I have so far played a paladin, a warlock, an arcane trickster rogue, a cleric and a bard. I love spell casters, particularly Gish.
i have been trying to plan a wizard character, probably a bladesinger or a scribe, but even though I have several fun backstories and designs for them, I can’t bring myself to feel excited to play a wizard.
The spell book, the time to copy spells, etc, it all sounds too complicated.
can someone please help explain just what the pros and benefits of being a wizard is over other casters?
They also become crazy powerful at higher levels of play. Some of their spells like Wall of Force, Invulnerability, and Time Stop can cause some serious havoc on the battlefield. And do not underestimate their power out of combat either. Spells like Drawmij's Instant Summons, Mighty Fortress, Simulacrum and Clone are some amazing high-level spells to use outside of combat in your down time.
Spellcasters in general have access to some of the most powerful abilities in the game.
Wizards, though---they have access to the most spells. They won't necessarily cast more spells per day or anything. But their toolbox of possible spells is much bigger.
So they're almost always going to have more _options_ than any other character in the game; and, yeah, choosing which spells to learn and knowing how they can interact is fairly complex.
Luckily, the internet is chock full of advice for how to take advantage of all of that choice. And even if "optimizing" isn't your goal, it's fun see what folks have figured out. You can pick and choose whatever sounds fun.
One of the biggest benefits of wizards is utility. Yes, they can blow things up with magic. Though direct damage spells are kind of not the best — fireball can hurt lots of folks, but hypnotic pattern can just shut them down. Besides that, particularly after a few levels, they have a magic solution to most problems. Levitate, Tiny hut, fly, dimension door, telekinesis, plane shift, teleport. I once used wall of force like, basically, an umbrella to block an avalanche. Utility is where wizards really shine.
They also become crazy powerful at higher levels of play. Some of their spells like Wall of Force, Invulnerability, and Time Stop can cause some serious havoc on the battlefield. And do not underestimate their power out of combat either. Spells like Drawmij's Instant Summons, Mighty Fortress, Simulacrum and Clone are some amazing high-level spells to use outside of combat in your down time.
Don’t most campaigns end before reaching that high a level?
One of the biggest benefits of wizards is utility. Yes, they can blow things up with magic. Though direct damage spells are kind of not the best — fireball can hurt lots of folks, but hypnotic pattern can just shut them down. Besides that, particularly after a few levels, they have a magic solution to most problems. Levitate, Tiny hut, fly, dimension door, telekinesis, plane shift, teleport. I once used wall of force like, basically, an umbrella to block an avalanche. Utility is where wizards really shine.
But why is it specifically a wizard thing?
don’t Sorcerer’s or Bards get access to those spells too in the later levels?
Wizards get access to a much larger number of varied spells than any other class and have the unique ability to acquire new spells outside of the level-up process.
18th level wizard get unlimited use of a 1st and a 2nd level spell. So unlimited dhield spells, or invisibility, or charm person and suggestion or ... or ... or ...
Yes most full spell casters have all sorts of useful stuff. Wizards at 18+ have pretty handy capstone features.
Lot of people say most campaigns don't get to 20th ... also true.
One reason not given which to me is obviously or possibly true because you played other casters and loved it, so why not just play a wizard and give it a shot. Nothing to lose but lots to possibly gain. You wouldn’t know unless you played. That’s probably the best I could convince you to play.
I would look at what you're trying to do with a character. What is the role. Want a wizard that can scout and switch damage types easily? Scribes. You just hve to know you'll be able to find or buy scroll and spellbooks in your campaign...because you need a large spellbook for that sub to change damage types.
want a gish wizard? Bladesinger or multiclassed wizard.
Want a wizard that can throw around AOE without worrying about players or themselves being in the way? Evoker. That's what I play.
Rituals for wizards are great. Also, the huge amount of possible spells on the wizard list, some of which most other classes can't access is great too. You can do a lot with a familiar (get the dragonbreath spell to give it an attack) which not every class can get (druids can). The time to copy spells is probably counted as downtime by your DM (and it's quicker for scribes). The money to copy spells can be annoying...but you get discounts on certain subs (like evocation for evokers).
But also, not every player enjoys every class and that is ok. many other classes have a gish like option like Eldritch knight, arcane trickster, swords or valor bard, war or twilight cleric, hexblade warlock, etc,. I think people play spores druid melee but I don't know much about it (I like stars druid). Paladins and rangers work too. I know you've tried some of these.
Ritual Caster 2024 is a bit nerfed, still great esp for non wizards, but not at the same punch as 2014.
One thing that is nice about Ritual Caster is that you can get spells that are not on your classes spell list, like a Cleric who wants to have Find Familiar to use for delivery of Cure Wounds at range. I do agree that there might be less demand for it since all spellcasters are by default Ritual Casters, but it is still a good feat in the right circumstances.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I have so far played a paladin, a warlock, an arcane trickster rogue, a cleric and a bard. I love spell casters, particularly Gish.
i have been trying to plan a wizard character, probably a bladesinger or a scribe, but even though I have several fun backstories and designs for them, I can’t bring myself to feel excited to play a wizard.
The spell book, the time to copy spells, etc, it all sounds too complicated.
can someone please help explain just what the pros and benefits of being a wizard is over other casters?
Wizards can cast ritual spells if the spell has the ritual tag and the spell is in their spellbook, it does not need to be PREPARED.
Other casters must have the spell prepared to be able to cast it as a ritual.
Life's hard - get a helmet!
Ok, yeah that is pretty useful if you have the time for ritual casting. That could effectively double your spells early game
They also become crazy powerful at higher levels of play. Some of their spells like Wall of Force, Invulnerability, and Time Stop can cause some serious havoc on the battlefield. And do not underestimate their power out of combat either. Spells like Drawmij's Instant Summons, Mighty Fortress, Simulacrum and Clone are some amazing high-level spells to use outside of combat in your down time.
Spellcasters in general have access to some of the most powerful abilities in the game.
Wizards, though---they have access to the most spells. They won't necessarily cast more spells per day or anything. But their toolbox of possible spells is much bigger.
So they're almost always going to have more _options_ than any other character in the game; and, yeah, choosing which spells to learn and knowing how they can interact is fairly complex.
Luckily, the internet is chock full of advice for how to take advantage of all of that choice. And even if "optimizing" isn't your goal, it's fun see what folks have figured out. You can pick and choose whatever sounds fun.
One of the biggest benefits of wizards is utility. Yes, they can blow things up with magic. Though direct damage spells are kind of not the best — fireball can hurt lots of folks, but hypnotic pattern can just shut them down.
Besides that, particularly after a few levels, they have a magic solution to most problems. Levitate, Tiny hut, fly, dimension door, telekinesis, plane shift, teleport. I once used wall of force like, basically, an umbrella to block an avalanche. Utility is where wizards really shine.
Don’t most campaigns end before reaching that high a level?
But why is it specifically a wizard thing?
don’t Sorcerer’s or Bards get access to those spells too in the later levels?
Wizards get access to a much larger number of varied spells than any other class and have the unique ability to acquire new spells outside of the level-up process.
pronouns: he/she/they
18th level wizard get unlimited use of a 1st and a 2nd level spell. So unlimited dhield spells, or invisibility, or charm person and suggestion or ... or ... or ...
Yes most full spell casters have all sorts of useful stuff. Wizards at 18+ have pretty handy capstone features.
Lot of people say most campaigns don't get to 20th ... also true.
Life's hard - get a helmet!
One reason not given which to me is obviously or possibly true because you played other casters and loved it, so why not just play a wizard and give it a shot. Nothing to lose but lots to possibly gain. You wouldn’t know unless you played. That’s probably the best I could convince you to play.
I would look at what you're trying to do with a character. What is the role. Want a wizard that can scout and switch damage types easily? Scribes. You just hve to know you'll be able to find or buy scroll and spellbooks in your campaign...because you need a large spellbook for that sub to change damage types.
want a gish wizard? Bladesinger or multiclassed wizard.
Want a wizard that can throw around AOE without worrying about players or themselves being in the way? Evoker. That's what I play.
Rituals for wizards are great. Also, the huge amount of possible spells on the wizard list, some of which most other classes can't access is great too. You can do a lot with a familiar (get the dragonbreath spell to give it an attack) which not every class can get (druids can). The time to copy spells is probably counted as downtime by your DM (and it's quicker for scribes). The money to copy spells can be annoying...but you get discounts on certain subs (like evocation for evokers).
But also, not every player enjoys every class and that is ok. many other classes have a gish like option like Eldritch knight, arcane trickster, swords or valor bard, war or twilight cleric, hexblade warlock, etc,. I think people play spores druid melee but I don't know much about it (I like stars druid). Paladins and rangers work too. I know you've tried some of these.
Food, Scifi/fantasy, anime, DND 5E and OSR geek.
Ritual Caster 2024 is a bit nerfed, still great esp for non wizards, but not at the same punch as 2014.
Life's hard - get a helmet!
One thing that is nice about Ritual Caster is that you can get spells that are not on your classes spell list, like a Cleric who wants to have Find Familiar to use for delivery of Cure Wounds at range. I do agree that there might be less demand for it since all spellcasters are by default Ritual Casters, but it is still a good feat in the right circumstances.