Is Evocation Wizard getting ripped off when getting to level 6?

[BloodOgre]

Something that has bugged me about Evocation Wizards is the 6th level buff:

Potent Cantrip
Starting at 6th level, your damaging cantrips affect even creatures that avoid the brunt of the effect. When a creature succeeds on a saving throw against your cantrip, the creature takes half the cantrip’s damage (if any) but suffers no additional effect from the cantrip.

OK, that's nice as your cantrips started doing 2 damage dice at level 5, so half damage could still get some attention. But here is the thing, the Wizard only has two cantrip on the cantrip list that have a saving throw, acid splash and poison spray, and both of them are conjuration spells. An evocation Wizard probably has Shocking grasp, Fire Bolt, or Ray of Frost, all of which are school of evocation but do not benefit from potent cantrip. Now, if potent cantrip also said that creatures resistant to that type of damage were not resistant to your damage and/or that creatures that were immune to your cantrips damage type still took half damage, then I think Potent Cantrip would be worth something. But as it is, it is only applicable to two cantrips not even in the school of Evocation. Does this make sense to anyone?

When I compare it to the level 6 buff of some of the other schools or the other spell casters, it just seems like the Evocation Wizard got the incredibly short straw.

The buff at level 10 is nice, adding INT bonus to evocation spell damage, but Draconic Sorcerers get something similar at level 6, adding their CHA modifier to any spell doing the same kind of damage as their draconic heritage. I seem to recall another caster getting something similar at lvl6, as well. So why does the Evoker Wizard get nada at lvl 6 and have to wait until lvl 10 for something others get at 6th?

Is it just me? Maybe I'm just having a b!tchy day.

[Kalashak]

I count 9 cantrips with saving throws

[Errata]

XGtE adds a bunch of eligible cantrips to the Wizards list, some of which are well worth familiarizing yourself with even apart from this subclass feature.

This isn't so much a flaw in Evocation Wizard as a flaw in the spell list for the original player's handbook. Wizards are supposed to have a good selection of spells and that's a pretty glaring omission.

As a full caster you always want to have a few very different types of damaging cantrips to choose from. Unless you're a warlock, you usually don't just want one really good one that you always use, because it won't be equally effective against every opponent in every situation. You want options. That includes having options between saving throws and attack rolls. Unless you've got some special build that synergizes with it, you don't normally want every attack cantrip to require an attack roll, since some opponents will have particularly high AC. The more different saves you have access to, the more likely you are to have something to target a given opponent's weak spot.

[OvisCaedo]

By the core rulebook, yes, it's a pretty badly planned out level 6 feature. They've alleviated just HOW dumb it is with addition spells from Elemental Evil, and now most/all of those and a few more got carried into XGE. Toll the Dead is a pretty strong save cantrip now.

Technically two of the SCAG cantrips are also save based, but both are really questionable. In total there are a fair couple more, though still most of them are not actually Evocation cantrips. As far as cantrips that can actually satisfy both features, there's... Frostbite, Thunderclap, and Lighting Lure?