D&D (2024) Can Wild Magic be a Wizard 'thing' in D&D 5?

[Horwath]

if you want wild magic to be generalized, it would work best as a feat.

wild magic;
+1 int, wis or cha
when you cast a spell, you can roll on the wild magic table for results as in sorcerer wild magic subclass.

 

[Tonguez]

It doesn't work thematically IMO.

Wizards study arcane formulas, which doesn't lend itself to chaos. Your write the arcane pattern and say the words, and the thing happens. Do it again, repeat the results.

It would make more sense for a Cleric or Warlock tied to an entity of chaos.

That said, I would certainly allow it if someone wanted.

Wizards studying the fundamental forces of wild magic work in the same way as Scientist trying to observe theoretical particles at the CERN accelerator - they've done the mathematics and understand the formula of how wild magic behaves but actually harnessing the spark and predicting the effect remains an uncertain and risky task.

Just make Wild Magic is a fundamental force of the universe, manifesting 'the spark' all over the place in a random, unpredictable way which the Wild Mage attempts to capture

That would be a fun Wizard to play

 

[mellored]

I think the idea was that, like chaos theory, it is more highly advanced complex organization that requires a lot of math (and thus a high Int) to understand, and only appears chaotic to the uninitiated.

Which means the wizard would know what he is getting, even if others don't.

 

[mellored]

Wizards studying the fundamental forces of wild magic work in the same way as Scientist trying to observe theoretical particles at the CERN accelerator - they've done the mathematics and understand the formula of how wild magic behaves but actually harnessing the spark and predicting the effect remains an uncertain and risky task.

Just make Wild Magic is a fundamental force of the universe, manifesting 'the spark' all over the place in a random, unpredictable way which the Wild Mage attempts to capture

That would be a fun Wizard to play

I still disagree with the premise, but I am pro fun.

So maybe something like.

3: as a bonus action, select a random 2md level spell from the wizard spell list. You have that spell prepared until you take a long rest.
In addition, once before the end of your next turn you can cast it using a level 1 spell slot.
You can use this feature Int times per long rest.

6: you can now randomly choose a 3rd level spell and cast it once with 2nd level slot within the next minute.

10 : you can select a random 4rd level spell and cast it once with 3nd level slot before the end of your next short rest.

14: you can select a random 5th level spell and cast it once with 4th level slot.
If you did not cast the spell this way before you take a short rest, you regain a use of this feature.


Random, but the wizard still knows what he's getting.

 

[Ath'kethin]

It can be whatever you want at your table, though you are obviously taking something from sorcerers. On the other hand, I think sorcerer should have always been a wizard subclass anyway.

I agree with you 100% here, though I think this outlook also illustrates one of the problems with the 5e subclass system. The proiblem is that the Sorcerer casts spells in a fundamentally different way than the Wizard, and the subclass-after-1st-level approach of the game can't really account for that.

If subclasses were picked at 1st level (where I think they should be), then having a subclass that differs from the base in its fundamental mechanic is easy to swallow/implement. It's a lot harder to say "you've studied ancient and musty tomes for years, taxing your intellect to the limit, and attained a measure of power in harnessing their secrets. But sunddenly, you've dicovered that you have an innate access to magic and now you can do stuff comepletely differently." And how would you handle the spels the character already can cast using a spellbook?

All that being said, I think there's room in the game for multiple applications of the same concept. I don't particularly care for the Sorcerer class, but I can see a logic to having wild magic as a path a member of that class might follow. But that doesn't mean a wizard studying cosmic mysteries or whatever couldn't ALSO figure out how to access, harness, and channel wild magic.

 

[Horwath]

having subclasses from 1st level and at the universal class levels: 1,3,6,10,14 would make a great chassis to make wild "mage" good concept for all (half) casters.

 

[James Gasik]

having subclasses from 1st level and at the universal class levels: 1,3,6,10,14 would make a great chassis to make wild "mage" good concept for all (half) casters.

Yeah, learning to be a regular Wizard and suddenly diving into something as esoteric and groundbreaking as Wild Magic at 3rd level seems a bit odd. At least the one good thing I can say about "School of Magic" subclasses is that they represent a choice of specialization.

I wish there was a good "Generalist" subclass (I know there are some that don't care what spells you cast, but they all mostly feel too specialized to me). And I wish that some Wizard subclasses weren't a radical departure (I'm looking at you, Bladesinger) from the base class.

Alas, that's not the game we currently have.

 

[Moonrabbit]

This is great. You've done a better job at replicating the 2e wild mage than Kobold Press did with their chaos magic wizard. And you ported all (or most) of the old wild magic spells into 2e!

One possible concern is the specification of d20 + PB + Int for spell DC for wild magic spells. The expected value of this is greater than 8 + PB + Int for other spells (and spells with a saving throw being cast by other wizards). It will also result in much higher variance in effectiveness than existed for the 2e wild mage. Additionally, it's not clear to me how requiring a roll of d20 + PB + Int for spells with an attack roll differs from the rolls made for non-wild magic spells (other than affording the possibility of a wild magic surge on a 1 or 20). You might have considered a scaling factor to add to the spell DC and spell attack roll on casting a wild magic spell. This would need to scale with caster level, and balancing it would be challenging, particularly at low and high caster levels.

Also, one comment on the wild magic master feature. I like the idea of maximizing all numerical elements, but how many spells have parameters (e.g., range or other distances) or outcomes that involve die rolls other than damage? I can't think of any off the top of my head.