Introduction
The School of Gastronomy Wizard, published in Valda’s Spire of Secrets, is a wizard focused on food and cooking. Mechanically, it’s a fantastic support build which can add a ton of durability to your party, as well as helping your party to focus on important targets with Flavor Blast.
While Monster Dish is the subclass’s signature feature, Flavor Blast is arguably more important to whether or not a Gastronomer Wizard will be effective at the table. Before you pick this subclass, encourage your party to choose player options like Path of the Beast Barbarian, Circle of the Moon Druid, Beast Master Ranger, or the Dhampir lineage so that they have bit attacks to benefit from Flavor Blast.
The folks at Mage Hand Press were kind enough to provide a physical review copy for this article. I introduced myself at Gen Con, they put a big ol’ tome in my hands, and I’ve been pondering their wizards ever since. Valda’s Spire of Secrets is available exclusively from MageHandPress.com.
This article covers 3rd-party content. Be sure to discuss using the content with your table before assuming that is available to you.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Disclaimer
- School of Gastronomy Wizard Features
- School of Gastronomy Wizard Ability Scores
- School of Gastronomy Wizard Races
- School of Gastronomy Wizard Feats
- School of Gastronomy Wizard Weapons
- School of Gastronomy Wizard Armor
- School of Gastronomy Wizard Multiclassing
- Example School of Gastronomy Wizard Wizard Build – Room Temp HP
Disclaimer
RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.
- : Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- : OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
- : Good options. Useful often.
- : Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.
The advice offered below is based on the current State of the 2014 DnD 5e Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows.
School of Gastronomy Wizard Features
- : Proficiency in Chef’s Tools lets your party members add +1 healing when they spend a Hit Die during a Short Rest. Yes, that is a thing.
- : The subclass’s signature
feature, this allows you to turn a dead body into a massive pool of
Temporary Hit Points. It scales with CR, so the THP granted will naturally
scale as your party gains levels. The minimum is always 1d6, but you could in
theory get 30d6 for killing something of CR 30 like the Tarrasque.
Unfortunately, you only get to use this once per day, and the corpse can only be 24 hours old. Your most likely use case is to use this when your party takes its first Short Rest in a day, and you can prepare one of the enemies you defeated that day. If you’re adventuring on back-to-back days, you might drag around the body of the scariest thing you fought recently.
Remember that Gentle Repose is a Ritual, and it will keep your next feast from spoiling despite a lack of refrigeration. There’s no mechanic which makes this necessary, but it might quiet some awkward questions.
- : Massively dependent on
your party composition. Since this only benefits bite attacks, it’s only
good if your party uses bite attacks. If no one in your party bites things,
this is functionally a dead level.
If your party does use bite attacks as a go-to offensive option, this could be nearly perpetual Advantage on attacks against targets of your choosing. Use reliable low-level spells like Tasha’s Mind Whip to force failed saves, and encourage your party to line up at the buffet. You could summon creatures with bite attacks to add even more mouths, but Wizards get surprisingly few options to summon things that bite.
- : Heroes’ Feast is an amazing buff, but it’s too expensive to cast on a daily basis even in 5e where money is functionally useless. Remember that it increases targets’ maximum hp rather than granting Temporary Hit Points, so you can absolutely combine this with Monster Dish to massively pad your party’s hit points.
- : A one per day
combat summon. Much like Spiritual Weapon, it’s not a creature, it doesn’t
occupy space, and it can’t be attacked or destroyed. It doesn’t require
Concentration, either, which is pretty great. If you’re facing Medium-sized
enemies, using the mouth to swallow them is a great way to take enemies out
of the fight potentially permanently. The damage of the bite and the acid
aren’t crazy high, but having an enemy in a pocket dimension taking ongoing
damage means that they’re dying and can’t do a thing to hurt you, so this is
effectively a save-or-suck every round as a Bonus Action for a full minute.
It’s not clear if the mouth benefits from Flavor Blast. It’s not a creature. RAW I think it does not since you are commanding the mouth to attack, rather than making a bite attack yourself. But I do think that the intent is for this to work with Flavor Blast. Check with your DM.
School of Gastronomy Wizard Ability Scores
No different from a typical wizard.
School of Gastronomy Wizard Races
No different from a typical wizard.
School of Gastronomy Wizard Feats
Mostly the same as a typical wizard. The Chef feat feels very appropriate, but mechanically it’s no better for School of Gastronomy than for any other Wizard.
School of Gastronomy Wizard Weapons
No different from a typical wizard.
School of Gastronomy Wizard Armor
No different from a typical wizard.
School of Gastronomy Wizard Multiclassing
No different from a typical wizard.
Example School of Gastronomy Wizard Wizard Build – Room Temp HP
As befits the subclass, this is mostly a support build. I’ve chosen options that support the subclass features, but there is still a ton of room to customize your spell choices within the build. So long as you’re successfully causing enemies to fail saves and putting your subclass features to use, it’s very easy to play School of Gastronomy to great effect.
Abilities
Fairly standard for the Wizard. We want to rush to 20 Intelligence because several of our subclass features depend on our intelligence modifier, and higher Intelligence means that we can benefit more party members. If your party is only 4 creatures, you may be fine to sit at 18 Intelligence for a while, but you’re still a Wizard, so you really want 20.
| Base | Increased | |
|---|---|---|
| Str | 8 | 8 |
| Dex | 14 | 14 |
| Con | 15 | 16 |
| Int | 15 | 17 |
| Wis | 10 | 10 |
| Cha | 8 | 8 |
Race
Our choice of Race matters very little to the build. A Dhampir would be conceptually interesting due to their “Hungers,” and a halfling always feels right for something food-related due to their roots in Tolkien’s works. None of the new races presented in Valda’s Spire of Secrets have any unique synergy with the subclass, though there are numerous options that would work very well as a Wizard.
Whatever you choose, put +2 into Intelligence and +1 into Constitution.
Skills and Tools
Not especially important to the build. Note that we’ll get Chef’s Tools at level 2.
Background
Not especially important to the build. Pick whatever works for a typical wizard.
Feats
We’re going to rush
Levels
| Level | Feat(s) and Features | Notes and Tactics |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spellcasting Arcane Recovery Cantrips Known: – Candy Blast – Mage Hand – Mind Sliver – Prestidigitation Spells Known: – Any 6 | At level 1 we’re a very normal wizard. Candy Blast is a new spell introduced in Valda’s. d8 magical bludgeoning damage, and it leaves difficult terrain in the target’s space, so you get the best damage type in the game and a little bit of crowd control. The candy has no nutritional value, so I guess we’re shooting sugar-free candy. Regardless, this is our go-to attack cantrip. |
| 2 | School of Gastronomy Sous Chef Monster Dish Spells Known: – Any 2 | Sous Chef gets you proficiency in Cook’s Utensils, which will make your party’s Short Rests slightly more efficient. Monster Dish requires some attention. Keep the corpse of the toughest qualifying enemy that you defeat, and trade it out if a better corpse appears or if it hits the 24-hour expiration date. You might use Monster Dish before the adventuring day begins, or you might use it part-way into the day once your party has taken some damage. I recommend using it after your party’s first Short Rest of the day. |
| 3 | Spells Known: – Any – Tasha’s Mind Whip | Tasha’s Mind Whip will be a crucial option once we get Flavor Blast. Intelligence saves are consistently the lowest save through the whole CR range, and a reliable way to force a failed save is very helpful. |
| 4 | Ability Score Improvement: – Con 16 -> 17 – Int 17 -> 18 New Cantrips Known: – Any Spells Known: – Any 2 | Split an ASI to get to 18 Int and set us up for Chef at level 12. |
| 5 | Spells Known: – Animate Dead – Fireball | You can’t use Monster Dish on humanoids, but you can use Animate Dead on them. Weirdly, zombies “slam” things instead of biting them. It’s been that way since at least 3.0 and it has never once made sense to me. Fireball is not super exciting, but it’s hard to argue with the results. Consider shouting “en flambe!” as the spell component. |
| 6 | Flavor Blast Spells Known: – Melf’s Minute Meteors – Any | Flavor Blast is School of Gastronomy’s central offensive feature. Much like Faerie Fire, it could give your whole party Advantage on their attacks against your target. Pick a suitable target and have everyone in your party that bites things focus their attention to bring that target down quickly. Melf’s Minute Meteors isn’t an amazing spell, but it can force a save 6 times using a single spell slot, which works very nicely with Flavor Blast. Triggering the meteors is a Bonus Action, so you can force a save, then cast another spell as an Action. You can upcast Minute Meteors to add extra meteors, but with a 10-minute duration you’re unlikely to get much benefit from doing so. You’ll run out of enemies before you run out of meteors. |
| 7 | Spells Known: – Hunger of the Earth – Any | Hunger of the Earth so that you can feed the ground tasty snacks. I’m being told that that’s not what the spell does. Fine. Real advice it is, then. Another new spell in Valda’s, Hunger of the Earth is a Strength-based save-or-suck. The target does get additional saves, but they’re made at Disadvantage and cost the target’s Action to attempt. You can further debuff those saves with Mind Sliver, at least as long as you can see the target. Most creatures won’t be able to unbury themselves. |
| 8 | Ability Score Improvement: Int 18 -> 20 Spells Known: – Polymorph – Any | Polymorph lets us turn ourselves or an ally into a T-Rex, which has a very effective bite attack. If you can get Flavor Blast going before you cast Polymorph, you’re in good shape to face a large single enemy. If you have Melf’s Minute Meteors running, spending the last meter or two to end the spell and then spending your Action to cast Polymorph is an excellent combo. |
| 9 | Spells Known: – Animate Objects – Any | Flavor Blast grants Advantage on bite attacks and attacks with teeth. The sharp bits on saws are called teeth. Therefore, an animated saw blade might get Advantage from Flavor Blast. No, I wouldn’t allow that as a DM. It’s ridiculous, and clearly against the spirit of the feature, but the Wizard gets exactly one summon option that has a bite attack, so I’m trying to get creative. |
| 10 | Bottomless Feast New Cantrip Known: – Any Spells Known: – Any 2 | Heroes’ Feast is a fantastic buff. It’s tempting to use it on yourself, but strongly consider putting it on your party’s Defender instead. |
| 11 | Spells Known: – Summon Fiend – Any | Bottomless Feast can now target 5 creatures, which is likely your entire party. Summon Fiend is the Wizard’s only summon spell that can summon something with a bite attack. The Demon option is the only one, of course, but it’s really our only choice that can capitalize on Flavor Blast. |
| 12 | Feat: Chef (Con 17 -> 18) Spells Known: – Any 2 | Chef makes our Short Rests even more efficient, and gives us another option to provide Temporary Hit Points (and food) to our party. Pass out the snacks to your party’s melee characters, who are likely to burn through the THP from Monster Dish faster than you are. |
| 13 | Spells Known: – Any 2 | – |
| 14 | Ravenous Magic Mouth Spells Known: – Any 2 | Ravenous Magic Mouth is the first of our subclass features that takes up action economy in combat. It’s effectively a combat summon. |
| 15 | Spells Known: – Any 2 | – |
| 16 | Feat: Favorite Spell (Summon Fiend) Spells Known: – Any 2 | A new feat introduced in Valda’s Spire of Secrets, Favorite Spell is great for a spell that you’re using routinely, especially your higher-level spells. We’ll pick Summon Fiend since it’s out only option to summon a bite attack, but feel free to deviate if Summon Fiend isn’t working for you. |
| 17 | Spells Known: – Any 2 | – |
| 18 | Spell Mastery – Accelerate/Decelerate – Tasha’s Mind Whip Spells Known: – Any 2 | Another new spell from Valda’s, Accelerate/Decelerate lets us increase or decrease the damage of a nearby attack as a Reaction. You’ll be able to use it nearly every turn in combat to protect yourself and your allies, providing a consistent way to mitigate damage, stretching your party’s hit points even further. Free mind whips means that we can now apply Flavor Blast for free! |
| 19 | Feat: – Downcaster Spells Known: – Any 2 | Another new feat from Valda’s, Downcaster lets you split a spell slot into two lower-level spell slots. By this level you have a ton of spell slots, but you’re still routinely using level 1 and 2 spells like Absorb Elements and Shield, so melting down mid-level spell slots to get a ton of extra level 1 and 2 spell slots can be very effective. |
| 20 | Signature Spell: – Any 2 3rd-Level Spells Spells Known: – Any 2 | There aren’t any amazing 3rd-level spells that synergize well here, so choose whatever works for a typical Wizard. Fireball and Fly are easy go-to choices. |
