The Warmage: A Treantmonk Guide Part 1 of 3

Welcome to my War Mage guide! In this video I am going to explain how I would make a melee focused Wizard. The Battlemage is going to be excellent at delivering damage in combat, but not just focused on weaponry, but using magic to supplement high single target damage.

[TreantmonksTemple]

Welcome to my War Mage guide! In this video I am going to explain how I would make a melee focused Wizard. The Battlemage is going to be excellent at delivering damage in combat, but not just focused on weaponry, but using magic to supplement high single target damage.

[intrinsical]

The thing that excites me most about Arcane Deflection is it's uses out of combat. That's when you don't need to think about saving your reaction for other abilities or spells. So you triggered a trap? Arcane Deflection. Con save vs exhaustion? Arcane Deflection. Some strange environmental effect requiring a save? Arcane Deflection.

[ChristnThms]

Love what you've done so far, and I've gotta say thank you. On each of your builds, you address its effectiveness at every level, especially these lower ones. So many builds gloss over this, or completely ignore it, in favor of focusing exclusively on the end of the build.

As you've pointed out, most of my play experience is in tiers 1 & 2. So having a build that's strong at every level is far more important than aiming exclusively at a level I'll never see.

[SharanjitPaddam]

1: Githyanki: Language, Thieve’s Tools. Fighter 1: Athletics, History, Defence, Far Traveller, 14/12/14/15/8/8, Chain, Great Sword, Long Sword, Light Crossbow, Dungeoneer’s Pack
2: Wizard 1: Green-flame blade, Minor Illusion, Ray of Frost, Find Familiar, Shield*, False Life*, Disguise Self*, Absorb Elements*, Detect Magic
3: Wizard 2: War mage, Expeditious Retreat*, Comprehend Languages
4: Wizard 3: Web*, Flaming Sphere*, Disguise Self(*)
5: Wizard 4: War Caster Feat, Booming Blade, Mirror Image*, Darkvision*
6: Wizard 5: Leomund’s Tiny Hut, Fear*
7: Wizard 6: Darkvision(*), Counterspell*, Dispel Magic*
8: Wizard 7: Greater Invisibility*, Polymorph*, Web(*)
9: Wizard 8: ASI INTx2, Dimension Door*, Fireshield
10: Wizard 9: Animate Objects*, Flaming Sphere (*), Wall of Force Polymorph(*)
11: Fighter 2: [Action Surge]
12: Fighter 3: Battle master, Smiths Tools, Menacing Attack, Pushing Attack, Precision Attack
(If not going to level 20, take Fighter 4)
14: Wizard 11: Lightning Lure, Bigby’s Hand*, Rary’s Telepathic Bond, Contingency, Mass Suggestion*
16: Wizard 13: ASI INTx2, Programmed Illusion, Soul Cage* Simulacrum, Crown of Stars*
18: Wizard 15: Plane Shift, Forcecage*, Demi Plane, Maze*
20: Wizard 17: Alert Feat, Mind Blank*, Antipathy Sympathy, Wish*, True Polymorph

[SirAirlessDaVacuum]

Just finished part 3 of this build and having to pick my jaw up off the floor. Such a creative, interesting, and powerful build. The best part is it is just in time for the start of a new campaign that will go the distance to 20, maybe beyond.

[Ciberbuster]

I like the build, i'll consider some of the ideas for my next PC. The concept of the character: a hobgoblin warmage, who fights in the front lines but mostly using BC and commanding the animated bodies of his fellow hobs who died in the last war. His moto: "The Iron Legion survives throught me, i'll make my comrades reach glory even after dead!" Looking forward for the next build.

[lllaflame]

Githyanki wizards are a personal favorite of mine, waking up to find this video just made my day

[yosharian]

I prefer to get 17 STR, then I can take Heavy Armor Mastery instead of a +2 ASI, which is a really cool feat IMO. Helps offset the Wizard HP.

[bryankia]

This is the video I needed to watch for ideas for my blade singer. Brilliant as always. I am happy that I figured out on my own to only go level 1 fighter then loop back for a second level after 5th level spells are had. Keep up the great work.

[jesse]

I really like this as a Githyanki concept. It’s thematically accurate and I love the build.

[KhristianBolano]

I like the Githyanki Abjurer Wizard more, with no levels in other classes. Heavily Armored at level 4. Worse concentration saves but a better caster overall, without renouncing too many martial things.

[coldfusion]

A point to note about shadow blade is that it deals psychic damage. This might sound exotic but there's a fair few monsters immune to psychic damage, e.g. all constructs. Furthermore, in higher tiers, all casters begin with mind blank which negates psychic damage. If this is your main damage source then you might find yourself suddenly useless. Conversely, I believe there's like one or maybe two monsters (bosses excluded) that resists magic weapon damage.

[basementmadetapes]

Gonna definitely take a two level dip into war mage for my psi warrior. And gonna grab the Alert feat for a +11 initiative.

[jasonr.]

With the release of Tasha's I think this build would benefit from taking the Crusher feat and focusing on bludgeoning weapons. Hit the enemy with booming blade, knock em back five feet, place a flaming sphere next to them and laugh as they decide whether they want to take the extra fire or thunder damage.

[gabrielrockman]

If you're running around with 17, 19, or 22 AC, and your owl has 11 AC with 1 HP and is giving you advantage every turn, you have a very very lenient DM if he's not going to have any of your enemies throw AoE damage effects that would include the owl in their area, or have some Goblin Archer or some minor support dude take an attack (not even an entire turn if they have multi-attack) to kill the 11 AC 1 HP owl that is giving advantage to a dangerous opponent.

[DBoyTommie]

Hobgoblin works really with this.. it plugs right in.

[aureliomanalo]

Before this I watched a WebDM video and they dropped your name and I had crossover chills. Thanks for helping my Monday.

[Jarl_Ballin]

"Strength based" wizard? That's a funny way of saying "MUSCLE WIZARD"

[justincree]

I have been playing this build in a campaign and I'm currently level 8 (it is a ton of fun, by the way! So thank you for these videos!). What I have found is that in most combats, I end up not using my bonus action, unless I have cast Flaming Sphere, which also uses up my action on the first round and uses my concentration. Now I'm at the level where I'd like to use my concentration on spells like Fear, Greater Invisibility and Polymorph, so I've been thinking of ways to use that bonus action.

After the release of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, I wanted to post up a potential small change to this build using the new "Telekinetic" feat. The feat grants the Mage Hand cantrip (with some extra effects) and gives +1 Intelligence, but most importantly, allows me to use a bonus action to try to shove a creature within 30ft 5ft away from or toward me (vs Str save).

With the Telekinetic feat, I would have a way to use my bonus action to help trigger the bonus damage from Booming Blade without needing to use a spell slot, without needing to take an action to cast Flaming Sphere, and without needing to use up my concentration.

Basic idea:
1) Action to attack with Booming Blade
2) Bonus action to attempt to shove that creature 5ft away
While this relies somewhat on how your DM plays when creatures are hit with Booming Blade, if you assume the creature only has a melee reach of 5ft, that it is unaware of the Booming Blade secondary effect (or is fine taking the damage to close in melee), and that it would prefer to close the small 5ft gap back into melee instead of dropping its weapon and drawing a ranged weapon, you are likely to trigger the Booming Blade secondary damage, which this build relies heavily upon to maintain its non-spell slot damage output. It does compete with both Flaming Sphere and Animate Objects for the use of that bonus action, but the idea is that this would be used in combats where you don't use those spell slots.

Build Level 2: Booming Blade attack, shove bonus action, use familiar for advantage when able
Build Level 4: Cast Web 1st round, shove bonus action to push or pull an enemy into the area of effect if helpful, then use Booming Blade action/shove bonus action in following rounds to trigger bonus damage and even potentially push creatures back into the web as you maintain concentration on it (I fully acknowledge this means the bonus damage won't be triggered if the creature is restrained, but sometimes restrained is preferable to some extra damage)
Build Level 8: While you now have more 2nd level slots to cast Flaming Sphere more liberally, I like to maintain a 2nd level slot for an emergency Misty Step, a pre-combat Mirror Image or a Web where it makes more sense. This feat means you won't have to make the lower Booming Blade trigger chance part of that trade-off.

I haven't reached higher levels yet so I'm not sure how this feat would change my tactics, but welcome to any thoughts. I figure at the very least, it is more useful than Athlete or Heavy Armor Master from levels 1-20 (Athlete always being situational, and Heavy Armor Master becoming less useful at higher levels).

BONUS USES (besides the usual "push them off a cliff" or "pull them into a firepit")
1) Prior to attacking with Green Flame Blade, use your bonus action to pull a creature to within 5ft of it if there isn't one and Green Flame Blade makes more sense than Booming Blade
2) Push/pull creatures into your Web or another spell effect

I would propose the following changes to 1st level character creation to implement this feat:
Variant Human, +1 Str, +1 Int, Telekinetic Feat (+1 Int)
Str 15 (+1) Dex 10 Con 14 Int 14 (+2) Wis 10 Cha 8
And you might swap Minor Illusion for Booming Blade at the first level of Wizard because you've got a decent way to help trigger the secondary damage at that level
I think this feat also helps create a "gish" theme from the start at level one, since at that first level, you will have a Fighter with some limited magical abilities. Maybe the awakening of the character's telekinetic powers is what motivated him/her to pursue the study of magic.

I'm going to ask my DM if I'm allowed to retroactively replace my 1st level Variant Human feat with this feat to test it out.

[istudyhistory]

I’m currently using this build on Lae’zel in BG3 using the war mage subclass mod and it is awesome!