Ok, so I've been playing a 5E wizard since Hoard of the Dragon Queen came out. And, I have not been especially impressed at all. My PC has been able on a few occasions to cast Fog Cloud to help the party and even once got a Web spell in that did not collapse right away.
But, that's been it in the time that it has taken to get to level 4.3. Yeah, I have been rolling bad for the most part and that's part of it. And no, I did not take the Sleep spell because that was not his thing. But does a low level Wizard have to take Sleep in order to be semi-productive?
Yesterday, we had 4 fights. Being in a "dungeon", I had the following spells prepared:
1st level: Burning Hands, Mage Armor, Shield, Thunderwave, Fog Cloud
2nd level: Scorching Ray, Rope Trick, Web
Btw, I had both Burning Hands and Thunderwave prepped because the PC bard has a magic item that sometimes boosts fire damage. Otherwise, I would typically take Thunderwave for the larger area and take a different first level spell.
The first encounter was against some plant creatures which went down quickly, so I did not pull out any big guns. The second fight was against some lizard creatures that also went down quickly, so no bug guns there either.
In the third fight, I managed to get in close enough to do a Burning Hands. One foe saved, the other failed, 7 points of damage.
In the fourth fight, I managed to hit two foes with 2 of 3 rays from Scorching Ray. 7 points of damage each.
Note: I could have cast some more spells earlier, but I had no idea how many encounters we might have and the first two were pretty darn easy. The last fight was the end of the dungeon, so that was it for that day.
So from 2 Daily spells, a first and second, I managed to do a total of 21 points of damage. This was a great day for my Wizard. I did about 35 points of damage in 4 fights. That's a huge average for my PC. Course, I never did get an opportunity to shine in any other way. And as an Abjuration Wizard, I had already used a Mage Armor spell that day. So 3 spells down and very little gain for the effort.
The PC Rogue did 15 points of damage with a short bow attack in the same round as I did 14 points of damage with a Scorching Ray. All of the PCs managed as much or more damage in a single round many many times then the Wizard can manage a few times per day.
I also just recently noticed that my True Strike followed by Witch Bolt attack (which was my ace in the hole combo) doesn't even work at all. Both spells are concentration and True Strike doesn't work if it gets dropped, so even this minor combo doesn't work and is worthless. So, True Strike only works with instantaneous attack spells.
Concentration typically prevents more than one buff at a time, and the vast majority of spells get a save every single round. On average, that means that if a player pulls out Hold Person or some similar spell, the spell will work for 0, 1, or 2 rounds based on bounded accuracy. So on average, a spell with a save works for a single round.
Many spells like Crown of Madness are a total joke.
Sorry. Not seeing how a low level Wizard is even worth playing anymore. Sure, he can still eventually fly and go invisible and teleport around. But even spells like Web and such which used to do something in earlier versions do almost nothing in 5E. In earlier editions, the odds of getting out of it once the save was failed were fairly low, but now most creatures get out within a round or two. And who the heck fights in a 20 by whatever room most of the time? Web used to be 8x the size it is now (2x in each direction) and there was a decent chance of there being multiple anchor points. A low ceiling is often the player's only hope to get it up and keep it up. It's been seriously nerfed.
I have no problem not shining every single encounter, but when I do cast my highest level damaging spell, I want it to do more damage than what other PCs are doing without casting spells. This might sound like sour grapes, but I have been trying to be patient and wait for my chance to help out the party, but being #6 out of 6 PCs in the "help out the party" department in 80+% of encounters is starting to get real old. I seriously went back and counted up the number of encounters and it's been 20. I helped out (defensively) with Fog Cloud and/or Web in 3 of those encounters. Offensively, I haven't done squat ever. Ever. I might have to talk to my DM about bringing in a PC that can at least do something. It's unfortunate that WotC nerfed my favorite class to the point that it's not worth playing. I'll probably stick it out to 5th level and see if Fireball or Fear helps more.
And yes, I get it that Wizards now have D6 hit points and can cast spells spontaneously. This doesn't help. I'd rather the spells actually do something real and not be spontaneous then they be spontaneous and they hardly ever lock down anyone or significantly damage anyone. And the fact that spells do slightly more damage in this edition doesn't mean much when the monsters have more hit points either. Orcs in 3E had 5 hit points. A single Magic Missile had a 25% chance to take one out. Now Orcs have 15 hit points and the odds of taking one out (using all 3 missiles) are 1.5%.
It just seems that levels 1 to 4 totally blow for a 5E wizard. Even back in the day when the wizard only had a few spells per day, at least those spells did something. Now, the player of the wizard is really lucky if his PC does just one worthwhile thing in an entire day. If he could even Charm a kobold to go deliver a message for him, that would be more of a help than what he's been able to do so far, but he cannot even Charm a kobold. Charm used to be a "trusted friend and ally", now it's "a friendly acquaintance" and now the target knows he's been charmed when the spell ends (and of course, the duration is less). It's really pretty darn sad.
But, that's been it in the time that it has taken to get to level 4.3. Yeah, I have been rolling bad for the most part and that's part of it. And no, I did not take the Sleep spell because that was not his thing. But does a low level Wizard have to take Sleep in order to be semi-productive?
Yesterday, we had 4 fights. Being in a "dungeon", I had the following spells prepared:
1st level: Burning Hands, Mage Armor, Shield, Thunderwave, Fog Cloud
2nd level: Scorching Ray, Rope Trick, Web
Btw, I had both Burning Hands and Thunderwave prepped because the PC bard has a magic item that sometimes boosts fire damage. Otherwise, I would typically take Thunderwave for the larger area and take a different first level spell.
The first encounter was against some plant creatures which went down quickly, so I did not pull out any big guns. The second fight was against some lizard creatures that also went down quickly, so no bug guns there either.
In the third fight, I managed to get in close enough to do a Burning Hands. One foe saved, the other failed, 7 points of damage.
In the fourth fight, I managed to hit two foes with 2 of 3 rays from Scorching Ray. 7 points of damage each.
Note: I could have cast some more spells earlier, but I had no idea how many encounters we might have and the first two were pretty darn easy. The last fight was the end of the dungeon, so that was it for that day.
So from 2 Daily spells, a first and second, I managed to do a total of 21 points of damage. This was a great day for my Wizard. I did about 35 points of damage in 4 fights. That's a huge average for my PC. Course, I never did get an opportunity to shine in any other way. And as an Abjuration Wizard, I had already used a Mage Armor spell that day. So 3 spells down and very little gain for the effort.
The PC Rogue did 15 points of damage with a short bow attack in the same round as I did 14 points of damage with a Scorching Ray. All of the PCs managed as much or more damage in a single round many many times then the Wizard can manage a few times per day.
I also just recently noticed that my True Strike followed by Witch Bolt attack (which was my ace in the hole combo) doesn't even work at all. Both spells are concentration and True Strike doesn't work if it gets dropped, so even this minor combo doesn't work and is worthless. So, True Strike only works with instantaneous attack spells.
Concentration typically prevents more than one buff at a time, and the vast majority of spells get a save every single round. On average, that means that if a player pulls out Hold Person or some similar spell, the spell will work for 0, 1, or 2 rounds based on bounded accuracy. So on average, a spell with a save works for a single round.
Many spells like Crown of Madness are a total joke.
Sorry. Not seeing how a low level Wizard is even worth playing anymore. Sure, he can still eventually fly and go invisible and teleport around. But even spells like Web and such which used to do something in earlier versions do almost nothing in 5E. In earlier editions, the odds of getting out of it once the save was failed were fairly low, but now most creatures get out within a round or two. And who the heck fights in a 20 by whatever room most of the time? Web used to be 8x the size it is now (2x in each direction) and there was a decent chance of there being multiple anchor points. A low ceiling is often the player's only hope to get it up and keep it up. It's been seriously nerfed.
I have no problem not shining every single encounter, but when I do cast my highest level damaging spell, I want it to do more damage than what other PCs are doing without casting spells. This might sound like sour grapes, but I have been trying to be patient and wait for my chance to help out the party, but being #6 out of 6 PCs in the "help out the party" department in 80+% of encounters is starting to get real old. I seriously went back and counted up the number of encounters and it's been 20. I helped out (defensively) with Fog Cloud and/or Web in 3 of those encounters. Offensively, I haven't done squat ever. Ever. I might have to talk to my DM about bringing in a PC that can at least do something. It's unfortunate that WotC nerfed my favorite class to the point that it's not worth playing. I'll probably stick it out to 5th level and see if Fireball or Fear helps more.
And yes, I get it that Wizards now have D6 hit points and can cast spells spontaneously. This doesn't help. I'd rather the spells actually do something real and not be spontaneous then they be spontaneous and they hardly ever lock down anyone or significantly damage anyone. And the fact that spells do slightly more damage in this edition doesn't mean much when the monsters have more hit points either. Orcs in 3E had 5 hit points. A single Magic Missile had a 25% chance to take one out. Now Orcs have 15 hit points and the odds of taking one out (using all 3 missiles) are 1.5%.
It just seems that levels 1 to 4 totally blow for a 5E wizard. Even back in the day when the wizard only had a few spells per day, at least those spells did something. Now, the player of the wizard is really lucky if his PC does just one worthwhile thing in an entire day. If he could even Charm a kobold to go deliver a message for him, that would be more of a help than what he's been able to do so far, but he cannot even Charm a kobold. Charm used to be a "trusted friend and ally", now it's "a friendly acquaintance" and now the target knows he's been charmed when the spell ends (and of course, the duration is less). It's really pretty darn sad.
