My First Wizard

[MindForge]

I sat and created my first wizard today. I was wary at first because the standard convention and long list of spells to choose from were gone. Then when I was selecting spells I kind of realized that they were all there and wizards will still feel wizardy and even more so.

I can now walk around letting magic missiles drop at will. Once per encounter I can drop a force orb. My daily spell I have is a flaming sphere. So at first level I am a fully capable wizard with 11 hit points. I can drop weak spells all day long, moderate powers once in an encounter and my hardcore spells once a day. I have 7 healing surges a day (remember that healing surges are burned sometimes when a cleric heals me - not just from my encounter surge).

I really like how wizards can cast the lesser spells all the time. They are like his sword swings but he doesn't overpower the fighter because now the fighter can unleash hell in a fight just like I can. Fighters don't just swing their sword every round and hope to hit. There are endless tactical options and I can see some really cool things developing into party dynamics because of many of these abilities. Like hitting and letting an ally shift so the mage can drop an area spell nearby, then the warlord allowing allies to shift again with a command and the rogue unleashing a cool encounter ability on the enemy. I mean looking at these powers I can really see a cool change that I was a little uncomfortable with at first and now I like it.

I didn't really go into this wizard to build some cool build. I just wanted to see what a first level wizard would look like on paper.

[brekkers]

This confirms one of my fears...yes its cool to have magic missiles (at-will), gives a nice flavor and a bit of power, however, it seems to me that the whole game is build around combat... your wizard seem only functional in a fight... true/false?

- Brek

[MindForge]

Not really, I have all the skills I could want (arcana, history, dungeoneering, insight and religion) - I am human so I got another one.

Outside of combat, what spells are there really to cast. The wizard can still use sleep and all the other utility spells that have been available out of combat - feather fall, disguise self, all these are still there as utility spells. The wizard actually shines in the utility area - far more than any other caster.

Also, rituals are in the game to replace a lot of things like divination. The rituals are part of a wizards spellbook - these spells just don't come out of the spells per day and can be cast whenever if the wizard has the time to prepare and cast them. Brew potion is not a feat anymore, any wizard that has learned the ritual can brew a potion.

[MindForge]

Also, things like summoning/conjuring spells are done with rituals now. The spell knock is now a ritual. There are now categories of rituals instead of schools of magic and they more or less resemble them knock is an exploration ritual while gentle repose is a healing ritual. Clerics have rituals too.

The flavor is still there. The combat spells and actions have been streamlined for a very comfortable and flavor-edged character. My wizard will use daggers most likely so I can hold my orb (because I specialized in the Orb Implement).

Basically, the spells that required material components that were not combat oriented ended up becoming rituals or utility spells. The latter have combat application. The rituals have been separated to give an easier (and more broad) access to them across the board by arcane and divine casters. Rituals are now tied into key skills like religion and arcane. You can also use rituals off of scrolls but you cannot add them to spell books - in order to do this you need to get a hold of the ritual book which details the process more in order to master it yourself to not need the magic within the scroll.

I also think the ritual idea was created as a way to keep the flavor of the casting in the game but balance the casting classes in a way that created flavor mechanically (which is what this really is I think).

A fighter is going to act like a fighter on the battlefield now. You will be able to notice who is a ranger and who is a rogue immediately in the fight just by the mechanical representation of their actions. One great example is the shield. It is no longer some static bonus, you use it in combat to do all sorts of stuff that might come as immediate actions - if you built yourself that way. If not, why the hell are you using a shield. I really like this new system and the more I dig the more it pleases me. It has been some time since I was really pleased with a game.

[olstar18]

I kinda like this setup. Won't have to decide between using spellslots on noncombat spells when you know theres going to be a big fight later on.

[MindForge]

You don't even have spell slots anymore. You can either cast your spells all the time, one per encounter, or once per day. There are some encounter (special) spells that allow you to cast the spell 3 times per encounter. So far these were the clerics healing spells.

[TiFFman]

I can't wait to build a wizard. I love how this sounds. I always hated, as olstar mentioned, having to decide between combat/non-combat spells.

Also, RP wise, a wizard that has trained for a long time should be able to cast the low level spells as often as they like, such as light or mage hand. IMO, RP would be nicer now where you can cast the spells the wizard knows really well, as many as you like, but the 1 per day may take a lot out of the caster. Don't think I'm explaining my point well, but you get the idea.

[MindForge]

Yeah, the mage hand, ghost light and other prestidigitation spells are just a normal ability that can be used at will. You do not even have to pick prestidigitation as a spell - it is free. So now you can light campfires and do other cool wizardy things all the time without worrying about slots.

On the bad side a spell like knock takes 10 minutes to cast as a ritual. So, it isn't something you can do on the run now.

[xaotik1]

I'm really loving the ability sets and the creatures from the MM. I created my first wirardy bad guy using a few levels of wizard and a goblin hexor. Truly a bad ass evil dude when he needs to be. Between the racial abilities, and the wizard abilities, he can really challenge the group I'm running.

At the moment, the players have not yet met their adversary, so I will not tell you much more about him, but I can say that 4E lets me put MUCH more flavor into the creatures they run into with a minimum of effort. No more lame encounters "Oh. . .seven goblins. . .I run in and swing my sword at them" now it's more like, "Crap, there are three goblins rushing in under the cover fire of 3 other goblins moving about, and a single vicious looking one chanting something as black mist begins to flow from his body." Huzzah for 4E!!

[Gorthaur the Cruel]

I too rolled my first character- a Half-Elf warlock- and I must say... holy crap this system is insanely well designed.

You benefit more from having a few middling scores than from having 2 or 3 "I win" abilities.

Want to know something absolutely awesome? For two feats, the -fighter- can learn how to use rituals.

Tell me that isn't cool, and I'll call you a big fat liar.

[MindForge]

That is cool about the rituals, I noticed that too - I just thought human rogue when I saw it :). I like how having balanced characters can be just as cool as having min-maxed characters now.

I mean it isn't like min-maxing is being punished it is just that you can achieve great things without it too. If I want to be good at one thing I can min-max.. if I want to be versatile I can balance. Before, you could be versatile if you min-maxed and min-max felt like the only way to go for great builds.

[Niko_Kaze]

Well I would point out they grabbed a lot of the good optimizers from the Op board over on the officals to help. I think that was a great idea as these people are great at seeing and exploiting things that the designers don't always see.