This post is a continuation of a series of build guidance in creating a "Gish" Mystic Arts Monk with various available abilities that can be added to the subclass and class. For the original post/Chapter regarding Control and the overall goal/motivation of these posts, please see the following link.

Also, as mentioned in the original post, this will focus mainly on just 2024 source material (so no 5e/2014 content, except where noted), which is reserved for the final Chapter of the series. It also does not have a TL;DR, but I try to highlight the main part of each bullet if I can to at least allow folks to skim the content and get some of the details, if they choose.

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Chapter 2: Damage

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Chapter 2 as the title indicates is all about improving the damage of the Mystic Monk's attacks through spells or spells' damage through attacks. I won't necessarily be talking the specific damage results one can get here, more just the philosophy around how to improve damage in various ways.

We again divide the section up into Single Target and Multi-Target Damage options, and as mentioned in the Preamble, we focus on synergies that combine the unique power of the Monk with the power of spellcasting. This means increasing either our chance to hit/crit, ways to deal more damage per hit or spell (or sometimes movement), or ways to deal damage to more enemies at a time. Also, I want to look beyond the obvious of adding a True Strike or other cantrip to our Attack action, as while that is a potential boost to damage, it also doesn't really combine anything unique about the Monk, as really any Gish with the cantrip attack feature (so EK, Bladesinger, and Valor Bards) can do that. Instead, we use the "Tools" and "Tech" listed in the Preamble of my first post to uniquely improve the power of this subclass and its abilities.

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Single Target Damage

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How this works: I'll present categories of different forms of damage combinations that the Monk can employ, and explain where the spellcasting combined with martial abilities really enhance the play style and tactics that can be used. 

* Stun + Attack Roll Spell: An obvious one, but it still should be listed for completeness. Stunning can give you advantage to all attack rolls, including spell ones. So this could be advantage on a cantrip like True Strike or Poison Spray or Sorcerous Burst (more on this later) or a leveled spell like Spellfire Flare, Chromatic Orb, or Scorching Ray. Probably best paired with Spell Sniper feat, though you can leave melee range against a stunned target without provoking, so not strictly necessary.

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* Grappler/Prone + Spell Attack: Besides of course the great control grappling generates on a target, we can also use grapples and the Grappler feat or the prone condition to gain advantage on spell attacks. Shocking Grasp, Chill Touch, and True Strike could work here for cantrips that all have useful riders, or we could use ranged attacks as straight rolls in melee or take the Spell Sniper feat to make them at advantage too. Lupin species + Grappler feat gets even better use of this, as they can attack with their first unarmed strike, deal damage, initiate a grapple save, and initiate a prone save, all before you make your second attack, which again can swap as a cantrip.

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* Spell Combos: These are specific spell combinations the Mystic Monk can utilize for more damage, be it through more damage per attack, better accuracy, weaponized movement, or more attacks. They are sub-divided into cantrips, level 1 spells, and level 2 & 3 spells. While we do get access to level 4 spells eventually, because this happens so late, I generally won't include them in the discussion unless they result in a truly potent combo.

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Cantrip Damage Combinations 

-Shillelagh + True Strike: It's not much different than your normal setup, but this can give you a reason to try to be Wisdom SAD. You might end up doing slightly more damage depending on level and enemy AC (even with lower unarmed strike chances to hit and Dex damage), though your grapple DCs will be lower, so it's at least worth pointing out as an option. If your DM doesn't let you precast Shillelagh often before combat, this loses its appeal as a combo. Can potentially be combined with Alter Self, though that is spell that is only available at 7th level, so pretty late for most campaigns to make your stats around.

-Sorcerous Burst + Evocation Adept (+ Spellfire Adept): This one is an interesting addition for Mystic Monks. Grab Sorcerous Burst as a Wisdom cantrip, and grab the Evocation Adept feat. On a hit add your 2d8 extra HD to the roll and increase the chance of getting another d8 (or more) added to the roll. This works especially great on critical hits, when everything is doubled (including the extra d8s I believe), so you can in theory roll up to 18d8 from the cantrip on a crit if you roll up to five 8s (if we have a +5 Wisdom at say level 8). We also can potentially give ourselves advantage on the attack through Stunning Strike landing. If you also find a source of Radiant damage for the attack (such as being an Aasimar), you can throw Spellfire Adept on there too, for 26d8 potential damage on a crit (at level 17+). And if you are level 20 Monk with a 24 in Wisdom, this can add another 4d8, giving us an even 30d8 on a crit. Even at more reasonable levels (say 6), this combo still can do 2d8+2d8+~1-2d8 = 22.5-27 average damage, and it's a Sorcerer cantrip, so you'd still get 3 more attacks if you want. And it can blast cold damage, so it can work with Cold Caster too. Finally, Spell Sniper might be necessary, but if you combine this with Hold Person or Sleep at point blank range (5 ft), you auto-crit, making it that much more likely to roll max d8s.

If your DM rules that Evocation Adept and Spellfire Adept don't work on a crit or interact with Sorcerous Burst this way, direct them to the Sage Advice regarding Valor Bard's Combat Inspiration Offense feature, which they rule counts as doubling on a crit and uses the same language. Also, why ruin the fun?

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Level 1 Spell Combinations 

-Hex / Hunter's Mark / Enlarge/Reduce (technically a 2nd level spell, but same category): Allows us to add extra damage to each attack. Hex (origin feat, species, feat) and HM (multiclass, feat) compete with our bonus action, which is already well known, but isn't a terrible trade off for say boss fights or when you know the fight will go on for a while. Enlarge/Reduce (Sorcerer spell, but also can get it from Faerie species) is useful if you don't want to lose BA attacking or other abilities after the initial casting. And because you can action cast it then BA attack, you can immediately use the benefit that round. Mystic Monks of course get to cast all of these spells more thanks to having spell slots and short rest spell slot recharge.

-Jump + Grapple + Fall Prone: Jump spell allows you to exchange 10 ft of movement for 30 ft of jump distance. If you jump straight up and then fall while maintaining the grapple, you can negate the damage via Slow Fall while the enemy takes 3d6 and is knocked prone. Note that if you don't negate all the damage, you also fall prone. Also, though this is DM dependent, you can potentially use Step of the Wind to double the jump to 60 ft (and thus do 6d6 falling damage). RAW this probably doesn't work, but it's potentially a lot of fun and uses resources, so it doesn't feel super broken (until high levels you will likely take damage and fall prone too). If allowed, Feather Fall could help fix the damage/prone issue at low levels, though you'd release the grapple doing so. Lastly, you can potentially grapple and try to pile drive two enemies you've grabbed, but DMs might limit you by carrying capacity. 

-Bless + Flurry: Simple, but raise your attack bonus the same round you cast Bless. This is great if you don't have a use of your concentration, as it also buffs/supports 2+ allies. Bless can of course be obtained from Magic Initiate or Fey Touched (or other feats) or a single level dip into Cleric.

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Level 2 and 3 Spell Combinations 

-Hold Person + Flurry: Hold Person causes the paralyzed condition, which will make our BA Flurry strikes all crits. Can stack damage dice riders on top as available (Goliath's various on hit damage adders, multiclass with Battle Master for Superiority Dice, or possibly the Charger feat). At level 17 we can cast this with our BA Flurry and then attack with our action, which could also be substituted for one cantrip attack. Also our Focused Strike ability at level 11 means that we can force the enemy to make the save at disadvantage every round if we first apply a Stunning Strike to them, making it that much more likely they stay paralyzed. And of course our Saving Throw Debuffs (STDs) from the Control Chapter can be used to further ensure the spell lands.

-Spike Growth + Grapple + Grappler feat: Aka the Cheese Grater. This one is a bit DM dependent in how they interpret dragging a creature works, but the idea is action cast Spike Growth (picked up via Magical Connoisseur) then BA grapple and drag the enemy around the edge of the Spike Growth, dealing 2d4 for every 5 ft of movement. Grappler feat increases this further by not limiting your movement speed while grappling (for creatures your size or smaller). Speedy feat or spells like Longstrider could increase your speed even higher. If your DM rules that the enemy is dragged/carried only directly behind you, or rules both you and the grappled creature take the damage, then we can still use Spike Growth with forced movement like shoving them back into the spikes or using Push weapon masteries (feat or multiclass) or other feats like Crusher, etc. to still force them to be moved through the growth unwillingly, even if at much lower distances than the grapple combo can do.

-Cloud of Daggers: Lots of different ways to amplify the damage of this spell. First, Stunning + auto-grapple a target while they are in the AOE (DM permitting that we don't also take the damage) means they will take the second turn of damage as well. We can also knock them back into the Cloud with shoves or weapon masteries or feats (Crusher comes to mind). We can knock them prone and reduce their speed such that they can't get up/out. Our action is also somewhat less valuable, so we can simply move the Cloud with our action and still apply the same techniques to another enemy via BA grapples/shoves/etc. And since none of this requires a save, we don't need an exceptionally high Wisdom to use this and still amplify our normal damage per round.

-Alter Self: As mentioned, Alter Self (on the Sorcerer's spell list) could be used as a way to make your Unarmed Strikes use Wisdom rather than Dexterity, to make you a Wisdom SAD Monk. However, this does have a couple of drawbacks. First is the spell requires concentration, so we can't combine it with other concentration spells. Second, it changes your unarmed strike damage to a d6 rather than it being a d8 (or higher), so this would be a downgrade in damage per unarmed strike. That being said, it lasts an hour and lets you change the damage type of the unarmed strikes, so it could work with the Slasher or Piercer feats if those options are preferred.

-Haste + 2 Cantrips: Available with third level spells, Haste is an interesting option for Monks, though maybe we should wait until level 14 to truly take advantage of it. It of course boosts our speed, AC, and Dex saves, but most importantly gives us another action, which we can use to Attack and sub out an additional cantrip attack. So with this active you could cast Sorcerous Burst (or other cantrip) twice in a turn and still have 3-4 unarmed strikes to pair with it. Of course, the downside to Haste is if you lose concentration, but with proficiency in Con saves at level 14 (Disciplined Survivor) and a reroll ability should we fail, we have a decent chance to maintain this. We can of course pair this with War Caster or Lucky to boost it further. This spell is also good at giving us more control options through Unarmed Strikes, and additionally boosts our defenses, so it could really fit in Chapters 1, 2, or 3 depending on how it is used.

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Multi-Target Damage

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Multi-target damage is divided up a bit differently due to how certain spells and abilities interact with each other. The first section will deal with Instantaneous Damage Spells and how they can be augmented using Mystic Monk features, and the second will handle Emanation/Duration Spells that deal damage over multiple rounds. Unfortunately Monks do not normally have ways to deal multi-target damage (like most martials), so all of these are exploits of spell combinations that the Mystic Monk can amplify or gain advantage from in some way.

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Instantaneous Damage Spells

-AOE Spell + Forced Movement: This one is straight forward. You can line up spells like Burning Hands, Thunderwave, Shatter, and Fireball for hitting multiple enemies that weren't originally grouped together. This can be from grappling, shoving, or various push techniques (like a weapon mastery via a dip or feat). Taking Evocation Adept, even if you don't get access to Wall of Force, can still be used to bump the damage a bit by adding 2d8 more, which against multiple enemies is great value. We can alternatively move allies out of the way of our AOE spells before we cast them, grappling 1-3 of them as needed without provoking Opportunity Attacks as they leave the enemy's range.

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-Stun + AOE Dex (or Strength) Saves - Stunned targets automatically fail Dex/Strength saving throws, meaning if you stun someone and then hit them with a Fireball, Burning Hands, or Dragon's Breath, they will take full damage every time (unless they have resistance). This does only impact one target per spell casting, but I decided to list it on multi-target because it's generally AOE spells that have Dex saves for damage. There is one low level spell I can think of that requires a Strength based save that deals damage and that is Ensnaring Strike, which we could get with a one level dip into Ranger. It probably is better for control, as it imposes the Restrained condition on a success (which they would auto-fail if they fail the Stun), but that does grant us/allies advantage on attacks and deals 1d6 damage at the start of the enemy's turn. Not convinced it would always be worth giving up your bonus action attacks, but I could see a build using it to truly lock down an enemy.

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-Grapple + Thunderclap: Grapple 1-2 enemies, maybe drag them near enough to a 3rd or 4th such that they are all within 5 ft of you, then cast the Thunderclap cantrip. This probably isn't worth it a lot of the time over just punching/attacking, but if you get enough enemies near you it might make it OK. Still good to list as an option.

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-Evasion + Fireball: While this is not always advised, we can in theory cast a Fireball or other Dex based AOE on ourselves and then rely on Evasion to take half damage at most. If we grab a species or feat or spell with resistance to fire damage, we can also add resistance to that damage reduction. Evocation Adept also enhances this by adding an additional 2d8 to the roll.

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-BA Disengage + AOE spell: Similar to Fireball, except we move out of our own spell AOE. Works on non-Dex based spells like Shatter. You can definitely do this in place of Evasion, but isn't it cooler to just stand still and not take any damage from your own spell anyways?

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-Laeral's Silver Lance: While this may look like a worse version of Lightning Bolt, Monks benefit from this in an interesting way. Strength saves are not always the best to target, but they can be good when targeting Dex based enemies or spellcasters. 3d10 force damage is also worse than 8d6 (16.5 damage vs 28 damage on average), but the Prone condition means we get advantage on our follow up attacks. It probably is about an even trade in terms of damage when accounting for accuracy, but we could also try to grapple a couple enemies to keep them prone, giving melee allies the benefit of advantage attacks too.

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-Astral Flood: This spell does potentially double duty with control (where I have updated it) and damage. Specifically, the Radiant damage option on a failed save makes the target Blinded, which in turn would give our follow up Unarmed Strike attacks advantage. Also, because it is a Dex save, stunning an enemy in the AOE before casting would cause them to automatically fail the save.

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Emanation / Duration Damage Spells

-Emanation Spell + Movement: By level 13, while Cacophonic Shield does not deal a ton of damage nor target a particularly weak saving throw of most monsters, we can weaponize it a bit better than most because of our bonus action Step of the Wind, allowing us to Dash and Disengage for the low cost of 1 Focus Point. Disengage btw works for preventing all Opportunity Attacks (unless they have say Sentinel or other type ability), not just the first one, so you can run past multiple enemies easily. You also just have a large amount of movement at this level, able to cover potentially 100 ft or more of distance from just the base Monk. You can of course add in stuff like Longstrider or even take the Speedy feat if desired to boost your movement further.

If you like this kind of play style, you can even BA Step of the Wind and move about, then ready your action to also move on another person's turn, triggering Cacophonic Shield damage twice per round. Now, I'm personally not the biggest fan of this normally, because it feels a bit cheesy in terms of game mechanics, but it does make the damage a bit more deadly at this level, bumping it to 6d6 per round, which is almost Fireball level. It does sub out all your normal attacks though, so it might be better to use Flurry and a more limited 50 ft of movement most of the time. Also, this probably only makes sense if you can effect 3+ enemies, otherwise your regular attacks and spells and such will probably be more effective.

Alternatively, Emanation spells like Cacophonic Shield do damage again to targets if they remain in the emanation at the end of their turn. So you can in practice grapple one-two enemies and force them to break the grapple with their action or take the extra damage. If it's a non-casting turn, you can even take the dodge action or disengage with your action or BA, depending which you prefer. So sequence of events could be cast Cacophonic Shield, triggering a first round of saves, then BA grapple 1-2 enemies. Then if they stay grappled you get to hit them twice with damage. On your next turn, to hit them twice again, you can let go of the grapple, move away (either provoke an opportunity attack, or Disengage or Dodge) and move back to hit them again, then grapple them again to force them in place. (Also note, while Stunning is great, the enemy can technically move while Stunned, so we would rather have them grappled.)

Also by the way your reaction is also a grapple check potentially, so if they escape or you don't succeed on your turn, you always have a potential second turn to do it again to one enemy if they try to leave your reach (which may or may not be worth it over just attacking). Alternatively, your reaction attack can also slow them down and keep them in the emanation range, if you say combine Stun with Slasher with Frost Goliath or such. Or just grab Sentinel. 

Finally, Evocation Adept should work on the turn you cast this spell and deal damage, but only to one creature and only on that first turn. Alternatively, if you grab Spellfire Adept and add radiant damage (such as through Aasimar's racial ability), you could add 2 HD to one roll every round it's active and you have spare HD. Perhaps there is a way to get it to deal Radiant damage on off turns as well, but Aasimar is only adding radiant damage on your turn.

This btw can work with any Emanation spell, which we will keep in mind when we get to the multiclass Chapter.

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-Conjure Animals: Gotten through Conjuration Adept, we can do similar forced movement options to push/move enemies within the 10 ft range of the conjuration, triggering more Dex saves. We can also hold enemies in place with grapples and slow options for more damage at the end of their turns. Stunned creatures also auto-fail Dex saves, so you could Stun them and then push or grapple them into range to trigger the damage automatically. Grappling + Stun is particularly appealing, because they will remained Stunned both on your turn and their turn, auto-triggering the damage twice in a round.

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-Moonbeam + Movement: Picked up with Magical Connoisseur or three levels of Druid. Challenge with Moonbeam is that it can hit allies as well as enemies, though it does not need to move in straight lines. But as it does use a Magic Action to move it, we can either move allies out of the path or move enemies into it with our BA grapples/shoves before moving the Beam. We can of course also potentially debuff their saving throws in the process, making it extra potent. You can also force zero movement to make it so they have to end their turn in the Beam, giving you double damage if they fail the save.

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End of Chapter 2

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For those of you continuing to read all my posts, I hope they are interesting reads. And thank you for sticking around for this! Next up, Chapter 3: Tanking/Buffing. Also, feel free to leave a comment on any combinations I have overlooked or missed in my analysis, and I will add them with appropriate credit.

>Treatise: a systematic exposition or argument in writing including a methodical discussion of the facts and principles involved and conclusions reached (Merriam-Webster).

This series of posts are going to focus on the Mystic Arts Monk, and I apologize in advance but this will be long and there will be no TL;DR just due to how much stuff I am going to cover. So for those of you that stick with it all, great! And for those who don't have the time to read my ramblings, I completely understand and sympathize. I will at least try to format it as best I can (thus all the bold words and other formatting), such that you may be able to scan it quickly if you want to glean some useful info.

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Preamble

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The Mystic Arts Monk is perhaps the first true "Gish" we have in DnD 2024/5.5e (in my humble opinion). Gish typically means just casting spells and being able to attack in the same turn, which there are several subclasses and even classes that can do this. However, the Mystic Arts Monk feels unique or separate from these choices because they truly feel like the first subclass (when also including feats and other player options) where the spellcasting can significantly augment the martial features of the class and subclass, and likewise that the martial abilities can augment the spellcasting options. So unlike say a Bladesinger or an Eldritch Knight, which feel more like having fighting abilities with tacked on spellcasting or spellcasting with tacked on fighting abilities, the Mystic Monk can utilize its abilities and potential tools to truly enhance both areas of its combat arsenal, often simultaneously. Thus this discussion is intended to explore these synergistic features and show how one can leverage the various options available to players to increase the capabilities of this Monk.

The discussion will be focused on what I call different Chapters, though there will be overlap between the different abilities and how they can be applied. Also, this will focus less on one particular way to build a Mystic Monk, as you realistically can't include all of the laid out abilities here simultaneously in one character. Instead, it will explore what tools are available and how they possibly interact to provide a more interesting and powerful play style and experience.

To this end, I want to highlight that this is not solely about the Mystic Arts Monk's subclass features. Instead, when I refer to the Mystic Monk's "tools", I am referring to several options that involve

1. Class and Subclass Abilities

-Martials Arts, Stunning Strike, extra movement, etc., as well as spellcasting, cantrip attack swapping, converting spell slots to focus points, etc.

2. Feats and Origin Feats

-Cold Caster, Grappler, Adept feats, Tavern Brawler, Shadowmoor Hexer, etc. (I won't be exploring Eberron feats)

3. Species Abilities

-Elves' extra spells and 4 hour long rests, Goliath's Large size increase and ability to knock prone or deal cold damage, Lupin's Howl and slashing unarmed strikes, etc.

4. Multiclass Options

-Single class dips or deep multiclass dives, including obtaining weapon masteries, extra spells, spell slot progression, class features, etc.

And when I refer to "Mystic Monk Tech" I mean the following:

• Bonus Action (BA) features detached from Action: Flurry, Patient Defense, Martial Arts, Step of the Wind, Heightened Awareness
• Saving Throw Debuffs: Spells like Mind Sliver, feats like Cold Caster or Fairy Trickster, abilities like Lupin's Howl or the level 11 Focused Strike
• The ability to grapple/shove with Dex and that grapples/shoves are swapped with any Unarmed Strike
• Large movement via Unarmed Movement and Step of the Wind that's augmented by spells/abilities
• Converting spell slots to Focus Points (FP) and short rest/Uncanny Metabolism regaining a spell slot with FP
• Mystic Fighting Style: Subbing out an attack for a cantrip or two Flurry strikes for one 1st or 2nd level spell
• Stunning Strike and its effects (both on a save and failure)
• Strong Physical and Mental Defenses: Superior Defense, Disciplined Survivor, and Deflect Attacks/Energy
• Spellcasting - specifically being a Wisdom spellcaster that has access to Arcane spells

Here are the chapters I will be covering:

Chapter 1: Control and Debuffing

Chapter 2: Damage

Chapter 3: Tanking/Defense

Chapter 4: Support and Buffing

Chapter 5: Utility

Chapter 6: Multiclassing

Chapter 7: 2014 Options

Finally, one last set of notes. As this is so long, I will be breaking it up for easier reading by Chapter, but understand I will be getting to these other topics and maybe will get to some other combo you know of in a later post. Don't feel like you need to be limited in what your comments are about, but suggesting how I'm "missing" a particular combo/synergy when I haven't yet covered that topic makes the post being split up a bit awkward to handle. Additionally, I am trying to limit the discussion to mostly 2024 content only, but I do have a Chapter at the end where I will try to cover some of the 2014 content and how it can interact here. This is mainly because all that extra content is probably too much to cover (even in this very long discussion), and also because there's no guarantee that content doesn't get updated to be significantly different in the future. Lastly, in general I'm not considering magical items, but I'm sure there's lots of synergies that can be found there as well.

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Chapter 1: Control and Debuffing

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Control covers stopping an enemy from being able to use their entire action economy effectively, and runs the gambit of forcing them to attack certain allies/yourself to not being able to move to stopping them from acting at all. Debuffing includes making it more likely that the enemy either fails their saving throws/skill checks or misses with their attacks. Together these both combine as serious control options the Monk can impose during fights. This Chapter is therefore broken up into two subsections: Single Target and Multi-Target Control.

First, though, I want to list the many different potential ways a Monk can reduce the chances of a saving throw success by the enemy, as these are pretty vital to the strategy of control I outline here. I'll refer to these collectively as "Saving Throw Debuffs" or STDs for short. This is not an exhaustive list, but it should cover the basics of all the major saving throw debuffs and how they are likely applied.

List of Saving Throw Debuffs (STDs) you can impose on enemies:

Ability, Spell, or Feature	Description
Mind Sliver	Spell, Intelligence save, works at 60 ft range, only requires verbal components (so could use while hands are full, say grappling), and can be subbed out for an attack at level 6. Delivers a -1d4 to their next save if they fail.
Cold Caster	Feat (+1 Wis), delivered with a cold attack that hits, no limit to number of uses, but limited to once per turn. Subtracts -1d4 to next saving throw of hit enemy. Delivered via either damage like Frost Goliath's Frost Chill or cantrips like Ray of Frost.
Fairy Trickster	Feat (+1 Dex), applies on hit, Wisdom save, and gives disadvantage on saving throws until the end of your next turn. Useable proficiency bonus times per day (PBTPD).
Lupin Howl	Species ability, bonus action to use, Wisdom save to all creatures you choose within 15 ft (DC based on Constitution mod), on failure disadvantage on saving throws (and attack rolls) until start of your next turn. PBTPD use
Divination Adept	Feat (+1 Wis), reaction, grant disadvantage (or advantage) to creature you can see within 60 ft. One use per long rest, but can refresh with casting a divination spell with a spell slot.
Bane	Spell, obtained through multiclass or feats (Magic Initiate: Cleric, Fey Touched, or Magical Connoisseur). Targets 3 creatures within 30 ft to make a Charisma save, imposes -1d4 to all their saving throws (and attacks) while concentration is maintained, which lasts 1 minute.
Focused Strike	Level 11 Mystic Arts Monk ability. Stunning Strike attempts (pass or fail) on a creature impose disadvantage on saving throws from spells you cast until the start of your next turn.
Spells like Hold Person and Sleep	Spells on the Sorcerer Spell List. Paralyzed and Unconscious enemies automatically fail Strength and Dexterity saving throws.
Astral Flood	Spell on the Sorcerer spell list. With the cold damage option, enemies that fail the Dex saving throw also have disadvantage on their next d20 test before the end of your next turn. (Credit: /u/Injunctive)
Stunning Strike	Level 5 Monk Ability. A bit obvious, but stunned creatures automatically fail Strength and Dexterity saving throws.

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Single Target Control and Debuffing

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How this works: I'll present categories of different forms of control that the Monk can employ, and explain where the spellcasting combined with martial abilities really enhance the play style and tactics that can be used.

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* Grappling - This is likely the first or maybe second ability people think of when they consider a Mystic Arts Monk. Action attack and cast the cantrip Mind Sliver, then attack with an Unarmed Strike and attempt a grapple check, causing potentially a -1d4 to the save. But we can use our list of STDs to enhance this further or to come at grappling saves from different angles. And these effects can be stacked as much as you think you can combine them. Cold Caster (with Frost Goliath's damage rider) and Mind Sliver and Divination Adept (with a one level Ranger dip for Hunter's Mark) could mean an enemy makes their grapple saving throw with a -2d4 and at disadvantage, making it very reliable to land.

Besides those mentioned in the above list of STDs, grappling also uniquely requires either a Dex or Strength saving throw. We have ways of targeting both of these saves to make our grapple checks either instant successes or at least with the enemy at disadvantage. These include:

• Casting a spell to impose the Unconscious or Paralyzed conditions (auto fails both Dex and Strength saves), then bonus action auto grapple. So Hold Person, Sleep, or Bestow Curse (via Fey Tormentor feat)
• Throw a Net which is used as part of Attack Action and requires a Dex save (DC is based on your Dex mod). On a failure it causes the restrained condition to Large or smaller creatures. Restrained causes disadvantage on Dex saves
• Alternatively getting the spell Ray of Enfeeblement (Magical Connoisseur, Chthonic Tiefling) can impose disadvantage on Strength d20 tests (attack rolls, ability checks, and saves) and reduces enemy damage by 1d8 per hit. So both an attack debuff and a control option, though it does require concentration.
• Casting a spell to cause the Restrained condition (auto fail Dex saves). So Entangle (Magic Initiate Druid, Conjuration Adept, Fey Sentinel) or Web can also help with grapples against weak Dex enemies.

Of course, in addition to all the ways we can make our grapples land more reliably, the Grappler feat is a great enhancement to these choices, and probably is a must have for any reasonable grapple build. You can also pick up the Hex spell (species, origin feat, multiclass) and cast it as a bonus action, imposing disadvantage on either Strength or Dexterity checks that an enemy could use to try and escape. Alternatively, casting Ray of Sickness can impose the poisoned condition, which causes disadvantage on all ability checks and attack rolls on a hit, though only for one round (and it's poison, so often resisted or immune). Goliaths of course get the benefit of being able to turn Large size, such that they can grapple Huge creatures. And Mystic Monks can further get the Enlarge/Reduce spell to make themselves Huge and thus grapple Gargantuan monsters. Additionally, you can do this sometimes to multiple enemies in a fight, allowing some crowd control (see the multi-target control section). Lastly, while this isn't unique per se to Mystic Monks, the Street Justice feat and ropes/chains can be used in tandem with grappling to impose the restrained condition on an enemy and leave them tied up while you can still move and target other enemies.

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* Stunning - Similar techniques to grappling (see Grappling section above for examples on debuffing and control), except the condition is far stronger but lasts for only 1 round and we can only attempt it once per turn. You can also combo these two as mentioned, because Stunned creatures automatically also fail Dex and Strength saving throws, thus auto failing Grapple and prone attempts. The reason behind doing this is because a) grappling stops movement, which stun doesn't do, and b) grappling lasts longer and thus imposes disadvantages/control on the target beyond one round. Our Stun attempts can also help burn through legendary resistances, because losing an entire round is generally worse than still being able to attack and use other actions on the enemy's turn.

Edit: Thinking about this further, due to the number of Focus Points we get a higher levels, our Stuns can effectively impose disadvantage on one enemy every round if we target them each time, due to Focused Strike. This is in addition to our spells with a saving throw that occur first on our turn and then at the end of the enemy's turn having disadvantage to both saving throws with only one Stunning Strike usage, after level 11 in the subclass. (Partial Credit: /u/Injunctive)

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* Slowing - This is a different form of control. First we have the cantrip Ray of Frost, which can be paired with Stunning Strike which on a success cuts a character's speed by half that round. So if you say first try to Stun the enemy, they succeed, then hit them with Ray of Frost, if they could only move 30 ft per round, their speed is now 5 ft (and with thrown weapons, you can stun at range). You can pair this with the Slasher feat and wield a light or simple slashing weapon and further reduce their speed another 10 ft. So the action economy could be attack with the slashing weapon (minus 10 ft speed), attempt a Stunning Strike (half speed), then bonus action disengage before hitting them again with a Ray of Frost attack, setting their effective speed to zero. On top of this, if you take the Frost Goliath species and use their Frost's Chill feature to further reduce the enemy speed by 10 ft. Finally, if you dip into another martial class or grab the Weapon mastery feat, you can grab a weapon with the Slow weapon mastery (club, javelin) and apply one more -10 ft of movement speed in a single round.

Meaning, you could in one round hit the enemy with a Slow weapon (club, -10 ft), attempt a Stun (half speed on success), Nick attack hit them with a slashing weapon (Scimitar or Sickle) for -10 ft, Frost Chill them for 1d6 cold damage (-10 ft), BA disengage, and then hit them with Ray of Frost (-10 ft). This would mean an enemy with up to 60 ft of movement normally would drop to zero movement for that turn if all the attacks land. At best they are stunned and they still likely have -40 ft of movement from their baseline.

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* Forced Movement - Includes grappling and moving a target, but also you have bonus action Shove attempts with each Unarmed Strike. You also have spells like Thorn Whip to move targets closer (unfortunately costs an action because not a Sorcerer spell - though ask your DM if it can still count. Or if 2014 content is allowed, possibly use Lightning Lure), or can take Crusher (combine with say True Strike via a Light Hammer for some ranged forced movement) or the Tavern Brawler origin feat (only works on Attack action unarmed strikes) [Edit: or the Lupin species' Feral Pounce Shove and unarmed strike option (Credit: /u/Ron_Walking)] or can multiclass for weapon mastery like Push (greatclub). This combined with spellcasting to better line up AoE effects such as Burning Hands, Sleep, Entangle, Shatter, Web, and eventually Hypnotic Pattern, Fear, and Fireball. Also of note is Thunderwave does double duty here, acting as both a potential damage AoE (even if relatively weak) and a forced movement option. Of course, you can also weaponize forced movement against AoE persistent effect spells, such as Cloud of Daggers, Moonbeam, Sleet Storm, Stinking Cloud, Web, Spike Growth (more on this in the "Damage" chapter), etc. And you can line up fellow spellcasters for their AoE spells and abilities.

In a similar vein, you can help move allies out of danger/hazards, especially moving allies out of your AoE spells before you launch them. So if you have a Hypnotic Pattern or Web or Spike Growth or Entangle spell, you can grapple 1-3 allies and move them out of your AoE space before action-casting the spell.

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* Control Spells - As mentioned, Mystic Monks have a number of different ways to potentially impact the save of an enemy, so this helps in landing critical control spells in general. But I want to focus on a few spells that they can access that can be uniquely used with the Monk tool set to improve the spell impact.

• Command: This they can get from a species (Lorwyn Elf), origin/regular feat (Magic Initiate: Cleric or Fey Touched) or simple 1 level dip into Cleric. Either way, the Monk's bonus action allows you to grapple or shove the enemy before/after they fail their Command save. So you can move them into more hazardous locations for when they Flee so that it will hurt them as they run away (possibly have them run off cliffs or into hazardous terrain, or even hazardous spells like Spike Growth or Cloud of Daggers or Wall of Fire). But the best use might be just lining up the enemy to Flee into your allies, which should trigger attacks of opportunity or emanation spells. So you can move them within 5 ft of a Rogue that can deal off turn Sneak Attack, or a spellcaster with Warcaster to cast a spell as a reaction, etc. And then have them run into the PAM Fighter or the Raging Barbarian's reach or the Cleric's Spirit Guardians, etc. Of course, you can also grab Warcaster for another spell casting with your reaction as well.
• Dissonant Whispers: Get via Fey Touched, this is similar to Command but deals damage and can only target one enemy and uses up their reaction. Just remember to move the enemy first before casting this spell, as they will use their reaction immediately to run away.
• Sleep: At higher levels, we can use Focused Strike to force the target saving throw at disadvantage for the initial save and then also the subsequent save that happens on their turn. (Credit: /u/Injunctive)
• Levitate: On the Sorcerer's spell list, this spell can potentially remove an enemy from the fight if they have no range or significant reach attacks. It only has the first save they need to fail and it lasts 10 minutes (with concentration). You don't need your action as much as other players to do stuff, so you can use it to move them (with a Magic Action) behind total cover if available. That basically makes the spell act like Banishment against one target, as they likely can't target anything until they come back round from cover. And you can still BA Flurry and Stun and try to force movement against other enemies and other stuff as per normal. Also note that Levitate actually stops even flying creatures from moving if they fail.

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* Shutdown Spellcasting or Line of Sight Abilities - Yet another way we can impose our will on the battlefield. Darkness or Fog Cloud spells (both on the Sorcerer spell list, though also available through feats or dips or species' spells, etc.) impose either heavy obscurement or block line of sight for non-truesight or non-blindsight enemies, which we can then combine with our bonus action grapple attempts or slowing abilities to hold the enemy in place. We can also potentially grab the Infernal Pact feat or a dip into Fighter or Ranger for Blindsight or be a Dwarf with Tremorsense (Stonecunning ability) to allow us to see in the Darkness or Fog Cloud, giving us advantage on our attacks and enemies disadvantage on theirs. Alternatively, we can cast the spell Silence (Elf species, Magical Connoisseur) over a spellcaster before bonus action grappling. This is appealing because unlike Darkness and Fog Cloud, our allies can still see and target through the Silence AOE, so they can keep attacking the enemy as desired while avoiding most of its effects by staying outside of it. This can shut down some enemy spellcasters if they don't have non-verbal spells to cast or some sort of Subtle spell trait.

Edit: With Focused Strike, if we attempt to Stun a spellcaster on our turn, should we need to/be able to Counterspell them, they will make that save at disadvantage. (Credit: /u/Injunctive)

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Multi-Target Control and Debuffing

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* Grappling - The same general rules apply here as single target grappling, except we can target an additional creature with a grapple attempt since our hands can generally be free (unfortunately no 2024 species allow for more than grappling two enemies at the moment - but some 2014 options open more possibilities). The only significant thing we need to watch out for here is that while grappling two creatures, we have our hands full, so most DMs will probably rule that we can't cast spells with somatic and/or material components. There are some that are purely verbal, such as Mind Sliver, Command, Dissonant Whispers, and Blindness/Deafness. But most of the powerful debuffs do have either a Somatic or Material component, so be mindful that if you want to use one, you likely will need to release a grappled creature to do so.

Additionally, as grappling can now be made with a reaction by replacing an unarmed strike, we can potentially lock down a third enemy if we release one enemy that has already taken a turn (free action to end a grapple) and then reaction attack another one that is leaving our reach, attempting a separate grapple to set their speed to zero. We can alternatively try to attack that enemy and stun them as they run away, and for this we don't even need to break the two enemy grapples (since unarmed strikes can be made with any body part). Even on a successful save against a Stunning Strike, that enemy's speed is cut in half and they have disadvantage on their next attack roll, so we significantly debuffed the enemy as well with such a strategy.

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* Slowing - This also can work similarly to single target but the slow effects are spread out among several enemies. However, I want to highlight a potential power boost of a tactic.

• The new 2nd level spell Uncertain Footing (picked up via Magical Connoisseur) cuts up to three enemy speeds in half with an Intelligence save. You can then apply a Stun to one of them with your BA, and if you have the Lupin Species, can take the Slasher feat to apply -10 ft to the same or another creature. Or Frost Goliath also can add -10 ft on a hit. And of course moving them back 5 ft with a shove or prone would further make it difficult for them to move at all. So say with three Flurry Strikes at level 10 and assuming they fail the Uncertain Footing save, to one creature you reduce their speed by 3/4ths via Stun (from say 30 ft down to 7.5 ft, which really means 5 ft on a grid), another down to 1/2 - 10 ft through Slasher/Frost Goliath (so from 30 ft to 5 ft also) and a final one you knock prone, meaning they have only 15 ft of movement and spend half of that getting up (again only 7.5 ft, effectively only 5 ft). So with that combination you nearly forced in place 3 enemies to be able to move no more than ~5 ft in a round. If they don't have ranged attacks, they are basically out of the fight that round unless right next to a PC within their reach. And assuming they keep failing their save and you keep your concentration, that can be done every round while you take the Dodge Action with your action.

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* Control Spells - Straight forward. Knock enemies into AoE control effects or reduce their chances of making saves with the above STD abilities. So Hypnotic Pattern or Web or Entangle can have 1-3 more enemies in it when you launch it, or Command (upcasted)/Color Spray/Faerie Fire can be made at disadvantage or with -1d4 from cold caster, etc. We can further breakdown certain spells as well:

• Color Spray: I think this one is definitely interesting. Most of the time it's not worth casting for spellcasters because a) it targets Con saves, which are usually good on monsters, and does nothing on a success, b) it is only a 15 foot cone, so it requires the squishy spellcasters to be closer in melee to target maybe two enemies, and c) it only lasts one round. But for a Mystic Monk this could all potentially stack in our favor. We can debuff their Con saves with one or several of our STDs, we already want to be in melee, our attacks benefit from imposing the Blinded condition for advantage and maybe more importantly enemies attacking us at disadvantage helps us survive longer, we can grapple and move more enemies into the cone AOE, and even one round of control is good for us because we can still use our Bonus Action that round to attack or do other control stuff, as well as the next round. The spell really highlights the synergies we can get from casting spells and attacking/moving all in one round.
• Bane: This also might not be worth it on a caster that has better control spells to concentrate on, but for a Monk this is a great low level spell. Charisma save means it will land far more likely, especially at lower levels, and it reduces multiple enemies' chances of hitting you/allies or surviving your grapple/shove/Stun/other spell effects. Pick it up with a low level Cleric Dip or via Magic Initiate.
• Fear Spell + Grapple or Focused Strike: Another fun Mystic Monk combination. At level 13 when you get access to the Fear spell, you can cast the spell and then grapple 1-2 of the enemies that fail their saves and force their speed to zero. They still must use their Dash action on their turns, so they effectively never get an action, meaning they very likely can't escape the grapple. And because they are grappled, they will always have you in line of sight, so they never get to make the saving throw again. Just need to maintain concentration on the spell. Alternatively, if some of them do run away, you can use thrown weapons on them and attempt a Stunning Strike at range. Even if they succeed, because of our level 11 feature Focused Strike, they'd make the Wisdom save at disadvantage if they do remove us from line of sight. We also could use Mind Sliver against them to add another layer of potential debuff to an enemy's save. And of course, if we only can grapple one enemy and another escapes, we can combine these options to potentially lock down multiple enemies.

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End of Chapter 1

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Stay tuned for Chapter 2: Damage, coming soon (if you have read this far, my hat is off to you). Also, at some point I will probably collect all of these into a single Google Doc for easier reading and flow.

Enjoy!

Pretty straight forward, just looking for everyone's opinions on what rules they like or dislike that are a bit ambiguous and/or there is one rules interpretation they like/don't like and want to see more/less of at theirs and other tables.

And to just give some examples of potentially controversial rules interpretations that I was considering, I can think of the following:

1. Hiding and the invisible condition, specifically if leaving cover ends the invisible condition or if Passive/Active Perception needs to still beat your Stealth roll to end the condition.
2. Whether True Strike (or Booming Blade/Green Flame Blade) is considered a spell attack, a weapon attack, or both.
3. Can Pet/Summons from say Beast Master Ranger or Battle Smith Artificer count as independent mounts? Or are they always controlled?
4. Warcaster being allowed to buff allies that leave your reach with a reaction.

This is not supposed to be an exhausting list at all (and maybe some people don't see these as controversial anyways), so let me know your thoughts on these or other rules interpretations you like or dislike.

Original plan was to wait to put this post together until after Arcana Unleashed was officially out for the general public in September, but I think some of these ideas might get sniped before then. So deciding to release them into the wild now, and then maybe I will follow up next month with another post to see if anything else has been thought of since then.

Thus, here are some broken combos I have come across that take advantage of the new abilities, subclasses, feats, and spells from Arcana Unleashed (gleamed together from various internet previews). Maybe not all of them are truly "broken", but IMO are at least quite strong. These also aren't all my ideas, but I try to add my own flare when I can.

Cheese Grater on Speed: Goliath Mystic Monk 8: Magic Connoisseur (Spike Growth + Longstrider) + Grappler. Grapple an enemy then move them through the Spike Growth. 60 ft movement / 120 ft Dash / 180 ft Action Dash + Bonus Action Dash = 60/120/180 damage per turn from movement. Goliath is chosen to grow Large and grapple Huge monsters. Technically any Monk can do this now, but Mystic can do it multiple times per day, even at level 7, as they can convert Focus Points to spell slots over short rests.

Nuclear Wizard v5.5e: Aasimar Evocation Wizard 10: Nuclear Wizard is back! Magic Missile @ level 5 slot + Evocation Adept + Spellfire Adept + Empowered Evocation = (1d4+1+Int+2d6+2d6) x 7 +4 = 154.5 auto-hit damage with a +4 Int. Aasimar ability only works once per day, but it does add Radiant damage to a spell, so it counts for Spellfire Adept. Both Evocation Adept and Spellfire Adept have the language "add to one damage roll of a spell", so it works the same as Empowered Evocation.

Infinite Spell Slots: Diviner Wizard 9 / Spellfire Sorcerer 9: Create infinite lower level spell slots by casting Mordenkainen’s Lucubration. Regain a 4th level spell slot + two 2nd level slots. Convert spell slots to Sorcerer Points then back into a level 5 spell slot with an additional Sorcerer Point to spare. Rinse and repeat. Spellfire subclass gets you Greater Restoration to not need to sleep through the nights (can also go Clockwork if preferred) so that you can keep all the extra spell slots you create.

• CME Go Boom!: +2 Warlock (so 20 total levels): Spell Sniper and Boon of Magic School Mastery - Illusion for Simulacrum. Can perma-cast Conjure Minor Elementals (CME) outside of combat with infinite level 5 spell slots (and thus topped off Sorcerer Points), which also works for the Simulacrum. Base DPR with Quickened Eldritch Blast (EB) and Action cast EB: 16d10+80+48d8 = 384 average.

Unbreakable Concentration: Orc Fighter/Sorcerer/Artificer 1 / Circle of Stars Druid 7 - Conjuration Adept (+1 Wisdom). Constitution modifier of +3 with point buy. With Dragon form active, minimum concentration roll with Conjure Woodland Beings active is 10+3+3+4= 20. Thus minimum damage to break concentration is 40 by level 8. Just need to avoid no save incapacitation effects. Scales to potential minimum 52 damage with +5 Wisdom and Con. (I'm sure there is a way to get to to instant pass Concentration checks against a max DC of 30. Just haven't figured out the right combo yet.) Orc species chosen to avoid instant concentration drop from going to zero HP once per day.

Heightened Spell Rogue: Halfling Arcane Trickster Rogue 9: Spell Subterfuge + min Stealth roll of (call it) 22. Permanently stay hidden (read: invisible) such that all spells you cast, the target has disadvantage on the spell via Magical Ambush. You are a halfling, so all allies are cover.

Double Sprit Guardians: Gnome Vestige Warlock Level 5. Two familiars/pets + Spirit Guardians. Take Warlike Familiar, Pact of the Chain, Pact of the Blade, Investment of the Chain Master, Thirsting Blade. Use War Domain spells. Have a Vulture or other Medium creature familiar (so you can ride it), but count it as an Independent Mount that takes your orders. In combat, have Spirit Guardians cast, and command your familiar to attack with one of your attack actions. Have it be a Battle Familiar with fly-by. Second command your Vestige to attack with the other attack, and bonus action is to attack or heal or curse. Lastly, have your Battle Familiar land/be within 20 ft of an enemy. On your turn, dismount/remount such that you hit that enemy within 15 ft, triggering Spirit Guardians both on your turn and your familiar's turn when they attack/flyby. So (3d8)x2 + (1d8+3+3)x2 + 1d6+3+4=58.5 average damage to one target, with flyby for multiple target potential. *Note: any caster can take advantage of the Double Emanation spell damage with Battle Familiar, but only Warlocks can also command their summons to attack additional times. Also Halflings work as well. Might want to take Mounted Combatant at level 8 to help avoid the familiar dying while you ride it.

• Triple Spirit Guardians? Vestige Warlock Level 14. On your turn you dismount from your Familiar and then remount onto your Vestige Celestial/Fiend Large creature with flight, assuming they are near enough each other. It takes it's turn after yours, so it can move a third time for you to hit another Spirit Guardians drive by. Have the Alert feat from Lessons of the First Ones so you can always swap initiative with your Familiar to always have it go second in combat or vice versa, depending on which one you are riding initially. I think this combo only works for one round really, but maybe cleverer minds can figure out how to get this to work every round. Sadly Warlock's slots only go up to level 5, so if you pull it off it's 15d8 + (1d8+3+5)x3 + (2d6+3+7)x4 = 173 DPR, stacking two attacks + reaction from the familiar and 4 attacks from the Fiend (devil) with three attacks on its turn and one attack from our swapped attack.

I Can't Believe It's Not Wizard!: High Elf Sorcerer 1 / Lore Bard 12 - Magic Initiate Wizard (True Strike, Firebolt/Toll the Dead, or PYF cantrips, Find Familiar), Evocation Adept at level 4, Transmutation Adept at level 8, Conjuration Adept at level 12. Take expertise in Arcana (for spell scrolls), at Bard level 6 gain two more spells from the Wizard list (or from Druid or Cleric), like Counterspell or Sylune's Viper, that can be swapped on level up for higher level spells if need be. And then by level 10 start picking your spells from any spell list of the four classes, including all the best Wizard spells. Order for feats is intentional but not absolute. Bard's don't get a lot of AoE damage spells early levels, so Evocation first, then Transmutation for Polymorph and Animate Objects when they become relevant, and then Conjuration when you need more help focusing on making concentration saves for Conjuration spells. Or feel free to grab Illusion/Divination/Enchantment Adept instead to be a different flavor of Wizard. Either way, you basically are one with all the same spells they get. High Elf is for early access to Detect Magic and Misty Step (classic Wizard spells) and Sorcerer 1 for Con saves and the Shield spell, while still maintaining full spell slot progression. Feal free to not take the Sorcerer level.

• Fat-Free I Can't Believe It's Not Wizard!: Human Arcana Cleric 12 - Familiar Friend, Magic Initiate Wizard (for Shield), Conjuration Adept at 4, Transmutation at 8, Evocation at 12. Similar to the Bard, only they already get Wizard cantrips natively, so we really only need the familiar and Shield spells. Conjuration Adept first because Spirit Guardians still goes Brrr, but then Transmutation and Evocation afterwards, which you can feel free to switch up. Finally, because they are an Arcana Cleric, they get 6th-9th level Wizard spells on top of their own.

The Battle Mortician: Drow Necromancer Wizard 6+: Cast Animate Dead 4 times (as 4th level effective spells) for up to 12 skeletons in one day, or 24 skeletons over multiple days. Skeletons do 1d6+3+Int+1/2 Wizard Level per hit with their short bows, and attack from up to 80 ft away. Faerie Fire from Drow makes up for them having a low to-hit value, allowing them to attack things at advantage. 12 x (1d6+3+4+3) = 162 damage before accuracy. Against say a 15 AC, with advantage and only a +5 to hit, that's 129.2 DPR for twelve skeletons and 258.4 DPR for the full 24. Gets even more absurd at higher levels and more piles of bones.

Any other ways people have thought the new book breaks the game?

This will be a bit different than my usual write ups for builds, as I will be focusing only on trying to make the spell Flame Blade not completely suck past levels 3-4. 

TL;DR: Two options to use Flame Blade better. 

Option 1 is a Flamekin Celestial Warlock 9/BM Fighter 4/Spellfire Sorcerer 4. This works tier 2 into tier 3, then probably drops off in damage/viability. It uses a familiar to throw oil at the enemy using your bonus action, then attacking with Flame Blade to deal extra fire damage. It also uses Radiant Soul to double up on Charisma damage, then adds Battle Master Fighter maneuver dice to further increase the damage. Finally, DM interpretation permitting, adds radiant damage into the spell via Spellfire Sorcerer's Radiant Fire, which then allows you to also add two hit die per attack with Spellfire Adept.

Option 2 is an Aasimar Draconic Sorcerer 3/Celestial Warlock 6/Sorcerer 14 that has a potential higher damage number but doesn't really work until late tier 2 and scales into tiers 3-4, though you can start at level 3 if desired with albeit lower damage. It uses the same oil bonus action method and Warlock bonus as above, but because we can use the Aasimar race for their Celestial Revelation ability (to add radiant damage to the spell), we can instead go Draconic Sorcerer and still also use Spell Fire Adept for additional HD damage added to the spell. This combo does unfortunately only work once per day and requires several rounds of setup (or prep time before a fight).

Here also is a comparison of the potential damage of the Flame Blade builds vs other (call them) average or baseline damage comparisons.

Average Damage Comparison Table

--Does Not Account for Accuracy/Save Chance--

Level	Baseline Flame Blade	Option 1	Option 2	GWM Build	EB+AB+Hex
3	13.5	-	17.5	10	12
4	14.5	-	17.5	13	13
5	18	23.7	19.5	28	26
6	18	27.7	19.5	28	26
7	21.5	31.3	31.5	28	26
8	21.5	33.3	36.5	30	28
9	26	37	46.7	32	28
10	26	37	46.9	32	28
11	29.5	37	46.9	48	42
12	29.5	41.5	50.9	48	42
13	33	41.5	57.1	51	42
14	33	41.5	60.1	51	42
15	36.5	44.3	63.8	51	42
16	36.5	46.8	63.8	51	42
17	40	57.8	69.4	54	56
18	40	57.8	69.4	54	56
19	40	57.8	73.1	54	56
20	40	57.8	73.1	72	56

*GWM build (simple Fighter or Warlock build with GWM at level 4 and max Strength level 8, gaining 3 attacks at level 11, all without a subclass) and Eldritch Blast + Agonizing Blast + Hex are only used as comparison points and are not representing anything like max/good damage at these levels for these builds. They are intended to be benchmarks to make sure our damage does not fall significantly behind what other characters/options could do at this level, even at a very basic level.

Goal: Have the Flame Blade spell deal OK damage through riders and other damage boosts at higher levels (5+).

Motivation: Many people think the spell Flame Blade is thematically and iconically cool. I mean, who doesn't want to fight with a flaming sword in your hand while you smack bad guys? But the wording of the spell and the mechanics have always gotten in the way of the spell actually feeling satisfying (more on this later). So even though you can upcast it, there is usually very little reason to try and use it past tier 1, because it just doesn't keep up with even cantrip damage, let alone other leveled spells. 

So my attempt here is to at least make it a potential option to use at higher tiers, even if you probably should be using another spell or other ability to do damage or control or what have you. This is to say I'm not going to make the spell go from bad to good with this build, only attempt to go from bad to OK and somewhat acceptable and satisfying. And though many people have tried to take a crack at this, I feel I may have some new-ish ways to make it a bit more viable. Or at the very least, I haven't seen these options discussed elsewhere online yet. Perhaps they in turn will inspire others to go farther than I have.

Rules: I will be using only 2024 and newer published content (does not include any Arcana Unleashed content). Also no UA or third party resources. I will also try to stick as close to strict RAW as I can, but there is one place that I think a reasonable DM may consider acceptable to further use this spell. Finally, for stats I assume point buy.

Notes on the Spell: OK so first let's talk about the spell itself, to lay the ground rules and expectations of why this is challenging to make better. The 2024 text reads

>Level 2 Evocation (Druid, Sorcerer)
>Casting Time: Bonus Action  
>Range: Self  
>Components: V, S, M (a sumac leaf)  
>Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes   > >You evoke a fiery blade in your free hand. The blade is similar in size and shape to a scimitar, and it lasts for the duration. If you let go of the blade, it disappears, but you can evoke it again as a Bonus Action. > >As a Magic action, you can make a melee spell attack with the fiery blade. On a hit, the target takes Fire damage equal to 3d6 plus your spellcasting ability modifier. > >The flaming blade sheds Bright Light in a 10-foot radius and Dim Light for an additional 10 feet. > >Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. The damage increases by 1d6 for each spell slot level above 2.

So it is only available to Sorcerers and Druids (more on that later) and it requires a bonus action to cast. It only has a range of self, it has V, S, and M components, and it lasts up to 10 minutes but requires concentration. With the somewhat long duration it may be able to be cast before a fight starts, and it might even last for two fights. With the range of "self" it can't benefit from say Spell Sniper or Distant Metamagic, and because it has all three components needed to cast, you need at least one free hand available. So far so Ok, other than maybe requiring concentration.

The first paragraph of text is where things start to fall apart. The blade you invoke is similar to a scimitar, but it's not actually a scimitar. Moreover, it's not actually a weapon at all, which is extremely unfortunate because that means it doesn't interact with anything that uses a weapon for a trigger, like Smites or weapon masteries or blade cantrips, etc. Why they kept this language in the 2024 version is beyond me, they could have just made it a weapon and it would have been fine, as it's not like Druids or Sorcerers get Extra Attack. It also disappears if you let go of it, which means you can't use it as a thrown weapon either (improvised thrown weapon).

Second paragraph is even more debilitating. You can only attack with it using the Magic Action (so no opportunity attacks) and it's a spell attack, making it use your spellcasting modifier for hit bonus (instead of say Booming Blade using the normal weapon's hit bonus). Spell attacks that aren't actually part of a casting of the spell are even harder to augment, because most abilities trigger when the spell is cast rather than when the spell is used or hits or deals damage. On top of that, because it takes a bonus action to cast, if we did not have it precast during a fight, it essentially takes our entire turn to use this spell to make one attack. And as we all know, having multiple attacks that can stack riders on them is generally better than having only one attack. The 2024 version does add our spellcasting modifier at least now to that 3d6 fire damage (often resisted), but that is small conciliation.

Finally, the last bit I will touch on is the upcasting. It only adds 1d6 per spell level above 2nd, which is really weak scaling on an already weak spell (even if this is somehow an improvement on the 2014 version). As others have mentioned, it would be far better if this spell was similar to Shadow Blade, allowing it to work with Extra Attack and scaling say every two spell levels. But alas, we still have the problems with this spell before us.

Thus, given these severe limitations, what can we do to improve the spell? Well, I have come up with two options depending on when your game is taking place in terms of character level. One works in say tier 2 (levels 5-10) and maybe scales into early tier 3 (levels 10-16), but then probably runs into RAW issues for scaling further (though I will touch on one potential solution). The second comes "online" late tier 2 but can scale up into tier 3 play. The solutions I will say are not amazing, but they do improve the spell damage enough I think to make it more satisfying and viable.

Option 1: Comes Online at Level 5

Stats: 17 (15+2) Charisma, 16 (15+1) Constitution, 14 Dex

Species: Flamekin

Class Levels: Celestial Warlock 9 -> Battle Master 4 -> Spellfire Sorcerer 4 or Draconic Sorcerer 6

Eldritch Invocations: Eldritch Mind, Pact of the Chain, Investment of the Chain Master, Armor of Shadows, Lessons of the First One - Magic Initiate: Wizard for the Shield spell.

Feats: Elemental Adept (+1 Charisma), +2 Charisma, Resilient (Constitution) (+1 Con), maybe Spellfire Adept (+1 to Wisdom or Int)

Metamagic: Empowered Spell, Quickened Spell

How This Works:  

So I'm tempted to start Fighter 1 for Constitution save proficiency and heavy armor proficiency, but it delays this setup by a level then, which is not ideal. We still try to protect our concentration using Eldritch Mind (no Warcaster tax) and improve our AC a bit with Mage Armor and the Shield spell, but none of these are fool proof to stop us dropping concentration while in melee.

Warlocks don't natively get Flame Blade as mentioned, so the only way we can get it (not including Arcana Unleashed feats) is with our species. This leaves us using Flamekin here, which I honestly like mostly because I never see this species used (tbf for good reason). I think technically Rimekin can also be used, but we specifically do want this spell dealing fire damage and not cold, so it doesn't synergize as well, and may count against us if a DM interprets that Flame Blade only does cold damage even when cast with regular slots. Thus with Flamekin we can cast Flame Blade once without a spell slot (only at a level 2 spell slot) starting at level 5, but more importantly can cast it with any spell slots/Pact Magic slots we have using our Charisma modifier.

Warlock gives us two ways to "buff" our damage from the spell. 

1. The prime combo works at level 5. First, we take the Pact of the Chain to get a familiar. My preference is something like a Quasit or Imp, but check with your DM if having hands is an absolute requirement for this combo. It's reasonable to think that it is. Second, take Investment of the Chain Master at level 5. This does a couple things for us: it lets us use our Bonus Action to command our familiar to take the Attack action, and it lets us use our spell DC if our familiar "forces a creature to make a saving throw". Both of these things are crucial.

So, before combat we are going to hand our familiar one (or several) flask(s) of oil. It's worth quickly touching on how oil works here and how we will interact with it. The relevant text of a flask of oil reads

>Dousing a Creature or an Object. When you take the Attack action, you can replace one of your attacks with throwing an Oil flask. Target one creature or object within 20 feet of yourself. The target must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw (DC 8 plus your Dexterity modifier and Proficiency Bonus) or be covered in oil. If the target takes Fire damage before the oil dries (after 1 minute), the target takes an extra 5 Fire damage from burning oil.

To use it to cover someone in oil, you take the Attack action and then the target makes a Dex saving throw or is covered for one minute. I'm going to use the same language CountPeter used in this legacy post to discuss how this could play out at a table: (F) will mean the favorable interpretation, (U) the unfavorable one, and (C) the compromise interpretation.

So on our turn, assuming we have Flame Blade already cast, we would command our familiar using our bonus action to take the Attack action to throw the oil flask at our target. They would only need to be within 20 ft and assuming they are allowed to throw it (which there is nothing RAW that I can see that says they can't - even like a bird might be able to use their beak to throw with a liberal enough DM), the target then makes a Dex save. However, due to our invocation, they make it against our spell DC rather than using the familiar's stats. If they fail, they are covered in oil for one minute and take 5 additional fire damage when they take fire damage.

The (F) interpretation says this damage happens for one minute every time the target takes fire damage, which I would argue is the strict RAW interpretation here. The text says the oil takes one minute to dry up, and says nothing about being consumed before that minute is up. Now the (U) interpretation here says the oil is consumed after one time that it burns, essentially burning up completely. This seems less likely with the 2024 rules rather than the 2014 ones, because it removed any other language not specifying that the oil lasts for one minute. But some DMs might rule this anyways just due to how they think oil should normally work. Finally the (C) interpretation is that the extra fire damage is once per round from a follow-on flame effect, which would still satisfy us using Flame Blade here.

If (U) is how your DM rules it, you can potentially order your familiar to attack each round with a new oil flask. Not ideal, as now this consumes your BA each round, and gives the enemy an opportunity each time to avoid getting dosed, but it would still work for this build idea.

• 2. Celestial Warlock's level 6 Radiant Soul ability allows us to add our Charisma modifier to a spell we cast that deals radiant or fire damage against one target. Since Flame Blade only attacks one target, we should be able to double up our Charisma modifier here to our damage for the spell each round we attack with it.

Ok, so with this setup, this is what our damage numbers can look like. We are a Warlock 5-6, so we can cast this spell using our level 3 pact magic slots, and we add our Charisma modifier once-twice, and then have a chance for 5 additional fire damage based on a Dex save. Thus this becomes our potential damage, not accounting for accuracy or fail chance (Charisma is a +4 due to Elemental Adept).

4d6+Char+Char+5 = 27.67 fire damage

I would say this compares pretty favorably against most damage builds at this level, if not amazing. As my table above shows, for example, a GWM greatsword wielding user (sans subclass) does likely 28 damage with two attacks, and an Eldritch Blast + Hex Warlock does 26 damage. Again, not saying we are doing great damage, or even worth while, but at least we aren't falling super behind these other builds. 

I think from here it makes sense to go further into Warlock to level 9, just for better upcasting, despite how lack luster that is. We sadly don't have any more Invocations or other spells/tricks we can use to improve our damage further that I can see (due to the spell's above restrictions), so we only gain a mere 2d6 more in damage from these levels. We will at least grab +2 Charisma for our ASI, such that our damage becomes 6d6+5x2+5 = 37 damage.

Beyond this, there aren't a ton of ways to add more damage, but one such class is Battle Master Fighter. Specifically, any of the maneuvers that state they work with an "attack roll" rather than ones that need a weapon or use the Attack action. So that would be Disarming Attack, Distracting Strike, Feinting Attack, Goading Attack, Maneuvering Attack, and Menacing Attack. Any one of these can be used to add 1d8 to the attack, depending on what flavor you want to use. While it's not much, since we only do one attack per round, this can get us up to 6d6+5x2+5+1d8 = 41.5 average damage by level 12, which is reasonable to assume if you have one fight per short rest. Not great damage anymore comparatively though, as the GWM with 3 attacks now does 48 average damage and even the Eldritch Blasting Warlock (with Hex) does 42 damage. Thus as I said this one drops off a bit for damage in tier 3 and beyond. (Side note: Level 4 Fighter ASI is probably best used for Resilient: Constitution.)

One way we can try to make up for this is multiclassing one last time into Sorcerer. While we can't use Innate Sorcery (only works for Sorcerer spells), we can use Metamagic, specifically Empowered spell works here, allowing us to reroll up to 5 damage dice. If we say reroll 1s and 2s, on average that bumps those dice from 3.667 (Elemental Adept) to 4.222. Not a huge increase, but we can do this every round we have Sorcerer Points (and we can cannibalize our lower level slots for those if need be). With this, our damage becomes 44.3 at level 15. 

Finally, the questionable DM part. If we take the subclass Spellfire Sorcery, their level 3 feature states that when they spend a Sorcery Point during the Magic Action, they can choose to deal 1d4 fire or radiant damage to a creature within 30 feet that they can see. Now, the key question here is if you apply this damage (radiant specifically) to the target you just hit by using Elemental Adept, does that count as the "spell" dealing the damage? Strict RAW would probably be no, but I think reasonable DMs could be persuaded that the cause of the radiant damage is by Empowering the spell, so it is caused by it.

The reason for this question is because if a DM does accept it is part of the spell's damage, we can then take advantage of the feat Spellfire Adept. Specifically, the Fueled Spellfire ability lets us once per turn add up to two HD to our damage for the roll of the spell. Thus if we can take this feat and count it as radiant damage from the spell, at level 17 (4 Sorcerer) we can add either one of our 4d10 HD from Fighter or any of our 9d8 HD from Sorcerer to our Flameblade attack.

Thus by this level, if allowed, we'd be doing the following damage per hit

6d6+5x2+5+1d8+1d4+2d10 = 57.8 average damage (55.8 if you use d8 HD)

Compared to the GWM build, they are doing (2d6+5+6) x 3 = 54 damage, and the Eldritch Blast + Hex user is doing 56 damage. Again, nothing worth praising, but at least we aren't being completely useless.

If the above strategy is not allowed with the Spellfire Adept interaction, then going Draconic Sorcerer is really your only option, and it doesn't help much. Unfortunately, due to how the level 6 feature Elemental Affinity is worded, it only allows your Charisma modifier to be added once when the spell is cast, so it would only apply to the first attack. It would still stack with our other Charisma modifier bonus though, and deal 49.3 damage for that first hit, so definitely a drop from the Spellfire Adept route. You could maybe get away with recasting the spell every round, but that may conflict with you needing your BA to command your familiar to throw oil, so YMMV if that works or not. Better yet, if your DM is merciful, they can let you apply Elemental Affinity every round, which again isn't amazing but also doesn't feel like zero contribution.

Also, of course, please feel free to Quicken a cantrip or spell attack with your Bonus Action whenever it is free with your limited Sorcery Points, but just remember you will be spending at least 1 point per Flame Blade attack to empower it and thus trigger Spellfire Flare/Adept.

Option 2: Available at level 3 - Comes "Online" at level 9

Stats: 17 (15+2) Charisma, 16 (15+1) Dexterity, 14 Constitution 

Species: Aasimar

Class Levels: Draconic Sorcerer 3 -> Celestial Warlock 6 -> Sorcerer 14

Metamagic: Empowered Spell, Extended Spell, Quickened Spell, Seeking Spell

Eldritch Invocations: Eldritch Mind, Pact of the Chain, Investment of the Chain Master

Feats: Spellfire Adept (+1 Charisma), Elemental Adept (+1 Charisma), Another +1 Charisma feat

How This Works:  

Again, I'm tempted to recommend going Fighter first for the medium or heavy armor proficiency, or perhaps even Paladin 1 here if you prefer to drop Dex for Strength. Being in melee all the time with this build is risky, so having more AC and weapon masteries (and some healing) is always appreciated.

Starting as a Sorcerer 1 does get us Con saves though, and gets us access to 2nd level spells sooner, meaning we can start casting Flame Blade at level 3 if we wanted. We also natively get the Shield spell, and at level 3 get unarmed defense to stop the Mage Armor tax. We can even use the Extended Spell Metamagic to avoid needing to take Warcaster. 

Our bonus action though will be very crowded, and sadly the build can only come together once per day. In order to get it going just at level 3, we need to (1) cast Flame Blade, (2) activate Aasimar's Celestial Revelation - for Inner Radiance, and possibly (3) activate Innate Sorcery. All of these require our bonus action, so unless you have some prep time/awareness before combat, these will all be difficult to get going until round 3. And our bonus action sadly has even more demands on it as we get higher in level.

If we can pull this off, at level 3 we'd be doing 

3d6+Char+2 (Celestial Revelation) +2 (Inner Radiance) = 17.5 average damage. 

(Minor note: I will be including the Inner Radiance damage that isn't technically apart of the damage riders for Flame Blade. This is because while it doesn't directly stack, I feel like it is a good ancillary benefit to include since Flame Blade forces you to be in melee range, and this ability only works within melee range.)

While difficult to pull off, it does a nice amount of damage per round, which is possibly at advantage. As a comparison, a TWF Ranger with Hunter's Mark (sans subclass) would do (1d6+Dex+1d6) x 2 = 20 damage, which is toward the high end at this level, so we aren't too terrible overall. And we have Con save proficiency + advantage on concentration checks due to Extended Spell. If we want to use Empower Spell too every round (difficult given how few spell slots and Sorcery Points we have), that would bump our damage up to 19.5 average.

Sadly from here is where the build doesn't gain any significant damage increase for at least 4 levels, because we multiclass into Warlock. Our ASI at level 7 (Warlock 4) does give us Spellfire Adept earlier than the previous build, allowing us to add 2d8 to our attack when we have Radiant damage attached to it. We can get Eldritch Mind and stop spending our Sorcery Points on Extended Spell metamagic (unless we just want 20 minute durations). We do get to coffee-lock a bit here as well, and avoid taking Armor of Shadows for another Invocation of our choice. We also have randomly a bunch of healing capability with Aasimar's Healing Hands and Celestial Warlock's Healing Light, but these are both bonus actions to use, so I expect if you do need them in combat, your damage will drop accordingly.

Once we grab Spellfire Adept, our damage becomes

3d6+4+3+3+2d8 = 31.5 average (with Empowered Spell now being used each turn)

So a decent bump from before, and now we can compare ourselves to the TWF Ranger with Extra Attack, doing now (1d6+4+1d6) x 3 = 33 damage. They also have increased a nice amount, and we are nearly matching them at level 7.

From here, we do take advantage of the oil throwing Familiar and extra damage from Radiant Soul. We also get third level spell slots (which refresh on a short rest). Combat therefore looks like this for us: precast Flame Blade, pre-activate Celestial Revelation, give our familiar oil. Round 1 we command our familiar to Attack with the oil (using our Bonus Action thanks to Investment of the Chain) against our target, then Magic Action attack them ourselves. Aasimar's damage will technically hit the target twice (once for Inner Radiance by just being within 5 feet), and we will add our 2d8 HD when we can to the attack's damage. We also Empower our attacks if we have the Sorcery Points.

Thus at level 9 we are potentially doing

4d6+4x2 (Char) +5 (oil) +4 (CR) +4 (IR) +2d8 (Spellfire Adept) = 46.67 average damage.

This is now actually really decent damage, and compares favorably to some of the top sustained damage builds potentially at this level. Just as an example, a raging Berserker Barbarian using a Greatsword and the GWM feat does (2d6+5+3+4) x 2 +3d6 = 48.5 average damage per round. Now, their damage is resourceless (except Rage) and doesn't require any serious setup, and they have the potential to get a bonus action attack (with Hew) for another 2d6+5+3 = 15 more damage, so we aren't coming anywhere close to dethroning them on the top spot. But to even be in the conversation (with all the stipulations this build has) for this bad spell I think is at least worthy of recognition.

From there, we head back to Sorcerer. It's tempting to go Fighter (again for the Battle Master subclass) or even to go Paladin for higher HD and continued spell progression, but the trade off isn't really worth it. Upcasting Flame Blade will generally just be better from here on out than getting some d10s rather than d8s or even d6s, even if as mentioned it's still terrible scaling. We do get to take advantage of Elemental Affinity at Draconic Sorcerer 6, although as mentioned this only adds Charisma to one damage roll of the spell, not once per turn like Celestial's Radiant Soul.

Thus our max damage potential all told, when we reach Sorcerer level 14 (level 20 overall) with 7th level spell slots, is

8d6 (Empowered+Elemental Adept) +5x3 (Charisma) +5 (oil) +6x2 (Celestial Revelation) +2d8 (Spellfire Adept) = 73.11 average damage for the first hit, 68.11 for all others.

Now, as a final comparison, while again I wouldn't call this great damage at all, we can at least compare against a (subclass-less) Fighter at level 20 that has taken GWM and has four attacks with a greatsword and see they do (2d6+5+6) x 4 = 72 damage. Even the Eldritch Blasting+Hex Warlock only does (1d10+5+1d6) x 4 = 56 damage, which I wouldn't consider good but was at least the baseline most people compared against in 2014, and we are now ~30% higher than that damage. So we aren't feeling like a complete waste of space (hopefully). And worst comes to worst, we are still a Sorcerer/Warlock mix with (say) 6th level spells. So feel free to Quicken an Eldritch Blast if you don't want to use Flame Blade and be happy in dealing (1d10+5) x 8 = 84 average damage per round then.

(Side note: But dang if that isn't depressing that despite all these efforts, a Warlock 2/Sorcerer 18 with a Quickened cantrip deals more damage than this combo does.)

Alright, you made it this far, so I salute you for reading everything. Be sure to give yourself a pat on the back, and let me know if you have other suggestions or comments on this analysis.

Been busy with life stuff, so haven't been able to post in awhile. But here is another build idea been kicking around in my head. Enjoy!

TL;DR: Is the Abjuration Wizard Tank dead in 2024, since they limited the Armor of Shadows exploit? I say nay! This build uses some updated tricks, spells, feats, and abilities to show that you can indeed still build a Wizard that deals out a bunch of damage each time it gets hit. And it can last a good amount of time as well at later levels, making it even more fun to use the phrase "This is going to hurt you more than it hurts me." As always, summary of the build is up front, and the party is at the back description of how the build works is after. Also, I have listed bullets of key spells to take that hopefully make parts of this easier/quicker to read.

Finally, same with all my builds, they only use 2024/5.5e content, but I note where older 2014/5e content can be used instead of allowed. It also doesn't use UA or third party, and assumes point buy for stats.

Previous 2024 Builds

• The Knight Fist - Vengeance Paladin that Fights with Unarmed Strikes
• The Minion Reaper - Ranger/Fighter Multiclass for Consistently Triggering Horde Breaker and Cleave
• The Wrangler - Rope/Chain using Fighter Multiclass
• Shadow Monk throwing Javelins
• Fey Wanderer "Ultimate" Party Face
• Well-Rounded Mercy Monk
• Blade-Scion - Bladesinger/Scion Rogue

The Abjuration Porcupine

Classes: Fighter 1 --> Abjuration Wizard 19

Stats: 17 (15+2) Intelligence, 14 (13+1) Constitution, 15 Strength, 10 Dex/Wisdom (preference Dex), 8 Charisma

Species: Tiefling (Infernal), Aasimar, Dwarf, Goliath (Stone's Endurance), or PYF

Origin Background/Feat: Pact Seeker/Infernal Pact

Feats: Lvl 5: Infernal Bulwark (+1 Con); Lvl 9: Heavy Armor Master (+1 Con); Lvl 13: Warcaster (+1 Int); Lvl 17: +2 Int; Level 20: Boon of Fluid Forms (+1 Int)

Fighting Style: Defense, or PYF

Weapon Masteries: Maul (Topple), Trident (Topple), or PYF

Sample Spells

Cantrips: Bladeward, True Strike, Firebolt^(+), Minor Illusion, Mind Sliver, Message

1st Level: False Life, Armor of Agathys^(+), Shield, Wardaway, Sleep, Find Familiar, Alarm^(1), Chromatic Orb, Identify, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Hellish Rebuke^(+), Spellfire Flare

2nd Level: Arcane Vigor^(1), Death Armor, Elminster's Elusion, Web, Darkness^(+), Misty Step

3rd Level: Cacophonic Shield, Counterspell^(1), Dispel Magic, Sylune's Viper, Slow, Hypnotic Pattern, Protection from Energy

4th Level: Backlash^(1), Polymorph, Fire Shield, Conjure Minor Elementals

5th Level: Alustriel's Mooncloak, Wall of Force, Circle of Power^(1), Songal's Elemental Suffusion, Planar Binding

6th Level: Contingency^(1), Elminster's Effulgent Spheres, Tasha's Bubbling Cauldron

7th Level: Simbul's Synostodweomer, Symbol^(1), Simulacrum, Plane Shift, Forcecage

8th Level: Mind Blank, Holy Star of Mystra, Anti-magic Field^(1), Clone, Demiplane

9th Level: Shapechange, Time Stop, Wish, Prismatic Wall^(1), Meteor Swarm

Key:

Bold = spell recommended for the build

Italics = spell that recharges Arcane Ward

+ = spell obtained from feat or other non-class source

1 = "free" abjuration spell from "Abjuration Savant"

(If 2014 content is allowed, I recommend taking the Rune Shaper feat via the Rune Carver background for Armor of Agathys. This replaces Infernal Bulwark too, in which case I would recommend taking Warcaster at level 5 instead.

Sample 2014 spells, if allowed: Absorb Elements, Booming Blade, Gift of Alacrity, Vortex Wrap, Rime's Binding Ice, Raulothim's Psychic Lance, Summon Greater Demon, Fizban's Platinum Shield, Investiture of Stone)

Build Concept: Alright, so what is new with this version vs the original 2014 one? Well, as mentioned, because of the new wording of the Arcane Ward, spamming ritual spells like Alarm or Nondetection via the Svifneblin Magic feat do not recharge it. But even with this nerf, the ability of the Abjurer Wizard is still very strong.

Of course, at level 1 we start Fighter. This is for several benefits, but the main two are Constitution saving throw proficiency and heavy armor proficiency. I could see an argument being made for starting Cleric to gain just heavy armor proficiency and maintain spell slot progression, but as we are planning on getting hit a bunch with this build, protecting our saves will be very important. Additionally, we would need a 13 Wisdom, which stretches our stats very thin, so not a recommended route overall. We also get weapon proficiencies and masteries from level 1 Fighter, which aren't necessarily critical but always nice to have, so pick your favorite (PYF), with a Maul or Trident being a decent pick due to Topple and high-ish Strength. Finally, we get a Fighting Style, and Defense for a little AC bump is good if not needed (even though we want to get hit, we should still not get hit every time someone attacks us).

For background, we want to eventually take Infernal Bulwark, so the Pact Seeker background for Infernal Pact is needed. This also gives us two resistances here (Fire and Poison) which are pretty common damage types, so it works out well to take this anyways (resistance can be applied before damage to the Arcane Ward is determined, as a reminder). It also gives us Infernal Sight - basically Devil's Sight - and proficiency in Deception, which are fine enough bonuses.

Species here has a few options. I like Tiefling the most, specifically Infernal for Hellish Rebuke, as it helps with the theme of dealing damage not on your turn. It does conflict with Infernal Pact (fire resistance again, which sadly doesn't stack), so it's not 100% ideal, but as a bonus you do get the Darkness spell which you can see through, so it's not all bad. But really it is to get a Hellish Rebuke that can be cast using our Intelligence rather than Charisma through a normal Warlock dip.

Which btw is what this build avoids (that Warlock dip), even though there definitely are benefits to going that route, namely getting access to Armor of Agathys earlier, getting some other Warlock spells, and picking up an invocation and Pact Magic slot. But the drawback is that it takes an investment of 13 Charisma to multiclass here, which is more painful in my view than the benefits it provides. As mentioned, grabbing Armor of Shadows doesn't work with the Arcane Ward, and we want Heavy Armor proficiency over say Eldritch Mind or a Pact invocation, so having a 15 Strength is more important than having a 13 Charisma.

If Tiefling isn't desired, then my next option is Aasimar. Two resistances more (necrotic and radiant) are hard to pass up, especially since these are harder resistances to duplicate via spells. Their Celestial Revelation transformation is also nice, with the best option being Heavenly Wings for flight for 1 minute, though Inner Radiance is also a good choice, as it deals more passive damage to nearby enemies, giving that "standing near me is painful" vibe we want to replicate so they either die faster or attack us more.

My final options include a Dragonborn, if I had to choose, which can pick up a different resistance (cold, lightning, or acid) as well as also giving temporary flight, but it's not a must. I can see even Dwarf for extra HP (and poison resistance that doesn't stack), or even Goliath for Stone's Endurance, but really most species will work for this build, and none are truly critical. So PYF if one stands out over another.

Once we have our level 1 complete, we hop over to Wizard and take it all the way to level 20. While the build doesn't necessarily have a moment when it "comes online" past getting to our subclass (so level 4), it probably won't feel great until level 5 when we get our Infernal Bulwark feat. This gives us an unarmored AC (not really useful as we will be wearing heavy armor, but at least it can be based on our Dexterity plus Con, or 13 at this level) and the pretty useful Vengeful Surge, which allows us to deal damage when targeted by any saving throw, even if that damage never scales. This will be less useful than Hellish Rebuke most of the time, but it doesn't cost a spell slot and works even when you don't take damage, so it pairs well here when it is available.

But we really want Armor of Agathys. This gives us that "porcupine" feel of hitting us hurts the enemy more than it hurts us, and is the backbone of the build. We even get a free casting of it at second level (10 temp HP) without using a spell slot (it's a bonus action cast now, which means we can cast a regular Action spell on our turn when we do this). Also note that it can last longer if you refill (or have even higher) temp HP before the 1 hour duration is up. All great stuff.

From there, we get a few more useful spells, defensively, offensively, and aggro wise, which is what motivated me to make this build for 2024. First, while it doesn't synergize well with our strategy (we will prefer to get hit some of the time), Bladeward will still be useful to limit the amount of hits we take per turn so that our Ward HP and temp HP don't go away instantly. So this will be worth casting occasionally, even though it does require our concentration. But second, we get spells like False Life, Arcane Vigor, Death Armor, Elminster's Elusion, Cacophonic Shield, Sylune's Viper, and Backlash. These spells are pretty great new or improved versions that help bring this build together.

• False Life in 2024 now gives 2d4+4 (avg 9, max 12, min 6) temp HP from level 1, and +5 more per spell slot level above that. So casting this over another instance of Armor of Agathys will likely give you a bit more temp HP to work with (making AoA last longer), especially at lower levels. It also works as a substitute for AoA if you start playing before reaching level 5.
• Arcane Vigor gives you the very useful "heal" ability as a bonus action, which also recharges your Arcane Ward (we even have one extra large HD to use, a small benefit once per long rest), useful on a player that will take a good amount of damage even in the best of circumstances.
• Death Armor is expensive when you get it (50 gp that is consumed) and only lasts an hour with minimal damage boost, so it's not winning any awards for being an amazing spell. That being said, it doesn't require concentration, gives advantage on Death saves, deals more passive damage on a hit that can be stacked, and comes online the same level as our Arcane Ward does (one earlier than AoA), so if we can spend the money, it gives us a little feel for that "you hit me and take damage" feeling.
• Elminster's Elusion is a nice buff for us, giving us advantage against spells and magical effects and reducing half damage to no damage when we succeed. It does cost our concentration, but could be worth it if we know the enemy is a mage or otherwise deals mainly magical damage.
• Backlash is a great if costly spell slot of a reaction, reducing your damage by 4d6 (avg 14) and dealing 4d6 damage in that same reaction. It's less damage than Hellish Rebuke would deal upcast (at 5d10 or 27.5 avg) by a decent amount, but because it also reduces damage and recharges your Arcane Ward, it may be worth it in a big fight to help preserve AoA temp HP and your Ward HP, especially when 4th level slots are less costly to use at higher levels. It even upcasts if desired, though at not great scaling.
• Sylune's Viper is very nice new spell to add to our tool box. It gives 15 temp HP, which is the same as Armor of Agathys at this level, and lasts without concentration for an hour or as long as you have temp HP (whichever is shorter). Moreover, it allows you with a Magic Action to inflict 1d6 force damage and cause the poison condition, no save. While the damage is trivial, the poison condition if it lands also causes incapacitation until your next turn, which is amazing single target control. And because it's not concentration and can last an hour, it can stack with all the other spells we've discussed here. Use this when you definitely want the one big enemy to focus on you.
• Lastly of the (call them) lower level spells is Cacophonic Shield. This is a very useful one, doing a number of beneficial things for us. First, it gives us resistance to thunder damage, which while not super common is not something you can easily get otherwise. Second, it makes ranged attack rolls against us at disadvantage, which is very useful for forcing enemies to attack us with melee attacks, which is the big way our various damage triggers activate. It also just makes it that much harder for enemies to deplete our Ward and temp HP other than through melee attacks. And finally, the emanation, while not doing a ton of damage or being super large, does (somewhat) encourage enemies to attack us over our allies because they will take damage unless they break our concentration, which is exactly what we want them to do. We can even deal damage by simply moving around the battlefield, which is also not bad for us since Attacks of Opportunity on us will lead to more damage to our enemies.

With these spells at our disposal, our combat rounds can look something like this. First, we either have Armor of Agathys up or cast it round 1. This activates or recharges our Arcane Ward, which gets at most 15 "Ward" HP at say level 6 with our Intelligence at 17, on top of the 15 temp HP we get for casting AoA at third level. We can also have Death Armor potentially active, and use our action to cast Bladeward (just to have for one round if we didn't precast AoA). Thus we could deal 15 + 2d4 damage on a hit to us, and maybe limit the amount of attacks on us with our improved effective AC. We can also add 2d8 or more damage with a casting of Hellish Rebuke with our reaction, dealing an average of 29 damage total from one hit all combined. Round 2 (or round 1 if precast AoA) we can cast Cacophonic Shield, giving us an additional resistance and now dealing 3d6 damage (half on save) to every enemy we run within 10 ft of. If we provoke Attacks of Opportunity and our AoA is still up, we deal an additional 15+2d4 (avg 20+10.5=30.5 total) damage to at least one of those creatures, and 15 damage as long as our temp HP is still active (reminder, but the Ward takes the damage first, after resistances, even though AoA still activates on a hit). Round 3 we can cast AoA again or False Life depending on how many spell slots and temp HP we have, or other spells like Wardaway (limits enemy actions potentially and recharges our Ward), or use Sylune's Viper Magic Action if active, or a simple cantrip like Firebolt or True Strike (with a weapon mastery) and run around some more. We could even ready an action to move on our off turns if desired, though I do find that strategy a little cheesy personally. And if we ever run into a situation where we don't want to get hit, the Shield spell can help prevent those hits and recharge our Ward.

From there, at level 9 we get another useful feat, Heavy Armor Master. This is a pretty decent boost to our survivability, as it reduces bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing (B/P/S) damage, the most common damage types in the game, by our proficiency bonus, now a hearty +4. This is the big reason why we want to wear Heavy armor (besides it having good AC), allowing us to stretch our Ward and temp HP even farther. Note that is works against each attack, so if an enemy deals only one big attack it's less effective than an enemy that deals multiple, smaller damaging ones. Also be aware that this (unfortunately) applies before resistances, meaning you reduce the full damage by your proficiency bonus and then by half of that damage for resistance. So if you go up against say a Marilith with their seven attacks, you can reduce each one's damage by 4+ while dealing out AoA damage on each attack that hits, and potentially more if you use Backlash/Hellish Rebuke and Death Armor and Fire Shield (which is a classic Abjurer spell that gives an additional resistance - we'll choose cold - and deals damage on a melee hit while also not being concentration). That's potentially 20+2d4+2d8+4d6/5d10 damage, or 48/61.5 average damage, though at the cost of several high level spell slots.

Speaking of spells, we add more powerful options as we get into level 4 and 5 spells, which are the following:

• Polymorph: it's a classic for a reason, so I'll only mention here that now it gives a ton of temp HP instead of additional HP. This synergizes amazingly well with AoA, as the top two forms we can choose are either the Giant Ape or the Tyrannosaurus Rex, which give 168 and 136 temp HP respectively. The Ty Rex can auto-grapple, so that is somewhat of a lock down benefit it can provide that the Ape cannot, but both are probably going to last the entirety of most fights. Just don't loose concentration. Also, note that because our armor melds into us, we no longer benefit from Heavy Armor Master. Shame.
• Alustriel's Mooncloak: an interesting new spell for us. It's Abjuration, so casting it recharges our Ward. It gives three resistances (lightning, radiant, cold) to us and allies within 20 ft and we can end it to either succeed on a Frightened, grappled, or restrained save as a reaction or else heal us or an ally 4d10+Int mod. Situational, but useful for those situations.
• Conjure Minor Elementals + Spellfire Flare: This combo is all about dealing great damage when you really want to draw aggro. Even at the lowest level cast of CME, 2d10+2d8 per beam you cast does 20 damage on a hit, which can add up. But upcasting CME can really output the damage on a single target. It also makes the ground within 15 ft of you difficult terrain, a slight boost to keeping enemies close to you instead of going after allies. You can if you want to pick up Scorching Ray instead and do slightly more damage at lower castings.
• Songal's Elemental Suffusion: Grants an elemental resistance, you can deal a small amount of AoE damage each turn, and you gain flight with hover ability. Again, useful when needed.

Once we get to level 13, we finally start improving our Intelligence ability score with Warcaster. Before this our concentration was only relying on our saving throw proficiency and +3 Constitution (tbf a +6-+7 to the save), which is not great but can't be helped completely due to the main feats we want first not improving Intelligence. Luckily, most of the spells we cast don't super rely on our Intelligence (at worst dealing half damage on a successful save), with only really our Ward suffering a little at 2 HP less than ideal. But our concentration becomes a liability at higher levels even with our decent amount of extra HP and temp HP, so we protect it with advantage.

Other than that, the higher level spells don't significantly change our strategy. Cast AoA with a high level spell slot, Death Armor, Fire Shield, and some kind of concentration spell that will draw enemy fire. You get Dispel Magic as a bonus action at level 10, which is nice, and level 14 gets you spell resistance, which is great for keeping our Ward and temp HP alive longer. Other than that, I'll focus on the new high level spells and combos you can incorporate, and leave the rest to the original explanation of how to play an Abjuration Wizard Tank.

• Tasha's Bubbling Cauldron: Can get you healing potions, but more importantly can get you potions of resistance if you don't have easy access to them or can't craft them.
• Elminster's Effulgent Spheres: Not a bad use of a 6th level spell, but not amazing either. Grants more resistances to elemental damage and a bonus action attack. At least it doesn't require concentration, but it only lasts 1 hour.
• Simbul's Synostodweomer: Healing potential for 1 hour without concentration that works by casting spells. It's limited by our HD, but otherwise is a nice buff to get healing on yourself in combat while also casting other spells.
• Holy Star of Mystra: Most of this spell is just OK for us, giving a way to weaponize our Bonus Action but at the cost of our concentration. So not ideal. However, the part that is interesting and useful to us is the last part, which says that any spell that targets only you of seventh level or lower that you succeed on the saving throw can be redirected back at the caster. That very much matches the theme of the Arcane rebound of this build, and is thus worth considering when you know you will face a spellcaster.

Other than that, you eventually become a 19th level Wizard, so have fun doing all the normal Wizard things. The only other bit I will touch on is the Epic Boon. Boon of Energy Resistance would be potentially nice and fit the theme, but the resistance to two damage types by this point isn't probably getting you to much mileage, and the reaction damage is very small comparatively at this level. Boon of Recovery likewise can give you a decent healing / death ward type ability, which could be useful if you find yourself low on HP while in melee often.

But Boon of Fluid Forms seems the best for us. Much like Polymorph or Shapechange, this gives us a boatload of potential temp HP that can extend our Armor of Agathys spell. However unlike those spells, this still allows us to cast spells in this form, and it doesn't require our concentration. There are tons of potential forms one could choose, so I will list a few that I think could be appropriate and useable for our Abjuration Wizard.

• Hydra: If we are just going by strict 2024 content, this seems to be the highest amount of temp HP (184) we can get from a single transformation. It's only a CR 8, but it has the interesting ability that it grows new heads when taking 25 or more damage on a turn, and regains 20 HP in the process. This HP won't help refill our Temp HP, but it does give us an additional base and reaction attack for each head, so in theory the amount of attacks you can do for one round is very high. The monstrosity is Huge, so space has to be a bit permitting to let you be there and move about, but otherwise a solid choice.
• Horizonback Tortoise: If any 5e/5.5e content is allowed, this is going to be your largest temp HP pool at 227, but it is from Explorer's Guide to Wildmount and it is Gargantuan, so it might not be allowed/fit into all spaces and tables. It does also have the interesting feature that it can raise its AC to 22 by retreating into its shell and falling prone, which also grapples creatures it falls on, so that potentially gives a great way to lock down a few enemies who are forced to attack you if they can't escape. The creature stat block doesn't say it can't cast spells while in its shell, but I'm guessing most DMs won't allow it, which is fair IMO. Still, you could concentrate on a spell I think you've already cast while in the shell, as that seems reasonable.
• Warrior Commander: For Humanoids in 5.5e content, this is probably the highest temp HP (161) and overall value: decent AC, multiple attacks, BA to move (can tie this with an Emanation spell), decent debuffs on hits, and a AC reaction boost that doesn't use a spell slot. Should work fine with all your normal spellcasting and other abilities you retain, including maybe HAM (if your DM allows this to carry over from your normal character form, which is unlikely but no harm asking).
• Giff Warlord: From Boo's Astral Menagerie, this medium humanoid has more temp HP (178) than the Commander, and more interestingly has Legendary Resistance and Legendary Actions. While some DMs might not allow the LA (which for example Shapechange also restricts), getting LR is still really strong, and can be paired with the Holy Star of Mystra spell to guarantee at least two "rebounding" spells. Even without all those, it has decent AC (maybe allow HAM with DM approval) and decent damage attacks, though with a very low to-hit bonus for the double-barrelled musket.
• Malformed Kraken: From Tales from the Yawning Portal, this Huge monstrosity is notable for its resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage and its immunity to lightning damage. It also has the ability to grapple up to ten targets at 20 ft range from it. And while it is probably meant to be a mostly water based monster, it does have 20 ft of movement on land and the ability to breath air normally. The temp HP you get at 172 is also very nice.
• Aeorian Absorber: Another monstrosity from Explorer's Guide to Wildmount, this creature has immunity to both necrotic and radiant damage and a sporty HP pool of 171, though with a lower AC (15). The fun part though is its reaction Tail Ray, which can direct half of the damage from a spell back at the caster against a DC 16 Dex save. Perfect for the Porcupine theme of this build.
• Lonely Sorrowsworn: Lastly, from Monsters of the Multiverse, this monstrosity has much lower HP (112) than the above options, but has two notable features. First, it has resistance to B/P/S damage while in dim light or darkness, which pairs nicely with our ability to cast Darkness that we can see through. Second, it has a passive ability to deal 3d6 psychic damage to every creature within 5 ft of it at the start of its turns. Moreover, it has an attack that auto-grapples enemies at a 60 ft reach that can then pull them 30 ft closer while also potentially dealing damage. So potentially with an Emanation spell up like Cacophonic Shield, this monster can deal a good amount of passive damage even if the enemies don't target it, which if they do it still deals lots of damage through the other on-hit abilities active on the Wizard.

Ok, that is the full build idea. Kudos to anyone who read all this, and hope you enjoyed!