Current Build Summary
Variant Tiefling War Magic Wizard 4 | INT 20 (+5) | Spell save DC 15 | DEX 18 (+4) | HP 35 | 280 gp
Prepared: Silvery Barbs, Shield, Magic Missile, Fog Cloud, Feather Fall, Mage Armor, Misty Step, Mirror Image, Web Also in the book: Tenser's Floating Disk, Identify, Find Familiar, Scorching Ray Cantrips: Fire Bolt, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Toll the Dead Feat: Skill Expert Carrying: Cloak of Protection, Enduring Spellbook, Staff, Potion of Healing
INT 20 at level 4 with DC 15 is as good as this tier gets, and the prepared list is genuinely well built — Shield, Silvery Barbs and Mirror Image are three of the best defensive options in the game and he has all of them.
What He Is Already Doing Right
Worth saying plainly, because most of this guide is small refinements rather than corrections.
Silvery Barbs is the strongest first-level spell in the game and he is the only one in the party carrying it. As a reaction, force a creature that succeeded on an attack, save or check to reroll and take the lower result — then give an ally advantage. It cancels crits.
The Cloak of Protection gives +1 AC and +1 to every saving throw. On a d8-hit-die caster holding concentration, the save bonus is the more valuable half.
Fog Cloud won the June fight outright when Ogre C threw a javelin blind and killed Ogre B. The chain reaction in the barracks was his too.
Priority Changes
1. Mage Armor Should Already Be Up
Mage Armor sets AC to 13 + DEX, which for him is AC 17, and it lasts eight hours. With the Cloak of Protection that is 18.
It is prepared. Cast it during a long rest, not when combat starts — spending a first-level slot and an action in round one on something that should have been up for hours is the most common wizard mistake, and it costs a full turn.
Check it is active before every push into a new room.
2. Web Is the Best Thing He Has Prepared and It Has Not Been Cast
A 20-foot cube of difficult terrain; anything caught must pass a DC 15 DEX save or be restrained, and it lasts an hour on concentration.
Restrained means attacks against them have advantage, their attacks have disadvantage, and their speed is zero. Against goblins in a corridor that is a fight ended before it starts.
It is also flammable — any fire damage burns it away and deals 2d4 to anything inside. He has Fire Bolt and Scorching Ray. Web then Fire Bolt is a two-turn combo nobody in this party has run yet.
The one caution: it competes with Fog Cloud and Mirror Image for concentration, so decide before initiative which one this fight wants.
3. Prepare Scorching Ray Over Feather Fall
Scorching Ray is three separate 2d6 fire rays, each individually targeted. Thirty-something damage on a good roll from a second-level slot, split however he wants across a group — and it triggers Web.
Feather Fall is a reaction to falling, which has not happened in five sessions and which the party can generally see coming.
Spell Usage
| Spell | Usage |
|---|---|
| Shield | Reaction, +5 AC until his next turn. Cast it after seeing the roll — it turns hits into misses. |
| Silvery Barbs | Reaction, on any enemy success. Best used on a crit or a saved-against control spell. |
| Mirror Image | Three duplicates, no concentration. Cast it early against anything that makes multiple attacks. |
| Magic Missile | Auto-hit, no roll. The answer to a nearly-dead enemy, and the answer to anything with high AC. |
| Misty Step | Bonus action, 30 feet. Escape, not mobility — he is the squishiest target in the party. |
| Web | See above. The most underused spell on the sheet. |
| Fog Cloud | Blocks line of sight both ways. Enemies without a plan suffer more from it than the party does. |
Shield and Silvery Barbs both want his reaction, and he only gets one per round. Shield protects him; Silvery Barbs protects anyone. In practice: use Shield when the hit is on him and would land, Silvery Barbs for everything else.
Arcane Deflection (War Magic) is a third claim on that reaction — +2 AC or +4 on a save, at the cost of no spells but cantrips on his next turn. That cost is steep with this prepared list; treat it as the option when a save would otherwise kill him.
Identify and the Backlog
He ritual casts Identify straight from the spellbook for no slot, and the party has a queue: the ring off the pile of bones that did nothing when Selena rubbed it, and the hundred-gold diamond ring off the second body.
Ten minutes each, no cost. It is the cheapest thing anyone in this party can do, and the bone-pile ring in particular has been carried around unexamined since the moment Selena picked it up.
Next Level-Up Plan
Level 5 brings third-level spells, and for a War Magic wizard the shortlist is short: Fireball, Counterspell and Hypnotic Pattern.
Given this party already has an established pattern of setting off large fires in enclosed spaces, and given what happened to the barracks, Fireball is thematically inevitable and tactically dangerous with a melee-heavy front line. Hypnotic Pattern ends fights without a single hit point of friendly fire.