Hexvoker: School of Evocation Wizard

Author: pandaniel

The Hexvoker is a popular concept. It is widely seen as a Wizard that uses magic missile together with its subclass features to get crazy damage numbers. While this is totally a useful option in its repertoire, this guide will show that the biggest power still lies in the Wizard chassis, as well as the improved blasting capabilities, with spells like fireball.
While Hexblade’s Curse combines nicely with magic missile and Empowered Evocation, it is not as powerful as something like Peace Domain Cleric, but it adds a useful tool to your character’s arsenal that would not be available with other armor dip options. However, feel free to play this build with another dip if you feel like it.
For this build we have elected to ignore Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount and Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos, and selected Custom Lineage over other races to be more generalizable and accessible.

Race: Custom Lineage

Ability Score Increase – +2 Int. We are a Wizard so we’ll act like one.
Size – Medium. Custom Lineage lets us choose between Small or Medium size. Going with Medium mainly allows us to use dimension door to get a Medium-sized ally out of harm’s way effectively. If your whole party is Small, or if you would spend little or no time at level 9 or above and thus never actually get to cast dimension door, you should be Small instead, in order to ride Medium sized mounts and fit through small spaces.
Feat – Resilient (Con). Starting off with a feat allows us to get some extra concentration protection early on. We opt for Resilient (Con) to round out our ability scores and to also cover our saving throw defenses, but we will obtain War Caster later down the line for even more concentration protection.
Variable Trait – Darkvision. It’s usually more useful to have Darkvision than to have proficiency in another skill. If you believe you will be able to get Darkvision another way (like with a pair of goggles of night), feel free to pick up another proficiency instead.
Languages – Common, Undercommon. We are picking Undercommon, as it is the second most common language right behind Common. You might want to pick something else, consider your campaign and select a language commonly spoken by enemies that are least likely to also speak Common. Alternatively, sharing a rare language amongst all members of your party can allow you to speak freely amongst NPCs without your plans being divulged. It is not incredibly important what language you pick here.

Class: Wizard

Skills – Arcana, Investigation. As an Intelligence based class, we’ll be good at these, and likely the only one in the party who is. We can use Arcana to scribe scrolls.
Arcane Recovery – This lets us regain either our highest level slot or a few lower level slots each day. Combined with our access to economical spells like web, this will let us be one of the best casters at resource management.
Spellcasting – The most powerful feature in the game.

Find familiar – Gain the service of a familiar which you can conjure or dismiss at will. Extraordinarily useful in and out of combat. At this level we recommend an owl so that it can give the Help action and get away with Flyby. At higher levels you’ll want to switch to a bat for Blindsight. We have a full spell spotlight on this spell here.
Identify – Learn how to use magic items or other magic-imbued objects. The typical use of this spell is to identify magic items, but many don’t know that the spell can reveal how to use any magic-imbued object–including many tricky doors and magical obstacles in dungeons. If no one has detect magic in the party, pick that up instead. If someone does have detect magic, try and see if they can scribe a scroll for you to copy into your spellbook.
Mage armor – Gain a base AC of 13 + your Dexterity modifier for 8 hours. Rest cast this where possible. We are using this to keep ourselves safe until we get proficiency in armor.
Shield – Gain +5 AC for a round using a reaction. With your hit points at this level, shield can be the difference between life or death. Try to position yourself so that you don’t need to use it.
Sleep – Knock out an average of 22.5 hit points worth of creatures within a 20 foot sphere. By far the most potent spell in the game for a few levels, since it takes out multiple enemies with no saving throw.
Unseen servant – Create a mindless, shapeless force which acts at your command within 60 feet of you for an hour. Can solve a lot of problems and prevent a lot of headaches. Another spell that you should have up by default in dungeons.
Fire bolt – On a hit, deal a bit of fire damage to the target, which can be a creature or an object. Believe it or not, this is a utility spell as much as it is a damage one. You can use this to destroy objects like locked doors. The range is also useful in combat, since you want to be as far away as you can.
Minor illusion – Create a minor visual or auditory illusion. Very versatile utility cantrip.
Ray of frost – On a hit, deal a bit of damage and reduce the target’s speed by 10 feet. Slowing an enemy by 10 feet can cost them an entire turn of effectiveness.

Ability Scores

9 Str, 14 Dex, 13+1 Con, 15+2 Int, 8 Wis, 13 Cha

Our main ability score is Intelligence, and this array will allow us to get it to 18 at level 4. We need 13 Charisma to multiclass in or out of Warlock. We buy 14 Constitution using Resilient (Con) for hit points and higher concentration saves. Our next priority is 14 Dexterity, the highest value that we get an AC benefit from wearing medium armor, which we will be wearing from level 6.

Background (Custom)

Skills – Perception, Stealth. Stealth is important for surprise, and Perception in turn helps us to avoid being surprised and avoid traps and the like.
Tools – Smith’s tools, cobbler’s tools. We can use smith’s tools to make early money by repairing and selling off broken weapons and armor you retrieve from the battlefield. Later, if we can get access to fabricate, we can use it with our smith’s tools to obtain a lot of gold. Our additional pick will be cobbler’s tools, which are not the flashiest tools in the game, but the ability to increase movement speed in the exploration phase can very easily come in handy and hiding things can help you carry contraband (or your arcane focus) into cities. As always, tool usage and downtime activity can vary heavily from table to table, so talk to your DM before you commit to anything. You can read more about tools and what might fit your campaign better here.
Feature – Ear to the Ground. Information is power, and having someone that can give you information in any city you visit is especially useful. You know someone in the City of Brass, Sigil, or any other distant place (that you visit). Pretty cool.
Creator’s Note – Making a custom background is RAW, as page 125 of the PHB states: “The sample backgrounds in this chapter provide both concrete benefits (features, proficiencies, and languages) and roleplaying suggestions. To customize a background, you can replace one feature with any other one, choose any two skills, and choose a total of two tool proficiencies or languages from the sample backgrounds.” Using this, we are making a custom background and using the Ear to the Ground feature.

Equipment

Wizard Starting Equipment

• A dagger. We don’t have good Strength, so a quarterstaff wouldn’t be useful.
• A component pouch. Leaves hands free and harder to disarm than a focus.
• An explorer’s pack. More useful for adventuring than the scholar’s pack.
• A spellbook.

Urban Bounty Hunter Starting Equipment

• A set of clothes appropriate to your duties
• A pouch containing 20 gp

Purchasing Goals

• Spells! Whether in the form of spellbooks or scrolls.
• Component pouches
• Costly material components for spells that require them, like planar binding and magic jar
• Healer’s kit, potions of healing
• Smith’s tools
• Cobbler’s tools
• Plenty of ball bearings and caltrops

Level 1 Strategy

While dungeoneering, your standard operating procedure should be to have at least 1 unseen servant up at all times. Outside of using items like caltrops and ball bearings, the unseen servant(s) should have ongoing orders to administer potions to downed party members if you have any. Use your familiar for vision almost exclusively so that you can explore from safety and take advantage of its keen senses. Anywhere you suspect a secret door, check by dismissing your familiar to its pocket dimension and then attempting to summon it on the other side of the wall or floor. Interact with everything from a distance using unseen servant to avoid being caught by traps.  

In combat, keep an eye out for situations where ray of frost can deny an enemy turn. Remember to take the Dodge action when you’re not in a safe position. Maintain the optimal engagement distance. Cast sleep in difficult encounters, but try to save at least 1 slot for emergencies.  

You can start scribing scrolls of shield and absorb elements in your free time.

Level 2: Wizard

Arcane Tradition – School of Evocation. This subclass allows us to focus more on the blasting side of the Wizard’s repertoire.  

Evocation Savant (School of Evocation feature) – Copy evocation spells into your spellbook for half the normal time and gold. This is pretty minor, as we will mostly be picking up any of them that we want. However, if you end up finding scrolls or spellbooks with spells in this guide before you pick them up, it allows you to get some more bang out of your buck. If you do run into this situation, look ahead in this guide or at our Basic Build Wizard or Flagship Chronurgy Wizard for alternative spells.  

Sculpt Spells (School of Evocation feature) – When casting evocation spells you can choose to not affect 1 + the spell’s level number of creatures that would otherwise be affected when you cast the spell. This means 3 for something like Rime’s binding ice or 4 for fireball. This is what enables us to be the blastiest Wizard to ever blast. Even with allies running into melee, or enemies having approached us, we can use big area of effect spells to their maximum potential without friendly fire. Therefore we will be focusing on more evocation spells for this Wizard build compared to others. Of note is that with its wording this works with damage over time spells.

Spell Changes: +absorb elements, +magic missile.

 

Absorb elements – We likely won’t be using this much at low levels, but it will only become more valuable throughout your adventuring career. Elemental damage tends to come in singular large blasts, and the option to halve that amount will significantly improve your survivability.
Magic missile – Send 3 missiles towards targets you want, with an additional missile per spell level. It is unclear Rules As Written (RAW) if this is one instance of damage when hitting one target with multiple missiles for the purposes of concentration saving throws and death saving throws. Jeremy Crawford has stated that it counts as multiple instances of damage, however, this is not explained anywhere in the rules. This is the first of many unclear rules regarding this spell that we will be talking about in this article. We will be preparing this once we get Hexblade’s Curse from our Warlock level.

Level 3: Wizard

Cantrip Formulas (Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Optional feature) – The only optional class feature that Wizards received in Tasha’s, this feature provides some more flexibility in cantrip selection. We won’t go over every cantrip or situation that might require a swap, but being able to long rest and prepare mold earth or mending might come in handy, for example.

Spell Changes: +Rime’s binding ice, +web.

Rime’s binding ice – This delivers significant area-of-effect control and damage on a level comparable only to web at this spell level. It’s less sticky than web, but doesn’t use your concentration, so it makes for a great sidegrade or nova depending on the situation, especially at this level. This works with Sculpt Spells, and at its base level allows us to exclude 3 allies.
Web – Create a 20 foot cube of webs which restrain enemies. One of the most potent 2nd level spells in the game. Right now, this is the biggest thing we can do, but even as we reach high levels, we’ll continue to use web for its value-in-slot, and it’ll continue to be effective.

Level 3 Strategy

Many think that level 5 is the biggest jump in power for casters. This is not the case. For anyone who can cast web, level 3 constitutes the greatest jump in power. At this point, we have twice as many spell slots as we did last level and several options for disabling enemies. Sleep is approaching the end of its main usefulness, but remains potent in many encounters. Our go-to in large encounters is web, with Rime’s binding ice as another layer of control that we can use on top of our existing web, or when enemies get uncomfortably close.

Level 4: Wizard

Ability Score Improvement (Feat) – Telekinetic (+1 Int). We now have 18 Intelligence. This half-feat gives us an enhanced version of the mage hand cantrip, but more importantly it also lets you move a creature who is willing or who fails a Strength save 5 feet toward or away from you. This can be useful to get an ally out of a hazard or a grapple, or pull enemies into our spell hazards.

Spell Changes: +locate object, +rope trick, +mage hand TK, +mind sliver.

Locate object – An incredibly versatile utility spell that can do way more than meets the eye, which we go into more details here.
Rope trick – Create an extradimensional refuge as an action. The best 2nd level defensive spell in the game. Once you’ve cast a concentration spell, maintaining concentration should be your highest priority, and rope trick helps you do that far better than something like mirror image would. Allies can also join you in the refuge when necessary.
Mage hand ^TK – Utility cantrips are always nice, and the ability to fiddle with things that may be trapped without having to be close enough to be affected by the trap is convenient.
Mind sliver – Debuff an enemy’s next saving throw. Casting this in cooperation with another caster in your party is a great economical play. You can also consider casting this on your first turn if the party isn’t in imminent danger and it’s not clear yet what spell will be best to concentrate on. Pick toll the dead instead if this won’t be useful in your party, which would work with Potent Cantrip later.

Level 5: Wizard

Spell Changes: +fireball, +sleet storm.

Fireball – Deal a good quantity of damage in a 20 foot sphere. Damage is damage. Some players overrate fireball, but many underrate it as well. Even though its damage won’t scale as we level, its relative cost will go down, and troublesome hordes exist at all levels, so this will remain a solid preparation, especially since it doesn’t require concentration and works with Sculpt Spells, and at its base level allows us to exclude 4 creatures. You can always use this liberally against four or more enemies unless the encounter is won already, otherwise use it in situations where nova is advantageous. Not taking hypnotic pattern might be surprising, but if there are a lot of things in a 30 feet cubic area, you should cast fireball or web.
Sleet storm – You make a massive area incredibly difficult to leave by making it difficult terrain, heavily obscuring the area (which means that most teleportation effects including misty step no longer work since they need to see the space they teleport into, but dimension door still does) and even proning flying creatures. Because of the mechanics of the effects, the way that enemies will typically escape this horrifying spell is individually or in small groups, which the party can easily pick off one by one.

Level 5 Strategy

Now we have two new big guns in sleet storm and fireball. However, as much as you might be itching to show off, keep in mind that web will remain the most effective option in many encounters. Being a “blaster” Wizard doesn’t make the most powerful control tools any less potent.

This is around the level where you should swap your familiar from owl form to bat form. Since martials are getting Extra Attack, the marginal utility of the Help action has gone down a lot, and as you level you’re more likely to encounter illusions, invisible creatures, and the like, so the bat’s Blindsight is major.

Level 6: Warlock (Wizard 5, Warlock 1)

Now that we have our trusty fireball, we are taking a small detour for the goodies of The Hexblade patron.
Additional Proficiencies – Light armor, simple weapons. Nothing we will be using.
Otherworldly Patron – The Hexblade. We get shield, medium armor and shield proficiencies, and Hexblade’s Curse, woo!
Expanded Spell List (Hexblade Feature) – We will be using this by picking up shield, which opens up a preparation slot for Wizard.
Hex Warrior (Hexblade feature) – Charisma to weapon attacks doesn’t benefit us much. However, the medium armor and shield proficiency will be incredible for us. We will be going from a resting AC of 15 with mage armor to a solid 18 or 19, depending on armor availability. This also means we no longer need to prepare mage armor.
Hexblade’s Curse (Hexblade feature) – We now have Hexblade’s Curse, which opens up the infamous combo with magic missile. This is not the prime reason we are taking a level in this class, as that is the armor proficiencies it provides.
To provide a good perspective on why this is the case, we’ll be comparing fireball and magic missile cast at third level. We will assume that the targets have a 65% chance of failure against fireball. Additionally, we count the utility of damage to targets beyond the first as 50% less due to the power of focus fire, meaning that when targeting two creatures we multiply the damage to the first by 1.5. A third level magic missile, enhanced by Hexblade’s Curse, does on average 32 damage at this point, whereas a fireball against 2 targets does 34.
This is not to say that you should only look at the raw number comparison, single target damage against an important target can be more important than damage spread over less important targets, but a fireball in turn could get rid of a bunch of creatures at once in which instance you don’t reduce the value of damage by splitting it. Hexblade’s Curse is a nice boon, but not one we should overly rely on. We usually have better spells to cast.
Pact Magic – Warlock spell slot progression is unique and recharges on a short rest. We are not taking more than one Warlock level for this build, but you will use plenty of 1st level spells throughout the adventuring day, so getting 1-2 of those slots back on a short rest is nice. Ideally, your party should be amenable to short resting at least once, preferably twice on an adventuring day. Always use your Pact Magic spell slots first!

Spell Changes: +mold earth, –minor illusion.

Expeditious retreat – In combat this can help you kite enemies. Or, out of combat, maybe you remembered that you need to send a certified letter to cancel your gym membership this month and the post office closes in 10 minutes? If you think that being able to non-ritual cast unseen servant might be of more use, take it. 1st level Warlock spells are not the best, so pick whatever you think you will make the most use of.
Mold earth – As we now have minor illusion through Warlock, we pick up mold earth through Wizard’s Cantrip Formulas. This is a handy cantrip that can be used to quickly create a wall and/or a trench, or simply a small area of cover, if you are in terrain with loose dirt (whatever that means). If you are laying an ambush, you can use it to create a small area of difficult terrain (only two squares, but that can make a difference in the right situation).
Prestidigitation – Create one of a variety of small effects. Helpful for food and laundry. You can afford a luxury cantrip at this point.

Level 6 Strategy

We can now do great single target damage and multi-target damage! Consider the situation and decide which option to use.
You can now also scribe scrolls of expeditious retreat.

Level 7: Wizard (Wizard 6, Warlock 1)

Potent Cantrip (School of Evocation feature) – Deal half damage when an enemy succeeds on the saving throw of your cantrip. We won’t be leveraging this feature in any special way in this build, but it increases our damage for mind sliver a bit, which is nice.

Spell Changes: +phantom steed, +Leomund’s tiny hut.

Leomund’s tiny hut – Create a dome of force that your allies can pass through freely, but outsiders can’t, as a ritual. Resting has never been easier. This spell can be potentially countered by dispel magic, but you can protect against this as well by casting the spell multiple times at offset altitudes, creating multiple nested domes which would require several castings of dispel magic to get through. However, as spell effects cannot extend through the dome, all the nested domes will lack a floor, so keep that in mind.
Phantom steed – Create mounts with excellent mobility as a ritual, potentially for the whole party. (The duration is 1 hour, and it takes 11 minutes to cast as a ritual, so this won’t be possible if your party size is too big). This is great for fast travel as well, since the steeds can gallop to travel at 26 miles per hour, and since you renew them every hour they won’t get tired. Note that you can use this with locate object to scan approximately 1.64 square miles per second level slot. You should consider keeping this up in any space that has room for it, since there’s basically no cost to doing so. In combat, you can use it to run circles around enemies. You should be casting this while mounted during travel, as to circumvent downtime between a fading steed and a new one. Do keep in mind that casting the spell requires your concentration, and your action each turn.

Level 8: Wizard (Wizard 7, Warlock 1)

Spell Changes: +polymorph, +vitriolic sphere.

Polymorph – Very powerful at this level, and versatile too. While it is possible to use on enemies, you’ll more often use this on an ally to turn them into a giant ape, which both buffs their offense and gives them a big pool of hit points to absorb any damage they take before their own health is touched. This spell has a very long duration, so if your party has scouted ahead and knows a fight is coming you can cast this proactively and have your allies begin combat immediately as polymorphed beasts (which are likely as strong as or stronger than your party’s martials, and certainly more durable due to the massive health pool despite low AC), to save you from having to use your action in combat.
Vitriolic sphere – This helps us against those fiery creatures that might have started to pop up. In general vitriolic sphere outdoes fireball in damage when cast at the same level, but the former loses more damage when the enemy save chance increases, and has delayed damage. Consider the situation and evaluate whether fireball is likely to kill the enemies before their turn.

Level 8 Strategy

In general, your highest level slots should be saved for emergencies, and as you level, your second-highest level slots open up a bit to be used in moderately difficult encounters. This level is no exception. Web should be your go-to, with sleet storm and fireball as options for encounters that need them, and polymorph on an ally or a combination of Hexblade’s Curse and magic missile should be your trump cards.
Some other staple options for polymorph are the Tyrannosaurus rex, huge giant crab, and sperm whale.

Level 9: Wizard (Wizard 8, Warlock 1)

Ability Score Improvement – +2 Int. There are many highly competitive feats, but Intelligence makes our spells approximately 10% more effective and gives us an additional spell preparation, which is great. We now have 20 Intelligence.

Spell Changes: +dimension door, +summon greater demon.

Dimension door – Teleport up to 500 feet with few restrictions, bringing a willing creature with you if you like. Sometimes you need to get out of dodge and/or rescue an ally.
Summon greater demon – Drop a greater demon right behind the enemies you’re fighting and make sure your allies keep the enemies between you and the demon you have summoned. Even if you drop concentration or it makes its Charisma saving throw against you, as long as another non-demon is in between you and it, by Rules As Written, it’ll go after the other thing first. Immediately order it to give you its true name when you summon it for disadvantage on its saving throw to escape.

Level 9 Strategy

Some options for summon greater demon that are especially interesting:

Barlgura – Barlgura are great for brawling scenarios due to their Reckless feature together with 3 attacks with Multiattack. In these scenarios, they mostly outclass the similar tanarukk. Remember, Multiattack works off turn if you hold your action, it just doesn’t for opportunity attacks.
Babau – This bad boy can fit so many nice spells in it. The at will capability to cast dispel magic is bound to come up, and will be incredibly useful when it will.
Dybbuk – Exploration pillar? Begone! This demon gets dimension door at will with some extra goodies of fear and phantasmal force 3/day each. Dimension door at will is just incredible for moving the party quickly (which makes it a great planar binding option). Another thing of note is that the dybbuk loses its Magic Resistance trait while possessing a corpse, so keeping some bodies around could lengthen your control over it.
Vrock – You can access this with a 5th level casting of summon greater demon. In general this is not too interesting, but it can make for an incredible mount when combined with planar binding. “Nice vrock bro.”
Later we can summon a glabrezu or master of cruelties and planar bind those.

Level 10: Wizard (Wizard 9, Warlock 1)

Spell Changes: +animate objects, +wall of force.

Animate objects – Animate ten silver coins which together can deal impressive single-target damage. Your 5th level slots should be reserved for wall of force by default, but occasionally focused damage might be a better option against enemies too large for wall of force for example. Be mindful of immunities and resistances to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks; silver coins can potentially get you past some of these, but against other enemies animate objects will be a waste of your best slot. The most important thing here is to stay disciplined and avoid using your 5th level slots when they’re not necessary to defeat an encounter. Dealing big damage with animate objects is flashy and cool, but it’s not worth being caught without a wall of force later in an encounter where you need it.
Wall of force – Create either a wall, a sphere, or a dome of indestructible force which cannot be dispelled and gives enemies no saving throw to avoid or escape. This spell is absolutely game-changing, and will open up the possibility of defeating enemies that would be otherwise unrealistic. The typical use of this spell that most players are aware of is splitting an encounter into two much easier ones. Many also know about the technique of “microwaving” enemies by locking them in a wall of force with an ongoing damage effect such as sickening radiance. Depending on the situation, any of these techniques can allow your party to win an encounter with little risk and no saving throws, which is why wall of force is a Wizard’s ultimate weapon.

Level 10 Strategy

The big game-changer here is wall of force. Before, you were limited in the CR of enemies that your party could take on. Now, those limitations have changed, and you must keep an eye out for size, teleport actions, and other abilities which might allow powerful enemies to circumvent your wall of force spells.

Level 11: Wizard (Wizard 10, Warlock 1)

Empowered Evocation (School of Evocation feature) – Another buff to our evocation prowess. We can now add our Intelligence modifier to one damage roll of your Wizard evocation spells that you cast.
It is now time to talk about how this interacts with magic missile, as many see this feature’s combination with Hexblade’s Curse as the reason to play the Hexvoker. To start, we don’t actually believe this is really the case, the main reason to play the Hexvoker is to excel at blasting with 19/24 AC (without and with shield respectively). This is not to say that we aren’t using magic missile, or combining it with these features, but it is incredibly overhyped. Now, for the actual mechanics behind this: Empowered Evocation adds your Intelligence modifier to one damage roll of a spell, and Hexblade’s Curse adds your proficiency bonus to any damage rolls against the cursed target. The big question now is: How many damage rolls does magic missile have? Rules As Written it is clear what happens when targeting multiple creatures:

Which means both Empowered Evocation and Hexblade’s Curse (to the cursed target) apply. However, it is unclear what happens when targeting only one creature. Jeremy Crawford has stated that it is one damage roll either way, which could be seen as intent, but it is not stated anywhere in the Sage Advice Compendium or Player’s Handbook. If your DM rules that it will be multiple rolls of 1d4+1 when targeting only one creature, you actually do more damage with and without Hexblade’s Curse when sending one missile towards a secondary target to force only one damage roll to proc Empowered Evocation on all instances of damage.
Assuming you can add your Intelligence modifier to the damage when focussing only one target, your third level magic missile now outdoes fireball with both Hexblade’s Curse and Empowered Evocation when the fireball would hit 2 targets with 62 vs 40 damage. However, against 4 targets, fireball does a solid 68 damage. This is with the same assumptions as when we described a similar comparison with just Hexblade’s Curse at level 6.
All in all this is a solid increase to our magic missile nova strategy, but fireball, wall of force and our other high value spells are still our bread and butter.

Spell Changes: +contact other plane, +counterspell, +mending.

Contact other plane – If you can succeed a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw, gain the chance to ask a knowledgeable extraplanar entity 5 questions to which they will respond with one-word answers. With a Paladin in the party, it should eventually be possible to automatically succeed on the saving throw, but even if you can’t, there’s no reason not to cast this every night or very early morning, since the negative effects of the spell wear off after a long rest.
Counterspell – Attempt to negate the casting of an enemy spell using your reaction, e.g. someone casting shield for your magic missile. A powerful counter to other spellcasters. However, be mindful that they may be able to counterspell your counterspells, so it’s best to have at least two counterspell casters in the party. You should also be aware of your own ability to counterspell enemy counterspells. This spell has its own tactics which deserve their own article, but in short, it’s limited by range, line of sight, and the use of a reaction. Casters can circumvent it by casting from afar, by readying a spell from cover and then stepping out to release it, or by taking away their opponent’s reaction (such as with multiple counterspells). As a final thing to keep in mind, more and more creatures are getting “spell-like” abilities instead of spells which cannot be counterspelled, making counterspell less commonly useful.
Mending – While you shouldn’t heal people too often, heal objects as much as you want.

Level 11 Strategy

All our big blasts just became better, keep this in mind when you decide what to do with your resources.

Level 12: Wizard (Wizard 11, Warlock 1)

Spell Changes: +contingency, +scatter.

Contingency – Set up a spell of 5th level or lower which affects only you to go off when some trigger occurs. Dimension door is a staple choice for personal defense. A good trigger is “when I wink three times within one second or am unwillingly rendered unable to do so.”
Scatter – Cause creatures you can see within 30 feet of you to be teleported to a point on the ground or floor that you can see within 120 feet. Unwilling creatures get a Charisma saving throw. This is a great way to get the entire party out of dodge while simultaneously shunting enemies away. It can also shunt enemies into a wall of force or other hazardous effects.

Level 12 Strategy

We’ve gained more ways to escape from sticky situations. Scatter can also be used offensively, but really, our default use of our 6th level slot should be wall of force. Since we can potentially cast wall of force four times in a day now, we can be a bit more proactive about casting it to save the party other resources.

Level 13: Wizard (Wizard 12, Warlock 1)

Ability Score Improvement (Feat) – Alert. A hefty initiative boost, that we can use to better place some of our spells before enemies scatter out. Going first is big for any controller, because it’s often the difference between a monster getting 1 turn where they can be effective and 0 turns. Surprise is also a big party killer, so having the controller immune to that is great. Unseen attackers not getting advantage against you is also another nice benefit.

Spell Changes: +magic jar, +sickening radiance.

Magic jar – Possess a humanoid indefinitely, gaining most of their statistics while maintaining your own class features. Keep in mind that you do lose your own racial features, importantly our starting feat (Resilient (Con), but it is often worth the trade-off. Notable features to gain in general include higher Dexterity and Constitution scores, heavy armor proficiency, more hit points, and spellcasting. Just keep the gem close by, and be mindful of dispel magic. Our Flagship Chronurgy Wizard goes in more detail as to what creatures are strong contenders to be used with this spell (and some neat tech!), but to summarize: keep your eyes open for strong martial enemies or ones with spellcasting. If you can capture a strong humanoid you can gain a lot of power by using this spell! When you do, consider swapping this out for another spell. Here you can find a video by Treantmonk’s Temple on the spell, which is an excellent primer. Stay tuned for a Spell Spotlight on this in the future, as there is still a lot more to talk about!
Sickening radiance – Use this in a room with only one exit, or in combination with wall of force. You can exclude 5 creatures with this using Sculpt Spells that are in the area when you cast this spell for its entire duration. This works neatly with Overchannel, which we are getting in a couple of levels.

Level 14: Wizard (Wizard 13, Warlock 1)

Spell Changes: +forcecage, +simulacrum.

Forcecage – Create a box or cage of indestructible force which can’t be dispelled. This isn’t so much of a game changer as wall of force, since we already have the latter, but forcecage doesn’t use concentration and can hold slightly larger creatures, so it makes for an even more powerful option. Oh, and creatures who attempt to escape using teleportation or interplanar travel have to make a Charisma saving throw or waste the use of the spell or effect.
Simulacrum – For a bit of money, play as two characters. Seriously, that’s what this spell does. It’s a bit expensive, but you shouldn’t have a problem paying for the material components at this level—the average level 11-16 treasure hoard contains over 30,000 gp. This spell is one of the biggest reasons why Wizards dominate at high levels even compared to other casters.

Level 14 Strategy

The biggest thing here is that you are now two characters. Take some time to think of spell combinations that you can use with your simulacrum and a preparation list for it which could include spells that you don’t prepare. We can do about 160 damage in a turn if both you and your simulacrum cast magic missile at fourth level and use Hexblade’s Curse. Pretty good nova.
If money is a limiting factor, you should use your own spell slots before using your simulacrum’s, since theirs don’t recharge. However, if you’re flush with gold (which you should be) or your simulacrum is low on hit points, you should use their resources before your own since they might be destroyed.
Your resource management should be focused around your wall of force and forcecage slots. It is often worth several lower level castings to save a wall of force.

Level 15: Wizard (Wizard 14, Warlock 1)

Overchannel (School of Evocation feature) – We get even better at blasting. We can now maximize the damage of evocation spells from 1st to 5th level once per long rest without any side effects. After this, we take some hefty damage, and we would in general suggest you don’t do this unless it makes the difference between victory and defeat.
You get the most bang out of your buck by using this with spells that inflict damage over time, as this buff applies to every single one of its damage instances (clarified to be RAW by Jeremy Crawford). However, as with a lot of synergies we have pointed out in this article, don’t overfocus on this strategy. It is a buff, but not something to completely alter your gameplan for.

Spell Changes: +mirage arcane, +plane shift.

Mirage arcane – This is a truly insanely potent spell, because the illusions it creates is interacted with physically, and there is no restriction on the kind of interactions. Lower level illusions such as major image specify that the illusions can’t do damage, while this limit is removed on mirage arcane, and in fact, Jeremy Crawford has said the design intent that this spell can have real, physical, and even lethal effects. With a range of sight and an affected area of a mile, you can use this spell to create a complex net of adamantine walls, pitfalls hundreds of feet deep, lava pools, difficult terrain, and other creative uses to absolutely demolish any tactical advantage your enemies might have. It even works on enemies with Truesight! This lasts for 10 days, but feel free to prepare it on adventuring days as well. We discuss some other questions on this spell that may arise at your table in this article.
Plane shift –Take your party to a general location of your choice on another plane (which requires a tuning fork attuned to that plane, whatever that means). You could also try to send an enemy to another plane, but that shouldn’t be your primary use of this spell. This spell serves as both an escape plan for the party and a way of getting around. It’s better than teleport because it doesn’t have a chance of failure, and you can use it to go somewhere on the plane that you’re on by entering the extradimensional space of a rope trick first, as you are no longer on the same plane.

Level 16: Wizard (Wizard 15, Warlock 1)

Spell Changes: +antipathy/sympathy, +maze.

Antipathy/sympathy – Use antipathy to make anyone who carries the item you cast it on into walking control machines, making creatures of a certain type have to succeed on a Wisdom save once they get within 60 feet or be frightened of the target and as such be unable to approach any further, which spells doom for most creatures. Its long duration means you can have multiple castings for different creature types stocked up.
Maze – Send a target to an extradimensional maze with no saving throw. Attempting to return requires an action and a DC 20 Intelligence check. This is for those very special creatures who need to be put in time-out and can’t be trapped in a wall of force or forcecage.

Level 16 Strategy

Even with 8th level spells, forcecage is still our most impactful option in a fight. If you still have an 8th level spell slot at the end of the day, start collecting a variety of antipathy/sympathy items, one for each creature type you might face.

Level 17: Wizard (Wizard 16, Warlock 1)

Ability Score Improvement (Feat) – Lucky. This gives us a way to reroll critical saves that we fail the first time. We can use this for important concentration saves, but we will likely be using this on failed mental saves. Keep in mind that rerolling a failed saving throw in which you have a high chance to succeed is more reliable than one in which you have a low chance to succeed.

Spell Changes: +mind blank, +sunburst.

Mind blank – Gain immunity to psychic damage and a variety of scary effects for 24 hours. Rest cast this every day.
Sunburst – A gigantic area of effect spell with a decent rider effect. This works with Sculpt Spells, allowing you to exclude 9 people. Boom boom bakudan.

Level 18: Wizard (Wizard 17, Warlock 1)

Spell Changes: +true polymorph, +wish.

True polymorph – Turn a creature into another creature, a creature into an object, or an object or into a creature, potentially indefinitely. Many people think wish is the best spell in the game, but true polymorph gives it a run for its money. Check out the Flagship Wizard build for some true polymorph discussion.
Wish – This lets us cast any spell, on any list, of 8th level or lower, with a single action and no material component cost. Using wish to cast simulacrum saves you 12 hours and 1500gp, and that’s just the start of what you might use this for. However, unless the campaign is about to end, don’t fall into the trap of trying to use this for anything other than casting other spells, as few if any uses are worth the 1 in 3 chance that you give up the use of this spell forever. We have Spell Spotlight on wish here.

Level 18 Strategy

This is it! You’ve won D&D. You have a new ultimate resource, bigger and badder than all the ones you’ve had previously, which is your 9th level slot. By this point you can cast spells like wall of force and animate objects relatively freely and throw out fireballs, vitriolic spheres, and magic missiles with abandon.

By this point, the resource management game is almost completely focused on your high level slots, which can evoke effects without saving throws. Think carefully before committing to a forcecage or maze.

Look around at your party. Would an adult silver dragon be more effective than what they are bringing to the table now? Time to very carefully convince them to embrace their new form. Wouldn’t that be fun?

From here on out, your spell choices don’t matter all that much, but for the purposes of this guide we’ll be taking a lot of 9th level spells. The reason for this is simple: you’re exceedingly unlikely to be able to find the best 9th level spells from spellbooks, while lower level spells are likely to be more accessible by this level in the average game. Feel free to change out some of these choices and preparations based on your campaign; for example, you might have scribed some lower level spells like stone shape that you’d prefer to prepare instead.

Level 19: Wizard (Wizard 18, Warlock 1)

Spell Mastery – magic missile, locate object. Here you get to choose a 1st level spell and a 2nd level spell to be able to cast at will, which you can switch with 8 hours of downtime. For your 1st level pick, we recommend magic missile, allowing us to inflict solid damage basically as a cantrip thanks to the Empowered Evocation feature. Some notable alternatives would be absorb elements or shield. The latter we have prepared through Warlock, but might still be worth it for you. For your 2nd level pick, we recommend locate object because being able to spam locate object at will is insane. You could instead pick rope trick here for a more straightforward power choice.

Spell Changes: +meteor swarm, +planar binding.

Meteor swarm – Deal a lot of damage to a lot of creatures, which works with Sculpt Spells (you can exclude 10 creatures). Sometimes some giant meteors falling from the sky is the solution.
Planar binding – You can use the spell to bind a summon from another player, or an extraplanar monster the party deliberately knocked out instead of killed. With our spell slots we can very quickly amass an army with enough downtime and castings of this spell. It can be difficult to bind your own summons with this spell as most summons last an hour and this spell takes an hour to cast, causing your summon to depart 6 seconds before you finish the casting. Talk with the rest of your table to make sure you aren’t capturing too many abyssal chickens and such, as an army of extraplanar allies can sometimes be too much for games.

Level 20: Wizard (Wizard 19, Warlock 1)

Ability Score Improvement (Feat) – War Caster. Advantage on saving throws to maintain concentration can be useful for when we take a lot of damage at once and can’t automatically succeed. If you don’t have a source of consistent temporary hit points yet, like a Twilight Cleric, consider picking up Inspiring Leader instead, as surprisingly we meet its prerequisite of 13 Charisma as a Wizard.

Spell Changes: +foresight, +glyph of warding.

Foresight – Gain advantage on everything for eight hours. This is an excellent rest cast, so you shouldn’t feel bad about leaving 9th level slots unused.
Glyph of warding – The main use of this spell is placing them at strategic locations, such as inside portable spaces like a Genie’s Vessel, bag of holding or a demiplane spell. Upon triggering the glyph, you can then activate the spell(s) and give you or your allies a desired spell effect without using any spell slot or concentration.