Wizard (Dungeons & Dragons)
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- Magic-User redirects here. See spellcaster for magic users, or below for the old Dungeons & Dragons character class.
| D&D character class | |
|---|---|
| Wizard / Mage / Magic User | |
| Editions | All |
| Role | Controller |
| Power source | Arcane |
| Alignment | Any |
| Image | Wizards.com image |
| Stats | OGL stats |
In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, the wizard is one of the base character classes. A wizard is an arcane magic user, and weak in mêlée combat.
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[edit] Creative origins
In the early version of the game, magic-user was one of the base character classes. It was one of the three original classes, the other two being Fighting Man (renamed Fighter in later editions) and Cleric. The Magic-User was renamed to "mage" and then "wizard" in later editions.
The Magic-User class was inspired by the spell-casting magicians common in folklore and modern fantasy literature, particularly as portrayed in Jack Vance's The Dying Earth short stories, and John Bellairs's novel "The Face in the Frost." Gandalf and Saruman from Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and Merlin of King Arthur fame also influenced this class.[1] The Magic-User was physically weak and vulnerable, but was compensated with the potential to develop powerful spellcasting abilities. In practice a mid- to high-level Magic-User was a combination intelligence gatherer and walking artillery, gathering information about possible dangers not yet seen and augmenting the physical combat abilities of the other classes with potentially devastating long range and area attacks.
An awkward term, "Magic-User" was invented for the original Dungeons & Dragons rules developed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (in order to avoid cultural connotations of terms such as "wizard" or "warlock"). It continued to be used in the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) rules and in the simplified Dungeons & Dragons rules set. The second edition of AD&D discarded the term in favor of "mage". The third edition of the game (dropping the word Advanced and now just called Dungeons & Dragons) renamed the mage to "Wizard". The term "magic user" is rarely used in the current edition of the game, and when it is used it is usually a synonym for an arcane spellcaster or for an arcane spellcasting character class.
[edit] Relation to Illusionist
The 1st Edition of AD&D also included a subclass of the magic-user called the illusionist, which had different spell lists, different experience level tables, and slightly fewer maximum hit dice (10 instead of 11). Gnomes were also able to become illusionists, even though only human, elves, and half-elves could become magic-users. Magic-user spells and illusionist spells were for the most part separated and had little overlap. Of all the AD&D classes, only the magic-user had spells of the 8th and 9th levels; all other spell-casting classes were limited to spells of up to 7th level.
In 2nd Edition AD&D, the magic-user (now called "mage") became an all-purpose wizard who could cast any wizardly spell, including many of the 1st-edition illusionist-only spells, such as color spray or chromatic orb. Instead of their own spell lists, illusionists became one of many specialist wizard types who could cast only a part of the full list of wizard spells (though with various bonuses). The other specialists were: abjurers, conjurers, diviners, enchanters, invokers, necromancers, and transmuters, each representing a "school" of magical study. Since each specialist wizard type now used the same basic spell lists, all wizards could use up to 9th level spells, if they had the required intelligence.
| Transmutation | Illusion | Enchantment |
| Divination | ✵ | Conjuration |
| Invokation | Necromancy | Abjuration |
A similar paradigm was retained for the 3rd edition of D&D as well. Despite removing the restrictions on race/class combinations, D&D 3.0 edition retained the gnomish affinity for becoming illusionists by making illusionist (not wizard) the gnome's favored class. This was dropped in the 3.5 edition in favor of bard.
[edit] Wizard spell preparation and casting
Wizards cast their spells by using their acquired magical knowledge (augmented by their Intelligence score) and experience. In particular, they learn most new spells by seeking out magical writings and copying them into their spellbooks, a method that allows them (unlike sorcerers) to master any number of permissible spells once they find them, assembling a broad and versatile arsenal of power. Many wizards see themselves not only as spell casters but as philosophers, inventors, and scientists, studying a system of natural laws that are for the most part unknown and undiscovered. Once the 3rd edition introduced skills to D&D, wizards' best skills became those that involved either magic or other scholarly or applied knowledge as history, nature, and geography.
Resting: Wizards need to rest prior to spell casting. This may be in the form of sleep or meditation. A wizard who refuses to sleep and then goes on a spell casting binge (which is not entirely impossible, but rare due to temporal allowances) will grow weary - possibly delusional - and may experience many negative health effects.
Preparing: In order to prepare spells from their spellbooks, wizards need comfortable quiet areas to study. The spell is read, spoken, or memorized up until the trigger. This is the easiest and most efficient way to cast arcane magic as a wizard because it means the wizard needs only to perform the trigger element of the spell when the need arises to cast it. There may be a temporal limit in spell casting and this could be the reason why wizards can only cast a certain number of spells of various degrees in one day.
A weakness of wizards is that they cannot cast an arcane spell that they have not prepared, so they are extremely vulnerable if caught in a situation they did not expect. To minimize this, wizards often develop their problem-solving ability to anticipate which spells may be most useful, and some may enhance this with abilities such as foresight.
Casting: When the need calls for a certain spell to be cast, wizards will allow their thoughts to retreat back into their consciousness in order to obtain it, and it often appears that wizards are in trances while they are casting. While there is some credence to that, they are not so much entranced that they cannot recognize situations outside their subconscious.
When they find the spell they want, wizards will then complete the trigger sequence. This is the common view of a wizard casting: voicing several strange words, utilising some arcane component, like tossing pixie dust, and perhaps making some sort of quirky hand movement. In actuality every part of the sequence must be exact or else the wizard may miscast, misfire, cast an entirely different spell, or cast nothing at all.
For example to trigger the spell Ignite Wood, a wizard would need to first speak the final words of the spell and then spread shavings of brimstone and sulphuric ash reagents onto the desired piece of wood to ignite.
[edit] Wizard's Skills
Concentration, craft, decipher script, knowledge, profession and spellcraft.
[edit] External links
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ DeVarque, Aardy. Literary Sources of D&D. Retrieved on 2007-02-23.
[edit] References
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