I reserve the right to change this series name in the future. With this I’m going to attempt to explore some interesting multi-class options available in Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition and take a look at why they work together as well as showing you an example of the character in action.
This multi-class combination is honestly one that I had never even thought of until Cam Banks brought it up on Twitter, and I was stunned at how seamlessly the two classes meld into each other right at the outset of them getting into their respective archetypes. One of the biggest drawbacks that the War Wizard has is their inability to use anything other than cantrips after using Arcane Deflection. Now, with cantrips scaling up in damage as the caster does, cantrips do maintain some potency even at higher levels, but they aren’t always an optimal choice. Pairing this with the fighter’s ability to make (potentially) multiple weapon attacks and you now have multiple strong options after using Arcane Deflection to protect yourself from the attack.
Advancement really depends on you, but you’re probably better served by staying deeper in the fighter levels than you are wizard. You won’t be as potent as a pure caster, but your fighting abilities will stay potent, and you’ll slowly gain the ability to transcribe higher level spells into your spellbook as you get access to those level spell slot through your advancement. If you go with a 15/5 Fighter/Wizard split, you’ll be looking at eventual access to 5th level spells. You can devote your fighter levels to your combat spells, leaving you free to use your Wizard spells to fill in some needed utility. What’s more, this build works just as well with a ranged fighter as it does a melee combatant with the fighter’s access to the Archery fighting style, and you can still get full utility out of your War Magic class feature by being able to fire off a ranged cantrip and then fling an arrow down range. The more I look at this combination, the more I’m shocked that I didn’t see how great of a combination it was until just today.
Submitted below is a quick proof of concept that I whipped up to show the build in action. I threw in the Spell Sniper feat with the Variant Human race simply due to its utility, though he might have been better served with War Caster with the shield use – with this version of the build, I would recommend devoting your first ASI to picking that up to maximize your spellcasting ability in the thick of the melee.
Ben Erickson
