Wizards: Already Too Strong?

[KesselZero]

I haven't played yet-- will tomorrow-- but just from looking at the character sheets I was very surprised by the wizard's at-wills. I had expected from earlier playtest reports that the wizard could get a single at-will as a single feat (Lance of Flame or whatever it was called that was talked about from DDXP). Instead we have a wizard who has no less than six at-wills at first level, as best I can tell four from class and two from theme.

Let's look at what they can do in combat:
Magic Missile: small damage, auto-hits
Shocking Grasp: same damage as a rogue without Sneak Attack
Ray of Frost: freezes enemy in place

And out of combat:
Detect Magic: what it says on the tin
Mage Hand: as always
Light: an hour of torchlight

So yeah, this seems like an awful lot to me. Add to this the wizard's actual spells (3/day at first level) and high HP and you've got a character who can keep up with everybody but the fighter in at-will damage (the cleric of Moradin's at-will attack spell is comparable) AND immediately eliminates the need for torches, ever, at first level. Plus against low-level enemies the low damage of Magic Missile is an auto-kill, so who even needs a fighter?

Can somebody who's played these characters confirm or deny how they stack up against each other? The wizard seems to have a whole lot going for it.

 

[Plissken]

Even though I think it's really cool, my only concern at this point is the at-will magic missile, not so much at first level but when you get three at 9th.

 

[Revinor]

Please compare him to Pelor's cleric. Especially at-will attack, where cleric has _range_ and bigger dice (bigger bonus comes from higher ability). Then amount of various extra abilities around. Then Spiritual Hammer which is a way to get an extra attack (even if bit weak) for free each round. And then compare Sunburst versus Arc Lightning for bit higher level.

Yes, wizard might have more utility at him, but power wise, I think he comes behind the Pelor guy.

 

[Li Shenron]

I had similar thoughts, that there is quite a lot of useful stuff all the time. I also had the same immediate reaction to "free torches": I guess that not every single Wiz need to have that cantrip, but still... it's almost as if one whole area of traditional low-level issue (dungeon illumination) is bypassed. I don't think it's a balance problem, not at all, but it's a flavor problem.

 

[Aeric]

I played last night--as the wizard, in fact--and I honestly didn't feel too overpowered.

I used Burning Hands on the room filled with rats, which only served to make them flee out of the room, but it did, at least, end the combat. I used Sleep on a room filled with Kobolds, which was _very_ effective. After that, I had only my cantrips to rely on. With Magic Missile, I was contributing to every combat but not dominating it--I dropped a couple of kobolds in the fight with the king, but there were so many of them it was necessary for our survival. It was a challenging fight, and both the fighter and the rogue went down a couple of times before it was all over.

Magic Missile at-will was a head-scratcher for everyone at the table. Our first thought was that it was OP, but in play, it didn't really feel that way. I used Shocking Grasp once, but missed. Our group wasn't very good at staying together in the dungeon, so the Light spell wasn't as useful as it might have been (although if I knew people were going to run off, I would have given everyone their own casting of the spell).

Despite this, I would probably recommend that the at-will attack power not be auto-hit. Since the wizard uses his Int to modify his "BAB," he has about the same chance to hit as everyone else. Plus, I kind of missed making attack rolls.

 

[Pyromantic]

(although if I knew people were going to run off, I would have given everyone their own casting of the spell).

By RAW, I don't believe that's an option. Check the description for the light spell.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

seems all right on first glance.

Shocking grasp though maybe damaging, is very risky, as you need to be in close combat with ac 11.
And if you are hit, it is your best spell...

 

[jsaving]

If you count the number of at-wills available to the wizard, then yes, he looks very strong. However, the right way to look at class balance is not "how many" options a character has but how much any particular option changes his DPS per round.

If you were given a ray at-will for every damage type in the game (fire ray, ice ray, etc), for example, you might "look" very strong because you'd have so many different entries on your character sheet. But if upon closer inspection none of those rays could inflict as much damage as options already available to you, such as firing a crossbow or throwing a dagger, then having all those at-wills wouldn't affect game balance much because they wouldn't be worth using very often. And when they *are* used, it will mainly be in low-stress situations where you're mopping up trash and don't need to put out much damage.

One strong at-will ability is far more destructive to game balance than 10 or even 100 cantrips. But the cantrips do help give classes a "sense" that there's something magical going on here, which seems like a good thing to foster in a game like D&D.

 

[P1NBACK]

I had similar thoughts, that there is quite a lot of useful stuff all the time. I also had the same immediate reaction to "free torches": I guess that not every single Wiz need to have that cantrip, but still... it's almost as if one whole area of traditional low-level issue (dungeon illumination) is bypassed. I don't think it's a balance problem, not at all, but it's a flavor problem.

Simple solution: remove Light from your game or house-rule it to emit light in a smaller radius. Heh.

 

[Herschel]

I don't think the Wizard is too strong....yet but as Plissken said, wait until 9th level. Part of it I really think is because the Fighter is just so dull everything else looks really robust compared to it.