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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6077542" data-attributes="member: 42582">When I think of wizards in fiction, I think of sorcerers from Conan like Xaltotun and Thugra Khotan; legendary figures like Math, Gwydion or Circe; the "NPC" mentors of romantic fantasy like Merlin, Gandalf or Obi Wan Kenobi; plus any number of comics charactrers, from Dr Fate and Dr Strange to weird entities like The Inbetweener.These wizards do things like enchant people and objects (hypnosis and/or illusion, levitation, TK etc); receive oracular visions; and occasionally use magic to ensare their foes (eg with the Rings of Raggadorr). Many are also summoners, though summoning creatures from beyond is often taxing and/or dangerous.D&D wizards have never precisely matched any of these archetypes, are very poor for some of them (eg the weapon-using ones), and have to share terrain with conceptually overlapping classes like druids, clerics and sorcerers. The D&D wizard who regularly consults mystic tomes to refill his/her brain with magic isn't an archetype I associate with any fiction other than Jack Vance (of which I've read only a very little).A wizard should be able to do stuff using magic, but what exactly that "stuff" is I'm not too fussed about. I would add, though, that highly reliable creation, clairvoyance or teleportation - all things that are notorious for causing headaches in fantasy RPGs - are not abilities that I particularly associate with the wizard as a fictional archetype.</blockquote>

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