Wizard

**Wizards** were a form of spellcaster who learned the art of arcane magic through research and learning. What wizards lacked in combat prowess and armor they made up with a broad range of magical spells and abilities learned through years of practice and training. Through their spellcasting ability powerful wizards could control the battlefield, using spells that affected wide areas, often hindering enemies, while also learning to use powerful rituals of arcane power.

Wizards were generally the most respected of all arcane spellcasters, since they usually had a measure of discipline that was uncommon among other arcane spellcasters, particularly sorcerers or warlocks whose very nature made them comparatively unruly. Not all wizards were deserving of this reputation, however, and wizards could be as easily chaotic or evil as any other class.

## Abilities

Wizards had a wide variety of powers called spells available to them, fueled by the arcane energy of the universe. Prior to the Spellplague, these powers flowed from the Weave, which was governed by the goddess Mystryl, followed by Mystra, and then by Midnight. Since the Spellplague, magic no longer requires a god's governance, though many gods remained associated with arcane magic.

A wizard's spells differed from those of other arcane spellcasters usually in terms of usage or scale. While a warlock's spells were primarily malevolent and a swordmage might use defensive spells that empowered themselves, a wizard used their power to control the nature of a battle, a landscape, or even the physical makeup of the universe itself. When in combat, a wizard favored spells that hindered many enemies at once, rather than attacking one, or that empowered themselves or allies.

When casting spells, wizards often used arcane foci, or implements, such as staffs, orbs, or wands. These implements concentrated the arcane power in a spell, increasing its effectiveness. All wizards had a degree of specialization in implements, preferring one kind over another. Some took a liking to orbs, which they used to increase the duration of their spells' effects. Others preferred using wands to enhance their accuracy or staffs to defend themselves. The most basic spells available to wizards were known as cantrips and required little skill on the part of the wizard in order for them to be cast. Such spells were typically small tricks of magic such as creating a light source, a sound, or moving a small object telekinetically.

Wizards were also skilled in the use of rituals, powerful spells that require a significant amount of time and energy to cast, thereby making them impractical in battle but immensely useful in non-combat applications. As with their daily spells (spells which a wizard can only master once per day), wizards kept these rituals written in a spellbook, where each ritual took up at least a page, with complexity and page length directly proportional to the power inherent in a ritual.

### Familiars

A familiar was a normal animal that gained new powers and became a magical beast when summoned to service by a sorcerer or wizard.

## Spell preparation and casting

Wizards cast their spells by using their acquired magical knowledge and experience. In particular, they learn most new spells by seeking out magical writings and copying them into their spellbooks, a method that allows them, unlike bards or sorcerers, to master any number of permissible spells once they find them, assembling a broad and versatile arsenal of power. Many wizards see themselves not only as spell casters but as philosophers, inventors, and scientists, studying a system of natural laws that are for the most part unknown and undiscovered.
{{Fq|width=310px|text=The funniest thing I've ever seen? A confused wizard, of course. They just can't seem to believe it when spells go wrong or the world rises up and slaps them in the face at the height of their grandeur. It's like the puzzled look a rooster gets after he sits down and falls asleep on a discarded egg, then wakes up and discovers it. He walks around and around it, wondering if he laid it, somehow, when he was asleep. Half of him wants to run away and deny he was ever near the spot, while the other half wants to jump up and down and call to the world, "Hearken to me!" Oh, it's pitiful.|source=Ammathair Hawkfeather, Great Sage of Waterdeep, *The Sharp Eye and Sharper Tongue: Observations of a Learned Sage*

* **Resting**: Wizards need to rest prior to spell casting. This may be in the form of sleep or meditation. A wizard who refuses to sleep and then goes on a spell casting binge (which is not entirely impossible, but rare due to temporal allowances) will grow weary - possibly delusional - and may experience many negative health effects.

* **Preparing**: In order to prepare spells from their spellbooks, wizards need comfortable quiet areas to study. The spell is read, spoken, or memorized up until the trigger. This is the easiest and most efficient way to cast arcane magic as a wizard because it means the wizard needs only to perform the trigger element of the spell when the need arises to cast it. A weakness of wizards is that they cannot cast an arcane spell that they have not prepared, so they are extremely vulnerable if caught in a situation they did not expect. To minimize this, wizards often develop their problem-solving ability to anticipate which spells may be most useful, and some may enhance this with abilities such as foresight.

* **Casting**: When the need calls for a certain spell to be cast, wizards will allow their thoughts to retreat back into their consciousness in order to obtain it, and it often appears that wizards are in trances while they are casting. While there is some credence to that, they are not so much entranced that they cannot recognize situations outside their subconscious. When they find the spell they want, wizards will then complete the trigger sequence. The memory spell is then instantly erased, requiring the wizard to prepare a new casting of the spell before casting it again, unless they already have prepared one, which makes in vital for a wizard to have a spellbook, lest his use up all his spells and find himself powerless.

This is the common view of a wizard casting: voicing several strange words, utilizing some arcane component(such as tossing pixie dust into the air) and perhaps making some sort of quirky hand movement. In actuality every part of the sequence must be exact or else the wizard may miscast, misfire, cast an entirely different spell, or cast nothing at all.

## School specialization

Wizards may specialize in one or more of eight schools of magic, choosing their specialty early on in their training. This specialization is sometimes required in order to join the ranks of some of the world's most prestigious wizards, such as the Red Wizards of Thay, who require all initiates to be specialized in one of the schools of magic.

Core Classes
Ardent • Avenger • Barbarian • Bard • Battlemind • Bushi • Cleric • Druid • Fighter • Invoker • Monk • Paladin • Psion • Ranger • Rogue • Runepriest • Samurai • Seeker • Shaman • Sorcerer • Spellscarred • Swordmage • Warden • Warlock • Warlord • **Wizard**

Arcane Spellcasters
Alchemist • Arachnomancer • Arcane Archer • Arcane Devotee • Arcane Trickster • Arcanist • Artificer • Bard (Cunning Bard • Skald) • Beguiler • Binder • Bladesinger • Dimensionalist • Dragonfire Adept • Dread Necromancer • Duskblade • Eldritch Knight • Elven Dualist • Factotum • Force Mage • Geometer • High Forest Scout • Horizon Walker • Impilturan Demonslayer • Incantatrix • Mentalist • Mystic Theurge • Netherese Arcanist • Shadow Mage • Shadow Walker • Sha'ir • Song Mage • Sorcerer (Cosmic Sorcerer • Draconic Sorcerer • Elementalist • Storm Sorcerer • Wild Mage) • Spellsinger • Spellthief • Swordmage • War Wizard of Cormyr • Warlock (Archfey Warlock • Elemental Warlock • Fiend Warlock • Great Old One Warlock • Hexblade • Sorcerer-King Warlock • Vestige Warlock) •
Warmage • **Wizard** (Mage • Specialist Wizard) • Witch • Wu Jen