Xanathar's War Mage is Gandalf, Dr Strange, and Elric

Ok I love that he gave a shout out to old school Michael Morrcock character Elric

What is Crazy is how old those books were when I started reading them 84-86 time frame

 

[gyor]

I don't understand why they really did this.

You could say that because they are popular, they wanted them also in this new book so that people could combine them with the new material of this book, and play them thanks to the AL "+1 book" rule.

On the other hand this new book doesn't have THAT much player's crunch. There's many spells, but only the Storm Sorcerer will use them (in fact my original guess for SCAG reprints was Storm Sorcerer + Bladesinger Wizard + Arcana Cleric + Undying Warlock).

So basically the only reason why someone already having SCAG and playing a Sun Soul Monk or Mastermind Rogue would want to buy them again and choose XGE as her +1 book for AL is... the racial feats? :/

Multiclassing maybe.

 

[AverageCitizen]

So... a spellcaster who is the specialist at laiding waste of the enemies but is also very relisient on the front line, huh? Oh, and it gets a bonus to initiative.

Sounds broken.

The interview and story quote suggest that the Evoker is focused on laying waste to enemies and the War Wizard is focused on staying alive.

 

[AriochQ]

Swashbuckler Rogue/War Wizard with Alert feat = +20 initiative bonus at max Dex/Int/Cha..."I rolled a 40 for my initiative" [mic drop]

 

[chunkosauruswrex]

If you think General Studies is bad, wait until you see the Communications Degree Wizard.

So is Enchantment the English degree of Wizard schools

 

[Random Bystander]

So is Enchantment the English degree of Wizard schools

Some do find the writings of Tolkien to be almost hypnotic...

 

[cbwjm]

Some do find the writings of Tolkien to be almost hypnotic...

Well they certainly do put people to sleep.

 

[Random Bystander]

Well they certainly do put people to sleep.

Shun the unbeliever!

 

[Yavathol]

I think the war wizard needs some way of converting ranged spells into touch or small cones..

If you're going to play a war wizard then you want to be in the front line, but there just aren't enough spells like burning hands and vampiric touch, so you end up with fireball and scorching ray or acid arrow, in which case you don't need to be on the front line, so you might as well be an evoker!

 

[Parmandur]

I don't understand why they really did this.

You could say that because they are popular, they wanted them also in this new book so that people could combine them with the new material of this book, and play them thanks to the AL "+1 book" rule.

On the other hand this new book doesn't have THAT much player's crunch. There's many spells, but only the Storm Sorcerer will use them (in fact my original guess for SCAG reprints was Storm Sorcerer + Bladesinger Wizard + Arcana Cleric + Undying Warlock).

So basically the only reason why someone already having SCAG and playing a Sun Soul Monk or Mastermind Rogue would want to buy them again and choose XGE as her +1 book for AL is... the racial feats? :/

There is also the background rules, but I dunno how that will interact with AL. They are basically trying not to force people to buy all the books to get the options they want for organized play, so... popular options get reprinted.

 

[Leatherhead]

As someone who has worked in statistics and information collection before.

That freeform area at the end of certain sections and at the very end of a document.

People who fill those out are the ones who tend to be investigated the most. The general numeric/value ratings are there to get a broader overlook as to how people have reacted and rated within the categories that people have written in further detail on.

Your concept of "it is only there because WotC thinks people don't want it and the vote skewed their perspective" is presumptuous and assumes that WotC are staffed with brain dead imbeciles who cannot sift through data and use it as a advisory rather than directional guide.

How they handled the playtest for 5e is a great example of how they approach playtesting and feedback.
You might not agree with their decision, but don't make up reasons as to why it happened other than you wanted the subclass and they didn't think what they created ended up working well for the concept.

That was not my assertion, that was Jester David's assertion. He claimed that the War Wizard was the "favorite". I was making a joke (hence the obnoxious emoticon) about how there is no way for that to have been possibly true given the questions that were asked on the survey.

Forgive me for not quoting him for context, I was on my phone at the time.