Welcome back to the weekly Tabletop Games thread! This thread is where we can talk about all kinds of RPGs, card games, board games, etc. Whether you gather around a physical table in the real world, or use a virtual space to play with friends who may live far away from you, this is where you can discuss your favorites, ask for and/or receive recommendations, recap your recent adventures, or even find some people to play games with!

Discussion Prompt: This week I’m wrapping up the classes in the 2024 Player’s Handbook by looking at the 5.5e Wizard.

The Wizard is probably the least changed class when comparing the new version of the rules to the old. They’ll still end up with the highest number of prepared spells in the game, they’ll still be able to cast ritual spells from their spellbook without needing to have them prepared, and they can still copy spells from scrolls and other book into their own spellbooks with enough time and gold. The most notable changes to the base class include the Scholar feature at level 2, which lets you double your proficiency bonus for a chosen Wizard skill (Arcana, History, Nature, Religion, Investigation, or Medicine), and Memorize Spell at level5, which lets you swap out one prepared spell for a new one on a short rest.

In the old PHB, the Wizard had a subclass for each of the 8 schools of magic, but due to the arbitrary decision to include 4 subclasses for each class, the new PHB only includes four: the Abjurer, Diviner, Evoker, and Illusionist. Each subclass’s respective “Savant” feature, which used to let you halve the time and gold cost for adding a spell from your chosen school into your spellbook, has been altered to instead give you 2 spells of your chosen school for free, and 2 more every time you unlock a new level of spell slots. If I were planning to use the 5.5e Wizard with an older subclass (Necromancer, Enchanter, Conjurer, or Transmuter), I would follow the same pattern, even though there’s not an official version in the rules.

And that’s about it! Share your thoughts about Wizards in any edition of D&D, or similar characters from other games, in the comments!

If you would like to suggest a prompt or contribute a write-up or discussion topic of your own, let me know in the comments!