D&D 5E I want more flavorful wizard subclasses.

[CreamCloud0]

This is a large part of why so many love the fighter, they just want a simple "I hit things" class.

Hitting things isn’t the same as blasting them though, so complex fighter and simple caster please and thank you Wizards

 

[Kurotowa]

Hitting things isn’t the same as blasting them though, so complex fighter and simple caster please and thank you Wizards

We have a simple caster. It's the Warlock. You use Eldritch Blast 90% of the time and occasionally throw in a spell or invocation. That's why there's such a divide between the people who like the Warlock mechanics as they are and the people who like the Warlock flavor but want it to be more mechanically complex again.

 

[cbwjm]

Hitting things isn’t the same as blasting them though, so complex fighter and simple caster please and thank you Wizards

Maybe not, but what I was getting at was that many people want that simple fighter that hits things just like they want that simple wizard that blasts things.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Trying to explain to new players what the schools are about is also an exercise in frustration.

Oh, it's really quite simple:

Conjuration is about evoking elemental and astral energy. Also summoning.

Evocation is conjuring elemental and astral energy to do damage.

Abjuration is conjuring elemental and astral energy to evoke defenses and also anti-magic somehow.

Transmutation is the one that makes sense.

Enchantment is what bards should be doing.

Divination is what clerics should be doing

Nercomancy is summoning dead things but also like anti-life? Dark Seid?

Illusion is the one where you ask your DM for permission to win the encounter, inspired by all their talk about being creative and 'using your brain' to Skilled Play your way through things, and then they say 'no'.

 

[Neonchameleon]

There are three basic problems with flavourful wizards; the first is that the base class of wizard is immensely strong so there isn't much power budget for a wizard subclass and the second is the tradition of wizards being able to learn almost any spell and being almost equally good at them. And the third is that the sorcerer is (partly for these reasons) simply in a place to do the flavourful arcane caster better; it's not for nothing that I have repeatedly said that wizard should be a subclass of sorcerer, with wizards being the book-sorcerers.

Right now I think the only actually thematically strong wizard subclass is the illusionist, with the diviner, abjurer, and evoker getting passing grades.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Sorry but I just had to point out, if you did this on purpose sorry I missed the joke

Oh, it's really quite simple:

Conjuration is about evoking elemental and astral energy. Also summoning.

Evocation is conjuring elemental and astral energy to do damage.

It would be so much simpler if they just framed conjuration as the summoning and/or teleportation school of magic, because really, what does it matter if you evoked that fire yourself or conjured it from the elemental plane? It’s still just regular fire doing fire damage, no extra bonuses or quirks to it, give conjuration it's own stronger theme.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Sorry but I just had to point out, if you did this on purpose sorry I missed the joke

It would be so much simpler if they just framed conjuration as the summoning and/or teleportation school of magic, because really, what does it matter if you evoked that fire yourself or conjured it from the elemental plane? It’s still just regular fire doing fire damage, no extra bonuses or quirks to it.

Nope. Totally on purpose because they're the same thing with extra jargon.

Aaand someone will write a very long angry post about me saying so within a page.

 

[cbwjm]

I do think that, when it comes to subclasses, 5 levels would be best, for me it would be something like 1, 3, 6, 10, 14. That way most of the subclass flavour is gained around the time many campaigns supposedly finish. This might potentially require a shuffling around of some class abilities to other levels.

 

[Tonguez]

Evocation and Abjuration would have tradition-focused fans, I suspect, since they represent some of the most "classically D&D-Wizard" spells. Divination is in kind of a weird spot, because prior to 5e it was extremely weak as a school, but now it's arguably the best of the bunch because of Portent (probably the only truly powerful Wizard subclass feature.)

Conjuration and Transmutation might have fans because they were brokenly OP in 3e, and thus people might want to hold onto them.

Necromancy and Enchantment...harder to say. There's certainly room to argue that Illusion and Enchantment could just be folded into a single school, and that Necromancy could be classified as a subset of Transmutation since...I mean it literally is about transmuting (formerly-)living things into undead things.

If I were combining based on common themes, I would combine Illusion and Enchantment into a single school (probably still called "Enchantment" but "Glamour" could work), and probably just fully merge Necromancy in as a subset of Transmutation. From there, it's just a matter of looking for things that seem reasonable among the remainder. Combining Evocation and Abjuration into a single school seems pretty reasonable, and would make for probably the single most obviously "D&D Wizard" subclass you could get what with having fireball, mage armor, counterspell, magic missile, and a host of other quintessentially D&D spells in there.

So that would have Enchantment (absorbing Illusion), Transmutation (absorbing Necromancy), Evocation (absorbing Abjuration), Conjuration, and Divination. And those last two do have a kind of unexpected connection, since Conjuration relates to teleportation and thus depends on knowledge, and Divination depends on going to places (usually with magical sensors or remote viewing) and such. Probably have Conjuration absorb Divination.

the DnD schools are an illogical mishmash with too much overlap and too much repetition to the point that they fail to capture any real flavour. My preference would be to dump them and start again with an effevts based list (Summon, Abjure, Move, Transform, Transmute, Divination, Mind (includes Illusion), Somatic, Blast).

but if I do have to use the current list to some degree then:

1 I think Evocation/Conjuration are the major culprits in terms of overlap especially with things like Produce Flame (Conjuration) v Continual Flame (Evocation) and all the other weirdness that could go to either.

2 I’d probably move Summoning of Creatures and Objects and thus Portal spells to Conjuration and 3use Evocation for ALL energy damage spells. I’d also go so far as putting the Wall spells into Abjuration.

4 Abjuration I think is distinct enough that it should stand on its own as the School for Guards and Wards, the Exorcist banishing demons, the Warden closing down portals, the Incantrix disrupting and draining the spells of others.

5 Illision and Enchantment are natural allies for the mind-control/glamour school, I’d stick with calling in Enchantment

6 Necromancy shouldnt be a school at all and I’d be happy for its spells being disperse with the animate dead line going to Transmutation.
I think Necromancy and similar (Pyromancy, Technomancy etc) should be divorced from the spells themselves and instead serve as traditions eg a Spellcaster can cast Energy Orb using fire or ice or thunder as flavor (and secondary effect), or a Transmuter can cast Animate with their Tradition determining if they can animate corpses or fire or trees

so
Abjuration - School of Wards and Guards

• Warden (defensive shields and wards)
• Exorcist (banishment)
• Incantatrix

Conjuration - School of Summ0n9ng and Portals

• Summoner
• Artificer
• Portal Master

Evocation - Schools of Channeling

• Elementalist (Hydro/Pyro/Geo/Aero/Light/Sonic/Nature/Life etc)
• Healer (channeling divine energy/Life element?)

Enchantment

• Illusionist (Sensory)
• Enchanter (Psychological)
• Soul Puppeteer

Divination

• Diviner
• Mystic/Psychic (with Enchantment)

Transmutation

• Shapechanger
• Animator
• Necromancer (animating dead)
• Shadow weaver (animating shadows)
• Somatist (using spells to physically buff self or others)

etc

 

[Andvari]

School specialization always seemed really weak sauce to me. It's like the meme.

"I want to be a necromancer!"
"We have necromancer at home."
Necromancer at home = necromancy school specialization

They are not really specialists. They still do basically everything but are just slightly better at one of those. A Bright Wizard from Warhammer is what I consider a good example of a specialist.