The Gaming Den

In making a D&D-genre wizard, what are the iconic spells they would be able to cast. This is system independent, so ignore mechanical power disparities, especially since they vary between editions. How many different spells, and which ones, should a starting out character have in order to viewed as a 1st level D&D wizard? What other spells are necessary to be cast by the iconic wizard as he rises in level?

Magic Missile and Fireball are pretty iconic...

Magic Missile seems to be the first 1st level spell that comes to mind for me. I've only ever played 2E and 3E, and that comes from 2E.

Other 1st level spells are Color Spray, Grease, Charm Person, Silent Image/Phantasmal Force, (Mage) Armor, and Shield.

Some 2nd level ones are Web, Detect Thoughts, and Invisibility.

Fireball, Fly, and Dispel Magic come to mind as 3rd level ones.


The ones I listed are all ones I cared about back in 2E.

Maxus wrote:Magic Missile and Fireball are pretty iconic...

+1
Fly, Black Tentacles, and invisibility come to mind too really. Uhm... summon monster works too.

No one has mentioned sleep, it may not be the greatest but it's gotta be almost as iconic as magic missile.

The most common thing I've read wizards doing is affecting probability, luck and human behaviour more than anything else. More often than not, a magical boost on a shield just makes weapons not work right, magic boots granting courage or a sense of direction, and spells effecting monster behaviour more than a monster's health. Non-video game, non-DnD Wizards appear to have better access to The Secret and The Power than regular people, with less emphasis on being able to flaunt the laws of physics all willy nilly.

Classical wizened wizards are also pretty good with their social skills, so there is no discounting the use of Placebos either.

Edit -> But you said DnD genre... yeah, listen to those guys.

Gotta produce flame one way or another. It's probably going to be called "fireball", but it could look like burning hands or melf's minute meteors or even flame strike. Blowing shit up with fire after shouting "Fireball!" is iconic, the specific area template is not.

Secondly, D&D wizards iconically have a "fuck you" effect that they pull out of their ass. This could be repulsion, or wall of force, or misdirection, or stone skin, or dimension door, or any of two dozen other pieces of bullshit. The point is that iconically the first time you reach out to stab a D&D wizard you hear him laugh and you end up with your sword sticking into a log with the word "wizard" on it if you are lucky.

And finally, wizards iconically use walls or clouds to cut battlefields in half. The clouds or walls could be poisonous or frozen or on fire or something, but the point is that a cloud or wall springs up and people on the outside go "Oh noes! Our friends are in there!"

-Username17

Just occurred to me...I wish the D&D novels showcased more wizards gunning it. Solid Fog + Black tentacles, other deadly spells/combos.

Instead we get "A volley of fireballs and lightning bolts!"

And then people get surprised in-game when someone brings out Telekinesis ass-kicking, Dimension-door fun, and all the many things that Contingency can do.

Jilocasin wrote:No one has mentioned sleep, it may not be the greatest but it's gotta be almost as iconic as magic missile.

I was about to tell you that I did, then I realized that I left it off my short list!

I loved 2E sleep. 2d4 HD put to sleep, no save! Back when everywhere I played, you had to start at 1st level, I quickly realized that Sleep or Color Spray in your 1/day slot was much better than Magic Missile.

Finger of Death.

Animate dead is pretty specific to bad guys.

Tenser's floating disc, Bigby's crushing hand, and dimension door.

I like some of the mental and mind effecting abilities. Illusions, hypnotism, sleep and charm on the offensive side.

Detection spells and object reading (identify, analyse dweamor, legend lore).

They scale pretty effectively with level, assuming you replace charm with dominate and your illusions with shadow magic.

Conjurers and the like are a pretty iconic role, though it is pretty hard to break into/make effective at low level. (I'm talking about the classic demon summoner, not the classic D&D specialist).

Also, teleport. Flight is iconic in game but never seems to appear in the books. In the books however, there are always teleporting wizards who never fly so they can get stabbed by melee protagonists.

Iconic for D&D wizards.....Wish.

j/k.

Fire/Arcane magic are the big two.

When wizards fly it should really be on stuff, like carpets, gryphons, thrones, and brooms.

I think transmuting things to things is pretty iconic. Whether it's people into stone, the floor into quicksand, statues into animated statues, snakes into huge monster snakes, or whatever.

Ice9 wrote:I think transmuting things to things is pretty iconic. Whether it's people into stone, the floor into quicksand, statues into animated statues, snakes into huge monster snakes, or whatever.

Agreed

Stereotypical.... Fireball, Chain Lightning, Magile Missile, Fly, Teleport, Polymorph (including Baleful), Scrying, Invisibility, Creation (major/minor)

IMO the name is the only thing iconic about magic missile.

If I was creating a simple class to emulate an iconic wizard (and I have), it would have the following powers:
[*]Lightning zap -- a straightforward auto-hitter. Call it magic missile if you want.
[*]Fireball
[*]Acid fog
[*]Wall of ice
...and there are your elements.

[*]Mage hand -- basically works as mage hand & all of bigby's at appropriate levels.
[*]Mystical conveyance -- enchants a normal object to fly around with you on it.
[*]Door trick -- turns a portal into a portal to a pocket dimension. Used to set of magic shops and to make chase scenes more humorous.
[*]Arcane sight
[*]Dispel magic
[*]Invisibility
[*]Your choice of disintegrate, flesh to stone, and baleful polymorph.

And then you can throw in other goodies. I like shout and mass charm person.

And yes, I did write up this class.

they're technically not iconic spells, but Crushing Fist of Spite, Hellball, and Eternity of Torment are pretty iconic high level effects.

... daylight.
All wizards are also flashbang grenades..

Stinking Cloud and its big brother Cloudkill.

Animate Objects. Because if it's good enough for Fantasia, it's good enough for you.

virgil wrote:In making a D&D-genre wizard, what are the iconic spells they would be able to cast. This is system independent

if you udnerstand the systems...this statement contradicts itself...but iconic would be cantrips.

one edition has individual little spells, and another has EVERYTHING of that sort is just under one spell called "cantrip".

often, they are the most icon things that all else are built off of.

turning a page in the spell book without touching it, the banana peel gag, prestidigitation, real world magic tricks and party gags in the form of wizard magic are pretty iconic, so however you classify cantrip, then list those individual or as a group as you see fit.

Off the top of my head, magic (and thus Wizards and other people who use magic) should be able to do the following

Create balls of fire which fly at enemies

Either Transmute base metals into gold or create things whole-cloth from nothing

Teleport from place to place.

See far away places in a mirror, crystal ball or ect

See the past in a mirror, crystal ball or ect.

See shadows and possiblities of the future in a mirror, crystal ball, or ect.

Return the dead to life

Heal the injured

Create golems or other similar magically-powered robots

Raise the dead as zombies or skeletons

Make themselves undetectable to others by sight or sound

Change themselves into powerful creatures (Dragons, ect)

Change others into powerless creatures (pigs, frogs, ect)

Summon and commune with servants of greater powers (Angels, Demons)

Fly

Create realistic illusions.