| Post/Author/DateTime | Post |
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| #1LycanAddict217Aug 17, 2015 11:22:50 | I am quite the fan of the Arcane Ward granted to Wizard students under the School of Abjuration, mostly due to the endlessly replenishing Arcane Ward.
"Starting at 2nd level, you can weave magic around yourself for protection. When you cast an abjuration spell of 1st level or higher, you can simultaneously use a strand of the spell’s magic to create a magical ward on yourself that lasts until you finish a long rest. The ward has hit points equal to twice your wizard level + your Intelligence modifier. Whenever you take damage, the ward takes the damage instead. If this damage reduces the ward to 0 hit points, you take any remaining damage. W hile the ward has 0 hit points, it can’t absorb damage, but its magic remains. Whenever you cast an abjuration spell of 1st level or higher, the ward regains a number of hit points equal to twice the level of the spell. Once you create the ward, you can't create it again until you finish a long rest." - PHB (115)
Since using the Arcane Ward, I have always calculated the Max HP of the Ward using:
W = 2L + Int
W = Ward Max HP L = Wizard levelsas Int = Intelligence mod
At low levels, this Ward proves to have a massive supply of health. However, recently, my DM, a game-mate of mine, and I, have experimented with some old characters at level 20. I decided to bring back my Rock Gnome Abjuration Sage turned Pyromaniac Warlock, Gimmlo Berragen (And, yes, I did role play with the nickname situation of gnomes. Remembering and typing out 7 or 8 nicknames would be too tiresome so I didn't do it).
Playing as him, I would always calculate the maximum health of the Ward using the equation above, but, playing with the level 20 Gimmlo, I've noticed something strange that I'm surprised I didn't notice before.
"The ward has hit points equal to twice your wizard level + your Intelligence modifier."
Looking at this sentence, I am now confused. Why? Well, Gimmlo, with 20 Constitution, at L20, would have an averaged maximum HP of 182 ([6 + 5] + [19*4 + 19*5]), using 4 as the average of a d6. He also had an Intelligence score of 20, so his Ward's Max HP would equal 45 (20*2 + 5).
Now, looking at this, Intelligence only contributes to about 10% of the Ward's HP, which doesn't make sense to me. If Gimmlo had an Intelligence of only 13, which would call for quite the failure of a Wizard, then the same Ward would only be missing out on 4 Ward HP, which, at L20, is nothing, especially with base HP of 182. 4 isn't even 5% of that.
So, I tried looking at the sentence again, to see if I missed something through a lapse of judgement, and I came up with a new equation.
W = 2(L + Int) vs. W = 2L + Int
With the above equation, the 182 HP would be fortified by a Ward of 50 HP, rather than 45, and Intelligence contributes to 20% of the Ward, rather than a mere 10%, for a grand Total Max HP total of 232. This makes much more sense in my mind. Is this newer equation the correct one?
Also, am I the only one that believes that the Ward is severely underpowered? You would think it'd be at least 100, given that Wizards tend to have very low Armor Classes. Wizards depend on Mage Armor, which gives an absolute maximum of 18AC, and then, with Shield, the AC becomes 23, but Shield must be casted every round (unless it is chosen for Spell Mastery). Initially, I kind of hoped that the Arcane Ward would grant a bonus to AC instead of HP, or a mix of both. I think it'd be fair if the Ward granted +2AC above 50% of its maximum, and +1AC below that. Either that, or beef up the Max Ward HP by at least 100%. |
| #2jaelisAug 17, 2015 11:38:07 | I would read it as 2L+Int. |
| #3NoctaemAug 17, 2015 11:43:45 |
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| #4AaronOfBarbariaAug 17, 2015 12:01:16 | It is read as 2L + Int by Google, too. |
| #5Cyber-DaveAug 17, 2015 13:14:36 | Its 2L+Int, not 2(L+Int). That should be obvious based on rules surrounding both the English language and proper notation of mathematical formula. For the shield to grant 2(L+Int) the sentence would have to read something like this: "The ward has hit points equal to twice the combined sum of your wizard level + your Intelligence modifier." Basically, in the same way you would have to multiply before adding if you wrote this out, "2*L+Int," you need to multiply before adding given the current wording of the sentence. To add before multiplying you need to add brackets in the mathematical notation of the semantic & syntactic equivalent of brackets to the English sentence. Given the current wording, 2(L+Int) is a willful misreading.
The power is also not under-powered. It grants a wizard a HP bump that basically provides the wizard the same amount of HP as if it had a fighter's hit die. A wizard normally has a d6 hit die. A fighter has a d10 hit die. A wizard gains 4 hit points per level. A fighter gains 6. An abjurer gains, as a result of the shield, a virtual 6. The Int bonus makes up for the lower starter HP at level 1. A wizard starts with 6 HP at level 1. A fighter starts with 10. Assuming you have an Int of 16 at 1st level, you start with 9. By level 20, its as if you started with 11. And you can use these bonus HP to benefit the rest of the party instead of just yourself! And, you can replenish these AC by casting more abjuration spells! (In fact, if you have a ritual like ALARM, you can cast the ritual over and over while other people are taking a short rest in order to replenish the ward's HP without using a spell slot, though some DMs might frown at cheese of this sort. I would.) Yes, your AC will probably still be lower than a fighter's (assuming a normal build). You are, however, still a wizard, and as a wizard you can still make up for the loss of survivability due to a lower AC via utility spells that somehow boost that survivability.
You can also multiclass. For example, start with a Dex of 13, an Int of 15, and a Con of 14 (before racial modifiers). Your first level should be played as a fighter. The rest of the game you play as a wizard/abjurer (making you a fighter 1/Wizard 19). You basically become a battlemage: an abjurer wizard in full plate (AC 18), with the Defensive fighting style (+1 AC), with a 19 level abjuration shield (38+Int bonus extra HP), a 1d10+1 second wind, and 10 starting HP instead of 6 starting HP. You could also take a 2nd level of fighter for action surge (which would allow you to cast 2 daily spells in one turn once per day). |
| #6Tempest_StormwindAug 17, 2015 12:37:02 | Another on the 2L + Int interpretation.
The reason a designer might choose this? The Int mod at level 1 is often pretty sizeable (around 40-50% of your HP!), but doesn't scale. "Twice your level" scales, but is dinky at the levels where you need it most. Adding the two together gives you the best of both worlds - and going with 2*(L+Int) ends up making it ridiculous at level 1. (A first level barbarian has ~15 HP at most. A first level abjurer would have 16, and half of those refresh with every spell he casts. |
| #7LycanAddict217Aug 17, 2015 13:01:54 | I do see what everyone means, now. I guess it was just "willful" misinterpretation, as Dyber-Dave stated. Thank you for the quick replies.
And concerning the "under-powered" part, I never thought about it like that. Didn't really bother to compare the numbers to a d10. However, I'm not sure if it was just because I was most likely playing Abjuration wrong, but it seems that its a bit difficult to replenish the Ward easily. I relied heavily upon Shield for that, and I tried to keep casting mostly at the 1st level to save my higher slots for DPS. I probably just focused too much on DPS, though, role-playing as a pyromaniac. |
| #8Cyber-DaveAug 17, 2015 13:18:57 |
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| (Reply to #8)LycanAddict217 | Nah, "willful" is probably closer to it lol
And yeah it really is interesting. Wizard is an amazingly diverse class, but, sadly, I made the mistake of that being the first class I had ever played in D&D. My first character ever, and I had never played anything similar, and I had this massive plethora of spells at my fingertips. Didn't know what to do with the choices lol. |