How to Play a Blaster Mage in Dungeons & Dragons 5e

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favorite material and they're shipped right to your door you could start creating the perfect miniature for your next character at hero forge calm and you can get five dollars off your first premium plastic miniature with the discount code dungeon dudes and now onto this week's episode greetings my name is Monte Martin and I'm Kelley McLaughlin and we are the dungeon dudes welcome to our channel we'll recover everything Dungeons & Dragons including advice for players and guides for Dungeon Master's we upload new videos every Thursday so please subscribe to our channel so that you never miss an episode today we are taking an in-depth look at how to play a blaster mage in Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition in the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons being able to blast your enemies with fire and lightning and ice and just channel all of the elemental rage onto them on the battlefield is some of the most fun that people can have playing the game and a lot of new players are steered towards this type of play style for the sole idea of being able to wreak them much havoc on the battlefield there are many different classes subclasses spells feats and other character options to consider when building a blaster mage in Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition today we're gonna break down the best and worst and talk about our tips tricks and strategies for smiting your enemies ruins upon the mountain side with your arcane might let's get rolling when we think of a blaster mage there are three core classes that come to mind and that is going to be the wizard the sorcerer or the warlock all three of these have potent spell casting abilities that really lend themselves well to a blaster archetype well the sorcerer warlock and wizard are perhaps the most iconic and strongest contenders for your blaster mage there are possibilities for playing a blaster using a cleric a druid an artificer and even a bard well today we're gonna focus on the sorcerer warlock and wizard for our breakdown as we build a blaster mage you could apply some of these ideas particularly the spell choices to these other classes to build an off type Blaster mage with another class when we look at the wizard sorcerer and warlock there are a number of similarities between some of the spell options they may get and some of the ways that they might use these spells but there's also a lot of differences and each of these classes comes with pros and cons towards making them an amazing blaster mage so let's go over each one and talk about the different pros and cons so that you can pick the one that's best for you let's start off by taking a look at the wizard who has a wealth of sub classes to choose from across the players handbook zan with our sky to everything and the other source books and Dungeons & Dragons fourth edition but perhaps no option is more iconic for the blaster mage than the evoker the school of a vocation wizard who loads up on the classic damage dealing spells before we even jump into choosing the Eve occasion subclass when we look at the wizard on its own it is one of the most versatile spell casters in the game with the widest range of spells to choose from this means that you're already choosing an option that has such a wealth of versatility packed into it that you can really customize your blaster mage to fit into many different categories and help out in many different ways this is perhaps the biggest strength of the wizard as a blaster the Wizards have the ability to pivot in the ways that the other classes like sorcerers and warlocks do not if your wizard is preparing for an assault against a red dragon you don't have to bring those fire spells today because you can prepare different ones if damage isn't even going to be the name of the game that wins you the fight a wizard can bring that versatility bring that flexibility and still be able to bring the pain when they need to really when we look at the wizard they have such a versatile range of spells that instead of just being a straight-up blaster you can really build this archetype of a blaster controller who can be versatile and useful in any combat encounter that you run into this is especially aided by the evoker wizards sculpt spells ability which means that they don't have to worry about their allies being in the area of their blast spells and really feel like you can shape that battlefield around your offensive magic the downside of the Avoca wizard is that the abilities that actually add to the damage of your spell's namely empowered a vocations and over channel don't come online until very high level and aside from being able to over channel a fireball or cone of cold empowered invocations doesn't really all that much extra damage to your spells only adding your intelligence modifier once to the damage of your spell's you can deal a lot of damage as a wizard particularly with the school of your vocation in a pinch but ultimately the Wizards biggest strength remains in that versatility being able to add the damage when it is needed but then bring in other useful spells such as teleportation or battlefield control spells to augment the evolving situation if you're really looking for the highest amount of damage you can possibly deal the wizard is not going to be the best choice and that's where we come to the next class option which is the sorcerer the sorcerer doesn't get as versatile of a spell list as the wizard but they have a little special feature called meta magic that opens up a whole world of possibilities for you blaster mages out there The Sorcerer's meta magic options particularly empowered spell twin spell and quick and spell allow them to spike their damage by stacking on lots of extra dice re rolling dice and even adding on more spells and more targets to their spells empowered a vocation allow sorcerers to spend one sorcery point when they cast a damaging spell to reroll a number of dice equal to their charisma modifier and use those dice for the damage of the spell instead of the original rolls empowered spell is very very flexible because you don't have to choose to use it until you've seen the damage roll and you only need to reroll the damage rolls that came up poorly like those ones and twos you get to keep the sixes into the 5 6 7 s & eights that you roll on the big dice the 1 sorcery point cost means that empowered spell is very efficient a blaster sorcerer could apply this to over half the spells that they are able to cast over the course of a day and then if we look at a mana magic feature like quick and spell this can actually allow you to use this feature to cast that spell you want it to blast people with and then throw a can trip on top of that keep in mind that you can't cast two spells on a turn with the quick and spell feature you can switch a spell with a casting of one action into a bonus action therefore using your action to cast a can trip or perform another task this still does mean that the sorcerer can do a little bit more on their turn with the right spells in play one of my favorite ways to get a lot of mileage out of an ability like quick and spell is to cast a spell such as Sunbeam which when you cast the spell the spell deals damage but then as long as the spell is in effect you could also use your action to fire another Sunbeam again a quick and Sunbeam actually allows you to fire those beams twice in one turn for a lot of damage so as a sorcerer you want to be on the lookout for spells that allow you to use your action to deal more damage again because you can quicken these and use their effects twice in one turn lastly we come to the twin spell option which is a really great madam magic for Sorcerer's and allows you to take a spell that usually only targets one person and allow you to cast it at two different targets at the same time now although twin disintegrate might be the choice that you first look at here especially if you're playing a blaster mage it is running a little bit of a risk reward scenario if you don't think blasting is going to be your best option twin haste can end a lot of combat encounters not quite blasty but still a very useful tactic that's something that you always have to bear in mind with a sorcerer is that it's very easy to over specialize as a sorcerer particularly if you are a dragon soul sorcerer and load up on a bunch of elemental spells of one type particularly you fire dragon sorcerers out there but then you run into a real big problem when you run into fire elementals Red Dragons and devils who are immune to the damage of most of your spells if you are loading up on those fire damage spells make sure that you bring a spell that does cold damage or electrical damage just so that you have that little bit of flexibility when you run into a dangerous situation another downside to the sorcerer is that they do have a much more restricted spell list and you aren't gonna have nearly as many spells as the wizard the meta magic is going to lend itself really well to you being able to peak the damage at certain intervals in combat or if you take something like the divine soul sorcerer you actually are going to expand upon that spell list and you can pick up some of the great cleric spells that actually benefit a blaster archetype really really well where spells like spiritual weapons and spirit Guardians both spirit guardians and spiritual weapon are excellent augmentations of the Sorcerer's Arsenal and I really love the divine soul sorcerer as a blaster archetype because I find that this really takes off the edge of over specialization because you're adding spells the deal radiant necrotic and force damage all damage types which are very rarely resisted by enemies overall well the sorcerer has a very restricted spell list intelligent use of the sorcerers meta magic features like empowered spell twin spell and quick and spell can yield some very impressive damage although it's very resource costly this is the classic spell caster Nova and I have seen sorcerers annihilate foes by stacking up their powerful spells along with their great meta magic options and then end up with no gas in the tank afterwards now we come to our third class option and let's not mince words here if we're talking about the warlock you're probably here for eldritch blast the warlock with their restricted number of spell slots do you have to rely on their can trips to be a prominent blaster luckily the warlock has a bunch of features that can manipulate and change the way they use eldritch blast to really become a powerhouse in combat hands down eldritch blast is one of the best damage dealing can trips in the game making attack rolls and dealing force damage mean that this spell is such an efficient source of a lot of damage and the warlocks ability to augment the damage by adding their charisma modifier through the invocation agonizing blast and tack on other effects to their elders blast through other invocations and spells mean that they can get really reliably high damage out of eldritch blast the simple combination of eldritch blast the hex spell and agonizing blast means that a fifth level warlock has very respectable damage that they can deal all encounter long always remember that if you apply hex to an enemy that extra damage applies to every attack you make this really lets you rack up the damage pretty quickly not only that but if we do look at some of the other invitations something like repelling blast being able to pair that with the spells that you do drop can be really effective one of the biggest downsides that I've had as a warlock is when I drop an area of effect spells and then my enemies leave that area of effect with only a limited amount of spell slots I want that spell to have the most effect possible if you add something like repelling blasts and are just shooting your enemies back into the area of effect of the spells you've cast now you're controlling the battlefield and killing all the enemies on it one of my favorite spells to use for this purpose in the Warlock spell list is hunger of Heydar what a horrific area to keep knocking your enemies back into but pacted the fee and warlocks could also do this with wall of fire or if you have other allies in your party that are creating damaging area of effect spells such as cloud kill or you just happen to be around a cliff or precipice to knock somebody off of don't underestimate how much damage using the environment with eldritch blast and repelling blasts can cause the downsides of the warlock is relatively obvious to most people who have played a warlock before you learn this very quickly that they do have a limited number of spells known and a limited number of spell slots so you have to be very precise on when you're going to use these spells and get the most effect out of them this is why you also do want to be on the lookout for other useful class features which lets you pull in a little bit more damage the hex blade warlock might not be the first option you think about when considering your patron but hex blades curse works just as well with eldritch blast as it does for melee attacks with a packed weapon so warlocks do need to creatively use the abilities granted to them by their patron as well as their invocations to them make the most of it they're never going to be able to spike their damage in the same way that a sorcerer can they're not gonna have the flexibility and freedom of options that a wizard does you really have to figure out how to make the most out of Eldridge blasts so this does somewhat make the Blaster warlock feel like a little bit of a one-trick pony now one way to get around the downsides to the sorcerer or the downsides to the warlock is to play both of them if you multi-class a warlock and sorcerer together you're actually going to be able to use both meta magic and your Eldridge blast really effectively together we actually have a whole video talking about different multi class options that we'll link right up here taking two or three levels of warlock and combining the rest with sorcerer works really really well and you can end up with this very potent damage-dealing combination where you have the flexibility of meta magic and the increased number of spell slots from being a sorcerer as well as the dependability of eldritch blasts now these three options that we've discussed are the most prominent options for a blaster mage but like we said before you could take something like a light or tempest domain cleric or an artillerist artificer both of these classes have a lot of options to fill in a support role rather than a frontline blaster which is why if you want to play them there are still good options and you should still look at the spells and options we've talked about but they may not be as powerful at dishing out that spell damage as the three we just mentioned the same is true for classes such as the druid and the bard as well which can bring some very good damage dealing spells in both their respective cases bards can cherry pick from the best of them but both of these classes have a lot of other utility and support options and so going whole hog as a damage dealer with these classes might not actually be the best way to maximize and take full advantage of everything those classes have to offer no matter which type of blaster mage you're going to be playing there are a few feats that we may want to keep in mind when we're building our character war caster spell sniper and elemental addict I think war caster is essential for any blaster wizard if you're not using your concentration as part of your toolkit damage dealer you're cutting yourself off from a huge range of damage-dealing capacities being able to set up a damaging area spell as we said before like wall afire or hunger of Heydar or even bringing in a single target damage dealing spell like Big B's hand or hex these are a lot to your damage and if these spells go down you're gonna lose a lot of your potential with something like spells sniper one thing to keep in mind when you're playing a blaster mage mages tend to be squishy even though you're that frontline damage dealing mage you still want to stay out of close range combat spell sniper will allow you to add that distance on to your spell's to get that range so that you can stay where it's safe and also add an extra can trip so you wizards and sorcerers out there might be able to pick up eldridge glass as well finally elemental adapt is absolutely essential if you are going to build your blaster mage around fire damage if you are building your elemental spell caster around the other elements particularly if you're a warlock or sorcerer that is a lot of radiant force and psychic damage you might not need to choose elemental adept but I think if you are going with fire or cold and building your theme of your character around those damage types this is pretty indispensable elemental add up is not going to save you if your foes are immune to your favorite damage types and I still don't think alone it's a substitute for making sure that you have some backup spells but it will help bridge the gap in some situations before we dive into our options for spells that are really great for blaster mages there is one key thing to keep in mind and that is that as you're choosing your spells and as you level up you're going to be unlocking more spell slots and you're going to be unlocking higher-level spells it may not be essential to keep your blaster spells all the way up as you raise in the ranks chromatic orb might be a great blaster spell at early levels but as you get more and more options with higher level spell slots you might want to drop chromatic or for more utility or functional spells leaving those blaster spells for the higher tiers that you're able to past you always want to be doing the most damage so keep this in mind as we move forward in general when you're choosing spells for your blaster I find it's really important to make sure that you have one really good single target damaging spell one really good spell to concentrate on one really good area of effect spell and one spell that lets you weaponize your bonus action in some way sometimes these options might overlap and you might find a spell that is a little bit of a Swiss Army knife when you are choosing spells for your blaster if you have a whole bunch of single target damage dealing spells you probably don't need all of them if you've chosen every single area of effect fire damage spell you might just be able to pare it down to just fireball so you want to think about the situations that you need to use your damage dealing spells in and make sure that you've covered all those cases before you start over specializing because it's really easy to do as a blaster to load up on too many spells that basically do the same thing now when we get into our spell selections the one thing to keep in mind is you want a cantrip that is a damage dealer that you can reliably fall back to if you're running short on spell slots or if it's not necessary for the combat if you waste a fireball on an enemy that could have been killed by a fire bolt that is a huge waste of a third-level spell that could have done a lot more so keep this in mind that when we look at can trips you want at least one decent damage dealing can trip to always fall back to the other thing with choosing your can troops is it's really important to choose a can trip that makes attack rolls at higher levels of play enemies have very high saving throw bonuses and have features like magic resistance as well which means that can trips that rely on a saving throw can actually be very difficult to land for me this means that I always want to make sure that I have a spell like fire bolt eldritch blast chill touch or ray of frost in my arsenal if you don't have eldritch blasts Firebolt is your best damage-dealing contra however if we look at some of the other options they actually will have something on top of the damage they do for a little bit more field control or situational options which can be a lot of fun I love a spell like told the dead which does get up to that d12 against the damaged enemy the problem that I found is that because it relies on a wisdom saving throw by higher levels wisdom saves are so good on many enemies that it's a real hit and miss spell I love fire bolt but ray of Frost actually also slows down your enemies if it hits them so it can be a really useful control spell as well you may also be tempted to take spells like frostbite which cause disadvantage to the enemies although this is where you start bridging away from damage dealing and more into those control effects we've mentioned our favorite damage dealing spells in another video which we will link here but we're gonna talk very loosely about some of the spells we think make the best choices for a blaster mage and we're going to start with the bread and butter options and this ranges a little bit around what level spells they are but our favorite options for a blaster mage are things like ice knife lightning bolts fireball and cone of cold these we seem to always fall back on and always come to as some of our favorites well these are great standbys I love the versatility and Swiss Army knife nature of spells like chromatic orb Thunder step and synaptic static all of these spells are really really versatile either being able to change the damage type into non-standard damage types or in the case of smells like thunder step and synaptic static you get really good damage but also a great other effect like a debuff against your enemies or being able to teleport away from a dangerous situation these spells along with the can trips mentioned are our favorite choices for direct damage against your enemies you don't need to pick up all of them but a good mix of area of effect and single target damage spells from this list will give you a really well-rounded and versatile way to deal with combat encounters if you do get to very high levels of play don't forget to pack meteor storm which is going to be the best damage dealing spell in the game these direct damage dealing spells are going to be your bread and butter but to play an excellent blaster you want to make sure that you're leveraging one of your most in important resources as a spellcaster and that is your concentration spells that require concentration are a bit of an investment in battle because it might take a few rounds for them to come into their full effect but when you layer them with your direct damage dealing spells you can get some fantastic results funneling your enemies into the area of a cloud kill or a wall of fire and then pummeling them with fireballs is going to cause a lot more damage over several turns than if you just pummeled them with fireballs alone because once cloud kill and wall afire are in effect it doesn't require any action from you to continue to cause them to deal damage there are also some spells out there that are actually excellent for damage dealing but a lot of people don't consider them when imagining they're blaster mage people often associate the elemental damage with a blaster mage but if we look at spells like animate objects or big bees hand these can offer some really cool ways to deal a lot of useful damage on the battlefield and also give you different tools and options outside of just damage big bees hand and animate objects putting more creatures on the battlefield creatures that you can command with your bonus action to make attacks which deal damage this is where we kind of bridge the gap into battlefield control and summoning but it is worth noting that these spells will let you rack up a lot of extra damage and should be considered as part of the arsenal of a well what rounded blaster mage now we can't go without mentioning two other spells here that don't necessarily fall into a lot of the categories we talked about and that is because they are specific for the cleric or a divine soul sorcerer but if you look at spiritual weapons or spirit Guardians these are actually two of the best damage dealing spells in the game so if you're creating a multi-class or you're playing a defined soul sorcerer these should be considered as a valuable part of your arsenal if you aren't a divine soul sorcerer but are at very high levels of play you might be able to pick up a spell such as crown of stars which functions very similarly to spiritual weapon in that it allows you to deal damage with your bonus action without using your concentration it's just that for the non divine Souls out there you got to use a seventh level spell slot to access it a seventh level spell slot that me personally I'd rather use that on force gauge so using all of the tools that we presented in this video we hope that that makes it a little bit easier for you to create a really powerful blaster mage at your table there's so much fun to be had with spell casters and the different spell options and remember these aren't the only spells you have to take keep in mind that a great blaster mage is gonna utilize different things like battlefield control and maybe some charm spells or some different options that might really round them out to be useful in more than one way but their main focus if it's going to be blasting and blowing up enemies at the battlefield there are a lot of great powerhouse spells and abilities to choose from one of the biggest challenges of playing a blaster mage is managing your resources both your class features and your spell slots it is very easy to over commit to a battle and start dropping down your biggest concentration spells and laying down fire ball after fireball after fireball when in reality you might have been able to win the battle with just one or two of those spells and then going back to using your more dependable can trips unlike a fighter barbarian or rogue who is only one more weapon attack away from a whole bunch more damage once you run out of your high-level spell slots and are back to defaulting to can trips your damage potential really goes down quite a lot so make sure that you take a measured approach to how you use your resources as a spell caster and always be on the lookout for how you can think keep things more efficient so this has been a look at how to play a blaster mage in Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition don't forget to check out the links below for some of the characters that we've made and if you have any blaster mages of your own tell us about them in the comments below the videos we created in our Channel are made possible in part thanks to the generosity and support of our patreon supporters if you're enjoying our work please consider checking us out on patreon and becoming a part of our discord community don't forget to check out our live play in the worlds of Dragon hime which airs Tuesday nights at 6 p.m. Eastern at twitch.tv so dungeon underscored dudes you can find all the previous episodes right up over here and we have plenty more class guides for Dungeons and Dragons myth edition right up over here please subscribe to our channel so that you never miss an episode thank you so much for watching and we will see you next time in the dungeon

Channel: Dungeon Dudes

Views: 156,633

Rating: 4.9452696 out of 5

Keywords: dungeons, dragons, tabletop, gaming, roleplaying, games, accessories, rules, rule, gameplay, play, game, rpg, d20, player, character, D&D, 5e, DM, PC, tips, advice, guide, guides, review, dice, books, book

Id: tCsU54cXDOE

Length: 28min 11sec (1691 seconds)

Published: Thu May 07 2020