Is there a lore reason why Wizards don't have access to all spells without multiclassing or taking feats? Their whole thing is magic. I get some spells might make sense to be reserved for paladins and clerics fueled with divine power, but the rest? Or does this just boil down to balancing out the classes and having some spells that only a specific class or subclass can uss to set them apart? Just curious.
There hasn’t been any particularly in-depth explanation in 5e materials, but basically the main thing is that there’s different types of magic- arcane and divine are the main division and they’ve dabbled with making primal distinct from divine, although they ultimately opted not to toss any of those terms around in the latest books. While each uses the same foundation of the Weave for shaping spells, how the caster interacts with the Weave and the source of their powers differs between types of magic and types of casters, giving different ranges of spell casting capabilities.
My 2cp worth: Wizards can create seplls and there isn't anything really preventing a player batting their eyes lovingly at their DM and asking if their Wizard can create a wizard version of a spell on another spell list. Although, that said, try not to step on the toes of other chracters by taking spells that they might be using a lot.
Here's a link to an idea for a Bladesinger I had many moons ago, so uses 2014 rules, which used a few spells from the Cleric and Ranger spell lists to reflect some low level Wizard spell choices were being "improved" over time.
Official lore wise so far as I know it - no reason. Lore for my version of FR: way back (>37,000 years ago) as the first intelligent races (the Sarrukh especially) started tapping into the weave it was done , really, by accident by those in dire need and with enhanced ability to feel the weave. So the first wielders were rangers, Druids, and the occasional sorceror. Developing “known” or innate spells. Over time the numbers of both practitioners and abilities increased. As these early folks created deities out of their beliefs they found that some folks could call on the deities to enable magical effects and divine magic started to develop. Over time as magic became somewhat more common some folks discovered that they could mimic the words and actions of these innate and divine casters and create similar effects. These folks wrote down and sometimes shared their notes with others as well as experimenting to try to find rules for spell creation and alteration and so the first wizards with learned spells came not being. The Sarrukh were the first great wizards learning to master magics and use them to create the first empires. In the process they ran into a lot of new effects created in the places the conquered and explored.. by - 31,000 DR they had reached the height of their power and a group of mages began to codify all they had learned. As typically happens they overstepped their abilities and by -30,000 DR their civilization was collapsing. A group of wizards ( the Ba’ethith) came together secretly to try to save their knowledge. To do this they created what came to be known as the Nether scrolls which detailed all that they and others had learned about magic and how it worked. Working in secret they added to this what was learned by the other creator species (the Batrachi and Aearee). In the process they created the concepts of divine, primal and arcane magics - initially as guides for study but eventually they became mindsets that limited how folks used and learned magic. Arcanists, more interested in dealing with people and civilizations than the wilderness or deities tended to create their spells for those uses and moved away from duplicating primal and divine magics. Over the rise and falls of the many different civilizations many spells have been forgotten, many have been recreated under new names etc. so today we have the 3 broad groups of magic - primal, divine and arcane, each limited by the mindset of the caster more than anything else - as is shown by the Bard’s ability to learn/duplicate spells from all three groups.
Is there a lore reason why Wizards don't have access to all spells without multiclassing or taking feats? Their whole thing is magic. I get some spells might make sense to be reserved for paladins and clerics fueled with divine power, but the rest? Or does this just boil down to balancing out the classes and having some spells that only a specific class or subclass can uss to set them apart? Just curious.
There hasn’t been any particularly in-depth explanation in 5e materials, but basically the main thing is that there’s different types of magic- arcane and divine are the main division and they’ve dabbled with making primal distinct from divine, although they ultimately opted not to toss any of those terms around in the latest books. While each uses the same foundation of the Weave for shaping spells, how the caster interacts with the Weave and the source of their powers differs between types of magic and types of casters, giving different ranges of spell casting capabilities.
My 2cp worth: Wizards can create seplls and there isn't anything really preventing a player batting their eyes lovingly at their DM and asking if their Wizard can create a wizard version of a spell on another spell list. Although, that said, try not to step on the toes of other chracters by taking spells that they might be using a lot.
Here's a link to an idea for a Bladesinger I had many moons ago, so uses 2014 rules, which used a few spells from the Cleric and Ranger spell lists to reflect some low level Wizard spell choices were being "improved" over time.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/story-lore/110295-robs-unused-character-idea-6-silence-the-mage
Official lore wise so far as I know it - no reason.
Lore for my version of FR: way back (>37,000 years ago) as the first intelligent races (the Sarrukh especially) started tapping into the weave it was done , really, by accident by those in dire need and with enhanced ability to feel the weave. So the first wielders were rangers, Druids, and the occasional sorceror. Developing “known” or innate spells. Over time the numbers of both practitioners and abilities increased. As these early folks created deities out of their beliefs they found that some folks could call on the deities to enable magical effects and divine magic started to develop. Over time as magic became somewhat more common some folks discovered that they could mimic the words and actions of these innate and divine casters and create similar effects. These folks wrote down and sometimes shared their notes with others as well as experimenting to try to find rules for spell creation and alteration and so the first wizards with learned spells came not being. The Sarrukh were the first great wizards learning to master magics and use them to create the first empires. In the process they ran into a lot of new effects created in the places the conquered and explored.. by - 31,000 DR they had reached the height of their power and a group of mages began to codify all they had learned. As typically happens they overstepped their abilities and by -30,000 DR their civilization was collapsing. A group of wizards ( the Ba’ethith) came together secretly to try to save their knowledge. To do this they created what came to be known as the Nether scrolls which detailed all that they and others had learned about magic and how it worked. Working in secret they added to this what was learned by the other creator species (the Batrachi and Aearee). In the process they created the concepts of divine, primal and arcane magics - initially as guides for study but eventually they became mindsets that limited how folks used and learned magic. Arcanists, more interested in dealing with people and civilizations than the wilderness or deities tended to create their spells for those uses and moved away from duplicating primal and divine magics. Over the rise and falls of the many different civilizations many spells have been forgotten, many have been recreated under new names etc. so today we have the 3 broad groups of magic - primal, divine and arcane, each limited by the mindset of the caster more than anything else - as is shown by the Bard’s ability to learn/duplicate spells from all three groups.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.