Looking At The Pathfinder 2 Wizard Class

Yesterday's Pathfinder 2 playtest update at the Paizo website talked about the Wizard class for the game.

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It looks like the wizard is going to start out with plenty of options for players. "[FONT=&amp]At 1st level, you begin play with a spellbook containing 10 cantrips and eight 1st-level spells, giving you a wide variety of spells to draw upon when you prepare your magic each morning. Starting out, you can prepare four cantrips and two 1st-level spells each day. In addition, you also select your arcane school at 1st level, which grants you one extra spell slot of each level that you can use only to prepare a spell from your chosen school.[/FONT][FONT=&amp]" They also talk about one of the special abilities of the wizard, "[/FONT][FONT=&amp]Speaking of which, all wizards gain the ability to place some of their power into a designated item called an arcane focus. You can drain the power from that focus once per day to cast any one spell that you have already cast without spending another spell slot. Universalists get to use this ability once for each level of spell that they can cast![/FONT][FONT=&amp]"[/FONT]
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They also give us a look at some magic, including the ever popular Magic Missile.

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It looks like they're going to play with the options that are available to the class as well, making the wizard a bit more flexible. This is one of those classes that attracts a lot of controversy, so I am sure that someone​ will be unhappy with the decisions that they're going to make for the class.

 

[Xavian Starsider]

I always disliked how 3e put a limit on cantrip use. Looks like Pathfinder is continuing this trend wherein a low level wizard who has cast all his offense spells for the day now gets to be a really bad fighter with lousy attack bonus, lousy damage, lousy ac, and lousy hp. Joy! Swing that quarterstaff, Gandalf. Because stick fighting is what being a wizard is really about!

 

[Sunseeker]

I always disliked how 3e put a limit on cantrip use. Looks like Pathfinder is continuing this trend wherein a low level wizard who has cast all his offense spells for the day now gets to be a really bad fighter with lousy attack bonus, lousy damage, lousy ac, and lousy hp. Joy! Swing that quarterstaff, Gandalf. Because stick fighting is what being a wizard is really about!

I mean, it's kinda balanced by the fact that they're as powerful as your highest level spell you can cast, but only take up a cantrip slot?

But I think that's missing the point of the magic-user being able to do some "always" magic. Because as you say, magic is their thing.

It's an easy houserule fix, but really you'd think it'd be packaged in by now.

 

[Ancalagon]

I'm in a low level campaign (we *just* reached level 3) and our druid is heavily casting optimized... but because he has so flew slots, his combat options are very limited. At high level he'll be a terror but for now...

(he also has reduce shape change due to some template choice)

In 5e, this wouldn't be a problem.

 

[thekittenhugs]

Looks like Pathfinder is continuing this trend wherein a low level wizard who has cast all his offense spells for the day now gets to be a really bad fighter with lousy attack bonus, lousy damage, lousy ac, and lousy hp!

Pathfinder actually started (or was an early adopter of) the whole "cantrips = at will" thing that 5e has continued, so I think they will give casters some decent at-will abilities. Though really, the fact that they're keeping Vancian casting with individual spell preparations shows that for every good lesson they learn, there are three others they completely ignore, so they might just keep it as "oh, you get acid splash, enjoy dealing 1d4 damage every round when you're out of spells."

 

[Banesfinger]

I know it is a sacred cow, but I see that this is more of a problem with the vancian magic system. All spell casters play to the strength of that system, which is the "15 minute work day". Use all your spells in a single encounter, then sleep, repeat. "At-will" cantrips were a band-aid, but not a fix (like telling a fighter that after 2 encounters he has to put away his sword and only use a dagger).

 

[Staffan]

I always disliked how 3e put a limit on cantrip use. Looks like Pathfinder is continuing this trend wherein a low level wizard who has cast all his offense spells for the day now gets to be a really bad fighter with lousy attack bonus, lousy damage, lousy ac, and lousy hp. Joy! Swing that quarterstaff, Gandalf. Because stick fighting is what being a wizard is really about!

Cantrips will still be at-will abilities. This was explained in the blog post about spellcasting:

In the playtest, cantrips are spells you can cast at will, but they are no longer level 0. Instead, they automatically heighten to the highest spell level you can currently cast. That means if you're 5th level, your ray of frost is 3rd level and deals more damage, and your light cantrip is better at counteracting magical darkness.

They didn't specify how strong cantrips are at their base level or how much they gain from being higher level. So I guess we'll see if we still have low-level wizards spending most of their combats shooting things with their crossbows or if they have some decent magic combat options.

 

[mellored]

So it seems like there is a concentration mechanic. And it seems to take an action to maintain concentration.

So stacking buffs will slow you down.

 

[Lylandra]

Yeah, I read the cantrips at being prepared, but then used at-will, just like it is in PF1. The only difference is that they automatically scale up to your highest spell level. Hope this means that we'll see more variance in cantrips in PF2.

 

[Charlaquin]

Pathfinder actually started (or was an early adopter of) the whole "cantrips = at will" thing that 5e has continued

Pathfinder was indeed an early adpter of it. 4e was actually the system that started it.