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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Uller" data-source="post: 6429760" data-attributes="member: 413">So far we've only played the playtest packet rules and have spent very little time playing at levels 1-2.  So maybe I'm off...but we have played several games at level 3 and 4 and I have not noticed the wizard character being ineffective.  In our opening game of Dragonspear Castle, the first encounter I rolled was a hydra...I feared we'd open with a TPK...but luckily the wizard had prepared a couple fire spells...scorching ray and burning hands and was able to hit it every round to prevent it from regenerating.  Other times we've seen very good use of the guaranteed damage from Magic Missile to finish off strong foe with highly damaging attacks before he could get in another attack.  Sleep is always good for a pack of weak foes or silently getting past some guards.   To me, the usefulness of a wizard is in how often he happens to have just the right spell prepared to turn a bad situation into a good one quickly.  At low levels, the odds of that are low.  At higher levels it becomes more and more likely.  I think to be a successful wizard player in 5e (or 3e or earlier), you have accept that (especially at low levels) you won't necessarily have something to do every round or even every fight.  If that's not your bag, then playing the wizard is probably not for you.  Hold Person and Tasha's Hideous Laughter are more useful for higher level casters to take a powerful but weak willed foe out of the fight for a few rounds.  Yeah, at low levels, it's about a 50/50.  But a higher level caster with a higher DC vs a monster with low wisdom, it becomes much more effective.    Gotta fight three frost giants?  At 8th level you have a 80% chance...Taking one out of the fight for a round or two with a first level spell is very very useful.</blockquote>

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