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.

​

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.

 

[Baron Opal II]

The article clarifies it works like it did in the playtest. They get a new spell of their school, whenever they gain ACCESS to a new spell level. So two new spells at the start (when they have access to 1st and 2nd spells) and then one each for 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th level spells.

Edit: @Baron Opal II almost ninja'd you ROFLOL

Okay, so a wizard gains two spells per level, plus an extra once every other class level (when gaining a new spell level to cast) that is from their specialty.

Not jazzed by it, and it turns into one less thing to spend money on, maybe.

(And thanks for the speedy reply!)

 

[Parmandur]

Heh, when I saw them changing the formatting on this, I was thinking of how it might end up messing with your count. They really wanted to show off the spell art a lot of the time.

Hard to complain about more Spell art!

 

[GarrettKP]

Hard to complain about more Spell art!

I got a little impatient and put together a list of the species distribution so far (this includes all the deep dive videos but also the Ranger because we have seen all 5 of those art pieces in other videos already).

Human - 8
Elf - 7
Dragonborn - 4
Aasimar - 4
Dwarf - 4
Gnome - 4
Tiefling - 3
Orc - 3
Goliath - 2
Halfling - 1

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Boo friggin' hoo. Well, maybe if WOTC had been more daring we would have gotten a Warlock style set up for Clerics to add more build options without monopolizing the page count and then all the School Specialists could have been a single sub class for the Wizard.

I am torn about that one. Either it wil be that every school feels very samey (in AD&D days, forbidden schools made all the differences, more so than having one more spell per spell of the chose school per level) or it will be 8 classes in disguise.

Well you can let another party member try while you get your cheat code ready.

School Specialist/Academician Wizard, the War Wizard (with 4e implements because those were cool), Order of the Scribes with a ritual bent, and finally the Lorehunter, a Wizard specializing in plundering ruins for arcane secrets with more physical skills and some Rogue touches.

I would have liked a combination of abjurer and evoker as in the 5e war wizard. I relly like that implementation.

Then an illusionist/enchanter combination. Manipulate other people.

Also a transmuter/conjurer conjurer combination. Summon and manipulate things.

And a necromancer/diviner subclass. Necromancy and divination have some overlap (speak with death, conjure spirits etc.) and for me both are all about gathering knowledge.


That way, all 8 schools would have found their place in the PHB.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

This is like that Land Druid from yesterday: they go out of their way to minimize player error in character build, but in doing so they introduce a whole non-committal feel to the game that drains the identity out of characters.

What I found is that even though you can change a lot each day already (prepared spells), most of the time players don't bother anyway. Only if specific circumstances arise.

As I already said: I wish everything would depend on downtime activies to change an ability. And maybe this activity takes longer the higher your character level.

But what Inwish even more is a solid discussion in the PHB or the DMG at least how long long rests should be for different kind of game styles.

I guess, having week long long rests might also do the trick for more committal games.

 

[Undrave]

If there were about 6 subclasses for Artificer, I'd feel a lot better about the class - or if the current subclasses weren't so confining. Every armorer comes across as Iron Man and every alchemist comes across as Jekyll & Hyde with the current options. It needs more breathing room to be a full-blown class.

I feel like the Artificer concept would logically lead to a game concept that is too far from the DnD norm. We're talking a guy who would need a workshop or laboratory, one who would spend money on components to them produce a ton of permanent gear with no real reason why they should be limited in quantity outside that money for the component, maybe even produce would need downtime to make that stuff...

On the other hand they picked the four with a strong practical identity that is distinct and accessible, doesn't require D&D lore (conjurer and transmuter I'm looking at you), isn't all about the summons (necromancer, possibly conjurer), and isn't trying to be charisma-based (Enchanter).

Instead we have defensive mage, blast mage, trickster, and detective. As a set that works. And all of them except maybe the blast mage synergise in concept with a deep spellbook.

And for arcane necromancer I'm in favour of a set of them; sorcerer for the focused animation, warlock for death knights and vampires, and the wizarding necromancer going into lore mastery and research as much as having replacable lab techs.

Out of this list of 4, Abjurer is the one I would have cut first. Mostly to bring back the Necromancer (which is far more iconic), but also because the Abjurer just doesn't fill the "white mage" niche that it's purported to fill, due to being entirely devoid of healing spells (save for like a few strange necromancy outliers).

The Diviner is here because Portent was OP back in 2014 (but also because the other PHB Schools tended to have basically nothing for class features), so a lot of players picked it due to lack of meaningful choices for the longest time. Portent seems to have been left in tact, so we will see if this trend continues or if the other Schools will finally have something worth having.

I've never cared for the Evoker, but people insist that Wizards be able to fill that niche, despite magical artilleries not matching well with the concept of a high-magic class and arguably stepping on Sorcerer toes. Still I don't know how popular pushing Sculpt Spells back will be, due to all the Fireball enthusiasts out there.

The Illusionist as a pseudo-Conjurer is a blast from the past I will admit, but it is a good change and at least now it won't fall into the nebulous realm of "DM may I?".

At least Memorize Spell made it in, lessening the level of system mastery needed to actually play a Wizard, which is a good thing.

But still, even with these changes, we can't tell how Wizards will function until we the spells themselves.

I feel like the 'Blaster Wizard' and the 'Defense Wizard' could have been two sides of the same 'War Wizard' Subclass.

 

[mellored]

There are definately some pretty standard illusions though that it would be nice to put in the DMG maybe and give some consistency on how they are expected to work.

Here's a classic example: an illusionary wall put up between two characters.

1) Can the illusion maker see through the illusion?
2) People that saw the wall go up, do they see through teh wall? (automatically, need a save)
3) I see an attack go through the wall, do I get a save to think its an illusion? (or is it automatic?)
4) One of my buddies walks through the wall and shouts out "its an illusion!" Do I automatically know its an illusion and see through the wall, do I need to make a save? Does the warning do nothing and I have to do interactions myself?


Walking through an example like this will actually highlight a lot of the designer intentions regarding interaction, saving throws, etc

They said they did something like that in the rules glossary, which is in the PHB.

But no mention on what the actual ruling is.

 

[Undrave]

I am torn about that one. Either it wil be that every school feels very samey (in AD&D days, forbidden schools made all the differences, more so than having one more spell per spell of the chose school per level) or it will be 8 classes in disguise.

Yeah I can see that concern. The idea is to make 1 subclass to cover a more 'classic' bookish Wizard and then have more flavourful subclasses that expand beyond school specialists. This would also be a way to have a stand-in for missing specialists that could be more purpose built later, like a more summon centric Necromancer, for exemple.

I think the Illusionist is iconic enough to be one of the starting four, tho. I can see way to make an Illusionist feel different to a Illusion School Academician.

I would have liked a combination of abjurer and evoker as in the 5e war wizard. I relly like that implementation.

Yeah that would be a good idea, IMO. You could pick your spells to favour offence or defence.

Dunno about your other mixes. Illusion and Enchantment to form a Beguiler of sort is another nice idea.

 

[mellored]

So wizard buffed?

Wizard gets to change a prepared spell on a short rest.
And all subclasses get 1 known spell per level of their school instead of the faster copying.

That's the only major change to the base class.

Illusionist got a rewrite. Illusion spells got more guidelines on how to run them, but not any indication of what that is.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Okay, didn't see anyone talking about this as I read through the thread, and this is a pretty decent change. I know not everyone watches the videos, but of those that do, fewer check the articles and @Kobold Stew it looks like the OP is not updated with clarity on this.

In the video, Crawford says that the Savant abilities allow a wizard to get a new spell of their school whenever they gain a wizard level. This is wrong, he misspoke. The article clarifies it works like it did in the playtest. They get a new spell of their school, whenever they gain ACCESS to a new spell level. So two new spells at the start (when they have access to 1st and 2nd spells) and then one each for 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th level spells.

Edit: @Baron Opal II almost ninja'd you ROFLOL

Huh, that was something I had experimented with previously, but only with one of the basic two new spells per level. So now it's the basic two spells plus a spell of your school gained when you gain a level that grants a new spellcasting level. I like that.