Let us take a short trip back in time, to an earlier era of D&D. It was the age of AD&D 2nd Edition, the edition that my group and I really cut our teeth on. The first character I brought to the table was an Elven Psionicist named Spock (The Complete Psionics Handbook being the only book that I owned, and also displaying a middle school level of imagination in characters). I think the DM rejected him for whatever reason, but then I rolled up a new character (using 3d6, in order) and with my highest score being Strength of 13, I played a Dwarven Fighter named Smasher. Smasher would eventually get killed off due to a critical failure on a saving throw using a cursed d20, leading to a few other characters in that campaign.
But while that campaign progressed, other games started up. It was somewhere in that time that I came across the Tome of Magic (and probably bought it too before owning a Player’s Handbook). While the other players (many of whom were budding power gamers) eyed the Elementalist with glee, I couldn’t help but want to play a Wild Mage. First, I enjoyed playing overkill Chaotic Neutral where everything I did was random and wacky (remember, I was in middle school). Then on top of that the class abilities were just awesome. Fluctuating caster level? Cool utility spells like Patternweave? And most of all, the excellence that was Nahal’s Reckless Dweomer. Try to cast ANY spell in my spellbook, albeit with a very, very low chance that I’ll actually do it? Hells yeah!
Mathias Wildstrike (named after one of the many characters in Master of Magic) never saw the upper levels of play (and thus never got to cast Wildstrike). I ended up DMing for the remainder of our 2e days, too. Thus, I didn’t get as much of a chance to play a Wild Mage as I wanted, though I did try to play one whenever possible in a con game I could jump into.
Third edition arrived, and it lacked a Wild Mage. It did, however, have a funny little class called Sorcerer. I wasn’t enamored with the “dragon blooded” concept at all, but it seemed to me that these were guys who were grabbing raw magic were just Wild Mages who had managed to figure out how to do it more safely. Thus, in my game world (which was my previous campaign world with a big timeline jump), Wild Mages had turned into Sorcerers. To that end, I made a new feat that allowed Sorcerers in my game to get in touch with their Wild Mage roots. When taking the feat, instead of using a base 10 for DCs, the Sorcerer would roll 1d20. (This was an option in the 3rd edition Psionics Handook too, for Psions).
Well, my oldest gaming buddy The O took me up on this. Overall, it made fights with him much more swingy then standard combats. Nowhere was this more evident than the final battle. The party’s patron turned out to be Asmodeus, confined to a mortal shell, who they inadvertantly freed, making the final boss a pumped up Pit Fiend. In the first round, The O’s Sorcerer fired off a Phantasmal Killer, a strange save or die spell that had never before worked. He rolled his DC… natural 20. I rolled his two saves… low, and a natural 1. Poof! Final boss defeated by a killer illusion spell and the power of Wild Magic. It certainly did not make for an epic final fight, and I never used that rule again… but did make for a great story to tell afterwards, and I narrated it as an illusionary Solar laying waste to the devil lord.
3.5 edition was where an official Wild Mage made a comeback, in the form of a largely forgettable prestige class in Complete Arcane. I played one once in an epic game I was asked to jump in on for the finale, and converted all the Wild Mage spells to 3.5e from 2e (using mostly a cross conversion). The DM also allowed me to use both the original Wild Surge Results Table (instead of the lame Wand of Wonder table), and an old joke of a spell Grand Total. It was fun for the one evening, but that was my only experience with wild mages in 3.5e.
Now, today, we find out that my idea about the Sorcerer was shared among the WotC design team. You see, the new Sorcerer has two builds: Dragon-blooded (meh) and Wild Mage! This Arcane Striker coming out in PHB2 gets all sorts of effects depending on attack rolls being odd or even. Their primary at-will Chaos Bolt has a chance of jumping to every target on the battlefield if you’re lucky enough. They get a random elemental affinity every day. And being in the PHB2 means they’re more core than they’ve ever been before. I can’t wait to re-roll Mathias in 4e and bring back the chaos. The preview is only 3 levels, so I don’t know the full extent of what they’ll be able to do. I doubt the Reckless Dweomer will make a comeback in anything close to resembling what it used to be, but I’m hoping many of the old favorite spell names come back. Heck, not just in powers, but a “wild ritual” of Patternweave would be awesome. Anyway, I was expecting Sorcerers to be another Arcane Controller who had some “overchannel” power, and here I got one of my favorite classes back in the game.
Why am I not surprised to see you as a fan of the Wild Mage?
I never really got to play one either, but I did like the idea. I haven’t had a chance yet to check out the 4e Sorcerer, but it is a class that I have always enjoyed playing before.
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Killing your final boss with a 4th level illusion spell was the pinnacle of my gaming years :P.
I also seem to remember the Warhammer model you converted for Mathias, where you randomly splotched various paint colors all over him and replaced the orb on the end of his staff with a miniature D6.
I think they’re really hitting their stride. This is my favorite class preview yet.
It certainly looks like the PHB2 might be JUST as exciting as the core books were, but I also think it will bring up an issue in ongoing games where a large batch of players are encouraged / intrigued into switching characters for the “new and shiny” stuff. We’ll see how things play out, of course, but I’m definitely excited to see how this new Sorcerer plays with the Wizard class.
Sounds like fun. I’ve always wanted to play a wild mage, but I’ve always been met with rolled-eyes and a no. Maybe now I’ll finally get my chance outside of Baulder’s Gate II.
I’ve been looking forward to the PHB2 to “round out” the class options, but this pushed it into the must buy category.
Oh let’s also not forget the creation / justification of Wild Jedi for our Star Wars games. Now THAT led to some wackiness! 😀
Also, I left out that the first DM that I refer to also created his own class of “Order Mages” that used all organizing/law spells. I didn’t like that because Wild Mages were specifically described as not being all chaotic: some were trying to use orderly, scientific processes to control the raw magic.
This article is not exactly what I expected to be!
Where are my topless spell casters????
You’re thinking of our sister site, Critical Tits.
THAT’S what I was looking for…
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My fave character of all time was a 2nd ed Elven Wild Mage/Thief Spellthief. That tome of magic just spoke to me. (In soft secret whispers, that came in the night). The GM was really good, and that helped a great deal. The poor bastard died so many times, and Baba Yaga kept bringing him back. Eventually he retired back to Celene, a cowering mess.
I still remember him trying to teach his two apprentices how to cast wild magic. They were always so precise in thier gestures – that would never do – no, no. So he took some elastic and used it to make a cat’s cradle type harness. Then ever morning he had them cast thier spells wearing this harness. Turns out they didn’t have the INT score so it was a futile effort anyway.
As far as the spells go – There / Not there was one of the best of the wild mage’s insane spells as I recall. It cries out to be a ritual in 4th Ed.
So now, with this article, I want to bring him back. The way we played 2nd ed, Spellcasters were basically sorcerers anyway (no spell memorization for us – no sir! If its was in your book you could cast it, so long as you had the slots.) So this is a nice synergy for him. Throw in a little thief multiclassing, and I think we can bring him up to speed.
Plus the chaos seems to be reigned in a great deal. That was the one bad thing about this character. He did himself and other players in just a little too often. So I like the fact that in 4th Ed it can backfire, but not turn your fireball into a TPK.
Ah, wild mages. That brings back memories from both sides of the screen. Though my favorite wild magic scene was a player who joined my home campaign and with a straight face informed me he possessed a Staff of Wizardy. I didn’t argue. I just failed to tell him till he used it that it was a Staff of Wild Wizardy! >:-) Ah, the look on his face when the magic missile went off and effected the entire party as well as the target; pure Hallmark moment for gamers.
Wild Jedi were one of the best things to come out of the Star Wars games. Haha, I was so unoriginal 😛
I’m glad they are bringing Wild Mages to 4e. Can’t wait to play one someday.
Honestly I thought that the concept of Wild Jedi added a lot to the SW universe and made a lot of sense, considering one of the aspects of the force is called Control, it brought a nice balance between the extreme sides of the dark jedi and light jedi. Besides, didn’t at least one of them have a raindbow lightsaber?
I’ll never forget my secretive bounty hunter, who always wore his suit/mask (yes, I was in highschool and love Boba Fett…) and no one knew at all what race or if he was even human, then a random wild jedi power goes off and his head quadruples in size. There goes THAT mystery!
Plaid lightsaber actually, but that is neither here nor there.