Masters of the arcane arts, scholars of the esoteric, and delvers of eldritch secrets, the Wizard class wields the forces of magic with greater poise and prowess in the 2024 Player’s Handbook. Ten years of study have paid off as we look at the changes and tweaks made to one of the most iconic classes of Dungeons & Dragons.
Below, we cover key changes to the 2024 Wizard you’ll find in the new Player’s Handbook. If you don’t see a feature covered, such as Signature Spells, that means it is unchanged from the 2014 Wizard, or only saw very minor changes.
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2024 Wizard Class Features Overview

Spellcasting — Level 1
The Wizard’s Spellcasting feature hasn’t seen a huge number of changes but has certainly received some quality-of-life improvements. The most immediate difference you’ll notice is that Wizards no longer use their Intelligence modifier plus Wizard level to determine their number of prepared spells, instead referring to a fixed value listed in the Wizard table.
Pulling a page from Igwilv’s spellbook, the Cantrip Formulas optional class feature from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is now a core spellcasting feature. Also, spellbooks receive a bit of love, with more defined properties, the ability to be used as a Spellcasting Focus, and are now impossible to read by anyone but you without the use of Identify.
Ritual Adept— Level 1
The 2024 Wizard still gets special treatment in the Ritual department, as seen in their other level 1 feature, Ritual Adept. As long as a spell with the Ritual tag is in your spellbook and you read the spell from your spellbook, you can cast it as a Ritual without needing to prepare it.
Scholar — Level 2
The 2024 Wizard has become much more multidisciplinary and can gain Expertise in one of the following skills that they’re proficient in: Arcana, History, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, or Religion.
Wizard Subclass— Level 3

Wizards now pick their subclass at level 3. But, an extra level of study has paid off! Their Savant features now allow them access to two free level 1 or level 2 spells of their associated school rather than a reduction of cost and time when copying new spells. Additionally, thanks to the new Savant feature, they get to add a spell from their chosen school to their spellbook each time they unlock a new level of spell slot in the Wizard class.
- Abjurer: Formerly the School of Abjuration, you’ll notice that the Abjurer’s signature Arcane Ward feature has had its language clarified, and you can refill it directly as a Bonus Action by expending a spell slot. At level 10, Abjurer Wizards get a new feature called Spell Breaker which, in addition to absorbing 2014's Improved Abjuration, grants Counterspell and Dispel Magic as always prepared spells, the latter being able to be cast as a Bonus Action. But the real standout of this feature is that if you use either spell and fail, no spell slot is consumed!
- Diviner: The Diviner subclass doesn’t see many changes from its previous incarnation as the School of Divination, other than some refinements to The Third Eye. The feature now uses a Bonus Action, and the Darkvision feature has increased its range to 120 feet. The See Invisibility option now allows you to cast the See Invisibility spell without using a spell slot, combining and boosting the benefits of the 2014 Ethereal Sight and See Invisibility benefits.
- Evoker: The most explosive Wizard subclass has seen Potent Cantrip and Sculpt Spells swap places, with the former now applying half damage on missed spell attacks as well as successful saving throws against your cantrips. Beyond this, the subclass is largely unchanged from the 2014 Wizard's School of Evocation.
- Illusionist: Despite a multitude of improvements, the first you’ll notice is Improved Illusions, which absorbs Improved Minor Illusion and includes new benefits—it now also allows you to ignore Verbal components for Illusion spells and increases the range of certain spells. At level 6, Illusionists get the new Phantasmal Creatures feature which grants Summon Beast and Summon Fey as always prepared spells. These can be cast as Illusion spells, which summons a modified version of the creature, and also allows a free casting of each once per Long Rest. Finally, Illusory Self has been clarified to trigger on a hit instead of an attack roll, and it can be restored by expending a level 2+ spell slot without requiring any action.
Memorize Spell — Level 5
A new level 5 feature, Wizards can now swap out one prepared spell for one in their spellbook whenever they take a Short Rest.
Spell Mastery — Level 18
Spell Mastery sees a few minor changes, starting with the limitation that the chosen spells must have a casting time of one action, and you can only swap one spell at a time rather than both. However, the chosen spells now count as always prepared and can be swapped out on a Long Rest rather than requiring 8 hours of dedicated study.
Epic Boon — Level 19
Previously a special reward found in the 2014 Dungeon Master’s Guide, Epic Boons have made their way over to the 2024 Player’s Handbook as a new type of feat with the prerequisite of being level 19+. While Wizards can take any of the twelve Epic Boons, the recommended pick is the Boon of Spell Recall, which we’ll look at here:
- Boon of Spell Recall: Increase your Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma ability score by 1 up to a maximum of 30, and when you cast a spell using a level 1-4 spell slot, roll 1d4. If you roll the spell's level, the slot isn’t expended.
Turn to Page One of Your Spellbook
The 2024 Player’s Handbook is now available on the D&D Beyond marketplace, which means it's time to set out on new adventures with fresh or familiar characters!
Much like the spellbook of a level 20 Wizard, the pages of the 2024 Player’s Handbook contain a plethora of exciting arcane options in the form of the 2024 Wizard class. Always the spellcasting class with the most toys and tools at their disposal, the new and improved Wizard has even more options at their crackling fingertips.
We’re delighted to share with you the changes to fifth edition D&D that appear in the 2024 Player’s Handbook. Make sure to keep an eye out on D&D Beyond for more useful guides on using the wealth of new options, rules, and mechanics found in the 2024 Player's Handbook!
Davyd is a moderator for D&D Beyond. A Dungeon Master of over fifteen years, he enjoys Marvel movies, writing, and of course running D&D for his friends and family, including his daughter Willow (well, one day). The three of them live with their two cats Asker and Khatleesi in south of England.
This article was updated on August 13, 2024, to issue corrections or expand coverage for the following features and subclasses:
- Spellcasting: Removed reference to Ritual Caster being removed, as it's covered in the Ritual Adept section.
- Wizard Subclass (Diviner): Removed error stating that Ethereal Sight has been removed, as it's included in the See Invisibility benefit.
- Wizard Subclass (Illusionist): Clarified that Improved Illusions absorbed 2014's Improved Minor Illusion and provided new benefits. Also added that Illusory Self triggers on a hit instead of attack roll.
- Wizard Subclass (Abjurer): Clarified that Spell Breaker includes 2014's Improved Abjuration's ability to add your Proficiency Bonus to Dispel Magic on top of the new benefits.
That would take away quite a lot of the "specialness" of being an illusionist but would solve the problem.
However, I would be very surprised if that was the case as it would be a massive buff to many of those spells.
Take for example "Seeming"
Under current rules on the casting you can apply this spell to "any number of creatures you can see" in a 30ft range, and give them a new appearance within the limits of the spell with a save for unwilling creatures. which then lasts for 8 hours or until dispelled [or dismissed as an action].
The Illusionist with "malleable illusion" can with an action on looking at anyone within that 8hr window who has had this spell successful cast on them essentially recast this spell on them for free.
What's even better is the illusionist can cast this spell on a room of people and make no changes at all with the initial casting [so nobody is any the wiser that the spell has been cast]. And then at will for the next 8 hours anyone who failed there save who was in that room you can change their appearance at will on sight....
Fantastic for shenanigans involving guards chasing you where your run around a corner and then make your party look like them and them look like your party.... The nonsense is limited only by your imagination. Which is kind of the point. Malleable Illusions plays into the fantasy of being creative with your magic which is what illusionists are all about. Summoning some illusionary pets is nice but not worth getting out of bed for if it means losing Malleable Illusions.
The biggest one this would have to apply to which I really can't see them just giving out to everyone is Mirage Arcane...
can we stop turning spells into features it is the most infuriating lazy stuff i have ever seen (keep going love your work WotC :) )
I like the expertise, it definitely makes them more useful in situations (not saying they arent useful they are probably the most useful class)
"Lastly, Ritual Caster is no longer included in the Spellcasting feature. Instead, spells with a Ritual tag can be cast as a Ritual as long as they're prepared.
Ritual Adept— Level 1
The 2024 Wizard still gets special treatment in the Ritual department, as seen in their other level 1 feature, Ritual Adept. As long as a spell with the Ritual tag is in your spellbook and you read the spell from your spellbook, you can cast it as a Ritual without needing to prepare it."
Am I reading this wrong or does it sound contradictory? One say you need to prepare it and the other say you don't..?
Yeah, I noticed that too.
I think this is supposed to be a case of "specific controls general." It may be that the general "Spellcasting" class feature rules are repeated across most spellcasting classes, spelling out the standard requirement for ritual casting (preparation), while the Wizard's Ritual Adept class feature overrides it because it's an exception or specifically directed at ritual casting for Wizards. If it's absent from other class descriptions, it lets the Wizard 'break the usual rule' that applies to other classes.
If you're not a rules lawyer by nature, playing D&D will make you into one eventually.
That's my interpretation as well. All spellcasting classes can cast a ritual spell they have prepared. Wizards are unique because they just need to have it in their spellbook and it doesn't need to be prepared.
So is the school of necromancy/necromancer not a subclass anymore
It is, you just use the 2014 Necromancer subclass features until it gets its (probable) 2024 update whenever and wherever. How that works or will work with the character creator here though, remains to be seen.
Very, very disappointing
Honestly really disappointed that nothing was changed about actually acquiring spells. People say it’s the strongest class but it’s entirely up to your DM how strong it is. It’s great to have such a large spell list, but with the DMs I’ve had the reality in actual play is that you’re rarely ever given more spells, meaning they have less versatility than druids or clerics, despite spell versatility being their entire class identity.
I think that many changes could and should have been made, without it meaning an increase in power.
Randomly, shouldn't there be a subclass for every school of magic? I want a necromancer wizard, but I'm unsure about whether that's going to be a thing.
First, they did add to the number of spells you automatically collect as a wizard with the new savant feature of the included subclasses. Almost 25% more spells you get to choose.
second, if you want to play a 2014 wizard school not included in the update I’m sure a reasonable DM could be convinced to use the 2024 savant rules in place of the old ones. Which brings me to.
Third, I’m sorry your DM has forgotten or has decided not to include spell scrolls and books among the loot. Hopefully it’s the former and you can remind them that part of the fun of a wizard is being the Ash Ketchum of spells, got to collect them all.
This adds almost nothing of value when compared to what other casters get, they had cool idea spell modification + creation, and albeit it was too strong they coulda been smart about and rebalanced it as a feature that maybe modiefies 1 or 2 spells over a wizards lifetime, to create a true signature spell, yet they got scared and scrapped it
For all of those asking why the wizard did not get much new interesitng things you can thank the UA. Wotc created some extremly interesting and thematic new features. They could have used some better wording but the crowed reacted so negative that they did not even try to rebalance and reword them.
You can check out UA9 or UA8 i think it was.
Exacly. Thats why I homebrew the UA here: https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/homebrew-house-rules/200514-mage-2024-wizard-variant-base-class
I would upload to Homebrew but there is no class option:
Wizards now look rather weird compared to the Bard, who at level 10 has access to the same spell list + much more features.
UA5 had the first version of the new Wizard and it was less then ideal. Needing a spell to scribe spells into the spellbook? I didn't completely hate modifing and creating new spells but honestly making that into a spell as well was weird. Yes, I cast this spell to let me create a new spell. If they had been features instead of spells it might have gone over better. But it comes down to the community did not vibe with what was presented. Thats not right or wrong just is. The failure is on Wotc for taking criticism, and creating something with it.
So... uh.... wizards just don't get a capstone? That seems odd.