A big cause behind the "this PHB could have been an Errata" mindset, and I suspect also a cause behind the dissatisfaction of the lack of Wizard changes despite the relative strength of Wizard as a class, is because of all of the backpedaling. People question how to convert older subclasses to the unified subclass progression? Revert subclass progression back to 2014. Their attempt at Druid Wild Shape templates was barebones and weak? Revert back to Beast stat blocks. Players instinctively rejected the Warlock spell redesign without giving any thought to how the design might be better for the class overall? Revert back to Warlocks having a pathetically small number of spell slots. The first draft of Modify Spell and Create Spell were exploitable? Remove them. Removing Modify Spell and Create Spell doesn't leave the the Wizard with much class identity? Revert all of the spell lists back to 2014. Reverting the spell lists breaks the biggest change to Bard? It's even odds whether they'll just revert Bard back to 2014 with only the changes to Inspiration and Countercharm staying off the cutting room floor. That's probably a big part of what makes the lack of Wizard changes so dissatisfying to you. We've been getting glimpses of what these classes could have been, only to have it repeatedly yanked away from us at the last second. The idea of a Wizard rewriting their spells and crafting new magical effects, like the Sorcerer's Metamagic but requiring the Wizard to put thought and preparation into it, fits perfectly with the common fantasy of the Wizard. But Modify Spell and Create Spell had problems with their initial design, so never mind, you don't get to have that anymore.
I think we really needed that NECROMANCER they have spoken about, because it's the only Subclass that would feel NEW because it needed a deep rework, and a breath of fresh air would have brought something new to the class.
I have a theory that they have saved the more 'sinister' subclasses for the next expansion book. A lot of subclasses like Shadow Sorcerer, Necromancer and Enchanter Wizard, Arcana, Death and Grave Cleric, Whispers and Spirits Bard, Spores Druid, Death monk, Oathbreaker and Conquest Paladin, Phantom and Soulknife Rogue, Undead/Undying and Hexblade Warlock...etc. would fit together thematically when Vecna has broken or corrupted the multiverse. They really focused on heroic subclasses for the core PHB this time which is understandable for a heroic RPG to have the most favorite or classic options.
If you wanted to see deep changes to something, then it's better for that thing to ~not~ be in the playtest. The pattern of these playtests has been 'devs try something interesting and new, the survey votes against it - either because d&d players are predominately conservative fear-of-change grognards or because the devs just get the balance wrong in the first draft - and in response to the survey the devs revert to the 5.0 version or something little removed from it. The playtests have been a death sentence for significant innovation. I also want major changes to necromancy - both the subclass and the spells - so I hope the community doesn't get to look at the new versions at all until it's too late to reflexively reject it and spook the devs away from any creativity.
I can’t believe that they completely ignored the necromancer AND the Hexblade. Two of the most unfun classes to have at the table, and people are still going to want to play them after the 2024 PHB comes out
Divination and Illusion are subclasses for advanced tables because they both have spells that require quite a bit of level setting between the DM and the player. They don't really belong in a beginner product like the PHB. Bladesinger and War Wizard would have been much more fitting for the 2024 PHB. Both have for more objective abilities, and they help round out the options of the Wizard class better. The War Wizard provides a combination of Abjurer and Evoker for those players who want to build a balanced Wizard. The Bladesinger gives the option for a Wizard to use martial abilities.
That would have gone against the design parameters they set themselves. They were looking to not have too much overlap with the Sub classes, but had things that really showed off all that the class could achieve. Essentially the fantasy of the class. Tho im not going to lie, it would have been great to see both the War Wizard and Bladesinger with updated designs in the new phb
@@PirateTrowel85 I mean, the Bladesinger was in Tasha's, so if it were presented in the playtest it would have just told you to look at that version like with all the other Tasha's subclasses suggested.
Vortex Warp is a good one too. Then again I have a lot of players that often bite off more than they can chew. Whether it be a tactical retreat for our rogue to the cleric or a fastball special for our fighter right into the face of the BBEG, The spell has been very useful.
An area I would have loved to see WOTC explore more in the base wizard is the idea of being a specialist. Yes, you have wizard subclasses, and theoretically that's where you specialize. But the base class's spellbook heavily pushes you towards generalization in a way that I think overshadows the subclasses. "Collecting every spell" is almost a default motivation for a wizard in a long campaign, and to me that makes it too easy for different wizard characters to feel incredibly similar to each other mechanically. It's also not reflective of how a lot of intelligent, study-driven people operate. I want to play a wizard PhD, who is extremely focused on one very specific thing! And sure, a character can limit themselves to only choosing or learning certain spells, but it always feels like you are being punished for making a creative decision by basically ignoring a lot of what the spellbook offers you in your base class. The rework of the savant feature is ok. At least its no longer useless. But I want my divination wizard to be divining all the time, not just occasionally bringing up divination spells via their new Memorize spell feature. The spell creation stuff of the last playtest was ridiculous, but I'm sad they abandoned it. Felt like a version of that could have been a good way to divide between different types of wizards: generalists who know everything and specialists who know a few things so well they can tweak them.
The previous editions of D&D had the wizards be much more specialised. You would pick 1 where you got bonuses (usually along the lines of a free spell per day) and two others which were completely barred.
Also really sad about the decision to simply abandon spell creation/modification rather than actually work on an exciting feature that would justify buying a new edition.
Totally agree there is so much potential for focus in the subclasses like as an abjurer I want to be good at defending my myself/allies and nullifying magic. The problem is the ward is taking a couple hits and its gone, then im just using every other wizard spell since restoring the ward gives back trickle hp, far less than healing ever can and we all know how bad healing is in 5e. A real focus in study with some drawbacks or rather jmore incentives to mostly use the spells your subclass should be focusing on!
Personally, the spell creation was a good starting frame work, but it probably should be reworked into a more robust generalized system, like bastions, that any character could potentially interact with (or at least any character with casting, but being able to potentially create barbarian spells with this would be funny). And then just have a few mechanics that favor Wizards, if only because they have a larger pool of spells to base stuff with. As for specialization: this is a problem that fixes with more new spells. Right now Wizard has tons of spells, but not enough to viably theme themselves. Need some more options for the same problem from different angles.
@@juliendrainville7131Sadly, that's been a theme with the playtests -- WotC taking the easy path and backpedaling on anything even slightly controversial rather than implementing any vision or innovation. It's honestly almost funny how Tasha's was a significantly more drastic change for the ranger than anything in the new PHB that's not rogue (and that's only because they lucked out and nailed Cunning Strike first try).
My opinion is that Wizard in particular is that their "class feature" is the spells. And that is what hasn't really been released yet. The CLASS seems less than it was. More restricted. So hopefully they make spells more interesting.
I agree they already mentioned they will change many spells for better upcasting and scaling so we don't know how much all the spells will be improved, or nerfed for that matter.
That's part of the problem though. The number of wizard exclusive spells not available to sorcerer/warlock or one of their subclasses is vanishingly small & the majority of actual wizard exclusive spells are super niche or pointless in the extreme. Having a better spell list instead of a bunch of class features only works if there are enough worthwhile exclusives to make it matter
@@jamesm2577 Even if it was true - wizard still have sheer versatility on top of best spells in the game. Warlock can have one spell of 6+ levels only, sorcerer can't change spells every day and don't have all rituals in their list available to use. But wizard also have good to great spells that sorc and warlock don't have like: Maze (wiz exclusive), Clone (wiz exclusive), Illusory Dragon (wiz exclusive), Antimagic field, Mind Blank, Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion, Simulacrum (!!!!!, also wiz exclusive), Mirage arcane, Magic Jar, Programmed illusion, Contingency (wiz exclusive), Rary's telepathic bond, Conjure elemental, Wall of Force (!!! wiz exclusive), Steel wind strike, Arcane eye, Otiluke’s resilient sphere, Leomund's tiny hut, Sending, Tiny servant, Tasha's hideous laughter, Find familiar and Longstrider. There are even more spells that sorc have, but warlock don't and vise versa. And i even don't mentioned some more situational spells that you can have in a book as a rituals or something. Pretty good list, with some bangers like Wall of Force or Simulacrum - i can't call it super niche or pointless. You undersell a wizard - best class in the game.
@@jamesm2577 It's the versatility though. While most of their spells are not exclusive, they get to change them up on the daily, and with the new class feature one of them after a minute. I swap spells for situational things ALL THE TIME when I play. Plus with the new way to get additional spells, you will just have more "spells known" than sorc or warlock. It's a powerful benefit, and one I have always leveraged so heavily I feel like Sorcerers and Warlocks are underpowered for it (and this is over multiple campaigns, with different DM's - it's just my play style).
@@RandomToon1 Versatility & the ability to change spells is often dramatically oversold. The vast majority of casters have a fairly static spell list & make minimal if any changes. As long as the caster has the core top shelf spells they need to fill the role they built for everything is peachy & there aren't enough wizard exclusives to make building that core even a little tough.
If we’re talking 2nd lvl spells from all sources, fortune’s favour, obviously, but for more ethical spells I was thinking of rime’s binding ice. Combined with Web against ground enemies ( which at that lvl will be fodder, most likely, although there are plenty high cr land bound creatures with no teleport ). It’s like mind whip, but a cone, and even though it’s a con save, mind whil targets one, and binding ice targets all within the cone, potentially all within the Web spell.
The new Wizard not being very different from 2014 makes a lot of sense from what I've seen from WotC. Wizard was already a powerful and well liked class, so after spitballing a few ideas they settled on just cleaning up the class a bit.
To me it feels disapointing that they completely abandoned the idea of modifiying spells, it was such a cool ability, it also had a really strong thematic, you are a wizard, YOU CREATE SPELLS. Personally i think they could've move it to a higher level and maybe rebalanced it to cost special materials and gold to get an even stronger class fantasy.
Yes! I don't buy that it was too similar to metamagic since modification and creation had to be done ahead of time. It fitted the wizard's fantasy _so well_ and it making a class feature was much better than the vague spell creation guideline in the DMG that depended on DM buy-in. Honestly, even as someone who loves the fantasy of the wizard best, the warlock and sorcerer are looking way more exciting right now.
I always felt that modifying spells should be a thing of the sorcerer who has an innate connection to magic and just feels where he can change a spell while wizards found a few gestures, somatics and materials which produce a functional spell but cannot grasp how the magic works and thus cannot change it. They are just really good at learning by heart
It was wishful thinking. Too many "optimizers" and dndtubers shunned it and demanded it be taken down completely. Same with old warlock. Instead of decent fixes and interesting takes... we get old hashed ideas that fit their narrative of OneDnD is just errata and the WotC crew are full of buffoons.
I love Memorize Spell. This really motivated me to collect all the spells in a way that 5e wizard doesn't. But man the wizard overall looks a lot like 10 more years of the same old same old. Or at least like 2 years while we wait on a new splat book of options.
I am really sad about two things, first the removal of create spell it really made me feel like a wizard who is creating spells that others can use, like mordkainen , leomund, etc, its a crucial part of being a wizard, you can do something and theres no spell to help you, you make your spell, i was hoping for a balance change not a removal, and the lack of necromancer
My guess now is my 2 favorite classes - Bard and Wizard - will be published with almost no changes from 2014 and that is rather sad. I am unexcited to play the same stuff forever. I will probably just play other dnd classes and play Wizards and Bards in PF2e where I haven't played them to death.
I get that, but I wonder how much of it is also how I think PF1 messed up when tweaking the classes because they decided to buff the strongest classes much more impactfully than the weaker ones and they were trying not to fall into that trap. Just as an example, PF1 gave wizards additional options for combat at lower levels, where fighters got fairly minor combat bonuses at higher levels. Sure, both of them impacted the characters, but low level wizards got a lot better than high level fighters who needed a lot more,
That looks to be most classes, sadly. Even classes with fairly significant changes don't feel that different from their 2014 versions (or Tasha's version for ranger), except rogues I guess.
I agree with you that this wizard did not need a retest. They needed as much as bard still does - a side bar for how to keep testing them if you want. Base monk needed an emergency retest which they should have been working on while the negative feedback was piling up.
I was very excited about Modify Spell and Create Spell. As powerful as those features were, they sparked the imagination with the Wizard in a way that hasn't happened in years. I'm sad that they entirely gave up on that iteration. I think Spell Mastery and Signature spell come into play waaay too late.
Scholar should probably be changed to advantage It also has an interaction with the Bastions where Wizards get automatic access to any options that require expertise Also, I loooove Memorize Spell. That whole list of too circumstantial to use spells are now just one minute away! Honestly can't wait to use this For Spell Mastery, I think Tasha's Mind Whip is a good at will option for level 2, but level 1...no real good options
I wish they'd improved the illusionist most. Or made all of them more distinct. Like you have +1 to the DC of spells you cast from your school, but -1 to spells from other schools. Or Minor Illusion is a bonus action, or something, so that you're always thinking of incorporating minor illusions into everything else you're doing. And they could do the same with all the school with a little creativity.
I feel the same. I love the wizard and have played one in 3 long-term campaigns in 5th edition, but I feel exhausted from it now. I wanted something new and fresh… which we did not get.
I don't know if its just me but the abjurer losing their ability at being better at counterspell doesnt sit right with me since nullifying magic is their whole thing. I know counterspell was changed but I feel like having some way of making abjurer slightly better at using the spell would make thematic sense like maybe the enemy have disadvantage on their con save for their spell being countered?
Very little has changed about the wizard, but that's good. It's just the spells that need fixing to really affect the class. Also: Unseen Servant is worth taking with Spell Mastery as there's no limit to how many servants you can have for an hour. Getting 100 servants to build a barn for you seems reasonable to me!
I know they want to stick to 4 sub classes per class and have the "opposing theme" thing going, but I really think they should have added the Bladesinger as a 5th subclass given how popular it is. Also, given it's nature, you can at argue it's the "opposite" of practically every other subclass.
The Wizard’s “spell” spells were obviously over powered but that didn’t mean they couldn’t try to make it work. It’s disappointing to see the number of interesting ideas they were completely discarded rather than being iterated on.
I feel that spell creation is something to talk to your dm about for any caster but especially as a wizard, it's part of the fantasy, so long you establish enough trust with your dm about not just trying to make broken abilities and are not asking them every level I'd imagine both will let you. As a bonus you could even have your wizards new spells linger as new options on the spell list in future campaigns to add a sense of legacy for your previous campaign. It can be fun but your dm has to approve it obviously.
@samfish2550 I don't think this should relegate to "ask your DM". Heck half the class fantasy of wizard is already casting some pretty powerful spells. The feature was already broke and only further widened the gap between casters and martials, ans heck it Eben created a large rift between wizards and sorcs
@@TinyBitMouse01 wait I'm a bit confused with what you're trying to say. You're saying it shouldn't be relegated to asking your dm which is fair, but the rest of your comment seems to be about why the feature shouldn't be a thing. Namely you pointed out the idea of powerful spells being a bigger part of the fantasy and the power gap it made between sorcerers and wizards, is that interpretation of what you said right?
@@samfish2550 Well yeah, the feature shouldn't be a thing because it's simply too strong, I compare what sorcerer's receive, meta-magic, vs the proposed Wizard "Modify Spell". My view being, modifiy spells does create a very large power gap between the two classes that need not exist because then it doesn't really justify playing Sorc.
Modify and Create spell had SUCH good flavor and I am really sad to see them go. Such a fun idea that I am sure can be tuned to be balanced. As a wizard I should be able to slave over my equations and notes to find the right combination of things. Wizards are book nerds by definition, I really wish some new stuff fed into that fantasy :(
As a wizard-main, i think Memorize Spell needs to be once per day. The number of times per day i have a spell in my spellbook that would render something cool that another party member is doing totally unnecessary, but i dont have thay spell prepared, is high. If i can just prepare that spell any time, it basically renders other party members useless unless we're under a time crunch. Once per day i think is fair.
I disagree. Other party members can find their own way if they are allowed to. If it isnt fun for them that you have a swiss army knife of options, then maybe just *chose* to hold back every now and again. Seems more like a personal issue.
The real problem here is that One D&D should have been 6th edition. The half baked approach is going to make some classes feeling new, and some feeling old, and over all that just leaves the new product with a half assed feeling. There is really no excuse for that either because 5e has had it's time to shine, it's been 10 years, most of us are ready for quite a bit of change. One D&D being 5.5e essentially... just is not going to cut it for very long. I certainly hope that they aren't planning to get another 10 years out of this version.
After seeing the introduction of Holly Orders for the Cleric I think the Wizard should've gotten a similar feature where you chose a school of magic especialization, thus leaving space for non-school-related subclasses
As someone whose favorite class is Paladin, that last bit of the vid hit home hard, man. Fixing up the diverse smites is good, but me and my table already used them. So seeing everyone else get big new reworks just leaves me so disappointed.
Ehhh, I mean the obvious use for Illusory Duplicate over shield is that boss monster with +13 to hit that would almost certainly hit you through Shield anyway. Shield is a weird one, because its usefulness scales with your already existing AC. For characters that have a high AC, shield is amazing, but when you are sitting at the mid teens, it just doesn't fill the gap in all cases. Importantly, that's the attack that's going to do the most damage as well, and you don't even take the chance of it hitting you.
I feel that the Wizard class didn't need to be changed and that it was fine as is. It's definitely the most powerful class of them all due to sheer spell versatility. With everything else getting buffed it kind of evens the playing field.
Honestly the memorize spell ability was an awesome idea. It makes the wizard versatility really shine and is a huge quality of life improvement. No more gotta take a long rest to use knock or legend lore... you can just take a minute and bam, all those niche spells are usable.
Is WOTC really to blame for not improving the wizard when nearly everyone since 2014 has been saying: "wizards are too powerful already, they don't need any improvements?" Isn't it a bit unfair to moan that the designers haven't flooded the wizard with new features? The playtest process has eventually come to be defined as: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and for a lot of classes that has been the case. It has been classes with issues such as the barbarian, sorcerer and fighter that have seen considerable improvements because they were offering boring or frustrating gameplay. We're just waiting for the monk to be fixed now. We could be here some time...
Yes. Improving the wizard's design doesn't necessitate making them more powerful. WOTC's complete inability to handle data analysis is entirely their fault, especially since they're too arrogant to understand that data science is an immensely complex and unintuitive field. Game devs in particular show this issue all the time. Their approach to playtesting and evaluating feedback is so bad that it almost guarantees the data they receive is useless.
Arcane Ward without the loophole was already awesome to the point that when I played an abjurer in a campaign he was the go-to tank of the group, he'd throw down spells like Web and then just stand between the enemies and the party spamming damage cantrips and Shield.
I still think that Sculpt Spells should be the first feature you get as an Evoker Wizard. It's the whole reason a lot of people take that subclass to begin with, and by delaying it to 6th level you don't get to use it on spells like Shatter (which you can learn at 3rd level right when you get the subclass btw) and Fireball (you gotta wait one more level, which might take several weeks or even months of real life time) when you get them. Remember that levels 3-5 can still take a long time to get through, and for campaigns that start you at level 1, that's 5 whole levels you have to endure without the big reason why you chose your subclass. And let's not forget that most campaigns end around level 10. This wouldn't be as big an issue if Potent Cantrips was at least a solid feature, but I really don't think it is. Let's take Fire Bolt for example (5,5 average damage on a hit), since it's the strongest good damaging Wizard cantrip, and assume a 65% chance to hit. It goes from doing an average of ~3,57 damage without potent cantrips ((5,5 * 0,65) + (0 * 0,35)) to an average of ~4,54 damage ((5,5 * 0,65) + (2,75 * 0,35)). Roughly double those damages for levels 5-10, and it's still not even a 2 point increase. And it only affects cantrips. My proposal is to switch the features back and either slightly buff Potent Cantrips or change it with a different feature that's more appropriate for 6th level.
Yes. I'm one of those people who only ever picks Evoker for Sculpt Spell. I''m much less likely to ever pick it again if it's moved to 6th. Maybe players could be given the choice?
Edit: By moving Spell Mastery and Signature Spell to subclasses, they could even merge the features into one. Looking the other caps, Spell Mastery and Signature Spell don't really feel like good cap anymore. They're better as a Subclass cap, working on spells of the chosen school (in this case, of course, keeping spells cast by BA or reaction), while modify magic could be a high-level feature (lets say, level 15) and create magic be readjusted into a real good cap. Bladesingers and Warmage could have other subclass cap in the 18nth.
Treantmonk: "These two features in playtest five are broken and need some work." Devs: "You get _NOTHING_ at these levels. It's all there, black and white, clear as crystal. You get _NOTHING_ you _LOSE_ good _DAY_ sir!"
Of course I mean "nothing new" - I basically agree with Treantmonk's assessment. It isn't as if the Wizard is a bad class. It wasn't. But there's no new sizzle like with other classes. It's underwhelming in that sense but neither broken-bad or broken-good. It's neither underwhelming or overwhelming. it's just whelming. Meh. And "meh" is arguably the worst place to be.
Thank you for the analysis. I don't want to take away from people who are excited about the 2024 PHB. I personally don't see the value. You mentioned a few examples: - After my first barbarian in 5e many years ago, I have never played in the class beyond level 5 and usually only up to level 2. With monsters in MPMM and very, very likely in the new DMG moving away from legendary actions towards damage packed into their actions that is often non-BPS and at higher levels simply force damage I see it crippling Barbarians. Even in Tier 2, everything has 1d4/6 BPS and then 2d6 fire, necrotic, poison to keep in theme with the monster. The value of advantage from Reckless Attack is WAYYY down, even though the feature is buffed. I don't see myself drawn to the 2024 Barbarian... ever. This is after playtesting each OneD&D release and extensively using the new statblock designs. The class to me is dead. - I don't see much value in Archfey, if I go with an Elven origin that has teleports as origin feature, now my Archfey Warlock features are worth much less and they don't work together either. There are only so many misty steps a day that are useful and I am disappointed hearing Jeremy Crawford sum up the Feywild in Design as: "Charmed Condition and Teleporation", there is nothing else there, really? - The new EK is neat, but I still have seen multiclassing far outpace whatever the Eldritch Knight does. - Many have already used Wild Magic the way it has been changed. The perceived "risk" of rolling on the table is negligible with only 2-3 effects being outright bad. Getting advantage left and right might seriously be too strong at some tables. This loops back to the main argument. It 2014 with TCE and homebrew fixes. Yes, some things have improved, but some things are worse. Sorlocks with advantage on spell attacks? This produces more nova than any paladin can dream off. Yes, compared to how many hours I get out of a book the price tags seem small. With 5e, the amount of hours I need to put into researching, designing and setting things up myself as a DM... WotC is not offering me a competitive product compared to other TTRPGs or even moreso, previous editions.
Besides many monster attacks getting past the barb's DR, they also didn't make barbs enticing to play from levels 6-19, which was a known issue. The only class to be in a worse position after the playtest process is the monk, and they probably will buff the heck out of it because people have been complaining about it so much and their precious ratings for the monks "changes" will likely have been some of the worst they've ever gotten.
"why wizards don't have that many changes?" We gotta remember that those playtests are more patch notes (yes, despite your feelings on this) fixing the things in the game, mostly classes that were downright bad, and a few loopholes here and there. Wizard has been so far ahead of the rest of the classes, that it didn't needed much change. Yes, new options would be nice, but "showing new options" was a secondary goal all along; "fixing what was wrong" was the main objective (and in some places they keep failing on that).
I'm upset with the lack of new things on wizard class too, if they don't want to put an effort to make a new class, at least give us useless ribbon feature on all those blank spaces on the wizard level progression table I think that giving languages would fit great on a wizard class, languages proficiency is almost impossible to get in 5e from level 1 to level 20 of play, wizards doesn't need languages because they can cast spells for that but is a nice ribbon for the smart guy learning more languages than anyone else
I understand that modify/create spell are really strong features, but I belive they add a lot of flavor to the class, not having them seems like the class wasn't even touched from the previous phb
Couldn't agree more. These features needed more limitations than just cost to make them balanced, but now this "new" wizard is a waste of ink when you could just use the 2014 version. I was excited about the UA 5 wizard, but this is just so underwhelming...
The ultimate direction I was seeing with play test 5 wizard was the idea of players crafting there own original spells (probably lvl 11). That would’ve been awesome. Arcane list kind of ate into wizard identity but they could’ve doubled down and made it so you can change your prepared list after a short rest or just said that you can cast any spell from your spell book as long as you have it on you. Either or both of those would’ve enhanced the uniqueness of the wizard as the arsenal/utility caster and as a cerebral magic caster
I think by having the arcane list, they could have doubled down and gave the wizard more features to paint their identity, which I was really excited about. As much as I do understand that the wizard spell list is their current identity, I find it both a little overwhelming, and at the same time kind of boring.
One thing I like about sculpt spell at lvl 6 is it will make lvl 6 almost as exciting as lvl 5. At lvl 5 "ooo I get fireball" at lvl 6 "ooo I can fireball my friend (safely)"
along the lines of Scholar. Each class should get a specific proficiency as these seem to define the class. Wizard - Arcana Bard - Preform Cleric / Paladin - Religion Druid / Ranger - Survival I haven't thought much about other classes.
One of my house rules is that classes with Extra Attack stack for purposes of gaining the first Extra Attack, granting it based on the highest level it appears as a feature (so if you have a sub-class that grants Extra Attack at 6th level, you have to wait until you have 6 levels of classes that grant Extra Attack to get it).
I guess one use of Spell Mastery (18th level) is to replace your bread-and-butter damage cantrip with a 2nd level spell. Though it seems like most 2nd level spells deal les damage than firebolt at that level without some trickery. Scorching Ray is 1 damage les ignoring hit rate, but could be combined with Hex or similar features for a buff. Tasha's Mind Whip every turn could be fun as a cantrip replacement. Deal some damage and ruin the big monsters action economy, or at least stripping away its resistances. Vortex Warp for free is also crazy good, especially out of combat. Wither and Bloom for a cheeky way to heal outside of combat. Might actually be better than having your allies roll hit dice during a short rest since your spellcasting ability modifier is probably higher than their constitution modifier. Good spamable first level spells are more difficult to come by.
6:07 listing off Warlock Invocations, False Life and Mage Armor aren't flashy but Spell Mastery can save you a spell slot or three while getting a small defensive boost 24/7. My 2nd-level top picks would all be Strixhaven spells (hopefully, only Silvery Barbs is disallowed at your table). I.e. Borrowed Knowledge (PB of +6 is a lot, though Enhance Ability would let you target your allies at the cost of requiring Concentration), Vortex Warp (insistingly move enemies into AoE or allies out of harms way) or Wither and Bloom (backup healing in combat, also add your Int modifier instead of Con when you or allies spend Hit Dice without needing a Short Rest). All work great at their base level as opposed to a spell like Tasha's Mind Whip, which I would always seek to upcast. Other 2nd-level utility spells that you might want to spam could include Immovable Object (for the disruptive players out there - if Wildemount Dunamancy is allowed at your table), Nystul's Magic Aura (for a campaign where subterfuge is relevant), or See Invisibility (poor man's Epic Boon of Truesight but with unlimited range).
It is curious how the strongest class and the weakest class did not receive so many changes and remain almost the same class, in the case of the wizard better because of memorize spell and in the case of the monk worse because they nerfed him
The problem as the strongest class it does not need a buff, and anything that is not a buff or a minor fix generally gets low approval. No one likes nerfs, which is hard when you are already hands down the strongest class. I'm not to mad I can just play one of the many new classes I am excited for.
I get what you mean about Wizards not changing enough. I find it's also hard to give the right message in terms of feedback as the Wizard absolutely doesn't need buffs, and honestly, from the POV of some new player starting their journey with the 2024 PHB I think they're fine, as Wizards were probably in the best spot to start with from all the 2014 classes, and I think this Wizard can properly carry its weight and offer enough enjoyment to stand toe-to-toe with all the other newly revised classes. Really the only issue with this version of the Wizard is that we've already got pretty much this same thing since 2014 meaning there's far less to entice long time players to play this new version. The curse of being one of the best classes for such a long time is that you're least likely to get the same amount of love in terms of changes.
I was so disappointed in the Wizard "changes". This is one of the many reasons I really dislike class spell lists and it's used as an excuse to deny the Wizard of any new flavor. Wizard is the ONLY class to have most of its flavor and mechanics based in the spells. Sure, subclasses add more but that should be ADDING not giving us the only flavor. I am glad for Scholar but I agree with you that it needed a little something extra. I was hearing that Wizard and Cleric would be the only classes to have more than 4 subclasses and I was really looking forward to seeing Transmutation and Necromancy in particular. Now I'm left with some of my least favorite Schools (I know they're popular and it's not about what I want, just a little disappointed is all).
Lvl 14: Illusory Reality. Locked in an adamantium safe sound a LOT like a condition to me 🤣But i can see how people are going to interpret it in the way it benefits them the most. I hope they find a better way to word that ability.
One of the best types of change in the playtests (imo) has been taking player features that are burdens for DM's and making them not the DM's problem. The 2014 wizard is missing a way to 'fill' their spell book without the DM predicting copying a spell is something they might like to do.
It's strange that wotc added illusionist to the playtest considering it is the definition of a "mother may I" subclass since the effects of illusion magic is so up in the air.
Forcing a miss once per encounter sounds great. A tentacle that auto grapples, a stone giant smashing you. Shield is still a gamble when they have a +9 to hit
I understand the reasoning, but Sculpt Spell is the only reason I ever even consider Evocation, and I mostly play at low levels. Once, I was on a mission that included trying to find out the reason for recent attacks. We ended up in battle and I trapped some enemies in a Web (ones that were coming to attack me over on the edge of the map) and I was trying to get them to tell me the reason. Only one seemed to be considering surrendering, and another broke free and started making its way towards me. With the way the rest of the battle was going I could tell my allies were going to just kill all the enemies that weren't in my web, without finding out anything. I cast shatter using Sculpt Spell to protect the enemy that was wavering. It decided to surrender and talk. That was all just 2nd Level spells. Due to multiclassing, I didn't have anything higher... and I did have Fearie Fire, which is also a nice spell to be able to Sculpt even though it's only 1st level.
Illusory reality and malleable illusions are pretty cool, I think the 3rd and 10th level features could certainly be replaced though, it's illusions, the class of pure creativity! It's the kind of thing that we could see the real interesting features, even if they're not crazy powerful
Vortex Warp has become one of my favorite spells! I haven't even tried casting it on an unwilling creature yet and I've used it a lot. In a 4th level one-shot I vortex warped a dragon 😂 The DM definitely wasn't expecting that and had made the trapped dragon part of the map, but she was happy to roll with it and quickly made a new token. I double checked the spell description first, to make sure there was no size limit 👀 I think it may be OP for a 2nd level spell, but I'm not complaining!
New jump spell is pretty sick; that's first level. Mage armor is an option; sure, you only cast it once every 8 hours, but it still eats a spell slot when you do. Pro E+G is a situational pick. Hideous laughter, or "The Comedy Zone" as my table's bard used to call it, is solid CC at 1st level; and there's lots of good 2nd level spells, like Blur, Hold Person, levitate, and mirror image. One of my Iconic characters is an abjurer. I really like the new changes. Also, you didn't mention how now you can recharge the ward by just burning a slot _as a bonus action,_ which is pretty sick. I mean. Their stated goal with 5e'24 is to take the things that weren't as good and make them good; but most of Wizard's stuff WAS good, so it makes sense that they'd come at the class with a lighter touch.
Im pretty sure that the reason the wizard hasn’t been changed as much as other classes is because it’s aways scored highly on their polls or something, i remember them talking about it in one of the videos. Naturally it would be great if the wizard got some more new stuff but it seems like all the data they are getting from everyone is that we already love how the wizard works and only the subclasses need the tweaks. So it makes sense it hasn’t changed much if no one has been asking for changes in those polls. Plus we can’t forget that the main thing the wizard does is cast spells, and we haven’t gotten a UA with all the spells or anything yet just some spells here and there. So depending on what changes and how the spell reworks might be what brings the wizard back up.
I love illusionist, maleable illusions is really good, you can use it to modify the apareance of everyone affected by the seeming spell or disguise self many times.
I remember when 3.5 came out and there were a lot of negative comments, someone pointed out that you can’t just compare the new version to the previous version; you really need to ask, “How would I have felt about this if it was the version they put out originally?” I feel like the goal for Wizards was to make every class as fun to play as the wizard, and I think they have definitely moved the needle firmly in that direction. When they were going with non-class specific spell lists, they needed to give wizards something, because their spell list was such a key feature. Having gone back to class-specific lists, all wizards needed was a few tweaks. If I played as much as Chris does, I might feel disappointed in not getting more new stuff, but for me this is looking more and more like a welcome redesign of everything.
I really think that looking at the new sorcerer there is one simple fix I intend to include in my games to make modify spells work. New modify spell: Once per day after you finish a long rest you can modify one of the spells in your spell book. Choose one below: You can remove component (not the costly ones) You can change damage type You can increase range (aoe included - don't know how much tho) You can increase bonus to attack or DC by 1 At level 7 number of effects increases to 2 (or 1 effect for 2 spells At level 15 number of effects increases to 3
Of course numbers need playtesting, but this way I believe you get strong, ability but not broken. And it is still distinct from sorcerer who can buff all his spells for a minute (which I love btw). It also goes in line with the class theme: you are spell expert after all so tweaking your spells a little just makes sense and wizard is supposed to prepare for the day anyway
The 2014 Necromancer was old, dusty, just dry bones that needed fleshing out. I am looking forward to dusting off the cobwebs and breathing new life into this subclass!
While it is true that the wizard didn't really get much I. The way of changes, one could argue that it is already in a really good place and giving it a couple of small tweaks and closing a couple of loopholes is enough.
@@MrMjerace Except we are talking about the entire wizard class as a whole... So it kinda does lol. This shouldnt be a game of "enjoy totally new classes or the wizard you have played for 9 years"
@@theonlyone3532 what can they justifiably do with the wizard that will have it feeling like the wizard, remain more or less backwards compatible (there is an exercise I would like to see; use the new base of a class and combine it with an old subclass), and not be even more powerful than the other classes?
@@MrMjerace they could add a new subclass or otherwise rework a subclass entirely to give wizard players new tools and a way to get excited for this new version's release. Every player, including wizard players, should have good reason to be excited for the new addition.
The lack of Necromancer feels like they couldn't solve the hoard master conundrum (swarm rules or a stat block) And like the general 'identity ' of the wizard (which is still a bad reason imo) they either didn't want to change the identity of the Necromancer or couldn't think of one and gave up. To me at least, your mileage might vary.
Great video here, I haven’t given up hope that we will see something for the wizard that provides something fresh. Your videos ARE heard and I’m sure we will see something come up that makes a difference. Great video❤️
I wish I had that optimism lol. I stopped closely following for a couple play tests, and checking back in it looks like they basically walked back everything and are gonna release a slightly errata'd phb.
I'm going to echo everyone who's disappointed create/modify spells were dropped completely. Having spells so often named after the wizards that created them (often once PC's themselves!) but that option being completely unreachable by the official rules feels pretty lame.
I think Memorize Spell will dramatically alter the experience of playing a Wizard. Although the feature itself I think should function as "...you cast the spell as soon as you memorise it, and the spell is no longer memorized". It should really be just for thematically allowing the Wizard to show they are the kings of flexible casting in situations where a situational spell is needed, without this feature just giving an extra memorization - which everyone will use to memorize a powerful spell that is useful often and only do a double switch when needed. I can also imagine tables where the DM will be asking "are you sure this one was the spell you used Memorize Spell on? And was it that spell you need to replace now that you need this other one?"
For spell mastery I think I'll always pick Chromatic orb/magic missile and mirror image. Good ol defense spell on one hand and reliable damage dealer on the other - magic missile can be great just to fudge people concentrating on spells but Chromatic orb can be good because you can always set the damage type you know will get through . . . Or silent Image to go along with minor illusion cantrip so you can always do some chicanery.
Something to note for the Abjurer, but since healing spells are abjuration spells now you can grab magic initiate from playtest one (sidenote you would have to convert due to the spell lists but arguably that would be the only thing they would change) for healing word or cure wounds. In playtest one you can choose your spellcasting ability and you can upcast it.
Signature spell could be reworked to have a level 1 or 2 spell upcasted by, say, 2 levels, for free. Would still require spell slots to cast, but could make it worth the action economy expenditure. Could also add in an option for it to affect a damage cantrip, to make it scale up again (eg. Fire Bolt maxing out at 5d10 instead of 4d10).
The wizard is my favorite class too, Chris - and like you, I'm just underwhelmed by how safe they played it with the wizard. "Create spell" was an awesome idea that really just needed pretty simple fixes to make it reasonable. Sad to see it gone. I won't totally clock-in my opinion until I see the spell list (which I understand the wizard will have the biggest of, again), but I'm still kind of worried about the sorcerer stepping firmly on - and over - the wizard now. The sorcerer has made out like a bandit in this playtest imo, Cha is still looking to be like the "golden boy" stat that can be multiclassed virtually anywhere, and it might just be my "I love wizards!" bias that has me wondering if there's any reason to play a wizard over a sorc anymore. It'll depend pretty greatly on the spell list I think, because lists constant, I think the sorc has a pretty commanding lead over the wizard right now.
My spell mastery picks have for a while been and will continue to be longstrider and mirror image. Having +10 movement for everybody all the time is surprisingly good, and in dungeons you can spam images every 30 seconds.
The thing I wonder about the Savant features is if you can use it to get spells you would normally not be able to get. ie, if you multiclass, can you use it to get higher level spells you would not normally be able to cast.
I’m saying this as some who has never played wizard but played with many other who have gone wizard. The wizard subclass features are by design weak cause you get the power of an unlimited spell list. In fact it far more important to know what spells they bother to prepare this day.
They need to add back in the modify/create spell option but limit it by making it 1 or two spells per level up, possibly the ones you get free from your subclass. Also, given that arcane ward is defensive in nature and can be used on allies it -needs- to be able to be recharged more easily...or just be better (see BG3's implementation). And counterspell needs to be a player check (ability check vs the target's spell save DC) and the PB bonus added back to abjurer
I was disappointed that we only got 4 Wizard subclasses and these were the ones that didn’t need a rework. I wanted to a see a Transmuter that gave you features that made you better at Transmutation magic rather than a random grab bag of features only one of which, Con Proficiency, was really good. I wanted to see a Conjurer that was the best Summoner in the game, whereas right now you’re not even the best Summoner in the Wizard class.
Suggestions to lvl 1 and 2 spells that are still great for that lvl 18 feature (becuase you seem to ignore subclass synergy totally): Magic Missile on Evoker - 3x 1d4+6 is 25.5 av. dmg - more than ANY cantrip and it is automatic hit. Grease on Conjurer instead of cantrips and for teleportation recharge. Longstrider on Transmuter to not only quicken everyone, but also to change effect of your stone for free. Wither and Bloom on Necromancer instead of cantrips, for additional healing option and to regain 4 HPs for each kill. Silent Image on Illusionist to make illusions of Adamantium cages with action and then making them real with BA. Or any other object like making infinite hovering bridge, solid walls,... Tasha's Mind Whip on Enchanter to double the effect of this awesome spell doing up to 6d6 dmg and debuffing 2 enemies at once. Hold Person is another good option to be cast on 2 at once. Vortex Warp is awesome on anyone, especially Conjurers. Mage Armor is great for Abjurer to quickly recharge whole Arcane Ward, arcane Lock can do it even quicker.
A minor point from my side - I think the Savant-features of each subclass are a touch pointless. Like, yeah, you get a few free spells, but many of them are gonna be useless 99% of the time, cause they're not Fireball (I'm exaggerating, but you get the point). I was thinking, how bad would it be for the Savant-feature to be something like this instead: - Once per short rest, when you cast a spell of your school of magic, you cast it as if upcast by 1 level. At levels...I dunno...8, you can cast it as if upcast by 2 levels, and at level 16 you cast it as if upcast by 3 levels. I know this will be most useful for big boom spells, but it will give other spells pretty nice utility. Enchantment and Illusion spells also quite often benefit from upcasting, a necromancy wizard can summon a powerful minion with summon undead, etc, etc. I think this will open up a few more actual possibilities rather than having 500000 spells in your book, which just becomes bureaucracy rather than an actual feature. Wizards already have lots of spells. With the savant feature, possible spells from feats and racial options, they're probably gonna have around 40 spells. I think that's quite enough choice. And that's not talking about multiclass dips that would further amplify the number of spells.
My thoughts on the wizard are that, more than any other class, their identity is wrapped up in their spell selection. With some exceptions (i.e. portent), their subclass features never really added anything dramatically different but rather enhanced certain spell choices or schools ala sculpt spells or something like that. Obvious exception here is the bladesinger which is a different play style altogether. BUT, my thought is even if the class/subclasses don't get a ton of dramatic changes, the changes to spells will have more of an impact on this class than others and creates a compounding effective of changes. Yes in a vacuum, the wizard is just getting tweaks but combined with the changes to some spells, maybe that will amount to a more different feeling wizard than it seems at first? Idk, that's my hope. It is a good point though that this class probably needed the least amount of changes/buffs but I absolutely understand the feel bad when every other kid gets a new toy and you just get your older brother's hand-me-downs.
Warlock's, Sorcerer's, and Wizard's each get to modify a effect of magic. Warlock's modify class and pact perks tied to magic. Sorcerer's modify the kind of attack damage and effects. Wizard's modify the magic of the whole sub school of spells by choice of subclass taken. If Wizard's needs more of a upgrade. The base class could get an ability to change their critical damage unique to each subclass. Yes I'm aware of the school's that mostly do ability checks and saving throws. But I've seen on occasion epic failures by enemies.
I really loved the idea behind the Modify and Create Spell features (even if they were hilariously broken as written), really wish they would have doubled down on that identity and balanced it out instead of just giving up and removing them altogether.
I said this on your sorcerer video. Designers don't know what to do with wizards. Because they've given them everything. So they don't have a sorted class fantasy. Wizards are arcane specialists; right there in their subclass where they specialise in a school of magic, but the desgin team also insists they have to the 'apex of the casters', have all the spells and be the generalists most adaptable caster. These are too competing ideas of what a class should do. If they want to make Wizards feel like they have an identity then they should make them strictly the specialist. They can for the most part only cast their school of magic, with few options like a bards magical secrets, and then go whole ham in letting them really power those types of spells up; and give sorcerers access to the full arcane spell list and let Sorcerers take the role of the generalist not 'specialist' cast. After all why should a sorcerer or an evoker be able to cast illusions just as good as an illusionist. Necromancy should be the only subclass of wizard to be making skeletons dance, and bring zombies to the party; a abjuration wizard should not.
So we use the subclasses for the other schools using D&D2014? Also, I think they chose the subclasses they did for opposing views of magic. Wizard = Protection / Attack & Deceit / Truth Sorcerer= Chaos (Aberrant) / Order (Clockwork) & No idea for Dragon / Wild Warlock - Good / Bad (Celestial / Infernal) & Enchanting / Repulsive (Arch Fey / Great Old ones)
Umm 2 points on the Abjurer: First: Elemental Evil Player Companion was released 3 months, and 1 day, after the DMG. Which means the majority of discussion in 2015 regarding the Ward, took into account Deep Gnomes. (And given what Nondetection does to the gods when you cast it, it was memorable and discusses within days of the PDF coming out.) As for the 10th level ability. This is not only a drastic nerf, but also a removal of the reactive mage playstyle. Abjurer will NOT feel the same as it has since early 2015. Now, the majority of your reactions will be spent on shield.. or not used... maybe occasionally using one to project ward.
This really makes me wonder about their focus. Besides the few wizard loopholes from 2014, the wizard was thought to be in a good place, and they've had it in the playtest material multiple times now - the latest being pretty much the same as the 2014 version. I like the changes to many of the other classes, but these also seemed to be in a good spot. Meanwhile, the monk, which is one of the most criticized classes, didn't make it into playtest until Playtest 6, and that version also got a very negative review from multiple content creators, and likely on the survey as well - but that doesn't seem to get any focus. It feels a little like they're focusing on fixing things that already work well, but might have slight kinks, instead of focusing on the bigger subjects that don't work - the monk, magic item rarity or Monster CR, to name some. Sure they've tested the waters for a lot of new ideas, but the 2024 version of the PHB is shaping up to be a glorified, but welcome and needed, errata, rather than the "One D&D"-experience they originally presented.
I've never played a wizard, the class has just never spoken to me. In the previous playtests there was some interesting stuff that made me want to play one in a future campaign, but that is all gone with the playtest 7 version.
A big cause behind the "this PHB could have been an Errata" mindset, and I suspect also a cause behind the dissatisfaction of the lack of Wizard changes despite the relative strength of Wizard as a class, is because of all of the backpedaling. People question how to convert older subclasses to the unified subclass progression? Revert subclass progression back to 2014. Their attempt at Druid Wild Shape templates was barebones and weak? Revert back to Beast stat blocks. Players instinctively rejected the Warlock spell redesign without giving any thought to how the design might be better for the class overall? Revert back to Warlocks having a pathetically small number of spell slots. The first draft of Modify Spell and Create Spell were exploitable? Remove them. Removing Modify Spell and Create Spell doesn't leave the the Wizard with much class identity? Revert all of the spell lists back to 2014. Reverting the spell lists breaks the biggest change to Bard? It's even odds whether they'll just revert Bard back to 2014 with only the changes to Inspiration and Countercharm staying off the cutting room floor.
That's probably a big part of what makes the lack of Wizard changes so dissatisfying to you. We've been getting glimpses of what these classes could have been, only to have it repeatedly yanked away from us at the last second. The idea of a Wizard rewriting their spells and crafting new magical effects, like the Sorcerer's Metamagic but requiring the Wizard to put thought and preparation into it, fits perfectly with the common fantasy of the Wizard. But Modify Spell and Create Spell had problems with their initial design, so never mind, you don't get to have that anymore.
I think we really needed that NECROMANCER they have spoken about, because it's the only Subclass that would feel NEW because it needed a deep rework, and a breath of fresh air would have brought something new to the class.
I have a theory that they have saved the more 'sinister' subclasses for the next expansion book. A lot of subclasses like Shadow Sorcerer, Necromancer and Enchanter Wizard, Arcana, Death and Grave Cleric, Whispers and Spirits Bard, Spores Druid, Death monk, Oathbreaker and Conquest Paladin, Phantom and Soulknife Rogue, Undead/Undying and Hexblade Warlock...etc. would fit together thematically when Vecna has broken or corrupted the multiverse. They really focused on heroic subclasses for the core PHB this time which is understandable for a heroic RPG to have the most favorite or classic options.
If you wanted to see deep changes to something, then it's better for that thing to ~not~ be in the playtest. The pattern of these playtests has been 'devs try something interesting and new, the survey votes against it - either because d&d players are predominately conservative fear-of-change grognards or because the devs just get the balance wrong in the first draft - and in response to the survey the devs revert to the 5.0 version or something little removed from it.
The playtests have been a death sentence for significant innovation. I also want major changes to necromancy - both the subclass and the spells - so I hope the community doesn't get to look at the new versions at all until it's too late to reflexively reject it and spook the devs away from any creativity.
I can’t believe that they completely ignored the necromancer AND the Hexblade. Two of the most unfun classes to have at the table, and people are still going to want to play them after the 2024 PHB comes out
@@daanopdebeeck2312I've had the same theory ever since UA6 when conquest wasn't one of them, even though from my understanding it's really popular
@@Malisteen I'm not so sure that most of the community dislikes big changes, I feel it's mostly because of that damned "backwards compatiblity"
Divination and Illusion are subclasses for advanced tables because they both have spells that require quite a bit of level setting between the DM and the player. They don't really belong in a beginner product like the PHB. Bladesinger and War Wizard would have been much more fitting for the 2024 PHB. Both have for more objective abilities, and they help round out the options of the Wizard class better. The War Wizard provides a combination of Abjurer and Evoker for those players who want to build a balanced Wizard. The Bladesinger gives the option for a Wizard to use martial abilities.
That would have gone against the design parameters they set themselves. They were looking to not have too much overlap with the Sub classes, but had things that really showed off all that the class could achieve. Essentially the fantasy of the class.
Tho im not going to lie, it would have been great to see both the War Wizard and Bladesinger with updated designs in the new phb
@@PirateTrowel85 I mean, the Bladesinger was in Tasha's, so if it were presented in the playtest it would have just told you to look at that version like with all the other Tasha's subclasses suggested.
2nd level spell pick for mastery: Tasha’s mind whip
To be fair; I will be picking Mind Whip for spell mastery on my 2014 Enchanter anyway! Split Enchantment is baller!
Mine will be Knock, my wizard will retire and work as a locksmith for hobby, just knocking every single door in the city
It's what I took anyway
It's a free preparation and probably a few free castings, but I would still upcast it whenever possible to get more targets.
Vortex Warp is a good one too. Then again I have a lot of players that often bite off more than they can chew. Whether it be a tactical retreat for our rogue to the cleric or a fastball special for our fighter right into the face of the BBEG, The spell has been very useful.
An area I would have loved to see WOTC explore more in the base wizard is the idea of being a specialist. Yes, you have wizard subclasses, and theoretically that's where you specialize. But the base class's spellbook heavily pushes you towards generalization in a way that I think overshadows the subclasses. "Collecting every spell" is almost a default motivation for a wizard in a long campaign, and to me that makes it too easy for different wizard characters to feel incredibly similar to each other mechanically.
It's also not reflective of how a lot of intelligent, study-driven people operate. I want to play a wizard PhD, who is extremely focused on one very specific thing! And sure, a character can limit themselves to only choosing or learning certain spells, but it always feels like you are being punished for making a creative decision by basically ignoring a lot of what the spellbook offers you in your base class.
The rework of the savant feature is ok. At least its no longer useless. But I want my divination wizard to be divining all the time, not just occasionally bringing up divination spells via their new Memorize spell feature.
The spell creation stuff of the last playtest was ridiculous, but I'm sad they abandoned it. Felt like a version of that could have been a good way to divide between different types of wizards: generalists who know everything and specialists who know a few things so well they can tweak them.
The previous editions of D&D had the wizards be much more specialised. You would pick 1 where you got bonuses (usually along the lines of a free spell per day) and two others which were completely barred.
Also really sad about the decision to simply abandon spell creation/modification rather than actually work on an exciting feature that would justify buying a new edition.
Totally agree there is so much potential for focus in the subclasses like as an abjurer I want to be good at defending my myself/allies and nullifying magic. The problem is the ward is taking a couple hits and its gone, then im just using every other wizard spell since restoring the ward gives back trickle hp, far less than healing ever can and we all know how bad healing is in 5e. A real focus in study with some drawbacks or rather jmore incentives to mostly use the spells your subclass should be focusing on!
Personally, the spell creation was a good starting frame work, but it probably should be reworked into a more robust generalized system, like bastions, that any character could potentially interact with (or at least any character with casting, but being able to potentially create barbarian spells with this would be funny). And then just have a few mechanics that favor Wizards, if only because they have a larger pool of spells to base stuff with.
As for specialization: this is a problem that fixes with more new spells. Right now Wizard has tons of spells, but not enough to viably theme themselves. Need some more options for the same problem from different angles.
@@juliendrainville7131Sadly, that's been a theme with the playtests -- WotC taking the easy path and backpedaling on anything even slightly controversial rather than implementing any vision or innovation. It's honestly almost funny how Tasha's was a significantly more drastic change for the ranger than anything in the new PHB that's not rogue (and that's only because they lucked out and nailed Cunning Strike first try).
My opinion is that Wizard in particular is that their "class feature" is the spells. And that is what hasn't really been released yet. The CLASS seems less than it was. More restricted. So hopefully they make spells more interesting.
I agree they already mentioned they will change many spells for better upcasting and scaling so we don't know how much all the spells will be improved, or nerfed for that matter.
That's part of the problem though. The number of wizard exclusive spells not available to sorcerer/warlock or one of their subclasses is vanishingly small & the majority of actual wizard exclusive spells are super niche or pointless in the extreme. Having a better spell list instead of a bunch of class features only works if there are enough worthwhile exclusives to make it matter
@@jamesm2577 Even if it was true - wizard still have sheer versatility on top of best spells in the game. Warlock can have one spell of 6+ levels only, sorcerer can't change spells every day and don't have all rituals in their list available to use.
But wizard also have good to great spells that sorc and warlock don't have like: Maze (wiz exclusive), Clone (wiz exclusive), Illusory Dragon (wiz exclusive), Antimagic field, Mind Blank, Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion, Simulacrum (!!!!!, also wiz exclusive), Mirage arcane, Magic Jar, Programmed illusion, Contingency (wiz exclusive), Rary's telepathic bond, Conjure elemental, Wall of Force (!!! wiz exclusive), Steel wind strike, Arcane eye, Otiluke’s resilient sphere, Leomund's tiny hut, Sending, Tiny servant, Tasha's hideous laughter, Find familiar and Longstrider. There are even more spells that sorc have, but warlock don't and vise versa. And i even don't mentioned some more situational spells that you can have in a book as a rituals or something. Pretty good list, with some bangers like Wall of Force or Simulacrum - i can't call it super niche or pointless. You undersell a wizard - best class in the game.
@@jamesm2577 It's the versatility though. While most of their spells are not exclusive, they get to change them up on the daily, and with the new class feature one of them after a minute. I swap spells for situational things ALL THE TIME when I play. Plus with the new way to get additional spells, you will just have more "spells known" than sorc or warlock. It's a powerful benefit, and one I have always leveraged so heavily I feel like Sorcerers and Warlocks are underpowered for it (and this is over multiple campaigns, with different DM's - it's just my play style).
@@RandomToon1 Versatility & the ability to change spells is often dramatically oversold. The vast majority of casters have a fairly static spell list & make minimal if any changes. As long as the caster has the core top shelf spells they need to fill the role they built for everything is peachy & there aren't enough wizard exclusives to make building that core even a little tough.
If we’re talking 2nd lvl spells from all sources, fortune’s favour, obviously, but for more ethical spells I was thinking of rime’s binding ice. Combined with Web against ground enemies ( which at that lvl will be fodder, most likely, although there are plenty high cr land bound creatures with no teleport ). It’s like mind whip, but a cone, and even though it’s a con save, mind whil targets one, and binding ice targets all within the cone, potentially all within the Web spell.
The new Wizard not being very different from 2014 makes a lot of sense from what I've seen from WotC. Wizard was already a powerful and well liked class, so after spitballing a few ideas they settled on just cleaning up the class a bit.
still sucks. At least they could give us new subclasses
Yup I feel they SHOULD come up with something for levels 7 and 9, but that's just so there's not those empty gaps.
To me it feels disapointing that they completely abandoned the idea of modifiying spells, it was such a cool ability, it also had a really strong thematic, you are a wizard, YOU CREATE SPELLS. Personally i think they could've move it to a higher level and maybe rebalanced it to cost special materials and gold to get an even stronger class fantasy.
Yes! I don't buy that it was too similar to metamagic since modification and creation had to be done ahead of time. It fitted the wizard's fantasy _so well_ and it making a class feature was much better than the vague spell creation guideline in the DMG that depended on DM buy-in. Honestly, even as someone who loves the fantasy of the wizard best, the warlock and sorcerer are looking way more exciting right now.
I am hoping that they just moved it to the DMG rather than taking it out entirely.
I always felt that modifying spells should be a thing of the sorcerer who has an innate connection to magic and just feels where he can change a spell while wizards found a few gestures, somatics and materials which produce a functional spell but cannot grasp how the magic works and thus cannot change it. They are just really good at learning by heart
It was wishful thinking. Too many "optimizers" and dndtubers shunned it and demanded it be taken down completely. Same with old warlock. Instead of decent fixes and interesting takes... we get old hashed ideas that fit their narrative of OneDnD is just errata and the WotC crew are full of buffoons.
I love Memorize Spell. This really motivated me to collect all the spells in a way that 5e wizard doesn't. But man the wizard overall looks a lot like 10 more years of the same old same old. Or at least like 2 years while we wait on a new splat book of options.
Wizards will always just be wizards it seems... But also yeah that feature is really cool, finding lots of spells will feel like a quest in itself.
And wizards seem to get fewer such options than all the other PHb classes for some reason.
@@Adurnis because they have access to more spellcasting than anyone else, and each and every spell is a feature in it's own right
I am really sad about two things, first the removal of create spell it really made me feel like a wizard who is creating spells that others can use, like mordkainen , leomund, etc, its a crucial part of being a wizard, you can do something and theres no spell to help you, you make your spell, i was hoping for a balance change not a removal, and the lack of necromancer
My guess now is my 2 favorite classes - Bard and Wizard - will be published with almost no changes from 2014 and that is rather sad. I am unexcited to play the same stuff forever. I will probably just play other dnd classes and play Wizards and Bards in PF2e where I haven't played them to death.
I get that, but I wonder how much of it is also how I think PF1 messed up when tweaking the classes because they decided to buff the strongest classes much more impactfully than the weaker ones and they were trying not to fall into that trap.
Just as an example, PF1 gave wizards additional options for combat at lower levels, where fighters got fairly minor combat bonuses at higher levels. Sure, both of them impacted the characters, but low level wizards got a lot better than high level fighters who needed a lot more,
That looks to be most classes, sadly. Even classes with fairly significant changes don't feel that different from their 2014 versions (or Tasha's version for ranger), except rogues I guess.
*Sad smite noises.*
I agree with you that this wizard did not need a retest. They needed as much as bard still does - a side bar for how to keep testing them if you want. Base monk needed an emergency retest which they should have been working on while the negative feedback was piling up.
I was very excited about Modify Spell and Create Spell. As powerful as those features were, they sparked the imagination with the Wizard in a way that hasn't happened in years.
I'm sad that they entirely gave up on that iteration.
I think Spell Mastery and Signature spell come into play waaay too late.
Scholar should probably be changed to advantage
It also has an interaction with the Bastions where Wizards get automatic access to any options that require expertise
Also, I loooove Memorize Spell. That whole list of too circumstantial to use spells are now just one minute away! Honestly can't wait to use this
For Spell Mastery, I think Tasha's Mind Whip is a good at will option for level 2, but level 1...no real good options
Maybe Tasha's brew you can brew then lock them in with whip
Magic missiles for shits and giggles.
@@chickengaming4344 it would kill most things eventually
Grease and long strider would be my go to lv 1 spells
Infinite magic misslies... when you just need put put a few into that darkness.
I wish they'd improved the illusionist most. Or made all of them more distinct. Like you have +1 to the DC of spells you cast from your school, but -1 to spells from other schools. Or Minor Illusion is a bonus action, or something, so that you're always thinking of incorporating minor illusions into everything else you're doing. And they could do the same with all the school with a little creativity.
I feel the same. I love the wizard and have played one in 3 long-term campaigns in 5th edition, but I feel exhausted from it now. I wanted something new and fresh… which we did not get.
agreed. :(
I don't know if its just me but the abjurer losing their ability at being better at counterspell doesnt sit right with me since nullifying magic is their whole thing. I know counterspell was changed but I feel like having some way of making abjurer slightly better at using the spell would make thematic sense like maybe the enemy have disadvantage on their con save for their spell being countered?
Mechanically Anjuerer spell resistance is the same as 2014, but NOW way fewer mo ster effects that are effectively spells… count as spells… NERF
Very little has changed about the wizard, but that's good. It's just the spells that need fixing to really affect the class.
Also: Unseen Servant is worth taking with Spell Mastery as there's no limit to how many servants you can have for an hour. Getting 100 servants to build a barn for you seems reasonable to me!
I know they want to stick to 4 sub classes per class and have the "opposing theme" thing going, but I really think they should have added the Bladesinger as a 5th subclass given how popular it is. Also, given it's nature, you can at argue it's the "opposite" of practically every other subclass.
The Wizard’s “spell” spells were obviously over powered but that didn’t mean they couldn’t try to make it work. It’s disappointing to see the number of interesting ideas they were completely discarded rather than being iterated on.
I feel that spell creation is something to talk to your dm about for any caster but especially as a wizard, it's part of the fantasy, so long you establish enough trust with your dm about not just trying to make broken abilities and are not asking them every level I'd imagine both will let you.
As a bonus you could even have your wizards new spells linger as new options on the spell list in future campaigns to add a sense of legacy for your previous campaign. It can be fun but your dm has to approve it obviously.
@samfish2550 I don't think this should relegate to "ask your DM".
Heck half the class fantasy of wizard is already casting some pretty powerful spells.
The feature was already broke and only further widened the gap between casters and martials, ans heck it Eben created a large rift between wizards and sorcs
@@TinyBitMouse01 wait I'm a bit confused with what you're trying to say. You're saying it shouldn't be relegated to asking your dm which is fair, but the rest of your comment seems to be about why the feature shouldn't be a thing.
Namely you pointed out the idea of powerful spells being a bigger part of the fantasy and the power gap it made between sorcerers and wizards, is that interpretation of what you said right?
@@samfish2550just take whatever rules they come up with for making spells and put it in the dmg instead of the phb
@@samfish2550 Well yeah, the feature shouldn't be a thing because it's simply too strong, I compare what sorcerer's receive, meta-magic, vs the proposed Wizard "Modify Spell".
My view being, modifiy spells does create a very large power gap between the two classes that need not exist because then it doesn't really justify playing Sorc.
Modify and Create spell had SUCH good flavor and I am really sad to see them go. Such a fun idea that I am sure can be tuned to be balanced. As a wizard I should be able to slave over my equations and notes to find the right combination of things. Wizards are book nerds by definition, I really wish some new stuff fed into that fantasy :(
As a wizard-main, i think Memorize Spell needs to be once per day. The number of times per day i have a spell in my spellbook that would render something cool that another party member is doing totally unnecessary, but i dont have thay spell prepared, is high. If i can just prepare that spell any time, it basically renders other party members useless unless we're under a time crunch. Once per day i think is fair.
I disagree. Other party members can find their own way if they are allowed to. If it isnt fun for them that you have a swiss army knife of options, then maybe just *chose* to hold back every now and again. Seems more like a personal issue.
The real problem here is that One D&D should have been 6th edition. The half baked approach is going to make some classes feeling new, and some feeling old, and over all that just leaves the new product with a half assed feeling. There is really no excuse for that either because 5e has had it's time to shine, it's been 10 years, most of us are ready for quite a bit of change. One D&D being 5.5e essentially... just is not going to cut it for very long. I certainly hope that they aren't planning to get another 10 years out of this version.
After seeing the introduction of Holly Orders for the Cleric I think the Wizard should've gotten a similar feature where you chose a school of magic especialization, thus leaving space for non-school-related subclasses
As someone whose favorite class is Paladin, that last bit of the vid hit home hard, man.
Fixing up the diverse smites is good, but me and my table already used them. So seeing everyone else get big new reworks just leaves me so disappointed.
Ehhh, I mean the obvious use for Illusory Duplicate over shield is that boss monster with +13 to hit that would almost certainly hit you through Shield anyway.
Shield is a weird one, because its usefulness scales with your already existing AC. For characters that have a high AC, shield is amazing, but when you are sitting at the mid teens, it just doesn't fill the gap in all cases.
Importantly, that's the attack that's going to do the most damage as well, and you don't even take the chance of it hitting you.
I feel that the Wizard class didn't need to be changed and that it was fine as is. It's definitely the most powerful class of them all due to sheer spell versatility. With everything else getting buffed it kind of evens the playing field.
Honestly the memorize spell ability was an awesome idea. It makes the wizard versatility really shine and is a huge quality of life improvement. No more gotta take a long rest to use knock or legend lore... you can just take a minute and bam, all those niche spells are usable.
@@mydknightcloud "Give me a minute! I know I've got a spell for that somewhere in here" - The wizard, frantically flipping through his spellbook.
Is WOTC really to blame for not improving the wizard when nearly everyone since 2014 has been saying: "wizards are too powerful already, they don't need any improvements?" Isn't it a bit unfair to moan that the designers haven't flooded the wizard with new features? The playtest process has eventually come to be defined as: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and for a lot of classes that has been the case. It has been classes with issues such as the barbarian, sorcerer and fighter that have seen considerable improvements because they were offering boring or frustrating gameplay. We're just waiting for the monk to be fixed now. We could be here some time...
Is wotc really to blame for the content they put out?
Yes. Improving the wizard's design doesn't necessitate making them more powerful.
WOTC's complete inability to handle data analysis is entirely their fault, especially since they're too arrogant to understand that data science is an immensely complex and unintuitive field. Game devs in particular show this issue all the time. Their approach to playtesting and evaluating feedback is so bad that it almost guarantees the data they receive is useless.
They fixed monk
Arcane Ward without the loophole was already awesome to the point that when I played an abjurer in a campaign he was the go-to tank of the group, he'd throw down spells like Web and then just stand between the enemies and the party spamming damage cantrips and Shield.
I still think that Sculpt Spells should be the first feature you get as an Evoker Wizard. It's the whole reason a lot of people take that subclass to begin with, and by delaying it to 6th level you don't get to use it on spells like Shatter (which you can learn at 3rd level right when you get the subclass btw) and Fireball (you gotta wait one more level, which might take several weeks or even months of real life time) when you get them.
Remember that levels 3-5 can still take a long time to get through, and for campaigns that start you at level 1, that's 5 whole levels you have to endure without the big reason why you chose your subclass. And let's not forget that most campaigns end around level 10.
This wouldn't be as big an issue if Potent Cantrips was at least a solid feature, but I really don't think it is. Let's take Fire Bolt for example (5,5 average damage on a hit), since it's the strongest good damaging Wizard cantrip, and assume a 65% chance to hit. It goes from doing an average of ~3,57 damage without potent cantrips ((5,5 * 0,65) + (0 * 0,35)) to an average of ~4,54 damage ((5,5 * 0,65) + (2,75 * 0,35)). Roughly double those damages for levels 5-10, and it's still not even a 2 point increase. And it only affects cantrips.
My proposal is to switch the features back and either slightly buff Potent Cantrips or change it with a different feature that's more appropriate for 6th level.
Yes. I'm one of those people who only ever picks Evoker for Sculpt Spell. I''m much less likely to ever pick it again if it's moved to 6th. Maybe players could be given the choice?
Edit: By moving Spell Mastery and Signature Spell to subclasses, they could even merge the features into one.
Looking the other caps, Spell Mastery and Signature Spell don't really feel like good cap anymore. They're better as a Subclass cap, working on spells of the chosen school (in this case, of course, keeping spells cast by BA or reaction), while modify magic could be a high-level feature (lets say, level 15) and create magic be readjusted into a real good cap.
Bladesingers and Warmage could have other subclass cap in the 18nth.
Treantmonk: "These two features in playtest five are broken and need some work."
Devs: "You get _NOTHING_ at these levels. It's all there, black and white, clear as crystal. You get _NOTHING_ you _LOSE_ good _DAY_ sir!"
Of course I mean "nothing new" - I basically agree with Treantmonk's assessment. It isn't as if the Wizard is a bad class. It wasn't. But there's no new sizzle like with other classes. It's underwhelming in that sense but neither broken-bad or broken-good. It's neither underwhelming or overwhelming. it's just whelming. Meh.
And "meh" is arguably the worst place to be.
Thank you for the analysis. I don't want to take away from people who are excited about the 2024 PHB.
I personally don't see the value. You mentioned a few examples:
- After my first barbarian in 5e many years ago, I have never played in the class beyond level 5 and usually only up to level 2. With monsters in MPMM and very, very likely in the new DMG moving away from legendary actions towards damage packed into their actions that is often non-BPS and at higher levels simply force damage I see it crippling Barbarians. Even in Tier 2, everything has 1d4/6 BPS and then 2d6 fire, necrotic, poison to keep in theme with the monster. The value of advantage from Reckless Attack is WAYYY down, even though the feature is buffed.
I don't see myself drawn to the 2024 Barbarian... ever. This is after playtesting each OneD&D release and extensively using the new statblock designs. The class to me is dead.
- I don't see much value in Archfey, if I go with an Elven origin that has teleports as origin feature, now my Archfey Warlock features are worth much less and they don't work together either. There are only so many misty steps a day that are useful and I am disappointed hearing Jeremy Crawford sum up the Feywild in Design as: "Charmed Condition and Teleporation", there is nothing else there, really?
- The new EK is neat, but I still have seen multiclassing far outpace whatever the Eldritch Knight does.
- Many have already used Wild Magic the way it has been changed. The perceived "risk" of rolling on the table is negligible with only 2-3 effects being outright bad. Getting advantage left and right might seriously be too strong at some tables.
This loops back to the main argument. It 2014 with TCE and homebrew fixes. Yes, some things have improved, but some things are worse. Sorlocks with advantage on spell attacks? This produces more nova than any paladin can dream off.
Yes, compared to how many hours I get out of a book the price tags seem small. With 5e, the amount of hours I need to put into researching, designing and setting things up myself as a DM... WotC is not offering me a competitive product compared to other TTRPGs or even moreso, previous editions.
Besides many monster attacks getting past the barb's DR, they also didn't make barbs enticing to play from levels 6-19, which was a known issue. The only class to be in a worse position after the playtest process is the monk, and they probably will buff the heck out of it because people have been complaining about it so much and their precious ratings for the monks "changes" will likely have been some of the worst they've ever gotten.
11:20 I remember early discussions by the creators that the initial loophole with a warlock multiclass was intended.
"why wizards don't have that many changes?"
We gotta remember that those playtests are more patch notes (yes, despite your feelings on this) fixing the things in the game, mostly classes that were downright bad, and a few loopholes here and there.
Wizard has been so far ahead of the rest of the classes, that it didn't needed much change. Yes, new options would be nice, but "showing new options" was a secondary goal all along; "fixing what was wrong" was the main objective (and in some places they keep failing on that).
I'm upset with the lack of new things on wizard class too, if they don't want to put an effort to make a new class, at least give us useless ribbon feature on all those blank spaces on the wizard level progression table
I think that giving languages would fit great on a wizard class, languages proficiency is almost impossible to get in 5e from level 1 to level 20 of play, wizards doesn't need languages because they can cast spells for that but is a nice ribbon for the smart guy learning more languages than anyone else
I understand that modify/create spell are really strong features, but I belive they add a lot of flavor to the class, not having them seems like the class wasn't even touched from the previous phb
Couldn't agree more. These features needed more limitations than just cost to make them balanced, but now this "new" wizard is a waste of ink when you could just use the 2014 version. I was excited about the UA 5 wizard, but this is just so underwhelming...
The ultimate direction I was seeing with play test 5 wizard was the idea of players crafting there own original spells (probably lvl 11). That would’ve been awesome. Arcane list kind of ate into wizard identity but they could’ve doubled down and made it so you can change your prepared list after a short rest or just said that you can cast any spell from your spell book as long as you have it on you. Either or both of those would’ve enhanced the uniqueness of the wizard as the arsenal/utility caster and as a cerebral magic caster
I think by having the arcane list, they could have doubled down and gave the wizard more features to paint their identity, which I was really excited about. As much as I do understand that the wizard spell list is their current identity, I find it both a little overwhelming, and at the same time kind of boring.
One thing I like about sculpt spell at lvl 6 is it will make lvl 6 almost as exciting as lvl 5. At lvl 5 "ooo I get fireball" at lvl 6 "ooo I can fireball my friend (safely)"
along the lines of Scholar.
Each class should get a specific proficiency as these seem to define the class.
Wizard - Arcana
Bard - Preform
Cleric / Paladin - Religion
Druid / Ranger - Survival
I haven't thought much about other classes.
Artificer-arcana/tinker tools
Barbarian - athletics/intimidate
Fighter-athletics/perception
Monk-insight/religion
Rogue - perception/stealth
Sorcerer-persuasion/intimidate
Warlock-arcana/deception
One of my house rules is that classes with Extra Attack stack for purposes of gaining the first Extra Attack, granting it based on the highest level it appears as a feature (so if you have a sub-class that grants Extra Attack at 6th level, you have to wait until you have 6 levels of classes that grant Extra Attack to get it).
I guess one use of Spell Mastery (18th level) is to replace your bread-and-butter damage cantrip with a 2nd level spell. Though it seems like most 2nd level spells deal les damage than firebolt at that level without some trickery. Scorching Ray is 1 damage les ignoring hit rate, but could be combined with Hex or similar features for a buff.
Tasha's Mind Whip every turn could be fun as a cantrip replacement. Deal some damage and ruin the big monsters action economy, or at least stripping away its resistances.
Vortex Warp for free is also crazy good, especially out of combat.
Wither and Bloom for a cheeky way to heal outside of combat. Might actually be better than having your allies roll hit dice during a short rest since your spellcasting ability modifier is probably higher than their constitution modifier.
Good spamable first level spells are more difficult to come by.
wizards get wither and bloom?
@@olorin6494 They do. WotC probably thought it would be fine since its limited by the hit dice.
I liked the custom spell feature made wizards feel special now I'd rather just keep playing sorcerer
Just my opinipn: Wizards at 7th level should get a arcana recovery improvement at 7th level and a free cast and preparetion of Legend Lore at 9th.
I'm adding that Cantrip rule to all casters in all my games forever. It really should just be a permanent thing.
6:07 listing off Warlock Invocations, False Life and Mage Armor aren't flashy but Spell Mastery can save you a spell slot or three while getting a small defensive boost 24/7.
My 2nd-level top picks would all be Strixhaven spells (hopefully, only Silvery Barbs is disallowed at your table). I.e. Borrowed Knowledge (PB of +6 is a lot, though Enhance Ability would let you target your allies at the cost of requiring Concentration), Vortex Warp (insistingly move enemies into AoE or allies out of harms way) or Wither and Bloom (backup healing in combat, also add your Int modifier instead of Con when you or allies spend Hit Dice without needing a Short Rest). All work great at their base level as opposed to a spell like Tasha's Mind Whip, which I would always seek to upcast.
Other 2nd-level utility spells that you might want to spam could include Immovable Object (for the disruptive players out there - if Wildemount Dunamancy is allowed at your table), Nystul's Magic Aura (for a campaign where subterfuge is relevant), or See Invisibility (poor man's Epic Boon of Truesight but with unlimited range).
It is curious how the strongest class and the weakest class did not receive so many changes and remain almost the same class, in the case of the wizard better because of memorize spell and in the case of the monk worse because they nerfed him
The problem as the strongest class it does not need a buff, and anything that is not a buff or a minor fix generally gets low approval. No one likes nerfs, which is hard when you are already hands down the strongest class. I'm not to mad I can just play one of the many new classes I am excited for.
I get what you mean about Wizards not changing enough. I find it's also hard to give the right message in terms of feedback as the Wizard absolutely doesn't need buffs, and honestly, from the POV of some new player starting their journey with the 2024 PHB I think they're fine, as Wizards were probably in the best spot to start with from all the 2014 classes, and I think this Wizard can properly carry its weight and offer enough enjoyment to stand toe-to-toe with all the other newly revised classes.
Really the only issue with this version of the Wizard is that we've already got pretty much this same thing since 2014 meaning there's far less to entice long time players to play this new version. The curse of being one of the best classes for such a long time is that you're least likely to get the same amount of love in terms of changes.
I expect the new Wizard (as a class that was always about spell selection) will feel very different if the spells are changed in significant ways.
I was so disappointed in the Wizard "changes". This is one of the many reasons I really dislike class spell lists and it's used as an excuse to deny the Wizard of any new flavor. Wizard is the ONLY class to have most of its flavor and mechanics based in the spells. Sure, subclasses add more but that should be ADDING not giving us the only flavor. I am glad for Scholar but I agree with you that it needed a little something extra. I was hearing that Wizard and Cleric would be the only classes to have more than 4 subclasses and I was really looking forward to seeing Transmutation and Necromancy in particular. Now I'm left with some of my least favorite Schools (I know they're popular and it's not about what I want, just a little disappointed is all).
Lvl 14: Illusory Reality.
Locked in an adamantium safe sound a LOT like a condition to me 🤣But i can see how people are going to interpret it in the way it benefits them the most.
I hope they find a better way to word that ability.
One of the best types of change in the playtests (imo) has been taking player features that are burdens for DM's and making them not the DM's problem.
The 2014 wizard is missing a way to 'fill' their spell book without the DM predicting copying a spell is something they might like to do.
We won’t know how wizard plays until we see the spell changes
Im upset we are not getting the necromancer. I really wanted to play the ultimate wizard bard multiclass the necrodancer.
See Treantmonk's 'Dread Necromancer' build, it's what I would play now if I wanted to be a necromancer :D
It's strange that wotc added illusionist to the playtest considering it is the definition of a "mother may I" subclass since the effects of illusion magic is so up in the air.
Forcing a miss once per encounter sounds great. A tentacle that auto grapples, a stone giant smashing you. Shield is still a gamble when they have a +9 to hit
I understand the reasoning, but Sculpt Spell is the only reason I ever even consider Evocation, and I mostly play at low levels.
Once, I was on a mission that included trying to find out the reason for recent attacks. We ended up in battle and I trapped some enemies in a Web (ones that were coming to attack me over on the edge of the map) and I was trying to get them to tell me the reason. Only one seemed to be considering surrendering, and another broke free and started making its way towards me.
With the way the rest of the battle was going I could tell my allies were going to just kill all the enemies that weren't in my web, without finding out anything. I cast shatter using Sculpt Spell to protect the enemy that was wavering. It decided to surrender and talk.
That was all just 2nd Level spells. Due to multiclassing, I didn't have anything higher... and I did have Fearie Fire, which is also a nice spell to be able to Sculpt even though it's only 1st level.
Illusory reality and malleable illusions are pretty cool, I think the 3rd and 10th level features could certainly be replaced though, it's illusions, the class of pure creativity! It's the kind of thing that we could see the real interesting features, even if they're not crazy powerful
Tasha's Hideous Laughter and Vortex Warp are solid picks IMO
Vortex Warp has become one of my favorite spells! I haven't even tried casting it on an unwilling creature yet and I've used it a lot.
In a 4th level one-shot I vortex warped a dragon 😂 The DM definitely wasn't expecting that and had made the trapped dragon part of the map, but she was happy to roll with it and quickly made a new token. I double checked the spell description first, to make sure there was no size limit 👀
I think it may be OP for a 2nd level spell, but I'm not complaining!
New jump spell is pretty sick; that's first level. Mage armor is an option; sure, you only cast it once every 8 hours, but it still eats a spell slot when you do. Pro E+G is a situational pick. Hideous laughter, or "The Comedy Zone" as my table's bard used to call it, is solid CC at 1st level; and there's lots of good 2nd level spells, like Blur, Hold Person, levitate, and mirror image.
One of my Iconic characters is an abjurer. I really like the new changes. Also, you didn't mention how now you can recharge the ward by just burning a slot _as a bonus action,_ which is pretty sick.
I mean. Their stated goal with 5e'24 is to take the things that weren't as good and make them good; but most of Wizard's stuff WAS good, so it makes sense that they'd come at the class with a lighter touch.
Agree with you on this Wiz not needing play testing, or at least until we get the playtest for Spells!
I completely agree with your take on this, they cleaned up some wording and loopholes, but otherwise they just said: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Im pretty sure that the reason the wizard hasn’t been changed as much as other classes is because it’s aways scored highly on their polls or something, i remember them talking about it in one of the videos. Naturally it would be great if the wizard got some more new stuff but it seems like all the data they are getting from everyone is that we already love how the wizard works and only the subclasses need the tweaks.
So it makes sense it hasn’t changed much if no one has been asking for changes in those polls.
Plus we can’t forget that the main thing the wizard does is cast spells, and we haven’t gotten a UA with all the spells or anything yet just some spells here and there. So depending on what changes and how the spell reworks might be what brings the wizard back up.
I love illusionist, maleable illusions is really good, you can use it to modify the apareance of everyone affected by the seeming spell or disguise self many times.
I remember when 3.5 came out and there were a lot of negative comments, someone pointed out that you can’t just compare the new version to the previous version; you really need to ask, “How would I have felt about this if it was the version they put out originally?” I feel like the goal for Wizards was to make every class as fun to play as the wizard, and I think they have definitely moved the needle firmly in that direction. When they were going with non-class specific spell lists, they needed to give wizards something, because their spell list was such a key feature. Having gone back to class-specific lists, all wizards needed was a few tweaks. If I played as much as Chris does, I might feel disappointed in not getting more new stuff, but for me this is looking more and more like a welcome redesign of everything.
I really think that looking at the new sorcerer there is one simple fix I intend to include in my games to make modify spells work.
New modify spell:
Once per day after you finish a long rest you can modify one of the spells in your spell book. Choose one below:
You can remove component (not the costly ones)
You can change damage type
You can increase range (aoe included - don't know how much tho)
You can increase bonus to attack or DC by 1
At level 7 number of effects increases to 2 (or 1 effect for 2 spells
At level 15 number of effects increases to 3
Of course numbers need playtesting, but this way I believe you get strong, ability but not broken. And it is still distinct from sorcerer who can buff all his spells for a minute (which I love btw). It also goes in line with the class theme: you are spell expert after all so tweaking your spells a little just makes sense and wizard is supposed to prepare for the day anyway
The 2014 Necromancer was old, dusty, just dry bones that needed fleshing out. I am looking forward to dusting off the cobwebs and breathing new life into this subclass!
Thanks for the video. I always look forward to them.
One upside of the new subclasses not being too different is we can still viably use the 2014 PHB specializations that they removed for no reason.
While it is true that the wizard didn't really get much I. The way of changes, one could argue that it is already in a really good place and giving it a couple of small tweaks and closing a couple of loopholes is enough.
That sucks tho
@@theonlyone3532 in a vacuum sure, but on the whole not really.
@@MrMjerace Except we are talking about the entire wizard class as a whole... So it kinda does lol. This shouldnt be a game of "enjoy totally new classes or the wizard you have played for 9 years"
@@theonlyone3532 what can they justifiably do with the wizard that will have it feeling like the wizard, remain more or less backwards compatible (there is an exercise I would like to see; use the new base of a class and combine it with an old subclass), and not be even more powerful than the other classes?
@@MrMjerace they could add a new subclass or otherwise rework a subclass entirely to give wizard players new tools and a way to get excited for this new version's release.
Every player, including wizard players, should have good reason to be excited for the new addition.
The lack of Necromancer feels like they couldn't solve the hoard master conundrum (swarm rules or a stat block) And like the general 'identity ' of the wizard (which is still a bad reason imo) they either didn't want to change the identity of the Necromancer or couldn't think of one and gave up. To me at least, your mileage might vary.
Great video here, I haven’t given up hope that we will see something for the wizard that provides something fresh. Your videos ARE heard and I’m sure we will see something come up that makes a difference. Great video❤️
I wish I had that optimism lol. I stopped closely following for a couple play tests, and checking back in it looks like they basically walked back everything and are gonna release a slightly errata'd phb.
I'm going to echo everyone who's disappointed create/modify spells were dropped completely. Having spells so often named after the wizards that created them (often once PC's themselves!) but that option being completely unreachable by the official rules feels pretty lame.
I think Memorize Spell will dramatically alter the experience of playing a Wizard. Although the feature itself I think should function as "...you cast the spell as soon as you memorise it, and the spell is no longer memorized". It should really be just for thematically allowing the Wizard to show they are the kings of flexible casting in situations where a situational spell is needed, without this feature just giving an extra memorization - which everyone will use to memorize a powerful spell that is useful often and only do a double switch when needed. I can also imagine tables where the DM will be asking "are you sure this one was the spell you used Memorize Spell on? And was it that spell you need to replace now that you need this other one?"
For spell mastery I think I'll always pick Chromatic orb/magic missile and mirror image.
Good ol defense spell on one hand and reliable damage dealer on the other - magic missile can be great just to fudge people concentrating on spells but Chromatic orb can be good because you can always set the damage type you know will get through . . . Or silent Image to go along with minor illusion cantrip so you can always do some chicanery.
Something to note for the Abjurer, but since healing spells are abjuration spells now you can grab magic initiate from playtest one (sidenote you would have to convert due to the spell lists but arguably that would be the only thing they would change) for healing word or cure wounds. In playtest one you can choose your spellcasting ability and you can upcast it.
Signature spell could be reworked to have a level 1 or 2 spell upcasted by, say, 2 levels, for free. Would still require spell slots to cast, but could make it worth the action economy expenditure.
Could also add in an option for it to affect a damage cantrip, to make it scale up again (eg. Fire Bolt maxing out at 5d10 instead of 4d10).
It's sad to see the Wizard not getting exciting new features. They really need some cool ribbon features to make him feel more unique.
The wizard is my favorite class too, Chris - and like you, I'm just underwhelmed by how safe they played it with the wizard. "Create spell" was an awesome idea that really just needed pretty simple fixes to make it reasonable. Sad to see it gone. I won't totally clock-in my opinion until I see the spell list (which I understand the wizard will have the biggest of, again), but I'm still kind of worried about the sorcerer stepping firmly on - and over - the wizard now. The sorcerer has made out like a bandit in this playtest imo, Cha is still looking to be like the "golden boy" stat that can be multiclassed virtually anywhere, and it might just be my "I love wizards!" bias that has me wondering if there's any reason to play a wizard over a sorc anymore. It'll depend pretty greatly on the spell list I think, because lists constant, I think the sorc has a pretty commanding lead over the wizard right now.
My spell mastery picks have for a while been and will continue to be longstrider and mirror image. Having +10 movement for everybody all the time is surprisingly good, and in dungeons you can spam images every 30 seconds.
The thing I wonder about the Savant features is if you can use it to get spells you would normally not be able to get. ie, if you multiclass, can you use it to get higher level spells you would not normally be able to cast.
I’m saying this as some who has never played wizard but played with many other who have gone wizard. The wizard subclass features are by design weak cause you get the power of an unlimited spell list. In fact it far more important to know what spells they bother to prepare this day.
They need to add back in the modify/create spell option but limit it by making it 1 or two spells per level up, possibly the ones you get free from your subclass. Also, given that arcane ward is defensive in nature and can be used on allies it -needs- to be able to be recharged more easily...or just be better (see BG3's implementation). And counterspell needs to be a player check (ability check vs the target's spell save DC) and the PB bonus added back to abjurer
I was disappointed that we only got 4 Wizard subclasses and these were the ones that didn’t need a rework.
I wanted to a see a Transmuter that gave you features that made you better at Transmutation magic rather than a random grab bag of features only one of which, Con Proficiency, was really good. I wanted to see a Conjurer that was the best Summoner in the game, whereas right now you’re not even the best Summoner in the Wizard class.
Suggestions to lvl 1 and 2 spells that are still great for that lvl 18 feature (becuase you seem to ignore subclass synergy totally):
Magic Missile on Evoker - 3x 1d4+6 is 25.5 av. dmg - more than ANY cantrip and it is automatic hit.
Grease on Conjurer instead of cantrips and for teleportation recharge.
Longstrider on Transmuter to not only quicken everyone, but also to change effect of your stone for free.
Wither and Bloom on Necromancer instead of cantrips, for additional healing option and to regain 4 HPs for each kill.
Silent Image on Illusionist to make illusions of Adamantium cages with action and then making them real with BA. Or any other object like making infinite hovering bridge, solid walls,...
Tasha's Mind Whip on Enchanter to double the effect of this awesome spell doing up to 6d6 dmg and debuffing 2 enemies at once. Hold Person is another good option to be cast on 2 at once.
Vortex Warp is awesome on anyone, especially Conjurers.
Mage Armor is great for Abjurer to quickly recharge whole Arcane Ward, arcane Lock can do it even quicker.
A minor point from my side - I think the Savant-features of each subclass are a touch pointless. Like, yeah, you get a few free spells, but many of them are gonna be useless 99% of the time, cause they're not Fireball (I'm exaggerating, but you get the point). I was thinking, how bad would it be for the Savant-feature to be something like this instead:
- Once per short rest, when you cast a spell of your school of magic, you cast it as if upcast by 1 level. At levels...I dunno...8, you can cast it as if upcast by 2 levels, and at level 16 you cast it as if upcast by 3 levels.
I know this will be most useful for big boom spells, but it will give other spells pretty nice utility. Enchantment and Illusion spells also quite often benefit from upcasting, a necromancy wizard can summon a powerful minion with summon undead, etc, etc. I think this will open up a few more actual possibilities rather than having 500000 spells in your book, which just becomes bureaucracy rather than an actual feature. Wizards already have lots of spells. With the savant feature, possible spells from feats and racial options, they're probably gonna have around 40 spells. I think that's quite enough choice. And that's not talking about multiclass dips that would further amplify the number of spells.
My thoughts on the wizard are that, more than any other class, their identity is wrapped up in their spell selection. With some exceptions (i.e. portent), their subclass features never really added anything dramatically different but rather enhanced certain spell choices or schools ala sculpt spells or something like that. Obvious exception here is the bladesinger which is a different play style altogether. BUT, my thought is even if the class/subclasses don't get a ton of dramatic changes, the changes to spells will have more of an impact on this class than others and creates a compounding effective of changes. Yes in a vacuum, the wizard is just getting tweaks but combined with the changes to some spells, maybe that will amount to a more different feeling wizard than it seems at first? Idk, that's my hope. It is a good point though that this class probably needed the least amount of changes/buffs but I absolutely understand the feel bad when every other kid gets a new toy and you just get your older brother's hand-me-downs.
Warlock's, Sorcerer's, and Wizard's each get to modify a effect of magic. Warlock's modify class and pact perks tied to magic. Sorcerer's modify the kind of attack damage and effects. Wizard's modify the magic of the whole sub school of spells by choice of subclass taken.
If Wizard's needs more of a upgrade. The base class could get an ability to change their critical damage unique to each subclass. Yes I'm aware of the school's that mostly do ability checks and saving throws. But I've seen on occasion epic failures by enemies.
I really loved the idea behind the Modify and Create Spell features (even if they were hilariously broken as written), really wish they would have doubled down on that identity and balanced it out instead of just giving up and removing them altogether.
I wonder how worthwhile a 3 level dip in Evoker would be for a warlock, in terms of damage increase
Interesting idea, huh.
Kind of giving eldritch blast graze
i am eager to see the new and reworked wizard spell list. Wonder when spell playtest is coming
I said this on your sorcerer video. Designers don't know what to do with wizards. Because they've given them everything. So they don't have a sorted class fantasy. Wizards are arcane specialists; right there in their subclass where they specialise in a school of magic, but the desgin team also insists they have to the 'apex of the casters', have all the spells and be the generalists most adaptable caster. These are too competing ideas of what a class should do.
If they want to make Wizards feel like they have an identity then they should make them strictly the specialist. They can for the most part only cast their school of magic, with few options like a bards magical secrets, and then go whole ham in letting them really power those types of spells up; and give sorcerers access to the full arcane spell list and let Sorcerers take the role of the generalist not 'specialist' cast.
After all why should a sorcerer or an evoker be able to cast illusions just as good as an illusionist. Necromancy should be the only subclass of wizard to be making skeletons dance, and bring zombies to the party; a abjuration wizard should not.
So we use the subclasses for the other schools using D&D2014?
Also, I think they chose the subclasses they did for opposing views of magic.
Wizard = Protection / Attack & Deceit / Truth
Sorcerer= Chaos (Aberrant) / Order (Clockwork) & No idea for Dragon / Wild
Warlock - Good / Bad (Celestial / Infernal) & Enchanting / Repulsive (Arch Fey / Great Old ones)
Umm
2 points on the Abjurer:
First: Elemental Evil Player Companion was released 3 months, and 1 day, after the DMG. Which means the majority of discussion in 2015 regarding the Ward, took into account Deep Gnomes. (And given what Nondetection does to the gods when you cast it, it was memorable and discusses within days of the PDF coming out.)
As for the 10th level ability. This is not only a drastic nerf, but also a removal of the reactive mage playstyle.
Abjurer will NOT feel the same as it has since early 2015. Now, the majority of your reactions will be spent on shield.. or not used... maybe occasionally using one to project ward.
This really makes me wonder about their focus. Besides the few wizard loopholes from 2014, the wizard was thought to be in a good place, and they've had it in the playtest material multiple times now - the latest being pretty much the same as the 2014 version. I like the changes to many of the other classes, but these also seemed to be in a good spot. Meanwhile, the monk, which is one of the most criticized classes, didn't make it into playtest until Playtest 6, and that version also got a very negative review from multiple content creators, and likely on the survey as well - but that doesn't seem to get any focus. It feels a little like they're focusing on fixing things that already work well, but might have slight kinks, instead of focusing on the bigger subjects that don't work - the monk, magic item rarity or Monster CR, to name some. Sure they've tested the waters for a lot of new ideas, but the 2024 version of the PHB is shaping up to be a glorified, but welcome and needed, errata, rather than the "One D&D"-experience they originally presented.
I also think the amount of homebrew/3rd party stuff they use also colors people's perspectives on how different the 2024 books will be.
I've never played a wizard, the class has just never spoken to me. In the previous playtests there was some interesting stuff that made me want to play one in a future campaign, but that is all gone with the playtest 7 version.