The Variant Wizard

[Doccit]

The Variant Wizard

What do you guys think? It is based on the Warlock class, rather than the original wizard, and so is probably best compard to the warlock when discusing balance.

Here's a quick rundown on the differences between the Variant Wizard and the Warlock:
- The variant wizard has a worse HD and no armour,
- No eldritch blast or associated invocations,
- Pact magic slot is one level lower than Warlocks for a large part of the progression (they instead can cast their highest level slot only once per day)
- No pact boon,
- Worse casting stat?

+ The variant wizard has an extra cantrip and an extra spell learned per level (they prepare spells rather than just casting from all spells known),
+ Access to the superior Wizard spell list,
+ One more short rest spell slot than Warlocks for a large part of the progression,
+ Ritual casting,
+ A cunning-action-like ability for cantrips that don't target creatures (mage hand, prestidigitation, etc).

Why did I do this?
I find the warlock more fun to play than the wizard generally because of their focus on at-will and short-rest abilities. I find the resource management of the wizard tedious and found its too easy to be miserly with spell slots "just in case" I need them later.
Also, Warlocks are more customizable than wizard which makes them more fun to build in my opinion.
However, I find the warlock doesn't encourage creativity as much as the wizard (esspecially in combat). I wanted a class that had the best of both worlds from a fun perspective, but of course I'd like the class to be in-line with other classes power-wise.

[clash]

Just at a quick look, I really like this idea. Not sure how I feel about being behind in regards to spell level. I have always been of the mind that a warlock should have 1/short rest slot per spell level, if I were to redo it so that might work to have more but it might take some balancing. Love the idea of using the warlock chasis for a wizard. Will take a more thorough look later.

[Composer99]

Interesting take on the wizard.

A few overall comments:
- You might want to check a few copy/pasted praxis options; they have the wrong spell written down in a few cases.
- You might want to check a few spell's names for spelling. (Augury springs to mind.)

Anyway, it's mostly fine, although I really can't say I'm a fan of the following:
- Being two levels behind other 9th-level spellcasters (including warlocks) in terms of the spell level of your regular spell slots. That puts them really behind the power curve through all of tier 2 (levels 5-10), only catching up at 11th level.
- Arcane Master allowing you to recover your 8th and 9th level experimental spell slots. No. Just no.

I think it would also be preferable to keep the arcane tradition feature progression from the base wizard, allowing this class to be compatible with the regular wizard arcane traditions.

[Doccit]

Interesting take on the wizard.

A few overall comments:
- You might want to check a few copy/pasted praxis options; they have the wrong spell written down in a few cases.
- You might want to check a few spell's names for spelling. (Augury springs to mind.)

Anyway, it's mostly fine, although I really can't say I'm a fan of the following:
- Being two levels behind other 9th-level spellcasters (including warlocks) in terms of the spell level of your regular spell slots. That puts them really behind the power curve through all of tier 2 (levels 5-10), only catching up at 11th level.
- Arcane Master allowing you to recover your 8th and 9th level experimental spell slots. No. Just no.

I think it would also be preferable to keep the arcane tradition feature progression from the base wizard, allowing this class to be compatible with the regular wizard arcane traditions.

Thanks for the feedback! I've changed arcane mastery to be just like eldrich mastery. I'm re-thinking what to do with the arcane traditions because some of them are pretty weird right now.

Regarding being two levels behind until level 11, I don't think you're losing that much. I have changed it so at level 4 and 7 you get 2 top level slots per long rest instead of just one, but at the other levels I think its fine. Comparing the variant wizard to the wizard, you've got never more than one fewer top-level slot per long rest, and (assuming 3 short rests per day) but three times as many 2nd-best slots. Comparing the variant wizard to the warlock, you're spells are one level lower, but you've got 50% more and they're from a better spell list.