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.

 

[pemerton]

It's a bit of a tangent relative to the thread topic, but the idea that in 4e there is no connection between mechanics and fiction is simply not true.

In combat there is a strong connection between the mechanics around movement, positioning etc and the fiction as to the location of the characters and monsters.

Difficult terrain is a mechanical phenomenon that corresponds to fictional states of affairs: eg if the DT is due to mud, then a flying PC is not going to be hampered by it. If it's due to strong winds, then a crawling PC is probably not going to be hampered by it. Etc.

Many keywords correlate power effects to the fiction. If the keyword is "fire" then, in the fiction, it involves heat and can set things alight. If the keyword is "cold", then, in the fiction, it involves ice and the like. A wizard can use Icy Terrain to freeze a puddle. A fighter can't use Come and Get It to freeze a puddle. This is because the former, but not the latter, has the Cold keyword.