Best Gale subclass.

[Sir Sparhawk]

Been trying to decide what subclass to give Gale, torn between evocation for sculpt AOE spells or Divination or the forced re-roles you can do. What of all the subclasses are the best in your experience?

[Sir Sparhawk]

Anyone have any suggestions?

[Perkus]

Well, I just finished counting based on data in a wiki, and the spell counts by wizard spell school are roughly as follows:
Necromancy 12
Abjuration 10
Illusion 10
Conjuration 18
Evocation 23
Transmutation 17
Enchantment 10
Divination 3

So in terms of saving money on learning from scrolls, the bigger the school the better. On the other hand, that's probably not a major consideration. Only Evocation and Necromancy are directly powered up by spells of their school, so it's not a big deal to choose a smaller school. So pick what you like! I think most people take evocation cause sculpting is never bad, unless you don't like area damage spells. But the divination power is pretty unique and neat, if not super strong. Probably helps win the big fight of the day quite often.

[mig-77]

Divination. Best Wizard class because their ”portent” ability. You litetally can change success to failure or failure to success twice (any d20 roll) a day. It is that powerfull.

Ie change boss save throw failure to ”disintrigate”,change your save to success with same spell, etc. Would be even more powerfull with spells like ”banish” (not in game?).

[Perkus]

On second thought, I suppose the major limitation of Divination might be the "only rolls near you". If you roll low, and your wizard is always a long way off from the big melee and the big bosses, it'll be hard to get much value out of those. It depends on what range it actually has.

[ck_masamune]

As a thing of note, if you don't plan on using him much, his best school is transmutation, by a long shot.

[mig-77]

Originally posted by Perkus:

On second thought, I suppose the major limitation of Divination might be the "only rolls near you". If you roll low, and your wizard is always a long way off from the big melee and the big bosses, it'll be hard to get much value out of those. It depends on what range it actually has.

True, in D&D it is

” You can replace any attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made by you or a creature that you can see with one of these foretelling rolls.”

[Sir Sparhawk]

Originally posted by Perkus:

Well, I just finished counting based on data in a wiki, and the spell counts by wizard spell school are roughly as follows:
Necromancy 12
Abjuration 10
Illusion 10
Conjuration 18
Evocation 23
Transmutation 17
Enchantment 10
Divination 3

So in terms of saving money on learning from scrolls, the bigger the school the better. On the other hand, that's probably not a major consideration. Only Evocation and Necromancy are directly powered up by spells of their school, so it's not a big deal to choose a smaller school. So pick what you like! I think most people take evocation cause sculpting is never bad, unless you don't like area damage spells. But the divination power is pretty unique and neat, if not super strong. Probably helps win the big fight of the day quite often.

Sculpting is nice by you can normally avoid hitting friendlies when placing the AOE down

[Sir Sparhawk]

Originally posted by mig-77:

Divination. Best Wizard class because their ”portent” ability. You litetally can change success to failure or failure to success twice (any d20 roll) a day. It is that powerfull.

Ie change boss save throw failure to ”disintrigate”,change your save to success with same spell, etc. Would be even more powerfull with spells like ”banish” (not in game?).

That's what I'm thinking, that portent could be really fun and useful

[Sir Sparhawk]

Originally posted by Perkus:

On second thought, I suppose the major limitation of Divination might be the "only rolls near you". If you roll low, and your wizard is always a long way off from the big melee and the big bosses, it'll be hard to get much value out of those. It depends on what range it actually has.

What makes transmutation so good?

[Perkus]

Originally posted by ck_masamune:

As a thing of note, if you don't plan on using him much, his best school is transmutation, by a long shot.

Not that OP, but I imagine it's because it has the most & best "Unit Long Rest" spells, which Gale can buff you with for the day and then you swap him out and he stays at camp. Transmutation has Longstrider (L2) & Darkvision (L1), neither needs Concentration so he could eventually buff the whole party with those. Then there is Magic Weapon, Expeditious Retreat, which are Concentration spells, so only one could be up at a time. But does that ever work? Will a Concentration spell remain active if its caster leaves the party? Seems dubious, but maybe it works. Gaseous Form applies, but there's no point in having that up long term as you can't do anything!

But as far as I can see, Gale can do that just as well no matter what school you choose. The school benefit is "You can brew two alchemical solutions instead of one when combining extracts, if you succeed a DC 15 Medicine check." I suppose if you rarely use him, you can squander levels and feats to give him Medicine proficiency, then Expertise in it, and max out his Wisdom to min-max that skill. Make him a dedicated party Alchemist, in essence. Although you could do the same I believe with any other companion you don't use by giving him 2 Wizard levels and maxing Medicine skill. Which actually sounds like a good plan... Assuming Alchemy has enough impact to even bother.

[mig-77]

Originally posted by Sir Sparhawk:

Originally posted by mig-77:

Divination. Best Wizard class because their ”portent” ability. You litetally can change success to failure or failure to success twice (any d20 roll) a day. It is that powerfull.

Ie change boss save throw failure to ”disintrigate”,change your save to success with same spell, etc. Would be even more powerfull with spells like ”banish” (not in game?).

That's what I'm thinking, that portent could be really fun and useful

Tested quickly portent on Gale and it seems to affect guite far (atleast 10m from him, maybe more). I think it uses LOS so Gale needs to ”see” target. Overall it seems to be just as powerfull as in tabletop in combat. Didnt work in ie lockpick throw (where it should also) so im not sure do it work at all in skill throws.

[Sir Sparhawk]

Originally posted by mig-77:

Originally posted by Sir Sparhawk:

That's what I'm thinking, that portent could be really fun and useful

Tested quickly portent on Gale and it seems to affect guite far (atleast 10m from him, maybe more). I think it uses LOS so Gale needs to ”see” target. Overall it seems to be just as powerfull as in tabletop in combat. Didnt work in ie lockpick throw (where it should also) so im not sure do it work at all in skill throws.

I went Divination in the end and it doesn't just help party members. I was given the option to use it on the adventures getting attacked by goblins when you first reach the Grove. When one would miss it gave me the option to use it to help them too. It seems like it will he very useful and I'm glad I took Divination

[mig-77]

Yep, in D&D it for every D20 throw that divination wizard can “see”. It is very, very powerfull in there.

[Quillithe]

I went Conjuration for the ability to teleport and swap places all over later on.

Honestly they all sound pretty fun:
Most tempting:
Abjuration - wizard tank time? does seem niche though
Evocation - bonus damage, easy aoes, and reliable cantrips seems like the most direct choice
Divination - good if you want to use save or suck spells, seems the other direct choice
Conjuration - teleports. and...uh, water. I don't care I love teleporting

Less so:
Enchantment - I like the idea, but not really feeling it, probably better to go divination for enchantment spells?
Necromancy - dunno
Transmutation - probably the worst if you want to actually have him in party. Bonus potions though
Illusion - I love the idea of illusionists, but is being able to cast see invisibility and avoid one attack per short rest....any good? Don't think so

[mig-77]

Originally posted by Quillithe:

Divination - good if you want to use save or suck spells, seems the other direct choice

Not just spells. IE Divination Gale if he gets 20 dice in his daily portent dices can quarantee that my Vengeance paladin can nova crit when ever I choose and do insane amount of damage😉