When considering the strongest classes in Dungeons and Dragons, many different builds and archetypes come to mind. However, it is the opinion of most veteran TTRPG players that the Wizard has the greatest potential, with the widest variety of magic giving them nearly infinite ways to counter even the toughest encounters with their party. Despite having the lowest health of any class, this is a smaller problem that another one overshadows, at least until 2024 5th Edition rules changed the game.
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The joke of Wizard characters dying to a single goblin’s arrow still rings true at lower levels, but high level spellcasting masters have more than enough utility in their magic to circumvent statistical weaknesses. This much hasn’t changed with 2024’s shift in rules to D&D, but many other features of the class have been altered instead. To understand just how much the Wizard has been modified, it’s good to know one the class’ biggest restrictions from older rules.
The Wizard Class Used To Be The Most Expensive Upon Party Resources
Older versions of the 5e Wizard tied learning new magic not just to level progression, but also through copying spells into your spellbook. A feature shared between both the 2014 and 2024 editions of the Wizard, the class’ spellcasting states that whenever you find a Wizard spell of the 1st Level or higher, you can transcribe it into your spellbook over the course of two hours. You also have to spend 50 gold pieces during this process for every Level of the spell you’re translating, consuming more time and money the more powerful the magic is.
This can quickly turn into a money sink for your Wizard and the rest of your party. For example, transcribing Fireball from a spell scroll into your spellbook takes six hours and 150gp in-game, easily taking up nearly as much time as a long rest. To pause the action and spend a lot of party money in this action can be expensive, especially if your DM doesn’t hand out much currency in your campaigns. Thankfully, getting a new spell this way allows you to prepare it normally alongside any magic you learned through your character leveling up.
However, subclasses are when things get tricky, as many try to cheapen this exchange to have a Wizard not drain their party’s resources as much attempting to learn new magic. A great example of this is the Necromancer Wizard, who can cut the time and money it takes to transcribe a necromancy spell into their spellbook in half. This makes any necromancy spell cost only one hour to move into a spellbook, and only cost 25gp if it is a 1st Level magic, increasing with levels as usual.
These “Savant” features were nice, but they still demanded that Wizards spend monetary materials to learn magic they found naturally throughout their adventures. While it may seem small, the cost of learning multiple spells for extra utility could easily cost your party hundreds or thousands of gold pieces, preventing them from buying important potions, armor, weapons, or other gear they desperately need for other challenges.
Subclasses For The Wizard No Longer Have Features Dedicated To Spellbook Spending
Although the 2024 Wizard still has the same 2hr, 50gp cost for transcribing spells for the core class, there are no more subclass features dedicated to reducing that cost. At first, you might think that this is a detrimental loss, forcing Wizard characters to spend the highest amount of in-game money as possible to gain new magic. Yet, it is how the “Savant” features have changed that actually allows the Wizard to gain more new spells than ever before.
The first time a player takes a subclass at Level 3 for the 2024 Wizard, they gain an ability related to the school of magic they follow. With the exception of Bladesinging, most Wizards gain a new type of “Savant” feature that lets them automatically add two spells from their school into their spellbook right away. For example, an Abjurer Wizard who focuses on defensive magic through this mystical D&D subclass gains two spells from the Abjuration school of magic right as they take the archetype.
No longer does that same Wizard only have a slightly lower cost to transcribe Abjuration spells, they simply gain more magic from the school right away. This allows a character to become more versatile instantly, making a subclass choice immediately rewarding rather than a long dip into gold reserves and patient planning. This change gets even better when you realize that the “Savant” ability also allows you add more spells from your school whenever you gain new spell slots of a higher level.
The amount of freedom this opens up for creating thematically resonant Wizard characters is astounding, as the class no longer has to rely on gold spending and in-game hours to acquire their greatest variety of magic. This may not make the class “stronger” in a traditional sense, but it does allow them to follow the ideas of whatever subclass is taken, giving their magic a greater focus on a specific idea. In truth, it gives the Wizard class in Dungeons and Dragons greater flavor, which creates more interesting characters to play during an adventure.
What do you think of the Wizard changes in 2024 D&D rules? Leave a comment below or join the conversation in the ComicBook Forum!
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