D&D 5E Companion thread to 5E Survivor - Subclasses (Part XIV: Wizard)

[Undrave]

Here we are in the last class based survivor thread of this whole shebang! We finish with The Wizard.

Aaah... the Wizard... both the Best Class and the absolute WORST Class in DnD. It was introduced with a whopping EIGHT subclass in the PHB, adding to this the sheer volume of space taken by the spell section, it really felt like it was the Favorite Child of the PHB. I don't know why they insisted on this boring and bland Magic School based subclass system. Especially when collapsing them into a single 'School Specialist' subclass would have done the job, allowing them to include maybe the Bladesinger right off the bat as a 'Wizard with a dash of Fight' into the mix and then something that's a little more interesting on top.

I got my share of grievance with Mr. Wizkid here, but I still think the Diviner's ability is pretty neat.

The fact the Wizard started with 8 subclasses with dubious theming is probably the reason why it left SO many failed UAs in its wake! The new subclass had to work harder than any other to earn their places.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Wizard is my favorite class next to Rogue. Unfortunately, no subclass has ever really appealed to me for it. Some have a theme I like (such as Lore Mastery) but has features which are not balanced IMO.

So, I am not sure what I'll be upvoting, but I certainly know what I'll be downvoting!

 

[CleverNickName]

Unpopular opinion: the Artificer and the Psion worked better, thematically, as Wizard subclasses than they do as base classes. The devs should have kept them as such.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Unpopular opinion: the Artificer and the Psion worked better, thematically, as Wizard subclasses than they do as base classes. The devs should have kept them as such.

The wizard subclass wasn't even kind of a semi-artificer. At most, it could have stolen the alchemist from the artificer, and it wouldn't have been any good at that.

 

[CleverNickName]

 

[Leatherhead]

The fact the Wizard started with 8 subclasses with dubious theming is probably the reason why it left SO many failed UAs in its wake! The new subclass had to work harder than any other to earn their places.

That's an understatement.

I have to type up a 10 page rant on the wizard design principles and why the 8 schools of magic subclasses being in the PHB were a sin against the game. Sometime when the Mage D&D1 packet comes out. Imo, the worst part of the 8 schools in the PHB (other than the incredible amount space it took up) was the fact they didn't bother to put in a generalist wizard in the game, which is nuts considering the selling point of the class is the "gotta-catch-them-all" spell collection subgame. The Order of Scribes eventually made it out, but honestly that school suffers from being an artificer shaped block that was plugged into a wizard shaped hole.

Also, Fun fact: The War Wizard is the only UA subclass (that we know of) to see print despite not reaching the approval threshold. The only reason that subclass exists in an official format is because they couldn't publish XGtE without a subclass for each class, and every other attempt at a wizard school bombed so hard they couldn't bother touching them again.

 

[DeviousQuail]

That's an understatement.

I have to type up a 10 page rant on the wizard design principles and why the 8 schools of magic subclasses being in the PHB were a sin against the game. Sometime when the Mage D&D1 packet comes out. Imo, the worst part of the 8 schools in the PHB (other than the incredible amount space it took up) was the fact they didn't bother to put in a generalist wizard in the game, which is nuts considering the selling point of the class is the "gotta-catch-them-all" spell collection subgame. The Order of Scribes eventually made it out, but honestly that school suffers from being an artificer shaped block that was plugged into a wizard shaped hole.

Also, Fun fact: The War Wizard is the only UA subclass (that we know of) to see print despite not reaching the approval threshold. The only reason that subclass exists in an official format is because they couldn't publish XGtE without a subclass for each class, and every other attempt at a wizard school bombed so hard they couldn't bother touching them again.

I didn't know that about the War Wizard. It does explain how that 6th level feature made it to print. I got to play one in HotDQ and it was a good time. Paired with being a Githyanki that took Heavily Armored I was one tough nut to crack. However, I ignored the 6th level feature 99% of the time. It barely does anything and wasn't worth the effort to track.

Anyone got a good homebrew specialist wizard they want to share? I don't want to remove every PHB subclass but some don't bring much in terms of flavor and/or mechanics. Especially when you compare it to Clerics who also have a bunch of PHB subclasses. They might not always be hits mechanically, but the thematic concepts are sound.

Off the cuff I'd go with:

Spoiler: Specialist Wizard

2nd level - Choose a school of magic. You can scribe those spells quickly and cheaply.

2nd level (option 1) - you always treat spells of that school as prepared but can only prepare Int Mod number of spells (min 1) from other schools.

2nd level (option 2) - Spend 1 minute to switch one prepared spell with another spell in your spellbook as long as both are from your chosen school.

6th level - Choose an Int or Wis based skill that you are proficient with. Double your proficiency with that skill. Additionally, if you can see and hear a creature casting a spell you can use your reaction to make an Arcana check to identify the spell (DC 10+spell level). On a success you can also use this same reaction to cast a spell that uses your reaction.

10th level - You have advantage on concentration checks when concentrating on a spell from your chosen school and automatically succeed on Arcana checks to identify spells from your school.

14th level - You can cast a spell from your chosen school that normally takes an action as a bonus action X number of times per Y.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

One of the few trends that has held true across all editions of D&D: The Wizard is emblematic of several problems in the game's design.

Pre-3e, the Wizard was supposed to be the "hard mode" class which gave great power only to those who really, really worked for it. What it actually ended up being was a relatively trivial exercise in character optimization, doubly so if the player was creative and the DM as permissive with new spell creation as the early D&D DMs were (seriously, Gygax let through some insane stuff as spells!) The "hard mode" aspect barely matters, because all classes are fragile and survival all too often depends on luck of the draw regardless.

3e, the Wizard was the quintessential demonstration of how stupidly overpowered spellcasting had become. A well-played Wizard is the plausible equal of a well-played Druid, and Druids are three classes stapled together. With an even slightly permissive DM and a solid grasp of not-quite-cheesy charop, you can make a Wizard who laughs at anything the DM throws at the party. There had been problems with Wizards being overpowered even back when Fighters still became landed nobility; 3e just amped this up to 11^11.

4e the Wizard was also flawed...but, for once, in the opposite direction. The designers had a solid grasp of what they wanted the other three kinds of classes to do: support classes had their "Healing Word" equivalent and handed out buffs/saves/attacks, defensive ones had Marking and punishments and "stickiness," offensive ones had the path of beef ("tanky bruiser," to use the MOBA term) or the path of speed. But controllers, sadly, did not have a well-defined feature or principle around which they were built. This isn't too surprising, control is necessarily a more tricksy thing, but it ended up making controllers feel unfocused and incomplete (and introduced mild balance issues if their powers somehow got out to other classes, due to them needing to carry the load that baseline class features would often cover.) This made Wizard weird at launch and not well-received. It got much better over time, but frankly I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that at least a portion of the negative response to 4e is because Wizards felt weak even though they weren't that weak.

Which brings us to 5e. I consider the Wizard the second-greatest failing of 5e, after the Fighter. Both of them are painfully bland, fail to meaningfully support their core class fantasy/"flavor," offer flawed "basic" versions that are an outright punishment to anyone who wants to just play the game without overthinking things,* and deviate significantly from the overall "balance" (even in the incredibly loose sense that that term is used in 5e) of the game. The subclasses are bad; the base class features are practically nonexistent until level friggin' level 18; and the one good feature is borderline OP (here, just have ~20% more slot-levels!**)

*To be extremely clear: simple options are good IF THEY ARE WELL-MADE. A simple meal well-made is wonderful. The Champion Fighter and, to a lesser extent, the Evocation Wizard are not well-made. They do a disservice to people wanting a straightforward, no-frills, low-engagement experience.

**Mathematically, this holds true only somewhat roughly. It's ironically higher at early levels, because your "bank" of slot-levels grows linearly with level (x/2), while your number of slots scales almost perfectly quadratically (really, really close to x^2/4), meaning your proportional "bonus slot-levels per character level" ends up being 2 divided by your level. At level 10, this is 2/10 = 0.2 = 20%; after that it drops, but not quite to the same degree, because you get fewer high-level slots.

 

[Aldarc]

Unpopular opinion: the Artificer and the Psion worked better, thematically, as Wizard subclasses than they do as base classes. The devs should have kept them as such.

No. Actually scratch that. What I mean to say is "Nine Hells NO!"

Core subclasses:

Abjuration: It exists. No strong feelings either way.

Conjuration: It also exists.

Divination: I like that it made Divination cool, but it's mainly cool for its dice manipulation power. There's not too much divination beyond that, even in terms of what spells the Diviner is encouraged to take.

Enchantment: Why not play a Bard instead?

Evocation: Boring blasters. How about playing a Sorcerer?

Illusion: a fun PHB subclass. Sure it may rely on GM fiat, but still fun. I would not be upset if it won.

Necromancer: the most disappointing subclass for every player who ever came in from video games who wanted to play a necromancer. One player described actual play as being like an accountant managing undead summons. This is one archetype that has not caught up to pop culture. I personally would love to love it thematically, but mechanically it fails to scratch the necromancer itch.

Transmutation: thematically neat, mechanically underwhelming.

Among the Core PHB batch, I'm probably rooting for Illusion and Divination.

 

[Mind of tempest]

the fact transmuter can't let me turn stone into any metal of my choice bugs me, make it a high-level thing but I want to build a castle out of osmium.