5.5, Class by Class: Wizards

 Wizards are weird.

As a class, the number of actual features you get is relatively thin next to its closest points of comparison - Sorcerers get Metamagic and other ways to bend their spellcasting, while Warlocks have enormous customization through Eldritch Invocations.

Wizards just basically cast spells.

And yet... they're very popular and for good reason.

Wizards have the biggest spell list of any class, and unlike their arcane caster brethren, they have the flexibility to swap out spells every day. On top of that, the ability to cast ritual spells without having them prepared is, actually, really powerful - a Wizard will basically never have to prepare any of these spells unless they need to be able to cast them quickly, and most ritual spells are designed to be cast out of combat.

Another thing that's interesting about the Wizard is its relationship with learning spells. While you do automatically get two new ones each time you level up, there's an inherent minigame in which Wizards can search out spells from other sources - the spellbooks of defeated enemies, spell scrolls, or even just allied wizards who are willing to share.

In my Wildemount game, I'm one of two wizards in the party, and while we don't have the money to spend on copying spells yet, the plan is for us to take entirely different spells when we level up and then copy each others' spells into our own books (also, as a Scribes Wizard, I essentially have a backup disk in case something happens to our spellbooks).

All of this is to say that I don't know if Wizards need much redesigning and tweaking. There are solid subclasses in the PHB - and the theme of having one based in each school of magic works out fairly well.

One thing I do find a little odd is that the rules for spellbooks are in a green box - which typically serves to give optional rules or expansion on elements of flavor.

Tasha's introduced the optional rule that Wizard can, at a certain level, swap out their cantrips on a daily basis. While I'm generally in favor of rules that allow for re-configuring your class choices - given how long these campaigns go, a mistake, especially for an inexperienced player, shouldn't hamstring the character forever - I might implement some kind of fee or something to keep this under control. Or, perhaps it's fine that they can just swap things out all the time for free.

I do think that the Spellbook puts a lot of power in the DM's hands - a DM can make spells available or make them hard to find, and if they're really mean, they can destroy the Wizard's spell book, erasing thousands of gold and days' worth of work. I don't know that I'd take these capabilities out of the DM's hands so much as put guidance in there on how a DM should build conflicts and adventures around the spellbook. Indeed, one thing that would be helpful is letting a DM know how hard it should be for a Wizard to find the spells they want to add.

One thing to consider as well is that if we see Warlocks and Sorcerers getting more spells known (in the former case by just adding their expanded spell list to their spells known, on top of the 15 they choose while leveling and their mystic arcana, and in the latter case just broadening the Clockwork Soul and Aberrant Mind bonus spells to apply to every subclass) we might want to see Wizards get some greater flexibility. Yes, this is sort of power creep, but no one is getting more spell slots, so it's still somewhat limited. A Wizard could maybe get their level plus twice their Intelligence modifier spells to prepare per day (which does likely mean they'd have every spell they know prepared at level 1 and have an extra slot).

Anyway, Wizards are often the greatest beneficiaries of new spells being published, so they tend to get a de facto expansion with most big rules expansions. I think the class design is sound, and perhaps more than any other class, Wizards are all about the fundamentals.