Im considering playing a wizard without a spellbook. Conceptually the character would be one of those people who's just a savant, he's too smart for his own good. Starting INT 20 smart. One reason im considering it is that when I play wizards I tend to not change spells alot. My DM is open to the idea of some slight mods to the class to balance it out for the loss in versatility. What do you guys think would be some good proposals? One thing thats he has approved is arcane recovery can be achieved via meditating on a short rest, not needing a spellbook. The other thing is allowing the swapping of a spell every time the character levels up like other caster classes. Any thoughts slight mods or experiences playing a similar concept?
So it kind of sounds like you want to play a Wizard like a Sorcerer/Bard? Why not follow the Sorcerer/Bard spell progression ie learn 1 new spell every level or 2. Then you could just ritual cast like a Bard as well. Otherwise if you learned 2 new spells every level it just makes your wizard outshine the other casters in the game.
Going with the template from other full-casters should work for keeping it functional mechanically, but one of the biggest advantages of a wizard is their flexibility so it'd be a shame to lose too much of that.
You might consider something like a "remembered spells" feature whereby you can keep a number of backup spells, say equal to twice your proficiency bonus; these are spells you know the components for in theory, but haven't practised recently so they're not ready for you to use (requiring them to be prepared first). Basically it would function like a spellbook in that you could still have some extra spells you know but can't use, and can swap in on a long rest. Double proficiency may be too many depending upon your exact theme, but it could reflect you knowing more than just the spells you have prepared, just not quite so many as a full spellbook could contain (which is basically every Wizard spell by higher levels).
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I thought of the bard/sorcerer combo but that’s CHA based and the over all character I’m wanting to play would not be a highly charismatic person. As for the spellbooks and scrolls, we are playing in a low magic campaign, think Conan/Hyborean age. There are magic items, and other casters, though VERY rare. We have been told to no expect to find even “uncommon”/+1 magic items until mid to late 3rd tier of play. So scroll’s and spellbooks would fall into that category. The character I’m playing started teaching himself magic after learning that spells are a specific set of physical, verbal, material and mental concentrations. He used logic and experimentation to start to figure them out. Think Dean Fogg from the magicians. He taught himself his first spell at the age of 4.
The spellbook is a core mechanic of Wizards including providing ritual spells without memorization, so I can see it being a difficult way to play Wizard. You literally can't learn spells without writing them into your spellbook first.
If you want an intelligence caster who doesn't work from a spellbook it might be easier to work with an Arcane Trickster or Artificer.
A divine caster like Druid or Cleric gives you a full spell list plus the ability to choose your spells daily but Wizards have a much larger, and arguably more powerful, spell list to choose from. Clerics pay for their expansive spell selection plus fairly powerful Cleric features by having among the weaker full casting lists.
I suppose you could play it by gaining one new spell at each level up, plus exchanging one existing spell, in the same way as other casters do. All other full casters start with 2 spells at level 1, and if you followed the +1 per level you'd potentially end up with 22 spells at level 20. That's a little less than a normal Wizard who, at level 20 with maximum Intelligence could have 25 known spells plus all the ritual spells in their spellbook, so I suppose it's not too bad.
A couple other things my DM and I talked about is letting the character call ALL spells as ritual spells to not consume a slot it just adds the 10 minutes to the casting time. Also allowing the character to know the number of cantrips equal to the base for wizards, 3, 4 and eventually 5, plus the character INT mod.
Well if you have any ideas good to better execute a spell caster what used sheer force of intellect instead of personality to learn and cast spells I’m all ears.
What were you thinking for wizard college? One of the normal benefits is getting a school of spells for half cost...
What if instead you made a new college of wizard that developed meta magic points? I'd suggest maybe only getting a quarter of what a sorcerer would get to balance out the arcane recovery and larger spell selection list and ritual casting. But to me it makes Story sense that if you're concentrating only on very specific spells that you would gain greater control over them.
But I would suggest reconsidering the spellbook as others have mentioned! The utility of a wizard, with a large list of spells to choose from, is really fun and versatile! So many of the wizard spells have some really fun /interesting options! Plus the spellbook itself adds more dynamic to the role play options (figuring out how to guard it, seeking out new spells, describing what it looks like to really make it yours! Do you make a backup copy with the 1000gp you scrimped and saved up on? Or do you keep risking losing your accumulated knowledge to get a few more healing potions?)
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Im considering playing a wizard without a spellbook. Conceptually the character would be one of those people who's just a savant, he's too smart for his own good. Starting INT 20 smart. One reason im considering it is that when I play wizards I tend to not change spells alot. My DM is open to the idea of some slight mods to the class to balance it out for the loss in versatility. What do you guys think would be some good proposals? One thing thats he has approved is arcane recovery can be achieved via meditating on a short rest, not needing a spellbook. The other thing is allowing the swapping of a spell every time the character levels up like other caster classes. Any thoughts slight mods or experiences playing a similar concept?
So it kind of sounds like you want to play a Wizard like a Sorcerer/Bard? Why not follow the Sorcerer/Bard spell progression ie learn 1 new spell every level or 2. Then you could just ritual cast like a Bard as well. Otherwise if you learned 2 new spells every level it just makes your wizard outshine the other casters in the game.
Going with the template from other full-casters should work for keeping it functional mechanically, but one of the biggest advantages of a wizard is their flexibility so it'd be a shame to lose too much of that.
You might consider something like a "remembered spells" feature whereby you can keep a number of backup spells, say equal to twice your proficiency bonus; these are spells you know the components for in theory, but haven't practised recently so they're not ready for you to use (requiring them to be prepared first). Basically it would function like a spellbook in that you could still have some extra spells you know but can't use, and can swap in on a long rest. Double proficiency may be too many depending upon your exact theme, but it could reflect you knowing more than just the spells you have prepared, just not quite so many as a full spellbook could contain (which is basically every Wizard spell by higher levels).
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
I thought of the bard/sorcerer combo but that’s CHA based and the over all character I’m wanting to play would not be a highly charismatic person. As for the spellbooks and scrolls, we are playing in a low magic campaign, think Conan/Hyborean age. There are magic items, and other casters, though VERY rare. We have been told to no expect to find even “uncommon”/+1 magic items until mid to late 3rd tier of play. So scroll’s and spellbooks would fall into that category. The character I’m playing started teaching himself magic after learning that spells are a specific set of physical, verbal, material and mental concentrations. He used logic and experimentation to start to figure them out. Think Dean Fogg from the magicians. He taught himself his first spell at the age of 4.
If this wizard can write spell in scrolls, then ... why not ?
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The spellbook is a core mechanic of Wizards including providing ritual spells without memorization, so I can see it being a difficult way to play Wizard. You literally can't learn spells without writing them into your spellbook first.
If you want an intelligence caster who doesn't work from a spellbook it might be easier to work with an Arcane Trickster or Artificer.
A divine caster like Druid or Cleric gives you a full spell list plus the ability to choose your spells daily but Wizards have a much larger, and arguably more powerful, spell list to choose from. Clerics pay for their expansive spell selection plus fairly powerful Cleric features by having among the weaker full casting lists.
I suppose you could play it by gaining one new spell at each level up, plus exchanging one existing spell, in the same way as other casters do. All other full casters start with 2 spells at level 1, and if you followed the +1 per level you'd potentially end up with 22 spells at level 20. That's a little less than a normal Wizard who, at level 20 with maximum Intelligence could have 25 known spells plus all the ritual spells in their spellbook, so I suppose it's not too bad.
A couple other things my DM and I talked about is letting the character call ALL spells as ritual spells to not consume a slot it just adds the 10 minutes to the casting time. Also allowing the character to know the number of cantrips equal to the base for wizards, 3, 4 and eventually 5, plus the character INT mod.
wizard without a spellbook is just an underpowered sorcerer.
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Well if you have any ideas good to better execute a spell caster what used sheer force of intellect instead of personality to learn and cast spells I’m all ears.
What were you thinking for wizard college? One of the normal benefits is getting a school of spells for half cost...
What if instead you made a new college of wizard that developed meta magic points? I'd suggest maybe only getting a quarter of what a sorcerer would get to balance out the arcane recovery and larger spell selection list and ritual casting. But to me it makes Story sense that if you're concentrating only on very specific spells that you would gain greater control over them.
But I would suggest reconsidering the spellbook as others have mentioned! The utility of a wizard, with a large list of spells to choose from, is really fun and versatile! So many of the wizard spells have some really fun /interesting options! Plus the spellbook itself adds more dynamic to the role play options (figuring out how to guard it, seeking out new spells, describing what it looks like to really make it yours! Do you make a backup copy with the 1000gp you scrimped and saved up on? Or do you keep risking losing your accumulated knowledge to get a few more healing potions?)
Why not just play a Sorc and switch the casting stat to Int?
Seems to solve everything and it's a piece of piss ("very easy") to implement.
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