Graviturgy Wizard 5E Guide | Rules, Tips, Builds, and More

The Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount offers players control of Dunamancy, a rare magic that gives control over the Powers that Be. One aspect of Dunamancy is control over gravity, an aspect that the Graviturgy tradition grew out of. (We have also covered Chronurgy Wizards in detail, too!)This school of magic is dedicated to control over matter. They learn to bend the energy of gravity to their whim, and as such gain control over the battlefield with brutal efficiency. So let’s float a bit – Or come crashing down, depending on your whim – and figure out what makes this Subclass so cool. Get the whole story with our Graviturgy Wizard 5E Guide!

Defy Gravity: Graviturgy Wizard 5E

The Graviturgy Wizard is a wizard subclass that is mainly concerned with battlefield control. This mostly focuses on reducing or increasing movement speed with buffs and debuffs… or by grabbing and moving targets. The Graviturgy tradition also includes multiple abilities that have support-like effects, including weapon damage increases or saving throw boons. In general, it’s a battlefield control mage with some support effects… And also access to the new Graviturgy Dunamancy spells.

Graviturgy Spells

Along with the subclass, the Graviturgy Wizard has access to 6 new Graviturgy spells that are exclusive to them… Pending DM permission, of course. These spells, unsurprisingly, give the Graviturgist access to some more abilities to crowd control enemies, with a single utility spell.

As utility spells go, Immovable Object is more humorous than anything else. You get to fix an object in space, and it can carry weight – up to 20,000 pounds with a 6th level spell slot. This can be a neat party trick since you and allies can move it easily. It’s also a case where Strength checks matter since a Strength check is needed to move it. All in all, a fun spell that could easily make its way into a spellbook and find one or two instances of usage.

Damage Spells

Magnify Gravity is a damage spell with a Con saving throw, blasting for 2d8 damage and halving speed. It can also prevent enemies from picking up disarmed weapons since it requires a Strength check to pick things up. Actually decent damage, good crowd control, and an early game Area of Effect. Potent.

Gravity Sinkhole and Gravity Fissure are instant blasting spells that pull targets towards the effect; Fissure is a line, Sinkhole is a sphere. Both deal decent damage, though Fissure is a much longer line. Decent crowd control, but not really impressive damage. Good for Graviturgists.

Powerful High-Level Spells

Dark Star – edgy name, admittedly, and requires a drop of your blood – forms a sphere that can be huge. Anything within it can’t see, hear, be damaged by thunder, or cast spells with verbal components. They also take force damage and can be disintegrated. For a concentration spell, it’s a big radius with a disintegration effect attached to it. The force damage is pretty strong, and the deafened effects can prevent casters from easily dispelling to negate it. Ravenous Void is actually quite similar to it, though with a larger radius, providing difficult terrain, and requiring many more Strength saves. Ravenous Void restrains creatures, which makes it a lot better as a crowd control effect. Use Dark Star against weaker minions, Ravenous Void against stronger ones, and laugh like a maniac over the duration of either.

Adjust Density

The first ability of the Graviturgy Wizard is a weird one. At level 2, the Graviturgy wizard can target a Large or smaller… Thing, be it a creature or a treasure chest. During the next minute – which is a Concentration effect – the target’s weight can either be halved or doubled. If it’s halved, the target is 10 feet faster, doubles its jumping capabilities, but has disadvantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws. If it’s doubled, the target is 10 feet slower but has advantage on Strength checks and saving throws. At level 10, you get to affect Huge creatures with this, as well.

That’s a pretty cool effect. It’s also resourceless, so it’s almost permanent. The movement speed increase can be an essential solution to a puzzle, allowing a party member the boost they need to get into position, jump over a gap, or get past a trap room. The “jump” aspect is particularly interesting, since not many puzzles are designed with a permanent jumping ability in mind; you can mess with a lot of puzzles with that… Until the GM starts putting in low ceilings. The disadvantage on Strength checks is a bummer, but it can be planned around. Note that an attack roll isn’t a Strength check, even if the attack uses Strength.

The other aspect is primarily a debuff; losing 10 ft of movement speed is a problem, after all. However, the advantage on Strength saving throws balances the ability out a bit. A few spells rely on Strength saves, most of them being “gravity” effects. If you want to debuff your enemy’s movement speed, then you’ll have some trouble landing your future abilities on them. That being said… Some gravity-based spells – Like Reverse Gravity, or the ones mentioned above – target Dexterity or Constitution instead, so don’t be afraid to use this ability on a Dwarven Warlord to make him extremely slow. Just turn this off before using any Strength-based spells on him.

The downsides to this ability is that, as written, you can’t target yourself. No movement speed boost for you, and no Advantage to Strength checks either. That said… You really don’t need it. Use this ability to give your allies a much-needed boost to speed, or to make a boss take longer to get into melee. Or, out of combat, to make your allies either light as a feather or stiff as a board.

Gravity Well

Sadly, that’s the only level 2 tradition effect. At level 6, you get to throw people around. If you affect a creature with any spell, you get to move them 5 ft. This only works against willing targets, if the target failed the save, or if the caster landed the attack roll.

Unlike a lot of abilities of this type, this doesn’t specify that cantrips don’t count. So… All of your cantrips can now shift your enemies 5 ft, putting them in a worse position. That seems minor, but when you can cast a cantrip every single turn, that means enemies have to spend more and more actions to get into range to combat you and your frontline. Also, when you use gravity spells to mess with your enemy’s movement capabilities, that 5 ft becomes equivalent to a mile.

Also notable is that it doesn’t give an action, or a limit to the number of targets affected by this ability. So, when you cast a fireball, suddenly all enemies within a 20 ft radius get slammed so hard by fire, they lose their balance and shift 5 feet. All of your area of effect spells suddenly get a huge amount of extra impact, since they also displace everyone within it. That’s so much disruption! Considering the Area of Effects of the Graviturgist spells, you’ll affect quite a lot of enemies with this ability.

And, the description specifies that willing targets count, too. So, when you cast Fly and target a few allies in the late game, they can all shift 5 feet towards where they plan on heading. That can be highly impactful, since it’s so much free movement during fights. You can use this to avoid attacks of opportunity by casting Haste on someone in danger. Or you can move an enemy into the melee range of a Monk just in time for the Rogue’s sneak attack.

The versatility of this ability is astounding, even if the effect is somewhat minor. You’ll have a lot of fun telling the GM exactly where you want to move your opponents.

Violent Attraction

There are two ways to use this level 10 ability. One is to deal damage with weapons; you can boost the damage of a weapon attack by 1d10 with your reaction. The other is to deal 2d10 damage to a target that takes falling damage, still using your reaction. This is limited to a number of times per long rest equal to your Intelligence modifier.

This ability is one of the weaker options that the Graviturgist has. Realistically, there’s only a few spells that force your enemies to fall – the most popular being Reverse Gravity. This ability reads that you can use your reaction to increase the damage caused by Reverse Gravity – and similar spells – by 2d10. That’s… Fine. That’s okay, but compared to a lot of other damaging reactions, it’s nothing spectacular.

And that’s the stronger of the two damage types. The other boosts weapon damage by 1d10. That’s an average of 5.5. For your reaction. That’s kind of pathetic. The falling damage is at least an 11 damage boost, which is respectable.

So then the question becomes… How many spell slots do you want to spend on preparing falling damage? Unless your GM allows your barbarian to throw enemies off his shoulder, you’re probably not gonna see many enemies “naturally” fall during combat. So you’ll have to make them fall, if you want this ability to do maximum damage. I would suggest not focusing that much on this ability… But, Reverse Gravity does get better when this is used, and it was already a fantastic spell. Keep that in mind as you build your spellbook, and as you prepare your spells. Feel free to use this just to boost weapon damage… But save one or two for a bigger burst when an enemy falls.

Event Horizon

At level 14, the Graviturgy gets a really interesting ability. As an action, you can begin a 1 minute, concentration-oriented spell – so you can’t use this and Adjust Density. In a 30 ft radius around you, creatures make a Strength save, whenever they get in range. If they fail, they take 2d10 damage, and can’t move. If they succeed, they take half damage, and moving instead becomes 3x harder; every 1 ft takes 3 ft of their movement cap. For most creatures, that reduces their movement speed from 30 to 10. After you use this, it takes a long rest or a 3rd level spell slot to use again.

I’m really sad that this takes Concentration, since it would have been so nice to use this and Adjust Density at the same time. However, this is an extremely effective zoning tool. If they save against this effect… It takes so much effort to get into melee range with you. If they fail, they are quite literally unable to move. That can keep enemies in range of the frontline, prevent enemies from getting to you, and make sure they stay in range of area of effect spells.

And it never targets allies. Which is weird, but hey, you get to choose your targets. 2d10 damage per round builds up, even if it does use a concentration slot. And you get to refresh it by burning 3rd level spell slots, which this ability is certainly worth. The only downside to this is that a lot of enemies that want to come within 30 ft of you are likely to be melee attackers, which means they’ll have good Strength. Even in that case, this ability comes in handy, making it harder and harder to attack you. This is actually pretty crazy, and is almost like a 3rd level spell exclusive to the Graviturgy subclass.

Best Race for Graviturgy Wizards

The Graviturgy Wizard has natural defense from melee combatants with Adjust Density and Event Horizon. That doesn’t protect it from ranged enemies, however, so Constitution and Dexterity are as important for Wizards as it’s ever been.

Forest Gnome

The Forest Gnomes might be quite interested in an element like Gravity. The Intelligence and Dexterity boosts are exactly what you want for a Wizard. Minor Illusion is quite a potent spell, and these guys get it for free! Considering Gnome Cunning is a quite strong effect against magic, AC helps against ranged attacks, and you get Darkvision for free, this is a really efficient race for you.

Yuan-Ti Pureblood

Feeling like a serpent? This addition to Volo’s Guide to Monsters might be for you! A boost to Intelligence is already a great start, and Darkvision means less spells spent on Light. You also get 3 separate spells that you get innately, though they rely on Charisma. Combine all that with Magic Resistance – an insane effect – and preventing Poison from affecting you, and you have a really potent wizard race. Be sure to ask your GM before you pick this race, however, since they’re not loved by many.

Race Notes: All Races Have… Gravitas

Wizards are Intelligence strongholds, but that doesn’t mean that other races aren’t well-suited for arcane nonsense. Hobgoblins have a boost to Intelligence, and maybe can make use of the Light armor provided. Any race can start with 15 Intelligence and work their way up; Humans can take a feat to increase their Intelligence, such as Keen Mind or Linguist, to keep up. Other races can simply take the ability score increases and keep their racial abilities. Although that may not be very efficient, it could be exactly the character you’re looking for.

Conclusion – Our Graviturgy Wizard 5E Guide

What a weighty archetype! There’s some anti-synergy in here – such as none of the Dunamancy spells involving forcing your opponent to fall – but its defensive abilities are unique. It can really prevent melee characters from getting close, which is important for Wizards. Using vast area of effect spells, great crowd control, and some utility abilities to their advantage, this subclass easily gets our seal of approval. Try it out if you’re looking for a Wizard that can bully a battlefield. You can also learn more about what this release offers in our review of the new Wildemount Subclasses.