D&D 5E Low Level Wizards Really Do Suck in 5E

[Azzy]

I don't think it's weird. Low-mid-high are the level categories. First to third, fourth to sixth, and seventh to ninth are the spell divisions. Everyone I played with back in the day considered third level to be the highest of the low level spells. Also, if you look at the title names, it wasn't until 9th-11th level that you got your last name level title. Magic users got theirs at 11th level.

Yeah, but in my mind, that simply makes 5th-level really the onset of mid-level with 9th and getting to high level. Anything beyond 14th was just unlikely to happen in my experience.

 

[Maxperson]

Yeah, but in my mind, that simply makes 5th-level really the onset of mid-level with 9th and getting to high level. Anything beyond 14th was just unlikely to happen in my experience.

It depends on if you did gold as xp or not. Without it, as so many groups house rules, then yes it was very unlikely that you would hit high mid to high levels. Monster experience alone combined with level drain kept you from rising to high level.

 

[Dessert Nomad]

Sleep was more powerful in 1E and throwing 3 darts in 1E for 1d3 damage is better than a d8 or d10 cantrip in 5E. Especially since 5E tends to double or triple monster HP. You also got a lot more wands, scrolls, staves etc in 1E which were in effect your cantrips.

In 2E a specialist gets 2 spells so something like an enchanter with 2 sleeps throwing darts is arguably better than the 5E wizard. 5E wizards have a d6 as well but relative to incoming damage from monsters the d4 AD&D wizard is better off than the 5E wizard.

Yeah, this idea that wizards were 'better' when they threw darts most of the time and had a single spell that wouldn't work if the party encountered skeletons or elves instead of today when they will fight by using spells, cast lots of utility magic every day (like mage hand, unseen servant, comprehend languages, detect magic, minor illusion, prestidigitation, identify), and have twice as many full casts, most of which are still effective against skeletons is beyond anything I can come with with a response to. How could one argue with that? It's just a thing of strange beauty.

 

[Dessert Nomad]

Further, dex was important to to wizards to help them stay alive, so it wasn't unusual to have an attack adjustment with missile weapons as a wizard.

Not in my experience - just how many 16+ stats were you playing with in 1e? It was pretty unusual to have half of your stats as high as 16 in most ability generation systems - and if I had something like 1x 18 and 1x 16 for a wizard I would put the 18 in int and 16 in con without hesitation, the difference between 1d4 and 1d4+2 is huge while going from AC 10 to AC 8 really isn't.

 

[Henry]

Yeah, this idea that wizards were 'better' when they threw darts most of the time and had a single spell that wouldn't work if the party encountered skeletons or elves instead of today when they will fight by using spells, cast lots of utility magic every day (like mage hand, unseen servant, comprehend languages, detect magic, minor illusion, prestidigitation, identify), and have twice as many full casts, most of which are still effective against skeletons is beyond anything I can come with with a response to. How could one argue with that? It's just a thing of strange beauty.

I have to agree -- in 1e, sleep was keyed to hit dice (which never change) instead of to hit points (which constantly change), meaning in D&D5 you can whittle a foe into sleep territory. Get them down to their last 20 or 30 hit points, and you can end the fight early.

Not to mention, darts were quite frankly crap in the 1e days, 3 attacks or not. A whopping average of 3 to 5 damage or so -- woo-hoo! You have to be a fighter with double weapon specialization for darts back then to be worth anything, because that measly wizard with the 20 To hit AC 0, and the +1 or +2 to hit if you were lucky enough to have a 16 or 17 DEX, was pretty much not hitting anything, except as lucky shots, especially since most critters had an AC of anywhere from 8 to 4 at low level (12 to 16 in 5e terms) -- and would for about 5 levels.

 

[Henry]

Not in my experience - just how many 16+ stats were you playing with in 1e? It was pretty unusual to have half of your stats as high as 16 in most ability generation systems - and if I had something like 1x 18 and 1x 16 for a wizard I would put the 18 in int and 16 in con without hesitation, the difference between 1d4 and 1d4+2 is huge while going from AC 10 to AC 8 really isn't.

It depends on whether you were using that very abusive Unearthed Arcana system, where you rolled 9d6 (keep the best three) for your INT, etc. Most of the time, our groups used the ones from the DMG, most often either 3d6 12 times (keep best six scores) or 4d6 for each score, drop lowest.

 

[Aiden_Keller_]

I think you choose poorly.

Wizard is whatever you make it...and it looks like you wanted a GOD!...

 

[Zardnaar]

Yeah, this idea that wizards were 'better' when they threw darts most of the time and had a single spell that wouldn't work if the party encountered skeletons or elves instead of today when they will fight by using spells, cast lots of utility magic every day (like mage hand, unseen servant, comprehend languages, detect magic, minor illusion, prestidigitation, identify), and have twice as many full casts, most of which are still effective against skeletons is beyond anything I can come with with a response to. How could one argue with that? It's just a thing of strange beauty.

1E sleep and chromatic orb. Also 3d3 darts are the equivalent of 3d6 or 3d8 these days relative to monster hp.
And 1E UA method V got used a lot. Hell we used it last year in a non 1E game just to see what would happen.

Bigger problem for the 5E wizard is the other arcane classes got buffed along with some of the clerics.

 

[Dessert Nomad]

1E sleep and chromatic orb. Also 3d3 darts are the equivalent of 3d6 or 3d8 these days relative to monster hp.

It is truly impressive how many people loved it when wizards did not cast spells, but instead hurled darts at the enemy. Truly amazing.

 

[Maxperson]

Not in my experience - just how many 16+ stats were you playing with in 1e? It was pretty unusual to have half of your stats as high as 16 in most ability generation systems - and if I had something like 1x 18 and 1x 16 for a wizard I would put the 18 in int and 16 in con without hesitation, the difference between 1d4 and 1d4+2 is huge while going from AC 10 to AC 8 really isn't.

You're assuming that you got to place your stats.