Wizard Class Guide DnD 2024 (2024)

Introduction

The Wizard is DnD’s iconic arcane spellcaster, capable of solving any problemwith magic, and generally limited only by their spellbook and their spellslots. A Wizard with a comprehensive spellbook can do essentially anything inthe game, often as well as or better than a non-magical character who is builtto do that thing. A Wizard with Invisibility is as nearly stealthy as a Rogue,or a divination spell can be even more subtle. A Wizard with a summoned petcan often replace a Fighter (at least temporarily) as the party’s durablefront line. A clever Wizard could even find a way to heal their allies andreplace a Cleric.

Because Wizards can do so much so well, their possible roles within the party are numerous and varied. However, in a typical party the Wizard’s primary functions are as a Blaster, Controller, Librarian, Support caster, Striker, and Utility Caster. Depending on your spells and potentially your skills, you can also serve as a Defender, Face, Healer (though it’s difficult), and Scout. You may think, “but wait, isn’t that every role?”. Yes. Yes, it is. But be sure not to spread yourself too thin. DnD is a game that often rewards specialization and frequently punishes breadth.

Despite their many strengths, Wizards are among the least durable charactersin the game, having no armor proficiencies, poor saving throws, and the lowesthit dice available. Staying alive as a wizard can be very difficult, and inmost cases requires a party of sturdy allies willing to protect you from harm.There are exceptions to this rule (bladesingers can achieve some of thehighest AC in the game without the aid of magic items), but they are few innumber.

The Wizard, perhaps more than any other class in the game, rewards the playerfor mastery of both their character and the game system as a whole. Aproficient player with the right spell can solve any problem. But developingthat proficiency takes time and effort. If you’re not ready to invest the timeto reach that level of proficiency, the Wizard can still be a lot of fun toplay. The 2024 Player’s Handbook describes the Wizard’s complexity as“average”, and it’s not wrong. The Wizard’s features are simple, and stickingto straightforward, reliable spells can be effective without a ton of efforton the player’s part.

Nearly all of of the class’s complexity is buried in managing and casting your spells. A spellbook requires an unusual extra layer of bookkeeping, and unlike Clerics and Druids who can select from a vast spell list after every long rest, you need to hoard newly-learned spells to expand your capabilities beyond the handful of spells which you learn at each level, often at great expense. Learning new spells can be a gamble, costing precious gold for a spell which you may never use. If you are prone to analysis paralysis or don’t enjoy carefully tracking resources, you might find this part of the Wizard frustrating. But, again, you can do the bare minimum and still be perfectly fine.

I’ll tell anyone who asks that the Wizard is my favorite class, and that hasbeen the case since early in my career with Dungeons and Dragons. The Wizardis a class that rewards system mastery, and while you don’t need to be anexperienced player to succeed as a wizard, improving your familiarity with thegame will pay dividends.

If you’re playing Baldur’s Gate 3, you might also enjoy our Baldur’s Gate 3 Wizard Guide. If you’re still looking at the 2014 rules, see our 2014 DnD 5e Wizard Class Guide.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Disclaimer
• Wizard Class Features
• 2024 Wizard Changes from 2014 Rules
• Wizard Backgrounds
• Wizard Species
• Wizard Ability Scores
• Wizard Skills
• Wizard Feats
  • Origin Feats
  • General Feats
  • Epic Boons
• Wizard Weapons
• Wizard Armor
• Wizard Multiclassing

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.

• Red: Bad, useless options, or options whichare extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
• Orange: OK options, or useful optionsthat only apply in rare circ*mstances. Useful sometimes.
• Green: Good options. Useful often.
• Blue: Fantastic options, often essentialto the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.

The advice offered below is based on the current State of the Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows.

Wizard Class Features

Hit Points: d6 hit points is the lowest inthe game. Fortunately, Intelligence is the only ability which Wizards strictlyneed, so you can afford a decent Constitution score.

Saves: Intelligence saves are very rare,and proficiency in Wisdom saves won’t help much if your Wisdom is terrible.

Proficiencies: Wizard’s are proficient insimple weapons, but no armor. You’ll rely on spellcasting to make up the gap.Wizards only get the standard two skill proficiencies, which is difficultconsidering that your party will expect you to cover as many knowledge skillsas possible, leaving many Wizards with little room to diversify.

1. Spellcasting: Wizards are the king ofspellcasters. They can do everything: kill stuff, charm stuff, solve problems,gather information, travel, whatever. If you can imagine doing it with magic,a Wizard can do it. Except healing. They can’t really do that beyond ArcaneVigor, which only targets the caster.

For help selecting spells, see ourWizard Spells Breakdown.

1. Ritual Adept: Wizards are one of the bestritual casters in the game. They get the most ritual spells on their spelllist, and they can cast any ritual spell in their spellbook rather thanrequiring the spell to be prepared like other spellcasters. This means that,if you collect the spells and add them to your spellbook, you can make everyritual on your spell list available at all times.

1. Arcane Recovery: This provides a bit ofsustainability to the Wizard which was missing in previous editions. Wizardswere the biggest cause of the “five minute day”, in which the Wizard wouldburn their biggest spells in the first encounter, then would be essentiallyuseless unless the party immediately took a long rest. Arcane Recovery givesyou the ability to recover a bunch of spell slots, allowing you to continue atleast through the first Short Rest of each day without issue. While ArcaneRecovery can’t restore slots above level 6, it’s still a crucial resource,allowing you to recover low-level spell slots which will remain a perpetualsource of crucial defensive and utility spells like Shield and Darkvision.

2. Scholar: Expertise is always nice. Thelist includes every skill which you could select with your 2 wizard skills atlevel 1 except for Insight. They’re also all Intelligence-based, except forMedicine, which means that you’re well suited to using these skillseffectively.

3. Subclass: Wizard subclasses are briefly summarized below. See our Wizard Subclasses Breakdown for help selecting your subclass.

• Abjurer: Create a powerful magical ward toreduce damage to yourself and your allies, and master the ability to counterand dispel enemy’s spells.
• Evoker: Simple and effective, the Evokerfocuses on dealing damage via evocation spells like Fireball.
• Diviner: Use Portent to manipulate dice rolls, and use divination spells topredict the future and extend your senses.
• Illusionist: Master illusion spells to shapethe world around you, including the ability to summon illusory creatures tofight in battle and the ability to make your illusion spells briefly real.

5. Memorize Spell: This is great if your daytook an unexpected turn, or if you’re still learning how to plan your spellsfor the day. Once you’ve mastered picking your spells, you can use this toswap out long-duration buffs after you cast them, or you can swap outhigh-level spells when you run out of high-level spell slots.

18. Spell Mastery: Your first thought mightbe to pick up something to replace your cantrips as a go-to damage solution,but your cantrips hit 4dx damage a level ago, which means they will outstripnearly all level 1 and level 2 spells in terms of single-target damage. Yourbest bets for damage are Shatter (if you need a spammable AOE) and ScorchingRay, but even Scorching Ray only beats cantrips by an average of 3 damage.Instead, look for utility spells which are helpful to spam like Invisibility,defenses like Mirror Image, save-or-suck spells like Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, and morestrategically interesting options like Magic Missile for breaking enemyspellcasters’ Concentration

Because Spell Mastery doesn’t consume a spell slot, it doesn’t run into the “one spell with a spell slot per turn” rule. This means that, like cantrips, you can use Spell Mastery to cast spells on a turn in which you cast another spell. Since Spell Mastery only works for spells with a casting time of 1 Action, this means casting spells like Misty Step as a Bonus Action.

20. Signature Spells: Cool, but not nearlyas important as Spell Mastery. The free castings are nice, but the biggestdraw is the two extra spells prepared per day, which improves your versatilityeven at this level when you’re already able to prepare so many.

2024 Wizard Changes from 2014 Rules

This section is from our 2024 DnD Rules Transition Guide.

• 1. Spellcasting. Now allows you to change a cantrip on Long Rest, which only Wizards can do. Everyone else needs to gain a class level.
• 1. Ritual Adept. Broken out from the Spellcasting feature, where it was buried and often overlooked in the 2014 rules. This remains one of the Wizard’s best tools.
• 2. Scholar. Expertise in one skill from the Wizard’s class skill list, excluding Insight. This makes the wizard feel very scholarly, which I love.
• 5. Memorize Spell. Replace one of your prepared spells on a Short Rest. Guessing which spells to prepare has long been the hardest part of playing a Wizard, and this takes some of that stress away. It also gives you even more excuses to collect spells like some kind of librarian magpie.
• 18. Spell Mastery. Your spell choices are limited to spells that can be cast as an Action, so no more Shield or Misty Step. They now count as always prepared, which was a weird omission from the 2014 version. You can now change the spells on a Long Rest, instead of with 8 hours of study. Mostly a nerf.
• 20. Signature Spells. Identical to the 2014 version. Spell Mastery is arguably still a better feature, but we’ll need to dig into the spell options to be certain.

Wizard Backgrounds

An increase to Intelligence is too crucial to forego, so any Background whichdoesn’t include Intelligence is immediately out. Intelligence-based skills arealso ideal.

For information and advice regarding Origin Feats, including those granted byyour Background, see the Wizard Feats section, below.

• Acolyte^(PHB) : Sage’sskills are a significantly better choice for the Wizard, but Acolyte can getyou spells from outside of the Wizard’s spell list like Guidance and HealingWord.
• Artisan^(PHB) : Dexterity,Intelligence, and one Intelligence-based skill. Not awful, but Crafter isn’ta very good feat.
• Criminal^(PHB) : Excellentability scores, and Alert is great on a full caster who can make a hugeimpact by acting early. You may not get a lot of use out of the skills orproficiency in Thieves’ tools, but the ability scores and the feat are goodenough that it may not be an issue.
• Guard^(PHB) :Intelligence and Wisdom can work for the Wizard, and Alert is a great featfor the Wizard. The skills aren’t great, but Perception never hurts.
• Merchant^(PHB) : Goodability scores, and Lucky is an easy choice on any character, but the skillsare a bad match.
• Noble^(PHB) : You canget the crucial Intelligence increase, and between History and Skilled youcan expand your skill options, but I wouldn’t go this route unless you’re ina small party that needs more skill coverage.
• Sage^(PHB) : Excellentfor the Wizard even though it doesn’t let you go beyond your own spelllist.
• Scribe^(PHB) : An easygo-to option if you don’t want a lot of complexity or if you’re in a partythat needs more skill coverage, but it won’t do anything to improve yourcapabilities as a spellcaster beyond the Intelligence bonus.

Wizard Species

As a full caster, innate spellcasting is very effective. More skills arenice, but anything that’s not an Intelligence-based skill can typically behandled via spellcasting. Anything that boosts your durability is alsowelcome, as Wizards are notoriously frail.

If you’re considering legacy races, anything that boosts your AC is verywelcome.

• Aasimar^(PHB): Two damageresistances, Darkvision, a once per day heal, and a once per day combattransformation. Heavenly Wings lets you fly without Concentration, andNecrotic Shroud can discourage enemies from closing to melee. It’s only onceper day, but that may be all that you need.
• Dragonborn^(PHB): Darkvision,a damage resistance, and once per day flight are great, but you will likelynever use the breath weapon beyond very low levels.
• Dwarf^(PHB): Darkvision,resistance to the most common non-weapon damage type, and more hit points.The durability is largely wasted on a spellcaster fighting from a safedistance, and you have spells to handle hidden and invisible enemies.
• Elf^(PHB): Darkvisionand an extra skill are both great, plus you can get access to some spellsfrom outside of the Wizard’s spell list.
• Gnome^(PHB): Darkvisionand Gnomish Cunning are both great, and the added cantrips from GnomishLineage offer some interesting utility options. Wizards don’t need muchWisdom, but proficiency in Wisdom saves and Advantage from Gnome Cunningwill make your Wisdom saves reliably good.
• Goliath^(PHB): GiantHeritage doesn’t offer a lot of easy options for full casters, but CloudJaunt is fantastic non-spell teleportation, so you can use it the same turnthat you cast a leveled spell. Stone’s Endurance is also useful for frailspellcasters. Large Form won’t see much use, but Powerful Build might helpyou escape grapples if you can’t get out by other means (such as CloudJaunt).
• Halfling^(PHB): Brave andLucky are both helpful, and Halfling Nimbleness may help you get pastenemies to get into a safer position, though it won’t prevent OpportunityAttacks when you need to leave an enemy’s reach. Naturally Stealthy mightlet you hide before combat starts, but without Cunning Action it won’t seeuse in combat.
• Human^(PHB): Anadditional skill and origin feat are an easy choice on any build.
• Orc^(PHB): AdrenalineRush is an excellent option for getting out of dangerous positions quicklywithout a spell, and the Temporary Hit Points are great on a frailspellcaster. If that doesn’t keep you alive, Relentless Endurance providessome insurance.
• Tiefling^(PHB): TheTiefling’s innate spellcasting is a good way to expand your prepared spells,but all of the available spells are already on the Wizard’s Spell list.

Wizard Ability Scores

Wizards are a single-ability class. All you need is Intelligence, andeverything else is supplemental.

Str: Dump stat.

Dex: A bit for AC is nice and Dexteritysaves are common, but that’s all you get unless you go for Bladesinging, inwhich case you may want a bunch for the weapon that you’re going to use. 14will do fine for most wizards.

Con: Hit points and Constitution saves areproblems for Wizards. A Wizard with less than 14 Constitution is a choice togamble with your life.

Int: A Wizard’s first priority should be toget 20 Intelligence. Their second priority should be to find a way to exceed20 Intelligence, but there are very few ways to do that.

Wis: Good for Wisdom saves. You want a bitto protect yourself, but fortunately Wizards are also proficient in Wisdomsaves.

Cha: Dump stat.

Wizard Skills

• Arcana (Int): Wizards are all aboutArcana, so it’s reasonable to assume that you know it.
• History (Int): Helpful, especially incampaigns which go into history frequently.
• Insight (Wis): You likely don’t haveenough Wisdom to be particularly good at this, but it can be helpful if yourparty’s Face doesn’t have it.
• Investigation (Int): Helpful, but likelybest left for the party’s Scout.
• Medicine (Wis): This skill is useless.Medicine is best done magically.
• Nature (Int): An important knowledgeskill.
• Religion (Int): An important knowledgeskill.

Wizard Feats

Thissectiondoesnotaddresseverypublishedfeat,asdoingsowouldresultinanever-growinglistofoptionswhichdon’tcatertotheclass.Instead,thissectionwillcoverfeatswhichwethinkworkespeciallywellfortheclassorwhichmightbetemptingbutpoorchoices.

Origin Feats

These feats typically come from your Background, but you can also select anOrigin Feat any time that you could select a General Feat, and you may getmore from sources like the Human’s species traits.

• Alert^(PHB): Great forstarting big area control spells or for dropping big area damage spellsbefore allies get in the way or enemies get into melee range.
• Crafter^(PHB): Neat, butnot especially impactful. Crafting mundane gear stops being impactful earlyin the game as players quickly accumulate enough to afford nearly anythingin the Player’s Handbook. This notably omits the Herbalist Kit as a choice,so you can’t even use this to craft Potions of Healing.
• Lucky^(PHB): An easychoice on any character. It won’t directly impact your build, but it’s agreat default if you don’t need anything else.
• Magic Initiate^(PHB): A good wayto expand your spellcasting. There aren’t any great combinations, butHealing Word may be worthwhile.
• Musician^(PHB): A great wayto contribute to any party.
• Skilled^(PHB): Helpful ifyou couldn’t get all of the Intelligence-based skills from your class skillsand your Background.
• Tough^(PHB): Nice on aclass with so little hp, but not impactful enough to justify the feat.

General Feats

• Durable^(PHB): If you wantto heal yourself as a Bonus Action, cast Arcane Vigor.
• Elemental Adept^(PHB): Appealingfor Evokers, but most wizards can’t afford to focus on a single elementenough to justify this.
• Fey Touched^(PHB): Twoadditional prepared spells each day, plus free castings. The 1st-level spelloptions can get you some great spells from outside of the Wizard’s spelllist, and Misty Step is a staple spell for anyone who can cast it.
• Heavily Armored^(PHB): Armor on awizard is great, but if you’re taking 3 feats to get this far, you shouldhave started with a level in Fighter.
• Keen Mind^(PHB): In conceptat least, this is a great feat for the Wizard. In practice, it comes down tohow useful your DM makes the Study action. If your DM is going to let youuse Study in combat to gain useful information about enemies, this is great.If not, take Skill Expert instead.
• Lightly Armored^(PHB): A 1-level class dip into Cleric or Fighter is almost always a better idea unlessyou’re expecting to reach 20th level.
• Medium Armor Master^(PHB): Borderlineworthless. Put +2 into Dexterity and use Mage Armor.
• Moderately Armored^(PHB): A 1-levelclass dip into Fighter is almost always a better idea unless you’reexpecting to reach 20th level. If you took Lightly Armored to get here, youabsolutely should have multiclassed. Medium armor is nice, but it’s notworth two feats, especially when Mage Armor is an option.
• Observant^(PHB): If you’reproficienct in Perception and have decent Wisdom, you may be well qualifiedto use Perception reliably. But even then, this is only helpful if your DMlikes to use stealthy enemies and/or likes to include traps in combatencounters.
• Piercer^(PHB): Thisappears to work with all of True Strike’s damage dice, but be careful aboutover-investing in a tactic that you fall back on to conserve spellslots.
• Poisoner^(PHB): This doeswork with spells, but not enough spells deal poison damage to justifythis.
• Resilient^(PHB): Proficiencyin Constitution saves really helps with Concentration, not to mention howcommon Constitution saves are. If you care primarily about Concentrationit’s easy to compare this to War Caster. Advantage works out to a littlemore than +3, so once your Proficiency Bonus hits +4 Resilient becomes themore effective option of the two. However, Concentration only becomes afactor if you’re taking damage. If you’re taking damage, you havemuch bigger problems than Concentration. Instead, boost yourIntelligence and use the extra prepared spell to pick up something that willkeep you from getting hit like Shield, Invisibility, Blink, or MirrorImage.
• Ritual Caster^(PHB): This only gets you access to level 1 Ritual spells, and there aren’t many of those which aren’t already on your spell list.
• Shadow-Touched^(PHB): Two moreprepared spells are always nice, and Invisibility is a staple spell, butShadow Magic’s options for 1st-level spells simply aren’t as good as thoseavailable via Fey Touched.
• Skill Expert^(PHB): A nice wayto expand your skill options while enhancing whatever ability score youlike.
• Slasher^(PHB): This wouldwork with True Strike, but be careful about over-investing in a tactic thatyou fall back on to conserve spell slots. You’ll need to throw a handaxe,since that’s the only simple weapon capable of dealing slashing damage atrange.
• Spell Sniper^(PHB):

  The range increase does not appear to affect True Strike since TrueStrike uses the weapon’s range rather than the spell’s range.

• Telekinetic^(PHB): An easygo-to option. Remember that creatures can willingly fail saving throws,allowing you to use this on allies in order to move them out of dangerouspositions, break grapples, or otherwise help them.
• Telepathic^(PHB): Very cool,but usually talking works fine.
• War Caster^(PHB): Advantageon Concentration isn’t as good as proficiency in Constitution saves, butit’s still very good. Reactive Spell is great, but you should not be inmelee where you’re making Opportunity Attacks.

  The wording of the Opportunity Attack rules allows you to make anOpportunity Attack on any creature when it leaves your reach. Whencombined with Reactive Spell, you can cast spells on allies when they walkpast you, allowing you quickly buff them in combat without cutting intoyour turn. This is clearly an abuse case, but RAW it appears to work.

Epic Boons

• Boon of Dimensional Travel^(PHB): Basicallyfree Misty Step every time that you cast a spell as an Action.Unfortunately, Bonus Action and Reaction spells don’t qualify. According tothe Rules Glossary: “When you take the Magic action, you cast a spell thathas a casting time of an action or use a feature or magic item that requiresa Magic action to be activated.”

  Outside of combat, you can still use this to get around obstacles. Cast aharmless spell like Prestidigitation and you can teleport without making amess.

• Boon of Energy Resistance^(PHB): A powerfuldefense on any character. If legacy content is available, grab AbsorbElements and ignore this.
• Boon of Fate^(PHB): 2d4averages to 5. Adding +5/-5 to a saving throw can rescue you or an ally, orit can cause an enemy to fail a save. On a d20 scale, 5 means that there’s a25% chance on any given roll that this will have an impact. Granted, it isstill a dice roll, so the smaller the gap, the safer this is to use. On afull caster where save-or-suck spells are such a huge part ofyour arsenal, this is devastatingly effective. The fact that you can use itonce per encounter is amazing.
• Boon of Fortitude^(PHB): More hitpoints are great on a class as frail as the Wizard, but given the choicebetween this and Resilient (Constitution), you need proficiency inConstitution saves much more than 40 hp and some extra healing.
• Boon of Recovery^(PHB): The LastStand feature is great insurance, but defintiely not enough to justify yourfirst Epic Boon. Try to get someone to cast Death Ward on you.
• Boon of Skill^(PHB): Always agood fallback once you’ve grabbed a few other boons, but Wizards don’t do alot with skills beyond the Intelligence-based skills which you likelystarted with at level 1.
• Boon of Speed^(PHB): Take Boonof Dimensional Travel instead.
• Boon of Spell Recall^(PHB): This givesyou a 25% chance to retain your spell slot when casting spells of up tolevel 4. You get 4 level 1 spell slots and 3 of each of levels 2, 3, and 4.On average, you get 1 extra level 1 spell slot, and slightly less than 1 forlevels 2, 3, and 4. This is fine, but definitely don’t make it your firstboon.
• Boon of the Night Spirit^(PHB): Beinvisible at all times outside of combat. Take advantage of invisibility atthe start of combat, then look for ways to become invisible as frequently aspossible. Even if you’re not making attack rolls (and you almost certainlyaren’t doing so often), the defensive benefits of invisibility are massive.However, remember that a lot of things are an Action, so it’s very easy tobreak this invisibility. Notable examples that people easily overlookinclude Hide, Search, and Study.
• Boon of Truesight^(PHB): Fantastic,but technically only situationally useful. You can already cast both SeeInvisibility and Truesight. This is objectively good, but don’t make it yourfirst boon unless you have a very specific reason to do so.

Wizard Weapons

The Wizard is proficient in simple weapons. They do not get access to Weapon Mastery.

• Dagger: Carry one or two for utilitypurposes at any level, but the damage isn’t good enough to make it a goodidea.
• Light Crossbow: A light crossbow combinedwith True Strike will deal more damage than Fire Bolt until you reach level11, making it the Wizard’s go-to attack option at least until level 11.
• Quarterstaff: If you’re preparing TrueStrike to use with a light crossbow, you can also use it with a quarterstafftwo-handed for the same amount of damage. You don’t want to do thisintentionally, but it’s a good backup option.

Wizard Armor

The Wizard is not proficient in any armor.

Cast Mage Armor and learn Shield. At low levels, that will be enough to keepyou safe, but at high levels you may forgo mage armor because enemies’ attackbonuses will be so high that it may stop being helpful. Keep Shield around fortimes when it would deflect an incoming attack, but also consider other spellslike Mirror Image, which doesn’t care about attack bonuses.

Wizard Multiclassing

This section briefly details some obvious and enticing multiclass options, but doesn’t fully explore the broad range of multiclassing combinations. For more on multiclassing, see our Practical Guide to Multiclassing.

• Artificer: Starting with a level inartificer gets you a lot. Proficiency in medium armor, shields, andConstitution saving throws are really tempting, plus Artificers get accessto some low-level spells which the Wizard doesn’t like Cure Wounds.
• Cleric: A single level with the rightdomain can get you heavy armor proficiency, not to mention how many greatlow-level spells the Cleric gets. You’ll also advance your spellcasting,though remember that your prepared spells are always based on your levels ina single class.
• Fighter: Starting with a level in Fightergets you martial weapons, heavy armor, shields, Weapon Mastery, andproficiency in Constitution saves. Using a martial weapon, Weapon Mastery,and True Strike is startlingly effective as a cantrip, allowing you to getbetter damage, better range, and different Weapon Mastery properties likePush, Slow, or Vex.