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DRutledge
2013-01-24, 04:49 AM
Hello all!

First off, hi. I'm new here. :smallcool:

Anyway, I am just now getting into D&D. I've had a curiosity about it before, played a little and loved it. I am working on building my own Wizard right now, but I am having so much difficulty understand how the Spell Levels work. Here's my dilenma.

I am reading about how to build one currently in the Player Guide 3.5. Now, it states specifically that I am able to cast only 3 0-Level spells per day and 1 1-Level spell per day at Character level 1. That much I got.

Not, the At-Will, Encounter and Daily Powers of 4.0 have gotten me confused. I know you can cast certain spells once per encounter, and others once per day, and At Will powers...well...at will.

Also, I was watching on Youtube and looking on WotC's website at their podcasts. Jim Darkmagic, one of the characters, seems like he uses his spells rather freely, and I understand he's a Human Wizard. Then again, maybe I don't pay attention well enough :smalleek:

Anyway, here are my questions.
1. Do all of my spells count as At-Will, and I can use them within the spell level requirement? If that is the case, does this mean Encounter Powers and Daily Powers are even more confusing?

2. Am I making a mistake trying to create a character with Player's Guide 3.5? I tried to do it with 4, but the closest thing to a wizard in that was the Runepriest or the Psionic...lady...thing...

3. Do Spells work differently in 4e than 3.5e?

If anyone could help, I would appreciate it. Please dumb it down as best as possible. I seem, for some reason, to be rather dense and cannot get this at all...

jamieth
2013-01-24, 05:08 AM
Spells are VERY different in 4th.
Spell levels is a 3.0/3.5 thing, and, yes, they work just as you say: 3 0-level and 1 1-level per day.
In 4e, you don't have spell levels per se; instead, you have a number of powers, some of which you can use as often as you want (at will), some once per encounter, and some once per combat.

4e is very different from 3.5 in general, and the books are certainly incompatible, sorry.

DRutledge
2013-01-24, 05:12 AM
I suspected as much, so I just wanted to be sure. Are there 4e books out there that detail this information better? I have them downloaded to my Samsung Tablet, but like I said, the book I have only has something like a Runepriest.

jamieth
2013-01-24, 05:16 AM
Well, for that, I can't be of much help, sorry, since my knowledge of 4e is... limited at best. Though, I'm pretty sure that wizards were in the very first book... "Player's Handbook, 4th edition", I suppose.

DRutledge
2013-01-24, 05:18 AM
I appreciate your help, my friend. Thank you :smallbiggrin:

Ashtagon
2013-01-24, 05:28 AM
Despite similar names and some terms in common, D&D 3.5 edition and D&D 4th edition are two completely different games with (for all practical purposes) unrelated sets of rules.

GolemsVoice
2013-01-24, 06:04 AM
2. Am I making a mistake trying to create a character with Player's Guide 3.5? I tried to do it with 4, but the closest thing to a wizard in that was the Runepriest or the Psionic...lady...thing...

As far as I know, 3.5 and 4 are not in any way interchangable. So you make 3.5 characters with your Player's Guide 3.5, and 4 characters with your Player's Guide 4.

Also, 3.5 has a LOT of material, so maybe you should decide what edition you want to play and focus on that, because, as others said, 3.5 books won't help you with 4th, and vice versa.

DRutledge
2013-01-24, 06:06 AM
Based on how I am new to the game, I decided to go with the 4e

caden_varn
2013-01-24, 07:42 AM
IF I recall correctly, the RunePriest was in the PHB 2 (or maybe 3 even). There are several PHBs, you need the original (just called the Players Handbook) to get the basic characters (like the wizard) and the base rules of the game. Everything else builds of this.

AttilaTheGeek
2013-01-24, 05:37 PM
IF I recall correctly, the RunePriest was in the PHB 2 (or maybe 3 even). There are several PHBs, you need the original (just called the Players Handbook) to get the basic characters (like the wizard) and the base rules of the game. Everything else builds of this.

Definitely this. You need the first PHB before anything else will make sense.

DRutledge
2013-01-24, 05:39 PM
I actually have all three PHBs on my tablet and plan on going through them in the near future. Thanks :smallamused:

EDIT: Now, one more question. Is there a limit to which my Wizard can cast At Will Powers? If I use Ray of Frost on one turn, can I use it for my nect turn? I'm further confused because it mentions on pg 158 of PHB 1 "You can prepare a number of daily and utility spells according to what you can cast per day for your level."

What is it saying here? The book really doesn't tell me anything...unless I'm overlooking it, which is entirely possible.

hewhosaysfish
2013-01-25, 07:18 AM
I actually have all three PHBs on my tablet and plan on going through them in the near future. Thanks :smallamused:

EDIT: Now, one more question. Is there a limit to which my Wizard can cast At Will Powers? If I use Ray of Frost on one turn, can I use it for my nect turn? I'm further confused because it mentions on pg 158 of PHB 1 "You can prepare a number of daily and utility spells according to what you can cast per day for your level."

What is it saying here? The book really doesn't tell me anything...unless I'm overlooking it, which is entirely possible.

I don't have a 4e PHB in front of me ATM but is it the "Wizard's Spellbook" section that confusing you? Because I can see how that might cause this confusion.

You see Wizard's are a little bit special and work slightly differently from all the other classes.

Here's how it works for everyone except Wizards:

When you create a 1st level character, you pick 2 level 1 At Will Powers, 1 level 1 Encounter Power and 1 level 1 Daily Power. (These are in addtion to any Racial Powers like Elven Accuracy or any "Class Feature" Powers like a Warlord's Inspiring Words)
When that character reaches level 2 you pick one level 2 Utility Power (which may be At Will, Encounter or Daily, depending) and add that to the powers that character has.
When that character reaches level 3 you pick one level 3 Encounter Power and add that to the powers that character has.
When that character reaches level 5 you pick one level 5 Daily Power and add that to the powers that character has.
...and so-on and so-on. You keep adding knew powers to the character as he levels up. The powers in each class's entry are group according to the level at which you can learn them so that should be simple enough.
(One complicating factor is that after level 11 new powers have to replace old powers so you might be getting better powers but the number of powers remains the same after that point.)


Do you follow that? Because Wizard's are mostly the same but the Spellbook class feature makes choosing Daily and Utility powers a bit different for them.


When creating a 1st level Wizard, choose 2 level 1 At Will powers, 1 level 1 Encounter power and give them any Racial Power they might have plus thier Class Feature powers (i.e. the Cantrips: Mage Hand, Light, Prestidgitation and Ghost Sound). So far, exactly the same as any other level 1 character - except....
... you now choose 2 level 1 daily powers instead of 1. At the start of each day the Wizard chooses one of those two powers which he can then use once during that particular day.
At 2nd level the Wizard picks 2 level 2 Utility Powers. Again, at the start of each day he choose one of those powers: if he chooses a Daily Utility hecan then use it once during that day; if he chooses and Encounter Utility he can using it once during every Encounter during that day; and if he chooses an At Will Utility he can use it as many times in that day as he likes (subject to the normal limits on actions per round, of course).
At level 3 he choose 1 level 3 Encounter power, just like everyone else. Remember, the Wizard's specialness only applies do Daily and Utility powers.
Level 5 is a Daily Power level, so our Wizard gains 2 level 5 Daily powers and choose one at the start of each day. So each morning the Wizard will have to choose one Level 1 Daily, one level 2 Utility and 1 level 5 Daily - he can't choose to have both level 5 Daily and no Level 1 Dailies (Dailys?) they are not interchangeable like that.
... and so-on and so-on. The Wizard continues to gain powers like any other class except that each time he would gain a Daily or Utility Power he instead picks 2. And each day he can use one power from each such pair.
(And after level 11, whenever he gains a new pair of Daily or Utility powers, he has to replace a pre-existing pair.)
(And for the sake of completenss, I should mention that there is a feat for Wizards called "Expanded Spellbook" which allows a Wizard to pick at set 3 Daily or Utility Powers instead of a pair. However, each day he can still only use one power out of each triplet so it's not that useful.)


Hope this helps!

DRutledge
2013-01-25, 04:42 PM
That helps immensely, my friend! Thank you!