D&D 5E (2024) The Great Wizard Extinction.

[UngeheuerLich]

Wizards are generalist and while that is a good strength of the class it makes them a little bland.
That is why bladesingers are popular as it gives something else to wizard except generic spellcasting.

Wizard is the "swiss army knife" of the party, but no matter how many times that knife is useful, it will never be as cool as "Rambo knife" or as useful in that specific role.

Wizard subclasses should lean in more into the role, Evoker wizard should be THE best damage dealer in the party if spell slots are spent on damage spells, maybe 3x of barbarian damage. As barbarian can "tank" 3 or 4x attacks that a wizard can take.

Necromancer should have it's undead minion based on Summon undead spell.
I.E:
at 3rd level you gain Summon undead spell, spell slot you use is counted as one level higher for calculating Summon undead.
that is, basic 3rd level Summon undead can be casted by 2nd level slot.
Summon undead lasts for 24hrs and Concentration cannot be lost due to damage.
apply same benefit to Animate dead(but I would like to see this spell to go away, too much clutter on battlefield)

later add that Summon undead can be casted as Bonus action and without Conc, but it lasts only 1 minute.

I'd say the base class could have a bit more. Arcane recovery could well be 1/short rest instead of 1/day during a short rest. And the second level feature could be a bit better than just expertise on a single skill. It could be expertise on two or three of them. Maybe all but religion...

And they could add extra ritual spells by default every x level. Maybe like the ritual caster feat.

Would not make the wizard all that more powerful. But it would emphasize more what they are.

 

[Zardnaar]

I'd say the base class could have a bit more. Arcane recovery could well be 1/short rest instead of 1/day during a short rest. And the second level feature could be a bit better than just expertise on a single skill. It could be expertise on two or three of them. Maybe all but religion...

And they could add extra ritual spells by default every x level. Maybe like the ritual caster feat.

Would not make the wizard all that more powerful. But it would emphasize more what they are.

If a sorcerer twins all their highest level slots they essentially double the number of all their level 2-8 spells. Real life might not take it bug outside of some narrow blaster builds you should.

 

[Horwath]

I'd say the base class could have a bit more. Arcane recovery could well be 1/short rest instead of 1/day during a short rest. A

once per Short rest as an 1min ritual. or even as an Action.
Action is expensive resource in combat.

nd the second level feature could be a bit better than just expertise on a single skill. It could be expertise on two or three of them. Maybe all but religion...

And they could add extra ritual spells by default every x level. Maybe like the ritual caster feat.

Would not make the wizard all that more powerful. But it would emphasize more what they are.

Maybe ritual spell extra at levels 1,2,3,5,7,9 and 11.

at 2nd level, it's too weak,
maybe proficiency AND expertise in two of those skills.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

If a sorcerer twins all their highest level slots they essentially double the number of all their level 2-8 spells.

Nope. Twin spell just allows you to upcast certain spells by one level.
So you only "double" your highest level slots. Also a very limited although powerful selection of spells.

Command on two targets for a level 1 slot is nice at level 2.
Upcasting it from level 2 to level 3 is just increasing its power by 1.5.
At that level you can cast hold person on two targets instead of 1.

If using control spells is your thing, that is fine. But it is far from all spells.

Real life might not take it bug outside of some narrow blaster builds you should.

Yes. Sorcers are good at debuffing. They are also great at tanking damage and making concentration saves.
But they are also thankful targets for debuffs themselves. Their wisdom saves suck. Wizards are better at that.

I know, that all does not count for you. But believe me, wizards compare well against sorcerers.
Actually I'd buff sorcerers by givng 1 or 2 more metamagic options at level 6 if I buffed wizards too.

And then you dismissed wizard subclasses willy nilly. The diviner's two d20 are especially powerful tools. Making a crucial con save or forcing a failure is especially powerful. The sorcerer does not have that tool.
Having careful spell for free at level 6 is also very useful.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Quite frankly a lot of parties can get themselves stymied if they always ignore Wizards, because invariably they will form themselves like @ECMO3 's group did over in their

"How can I do a Charisma-Investigation (or a Strength/Dexterity-Investigation if I can't use Charisma) to find a secret door?"​

thread when almost their entire party dumped Intelligence. What better way to potentially screw yourselves on all the various INT-based skill checks then to avoid the one class that prioritizes it?

 

[Valetudo]

Look wizards didn't get the huge buff some classes did, but they didn't need it. Wizards can do anything in this game and they are fine at lower levels. Clerics also got huge buffs. @Zardnaar, I don't think you're right on this one my dude.

 

[Neonchameleon]

It is kinda funny seeing the narrative pushed along the lines that wizards are OP.

Im seeing the great wizard extinction event. The last one rolled up was 2019. That was mostly due to 3rd party material being used.

I'm playing one now. And you might be seeing a "wizard extinction event" at your table - but as of 2023 (the most recent year I have data for) the wizard was the fourth most popular class and the most popular spellcaster. It used to be joked for good reason that "It's called Wizards of the Coast not Sorcerers of the Coast".

Clearly rather than another new full caster we need more non-casters as the only three classes more popular than the wizard in 2023 were non-casters.

The recurring theme here is almost every other spell caster in effect has more resources than you level 1-4.

In combat yes - although True Strike massively narrowed the gap between all the arcane casters and everyone else at Tier 1. We've moved from the wizard being at the front of the trailing pack to the back of a single coherent pack in tier 1. Which gap matters more to you? How much you can contribute or whether there are other people to look down on?

On the plus side the wizards not an Artificer, Ranger or Rogue.

So you're saying they are average then. Not the worst, not the best. It's just that throughout 3.0, 3.5, the latter half of 4e, and most of 5e the "It's wizards of the coast not sorcerers of the coast" joke had serious teeth and the veterans you play with are playing other things now that wizards are not The Best Class until high levels.

 

[Mistwell]

False equivalent wizards can be popular and not see high level play.

I didn't make that equivalence. You claimed "wizard extinction" and nobody is playing them. Then cited a poll about high level play being rare - in the same poll, it said wizards are popular and therefore not extinction. Your two positions are mutually exclusive.

Game was 6 years old when that poll came out.

OK so your assumption people don't play high level is outdated?

Additionally there's been interviews over the years about high level stiff selling poorly. High selling golden age items were mostly 1-8.

That was when the game was relative new too. They've been putting out more high level stuff since.

Even here with veteran older experienced players most aren't doing high level. They're mostly theory craft builds IRL even you should know that.
. I did say tgey start at C tier and end up S tier. They're comparatively bad to other primary spellcasters tier 1. Tier 2s the most important levels inmho.

I'd say a LOT more people are doing higher level than you think these days and I am surprised you have not. Regardless, even the levels you mentioned, Wizards are fantastic. 6th level and 7th level spells, they are the best.

 

[Neonchameleon]

I am sorry. But we do care. The wizard, the ranger and the rogue are the 3 classes that do better in exploration...
... those are the classes people deem underpowered...
... they are not. They are just not for those people.

Throw the druid and in many cases the warlock on that pile of classes that are good at exploring.

 

[James Gasik]

Quite frankly a lot of parties can get themselves stymied if they always ignore Wizards, because invariably they will form themselves like @ECMO3 's group did over in their

"How can I do a Charisma-Investigation (or a Strength/Dexterity-Investigation if I can't use Charisma) to find a secret door?"​

thread when almost their entire party dumped Intelligence. What better way to potentially screw yourselves on all the various INT-based skill checks then to avoid the one class that prioritizes it?

I don't think there should be only one class that prioritizes Intelligence, really. What if you don't want to play a spellcaster, let alone a Wizard? Should you get penalized for Int checks because of that? Because it's not like putting a 16 in Int benefits other classes, unless they chose an Int-based spellcasting subclass?

And yes, I know the Artificer exists, but they can't even be bothered to make it a PHB class, so some groups might not even have access to it.