TOPIC: Wizard - best school of magic?

Hello all those with more 5E experience than me.

Different question for you all to change the topic. I'm playing a wizard in a game for first time (You should never go full wizard but I did). spell management is fun!

I'm wondering what are peoples opinions on the best school of magic to adopt at level 2. right now I'm leaning towards either Evocation (blowy boom boom) or Transmutation (Being a human having a stone for dark vision could be handing plus can turn into things later).

Opinions gratefully received.

i haven't explored the others to a great extent, but i think the 2nd level portent power makes divination pretty powerful...

Portent
Starting at 2nd level when you choose this school, glimpses of the future begin to press in on your awareness. When you finish a long rest, roll two d20s and record the numbers rolled. You can replace any attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made by you or a creature that you can see with one of these foretelling rolls. You must choose to do so before the roll, and you can replace a roll in this way only once per turn.

Each foretelling roll can be used only once. When you finish a long rest, you lose any unused foretelling rolls.

Can guarantee success of friends or failure of opponents saves etc.

MellyMel wrote:
I'd seen that and thought it was nteresting but thought it would be fiddly to keep track of but I hadn't seen the part where you could influence DM rolls too...

same thing can be done with the luck feat at 4th...
my vote would go with transmuter or necromancer... taking health back from those you kill is a self heal thing that never gets old...dark and flavoursome!

war mage is also cool

Arcane Deflection
At 2nd Level, you have learned to weave your magic to fortify yourself against harm. When you are hit by an Attack or you fail a saving throw, you can use your Reaction to gain a +2 bonus to your AC against that Attack or a +4 bonus to that saving throw.

When you use this feature, you can’t cast Spells other than Cantrips until the end of your next turn.

Tactical Wit
Starting at 2nd Level, your keen ability to assess tactical situations allows you to act quickly in battle. You can give yourself a bonus to your Initiative rolls equal to your Intelligence modifier. (so this is on top of your dex!

Power Surge
Starting at 6th level, you can store magical energy within yourself to later empower your damaging Spells. In its stored form, this energy is called a power surge.

You can store a maximum number of power surges equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of one). Whenever you finish a Long Rest, your number of power surges resets to one. Whenever you successfully end a spell with Dispel Magic or Counterspell, you gain one power surge, as you steal magic from the spell you foiled. If you end a Short Rest with no power surges, you gain one power surge.

Once per turn when you deal damage to a creature or object with a Wizard spell, you can spend one power surge to deal extra force damage to that target. The extra damage equals half your Wizard level.

> same thing can be done with the luck feat at 4th...

no - thats a random re-roll. this, you know what the roll will be.