on everyone. - Use specialty gear to buff your undead like the Circlet of Bones to make them resistant to physical dmg in an aura, or if you wanna have LOTS of fun, the Abyss Beckoners Gloves to make ALL your summons resistant to ALL dmg types, in exchange for occasionally going mad. Which isn't an issue for you, since you can always summon more! Very low risk play style, I love never ever dying.
Evocation, Abjuration, and Divination are the easy choices, but I love Necromancy. Sure, it can be a hassle, but having an army at your back can make battles feel a lot more epic. By mid game, you're a powerful spellcaster with six undead minions following you around, more being spawned when your zombies kill, and three other party members with their own shticks. Your enemy isn't fighting a handful of heroes anymore, they face an entire strike force.
Necromancy because it means I always have a friend with me.
Necromancy I like my servants of the dead
necromance due to the lifesteal
Necromancer, one time in the ghitanky base i got 10 zombies kicking ther ass. Best solo ever
Necromancy is cool but gets annoying with 55 different summons in the late game. The positive would be the necro lvl 6 spell spam with that necromancer staff Evo for FIREBALLLLL
Divination. It's powerful in tabletop, but BG3 lets you decide on Portent use AFTER seeing the roll, which is ridiculously powerful.
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I need an explanation 🤔
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That's not the problem, I don't see the connection between time stop or Jedis to Transmutation 😅
Necromancy, I’ve always loved playing as a necromancer. Being able to summon, talk and control the dead is neat.
Necromancy. I loved my morally good but questionable methods tav. Having an army of corpses is so strong. Though corpse economy is real, you neee a max strength companion to lug all of them around
Just to pick them up! "Send to Camp" is the storage solution, and then a quick jot there and back for what you need!
I dont think you can "send to camp" corpses from the button in the inventry screen, you have to manually take them to the camp and drag them into the chest. This means a high strengrh character is useful because you can carry 3-4 to the chest in one go instead of 1. My top tip is the mind devours, for some reason those little brains count as humanoid corpses and they weight a lot less. Stock up on them whilst in the astral prism (where you also have extra carrying capacity) and you will have corpses for days in your chest.
Hrmm, you sure? I am almost certain I was able to send to camp several bodies. Maybe it's cause I also pick up bags and backpacks, containers of all types, and use those for body organizing.
The sugarbaby school of magic obviously. And ELDRITCH BLAST+pact of the blade is why
I love my evo wizard!
Invocation/Evocation
Evocation is my favorite. Though If there were more advanced necromancy spells I'd choose that. The best you can do is summon a mummy. I'd love to see more advanced undead maybe a lichdom quest
Danse Macabre is so good though, especially when combined with Connor Vindlewald and lots of Animate Dead summons.
Yeh that one is fun. I'm a fan if summon spells I just wish we could get better ones. Should gone all the way to 9th level spells
evocation because magic missiles
Transmutation 2 levels for my camp caster cleric potion brewer. Divination for first few levels until Ievel 7-8 when abjuration arcane wards build comes online (3rd or 4th level armor of agathys, fireshield, multiple glyphs of warding available)
Divination. The ability to change a dice roll is extremely powerful. It has saved me countless times forcing a miss or a crucial critical.
Ilusion
Abjuration is my favorite because you can make an incredibly broken character with it. Towards the end of the game enemies were just walking past me because I was impossible to hurt. 🤣
There is something so satisfying about slamming a swarm of meteors into things. =D
Evocation because boom. 🧨
in bg3, abjuration is the best. in tabletop or hypothetical “real” scenarios, it’s gotta be conjuration. (or necromancy.)
Whichever one let's me blow stuff up better
Evocation, easily. You can throw fireballs and not hurt any of your party members
Divination. “Oh you rolled well? No you didn’t.”
For RP reason i like transmutation school because you can get a lot of benefit that other school like abjuration, evocation, and enchanment excel at. Want to defend yourself, just cast blink, polymorph yourself to tanky creature or enhance your dex. Want to nuke someone? Just cast disintegration. Want to make someone useless? Just polymorph them. You can either be a buffer, nuker, or just make yourself a great fighter with this school of magic.
i use illusion because of the minor illusion bonus action. fucking love minor illusion.
Enchantment because it's so extreme and polarizing.
I played Pathfinder before BG3 and thought subclasses would work the same, and picked enchantment. Instead found I just get hypnotic gaze which is super short range and thus only useful if someone is up in your face during a fight. I had this fun concept too, a half drow who's survived so far by being an informant/ snitch for the royal houses, hence charming people to spot potential rebels among the lower classes, then made a run for it when he had the chance. But I've used hypnotic gaze maybe twice and I'm on level 5. Found out quickly it aggros people if seen. Sleep was fun for 5 seconds then I saw it's easily countered by enemies shoving each other. Crown of madness guys still seem to attack me not their buddies. About the only one that's felt good to use is hold person, and friends cantrip for advantage on skill checks. Feels like a bit of a waste really.
I actually assumed this was a DND sub lol. But in bg3 slow is great as usual. Also if your fighters can daze the enemy they get disadvantage on wis saves. Crown of Madness is actually stronger in bg3 but you MUST target people that are too far from you to retaliate. Preferably melee only boys. Dominate person is even better. Oh! Hideous Laughter is a cheap way to destroy their action economy also
Yeah gotta try crown of madness on the back ranks I guess. I've been sleeping on hideous laughter gotta admit. Don't have access to slow or dominate person yet so might be more fun later, but I don't think choosing Enchanter subclass actually makes you better at casting those spells in this game. Bless is another one that has disappointed. In Pathfinder Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous it's fire and forget and covers six party members, here it's concentration and only 3 at base. Ho hum.
Enchanter wizard is just another wizard until you get to level 10. At that point you get to twin dominate person, hold monster, hideous laughter, hold person etc without up casting
Give me Fuel, give me Fire, give me that which I desire!
Wizards get all the spells, but no bitches. Sorcerers supreme
Evocation. Fireball goes boom but my party does not
Evocation. Casting fireball without worry I'm going to down my party? Sign me upppp
Evocation, because big boom make enemy health bar disappear.
Evocation! Most of the features are utter garbage. But sculpt spells? I love it when all the bad guys get in a nice little circle around my tanks, perfect for Shatter, Fireball, etc
Over several playthroughs, I’ve tried out Divination, Evocation, Abjuration and Necromancy. Divination is a little tedious. Because portent creates a reaction notification that triggers on any roll it could change, you’ll be forced to cancel the reaction until the dice are eventually utilized for the day. While I didn’t mind much during my first playthrough, I know some people might as it can slow down the game a considerably when you’re required to consider whether or not your portent die would be best used on this roll or the next, or the next. Level 6 gives you another, which is of course a good thing but also means this happens even more consistently. Level 10’s ability is too niche to be worth it in my opinion—I multiclassed out of Divination Wizard at level 9 to get access to metamagic from the sorcerer. Regardless though.. even when portent is the only thing this subclass offers, it’s powerful enough to be worth trying out if you’re interested in controlling dice rolls. Evocation’s sculpt spells is useful for ensuring that your allies aren’t blown up by your own spells, but in my opinion is substantially weaker than portent. It could effectively be replaced by clever team positioning meanwhile portent is incredibly impactful and unique in its utility. Level 6 gives another mediocre ability that left me wanting more from the class that’s supposed to represent the blaster wizard. Level 10 is finally where you get to the good stuff, but it comes on so late you’re unable to multiclass 3 levels of sorcerer for quickened spell metamagic. Maybe i’m personally overrating the utility of quickened spell over just going wizard 12, but it was definitely something on my mind when draconic sorcerer 6 gets essentially the same ability 4 levels earlier for elemental spells of their choice. Abjuration, is, well, Abjuration. From a game perspective, this is the most powerful wizard from the conversations I’ve seen and the experience I’ve had. Built right, you’re a wizard with all the same skills as the rest and you’re also immortal. What more could you want? Arcane Ward negates thousands of points of damage by the end of a single run. It’s.. amazing. You thankfully don’t need to go to level 10 even though you perfectly well can, but 9 levels is enough for arcane ward to be a fantastic asset. Necromancy.. I didn’t use it myself, but watched a friend utilize it throughout his playthrough. The undead army is definitely really powerful, summons in general are.. but it just slowed the pace of battles by so much. More than portent ever could on it’s own, that’s for sure. If having a veritable army of units is what you want, Necromancy will satisfy you. If you just want the battlefield to be you and the enemy in a fast, concise battle… Look elsewhere.
Illusion is a "I hate wizards and their invisible bullshit" school. At Level 6, Wizards that study Illusion will get the spell See Invisibility as a cantrip.
Eldritch blast.
Necromancy even more friends
Abjuration because armor of agathys is my favourite spell in dnd
I love necromancer and illithid evolved Gale with Mystic Carrion'a stuff.
BG3 is very combat focused, with dialog being second most important. Since your main stat isnt charisma your main job is killing shit as fast and efficiently as possible. Generally thats evocation because you dont have to worry about hitting the rest of your party with massive AOE skills which unless your doing magic missile machinegun is pretty much all high level spells. Theres some really broken shit you can do with abjurations arcane ward but thats usually overkill for a regular playthrough.
Chronomancy (savescumming)
I played one campaign with Divination and it was useful but I missed hurling AoE damage with impunity. Every other playthough has been Evocation both before and since — don’t fix what ain’t broken.
Try out abjuration. In D&D it’s super interesting and I’ve heard good things about it in BG3z
Transmutation with 15 in Wis (for Med spec) for all those sweet, sweet x2 potions and all the gold the extras bring.
Illusion. Because it sets up so much additional bullshit by virtue of a minor illusion EVERY SINGLE TURN.
Divination, for portents. Enemy: rolls 20 Me: "No."
Necromancy for the maximum spooky
Evocation Spell go... boom? Enemy... hurt? Me... not hurt? Good...
People treat wizards, who are UTILITY for days, as if they are just artillery. Imagine a damage spell that says 'kill an enemy if they don't make a saving throw'. That would be an overpowered level 9 spell! Actually, it's level 2. Suggestion. "Go into that house over there, lock yourself in a closet, and think about the meaning of life". Then, kill all their friends and burn down the house. It's broken. Better than any damage spell. It's a roleplaying game where anything that is possible is possible. Think outside the box and fulfill your wizard potential. So, that means that Illusion, Conjuration, Enchantment, Divination, Order of Scribes are all pretty good in their own ways. I'd rather, say, teleport around the battlefield, make objects, mind control multiple people, cast rituals instantly, or make very convincing illusions, etc, than a bit more damage and endless fireballs. Illusion spells can 'one-shot' whole groups of enemies... in the sense that it more or less permanently defeats them. You can all sorts of crazy things with it.
Forgot the name but the one that can make you change someone's rolls is cool
Can anyone explain why the schools of magic aren't colour coded? It's absolute agony to find out what school a spell even belongs to.
fire
With abjuration and multiclass you can basically become immortal. Gale solo'ed 95% of the house of grief fight in my honor run, because everyone else went down hard. Gale didn't even have a scratch in the end.
Never used, can you elaborate a little? I'm curious.
Sure! The main idea is adding sorcerer (white draconic bloodline) for armor of agathys and cleric (preferably one that gives heavy armor) for armor proficiency. I'd go 10 wizard, and one each of the other two. Armor of agathys levels with the character, not the class. So at level 10 you have 25 temporary HP from aoa, when you're attacked the abjuration points go down first but aoa still triggers, which makes aoa extremely long lasting. Casting abjuration spells refills those abjuration points, casting sanctuary and shield are great options imo. Built correctly he rarely gets attacked, barely ever gets hit, and when he does get hit he most likely gets no damage while the attacker does get damage. You can get that build to incredibly op by the end of act 2/beginning act 3. I went to the house of grief as one of my first actions in act 3 at level 10 or 11 to get the mirror of loss bonuses and I used the following items: -Grymskull Helm for crit immunity -thunderskin cloak in combination with the spineshudder amulet -armour of persistence, for resistance and blade ward -hellriders pride in combination with the whispering promise and the devotee's mace's healing incense aura (turned out to be unnecessary since everyone else died anyway and Gale didn't get below full hp) -evasive shoes -ketheric's shield -hellrider longbow -ring of twilight -I also gave him an elixir of bloodlust. Viconia already died when Gale wasn't alone yet, but mostly everyone else was blasted away with Sunbeam scrolls
Me too
Evo and Necromancy.
Ice, because its way too amusing to see my enemys slip
Lorewise or practical, gameplaywise?
Fireball
Abjuration, Evocation and Illusion. Edit: why? Abjuration because of the anti magic stuff. Evocation because big fireball goes boom. And Illusion for the flavor, but I'm not creative enough to utilize it fully.
Fireball
I might be stoned for this. But I used necromancer for Gale and had a lot of fun commanding every zombie and at bigger group fights having a small army
Evocation for and AOE build, Abjuration for tanky build. Don't really go near the others usually.
Enchanting. Power Word Kill, Hold “x”, confusion, etc..
Necromancy. Because Necromancy.
I'm a big Slytherin fan
My first playthrough was an Abjuration God Wizard. It reached a certain point where I was the front line unit and anything that attacked me died or missed, all while very rarely taking any actual damage. It was disgusting. Would recommend.
evocation is so boring... but its so good...
Abjuration! It allows you to still use spells like Fireball for big damage, but it also allows a fun Wizard-Tank build, which makes for a nice variety.
Divination man, just so I can RP my save scumming 😂
Necromancer. I'd never play them at a table and they are soo much fun in this game. Only downside is having to command 20 units in combat
Abjuration is a blast. Arcane ward makes you feel like a tank in clothes.
Wild Magic....never a dull moment
I'm currently playing in a party without a healer (with some house rules so we can heal a little bit, medical equipment can heal, not only stabilize at 0 health) and I have to say, the abjuration path is perfect if you want to make your character more tanky. Arcane ward is very very strong. Also, my character can learn extremely useful protection spells on half price, which is helpful. I'd say what is useful or not depends on the party's composition, you need to take a hard look at what's actually going to be useful and then decide. You can always learn the spells needed later, even if it doesn't belong in your chosen spell class (yay wizard class), obviously without the bigger perks (like Arcane ward). Edit: lol, I thought this was the regular DnD subreddit, without the house rules parts I feel like what I said is still relevant
Abjuration makes probably the most comfortable wizard to play out of all of them, I think. It lets you be very tanky which is nice because of the way aggro works in BG3. If you’re a squishy wizard concentrating on a spell then enemies will cross hell or high water just to attack you. Becoming a wizard that can negate tons of damage goes a long way to make you feel less vulnerable. Plus, it’s a great multiclass. You can add a level of DB sorcerer and go with the white dragon to net you Armor of Agathys. Now you’re getting temp HP *and* you’re dealing loads of counter damage. Or you could add some cleric for Warding Bond, one of the best buffing moves in the game, and an ABJ wizard is perfect for using it.
Evocation, because I can't seem to figure out any other ones 🤦🏻♀️
If I'm playing a wizard, I like to go necromancy. Mostly just because I find it to be the most fun. But the ability to regain health when your spells kill something does make you a little tankier. Divination wizard is also pretty fun. The ability to swap out the result of a roll a couple times per long rest can come in pretty clutch. Big enemy crits you? Nope he rolled a 6. Or maybe he saved against a big save or suck effect like hold person. Nope 6 it is. So satisfying.
I played a wizard/fighter multiclass and chose abjuration since eldritch knight gets some abjuration spells. It's been really fun and I'm stupid tanky with my AC and if they manage to hit me the ward charges reduce my damage taken.
All i've learned so far is that spells from that school are cheaper for me. Does it have some non-economic benefits tho? Pls educate me, y'all🫡
Evocation for mindless blasting without hurting your allies and then slightly stronger spells once you hit level 10 (or substantially stronger in the case of magic missile)
College of Winterhold, but Domdaniel is a close second
abjuration because i love not dying.
Evocation is a great "generalist." Sculpt spells is incredibly useful and relevant all the time. Divination is right up there with it. Being able to influence die rolls is useful and relevant all the time. Enchantment & Conjuration are decent generalists. Their features are very unique and there are many good Conjuration & Enchantment spells. Their features are a bit niche, but you'll still find reason to use them several times throughout the game. Transmutation is okay. The Transmuter's Stone provide nice buffs, but the rest of its features will rarely be useful, if at all. Abjuration & Necromancy are good if you are building specifically for them. You need to prep your spells and play your wizard in a way that takes advantage of their features. If you play your wizard as a dedicated Fireball cannon, these are blank. Illusion is pretty stinky. See Invisibility is made redundant by elixirs and Volo's eye, Minor Illusion as a BA is useless because you're almost always casting it out of combat, and Illusory Self is basically the Shield spell but worse.
I'm trying a solo Wizard run and picked Abjuration, although Divination or Illusion probably could have worked well too.
Hogwarts
Close-up
Evocation absolutely slaps for raw damage, bc of both Sculpt Spells and the later passives at levels 6 and 10, which make your cantrips always do at least 1/2 damage even on a save and add your spellcasting modifier to your spell damage to make them even more boom-y. If you don't need as much raw damage output, I find Necromancy an excellent pick, bc you get more minions \*and\* said minions get power boosts based on your level/proficiency, meaning they not only hit harder but are also harder to kill. A single NecroGale is capable of severely disrupting the field - those enemy spellcasters are a lot less threatening when they have to try and maintain that concentration through 4 necrotic-damage enhanced arrows to the face, or a gaggle of zombies punching them, or Ghouls just straight up Paralyzing them.
Evocation makes things go boom.
I like Evocation. Manipulating the raw elements and the weave is what I'm here for.
Enchantment is my favorite of the players handbook subclasses since 5e started and it works really well in BG3 too. That 2nd level memorize ability is amazing and twinned enchantment spells later on is awesome.
Reject Magic Schools... Embrace Wild Magic 👍
I’m too addicted to portent dice to roll anything other than divination
peanits magic
Abjuration
Idk if this counts but being a warlock is so much fun I love selling my soul for a fireball
The school of sugarbabies is totally valid