The quintessential glass cannon of D&D: Wizards have always been the class for which burst damage is essential. From ever-expanding AOE’s to machine-gun style single target spells, and everything in between, their effectiveness as major damage dealers is only dwarfed by their lack of survivability. Making the Wizard a toss-up for any player who wants to “go-big-or-go-home” and still live to tell the tale, the class is often relegated to a rank of lower importance within a possible party make-up than any other class in D&D.
Mechanics
In an attempt to consider these concerns, Wizards of the Coast has implemented several changes to the Wizard class in hopes of increasing their viability and utility in future games. Given that the class has the most expansive spell list in the game, approximately 315 individual spells, the changes in the 2024 update endeavor to increase their utility and availability. Now Wizards can change their prepared spell list by utilizing the Memorize Spell mechanic to swap out one of their spells for another every short rest. Spell Mastery also allows Wizards to pick a chosen spell and swap that one in or out once per long rest, without the prerequisite of studying for 8 hours first.
Spellcasting
The spellcasting feature for Wizards has also picked up a few minor changes. Firstly, the number of prepared spells is no longer based on the character’s Wizard Level plus Intelligence modifier. Instead, the total number of available prepared spells for the class is determined by a set base value determined by character level.
Other changes to spellcasting include things like Ritual Spells are no longer required to be prepared beforehand, spell books have been made impossible to read without the use of Identify, and the Scholar ability now grants a proficiency bonus to their choice of either Arcane, History, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, or Religion. At level 19, Wizards can choose one (of twelve) different Epic Boons, like Boon of Spell Recall -which grants an ability score increase and allows the Wizard to cast level 1 to level 4 spells without expending a spell slot.
Subclasses
Wizards will pick their subclasses at level three, confirming that this change will be universal across all classes. Abjurer Wizard’s Arcane Ward has been buffed; to be used as a bonus action after expending a spell slot. At level 10, the class will get a feature; called Spell Breaker; that will make Counterspell and Dispel Magic available on the prepared spell list without the cost of a spell slot to use. And Evoker Wizards pick up the ability to enact half damage on cantrip attacks that require a save.
Diviner Wizards, formerly known as wizards of The School of Divination, have received a chant to their Third Eye ability. Now the feature can be used as a bonus action and its Darkvision ability has been extended to 120ft. The spell See Invisibility will synergize better with Ethereal Sight, allowing the two spells to work together more effectively than ever before. Illusionist Wizards can now pick up the spells Summon Beast and Summon Fey at level 6 and have had their Illusion spells buffed overall. Illusory Self will now trigger on hit, rather than on attack roll and can now be recovered by burning a level 2 (or higher) spell slot.
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