Our Wizard makes it into 5th edition and as they are starting out they are a lot stronger than in previous editions. Not only do they lose that horrible d4 for their hit dice, but they get more weapons they can use as well as start out with two level-1 spell slots at 1st level instead of only one! Technically... they start out with three level-1 spell slots, but we’ll get to that.

Like all real ‘magic users,’ the Wizard has a spellbook and it’s highly important to them. It is where they store all their spells, except for cantrips, and is what keeps them powerful. Every day when they wish to prepare their spells, they need their book or they just can’t remember those spells. Speaking of remembering spells, 5th edition introduces a new concept for the Wizard and that is that you don’t lose access to a spell after you cast it. In previous editions, once you cast that spell, it’s gone from your mind until you sit down with your book and remember it again, now you can cast it as many times as you have spell slots for, which provides a lot more flexibility for the Wizard.

Speaking of spells, the Wizard knows 6 spells at 1st level and 3 cantrips. They can pick their spells, they can choose which ones to prepare and then they cast a level-1 spell twice a day - wait, no three times a day because they have a class feature called Arcane Recovery that allows them to recover expended spell slots equal to half their level once per day. This means that from a lowly mage who can barely cast magic missile to even an all-powerful level 20 archmage who shoots lightning from his fingertips all find it important to take an hour and reflect on life and regain that sweet arcane energy. They then can go back to shooting even more lightning and being extremely terrifying! This is a great edition to be a Wizard as you are no longer just the sniveling coward in the back with your single spell and then you have nothing else, now you can be an all-powerful Wizard shooting out spells and using your cantrips from the safety of the back of the group.

Apart from being more powerful at even the weakest of levels, Wizards also now have several ways they can augment their magic by selecting an Arcane Tradition to follow. This is a subclass at level 2 that allows you to augment spells of a certain school of magic, and increase the abilities of the Wizard. One of the biggest things about this, as opposed to earlier editions, is that you don’t need a Dexterity of 15 to be an Illusionist, you can have a Dexterity of 3 and still cast those illusion spells like a master, and on top of that, you aren’t stopped from casting magic from an opposite school either! Maybe the Illusionist can be a viable class option in 5th edition.

The Schools of Magic available to the Wizard are the School of Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, and Transmutation. These subclasses allow you to blast your enemies with elemental spells, raise the dead to be a better meatshield than your fighter, transform lumps of wood to pure gold, and so much more. Each school has unique abilities that can really make your Wizard feel like a badass throughout their entire career instead of just the end of it.