D&D 5E (2014) Niche protection: the wizard’s niche

[Corinnguard]

Does having a niche mean that nobody else is allowed to do anything with that niche ever?

I don't believe so. Niches aren't IP.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

Does having a niche mean that nobody else is allowed to do anything with that niche ever?

I wouldn’t think so. It would just mean that the one with the niche is the best at it, and has the most support for it between spells and class features.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Does having a niche mean that nobody else is allowed to do anything with that niche ever?

Not consistently.

Like the TSR era Thief being kept around for lockpicking meant that the 5e wizard had to get a Knock Loudly, spell, even tho the Rogue had long since moved on to Sneak Attacking dpr and general skill monkeying, and any 5e class could take a background like Urchin and pick up Tool Use to pick locks, and the Bard, could do so with Expertise....
... and that's like, about it on niche protection impacting the Wizard...
...well that and the hoary "Wizards 'can't' heal," protecting the Cleric's nicheWizard's slots from being used to heal....

But, mostly niche protection is just, like, the Monk is unarmed guy, so everyone must suck at fighting unarmed (which is easy, because fighting armed in melee kinda sucks in 5e already), or the rogue is good at skills so the fighter must be bad at skills, or the fighter is best at fighting so the rogue must be bad at fighting....

 

[Charlaquin]

...well that and the hoary "Wizards 'can't' heal," protecting the Cleric's nicheWizard's slots from being used to heal....

 

[GuardianLurker]

Your poll REALLY needs a "Something Else/None of These" option. And better definitions for its terms.
Ultimately, none of those, as the Wizard proper is "(Magic) Solution Man". ("I have a spell for that....")

Let me work backwards here.

Scout is properly the niche of a Rogue, Ranger, or similar.
Face is properly the niche of a Bard, Rogue, or other Charisma-focused/social-oriented class.
Monster Summoner thematically is probably a better fit for classes similar to Druid, Sorcerer, or Warlock.
Battlefield Controller is not really a good primary niche for any class - while very useful, if the character doesn't have anything to back it up, it rapidly devolves into a boring "Yay Team.", and a character whose contributions (no matter how valuable) often get overlooked.
Buff/Debuff is the same.
Damage Dealer. There's a reason the fireball-casting wizard is iconic. Niche-wise though, this can be split off. You'd want to strengthen the class in other ways to compensate however.
Party Sage. I'm not exactly sure of your definition here. "Know-it-all Man" is definitely on-brand for a Wizard (it's what the word originates from, after all), but barring divination spells, has mostly been related to the skill-monkey class. (That's actually one of my few frustrations with 3.x and its descendants.) Also, not really good for a primary niche, for the same reasons as Controller and Buffer, and further complicated by the fact that it is generally non-combat focused.
That pretty much leaves "Utility Caster", which is on-brand for Wizard/Solution Man. However, given your poll's defined limits incredibly restrictive and almost entirely used outside of the climatic events. And also a bit boring even outside of that.

 

[Lanefan]

Bard has the skills and the expertise to be a way better sage.

I kinda see Bard and Sage as two sides of the same coin, very similar to how Wizards (books) and Sorcerers (spontaneous) match.

A Sage gets info from research, from old writings, from scientific study, from things other people bring to it. Stay-at-home, cloistered, sheltered.

A Bard gets info from word of mouth, from tales, from hearsay, from things it goes and finds itself. Out there, adventurous, social.

 

[Charlaquin]

Your poll REALLY needs a "Something Else/None of These" option. And better definitions for its terms.
Ultimately, none of those, as the Wizard proper is "(Magic) Solution Man". ("I have a spell for that....")

That’s “utility caster,” isn’t it?

 

[Cadence]

"Being better than Fighter from Tier 3 on."

 

[overgeeked]

"Being better than Fighter from Tier 3 on."

Better than by Tier 2, if that late.

 

[overgeeked]

So, unironically, the wizard’s niche is getting to step on everyone else’s niche?

This is why D&D will never be balanced.

Pretty much. And the same people say with a straight face that there is no balance problem with the wizard.