Enchanter Wizard: D&D 2024 (5.5e) Subclass Optimisation Guide

Charm and manipulate with magic with this enchanting wizard subclass.

At a glance

What’s changed in D&D 2024?

The 2014 school of enchantment wizard had some major design issues. Hypnotic gaze, for example, was pathetic and a massive use of your action economy making it almost never worth using. Conversely, split enchantment was doubling targets far more prevalently and could even double the targets on spells like power word kill, which is a 9th level spell and could make some of your spells too powerful.

Thankfully, the 2024 version largely addresses these issues with some smoothed out mechanics too. I’ve summarised all the changes below:

• Subclass at level 3: Like all subclasses in D&D 2024, the enchanter features now kick in at level 3 rather than level 2.
• Enchantment savant completely changes: No longer makes it easier and cheaper to copy enchantment spells to your spell book. Instead, you get an extra enchantment spell known whenever you gain access to a new spell level.
• Enchanting conversationalist is a brand new feature: It adds some face skills capabilities to your magical repertoire.
• Hypnotic gaze becomes actually useful: The range changes from 5ft to 10ft, it lasts for a minute instead of requiring an action each turn to maintain it, it has a limited number of uses now, but can be used again on the same target. It’s also called hypnotic presence now.
• Instinctive charm moves to level 10: It can also work if other targets aren’t in range (but the attack won’t be diverted to another target) and you have more choice over the altered target. There is a greater limit on number of uses but you can use it when hit by an attack roll rather than before knowing if an attack is a hit. Also, creatures that can’t be charmed are still susceptible to this feature.
• Split enchantment moves to level 6: this was previously the level 10 feature. There are more limits on which spells can be affected by this as it only works on spells that can be upcast to affect another target rather than any single target enchantment spells. This now excludes things like crown of madness, suggestion, befuddlement and power word kill.
• Alter memories relies on intelligence now: Previously the DC and length of memory lost were reliant on charisma.

Enchanter features

Enchanting conversationalist (Lv3) – 2/5

You want an enchanter to be charismatic to some degree just because of the nature of how they try to influence people. This resolves that to a degree. The intelligence modifier add on helps overcome the fact that it’s difficult to invest much in charisma for a wizard. It’s a shame you only get one face skill boosted in these ways though. I’d usually go with persuasion, but deception would be my secondary choice. You should style your choice after the type of character you want to play though.

Enchantment savant (Lv3) – 4/5

You’ll want to be using enchantment spells more often than any other spells so grabbing more of these as you progress levels is really useful.

When choosing your spells from this feature, keep in mind that at level 6, you’ll get a powerful option called split enchantment which will let some spells have their effective casting level increased by 1. You can see the affected spells for that listed under that feature below. You’ll want to make sure you have a few of those on your spell list.

Here’s some enchantment spells I think are well worth considering for this feature:

• Charm monster
• Charm person
• Dominate monster
• Dominate person
• Hold monster
• Hold person
• Mass suggestion
• Mind sliver
• Sleep
• Suggestion
• Synaptic static
• Tasha’s hideous laughter

Hypnotic presence (Lv3) – 3/5

Usually, a single target charming of a creature in combat with a spell at this level would be made with advantage. This is not the case here. But it does come with drawbacks, like the fact you need to be really close to the target the whole time.

But the charmed condition will be more profound, incapacitating and immobilising the target. This is most like Tasha’s hideous laughter, but with less range and no spell slot required (though you’ll likely have 3-5 uses per day depending on your intelligence).

This is decent, but requires being close to the target (often a place wizards don’t want to be). There are also quite a few end conditions including simply taking damage. One thing in its favour is it may be more subtle than casting a spell. Imagine speaking to a guard and hypnotising them with your voice while the party enter the castle. The creature also doesn’t know it was charmed when the effect ends.

Split enchantment (Lv6) – 5/5

Upcast enchantment spells is quite nice without having to spend higher level spell slots. There’s a limited number of spells this affects. These are all the wizard spells affected by this feature:

• Charm monster
• Charm person
• Hold monster
• Hold person
• Tasha’s hideous laughter

All of these are save or suck kinds of spells. Expanding the number of targets is not only great for extending the influence of the spells, but it’s also great for increasing your chances of affecting at least one creature. This also works when you are already upcasting the spell so if you cast hold person at level 3, the effective level of the spell will be like the level 4 version, affecting 3 targets. Use enchantment savant to make sure you have at least a couple of these spells in your repertoire.

Instinctive charm (Lv10) – 4/5

This is a great reaction for a bit of defence. The fact you can divert the attack is even better and best against tough attacks. I’d avoid using this against weak attacks unless the attack is about to drop you to 0HP. The 30ft range means you should be able to divert these attacks most times this succeeds.

A lot of enchantment spells require concentration so you may not be casting enchantment spells loads. There are a bunch of high level enchantment spells that don’t require concentration like befuddlement and mass suggestion. There’s also synaptic static which you could have available at this level and mass suggestion is a level 6 spell so available soon. You might also consider charm person and charm monster as replenishing spells but those grant advantage to the target in combat.

All of this means it’s not the easiest to replenish, but should be easy enough to get this at least once per encounter and potentially more often depending on how you play things.

Alter memories (Lv14) – 2/5

A potentially fun, but also somewhat situational feature. Preventing creatures knowing they were charmed by you can be quite useful, but will only work on one target of the spell. This means that group charming retains the same problem as before (and you likely will be making plenty of group charms).

The memory modification could be loads of fun to play with, but you are reliant on the right circumstances to make this work. Preferably an individual on their own, who has knowledge you want them to forget. It’s too situational to be good, but if you can swing it, can be really fun to work with.

How good is the enchanter?

Enchantment spells are always tricky to manage. You sort of need to keep them in check from becoming too powerful mind control, while also making them potent enough to be worth taking. You kind of end up with lots of save or suck options.

I think this shows with the enchanter who swings from being a bit lacklustre at level 3, to quite good at levels 6-10 and then another lacklustre feature at level 14.

Overall, I think split enchantment bolsters the subclass a fair bit as those extra targets on enchantment spells can have a big impact. Outside of this the features are overall quite average.

3/5

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Building an optimised enchanter

Enchanters follow mostly the same pattern as other wizards when it comes to build optimisation. You want to build for a backline spellcaster. The spells themselves may be different (a greater leaning towards enchantment spells) but other aspects of your build will be largely the same.

The one exception is enchanters can make for an alright party face. I don’t think there’s enough there to really build for a proper party face. I think you lose too much from defence or spellcasting to properly build into it. But if no one else will work well with face skills, an enchanter could be a passable option.

Below I’ve pieced together loads of advice on how you can build an optimised enchanter.

Ability scores

Recommended options

• Intelligence: Your most important ability score. You’ll need this for spellcasting prowess, knowledge skills, harder saving throws for your enchanter features and more uses of enchanting conversationalist.
• Dexterity: You’ll need this to have any kind of decent AC. You should consider grabbing the mage armor spell or the lightly armored feat to complement this and enhance your AC further.
• Constitution: Wizards have the smallest hit die in the game making them highly susceptible to damage. Upping this where you can will help make your character a bit more durable and help with concentration saving throws. If you intend to mostly use conjuration concentration spells and will be playing a lot from level 10+, this may be less important for a conjurer (due to focused conjuration).
• Charisma: I wouldn’t normally make this a priority ability score, but if you’ve got a few points spare, this is the ability score to push them into. You could opt to sacrifice a bit in defence with dexterity and constitution for charisma, but I usually wouldn’t recommend this unless you badly need a party face.

Options to avoid

• Strength: You’ve got almost no use for strength.
• Wisdom: Only useful for some skills and saving throws, otherwise, not worth investing in.

Ability score	Point Buy	Standard Array
Strength	8	8
Dexterity	14	14
Constitution	14	13
Intelligence	15	15
Wisdom	8	10
Charisma	12	12

Skills

Recommended options

• Arcana: Common knowledge skill and you have the intelligence to back it up.
• Deception: I’d tend to favour persuasion over this (as you only get to choose 1 for your improved face skill), but if you intend to lie a lot, go with this.
• History: Another common intelligence skill.
• Intimidation: Probably the least important face skill to go for, but Wizards can be intimidating (as Gandalf has proved on occasion). If you want to lean towards that approach, then intimidation could be alright.
• Investigation: Investigation comes up a fair bit and as one of the few intelligence based classes, you’re in a good place to help here.
• Nature: This feels like the domain of rangers and druids, but as an intelligence skill, this is another that a wizard is well placed to focus on.
• Persuasion: Probably the best option for your enchanter face skill proficiency.
• Religion: Unless you have a cleric in the party, religion proficiency can be useful for all that religious lore you need to know.

Species/race

I’d look for species with the following qualities:

• Resilience: You could use your species to make you more durable. Things like extra HP, damage resistances, flight and teleportation will all help you either survive more damage, or get away from danger.
• Innate spellcasting: The more spells you have in your repertoire, the more situations you can aid your party with. Innate spellcasting will help you fulfill that role more and often give you free castings of spells too.
• Improved face skills: Some species can enhance your face skills. If you’re opting for an enchanter that will be the party face, you might consider this in your species.

Recommended options

• Aasimar (2024): Damage resistances make you more durable. Some bonus action healing helps you play backup healer (an area of spellcasting wizards happen to be quite poor at). But you’re mainly here for temporary flight which will keep you a lot safer in nasty battles.
• Changeling (2024): 2 more face skill proficiencies and advantage on charisma checks is really strong if you need to beef up your capabilities as the party face. I can see some interesting roleplay approaches with this build too.
• Elf (2024): An extra skill and darkvision are both helpful but innate spellcasting is the most useful aspect for a wizard. High Elf is a good option for misty step and an extra cantrip. Drow are good for buffs and debuffs with the likes of faerie fire and darkness. Wood Elves are more about speed and stealth.
• Gnome (2024): Gnomish cunning is great against magical effects. Minor illusion and speak with animals are good utility options for a utility caster.
• Human (2024): If you need to boost your skill proficiencies to take full advantage of all those knowledge and face skills, then Human’s a good option. The consistent supply of heroic inspiration is useful too. I’d use the extra origin feat on the kinds of feats that can be difficult to grab through a compatible background. Things like tough are good for this.
• Tiefling (2024): 4 extra spells known is mainly what you’re after here.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds are much more important now with D&D 2024 with ability score increases, origin feats and skills all now linked to your background.

For an enchanter, I’d prioritise intelligence and then one of dexterity or constitution. Again, you could opt for some charisma and face skills if you want to lean more into the party face, but you will suffer defensively as a result. I’d say the below are your best options:

Name	Ability scores	Origin feat	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency
Acolyte	Intelligence, wisdom, charisma	magic initiate (cleric)	Insight, religion	Calligrapher’s supplies
Artisan	Strength, dexterity, intelligence	Crafter	Investigation, persuasion	One kind of artisan’s tools
Carouser (ABoH)	Dexterity, intelligence, charisma	Tireless reveler	Deception, persuasion	One kind of gaming set
Criminal	Dexterity, constitution, intelligence	Alert	Sleight of hand, stealth	Thieves’ tools
Merchant	Constitution, intelligence, charisma	Lucky	Animal handling, persuasion	Navigator’s tools
Mulhorandi tomb raider (HoF)	Dexterity, constitution, intelligence	Lucky	Investigation, religion	Mason’s tools
Noble	Strength, intelligence, charisma	Skilled	History, persuasion	One kind of gaming set
Sage	Constitution, intelligence, wisdom	Magic initiate (wizard)	Arcana, history	Calligrapher’s tools
Scribe	Dexterity, intelligence, wisdom	Skilled	Investigation, perception	Calligrapher’s tools
Spellfire initiate (HoF)	Constitution, intelligence, charisma	Spellfire spark	Arcana, perception	One kind of gaming set

Feats

Origin feats

I’d say the below are your best origin feats for an enchanter:

• Lucky: Invoking advantage and disadvantage is always handy. Consider using this for something like an upcast chromatic orb to increase the accuracy.
• Magic initiate: Grab some extra spells known from another spell list (or from your own). Wizards need a good range of spells and grabbing them from a other class list can help you fill any spellcasting gaps in the party (like becoming a backup healer with healing word for instance).
• Musician: A generally excellent origin feat for helping your allies out with some heroic inspiration (kind of like a slightly better lucky, you give to your friends).
• Skilled: If the party needs a bit more proficiency in knowledge or face skills, you’re a good candidate for that. This can bump up your number of skill proficiencies a decent bit.
• Spellfire spark (HoF): Some damage reduction against spells and a bonus action cantrip. The damage scales with your level too.
• Tough: Really valuable extra hit points for a subclass with few hit points.

General feats

At level 4, you can start picking up general feats. These are some of the better options for an enchanter:

• Actor: Great if you want to impersonate others. Rubbish if not. You really have to lean into the impersonation aspects but that can work for an enchanter.
• Fey touched: Misty step is great for staying safe. Plus you get more spells known.
• Genie magic (HoF): An extra spell you can cast and the utility to pick any spell on the sorcerer spell list of 1st level is pretty good on a class that relies entirely on casting spells.
• Lightly armored: If you don’t want to keep spending spell slots on mage armor, then you could invest in this, especially as studded leather and a shield will give you better AC than mage armor.
• Mage slayer: Great for disrupting spellcasters and gives you something similar to legendary resistance. Depending on your spell list, you could be dealing damage most turns which gives you regular opportunities to disrupt concentration spells.
• Ritual caster: If you feel like you’re struggling to have enough of the spells you want available to you, then this is the best way to boost your utility with more spells gained through this feat than any other. You can check out my full guide to ritual casting for more tips.
• Shadow touched: Invisibility and an illusion or necromancy spell are great for a caster class.
• Spell sniper: Great for bypassing cover and getting some extra range on your spells. Pretty good for a subclass that might often be making ranged spell attacks.

Weapons

Wizards are no good with weapons and their cantrips will usually exceed the performance of any weapon attack.

I’d grab a light crossbow and a dagger in case you get caught in an anti-magic field, a silence spell or something similar (or if you want to use them for the true strike spell). Otherwise, you should be wholly focused on magical damage.

Armor

Wizards don’t naturally have proficiency in any armor, which makes them even more vulnerable to attacks. Increasing your dexterity and grabbing the mage armor spell is the easiest way to enhance your AC.

Alternatively, you could grab the lightly armored feat for light armor and shield training. The best setup for this (studded leather and a shield) will grant you 1 extra AC than mage armor and won’t require spell slots. You may need the war caster feat if you opt for a shield though so your spell casting isn’t hampered, but you may want war caster anyway.

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