D&D 5E Explain to a guy who's never played spellcasters the difference between wizards and sorcerers

[MechaTarrasque]

From what I have seen of people who were happy playing wizards and sorcerers in 5e, the happy wizard players wanted to play a wizard that just happened to have a subclass (necromancer is the exception), and happy sorcerer players wanted to be the dragon guy or the storm guy and sorcerer was the best way to fit what they were looking for.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Ovinomancer]

What's the difference?

I always spell Wizard correctly.

I sometimes spell sorcerer correctly.

Wizzard has two z's.

/Rincewind

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Which do you prefer:
Vast potential power that hinges on guessing/knowing what you'll come up against, plus reliably higher output?
Or constrained focus, where you know a handful of tricks that you can customize on the fly?

The former, in general, is the Wizard. Its class features generally mean it gets a lot of bang for its thematic focus (especially Diviners), and Arcane Recovery means you actually have a lot more spells at your disposal than you might think. With careful planning, and a little luck (or reconnaissance), the Wizard can turn its breadth into an even greater strength.

The latter, in general, is the Sorcerer. Its builds tend to get a lot more "general" benefits--bonus AC, fiddling with rolls--and because it's a "spells known" class (you pick specific spells you Know, rather than being able to read and master every scroll you come upon), it usually ends up with a much smaller toolbox. Thus, each tool needs to be as broadly applicable as possible. Metamagic, however, allows you to tweak some of the details of those tools, granting a slightly different kind of versatility (though probably not as powerful of versatility).

As an aside, it's a bit unfortunate that metamagic works as it does, as it requires a certain amount of system mastery to understand how to really benefit from it. More or less, you largely stop using your 1st and 2nd level spell slots because cantrips become as good as they are, or better, so those slots can and should typically be cannibalized for more sorcery points, thereby giving you enough to metamagic and recover your higher-level spells when needed.

 

[Cody C. Lewis]

I think it is important to point out how their differences evolved.

Specifically from 3rd to 5th (sorry 4e couldn't hold my attention to even warrant a second game session).

In 3rd edition IIRC, the high damaging cantrip was not really a thing. Which caused Wizards to be painful to play at low levels. You had to almost rely on a crossbow or a dagger to have any damage output at the end of long delves for the first few levels. Sorcerers had the same problem too, but since they could cast spells more often than Wizards, they felt a little 'safer to play' if you will. If your group had a long adventure hunting down a Kobold leader for instance, the Sorc could more easy make it to the end of the delve with spells left to throw at the BBEG; thus 'safer'.

With cantrips now... it, IMO, wipes out the advantage Sorcs had in early levels over Wizards in 3rd edition. But there are still Pros and Cons. Just thought I would throw that in.

BTW it has been a long time since I played 3rd edition. I could totally have gotten that wrong, admittedly; but I believe that sounds right.

 

[ccs]

In a sentence: wizards know more different spells, but sorcerers can cast the spells they know more often.

That sums it up pretty nicely.

Beyond that lies some odd obsession with making a whole class - complete with its own unique rules - out of every word one could call an arcane spellcaster. (Applies to other classes as well, but the arcane proliferation is the most noticeable)

 

[Li Shenron]

In a sentence: wizards know more different spells, but sorcerers can cast the spells they know more often.

The sorcerer gets roughly 50% more spell levels from Font of Magic than the wizard gets from Arcane Recovery, and doesn't have to take a short rest to access them.

I don't think it is such a difference that justifies advertising the Sorcerer as someone who casts more spells.

The points-to-slots ratio is different between the two abilities, so that the Wizard gets half her level amount of points and converts them directly into total spell levels, while the Sorcerer gets twice as many points, but has a more favorable conversion for higher-level spells.

So on one extreme, if both convert all their points into lowest-level spell slots (1st level), at even-number levels they get exactly the same number of extra slots, at odd-number levels the Wizard gets one more.

On the other extreme, both converting all their points into highest-level spell slots, until level 13th they both get one extra slot, and from level 14th the Sorcerer gets two extra 5th-level slot (capped) while the Wizard has to wait until 19th level to get a second extra 5th-level slot.

That's the best edge for a Sorcerer, one more 5th-level slots than Wizard when they already have access to 7th-level spells. It's not bad but not enough to be a selling point.

In a more practical case, they will probably choose to get back slots of intermediate level also, for example...

At level 5:
- Wizard (3 points), gets a 3rd-level slot, or 2nd+1st, or three 1st
- Sorcerer (5 points), gets a 3rd-level slot, or 2nd+1st, or two 1st + 1 spare point

At level 10:
- Wizard (5 points), gets a 5th-level slot, or 4th+1st, or 3rd+2nd, or 3rd+1st+1st, or 2nd+2nd+1st...
- Sorcerer (10 points), gets 5th+2nd, or 4th+1st+1st, or 3rd+3rd, or 3rd+2nd+1st...

At level 15:
- Wizard (8 points), gets 5th+3rd, or 4th+4th, or 3rd+3rd+2nd...
- Sorcerer (15 points), gets 5th+5th + 1 spare point, or 5th+4th+2nd, or 3rd+3rd+3rd...

So there is an edge, but it's small.

For the bigger picture, you also need to consider:

- Arcane Recovery has the drawback not so much that it needs a short rest, but that you have to recover ALL slots at once, and you can only recover slots you have already used! The Sorcerer is a lot more flexible, the slots are independent of the past and chosen on the fly.
- The Wizard will certainly use Arcane Recovery for extra slots, the Sorcerer can use all the points to get an edge on daily totals, but then she is giving up all the other uses of spell points (metamagic and other options).
- Wizard potentially casts a lot more Rituals because she just knows more ritualizable spells (on average, individuals might vary).
- Only near the end of the game (18th level IIRC), but the Wizard also gets some lower levels spells at-will.

Everything considered, I'd rather advertise the Sorcerer as 'more flexible and efficient', but 'casts more spells than Wizard' would be misleading IMHO, because you don't typically really end up casting more...

 

[Mouseferatu]

Wizards are Batman. It's all about being prepared with the proper gear (spells).

Sorcerers are the mutants, the X-Men. It's all just there inside of them (and usually comes out in nice Michael Bay pyrotechnics).

Heh. Great minds. That's very similar to what I was going to say.

I was going to go with wizard = Batman, sorcerer = Taskmaster, myself.

 

[Minigiant]

Wizard= Quarterback who has tons of football knowledge but a noolde arm.

Sorcerer= Quarterback with a strong accurate arm but is limed in football knowlodge and number of different plays.

Warlock= Quarterback given great running backs, wide receivers, and offensive line and thus little work needed.

 

[Eric V]

That sums it up pretty nicely.

Beyond that lies some odd obsession with making a whole class - complete with its own unique rules - out of every word one could call an arcane spellcaster. (Applies to other classes as well, but the arcane proliferation is the most noticeable)

When taking Arcane Recovery into account, the only way it remains true that sorcerers cast more often is if they use all their sorcery points to create more slots, at an opportunity cost of using metamagic. There is no opportunity cost for wizards.

I've been playing a sorcerer from level 1 to 7 and pretty much across the board it's been unanimous that a wizard would have been better. :/