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Message: <blockquote data-quote="touc" data-source="post: 9770340" data-attributes="member: 19270">Zardnaar, your keyboard exploded!Anecdotally, the last time I had a D&D player wizard was @5 years ago. The player, newish to D&D, came to me and wanted to play a "blaster caster." He envisioned rows of enemies melting before his character (and yeah, pretty all the "optimization" and "which class is OP" is all about combat). He was disappointed when he threw his highest level damage spell and everything was still standing, or when he did the math and it was more economical to throw cantrips. He felt like he was being corralled into playing a "control" or "supporting" character. He felt he was the lowest damage dealer in the party during combats (and I felt he was too).I don't have a perfect solution, but my thoughts are (1) as a DM nudge my encounters so that from time to time a wizard gets to shine, whatever their specialization and (2) consider a power bump unique to them. I bought Matt Colville's Strongholds and Followers, which had unique bases for each class, and the wizard had a few cool ideas that I thought maybe didn't need to require a base. My modifications that I haven't implemented but would consider:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Boost your specialty spells by +1 level if you make a DC 10 + spell level Con check. Fail, gain +1 exhaustion. Some similarities to a Dragonlance feat that let you boost spells but be stunned in return.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Wizards can modify a spell with random (or chosen) feature to make it unique (using a table from the supplement). You can only do this when you advance your proficiency bonus. For example, a necrotic damage spell could be modified so that in addition, 1d4 ghouls appear within 30' under your control and last for your INT modifier rounds. It'd be the DM call if this costs gold, time, needs to be randomly rolled or picked, and if a spell could be abandoned if the result wasn't desired (presumably restarting a timer to try again).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If you cast a damage spell in a higher slot, it always does +X extra damage (e.g. maximum, or the average, or something better than rolling a 1).</li> </ul></blockquote>

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