D&D: The Revised Conjurer Wizard, Now With Summoning!

The Conjurer Wizard subclass gets revised in the new Arcane Subclasses update. Now, as the name implies, it’s actually good at summoning.

The Conjurer Wizard, as the name suggests, should be all about summoning creatures and having them fight on your behalf. At least that’s the popular opinion—and thankfully a popular opinion WotC has listened to, at least a little. In the previous version, the Conjurer Wizard was all about another branch of Conjuration spells: teleportation.

Now, I get why. Conjuration as a school of magic includes things that defy distances, you conjure creatures to your side, or conjure up the stolen datatapes that those pesky rebels have stolen from your secret research facility. So of course, you can defy regular distance by teleporting—but the Conjurer Wizard, as initially envisioned, was all about teleportation. But now? That’s changed. Somewhat.

The Revised Conjurer Wizard: Don’t Worry, It’s Still All About Teleportation

Don’t worry, though. WotC hasn’t done anything crazy like do a complete 180 on the character concept, or designed a way to make summoned creatures feel more like they’re a part of your class features than other classes to the extent that that’s all you do. The first big subclass feature, Benign Transposition is still all about teleportation.

Only it’s a much better feature than its previous iteration. Just to show you how, let’s take a look at the old version:

As a Magic action, you teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space that you can see. Alternatively, you can choose a space within range that is occupied by a Medium or smaller creature. If that creature is willing, you both teleport, swapping places.

Once you use this feature you can’t use it again until you finish a Long Rest. You can also regain a use of it by expending a level 2+ spell slot (no action required).

Absolutely no one was going to spend a level 2+ spell slot on restoring this feature.

But the new Benign Transposition is much better by comparison. You still get it right at level 3. It’s still the first big part of the Revised Conjurer Wizard’s identity. But now, it works as a Bonus Action. It’s Misty Step but without a spell slot. And better, because you can also swap positions with a willing ally. And then you can still cast a spell. Plus you get more uses of it. You can use it up to your Intelligence Modifier times per Long Rest.

The other big level 3 feature is basically unchanged. You still get to add extra Conjuration spells to your spellbook because of Conjuration Savant. But by and large, already the revised Conjurer Wizard is looking much better than previous incarnation.

But What About the Summoning Though?

Now, on to the good stuff. So to speak. The new Conjurer Wizard is a much better summoner than most, thanks to a newly improved Durable Summons feature. All you have to do is hit level 6, and suddenly your summoned creatures take on a lot more durability.

You still add twice your Wizard level in temporary hit points (so 12 to begin with). But now, while your summoned creature has those hit points, it is also resistant to most types of damage. Specifically it’s resistant to all damage except for Force, Necrotic, Psychic, and Radiant. That ought to last for at least one good hit, maybe more, depending on how the DM rolls. But it should stop your summons from being one shot by powerful enemies.

And the revised Conjurer Wizard also gets Distant Transposition, which as it did before, improves your Benign Transposition, increasing the range to 60 feet and letting all uses recharge on a Short Rest. This is already a much better version. You can now do a better Misty Step than anyone else, you get a few uses free per rest. Plus tankier summons.

It gets even better though. At level 10, you still get Focused Concentration, and that feature is still amazing. With this feature, damage can’t break your Concentration on Conjuration spells. And that means damaging you won’t make your summons disappear.

Still More Summoning

And at level 14 you now get an actual capstone feature. The previous Conjurer just got to use Benign Transposition as a Bonus Action (and also defensively as a Reaction to make someone take a hit). And sadly, that Reaction is gone. But it’s worth the trade. Because instead you get Splintered Summons.

With Splintered Summons the revised Conjurer Wizard really steps into its own. You get to be a master summoner—whenever you cast one of the big summon spells: Summon Aberration, Construct, Dragon, Elemental, or Fey, with a spell slot, you can modify the spell. Doing so lets you summon TWO creatures of the same kind. Each gets its own stat block—but has half the hit points (plus temporary hit points, of course).

That’s a huge force multiplier for Conjurer Wizards. You can double the power of any summon spell. All the ones it works on last up to an hour. And with bonus temporary hit points giving your summons resistance to most damage? You’re going to get so much mileage out of a single spell slot. Especially since you can do the Splintered Summons once per Long Rest for free, and can restore a use of the feature by spending a level 5+ spell slot.

This feels like a much more robust Conjurer. They have two tools in their toolkit—but they all feel built around the identity of Conjuring things. It’s a solid B+. Though it does start to lose points when you compare it to the new Necromancer, which has much more of a focus on combat summoning. But that’s just me. What do you think ? You should let WotC know by filling out the feedback survey which you can find, alongside the playtest, at the link below.

Summons! Teleportation! That’s not a bad bit of kit!

Bell of Lost Souls Staff Writer and DM, J.R. covers RPGs of all stripes and on occasion eats sandwiches. You can ask him about either at [email protected]

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