School of Illusion Wizard 5E Guide | Rules, Tips, Builds, and More

The Player’s Handbook is home to all the basic schools of magic for Wizards to hone in on. Illusionists – practitioners of the School of Illusion – focus on tricking the wisest people that something is real. Perhaps you use your illusions to entertain children and adults alike. Maybe your illusions are used to calm the desperate or nervous. Perhaps you’re a more malicious spellcaster, and use your illusions to sow fear. In any event, illusionists are little more than entertainers. What would an adventuring party wish to do with one? Let’s discuss it in our Illusion Wizard 5E Guide!

Construct Your Reality: Illusion Wizard 5E

The Illusion school focuses on creativity. There is a single ability in this wizard school that gives your strict, mechanical benefits. All of the other abilities focus on making your illusions more impactful and harder to disbelieve. This subclass’s power, therefore, varies entirely with how good you are – and your GM is – at imagination.

Illusion Savant

Before anything else, you gain a Savant skill, specifically for Illusions.

Beginning when you select this school at 2nd level, the gold and time you must spend to copy a Illusion spell into your spellbook is halved.

Like the rest of this class, this ability is good depending entirely on your GM’s mercy. If you fight a Wizard and they drop a spell book, you might get some good options. Most Wizards might have Blur, or Mirror Image, or Invisibility. If you happen to run into an illusionist, or spend a lot of time in a library, you might find even more illusion spells at a discount.

But, if your GM is less willing to design spellbooks, then you must take it on yourself to learn these spells. Make sure you get the essential illusion wizard spells; the Images, Patterns, maybe even Phantasmal Force/Killer.

When learning spells, do remember you have a major weakness to creatures that cannot see illusions. Make sure you have basic damaging or controlling spells, like Fireball or Bigby’s Hand, so you can be useful against Constructs or Undead.

Improved Minor Illusion

At level 2, you buff a cantrip. This would normally be bad, and yet I can’t help but smile.

When you choose this school at 2nd level, you learn the Minor Illusion cantrip. If you already know this cantrip, you learn a different wizard cantrip of your choice. The cantrip doesn’t count against your number of cantrips known.

When you cast Minor Illusion, you can create both a sound and an image with a single casting of the spell.

How adorable! So, the first half of this ability is that you get to learn another cantrip. That’s not necessarily bad; your list of cantrips is quite limited, so getting an extra one is nice. Minor Illusion would normally be a potential waste of a cantrip slot, so you’re at least getting your school’s cantrip without spending a known slot.

And check that out, you get a sound and an image! That’s pretty substantial. Normally, you’d only get one or the other. Now you get 1 minute of creating a pretty decent effect. Hell, other than time, Minor Illusion now beats Silent Image! In some cases.

Minor Illusion has always been a potential problem solver, but now it can get real. A guard is more likely to investigate a child running down a hallway if he hears the laughter and footsteps and then sees something knocked over in that hallway. And goblins might be less willing to ignore a messy eater if they see a stolen empty plate and hear munching in the corner. This makes Minor Illusion go from a pretty optional aspect of the Illusion school to nearly 1st-level spell status.

Always raise this up when your party discusses ways that you can initiate a fight. With a simple cantrip, you can legitimately shape a battlefield, if only slightly.

Malleable Illusions

Admittedly, the Image spells have always been a bit flat. They aren’t really able to react to a new situation, for example. Well…

Starting at 6th level, when you cast an illusion spell that has a duration of 1 minute or longer, you can use your action to change the nature of that illusion (using the spell’s normal parameters for the illusion), provided that you can see the illusion.

Now they just can.

This is a pretty major game-changer for your Illusion spells in general. Minor Illusion can now be a full minute of a dynamic, shifting situation; if your GM interprets this ability in a certain way, you could basically do stop-motion animation for people or an object as a cantrip. Major Image could seem as real as talking with a real person. And Mirage Arcane can be a fantastic way to see an apocalypse or something.

There are limits to how good this is, especially if your GM is a bit of a sour puss. Having a reactable illusion doesn’t mean much if the creature sprints right through it right away in order to disbelieve. And if they make the Investigation check in the first place, you’re not gonna be in good shape.

But this is so cool, and can do so much interesting stuff! Consider looking at the non-Image spells that have a duration of 1 minute, like Simulacrum or Dream, and seeing what you can get away with.

Illusory Self

This is the only Illusionist ability that your GM can’t say “no, that doesn’t work” to. It doesn’t make it the best ability the school has, but it’s close.

Beginning at 10th level, you can create an illusory duplicate of yourself as an instant, almost instinctual reaction to danger. When a creature makes an attack roll against you, you can use your reaction to interpose the illusory duplicate between the attacker and yourself. The attack automatically misses you, then the illusion dissipates.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Dodge an attack once per short rest? That’s not bad. This ability doesn’t specify if you can see the result or not, so we’ll assume that this is a “you choose to expend this when the attack is made against you.” If your GM lets you know the result beforehand, that’s even better.

So then how good is a free dodge? Well, infinite AC isn’t too bad. This is infinite AC, but can also avoid crits. Only once per rest, sure, but that means you can guarantee you’ll dodge a devastating hit from the Terrasque, a Disintegrate, a massive boulder flying at you…

It’s unfortunate that this doesn’t let you dodge a spell being targeted specifically at you, but that doesn’t change too much. At this point in the game, your Frontliners should be familiar with combat, you should be Flying, and potentially invisible. Or, if your GM’s cool, you could use illusions to potentially make the monsters miss a few times first. You will want to use this the first time something makes a dangerous attack against you to just ignore it. Then, you’ll hope that your Cleric or Warlock will want to have a short rest soon-ish. Or just stand still, cross your arms, and say you won’t move until you get one.

Try to coordinate short rests, folks!

Illusory Reality

This ability is almost to the same level as the level 10 benefit, but that sourpuss GM we mentioned earlier could still ruin this.

By 14th level, you have learned the secret of weaving shadow magic into your illusions to give them a semi-reality. When you cast an illusion spell of 1st level or higher, you can choose one inanimate, nonmagical object that is part of the illusion and make that object real. You can do this on your turn as a bonus action while the spell is ongoing. The object remains real for 1 minute. For example, you can create an illusion of a bridge over a chasm and then make it real long enough for your allies to cross.

The object can’t do direct harm to creatures, nor can it deal damage. No illusions of a massive ballista for you! Which is actually super sad.

It shouldn’t be too hard to see how useful this is, even if it can’t deal damage. Now, when you cast an illusion of a cage around the goblins to fool them into thinking they’re trapped… They’re actually trapped. You can finally use illusions to lock down Constructs and Undead.

Also, have you heard about Wall of Stone? Well, now Wall of Stone can become a 15 ft wide block. As a 1st level spell. Nice.

Your GM’s sourpussness might stop you in some places. If they say the Wall of Stone you conjure from an Illusion is weaker than the spell, then that’s fair enough. But, remember that you can change the nature of your illusions as an action. That means you can reinforce that Wall of Stone with some steel!

The example that the guide gives is quite charming, and also really effective in saving 3rd level spell slots (for Fly). But, realistically, everyone should be able to fly by now. Think bigger! Put a window on a cell door and open it to escape imprisonment. Make an illusion of a king, cause him to die of a heart attack, and make his corpse real. Then cast another illusion to make him fade into the ether when the minute ends, allowing the real king to flee his castle! Nothing here says the object lasts as long as the illusion, right?

This spell has infinite roleplay potential and semi-infinite combat power. The world is finally your oyster… As long as your GM plays along.

Best Race for Illusion School Wizards

Illusion Wizards need high Intelligence, so people don’t just shake off their illusions. They’ll then want the defensive stats (Dexterity and Constitution) up; When people get angry that they were tricked, you want to be able to take the punch in the face.

Forest Gnome

Alright, this one might have been a little bit obvious… Even the school description mentions Gnomes!

The Forest Gnome is legitimately perfect for this school. +2 Intelligence, +1 Dexterity is a rare statline for any race, so you’ll be quite happy with that. You’ll be next to immune to any mental magic (like Maze), and Darkvision is useful for most campaigns. The Forest Gnome’s Minor Illusion cantrip comes for free, allowing you to get a “staggering” 7 cantrips. Finally, Speak with Small Beasts is adorable, and can add some realism to your low-level illusion shenanigans.

Besides, Gnomes have been illusionists since Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. You don’t wanna take that away from them, right?

Warforged

The Warforged, from Eberron: Rising from the Last War, aren’t as good as Gnomes, but make for good Illusionists. +2 Constitution’s not bad for survival, and that +1 can be put into Intelligence. Constructed Resilience and Sentry’s Rest combine to make you a valuable night watch (and, if your GM allows it, you can potentially concentrate on Illusions during the night!). Integrated Protection essentially adds +2 to your Dexterity without actually doing so, and Specialized Design gets two proficiencies under your belt.

Really great race, and you get the flavor that you’re actually making holograms, sci-fi style. That’s amazing.

Best Feats for Illusion Wizards

Wizards tend to prefer feats which focus on either improving their durability or slightly improving their casting utility. This gives them a handful of feats to choose from, though few Intelligence boosting feats are actually good for Wizards in 5E.

Illusion Wizards have a very minor issue with setting up their magic before a fight truly begins. Because of that, we actually recommend an extra feat that most Wizards don’t require. While we always suggest getting Ability Score Improvements before taking anything else, the following feats can be handy for a growing Wizard.

Alert

One of the original feats from the Player’s Handbook, Alert is usually a tough sell for a lot of Wizards. It comes with no +1s, which is always scary for a Wizard to dedicate itself to. In addition, it comes alongside two very situational benefits; immunity to the surprised condition and ignoring advantage on attacks against you for invisible or unseen targets. None of these are particularly powerful.

However, Alert does come with one massive upside. That is, it comes with a +5 to Initiative rolls. In terms of stats, this is almost like you just got +10 Dexterity (though, only for calculating your Initiative).

Spellcasters can do a lot with a +5 to Initiative. You’re going before most enemies with this, meaning you can set up devastating crowd control effects like Hold Monster, Hypnotic Pattern, or even Tasha’s Hideous Laughter before anybody else can perform an action. You could alternatively cast some buff spells, like Greater Invisibility or Fly, to set up for combat before anybody can threaten you.

This is basically the only bonus Alert actively applies, but it’s great for an Illusionist. Rather than hoping you don’t go last in a combat, you can basically guarantee a high mark. Then, you can set up your illusions and sculpt the entire fight in your image. For a class whose main charm comes from setting up an Illusion and then making parts of the illusion real, making sure you can actually put the illusions into place is a good idea.

Alert is not the most statistically diverse feat, but it comes with a lot of potential to set up before enemies act. For that reason, it works particularly well for an Illusion Wizard.

Cartomancer

Wizards just got a new toy to play with in The Book of Many Things; the Cartomancer feat. This feat has no stat boost, which is always a bit of a headache. But, what it does to improve your character is well worth it.

To start, you can use a deck of cards as a spellcasting focus. Sure! Moving on, you get a better version of Prestidigitation. This Prestidigitation has more options, as you can use it for many elements of stage magic and you can hide any magic in your cardplay. This conceals your components, though if you’re shuffling cards in front of suspicious targets, they might think you’re casting spells anyways.

The much better part of this feat is the Hidden Ace ability. Every long rest, you can imbue a card with a spell for which you have spell slots and are on the Wizard list. This allows you to cast any one spell as a bonus action from any part of your spell list.

This has a few upsides from the Metamagic Adept feat. The first is you don’t need to know the spell, it just needs to be on your list. While Wizards normally don’t have trouble learning magic, a poor group or a Wizard whose DM restricts scroll or spellbook access might want to occasionally access other spells.

Most Wizards would probably prefer Metamagic Adept. But, as an Illusion Wizard, this has so much fun flavor that we can’t help but recommend it.

Telekinetic

Telekinetic is the first feat on this list that we emphatically believe most Wizards should get earlier rather than later. That’s mostly due to the +1 to Intelligence that it gets. +1 Intelligence is perfect for most Wizards, usually turning a 17 at character creation into an 18. This means you can still get to 18 Intelligence at level 4 while taking an actual feat, which is perfect.

However, Telekinetic comes with two more bonuses, making it so incredibly useful for yourself. The first bonus is a Mage Hand which is invisible and requires no components. This benefit alters Mage Hand, making it a lot better. And it was already one of the best cantrips in the game! If that’s not enough, you can even extend its range by 30 feet. An invisible Mage Hand which few people can notice you cast with 60 feet of range is a recipe for shenanigans.

The final bonus for Telekinetic is a bonus action to push or pull people 5 feet, as long as they’re within 30 feet from you and are either willing or fail a Strength save. Strength isn’t the most commonly high saving throw, outside of gigantic monsters, so you’ll often be able to shove people around freely. And that’s really useful. A bonus action to do all of this is surprisingly handy, since it is forced movement. You can save an ally from melee range, put an enemy into an ally’s range, or make sure an enemy is within range of your Hypnotic Pattern.

Telekinetic is excellent, and well worth putting time and effort into obtaining.

FAQ for the Illusion Wizard

How Good is the Illusion Wizard?

The Illusion Wizard suffers quite significantly from being up to DM discretion and relying on the player’s ingenuity. In non-dungeon campaigns, the Illusion Wizard can more readily utilize their various abilities to mess with enemies and legitimately solve problems. In more standard campaigns, it requires both a strong player and understanding DM to make Illusions impactful. Many of them only grant some downsides to affected enemies, leaving a lot of the heavy lifting to the DM. It’s a solid school, but an admittedly risky one.

How do you make Illusion Spells more Powerful?

Working with your DM is the best way to make Illusions more powerful. A confident and strong DM will let you use well-placed illusions to legitimately trick enemies and sculpt fights in your favor before initiative is rolled. For newer or weaker DMs, you may need to consider instead using illusion magic with more standard effects, such as Fear or Hypnotic Pattern, to make yourself feel impactful.

What are Malleable Illusions used for?

Malleable Illusions are best used for out-of-combat situations or preying on known weaknesses of enemies. For example, if there is a story of a beautiful woman who turns into an evil hag in the woods, you could scare some enemies by turning an illusion of said woman into the hag. Or, you could use it to trick a group of enemies to go two different directions by changing an illusory sign’s direction into a new way without changing your spells.

Example Illusion Wizard Build

Before we dive into a standard Illusion Wizard build, we must first discuss any and all limitations that our DM imposes on us. And, for the purpose of this guide, our DM is going to be a bit more specific than most DMs will be.

• No Multiclassing. Our Wizard will be a Wizard until level 20. That’s fine by us, since it allows us to play with Signature Spells and Spell Mastery, two really cool but often ignored abilities.
• No Lineages. Wizards really, really benefit from Lineage rules. So, losing that hurts. We only have a few races with the ability to reach 17 Intelligence at level 1. If you are using a race with Lineage rules, we suggest getting at least +1 Intelligence, if not +2, when using this ruleset.
• Can use Any Book. As long as we don’t use Lineage rules, we can use any book for race or background choices. Sure, that’s nice, but we’re still very limited for races that have +2 Intelligence.
• Standard Array. Our ability score generation will use Standard Array, the most strict of the options. That’s because we just get to put 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8 into stats. For point buy, a Wizard actually likes to do 15, 15, 15, 8, 8, 8. We’ll be fine, though.
• Standard Equipment. Wizards only care about one piece of optional equipment, and that’s the Component Pouch. As long as you have that, it doesn’t really matter what else you pick.
• Our party is built of a Cleric, Ranger, and Fighter. A very damaging party. Our goal is going to be stopping groups of enemies from attacking our friends. Thankfully, the Illusion Wizard is definitely able to hold up groups of enemies at a time.

We really want our illusions to be effective right away. For that purpose, the Rock Gnome will be a useful choice. This version of Gnome uses the Tinker ability to fulfill some minor utility levels, while also utilizing Gnome Cunning to essentially gain immunity to magical mental saving throws. Gnomes aren’t the most versatile in the world, but for our sake, the +2 Intelligence is downright critical to making the build function.

For our background, Investigator from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is more than sufficient. The impressive skills of Investigation and Perception are perfect for a growing Wizard. In addition, Disguise Kits work great alongside Illusions… Though, Thieves’ Tools might be even more important. If that wasn’t enough, good use of the Feature can very quickly get your Illusionist into public records, and information is power.

In terms of skills, Wizards are one of two classes that are excellent at flexing the Intelligence skills. For that reason, we’ll take two very popular ones in Arcana and Religion.

The last thing to really consider, since equipment isn’t super important, are our ability scores. That 15, 14, and 13 are all quite important. They will be going into either Intelligence or the two most relevant defensive stats – Dexterity and Constitution. We want as many of those stats to be even as possible, so we’ll keep that in mind as we build.

5E Illusion Wizard Build

Race: Rock Gnome  Ability Scores: STR 8, DEX 14, CON 14 (13 + 1), INT 17 (15 + 2), WIS 12, CHA 10 Proficiencies: Arcana, Religion, Investigation, Perception, Disguise Kit, Thieves’ Tools Starting Equipment: Dagger, Component Pouch, Scholar’s Pack, Spellbook, Magnifying Glass, Old Note, Common Clothes, 10 gp Languages: Common, Gnomish

Level	Class Benefits	Choices
1	-Arcane Recovery -1st Level spells	We’re not quite out of things to select, thankfully! We’ve got a few more spellcasting abilities to work through.  Cantrips. As a Rock Gnome, we have too much Intelligence to really make good use of standard ranged options. As such, we’ll want to pick up an offensive cantrip like Mind Spike. It’s very consistent damage and sets up our spellcasting for later. For our utility cantrips, Message lets us communicate with our allies and Mage Hand lets us manipulate things from afar, which can work perfectly with our complicated illusions.  Spells. Our spell list is going to be relatively tight early on, so we want to make sure we have some big bases covered. For rituals, we really like Find Familiar and Identify, two abilities with intense scouting prowess. For our offenses, we want Mage Armor, Magic Missile, and Silvery Barbs. Silvery Barbs is very strong as a reaction, Mage Armor gives us some way to avoid damage, and Magic Missile is great guaranteed damage. For our last spell known, it’s good to scoop up Silent Image as a fine option for illusion magic. Especially if you can pair it with a good liar!  Note. For this guide, we can’t assume you’ll gather any spellbooks or scrolls to scribe into your spellbook. This means this guide will only go over 44 spells we think you should really consider. A normal Wizard will have dozens more, so be sure to keep your scrolls and captured spellbooks in mind as you level up.
2	-Illusion Savant  -Improved Minor Illusion	You now have your subclass. For our purposes, Illusion Savant can’t be reliably represented, but we do learn Minor Illusion and can cast it very easily. Minor Illusion is far from the strongest cantrip in the game, but it serves as an impressive lure or impromptu sign-making cantrip. Use it creatively and you might be impressed.  Spells. Two more first level spells. Let’s grab Shield as it is consistently useful into late game as well as Sleep. Sleep isn’t super impactful after level 3 or so, and requires some hardcore game knowledge to use predictably. But, a high roll can be extremely handy, and even at level 2, you can Sleep full health characters consistently.
3	-2nd Level Spells	2nd level spells will boost our damage potential considerably, which is very nice.  Spells. Maximilian’s Earthen Grasp will be our go-to damage option for the near future. Restrained is a terrifying condition, especially when our party is full to the brim with damage dealers. Our other option is more diverse and we’re going to go with a weird spell: Nathair’s Mischief. At character level six, this spell is going to become a must-have option which can force enemies to undergo multiple different types of crowd control.
4	-Ability Score Improvement	A feat level! What joy.  Feat. The feat that we’re going to choose is Telekinetic. This feat gives a +1 to Intelligence as well as strong cantrip and a great bonus action. Its exceptional flexibility is well-worth trying out, especially with our rather peculiar build.  Cantrip. A new cantrip comes along with Telekinetic. We’re going to scoop up Shape Water, since that cantrip can let you freeze water or move currents. This can solve a lot of problems.  Spells. Mirror Image is a great spell, letting us set up a defensive option before you get jumped during combat. In addition, Misty Step is a bonus action teleport which can be handy now and later, a rare feat for a 2nd level spell.
5	-3rd Level Spells	3rd level spells are really, really good for us. We have a few must-takes at this level. Fortunately, one of them is a very enjoyable spell for us.  Spells. Fireball is way too efficient for us to ignore. 8d6 is an absurd amount of damage. Major Image is the standard illusion spell for us, capable of overcoming most situations through a mixture of sounds, sights, and temperatures.
6	-Malleable Illusions	Malleable Illusions is a fantastic ability and one that is very hard for us to work with. Use Malleable Illusions to adjust your spells to their needed forms. For some illusions, like Nathair’s Mischief, this can mean altering your illusion’s effect to change what type of crowd control you have access to.  Spells. Some more third level spells of note and, sadly, most of them are more like taxes than actual spells we want to use. Fly is almost required if we want our melee damage dealers to stick to an enemy for any amount of time. Counterspell is one of the strongest reactions in the game. And, if you want your group to survive against spellcaster nukes, you’re going to want it sooner rather than later.
7	-4th Level Spells	4th level spells are overall less important than 3rd level ones. We also missed a key 3rd level spell, so we’re going to only learn a single option for 4th level for right now.  Spells. Wall of Fire cuts fights in half, preventing many creatures from effectively interacting with one another during the duration. Hypnotic Pattern is a 3rd level spell we neglected to grab. While in-theme for an Illusion Wizard, it is moreso a great way to stop enemies from interacting with your allies for a long time, potentially letting your party take out a big threat without any backup.
8	-Ability Score Improvement	Another feat level! Sadly, this one is going to be a bit more boring than our previous level.  Feat. We’re just getting +2 Intelligence, to 20. +5 to our DCs and attack rolls is perfect. We can’t expect much else out of our natural Intelligence progression, and getting to this point by level 8 is perfect. Spells. Greater Invisibility is an impactful spell for any subclass of Wizard. This is a great way to get out of danger, and you’ll be in danger unfortunately often. Banishment is a great way to choose a single target and tell them to get out of the way for a while. Targeting Charisma is excellent, and there aren’t really methods of dispelling a creature that doesn’t exist on the plane at the moment. A great crowd control spell for if your other options are off the table.
9	-5th Level Spells	5th level spells are largely just good fun for us. They finally eclipse level 3’s power entirely, giving us quite a few great options.  Spells. Creation is a fantastic use of spell slots in general, though our Illusion Wizard could theoretically make multiple creations from a single spellcasting. Hold Monster is an excellent way to take out a single target, something our Wizard is otherwise very poor at doing. Let’s help our Fighter land four crits in a row and take someone out!
10	-Illusory Self	Illusory Self is a fun ability which is a great use of our reaction. Shield is no longer as important of a spell, though Silvery Barbs remains useful as an aggressive reaction.  Cantrip. Our final cantrip isn’t very interesting. Mending can come in handy as we craft more and more items and our DM might be more and more interested in breaking some of our party’s fun toys.  Spells. Wall of Stone is a great way to back up your illusions with some actual health power. 180 health slabs are extremely time consuming to punch through. Summon Draconic Spirit is a conjuration spell, but one that is a consistent threat to your enemies. This dragon is annoying to deal with.
11	-6th Level Spells	6th level spells are difficult to rank. They are very powerful, but you only get one or two at a time. This goes for several higher spell levels as well.  Spells. Programmed Illusion is largely here for the flavor, but serves as a permanent illusion which you can set up for yourself. It’s also even more programmable than normal, since you can spend an action to change the illusion. Eyebite is an impressive option for combat, allowing you to spend actions to force Wisdom saving throws and knock people unconscious. A great combat option for our single spell per day.
12	-Ability Score Improvement	We’re out of Intelligence boosts, so now we get to choose some defensive options. Let’s touch on a few good ones and make a choice.  Feat. Our next feat will be +2 Constitution. Yes, nice and boring, but we want some boost to Constitution as well as some health at this point. This’ll be our last necessary defensive option, so our endgame feats can really let us spread our wings.  Spells. Globe of Invulnerability is a must-have for fighting enemy casters, since it is very difficult to interact with without spending gigantic spells or getting up close and personal. Contingency is a fantastic option for our Wizard, giving us plenty of setup opportunity… at a quite expensive price.
13	-7th Level Spells	7th level magic is even more restrictive than 6th level. However, it’s also fairly impactful.  Spells. Mirage Arcane is an exceptionally powerful illusion spell which always have reality aspects to it. It’s an incredibly potent spell which you can make even better through your abilities. Plane Shift is a great offensive or defensive spell, making it a great option for 7th level day-to-day activities.
14	-Illusory Reality	Illusory Reality is a powerful ability which vastly improves lower level magical options. Keep track of your options. Things like trapdoors and secret walls can be easily accessed.  Spells. Simulacrum is a potent spell for us, since we can theoretically change it between our Ranger or Fighter at whim. That’s a lot of fun, and it lasts until the illusion dies. And that’s going to be hard to do when we can simply change it. We’ll bounce back to lower level spells to get Dispel Magic, since keeping our Cleric online is of the utmost importance.
15	-8th Level Spells	We continue our rise to power, towards that Wish spell. Let’s look at some of the strong spell options here.  Spells. Illusory Dragon is both in-theme and very hard to deal with when the dragon can consistently re-form. Maze locks our target into a region where they don’t even get a saving throw to escape, and then have to hard-make Intelligence checks. That’s impossible for anyone to deal with.
16	-Ability Score Improvement	Feat. Feats at this level are going to focus more so on improving your magic, rather than trying to be purely defensive. Cartomancer is a fun feat recently released, so let’s play around with it. Enchant those cards with strong bonus action magic!  Spells. Our 8th level spells are fairly powerful, so we don’t really need to expand on them. Let’s instead go back in time just a bit. Rary’s Telepathic Bond and Teleport are two very strong options that we’ll need as campaigns grow more and more in scope, as they tend to do in level 16+ games.
17	-9th Level Spells	Finally. 9th level magic. There’s only one spell that we need at this level.  Spells. Wish is the strongest spell in the entire game and the only reason to ever cast a 9th level spell. Just in case we run into a problem in the near future with the strongest version of the Wish spell and can never cast it again, we can use True Polymorph to do things like turn our Fighter into a CR 20 Dragon in the future.
18	-Spell Mastery	Spell Mastery is a rarely gathered ability, due to how late game it is. But, it is immensely powerful and worth considering if you ever get to this point.  Spell Mastery. Silvery Barbs and Mirror Image are two spells we spam at all times, so they both work perfectly for Spell Mastery. Now, your first and second level spells can be used for more generic purposes, like Shield or Misty Step.  Spells. Arcane Eye serves as a good scout at this level, as does Scrying. Gathering information is basically the only weakness we have right now, so we should have them.
19	-Ability Score Improvement	Feat. Our final feat will be Metamagic Adept. With both Quickened Spell, Subtle Spell, and the Card magic with us, we’ll be really hard to keep from casting incredibly impactful magic. Just watch your health and make sure to cast strong defensive options as often as you can.  Spells. As for magic, we should be going back to see if there are any other spells available for us to use and abuse. Clone is a fun spell if you think a campaign will be going on for months at a time, and Hallucinatory Terrain is like a baby Mirage Arcane, which works for us.
20	-Signature Spells	Signature Spells are significantly weaker than Spell Mastery, funnily enough. However, it is still worth thinking a little bit about our 3rd level magic.  Signature Spells. Major Image and Counterspell are great options for us. We wanna cast these all the time.  Spells. These last few options should be very situational, but impactful in those situations. Charm Monster can solve fights easily and Etherealness is one of the better defensive options, even during endgame.

Conclusion – Our Take on the School of Illusion Wizard 5E

The Illusion school is a really, really cool one, but is almost completely reliant on your – and your GM’s – creativity. Illusions are a school that has a few creatures that are completely immune, so you can’t rely completely on it… At least until level 14, when you can become a fantastic combat controller. If you want to get creative with a GM you like, then you can get some value out of this subclass.