PHB Playtest 5: Wizards

 Appropriately, I took a break from writing these posts to play my Wizard in our Wildemount D&D game. The session was fairly mechanics-light, mostly dealing with plot and character stuff and no monsters to fight, but it put me in that headspace.

Wizards are the sort of ultimate archetypal spellcaster, and while I'd say that the class doesn't get reworked as extensively as others (especially the Warlock) there are some changes to examine here.

Let's delve in!

At 1st level, Wizards get Spellcasting and Wizard's Spellbook.

The former is fairly familiar. I think the only change is that the Wizard class table now gives you the number of spells you can prepare, which follows a similar, if perhaps slightly slower progression than it does normally (a level 20 Wizard today will probably be able to prepare 25 spells, while this gets 22, though that does not count the free Wizard spells.)

Another change is that you can use your Spellbook as a focus for your Wizard spells.

Wizard's Spellbook formalizes the spellbook as a class feature, rather than, bizarrely, sitting in a sidebar. As before, you start with six 1st level spells of your choice and get two free spells each level, and can scribe new ones into the book.

Doing so now uses a new spell called Scribe Spell, which is added to your spellbook automatically. While it is not always prepared, because it is a ritual, you can always cast it as a ritual even when it's not prepared.

Scribe Spell is a 1st level spell that can be cast as a ritual, with a casting time of 2 hours per level of the scribed spell. As before, it consumes 50 GP of ink per spell level. If you cast this to copy your spell into a new book but have already inscribed it in your old one, the cost and time to scribe is halved. Spells inscribed in your book is understandable only by people who are casting Identify or Scribe Spell, and casting this into a blank book makes it a spellbook.

    This formalizes the spell-copying system as a spell itself. One thing this does is also add 10 minutes to the scribing process if you don't want to expend a spell slot - not a big deal for most Wizards, but an Order of Scribes one will now have to take significantly more time (currently, if my Wizard wants to inscribe a 3rd level spell, it only takes him 6 minutes).

At level 2, you get Academic and Arcane Recovery.

This gives you advantage on the Intelligence checks of any Study action. This includes basically all typical intelligence checks - including when you recall information or look over a room with Investigation.

    This is a fun way to reinforce that Wizards are the ultimate smartypants of classes, even when paired with other Intelligence-based classes like Artificers or some Warlocks.

Arcane Recovery works the same as it did before.

    I had, for some reason, thought that this was limited to 5th level spells or lower, but evidently I've been wrong. So, other than bumping back a level, this is unchanged.

At level 3, you get your subclass.

At levels 4, 8, 12, 16, and 19, you get feats.

At 5th level, you get Memorize Spell.

This adds the Memorize Spell... er, spell to your spellbook.

This is a 3rd level spell, and is again, a ritual, with a casting time of 1 minute.

When you cast this spell, you can swap one spell from your spellbook that is not prepared for the day and replace one of the spells you do have prepared. This lasts until you cast the spell again or finish a Long Rest.

At higher levels, you can replace additional spells for each spell slot expended above 3rd.

    Here, we see the Wizard getting that massive flexibility that the spellbook allows. With a little downtime, you can swap in, say, Water Breathing when you realize that part of the dungeon you're exploring is flooded.

At 7th level, you gain Modify Spell.

Once again, we get a free spell for your spellbook.

This 4th-level ritual spell has a 1 minute base casting time and lets you alter a spell you have prepared in one of the following ways:

• You can remove one of the spell's Verbal, Somatic, or Material components, though you can't remove a component that is consumed.
• If the spell requires concentration, you can make it so that damage can't interrupt the concentration.
• If the spell has a damage type, you can replace that type with Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Necrotic, Poison, or Thunder Damage. If the spell does multiple types of damage, you can only change one of them.
• If the spell has a range of 5 feet or more and doesn't have a range of self (is that redundant?) you can increase the range by a number of feat equal to 30 times your Wizard level.
• If the spell lacks the Ritual tag and has a casting time of at least 10 minutes, you can give it the Ritual tag.
• If the spell affects one or more creatures and doesn't have a range of self, it now only affects your allies or enemies (choose when you cast Modify Spell).

The alteration lasts until you cast the spell again or finish a Long Rest. This version of the spell can't be added to a spellbook or a Spell Scroll without first casting Create Spell (which we'll handle at level 9). At higher levels, you can make one more alteration for each spell level above 4th.

    So, this is basically the Wizard's answer to metamagic. It can't be done improvisationally, but gives you a lot of similar ways to alter the spells you have. I think this is cool, and while its ultimate functionality is similar to metamagic, the use of it is far more Wizardly in form.

At level 9, you get Create Spell.

We now get our final free Wizard spell. This is the only one, though, that is not a Ritual (though can you modify this spell with Modify Spell to make it one?) The casting time is a reaction, in response to your own casting of Modify Spell. It requires an Arcane Focus worth at least 1000 gold per spell level altered by Modify Spell, and can last up to 1 hour with concentration.

You spend 1 hours mediating on the spell you just changed with Modify Spell. If you finish this hour without concentration being interrupted (which causes this spell to fail,) you must then start casting Scribe Spell within the next 10 minutes to add the modified version of the spell to your spellbook. Once the spell is in your spellbook, it becomes one of your known spells, gaining the Wizard tag (rather than the Arcane tag) and gains a name of your choice.

    This is it: the ultimate fantasy of the Wizard - to create a spell of your own design. Limiting it to Modify Spell's types of changes keeps the spell from becoming insanely overpowered, but it would allow me to, for example, to make Sarpadiath's Protective Depth Charge, casting Modify spell at 5th level to turn Fireball's damage to Thunder and then making it not hit my allies. The total would cost 3150 gold to complete, but I'd have this rather awesome spell at my disposal.

At level 15, you get Spell Mastery.

This is unchanged, other than being bumped down to 15th level from 18.

At level 18, you get Signature Spells.

Likewise, this is identical except that it comes two levels earlier.

    Ok, so there we have it. Overall, the Wizard is honestly not too different, mainly just adding this new spellbook functionality. We'll have to see how it works out to have spell copying now a spell itself, but the Wizard's ability to ritually cast spells they don't have prepared makes this pretty accessible.

I can't really complain about any of these changes, and I think this system for creating new spells is very cool, even if I might add a few new ways you can change a spell, such as changing the shape of an AoE spell. But I think this is a great way to give Wizards options for how to make a new spell based on an old one without letting its power run away from it.

The one exception might be the Ritual thing. There are probably spells that are too powerful to be rituals. But we'll see.

The default subclass is the Evoker, which is the update to the School of Evocation. These subclasses are now meant to describe the wizard, rather than their area of study. Presumably, for example, mine would be a "Scribe Wizard" rather than an "Order of Scribes Wizard."

At 3rd level, you get Evocation Savant and Sculpt Spells.

Evocation Savant works similarly, now taking into account that Scribe Spells is a spell, but you also get two free Evocation spells from the Arcane List that are no higher than 2nd level and add them for free to your spellbook.

Sculpt Spells works the same.

    Free spells. Great.

At 6th level, you get Potent Cantrip.

This works similarly to the current version, but now also works on missed attack rolls as well as successful saving throws, so you can use spells like Fire Bolt or Ray of Frost with it.

At 10th level, you get Empowered Evocation.

This works the same as before, though it specifies that the spell must be both an Evocation spell and on the Arcane spell list.

    So, you can't put this on something like Guiding Bolt if you picked that up with Magic Initiate or multiclassing. I think you're probably fine.

At level 14, you get Overchannel.

This works identically to its current version.

    So, the Evoker is barely changed, and lightly buffed with the free spells at 3rd level and the expansion of Potent Cantrip to work on all damage cantrips. Looks like a solid choice for anyone who wants to be a blasty wizard.

And with that, we've covered all five classes in the new UA, along with the weapon masteries. Next post, we'll cover the remaining odds and ends, and conclude with some final thoughts.