Most of the class forums have a 'tell us about your character' thread, but I want to know why you like to play wizard. An unforgettable experience in one of your first campaigns? A random pick that turned out much better than you thought?
I'll go first. I like wizards because as the only class with high Intelligence, you have an excuse to do strategy. I love figuring out strategy for my group, and when asked why I can't just cast fireball and be done with it, I can point to my character sheet and explain that my 19 Intelligence 1st level wizard is carefully plotting our next move.
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"Halt your wagging and wag your halters, for I am mastercryomancer!"
I personally enjoy playing a wizard as the scientist type character, relying as they do on a series of formula and set rules to wield there power. Especially when there are so many cool scientists to mimic in fiction and reality, a mystical Tony Stark is a well-known one, but role-playing a Nikola Tesla type absent minded, lightening wielding evoker is a special kind of fun.
I'm with you on the intelligence. I like figuring out how to get through the labyrinth's puzzles and not simply break down the walls. I enjoy cracking the codes and puzzles but I also like that as we level up we just get more. I've played other classes and it just seems like as you level up say a monk you continue to hit things which is what a monk is meant to do of course and if that's what you like, go for it! However, I love leveling up and getting something new and exciting each level. Building my spellbook and honing my skills are not dependent upon the levels either. There is nothing better than going town to town and hunting down those wizards spells I don't already have in my book!
I play a wizard because most classes just seem boring. I like the amount of options they have access to, and give me plenty of stuff to learn and understand. My Wizard plays more like a rogue(I have higher dex than our rogue), and only has one damage spell (shadowblade). It allows him to have a lot of utility and focus on problem solving situations in round about ways.
I'm playing a wizard because I'd never played one before, and I was curious! I usually play Sexy Dexy characters (even my fighter was Sexy Dexy), so I thought a change to an Int-focused character would be an interesting experiment. She still has decent Cha and Dex, though... old habits die hard, what can I say?
Additionally, the campaign setting is one that I co-write with the DM, and I thought a wizard PC would be a cool way to explore and flesh out how magic and stuff works in this setting.
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"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
I'd really like to play a wizard I have a couple of fun character concepts. I find the versatility appealing along with the roleplay style. I actually took just a couple levels on my Divine Sorcerer build later on just to get some of that low level versatility (and also fit in with his backstory changing from being a wizard to a sorcerer so we had a healer being an RP thing as well). Only gets him a little low level utility but its been very helpful and also problematic for my poor DM as I ask questions about working the mechanics of both classes and spells together.
My Wizard is very focused on out of combat utility and learns a lot of ritual spells, as a 5th level Wizard with an Int mod of +4 I can prepare 9 spells, but I also have 8 ritual Spells that I can cast without even needing to have them prepared so long as I have 10 minutes to spare, plus I have the Ritual Caster feat so I can cast Druid ritual spells for additional utility. And, like true wizards should be, my stat rolls were mediocre aside from Int and HP rolls have been awful so I have a total of 20 HP and 11 AC.
I've played a handful of wizard class characters, and the class itself is certainly in the better half of classes imo.
Over a year ago I had joined a Westmarches campaign and the dm decided to allow basically all ua and other books. This was around the time when WotC put out that UA for Lore Wizard. If you haven't read it, the class is like the recentish invention wizard, but actually good. It gave expertise in the INT skills if you already had them, and you could replace your initiative with your INT. The biggest draw for me however, was a second level feature that let you customize spells. By this I mean, you could reflavour nearly any spell to do a different elemental damage, and one of those options was force damage. I decided to make a bit of a meme character that ended up being amazing, The Magic Missile Sage.
I customized basically every spell to be a magic missile. Burning hands? he is doing magic missiles almost like ki blasts from Dragon Ball. Levitate? He is using a series of small non exploding magic missiles to lift that boulder. Lightning bolt? He just made a machinegun with magic missiles.
This already sounds amazing, and let me just say that he had a lot of really good sessions, and I'll tell the tale of one that I still remember fondly over a year later. The party was on our way northward along a road, some of us with our own horses, some walking, some in a wagon. We were passing near a cliff face when we random encountered two Rocs and a guy managed to make a perception check to notice the massive thunder birds. The encounter involved one of them trying to divebomb us, only to get hit by a polearm fighter and crash into the cliff, said fighter then being grabbed and lifted up into the air. The other Roc being unhappy with us and also trying to divebomb, which ended with that magic missile lightning bolt I mentioned sheering off one of its massive wings. Then as the fighter plummeted, I managed to cast levitate on him just in time to prevent him from really going splat.
I still remember that character fondly, and given the opportunity, I'd likely try remaking him just to see how creative I can get with the magic missile flavouring.
I had never been very much drawn into wizards, or magic users before.
I've always preferred, in my personal heroes, strength and determination over that of spells and guile. Never having being much for magic in general, when I first played D&D years ago I played a knight, lawful evil, and had a great deal of fun. The group didn't last very long, and the next time I played I was recommended Necromancer by the dungeon master. So I said sure, why not try something new. It was love at first sight. Using my skills at raising the dead and making people sick, I soon became the brains of my party. Barbarian wants to kill someone? I'd point out the best one to throw himself against. Rogue wanted to steal something heavily guarded? Me and Skeleton bro became distractions. Ironically, despite being possibly the most diabolical member of the party, I became the party conscious. This experience outshone the first, and I've been playing ever since.
I was always a martial class guy as seeing everything that goes into a wizard and magic is overwhelming. I finally just threw in the towel and made an Abjuration Wizard to better understand casters. DMing games without having played a casting class was just not a great idea. After a long time of playing and reading and many AL tables and conventions I now have a lvl 20 (well 19 Wizard, 1 Rogue) that was just amazing to play and had so much fun. Granted it was a slow start for sure and avoiding combat was key at lower levels but as he grew and I knew how to use him better, it made for interesting encounters. Now with having the experience of playing a wizard 1-20 I now take very little time on game decisions with casting and things run much better.
Play one no matter what. You may still hate them, but you’ll be better for it. Or you may be like me and now want to start another one since he’s so great! My Bardlock is just as much fun now though lol
I play wizard mostly because I enjoy magic, but I don't wanna have to use weapons like a Sorcerer, and Warlock is too hard to manage in terms of relationships within the group I'm playing with.
I also don't like clerics so I don't play as them. And also, wizards deal an obnoxious amount of damage, and being obnoxious is what I'm the best at.
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Most of the class forums have a 'tell us about your character' thread, but I want to know why you like to play wizard. An unforgettable experience in one of your first campaigns? A random pick that turned out much better than you thought?
I'll go first. I like wizards because as the only class with high Intelligence, you have an excuse to do strategy. I love figuring out strategy for my group, and when asked why I can't just cast fireball and be done with it, I can point to my character sheet and explain that my 19 Intelligence 1st level wizard is carefully plotting our next move.
"Halt your wagging and wag your halters, for I am mastercryomancer!"
Check out my Expanded Signature
I personally enjoy playing a wizard as the scientist type character, relying as they do on a series of formula and set rules to wield there power. Especially when there are so many cool scientists to mimic in fiction and reality, a mystical Tony Stark is a well-known one, but role-playing a Nikola Tesla type absent minded, lightening wielding evoker is a special kind of fun.
I'm with you on the intelligence. I like figuring out how to get through the labyrinth's puzzles and not simply break down the walls. I enjoy cracking the codes and puzzles but I also like that as we level up we just get more. I've played other classes and it just seems like as you level up say a monk you continue to hit things which is what a monk is meant to do of course and if that's what you like, go for it! However, I love leveling up and getting something new and exciting each level. Building my spellbook and honing my skills are not dependent upon the levels either. There is nothing better than going town to town and hunting down those wizards spells I don't already have in my book!
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Mudd n' Dash
Agreed!
"Halt your wagging and wag your halters, for I am mastercryomancer!"
Check out my Expanded Signature
I play a wizard because most classes just seem boring. I like the amount of options they have access to, and give me plenty of stuff to learn and understand. My Wizard plays more like a rogue(I have higher dex than our rogue), and only has one damage spell (shadowblade). It allows him to have a lot of utility and focus on problem solving situations in round about ways.
I'm playing a wizard because I'd never played one before, and I was curious! I usually play Sexy Dexy characters (even my fighter was Sexy Dexy), so I thought a change to an Int-focused character would be an interesting experiment. She still has decent Cha and Dex, though... old habits die hard, what can I say?
Additionally, the campaign setting is one that I co-write with the DM, and I thought a wizard PC would be a cool way to explore and flesh out how magic and stuff works in this setting.
"We're the perfect combination of expendable and unkillable!"
I'd really like to play a wizard I have a couple of fun character concepts. I find the versatility appealing along with the roleplay style. I actually took just a couple levels on my Divine Sorcerer build later on just to get some of that low level versatility (and also fit in with his backstory changing from being a wizard to a sorcerer so we had a healer being an RP thing as well). Only gets him a little low level utility but its been very helpful and also problematic for my poor DM as I ask questions about working the mechanics of both classes and spells together.
My Wizard is very focused on out of combat utility and learns a lot of ritual spells, as a 5th level Wizard with an Int mod of +4 I can prepare 9 spells, but I also have 8 ritual Spells that I can cast without even needing to have them prepared so long as I have 10 minutes to spare, plus I have the Ritual Caster feat so I can cast Druid ritual spells for additional utility. And, like true wizards should be, my stat rolls were mediocre aside from Int and HP rolls have been awful so I have a total of 20 HP and 11 AC.
I've played a handful of wizard class characters, and the class itself is certainly in the better half of classes imo.
Over a year ago I had joined a Westmarches campaign and the dm decided to allow basically all ua and other books. This was around the time when WotC put out that UA for Lore Wizard. If you haven't read it, the class is like the recentish invention wizard, but actually good. It gave expertise in the INT skills if you already had them, and you could replace your initiative with your INT. The biggest draw for me however, was a second level feature that let you customize spells. By this I mean, you could reflavour nearly any spell to do a different elemental damage, and one of those options was force damage. I decided to make a bit of a meme character that ended up being amazing, The Magic Missile Sage.
I customized basically every spell to be a magic missile. Burning hands? he is doing magic missiles almost like ki blasts from Dragon Ball. Levitate? He is using a series of small non exploding magic missiles to lift that boulder. Lightning bolt? He just made a machinegun with magic missiles.
This already sounds amazing, and let me just say that he had a lot of really good sessions, and I'll tell the tale of one that I still remember fondly over a year later. The party was on our way northward along a road, some of us with our own horses, some walking, some in a wagon. We were passing near a cliff face when we random encountered two Rocs and a guy managed to make a perception check to notice the massive thunder birds. The encounter involved one of them trying to divebomb us, only to get hit by a polearm fighter and crash into the cliff, said fighter then being grabbed and lifted up into the air. The other Roc being unhappy with us and also trying to divebomb, which ended with that magic missile lightning bolt I mentioned sheering off one of its massive wings. Then as the fighter plummeted, I managed to cast levitate on him just in time to prevent him from really going splat.
I still remember that character fondly, and given the opportunity, I'd likely try remaking him just to see how creative I can get with the magic missile flavouring.
I had never been very much drawn into wizards, or magic users before.
I've always preferred, in my personal heroes, strength and determination over that of spells and guile. Never having being much for magic in general, when I first played D&D years ago I played a knight, lawful evil, and had a great deal of fun. The group didn't last very long, and the next time I played I was recommended Necromancer by the dungeon master. So I said sure, why not try something new. It was love at first sight. Using my skills at raising the dead and making people sick, I soon became the brains of my party. Barbarian wants to kill someone? I'd point out the best one to throw himself against. Rogue wanted to steal something heavily guarded? Me and Skeleton bro became distractions. Ironically, despite being possibly the most diabolical member of the party, I became the party conscious. This experience outshone the first, and I've been playing ever since.
Mostly because it tends to deal high damage with low survivability and for high intelligence. You also need to be careful with prepared spells
Because I hated them!
I was always a martial class guy as seeing everything that goes into a wizard and magic is overwhelming. I finally just threw in the towel and made an Abjuration Wizard to better understand casters. DMing games without having played a casting class was just not a great idea. After a long time of playing and reading and many AL tables and conventions I now have a lvl 20 (well 19 Wizard, 1 Rogue) that was just amazing to play and had so much fun. Granted it was a slow start for sure and avoiding combat was key at lower levels but as he grew and I knew how to use him better, it made for interesting encounters. Now with having the experience of playing a wizard 1-20 I now take very little time on game decisions with casting and things run much better.
Play one no matter what. You may still hate them, but you’ll be better for it. Or you may be like me and now want to start another one since he’s so great! My Bardlock is just as much fun now though lol
I play wizard mostly because I enjoy magic, but I don't wanna have to use weapons like a Sorcerer, and Warlock is too hard to manage in terms of relationships within the group I'm playing with.
I also don't like clerics so I don't play as them. And also, wizards deal an obnoxious amount of damage, and being obnoxious is what I'm the best at.