Vaalingrade
Legend
How about we give all the classes 45 variable class features?
D&D 5E What is REALLY wrong with the Wizard? (+)
Horwath
Legend
Are you trying to pull a sneaky GURPSing of D&D?
Consider me interesting.
I have a variant for ranger:
Ranger a la carte; be the Ranger that you want to be...
Right now people want for Ranger to be everything and anything: A woodsman, a marksman, a tracker, a beastman, a dualwielding storm of swords, an expert, some kind of wilderness rogue, a naturalist healer, some level of druid-like spellcaster. Ranger can be all of those, but maybe not the same...
www.enworld.org
Horwath
Legend
Personally I find it funny that people cling to cantrips as some problem with casters.
is 4d10 that big of a problem at levels 17-20?
I would say that on those levels, if you are using a cantrip, you are wasting your combat action.
20ish damage for single target?
Yes, that will surely break encounters left and right.
Problems with Wizards and other "preparation" casters is too much versatility.
All casters should be spell known casters, with amount equal to sorcerer.
Then depending on subclass, you get 2 cantrips and 2 spells known from levels 1 to 5.
Subclass spells might be somewhat flexible like Aberrant mind sorcerers list.
As normal, you can exchange one spell per level up.
That will prevent, that in worse case you need a long rest to get the right tool for the job.
Rituals should be separate spell book that you can only write spells with ritual tag. For a cost.
And knowing spells with Ritual casting does not give you ability to cast them as rituals if you do not have them in ritual book.
Casting spells should provoke AoO if the spell is not melee touch or personal range or Bonus action cast. You should not spend a feat for that. And that AoO damage should force Con save or lose the spell.
is 4d10 that big of a problem at levels 17-20?
I would say that on those levels, if you are using a cantrip, you are wasting your combat action.
20ish damage for single target?
Yes, that will surely break encounters left and right.
Problems with Wizards and other "preparation" casters is too much versatility.
All casters should be spell known casters, with amount equal to sorcerer.
Then depending on subclass, you get 2 cantrips and 2 spells known from levels 1 to 5.
Subclass spells might be somewhat flexible like Aberrant mind sorcerers list.
As normal, you can exchange one spell per level up.
That will prevent, that in worse case you need a long rest to get the right tool for the job.
Rituals should be separate spell book that you can only write spells with ritual tag. For a cost.
And knowing spells with Ritual casting does not give you ability to cast them as rituals if you do not have them in ritual book.
Casting spells should provoke AoO if the spell is not melee touch or personal range or Bonus action cast. You should not spend a feat for that. And that AoO damage should force Con save or lose the spell.
Aldarc
Legend
The fact that he is a GM NPC dominating the situations seems more pertinent rather than the fact that he is a wizard. Moreover, even if you establish that it's okay for Gandalf to dominate situations in LotR because he is a wizard, it doesn't mean that it's okay in the context of D&D's framework. This requires additional argumentation. And if it's okay for wizards to dominate play, then why did WotC and Paizo rein in full casters (somewhat) in 5e and PF2, respectively, in comparison with even 3e or PF1? Shouldn't wizards be allowed to dominate the situations? Or can a wizard's ability to dominate situations be anithetical to other play goals in the game: e.g., the fun of non-wizard PCs?
As I recall, he was given a horse of his choice by king Theoden, and he chose the "untamable" superhorse Shadowfax which the king considered a bleep move.
CreamCloud0
One day, I hope to actually play DnD.
entirely tangentially, i had always interpreted that scene as saying that shadowfax was the king of the horses because that sounds exactly like something that would be in LotR and which was why he was some kind of intelligent super-horse who was gandalf's friend, learning shadowfax is just a regular horse is kind of dissapointing.
delericho
Legend
Alternately, Gandalf is a much higher level than the other characters.
Plus, of course, LotR isn't D&D.
DND_Reborn
The High Aldwin
Baldurs_Underdark
Hero
Firstly, there isn't much wrong with wizards. I think that compared to other spellcasters the sorcerers are a little underwhelming. But compared to druids they tend to be similar in how powerful and versatile they are. They fill a different niche compared to bards (but if there is any class that wants to play a god, imho it's bards who can persuade/deceive the gods themselves if the DM allows a roll of the d20). And while much more powerful in spellcasting than warlocks, the eldritch blast of the warlock makes them the ultimate pewpew caster (wizard has more spell slots, assuming the DM ignores the 6-8 combats per long rest). Also, wizards can't heal, which is fine.
The only "improvement" I see that DMs need to keep the wizards squishy at higher levels. This doesn't need changes in the game, but the DM just should not give out magic items that boost the wizard's AC too much. The wizard should be a glass cannon. The glass cannon needs protection from the martial classes, and some occasional healing, and thus the game is balanced. If however the wizards has AC = 18 and can safely survive a few rounds of melee attacks, then the wizard doesn't need a tank in front of it, and the barbarian or fighter will feel pointless and underpowered compared to the huge damage of the wizard.
The only "improvement" I see that DMs need to keep the wizards squishy at higher levels. This doesn't need changes in the game, but the DM just should not give out magic items that boost the wizard's AC too much. The wizard should be a glass cannon. The glass cannon needs protection from the martial classes, and some occasional healing, and thus the game is balanced. If however the wizards has AC = 18 and can safely survive a few rounds of melee attacks, then the wizard doesn't need a tank in front of it, and the barbarian or fighter will feel pointless and underpowered compared to the huge damage of the wizard.
A Fey Wanderer Ranger can do this even better than a Bard.
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