Trying to figure out the best chronurgy wizard 5e build?
Then you have come to the right place!
Not only will I be going over the abilities of the subclass, I will also provide a step by step guide from levels 1-20 on picks I would do to make this class the strongest
Let’s begin the guide on building the chronurgy wizard 5e subclass.
Chronurgist Wizard Build Overview
The chronurgy wizard is one of the strongest subclasses for wizards.
Its five abilities are well designed to build off each other to make each of them more powerful as you level up.
Plus the spells you get from your expanded spell list has a great amount of applications, making this a huge boon to the chronurgy wizards gameplay.
As a result, this allows for a really powerful class for any player to play with lots of different ways to make it fun.
Resources Used
In general, there are two resources I use when doing a subclass build for these articles.
The first one is understanding the 4 playstyles every player falls under and learning what each subclasses inherit playstyle is.
If you are unfamiliar with this concept, then I highly suggest reading my articles on playstyle as they go over the information to give you a general understanding of the idea.
Or, if you are looking for an in-depth understanding of playstyles, then I suggest getting my characters, classes, and you, book.
It is only 99 cents but goes over playstyles and some good tricks to build more effective characters tailored to your playstyle.
The second resource I use is my review on the Chronurgy wizard subclass.
So if you haven’t read that, I highly suggest reading that first as it gives you the general idea and power of the subclass.
While also using the math there to justify the build’s decisions.
Playstyle
As noted in the chronurgy wizard 5e review, chronurgy wizards lean more toward a combat playstyle with their abilities, additional spells, and general lore all leaning toward battle.
As a result, the chronurgy wizard 5e build will orient toward a combat playstyle.
This means the primary goal of this class will be toward battle.
This can be accomplished in a few ways, debuffing crucial enemies, dealing large damage to targets, or being the best at surviving.
For the Chronurgist wizard, I lean toward debuffing crucial enemies as it synergizes with their level 2, 6, and 14 ability really well.
The Abilities
The chronurgist wizard has 5 abilities that they gain as they level up.
These are:
- Temporal Awareness
- Chronal Shift
- Momentary Stasis
- Arcane Abeyance
- Convergent Future
Each are uniquely powerful and great for a combat playstyle.
Temporal awareness will help you control the board quicker and be first in combat.
Chronal shift will make sure your party will fight better and enemies will fight worse.
While Momentary Stasis will shut down key enemies giving your party time to adjust.
With Arcane Abeyance allowing more combos for your party to perform in a situation.
All the while convergent future allows for any critical roll to be a success or failure.
Great to shut down enemies and protect allies.
These abilities will be the essential make-up to the chronurgy wizard build for 5e with each level focusing on making them better.
Step by Step Chronurgy Wizard Build
Level 0
At level 0 you get to choose:
- Race
- Lore
- Background.
In my guide to Chronurgy wizards for 5e, I deemed a high elf would be a great race for a combat playstyle as it gives you more cantrips, access to elvish accuracy later levels, and a bonus to intelligence and dexterity.
For the cantrip, I would choose Mage Hand as it has both great combat and non-combat uses.
Meanwhile, for lore, I think a fun character build for D&D would be The Doctor from Dr. Who.
While not for war, he has a background in war and does his best to prevent serious loss of life in battle.
All the while he does his best to help others in need with his sonic screwdriver (wand).
This means a good background would be soldier giving you access to the skills athletic, intimidation, a gaming set (cards), and land vehicles (horses, carriages, etc)
It will also give you access to go to your old barracks and demand simple goods from them.
That said since you are against war you might not use this often.
That said, once you get these choices set up for you, your character sheet should have the bones of the build set up for you.
Level 1
Now that you have the base of your character setup, it’s time to go over level 1.
At level 1 you learn
- Three cantrips
- 6 spells
- Arcane Recovery
CANTRIPS
For the three cantrips, it is usually good to learn 1 combat, 1 roleplay, and 1 utility. This way you always have a spell for any situation.
Now for the best cantrips I like to use my 10 best wizard cantrips article as a base as it goes over a lot of benefits to cantrips that most don’t include.
That said, after that, I usually take into account the character’s lore for the final decision.
For combat: I would choose Sapping Sting, Utility gets Minor Illusion, and roleplay cantrip gets message.
These were chosen as choices many military professionals would probably use quite often in military scenarios.
SPELLS
As for the 6 spells, it really depends on your playstyle.
That said since we are assuming a combat playstyle, some of the best spells you can choose are Shield, absorb elements, find familiar, ice knife, and Tasha’s hideous laughter.
Each are great spells at early levels and have great uses for combat or utility needs.
Shield and absorb elements are great for helping wizards survive, especially if they are a soldier.
Meanwhile, Ice Knife works great when fighting multiple enemies and Tasha’s hideous laughter does a solid job controlling fights with a boss.
ARCANE RECOVERY
As for Arcane Recovery, this ability lets you regain some of your spell casting powers.
Once per day when you finish a short rest, you can choose expended spell slots to recover that have a combined level equal to or less than half your wizard level (rounded up). And none of the slots can be 6th level or higher.
This is great for regaining uses of combat-based spells such as Tasha and ice knife, allowing you to be set up for future combat scenarios you expect.
Level 2
After level 1, it becomes easier on wizards leveling up.
At level 2, you get your subclass abilities that help you go first in combat and control the board better.
These are talked about in detail in my chronurgy wizard review, but the short review is that chronal shift is the bread and butter to this build.
So, maximizing the abilities’ effectiveness will garnish the best results.
You also get 2 more spells and an additional level 1 spell slot.
Some great ones at this point are ritual spells that have great uses.
These could be something like detect magic or identify for outside combat help, or Alarm or Unseen Servant for setting up great combat rounds.
Level 3
At level 3, you get access to second-level spells.
Hold person is absolutely busted with chronal shift and is a must-take for an optimized build.
Meanwhile, you will probably want a spell that holds large versatility inside and outside of combat.
As a result, phantasmal force, Suggestion, and Fortune’s Favor are all solid spells.
With spells like flock of familiars, rope trick, and ray of enfeeblement being solid combat-based choices.
Level 4
Level 4 is where you get the next big perk, Ability Score Improvements or Feats.
The first goal for a wizard is to maximize intelligence and assuming a standard array of 16 intelligence at level 1, you will want to get your intelligence at 18 at this level.
Level 5
The next level see’s an improvement to proficiency bonus and the most powerful early game spells in the D&D; 3rd level spells.
With this level, you will see a bump to your saving score which will net you a small (1-2%) increase in monsters failing your saves.
While small, it is necessary to keep focusing on improving this score as at level 5 the CR for monsters becomes much higher more quickly.
This means choosing spells that can deal with these threats are going to allow you to shine in combat scenarios.
Fireball and Lightning Bolt are classic D&D spells wizards will love to have.
That said, these actually are not optimal for a chronurgy wizard.
As a result choose them if you would like, but the best ones are allowing your party to perform better.
This means spells like haste and slow are great for boosting or debuffing certain people in battle.
Haste has a reduced chance of failure with chronal shift while slow gets an increased chance of success because of the ability.
Meanwhile, some other good options to consider are Counterspell, Bestow Curse, and hypnotic pattern, which your chronal shift can interact with in unique ways.
Thus adding another layer to your character’s effectiveness.
Level 6
Level 6 gives you the ability of Momentary stasis.
This is a powerful ability that can shut down enemies on average 75-89% of the time when using chronal shift in conjunction.
Because of this, this will become a powerful main action ability that your class will use and at this point switching out a few spells or adding some new spells to leverage bonus action, utility, or roleplay would be a good choice.
Sending, Leomund’s tiny hut, or misty step, become great choices at this level.
Or you can grab more ritual spells and other spells mentioned earlier that interest you.
Level 7
Level 7 gets you access to level 4 spells.
Polymorph, Dimension Door, and Banishment are classics at this level, but Charm Monster, Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere, and Hallucinatory terrain are great choices inside and outside of combat
Level 8
Level 8 will get you your next ASI improvement for your chronurgy wizard character build.
Same as level 4, if you are not at 20 intelligence maximize that first.
After you get that at level 20, some feats to look at are: Lucky, Elven accuracy, and Alert.
These all work good with your level 2 abilities and can enhance depending on your choices.
Lucky for better use of chronal shift.
Elven Accuracy for attacking spells.
And Alert to help you go first in combat to control the board.
Level 9
At this level, you get 5th level spells.
These spells are known for being spells that define an event.
Modify memory, Dominate person, and Scrying become some of your best choices for spells
These can change numerous events your DM throws at you and with chrinal shift you can help guarantee your odds of success.
Level 10
Level 10 gets you your next big chronurgy wizard ability’ Arcane Abeyance.
This is a utility-based ability that seeks to help the 5e chronurgy wizard by getting around restrictions spellcasters have.
As such, spells geared around letting others boost the party or getting around spell restrictions become great choices.
At this level, Leomund’s Tiny hut, Glyph of Warding, and comprehend languages can be great choices for getting around spell time restrictions.
While popular concentration spells such as Greater invisibility, bestow curse, and haste become ideal targets as well.
If these do not excite you then look at common situations you find your party are in and come up with ways to overcome the common restrictions the situation puts you in by having 2 spells at your disposal simultaneously.
Level 11
6th level spells are a little bit more unique in options.
These often fill in the role of specific builds.
Because of this, identifying what niche spell you want to use at this level becomes important for your effectiveness.
Tenser’s Transformation is a great spell if your wizard begins going into more close up combat scenarios.
While Disintegrate is great for high single target damage and gravity fissure for those designed to take care of a bunch of enemies at once.
Because of chronal shift and arcane abeyance, however, Tenser’s Transformation and Disintegrate become your best options since these can be given to allies or enhanced by chronal shifts ability.
Level 12
Access to your next ASI or Feat. I suggest choosing from those discussed in level 8.
If not those, then look at some that fit who your character has become at this point.
Level 13
Now we get to the 7th level spells for your chronurgy wizard build for 5e D&D.
This is your next level of powerful spells designed for high CR combats.
Force cage is probably your best option as once you lock them in there, you can use chronal shift to stop them from teleporting out to force them to reroll those successful saves.
Meanwhile, Plane shift can have some great utility in multi-plane campaigns or works as another form of banishment.
With Finger of Death being a great choice for gaining a permanent follower that has a 73.10% chance to fail with your chronal shift ability.
Level 14
Next we have the strongest ability for the chronurgy wizard build; Convergent Future.
This ability guarantees success for any roll or guarantee a fail for any roll.
As a result, this is where the most powerful save or suck spells should be added to your list to work off this ability.
This includes Suggestion, Hold Monster, or even the spells you get access to at level 15 as if successfully cast, destroying many battles or strategies.
Level 15
This is where you get access to spells that truly make Convergent future shine.
Feeblemind, Reality Break, and Maze are all good options at this level.
Each shut down enemies in their own unique way and are better depending on your campaign settings.
Level 16
Same as last time you got an ASI or Feat improvement.
But to give you some more options to choose from, Magic initiate for guidance, resilient for common saves you still seem to fail, and War Caster are all solid choices your character will love to see.
Level 17
Next comes the final spells on the list, 9th level spells these are your most powerful and the auto-include is Wish.
There has never been a spell that comes close to the power of that spell, but if you want to choose some others, Imprisonment, True Polymorph, and Power Word: Kill are good options for a chronurgy wizard build.
Level 18
Level 18 gives you spell mastery which allows you to cast one level 1 spell and one level 2 spell for free as often as you want.
The best choices are shield and hold person as it works well with the chronurgy wizard abilities and helps you to survive.
While absorb elements and fortune’s favor become other choices depending on what you seem to cast more.
Level 19
At this level, you get your final improvement, and really the choice is yours.
You can choose from previous feats or choose whatever suits your character best.
I tend to like the tough feat for the extra hitpoints.
Level 20
Finally you have made it to level 20.
This gives you the ability signature spells which lets you choose two 3rd level spells you can cast for free each rest.
Despite popular belief, these spells should be popular spells you use outside of combat.
These can include examples such as fly or sending as they allow more versatility for the party and saving your spell slots for unique situations you find yourself in.
Multiclassing
Now, for those who only planned on multiclassing, there are two classes that pair the best with a chronurgist wizard build.
These two classes are bards and sorcerers.
Bard x/ Wizard X
Bards are a great choice for those looking at a support battle playstyle.
The abilities of the bard are designed to support the party in outside and inside combat roles.
Meanwhile, subclass abilities such as the college of swords, see an increase to combat prowess for their own character by giving them access to many of the fighter’s traits.
As a result, going 2 levels into the chronurgist wizard or 6 levels into chronurgist wizard will see the best results.
2 levels into chronurgist will give you 90% of what makes a chronurgist wizard a chronurgist wizard.
While going to level 6 will get you to 95% with access to third-level wizard spells and Momentary stasis.
You will want to do a 2 level dip if you plan on building an early game character who comes online quickly and uses the chronurgy dip to support the party.
However, a level 6 dip will be better for a late-game hard control-based character whose goal is to shut down enemies quickly and decisively.
Either option is viable but only do level 6 if you are already level 10 or higher as waiting 14 levels for a build to come online is way too long for fun.
Sorcerer X/ Wizard X
The next choice is going sorcerer x levels and wizard x levels.
This kind of multiclass seeks to alter the game state using “meta” knowledge to alter the physics of the game.
By using the metamagic ability combined with the chronal shift ability, board states and games can become seriously warped to fit the parties’ needs.
Because of this, your reliance on metamagic abilities are pretty crucial and as such, you should only go 2 levels in the chronurgy wizard for this build.
The reason is your sorcery points and metamagic skills will be what defines your skill while chronal shift is there to enhance them.
These two options are great choices if you plan on multiclass and have the most synergy with what most chronurgy wizards in 5e are trying to do.
Chronurgy Wizard Build 5e Conclusion
In conclusion, the chronurgy wizard build is strong and flexible.
Its ability to manipulate rolls combined with the other subclasses’ abilities really allows your character to shine in combat roles.
Specifically, a combat roll designed to shut down key enemies.
Because of this, spells, feats, and racial choices are all designed to enhance the statistics revealed in my review on chronurgy wizards for 5e.
I look forward to seeing you use this guide to not only improve your gameplay but to have more fun as well!
If you would like to learn all the tips and tricks I use when building a character, I highly recommend by Players Intro to D&D book, Character, Classes, and You.
Not only is it designed to walk readers through the step-by-step process of making a great and memorable character, it also goes over which playstyle is best for you and how to implement that in any game you play.
Have a wonderful day and may all your rolls be natural!