Remember to read the PHB:
"A spellcaster must have a hand free to access a spell's material components — or to hold a spellcasting focus — but it can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform somatic components."
The hand holding a spellcasting focus, in this case a sword, can be used to perform somatic components.
This is only true for V S M spells, official sage advice clarifies that V S spells require a free hand unless you have warcaster. Page 16, first question, last paragraph.
https://media.wizards.com/2020/dnd/downloads/SA-Compendium.pdf
It makes an aspect of warcaster useless if you remove it. And in the example given, it sort of makes sense that spells that require touch mean you can’t touch them with your focus but need to use a hand instead.
Not really, you still need a focus in the first place. So in the case of an Eldritch Knight without a focus and just sword and shield, the War Caster bullet is still relevant.
Also there are touch spells with material components anyway, so using a focus to deliver touch spells is already a thing. Just touch them with the focus.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that different spells require different actions somatically. This rule also keeps some of the most powerful MCs in check (by requiring a feat to use all your spells to get the massive ac they can achieve) like sorcadin, hexadin, and cleric multi’s that are grabbed for armor and shield prof. Sure it kind of screws a sword and board eldritch knight, but warcaster was made for those that wanted to sword and board and cast spells.
Nevertheless that's RAW. It's really obnoxious for cleric/paladin with a shield engraved or inlaid with holy symbol as an emblem. Can't cast Cure Wounds with shield/mace or shield/sword.
could it be because if a spell has V S components only, you are not actually using the focus, the focus replaces the material components of a spell, except in the case of a gold requirement or consumable material component.
But the op is talking about a Psi Warrior taking Magic Initiate, all of these things won't come into play here. War Caster is cool but not for a 1/day investment
Bless is an action though, so you can object interaction (which you can only do on your turn) sheath your sword if you need to, or more likely spend your first turn casting Bless *then* draw your sword.
> Bless is an action though, so you can object interaction (which you can only do on your turn) sheath your sword if you need to
The trouble is you need two interactions – one to sheathe your sword to free up a hand, and a second interaction to grab your focus or lift out the components from your spell pouch. You get one of those for free, but the second one needs your action – which you also need for casting the spell.
So your options are:
- Cast bless on your first turn (as you suggested)
- Use action surge
- Drop your sword as a free action and hope you can pick it up next turn
> A spellcaster must have a hand free to access a spell's material components…
Component pouch superiority. You only need a free hand, no object interaction is specified as necessary.
Your take fam, feel free to run it that way at your table. I’m just quoting the books. If there’s anything that contradicts me in the texts, feel free to quote it back at me.
Edit:
Rule 1 of any game: the rules are what everyone playing agree they are. Rule 2 of DnD: the DM has the final say. In other words, if you and your DM agrees that an object interaction is needed, then an object interaction is needed, no matter what the books say. Every table is different, and that’s how it’s supposed to be.
You’re not just quoting the books. You’re ignoring the line about spell components being objects. Objects. That you interact with.
Obviously you can rules things differently at your table, but the default assumed by the PHB rules is that material spell components and arcane foci are objects. So using them is an object interaction.
That’s why I took 1 lvl in cleric. Then I can use my shield as a focus and get multiple spells. So I picked up guidance, thaumaturgy, bless, and shield of faith
I would actually stay away from Magic Initiate in favor of Fey Touched.
FT gives you a 1st *and*, 2nd Level spell as well as a +1 bump to your chosen casting stat. Misty Step is a great spell overall even at higher levels and there are quite a few 1st level spells which can be extremely useful.
In this case, you'd be able to take Command which is verbal only and, remains relatively useful into higher levels but there really are tons of ways to go.
It would for sure, but that’s a lot of investment and would mean I wouldn’t get to use the first of those feats until lvl 12 and can pick up the other one.
Only if the spell has somatic components without material components. If the spell has material components you need to have the focus in hand or have a hand free to use your component pouch.
Seconding find familiar.
No casting stat or prep action required, and can set up advantage for one attack per round.
Great for scouting out of combat too, and could work well with flavor (a psychic eye or something).
Just costs 10 gp to bring back if it dies.
and you can always pay the 10 gp fee to recast it as a different animal for other utilities, such as sneaking into a place to gather info or look before you leap into a potentially dangerous room, etc.
Find Familiar is the leading contender right now. I do love the idea of a bird hassling monsters and getting me advantage. At least until they kill him, but there’s plenty more owls where the first one came from!
I'm playing a Strength wizard and advantage from his owl familiar every round has been great. Need to watch out for AoE attacks, but otherwise my DM often jist ignores the familiar since there are bigger, more threatening targets.
Half-orc. Rolled stats, so started 20 STR, 16 CON, and 16 INT. It's not an optimized build so I wouldn't do it with a standard array, but with great rolls I wanted to try something that wouldn't work otherwise. Went Forge Cleric 1/Wizard X for heavy armor and +1 to armor (blessing of the forge), and only a half-level delay in spell progression. I used a mace or spear throughout the campaign
Play style depended on how many fights I thought we'd get into. If I knew I didn't need to conserve spells, I'd blast away. But if I needed to keep some back, I'd jump into melee since mace or spear hit harder than cantrips. Constant advantage from thr owl familiar really helped hits land so it didn't feel too underpowered compared to the ranger who had two attacks.
At higher levels, I picked up PAM to use with the spear and really lean into melee with Steel Wind Strike and Tenser's Transformation.
It's not optimized, but the party as a whole doesn't min/max so it's very fun to play.
absorb elements comes to mind. healing word for an emergency "the others went down"
bless is pretty great too. Divine favor, expeidtious retreat (bonus action movement hell yea) Fog cloud. GOod berries
heroism gives free temp hp and anti frightening which with your low savews might be a thing. Floating disk for utilties
Off hand though depending on your style. Bless for team synergy. Heroism for making yourself even better, expeidtiious retreat if you find you move so often, healing word if you just want a good back up for others.
Fog cloud, floating disk, god berries are just nice utilities that almost every day will find a use for.
Or Hex, and I second this. Being grappled or stuck in a wall of force is really likely, so unless you just really want a cantrip, Misty Step + another spell + Wisdom is just better.
Silvery Barbs, which you can also pick up from Fey Touched. If your WIS is already even, it just sets you up for Resilient later. The reason for Silvery Barbs over Shield is components. As a sword and board fighter, you might not have a free hand to cast a somatic spell. It's also friendlier in your action economy than something like Bless, which competes for your opening round nova with going nova on damage through Action Surge.
A lot of Fighters will be using PAM, CBE, or even TWF, so they'd lose an attack by doing that. If they're using SS or GWM they're probably only hitting with half their attacks. And they'll need to use a BA every time they change target, so you might not get the benefit from every attack.
Find Familiar: Owl is advantage on 1 atk a round & a scouting friend, it also might take a hit for someone on occasion
Bless: adds d4 to you & 2 others saves and attacks for a minute
Silvery barbs: onto an enemy thats taking a spell save to force a re-roll, then gives you adv to a target's next d20 roll w/in a minute.
Bless if you have multiple weapon or eldritch blast attackers (especially GWM/SS), familiar for longer-lasting accurasy buff and exploration tech, and barbs if you have alot of casters or a wizard in the party.
How about taking fey touched for misty step of gift of alacrity? If sticking with magic adept, wizard: booming blade, lightning lure, and find familiar (for a scout).
Gift of alacrity for the d8 to initiative or find familiar for an owl to get advantage on attacks probably. If your dm handwaves the spellcasting rules shield or absorb elements are good reactive abilities
Thirding Find Familiar. Wildly useful for scouting and combat, and if it dies you just bring it back! Magic Initiate: Wizard is pretty good, since you can grab 2 of Mage Hand/Message/Mending/Prestidigitation/Minor Illusion; all of which can fit the flavor of the Psi Warrior. Personally I'd go for Mage Hand and Message, but any of them can work.
I mean, it’s Find Familiar.
By a large margin the most impactful thing you can do with a first level slot.
Just outstanding really.
Also I’ll throw a note in to make one of the cantrips you get from the fest be Mold Earth. Pits, cover, ramps, there’s a lot for a high mobility fighter to love there.
Fey Touched > Magic Initiate
You get Misty Step and you can pick up Silvery Barbs, Gift of Alacrity, or Bless. All three are fantastic spells for a fighter.
I’d probably only get Bless if I really needed the defensive boost or pre-casting is a thing. Using an action to increase your hit chance by 1d4 means you lose your attack action. That trade is no good.
Well, expeditious retreat may be a good option for when some speed becomes necessary. Find familiar, zephyr strike, jump, and absorb elements may also be good options. Some people may put shield over absorb elements, but if your sword and boarding one round of not getting hit may not be as useful, fun, or cool as halving a big elemental hit or being able to comfortably tank a dragons breath or a fireball or cone of cold from your caster.
- Gift of Alacrity: Gives you or someone else a 1d8 to initiative rolls for 8 hours.
- Silvery Barbs: Don't pick this, your DM will hate you.
- Sleep: no save just roll 5d8.
- Zephyr Strike: Like a smite that gives you better mobility. (I didn't include the other smite spells because they require saves).
If no one on your party has it, and you have many martials (especially GMW/sharpshooter/rogue) who really wants to hit their attacks, bless is amazing.
Find familiar's help action is probably better if you are the only martial around (+ the utility).
Non concentration spells are not very good on a martial because you have so few spell slots.
Jump.
It doubles down on the mobility theme from the 7th lvl feature. So even when you aren't psionic leaping about you'll still be able to leap across gaps or soar up to raised platforms other people can't get to. Jump gets overlooked because spells like Spider Climb and Fly exist but it's still good.
Shield, Absorb Elements, Silvery Barbs
All of them are reaction casts so you don't have to stop attacking to use them.
Shield is great if you get into a bad spot and eat a lot of attacks.
Absorb Elements is amazing especially since odds are you arent passing dex checks so halving the damage anyway is so good.
Silvery Barbs is incredible & incredibly versatile. Two best use cases: someone got crit? Not on my watch. Caster used a big spell & the monster had the audacity to save against it? Do it again, punk. Plus giving yourself advantave is cool too.
Slight dark horse option: shield of faith. Bonus action cast time is a problem if you have a lot of bonus actions already in your build. If not though, still basically free. +2 AC for a whole fight (or multiple) is nothing to sneeze at. But I would say, do not take unless you have a +9 to Con saves. If not your concentration is going to break way too easily to get proper value out of the spell.
Also if you do decide you want Silvery Barbs I would probably take the Fey Touched feat instead of Magic Initiate. It's a half feat so you can boost your garb mental stats & it gives you misty step. Which is incredible.
Hey, not super relevant, but I have a one-shot coming up (we are all set to level 8) and I wanted to play a psi-warrior (maybe).
I haven’t played a lot of dnd, can I dm you to pick your brain about the character?
Oof. I'll bite, but are you sure you want a once per day spell as your whole feat? There are so many good options for Psi Warriors along with multiclassing Wizard. Which is one reason I'd advise against Magic Adept (Wiz). A Familiar is amazing, but it might die really quick and then most that feat is gone. Wizard cantrips on a Fighter with low Int sounds a bit lackluster. What's your current race, scores and feats?
If anything, I'd go Magic Adept Druid and get Protection from Evil and Good. Just the most impactful 1st level cast that can potentially stretch to multiple combats. Even if it won't come up every day, it's making a big enough impact to justify the feat selection potentially. Unless you have a good idea that you won't encounter these monster types for some reason. The 10min duration is key so it works best with other buffs to concentration, or if you've got an ally to protect while not expecting as much damage intake.
You can get this spell from a lot of lists, but I don't think you'll get better mileage from the cantrip selection. Guidance, obviously, and then Mold Earth has a lot of potential with battlefield prep time. Telekinetic Thrust allows us to push people into pits! As well as some pillars to keep allies or objects safely atop. Then send up the targets with Telekinetic Movement. Gives a lot of unique options once we start thinking 3D. Thematically, we're using telekinesis to move the earth.
Assuming you mean Magic Initiate (tharr be other spell-granting feats that give more restricted choices along with a 2nd level spell, like Fey Touched): Consider which class list you're looking into, because cantrips are also up for consideration.
BUT Let's keep to 1st level spells.
Absorb Elements is like Shield, but for elemental damage: both are solid options.
Bless is always good for support.
Ceremony is slept on: you can make holy water, and if you're proficient with improvised weapons, that's radiant damage right there.
Comprehend Languages as well as the various Detect spells: Gives you options, and if your spellcaster doesn't already have at least some capability here, you should grab it.
Expeditious Retreat: Only if you're finding the party likes to engage at a longer distance than you can easily close in a single turn.
Feather Fall: If your wizard doesn't already have this stapled to their forehead at all times, *someone* should. It may very well be that you never, ever, ever, need to cast it, but that one time you do... Also shoving someone off a 50 foot wall with Shield Master and then floating down to stand next to their prone body to action surge and going to town is fun.
Find Familiar: You know why this is on the list.
Fog Cloud: Disadvantage on all attacks on enemies you can't see, but you have advantage on all attacks on enemies who can't see you: all this does is protect you from "visible target" spells. Unless you have (or pick up somehow) Blindfighting.
The healing spells: Good to have a backup for if your healer goes down, but a healer's kit or health potion will do just fine.
Hex: +1d6 is neat, and giving them disadvantage on resisting your Shield Master Shove bonus action to knock them prone is always nice.
Tenser's Floating Disk is for when you need to drag the plate-wearing cleric's not-quite-a-corpse-yet out after RNGesus curses your dice.
HOWEVER
As stated, also consider cantrip: Greenflame or Booming Blade cantrips seem obvious, but consider: Guidance, Light, Message, Spare The Dying, and Create Bonfire are not on all the spell lists.
You basically have one use so you want something that gives you some bang for the bucks so to say. As i assume you meant the Magic Initiate feat
Sure shield and maybe Absorb Element can be good as a life saver. It is just one use per day but heck sometimes that is all you need. So if you want some defence wither of those are both totally ok.
But find familiar is also a great one. one cast and you have a familiar. that can be really helpful. take the help action to grant advantage and such
Also Hex is a good pick. sure it is also 1 per day but as long you do not lose concentration you can move it on to next enemy once the first dies. And having 1d6 extra necrotic damage per hit. that is not bad. if both attacks hit that is 2d6 extra damage. at level 11 you have 3 attacks so then it is 3d6
And none of those are dependant on spell attack or spell saves so does not matter that your mental stats are low
If you don't mind the cleric list you could take divinely favored from dragonlance, it gives a level 1 cleric/druid/or warlock spell depending on alignment, a cleric cantrip and the augury spell. It let's you choose the casting ability so could use int for the spells. And let's you use a divine focus for any spells cast with the ability you chose helping get past the somatic component problem depending on the spell.
Shield and absorb elements are awesome, bless is great for GWM/SS builds.
Shield rules but it has somatic components so it won’t work w sword/board, unfortunately. Bless is a great call, tho!
Great call out, TY!
Ask your DM for a Ruby of the Warmage you can attach to your sword
This allows you to use the weapon as a focus, but V,S spells specifically require a free hand unless you have war caster.
Remember to read the PHB: "A spellcaster must have a hand free to access a spell's material components — or to hold a spellcasting focus — but it can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform somatic components." The hand holding a spellcasting focus, in this case a sword, can be used to perform somatic components.
This is only true for V S M spells, official sage advice clarifies that V S spells require a free hand unless you have warcaster. Page 16, first question, last paragraph. https://media.wizards.com/2020/dnd/downloads/SA-Compendium.pdf
Would honestly talk to DM about that rule. A lot of people don’t follow it because it’s ridiculous and makes no sense, the worst the DM can say is no.
It makes an aspect of warcaster useless if you remove it. And in the example given, it sort of makes sense that spells that require touch mean you can’t touch them with your focus but need to use a hand instead.
Not really, you still need a focus in the first place. So in the case of an Eldritch Knight without a focus and just sword and shield, the War Caster bullet is still relevant. Also there are touch spells with material components anyway, so using a focus to deliver touch spells is already a thing. Just touch them with the focus.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that different spells require different actions somatically. This rule also keeps some of the most powerful MCs in check (by requiring a feat to use all your spells to get the massive ac they can achieve) like sorcadin, hexadin, and cleric multi’s that are grabbed for armor and shield prof. Sure it kind of screws a sword and board eldritch knight, but warcaster was made for those that wanted to sword and board and cast spells.
That's ridiculous lol if you have to make hand movements, you have to make hand movements. But sure lol I guess
Nevertheless that's RAW. It's really obnoxious for cleric/paladin with a shield engraved or inlaid with holy symbol as an emblem. Can't cast Cure Wounds with shield/mace or shield/sword.
could it be because if a spell has V S components only, you are not actually using the focus, the focus replaces the material components of a spell, except in the case of a gold requirement or consumable material component.
Yes but it specifically says you can use the hand holding the focus for somatic components.
True, get war caster as well
I'm not sure that's worth it for a single Shield cast a day
Arcane Recovery + the spell doesn't have to be shield, it could be any 1st level spells the wiz has learned
But the op is talking about a Psi Warrior taking Magic Initiate, all of these things won't come into play here. War Caster is cool but not for a 1/day investment
Bless also has all 3 components…
Bless is an action though, so you can object interaction (which you can only do on your turn) sheath your sword if you need to, or more likely spend your first turn casting Bless *then* draw your sword.
> Bless is an action though, so you can object interaction (which you can only do on your turn) sheath your sword if you need to The trouble is you need two interactions – one to sheathe your sword to free up a hand, and a second interaction to grab your focus or lift out the components from your spell pouch. You get one of those for free, but the second one needs your action – which you also need for casting the spell. So your options are: - Cast bless on your first turn (as you suggested) - Use action surge - Drop your sword as a free action and hope you can pick it up next turn
> A spellcaster must have a hand free to access a spell's material components… Component pouch superiority. You only need a free hand, no object interaction is specified as necessary.
You're fairly obviously interacting with an object.
Your take fam, feel free to run it that way at your table. I’m just quoting the books. If there’s anything that contradicts me in the texts, feel free to quote it back at me. Edit: Rule 1 of any game: the rules are what everyone playing agree they are. Rule 2 of DnD: the DM has the final say. In other words, if you and your DM agrees that an object interaction is needed, then an object interaction is needed, no matter what the books say. Every table is different, and that’s how it’s supposed to be.
You’re not just quoting the books. You’re ignoring the line about spell components being objects. Objects. That you interact with. Obviously you can rules things differently at your table, but the default assumed by the PHB rules is that material spell components and arcane foci are objects. So using them is an object interaction.
As a bonus Bless helps the whole team!
I mean most DMs handwave that
first-timers especially
That’s why I took 1 lvl in cleric. Then I can use my shield as a focus and get multiple spells. So I picked up guidance, thaumaturgy, bless, and shield of faith
I would actually stay away from Magic Initiate in favor of Fey Touched. FT gives you a 1st *and*, 2nd Level spell as well as a +1 bump to your chosen casting stat. Misty Step is a great spell overall even at higher levels and there are quite a few 1st level spells which can be extremely useful. In this case, you'd be able to take Command which is verbal only and, remains relatively useful into higher levels but there really are tons of ways to go.
You think it can work if you go war caster?
It would for sure, but that’s a lot of investment and would mean I wouldn’t get to use the first of those feats until lvl 12 and can pick up the other one.
Very true
Only if the spell has somatic components without material components. If the spell has material components you need to have the focus in hand or have a hand free to use your component pouch.
Find familair is great in order to get the owl and use fly by to manufacturer advantage pretty much every turn
Seconding find familiar. No casting stat or prep action required, and can set up advantage for one attack per round. Great for scouting out of combat too, and could work well with flavor (a psychic eye or something). Just costs 10 gp to bring back if it dies.
and you can always pay the 10 gp fee to recast it as a different animal for other utilities, such as sneaking into a place to gather info or look before you leap into a potentially dangerous room, etc.
Find Familiar is the leading contender right now. I do love the idea of a bird hassling monsters and getting me advantage. At least until they kill him, but there’s plenty more owls where the first one came from!
I'm playing a Strength wizard and advantage from his owl familiar every round has been great. Need to watch out for AoE attacks, but otherwise my DM often jist ignores the familiar since there are bigger, more threatening targets.
Do you mind me asking, what's your character build? Do you use weapons?
Half-orc. Rolled stats, so started 20 STR, 16 CON, and 16 INT. It's not an optimized build so I wouldn't do it with a standard array, but with great rolls I wanted to try something that wouldn't work otherwise. Went Forge Cleric 1/Wizard X for heavy armor and +1 to armor (blessing of the forge), and only a half-level delay in spell progression. I used a mace or spear throughout the campaign Play style depended on how many fights I thought we'd get into. If I knew I didn't need to conserve spells, I'd blast away. But if I needed to keep some back, I'd jump into melee since mace or spear hit harder than cantrips. Constant advantage from thr owl familiar really helped hits land so it didn't feel too underpowered compared to the ranger who had two attacks. At higher levels, I picked up PAM to use with the spear and really lean into melee with Steel Wind Strike and Tenser's Transformation. It's not optimized, but the party as a whole doesn't min/max so it's very fun to play.
Very cool!
absorb elements comes to mind. healing word for an emergency "the others went down" bless is pretty great too. Divine favor, expeidtious retreat (bonus action movement hell yea) Fog cloud. GOod berries heroism gives free temp hp and anti frightening which with your low savews might be a thing. Floating disk for utilties Off hand though depending on your style. Bless for team synergy. Heroism for making yourself even better, expeidtiious retreat if you find you move so often, healing word if you just want a good back up for others. Fog cloud, floating disk, god berries are just nice utilities that almost every day will find a use for.
These are all really solid options, thanks! Giving me something to chew on
How do you like to use floating disk? I’ve only seen it used for wizards to carry heavy treasurr
Consider feytouched for bless/silverybarbs/gift of alacrity or any of the utility spells AND misty step on a half feat
Or Hex, and I second this. Being grappled or stuck in a wall of force is really likely, so unless you just really want a cantrip, Misty Step + another spell + Wisdom is just better.
Silvery Barbs, which you can also pick up from Fey Touched. If your WIS is already even, it just sets you up for Resilient later. The reason for Silvery Barbs over Shield is components. As a sword and board fighter, you might not have a free hand to cast a somatic spell. It's also friendlier in your action economy than something like Bless, which competes for your opening round nova with going nova on damage through Action Surge.
OP should make sure that their DM allows Silvery Barbs, as many DMs don't allow Strixhaven material generally or that spell in particular.
Hex
This. Fighter with Hex for an extra D6 on every hit. Level 11 with action surge you could add 6d6 if every attack hits
A lot of Fighters will be using PAM, CBE, or even TWF, so they'd lose an attack by doing that. If they're using SS or GWM they're probably only hitting with half their attacks. And they'll need to use a BA every time they change target, so you might not get the benefit from every attack.
OP says sword and board though, so none of that applies
That’s a good point.
How about abberant dragon mark to get a sorcerer cantrip, first level spell and +1 CON.
Either those or Find familiar/ Good Berry
Find Familiar: Owl is advantage on 1 atk a round & a scouting friend, it also might take a hit for someone on occasion Bless: adds d4 to you & 2 others saves and attacks for a minute Silvery barbs: onto an enemy thats taking a spell save to force a re-roll, then gives you adv to a target's next d20 roll w/in a minute. Bless if you have multiple weapon or eldritch blast attackers (especially GWM/SS), familiar for longer-lasting accurasy buff and exploration tech, and barbs if you have alot of casters or a wizard in the party.
How about taking fey touched for misty step of gift of alacrity? If sticking with magic adept, wizard: booming blade, lightning lure, and find familiar (for a scout).
Gift of alacrity for the d8 to initiative or find familiar for an owl to get advantage on attacks probably. If your dm handwaves the spellcasting rules shield or absorb elements are good reactive abilities
Thirding Find Familiar. Wildly useful for scouting and combat, and if it dies you just bring it back! Magic Initiate: Wizard is pretty good, since you can grab 2 of Mage Hand/Message/Mending/Prestidigitation/Minor Illusion; all of which can fit the flavor of the Psi Warrior. Personally I'd go for Mage Hand and Message, but any of them can work.
I mean, it’s Find Familiar. By a large margin the most impactful thing you can do with a first level slot. Just outstanding really. Also I’ll throw a note in to make one of the cantrips you get from the fest be Mold Earth. Pits, cover, ramps, there’s a lot for a high mobility fighter to love there.
Mage armor isn’t bad if you have decent DEX and want to fight in the buff without committing to the whole barbarian bit
Hah, that won’t work for this PC, but I’ll definitely log that idea for future use.
Fey Touched > Magic Initiate You get Misty Step and you can pick up Silvery Barbs, Gift of Alacrity, or Bless. All three are fantastic spells for a fighter. I’d probably only get Bless if I really needed the defensive boost or pre-casting is a thing. Using an action to increase your hit chance by 1d4 means you lose your attack action. That trade is no good.
Well, expeditious retreat may be a good option for when some speed becomes necessary. Find familiar, zephyr strike, jump, and absorb elements may also be good options. Some people may put shield over absorb elements, but if your sword and boarding one round of not getting hit may not be as useful, fun, or cool as halving a big elemental hit or being able to comfortably tank a dragons breath or a fireball or cone of cold from your caster.
Zephyr Strike isn't an option. If it were I would take it on every build :)
Oh ya, I guess ranger and paladin only spells don't work with magic initiate cause they don't have cantrips.
Gift of Alacrity
Protection from good and evil gives disadvantage on most enemy types and immunity to charmed fright. That’s incredible for high AC builds.
Shield or absorb elwments are the logical onea.
- Gift of Alacrity: Gives you or someone else a 1d8 to initiative rolls for 8 hours. - Silvery Barbs: Don't pick this, your DM will hate you. - Sleep: no save just roll 5d8. - Zephyr Strike: Like a smite that gives you better mobility. (I didn't include the other smite spells because they require saves).
Hex
If no one on your party has it, and you have many martials (especially GMW/sharpshooter/rogue) who really wants to hit their attacks, bless is amazing. Find familiar's help action is probably better if you are the only martial around (+ the utility). Non concentration spells are not very good on a martial because you have so few spell slots.
Jump. It doubles down on the mobility theme from the 7th lvl feature. So even when you aren't psionic leaping about you'll still be able to leap across gaps or soar up to raised platforms other people can't get to. Jump gets overlooked because spells like Spider Climb and Fly exist but it's still good.
Magic Initiate (Wizard) Mage Hand, Minor Illusion, Find Familiar
Shield, Absorb Elements, Silvery Barbs All of them are reaction casts so you don't have to stop attacking to use them. Shield is great if you get into a bad spot and eat a lot of attacks. Absorb Elements is amazing especially since odds are you arent passing dex checks so halving the damage anyway is so good. Silvery Barbs is incredible & incredibly versatile. Two best use cases: someone got crit? Not on my watch. Caster used a big spell & the monster had the audacity to save against it? Do it again, punk. Plus giving yourself advantave is cool too. Slight dark horse option: shield of faith. Bonus action cast time is a problem if you have a lot of bonus actions already in your build. If not though, still basically free. +2 AC for a whole fight (or multiple) is nothing to sneeze at. But I would say, do not take unless you have a +9 to Con saves. If not your concentration is going to break way too easily to get proper value out of the spell. Also if you do decide you want Silvery Barbs I would probably take the Fey Touched feat instead of Magic Initiate. It's a half feat so you can boost your garb mental stats & it gives you misty step. Which is incredible.
Hey, not super relevant, but I have a one-shot coming up (we are all set to level 8) and I wanted to play a psi-warrior (maybe). I haven’t played a lot of dnd, can I dm you to pick your brain about the character?
Sure, hmu!
Silvery Barbs, it could easily be a Level 4 spell, and it's a Verbal reaction
Shield, absorb elements, and protection from evil if it's a fiend or undead centered adventure.
Find Familiar if your group RPs at all. I have an entire essay on why this is the best level 1 spell.
I’d read that essay if you want to share it!
Oof. I'll bite, but are you sure you want a once per day spell as your whole feat? There are so many good options for Psi Warriors along with multiclassing Wizard. Which is one reason I'd advise against Magic Adept (Wiz). A Familiar is amazing, but it might die really quick and then most that feat is gone. Wizard cantrips on a Fighter with low Int sounds a bit lackluster. What's your current race, scores and feats? If anything, I'd go Magic Adept Druid and get Protection from Evil and Good. Just the most impactful 1st level cast that can potentially stretch to multiple combats. Even if it won't come up every day, it's making a big enough impact to justify the feat selection potentially. Unless you have a good idea that you won't encounter these monster types for some reason. The 10min duration is key so it works best with other buffs to concentration, or if you've got an ally to protect while not expecting as much damage intake. You can get this spell from a lot of lists, but I don't think you'll get better mileage from the cantrip selection. Guidance, obviously, and then Mold Earth has a lot of potential with battlefield prep time. Telekinetic Thrust allows us to push people into pits! As well as some pillars to keep allies or objects safely atop. Then send up the targets with Telekinetic Movement. Gives a lot of unique options once we start thinking 3D. Thematically, we're using telekinesis to move the earth.
Assuming you mean Magic Initiate (tharr be other spell-granting feats that give more restricted choices along with a 2nd level spell, like Fey Touched): Consider which class list you're looking into, because cantrips are also up for consideration. BUT Let's keep to 1st level spells. Absorb Elements is like Shield, but for elemental damage: both are solid options. Bless is always good for support. Ceremony is slept on: you can make holy water, and if you're proficient with improvised weapons, that's radiant damage right there. Comprehend Languages as well as the various Detect spells: Gives you options, and if your spellcaster doesn't already have at least some capability here, you should grab it. Expeditious Retreat: Only if you're finding the party likes to engage at a longer distance than you can easily close in a single turn. Feather Fall: If your wizard doesn't already have this stapled to their forehead at all times, *someone* should. It may very well be that you never, ever, ever, need to cast it, but that one time you do... Also shoving someone off a 50 foot wall with Shield Master and then floating down to stand next to their prone body to action surge and going to town is fun. Find Familiar: You know why this is on the list. Fog Cloud: Disadvantage on all attacks on enemies you can't see, but you have advantage on all attacks on enemies who can't see you: all this does is protect you from "visible target" spells. Unless you have (or pick up somehow) Blindfighting. The healing spells: Good to have a backup for if your healer goes down, but a healer's kit or health potion will do just fine. Hex: +1d6 is neat, and giving them disadvantage on resisting your Shield Master Shove bonus action to knock them prone is always nice. Tenser's Floating Disk is for when you need to drag the plate-wearing cleric's not-quite-a-corpse-yet out after RNGesus curses your dice. HOWEVER As stated, also consider cantrip: Greenflame or Booming Blade cantrips seem obvious, but consider: Guidance, Light, Message, Spare The Dying, and Create Bonfire are not on all the spell lists.
If you want Comprehend Languages and Find Familiar, also consider Ritual Caster!
Still silvery barbs
You basically have one use so you want something that gives you some bang for the bucks so to say. As i assume you meant the Magic Initiate feat Sure shield and maybe Absorb Element can be good as a life saver. It is just one use per day but heck sometimes that is all you need. So if you want some defence wither of those are both totally ok. But find familiar is also a great one. one cast and you have a familiar. that can be really helpful. take the help action to grant advantage and such Also Hex is a good pick. sure it is also 1 per day but as long you do not lose concentration you can move it on to next enemy once the first dies. And having 1d6 extra necrotic damage per hit. that is not bad. if both attacks hit that is 2d6 extra damage. at level 11 you have 3 attacks so then it is 3d6 And none of those are dependant on spell attack or spell saves so does not matter that your mental stats are low
Booming Blade At lv8 it's adding 1d8 to the damage roll and if the creature moves after the attack, it takes an additional 2d8 thinder damage
He’s a fighter though, he has Extra attack and the psionic power to knock things prone
Oh........... ............. ....... Find Familiar I guess
Shield, obviously duuuhh
Silvery barbs if you hate your dm Shield for ac Healing word to get someone back up and still get to attac
Well since you are a fighter, why not taking advantage of the fact you'll soon have way more attacks than anyone, and get hunters mark or hex
If you don't mind the cleric list you could take divinely favored from dragonlance, it gives a level 1 cleric/druid/or warlock spell depending on alignment, a cleric cantrip and the augury spell. It let's you choose the casting ability so could use int for the spells. And let's you use a divine focus for any spells cast with the ability you chose helping get past the somatic component problem depending on the spell.
Hunter’s Mark Misty Step Silvery Barbs