D&D 5E (2024) What’s the difference between sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards?

[SkidAce]

...

i think one of the unnecessary limitations that 5e puts upon itself is that sometimes thing are a little too standardized.

While I like the simplicity of the 5e foundation for me to use as a toolkit, I can see the validity in what you said.

 

[Charlaquin]

I always thought

Wizardry
Sorcery
Warlocky

Should be different types of magic.

I think the proper term for warlock magic would be witchcraft.

 

[Charlaquin]

i will admit, even within the sole confines of 5e's spell slots and levels i think there's surprising room for making different spellcasters feel mechanically different if they just had the guts to make anything that breaks the mould, look at warlock, fundamentally it doesn't really do anything different besides adjusting the level, number and frequency of it's spell slots, but that results in a totally different feeling caster,

you could have a purecaster that never got anything more than 1/3rd casting but in exchange gets a ton of those low level slots. or if the sorcerer had been made to run solely on spell points.

For a good chunk of the D&D Next playtest, Wizards had 3e-style Vancian casting where you had to prepare each individual slot, and the 5e-style “flexible Vancian” was a Cleric and Druid thing, while Bards and the half-casters were spells-known type casters and Sorcerers and Warlocks got their single-packet unique casting mechanics before promptly being abandoned. Flexible Vancian proved so popular that they ended up giving it to every caster save the Warlock, and that probably does help with keeping the game easier to learn. But in another world we might have gotten different casters actually having different casting rules.

i think one of the unnecessary limitations that 5e puts upon itself is that sometimes thing are a little too standardized.

Yeah, there was a push and pull there between variety and simplicity. In the end, two of the big factors pushing 5e towards standardization was the demand for 3e-style multiclassing, and the demand for feats to be optional. Standardized spellcasting progression enables 3e-style a-la-carte multiclassing without your spell list becoming a huge mess if you take levels in more than one casting class, and up until the decision to make feats optional, proficiency bonus progression and ASI levels varied from class to class.

 

[Micah Sweet]

i will admit, even within the sole confines of 5e's spell slots and levels i think there's surprising room for making different spellcasters feel mechanically different if they just had the guts to make anything that breaks the mould, look at warlock, fundamentally it doesn't really do anything different besides adjusting the level, number and frequency of it's spell slots, but that results in a totally different feeling caster,

you could have a purecaster that never got anything more than 1/3rd casting but in exchange gets a ton of those low level slots. or if the sorcerer had been made to run solely on spell points.

i think one of the unnecessary limitations that 5e puts upon itself is that sometimes things are a little too standardized.

The funny thing is, these sort of adjustments to the class system have been done. Just not by WotC.

 

[OB1]

One of my favorite things about the 2024 class updates is they worked to separate these three classes more then in 2014. The stories were always separated well, but now the mechanics help more with the fiction. Sorcerers especially now feel like the powerful innate specialists of the arcane.

 

[Micah Sweet]

One of my favorite things about the 2024 class updates is they worked to separate these three classes more then in 2014. The stories were always separated well, but now the mechanics help more with the fiction. Sorcerers especially now feel like the powerful innate specialists of the arcane.

Really? Like what did they do mechanically over 5.0 to accentuate that difference?

 

[Minigiant]

I think the proper term for warlock magic would be witchcraft.

Normally yes.

 

[OB1]

Really? Like what did they do mechanically over 5.0 to accentuate that difference?

Sorcery incarnate is the big piece. Chaos bolt to a lesser extent.

 

[Charlaquin]

Really? Like what did they do mechanically over 5.0 to accentuate that difference?

Not much, honestly. They got a magic equivalent of Barbarian Rage they can activate a limited number of times per day and gives them +1 to their spell save DC and advantage on spell attack rolls. At 7th level, you can also use two metamagic options per turn while it’s active, and at 20th you can use one metamagic option for free per turn while it’s active. I think that’s the only difference on the class level. They also made a new spell, Sorcerous Burst, which is kind of like a cantrip version of Chaos Bolt.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Not much, honestly. They got a magic equivalent of Barbarian Rage they can activate a limited number of times per day and gives them +1 to their spell save DC and advantage on spell attack rolls. At 7th level, you can also use two metamagic options per turn while it’s active, and at 20th you can use one metamagic option for free per turn while it’s active. I think that’s the only difference on the class level. They also made a new spell, Sorcerous Burst, which is kind of like a cantrip version of Chaos Bolt.

Yeah, that doesn't seem like much compared to Level Up's version.