Design and Development Article

Wizards
Magic saturates the world and all the extraordinary realms beyond the world. Magic is an intrinsic force present in literally all things. Magic transforms and alters the natural world, sometimes actively and suddenly, other times subtly and over long centuries.

This arcane energy source is difficult to understand and even tougher to master. Those who do so through years of study, practice, and apprenticeship to accomplished masters are called wizards.



Wizards wield arcane magic. Wizards recognize reality for what it is: a thin veneer of structure supported and energized by a force that is ultimately changeable, to those who know its secrets. Thus wizards research esoteric rituals that allow them to alter time and space, hurl balls of fire that incinerate massed foes, and wield spells like warriors brandish swords. They call upon arcane strikes, power words, and spells to unleash raging torrents of cold, fire, or lighting, confuse and enthrall the weak-minded, or even turn invisible or walk through walls.

What sets wizards apart from others who attempt to wield arcane magic are wizards’ unique implements.

Most people recognize the four classic tools associated with wizardcraft: The Orb, Staff, Tome, or Wand.

Each implement focuses magic of a particular class slightly better than the wizard would be able to accomplish bare-handed. Thus wizards are rarely without wand and staff, orb and tome, or some other combination thereof.

A wizard’s orb grants better access to powers of terrain control and manipulation (such as clouds and walls), as well as retributive effects, detection and perception effects, and invisibility.

The staff is best suited to powers that forcefully project powers from the wizard, such as lines of lightning and cones of fire; however, a staff also has resonances with effects related to flight and telekinesis (pushing, pulling, or sliding creatures or objects).

A tome is tied to powers that reduce or neutralize an enemy’s capability in combat in some fashion, whether by slowing the foe, dazing, or through some other fashion. Tomes are also often important for spells of teleportation, summoning, shapechanging, and a few physical enhancement effects.

The wand is a perennial favorite, as it is an ideal conduit for powers that create effects well away from the wizard’s physical position, effects which include explosions of fire, bursts of cold, and other long-range effects that can affect several enemies at once. In addition, personal protections and countermagic effects may lie in wands.

Thus a wizard without an implement is like a slightly near-sighted man with glasses; the man can still see, but without his glasses, he can’t read the road sign across the way. In like wise, while wizard powers are associated with a particular implement, a wizard need not possess or hold a given implement to use its associated power. For instance, a wizard can cast the wand spell cinder storm even if he doesn’t own, has lost, or is not holding a magic wand. However, holding the associated implement grants a benefit to the wizard’s attack that is just like the benefit the warrior gains when attacking an enemy with a magic sword.

Sounds fun to me. Let me say before the naysayers and pessimists (Pinky) get ahold of this one, you can *still* cast magic without your focus item, it's just something to enhance your magic.

hmmm, me's ganna like this maybe.

Yeah, sounds interesting, focus devices for magical abilities sounds greatly needed. Oh, crap, my staff got sundered! Now I'm F'ed until I can make a new one. Rather than, oh, my staff got sundered, oh well, I'll just grab a short sword off a goblin and it'll be like nothing changed whatsoever.... Giving a wizard something to give him a little more oomph and at the same time giving him something he'd be worried about losing is awesome. Before, even if your spellbook got burned by a dragon, it wouldn't be that big of a deal to get another one. Even if it's "your staff gives you +1 damage when channeling a lightning bolt through it, and you can still cast it normally without the staff", it would still encourage wizards to use staves and wands instead of greatswords and stuff I've been seeing. A traditional view of the wizard forced by a revamp of the core system..... Haha.

New version of the article put out. Bart Carroll says it's the one that should have been put up in the first place:

Magic saturates the world and all the extraordinary realms beyond the world, an intrinsic force present in literally all things. Magic transforms and alters the natural world, sometimes actively and with sudden effect, other times subtly and over long centuries.

This arcane energy source is difficult to understand and even tougher to master. Wizards do so through years of study, practice, and apprenticeship to accomplished masters.

Wizards wield arcane magic, and they recognize reality for what it is: a thin veneer of structure supported and energized by a force that is ultimately malleable, to those who know its secrets. Though research and study, wizards learn esoteric rituals that allow them to alter time and space, hurl balls of fire that incinerate massed foes, and wield spells like warriors brandish swords. They call upon lesser and greater spells to unleash raging torrents of cold, fire, or lightning, confuse and enthrall the weak-minded, or even turn invisible or walk through walls.

What sets wizards apart from others who wield arcane magic are wizards’ unique implements. Most people recognize the three most common tools associated with wizardcraft: the orb, staff, and wand.

Any wizard can use an implement to increase the effectiveness of his spells. Just as a warrior gains a benefit when attacking an enemy with a magic sword, so does a wizard benefit from using a magic orb, staff, or wand with his spellcasting. In addition, each implement focuses magic of a particular discipline or tradition more effectively than the wizard would be able to accomplish otherwise. As a result, wizards are rarely without at least one of these tools.

The orb is favored by the Iron Sigil and Serpent Eye traditions. Serpent Eye cabalists use orbs to focus powers of enchantment, beguiling, and ensnaring. The mages of the Iron Sigil, on the other hand, employ orbs to guard themselves with potent defenses when invoking spells of thunder or force.

The staff is best suited to the disciplines of the Hidden Flame and the Golden Wyvern. Servants of the Hidden Flame wield fierce powers of fire and radiance through their staves. Golden Wyvern initiates are battle-mages who use their staves to shape and sculpt the spells they cast.

The wand is a perennial favorite for wizards who favor accurate, damaging attacks. Emerald Frost adepts use wands to help channel powers of cold and deadly acidic magic, while Stormwalker theurges channel spells of lightning and force through their wands.

A wizard without an implement is like a slightly near-sighted man with glasses: The man can still see, but without his glasses, he can’t read the road sign across the way. Likewise, while wizard traditions are associated with a particular implement, a wizard need not possess or hold a given implement to use a power belonging to that tradition. For instance, a wizard belonging to the Hidden Flame order can cast the fire spell cinder storm even if he doesn’t own, has lost, or is not holding a magic staff. But if he does have a magic staff, it aids the accuracy of his attack, and his mastery of the Hidden Flame technique allows him to deal more damage with the spell.


So no more Tome, and more in-depth on the different wizardry styles and what the impliments can go about doing. Excellent. Wizards shouldn't carry books into battle!

ZER0 wrote:

Sounds fun to me. Let me say before the naysayers and pessimists (Pinky) get ahold of this one, you can *still* cast magic without your focus item, it's just something to enhance your magic.

That was uncalled for. I am not only literate enough to make my way through the article, but also intellectually capable enough to form my own opinion.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not exactly thrilled with the direction that many of WotC's decisions have gone recently and that I have NO reservations about speaking my mind when I believe that WotC are not acting in the mutual best interest of the corporation and the consumer...and I don't plan on changing any time soon.

But, since I have been invoked, to the point at hand...RE: Wizards

First, I hope that Wizards will still have "normal" weapon selections open to them. It would be a serious step in the wrong direction to go back to the weapon restrictions of Basic and AD&D...I'm not saying open up everything, that's the Fighter's domain, but single-handed weapons are acceptable in my book.

Second, I'm glad that "tome" was abandoned (or at least put off until another supplement). But I'd still rather see something different with Wands and Staves...perhaps even making Staves something more akin to familiars. There's just something about the cross-over between the two that rubs me the wrong way.

Third, I'm curious to see just what will effect a staff will have. I've always thought of them like batteries of some sort: having minor spells stored in them and maybe allowing a Wizard with his staff to swap out certain spells in a partial work-around of the Vancian magic system...but I don't know just what's going to happen to spellcasting in the 4.0, so Vancian may be completely out.

Third, Orb? Please let this be something apart from the stereotypical crystal ball. I just can't see anyone crawling through a dungeon with a crystal ball: they're fragile and heavy. "Small" orbs (only a few inches, no more than 3"-4" across) are more believable to my mind and can be affixed into a scepter or some such that would make more sense to me.

Lastly, we have the fluff: I homebrew. The fluff is gone.

I was completely kidding when I said that, pinky. No harsh feelings. I think change needs people to be hesitant and have their own say about things, because if everyone followed blindly into the next big thing we'd have a hundred editions of D&D running around. I just couldn't figure out how to say that jokingly without "lollollollol" haha.

That said, I do agree that the tome was kind of a bad choice. At least for the core. Orbs, however, I do like. But I'm into all that cheeseball stuff like crystal balls as scrying devices, because you can't carry around pools of water and have it be effective, haha. I guess that's what it comes down to. I like how they're kind of stepping back to the classic view of wizards here. I like all that cheeseball stuff of a wizard being less powerful without his staff, and not because he had a couple charges of fireball stored in it. In order of things I like them using, it would have to go staff-orb-wand. With harry potter being big right now, that's all I can think of when it comes to wands...

Lets always remember that you a free to speak your mind against any of the manufactureres that publish/produce the items we use for our games here.

The use of smilies where you are kidding in posts are useful

That's true. Sorry again about the misunderstanding.

No worries, Zero. Lots of stuff was rubbing me wrong yesterday so I was bound to jump down someone's throat for no good reason. Lucky you. "No blood, no foul," as my father says.

I'm glad that someone brought up Harry Potter and the wands. That had been in one version of the post I was writing, but I couldn't come up with a non-hostile way of treating the issue. Since I like D&D and Harry Potter, it doesn't seem to make much sense to bag on D&D for bringing wands to the front of things. So I let the issue drop.

For me, I've usually thought of Wands as useful, but disposable, items and I'm not sure how I can rationalize the new status as a natural addition to the Wizard's gear.

yeah, it's a bit akward. The wand and orb seem to add to the witches part of wizardry a bit. It makes a lot of sense, though. Magical energy being channeled out through a focus point, and all that. The wand, being smaller, would definately be better at aiming fireballs than the bulky staff or the tipless orb. That part gets me excited. I guess I'm more saying I wish Harry Potter weren't out *right* as this were happening, making my mind go directly to it. I'm hopeful to see maybe more focuses come out before the edition finishes, and forget that dumb tome idea More focuses would take away a bit from the wand issue I have.