Level 1 Wizard Dip Is Better Than You Think

People often say Wizard in D&D is one of the weakest classes early game, but personally, I STRONGLY disagree and you should too. Wizard has the potential to be a powerful class option at any point in the game, whether it's as a low level dip multiclass, or even the only class you play in that campaign.

[zokero-v]

Prestidigitation can do so much.
You could open a drink stand and serve literal water as any beverage you want.
Ome cast to flavor it, one cast to warm or cool it, boom. Water that tastes like melted chocolate or cheese or even COPPER if the customer is so inclined.

Need to light a fire? Done. Need a small tool? Boom.

I think you can even tie knots with it.

You would also be the defacto greatest street performer in the world.

[Coid]

Now that Clerics no longer get their domains at level 1, Wizard is a lot more appealing for this kind of thing in 2024.

[slim]

i did a two level wizard dip in one of ky campaigns, when i was a 7th level artificer.
We fought a bunch of red wizards, i picked up their spell book and learned their spells. This fit the lore brilliantly, because my character is a really curious tinkerer, who would of course try to learn different kinds of magic given the chance. Later we even found scrolls in a dungeon to add to my spell book.

It is really great because i got my wizard subclass at level two, now have an insane repertoire of spells from these two classes and can even use the same modifier for casting them.

[malrok]

Good one level dip for a sorcerer. Sorcerers are more powerfull but less versatile and have fewer spells. But by using wizard spells to cover first level must-haves like Shield and Absorb Elements you can move your sorcerer spells to higher level ones. Then you learn all the first levels you can get in your hands, getting a bunch of utility. Throw some feats into the mix that give you bonus spells, be Abberant Mind or Clockwork Soul and suddenly you have twice the amount of spells then a pure wizard can prepare each day. AND they are more powerful than those of a wizard, cause metamagic.

[mentalrebllion]

I am playing a rogue with a plan to take a single level dip into wizard. To be honest, I’ve been itching to do this build for a while and I finally have a campaign where I can. The main plan is to take arcane trickster rogue and a single dip of wizard for a variety of spells. I also am using the high elf (original plan was the earth genasi for pass without trace but chose high elf for lore reasons) so Int is very much the power behind this build. I love this character so far! My character is a pirate who dropped out of magic school. He has a spellbook but it’s mostly neglected since he started his pirate life. Now with the adventure he is getting back to adding more spells to that book and also experimenting with spell work outside the spellbook (aka, arcane trickster stuff). His main passion in magic is less with spells however and more with magic potions (with Tasha rules I switched out the elf weapon proficiencies for tools) and so he is a bit of a mad magical scientist at times. He tends to feed the party mysterious potion experiments in his cooking as he is also a great cook (that’s how he accidentally started the pirate life, he got a cook job on such a ship). It’s been fun! Let it never be said that it isn’t fun to take that first level wizard dip for a build. Lol also it’s fun to use prestidigitation to keep my character’s mug of tea warm. The campaign story’s setting is in a very arctic like location of the map where we start in so it’s been my character’s friendly gesture to the others, even occasionally warming another’s gloves this way. Though I’ll admit, our dm allowed us a Magic initiate feat to start with which is why I already have a familiar and some of the wizard cantrips. My build will be rather cantrip heavy. Still! Love this build!

Oh, and lastly, one thing I love about the wizard dip is the ritual casting feature. Once a wizard has a ritual spell written into their spellbook, they can cast it, as a ritual, even if they don’t prepare it that day. I love that! There are many useful early wizard ritual spells for this! Ones that see early use quite often, such as detect magic, find familiar, and so on.

Oh and I’m discussing 2014 5e dnd. I know there has been changes for 2024. I just really like this particular build for my character. I’ve always wanted to play a character like this so I kinda mostly wanted to share lol

[Lord_necromancer]

I have an assassin rogue with a 2 level dip in Wizard for ritual casting, a few good spells, and the conjuration ability to summon poisons, tools, bombs, etc like batman's utility belt.

[halfpound]

i love how the top of the staff is almost the W from Wu-Tang

[zyre]

Very true about the utility of wizard magic! A one level-dip might still be too much a cost for some, though not all, characters. I'm playing a sorcerer and I took the ritual caster feat since I wanted the higher level wizard rituals that you can't get with multiclassing. So if you want the higher level wizard rituals like tiny hut, phantom steed, and telepathic bond, I think the ritual caster feat can be better, unless you absolutely need your ASI/Feat to be something else.

[FishIsACentipede]

Great video, I do want to point out that ritual adept is not a new thing for the wizard in the 2024 phb, it just wasn’t a separate feature before, the ability to cast any ritual spells as rituals as lon as they’re in your spellbook was just included in the ritual casting segment of the wizard’s spellcasting feature

[zimattack]

I now have this idea for a fighter who has a spell book he got as a child never took it seriously but would read it at night befor bed he wouldn't take wizard at lv 2 but maby around 5 or so magic is just a hobby for him.

Or he started as a wizard but had to go home from school to hlep on his family farm not haveing time to keep up with his studies his dad teaches him to weild a sword

[Jethro-goro]

5:41 heads up that the 2024 Ritual Adept feature is already part of the 2014 Spellcasting feature (the Ritual Casting subsection). Both allow you to ritual cast any wizard spell with the Ritual tag as long as it's in your spellbook, even if it's not prepared. The only distinction I see is that the 2024 requires you to have the spellbook on hand (but what wizard wouldn't always keep it on their person?).

[justawooper.._.]

I'm gonna be honest if someone plays wizard and they think it's one of the worst classes in the game they're playing the class wrong, like I don't need to go over it's versatility you already went over just what 1 level of wizard gets you but that high power fantasy powered swiss army knife scales exponentially

[ihtfp]

Don't forget your multiclassing minimums, kids.
13 intelligence to multiclass into or out of the wizard class.

Wizards should be the most common spell casting class in any campaign world.
Wizards are so powerful, EVERYBODY who's anybody, or wants to be somebody,
has one or more wizards on staff.
If they couldn't do it themselves, they'd pay/sponsor to have someone trained.
Wizard guilds should be everywhere. Wizard schools should be common.
The tools of the wizarding craft; blank spell books, focuses, inks, quills and such should be everywhere,
as should simple scrolls with useful spells...

[strawberrymilk]

I really fun 2nd level build I've discovered is just tabaxi rogue. They can bonus-action dash, action dash, and Feline Agility their way to 240 movement speed every other turn with no limit aside from not moving on the other turn

[R_frozen]

This is all good if you know you're playing a campaign that's lighter in combat. 1st level wizard gives you almost 0 poficiencies with anything besides magic, your hps are low, and the only class you can 100% multiclass into is the artificer

I think if you want to pick wizard, you should go all in with it. Seek forbidden knowledge! Manipulate with magic! FIREBALL!

I get your idea, but I think the benefits you described arent enough. Unless you try to build a spy-like character, hehe

[eeach]

4:05 Pet rat owner here. I love my chaos potatoes, but yeah lot's of heart ache. 😭

[ryanb]

Honestly the biggest thing I disagree on is that a level is a small investment. I know every table is different but mine gets so few that I would be hard pressed to delay my core build by what would likely be at least 12 sessions

[alexk]

Hey, how do you only have 2 000 subs? That was really interesting, I am fairly new to dnd (only had like, 2 one-shots (that actually took multiple days to complete xD) and 1 campain), and it really got me interested in multiclassing

[MegaAniLinkFan]

While I do agree with you, (especially if you're a arcane trickster or eldritch knight, a single dip will fix a lot, especially if you want rituals) I don't know why you put 5.5 on a pedestal about its lvl 1 features, when that's already been in there in 5e. The non-prepared ritual and recovery features are the exact same, except 5.5 sorta nerfed by saying you have to read the ritual out of your book and 5e doesn't make that requirement so it's more flavor.

[joshuairvin]

I wonder how fun it would be for several level one dips (max 3) for a character.