The Order of Scribes is my favorite Wizard subclass in Dungeons and Dragons.
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Transcript:
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:22:02
Bennett Tomlin
Wizard is perhaps the prototypical Dungeons and Dragons class, both for villains and for players. Each of the different subclasses has a fun bit of flair, but my absolute favorite order of scribes. This is not one of the classes in the new handbook, but there's a few days until it comes out and it's supposed to be backwards compatible anyway.
00:00:22:04 - 00:00:45:09
Bennett Tomlin
Order of scribes is the Wizard's wizard. Drawing power from their knowledge, their spellbook, and having an exceptional degree of connection to their quill. I recently got to play a wizard in a long term campaign from level two through level 15. For most of that run, it was an order of scribes wizard, and it was so fun to lean into the most stereotypically nerdy aspects of wisdom.
00:00:45:11 - 00:01:08:03
Bennett Tomlin
Let's talk a little bit about the features you get for this subclass, and how they might affect how you play. At level two, you get a Wizardly quilt and you get an awakened spellbook. Your quill can be created with a flick of your wrist and a bonus action, and can write without ink. It lets you copy spells super fast, and you can erase things you wrote by waving the quill over it.
00:01:08:05 - 00:01:27:03
Bennett Tomlin
Getting to copy your spells quick is just a super nice quality of life improvement. No longer do you need to skip a long rest to copy that new level eight spell. It just takes you a few minutes. Speaking of your spellbook, it also awakens with a sentience in. This allows you to use your spellbook as a spellcasting focus.
00:01:27:05 - 00:01:47:01
Bennett Tomlin
And what could be more nerdy than literally manifesting the power of books? It also lets you change your damage from a spell with the damage from a different spell of the same level. Do you want a fireball that does lightning damage? What about a lightning bolt that does necrotic damage? Maybe a thunder step that does psychic damage and this is the feature for you.
00:01:47:03 - 00:02:08:18
Bennett Tomlin
Ignore those monsters resistances and immunities because you are smarter than it is. And also this feature no limits and how often you can use it. You also become an even better ritual caster, leaning again into one of Wizard's core features once a day. You can skip the ten minute ritual time and cast it with the normal casting time.
00:02:08:20 - 00:02:34:02
Bennett Tomlin
My character would regularly use this to set up a telepathic bond whenever shit was about to hit the fan, and it saved her ass countless times. There's also one last feature at this level which saves you if your DM has it up for you. Normally, wizards need to protect their spellbook almost with their life because if it's destroyed, they only have access to the spells they prepared for that day.
00:02:34:04 - 00:02:52:02
Bennett Tomlin
And if they want to make a new spellbook, they will need to pay to read, transcribe those prepared spells into a new book, and then go out and buy, beg or steal new scrolls or spell books with the rest of the things they want in the book. If you're an order of scribes wizard, though, you don't need to worry about that.
00:02:52:04 - 00:03:15:23
Bennett Tomlin
Instead, you just Sam in your quill, sit down over a short rest, draw a few runes, and suddenly a new spellbook weakens with sentience. And it has all your spells. Does this mean if your wizard wants to fuck with other wizards, they try to destroy their spellbook? Probably, but also just as a DM? Nope. Really. Think about if destroying a spell book is in your best interests.
00:03:16:01 - 00:03:36:09
Bennett Tomlin
It really fucks over most wizards, and if you're going to do it as a DM, at least give your wizard player an opportunity in the next couple levels to steal a spell book or to fight a wizard and get their spellbook. Something to help them start rebuilding that set of spells. At level six, the sentience in our spell book has reached a new level.
00:03:36:11 - 00:03:53:00
Bennett Tomlin
This allows it to manifest in mind and physical space. This tiny spectral mode can see here as dark vision floats in the air. Telepathically shares what it is seeing with us and proficiency bonus times per day. We can cast through this manifest mind,
00:03:53:00 - 00:04:00:17
Bennett Tomlin
allowing us to cast from safer places on the battlefield. As a bonus action, you can move your mind up to 30ft.
00:04:00:19 - 00:04:20:02
Bennett Tomlin
You can maintain connection to it as long as it's within 300ft, and it can only be destroyed with the Dispel Magic. I love to use this like get familiar to scout into rooms ahead, and sometimes it would go into a room, say full of orcs and I could stay a safe distance away. Cast fireball through the manifest mind.
00:04:20:04 - 00:04:26:10
Bennett Tomlin
And if the orcs did not have dispel, magic could clear the room before they could figure out what was happening.
00:04:26:10 - 00:04:29:20
Bennett Tomlin
a level ten. You become one of the best skill makers. Each morning.
00:04:29:22 - 00:04:49:22
Bennett Tomlin
You can take one, level one or level two spell in your spellbook and create a scroll of it. This scroll cast is one level higher than normal, and so it's basically a nice little free spell slot. You're also better at making regular spell scrolls, making them in half the time and with half the Gold Knights, your campaign has downtime
00:04:49:22 - 00:04:51:06
Bennett Tomlin
at level 14.
00:04:51:07 - 00:04:54:02
Bennett Tomlin
You've grown even more intimately connected to your spell book.
00:04:54:02 - 00:05:07:03
Bennett Tomlin
it gives you advantage. And Arcana checks, which is super wizardry. And I combine it with the skill expert feat to get expertise in arcana, which means like a plus 15 and advantage. I was rolling wild or karma checks,
00:05:07:03 - 00:05:33:07
Bennett Tomlin
But perhaps more important than that, your manifest mind will sacrifice itself to keep you alive. Imagine you're in the path of a deadly dragon's breath. It is going to knock you unconscious. Instead, you use your reaction to dismiss your manifest mind. It absorbs all the damage, and then in exchange, you roll 3D six. You have to take that many levels of spells that you cannot cast till you finish one d6 lung rest.
00:05:33:09 - 00:05:56:19
Bennett Tomlin
So say you roll ten. That could be two five level spells three three levels and one level. Anything that adds up to ten spell levels. So as an order of scribes Wizard, you want to collect as many spells as you can because this feature will then help you survive. You can take all those spells you would normally never cast, that you never bothered to prepare, and use those to basically absorb this damage.
00:05:56:21 - 00:06:09:13
Bennett Tomlin
Once you get this feature, you are a super nerd who can also take huge amounts of damage, strike enemies from out of sight, and can fund your wizarding activities by producing cheaper and faster scrolls than other wizards.
00:06:09:13 - 00:06:25:09
Bennett Tomlin
I love this subclass. It is the Wizards Wizard improving and what wizards are great at. Rounding off some of the rough corners, is this your favorite? If not, tell me in the comments if it is. Also, tell me in the comments. Anything you want to say, just say it in the comments.
00:06:25:14 - 00:06:26:17
Bennett Tomlin
It's good for the algorithm.
