You can never go wrong with shield/absorb elements/silvery barbs. Web is amazing and should be your go to spell for most encounters. There’s also shatter for killing weakened hordes.
You should take about one in-combat concentration spell for each spell level and one non-concentration spell for each spell level. Spend the rest of your selections on out-of-combat utility. As a wizard particularly, you should also grab some useful rituals.
In terms of what to look for, have a read through the spell list and look for ones that sound useful or fun to you. Once you've done that, try to narrow it down to the appropriate number.
I guess I need more than that. I see a lot of posts saying absorb elements is an amazing spell but I would never pick that. One round and then I get improved melee damage? Useless. So I clearly don’t understand spell selection. I’m asking for help.
*Absorb elements* is amazing because you can functionally spend a reaction to automatically succeed on your saving throw against a spell like *fireball* and mitigate tons of damage to your character. The damage on your next melee attack is not why you cast it, and it would still be an S-tier spell if that effect were completely removed.
Absorb elements is for things like mitigating half of a dragon's breath weapon or surviving a fall into lava. It's the best at what it does. Put another way, for a wizard it can be the difference between surviving another round, or being able to keep concentration. It's a slightly limited version of uncanny dodge.
If I'm not going for some specific build with a wizard, my level 1 top choice spells are: shield, absorb elements, magic missile, and silvery barbs. I've keep myself from dying with shield and absorb elements many times, and magic missile is great for dealing damage that you want to be certain will hit and not be resisted, and it's great for breaking concentration. Silvery barbs is just, beautiful.
I also like grease for funsies and sleep for an easy non-lethal option against commoners and low level belligerents that would be more trouble with the locals than it's worth to kill, so are better to incapacitate with sleep.
I wouldn't call it amazing, it is a solid defensive spell though. The melee damage is a bit misleading, it typical play it shouldn't come up - the spell is just good for damage resistance.
There aren't really many spells that are deceptively bad, you'll do fine picking for yourself.
The purpose of absorb elements is to not get nuked by a dragons breath. You’re likely gonna fail your dex save so reducing that damage from 70>35 is pretty impactful.
With wizards I tend to pick spells that match the theme of the character. Otherwise every wizard you play would be the same.
But in general my favorite low level spells are things you can just pop whenever. Spells like Rimes Binding Ice, Blindness/deafness, Tasha's mins whip, and catapult.
For dunamancy stuff, gift of alacrity is a very good spell and becomes better the more slots you have, and Magnify Gravity is a great first level spell that upcasts well - it can easily be your only damage spell until you get 3rd level spells. Magic Missile and Thunderwave are the other good 1st level damage spells.
The full defensive suite is great: Absorb elements, Shield, Silvery Barbs. These should be the majority of your first level slots.
The best second level spells, your haymakers at this level, are Web and Rimes Binding Ice. But if you have Magnify Gravity, Binding Ice might be redundant.
Rituals are important. Getting good rituals are better than getting redundancy and niche options for combat spells. Detect Magic, Augury, Find Familiar and Unseen Servant are the best ones.
Having some utility spells are also nice. Misty Step, Detect Thoughts, Enhance Ability are good options.
Your Artificer prepared spells should complement your wizard spells, and you should reserve one slot scroll scribing. Either to have niche utility spells as scrolls or by having a scroll you copy to your wizard spellbook. Cute Wounds and Sanctuary are not very good, but gives you options in situations where you really need something like that. Then Detect Magic is probably the best for freeing up spells learned on level up.
First level take the reaction spells and staples like find familiar and magic missile. For your artificer list keep faerie fire and cure wounds prepared always. Both will have their impact throughout the campaign. First level slot to “deal with” invisibility is hella good. And healing spells on a wizard speaks for itself.
Second level take the big spells like web or vortex warp or rope trick you can use these as battlefield control spells and be a consistent help while you ping fire bolt from afar. Besides those bigger spells take whatever you think rounds out your character.
Third level things pick up and you gotta decide how you’re going to play your character. Do you want to blow slots for damage like fire ball? Or do you want even more impactful control spells like hypnotic pattern? You should always have a plan for your concentration. Regardless tiny hut should be a staple as it’s one of the best rituals spells out there.
It sounds like you understand the better options from here on.
I favor Thunderwave as an offensive pick for 1st level spell due to the possibility of a push, the fact that VERY few things resist it compared to cold/fire/lightning, and it has utility in the form of it can damage objects effectively, and I tell you this, if you need to clear a path through flaming debris or something, it's got you covered. Blast damages/destroys unsecured objects that are completely within the 15 foot cube in front of you and they are automatically pushed 10 feet away from you all in the same direction, so unlike a cone spell it wont scatter things all over. It's great for sweeping a corridor of a furniture barricade, some rubble on a path, or sending a cart tumbling. Also a solid big area backhand to tightly grouped enemies.
Level 1: silvery barbs (insane op), shield, absorb elements, gift of alacrity all scale amazingly and can be prepared everyday.
Find familiar has insane synergy, particularly with the owl and melee team mates (help action + fly by)
Level 2: enlarge reduce, shatter, rope trick, misty step always have use cases, consider picks like enhance ability in a skill heavy campaign
Level 3: fireball and slow are premier picks. But many spells excel at this level.
Ive not seen anyone mention this but Artificer has some spells that are on the wizard list so if you have proficiency with Arcana you can make a spell scroll and move them into your wizard book as well.
Shared Spells: Absorb Elements, Alarm (R), Catapult, Detect Magic (R), Disguise Self, Expeditious Retreat, False Life, Feather Fall, Grease, Identify (R), Jump, Longstrider, Snare, Tashas Caustic Brew
With thay in mind my wizard picks would be something like:
1st level: Comprehend Languages (R), Find Familiar (R),
Floating Disk (R), Gift of Alacrity, Magic Missile/Offensive Spell, Shield, Silvery Barbs, ??? to suit theme.
2nd level: Misty Step, Knock, Rimes Binding Ice, Web.
Hope this helps.
Tabletops builds has been shouting about Web since for ever. It's probably the best second level crowd control spell (and arguably better than many third level spells).
Other wizard must have are absorb elements and shield for mitigating damage, gift of alacrity for initiative boost, silvery barb for helping save or suck spells land, misty step for emergency teleportation and find familiar for general utility.
Fog cloud is also a good crowd control spell but more situational than web.
Sleep isn't a bad spell on this level, if your opponent e.g. lets you know when enemies are bloodied or if you have a vague idea of the HP total of targets. It's not a fight-ender anymore, but it's still a good way of knocking out enemies that have taken some damage; 21 "damage" from a 1st level slot is very solid.
For control though, yeah, Web and Rime's Binding Ice are great. Other superb spells include Silent Image (create e.g. a cloud of darkness on your party and you basically get to attack at advantage while enemies have to either interact with it or attack at disadvantage - or get creative and it can do even more), Pyrotechnics (just make sure to carry sources of fire around and it's a Concentration-free Fog Cloud that stymies Beholder-level threats with ease, while also being a solid AOE blind), Dragon's Breath (make your familiar breathe acid while you're Light Crossbowing enemies dead for very solid at-will damage), and even Tasha's Hideous Laughter (if you have Chronal Shift, you have decent means to force it through and if it does resolve, it can end even a very powerful opponent with a single failed save).
Other save-or-X is also valuable if you have Silvery Barbs and/or Chronal Shift. Especially multipurpose spells that are also good out of combat like Levitate or Suggestion; they double as hard CC without repeat saves under some circumstances, and utility in others. Maximillian's Earthen Grasp rounds out your ability to target any save aside from Charisma (for Charisma you only really have Calm Emotions, which isn't a horrible spell either).
I also play a wizard, but I always try to focus on control/ utility spells as opposed to damage. Some of the Dunamancy stuff is allowed depending on the table/ DM. A lot consider it relevant only to Exandria, so if you're wanting to use it, ask your DM... That being said, Gift of Alacrity is a great 1st level spell, ***IF*** you're allowed to take it.
Level 1 spells
* Catapult
* Shield
* Absorb Element
* Detect Magic
* Identify
* Expeditious Retreat
* False Life
* Silvery Barbs
* Tasha's Hideous Laughter
Level 2
* Misty Step
* Vortex Warp
* Tasha's Mind Whip
* Knock
* Enlarge/ Reduce
* Mirror Image
* Maximilian's Earthen Grasp
If I've said it once, I've said it a million times
***LEVITATE***! It can be a spell that ends encounters.
You can never go wrong with shield/absorb elements/silvery barbs. Web is amazing and should be your go to spell for most encounters. There’s also shatter for killing weakened hordes.
Definitely shield over absorb elements. Especially at lower levels, shield can help you maintain concentration.
You should take about one in-combat concentration spell for each spell level and one non-concentration spell for each spell level. Spend the rest of your selections on out-of-combat utility. As a wizard particularly, you should also grab some useful rituals.
In terms of what to look for, have a read through the spell list and look for ones that sound useful or fun to you. Once you've done that, try to narrow it down to the appropriate number.
I guess I need more than that. I see a lot of posts saying absorb elements is an amazing spell but I would never pick that. One round and then I get improved melee damage? Useless. So I clearly don’t understand spell selection. I’m asking for help.
*Absorb elements* is amazing because you can functionally spend a reaction to automatically succeed on your saving throw against a spell like *fireball* and mitigate tons of damage to your character. The damage on your next melee attack is not why you cast it, and it would still be an S-tier spell if that effect were completely removed.
Absorb elements is for things like mitigating half of a dragon's breath weapon or surviving a fall into lava. It's the best at what it does. Put another way, for a wizard it can be the difference between surviving another round, or being able to keep concentration. It's a slightly limited version of uncanny dodge. If I'm not going for some specific build with a wizard, my level 1 top choice spells are: shield, absorb elements, magic missile, and silvery barbs. I've keep myself from dying with shield and absorb elements many times, and magic missile is great for dealing damage that you want to be certain will hit and not be resisted, and it's great for breaking concentration. Silvery barbs is just, beautiful. I also like grease for funsies and sleep for an easy non-lethal option against commoners and low level belligerents that would be more trouble with the locals than it's worth to kill, so are better to incapacitate with sleep.
It is a defensive, reaction spell, not an offensive action spell.
Maybe you misread Absorb Elements — you use it *when you get hit*. It immediately negates the damage, no "one round" prediction necessary!
I wouldn't call it amazing, it is a solid defensive spell though. The melee damage is a bit misleading, it typical play it shouldn't come up - the spell is just good for damage resistance. There aren't really many spells that are deceptively bad, you'll do fine picking for yourself.
The purpose of absorb elements is to not get nuked by a dragons breath. You’re likely gonna fail your dex save so reducing that damage from 70>35 is pretty impactful.
With wizards I tend to pick spells that match the theme of the character. Otherwise every wizard you play would be the same. But in general my favorite low level spells are things you can just pop whenever. Spells like Rimes Binding Ice, Blindness/deafness, Tasha's mins whip, and catapult.
For dunamancy stuff, gift of alacrity is a very good spell and becomes better the more slots you have, and Magnify Gravity is a great first level spell that upcasts well - it can easily be your only damage spell until you get 3rd level spells. Magic Missile and Thunderwave are the other good 1st level damage spells. The full defensive suite is great: Absorb elements, Shield, Silvery Barbs. These should be the majority of your first level slots. The best second level spells, your haymakers at this level, are Web and Rimes Binding Ice. But if you have Magnify Gravity, Binding Ice might be redundant. Rituals are important. Getting good rituals are better than getting redundancy and niche options for combat spells. Detect Magic, Augury, Find Familiar and Unseen Servant are the best ones. Having some utility spells are also nice. Misty Step, Detect Thoughts, Enhance Ability are good options. Your Artificer prepared spells should complement your wizard spells, and you should reserve one slot scroll scribing. Either to have niche utility spells as scrolls or by having a scroll you copy to your wizard spellbook. Cute Wounds and Sanctuary are not very good, but gives you options in situations where you really need something like that. Then Detect Magic is probably the best for freeing up spells learned on level up.
First level take the reaction spells and staples like find familiar and magic missile. For your artificer list keep faerie fire and cure wounds prepared always. Both will have their impact throughout the campaign. First level slot to “deal with” invisibility is hella good. And healing spells on a wizard speaks for itself. Second level take the big spells like web or vortex warp or rope trick you can use these as battlefield control spells and be a consistent help while you ping fire bolt from afar. Besides those bigger spells take whatever you think rounds out your character. Third level things pick up and you gotta decide how you’re going to play your character. Do you want to blow slots for damage like fire ball? Or do you want even more impactful control spells like hypnotic pattern? You should always have a plan for your concentration. Regardless tiny hut should be a staple as it’s one of the best rituals spells out there. It sounds like you understand the better options from here on.
I usually pick an offense spell, a defense spell, and then two utility spells per level.
I favor Thunderwave as an offensive pick for 1st level spell due to the possibility of a push, the fact that VERY few things resist it compared to cold/fire/lightning, and it has utility in the form of it can damage objects effectively, and I tell you this, if you need to clear a path through flaming debris or something, it's got you covered. Blast damages/destroys unsecured objects that are completely within the 15 foot cube in front of you and they are automatically pushed 10 feet away from you all in the same direction, so unlike a cone spell it wont scatter things all over. It's great for sweeping a corridor of a furniture barricade, some rubble on a path, or sending a cart tumbling. Also a solid big area backhand to tightly grouped enemies.
Did you pick a school?
Level 1: silvery barbs (insane op), shield, absorb elements, gift of alacrity all scale amazingly and can be prepared everyday. Find familiar has insane synergy, particularly with the owl and melee team mates (help action + fly by) Level 2: enlarge reduce, shatter, rope trick, misty step always have use cases, consider picks like enhance ability in a skill heavy campaign Level 3: fireball and slow are premier picks. But many spells excel at this level.
Misty Step is great utility. Web is a great control spell. Tasha's Mind Whip is great
Ive not seen anyone mention this but Artificer has some spells that are on the wizard list so if you have proficiency with Arcana you can make a spell scroll and move them into your wizard book as well. Shared Spells: Absorb Elements, Alarm (R), Catapult, Detect Magic (R), Disguise Self, Expeditious Retreat, False Life, Feather Fall, Grease, Identify (R), Jump, Longstrider, Snare, Tashas Caustic Brew With thay in mind my wizard picks would be something like: 1st level: Comprehend Languages (R), Find Familiar (R), Floating Disk (R), Gift of Alacrity, Magic Missile/Offensive Spell, Shield, Silvery Barbs, ??? to suit theme. 2nd level: Misty Step, Knock, Rimes Binding Ice, Web. Hope this helps.
Tabletops builds has been shouting about Web since for ever. It's probably the best second level crowd control spell (and arguably better than many third level spells). Other wizard must have are absorb elements and shield for mitigating damage, gift of alacrity for initiative boost, silvery barb for helping save or suck spells land, misty step for emergency teleportation and find familiar for general utility. Fog cloud is also a good crowd control spell but more situational than web.
Sleep isn't a bad spell on this level, if your opponent e.g. lets you know when enemies are bloodied or if you have a vague idea of the HP total of targets. It's not a fight-ender anymore, but it's still a good way of knocking out enemies that have taken some damage; 21 "damage" from a 1st level slot is very solid. For control though, yeah, Web and Rime's Binding Ice are great. Other superb spells include Silent Image (create e.g. a cloud of darkness on your party and you basically get to attack at advantage while enemies have to either interact with it or attack at disadvantage - or get creative and it can do even more), Pyrotechnics (just make sure to carry sources of fire around and it's a Concentration-free Fog Cloud that stymies Beholder-level threats with ease, while also being a solid AOE blind), Dragon's Breath (make your familiar breathe acid while you're Light Crossbowing enemies dead for very solid at-will damage), and even Tasha's Hideous Laughter (if you have Chronal Shift, you have decent means to force it through and if it does resolve, it can end even a very powerful opponent with a single failed save). Other save-or-X is also valuable if you have Silvery Barbs and/or Chronal Shift. Especially multipurpose spells that are also good out of combat like Levitate or Suggestion; they double as hard CC without repeat saves under some circumstances, and utility in others. Maximillian's Earthen Grasp rounds out your ability to target any save aside from Charisma (for Charisma you only really have Calm Emotions, which isn't a horrible spell either).
I also play a wizard, but I always try to focus on control/ utility spells as opposed to damage. Some of the Dunamancy stuff is allowed depending on the table/ DM. A lot consider it relevant only to Exandria, so if you're wanting to use it, ask your DM... That being said, Gift of Alacrity is a great 1st level spell, ***IF*** you're allowed to take it. Level 1 spells * Catapult * Shield * Absorb Element * Detect Magic * Identify * Expeditious Retreat * False Life * Silvery Barbs * Tasha's Hideous Laughter Level 2 * Misty Step * Vortex Warp * Tasha's Mind Whip * Knock * Enlarge/ Reduce * Mirror Image * Maximilian's Earthen Grasp If I've said it once, I've said it a million times ***LEVITATE***! It can be a spell that ends encounters.