D&D 5E The warlock is a "better" wizard than a wizard

Helpful NPC Thom

Adventurer
However, I'm starting to feel that from a narrative and balance, the warlock - specifically the tome warlock - is a better depiction of a generic "fantasy mage" (which is not the same as a D&D wizard!).

I came to this realization watching the Dungeon Dudes 's game on youtube. In their current campaign, their party mage is a warlock (GOO, tome). This warlock is from a family of wizards, he joined the academy etc and... sucked. He just didn't have the talent, at all. So his parents made some arrangements for him to find a certain ancient text and ... voila, he's now a "mage!". (this is background stuff, not in the actual campaign).

Because of this, the character is really trying his hardest to "be a wizard", but his toolset is limited. Only a few slots available at any given time. A lot of "shenanigans" to compensate. BUT he's still an effective mage, which some really clutch moments.

And I realized, watching him, that apart from the numerous reference to his patron (Bruce, who looks like a cat), a Tome Warlock is much more like a generic fantasy wizard, or how a wizard is in several other games. They can't fix every problem with a spell (because they don't know that many), the tome aspect makes them "bookish" a bit, they have to rely on wits, guile and luck to fix other problems etc... not at all like the swiss army knife, spell for any situation wizard. This makes them more balanced too! The only change you might need is changing the main stat from cha to int and perhaps tweak the skill selection a bit...

Am I on to something? does this make any sense?
The D&D wizard is the best at being the D&D wizard: a spellcaster from Jack Vance's Dying Earth series. It's based almost entirely on a single story therein: Mazirian the Magician. D&D is its own genre at this point. Harry Dresden and Polgara are not D&D wizards. Gandalf, Merlin, and Thulsa Doom are not D&D wizards. Not a single channeler from The Wheel of Time is a D&D wizard. It is harder to find a fictional wizard who resembles a D&D wizard than the other way around, I'd say.
 

log in or register to remove this ad




Mistwell

Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)
Nope. EB cannot target objects.
True. Unless it's a mimic door :)

21MimicDoor.JPG
 

It makes sense, though your point has nothing to do with the title of your topic. Your issue is with how magic is handled in D&D 5e in general.


Already a houserule in my game. Though no one was ever taken me up on it. IME players tend to ignore the "seekers of knowledge and power" angle the PHB emphasizes and instead lean towards "buffoon who stumbles into power."
I think it is more "ego maniac sweet talks sanity-destroying horror into giving him/her power." The Wild Magic Sorcerer is supposed to cover "buffoon who stumbles into power."

That being said, I have long thought there should be a School of Law Wizard that specializes in making elaborate deals with devils, modrons, and archons. I figure as soon as you mention subclauses, most demons are like "bored, I'm going to sleep now and dream of how I am going to strange you with your entrails as soon as this silly magic circle fades away."
 

Tales and Chronicles

Jewel of the North, formerly know as vincegetorix
Here's my offering to you people:

The Mage, a refflufed warlock with a little boost to make it more of a meeting point between warlock and wizard. Have fun.
 

Attachments

  • The Mage (1).pdf
    64.4 KB · Views: 214
Last edited:


JiffyPopTart

Bree-Yark
This thread is 5e.

And no, this is not "details". Does hold person work on an orgre? No. Does fireball hurt fire elementals? No. Can EB affect objects? No.
It's "details" in that the post you nitpicked was essentially saying wizards take their time to solve a problem with a perfect spell and warlocks just solve it with PewPew.

The game mechanics aren't important to the sentiment of the statement.

For example I could tell you there is no such monster as an "orgre" so we wouldn't know if Hold Person would work or not, but that really wouldnt have anything to do with what you were trying to say, which is that certain spells only target certain things.
 


Remove ads

Top