D&D (2024) Wizard subclasses are a missed opportunity.

[Shiroiken]

I agree to some extent.

Maybe combining two schools would also have been nice.

Illusion and enchantment (beguiler)
Evocation and abjuration (war mage)
Divination and necromancy (medium)
Conjuration and transmutation (summoner)

I honestly felt this should have been the way to go. Not necessarily forcing two schools into a single subclass, but having mage archetypes instead. The Beguiler was an obvious one, as was the War Mage. I would have just kept the Necromancer and Summoner (Conjurer) based on a single school, as I don't really feel that Divination and Transmutation really need their own subclasses.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I honestly felt this should have been the way to go. Not necessarily forcing two schools into a single subclass, but having mage archetypes instead. The Beguiler was an obvious one, as was the War Mage. I would have just kept the Necromancer and Summoner (Conjurer) based on a single school, as I don't really feel that Divination and Transmutation really need their own subclasses.

I think divination and necromancy are a natural fit (speak with dead).

And if you summon your creatures, you could as well buff them. If you conjure elements, you could also transform them...

 

[Xeviat]

I do actually like wizard and cleric subclasses being "generic". They're the base spellcasters and their core brings a lot of flavor already.

"I study magic." "Oh, what kind of magic do you study?"
"I spread the wisdom of my god." "Oh, what god do you worship?"

I do find some of the fighter subclasses to be too generic. Mostly looking at the battle Master and the champion. Battle Master I think is held back by its name. Their artisan's tool proficiency give me the vibes of samurai who do calligraphy, which leads me to think it's the subclass for "way of the warrior" or "fighting as art" types.

The name "Champion" makes me think of gladiators and heroes. I understand the desire for a simple option, but I'd like it to be balanced. At least it's more different at low levels than it was before, so the BM doesn't look absolutely better than the Champion. But, to me, Champion could have been written with a lot more flavor.

As long as a subclass lets someone immediately imagine the characters it represents, it's great.

 

[el-remmen]

I think the eight schools of magic should have been bundled into a single subclass. Maybe a specialist mage subclass, a la 2E. You could choose a school and get different features similar to having them as they are now.

That is exactly what I am doing in my Vanity Frankenstein 5E, but went further by making Wizard (choose specialty as described), Sorcerer, and Elementalist into subclasses of a Mage class.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

The Wizard class is a missed opportunity. The subclasses never stood a chance.

 

[Vaalingrade]

We could have just not done schools in the PH at all and then done a Rary's Something of Magic with the schools if we even felt we needed them once we had some time without.

 

[Horwath]

We could have just not done schools in the PH at all and then done a Rary's Something of Magic with the schools if we even felt we needed them once we had some time without.

this.

we should have had more subclasses that came after PHB.

war wizard
bladesinger
scribe

we could have elementalist, mindbender, greenseer(wannabe druid), some kind of wannabe cleric for healing, summoner, runecrafter, etc...

 

[AnotherGuy]

I'm finding so much room for making the wording and layout more efficient, I could probably have fit them.

This. They have not utilised space available efficiently, IMO.

 

[Sulicius]

Thinking more on it, I think the eight schools of magic should have been bundled into a single subclass. Maybe a specialist mage subclass, a la 2E. You could choose a school and get different features similar to having them as they are now.

That would have left room for the war mage, bladesinger and order of scribes to give the wizard subclasses some variety and not have required dumping the remaining schools.

As it stands the 2014 school subclasses have fairly different abilities. It might require some redesign of the features to roll them in to one subclass. Sure, the old subclasses should mostly work fine with the 2024 wizard. I feel there was an opportunity to change things up a bit in the new core book. Thoughts?

Would take too much page space to do it justice. I think what we have is fine.

I don't like the schools of magic in D&D anyway.

 

[SkidAce]

I like the idea of magic schools, i.e. the specializations that you can choose, but we needed a better generalist for those who didnt want to spec.

THEN...a prestige class type that brings the boom.

I.e. evocation specialist > war mage, or illusion/charm specialist > Enchanter.