Is the Wizard the most powerful class?

[Thresher]

Im of much the same mind as Cedric, about the only area they really shine in over sorc's is metamagic, throw a sorc together with a good selection of spells, scrolls and magic items and its more or less a moot point about versitility in most cases.
Researching spells is good, provided you can find the time and money, which is not always available in some games, then youre back to whatever you can get.

As for clerics, Ive only played one in 3rd ed.
Its a bipedal slaughterhouse.

 

[Angcuru]

I'd have to agree that pure clerics are the most powerful, but I myself prefer cleric/wizards or Mystic Theurges(i modded them to be a base class, not a PrC). There's nothing like being able to drop a fireball into a melee and then just heal up your friends with a Mass Heal spell.

 

[Pbartender]

Mystic Theurges(i modded them to be a base class, not a PrC)

Great Googly Moogly.

 

[Angcuru]

Great Googly Moogly.

It's not overpowered.

Check it out. http://www.angelfire.com/hero/madius/Mystic_Theurge_Variant.doc

 

[Pbartender]

It's not overpowered.

Check it out. http://www.angelfire.com/hero/madius/Mystic_Theurge_Variant.doc

I won't go into it here, but I must admit, It wasn't quite what I expected. Post it in the House Rules, if you haven't already.

 

[Mark Chance]

I am the most powerful character class! Muahahaha!

After me, I honestly think they're all more or less equal in actual game play over the course of a campaign. At least, that's the way things are playing out in my campaign so far. With the current mix I have, if I had to pick a "most powerful," I'd probably have to go with the paladin.

 

[s/LaSH]

From a certain perspective, a wizard does indeed have an enviable ability. While clerics and druids are subservient roles, and sorcerers are basically fumbling along trying to understand what they are, a wizard knows what's going on and can set about achieving godhood with a neatly-delineated plan. I can't see divine casters thinking this is a good idea at all, and sorcerers... while they're theoretically capable of godhood in game terms, from a story point of view, what is someone born with magical powers who eventually becomes a god? A god's child, that's what. They're automatically qualified. Other sorcerers (dragonbloods) wouldn't really have the 'chops' for it, in my book.

However, that's all 'story'-based reasoning. From a game point of view the Wizard sits there going, "I research spells. Dorh."

 

[Merlion]

From the perspective your speaking of, yes. or yes to Wizard and Sorcerer. In terms of fantasy and mythology, the most powerful people are Mages. because as someone already mentioned they can potential do ANYTHING. they master magic and magic has no real limits. especialy if you look at it as it is in most novels and stories without the whole Arcane/Divine thing...a powerful mage can do anything he can invision and muster the energy for.
Which is why its interesting that as Gez says in mechanical terms the Cleric is probably the most powerful class in the game...and neither the Wizard nor the Sorcerer are imbalanced...of course thats partialy because DnD(and any game-system) magic is more limited than "real" magic.

 

[Angcuru]

Actually, when you think about REALLY high levels, the Wizard IS a whole lot more powerful than the cleric. He keeps gaining more and more spells, and is therefore more powerful, while the cleric does not.

And when you think in terms of legends and novels, these big bad wizards are (in game terms) almost as a rule, Epic.

 

[Norfleet]

I've always felt wizards seem to have slipped a bit since the days of 2E.

In the old days, casters of all sorts casted one spell per round, and anyone who wasn't a warrior type attacked only once per round.

Now, everyone attacks multiple times per round even at moderate to low levels, and the wizard still casts only once per round, with the new haste mods. Furthermore, wizard spell damage has not exactly gone up much, if at all, while everyone's HP seems to have gone up by a factor of 2 or more, since HP gain no longer cuts off after 9th/10th.

Clerics, on the other hand, received a hefty boost since the days I remember, with spells now going up to 9th, instead of 7th, and there's a lot more of them. Many of them are now quite painful, to boot, and the weapons selection on clerics is no longer substandard, either.

So I say clerics win.