Blog (A5E) Meet the all-new official WARMAGE archetype!

[Morrus]

Released on levelup5e.com, meet the official Warmage archetype for wizards!

Warmages train for the battlefield, learning to fight alongside soldiers on the field of war. Mass-damage specialists, they are experts at area-of-effect damage, operating as magical artillery. Accustomed to such environments, warmages are vary capable of protecting themselves.

The Warmage Wizard Archetype — Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (A5E)

Released here exclusively on levelup5e.com, meet the official Warmage archetype for wizards!

www.levelup5e.com

 

[zen_cat]

Released on levelup5e.com, meet the official Warmage archetype for wizards!

Warmages train for the battlefield, learning to fight alongside soldiers on the field of war. Mass-damage specialists, they are experts at area-of-effect damage, operating as magical artillery. Accustomed to such environments, warmages are vary capable of protecting themselves.

The Warmage Wizard Archetype — Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (A5E)

Released here exclusively on levelup5e.com, meet the official Warmage archetype for wizards!

www.levelup5e.com

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I love it. Can we expect to see this included in a future book for those who don't want computers at the table? No worries if not, I'll just print it out and attach it to an existing book.

 

[lichmaster]

Love the idea!

However I think a bit of tinkering is needed: taking 1 level in fighter and then 1 level in wizard would give immediately all the benefits of Armored Wizard and Ironclad Wizard, plus all the goodies of a fighter (exertion, maneuvers, combat style, weapon proficiencies, etc).

Maybe a damage damping field (temp hp) would be more unique and not replaceable, something like
"Each round you gain x temporary hp. This number increases to y at level 6". Also, I think it needs some offensive oomph: until level 10 there's no extra damage feature whatsoever, and only a limited battlefield control option at level 6.

 

[Steampunkette]

Hey, Lichmaster, couple things!

1) If you take a level of fighter to gain those things you're delaying your 3rd level spells, shorting yourself an ASI and your Wizard capstone, and basically starting with an AC of 16, 17 tops. (Since level 1 characters can't afford Plate Armor the heaviest you can use is a Hauberk, which is 16+1 from Arcane Shield). Decent enough tradeoff if your dex is bad at 1 and you really want maneuvers. But with Mage Armor or a Chain Shirt (13+Dex) and a +2 dex mod you're at 16 with Arcane Shield and 0 levels of fighter required.

2) The point of the archetype isn't to make it explicitly heavily armored. The Armor Proficiencies are practically ribbons alongside the main benefits of Arcane Shield (which stacks with Mage Armor, Bracers of Armor, and more), Sculpt Battlefield, Siege Mage, Battlefield Blaster, and Arcane Support.

 

[lichmaster]

Hey, Lichmaster, couple things!

1) If you take a level of fighter to gain those things you're delaying your 3rd level spells, shorting yourself an ASI and your Wizard capstone, and basically starting with an AC of 16, 17 tops. (Since level 1 characters can't afford Plate Armor the heaviest you can use is a Hauberk, which is 16+1 from Arcane Shield). Decent enough tradeoff if your dex is bad at 1 and you really want maneuvers. But with Mage Armor or a Chain Shirt (13+Dex) and a +2 dex mod you're at 16 with Arcane Shield and 0 levels of fighter required.

2) The point of the archetype isn't to make it explicitly heavily armored. The Armor Proficiencies are practically ribbons alongside the main benefits of Arcane Shield (which stacks with Mage Armor, Bracers of Armor, and more), Sculpt Battlefield, Siege Mage, Battlefield Blaster, and Arcane Support.

I see your points, but at the same time what I see as the defining features of this archetype only come at level 10 and 14, which is quite the wait IMO.
The other features feel a bit underwhelming: 2 are described by yourself as ribbon, one I'd classify as ribbon too (siege monster, damage to structures is not something that comes into play that often if ever) and one is a simple bonus to AC (although it's nice that it can stack). Sculpt battlefield is very useful, although I don't think I'd ever burn a spell slot for any of the additional effects except for the party immunity

 

[Tessarael]

The AC bonus from Arcane Shield is very nice as it stacks with other AC sources, and it keeps your hand free for spellcasting. Medium and heavy armor proficiency also helps a lot with AC for the Wizard, for those with lower Dexterity - they're very helpful for a single-classed Wizard who wants to go down that path.

Battlefield Blaster is a bit weird, in that it benefits more the area-of-effect spells that have lower dice like d4, but actually I don't see many with d4 in A5E (the Pestilence cantrip, not much else). The Arcane Support ability at level 14 is quite nice. Sculpt Battlefield as a bonus action is very cool, especially as there's no limit to how often you can do it, it just resets the one that you did last if that one is still in effect.

Overall, I think it is quite good for a single-classed Wizard. For a multi-classed Wizard that already gets armor + shield proficiency from another class, sure it's not what you would take for Wizard archetype, but that's fine.

 

[WanderingMystic]

So overall this is a nice addition to the wizard available wizard archetypes. Your level 6, level 10 and level 14 features really make you feel like you are a battlefield caster with your abilities to slow enemies, deal more damage to an area or mass enchant your group/party. The level 2 ability is very nice and useful however you don't really feel like a battlefield caster, just a more defensive one.

 

[Corinnguard]

It's an interesting wizard archetype. Since a number of it's features deal with controlling the battlefield, I could see this archetype focusing mostly on abjuration and evocation magic.

 

[Morrus]

So overall this is a nice addition to the wizard available wizard archetypes. Your level 6, level 10 and level 14 features really make you feel like you are a battlefield caster with your abilities to slow enemies, deal more damage to an area or mass enchant your group/party. The level 2 ability is very nice and useful however you don't really feel like a battlefield caster, just a more defensive one.

A lot of it is about your choice of spells. Load out on fireballs, lightning bolts, etc. and you'll feel a lot less defensive!

 

[Mark Essel]

is there clarification on what spells battlefield blaster effects?
like wall of fire, or black tentacles (or even druid spells like spike growth, or cleric spells like spiritual guardians)

so far we gathered it's designed for instantaneous damage spells like thunderwave, burning hands, fireball, etc but from the wording it wasn't clear if it would effect aoe damage spells with a duration