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.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Or Fighters of the Fjord.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Or Clerics of the Cove.

 

[Snapdragyn]

Paladins of the Promontories.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Sure, some might be bored that the schools have been around for 40 years, but I like the schools. I'm glad they are still part of the Core rules.

Another thing, this isn't a different game. If for nothing other than people playing using the 2014 PH wanting to translate their existing characters to the 2024 PH. All the other classes kept their core 2014 subclasses, and so did the Wizard. The designers did their best with Wizard and Cleric, with the limitations they felt they had to abide by, by picking the most iconic/popular subclasses to start. I know it's not perfect that not all Schools and Domains could make the transition in the updated Core book, but at least they covered the most popularly played ones and made them even more interesting.

The fact that there are still some un-updated 2014 Core Wizard and Cleric subclasses are the main reason I think we'll get future subclass refreshes. Which I LIKE because I like what they've been doing with the updates. Monsters will likely be a little more fun and scary (which most people have been clamoring for), which is allows the designers to find a new level of balance for the classes and subclasses. It seems a lot like the classes and subclasses are really not clones of each other, rather their diverse and flexible class and subclass abilities provide actual differences in playstyle (not just a theme nod), and offer a huge variety of ways to build one's character. Each Wizard will feel different.

I'd like to see something from the new MM before I make any assumptions about it. Quite frankly, talk is cheap, and several better versions of the MM have already been released.

 

[Peter BOSCO'S]

Monks of the Mountains

 

[Micah Sweet]

all of 2e was an update to 1e in a similar vein that 2024 is an update to 2014, so is that hardly surprising?

I don't agree. Very little in 2e was a straight update to 1e, beyond the core books and some of the Monstrous Compendium material. It was all more compatible to 1e than 5.5 is to 5.0 in many cases, from everything I can see.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Or Rogues of the Riverbank.

Or Artificers of the Atoll.

 

[dave2008]

I don't agree. Very little in 2e was a straight update to 1e, beyond the core books and some of the Monstrous Compendium material. It was all more compatible to 1e than 5.5 is to 5.0 in many cases, from everything I can see.

I forgot you were talking about supplements / splats. I never really but much of those in any edition. Sometimes I sorta forget they are / were a thing

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Or Rogues of the Riverbank.

That's a pretty good name for a bandit group.

 

[Neonchameleon]

What? Why??

The Illusionist makes sense, the Necromancer people want is actually the Undead Summon guy and is closer to the Sheppard Druid than the Necromancer Wizard of 5e PHB and should be a pet class.

But 'Abjurer' and 'Evoker' don't mean anything and a lot of the spell school distribution is pretty arbitrary and nonsensical.

Evoker = blast mage. It's not a meaningful word because evoking has too wide an array of meaning but the concept is 100% clear. Sorcerers are better at it but why should they have all the fun?

Abjure is a "near occult" word meaning to reject or cast out. It's something that people could have run into in religious or occult contexts, or fiction (both fantasy and urban fantasy) to mean similar things. And it goes with a decently strong concept and one that you'd expect to find adventuring.

Compare with "conjurer". That's rabbit-out-of-hat stuff. Or transmuter (alchemist?).