Order of Scribes 5E | Breaking Down the Wizard Subclass
With a brand new expansion comes all sorts of brand new content. Ranging from new potential storylines, items, and cool ways to alter your character’s playstyle. One of the more interesting things that the new expansion Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything has added is a handful of brand new subclasses. Which is always an exciting thing to jump into and mess around with when a new expansion comes around. And today we’re taking a look at a new subclass for the Wizard, the Order of Scribes. A fun and interesting route to making your wizarding adventures more exciting. So let’s jump right into all of the stuff that the Order of Scribes subclass adds!
Table of Contents
Order of Scribes Wizard 5E
So the first thing to note about this wizard 5E subclass is that it is almost entirely centered around knowledge. Which might be fairly obvious if you take a few seconds to look at the name. The Order of Scribes is a group of Wizards that record magical discoveries near and far. All in the name of discovery and knowledge. And as an extra little quirk, they don’t just use their personal book as you’d expect. They can actually awaken it and turn the book into a talkative companion!
Wizardly Quill
The first ability you gain access to in the Order of Scribes subclass is actually a pretty useful one. Even though it may not seem like it at first.
As a bonus action, you can magically create a Tiny quill in your free hand.
A 2nd-level feature that allows you to magically create a Tiny quill as a bonus action. Which might not seem very useful at first, but just wait. The quill itself doesn’t need any kind of ink to be used. You can write with it regardless of whether you have ink in your possession. Plus it can be whatever color you want it to be. Then, when copying a spell into your spellbook, the time to copy it equals 2 minutes per spell level when the quill is being used.
You also get to erase anything that you write with the quill by brushing the feathered end over the writing. This counts as a bonus action and the text has to be within 5 feet of you. Now the usefulness of this ability ultimately comes down to how clever you are with your character role play. There are a bunch of different circumstances where a magical quill could come in handy. And the ability to quickly copy spells into your spellbook is a nifty little tool.
Awakened Spellbook
Next up we’ve got another 2nd-level feature. Alright so this is where this subclass really starts to get interesting.
When you cast a wizard spell with a spell slot, you can temporarily replace its damage type with a type that appears in another spell in your spellbook, which magically alters the spell’s formula for this casting only. The latter spell must be of the same level as the spell slot you expend.
So this is a pretty interesting ability and can be a great help when you have a certain spell that doesn’t quite work for the situation. Essentially it lets you swap out the damage type, or in other words the element, of a spell with another spell in your spellbook. Which can be extremely useful if the spell that you want to use can more effectively attack/reach your target, versus a spell that affects the creature’s weakness but won’t be able to reach them successfully. There’s a lot of possible applications for an ability like this and can make way for some pretty interesting encounters.
It also has an extra ability, where when you cast a wizard spell as a ritual, you can use the spell’s regular casting time. Saving the need to add 10 minutes to the overall cast. And really this ability just makes the act of casting ritual spells much easier. But it can’t be used again until you’ve had a long rest. So you’ll want to be doubly sure that the spell you’re casting as a ritual won’t be a waste. And as an extra little benefit, the spellbook can be used as a spellcasting focus for your spells.
Manifest Mind
This next ability is a 6th-level feature for this subclass and has some really useful utility.
You can conjure forth the mind of your Awakened Spellbook. As a bonus action while the book is on your person, you can cause the mind to manifest as a Tiny spectral object, hovering in an unoccupied space of your choice within 60 feet of you.
So this skill is a very unique one and can lead to some really interesting moments during the game. You get to summon an apparition from your Awakened Spellbook that can take the form of a ghostly tome, a cascade of text or a scholar from the past. This spectral object also sheds a dim light in a 10 foot radius which can be useful if your party has found themselves in a dark cave with no light sources. Also since it’s a spectral object it won’t actually occupy it’s space because it’s intangible.
In terms of it’s more special abilities, it comes with a pretty useful one. It can use Darkvision with a range of 60 feet and can hear its surroundings. Which means it can relay information to you from a distance. Which is incredibly useful in dungeons that could be littered with traps or for scouting out any locations that you don’t want to risk setting foot into. And what makes it better is that it costs no action for it to relay information to you. So there won’t be any situations where it’s seen something dangerous and not had the time to tell you about it. It can also hover up to 30 feet to an area that both you and it can see.
Let’s get into its limitations now and of course there’s only a set distance it can travel away from you. It can travel up to a maximum of 300 feet away from you before it stops manifesting. But for most situations this might actually be enough to still be really useful. It can also only pass through creatures, not objects. So if there’s a locked room and you want to know what’s inside, this ability won’t be able to tell you unless you can visibly look into the room itself through a decent sized gap. If Dispel Magic is cast on the spectral mind, it stops manifesting and the manifestation of the Awakened Spellbook is destroyed. It also disappears if you die and you can also dismiss it voluntarily as a bonus action.
Master Scrivener
Next up is a 10th-level feature that offers up a useful utility for your character.
Whenever you finish a long rest, you can create one magic scroll by touching your Wizardly Quill to a blank piece of paper or parchment and causing one spell from your Awakened Spellbook to be copied onto the scroll. The spellbook must be within 5 feet of you when you make the scroll.
So this is a fairly simple ability but it’s still a great one in the right hands. Essentially it lets you copy a spell that you have written in your spellbook to any piece of paper or a kind of parchment. Letting you use that spell without expending a spell slot like you would normally. This of course only works if you have a piece of paper on hand to copy the spell to. This doesn’t mean that anyone can use the scroll and its use is strictly limited to you.
There are also limits to what you can place onto the scroll. It has to either be a 1st or 2nd level spell and have a casting time of 1 action. But once the spell has been placed onto the spell, its power is increased by one level higher than normal. So this ability can also be used to turn a weaker spell into a more powerful one for deadly foes. Using the scroll counts as an action and once you use it the spell disappears from the page and can’t be used again. It also disappears when you take a long rest without casting it. This skill also comes with the ability to make spell scrolls for half as much money and twice as fast. As long as you are using the Wizardly Quill to make it.
One with the Word
The final ability granted by the Order of Scribes is a fantastic defensive utility that can get you out of serious danger.
If you take damage while your spellbook’s mind is manifested, you can prevent all of that damage to you by using your reaction to dismiss the spectral mind, using its magic to save yourself.
What this ability does is let you use your Manifest Mind ability to take the damage that you would take during a reaction. Which is incredibly useful if you’re approaching near death and could die from another attack. As well as that you also gain advantage on all Intelligence (Arcana) checks.
But having the ability to simply save your life is actually not that simple. Instead, you have to trade a sacrifice for a sacrifice in this scenario. If you were to face an attack that you decide to block with this ability, you have to roll 3d6. Then with that number, you’d have to sacrifice spells that have a level equal to the roll. If the roll amounts to a number such as 4, you could discard two level-2 spells, or perhaps 4 level-1 spells. But if you don’t have enough spells with the levels to cover the outcome of the roll, you will drop to 0 hit points and die.
Now, this doesn’t mean that the spells are gone forever, they’ll actually reappear in your spellbook after you do a certain number of rests. The number is determined by rolling 1d6 and until you take those rests, you cannot use the spells that you sacrificed. A fairly heavy cost but in a life or death situation it’s the best option you’ll have.
Best Types of Characters for Order of Scribes
So you’ve probably gone through each of the abilities that we’ve shown you here and might be wondering if this is the subclass for you. But obviously it tends to favour certain kinds of characters over others. So we’re just going to highlight a couple of the key traits that your character should possess if they’re going to join the Order of Scribes.
A Thirst for Knowledge
So purely from a roleplay perspective, your character should have a desire to learn and seek knowledge. It needs to be one of their defining traits and the main motivation. Since attaining new knowledge is so vital for the subclass to work well. You’ll want to make sure that you have the History, Arcana, Insight and Investigation are all skills that will greatly benefit this subclass.
Be Intelligent
This probably goes without saying but 5E Wizards with low Intelligence don’t tend to get very far. And even though they try their best they can find themselves facing difficulties here and there. So your character should have a decent number of points allocated to their Intelligence. Wizards should aim to have a high Intelligence in order to power their spells, but also this subclass has a few abilities that are driven by the Intelligence score. Just bear in mind that you should be Intelligent to go with this subclass.
Best Feats for Scribes Wizard
An Order of Scribes Wizard is one of the most versatile damaging spellcasters in the game, and has the potential to write many different spells in a very short period. As a result, getting to 20 Intelligence is the most important thing any Scribes Wizard can do.
That being said, late-game feats can help round out your Wizard’s toolkit. Feats prepare them for inevitable chip damage, strange magical threats, or give them the extra utility you’ll need to make them solid. While boosting ability scores will always be a good idea, here are a few feats worth considering.
Metamagic Adept
Metamagic Adept is known as one of the best, as well as one of the most limited, options for a growing caster. That’s because it comes with 2 Sorcery Points and two Metamagic options, which usually means the feat only comes online once or twice per day. However, for a Scribes Wizard, once or twice a day is all you really need.
2 Sorcery Points sounds like a hellish limitation, and it truly is. Unlike a Sorcerer, a beneficiary of Metamagic Adept is stuck with only using Metamagic on a maximum of two spells per day. That being said, Metamagic is such a gigantic boost for spellcasters that a once-per-day limitation is perfectly fine.
For your Metamagic options, we can’t recommend Quickened Spell enough. Quickened Spell converts any spell into a bonus action, which means your standard action can be saved for cantrips, basic actions like Hide or Dash, or anything else you can come up with.
Your other Metamagic option should depend on what kind of wizard you’re wanting to make. Distant Spell can add much-needed range to impactful options, potentially saving your Wizard a turn of movement. Extended Spell can be handy for keeping debuffs or summons online for longer. Subtle Spell can be a great way to dodge Silent Spell or other dangerous options. These all have merits, though we tend to prefer Distant Spell for outranging enemy spellcasters or getting your allies help in their time of need.
Be ready to occasionally be disappointed in Metamagic Adept, since only being able to cast one or two buffed spells can seem underwhelming. But, when Metamagic Adept lands, it can be party-saving. Time your points well and you’ll be the strongest caster in the game.
Resilient (Constitution)
Resilient is a basic feat from the Player’s Handbook which grants a +1 to Constitution and grants proficiency in Constitution saving throws. For the purposes of Wizards, being proficient in Constitution saves is normally whatever. But, when you take chip damage in late-game, being able to definitively avoid easily losing your Concentration is very good.
That being said, Resilient can be a bit of a hindrance. Realistically, this feat is best when you have an odd amount of Constitution, such as coming out of character creation with 13 or 15. In those cases, Resilient is about as good as an Ability Score Improvement for Constitution +2. And you get the saving throw proficiency on top!
In most other situations, Resilient is hard to work with. Wizards can’t just rely on a good Constitution saving throw; you have to bring other defensive tools to the table, or else you’ll be a splat on the wall. Use Resilient alongside strong spells like Misty Step, Mirror Image, and Greater Invisibility to minimize your chances of getting hit significantly.
War Caster is a feat worth considering only for Wizard multiclasses. If you’re just getting it for advantage on Concentration checks, don’t. Resilient does about the same for your Wizard and lets you take other +1 Constitution feats in the future, like Chef. Tough is on the opposite end of the durability spectrum, but if you’re worried about pure health, Wizards can benefit just as much from a cast of False Life.
So, Resilient is probably the best purely defensive feat of the bunch. Work it into your build if you want to be a bit safer on the battlefield.
Telekinetic
The telekinetic feat is a very common feat for any Wizard wanting to round out their Intelligence, and for great reason.
The first benefit of Telekinetic is a +1 to Intelligence. This is small, but many Wizards can afford to start the game with 17 Intelligence for both Standard Array and Point Buy setups. That means, with just one feat, you’re at 18 Intelligence and ready to get to 20 INT by the next feat level. You’re keeping up with every other caster, and you get the benefit of getting yourself some good benefits.
The first one is Mage Hand. Well, it’s a better Mage Hand, since it’s invisible and you don’t need to show that you’ve cast it. An invisible, uncastable Mage Hand is very good, since the biggest weakness of the spell was how obvious it was in situations where you needed subtlety. If you already know Mage Hand, then you can bump your Mage Hand’s range to 60 feet. That’s both hilarious and rather useful, since a 60 foot invisible interaction button which nobody knows you’ve casted is handy in many situations.
The other benefit is a push or pull, targeting a creature within 30 feet, with a Strength saving throw to negate. Allies can fail it for free, and the push or pull is by five feet. Five feet doesn’t sound like a lot, but you can very easily manipulate frontline engagements using this feat. A Fighter out of range of a Wizard by a measly five feet? Give it a push. Your squishy Warlock getting jumped by an Ogre? Pull them out of range. And you can still use this to push on enemies to line them up for spell effects.
This feat is so neat, and a great way to round out any caster’s mental stats.
FAQ for the Scribes Wizard
Can Scribes Wizards Copy Spells for Free?
Unfortunately, even with their Magic Quill, Order of the Scribes Wizards still must pay the full price to copy down spells. The Scribes effects only improve their ability to write spells in their spellbook and reduce the cost it takes to create scrolls, given you have the Master Scrivener feature. It does not help with the price to learn new spells, nor does it make it easier to find new spells out in the world.
Is the Order of the Scribes Good for Wizards?
The Order of Scribes subclass is a fascinating Wizard subclass with a lot of legitimately impactful utility. It has access to Transmute Spell for free, can summon a familiar for free, and is incredibly potent at creating scrolls. It can even defend itself from large amounts of damage, albeit at a cost, which can keep your Wizard in the fight. While not the strongest subclass available, the amount of utility that a Scribe brings to the table is well-worth your time.
How Does Awakened Spellbook Work?
Awakened Spellbook serves three unique benefits: The ability to use your Book like a staff, the ability to transmute spell’s damage types, and the ability to quick-cast a Ritual spell once per day. In order to change the damage type, you must know another spell at the level of the casted spell. For example, in order to change the damage type of a Level 3 Scorching Ray to Lightning damage, you would need to know a spell like Lightning Bolt. You can replace an Awakened Spellbook during the course of three hours, which also gets you your known spells back.
Example Scribes Wizard Build
In order to make a Scribes build, we’ll first need to set up some limitations. We’ll give ourselves a handful of big ones so you can follow along with most DMs which allow Scribes.
- No multiclassing. We’re going to bring our Wizard to 20. While most Wizards like a few levels in a defensive class like Cleric or Fighter, this is still completely fine. We’ll skip multiclassing for now.
- No Lineage rules. This is a shame, since Wizards benefit a lot from Lineage rules. Not many races get a +2 to Intelligence, and, honestly, not many get a +1. Still, we can make this work quite well, and any race can realistically exist as a Wizard with good stat adjustments.
- Can use Any Book for Backgrounds or Races. This helps stem the bleeding from the Lineage rules a bit, but not overly much. What it certainly helps with is the myriad of backgrounds that we can now choose from!
- Standard Array. The most restrictive of the ability score builds. 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8 to be distributed as we choose. A bit sup-optimal for a perfect Wizard build, but we don’t lose much power to it.
- Standard Equipment. Wizards don’t care too much about mundane equipment, so standard equipment works perfectly for us. That being said, make sure you get a Spell Component Pouch.
- Our Party consists of a Barbarian, Warlock, and Cleric. Pretty normal party, which means we’re the Arcane problem solver of the group. That’s good, since the Scribe does excel with that.
The first hard choice that you have to consider is your race. You must find a race with an Intelligence bump, which is something rare in DnD 5E. For our case, we’re going to simply pick up a Hobgoblin, from Volo’s Guide to Monsters. These guys are better with durability than most other races, can use their Saving Face feature to recover from a bad roll, and come with Light Armor proficiency. Considering we can’t multiclass, that armor proficiency could lead to a very funny set of feats for us in the future. For your weapons, we recommend a Rapier and Longbow, or firearms if your campaign allows it.
As for our other choice to make, the Investigator background comes with a lot of different skills for us. While not all of them are critical for a Wizard, they’ll always be relevant for exploration and intrigue. And an Investigator Scribe is just a fun concept to us. So, even the flavor is somewhat optimal!
When building a Wizard, Intelligence is important, but so is Constitution and Dexterity. These defensive options are your last stand if an enemy gets to you, so make sure they’re both solid. We’re going to enter gameplay with very solid numbers in each of these, though we might be a bit low on Intelligence as a result. Bear with us; we have a plan.
When grabbing equipment, make sure you have a component pouch. Otherwise, your Wizard can get away with just about anything. With a spellbook in hand, anything’s possible.
5E Scribes Wizard Build |
Race: Hobgoblin Ability Scores: STR 8, DEX 14, CON 15 (13 + 2), INT 16 (15 + 1), WIS 12, CHA 10 Proficiencies: Arcana, Religion, Investigation, Perception, Disguise Kit, Thieves’ Tools Starting Equipment: Dagger, Component Pouch, Scholar’s Pack, Spellbook, Magnifying Glass, Skull from Past Case, Common Clothes, 10 gp Languages: Common, Goblin |
Level | Class Benefits | Choices |
1 | -Arcane Recovery -1st Level spells | Even before we have our archetype, we’re stuck making some rather important decisions. Annoying. Cantrips. If possible, you should try and get access to a Longbow for combat, since Longbows will deal more damage without being noticeably worse than a Fire Bolt. We’ll assume you’re able to find a Longbow, and instead focus our cantrips on pure utility. Mind Sliver will be our aggressive cantrip, though it’s more focused on the saving throw debuff. Prestidigitation is a good all-around ability, so we’ll grab it early. We also really like Mage Hand for interacting with your environment from a safe distance. Spells. For the purposes of this guide, we can’t make assumptions about what spells you’re able to collect during your adventure. What we can guarantee are the 44 spells a Wizard learns over the course of their adventure. Please remember to scribe as many spells as you can, but we’ll get the 44 must-haves for you. Let’s start with our six normal options; Alarm and Find Familiar are two above-average rituals to use to your advantage. Then, we have four combat-oriented spells to work with. We like Magic Missile for an offensive option, then Sanctuary and Silvery Barbs for your defensive options. Sleep is a really potent option at level 1, so grab it while it puts everyone to sleep. |
2 | -Wizardly Quill -Awakened Spellbook | You have some new abilities now. The Quill is very important to remember for out-of-combat scenarios, since they’re huge buffs to your scribe abilities. Awakened Spellbook’s ability to quick-cast rituals and swap damage types are great, but also something which you can largely leave to the side. As you get to a higher level, it’s not a bad idea to grab a handful of damage options so you can swap through damage types effectively. Spells. Two more first level spells. Shield is a valid defensive option as a reaction which keeps your AC high for a short while. Tasha’s Hideous Laughter is an impressive spell for locking down a single enemy for a while. |
3 | -2nd Level Spells | We’ve made it to 2nd level spells! That gives us a handful of options to work with, though none are incredibly strong. Spells. Scorching Ray is a valid damaging spell which scales well at higher levels. Invisibility is important to utilize while outside of combat, and also one of the best openers for a combat scenario. |
4 | -Ability Score Improvement | Our first feat level! Our Wizard wants to keep up with the rest of our party, so we will need to be boring right away. Aww! Feat. +2 Intelligence is our choice immediately. Brings our modifier to +4, meaning our spell save and attack rolls improve. Cantrip. Now that we have some Intelligence to work with, you can take another offensive cantrip if you’d like. We prefer the damage of Mind Sliver, so we’ll be taking another utility option in Shape Water. Just have your Barbarian take a gallon of water everywhere and you’ll have a legitimately strong way to do things like freeze locks, gears, or more. Spells. Two more 2nd level options! Maximilian’s Earthen Grasp is a great concentration option which locks down specific enemies. Web does the same, but replaces damage with area-of-effect lockdown. Keep an entire enemy squad away from you with ease. |
5 | -3rd Level Spells | 3rd level spells are where most Wizards skyrocket in power, and you’re no different. Spells. Fireball is a universally impactful spell whose 8d6 damage is unmatched by this point. Scorching Ray scales excellently and only deals 8d6 to a single target. Fly is a spell which can simultaneously help our Barbarian handle deadly flying foes while also helping ourselves out of melee combat. Not every enemy can handle a flying Wizard acceptably, with most losing gigantic piles of damage when they have to switch to ranged options. |
6 | -Manifest Mind | Manifest Mind is a fascinating option which is a solid scout and can be used to cast spells on it. Its range is somewhat limited, but it otherwise serves as an exceptional pseudo caster which eats your bonus actions to use effectively. Still, this lets you cast spells from around corners, a feat few other Wizards can replicate. Spells. Counterspell is one of the best ways to end an enemy caster’s turn, since it both cancels out their spell and only costs a reaction to do so. Antagonize allows us to deal Psychic damage with our fireballs, and it also can force enemies to deal absolutely massive damage to one another. |
7 | -4th Level Spells | 4th level spells aren’t quite as impactful as 3rd level spells, but each can bring utility to the table unmatched by lower level spells. Spells. Wall of Fire is a huge blocker for fights, dealing massive damage to many different enemies. Banishment is an alternative concentration-based option which, targeting Charisma, allows you to pluck singular enemies out of a fight. Each of these handle situations in an entirely different way from one another, and they’re both really good for that reason. |
8 | -Ability Score Improvement | We recommend most Wizard builds to reach 20 Intelligence by level 8, and this Wizard build is capable of doing so. However, we have an odd number of Constitution and the ability to get Medium Armor Proficiency with a feat. A hard decision! We’ll choose to be more aggressive. Feat. +2 Intelligence, which gets us to 20 Intelligence, is our choice. This brings us to the maximum amount of INT possible without magic items. And on-par with almost every other race in the game, outside of Custom Lineages. Spells. A few more 4th level spells are of note. Sickening Radiance gives us a few new damage types and a way to stack up Exhaustion levels for a long fight. |
9 | -5th Level Spells | 5th level spells is a big milestone, since it’s the final spell level which gets all the way to 3 spell slots per day. As a result, it’s important to get a handful of choices which you want to use often. Spells. Creation is one of the most potent Wizard spells in the game, giving a lot of… creativity to the character. Hold Monster lets you lock down a specific target on a Wisdom save. That means your enemy needs to make a Wisdom save or have a rabid Barbarian criting them every turn. |
10 | -Master Scrivener | Master Scrivener is a fantastic ability, though is largely useful for casting very specific spells, like Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, from the scroll. Cantrip. The final cantrip we’ll learn is Message. This is a bit late to get it, but being able to transfer messages from one person to another is a good idea. Spells. Two more 5th level spells! We’re going to go ahead and learn Telekinesis for a great in-and-out of combat Transmutation spell and Wall of Stone for stalling. That’s a lot of health which enemies need to punch through, so it’s legitimately worth throwing up if your allies need a breather. |
11 | -6th Level Spells | 6th level spells aren’t as spammable as the lower levels, and they’re only going to get rarer from here. Because of that, we’re going to go back into the earlier levels and learn a few spells from earlier stages of the game, just to keep up with the times. Spells. Eyebite is an incredibly impactful 6th level spell which is used in almost any combat situation. Forcing an opponent to sleep once per round is a very impactful ability, even into Legendary creatures. Globe of Invulnerability is irresistible for fighting other casters, giving you immunity to almost all magic. |
12 | -Ability Score Improvement | Another feat level! This time, we’re going to take something rarely grabbed by standard casters. Feat. We’re going to get Moderately Armored, with a +1 to Constitution. This gets us to 16 CON as well as provides us with Medium Armor Proficiency, which is just funny. Most Wizards would simply dip into Artificer for this proficiency, but our build’s restrictions will make this an interesting way to round out our Constitution instead. Spells. Contingency will be our last 6th level spell for right now, since it really helps us counter some strategies with a spell like Invisibility. Speaking of 2nd level options, we want to go back and get Misty Step, an excellent way to get our Wizard out of danger in a pinch. |
13 | -7th Level Spells | 7th level spells are even less spammable, but they also have quite a few options we really, really want. Decisions, decisions… Spells. Simulacrum, especially with our Barbarian in tow, is a really great spell. You can make a second Barbarian, making your frontline nearly invulnerable. Plane Shift serves as a great tool for forcing an enemy into a terrible place or getting yourself and your allies to safety. That utility is handy, especially since you’ve only gotten one of these a day. |
14 | -One with the Word | This is a very handy defensive option. Try to be careful with this, since you lose an average of 9 “levels” of spells from it whenever you activate it. This is part of the reason why it’s so important you scribe as many spells as you can afford; even the ones that aren’t super good. Spells. Forcecage is the last 7th level spell we’re going to consider for right now. This locks down multiple enemies and can even prevent teleportation, which is normally a bit of a weakness for lock-down spells. We’ll skip back to 2nd level spells again for Mirror Image, a huge annoyance for any enemy hoping to target our quite solid Armor Class. |
15 | -8th Level Spells | 8th level spells are incredible. Like, really strong. However, you want to make them spells which work all of the time. Spells. Maze locks an enemy into their personal hell with one of the hardest escape checks in the entire game. Get it and watch as the Lich gets sent to a place their Legendary Resistance can’t get them out of. Feeblemind is a really interesting problem-solving tool, as it negates a caster and also forces specific enemies to become very simpleminded. |
16 | -Ability Score Improvement | At this point, we’re pretty happy with what we have. Since we don’t have much Strength, heavy armor isn’t really in the cards. So, we can instead focus on building our durability and utility through more generic feats. Feat. Metamagic Adept (Quickened Spell and Extended Spell) is going to be very handy for our Wizard. By augmenting magic, you can change battle situations for everyone; your allies and the DM alike. Be careful with this feat, but use it often. Spells. Dominate Monster serves a purpose in and out of combat, which can be very handy for any Wizard. Mass Suggestion can end some fights by itself and is a spell we missed out on earlier, so let’s scoop it up now! |
17 | -9th Level Spells | 9th level spells are the hardest to use in the game. This is also going to be the level with the easiest choice for us to make in terms of spells known. Spells. Wish is an absurdly powerful spell which counts for… every other spell in the game. It doesn’t quite handle other 9th level spells, but that doesn’t usually matter too much. We’ll scoop up True Polymorph in case we roll badly on Wish and end up losing the spell forever. True Polymorph will also be a good option to lose for One with the Word, for emergency purposes. |
18 | -Spell Mastery | Not many Wizards get to this point! Spell Mastery is a unique and powerful effect, so let’s use it on two Wizard spells we plan on spamming every single day. Spell Mastery. Silvery Barbs and Misty Step are two fantastic options for Spell Mastery. Silvery Barbs is one of the most universally powerful reactions available to a Wizard, and permanent teleportation is going to come in handy many, many times. Spells. We still get to learn some spells, too! At this point, we’re going to learn a few spells which are more useful in endgame campaigns. Teleport is a great way to move across continents and Rary’s Telepathic Bond lets you communicate with your party members, even if distance gets between you all. |
19 | -Ability Score Improvement | Our last feat is here! Unfortunately, we’re not going to be very flashy. Feat. We’re going to be nice and boring with the upcoming two feats. +2 Constitution brings our Con to a very impressive 18, which means we are getting more health from our stats than we get from average rolls. It also slowly but surely improves our Constitution saving throw. Spells. Let’s grab ourselves Dispel Magic and Remove Curse. While our Cleric could handle that just fine in the past, it will behoove us to be prepared now that curses are so incredibly fatal. Feel free to learn these spells earlier if you need to. With any luck, you will have been able to scribe them before this point! |
20 | -Signature Spells | Level 20 Wizard is a rarity many won’t make it to. However, if you make it here, you have to choose two level 3 spells to always have prepared and get a free cast of each of them. Let’s look around a bit. Signature Spells. We’ll go with Counterspell and Fly. Those two spells will be constant companions. You can replace Fly with something like Haste or Dispel Magic if you have a potent magic item capable of flight, like Winged Boots. Spells. Clone is one of the few ways a Wizard can revive themselves, and it’s over the course of a year. Not exactly instant, but at level 20, you have all of the time in the world. Programmed Illusion can be a great way to distract foes, which’ll be great for when you can finally afford your Wizard tower. |
Wrapping up our Order of Scribes Wizard 5E Guide
That concludes our Order of Scribes 5E Guide. Any questions? Hit us up in the comment section below. And don’t forget to learn about the other options available in our Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Subclasses Guide.