I'm new to using DNDBeyond but not new to D&D. I'm trying to convert my original 2e character, who was an 8th level magic user/5th level illusionist, into 5e. I've gotten advice on how to do it and understand that there's no straightforward way..."it's an art not a science" is what I've been told. The biggest roadblock so far is trying to add on the illusionist subclass. After some digging, I finally found a reference that said the illusionist subclass won't show up as an option unless I purchase the 2014 PHB. Frustrating since I already own a paper copy, but fine, whatever. I purchased it. However, it didn't solve the problem and now I've wasted $32. What's showing up is Evoker (which I had before) and and an additional four schools: conjuration, enchantment, necromancy, and transmutation. Can someone please explain what I'm doing wrong? I'm guessing there is something else I need to buy but I'm tired of shooting in the dark. Thanks bunches.
If you're new to 5e D&D, you may not be aware that there was a big update to the rules last year, resulting in a lot of things having both a 2014 version and a 2024 version. The 2014 Player's Handbook and the 2024 Player's Handbook are two separate products. They both have a Wizard class and an Illusion subclass.
If you only own the 2014 Player's Handbook, you might have selected the 2024 Wizard class by mistake, which would limit the subclasses you can choose from to just the free one (Evoker) and the ones from the 2014 PHB that haven't been updated for the 2024 rules yet (the other ones you see there).
So, if you want to make an Illusion Wizard with the 2014 rules, you need to change your class from the 2024 Wizard to the 2014 one. Make sure "2014 Core Rules" is enabled on the Home tab of the character builder, then go to the Class tab, remove the Wizard class that's there. Then scroll down past the "Core Rules" section to the "2014 Core Rules" section and select the Wizard class there instead.
If you want to make an Illusion Wizard with the 2024 rules, you need to purchase the 2024 Player's Handbook.
The icon for the 2014 Wizard is bright blue with a raised hand with some magical energy or something coming out of it. The icon for the 2024 Wizard is gray with an open book.
Also, I'll note, if you own the hard copy of a book and don't want to purchase the digital copy, you can always build the subclass with the homebrew tool. Maybe a bit late for that now, but going forward it can save you a few bucks.
Ahhhhh...bingo! That's exactly what happened. Thank you so much for clueing me in. I knew there was an update of some sort last year but didn't realize it would affect the books that are purchased. Guess I'm still thinking like 2e. When things went from from AD&D to 2e it didn't seem like a big deal. Now that I've been able to play traditional pen and paper 2e for 30 years off and on, I'm not in the mindset that if you update a book, it nixes the character development program. I just assumed everything just works out in the wash. I can see why you said use the homebrew option. I'm assuming that means I would just plug stuff in wherever it needs to be (haven't actually looked at it yet). That actually might be helpful since my character has magic items that are from way back then that I didn't see as an option (Bucknard's Everful Purse for example). I'll definitely need to pay closer attention to the editions.
So, I went back and erased the 2024 Wizard that I started and uploaded the 2014 Wizard. Sure enough, I got further along and it asked me to find a concentration for my magic and one of the choices was School of Illusion. Unfortunately, I don't think that was exactly what I was looking for and now I'm wondering if it's one of those things that just doesn't exist in 5e. Hope you don't mind me asking you another question. The character I'm trying to convert was an 8th level magic user and then became a 5th level illusionist. Now, back in 1989, when I decided to dual-class and become an illusionist I was required to stop using any magic user spells and capabilities. I could only use illusionist spells. Once I gained enough experience points to equal the level of my original class, then I could use both classes interchangeably. If I used any magic user spells prior to that point, I earned no experience points for that event. It sounds like the 2014 rules would have me limited in my magic user capabilities because the focus is on illusion. Which wasn't the case. By being a duel-class magic user/illusionist I actually doubled the amount of spells I could cast. By any chance do you know if the 2024 rules would provide the same restriction or is there a way within the 5e scope to do both or would that unbalance the game too much? If the 2024 rules would allow for it, do you know how I find the 2024 illusionist skill set so I can upload it to the character sheet? Thanks bunches.
So, I went back and erased the 2024 Wizard that I started and uploaded the 2014 Wizard. Sure enough, I got further along and it asked me to find a concentration for my magic and one of the choices was School of Illusion. Unfortunately, I don't think that was exactly what I was looking for and now I'm wondering if it's one of those things that just doesn't exist in 5e. Hope you don't mind me asking you another question. The character I'm trying to convert was an 8th level magic user and then became a 5th level illusionist. Now, back in 1989, when I decided to dual-class and become an illusionist I was required to stop using any magic user spells and capabilities. I could only use illusionist spells. Once I gained enough experience points to equal the level of my original class, then I could use both classes interchangeably. If I used any magic user spells prior to that point, I earned no experience points for that event. It sounds like the 2014 rules would have me limited in my magic user capabilities because the focus is on illusion. Which wasn't the case. By being a duel-class magic user/illusionist I actually doubled the amount of spells I could cast. By any chance do you know if the 2024 rules would provide the same restriction or is there a way within the 5e scope to do both or would that unbalance the game too much? If the 2024 rules would allow for it, do you know how I find the 2024 illusionist skill set so I can upload it to the character sheet? Thanks bunches.
5e works very differently from 2e in almost every respect. The concept of "dual classing" like that does not exist in 5e.
In 2e, Illusionist wasn't a separate class either. It was the example given in the PHB of a specialist wizard (as opposed to a mage which was a generalist)
Sifting through ancient memories (because I cannot find my 1e PHB) magic-user was the 1e arcane spell caster, which in 2e became a wizard. According to the wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons), Illusionist was a sub-class of wizard/magic-user in that edition as well.
So, a magic-user/wizard | Illusionist dual class should not have been a thing back in the day either. All three were terms for arcane spellcasters, with illusionist simply being a specialist Wizard/Magic-user (which were exactly the same thing). A modern interpretation would be more or less an exact conversion: A single class wizard, with the illusionist archetype selected at level 2 in 2014 and level 3 in 2024.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
In 1e they were a separate class. They were a magic user subclass, but in the same way a Druid was a subclass of cleric. The illusionist had its own section with its own rules and its own spells, and its spells didn’t really overlap much with the magic user.
As I said, I can't find my pdf copy of the 1e PHB; wiki said it was a subclass. I looked at my physical 2e PHB and verified that illusionist was in fact a specialist wizard, so I had no reason to question the wiki. I'll see if I can find my 1e phb.
EDIT: found my 1e PHB. it was organized in with the 2/3e folder. I can see what the wiki was confused; it clearly says in the text that it's a subclass of magic-user. That said, it's clearly, a separate class with different exp totals, and only 7th level max spells.
That said, for a modern port, it's just going to be a pure wizard of the illusionist subclass. Calculating the level will be the hard part. The easy way would be to just make it into an 8th level wizard. Spell progression from the wizard part would be roughly the same; 4-3-3-2. 5th level illusionist would give you an extra 4-2-1. Arcane recovery will give you /some/ of that but not all as far as spell slots. Losing spell slots will feel bad.
Just adding the exp together would feel bad too. A 5th level illusionist would have a maximum of 35k exp. if you add that onto a minimum exp 8th level magic user (90,001 exp) you get 125,001 exp, which is still only an 8th level wizard in 1e. A 1e magic user would require 135,001 exp in order to make level 9. The chances of being able to just add the exp together and come up with a 9th level character are probably pretty slim. Even if you could though, 9th level is a big deal because it would give 5th level spells the original character could not cast.
Probably, the most fair way to re-create the character is to just add the exp gained from the Illusionist class to the exp gained from the magic user class, and determine what level of magic user you'd be. That's the level of wizard you'd make in 5e; either 8th or 9th depending on the original character's progress. That's probably as close to the original character's performance as you'd get in the conversion. You'll lose some spell slots, but arcane recovery is a thing now, so you do get /some/ of it back.
Adding the character LEVELS together to create a 13th level Illusionist Wizard would open up 5th and 6th level spells that the original character was never even remotely close to being able to cast (1,125,001 exp; the original character earned only about 1/10th of that give or take). There's probably not a great way to recreate this character precisely. Even if the OP did some exotic MC to get the spell slots sorted (such as 5 levels of sorcerer) the sorc spells would have crap charisma, and it's still a 13th level character with all the advantages that go with being a 13th level character (extra feats)
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
OK good to know. I thought it did since I saw a spot where it would allow me to add a second class. Thank you for clarifying.
I should clarify - it is possible to have a more than one class in 5e, but it doesn’t work like the old dual-classing system. When you gain a level in 5e, you can choose to take that level in your current class or in a new class. So, for instance, if you’re a level 5 Fighter and gain a level, you could become a level 6 Fighter, or a level 5 Fighter / level 1 Cleric, or something.
Not exactly. It was actually not unusual to find magic user/illusionists because the combination of their two sets of spells made for a lethal player. Unlike the fighter/thief combination back then, who was limited by their thief abilities (not sure if that's still a thing), magic was magic. So a magic user/illusionist could perform perform the allowed number of spells for both classes. This was really helpful for lower level characters, which most people had. Most people didn't see alot of characters higher than 8th level since it took so long to progress using the point system. For instance, my character could perform 4(1st), 3(2nd), 3(3rd), and 2(4th) level magic user spells in addition to 4(1st), 2(2nd), and 1(3rd) level illusionist spells each day.
But if I could ask for a clarification regarding 5e. You mentioned that a 5e would be a single class wizard with the illusionist archetype. Does that mean that all the spells after adding the illusionist archetype are only illusionist type spells? That my character could no longer perform spells that aren't? Thank you .
Thank you so much for clarifying all of that. You're right in that I don't want to open up spell levels that I would never have had access to. I'll obviously need to read more about arcane recovery. I didn't realize how important it could be and it sounded really confusing so I just skimmed it. Since I want don't want to just limit myself to illusionist spells, it sounds like I should take your advice and stick with just the wizard. Thank you again for helping me understand how it works now. Crazy to think that 2e seems so easy to understand but I can see why 5e is popular. There are alot of things of enjoyed about it.
Not exactly. It was actually not unusual to find magic user/illusionists because the combination of their two sets of spells made for a lethal player. Unlike the fighter/thief combination back then, who was limited by their thief abilities (not sure if that's still a thing), magic was magic. So a magic user/illusionist could perform perform the allowed number of spells for both classes. This was really helpful for lower level characters, which most people had. Most people didn't see alot of characters higher than 8th level since it took so long to progress using the point system. For instance, my character could perform 4(1st), 3(2nd), 3(3rd), and 2(4th) level magic user spells in addition to 4(1st), 2(2nd), and 1(3rd) level illusionist spells each day.
But if I could ask for a clarification regarding 5e. You mentioned that a 5e would be a single class wizard with the illusionist archetype. Does that mean that all the spells after adding the illusionist archetype are only illusionist type spells? That my character could no longer perform spells that aren't? Thank you .
In 5e, the only restrictions on spells your Wizard can learn are that they are on the Wizard spell list. You can add two spells to your spellbook each time you level up, and if you find wizard spell scrolls or wizard spellbooks in your game, you can spend gold and time to add those to your spellbook. Illusionists can learn spells from any school and are not restricted to using only Illusion spells.
Under the 2014 rules, Illusionists halve the time and gold costs to add Illusion spells to their spellbooks. Under the 2024 rules, an Illusionist subclass would learn one free Illusion spell each time they reach a level where they get a new level of spells (two spells when they take the subclass at 3rd level).
Thank you so much for clarifying all of that. You're right in that I don't want to open up spell levels that I would never have had access to. I'll obviously need to read more about arcane recovery. I didn't realize how important it could be and it sounded really confusing so I just skimmed it. Since I want don't want to just limit myself to illusionist spells, it sounds like I should take your advice and stick with just the wizard. Thank you again for helping me understand how it works now. Crazy to think that 2e seems so easy to understand but I can see why 5e is popular. There are alot of things of enjoyed about it.
You're still not understanding. In 5th edition, while not all Wizards are Illusionists, all Illusionists are Wizards, and can learn any Wizard spell. You do not have a mechanical restriction forcing you to only choose Illusion spells. You may choose to take Illusion spells to fit your concept, but you're not stuck with only those spells.
Thank you so much for clarifying all of that. You're right in that I don't want to open up spell levels that I would never have had access to. I'll obviously need to read more about arcane recovery. I didn't realize how important it could be and it sounded really confusing so I just skimmed it. Since I want don't want to just limit myself to illusionist spells, it sounds like I should take your advice and stick with just the wizard. Thank you again for helping me understand how it works now. Crazy to think that 2e seems so easy to understand but I can see why 5e is popular. There are alot of things of enjoyed about it.
Just to further clarify: in 5e, Illusionist is a subclass for the Wizard class, not a class unto itself. Every 5e character has a subclass — a focus or specialization within their class — that they gain at a certain level. These subclasses grant features that either improve the class's base abilities, provide new abilities, or both; they never place limitations on the class's existing features. You don't need to "stick with just the Wizard"; in fact, you need to choose some subclass when you reach the appropriate level, because every character does. This is different from dual-classing or multi-classing where you take on a whole other class.
5e Wizards do not have any limitations on which spell schools they can learn spells from. The subclasses that specialize in a particular school of magic (like Illusionist) make spells of that school easier to learn and usually offer various improvements to them, but they don't restrict you to using only spells from that school.
I also can't stress enough that all of this information is provided in the 5e Player's Handbook, and reading through it before making any big decisions about your character will help you figure a lot of this stuff out much easier.
Thank you for that clarification. I started by reading the PH but honestly it was so different from 2e I just felt lost. Instead, I purchased Dragons of Stormwreck Isle (and Intro to Stormwreck Isle) and a DNDBeyond membership. I'm DMing my family and we're learning it together. I've now watched three playthroughs and have a better idea of the game mechanics. I think with the information you wonderfully patient people have provided me, I can crack open the PH again and take another stab at creating my character.
as you get to play, you'll find that the differences are not as extreme as you think. It LOOKS different, but feels very similar, but better.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
I'm new to using DNDBeyond but not new to D&D. I'm trying to convert my original 2e character, who was an 8th level magic user/5th level illusionist, into 5e. I've gotten advice on how to do it and understand that there's no straightforward way..."it's an art not a science" is what I've been told. The biggest roadblock so far is trying to add on the illusionist subclass. After some digging, I finally found a reference that said the illusionist subclass won't show up as an option unless I purchase the 2014 PHB. Frustrating since I already own a paper copy, but fine, whatever. I purchased it. However, it didn't solve the problem and now I've wasted $32. What's showing up is Evoker (which I had before) and and an additional four schools: conjuration, enchantment, necromancy, and transmutation. Can someone please explain what I'm doing wrong? I'm guessing there is something else I need to buy but I'm tired of shooting in the dark. Thanks bunches.
If you're new to 5e D&D, you may not be aware that there was a big update to the rules last year, resulting in a lot of things having both a 2014 version and a 2024 version. The 2014 Player's Handbook and the 2024 Player's Handbook are two separate products. They both have a Wizard class and an Illusion subclass.
If you only own the 2014 Player's Handbook, you might have selected the 2024 Wizard class by mistake, which would limit the subclasses you can choose from to just the free one (Evoker) and the ones from the 2014 PHB that haven't been updated for the 2024 rules yet (the other ones you see there).
So, if you want to make an Illusion Wizard with the 2014 rules, you need to change your class from the 2024 Wizard to the 2014 one. Make sure "2014 Core Rules" is enabled on the Home tab of the character builder, then go to the Class tab, remove the Wizard class that's there. Then scroll down past the "Core Rules" section to the "2014 Core Rules" section and select the Wizard class there instead.
If you want to make an Illusion Wizard with the 2024 rules, you need to purchase the 2024 Player's Handbook.
The icon for the 2014 Wizard is bright blue with a raised hand with some magical energy or something coming out of it. The icon for the 2024 Wizard is gray with an open book.
pronouns: he/she/they
Also, I'll note, if you own the hard copy of a book and don't want to purchase the digital copy, you can always build the subclass with the homebrew tool. Maybe a bit late for that now, but going forward it can save you a few bucks.
Ahhhhh...bingo! That's exactly what happened. Thank you so much for clueing me in. I knew there was an update of some sort last year but didn't realize it would affect the books that are purchased. Guess I'm still thinking like 2e. When things went from from AD&D to 2e it didn't seem like a big deal. Now that I've been able to play traditional pen and paper 2e for 30 years off and on, I'm not in the mindset that if you update a book, it nixes the character development program. I just assumed everything just works out in the wash. I can see why you said use the homebrew option. I'm assuming that means I would just plug stuff in wherever it needs to be (haven't actually looked at it yet). That actually might be helpful since my character has magic items that are from way back then that I didn't see as an option (Bucknard's Everful Purse for example). I'll definitely need to pay closer attention to the editions.
So, I went back and erased the 2024 Wizard that I started and uploaded the 2014 Wizard. Sure enough, I got further along and it asked me to find a concentration for my magic and one of the choices was School of Illusion. Unfortunately, I don't think that was exactly what I was looking for and now I'm wondering if it's one of those things that just doesn't exist in 5e. Hope you don't mind me asking you another question. The character I'm trying to convert was an 8th level magic user and then became a 5th level illusionist. Now, back in 1989, when I decided to dual-class and become an illusionist I was required to stop using any magic user spells and capabilities. I could only use illusionist spells. Once I gained enough experience points to equal the level of my original class, then I could use both classes interchangeably. If I used any magic user spells prior to that point, I earned no experience points for that event. It sounds like the 2014 rules would have me limited in my magic user capabilities because the focus is on illusion. Which wasn't the case. By being a duel-class magic user/illusionist I actually doubled the amount of spells I could cast. By any chance do you know if the 2024 rules would provide the same restriction or is there a way within the 5e scope to do both or would that unbalance the game too much? If the 2024 rules would allow for it, do you know how I find the 2024 illusionist skill set so I can upload it to the character sheet? Thanks bunches.
5e works very differently from 2e in almost every respect. The concept of "dual classing" like that does not exist in 5e.
pronouns: he/she/they
The ‘24 illusionist is a wizard subclass. It’s no longer a separate class.
In 2e, Illusionist wasn't a separate class either. It was the example given in the PHB of a specialist wizard (as opposed to a mage which was a generalist)
Sifting through ancient memories (because I cannot find my 1e PHB) magic-user was the 1e arcane spell caster, which in 2e became a wizard. According to the wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons), Illusionist was a sub-class of wizard/magic-user in that edition as well.
So, a magic-user/wizard | Illusionist dual class should not have been a thing back in the day either. All three were terms for arcane spellcasters, with illusionist simply being a specialist Wizard/Magic-user (which were exactly the same thing). A modern interpretation would be more or less an exact conversion: A single class wizard, with the illusionist archetype selected at level 2 in 2014 and level 3 in 2024.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
In 1e they were a separate class. They were a magic user subclass, but in the same way a Druid was a subclass of cleric. The illusionist had its own section with its own rules and its own spells, and its spells didn’t really overlap much with the magic user.
As I said, I can't find my pdf copy of the 1e PHB; wiki said it was a subclass. I looked at my physical 2e PHB and verified that illusionist was in fact a specialist wizard, so I had no reason to question the wiki. I'll see if I can find my 1e phb.
EDIT: found my 1e PHB. it was organized in with the 2/3e folder. I can see what the wiki was confused; it clearly says in the text that it's a subclass of magic-user. That said, it's clearly, a separate class with different exp totals, and only 7th level max spells.
That said, for a modern port, it's just going to be a pure wizard of the illusionist subclass. Calculating the level will be the hard part. The easy way would be to just make it into an 8th level wizard. Spell progression from the wizard part would be roughly the same; 4-3-3-2. 5th level illusionist would give you an extra 4-2-1. Arcane recovery will give you /some/ of that but not all as far as spell slots. Losing spell slots will feel bad.
Just adding the exp together would feel bad too. A 5th level illusionist would have a maximum of 35k exp. if you add that onto a minimum exp 8th level magic user (90,001 exp) you get 125,001 exp, which is still only an 8th level wizard in 1e. A 1e magic user would require 135,001 exp in order to make level 9. The chances of being able to just add the exp together and come up with a 9th level character are probably pretty slim. Even if you could though, 9th level is a big deal because it would give 5th level spells the original character could not cast.
Probably, the most fair way to re-create the character is to just add the exp gained from the Illusionist class to the exp gained from the magic user class, and determine what level of magic user you'd be. That's the level of wizard you'd make in 5e; either 8th or 9th depending on the original character's progress. That's probably as close to the original character's performance as you'd get in the conversion. You'll lose some spell slots, but arcane recovery is a thing now, so you do get /some/ of it back.
Adding the character LEVELS together to create a 13th level Illusionist Wizard would open up 5th and 6th level spells that the original character was never even remotely close to being able to cast (1,125,001 exp; the original character earned only about 1/10th of that give or take). There's probably not a great way to recreate this character precisely. Even if the OP did some exotic MC to get the spell slots sorted (such as 5 levels of sorcerer) the sorc spells would have crap charisma, and it's still a 13th level character with all the advantages that go with being a 13th level character (extra feats)
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
OK good to know. I thought it did since I saw a spot where it would allow me to add a second class. Thank you for clarifying.
I should clarify - it is possible to have a more than one class in 5e, but it doesn’t work like the old dual-classing system. When you gain a level in 5e, you can choose to take that level in your current class or in a new class. So, for instance, if you’re a level 5 Fighter and gain a level, you could become a level 6 Fighter, or a level 5 Fighter / level 1 Cleric, or something.
pronouns: he/she/they
Not exactly. It was actually not unusual to find magic user/illusionists because the combination of their two sets of spells made for a lethal player. Unlike the fighter/thief combination back then, who was limited by their thief abilities (not sure if that's still a thing), magic was magic. So a magic user/illusionist could perform perform the allowed number of spells for both classes. This was really helpful for lower level characters, which most people had. Most people didn't see alot of characters higher than 8th level since it took so long to progress using the point system. For instance, my character could perform 4(1st), 3(2nd), 3(3rd), and 2(4th) level magic user spells in addition to 4(1st), 2(2nd), and 1(3rd) level illusionist spells each day.
But if I could ask for a clarification regarding 5e. You mentioned that a 5e would be a single class wizard with the illusionist archetype. Does that mean that all the spells after adding the illusionist archetype are only illusionist type spells? That my character could no longer perform spells that aren't? Thank you .
Thank you so much for clarifying all of that. You're right in that I don't want to open up spell levels that I would never have had access to. I'll obviously need to read more about arcane recovery. I didn't realize how important it could be and it sounded really confusing so I just skimmed it. Since I want don't want to just limit myself to illusionist spells, it sounds like I should take your advice and stick with just the wizard. Thank you again for helping me understand how it works now. Crazy to think that 2e seems so easy to understand but I can see why 5e is popular. There are alot of things of enjoyed about it.
In 5e, the only restrictions on spells your Wizard can learn are that they are on the Wizard spell list. You can add two spells to your spellbook each time you level up, and if you find wizard spell scrolls or wizard spellbooks in your game, you can spend gold and time to add those to your spellbook. Illusionists can learn spells from any school and are not restricted to using only Illusion spells.
Under the 2014 rules, Illusionists halve the time and gold costs to add Illusion spells to their spellbooks. Under the 2024 rules, an Illusionist subclass would learn one free Illusion spell each time they reach a level where they get a new level of spells (two spells when they take the subclass at 3rd level).
You're still not understanding. In 5th edition, while not all Wizards are Illusionists, all Illusionists are Wizards, and can learn any Wizard spell. You do not have a mechanical restriction forcing you to only choose Illusion spells. You may choose to take Illusion spells to fit your concept, but you're not stuck with only those spells.
Just to further clarify: in 5e, Illusionist is a subclass for the Wizard class, not a class unto itself. Every 5e character has a subclass — a focus or specialization within their class — that they gain at a certain level. These subclasses grant features that either improve the class's base abilities, provide new abilities, or both; they never place limitations on the class's existing features. You don't need to "stick with just the Wizard"; in fact, you need to choose some subclass when you reach the appropriate level, because every character does. This is different from dual-classing or multi-classing where you take on a whole other class.
5e Wizards do not have any limitations on which spell schools they can learn spells from. The subclasses that specialize in a particular school of magic (like Illusionist) make spells of that school easier to learn and usually offer various improvements to them, but they don't restrict you to using only spells from that school.
I also can't stress enough that all of this information is provided in the 5e Player's Handbook, and reading through it before making any big decisions about your character will help you figure a lot of this stuff out much easier.
pronouns: he/she/they
Ohhhhhhh...you're right. I hadn't really understood the difference. Thank you for clarifying.
Thank you for that clarification. I started by reading the PH but honestly it was so different from 2e I just felt lost. Instead, I purchased Dragons of Stormwreck Isle (and Intro to Stormwreck Isle) and a DNDBeyond membership. I'm DMing my family and we're learning it together. I've now watched three playthroughs and have a better idea of the game mechanics. I think with the information you wonderfully patient people have provided me, I can crack open the PH again and take another stab at creating my character.
as you get to play, you'll find that the differences are not as extreme as you think. It LOOKS different, but feels very similar, but better.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Thank you. I'm starting to have more fun with it.