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Wizards have been inDungeons & Dragonssince its very earliest days, and the School of Evocation is one of the most iconic wizard subclasses. Evocation wizards focus on raw damage, unleashing magical power as pure elemental energy.
Related:Dungeons & Dragons: How To Build A Bladesinger Wizard
If you want to focus on raw damageover anything else and like the idea of flinging fireballs and casting magic missileat the nearest gazebo, this subclass has you covered. Building a school of evocation wizard requires you to make important decisions starting all the way at level one. This guide’s here to help you maximize your magical potential.
A Damage-Dealing Magic Class
Like all wizards, the School of Evocation wizard is amagic userfirst andanythingelse a distant second.
You’ll use yourpowerful Intelligenceto castdamage-dealing spells. You sacrifice a little bit of your class’s usual tactical focus –you’ll have fewer control, buff, and debuff options– forraw power.
Sculpt Spellis the School of Evocation wizard’s trademark ability. Using Sculpt Spell, you can pick a number of creatures and make themimmune to your evocation spells.
They don’t have to make saving throws against your spells, and they take no damage if they’d normally take half damage on a successful save. If your fighter’s tangling with a giant tarantula, you can scorch the spider without burning a hair on your friend’s head.
In essence,you’re a glass cannon. You are incredibly good at dealing out damage from the back lines, but you’re incredibly squishy– your job is to hide behind the fighter and do massive damage.
Best Species For School Of Evocation Wizard
If you’re sticking with Players' Handbook races, we recommend you make your school of evocation wizard aHuman,Gnome,Elf,Tiefling, orDwarf.
If you’re playing withMonsters of the Multiverse,you can choose where you place your ability score bonuses, so you don’t need to rely on bonuses given by your species.
We’ve noted which species give which bonuses, but if you use that book, you’ve gotmore flexibility.
Adaptable and diverse, with many cultures to choose from.
Dexterity and Constitution bonuses, Small size, cantrips or artificer.
Merry pranksters, illusionists, or tinkerers.
Hellspawn, outcasts, dramatic and edgy.
Stern, traditional, loremasters and artisans.
Holy descendents of celestials.
Related:Dungeons & Dragons: Best Species For A Wizard Character
PrioritizeIntelligence first,Constitutionsecond,Dexteritythird. A few extra points inWisdom –for Perception– never hurt anyone, either.
StrengthorCharismais the best dump stat for a School of Evocation Wizard, depending on how you want to tackle the early levels.
Adecent starting ability score spreadfor the School of Evocation Wizard might look something like this:
If you want to play a High Elf and use martial weapons when your spell slots run low, dump Charisma and be the curmudgeon you want to see in the world; otherwise, dump Strength and give yourself a nice pair of noodle arms.
Best Starting Background For School Of Evocation Wizard
The Players' Handbook recommends you take theSagebackground if you’re playing a wizard, which gives you the Classic Wizard Backstory.
As a sage, you’re a cloistered academic; you’ll getbonuses to Arcana and Historyand an ability that helps you figure out where you can find obscure information.
With access to other sourcebooks, you get other opportunities.
Pretty muchany background that gives you Arcana is a good idea; as a wizard, that’s your primary skill and anything that helps you get better at it. Since backgrounds are largely for flavour though, feel free to experiment.
Best Starting Equipment For School Of Evocation Wizard
Wizards start with theequipment provided by their background, aspellbook, and a couple ofequipment choices.
You can pick between either a quarterstaff or dagger, a scholar’s pack or an explorer’s pack, and a component pouch or an arcane focus.
We’d recommend picking a staff as anarcane focusand adagger. you’re able to use an arcane focus staff as a quarterstaff, and the dagger gives you an extra option at low levels.
Picking between the two packs is a little trickier. If you’re doing a lot of exploring or dungeon-delving, theexplorer’s packis more generally useful, but if you’re in a place where you can easily resupply, the book of lore and parchment can come in handy.
Best Spells For School Of Evocation Wizard
You’ve got a lot of fun toys to play with as a wizard, but you’re mostly going to want to focus ondamage-dealing spells from the school of evocation.
Cantrips
Lightning Lure, Frostbite, Ray of Frost, Shocking Grasp, and Thunderclapare all good cantrips– they dish out the damage and get boosted by your Potent Cantrip ability later on.
Effects
Lightning Lure
Lightning damage and pull any creature up to 10 feet in a straight line.
Cold damage and give creatures disadvantage on weapon attacks.
Swarm of magical darts, can be directed at creatures.
Chromatic Orb
Hurl energy of your choice at a creature with a ranged attack.
Wave of lightning that pushes enemies away.
Earth Tremor
Cause a small earthquake that knocks enemies over and creates difficult terrain.
Does cold damage and slows enemies down.
Sending
Send a message to any creature.
If you’re playing a roleplay-heavy campaign,Sending is a surprisingly useful option; it’s not going to do damage, but the ability to communicate with people over a distance is handy.
Light does radiant damage and exhausts creatures.
Acid burst explodes for acid damage.
Wall of Fire
Makes a wall of fire that does damage to creatures who try to cross.
Large hand punches and crushes creatures or shields you.
Lightning bolt that arcs across enemies
Explosion… on a timer
8 rays of light with different elemental damage effects
Magical darkness full of evil whispers does psychic damage
Meteor Swarm
Rocks fall, your enemies die
Don’t overlook the value of Contingency. Contingency lets you set up a condition, and when that condition is met, another spell is cast– say, “If I fall into the water, cast water breathing.”
You’ve got as many possibilities with thatas imagination and DM permission.
Feats For School Of Evocation Wizard
At low levels, you’ll want to take Intelligence increases or focus on feats that boost your intelligence.Telepathicfrom Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is a great choice.
This feat gives you +1 Intelligence, the ability to speak telepathically to any creature within 60 feet –though they can’t reply. They also get the ability to cast Detect Thoughts once per long rest.
Observantis also a good choice, giving you a bonus to your passive Perception and the ability to read lips.
If you’re playing an elf, consider picking upFey Teleportation, and if you’re playing a gnome, consider takingFade Away- these feats both increase your intelligence by 1 and let youdisengage from combat.
At higher levels, you can pick up more interesting feats.War Casteris a good feat for School of Evocation Wizards– it makes it mucheasier to make Concentration checks and lets you cast spells while holding a weapon or shield.
Ritual CasterandSpell Sniperare also good options.
Playing The School Of Evocation Wizard
As the School of Evocation Wizard, you’re going to be a back-lines glass cannon.
you’re able to pick up some martial weapon skills, sure, especially if you’re an elf or a dwarf, or if you picked up the War Caster feat– but your real utility to the party is behind the tank,dealing huge amounts of damage with your arcane arts.
Cast damaging spells, and use yourSculpt Spellability to keep your party members from getting hit by fire or frost.
Pay close attention to your enemies' weaknessesand resistances. Some enemies, like devils, resist certain kinds of elemental attacks; others, like trolls, are only vulnerable to one kind of attack.
If you know what you’re going up against,prepare your spellswith those weaknesses in mind.
Keep an eye out forscrollsandenemy wizards' spellbooks.If you may get your hands on more spells– especially more spells from the school of evocation– you can copy them into your own spellbook.
You can still only prepareso many spells a day, but as a wizard, you can knowas many spells as you can find.
At sixth level, you get thePotent Cantripability, which lets your cantrips affect creatures who avoided the worst effects–even if they make their save, they take half damage.
Starting at level 14, you gain access to theOverchannelability– once per long rest, you’re able to do max damage on a first-to-fifth level spell without rolling for damage.
you may use this ability more than once per long rest… but you take abunchof necrotic damage, and we don’t recommend it.
Overall, your priorities should be to avoid enemies, cast heavy-damage spells, and support with buffs/debuffs/terrain control when needed, in that order.
