Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Lizard Wizard

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel when Nerdarchists Dave and Ted started with the environment of a swamp to create a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character who combines harnessing the darker elements and power of the swamp with a lizard wizard. Next step was to decide who would be in this swamp. This Lizard Wizard 5E D&D Character Build Guide leans into the idea of decay and the fetid nature of the swamp a bit more than our original lizard wizard concept. Let’s get into it.

Behind the CBG — Lizard Wizard

Every Character Build Guide we create considers the journey as much as the final outcome. We aim to present a guide suitable for any level of 5E D&D play whether you’re pursuing an epic campaign from start to finish, starting beyond 1st level or choosing a character for a one shot. Then we take those concepts and develop an NPC or creature version of the character build for DMs to incorporate into their games. All of this gets packaged up and laid out in a PDF you can find over at Dungeon Master’s Guild. We’ve got dozens of pay what you want products at DMG, many of them best sellers so if you want to check those out start with the Lizard Wizard here.

All about the character story

Each CBG starts with a character concept sticking to a particular schtick, from the Mind Breaker’s psyche crushing smites to the Lizard Wizard’s embodiment of everything their tribe reveres. Sometimes puns and pop culture references instigate the creation of a CBG too. We’ve had so much fun taking these a step further and expanding on one of our encounters like we did with Devil of the City and we’re doing the same with the Lizard Wizard for our patrons in April. At each step of the way we considered this character’s command of the ancestral swampy home and the deadly natural power therein.

For us it’s important to consider who these characters are as individuals and why they follow these particular paths. One special thing to note with this CBG is while we always aim to make the journey to 20th level as practical as possible — none of these characters “come online” after an awkward slog through many levels — the Lizard Wizard takes flexibility to another level at 8th level by channeling the power of their ancestral home through all their magic. Every step of the journey from there to 20th level expands the scope of these areas of expertise.

Lizard Wizard NPC for 5E D&D

Full disclosure — the NPCs and creatures we make in CBGs are some of my favorite bits of 5E D&D content to create. We step back and look at the character build to find the standout features that feel like signature abilities. The juice! From there we consider what sort of person or people would possess or gain these abilities and build a stat block around them. More often than not the section of a CBG For Dungeon Masters presents a generic creature.

A few months ago we expanded upon the CBG line by taking another big step and integrating them with our monthly Patreon rewards. Now we take these NPCs and craft an encounter around them in the style of our super popular Out of the Box series. Since starting down this path with the Party Animal CBG and Dark Paths: Little Shop of Dark Delights we only gotten more excited. Now we’re integrating those encounters from the very start to build on themes and concepts from them and other favorites.

Revered and Feared. Lizardfolk monarchs depend upon corpse callers as advisors for the strength they add to the tribe as well as the fear they spread among their own people. The corpse caller proves there are fates worse than death.

“Plant Infested Zombie. A corpse caller can command any infested zombies of their choice they can see within 60 ft. to collapse into the ground and die. The space where the infested zombie dies becomes difficult terrain. The first time a creature moves through this space the remains explode in a burst of poisonous spores and the creature must make a DC 11 Constitution saving throw, taking 7 (2d6) poison damage on a failed save or half as much on a successful one, and the ground is no longer difficult terrain.”

If your next 5E D&D game needs a character who maintains a spiritual duty to weaponize and spread the swamp’s power no matter how others view their methods. — whether you’re the DM or a player — check out the Lizard Wizard Character Build Guide here.

*Featured image — Although neither a lizardfolk or a dragonborn in the 5E D&D sense of the word Magic: The Gathering’s Frilled Mystic from the Ravnica Allegiance expansion is a creature type lizard wizard. And elf. It’s a Simic Hybrid basically but it does hold a very exclusive type. [Art by Randy Vargas]

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