DnD 5e Bombs and Goblin Bomb Wizard Build

As far as Dungeons and Dragons 5e bombs are concerned, a goblin wizard could be the right character:

5e bomb rules
Choose the goblin race
Choose spells and cantrips focused around explosions (and escaping them).
Study the School of Transmutation

Personally, I’m a huge Magic the Gathering fan. If you’ve never played, Magic the Gathering is a strategy card game based around the concept of battling wizards. The spells from each of the five colors have thematic and tactical meaning, so each color has a unique strategy and source of mana.

My color is red, the element of chaos and fire and geological forces—home to the goblins. In this game, goblins are berserkers with no expectation of living through the battle. Often, these little pyromaniacs are equipped with something explosive. I just can’t help but love them.

Therefore, in the spirit of goblins and chaos, I’ve created Gunther, goblin bomb wizard.

Before we jump in, I just so happen to have an original pirate adventure perfect for this chaotic character. Check it out by clicking here or below.

A few notes about 5e bombs.

As far as bombs go, I’ll need a couple of components: at least a pound of iron, an explosive ingredient and a wick of some sort. Or, of course, I can simply purchase a few (for quite a bit of money, usually). Using my particular wizard school, I hope to be able to make some of these implements on the fly. However, I’ll need my DM to be on board.

Bombs deal 3d6 damage to everything within a 5-foot range. In my opinion, this a better roll than 1d12. My lowest roll with 3d6 is 3, while my lowest with a d12 is 1. Also, I’ll consider the area of effect. Each creature within the radius of the bomb must make a Dexterity save, which means they better dive out of the way.

Choose the goblin race.

Sure enough, this is the first step. There are a few noteworthy elements about goblins to remember.

Goblins receive a bonus to Dexterity and Constitution. Sure, it isn’t built racially for wizardry and I might have chosen a Hobgoblin (+1 Intelligence) instead, but theme matters here. Hobgoblins lean toward battle mages, with the ability to wield martial weapons and wear light armor, but the character I’m going for is a little, green pyromaniac.

Therefore, I’ll keep my best two scores in Dexterity and Intelligence. I can place my natural high score in Intelligence, then allow my racial bonus to boost a moderate Dexterity score. Being little, I’ll arm myself with a ranged weapon, maybe even a firearm to go with my bombs.

As a goblin, I’ll also gain Darkvision, Fury of the Small and Nimble Escape.

Darkvision is fairly self-explanatory, giving me 30 feet of sight in the dark.

Fury of the Small

This racial ability gives me bonus damage to my attack or spell equal to my level. So, even at level one, I can pop off a little extra damage. I will have to take a short or long rest in between uses, so it won’t be impressive at first. Soon enough, I’ll be popping off 5 and 6 extra damage.

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Nimble Escape

As a bonus action, I’ll be able to disengage or hide. This ability will add to my “tricksy” nature as a goblin. Not to mention, it’ll save my scrawny butt when something wants to eat me, which kind of happens a lot to goblins.

Choose spells and cantrips focused around explosions (and escaping them).

As usual, I’ll need a variety of spells: a few explosive, a few tricky.

Cantrips:

Mage Hand

Mage Hand will allow me to generate an ethereal hand that is able to expand way past me. The idea with this spell is to be able to manipulate traps, magical items or hidden levers. For my purposes, it’s going to be a nice way to deliver a sizzling bomb.

Fire Bolt

For sure, I’ll need to be able to generate fire on command. Naturally, I picked Fire Bolt as my second cantrip. As a spell attack, this fire-blast dishes out 1d10 fire damage and ignites anything flammable it comes into contact with. You can bet I’ll carry canisters of oil for this purpose, granting me an extra 5 damage to the burn. I’ll think of it as a field deterrent.

Prestidigitation

Finally, I’ll choose this simple cantrip for mischievous purposes. The abilities of this spell are numbered, but think of an illusionist or magician. My primary focus for Gunter is the ability to immediately light a wick. In other words, I can light a bomb without taking an action. I can also fool my enemies with any given number of tricks.

1^st-level Spells:

Shield:

Being a practitioner of the explosive arts, this one should come in handy. Shield grants me +5 bonus to AC, including against the triggering attack, and I take no damage from magic missile. This is going to be extra necessary if I can’t slip away from a given situation, which can definitely happen. This game is chaos.

Thunderwave:

I can be explosive without a bomb using Thunderwave, which deals 2d8 thunder damage and pushes enemies 10 feet away. Well, enemies and everything else around me. Sometimes, I’ll need to clear some space.

Unseen Servant

Now, we’re having fun. The whole idea behind Unseen Servant is to have a ghostly apparition appear to do chores and such. For me, this presents the perfect opportunity to send a magical, non-living entity to deliver special packages to otherwise hidden foes. The magic servant also is useful for exploring dangerous situations, something like a bomb-deactivating robot… except it’s the opposite.

Expeditious Retreat

This spell allows me to take the Dash action on casting of the spell and every turn afterwards for a few turns. Combined with my Nimble Escape ability, this spell is going to be hilarious. Good luck trapping me as I get a bonus action of Dash and Hide within the same turn.

Burning Hands

More fire? Yes, please. Burning Hands acts like a flamethrower, dealing 3d6 fire damage (much like my bombs) within a 15-foot cone of fire. It’s kind of like dragon breath but blasting out my hands. Come to think of it, it would be pretty radical if I could modify the spell to come from my mouth. Gnarly.

Grease

Yeehaw! This spell seems ridiculous, but goblins are all about a good time. Covering the ground in a 10-foot swath of slick oil, this spell creates difficult terrain for my enemies to walk. When the grease appears, each creature within its range of effect must make a Dexterity save or fall prone. A creature that enters the area or ends its turn there must succeed in a Dexterity save as well.

2^nd-level Spells:

Misty Step

I know, I know, I used this (and a few other spells) in my last wizard build. Honestly, though, is there a better 2^nd level spell? Misty Step allows me to teleport up to 30 feet away, and something about teleporting, dashing and hiding makes me giggle. The mayhem will be wonderful.

Invisibility

Speaking of mayhem… As you can imagine, Invisibility makes me invisible for one hour. The variety of mayhem my devious little goblin will do with this spell is boundless. As I mentioned before, variety is the spice of wizardry… or something like that. Also, I could choose to make someone else invisible.

Study the School of Transmutation

As soon as I pick this school of study, I gain the ability to half the gold and time it takes to copy a Transmutation spell into my spellbook.

This school will grant me Minor Alchemy at level 2. With concentration, I can transform material such as wood, stone, iron, silver or copper into one of the other choices. Meaning, I can carve a statue out of wood and transform it to silver for an hour—just long enough rip off an NPC merchant.

My main idea, however, is to create explosive shells on the fly. The heaviest material needed for a bomb is the iron that surrounds it. If I have the ability to turn other material into iron, I’ll just need to carry around explosive powder and wicks. I already have a wizard’s pouch for magical contents. Might as well make it a backpack full of boom-boom powder.

At level 6, I’ll be able to shapeshift. So, playing with the idea of a goblin transforming into an ogre like the Incredible Hulk seems fitting.

And there we have it.

How do you like my goblin bomb wizard?