Study Up on 5E D&D Magic — Abjuration Spells

Salutations, nerds! Today I’m studying up on abjuration magic for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Some of you are probably squinting at this thinking it’s awfully convenient since this 5E D&D school of magic begins with the letter “A” and those people would be right because I’m going to hit the others as well, in the unassailable alphabetical order. As one does. So! Defensive spells, banishments and negation magic. Abjuration in 5E D&D is all about protection and saying nope. Spellbreakers are super cool, and honestly I don’t feel like they get nearly enough credit.

Arcane tradition — abjuration

In 5E D&D School of Abjuration wizards get a few really cool things, and honestly it surprises me I don’t see them played more. First of all there’s Arcane Ward, which is basically a shield that takes damage for you and reduces the amount that gets through to you. Every time you cast an abjuration spell of 1st level or higher the ward replenishes hit points. At 6th level you can use your Arcane Ward to absorb damage for your nearby allies as a reaction, making it still useful even for a caster who isn’t in the line of fire a whole lot.

As a capstone feature you flat out get advantage on saving throws against spells and resistance against the damage of spells. Yeah, you read this right — all the spells. Not a damage type, just spell damage, which makes a higher level School of Abjuration wizard a pretty good mage hunter.

“Abjuration spells are protective in nature, though some of them have aggressive uses. They create magical barriers, negate harmful effects, harm trespassers, or banish creatures to other planes of existence.” — from the 5E D&D Player’s Handbook

10 notable abjuration spells

1. Absorb Elements. You get resistance to an energy type and then when you next attack you get 1d6 extra damage of the type you absorbed. Also it’s cast as a reaction. How often are you getting to use your reaction for things?
2. Banishment. Nasty extraplanar creatures giving you trouble? Not anymore. Even if they’re not extraplanar you can send them to a pocket plane if they’re annoying you.
3. Counterspell. Another spell cast as a reaction and it’s basically just nope. If you want the flavor of straight up unravelling magic this is an absolute must have.
4. Dispel Magic. Like counterspell but after the fact. Any spell of 3rd level or lower is just gone and otherwise there’s a check. This is one I don’t see used nearly often enough, either.
5. Invulnerability. This is a 9th level spell for a reason — you take no damage at all until the spell ends. The duration is 10 minutes and most combats don’t even last 10 rounds let alone 10 minutes (100 rounds).
6. Mage Armor. Raises your base AC if you’re not wearing armor, which goes right along with the protective thing abjuration magic does so well.
7. Restoration. Removes bad effects. There are a lot of things you basically have to have a restoration spell to get rid of. Again with the unraveling of the magic.
8. Shield. Raise your AC by +5 until the start of your next turn as a reaction? Yes, please. Unfortunately you can’t use it on your allies but it’s a good one to have in your back pocket for yourself.
9. Shield of Faith. This bonus action spell raises the target’s AC by 2 for 10 minutes. This has saved my paladin’s life more than once.
10. Warding Bond. This is not a concentration spell. It raises an ally’s AC as long as they’re close to you and gives them resistance to all damage, which is nothing to sneeze at. The downside is you take the same damage they do, but for a super tanky paladin or cleric that’s going to be fantastic. Good for escort quests.

NERDITOR’S NOTE: Add more variety to your 5E D&D abjuration magic with these Top 10 homebrew abjuration spells.

5 character concepts for abjuration magic

1. The Bodyguard. You’ve worked in service to a charge for whom you were using your abjuration magic as protection. There are a lot of reasons you might not be traveling with them anymore, whether you got fired or failed them in some way. Or perhaps your charge is another character in the adventuring party?
2. The Exorcist. You deal in angry spirits. There’s something in a house that needs to get gone real fast? You’re who they’re gonna call. This is one job you can definitely still do while you’re out traveling with your party.
3. The Guardian. There’s something coming. An entity. Something from another plane of existence and you are the only one who even knows it’s imminent. You’re traveling to get what you need to prevent this breach from happening or, failing that, to prepare for when it does.
4. The Spellbreaker. Consider a character who went to wizard school and wasn’t very good at casting spells but for whatever reason was extremely good at breaking them. You could take dispel magic, restoration and counterspell for sure but even some shield and energy spells and flavor them as weakening the magic as it comes closer instead of canceling it out entirely.
5. The Warden. You worked at an arcane prison geared toward housing spellcasters and one of your inmates escaped. You’re now traveling the land trying to find this convict and bring them back in, and you don’t get your job back until you’ve done so. Upon leaving, a lot of the wards on the grounds that were empowering you suddenly weren’t so you have to learn to use your magic under your own power now (hence starting at whatever level your campaign begins).

So! Do you play an abjuration magic specialist in 5E D&D? Have a player who does? Going to now? Let us know in the comments, connecting with us on Facebook or tweeting us @Nerdarchy. Feel free to comment or tweet me @Pyrosynthesis too. And as always, stay nerdy!

*Featured image — A goblin spellcaster knows how valuable abjuration magic can be like when a simple shield spell saves your butt. This image was created in just a few minutes with full color thanks to the amazing resources at Hero Forge. There’s so much you can do with Hero Forge! Check it out for yourself here.

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