D&D 5e Wizard Subclasses (2014): All Thirteen Arcane Traditions Ranked

Introduction

Every other spellcasting subclass in D&D 5e 2014 hands you spells. A Cleric domain gives ten always-prepared spells. A Warlock patron expands the list. A Sorcerer origin, a Druid circle, a Paladin oath, a Bard college at level 6 reaching into any class in the game.

The Wizard's arcane tradition gives you nothing of the kind. Not one of the thirteen adds a single spell to your list, because the Wizard already has the whole list. The spellbook is the class, and anything on the Wizard list is a scroll and some gold away from being yours.

So a tradition does something different. It changes what happens when you cast the spells you already own:

• Evocation changes who your Fireball is allowed to hit.
• Abjuration converts the abjurations you were already casting into a second health bar.
• Necromancy converts kills into hit points.
• Divination stops you rolling the die at all.
• Bladesinging turns your Intelligence into armor class.
• Order of Scribes lets you change a spell's damage type on the way out.

That reframing is the whole decision. You are not asking which tradition gives you the most magic, because they all give you the same magic. You are asking which one improves the spells you will genuinely be casting, and how often its trigger will actually fire at your table.

This guide covers all thirteen traditions, rates every feature, and is direct about which ones front-load their power and which ones wait until level 14 for a payoff most campaigns never see.

The Thirteen Traditions at a Glance

Your Tradition Does Not Give You Spells

Three consequences follow from that, and they matter more than any individual feature rating below.

Judge a tradition by how often its trigger fires, not by how good the effect is. This is the single most useful filter. Arcane Ward refreshes every time you cast an abjuration, and you will cast Shield and Absorb Elements constantly, so it is effectively always running. Power Surge only charges when you successfully counter or dispel a spell, which requires enemy spellcasters to exist in your campaign at all. Grim Harvest needs you to be the one landing killing blows. The same quality of effect can be excellent or entirely dead depending on how often the condition appears at your table.

The eight PHB schools all open with a Savant feature, and it is always the weakest thing you get. Halving the gold and time to copy spells of one school is real money over a campaign, but it never changes what happens at the table. Treat every Savant as background noise and judge the school on its other feature at level 2. Where a Savant is rated at all below, it is rated on how much you actually want that school's spell list.

Check when the tradition front-loads. Divination and Chronurgy hand you their defining feature at level 2 and it stays best-in-class for twenty levels. Illusion saves Illusory Reality for 14. Transmutation's Master Transmuter arrives at 14 on a kit that was thin beforehand. Given how many campaigns finish somewhere around level 10, weight the level 2 and level 6 features heavily and treat level 14 as a bonus you may never collect.

One practical note across all thirteen: the Wizard has d6 hit dice and concentrates on its best spells. War Caster or Resilient with Constitution is close to mandatory regardless of tradition, and it matters more than your third ability score. Two traditions, Bladesinging and Transmutation, build extra concentration help into their kit, and that is a genuine part of their value.

Hot Take: Your tradition does not give you spells, so stop choosing it as though it did. Every Wizard reads from the same list - the school only changes what happens when you cast, whether that is replacing a d20 result, keeping your area spells off your own party, or turning Intelligence into AC.

School of Divination

The most powerful Wizard subclass in the 2014 rules, and it earns that on a single level 2 feature that never stops being the best thing on the sheet.

Divination Savant ●

Level 2. Halve the gold and time to copy divination spells into your spellbook.

The weakest Savant of the eight, because divination spells tend to be cheap anyway: Identify and Detect Magic are 1st level. The list does hold Arcane Eye, Scrying, True Seeing and Foresight, and halving those is worth real gold late. Nobody picks this school for the Savant.

Portent ●

Level 2. After a long rest, roll two d20s and record the results. Once before your next long rest you can replace any attack roll, ability check or saving throw made by you or a creature you can see with one of the recorded rolls. You must choose before the roll is made, and only once per turn.

This is the most powerful subclass feature in the Player's Handbook and arguably the strongest level 2 feature in the game. The reason is categorical rather than numerical: every other feature in D&D adds a bonus, grants advantage, or forces a reroll. Portent replaces the roll with a number you already know. There is no variance left to manage.

A recorded 1 means any creature you choose fails any saving throw. A recorded 20 means an attack hits or a check passes. You know both numbers at the start of the day, which means you can plan an entire session around them.

The skill is entirely in deployment. Two dice is a small budget, and the gap between the best and worst use of one is enormous: burning a 10 on a routine check versus holding a 1 for the boss's save against Hold Monster. Write them down where you can see them, and ask on every important roll whether this is the one.

The common table argument is Legendary Resistance. Portent makes the creature roll the number you chose, so it fails, and a creature with Legendary Resistance may then spend a use to succeed anyway. Most DMs rule that Portent burns a resistance rather than bypassing it, which is still excellent value. Settle it before you rely on it.

Expert Divination ●

Level 6. When you cast a divination spell of 2nd level or higher, you regain one expended spell slot of a level lower than the spell you cast, to a maximum of 5th level.

Quiet and strong. Every divination you cast at 2nd level or above refunds a lower slot: Scrying at 5th returns a 4th, Arcane Eye at 4th returns a 3rd, See Invisibility at 2nd returns a 1st. The spells largely pay for themselves.

The practical consequence is that you should prepare more divinations than instinct suggests. See Invisibility, Arcane Eye, Clairvoyance and Scrying are all useful in their own right and all hand a slot back. Across a full adventuring day the Diviner simply has more resources available than any other Wizard.

The Third Eye ●

Level 10. As an action, gain one of darkvision to 60 feet, the ability to see into the Ethereal Plane, the ability to read any language, or the ability to see invisible creatures within 10 feet. It lasts until you are incapacitated or take a rest.

Utility on demand, once per rest. See invisibility is usually the right pick in combat, because invisible enemies are one of the worst things that can happen to a caster and this answers it without a slot. The 10-foot range is the catch, so it is detection rather than a full answer to a ranged invisible threat.

Ethereal sight is excellent in the specific campaigns that need it. Reading any language is strong in intrigue play. Darkvision is the safe exploration default.

Greater Portent ●

Level 14. You roll three d20s for Portent instead of two.

Straightforwardly excellent and it needs no explanation. A third die is a third decisive intervention, and the chance of holding at least one extreme result rises sharply with three dice rather than two. It changes nothing about how you play; it gives you one more bullet at the tier where individual rolls decide campaigns.

Divination in play

Roll your Portent dice the moment the long rest ends and write them somewhere visible. Players who leave them unrecorded forget to use them, which is the only real way to waste this subclass.

Spend the low die on enemy saves and the high die on your own critical rolls. The instinct to save both for a perfect moment usually ends with unspent dice at the next long rest, which is pure waste.

Build Intelligence to 20, Constitution to 16, Dexterity 14. Variant Human for Lucky or War Caster at level 1 is the strongest opener, and Lucky in particular stacks well here because it is reactive where Portent is proactive.

Chronurgy Magic

Divination's rival, and at high levels arguably its superior. Chronurgy does everything Portent does with better information and worse certainty, then hands you outright authorship of a d20 result at level 14.

Chronal Shift ●

Level 2. Twice per long rest, as a reaction after a creature you can see makes an attack roll, ability check or saving throw, force it to reroll and use the new result.

The comparison with Portent is the whole reason to read this section. Portent gives certainty: you know the number. Chronal Shift gives efficiency: you see the original result first, so you never spend it on a roll that did not need it.

A Portent die held for a boss save is guaranteed to land. A Chronal Shift spent on that same save is a gamble, but you only spend it after seeing that the creature rolled a 14 against your DC 17, which is exactly where a reroll is worth having. You never waste it on the natural 2 that already failed or the 22 that was never in doubt.

Two uses per long rest is the constraint. Spend them on the two rolls that would genuinely change the day.

Temporal Awareness ●

Level 2. Add your Intelligence modifier to your initiative rolls.

Free, passive, permanent. At 20 Intelligence and 14 Dexterity you are rolling initiative at +7 before any feat, and with Alert that becomes +12, which is effectively unbeatable.

Acting first is one of the most powerful things a Wizard can do. Landing Hypnotic Pattern, Web or Hold Monster before a single enemy has moved is frequently the difference between a controlled encounter and a scramble. A tradition that guarantees you open the fight is doing more work than the feature text suggests.

Momentary Stasis ●

Level 6. As an action, a Large or smaller creature within 60 feet must succeed on a Constitution save or be incapacitated with its speed reduced to 0 until the end of your next turn. Uses equal your Intelligence modifier per long rest.

Incapacitated plus speed 0 is a strong package: no actions, no reactions, no movement, and attacks against it land more easily. It works on any creature type with no restriction, which Hold Person cannot claim.

The price is your action. Every turn spent on Momentary Stasis is a turn not spent casting, so reserve it for the creature that has to stop right now: the bruiser reaching your back line, the caster winding up, the legendary creature that resists everything else.

Note that the retired guide described this as a pool of simultaneous stasis effects. It is a number of uses per long rest, and the effect ends at the end of your next turn.

Arcane Abeyance ●

Level 10. When you cast a spell of 4th level or lower using a slot, you can compress it into a mote that lasts one hour. You or another creature can use the mote to cast that spell without a slot, using your spell save DC.

The most underrated feature in the tradition, because it converts your personal resources into party resources. You are not casting these spells; you are handing your allies the ability to cast them.

A Misty Step mote in the Rogue's pocket. A Healing Word mote for the Fighter who has no magic at all. A Banishment mote handed to the Paladin. None of them need to understand magic, and none of it costs you an action during the fight.

The one-hour window means this is a tactical tool used in anticipation of a fight rather than a morning ritual, so use it when you know something is coming.

Convergent Future ●

Level 14. As a reaction when you or a creature you can see makes an attack roll, ability check or saving throw, you choose the outcome: success or failure. You then gain one level of exhaustion, removable only by a long rest.

The strongest single ability in this guide and the most expensive. Not a reroll, not a replacement number, but a declaration: this succeeds, or this fails.

An automatic success on a dying ally's death save. A guaranteed failure on the tarrasque's save against your best spell. The check that decides who rules the kingdom.

The exhaustion cost is what keeps it honest. One level is disadvantage on ability checks; by three you have disadvantage on attacks and saves; by six you are dead. Each long rest clears only one. Two uses in a day leaves you impaired and three is dangerous.

Treat it as a campaign resource rather than an encounter resource. Use it when the outcome is permanent.

Chronurgy dunamancy spells ●

Explorer's Guide to Wildemount adds the dunamancy spell list, built on the energy behind fate and probability. Four of those spells are tagged chronurgy, and as a Chronurgy wizard you automatically know each one the moment you qualify for its level. You do not copy it into your spellbook, spend the gold, or spend the downtime. It is simply available to prepare.

Gift of Alacrity at 1st level grants a willing creature 1d8 on initiative rolls for 8 hours. Cast it in the morning on whoever most needs to act first, and stack it with your own Temporal Awareness.

Temporal Shunt at 5th level is a reaction when a creature makes an attack roll or begins casting: on a failed Wisdom save it vanishes until the start of its next turn, and the attack or spell is simply lost. Unlike Counterspell it does not require you to identify the spell, and it works on weapon attacks too.

Reality Break at 8th level forces a target to roll on a table of escalating effects each round until it saves. A strong action-economy drain on a single high-value target.

Free access to three good spells, with no spellbook cost, is a quiet but real part of what this tradition is worth.

Chronurgy in play

Open with initiative. Temporal Awareness plus Alert means you will almost always act first, and the entire tradition is built around using that first action on hard control.

Hold Chronal Shift until you have seen a result worth changing. The discipline is easier here than with Portent because the information arrives before the decision.

Build Intelligence to 20, Constitution 14 or higher, Dexterity 12 to 14. Variant Human for Alert at level 1 is the strongest opener in the tradition, and Gnome is the best defensive alternative for Gnome Cunning.

School of Evocation

The blaster, and the most played Wizard school for a good reason. Evocation solves the one problem that makes new casters afraid to use their best spells.

Evocation Savant ●

Level 2. Halve the gold and time to copy evocation spells into your spellbook.

The best Savant of the eight in practice, simply because the evocation list is the one you most want to own outright: Magic Missile, Thunderwave, Shatter, Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Wall of Fire, Cone of Cold, Chain Lightning, Delayed Blast Fireball, Meteor Swarm. Halving the cost across that list adds up. It still is not why anyone picks the school.

Sculpt Spells ●

Level 2. When you cast an evocation spell that affects other creatures you can see, you can choose a number of them equal to 1 + the spell's level. Each chosen creature automatically succeeds on its saving throw and takes no damage even if it would normally take half on a success.

The feature that defines the school, and the one that changes how you play the class rather than how much damage you deal.

A 3rd-level Fireball protects four creatures. That is your entire front line standing inside the blast taking nothing while everything around them takes full damage. Not half damage, none.

The consequence is strategic rather than tactical: you stop hesitating. The most common way an inexperienced caster wastes a turn is holding a Fireball because the Barbarian is in the way. The Evoker never has that problem, which means your best spells get cast on the turns they matter.

Note the cap, because it is easy to misremember: it is 1 plus the spell's level, not any number of creatures you like.

Potent Cantrip ●

Level 6. When a creature succeeds on a saving throw against your cantrip, it still takes half the cantrip's damage.

Narrower than it first appears, because most damage cantrips use a spell attack roll rather than a save. Fire Bolt and Ray of Frost do not benefit at all. It applies to Acid Splash, Thunderclap and the other save-based cantrips.

Where it does apply, the value is consistency: no more turns where your cantrip does literally nothing. Useful at the tier where you are casting cantrips often, and then overshadowed by what arrives at 10.

Empowered Evocation ●

Level 10. Add your Intelligence modifier to one damage roll of any evocation spell you cast.

Free damage on every evocation, forever, with no resource attached. At 20 Intelligence that is +5 per spell, and across five to eight casts in a fight it compounds into real numbers over an adventuring day.

Read it precisely: it applies to one damage roll per casting, not to one die and not to each target. On a Fireball, the 8d6 is a single damage roll, so you add 5 once. The best pairings are therefore spells where one roll carries most of the damage, which is most of them.

Overchannel ●

Level 14. When you cast a wizard spell of 5th level or lower that deals damage, you can deal maximum damage with it. The first use after a long rest is free. Each use after that deals you 2d12 necrotic damage per level of the spell, and that per-level damage increases by 1d12 for each additional use before your next long rest.

A free maximum-damage bomb once per day. A 3rd-level Fireball goes from an average 28 to exactly 48. A 5th-level Cone of Cold goes from 36 to 60, and with Empowered Evocation that is 65, sculpted so your own party takes nothing.

The escalating self-damage is real and punishing. The second use in a day costs 2d12 per spell level, which on a 5th-level spell is 10d12. Treat the first use as free and every subsequent one as an emergency.

Evocation in play

Use Sculpt Spells every single time. There is no cost, no action and no decision to agonise over, and the most common Evoker mistake is forgetting it exists and playing cautiously anyway.

Prepare a spread of evocation damage spells across several damage types so Empowered Evocation always has somewhere to go and you can route around resistances.

Build Intelligence to 20, Constitution 16, Dexterity 14. Variant Human for War Caster is the standard opener, and Mountain Dwarf is a strong alternative for the Constitution and medium armor.

Bladesinging

The melee Wizard, and the only tradition that expects you within reach of an enemy. Bladesinging is strong rather than merely popular, because the feature that lets you survive melee also fixes the Wizard's worst structural weakness.

Training in War and Song ●

Level 2. Proficiency with light armor, one one-handed melee weapon of your choice, and the Performance skill.

Easy to skim past, and the entire subclass rests on it. Without light armor and a weapon there is no melee Wizard at all. Studded leather with Dexterity 14 puts you at AC 14 from level 2, already better than Mage Armor and without spending a slot every morning.

The one-handed restriction is deliberate: you are a duelist, not a soldier. Rapier is the obvious pick for finesse and a d8.

Bladesong ●

Level 2. As a bonus action, activate Bladesong for one minute. While it is active you gain your Intelligence modifier as a bonus to AC, +10 feet of speed, advantage on Acrobatics checks, and you add your Intelligence modifier to Constitution saves made to maintain concentration. It ends early if you wear medium or heavy armor, use a shield, or hold a two-handed weapon.

One of the strongest level 2 features in the game, and it is doing two separate jobs.

The AC is the visible half. At 20 Intelligence in studded leather with Dexterity 14, you are at AC 21 while singing, which is harder to hit than a Fighter in plate. For a d6 hit die class that is transformative.

The concentration bonus is the half that actually matters more. Adding Intelligence to concentration saves, on top of Constitution, means a Bladesinger holding Haste or Greater Invisibility passes routine checks close to automatically. The Wizard's defining vulnerability is losing the spell it built the fight around, and this tradition simply patches it.

Two printings disagree on the uses, and both are in circulation. The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide version gives you two uses per short rest. The Tasha's Cauldron of Everything reprint gives you a number of uses equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest. Ask your DM which they are using, because it meaningfully changes how freely you activate it.

Bladesinger Extra Attack ●

Level 6. You can attack twice whenever you take the Attack action.

Weaker than a martial class's version, because you have neither the attack stat nor the feat investment to match a Fighter. What it gives you is something useful to do with your action on the turns where casting would break concentration or waste a slot.

In the Tasha's printing you may replace one of the attacks with a cantrip, which is what makes the Booming Blade pattern work and is a significant upgrade. Check which printing is in play.

Its real value arrives at 14, when Song of Victory makes each of those attacks carry your Intelligence modifier in damage.

Song of Defense ●

Level 10. While Bladesong is active, you can use your reaction to expend a spell slot and reduce the damage you take by 5 times the slot's level.

A real emergency valve. A 3rd-level slot absorbs 15 damage, a 5th absorbs 25. In tier 2 that is often the difference between holding concentration and losing it.

It ages poorly. At the tier where a dragon hits for 60, spending a 4th-level slot to prevent 20 is a poor trade. Use it to protect a critical concentration spell or to avoid going down, not as routine mitigation.

Song of Victory ●

Level 14. While Bladesong is active, add your Intelligence modifier to the damage of your melee weapon attacks.

The capstone that justifies everything from level 6 onward. At 20 Intelligence that is +5 per hit, and with Extra Attack that is +10 per round from the modifier alone.

A rapier hitting for 1d8 plus Dexterity plus Intelligence, twice a turn, is not Fighter damage, but it is real damage from a full caster who still has every spell in the book available.

Bladesinging in play

Activate Bladesong at the start of any fight you expect to be dangerous, not when you are already in trouble. It is a bonus action and the AC only helps against attacks that have not happened yet.

Stay in light armor with one hand free. The restrictions are not flavour: a shield or a two-handed weapon ends the song outright.

Build Intelligence to 20 first, Dexterity 16, Constitution 14. High Elf or Variant Human are the strongest openers, and two levels of Fighter for Action Surge is the canonical dip, letting you cast two leveled spells in one turn.

School of Abjuration

The durable Wizard. Abjuration gives you a second health bar that refills from spells you were already casting, which makes it one of the least demanding traditions to play well.

Abjuration Savant ●

Level 2. Halve the gold and time to copy abjuration spells into your spellbook.

Middle of the road. The abjuration list holds Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Protection from Evil and Good, and Globe of Invulnerability, all of which you want copied regardless, so the savings are genuine if unexciting.

Arcane Ward ●

Level 2. When you cast an abjuration spell of 1st level or higher, you can create a ward with hit points equal to twice your Wizard level plus your Intelligence modifier. The ward absorbs damage before you do. Casting another abjuration restores 2 hit points per spell level to the ward, up to its maximum.

The reason to pick this school, and the best example in the class of a feature whose value comes from how often it triggers rather than how large it is.

You are already casting Shield and Absorb Elements reactively and Mage Armor daily. Every one of those refills the ward. At level 10 with 20 Intelligence the ward caps at 25 hit points, and it is topping itself up through your normal turn-to-turn play without you spending anything extra.

In practice a well-played Abjurer takes very little real damage until something strips the ward entirely, which on a d6 hit die class is a substantial change to how survivable you feel.

Projected Ward ●

Level 6. When a creature you can see within 30 feet takes damage, you can use your reaction to have your Arcane Ward absorb that damage instead.

This turns a personal buffer into a party resource. The right use is the hit that would drop an ally: a giant's club landing on your Rogue, the crit that would down the cleric.

The cost is your reaction, which competes directly with Counterspell and Shield. If the enemy caster is still standing, that reaction is usually worth more as a Counterspell. Read the board before you spend it.

Improved Abjuration ●

Level 10. When you cast Counterspell or Dispel Magic, add your proficiency bonus to the ability check made to end the spell.

The feature that makes Abjuration the real answer to enemy spellcasters. Counterspell and Dispel Magic only require a check when you are targeting a spell above your slot's level, and without help those checks fail often enough to be a gamble.

With proficiency added, at +4 through +6, countering high-level spells with a 3rd-level slot becomes a reliable play rather than a hope. In any campaign where enemy casters matter, this converts your reaction into a dependable interrupt.

Spell Resistance ●

Level 14. You have advantage on saving throws against spells, and resistance to damage from spells.

An always-on passive with no cost and no limit. Advantage on every spell save roughly doubles your resistance to magical effects, and halving all spell damage matters enormously at a tier where most serious damage is magical.

The honest caveat is the level. Most campaigns do not reach 14. If yours does, this is among the strongest defensive capstones in the game, and it arrives exactly when enemies start leading with magic.

Abjuration in play

Cast an abjuration early in every fight to get the ward up, even a Mage Armor or a Shield. The ward does nothing sitting at zero.

Hold your reaction deliberately. Between Shield, Counterspell and Projected Ward you have three excellent uses and one reaction, and choosing well is most of the skill in the tradition.

Build Intelligence to 20, Constitution 16, Dexterity 14. Mountain Dwarf is a strong pick here for the Constitution and medium armor, which saves your 1st-level slots for ward fuel rather than Mage Armor.

School of Conjuration

The summoner, and the tradition with the single most unusual level 10 feature in the class: concentration that cannot be broken by damage.

Conjuration Savant ●

Level 2. Halve the gold and time to copy conjuration spells into your spellbook.

The conjuration list is excellent, holding Misty Step, Web, Conjure Animals, Conjure Elemental and Teleport, so the savings are real. It changes nothing at the table.

Minor Conjuration ●

Level 2. As an action, conjure a nonmagical object you have seen, no larger than 3 feet on a side and no heavier than 10 pounds, within 10 feet. It lasts one hour, or until you use the feature again, or if it takes or deals damage.

Unimpressive on the page and good in play, because it rewards lateral thinking more than almost any other at-will ability the class has. A crowbar. A ladder rung. A ten-foot pole. A mirror to look around a corner. A forged document, subject to your DM's patience.

The damage clause blocks combat use as a weapon or shield, which keeps it out of the optimisation conversation and firmly in the problem-solving one. Establish its boundaries with your DM early and it will solve problems nobody planned for.

Benign Transposition ●

Level 6. As an action, teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see, or swap places with a willing Small or Medium creature in range. You cannot use it again until you finish a long rest or cast a conjuration spell of 1st level or higher.

Free teleportation with a recharge tied to the school you were already casting from. Cast any conjuration and it comes straight back, so a conjuration-focused Wizard uses this repeatedly in a day.

The swap is the interesting half. Pull a downed ally out of danger and put yourself in their place, or move your Fighter into a position they could not have reached. That is a tactical option no other Wizard tradition has.

Focused Conjuration ●

Level 10. While you concentrate on a conjuration spell, your concentration cannot be broken as a result of taking damage.

Exceptional, and unique in the class. No Constitution saves, no lost slots, no losing your Conjure Animals to a lucky hit. You can stand in the open while eight wolves fight for you and not think about it once.

The limitation is that it only covers conjuration. Your Fly and Greater Invisibility remain vulnerable. Plan which spell occupies your concentration slot accordingly: when you want the protection, make sure the thing you are holding is a conjuration.

Durable Summons ●

Level 14. Any creature you summon or create with a conjuration spell has 30 temporary hit points.

Simple and effective. Eight wolves from Conjure Animals arrive with 240 temporary hit points spread across the pack, which roughly doubles how long the summon survives and therefore how much total damage it deals.

At the tier where enemies clear summons quickly, this is what keeps a summoning build functional rather than a round of setup that evaporates.

Conjuration in play

Keep a cheap conjuration prepared purely to recharge Benign Transposition. A 1st-level spell is enough, and the mobility is worth more than the slot.

From level 10, build your concentration around conjuration deliberately. The protection only applies to that school, and Focused Conjuration is the reason to be here.

Build Intelligence to 20, Constitution 16, Dexterity 14. Variant Human for War Caster covers you before level 10, when Focused Conjuration takes over most of that job.

School of Illusion

The highest-ceiling tradition in the class and the most dependent on your DM. Illusion's payoff feature is limited only by what your table will entertain.

Illusion Savant ●

Level 2. Halve the gold and time to copy illusion spells into your spellbook.

Above average for a Savant, because the illusion list is wide and you want most of it: Silent Image, Disguise Self, Mirror Image, Invisibility, Major Image, Greater Invisibility, Programmed Illusion, Project Image.

Improved Minor Illusion ●

Level 2. You learn Minor Illusion, and it does not count against your cantrips known. When you cast it, you can create both a sound and an image with a single casting.

A meaningful upgrade to what is already one of the best utility cantrips in the game. Minor Illusion normally gives you one or the other; both at once is dramatically more convincing, because a creature investigating an illusion is weighing everything its senses report.

An illusory campfire that also crackles will fool a patrol that a silent flickering image would not. If you already knew the cantrip, you get a free one of your choice instead.

Malleable Illusions ●

Level 6. When you cast an illusion spell with a duration of 1 minute or longer, you can use your action to change the nature of that illusion, provided you can see it.

This fixes the structural problem with illusions: they are created once and then go stale the moment circumstances change. An illusory wall that enemies have already walked around is doing nothing; Malleable Illusions lets you move it, or turn it into something else entirely, without recasting.

The action cost makes it awkward mid-combat. Out of combat, in exploration and social play, the ability to sustain one illusion and continuously adapt it is where the feature earns its rating.

Illusory Self ●

Level 10. As a reaction when a creature makes an attack roll against you, interpose an illusory duplicate. The attack automatically misses. Once per short or long rest.

The most reliable combat feature in the tradition. Not a bonus to AC, not a chance to miss: the attack misses, guaranteed, and you get it back on a short rest.

At the tier where a single hit from a serious enemy deals 30 to 40, negating one outright each rest is strong. The skill is patience: save it for the biggest attack you see coming rather than the first one that lands.

Illusory Reality ●

Level 14. While an illusion spell of 1st level or higher you cast is ongoing, you can use a bonus action to make one inanimate, nonmagical object that is part of the illusion real for 1 minute. It cannot deal damage or directly harm anyone.

The reason to play the School of Illusion, and the feature with the widest range of outcomes in this guide.

A bridge across a chasm that you can walk on. A wall that actually stops movement. A door that seals a corridor. A rope you can climb. A cage that holds someone.

The prohibitions leave enormous room, and the ceiling is set by your imagination and your DM's willingness to engage. Prepare ideas before a session rather than trying to invent one at the table.

Illusion in play

Have the conversation with your DM early, ideally before session one. This tradition varies more between tables than anything else in the class, and a clear shared understanding of what illusions can and cannot do is the difference between the best subclass in the game and a frustrating one.

Take Actor if you intend to lean on deception. Combined with Improved Minor Illusion it makes you the strongest social deception character the Player's Handbook can build.

Build Intelligence to 20, Wisdom 12 to 14 for your own saves against mind-affecting effects, Constitution for concentration.

Graviturgy Magic

The battlefield mover. Graviturgy adds a free repositioning rider to every damaging spell you cast, which turns your ordinary casting into terrain control without costing you anything.

Adjust Density ●

Level 2. As an action, alter the weight of a creature within 30 feet for up to one minute, concentration. Doubling its weight reduces its speed by 10 feet and gives it advantage on Strength checks and saves. Halving its weight increases its speed by 10 feet and gives it disadvantage on Strength checks and saves.

The most situational thing in the tradition, and the action cost is the problem. Spending your whole action to slow one creature by 10 feet, which is roughly light difficult terrain, almost never beats casting a spell.

It earns its place in specific cases: halving an ally's weight for mobility, or slowing a charger while your concentration is already committed elsewhere. On a flat floor against an ordinary enemy it is a ribbon.

One note, because the retired guide got this wrong: doubling weight does not confer vulnerability to force or falling damage. The trade is speed against Strength checks and saves in both directions.

Gravity Well ●

Level 6. Whenever you cast a spell that affects a creature, you can move that creature up to 5 feet to an unoccupied space immediately after the spell's effect resolves. It costs no action, bonus action or reaction.

The reason to play this tradition. Five feet sounds trivial and is not, because it is free, it happens on every spell, and it resolves after the damage and conditions have already applied.

What it does in practice:

• Drag a creature deeper into your Web or Spike Growth after it already failed the save.
• Pull an enemy off a ledge.
• Push something out of the doorway your party needs.
• Separate a creature from the ally it was flanking.
• Move an enemy off your downed cleric so the healer can reach them safely.

Across a five-spell combat that is five free repositions. Better still, it applies even when the target succeeds on its save and takes nothing, so your failed spells still accomplish something.

Violent Attraction ●

Level 10. As a reaction when a creature within 60 feet hits with a weapon attack, increase that attack's damage by 1d10. Alternatively, when a creature within 60 feet takes falling damage, increase it by 1d10. Uses equal your Intelligence modifier per long rest.

Free damage attached to someone else's hit, with no slot and no concentration. Point it at the party's biggest single swing: the Paladin's smite turn, the Rogue's Sneak Attack, the Fighter's Action Surge round.

The cost is your reaction, and that is the real constraint. Shield and Counterspell are almost always worth more than 1d10. Spend this on turns where you have no defensive reaction worth holding, or in fights where nothing is threatening you.

The two retired sources disagreed on whether the bonus is 1d10 or 2d10. The figure above is the more conservative reading; confirm against Explorer's Guide to Wildemount before building around it.

Event Horizon ●

Level 14. As an action, create a 30-foot-radius aura of gravitational energy centred on yourself for 1 minute, concentration. A creature that starts its turn in the area must make a Strength saving throw, taking 2d10 force damage on a failure and half on a success, and on a failure its speed is reduced to 0 until the start of its next turn.

A strong zone-control capstone. Force damage bypasses most resistances, the aura moves with you, and speed 0 on a failure is a hard stop rather than a slow.

Two honest caveats. It costs your action and your concentration to run, which at level 14 competes with Wall of Force, Hold Monster and Telekinesis. And Strength is a good save for exactly the frontline creatures you most want to pin, so it will underperform against the bruisers and overperform against casters.

The two retired guides disagreed substantially on this feature - one gave a 60-foot radius and the other a "moves away from you" trigger, neither of which matches the other. The version above takes the radius from one and the trigger from the other. Verify it against Explorer's Guide to Wildemount before relying on the details.

Graviturgy dunamancy spells ●

Six spells on the dunamancy list are tagged graviturgy, and you know each of them automatically at the level you qualify, with no spellbook cost and no downtime.

Magnify Gravity at 1st level hits a 10-foot radius with force damage and halves the speed of anyone who fails a Constitution save. A cheap, scalable area control spell available from level 2, well before your subclass features come online properly.

Gravity Sinkhole at 4th level drops a 20-foot sphere of crushing force, dealing force damage and pulling failed saves toward the centre. It pairs directly with Gravity Well: everything it drags in is something you can nudge another 5 feet on your next spell.

Ravenous Void at 9th level creates a sustained gravity well that pulls creatures and objects toward its centre each round and restrains anything caught inside. The clearest thematic payoff the tradition has.

Graviturgy in play

Think of Gravity Well as part of every spell you cast rather than a separate feature. New Graviturgy players forget it on half their turns, which is where most of the tradition's value leaks away.

Pair it with zone spells deliberately. Web, Spike Growth and Wall of Fire all get better when you can drag the target five feet further in every round.

Build Intelligence to 20, Constitution 14 or higher because Event Horizon and your control spells both want concentration, Dexterity 12 to 14. Variant Human for War Caster, or Gnome for Gnome Cunning.

War Magic

The survivor. War Magic is built around not losing: converting a failed save into a success, going first every fight, and turning any concentration spell into a passive defensive buff.

Arcane Deflection ●

Level 2. As a reaction when you are hit by an attack, gain +2 AC against it. As a reaction when you fail a saving throw, gain +4 to the roll. Until the end of your next turn after using it, you can only cast cantrips.

The +4 on a failed save is the half that matters, because it applies after you know you failed. Turning a failed save against a dominate, a disintegrate or a hold into a success is worth far more than the AC.

The cantrip restriction is a genuine cost, particularly in tier 1 and 2 when your leveled slots are your whole contribution. The tactical answer is to use Arcane Deflection late in the round: if you have already cast your spell this turn, being limited to cantrips next turn costs you much less than it looks.

As cantrips scale and your saves start facing nastier consequences, the trade gets better with every tier.

Tactical Wit ●

Level 2. Add your Intelligence modifier to your initiative rolls.

The same feature Chronurgy gets, and the same verdict: free, passive, and disproportionately powerful. At 20 Intelligence with moderate Dexterity you roll initiative at +7 or +8, and with Alert you become nearly impossible to beat to the first turn.

The Wizard who acts first sets the terms. Hypnotic Pattern or Web landing before anything has moved converts an encounter into a cleanup.

Power Surge ●

Level 6. You can store Power Surges, up to your Intelligence modifier, by successfully ending a spell with Counterspell or Dispel Magic. When you cast a spell that deals damage, expend one surge to add force damage equal to half your Wizard level. You also gain one surge if you have none when you finish a long rest.

The effect is fine: +5 at level 10, +9 at 18. The delivery is the problem, because charging it requires enemy spellcasters, a prepared Counterspell or Dispel Magic, and a successful use.

In a campaign full of enemy mages this is a steady damage rider. In a monster-heavy campaign the charges sit empty. The free surge after a long rest is a floor that keeps it from being useless, but this is the clearest example in the class of a feature whose rating is set by your DM's encounter design rather than its own text.

Note that it scales on half your Wizard level, not your Intelligence modifier.

Durable Magic ●

Level 10. While you maintain concentration on a spell, you gain +2 to AC and to all saving throws.

Excellent, and it asks nothing of you beyond what you were already doing. Hold any concentration spell and you are permanently +2 AC and +2 to every save.

It stacks with everything. Concentrating on Haste, which itself grants +2 AC, puts you +4 over baseline, and Arcane Deflection on top of that pushes you higher again for a single attack.

The saving throw half is the quiet winner, applying to Dexterity saves against area damage, Wisdom saves against fear, and Constitution saves to hold the very concentration that is granting the bonus. This feature alone justifies keeping a minor concentration spell running as a permanent stance.

Deflecting Shroud ●

Level 14. When you use Arcane Deflection, up to three creatures of your choice within 60 feet each take force damage equal to half your Wizard level.

This changes the arithmetic of your reaction. Arcane Deflection was purely defensive; now every use also does 7 damage to three targets at level 14, rising to 10 at level 20.

It is not a large number next to what your spells do, but it is free, it fires on a reaction you were already spending, and it makes the cantrip-restriction turn sting less.

War Magic in play

Use Arcane Deflection after your action, not before. That single habit removes most of the cantrip restriction's cost.

Keep something under concentration at all times from level 10, even a weak spell, purely for Durable Magic's +2 to AC and every save.

Build Intelligence to 20, Constitution 14 to 16, Dexterity 12 to 14. Variant Human taking Alert is the strongest opener, because Tactical Wit plus Alert means you effectively never lose initiative.

Order of Scribes

The logistics specialist. Order of Scribes is the tradition that most directly engages with the thing that defines the class, and it turns the spellbook from a bookkeeping object into a piece of equipment you use every round.

Wizardly Quill ●

Level 2. As a bonus action, conjure a magical quill that needs no ink, lets you erase anything it wrote, and copies spells into your spellbook in one minute per spell level rather than two hours.

An enormous quality-of-life change that the rules understate. Copying a 5th-level spell drops from ten hours to five minutes, which means it happens during a short rest instead of consuming an evening of downtime.

The practical effect is behavioural: you actually copy the scrolls you find, instead of leaving them in a bag until a downtime week that never arrives.

Awakened Spellbook ●

Level 2. Your spellbook becomes a magical object with three properties. When you cast a spell from it that deals damage, you can change the damage type to any other damage type that appears among the spells in your spellbook. You can use the book as a spellcasting focus. And once per long rest you can cast a ritual spell from it at its normal casting time, without the extra 10 minutes.

The heart of the tradition and one of the most distinctive level 2 features the class has.

The damage swap means no enemy is ever immune to your whole offence. Fireball becomes cold, thunder or acid depending on what else your book holds, which rewards collecting broadly and removes the single most frustrating moment a blaster runs into.

The instant ritual is the standout. Ritual casting is one of the most powerful things Wizards do and its cost is always the 10 minutes. Removing that once a day converts Identify, Find Familiar, Leomund's Tiny Hut or Water Breathing into something you can do the moment it becomes urgent. No other tradition offers this.

Manifest Mind ●

Level 6. As a bonus action, project your Awakened Spellbook as a spectral mind to a point you can see within 300 feet. You can cast spells as though you were in its space, it has 30 feet of magical sight including through magical darkness, and you can move it up to 300 feet with a bonus action.

This solves the Wizard's oldest problem, which is that casting reveals your position and your position is the most fragile thing in the party.

Cast around corners. Attack from a line of sight you do not personally have. Hold a concentration spell originating from one place while standing somewhere else entirely. Send it into the next room and look.

Enemies trying to disrupt your concentration have to find you rather than the glowing book, and at the tier where intelligent enemies target casters deliberately, that is a real defensive feature disguised as a utility one.

Master Scrivener ●

Level 10. After a long rest, use your Wizardly Quill to create a spell scroll from a 1st or 2nd level spell you have prepared, and the scroll functions one level higher than the base spell. It lasts until your next long rest.

A free consumable every single day. A 2nd-level base spell becomes a 3rd-level scroll, which is an extra Misty Step, Shatter or Blindness at no slot cost.

The one-rest expiry stops you hoarding them, which makes it a planning tool: build tomorrow's scroll around what you expect tomorrow to contain.

One with the Word ●

Level 14. As a reaction when you would be reduced to 0 hit points while your Awakened Spellbook is on your person, drop to 1 hit point instead. Roll 3d6; that many total spell levels are expunged from your spellbook for 1d6 days, and you choose which spells to lose.

A genuine death-prevention button with a genuine price. Losing 3 to 18 spell levels for up to six days can gut your versatility, and in a dungeon without downtime it hurts badly.

The way to make it workable is to keep deliberate fodder: copy redundant backup spells you rarely prepare, so you have something to burn that is not your signature magic.

Order of Scribes in play

Use the instant ritual every day. It recharges on a long rest and it is easy to forget, which is the most common way players undersell this tradition.

Manifest the mind before you need it, not once you are already being shot at. Placing it well is most of the skill.

Build Intelligence to 20, Constitution 14 or higher, Dexterity 12 to 14. Ritual Caster is an unusually strong feat here, because it expands the pool that Instant Ritual draws from into other class lists.

School of Necromancy

The horde master. Necromancy is entirely campaign-dependent in a way no other tradition is, because its central feature requires a supply of corpses.

Necromancy Savant ●

Level 2. Halve the gold and time to copy necromancy spells into your spellbook.

Useful in proportion to how many necromancy spells you intend to own, which for a committed Necromancer is a lot: Animate Dead, Blight, Cloudkill, Circle of Death, Finger of Death.

Grim Harvest ●

Level 2. Once per turn, when you kill one or more creatures with a spell of 1st level or higher, you regain hit points equal to twice the spell's level, or three times its level if the spell is from the School of Necromancy. Constructs and undead do not count.

Strong and rarely discussed. Free healing with no action, no reaction and no concentration, on a class with d6 hit dice.

It is once per turn rather than once per kill, so a Fireball that kills five creatures returns 6 hit points, not 30. The design steers you toward actually casting necromancy spells for damage, where the rate triples: Blight at 4th returns 12, Finger of Death at 7th returns 21.

A Necromancer who defaults entirely to Fireball is leaving most of this feature unclaimed.

Undead Thralls ●

Level 6. You add Animate Dead to your spellbook if it is not there. When you cast it, you can target one additional corpse. Any undead you create with a necromancy spell has its hit point maximum increased by your Wizard level and adds your proficiency bonus to its weapon damage rolls.

What makes the Necromancer's horde different from any other summoner. A level 6 skeleton arrives with 19 hit points instead of 13, which is nearly 50% more staying power, and it hits harder on every attack.

The extra corpse per casting compounds across a campaign. By the mid levels you can realistically maintain six to eight thralls, each meaningfully tougher and more damaging than the stat block suggests.

Inured to Undeath ●

Level 10. You have resistance to necrotic damage, and your hit point maximum cannot be reduced.

Unflashy and precisely targeted. Necrotic resistance matters at the tier where liches, vampires and death knights are the standard threat, and the hit point maximum clause shuts down wights, wraiths, specters and shadows entirely.

Against the right enemies this removes a whole category of danger. Against the wrong ones it does nothing, which is the Necromancy story in miniature.

Command Undead ●

Level 14. As an action, one undead you can see within 60 feet must make a Charisma save or become friendly and obey your commands until you use the feature again. An undead with Intelligence 8 or higher has advantage on the save, and one with Intelligence 12 or higher can repeat the save every hour.

Turning the enemy's best undead into yours, for the cost of one action and nothing else. Walking into a crypt and converting the wight before the fight starts changes the encounter outright.

Mind the Intelligence thresholds, because the retired guide had them wrong. Anything with Intelligence 8 or more rolls with advantage, and anything with Intelligence 12 or more gets an hourly chance to break free. Mindless undead, which is most skeletons and zombies, simply stay yours.

Necromancy in play

Have the campaign conversation first. This tradition needs humanoid corpses and a DM willing to let you keep and command an entourage. In a wilderness or social campaign it does very little, and in an undead-heavy dungeon crawl it is excellent.

Fill your roster after every fight. Leaving a battlefield without animating what you can is leaving the subclass unplayed.

Cast necromancy spells for damage rather than defaulting to universal blasting, because Grim Harvest pays triple on your own school. Build Intelligence to 20, Constitution 16, Wisdom 12 to 14.

School of Enchantment

The mind-bender. Enchantment has one strong feature at level 10 and a level 2 feature that asks a Wizard to do the most dangerous thing a Wizard can do.

Enchantment Savant ●

Level 2. Halve the gold and time to copy enchantment spells into your spellbook.

The enchantment list is deep and worth owning: Charm Person, Hold Person, Suggestion, Dominate Person, Dominate Monster. Consistently helpful, never exciting.

Hypnotic Gaze ●

Level 2. As an action, choose one creature you can see within 5 feet. It must succeed on a Wisdom save or be charmed until the end of your next turn, and while charmed it is incapacitated with a speed of 0. On each of your turns you can use your action to maintain the effect. It ends if the creature moves more than 5 feet away, can no longer see or hear you, or takes damage.

The worst level 2 feature in the class, and the reason is structural rather than numerical: it requires a d6 hit die caster to stand within 5 feet of a hostile creature, which is the position every other part of the class is built to avoid.

The saving clause is that you can cast spells normally while maintaining it, so the action cost is not total. But the scenarios where this is your best play are scenarios where you have already made a mistake: an enemy has closed on you and you cannot disengage cleanly.

Use it when you are already stuck in melee, or when a target's legendary resistances are spent and you want them held. Never walk into melee to set it up.

Instinctive Charm ●

Level 6. As a reaction when a creature you can see within 30 feet makes an attack roll against you, it must make a Wisdom save or instead target the creature closest to it other than you. On a success, you cannot use this on that attacker again until you finish a long rest.

The tradition's best defensive tool and its most reliable feature, and it runs on the same Wisdom save DC that the rest of your kit depends on, so it works well exactly when your spells work well.

The lockout is the real limit. Against a boss, one successful save closes the feature off for the day, which is precisely the fight where you wanted it. Against a crowd of low-Wisdom martials it fires repeatedly.

Aim it accordingly: lean on it against giants, beasts and ordinary warriors, and do not count on it against paladins, monks or clerics.

Split Enchantment ●

Level 10. When you cast an enchantment spell of 1st level or higher that targets only one creature, you can have it target a second creature within range.

The feature that makes the tradition competitive. It doubles the output of your best single-target spells for no extra slot: Hold Person paralysing two humanoids, Dominate Person taking two enemies out of the fight at once.

Dominate Person on two enemy spellcasters in one action at level 10 is a fight-ending play, and nothing else in the tradition comes close to this.

The catch is that each target rolls its own save, so the feature is only as good as your DC. Push Intelligence to 20 and it lands often enough to build around; leave it at 16 and you will watch both targets succeed.

Alter Memories ●

Level 14. When you cast an enchantment spell that charms a creature, you can make it unaware it was charmed. Once before the spell ends, you can use your action to make the creature forget time it spent charmed: it must succeed on an Intelligence save or lose 1 plus your Charisma modifier hours of memory, minimum one hour.

A campaign feature rather than a combat one, and its rating depends entirely on whether your game has social consequences.

In intrigue play it is superb: charm the noble, get what you need, and remove the evidence that you were ever there. The target does not know it was charmed and does not remember the conversation.

Against monsters in a dungeon it does nothing, because the thing you charmed is dead and dead creatures do not file complaints. Rate it by how much of your campaign involves recurring NPCs and political fallout.

Enchantment in play

Do not walk into melee for Hypnotic Gaze. That single discipline separates a functional Enchanter from a dead one.

Everything in this tradition keys off enemies failing Wisdom saves, so Intelligence to 20 is not a preference, it is the entire build. If your DC is low the subclass simply does not function.

Split Enchantment at level 10 is where this becomes a real subclass, so if your campaign will end before then, be honest that you are choosing flavour. Build Intelligence 20, Constitution 16, Wisdom 12 or higher, because the Enchanter's own weakness is enemy mind-affecting magic.

School of Transmutation

The weakest tradition in the class, carried almost entirely by one good feature at level 6.

Transmutation Savant ●

Level 2. Halve the gold and time to copy transmutation spells into your spellbook.

The transmutation list is excellent, holding Fly, Polymorph, Telekinesis, Disintegrate, Reverse Gravity and True Polymorph. The problem is that this Savant does nothing to distinguish the tradition at the table: it saves money on spells you would have bought regardless.

Minor Alchemy ●

Level 2. You can transform one nonmagical object made entirely of wood, stone (not gemstone), iron, copper or silver into another of those materials. Each 10 minutes of work transforms up to 1 cubic foot. It lasts one hour or until you lose concentration, and only one object at a time.

The weakest level 2 feature in the Player's Handbook, and it fails on three axes at once. Ten minutes per cubic foot makes it strictly out of combat. The material list is narrow. It requires concentration, which is a real cost even outside a fight. And it lasts one hour, so whatever you made must be used immediately.

Creative uses exist: iron manacles into wood so they snap, a stone door into wood so you can break through, silver into copper for reasons best left to your DM. They are rare enough that you should not plan around them.

Transmuter's Stone ●

Level 6. Spend 8 hours creating a stone that grants its holder one benefit of your choice: darkvision to 60 feet, +10 feet of speed while unencumbered, proficiency in Constitution saving throws, or resistance to one damage type of your choice. Each time you cast a transmutation spell of 1st level or higher you can change the benefit, and you can give the stone to another creature.

The one good feature here, and the reason anyone plays the tradition competitively.

Constitution save proficiency is usually the right choice, because it is the single most valuable thing a Wizard can be given. Stacked with War Caster's advantage, a Transmuter has among the most reliable concentration in the game, which turns the class's greatest weakness into a strength.

The flexibility is the second half. Change to fire resistance before a red dragon, darkvision before a lightless dungeon, speed when you need to outrun something. And you can hand it to somebody else, which is a form of party support no other Wizard tradition offers: give the Constitution proficiency to the Paladin holding Bless, or the darkvision to the Rogue scouting ahead.

Shapechanger ●

Level 10. You add Polymorph to your spellbook. You can cast it on yourself without expending a slot, transforming only into a beast of challenge rating 1 or lower. Once per short or long rest.

Firmly utility. CR 1 caps you at a giant eagle, a brown bear, a giant spider or similar, none of which is a combatant at level 10.

The giant eagle is the reason to care: an 80-foot flying speed, free, twice a day or more, without a slot or concentration. In exploration-heavy or wilderness campaigns that solves a category of problem. In a dungeon crawl it will go unused.

Master Transmuter ●

Level 14. As an action, consume your transmuter's stone to produce one of five effects: Major Transformation, changing one nonmagical object up to a 5-foot cube into another of similar size and equal or lesser value after 10 minutes of handling; Panacea, removing all curses, diseases and poisons from a creature you touch and restoring all its hit points; Restore Life, casting Raise Dead without a slot or components; Restore Youth, reducing a creature's apparent age by 3d10 years; or Temporary True Polymorph, casting True Polymorph without a slot, lasting one hour.

A capstone that could have been extraordinary and lands as situationally very good.

Panacea is a full heal plus a remove curse in a single action, which is fight-saving when someone is cursed and down at once. Restore Life is a free Raise Dead with no 500gp diamond, which in a campaign without reliable resurrection access is irreplaceable.

The costs are real: your action, the stone itself, and 8 hours to rebuild it. But when one of these five is the right tool, nothing else in the class does it.

Transmutation in play

Take Constitution save proficiency on the stone by default and only change it when you know something specific is coming.

Give the stone away when someone else needs it more. It is the tradition's most distinctive contribution and most Transmuters never use it that way.

Build Intelligence to 20, Constitution 14 to 16 given the stone covers the proficiency, Dexterity 14. Variant Human taking War Caster is the strongest opener, because War Caster plus stone proficiency is the combination the whole tradition is built around.

Ability Scores

Every tradition wants the same three stats in the same order, which makes the Wizard one of the simplest classes in the game to build.

Intelligence to 20 as fast as your ability score increases allow, without exception. Several traditions scale directly off the modifier: Arcane Ward's maximum, Bladesong's AC, Empowered Evocation's damage, Tactical Wit and Temporal Awareness on initiative.

Constitution is the stat new Wizards underrate. You have the worst hit dice in the game and your best spells require concentration, which means you are making Constitution saves under fire regularly. Target 16 where you can.

Three traditions change the third slot:

• Bladesinging wants Dexterity 16, because it is your attack stat as well as half your AC, and it is the only tradition that expects you in melee.
• Illusion, Enchantment and Necromancy all want Wisdom 12 to 14. Each of them spends the campaign around mind-affecting magic, and being on the receiving end of a charm or fear effect is the most common way those characters lose a fight.
• Transmutation can run Constitution 14 rather than 16, because the Transmuter's Stone can grant Constitution save proficiency instead.

Races

Variant Human ● is the strongest choice for every tradition in this guide, for one reason: a feat at level 1. War Caster solves concentration before it ever costs you a spell, Alert guarantees you act first, and Lucky covers everything else.

The rest of the list is about when something beats that.

• High Elf ● is the best generic alternative: an Intelligence bonus plus a free Wizard cantrip. It is the default Bladesinger pick if your DM enforces the Sword Coast race restriction, and it gives Evocation a Fire Bolt and Order of Scribes another damage type for the Awakened Spellbook to swap into.
• Gnome, Forest or Rock ● is the best defensive race in the game for a Wizard. Gnome Cunning grants advantage on Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma saves against magic, which covers almost every save that ends a caster's day. It is especially good on Abjuration, where it stacks with Spell Resistance at 14 into near-immunity.
• Mountain Dwarf ● brings Constitution and medium armor proficiency, which means AC 16 in a breastplate without ever casting Mage Armor. On an Abjurer that frees your 1st-level slots to feed the ward instead.
• Githyanki ● gives Intelligence plus Astral Knowledge, and its armor proficiency makes a durable front-adjacent Wizard viable.
• Shadar-kai ● suits Necromancy for necrotic resistance and a bonus action teleport.
• Tiefling ● and Half-Elf ● are flavour-first picks. Half-Elf's Fey Ancestry is a nice fit on an Enchanter who would rather not be charmed themselves.

Feats

War Caster ● is the closest thing to a mandatory Wizard feat. Advantage on concentration saves, casting with your hands occupied, and spells as opportunity attacks. Take it or Resilient on essentially every Wizard you build.

Resilient (Constitution) ● is the alternative, giving save proficiency plus a stat point. At high levels the flat proficiency is arguably more reliable than advantage, and on a Transmuter the stone can supply it instead, freeing the feat.

Alert ● matters more on this class than most, because a Wizard who acts first gets to impose Hypnotic Pattern or Web before anything moves. On Chronurgy and War Magic it stacks with their initiative features into numbers nothing beats.

Lucky ● is generically excellent and specifically good on Divination, because Lucky is reactive where Portent is proactive and the two cover different problems.

Spell Sniper ● doubles spell attack range and ignores cover, which suits Evocation and any cantrip-heavy build. Elemental Adept ● belongs on a fire-focused Evoker. Actor ● is an Illusion pick and pairs with Improved Minor Illusion. Observant ● suits Divination and Illusion. Ritual Caster ● is unusually strong on Order of Scribes, because it widens the pool that Instant Ritual draws from.

Multiclassing

Every level taken outside the class delays your spell slots, and slots are what the Wizard is. The dips worth taking are short and specific.

Fighter, 2 levels ● - The best multiclass available to any Wizard, and it is not close. Action Surge lets you cast two leveled spells in a single turn, which is the strongest nova in the game. It is the canonical Bladesinger dip and it works on every other tradition too. A third level adds a fighting style and a martial subclass if you want it.

Cleric, 1 to 2 levels ● - Armor proficiency, a Channel Divinity and domain spells. One level of a heavy armor domain solves the Wizard's AC problem permanently, and Constitution save proficiency comes with it.

Rogue, 2 to 3 levels ● - Cunning Action is a genuine action economy upgrade, and Arcane Trickster casts off Intelligence, so the multiclass is unusually clean. It suits Illusion and Enchantment thematically as well as mechanically.

Sorcerer, 1 to 3 levels ● - Constitution save proficiency plus Metamagic. Quickened Spell in particular lets you cast a leveled spell as a bonus action, and Twinned Spell doubles your best single-target control.

Druid, 2 to 3 levels (Circle of the Land) ● - Natural Recovery returns slots on a short rest and the summoning lists reinforce each other. A Conjuration pick.

Bard, 3 levels (College of Lore) ● - Expertise, Cutting Words, and a route to Magical Secrets if you go deeper. Suits Order of Scribes for the ritual breadth, at a heavy cost in Wizard progression.

Artificer, up to 6 levels (Alchemist) ● - The closest mechanical analogue to a Transmuter, adding armor proficiency and infusions. Thematically excellent and a significant delay.

Barbarian ● - Rage cannot coexist with concentration, and the ability scores point in opposite directions.

Choosing by Campaign

• A standard mixed campaign, any level range: Divination or Evocation. Both are excellent from level 2 and neither needs a particular table.
• You want the single most powerful feature in the class: Divination, for Portent.
• You want to deal damage: Evocation, and it is not close. Sculpt Spells means you actually get to cast your best spells.
• You want to survive being targeted: Abjuration first, then Bladesinging.
• You want to fight in melee: Bladesinging, the only tradition built for it.
• You want a companion or an army: Conjuration for summons, Necromancy if your campaign supplies corpses.
• Heavy investigation, intrigue or social play: Illusion for creative problem solving, Enchantment for direct manipulation, Order of Scribes for ritual breadth.
• Undead-heavy campaigns: Necromancy, which is otherwise the most campaign-dependent choice on the list.
• Tactical, grid-focused tables: Graviturgy, whose free repositioning rewards careful positioning every round.
• A campaign ending around level 10: favour the front-loaded traditions, which means Divination, Chronurgy, Evocation, Bladesinging and Abjuration. Illusion and Transmutation both save their best for level 14.

Related Guides

• D&D 5e Wizard Guide - the full class guide: Spellcasting, Arcane Recovery, Spell Mastery, Signature Spells, and level-by-level build advice.
• Best Wizard Spells - spell selection by level for every tradition.
• Best Feats for Wizard - a deeper level-banded look at the feats summarized above.
• D&D 5e Familiars Guide - Find Familiar, the single best 1st-level spell a Wizard owns.
• D&D 5e Class Guides - every class in the 2014 rules, compared.