I miss the days of wizardinf where you couldn’t pick spells on the opposite side of your circle. It made wizards a bit more in depth? Wizard schools are awesome but it makes wizards a bit over powered on my mind, thoughts? The opposition schools felt like an arbitrary restriction that added very little in the way of theme or flavor.
I think if you want to do a system like that you have to go farther in on restrictions, almost to a rock/paper/scissor degree, but that’s full of design pitfalls.
— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) August 31, 2019
Hmmmm. Not sure I’m following the Force analogy.
The idea behind specialties was that for extra proficiency in one school, which was optional, you had to give up two others (or one for Diviners). Most wizards weren’t specialists.
— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) August 31, 2019
With the mechanical shift to subclasses in 5e I feel like the tradition features give that sense of focus without the arbitrary limitation.
This logic is sound and I follow it, and agree with it. With one teeenyyyy tinnnnnny addendum.
Wizards rule sorcerers drool. Nyah!
(This is a joke….kind of. I’m heavily biased) It wouldn’t be bad, particularly, but just look at how people gripe about sorcerer’s smaller spell list.
— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) August 31, 2019
Ha! You’re entitled to the occasional jab. 😂
— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) August 31, 2019
I don’t get why people feel the need to claim one spellcaster class is better than another. It’s like saying a race horse is better than a draft horse.
Sorcerers aren’t better than Wizards, or vice versa – they’re just different, and excel at doing different things.
~~~
Sorcerers are all about using a small number of spells very frequently. They trade versality for reliability – a classic example is the Sorcerer who can throw Fireball after Fireball after Fireball after Fireball, all day long.
Wizards are all about using a large number of spells very infrequently. They trade reliability for versatility – a classic Wizard is someone who can reach into their bag of tricks and find just the right spell for any situation.
~~~
Each option has different strengths and challenges.
Playing a Wizard means you need to be good at thinking on the fly, being able to pick the best spell for a given situation from a large number of prepared spells, while also planning ahead for what spells you might need to prepare the next day.
Playing a Sorceror eliminates those problems, but introduces a different one – while you don’t have to worry about preparing spells, you very much do have to worry about which spells you choose to learn and know.
A Wizard who makes a poor choice in the spells they prepare can easily fix that mistake by just preparing different spells the next day. But a Sorcerer who makes a poor choose in the spells they learn is stuck with that choice until they level up, at which point they can only relearn ~a single spell~. If they picked multiple spells that don’t work / they don’t like, they’ll have to level up multiple times to fix them.
Sorcerers require very careful spell selection at character creation / level up.
Wizards require very careful spell selection in the middle of combat.
Which one is better? Neither. Just pick the one that suits your needs / tastes.