Chronurgy Wizard in D&D 5e | Full Subclass Guide (2024)

There’s always something thrilling about diving into the mysteries of time itself.

Enter the Chronurgy Wizard, a subclass from the Wildemount setting that lets you bend, twist, and downright warp the fabric of time to your will.

Imagine pausing your enemies mid-strike or rerolling the dice of fate itself—sounds pretty epic, right?

Then grab your spellbook, adjust your favorite timepiece, and hold on tight! Things are about to get a bit… wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey…

This is the full guide to the Chronurgy Wizard in D&D 5e!

What is the Chronurgy Wizard in D&D 5e?

Imagine having the power to twist the very threads of time, to nudge fate in your favor, and to outmaneuver your enemies before they even know what’s happening.

As a Chronurgy Wizard, you are the ultimate timekeeper of the arcane world. You can rewind crucial moments, freeze foes in their tracks, and even store spells in little pockets of suspended time.

Your magic isn’t just about raw power; it’s about finesse, strategy, and a deep understanding of the temporal flow. With every spell you cast, you weave a tapestry of possibilities, altering the course of events in subtle yet profound ways.

But it’s not just about the mechanics—it’s about the sheer cool factor!

Picture yourself stepping into a room, your presence bending the air with temporal energy. Enemies tremble as they realize they’re not just facing a wizard; they’re up against someone who can manipulate the very essence of time itself.

Your allies look to you for that crucial edge in battle, knowing that with you on their side, the tides of time are ever in their favor.

This, my friend, is the power of time and reality itself.

The Chronurgy Wizard appears alongside the Graviturgy Wizard (another Dunamancy-based Wizard subclass) in The Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount.

Role in the Party

The Chronurgy Wizard’s role in an adventuring party can vary depending on your preferences and specific character build. Wizards are very versatile characters, after all!

But Chronurgy Wizards particularly excel at battlefield control and support, making them invaluable assets in any group. With abilities that allow you to manipulate time, you can control the pace of combat and give your party the upper hand.

For example, your Chronal Shift feature lets you force rerolls, ensuring that critical moments go in your favor. Meanwhile, Momentary Stasis is perfect for crowd control, allowing you to incapacitate a troublesome enemy for a few precious seconds.

Additionally, Arcane Abeyance lets you store spells for later use, providing flexibility and adaptability in battle. Finally, Convergent Future ensures that you can dictate the outcomes of the most critical moments, albeit at a cost.

In essence, the Chronurgy Wizard is the ultimate strategist, using time itself as their weapon to protect allies, hinder enemies, and ensure that every second counts.

Chronurgy Wizard Features 5e

So, let’s now get into the details and look over the features you gain as a Chronurgy Wizard in D&D 5e.

Prepare to be amazed as we delve into the time-bending abilities that set this subclass apart. From manipulating fate to freezing foes in their tracks, each feature is designed to make you the master of temporal magic.

Ready to wield the power of time itself? Let’s dive in!

Chronal Shift (Level 2)

Imagine the power to force a do-over in the most critical moments—whether it’s turning a miss into a hit or ensuring a crucial save.

This feature is your ace in the hole, giving you the power to rewrite key moments in time. How’s that for a strong opening feature, eh?

As a reaction, after you or a creature you can see within 30 feet of you makes an attack, ability check, or saving throw, you can force the creature to reroll.

You make this decision after you see whether the roll succeeds or fails. The target must use the result of the second roll.

You can use this ability twice, and you regain any expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Chronal Shift allows you to manipulate the outcome of critical moments in the game. When you or an ally is faced with a make-or-break roll, or when an enemy lands a devastating hit, you can step in and force a reroll.

The best part? You get to see the original roll before deciding to use this feature, so you can save it for the most opportune moments.

Picture this: your Rogue ally is about to miss a crucial Sneak Attack on the big bad, or perhaps your Cleric is on the brink of failing a death saving throw. With a mere flick of your wrist, you can give them a second chance.

Conversely, if an enemy is about to land a critical hit, you can force them to reroll, potentially turning a dire situation into a much more manageable one!

With two uses per long rest, Chronal Shift is a versatile tool that can be the difference between victory and defeat. Use it wisely, and you’ll be the unsung hero of countless encounters, subtly steering the tides of fate in your party’s favor.

Temporal Awareness (Level 2)

Ever wish you could always be a step ahead of your enemies? With the Temporal Awareness feature, you can!

This feature ensures that you’re not only quick on your feet but also quick in your mind. By tapping into the flow of time, you can react faster than anyone else on the battlefield, giving your party the edge right from the start.

You can add your Intelligence modifier to your initiative rolls.

Initiative determines the order in which characters act during combat. Normally, this is influenced by your Dexterity modifier, but as a Chronurgy Wizard, your sharp intellect also comes into play.

With Temporal Awareness, you also add your Intelligence modifier to your initiative rolls, reflecting your uncanny ability to predict and react to the unfolding events around you. (Note that this is in addition to your Dexterity modifier!)

Imagine stepping into a chaotic battle and instantly knowing where to position yourself for maximum impact. Your enemies won’t know what hit them as you consistently act before they can even react.

This feature is especially potent for Wizards, as getting the jump on your foes can mean the difference between casting a crucial spell or being caught off guard. Before the battle even really gets going, a Wizard that’s up early in the initiative order can deal some truly massive damage to the (likely grouped together in a fireball formation) enemy side.

By leveraging your high Intelligence, you ensure that you and your party can seize the initiative, setting the tone for the entire encounter. Whether you’re launching a preemptive strike or positioning yourself to support your allies, Temporal Awareness makes sure you’re always in the right place at the right time.

Momentary Stasis (Level 6)

This powerful ability lets you temporarily lock your enemies in a field of magical energy, giving you and your allies the precious time needed to regroup, strategize, or deliver a decisive blow.

It’s like having a personal “pause” button for the most critical moments in battle.

As an action, you can magically force a Large or smaller creature you can see within 60 feet of you to make a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC.

Unless the saving throw is a success, the creature is encased in a field of magical energy until the end of your next turn or until the creature takes any damage. While encased in this way, the creature is incapacitated and has a speed of zero.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier (a minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Momentary Stasis is your go-to feature for crowd control.

Imagine the possibilities: an enemy spellcaster about to unleash a devastating spell, a charging brute ready to wreak havoc, or a slippery foe trying to escape. With a wave of your hand, you can freeze them in place, buying your party valuable time to act.

This feature is particularly effective against single, high-threat targets, giving your team the opportunity to focus fire or reposition without immediate threat.

You can use Momentary Stasis a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier, ensuring you have multiple opportunities to turn the tide of battle.

Use this wisely and you can effortlessly dismantle even the best-laid enemy plans!

Arcane Abeyance (Level 10)

As they say, “timing is everything” and few would know that better than the Chronurgy Wizard. So why shouldn’t it also be true for spellcasting?

This ability lets you freeze a spell in time, storing it in a magical bead that you or an ally can unleash when the time is right. It’s like having a magical ace up your sleeve, ready to be played at the most opportune moment.

When you cast a spell using a spell slot of level 4 or lower, you can condense the spell’s magic into a mote. The spell is frozen in time at the moment of casting and held within a gray bead for 1 hour. This bead is a tiny object with AC 15 and 1 hit point, and it is immune to poison and psychic damage. When the duratiojn ends, or if the bead is destroyed, it vanishes in a flash of light, and the spell is lost.

A creature holding the bead can use its action to release the spell within, whereupon the bead disappears. The spell uses your spell attack bonus and save DC, and the spell treats the creature who released it as the caster for all other purposes.

Once you create a bead with this feature, you can’t do so again until you finish a short or long rest.

Of course, the real magic happens when the bead is used.

Any creature holding the bead can use their action to release the spell, causing the bead to disappear and the spell to be cast instantly. The spell uses your spell attack bonus and save DC, but the creature releasing it is treated as the caster for all other purposes.

This means your allies can unleash your spells, adding a major layer of tactical flexibility to your team.

Imagine the possibilities: storing a charged-up Magic Missile spell for one of those “just in case” type moments or preparing a banishment spell for your Rogue to use when they get the jump on a major target.

Arcane Abeyance turns you into a strategic powerhouse, capable of adapting to any situation by saving powerful spells for the absolutely perfect moment.

Convergent Future (Level 14)

Finally, we come to the Chronurgy Wizard’s capstone feature. Hold onto your bowtie and ready your flux capacitor for 1.21 jigowatts of pure awesomeness.

This ability allows you to peer into possible futures and pull the best one into reality, making you the ultimate master of destiny. Whether it’s landing a crucial hit or avoiding a devastating blow, Convergent Future puts the power of fate in your hands.

You can peer through possible futures and magically pull one of them into events around you, ensuring a particular outcome.

When you or a creature you can see within 60 feet of you makes an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, you can use your reaction to ignore the die roll and decide whether the number rolled is the minimum needed to succeed or one less than that number (your choice).

When you use this feature, you gain one level of exhaustion. Only by finishing a long rest can you remove a level of exhaustion gained this way.

Convergent Future allows you to take control of the most pivotal moments in the game. This feature ensures that you can entirely turn the tide of battle or crucial skill checks in your favor, making it an incredibly powerful tool.

Imagine the possibilities: ensuring your Fighter lands a critical blow on the BBEG, guaranteeing your Rogue’s stealth check in a high-stakes infiltration, or making sure your Cleric succeeds in turning a particularly nasty undead enemy. Convergent Future gives you the power to make these crucial moments count, turning potential failures into guaranteed successes.

However, wielding such power comes at a cost.

Each time you use Convergent Future, you gain one level of exhaustion. This means you’ll need to carefully consider when to use this feature, as accumulating exhaustion can have serious consequences for your character. Only a long rest can remove the levels of exhaustion gained this way, so use this ability wisely.

So, while you want to be mindful of when and how often you use it, this is still a very small price to pay for such an effect.

Connections

Creating a compelling backstory for your Chronurgy Wizard can add depth to your character and enrich the overall campaign. Given the theme of manipulating time, there are countless intriguing ways to weave your character into the story and connect with other party members.

Your character could be a time traveler from a distant past or future, sent on a mission to correct a temporal anomaly. This quest could drive your character to seek out powerful artifacts or prevent catastrophic events, making them a vital part of the party’s journey.

Alternatively, your character might be a member of an ancient order dedicated to preserving the timeline. They are on a mission to stop a villain who is attempting to alter history for their gain. This responsibility could lead to alliances with other party members who share a common enemy.

Who knows, perhaps your wizard was a researcher who stumbled upon forbidden knowledge of Dunamancy? Their experiments with time magic went awry, causing them to be displaced in time. Now, they seek to understand and master their powers while finding a way back to their original timeline.

By integrating plot hooks and connections into your character creation process, you can create a Chronurgy Wizard who is not only a master of time but also a key player in the unfolding story.

Embrace the wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey nature of your character and watch as their presence shapes the narrative in exciting and unexpected ways!

Is the Chronurgy Wizard Good?

In a word—absolutely!

The Chronurgy Wizard is one of the most impressive and powerful subclasses in D&D 5e, and for good reason. This subclass offers a unique blend of strategic depth, battlefield control, and sheer magical prowess that truly sets it apart from other Wizard archetypes.

The Chronurgy Wizard’s ability to manipulate time gives them unparalleled control over the flow of combat.

With features like Chronal Shift and Momentary Stasis, you can reroll crucial dice, incapacitate enemies, and ensure that your party always has the upper hand. This level of control can turn the tide of battle in your favor, making you an invaluable asset to any adventuring party.

Meanwhile, the Arcane Abeyance feature allows you to store spells for later use, providing tactical flexibility that can adapt to any situation. Whether you need to save a handy utility spell for a dire moment or prepare a fireball for a surprise attack, this feature ensures you always have the right spell at the right time.

And, of course, once you hit the higher levels, the Convergent Future feature is a game-changer, allowing you to dictate the outcomes of the most critical moments. This power to ensure success (or failure) at key junctures can be the difference between victory and defeat, making you the ultimate arbiter of fate.

But why stop there? Beyond the mechanics, the Chronurgy Wizard offers rich role-playing opportunities!

The concept of manipulating time can lead to fun and fascinating character arcs, from a scholar obsessed with the mysteries of time to a guardian tasked with preserving the timeline. Your character’s unique relationship with time can add depth and intrigue to the campaign narrative.

The Chronurgy Wizard excels in so many categories it’s not even funny!

Recommended: Ranking Every Wizard Subclass in D&D 5e!

Conclusion – Chronurgy Wizard in D&D 5e

But that pretty much wraps it up for this guide.

The Chronurgy Wizard is a truly remarkable subclass, offering a unique blend of control, strategy, and magical prowess that few can match.

So, are you ready to step into the shoes of a time-bending wizard and reshape the destiny of your adventures? I hope this guide has inspired you to explore the endless possibilities and thrilling moments that come with mastering the Chronurgy Wizard.

We’d love to hear your thoughts! How has your experience been playing a Chronurgy Wizard? Do you have any tips or epic stories to share? Comment below and join the conversation!

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