Ruin Explorer
Legend
Yes.Do they actually need design space, though?
You can't have a Wizard-like class that can actually DO anything EXCEPT cast spells, because Wizards don't have any design space. So you somehow have to make that class "worse at spells" in order to justify class features at all, which is hard, because D&D doesn't like that.
You can't easily do that, because there's no design space. Wizards are just "ALL OF THE SPELLS NO ALL OF THEM!!!" and nothing else except an increasingly unpopular casting method (which 5E almost turns into spontaneous casting anyway).Given that people hate having their toys taken away, surely the better answer is to try to bring everyone else up to meet the Wizard?
You can see this with Sorcerers particularly, who have less design space than they should, because it's difficult to make them "bad at spells", and it's why people get mad about the 5E Bard, because it is very slightly overstuffed design-space-wise, even with its godawful spell list.
Exactly. It's not completely impossible, but it's very hard. If Wizards had like actual class features and an actual class identity it'd be a lot easier.Of course, that's easier said that done
But there's no point worrying because there is literally no chance Wizards of the Coast is going to let anyone even slightly nerf Wizards. It's much more likely they'll get some cool stuff on top of what they have, with no compensation to other classes. Maybe in 7E/D&D Refresh they'll pull the other classes up a bit.
The "Arcane" spell list presents a future problem here. If all Wizard spells are on the Arcane list, then Sorcerers and Bards get access to a bunch of new stuff which frankly will make them a bit more powerful even with limited spells known. If not, then Wizard will have to have additional spells from class, which would be a bit weird.
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