Low Level Character Concept - The Armored Mage - D&D5e

 I love DnD5e and I keep thinking about one of my first character ideas, the armored mage. The point of it is to be incredibly tanky. The build didn't actually work out. So let's look at the build concept and go from there.

Please forgive me if I gloss over some things that don't relate to the build at a level up. I assume you have some knowledge with the classes already.

Level 1 - Fighter

Whenever you're building a multiclassing build that has fighter, you usually go with the fighter 1 for the heavy armor proficiency.

So what stats do we need for our end goal and what do we get from fighter 1?

Strength: 15

Dexterity 10

Constitution 14 + 2 = 16

Intelligence 13 +1 = 14

Wisdom 12

Charisma 8

I recommend getting +2 to Constitution and +1 to Intelligence.

We need at least 13 intelligence to get wizard levels, but we don't need to worry about it for most spells, but we do want to get it up higher to help us hit later.

So we get all the basic fighter stuff (gear, strength and constitution saving throws, hit points and skills).

Get chainmail, martial weapon and shield, hand axes and your favorite of the two packs.

Fighting style we are picking up superior technique with menacing attack.

And we get 2nd wind.

Level 2 & 3 - Wizard 1 and 2

We go multiclassing right away! We want those defenses! We are going with War Wizard at level 2. I like getting Component Pouches when I go multi-classing.

You get 3 cantrips:

Booming Blade (V, M which is your weapon)

Sword Burst (V)

Anything Else, depending on the DM I would choose Mold Earth or Presto (avoid those with material components)

You get 6 first level spells:

Find Familiar (You only ever cast this again if the Familiar dies, and you can ritual cast it)

Silvery Barbs (V)

Shield (V, S)

Magic Missile (V, S)

Feather Fall (V, M) (if you can't get a Gem of the Warmage, just go ahead and get something else that doesn't require material components)

Sleep (V, S, M) (this is usually not always a combat spell, so its okay that it has a material component)

Then 2 more at 2nd level:

Fog Cloud (V, S)

Detect Magic (V, S) (Ritual)

You also get Arcane Deflection (what we are here for!) and Tactical Wit (bonus to initiative).

And that's the build! We are online at level 3. We attack with booming blade, and scare the enemy so they run away from us and trigger the booming blade. We use Arcane Deflection to keep attacks from hitting.

So where do we go from here?

After wizard is online, we don't need too much more from it

Level 4 & 5 - Fighter 2 and 3

We pick up action surge and then become a Psi Warrior fighter. Psi Warrior abilities key off of Intelligence. You get damage reduction ability, which deals extra damage, and the ability to move large to tiny objects from far away.

Future of the Build

Well that's it! That's the build. You are pretty much doing what you wanted to do. Which is Booming Blade with Menacing Attack. You just wait for a critical hit. You get to force the Booming detonation. You also get a reaction bonus to your AC and Saves. And there are a lot of really cool choices for you!

Fighter

You can level up any which way from here, including going 18 levels into Fighter (you get great subclass features from Psi-Warrior all the way up). If you do so, you'll want to use Future ASI to bump up intelligence.

That means Level 4, 6 and 8 gets you to Intelligence 20, which you will want because your attack combo is Booming Blade, Menacing Attack (Fear), Telekenetic Thrust (Prone).

You get War Caster after that. And get more techniques with any other ASIs after.

Now you Booming Blade the enemy to the ground and make them scared of you. They get up triggering the explosion from the blade. They go running away from you, and you reaction attack them with Booming Blade, they immediately trigger it again as they move out of your reach.

Artificer

You can also go Artificer. Battle Smith gives you a Robot Buddy, and you can go 15 levels and get the full Subclass features for it, which can all work with the build. If you go for this build, swap your intelligence and strength starting scores. You will also want to get to Artificer 3 as soon as possible.

Armorer Artificer also lets you do some true tanking, with an actual taunt. If you are planning to go this route, you can just not take Magic Missle for your Wizard level.

Either way, one of your first infusions should probably be Armor enhancement.

Artificer likes getting to level 10 if you don't go 15. This gives you 5 levels which you can use to get to Wizard 6 for extra force damage from War Wizard, or Fighter 8 which gives you 3 ASIs and the 2nd set of Psi-Warrior abilities.

Wizard

You can mix in Wizard levels as well, though I am personally not a fan of War Mage after the first couple of levels, you are still a Wizard, which is just.... amazing. If you go deep into this, you'll be a full caster. The war wizard capstone would give you like 21 damage across 3 targets (7 each) that they don't get a save from, every time someone attacks you. You'd still have 3 levels to get to Fighter 6 or Artificer 3.

If you are planning to take artificer levels (which should be Battle Smith if you are going wizard), I suggest taking those levels first before going 14 Wizard.

You can also take the full 17 levels of Wizard and have level 9 spells.

Thanks for Reading!

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