Best Feats for Wizard 5e
by Prince Phantom
The Wizard is arguably the strongest class in the game by virtue of its spellcasting prowess alone. They get the best blast, control, buff, debuff, and utility spells, and are the only spellcaster with the capability to learn all of them given enough time and gold. The only hole in their spell list is healing, and healing isn’t even good anyway. For this reason, Wizards are pretty self sufficient and aren’t in desperate need of feats.
If I was asked to play at a table that banned feats, I’d go Wizard every time. Feats for Wizard aren’t going to massively increase our damage output or make our already amazing spells even better. Trust me, we don’t need help in those departments. Instead we should look for feats that fix the few issues with the class; most glaringly durability. There are also a few Wizard subclasses that want very specific feats for very specific reasons, so I’ll denote those when they come up. For Bladesingers in particular, they are different enough to warrant their own list, which we have already done as well.
Best Feats for Wizard 5e
Fey Touched (Lv 1*): This is a great feat specifically if you get a feat at level 1 and are actually playing at level 1. Level 1 and 2 are when we are weakest. Running out of spell slots is very easy to do, even if we are being conservative with them. This feat doubles our total slots at level 1 and gives us access to a spell we normally couldn’t cast until level 3. As for the 1st level spell I would pick Silvery Barbs. It’s great to have now and will continue to be useful all throughout your career. If you don’t meet the conditions listed above, Fey Touched is a decent filler feat at higher levels.
Eldritch Adept (Abjurers ASAP, Illusionists Lv 12): Abjurers can use this feat to pick up Armor of Shadows, and eldritch invocation that allows infinite castings of Mage Armor. This allows an Abjurer to almost instantly fully charge their arcane ward, giving them a huge hp boost over almost every other class in the game. Illusion Wizards should take this at level 12 in preparation for gaining Illusory Reality at level 14. This allows infinite castings of Silent Image, and you only need to read the text of Illusory Reality once to realize that this combination makes you the strongest character build imaginable, full stop. Instantly conjure adamantine boxes around all your enemies, and they don’t even get a saving throw. Shame that the rest of the Illusion subclass kind of sucks.
War Caster (ASAP): Advantage on concentration checks is good enough on its own for us to take this. The other benefits are good if you manage to gain shield proficiency (every Wizard should start as a level 1 Artificer then go into Wizard, change my mind) and also want to hold that sweet magic staff you found in that dragon horde last session. It’s probably rare that you even get an opportunity attack as a Wizard, but when you do, sticking them with a Hideous Laughter will feel pretty great.
Telekinetic (Lv 4): Most Wizard subclasses leave our bonus action free on most turns. In terms of optimization, not using your bonus action on a round is just leaving damage/utility on the table. Use the 5ft push to get friends out of grapples and Walls of Fire, and push your enemies into that same Wall of Fire. Remember that a lot of continual damage area of effect spells trigger when a creature starts its turn in the area or enters it for the first time on a turn, so if you push them into the area, they take 2 instances of damage on that round instead of just 1. That’s weaponizing our bonus action!
Alert (Lv 4): Getting our control spell of choice online before the enemy even has a chance to act means we have probably ruined our DM’s day and that’s exactly what we’re looking for (I jest, please be nice to your DM, but don’t be afraid to tear their combat encounters a new one). If you don’t believe me, try running an encounter by yourself with the goal of making it challenging if the Wizard goes first. Even more points to you if you can manage that task without pulling out the Tiamat mini.
Gift of the Metallic Dragon (Lv 4): I would only take this if you did not start as Artificer 1 and then go into Wizard, as you’ll already have access to healing magic through Artificer. The protective reaction is nice but it competes with Shield and Counterspell, so we can really only use this reaction on rounds where we are certain we won’t need either of those spells. Thankfully, exactly one healing spell is probably all we need, as we should really only use it to bring up a downed ally when combat is over.
Resilient (Lv 8): Most classes are in such desperate need of feats to even function that they can’t afford to take a purely defensive feat until level 12 at least. Wizards suffer no such issues, and the rich continue to get richer. Take it for Constitution if you didn’t start Artificer, and Wisdom if you did.
Tough (Lv 8): Like Resilient, we are very privileged to be able to afford taking this so early. Hopefully you’ve managed to stay away from enemies and keep yourself safe, but you’ll never make it through a whole campaign unscathed. It pays to prepare for the worst, and an extra 16 hp could be the difference between life and death for a class this frail.
Lucky (Lv 8): Special consideration to the Divination Wizards, who probably want to take this as early as possible to feel like dice gods. More power to those people, that sounds like a ton of fun. For the rest of us, Lucky is a great defensive feat that lets us deny natural 20’s from our foes and reroll our failed saving throws.
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