Occultist Wizard: Crooked Moon D&D 5e Optimisation Guide

Draw from eldritch powers with this high risk, high reward wizard subclass.

At a glance

Occultist features

Forbidden knowledge (Lv3) – 2/5

Deep speech is a ribbon feature and certainly situational. A level 1 warlock spell can be decent enough to expand your repertoire a little. There’s not a lot that might excite a wizard that you don’t already have or that fits a wizard build, but perhaps a spell like bane, hellish rebuke or ones you already have access to like Tasha’s hideous laughter are good options. There’s no free casting of this spell though so the impact is likely small.

Intrusion (Lv3) – 4/5

Enforce disadvantage on a spell saving throw for a spell you cast or advantage on a spell attack roll. This is highly potent and makes your spells much more reliable, but there is a catch. You might draw the attention of an occult entity…

This happens if you roll a 1 on your Intrusion die which starts at a d6 and increases in size as you gain levels. On the face of it, the odds here are pretty low, but the more you attempt to use this feature, the smaller the die becomes with rests increasing the size of the Intrusion die. Still, the odds seem favourable for at least a couple of uses per rest and even more at higher levels.

Much of this though, depends on how detrimental an intrusion is. The worst effects include being blinded for a turn, being restricted to an action, bonus action or movement for a turn, becoming incapacitated for a turn or having an aberration or fiend show up of equal CR to your wizard level. Some things may be good or bad like causing frightened or prone to creatures around you. I’d expect most wizards to be nearer allies than enemies so expect this to be more negative than positive. There are even some good effects like regaining spell slots or HP, but usually this comes at the expense of some kind of damage.

I quite like the odds. This becomes a high risk, high reward subclass that I think would be very fun, but be aware that it’s also a bit of a nightmare to predict, especially if you want to build with optimisation in mind.

Reality tear (Lv6) – 5/5

This is extremely strong, even with the threat of intrusion. A second concentration spells is an excellent option, especially when you have options that remain good at higher levels. You are limited to warlock spells for this, but there’s still options like fear, fly, hypnotic pattern, summon fey and hunger of Hadar that are all top options to use here.

Theres nothing stopping you from using this spell multiple times too, though the risk of intrusion will keep increasing.

Occult presence (Lv10) – 4/5

A fly speed is always going to be useful for a class reliant on evasiveness to survive. The damage resistances are technically a bit situational, as are charmed and frightened immunity, though combined, the benefits should be felt enough. I’d still tend to go for flight unless I know I’ll be up against undead or dragons or something that definitely has these qualities.

More choice on intrusions should make this less of a drawback.

Beyond space (Lv14) – 4/5

Improved and quicker scrying is solid on its own. Being able to teleport to that location could be an excellent way to launch surprise attacks. I could see this being a bit of a pain for DMs who may need to be a little more ready for quick fire invasions of NPCs.

It could also be much easier to prepare for an encounter when you know you’ll be invading their vicinity imminently.

How good is the occultist subclass?

The occultist is possibly the most potent wizard subclass I’ve seen. 2 concentration spells simultaneously is very powerful, even with the potential drawbacks. Add to that a greater chance of success and you’ve got a wizard that can maintain multiple, powerful effects at the same time and make them more likely to succeed.

How much you do this depends on how much you’re willing to risk. There can be negatives here, but doing so once or twice an encounter will likely mean safe spellcasting. Even then, most of the intrusions are not too bad and you can even choose your Intrusion to a degree at later levels.

A few extra tricks like scry teleportation and extra spells makes this a subclass that’s stronger than the average score of its individual features. I do suspect that this will end up being a bit overpowered in actual play so DMs be aware, this could be a little too potent.

5/5

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Building an occultist wizard

Occultists fit the typical stereotype of dedicated spellcasting wizards. As such, you can build your occultist in much the same way you can any wizard. If you want a full breakdown on how to do this using D&D 2024 character options, you can check out my wizard optimisation guide.

As this is a Crooked Moon subclass, I’ve just looked at character options in the Crooked Moon book and given advice on which work well for this wizard subclass.

Species/race

Below are some of The Crooked Moon species that I think have the best synergy with the occultist:

• Ashborn: Some extra spells to cast is nice and there’s a couple of good options too. Darkvision is always useful and diverting attacks is helpful for some much needed resilience. The scorpion sting is a bit useless for a wizard, but there’s enough here without that.
• Azureborn: Flight is really handy for staying safe from melee specialists, especially for a ranged build. Guidance and augury are both good spells and augury can be cast again by a wizard. Enhanced initiative for the party is good on any class.
• Harvestborn: More damage against bloodied creatures works nicely for a class that can focus on damage dealing. Bonus action healing is the other useful thing here. You don’t have a lot occupying your bonus action so this gives you an option to help the party.
• Silkborn: A couple of decent spells here. The occasional AC enhancement works well as you shouldn’t be attacked loads, but this should prevent a hit every encounter which is likely. Climbing will allow you to get somewhere a bit safer, including a ceiling, and cast your spells from some relative safety.

Backgrounds

Unlike the Player’s Handbook, Crooked Moon backgrounds give you a choice of any ability scores to increase. Based primarily on the origin feats and proficiencies, I’d recommend the following backgrounds for an occultist:

Name	Ability scores	Origin feat	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency
Crossroads gambler	Any	Fate gambler	Deception, insight	One kind of gaming set
Cultist	Any	Cult initiate	Arcana and one other	Calligrapher’s supplies
Druskenvald dweller	Any	Any	Survival and one other	Choose one
Experiment	Any	Altered	Intimidation, medicine	Alchemist’s supplies
Scholar of the forbidden	Any	Dread speech	Arcana, intimidation	Calligraoher’s supplies
Wicker weaver	Any	Charm twister	Insight, nature	Weaver’s tools

Feats

I’d consider the following feats for a occultist:

• Altered: Natural armor will always be good as it accomplishes what mage armor does without using a spell slot or needing to be prepared. Night vision might be a good choice if you don’t already have darkvision.
• Charm twister: Bless is a good buff and you can repeat cast it. Twisted hex can be situational to engineer, but if you can plant it in the right place, then that disadvantage can be a real pain.
• Cult initiate: More spells to cast and an extra level 1 casting is good. The warlock list isn’t the biggest, but there’s still some good options in there. It also happens to be very thematic for an occultist, though I might favour magic initiate if possible.
• Dread speech: Bane is a pretty good debuff and frightened with a bonus action is a decent option too.
• Fate gambler: It’s probably saving throws you’ll be forcing most out of this list. The heroic inspiration will be handy, as will the temporary hit points for some extra resilience.
• Swift witchcraft: There aren’t many 1 minute spells that would really benefit from being cast as an action, but you could do a lot with Leomund’s tiny hut and magic circle this way (as lower level examples).

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