If Wizards had a class feature

[Kane0]

So Clerics can Channel, Druids Wildshape, Sorcerers get Metamagic and Bards gain Inspiration. In my sidequest to reimagine the Wizard as a class that doesn't have it's spells as its 'primary and defining' class feature, what would be something neat and interesting that would work for all mages?

For creative purposes you can assume this feature would either replace or compliment Arcane Recovery and Ritual Casting, and there's plenty of design space available so we don't have to worry about balance concerns while taking ideas.

Some ideas to get us started!
- Taking one of your spells (including your slot) and putting it on a temporary scroll so someone else (or a familiar?) cast it
- Boosting slot level of a spell cast
- Casting from a different location
- Cooperative bonuses with other casters (taking their concentration, 'helping' as a reaction to provide advantage on the attack roll or disadvantage on the saving throw, etc)
- Treat certain spells as ritual spells
- Ready a spell without using concentration or slot (until the reaction triggers)
- Pierce enemy Magic Resistance/Immunity

[Mr Adventurer]

If it has 9th level spells, that is its primary and defining class feature, sorry!

If you're cutting that somehow, then you'll first want to decide what it is you want wizards to do in your games, then design class features to fill that niche. Looking at what you have got so far, it looks as though you are aiming for features revolving around its spellcasting in ways unavailable to other classes... which is dangerously close to infringing upon the Sorcerer, I'd say

[MaxWilson]

So Clerics can Channel, Druids Wildshape, Sorcerers get Metamagic and Bards gain Inspiration. In my sidequest to reimagine the Wizard as a class that doesn't have it's spells as its 'primary and defining' class feature, what would be something neat and interesting that would work for all mages?

They're already got one: automatically acquiring two wizard spells of their choice for their spellbook, with each level up. This is as impactful as clerical Channel Divinity or druid (non-Moon) Wildshape or Metamagic or Bardic Inspiration.

In all cases, the spellcasting feature itself is still more impactful, but if 5E wizards still had to research/acquire key spells a la Mazirian the Magician, choosing to play a wizard would have a radically different feel. Finding a lost spellbook with Simulacrum or Wish would feel as important and exciting as finding a Vorpal Greatsword is to a fighter.

IMO if you want to change the feel of wizards, eliminate "when you level up, you pick two spells to add to your spellbook" from the game and create some rules for spell research (requires: wizard's library, gold, time, and Arcana skill), and make spell scrolls and spellbooks a more common form of treasure. (Also, consider eliminating bards, sorcerers, and warlocks from the game--there's a lot of thematic overlap between them and wizards.)

[MoiMagnus]

So Clerics can Channel, Druids Wildshape, Sorcerers get Metamagic and Bards gain Inspiration.

I'd say school specialisation is their primary features. They are (almost) the only class who cares about which spells belongs to which school, so there is a special line in every spell almost exclusively for wizards to have special bonuses with them.
[Though I'd say the specialisation they get is not enough of of specialisation IMO.]

[Man_Over_Game]

It's a different kind of Metamagic. They have a more diverse list of spells than the Cleric and Druid that has almost any magical effect in the game, while still being able to prepare what they want.


Damage? Got that.
Barriers? Got that.
Summons? Got that.
Buffs? Got that.
Also got debuffs.
And, why not, throw some teleprtation in there.
Oh, we also have defenses too?
And illusions?
What do you mean we have mind control?


Not much in the healing and reviving department, but you already got 3-4 classes that have it.
I'm sure the Cleric feels fine being able to do his 4 things across 20 levels.

In a way, a Wizard is to the casters as a Fighter is to the martials, and there has to be a reason the Fighter is one of the most popular classes.

[8wGremlin]

I've never really liked the "stealth" feature of wizards they have access to more powerful spells than any other class.

I'd love to see a universal spell system, where all the spells are in one big pool.
You get granted spells based on god, faith, pact, blood, deal, etc. but the class that access the spell give it a quirk, or the class gets something the others don't.

Like Clerics get armour and casting, plus access to spells granted by their god, so a god of fire doesn't give out water spells, and a good of healing doesn't give out harming spells.

A Wizard can use it research ability to pick any spells from the universal pool, but perhaps go back to the old Arcana Skill check to learn it, and record the ones you don't know and the ones you do, until you have learnt 2 new spells for your level.

Sorcerers would gain access based on their theme, and Warlocks would gain spells based on the pact they made.

Also perhaps Wizards with their intelligence get a bonus on spells based on their school, so expand the evocation mage to do +int damage on all damaging evocation spells, from the start.

[sambojin]

I don't know. Arcane Recovery is a pretty good class feature. So much so, that only one other subclass of one other class (Land Druid) gets it, and it makes that subclass one of the most powerful casters in the game.

You also get full ritual casting, where you don't even need the spell prepared, just in your book (virtually all other classes need it prepared). This makes you an amazing utility caster for all those nice little things you'd like to do, but would never actually prepare that spell to do it, because it's too niche. But you're a Wizard, so you cover every niche, all the time.


So, having more spell slots, great spell selection, the ability to have even more spell selection if you pay for it, and having quasi-unlimited utility spell slots, *is* the Wizard's class feature.

I'm not sure what else you'd replace it with that would be nearly as powerful or useful. I mean, honestly, it's a bit OP as it is, but it's considered as "fine" because that's just what Wizards do. Have all the spells and all the spell slots. Sort of like how druids have all the HP and all the movement modes. It's a good, fun, slightly OP class feature. Why replace it?

[Kane0]

For reference. (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?613946-Breaking-down-the-wizard-into-chunks)

[heavyfuel]

If it has 9th level spells, that is its primary and defining class feature, sorry!

Completely agree. Full casters as they are in 5e could have zero class features other than ASI and they'd still be amazing.

If the game were to introduce casters with limited spell lists (like 3.5's Warmage and Dread Necromancer), I could see an argument for giving these full casters nice class features.

[47Ace]

They get spells books that they can cast unprepared but known ritual spells. Doubling done on that if you want to do more would make scense.

[Sparky McDibben]

I would point to a few things that wizards have that are less headliner than the other classes, but still very impactful.

For one, their spell selection is insanely good. Not just that the spell list is huge, as others have already commented, but that they can swap them around pretty much on a rest means that a wizard rapidly becomes a Swiss Army knife who can, with sufficient prep, become amazingly good at bypassing defenses with minimal cost.

Second, they don't need to prepare a ritual spell to cast it as a ritual, and that they have the widest selection of ritual spells in the game means they can solve problems without any resource expenditure except time. No one else but warlocks can do that, and even then it requires an invocation and Pact of the Tome.

Third, they have Arcane Recovery, which allows them to recover spell slots on a short rest. That's incredible, because now you're able to recover a small amount of your prime resource on a short rest, which no other class has baked into the main class (you have to be a druid of the Land, etc).

All of this builds to my main point: wizards are the purest expression of an arcanist. They are, as others have pointed out, what the fighter is to the martial classes. Wizards shouldn't have a specific key class feature like the bard or the sorcerer, because it deviates from their purpose. Their key class feature is and should be their spells - full stop.

[Kane0]

Maybe I wasn't clear enough. I know about the Wizard's spell list and will be accounting for that.

What i'm looking for is ideas for class features that would be equally appropriate for all specialist wizards assuming no balance issues from how they currently are.

[OldTrees1]

Wizard's signature trait is school specialization. Or in other words a Necromancer's signature trait will not be the same as an Evoker's signature trait. In 5E the Class:Subclass feature ratio is not constant. You can make the Subclass a bigger fraction of the Wizard class in your remake.

Then if you actually succeed in decreasing the impact of spells, then you would have a larger power budget to expand the subclasses. You can focus on things like giving Necromancer a Lich's touch (see Dread Necromancer).


Also Arcane Recovery + Ritual Casting does not sound like a large budget to work with.

[nickl_2000]

They get spells books that they can cast unprepared but known ritual spells. Doubling done on that if you want to do more would make scense.

This is actually the defining feature that I see for Wizards. All other classes needed to use a prepared slot or known spell slot to cast a ritual spell, whereas wizards just need it in their spell book. It is what makes them the most versatility of all casters.

[Arkhios]

3 lb. Bludgeoning Weapon: Spellbook

[nickl_2000]

3 lb. Bludgeoning Weapon: Spellbook

With a thrown range of 10/30. After all, you need to be able to throw the book at them

[Bobthewizard]

As others have said, ritual casting of unprepared spells and arcane recovery are their defining class abilities outside of spells. It gives them so much more versatility and utility than other casters.

[Dienekes]

Were I rebuilding 5e from the ground up, I’d design wizards in a way to demonstrate that their knowledge of Spellcraft is above and beyond that of other classes. Everyone else just has their magic handed to them in some way, the Wizard has to learn how it all works and can therefore tweak it to best fit their needs.

Unfortunately that’s already been done in the game as a Sorcerer’s metamagic.

Perhaps instead they get some kind of Arcane Dice Pool where they can choose to enhance a spell in some ways by spending dice from the pool? I just can see this being difficult to balance and even broken if they do things like adding the dice roll to the save DC.

[NaughtyTiger]

copy spells from any class into their book.

divine spells, bah! it's all the weave

[SpawnOfMorbo]

So Clerics can Channel, Druids Wildshape, Sorcerers get Metamagic and Bards gain Inspiration. In my sidequest to reimagine the Wizard as a class that doesn't have it's spells as its 'primary and defining' class feature, what would be something neat and interesting that would work for all mages?

For creative purposes you can assume this feature would either replace or compliment Arcane Recovery and Ritual Casting, and there's plenty of design space available so we don't have to worry about balance concerns while taking ideas.

Some ideas to get us started!
- Taking one of your spells (including your slot) and putting it on a temporary scroll so someone else (or a familiar?) cast it
- Boosting slot level of a spell cast
- Casting from a different location
- Cooperative bonuses with other casters (taking their concentration, 'helping' as a reaction to provide advantage on the attack roll or disadvantage on the saving throw, etc)
- Treat certain spells as ritual spells
- Ready a spell without using concentration or slot (until the reaction triggers)
- Pierce enemy Magic Resistance/Immunity

Hi!

My wizard is still in version 1 or so but I gave it a lot of class features, though my groups only go to level 10 so beyond that is up to you.



I just realized I misspelled academic lol. Still that feature and Tideous Lecturer are two that I think a wizard should definitely have.

[Zayol]

Maybe having something to do with the use of magic items, or staves, wands, crystal balls or spells books, maybe granting itself bonuses on spell dmg or soemthing, or through specilisations.

Maybe even something to do with ritual castings.

[Arkhios]

3 lb. Bludgeoning Weapon: Spellbook

With a thrown range of 10/30. After all, you need to be able to throw the book at them

Ah, but of course! How didn't I think of that!

...more seriously though, a Wizard-specific class feature could be something related to their Spellbook nonetheless.

[SpawnOfMorbo]

Ah, but of course! How didn't I think of that!

...more seriously though, a Wizard-specific class feature could be something related to their Spellbook nonetheless.

I thought about it and I think Wizards should have to read from their spellbook to cast spells.

One handed spell books have less spells but you get a free hand. Two handed spell books have more spells.

The wizard starts the spell, the spell book magically turns to that page, and the wizard reads the rest of the spell.

Have it where spellbooks are made by the wizard and their properties have issues with spellbooks owned by the same wizard (may have one big and one small spellbook).

[Drascin]

The biggest problem with giving Wizards an identity is that the magic system of the game is kind of designed around the Wizard. They're the "baseline".

Like, why do we have prepared spells, spell slots, and so on? To emulate Vance's spellcasters, which the Wizard is the direct descendant of in thematics and aesthetics. In a game that started from zero, one of the wizard's definitory things would be having spell slots, and being able to manipulate them, do ritual stuff, so on, while everyone else does other stuff.

But most of the casters of the game have, historically, been born as "a Wizard but with less powerful spells and some bells and whistles on top". A wizard but with holy spells, a wizard but with inborn magic, a wizard but... This makes it a bit hard to really give Wizards a specific hat beyond "the best at magic" without reworking bits of the magic system, because a lot of what would make them unique is in everyone else already.

[SpawnOfMorbo]

The biggest problem with giving Wizards an identity is that the magic system of the game is kind of designed around the Wizard. They're the "baseline".

Like, why do we have prepared spells, spell slots, and so on? To emulate Vance's spellcasters, which the Wizard is the direct descendant of in thematics and aesthetics. In a game that started from zero, one of the wizard's definitory things would be having spell slots, and being able to manipulate them, do ritual stuff, so on, while everyone else does other stuff.

But most of the casters of the game have, historically, been born as "a Wizard but with less powerful spells and some bells and whistles on top". A wizard but with holy spells, a wizard but with inborn magic, a wizard but... This makes it a bit hard to really give Wizards a specific hat beyond "the best at magic" without reworking bits of the magic system, because a lot of what would make them unique is in everyone else already.

They're specifically Int based, and have spellbooks, working off those is the key.

[Eldariel]

In earlier editions, Wizards could cast spells straight from the spellbook but at the cost of removing said spell from the spellbook. Something like that could be cool; perhaps extract a scroll from the spellbook 1/short rest basically just ripping the spell out.

[Man_Over_Game]

Maybe I wasn't clear enough. I know about the Wizard's spell list and will be accounting for that.

What i'm looking for is ideas for class features that would be equally appropriate for all specialist wizards assuming no balance issues from how they currently are.

They can copy a spell they've already written into their spellbook to rip out the old spell from their spellbook.

This turns the old page into a scroll that decays after 4 hours.


Although, if you're already aware of the spell choices made available to wizards, it may be worthwhile to consider what is to be done about them if the wizard is to get another feature. Does the Wizard need more options to be competitive? If the intent is to make them stand out more without increasing their versatility or power level, you may need to reduce the effectiveness the Wizard already has. For example, fewer prepared spells, or only spells of your subclass are learned on level ups.

[J-H]

I would add combined casting, where multiple wizards can take a full round action concentrating to make a spell more powerful. They must be within 15' of each other ,and each must contribute the spell slot of the spell being cast. If any of them fails a concentration save, all of them lose the spell, and possibly take damage equal to the spell's level. The spell is then upcast as though cast from a spell slot equal to the contributed spell slots spent.

So a 3rd level fireball cast by 3 wizards would be cast as a 9th level Fireball. A 5th-level Cone of Cold x 3 wizards = 15th level Cone of Cold. If you can get 3 17th-level wizards, this then gives you a level 27 Meteor Storm, so it's potentially ridiculously powerful at high levels - at the expense of spell slots and vulnerability.

I thought about having the slots not spend efficiently (ie 3 casters with 3 3rd level slots = 7th level instead of 9th or something), but everyone knows what three wizards standing there chanting as a giant ball of fire forms in front of them means, and you can be assured that they will receive ALL the arrows and spells. The only time it becomes unbalanced is if no enemies can reach them...and if you have three mid-level wizards out of reach of the enemy and able to cast at them, then you've already won.

[Kane0]

They can copy a spell they've already written into their spellbook to rip out the old spell from their spellbook. This turns the old page into a scroll that decays after 4 hours.

If the intent is to make them stand out more without increasing their versatility or power level, you may need to reduce the effectiveness the Wizard already has.
Interesting. Perhaps replacing Arcane Recovery with the temporary scroll feature? I’m not keen on two features that both hand out more spell slots.

I’m basically gutting about one third of any given wizard’s spell list, so yeah.



I would add combined casting, where multiple wizards can take a full round action concentrating to make a spell more powerful. They must be within 15' of each other ,and each must contribute the spell slot of the spell being cast. If any of them fails a concentration save, all of them lose the spell, and possibly take damage equal to the spell's level. The spell is then upcast as though cast from a spell slot equal to the contributed spell slots spent.

A bit complicated and inefficient but also super thematic. It strikes me as an NPC mage thing rather than what the player might want to do multiple times per long rest.



Hi!

My wizard is still in version 1 or so but I gave it a lot of class features, though my groups only go to level 10 so beyond that is up to you.
Will take a look thanks!



Maybe even something to do with ritual castings.

I’m thinking a once per short rest ability to cast a spell you have prepared as a ritual, starting with 1st level spells and increasing the level of the spell you can do this at roughly the same rate clerics get destroy undead progression (so it’s never your max spell level after 1st and you are never able to do it with 6th and higher)

The additional casting time makes this a terrible combat feature but really drives home the utility caster aspect of the wizard and opens some interesting doors with multiclassing.

[Garfunion]

Ritual Quickening
(Replaces arcane recovery)

When you cast a spell as a ritual, you may reduce the cast time by 10 minutes. You may use this feature a number of times equal to your intelligence modifier. You regain all spent uses of this ability at the end of a long rest.
**
Wording might be a bit off but the concept is still there.

[sambojin]

Give them the option each day of either using Arcane Recovery (for more slots), or Power Surge (for one great big spell)?

Power Surge lets you cast a spell from you specialization school at +d4 spell slot lvl.

OK, it's got its problems. It only works on up-castable spells. It's variable. It's probably not as good as Arcane Recovery.

But that's kind of the point. It's not that powerful, but it could turn something like Suggestion or Fireball or whatever into an encounter-ender. But only once per day. And only from your spell school. Maybe even limit it to one spell you choose each day from your spell school, so you limit the versatility, but up the power of your favourite spell quite a bit.


I'd almost be happy to tack it onto a Wizard's abilities and remove nothing. It's got the niche/cool factor right, and you do lose you Arcane Recovery for the day because of it. It also makes low lvl Wizards suck a bit less but still be able to do something really spectacular once per day.

Fits in with spell schools, signature spells and all that, so is fine background-wise. Sort of shows the magical research you're doing in your field of expertise during your downtime. Instead of using AR to fuel a dribble of spell slots for whatever you want, you smash it all into one great big spell that can even let you break your normal limits (roll well at lvl5 and you might be casting equivalent to a lvl13 caster for that one slot. That's a pretty good fireball :) )

Maybe OP. You could probably make a character choose either Power Surge or Arcane Recovery when they hit lvl2, to show if they're a focused researcher/savant or still a bit of a generalist. But Wizards firmly sit in that tier 0 bracket anyway, so I don't think it would change much. It'd just be fun.

[Man_Over_Game]

Interesting. Perhaps replacing Arcane Recovery with the temporary scroll feature? I’m not keen on two features that both hand out more spell slots.

I’m basically gutting about one third of any given wizard’s spell list, so yeah.

That's exactly what one of the early drafts of the Artificer was, effectively a Wizard subclass that used Arcane Recovery to fuel potions that allies could use. It did some other stuff, too, but it wasn't all that interesting as it was mostly a buffbot.