D&D 5E Who's the Best Arcanist (According to You)

[CleverNickName]

Like the title of the thread suggests: which of the following options, in your opinion, is the best arcane spellcaster in D&D?
Vote for the answer that best fits. Tell us all about it, if you like.

 

[DND_Reborn]

What? No survivor thread??

I voted for "My homebrew" because there wasn't an "Other" option, but my vote would be for "Magic-User".

Ah, shucks, I realized you tagged this for 5E... fine, Wizard it is.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Vecna.

 

[CleverNickName]

What? No survivor thread??

The final round will be here soon enough; right after we finish raking the Wizard over the coals...

 

[CleverNickName]

Vecna.

So....Wizard (Necromancer), then?

 

[Bill Zebub]

I would engage with this thread more seriously, but the "according to me" part means that there's no point arguing that my answer is objective truth, and that the rest of you are wrong.

What a strange use of the Internet.

 

[see]

the "according to me" part means that there's no point arguing that my answer is objective truth

Just the sort of bleeding-heart kumbya nonsense I'd expect from Time's 2006 Person of the Year.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Somewhat to my chagrin, the Wizard.

Not because I don't think the Wizard should be that. They absolutely should. It's literally their specialty.

Rather, because the Wizard is incredibly awful at actually supporting the FLAVOR of the class. It doesn't have a single research- or academia-related class feature. It doesn't have anything special with regard to skill or study. Literally the one and only thing it gets which isn't "Cast More Spells" is halving the gold/time costs of copying spells. Not researching--copying. The Wizard is an extremely excellent plagiarist, without a single bit of research-related content. I find this absolutely appalling. It's not like I'm asking for ultra-specialization or something really narrow and specific. This is literally the foundational concept of the class, "person who does academic research to learn spells"!

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

Emma Goldman.

...

... Oh, arcanist. Neeeever mind.

 

[Charlaquin]

Depends how we’re defining “best”. Best in combat? Best out of combat utility? Best narrative? Best expression of its concept? I voted for Warlock because I think it’s the best designed, but I might have voted differently depending on what metric we’re using,