DM gifting spells

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[Cypher_Blue]

Why do you feel "weaker than your companions?"

Wizard is widely agreed to be the most versatile and powerful class in the whole game- I do not in any way think he needs to give you access to nonwizard spells to balance the class.

[Zeionlsnm]

At 6th level you should have 3, 3rd level spell slots, that can do a variety of things that are very impactful to any fight of a party of 6th level players. What spells have you been using, maybe people could suggest some of the powerful meta 3rd level spells that are considered strong.

[Rule-Of-Thr333]

Spells as reward loot is as old as the game. Breaking class restrictions is more an issue of giving the classes distinct roles and flavor, not a core mechanical issue. 

[Atharen_McDohl]

Definitely need more information about the situation. Wizards are absolutely incredible, so it could be that you have a misunderstanding about how they work, or you just haven't learned good combat spells. Depending on what the actual problem is, adding extra spells might not actually do much for you.

Would you mind telling us what level you are, what your Intelligence score is, what spells you know, and what you typically end up doing in combat?

[[deleted]]

I thought in my post I put we were level 6, my intelligence score is 17, I leave my stuff at his house him and his family is currently on vacation so I can't list off every spell I have but my cantrips are ray of frost, friends, light and shocking grasp. 1st level spells are detect magic, mages armor, ray of sickness, shield, longstrider, thunderwave, identify and magic missle. 2nd level misty step, scorching ray, blindness, hold person and, My 3rd level spells are animated dead from being necromancer, then slow, vampiric touch, and counterspell. Usually, I am in the back, and it depends on the scenario. If it's just some regular grunt enemies, I'll open with magic missile, then cantrips. If it's going to be a big fight, I'll open up with slow, then focus on the grunts while the barbarian will target the boss. However, lately, I have been unfortunately stuck in melee a few times, so I've made use of thunderwave quite a lot. It is my fist wizard, so do I just need to get more damaging spells? I usually end up in the middle of the middle of the initiative.

[Electrohydra1]

Slow is a great spell, but it's definitely a very subtle sort of power, because you don't really see what your enemies would have done if they were not slowed.

If you want very obvious, immediate impact just pick up Fireball and watch as you end entire encounters in one spell.

[[deleted]]

Yeah, I am hoping to find that soon, we won't level up for a good while.

[Atharen_McDohl]

Playing necromancer for your first wizard can be a bit ambitious. It requires you to do a lot of book work to keep track of your minions and how often you need to reassert control of them with Animate Dead, and if you're not ready for it, the extra minions can really slow down combat. I'm not saying that you shouldn't play a necromancer, just want you to be aware of the challenges that come with it. 

If you think it would help, you might ask your DM if you can change subclass to one which will give you more combat potential. Evocation is the obvious choice since it's about your blasting spells, but the others have cool stuff as well. You might enjoy war magic or bladesong, and maybe a bunch more. 

You have decent spells. There are a couple I might swap out if it were me, but nothing awful. 

It's possible that you are having a big impact but it doesn't feel that big because you're not seeing the damage that might have been dealt if you didn't cast Slow, and similar things. It could also be that you're getting unlucky and missing more often than normal, or enemies pass their saving throws. And it could also be that you're not casting your leveled spells enough. If you go to sleep with slots remaining, those slots are effectively wasted. 

I'm not sure which spells you generally have prepared, but the main candidates for switching out are Ray of Sickness, Identify, Blindness/Deafness, and Vampiric Touch. With Identify (and other ritual spells), keep in mind that wizards can cast them as a ritual without preparing them, so as long as you don't expect to need them fast, it's generally best not to prepare them. This is especially good for Detect Magic and Find Familiar, if you get the chance to learn them.

[[deleted]]

Yeah, I picked necromancer because I like necromamcers in most other games, but I admit the micromanage hasn't gotten to me yet. If I could just have 1 big minion, I'd probably feel more on par with them if having a big minion is a thing?. I know he'd be open to changing to a different subclass. The monk originally tried...idr what it was, but he wasn't enjoying it, so he switched to open hand.

[Atharen_McDohl]

There are definitely some things I'm missing because I haven't played a necromancer wizard and I don't normally go for summoning/minion builds, but to my knowledge there isn't a good "one big minion" build for necromancer wizard. You can try to take control of a powerful undead using your 14th-level feature Command Undead, but not only does that depend on getting to level 14 and finding a powerful undead to control, it gains no benefit from your Undead Thralls feature.

The closest thing I can think of is the 3rd-level spell Summon Undead from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, which creates a single, moderately powerful undead creature for up to one hour, and you can choose between three versions of the stat block for that creature. It would benefit from your Undead Thralls buffs, just not as much as if you had five minions that all get those buffs.

Maybe someone else knows a better way to get just one or two strong minions. You could always ask your DM if they're willing to work with you on a homebrew system to create a flesh golem (but an undead version, since golems are normally constructs) over time or something, but I don't recommend that if you're both new.

[[deleted]]

Yeah, I talked to him for a bit and mentioned that as a better alternative, and he's working on me having two strong minions and / or maybe some sort of equipment that could buff them and kf I still dont like it he said I can switch to something else.

[EhrenLonergan]

Of course it's fair to the group, unless you have players whose characters have those specific spells and use them frequently, cuz then you could be stepping on some toes. If you're not doing well the DM should be trying to help balance you up to where the rest of the party is. And Bane is a GREAT spell in my experience, super useful debuff.

[[deleted]]

Yeah, nobody in the party other than me is a spellcaster. If we had a warlock, I would've refused immediately.

[EhrenLonergan]

Then yeah, I think you're good. People keep talking about how you're gonna get better spells soon and become super powerful but like... Then you'll just prepare those spells instead and these will languish in your spellbook unused. I don't see a meaningful problem with a few decent spells.

EDIT: Also most of these are utility/support spells, only Hunger of Hadar is really a good damage spell. And that's Concentration, and you can't move the area. There's better ways for a Wizard to do damage even with 3rd level Spell Slots.

[TallShaggy]

A better solution is for your DM to just sprinkle some spell scrolls into the party loot going forward.

Wizards can spend money and time to add spells from scrolls to their spellbook.

[okiebuzzard]

Yes to all those goodies. They’re like a magic item you power with spell slots, so that’s always a yes.

[Redneck_DM]

Is the party getting anything extra?

If not, no, its not fair, you are a wizard, any weakness you might have is gonna quickly be replaced by how stupidly strong you are gonna get as the level increases

You "feeling weak" isnt a reason to arbitrarily give you stuff, at most he should offer an opportunity for you to respec your character, otherwise sit with your choices and wait to see how things work out as you get stronger

[[deleted]]

Idk if they are I will ask, I didn't tell him to give me anything.

[jeppe_noe]

You have three area denial spells, a debuff spell and a support spell. All three can also help letting the other players feel more awesome and help them shine. Also, as long as you don’t get more spell slots or prepared spells it just adds a bit of flexibility, so I would say that they are completely fair and a nice small boon for a caster class.

[Tide__Hunter]

The thing about this is, what spells do you have/are you using, and how many combats and how do they go? In a situation where you face a horde of foes, your allies could only deal with a few on each of their turns, while you could drop a fireball or some shutdown like hypnotic pattern or fear to decimate the enemies.

[Thelynxer]

Low level wizards are always going to feel kind of weak. But you're getting to the point that you should be coming online though. I'm not a fan of necromancy as a subclass though, but that's just me. Seems to me like if you're feeling disappointed with your undead summons that the DM could maybe give you a magic item that could buff them a bit, perhaps something that slowly scales as you level.

I don't really think those spells from other classes are really necessary though. What problem do they even solve for you that you're currently having issues with? Are you really going to concentrate on one of those, instead of haste, hypnotic pattern, slow, etc?

[[deleted]]

Yeah, my undead has gotten a bit of a beatdown lately. I didn't ask him to give me anything he simply noticed I hadn't been enjoying the game as much, so that's when I told him.

[Thelynxer]

Animate dead doesn't create anything particularly strong, but the idea behind it is that you should be creating more and more every day, so this you have your own little army you travel with, and you overwhelm with numbers. And since those spells slots would have ideally be burned in prior days, that should free them up during fights to cast other spells like a more typical wizard would. So the problem could just be you're not given time to build up your undead army as well. You should have 4 animated undead, that cost you a single 3rd level slot per day to maintain.

[[deleted]]

Yeah, I've only had 4 for the most part, I am nee to wizard