DnD Chronurgy Wizard 5e guide

From Strange to Who, Teferi to The Flash, pop culture is littered with heroes who can paddle about in the timestream. And with the DnD Chronurgy Wizard 5e, you can be one of them. In this guide, we’ll teach you this time-based 5e Wizard’s key features and abilities, as well as suggest some good class and feat options to select.

That said, you can’t go too wrong with this DnD Wizard subclass, which is well-known to be one of the most broken classes in the entirety of Dungeons and Dragons. Introduced in the DnD book, Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount, it’s basically an even better version of the already strong Divination Wizard, and some groups choose to ban it altogether.

It’s a really cool DnD class though, and well worth playing if you get the chance. The Chronurgy Wizard can freeze enemies, and alter the future to ensure a better outcome. With this Wizard 5e you can force re-rolls, arm your party with spells, and always make the first move.

Chronurgy Wizard 5e features

Chronal Shift

The very first Chronurgy Wizard ability, at 2nd level, already does an enormous amount for this subclass. Twice per long rest, you can use Chronal Shift to re-roll a saving throw, attack roll, or ability check, for you or another creature.

This ability can be used defensively, to avoid damage or a harmful effect; or offensively, to ensure a vital attack lands. And better yet, you don’t have to activate your Chronal Shift until you see the roll, so your powers will never be wasted.

Bundled together, what this means is your party gets a lot stronger as soon as the DnD Wizard selects this subclass. If you use it to prevent critical hits or reroll death saves, it’s kind of like healing.

Temporal Awareness

Also at 2nd level, you can add your intelligence modifier to your initiative rolls. This very simple ability is deceptively useful. Temporal Awareness can prevent DnD monsters from wreaking havoc on your spindly wizard body if you start a fight out of position, while also enabling you to apply buffs to your team or devastate your enemies while everyone is still clumped together. Going first never hurts.

Momentary Stasis

The Chronurgy Wizard’s 6th level feature is an action that lets you stop time for a creature, as long as they’re of Large DnD size or smaller. If your target fails a Constitution saving throw against your spell DC, you can use the Momentary Stasis power to give them the Incapacitated 5e condition and zero speed until the end of your next turn.

You get a number of uses equal to your Int modifier each long rest, so probably a couple of charges, unless you did something very weird with your DnD stats.

This is a good ability against small numbers of elite enemies. It’s situational though, and much less powerful against a pack of beasties. Notably, this ability can be paired with your Chronal Shift to make the stasis that much more likely to succeed.

Arcane Abeyance

This subclasses’ 10th level ability is arguably the Chronurgy Wizard’s most broken feature, and seems designed for players who like to tinker. Basically, you get to hand out time-frozen spells like candy. Specifically, with Arcane Abeyance, you can use a 4th level spell slot or above to create a mote, a spell frozen in time as it was cast.

This mote lasts for the next hour before fizzling away. A creature holding the mote can cast the spell trapped within using their action, becoming its caster for all rules purposes. You can only use this ability once before taking a short or long rest, placing at least some restrictions on what you can pull off with Arcane Abeyance.

… But not many. From infinite familiars to popping Tiny Hut in the middle of combat, there is really no end to the shenanigans you can get up to with this. You can buff melee classes with spell effects they shouldn’t gain access to, you can double up concentration spells for intense damage potential, you can bypass lengthy spell-casting times, and much, much more.

Once you have Arcane Abeyance, the world of DnD spells is your playground.

Convergent Future

The Chronurgy Wizard’s capstone ability lets you rewrite a roll entirely as a reaction, the cost being you gain a level of exhaustion. Like Chronal Shift, Convergent Future works on attack rolls, saving throws, and ability checks, but this time instead of a re-roll, you just select whatever number you want (20 or 1 seem like popular picks). No need to take a risk.

You’ll want to familiarize yourself with the Exhaustion 5e rules before making extensive use of this ability, however. This condition might not be something you’ve had to deal with before, in which case the headline is: you die if you reach exhaustion level 6. Reaching into the future and selecting the outcome you want can make you so sleepy you simply expire.

Chronurgy Wizard 5e races

Halfling

The Halfling 5e is an interesting race to pick for a Chronurgy Wizard character thanks to the synergy between Lucky and Chronal Shift. This lets you re-roll 1s, and the later Bountiful Luck feat lets you spread that ability to your allies. This lets you get even more juice out of your re-roll effects.

Harengon

The rabbit-like DnD Harengon is a really strong race option for a Chronurgy Wizard, thanks to its Leporine Senses feature. This lets you add your proficiency bonus to initiative rolls. Mixed with Temporal Awareness, it makes you even more likely to act first in combat. Plus you can mix bunnies with clocks, for a distinctly Alice and Wonderland feel.

Chronurgy Wizard 5e feats

Lucky

Keep the rerolls coming! Lucky gives you three luck points each long rest, which you can spend to reroll one of your own rolls or that of an attack coming your way. That lets you save your Chronal Shifts for your team mates.

Alert

Alert is a great DnD feat for this subclass for the same reason the Harengon is a good race option: it boosts your initiative. Even more importantly, though, you can’t be surprised while conscious, negating a key threat to Wizard characters.

For more DnD class guides, check out all the DnD Fighter subclasses ranked, or a guide to the many different DnD Cleric subclasses.