D&D 5E (2024) Mearls has some Interesting Ideals about how to fix high level wizards.

[Belen]

I would bring back reversible spells to help lower the numbers.

I may also do something along the lines of arcane manipulation or spell combos. A wizard can combine lower level spells and affects or choose sleep and cast it at 5th level to make it permanent etc.

A wizard should be able to manipulate the weave.

 

[Zaukrie]

I'm 100 percent here for this design. Great idea.

 

[J-H]

Paragon tier puts 5e more into superhero territory. If the old and decrepit wizard isn't actually an angel, is he about as good as resisting being knocked over (+6) than Arnie the 22 year old weightlifter (+5 on a 1st level character barb). It might be a good idea but I doubt it. There are already a bunch of ways to boost saves (monk, Paladin, artificer, various spells, Resilient, Indomitable, Bardic Inspiration, etc.) and it is hard to land even DC 20 spells on my 19th level players with any reliability.

In my big battle against Irenicus in the Abyss, my BG2 campaign had the following spell levels cast (including the BBEG and 4 Glabrezus, plus an Arcane Trickster, 17th level cleric & sorcerer) in 5.5 rounds of combat:
9: 2
8: 3
7: 2
6: 4
5: 5
4: 1
3: 6
1: 2
Cantrip: 11
Some of the lower-level slots were Glabrezu innates, but that's still 14 spells of 5th level or below and 11 of 6th level or higher... plus a lot of cantrip uses. Only 5 of the cantrips were the Rogue doing Booming Blade. The others were by either Irenicus or the players... probably Sorcerer Quickened cantrips.

They are up to level 19 now and cantrips are used quite frequently.

Every time I've played a wizard (even at 10th level) I have felt like I have the wrong spells prepared for the situation. Cutting down my choices to an even smaller amount takes away from wizard. If I want a small number of choices I'll play sorcerer or warlock or artificer or ranger.
The 1-minute swapout partly patches this, except no other character is going to need a 1 minute break. It might be better to make it cost a full-round action (if such a thing can be added). That way a wizard can swap mid-combat, but only by doing nothing for a round.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I would say all classes have too many spells known/prepared in 2024.

A 5th level warlock in 2014 had 6 spells known and 3 cantrips. In 2024 they have 6-7 more spells known and prepared depending on their subclass, essentially doubling the amount of options. They have more than the wizard!

A 5th level cleric has 4 cantrips and 15 spells prepared.

A 5th level sorcerer has 5 cantrips and 15 spells

A friggin paladin has 10 prepared spells

A wizard has 4 cantrips and 9 spells. Wizards bizarrely are lower than most other casters.

I would honestly halve the spells prepared for other classes from their class, and allow the bonus spells to remain. So the cleric would go to 4 or 5 spells prepared plus their 6 always prepared domain spells. This would help differentiate the casters more, reduce the options to prepare each long rest, and allow the wizard to remain the flexible caster guy.

 

[Minigiant]

One of the core problems with high level wizards is that your bottom half of slot arent damage viable so you end up with a ton of slots for defense, debuffs, and dumb crap.

5 easily recharged slots doesn't fix that. 1 minutes is too short.

 

[zakael19]

In my big battle against Irenicus in the Abyss, my BG2 campaign had the following spell levels cast

Hello I would like to hear more about this, lol.

 

[Tigris]

Funny, the person who reintroduced the high level wizard problem tries to solve it.

1 minute recharge, so just encounter powers from 4E. Too many spells? Well just forget lower level ones when learning higher level ones like in 4E.

 

[Deekin]

Funny, the person who reintroduced the high level wizard problem tries to solve it.

1 minute recharge, so just encounter powers from 4E. Too many spells? Well just forget lower level ones when learning higher level ones like in 4E.

In the end, all problems are solved by reinventing 4e

 

[Yaarel]

When spell points recharge per short rest, fullcasters have level+1 spell points, and spell costs equal the spell slot:

The total number of prepared spells equals: 3+(level/2).

So a level 1 character only has 3 prepared spells total, to spend points on. Level 20 only has 13 spells to spend points on.

Perhaps, a character can add their casting ability to the number of prepared spells. So a Wizard with +3 Intelligence gets three extra prepared spells.

 

[Zaukrie]

Funny, the person who reintroduced the high level wizard problem tries to solve it.

1 minute recharge, so just encounter powers from 4E. Too many spells? Well just forget lower level ones when learning higher level ones like in 4E.

Isn't that good? Realizing your mistakes and fixing them? I'm very confused by this post.