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.
But now you can FIREBALL at will!
It’s only a 25% chance you’ll cast it for free. You need to roll exactly a 1 on the d4 to not expend the spell slot.
No buff to War Wizard?
sadge.
Warlock's video is on youtube but they haven't made an actual section for it on dnd beyond. Also apparently they only care about moon druid and wildshape.
UPDATED:
The most iconic class of DND is worse than 2014 comparing to other classes and I explain why:
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.
Now, your Arcana only slight is better than a Rogue that focus on Knowledge. If you pick a Rogue with Arcane Trickster and Focus on Knowledge skills you will be far ahead than any wizard spend his whole life reading . This only touches a fix of bad design of the class when comes to knows things. Not sure about this yet? Check out the new level 2 Ranger ability:
Ranger:
Deft Explorer (Level 2)
Gain Expertise in one skill and learn two languages.
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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.
Really, a level 5 ability to change a prepared spell one short rest? My GOD this is really bad ... Sorry , but it is....
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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.
We are talking a level 18 Wizard ^^ Do you think a level 18 wizard will ever prioritize a level 1 or level 2 spell other than shield? Now Shield is gone. [Irony] To fix this, you can cast Wish Spell and give yourself the ability to have innate spell of level 3. Oh I forgot to say , if you pick a fire spell like fireball and cant change its elements , most of the monsters in this level is immune to fire ^^.
I'll fix this. I will create a Mage (Variant), here it is :)
Mage (2024 Wizard Variant)
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/homebrew-house-rules/200514-mage-2024-wizard-variant-base-class
BTW, I really like the Warlock, Druid, Paladin, Rogue and Fighter But the Mage was a lazy job, sorry, buts is true.
Conjuration Wizard was always my favorite Wizard class. Sad to see they didn't make the cut. Minor Conjuration is one of the most whimsical and fun to use outside of combate features wizards received in my opinion. I wonder if that will be an optional feat moving forward.
While we haven't seen the entire new spell list, I do wonder about how many will get added for three of the four schools Wizards can specialize in here.
Using the current rules, there are only two Wizard Divination spells above 5th level - none at all at levels 7 or 8. There's only a single Wizard Abjuration spell at 2nd (Arcane Lock) as well as at 5th and 7th. Illusion has only one option at levels 8 and 9. Evocation has only one option at 9. All of those levels would need at least one more spell (two for Divination at 7 and 8) to make the free spell choice a meaningful choice. Some are easy - you can always toss another Evocation option in and there's some flexibility with Abjuration like a Mass Protection from Energy spell. But I'm really curious to see how they'll come up with 6 more high level Divination spells.
F because the necromancer is not included among the subclasses of the PHB 2024.
Wizard was already a good class, and still is despite you're claims. The 2024 version both gives a small boost in both the Scholar and Memorize Spell class features, but the 18th level feature in the 2014 version needed an adjustment since most of the time you'll pick spells like Shield or Misty Step, and it took too long to set them up or even change them out. All in all, it never needed large changes like the fighter or the barbarian, it just need to be readjusted so that ay it doesn't feel like its absurdly stronger than some of the other classes, while keeping it's role as the intellectual, strategic, and versatile spell caster.
Go to the top of the page and click "posts" right above the article's title. They are all there.
What happened to the other 4 wizard subclasses?
They cut half the subclasses from 2014, how could you not notice!?
they just killed one of my character...
level 18 mastery was the perfect capstone. i loved having shield and misty step at will. it was just awsome. and now i cannot anymore.
sorry but action wise at will is just not right. this is a big nerf, not just a small nerf, a big nerf. the most useful spells are all bonus actions.
but apparently they dont want high level wizards to be able to defend themselves.
i'm so keeping the old one for that one. the rest is ok, i mean wizard were already abusive as they were just like all casters.
but i dont see big changes outside of level 18 mastery, can't believe they dared say it was a minor change. its a major change !
anyone who created a wizard at that level can attest that mastery is the big capstone. now its gonna be good, but really not as good.
no more teleport at will, no more shield at will, no more mirror image at will. no more counter spell at will.
this is gonna hurt a lot.
Same here!!! But wizard looks nice, time for my diviner wizard who has a depowered deck of many things for divinatory uses
There was a half druid breakdown but warlock is absent.
Sad to see that there's no more Necromancer and that Conjuration seemed to get rolled into Illusionist
When was bladesinger a good subclass? The school of evocation was the best for it's ability to cast delayed fireball without killing the rest of your party. The bladesinger is a wizard with a sword, not much else, in my opinion. I'm happy to be proven wrong.
The older subclasses not found in the 2024 update are still playable as they are backwards compatible with the updated class.
Bladesinger do get a lot of goodies with lets you play in the frontline as a gish but if needed you could always play the wizard that sit in the the backlines with an extra +5 to ac and concentration in light armor making it very hard to hit you and break your concentration making you one of the hardest wizards to kill by far.
What are you talking about, you learn two spells per level, and can use rituals that aren't prepared.
Additionally, when you look at all official books rn, Wizard spell lists has around 350 spells, while druids have 170, and clerics have 125.