D&D (2024) 2024 Player's Handbook Reveal: "New Wizard"

"The paramount collector of spells."

Open your spellbooks, everybody. Today we get a Wizard video.

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The last version of the class was in the UA Playtest 7 package (PT7). It's not clear how much they'll say here. Of the base class, I am hoping that they have recanted the level 5 ability, Memorize Spell (or perhaps shifted it to needing a short rest). They've said that the PHB will get clearer rules for how illusions work -- maybe they'll talk about that? Other than that, I think the most they can do is show us some revised spells: Will the revised version of Counterspell be kept? Any surprise Necromancy reveals? Let's find out.

OVERVIEW

• "the paramount collector of spells": "many" of new spells are for the wizard.
• As in PT7: cantrip change after long rest (level 1); scholar -- expertise in an academic field (at 2)
• NO MENTION OF ARCANE RECOVERY
• NEW: Ritual Adept broken out as a new class feature. They can cast spells in their spellbook, as before, but here ID'd as a new feature.
• NEW: Memorize Spell at 5: you can swap a spell after short rest.
• Each subclass gets a new version of Savant: free spells in spellbook of preferred school. 2 free spells of favored class, and a new spell for each spell level (so every 2 levels, as in the playtest. This isn't what is said in the video, but has been corrected elsewhere.

SUBCLASSES
Abjurer

• new abjuration spells feeds back onto how subclass functions.
• NEW: Arcane Ward at 3: resistance, immunity applied before the Arcane Ward.
• NEW: Projected Ward a 6: your friend's resistance is applied before the ward for them.
• NEW: Spell breaker at level 10: Counterspell and Dispell Magic are both prepared (PT7 did not include Counterspell). Dispell Magic is a bonus action.

Diviner

• NEW: Third Eye at 10. As in PT7, bonus action to activate; 120' darkvision, see invisibility. NO MENTION of Greater Comprehension ("read any language")

Evoker -- "all about bringing the boom"

• As in PT7: Potent Cantrip at 3 applies to cantrips both with a saving throw or an attack roll.

Illusionist -- "we felt that the subclass needed more" (YAY)

• NEW: Improved Illusions at level 3:
  • cast illusion spells with no verbal components. (FUN)
  • illusions with range with at least 10' is increased to 60' (no-- by 60' to 70').
  • you get minor illusion cantrip, with both visual and audible
  • you cast minor illusion as a bonus action.
• NEW: Phantasmal Creatures
  • summon beast and summon fey spells always prepared. These MAY BE changed from conjuration to Illusion, and the illusory version can be cast without expending a spell slot, but the summoned version, only with half the hit points. ONCE PER DAY.
  • illusions can step on a trap to set it off (?!)
  • (replacing Malleable Illusions, which I complained about here. This is so exciting.)
• NEW: Illusory Self triggered by you being hit by an attack (not when you are targeted). As in PT7, you can get more uses by giving up a spell slot of level 2+.

SPECIFIC SPELLS

• NEW: school shift to Abjuration: no examples
• Counterspell as in PT7.
• GUIDANCE ON ILLUSIONS in Rules Glossary. E.g. How are they affected by environment?
  • spell descriptions also clarified. Rules Glossary to be discussed in future video (also conditions, areas of effects, guidance on teleportation, telepathy, "
• "being dead" to be discussed in Cleric Video. Tease...

So this gave much more than I was expecting, and it looks amazing. Playing an illusionist will now be much more clearly not a "mother may I?" situation, which (I feel) has long been the case. I think I got most of what I'd asked for in the PT feedback.

 

[Ashrym]

+8 (or 9) from their subclass/chosen school.

So 52(53).

Plus class features. It should be 57 plus subclass spells and spells scribed by spending money, I believe.

 

[Stalker0]

How is memorize spell not an incredible power? Not only does the wizard have the best list, but they are only an hour away from being able to access any one of that large repertoire of spells. Its the ultimate magical swiss army knife.

 

[Baumi]

How is memorize spell not an incredible power? Not only does the wizard have the best list, but they are only an hour away from being able to access any one of that large repertoire of spells. Its the ultimate magical swiss army knife.

If it would have been once per short Rest, than it would have been incredible, but only directly after a short rest makes it very hard to use if you have a Problem at hand.

Like you have a door or Chest that you would need to open, a trap to disable, you have to stop fire, charm a guard, etc. It might be sometimes feasable to wait an hour to get the right spell, but more often than not you will not have that luxory.

We usually get 1 or 2 short rests (if you lucky) per long rest and thats normaly reserved when most of the party need it for recovery (which is usually not in a critical spot where you would need that spell). But again, this might change now, where more classes gain features back on short rest now..

Anyway I don't think that the Feature is worthless, especially if you use it to plan for the rest of the adventure and not for a specific situation, but I think it could have been a real cool Class Defining Feature instead of something that will be usefull once in a while.

 

[DEFCON 1]

How is memorize spell not an incredible power? Not only does the wizard have the best list, but they are only an hour away from being able to access any one of that large repertoire of spells. Its the ultimate magical swiss army knife.

Heh, yeah... but that would involve the party taking a short rest. And didn't we have dozens of threads last year all of people complaining that no one is ever allowed to take short rests because parties always just wanted to go-go-go, or that the DM never lets them? Which is why they all wanted short rests removed from the game entirely and every class put on a long rest schedule?

Seems to me... having this hour-long swiss army knife ability of the Wizard will be a boon for most parties, because it'll give everyone else in the group the ability to actually short rest and get back abilities and spend HD, while the Wizard gets stuck only switching over one of their spells.

 

[mellored]

If it would have been once per short Rest, than it would have been incredible,

A bit too incredible IMO.

You don't want the wizard to solve EVERY problem on the spot. And you still want them to have to plan ahead. Prepare charm person if your need to get past a guard.

Anyway I don't think that the Feature is worthless, especially if you use it to plan for the rest of the adventure and not for a specific situation, but I think it could have been a real cool Class Defining Feature instead of something that will be usefull once in a while.

I still see rituals as the defining feature.

Put the locked chest on Tensors Floating Disk or use it to float over a trap, use Alarm go notify you of when a guard moves out of position, ect...

And while you may or may not have the spell on hand to deal with an immediate fire, if your chasing an arson you can swap to the elementalism cantrip.

That said, I think I will homebrew that wizards can cast rituals twice as fast. I doubt it will make a difference but it adds to the flavor.

 

[tetrasodium]

\

Put the locked chest on Tensors Floating Disk or use it to float over a trap, use Alarm go notify you of when a guard moves out of position, ect...

or you could just take the stuff inside using a universal opener & not carry the heavy chest...

Spoiler: like so

They are called strength checks & attack rolls in the rules.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The current PHB describes wizards as "scholars of the arcane" and "defined and united as a class by the spells they cast". "Master of arcane" seems like an insertion that places them on a pedestal above other spellcasters that doesn't and shouldn't exist, IMO.

I think you're correct that the wizard essentially casts spells but seem to be missing the main point. They have the biggest list from which they can access with the easiest ability to access that list among all the arcane spellcasters.

2024 adding expertise to the class grants flavor and non-magical capability while memorize spell look really good when a person considers accessing spells from that huge list even if it is restricted by spells scribed in the spell book, but the spell book has free spells at start plus free spells at level up plus free spells from subclass. That's a minimum 53 spells in the book by 20th level that can all be accessed by prepared spells, unprepared rituals, or (worst case scenario) a short rest using memorize spell. Plus subclasses can grant always prepped spells plus spell mastery plus signature spells and more spells can be added. Other spellcasters don't come close to that based on spell prep rules.

That seems like the flavor of the class that's pretty much always existed. 5e doesn't seem to have made spellcasting more common to me because, the number of spell slots has been reduced from previous editions and the number of spell casting classes hasn't changed. It's giving "simpler times fallacy" vibes. ;-)


That seems like an odd conclusion. Spell memorization is based on a short rest. Divine intervention is limited to 5th level cleric spells and lower and usable once per long rest. I'm not convinced that's 1000x better. Greater divine intervention comes late, allows the use of the wish spell, and takes about 5 days to recharge. Wizards are already casting wish levels earlier so still not 1000x better. ;-)

Wizards do have the biggest spell list and the 2024 dev team has already indicated that new spells are geared towards the wizard list as noted on the first page of this thread.

Bard access to the wizard list is incredibly limited compared to the wizard access to the wizard list because magical secrets doesn't come into play until tier 3 and the access is very slow. Bards can replace on spell at each level up with a wizard spell (which is an opportunity cost in itself) or add wizard spells only on levels where they increase spells prepared, which is 8 instead of 6 based on the UA playtest.

That's a fraction of what the wizard can do with their own list and ignores those subclass enhancements. You might mention fireball but bard could already do that in 2e (which was the exact same list and you liked previous editions per your post) or in 3e via PrC's very easily.

I agree that wizards do not typically scribe their entire spell list in their spell books, but it is still better access than those to which any other spellcaster can access at any given time. I would also argue that access to the full list on a long rest isn't necessary to be effective, or even a huge benefit given the apples to oranges lists mentioned.

Which past editions do you prefer your wizards? They used to rely on darts a lot. Cantrips iin this format weren't really a thing for these classes for quite a bit of history of the game. ;-)

I don't believe clerics and druids are better with their cantrips. Wizards also have the largest cantrip list and easiest option to swap them out too as of 2024 rules.

Sorcerers have a good spell list and metamagic is the reason to play them. The sorcerer improvements are QoL changes to increase using that benefit and look good. They're also getting more spells prepped moving forward and the sorcerous rage looks nicely thematic.

I responded because I don't agree with a lot of your frustrations, but I am sorry that you're frustrated with the class. I would give my comments some thought. I find wizards are still an excellent class.

My preference is for TSR-era wizards. Potentially very powerful in magic, restricted and vulnerable otherwise, and said vulnerability made magic feel more mysterious and special to me, because you really had to dedicate yourself to it body and soul to reap its potential.

 

[Staffan]

I still see rituals as the defining feature.

Rituals could be cool, but 5e nerfed them too hard. Looking at D&D Beyond, there are 18 wizard spells (22 listed, but four of them are duplicates without mentioning names from the SRD, like (Tenser's) Floating Disk) that can be cast as rituals. 8 of them are level 1. Give me back knock, create food & water, zone of truth, sending, and teleportation circle as rituals. And make rituals available regardless of class – a high-level fighter with the Ritual Caster feat should be able to cast teleportation circle as a ritual.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Rituals could be cool, but 5e nerfed them too hard.

And, apparently, the nerfs keep coming. I continue to live in hope that the Ritual Caster feat will operate like it did in 2014 than as it did in the playtest. I expect to be disappointed.

 

[Micah Sweet]

And, apparently, the nerfs keep coming. I continue to live in hope that the Ritual Caster feat will operate like it did in 2014 than as it did in the playtest. I expect to be disappointed.

It can operate like 2014 if you want it to. Just use the version you like. This applies to everything in 5.0 and 5.5.