Playtest (A5E) Level Up Playtest Document #11: Wizard

Morrus · Mar 5, 2021

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Zaukrie · Mar 5, 2021

On first skim, this appears to be the least interesting change. Especially below level 7. Which is where the vast majority of play happens.

tetrasodium · Mar 5, 2021

Faolyn said:
Well, paper was expensive back then. Also, it's unlikely that these are letter/A4 size sheets. You can easily that these sheets are newsprint or quatro-sized, making each sheet the equivalent of eight sheets of regular paper. Plus, you can always buy more parchment. Or make your own, with the leatherworker's tools.

That only applies to some settings though, Of the two settings a5e is written for one uses steam power putting it closer to an age where it wasn't all that expensive as it was when monks were transcribing bibles by hand & the other is a fallen civilization. The parchment is misleading in that depressingly often some newbie asks to make scrolls with it. If it's just to keep some light notes with then replace it with something like a wax tablet/roman diptych or apply some super minor magic to make it have multiple pages in a named item with tons of pages similar to a ton of wuxia/isekai or eberron's dragonshards

Faolyn · Mar 5, 2021

I don't have a lot to say at first read-through. It all seems pretty cool, and some of it--the flair, for instance--is making me think about how I'll run an upcoming wizard character of mine.

except your cantrips, which you maintain in your memory. With Tasha's solidifying it as an option, wizards (and others) can now swap out cantrips at certain times. How will this be accomplished here? Personally, I'd say that cantrips are written in your spellbook.

Flora and Fauna. I'm surprised you didn't give them speak with animals.

Exploration Knacks. I like the Prestidigitation one. I imagine it comes with a built-in tooth sparkle. What if you already have darkvision--does the coin thing increase your range?

WarDriveWorley · Mar 5, 2021

As a huge fan of altering spells for thematic purposes I love Wizard's Flair on paper. That said I think that it's a bit bland as written. I would have liked to see this as an early level ability with powers that get better as you level up. Maybe a list of 6 to 10 abilities at 2nd level, then a new list available once the wizard reaches certain levels (say 6, 10, 14, and 18th levels as examples).

Faolyn · Mar 5, 2021

WarDriveWorley said:
As a huge fan of altering spells for thematic purposes I love Wizard's Flair on paper. That said I think that it's a bit bland as written. I would have liked to see this as an early level ability with powers that get better as you level up. Maybe a list of 6 to 10 abilities at 2nd level, then a new list available once the wizard reaches certain levels (say 6, 10, 14, and 18th levels as examples).

I would imagine that this is to encourage players to start adding flair to their spells early on, and only at 9th level do the flairs become mechanically meaningful (one of my players does this for all of his spellcasting characters). Although that's something that should be mentioned in the actual text and not just implied.

Faolyn · Mar 5, 2021

tetrasodium said:
That only applies to some settings though,

The default D&D setting is "kinda Medieval, kinda Renaissance, plus whatever." Meaning large individual sheets of paper or other writing surface are likely the norm. For settings outside that norm, you can specify that the sheets of paper are different sized. If you're playing a game where paper doesn't exist, then simply say the scholar's pack contains a wax tablet and stylus instead of parchment. It's no biggie.

Also, "sheet of parchment" is a very inconsequential object. It's 2 sp. It hardly matters. Only the most nitpicky DM is going to demand that you figure out how much text you can cram onto a single sheet of whatever your setting's version of letter/A4 is, and only the most penny-pinching of players is going to pretend they wrote a novel on those 10 sheets instead of spending a couple of gold in town on a new ream of paper.

WarDriveWorley · Mar 5, 2021

Faolyn said:
I would imagine that this is to encourage players to start adding flair to their spells early on, and only at 9th level do the flairs become mechanically meaningful (one of my players does this for all of his spellcasting characters). Although that's something that should be mentioned in the actual text and not just implied.

Good point and that's definitely a possibility, but I still think 9th level is a bit late to wait for that ability to kick in

Faolyn · Mar 5, 2021

WarDriveWorley said:
Good point and that's definitely a possibility, but I still think 9th level is a bit late to wait for that ability to kick in

Maybe. It's a bit hard to tell. You don't normally get anything at 9th level. 7th level in LU gives us the Spell Study. Maybe Flair and Spell Study should be swapped, since a free spell per day is a bit more powerful.

tetrasodium · Mar 5, 2021

Faolyn said:
Maybe. It's a bit hard to tell. You don't normally get anything at 9th level. 7th level in LU gives us the Spell Study. Maybe Flair and Spell Study should be swapped, since a free spell per day is a bit more powerful.

Not really. Sorcerer by comparison gets a conduit at level 2, an arcane refinement at 6th*, & then at 9th gets either a second conduit or a tier2 evolving manifestation of the first.

charisma mod ritual spells from any class' list?.... unless the spell list has a huge number of newly ritualized spells this should allow most if not all of the worthwhile ones including one like revivify/raise dead

I really like the flash, but @WarDriveWorley is right that it comes much too late given how few changes wizard sees at earlier levels.