I struggle with Spellcasters in general, and none moreso than the Wizard. Unfortunately for me though, Wizards are absolutely BADASS and I want to play them.
I'd say my biggest weakness for Spellcasters is that I don't know when to use spell slots and when to save them, so I always run out of spells early in a session, and then get my face kicked in, and afterward, I'm too afraid to use spell slots because "I don't want to die".
Does anyone have tips and tricks for dealing with the spell slot anxiety?
(Also, beyond just this question, what are some excellent Wizard tips in general for new players! Try not to include things like "which spells are best" though, because there are easily ten different good sources for stuff like that.)
Spell slot anxiety is definitely a big part of playing a full caster; they can be extremely powerful, but can cripple themselves going too hard too soon.
And really a big part of that is going to come down to experience; the longer you play the Wizard with that particular group, the more you'll get a feel for which fights are going to be hard, and which ones you can conserve your resources on, e.g- by focusing on cantrips or "high value" spells that can deal damage over multiple rounds for a single spell slot. While cantrip damage may not be the highest, there's also nothing wrong with it; it's okay to just keep lighting the ends of an enemy's moustache on fire with fire bolt if you want to save slots, because if you face something more fearsome later that's when you get to throw everything you have at it.
Part of the strategy of building the character, and choosing which spells to learn and prepare, is trying to get yourself a good mix; Wizards are fantastic for the sheer range of different abilities they can bring to the table, but you can only learn so many spells, and can only prepare so many for each day.
I love to take advantage of the fact that Wizards don't need to prepare ritual spells to use them; so I take a lot of ritual spells on Wizards so that I have as much out of combat utility as possible, without having to spend a single spell slot to use most of it. So that's spells like alarm, detect magic, find familiar, unseen servant etc. At a low level it's possible to have a Wizard who can prepare all of their non-ritual spells at once, while still having full access to their rituals as well, which can give a huge amount of flexibility throughout an adventuring day (and save your slots). You may want to talk to your DM about how much they want to handle time pressure in your games, as the drawback of ritual casting is of course that rituals are slower, so they're not ideal if you need to detect magic right now, but this may not be a major problem.
For combat it's good to have some spells with durations, as these will squeeze more value of your spell slots over time; in some cases a Wizard's best spells aren't the ones that deal damage, but the ones that let you control enemies. For example, while fireball is your classic blasting spell, and good to have, but hypnotic pattern can straight up take a bunch of enemies out of the fight; while you still need to deal with them eventually, it's almost always easier to handle a smaller group of enemies than a larger one, because you can focus attacks to bring down individuals quicker while taking fewer hits in return. While fireball might hurt the enemies, for every one that it doesn't kill that's one that can hit you or an ally in return. Control builds aren't for everyone, but I tend to think that a Wizard should always have at least a couple of control options just in case, and if you party works well together then they can actually be some of the most powerful spells in the game, e.g- hold person/hold monster can turn your party into a critical hit factory and kill a tough enemy in one round.
Dunno how useful all that is; Wizards have access to so much potential variety that there's a lot to cover, and the first consideration should really always be what kind of wizard do you want to play as, what are they like, what spells would they pick and so-on, but I just wanted to throw out some thoughts in case any of them are helpful.
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 struggle with Spellcasters in general, and none moreso than the Wizard. Unfortunately for me though, Wizards are absolutely BADASS and I want to play them.
I'd say my biggest weakness for Spellcasters is that I don't know when to use spell slots and when to save them, so I always run out of spells early in a session, and then get my face kicked in, and afterward, I'm too afraid to use spell slots because "I don't want to die".
Does anyone have tips and tricks for dealing with the spell slot anxiety?
(Also, beyond just this question, what are some excellent Wizard tips in general for new players! Try not to include things like "which spells are best" though, because there are easily ten different good sources for stuff like that.)
It may seem obvious, but I've found a good way to help manage spell slots is to always try to lead off with a control spell in a fight
Firing off a web, slow, hold person, hypnotic pattern etc. right away not only is good on a tactical level, but allowing the rest of party to get in their shots first gives you a lot more information to help determine whether you need to starting flinging fireballs, or if you can dial it back and stick to cantrips (and save slots)
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Wizards have diversity in spell selection so use that to your advantage.
For any spell caster I build, be it a full Wizard or a part time spellcaster, I fill out a spreadsheet. Each spell falls into different categories and I plot the spells I have prepared out to make sure I'm not tipping the scale to hard one way or another.
For instance, figure out what spells you have that are melee attack, range attack, saving throw attacks, area effect attack, and debuffs/control spells. You'll want to have at least one of each, if not 2 or 3 (depending on level). So in any given situation, you have possibilities. Fire Bolt is a great range spell, but if the target has a high AC, you'll be wasting attacks. Maybe switch to Catapult so a saving throw instead. Maybe instead of attacking, you should make them weaker for the rest of the party with Hypnotic Pattern, or even Grease for the front line enemies.
For every level, I break spells down into 17 categories (yes, overboard) but when I tried this with a Wizard I built pre-spreadsheet, I realized they had no melee spells, one range spell, and like 5 AoE spells. A number of utilities, but most were situational. It was a "holy crap" moment on why they never seemed ready for 2/3 of the battles we fought. If we had space, he was great, but it tight quarters he couldn't cast a spell without also hitting one of his party members. After rejigging him, he always had a spell for the occasion.
Once you know what spells are good for what situation, you start focusing on will a cantrip do, or a regular spell, or an upcast version of my options.
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aLRIGHT sO ---
I struggle with Spellcasters in general, and none moreso than the Wizard. Unfortunately for me though, Wizards are absolutely BADASS and I want to play them.
I'd say my biggest weakness for Spellcasters is that I don't know when to use spell slots and when to save them, so I always run out of spells early in a session, and then get my face kicked in, and afterward, I'm too afraid to use spell slots because "I don't want to die".
Does anyone have tips and tricks for dealing with the spell slot anxiety?
(Also, beyond just this question, what are some excellent Wizard tips in general for new players! Try not to include things like "which spells are best" though, because there are easily ten different good sources for stuff like that.)
Spell slot anxiety is definitely a big part of playing a full caster; they can be extremely powerful, but can cripple themselves going too hard too soon.
And really a big part of that is going to come down to experience; the longer you play the Wizard with that particular group, the more you'll get a feel for which fights are going to be hard, and which ones you can conserve your resources on, e.g- by focusing on cantrips or "high value" spells that can deal damage over multiple rounds for a single spell slot. While cantrip damage may not be the highest, there's also nothing wrong with it; it's okay to just keep lighting the ends of an enemy's moustache on fire with fire bolt if you want to save slots, because if you face something more fearsome later that's when you get to throw everything you have at it.
Part of the strategy of building the character, and choosing which spells to learn and prepare, is trying to get yourself a good mix; Wizards are fantastic for the sheer range of different abilities they can bring to the table, but you can only learn so many spells, and can only prepare so many for each day.
I love to take advantage of the fact that Wizards don't need to prepare ritual spells to use them; so I take a lot of ritual spells on Wizards so that I have as much out of combat utility as possible, without having to spend a single spell slot to use most of it. So that's spells like alarm, detect magic, find familiar, unseen servant etc. At a low level it's possible to have a Wizard who can prepare all of their non-ritual spells at once, while still having full access to their rituals as well, which can give a huge amount of flexibility throughout an adventuring day (and save your slots). You may want to talk to your DM about how much they want to handle time pressure in your games, as the drawback of ritual casting is of course that rituals are slower, so they're not ideal if you need to detect magic right now, but this may not be a major problem.
For combat it's good to have some spells with durations, as these will squeeze more value of your spell slots over time; in some cases a Wizard's best spells aren't the ones that deal damage, but the ones that let you control enemies. For example, while fireball is your classic blasting spell, and good to have, but hypnotic pattern can straight up take a bunch of enemies out of the fight; while you still need to deal with them eventually, it's almost always easier to handle a smaller group of enemies than a larger one, because you can focus attacks to bring down individuals quicker while taking fewer hits in return. While fireball might hurt the enemies, for every one that it doesn't kill that's one that can hit you or an ally in return. Control builds aren't for everyone, but I tend to think that a Wizard should always have at least a couple of control options just in case, and if you party works well together then they can actually be some of the most powerful spells in the game, e.g- hold person/hold monster can turn your party into a critical hit factory and kill a tough enemy in one round.
Dunno how useful all that is; Wizards have access to so much potential variety that there's a lot to cover, and the first consideration should really always be what kind of wizard do you want to play as, what are they like, what spells would they pick and so-on, but I just wanted to throw out some thoughts in case any of them are helpful.
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.
It may seem obvious, but I've found a good way to help manage spell slots is to always try to lead off with a control spell in a fight
Firing off a web, slow, hold person, hypnotic pattern etc. right away not only is good on a tactical level, but allowing the rest of party to get in their shots first gives you a lot more information to help determine whether you need to starting flinging fireballs, or if you can dial it back and stick to cantrips (and save slots)
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Wizards have diversity in spell selection so use that to your advantage.
For any spell caster I build, be it a full Wizard or a part time spellcaster, I fill out a spreadsheet. Each spell falls into different categories and I plot the spells I have prepared out to make sure I'm not tipping the scale to hard one way or another.
For instance, figure out what spells you have that are melee attack, range attack, saving throw attacks, area effect attack, and debuffs/control spells. You'll want to have at least one of each, if not 2 or 3 (depending on level). So in any given situation, you have possibilities. Fire Bolt is a great range spell, but if the target has a high AC, you'll be wasting attacks. Maybe switch to Catapult so a saving throw instead. Maybe instead of attacking, you should make them weaker for the rest of the party with Hypnotic Pattern, or even Grease for the front line enemies.
For every level, I break spells down into 17 categories (yes, overboard) but when I tried this with a Wizard I built pre-spreadsheet, I realized they had no melee spells, one range spell, and like 5 AoE spells. A number of utilities, but most were situational. It was a "holy crap" moment on why they never seemed ready for 2/3 of the battles we fought. If we had space, he was great, but it tight quarters he couldn't cast a spell without also hitting one of his party members. After rejigging him, he always had a spell for the occasion.
Once you know what spells are good for what situation, you start focusing on will a cantrip do, or a regular spell, or an upcast version of my options.