Not going to lie...the difference between Cleric and WIzard is beyond my intelligence level. I have Cleric's down and thought playing a Wizard in a Curse of Strahd campaign would not be that hard. Haha! For those that are older and know the movie Breakfast Club, I immediately think of Brian saying: "I thought taking shop would be an easy A" and John says: "Why did you think it would be easy?" If you have no idea about this movie, no worries. I am begging for your help...
I have never, ever in my entire life played a wizard, I feel it is harder than it looks. I am already 6th level and I am still lost...our DM is strict about spell components (which is good), learning spells and writing new spells in my spell-book. So please do not laugh when I ask, at 6th level how many spells should I be able to have in my spell-book? Following the rules, I should have 18 for free, correct? 6 that I began with and 12 more for the 2 per level gained. Am I correct? And no cost?
I have found a few scrolls but we have not found enough gold or time for me to transcribe to my spell-book...so how many spells should I have prepared? I wanted to be a different wizard so I picked Goliath, School of Abjuration. I only have a 15 intelligence, so my understanding is 8 prepared spells. (+2 intelligence and 6th level.) If I am correct so far, I am still a little lost...
Ritual spells? Do I have to pick Ritual spells as my spell book spells but they do not need to be prepared? So if I have 18 spells, and 4 of them are ritual...that means I can actually have 8 non-ritual spells prepared and 4 ritual spells. (And this means I can only cast the ritual spells as rituals even if they have a casting time of one action. It has to be prepared to be able to use the one action version of the spell, correct?)
If you took the time to read all of this and are able to help me, I am super excited for your guidance...if you play an Abjuration Wizard, bonus! (I understand time and cost for abjuration spells are halved. Yay, I understand one thing!") THANK YOU!
Well, at 6th level you should have 16 spells in your spell book. You start with 6 at 1st level and 2 more each time you level up. You leveled up 5 times so that is 10 more spells. More specifically, if you took the highest level of spell available at level up you should have 8 1st level spells, 4 2nd level spells, and 4 3rd level spells. Of course, you are not required to take the highest level spell, so you could have taken a 1st level spell when you reached 6th level, but usually people take the highest they can.
You are correct for the number of prepared spells (8).
Rituals you do not need to prepare, you just need your spell book to cast, so yes, you can have all 8 prepared spells as non-ritual. Of course, that does mean you need the extra 10 minutes to cast those 4 ritual spells you do have, which usually isn't an issue, but if for some reason you need to cast a spell that has the ritual tag immediately then it would have to be prepared. But usually it's a safe bet not to prepare those, from my experiences.
Known Spells in Spellbook - 6 to start with at 1st level, +2 for every level thereafter. You can also SCRIBE any number of spells in addition to these. There is no hard limit to how many spells you can actually have in your spell book. For comparison, this is like the Cleric’s KNOWN SPELLS (basically their entire spell list).Essentially - a Cleric’s “spellbook” is automatically full at level 1. You have every single spell in the cleric list scribed into it. Wizards don’t - they have to find and scribe whatever spells they want.
Prepared Spells - a selection of spells from SPELLBOOK = Wizard Level + Int Mod. You choose the spells for this list after every long rest. For the rest of the day when you cast a spell you can choose any spell from this list to cast.
Spell Slots - just like Cleric, this limits the number of spells you can cast per day and the wizard can cast any spell from his prepared list. This is determined by the class feature table.
Ritual Spells - a wizard can cast any ritual spell that’s in their spellbook without using a spell slot, it just takes 10 minutes longer to do. So if you have Detect Magic in your spellbook AND prepared, you can cast using a spell slot for 1 round Casting time OR cast using a ritual for 1 round + 10 minutes Casting time. If you have Detect Magic in your spellbook and NOT prepared, you can still cast Detect Magic as a ritual for 1 round + 10 minutes Casting time. There is no limit to the number of rituals you can cast per day.
Example:
Goliath Wizard Level 6, 15 Int (+2 mod)
Spellbook: 6 + (2 x 5) = 16 spells AT LEAST here. If you scribe scrolls into it, you could have way more.
Prepared Spells: 6 (wizard level) + 2 (int mod) = 8. You get to pick 8 spells from your Spell book at the end of a long rest. ie. Magic Missile, Shield, Absorb Elements, Mirror Image, Flaming Sphere, Fog Cloud, Fireball, Blur
Spell Slots: 4 x 1st level spells, 3 x 2nd level spells, 3 x 3rd level spells
Rituals: ANY spell with the ritual tag in your spellbook can be cast via ritual. ie. Detect Magic, Identify, Alarm, Arcane Lock, Tenser’s Floating Disk, Leomund’s Hut...
So: For your prepared list, ideally choose ONLY non-ritual spells. That means you maximize the variety of spells you can cast per day.
Wizards are a weird hybrid between known casters (Bards, Rangers, Sorcerers, and Warlocks) and prepared casters (Artificers, Clerics, Druids, and Paladins). They have to learn their spells, but they also have to prepare them too. Have you much experience with Bards or Sorcerers?
So, remember how for your Clerics they just knew all of their spells and just had to pick the ones they want for the day? For Wizards they only know the spells that they “learn,” the ones in their Spellbooks. That’s just like the other Known Spellcasters. (At 1st level you get 6, and then 2/level for every level after that, so at 6th level you would automatically have 16 known spells.) Out of those known spells they just pick the ones they want for the day just like other Prepares Spellcasters like the Cleric. They calculate the number of spells they can prepare just like the other Prepared Spellcasters. (At 6th level with a +2 Int mod that’s 8.)
Wizards can cast any spell with the ritual tag in their Spellbook as a ritual. That’s one of the things that’s like the other Known Spellcasters, it works for any spell they “know” that has the Ritual tag. (Except Sorcerers, they can’t do Rituals. 😒)
The only thing they really have that’s different than anybody else is that book, and the ability to add spells they might find to that book. The problem you are possibly gonna face is the fact that Curse of Strad is very light on the gp from what I have heard, so getting the money to add those scrolls you found to that Spellbook will mean there are other things your party cannot buy. Wizards are an expensive class.
They’re basically a cross between a Bard and a Cleric, but their only real class feature is the most amazing moneypit in the game. Once you realize that then they’re not so hard to figure out. I hope that helped.
Everything has been covered but I just wanted to say, when trying to remember the amount of "free" spells you get or should have, I find it easier to just remember: 2 x wizard level + 4.
Might just be me, but maybe it helps.
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Thank you everyone...yup I was off by 2 on my spells. And yup this is going to be a hard campaign...with not having time to scribe and we have only found a necklace worth 150gp...DM is reminding all of the spellcasters that components are expensive and that we can't cast them...ugh. But he is an amazing DM that is teaching me a lot about how the game should really be played.
Thank you everyone...yup I was off by 2 on my spells. And yup this is going to be a hard campaign...with not having time to scribe and we have only found a necklace worth 150gp...DM is reminding all of the spellcasters that components are expensive and that we can't cast them...ugh. But he is an amazing DM that is teaching me a lot about how the game should really be played.
Remember that the spell will say that the component is destroyed if it actually is destroyed. Chromatic Orb for example - once you have the component, you cast the spell infinite times. So that will come in handy!
There are a lot of ritual spells / use them liberally to save your spell slots.
There is also the focus thing too, that will help with non consumed components as the focus can be used in place of those components. I'm sure there are those out there that want to go purchase every component in game and track them as well as water usage with rations, I am not that guy. Arcane focus for me! lol
There is also the focus thing too, that will help with non consumed components as the focus can be used in place of those components. I'm sure there are those out there that want to go purchase every component in game and track them as well as water usage with rations, I am not that guy. Arcane focus for me! lol
Again, you don’t ever need to consider non-costed components - you either use an Arcane Focus or a Component Pouch. Once you have either of these you never have to go out and purchase any non-costed components ever again.
The difference is that a Component Pouch is kept in inventory (steal-able) and a Focus is held in hand (disarm-able but can also give bonus to spell modifiers)
Not going to lie...the difference between Cleric and WIzard is beyond my intelligence level. I have Cleric's down and thought playing a Wizard in a Curse of Strahd campaign would not be that hard. Haha! For those that are older and know the movie Breakfast Club, I immediately think of Brian saying: "I thought taking shop would be an easy A" and John says: "Why did you think it would be easy?" If you have no idea about this movie, no worries. I am begging for your help...
I have never, ever in my entire life played a wizard, I feel it is harder than it looks. I am already 6th level and I am still lost...our DM is strict about spell components (which is good), learning spells and writing new spells in my spell-book. So please do not laugh when I ask, at 6th level how many spells should I be able to have in my spell-book? Following the rules, I should have 18 for free, correct? 6 that I began with and 12 more for the 2 per level gained. Am I correct? And no cost?
I have found a few scrolls but we have not found enough gold or time for me to transcribe to my spell-book...so how many spells should I have prepared? I wanted to be a different wizard so I picked Goliath, School of Abjuration. I only have a 15 intelligence, so my understanding is 8 prepared spells. (+2 intelligence and 6th level.) If I am correct so far, I am still a little lost...
Ritual spells? Do I have to pick Ritual spells as my spell book spells but they do not need to be prepared? So if I have 18 spells, and 4 of them are ritual...that means I can actually have 8 non-ritual spells prepared and 4 ritual spells. (And this means I can only cast the ritual spells as rituals even if they have a casting time of one action. It has to be prepared to be able to use the one action version of the spell, correct?)
If you took the time to read all of this and are able to help me, I am super excited for your guidance...if you play an Abjuration Wizard, bonus! (I understand time and cost for abjuration spells are halved. Yay, I understand one thing!") THANK YOU!
Well, at 6th level you should have 16 spells in your spell book. You start with 6 at 1st level and 2 more each time you level up. You leveled up 5 times so that is 10 more spells. More specifically, if you took the highest level of spell available at level up you should have 8 1st level spells, 4 2nd level spells, and 4 3rd level spells. Of course, you are not required to take the highest level spell, so you could have taken a 1st level spell when you reached 6th level, but usually people take the highest they can.
You are correct for the number of prepared spells (8).
Rituals you do not need to prepare, you just need your spell book to cast, so yes, you can have all 8 prepared spells as non-ritual. Of course, that does mean you need the extra 10 minutes to cast those 4 ritual spells you do have, which usually isn't an issue, but if for some reason you need to cast a spell that has the ritual tag immediately then it would have to be prepared. But usually it's a safe bet not to prepare those, from my experiences.
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Wizards in a nutshell:
Known Spells in Spellbook - 6 to start with at 1st level, +2 for every level thereafter. You can also SCRIBE any number of spells in addition to these. There is no hard limit to how many spells you can actually have in your spell book. For comparison, this is like the Cleric’s KNOWN SPELLS (basically their entire spell list).Essentially - a Cleric’s “spellbook” is automatically full at level 1. You have every single spell in the cleric list scribed into it. Wizards don’t - they have to find and scribe whatever spells they want.
Prepared Spells - a selection of spells from SPELLBOOK = Wizard Level + Int Mod. You choose the spells for this list after every long rest. For the rest of the day when you cast a spell you can choose any spell from this list to cast.
Spell Slots - just like Cleric, this limits the number of spells you can cast per day and the wizard can cast any spell from his prepared list. This is determined by the class feature table.
Ritual Spells - a wizard can cast any ritual spell that’s in their spellbook without using a spell slot, it just takes 10 minutes longer to do. So if you have Detect Magic in your spellbook AND prepared, you can cast using a spell slot for 1 round Casting time OR cast using a ritual for 1 round + 10 minutes Casting time. If you have Detect Magic in your spellbook and NOT prepared, you can still cast Detect Magic as a ritual for 1 round + 10 minutes Casting time. There is no limit to the number of rituals you can cast per day.
Example:
Goliath Wizard Level 6, 15 Int (+2 mod)
Spellbook: 6 + (2 x 5) = 16 spells AT LEAST here. If you scribe scrolls into it, you could have way more.
Prepared Spells: 6 (wizard level) + 2 (int mod) = 8. You get to pick 8 spells from your Spell book at the end of a long rest. ie. Magic Missile, Shield, Absorb Elements, Mirror Image, Flaming Sphere, Fog Cloud, Fireball, Blur
Spell Slots: 4 x 1st level spells, 3 x 2nd level spells, 3 x 3rd level spells
Rituals: ANY spell with the ritual tag in your spellbook can be cast via ritual. ie. Detect Magic, Identify, Alarm, Arcane Lock, Tenser’s Floating Disk, Leomund’s Hut...
So: For your prepared list, ideally choose ONLY non-ritual spells. That means you maximize the variety of spells you can cast per day.
Hey again clear_seeker,
Wizards are a weird hybrid between known casters (Bards, Rangers, Sorcerers, and Warlocks) and prepared casters (Artificers, Clerics, Druids, and Paladins). They have to learn their spells, but they also have to prepare them too. Have you much experience with Bards or Sorcerers?
So, remember how for your Clerics they just knew all of their spells and just had to pick the ones they want for the day? For Wizards they only know the spells that they “learn,” the ones in their Spellbooks. That’s just like the other Known Spellcasters. (At 1st level you get 6, and then 2/level for every level after that, so at 6th level you would automatically have 16 known spells.) Out of those known spells they just pick the ones they want for the day just like other Prepares Spellcasters like the Cleric. They calculate the number of spells they can prepare just like the other Prepared Spellcasters. (At 6th level with a +2 Int mod that’s 8.)
Wizards can cast any spell with the ritual tag in their Spellbook as a ritual. That’s one of the things that’s like the other Known Spellcasters, it works for any spell they “know” that has the Ritual tag. (Except Sorcerers, they can’t do Rituals. 😒)
The only thing they really have that’s different than anybody else is that book, and the ability to add spells they might find to that book. The problem you are possibly gonna face is the fact that Curse of Strad is very light on the gp from what I have heard, so getting the money to add those scrolls you found to that Spellbook will mean there are other things your party cannot buy. Wizards are an expensive class.
They’re basically a cross between a Bard and a Cleric, but their only real class feature is the most amazing moneypit in the game. Once you realize that then they’re not so hard to figure out. I hope that helped.
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Everything has been covered but I just wanted to say, when trying to remember the amount of "free" spells you get or should have, I find it easier to just remember: 2 x wizard level + 4.
Might just be me, but maybe it helps.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Thank you everyone...yup I was off by 2 on my spells. And yup this is going to be a hard campaign...with not having time to scribe and we have only found a necklace worth 150gp...DM is reminding all of the spellcasters that components are expensive and that we can't cast them...ugh. But he is an amazing DM that is teaching me a lot about how the game should really be played.
Remember that the spell will say that the component is destroyed if it actually is destroyed. Chromatic Orb for example - once you have the component, you cast the spell infinite times. So that will come in handy!
There are a lot of ritual spells / use them liberally to save your spell slots.
There is also the focus thing too, that will help with non consumed components as the focus can be used in place of those components. I'm sure there are those out there that want to go purchase every component in game and track them as well as water usage with rations, I am not that guy. Arcane focus for me! lol
Again, you don’t ever need to consider non-costed components - you either use an Arcane Focus or a Component Pouch. Once you have either of these you never have to go out and purchase any non-costed components ever again.
The difference is that a Component Pouch is kept in inventory (steal-able) and a Focus is held in hand (disarm-able but can also give bonus to spell modifiers)