School of Abjuration

Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold

Abjurers are the protector Wizard tradition, packing magic from the Abjuration school to defend themselves and their allies. It's my favorite option as it offers opportunities to build wonky frontline Wizards looking to take advantage of busted spells like Shield and Counterspell while using close-ranged magic or weapons to draw fire and block incoming attacks.

Outside of this niche build, this option doesn’t provide that many exciting features, especially past 6th level, but it does give some meaningful improvements most characters are happy to have.

This school cares about Abjuration spells; for reference, here’s a full list of Cantrip through 9th-level Wizard spells of this school and the non-wizard options for multiclass considerations.

Wizard Abjuration Spells

Spell Level	Spells
Cantrip	Blade Ward
1st	Absorb Elements, Alarm, Mage Armor, Protection from Evil and Good, Shield, Snare
2nd	Arcane Lock
3rd	Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Glyph of Warding, Intellect Fortress, Magic Circle, Nondetection, Protection from Energy, Remove Curse
4th	Banishment, Private Sanctum, Stoneskin
5th	Planar Binding
6th	Fizban’s Platinum Shield, Globe of Invulnerability, Guards and Wards
7th	Symbol
8th	Antimagic Field, Mind Blank
9th	Imprisonment, Invulnerability, Prismatic Wall

Additionally, the following spells are also Abjuration should you gain access to them through another means:

Non-Wizard Abjuration Spells

Spell Level	Spells
Cantrip	Resistance
1st	Armor of Agathys, Ceremony, Sanctuary, Shield of Faith
2nd	Aid, Lesser Restoration, Pass without Trace, Protection from Poison, Warding Bond
3rd	Beacon of Hope
4th	Aura of Life, Aura of Purity, Death Ward, Freedom of Movement
5th	Antilife Shell, Banishing Smite, Circle of Power, Dispel Evil and Good, Greater Restoration
6th	Druid Grove, Forbiddance, Primordial Ward
7th	-
8th	Holy Aura
9th	-

2nd Level: Abjuration Savant and Arcane Ward

Abjuration Savant provides the same passive benefit many tables opt to ignore entirely in its discount to adding spells to your spell book if they’re Abjuration. If you’re tight on gold, this gives you the incentive to invest in Abjuration spells you can find and copy, but realistically it's a ribbon most groups will immediately forget about. Most players tend to just use the spells they get for free on level-up, and those are more than enough.
Arcane Ward is the meat of the subclass; you get a magical ward the first time you cast an Abjuration spell that protects you and refills its hitpoints as you cast further Abjuration spells. Additionally, the ward is a separate entity from you, meaning the damage it takes doesn’t force you to make Concentration saves, which is a massive boon.
Another neat element of the ward is that it isn’t granting you any kind of temporary hit points, meaning you can benefit from it and temporary hit points obtained through spells or abilities like False Life.
Often, Arcane Ward feels like you are getting +2 hit points per level. Mage Armor tends to be the first spell you’ll cast to fill the ward, and Shield and Absorb Elements step in to block hits that would threaten your hit points while slowly filling back up the ward.
It's worth mentioning that while the ward won’t scale with multiclass levels, access to spells like Armor of Agatyhs, Shield of Faith, and Warding Bond can be a major boon to this subclass, so dipping into cleric or warlock for their proficiencies, spells, and features can easily empower this kind of build in the early to mid tiers.

6th Level: Projected Ward

Arcane Ward sets you up to take the hits; at 6th level, you can gain a reaction to let it work for the entire party should they be within 30 feet of you with Projected Ward. This upgrade defines your play style for the rest of the game as an arcane defender countering spells, breaking enchantments, and blocking incoming damage.
This subclass cares most about its reaction, as it frequently wants to be casting Shield and Absorb Elements; Protjected Ward adds an interesting decision, as you can use a reaction early to mitigate some known damage on an ally, but that prevents you from using a defensive reaction on yourself, all while you know your ward is dropping in hit points.
Reaction-based defensive features are great because you still have your action to take proactive measures to end the encounter. I’m a big fan.

10th Level: Improved Abjuration

Improved Abjuration gives you proficiency in Dispel Magic and Counterspell checks, which is weird and will range in power relative to your table's affinity for spellcasting villains. In encounters against Hill Giants or Gnolls, this is usually completely dead. Even against spellcasters, you need to want to Counterspell what they’re doing instead of using proactive 3rd level spells, which is still a consideration at this tier.
In groups leveraging spellcasting heavily, a passive +4/+5/+6 to some of the most important spells you’re casting is a great buff, albeit really boring. At tables where you’re running into two or fewer spellcasters per adventure, this is a nonfeature.

14th Level: Spell Resistance

Spell Resistance is clean, simple, and strong. Advantage on spell saves and resistance to their damage makes you walk through Cloudkills with little to no effort. An important note is your resistances don’t convert to your Arcane Ward, meaning if you get hit by a Circle of Death, the ward takes the full brunt before whatever damage spills over to you is halved.
This interaction heavily encourages you to use Projected Ward, as you’d rather somebody without resistance takes less damage while you’re taking half or less damage with Spell Resistance.
Like Improved Abjuration, tables running more spellcasters will find this is more relevant, which tends to correlate with more lethal or complex encounters. In those encounters, advantage on all your saves and resistance to all damage spellcasters are dealing is insane.

All Together

School of Abjuration does a great job early providing wizards a unique defensive feature that interacts well with the Spellcasting mechanics. Projected Ward transforms it from a purely self-defense feature into a party-wide hit point shield. Past that, the value of this subclass entirely depends on how often you’re facing down enemy spellcasters. Wizards' upper-tier power definitely is strong enough that you don’t need to rely on these features to feel good, though, making its niche appealing to me.

If you want to play an anti-magic savant who blocks hits and counters enemy spells, Abjurer presents the most tools to play on that axis. It also can lead to fun off-archetype Wizard builds, which I’m always a sucker for. School of Abjuration is a pretty solid option for most tables, and an excellent option for adventures against powerful casters.

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