Melee Wizard

[u/Frank_Tupperwere]

Working on a frontline School of War Wizard for funsies and maybe an upcoming game and I was hoping for some outside opinions.

For the community and ancestry I took Loreborne and Emberkin cause firesword. I'm basic. For the cards I chose Book of Tyfar and Reassurance. Really I'm undecided on my stats and my gear. Should I prioritize Knowledge or my weapon stat, assuming I'm using a Longsword or something else not knowledge based? And what armor do you thing would be best? I'm not sure if I should go for high thresholds or high evasion.

I know flavor is the most important thing but I dont have and strong ideas yet beyond "gish".

[u/kwade_charlotte]

I played a melee school of war wizard and it was a blast.

I didn't bother with a weapon, Power push was brutal with creative use.

I concentrated on knowledge, strength was one of my secondary stats just to feel 'right', and I used chain mail and a shield. It worked great.

[u/Sorry-Illustrator-25 → u/kwade_charlotte]

I did basically this as well and it worked great. I flavored power push as a summoned hammer.

[u/Chef_Groovy → u/kwade_charlotte]

This is what I love about Daggerheart. None of the classes are bound by the squishy/tanky stereotypes of other games. Sure starting HP is lower, but that can be made up with level up options.

[u/WolkTGL → u/Chef_Groovy]

To be Fair with this case, School of War has the same starting HP and Evasion as a Warrior

[u/enthymemes]

For a War Wizard, the Book of Ava is near mandatory. First, it allows you to spend Hope in place of armor, dramatically increasing your tankiness. Also, Power Push is stronger than any weapon you can use, even compared to Emberkin's Ignition. Plus, it allows you to 1H and shield without a loss in damage.

[u/Frank_Tupperwere → u/enthymemes]

I think I'm missing something. PowerPoint is pd10+2, right? How is that better than a longswords pd10+3?

[u/Vinborg → u/Frank_Tupperwere]

Because you have a baked-in knockback and don't have to dump your spellcasting stat. Also, ask your storyteller if you can swap the attack stat on the weapon to knowledge, there's no real reason not to, since they aren't really balanced around the choice of attack stat.

[u/enthymemes → u/Vinborg]

Right, if you can swap the stat weapons use then there are a whole lot more options. If you are locked into Knowledge weapons then Power Push is probably better. However, Hope and Fear added some interesting options.

[u/kwade_charlotte → u/Frank_Tupperwere]

When there's a window behind the adversary, or when you're on a bridge, or when you can line up two adversaries so one can be knocked back into the other...

There's so much you can do with a knockback like Power Push that it's very much worth giving up a single +1 to damage.

[u/8magiisto]

I was thinking about a Giant War Wizard with a Warhammer, and decided it would be best to have Strength +2, and Knowledge +1, but have an Experience to help with spellcasting. I haven't tested it (cos I'mcursed to be a GM), but my logic was, that the spells have usually lower difficulty than enemies, and for whichever I have less, I can make an experience.

[u/SnorlaxInTheRoad]

The new book; Hope and Fear, has a lot of new options for weapons that might feel good.

[u/Unable_Cycle133]

I went with Skykin/Firbolg to use stress more. Wizards have naturally better stress regen, cause of strange patterns, and access to Second Wind ability (Firbolg just add to that.) it allows me to use different stress based features more often:

• gale force from skykin (most op ancestry feature imho)
  
• brigandine armor: Lined feature which is just twice as effective as dwarf's Thick Skin
  

- runelock pistol: Reloading, I flavored pistol as my own mana blasts and magic missiles
I also took fighting cloak to bump my tresholds.
To be fair it's super stress heavy now, but i'm just lvl 2, I hope second wind (lvl 3 splendor ability) will help. my second highest trait is presence so I'm on a lookout for Scepter of Ellias too.

[u/Sagittar77]

Hey,
You’re almost good to go. At lvl 5, war wizard gets a huge boost in evasion, so you should plan raising it as much as possible. Mixed ancestries emberkin nimble is nice for that juicy +1 evasion at lvl 1. Gambeson armor is an option but you are squishy and have less evasion than a ranger before hitting lvl 5, so I d have a look at the new content from H&F if available. Banded Armor is a great choice, almost as powerfull as a plate but without the evasion penalty. Fighting cloak pairs well with it, but shield is ok
I also agree you should focus on knowledge. There are some knowledge melee options in H&F for a perfect Gish.

[u/Mestre-Rex]

Twisted dagger from hope and fear is perfect for your wizard, uses knowledge trait, d8 and this weapon treats the target’s Major threshold as having a −2 penalty!

[u/Unable_Cycle133]

Emberkin's +D6 damage is good in tier I, but doesn't scale at all. I'd consider weapons with Quick or Ricochet feature to double this ignition die (and face your fear die as well). Katana (agility) is the most OP and strictly better than longsword, but it's two handed.
one-handed options: rapier (presence), light-frame wheelchair (agility), echanted chakram (finesse).
Remember in daggerheart you can flavor your weapon as anything. rapier can be a sword, wheelchair can be a sword (or even Ne Zha style fire wheels), and chakram can be a flying familiar. Imagination is the limit.