D&D 5E What are THE wizard spells?

[Baron Opal II]

Shield, Magic Missile, Unseen Servant, Tiny Hut, Protection from Normal Missiles, Dimension Door, Conjure Elemental, Wall of Fire or Ice.

Summoning allies, defenses where mundane attacks are deflected, providing shelter with a wave of the hand, having simple chores perform themselves- all these things seem very "wizardy" to me.

EtA: Force and conjuring spells first, with a smattering of elemental spells.

 

[Clint_L]

i'm not sure i really expected the first answer to be anything else, but, and i say this irregardless of if i think you picked fireball actually thinking about the criteria or not, i'm going to reiterate: this is not a thread asking about the classic wizard spells or the powerful or the iconic or the meme spells, this is asking what spells do you truly think fit the themes of the wizard as a concept

I don't really understand what that means. It's so subjective. I can't think of a more "wizardy" spell than fireball. Maybe we see the themes of wizard very differently.

Maybe you should explain more precisely how you see "wizard" as a concept and then ask what spells would go with that?

 

[Stalker0]

Probably identify, is there any more "old wizard researching ancient stuff" than going around an identifying things.

 

[CreamCloud0]

picking out my list of 'wizard' spells (this took wayyyy too long going through all their spells)
CANTRIPS
Blade ward, Control flames, Create bonfire, Dancing lights, Encode thoughts, Friends, Gust, Light, Mage hand, Mending, Message, Minor illusion, Mold earth, Prestidigitation, Ray of frost, Shape water, Thunderclap
1st LEVEL
Absorb elements, Alarm, Catapult, Chromatic orb, Comprehend languages, Detect magic, Disguse self, Distort value, Earth tremor, Feather fall, Find familliar, Fog cloud, Guiding hand, Healing elixir, Identify, Illusory script, Infallible relay(while this exists outside the usual fantasy theme mentioning telephones or similar technology i think the idea of an almost-direct communication spell that utilises the nearest possible avenue does fit), Magic missile, Magnify gravity, Protection from evil and good, Remote access(again without the tech theme this would seems fitting, ranged use of an intricate tool), Sense emotion, Shield, Silent image, Tenser's floating disk, Thunderwave, Unseen servant
2nd LEVEL
Air bubble, Alter self(specifically the change appearance application), Arcane lock, Augury, Blindness/Deafness, Borrowed knowledge, Continual flame, Darkness, Darkvision, Detect thoughs, Digital phantom(a third time, if this applied instead to say, concealing scrying, i'd say it'd fit), Dust devil, Earthbind, Enhance ability, Enlarge/Reduce, Flaming sphere, Flock of familiars, Fortune's favour, Gentle repose, Gust of wind, Hold person, Immovable object, Invisibility, Knock, Levitate, Locate object, Magic mouth, Maximillian's earthen grasp, Mental barrier, Mind spike, Mind thrust, Misty step, Nystul's magic aura, Phantasmal force, Pyrotechnics, See invisibility, Shatter, Spider climb, Suggestion, Thought shield, Vortex warp, Warding wind, Wither and bloom, Wristpocket
3rd LEVEL
Animate dead, Antagonise, Blink, Catnap, Clairvoyance, Conjour lesser demon, Counterspell, Dispel magic, Enemies abound, Erupting earth, Fast friends, Fear, Feign death, Flame arrows, Fly, Galder's tower, Glyph of warding, Haste, Hypnotic pattern, Intelect fortress, Invisibility to cameras(spell four of 'if it were fantasy flavoured' cameras=scrying), Life transferance, Magic circle, Major image, Melf's minute meteors, Nondetection, Phantom steed, Protection from ballistics(a little unclear of the actual mechanics, treating it as granting 10 mins of resistance to damage from nonmagic physical projectiles), Protection from energy, Pulse wave, Remove Curse, Sending, Slow, Speak with dead, Summon fey, Summon warrior spirit, Thunder step, Tidal wave, Tiny servant, Tongues, Wall of sand, Wall of water, Water breathing
4th LEVEL
Arcane eye, Banishment, Charm monster, Confusion, Conjour knowbot(retool for remote use of magical device), Conjour minor elementals, Control water, Dimension door, Divination, Elemental bane, Fabricate, Galder's speedy courier, Gravity sinkhole, Greater invisibility, Hallucinatory terrain, Leomund's secret chest, Locate creature, Merdenkainen's faithful hound, Mordenkainen's private sanctum, Otiluke's resilient sphere, Polymorph, Raulothim's psychic lance, Spirit of death, Stone shape, Stoneskin, Storm sphere, Summon, abberation, Summon construct, Summon elemental, Summon greater demon, Wall of fire, Watery sphere, Widogast's vault of amber
5th LEVEL
Animate objects, Bigby's hand, Commune with city, Conjour elemental, Contact other plane, Control winds, Creation, Danse macabre, Dawn, Dominate person, Dream, Far step, Geas, Hold monster, Immolation, Infernal calling, Legend lore, Mislead, Modify memory, Negative energy flood, Passwall, Planar binding, Rary's telepathic bond, Scrying, Seeming, Shutdown(retool for disabling of autonomous magic items), Skill empowerment, Summon draconic spirit, Synaptic static, Telekinesis, Teleportation circle, Temporal shunt, Transmute rock, Wall of force, Wall of light, Wall of rock
6th LEVEL
Arcane gate, Chain lightning, Circle of death, Contingency, Create homunculous, Disintergrate, Drawmij's instant summons, Eyebite, Fizban's platinum shield, Flesh to stone, Globe of invunerablity, Gravity fissure, Guards and wards, Investiture of flame, Investiture of ice, Investiture of stone, Investiture of wind, Magic jar, Mass suggestion, Mental prison, Move earth, Otherworldly form/Tasha's otherworldly guise, Otiluke's freezing sphere, Otto's irresistable dance, Programmed illusion, Psychic crush, Scatter, Soul cage, Summon fiend, Sunbeam, Tenser's transformation, True seeing, Wall of ice, Widogast's transmogrification
7th LEVEL
Create magen, Crown of stars, Delayed blast fireball, Draconic transformation, Dream of the blue veil, Etherialness, Finger of death, Forcecage, Mirage arcane, Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion, Mordenkainen's sword, Plane shift, Power word: pain, Prismatic Spray, Project image, Reverse gravity, Sequester, Simulacrum, Symbol, Teleport, Tether essence, Whirlwind
8th LEVEL
Abi-dalzim's horrid wilting, Antimagic field, Antipathy/Sympathy, Clone, Control weather, Dark star, Demiplane, Dominate monster, Feeblemind, Illusory dragon, Incendiary cloud, Maddening darkness, Maze, Mighty fortress, Mind blank, Power word:stun, Reality break, Sunburst, Telepathy
9th LEVEL
Astral projection, Blade of disaster, Foresight, Gate, Imprisonment, Invunerability, Mass polymorph, Meteor swarm, Power word:kill, Prismatic wall, Psychic scream, Ravenous void, Shapechange, Time ravage, Time stop, True polymorph, Weird, Wish

 

[CreamCloud0]

I don't really understand what that means. It's so subjective. I can't think of a more "wizardy" spell than fireball. Maybe we see the themes of wizard very differently.

Maybe you should explain more precisely how you see "wizard" as a concept and then ask what spells would go with that?

people are valid to their own interpretations it's just that fireball of all the spells has always had it's place in DnD as a bit of meme with it being the answer to every problem, especially problems where it brute force isn't the answer 'if fireball isn't working, use more fireball', and it's a little hard to tell especially with that spell specifically how genuine people are being when they mention it.

it's a good and powerful spell, but do people think it's a wizard spell because they've always had it on their lists and thus can't imagine a wizard without it or do they genuinely think they should have it.

do you see what i'm saying?

 

[CreamCloud0]

i think its says alot about how i see the wizard that out of all 27 (if i counted my list correctly) 1st level spells only 6 of them deal damage (Catapult, Chromatic orb, Earth tremmor, Magic missile, Magnify gravity, Thunderwave)and of those few only half of them are designed to deal damage as their sole effect and each of those three serve a different purpose: Catapult deals damage at long range, Chromatic orb has versatile coverage and Magic missile is for assured if low damage and multiple targets.

i definitely gave the wizard more 'pure offense' spells as i went up in spell levels but to me the wizard has always been one to think their way through problems, the wizard is a problem solver, they have their list of solutions to apply as efficiently as possible, and fighting some big old monster isn't efficient even if sometimes it is what needs to be done.

Edit: i see the wizard as an intellectual, a researcher, a learned scholar of the arcane, so when i see a bunch of people all going “yes, the spell that most represents what this guy is all about is the giant explosion” you can see why that might cause some dissonance, it just seems more fitting for a wild instinctual sorcerer or the bargained-for-power warlock to me.

 

[LordEntrails]

this is asking what spells do you truly think fit the themes of the wizard as a concept

Fireball.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, invokes the power of a wizard as does fireball. Doesn't matter if its in game or some fantasy story book. Fireball is core wizard for me.

But I will also add;
summoning
protection from arrows
magic mouth
floating disk
teleport
magic item crafting/enchanting

 

[GuyBoy]

One of the most memorable wizards I ever DM-ed was named Jantin Foord, who called himself “Destroyer of Worlds” and whose battlecry/catchphrase was “ fireball the bastards!”
So, yeah, fireball gets my vote.
( and shout out to Richard who played him)

 

[Skayaq]

to me fireball feel more like a sorcerer thing than a wizard thing, a wizard is too "refined", for lack of a better word, to be mindless slinging around explosions. when i think of wizard spells what comes to mind is:
Detect Magic
Identify
Dispel Magic
Teleports, both short and long range
Magic Missile
Glyph of Warding, Symbol
Find Familiar
Illusory Script
Floating Disk
Unseen Servant

 

[RobJN]

Gnusto
Frotz
Throck
Rezrov