5e Anti Mage Builds - Options & Discussion

Ever wanted a build that'll nope every spell and leave casters out to dry? Look no further than the ANTI-MAGE! Here we look at options that stop spells and make concentration checks Hell!

Music

Now We Ride by Alexander Nakarada
Classical Piano by Alkan Saltarelo

All art credit goes to the original artists.

Counterspell picture by Jason Chan
Dispel Magic picture by Dan
Warrior vs Mage picture by I-gray-I

[bananabanana]

Bard is actually the best high level counterspelling because the spell Glibness allows you to auto succeed on all counterspell, no matter the level (it’s basically reliable talent for charisma checks, but with a minimum of 15 instead of 10)

[R_o_o_k_i_n_g_t_o_n]

id go 5 levels into warlock (ya dont pick one as i see this as its own unique class meaning the warlock dip is 100% for 2 invocations and pact of the blade as well as justification to get a magicians judge sword with infinite uses of dispel magic on attack and dispel magic as a spell to cast though you can only start to cast it when you get 3rd level spell slots to cast it) and for my invocations they'd be thirsting blade, ghastly gaze, and i would ask the dm for quite a few consesions cause i would prefer to almost just make a custom class with the first of many concesions would be to give up pact magic to use the magicians judge with infinite uses of its dispel magic feature on attack and still the once per day cast with the invocation of witch's sight to lean into a hunter of magic who sees through anything before them but just agree that you still only get that at level 15 meaning you go 5 levels into warlock at the start and haveta accept that you wont get your 3rd invocation till level 15 AND you haveta deal with losing all pact magic.

than from there on you would be making some more concesions as you go bladesinger wizard for the rest of it with you firslty giving up ritual casting to instead only be able to cast detect magic and detect evil and good without costing a spell slot at level 1 wizard with than you would be allowed to use your 2 handed magicians judge as your main weapon during blade singing with your spell selection with in order:

first level: longstrider (only on self), Jump (only on self), feather fall (only on self), and than lastly expeditious retreat.
first level ends up mostly just being the where you gain the ability to channel your mana through your body to strengthen and empower yourself to grant yourself the strength to fight any would use magic to do wrong

second level: warp sense and see invisibility(ask dm if these can be counted on the same list as your detect magic and detect evil and good can be replaced with locate object and clairvoyance), and either your choice of enhance ability on self or kinetic jaunt tho.
for me, enhance abiilty only on self is better to lean more into the theme of using your magic to strength and empower yourself.

third level: counterspell (obviously), remove curse (again pretty obvious yes), and than your choice here between fly, magic circle, haste, and non detection.
this is where things get tricky cause a lot of the anti magic type things end up requiring you to need many more spell slots than ya get and maybe you could talk to your dm to have see invisibility and warp sense added to your detect magic list of spells you can cast for free since you dont really get ANY of the seriously useful spells and haste also would be on self only if you chose that meaning while good for you, its still FAR more limited than in the hands of a real pure wizard with if they say yes, you not only get warp sense and see invisibility infinitely letting you be even better at hunting evil magic users but also can swap out their spot in your preperation list with i would choose haste, non detection, and magic circle with haste being obvious as to why even if it is only on self and than non detection to rp you using your abilities to prevent the use of scrying magic while magic circle is for handling all manner of extra plannar beings that are attempting to use magic for evil.

forth level: Gate seal (again do i need to elaborate?), otiluke's sphere, and arcane eye.
gate seal is obvious cause its more anti-magic with otiluke's sphere is basically the harder core version of magic circle and is what you use to imprison magic users before you would bring them to the anit-mage prisons (i would imagine this would be a wizard subclass level type orginization) where they would be put inside of while in the sphere before you release the spell as anti magic runes carved along the edges of all sides of the room get activated and prevent the use of any magic within the cell walls with than arcane eye just being a use of magic to grant the anti-mage the ability to perceive things even better by being able to get ariel views and investigate locations with i would ask if you could have one extra prepared spell from this level as you would also give up on learning ANY spells aside from the ones you get from leveling up being locate creature.

fifth level: wall of force and than your choice of either telekinesis, rary's telepathic bond, or scrying.
wall of force is obvious as its basically otiluke's resiliant sphere and magic cirlce to the fucking max while than i gave multiple options of things that could work even if i think scrying is the best choice here to fit the theme of a person who usually hunts targets of specifically magical natures.

sixth level: unique spell destroy magic.
this would be disintigrate but ONLY on magic since the point of this antimagic though process is NOT to use magic itself to harm others but instead to use magic to stop other magic users so this WOULD be able to destroy even wall of force for example with this also being something here partially because it would be stupid to teach a technique that cant be countered in case of a rogue agent so those powerful enough learn to bypass even wall of force should a strong spy rise up the ranks.

seventh level: sequester(forcecage if dm allows it)
this one requires EVEN MORE consesion for a wall of force that cant even be destroyed by disintigrate with this being the thought of those who go even beyond the level of normal mages when it comes to the strength of their magical force which they ironically use in a physical way AND would still be able to be destroyed by destroy magic.

eighth level: antimagic do i even need to say anything?

ninth level: imprisonment
you would only be able to use this as a full ritual cast of 10 minutes to cast with the reason being despite level 15 wizard not having a 9th level spell slot is for the them of anti mages who hunt those who use magic for wrong and dont necessarily seek to kill them for the sake of it like a dogmatic order of sycophant's but instead simply wish to prevent the misuse of magic and safeguard the lands from magic gone ary.

lastly, i feel it would also be fair to take away EVERYTHING but the level 2 bladesinging in terms of subclass featuers and consider things like the detect magic stuff and extra learned spells as your subclass features with the total for everything you lose being, pact magic, 1 invocation until level 15, ritual casting, a spell book and the ability to copy spells you can than later prepare, all set subclass features from warlock and everything from bladesinger wizard aside from its level 2 ability, and any form of offensive magic and even defensive magic as you can only use magic to enhance your strength and either sequester or destroy magic and magic users.

[hallambronsvoort]

Mage slayer isn't good enough to use in a mage slayer build