Why are wizards always the blandest and most fluffless magic class?
>sorcerer arcane magic from mystic bloodlines
>warlock arcane magic from pacts with great non-divine entities
>divine magic from faith in gods or faith in philosophies
>primal/druid magic from nature spirits
>psionics from willpower, discipline, and the multiverse's defense against the Far Realm
>wizard arcane magic from... uh... studying magic itself, go figure out the planar energy mumbo-jumbo yourself, bucko
It usually helps to have an explanation of where the first wizards learned it from to give it a bit of flavor.
I know what you mean though, old books and scrolls and (gods help us) wizard schools, all seem pretty tired.
They suffer a lot from a lack of strong identity, IMO. Being defined as a professional magic user loses a lot of meaning in a world where magic is pretty ubiquitous.
I'm actually working on a game at the moment, and we're pondering breaking the Wizard class up into separate classes to give them more variety, and/or making them very different to the default idea in order to really emphasise the scholarly angle.
There should be only one magic class. Wizards only *seems* the most generic, as it was the first and meant to encompass all magical traditions.
Play a setting that's not DnD or based on DnD, where magic actually has meaningful lore and mechanics behind it.
OP doesn't play games.
But user den gam no epic, gam no epic me no play bcus me only play epic gam.
There used to be only one magic using class. But it wasn't called Wizard, it was called Magic-User.
Hit me with these games that have meaningful lore, my dude.
Not him but
>Mage: the Awakening
>Ars Magica
Wizards know the math and science of the cosmos. Casting magic is just knowing what the quantum algebraic expression of "x effect at y position for z seconds" is, and how to pronounce it out loud without accidentally Schrodinger-ing your lungs out of existence.
Just make up something that makes sense for your setting, it's not that hard.
Earthdawn
>its a wodfag reply
L o l
>wizard
>from a magic academy, with magic academy contacts
>reclusive genius with access to a library and lab
>syncretic weirdo studying the different traditions, to find out the underlying laws of magic
Since you're obviously talking d&d, int-based casting can mean a lot of different things. It's bland because you have to flavour it. Just like a warlock is bland, until you play a bit with the pact and have the patron do something.
>it's a /v/irgin reply
L o l
WHFRP magic is pretty good
>Primal
>Flashbacks to oddest thread on Veeky Forums in past month.
Wizard/Sorceror/Warlock should all be one class.
Druid/Cleric should be one class.
Bard shouldn't exist.
There should only be one Psionic class.
it was still a pretty good thread tho.
AD&D is what you seek
I thought myself still prefer druid and cleric divided but I think bards should not exist indeed. If you want to be a womaniser wizard us much much funnier...
I played that system, it's a good system with lore that can be used in quite a few settings. So yeah I can't argue with it
Fucking gurps.
And if you're not a brainlet: write your own lore.
>anti-Bardfag at it again
Please geld yourself so your stupidity is not carried on to the next generation.
A Wizard, like any other class, is only as interesting as you you are in playing them.
As much as I dislike Bards as a general rule of thumb, I disagree with those first two lines, especially the notion that Wizards, Sorcerors and Warlocks should be condensed into a single class.
I can see where you're coming from with Druids and Clerics, but I feel like the differences between them are not nearly subtle enough to warrant being folded into a single class.
Sell us your approach. Show me your train of thought and how it led you to this conclusion.
>fighters are dudes who swing weapons and dodge weapons
Such fluff, much flavour.
That sounds really dull. Class variety is fun.
Fighters really are fluffless.
Wizardry is the best magic class because it means understanding.
All the others class listed is more or less playing with forces unknown.
Sorcerers and Bards just poop magic because they can.
Warlocks, Druids and Clerics have it give to them (although by different means)
The wizard on the other hand need to understand they study to comprehend what to the others it's simply magic
It is totally unrealistic that a catgirl could be a wizard, they all have racial -4 to INT.
Psions, being Int based, also have a true understanding of what they're doing. They kind of have to since they have to conceptualize and customize everything they cast and they don't have shit like scrolls they can just copy/spell books they can just copy cat from.
She's a wolf or a dog.
Burning Wheel. Ars Magica. Mage. WHFRP.
-2 then.
All animu beastfolk get only penalties to stats. You want to be taken seriously, you play proper beastfolk.
Sorcerers and Wizards are not meaningfully mechanically different, especially after the 5e changes to how prepared casting works. Warlocks are salvageable but need to be made more distinct.
Druids and Clerics are mechanically fine given how different their spell lists are but are too thematically similar.
Bards are Bards.
...
So the correct choice is to make them meaningfully different. I'm still annoyed 5e abandoned the fantastic idea they had for doing that with the dragon sorcerer.
Because you're an unimaginative twit that can't be bothered to utilize his underfed and sadly neglected imagination to make an interesting character out of anything at all unless you are specifically told how to do so.
Example: Every person in the image attached is a wizard, but you're too dull to figure out how or why, you just say "nuh uh".
In other words, it's your own damn fault, fucktard.
But that's irrelevant when you're talking about class design, not making a character of a particular class.
>le: Every person in the image attached is a wizard
I almost assure that every fucking character in that image functions so differently from D&D Wizards that they only have a name in common.
I want to have sex with that red ogre thing.
Wizards are the most versitile and ability heavy classes iin the game. If you can't manage to figure out how to make every character in that image using only wizard, then you're lacking in imagination.
Nonsense. If you're incapable of deciding how your character learned and uses the tools he has, and refluffing it yourself, then you really are an unimaginative person.
No True Scotsman: It's been done for decades previous to the last few years.
>Character most likely doesn't use verbal or somatic compoents
>HINT a verbal compoent isn't just shouting some bullshti and a somatic compoent isn't just moving a weapon
>Wizards need to use Verbal and Somatic compoents
>None of these characters use spell books
>Wizards need to use spellbooks
"Do magic" doesn't automatically make you a Wizard you mouth breathing grognard retard.
Why are warlocks not just a sub-class of sorcerer? Do we really need two arcane charisma casters?
>he has to carry his spell book at all time
So you've never played anything but 5e? No wonder your an imaginationless fuck.
You forgot bards.
Try 4, you have Bards and paladins too. 5e has way too many fucking Charisma classes or at least the other stats need some love. Especially intelligence, since the only class that cares about it is Wizard.
I just make every wizard have a gimmick. There is no 'wizard', it's always 'the ____ wizard' or 'the wizard of ___'. Goes for PCs too.
For example, the Bad Ideas Wizard and his legendary artifact, the Crown of Bad Ideas, appear in a lot of my campaigns.
>For example, the Bad Ideas Wizard and his legendary artifact, the Crown of Bad Ideas, appear in a lot of my campaigns.
Wow, we must play with the same players a lot.
I actually wouldn't be surprised.
The wizard is only as interesting as how effective you are at RPing one and limited by your DM's imagination and willingness to work with you.
Because most writers are people who would have failed out of high level physics courses and therefore cannot grasp the concept of people who've studied the fundamental forces of a setting to such a degree that they've become capable of manipulating them like putty. Basically it's the same reason "hackers" are shallow, cliche characters in scifi settings.
because you aren't playing Agone where all magic schools have a detailed origin, and very specific, and in some cases bizarre, magical components:
>Ascendancy: 3 schools revolving around the kind of relationship developed with small creatures called dancers
>Journism: befriending and using them to heal
>Eclipsism: making deals with them and getting illusions so real they are...
>Obscurantism: torturing them to make fire and cause pain
there's a few more, their essentially just art (Painting, poetry, sculpting, music) that does very specific things depending on what instrument/pigment you use and such.
Gods forbid you have to make up a character on your own! Wouldn't want creativity to get in the way of the roll playing!