I’ve been reading through Arcane Power for the last couple of days, and I am pretty sure Wizards has tried to pull a fast one on us! What’re they trying to pull? Making the Wizard class just as powerful as the other classes in 4th Edition. It’s not really a crime, I know, but I really don’t think many people have noticed yet and I’d like to open up some discussion on the topic.
Arcane Power introduces the Tome as a new implement for arcane spellcasters, but Wizards are the only ones who can use it without taking a feat. Most people who have read or reviewed the book most likely skimmed the new magic item section for Tomes because it’s only two pages of the book and it seems to be the same thing we saw in the PHB2 where Totems were introduced without much fanfare. What I’ve noticed, however, is that Tomes are a pretty big deal.
The typical tome that is introduced in Arcane Power is either focused on fire spells, cold spells, or summoning spells with a few miscellaneous variations added in. Each of these implements increases the effectiveness of your particular spells of the matching type, but what’s even more cool is that each tome contains two daily spells of its level or lower for that type. I believe this is where most people stopped paying attention, and accepted the new items as just as good as every other implement. What follows that is one potentially game changing sentence for the Wizard class.
“You can add these powers to your spellbook.”
Picture this with me, your previously underpowered level 5 Wizard is searching through an old library in an abandoned tower, at the beginning of the day you chose between Sleep and Acid Arrow for your level 1 daily and between Bigby’s Icy Grasp and Web for your level 5 daily spells. By chance, you find a level 5 magic tome – a Book of Undeniable Fire. Upon reading said Tome, you discover it contains the level 1 daily spell Flaming Sphere and the level 5 daily spell Fireball. During your next extended rest, you add these powers to your spellbook, and BAM! Your level 5 wizard’s selection of spells has just gone up by 50%.
I’m not entirely sure that this is what Wizards of the Coast intended for the Wizard, considering when you gain levels or retrain the old spells vanish from your spellbook (a rule which I’ve been actively considering ignoring), but for right now it definitely looks like finding 3 or 4 magical tomes throughout a Wizard’s adventuring career definitely changes the classes versatility.
I hadn’t notice that, that is very handy indeed and could make the wizards a real jack of all trades in the party. I thought the wizard got some nice new powers across the board in Arcane Power and between the tomes and familiars should be much more useful all around. I am not sold on summoners, but the illusionist looks very nice as well. Definitely a big step of the pointy hat guys in the book.
Good. Wizards should have a good selection of spells to choose from, and I don’t think two dailies of each level cuts it.
I like it and agree with xero. It’s a good idea and makes wizards feel more wizardy. I thought it was bullshit initially that wizards never got more spells or were unable to get more spells than they did.
I bet even the fighter will get a similar mechanic eventually, martial training where they can learn a new move from a mentor, or teach a fellow PC one of their moves. That would be rad.
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As far as I can tell, rules as written let you add the spells from a tome into your spellbook, which means they’re available when you want to memorize them after an extended rest. If you /don’t/ memorize one, and you need it, you can use the tome’s power to switch it out on the fly.
Which, needless to say, is freakin’ awesome. I’m well-pleased with Arcane Power so far.
Unless my understanding of the class is way off, that’s not as great a buff as it may seem. You can add a greater variety of spells to your book, but it doesn’t increase the amount that you have available to use during an adventure/between extended rests. So with Dave’s current game, had Arcane Power been out from the start, and had Dave given me tomes for a whole bunch of dailies, I’d still likely just memorize sleep and Bigby’s Icy Grasp every day with all these extra spells sitting around never to be used. If I’m mistaken, please let me know since I want the wizard class improved :).
I’d never venture to say your understanding is way off, or that mine is better, but in my opinion it does make the wizard a fair bit more powerful. You are right that you don’t get any more powers during a given adventure/between extended rests, BUT it brings back a bit of the old advantage wizards used to have. That advantage is that if you are going to go to a dungeon you know is heavily populated by things with ice resistance and fire vulnerability then on that day you are not going to want Bigby’s Icy Grasp. Maybe your other spell for that level was Phantasmal Assailant. So, as awesomely cool as illusions may be, you’ll want that handy new fire spell from the tome you happened to find instead of the illusion. Minimizeing chances for disadvantages, and sometimes creating an advantage, was always the wizards best trait in my mind. Most wizard damage dealing spells have a type associated with it, which means the more variation in types (via more daily options) the more effective you will be in each situation.
Extra daily attack spells added to the spellbook = yawn. The heroic tier feat Expanded Spellbook does the same thing, yet no one was clambering to take that feat. Sure, it’s nice getting extra spells without taking a feat, but I agree with The O here. I have found that having extra spells to choose from isn’t all that helpful, except in the uncommon instance where you know what kind of monsters you will be fighting in advance. Perhaps that situation is more common in other D&D campaigns, but it doesn’t happen too often in the ones I play in.
Now being able to substitute on the fly, as Meanderthal implies, would be much more helpful.
@Meanderthal: The tomes that I’m referencing do allow you to substitute in a spell it contains once per day, so that is a little more added versatility.
@Original Sultan: I can definitely understand your reaction, but I think that once we play well into the paragon tier and The O’s wizard has 4 daily spells, he may start switching them up a bit more. I also think we’ll see a larger list of spells to choose from is a bigger deal than you think, essentially it looks to me that the 4E wizard is beginning to play much like a combination of the 3rd Edition Sorcerer and Wizard classes.
Also, what you have to look at is these mechanics in comparison to every other class in the system. What the O was implying is that the only thing that would make the Wizard better in this vein is more daily spells, of course that would make EVERY class better. The Wizard is the only class that gets a choice for daily powers, so by just taking sleep and Bigby’s Icy Grasp he’s really just staying at the level of the other classes. Even if he only switches those spells out a handful of times, the ability to do so is a boon for the class and the more selection he has the better the advantage.
If Wizards really seem that nerfed why no let them switch spells with a short rest?
This doesn’t fix much in my opinion. I still don’t understand why they don’t take the Channel Divinity route with wizards.
Have 2-3 level 7 Daily’s…. but you can only use 1 of them once per day.
Have 2-3 level level 1 Encounters, but you can only use 1 of them once per encounter.
@Tonester: I hadn’t even thought of that, and honestly I like it a hell of a lot. Might have to try that out, thanks!
@ Tonester: your idea of letting Wizards have multiple spells for each level “memorized” but only being able to cast one is exactly what I was thinking about. I think it would put the Wizard right where he needs to be in terms of game balance, and at the same time would increase the “feel” of the Wizard (in the sort of way that he always has just the right spell for the right situation).