Editing Wizard (section)

===In 4th Edition===
[[File:4e Exotic Wizards and Familiars.png|300px|thumb|right|Some wizards have some really strange [[familiar]]s.]]
The idea of wizards being "same engine, new coat of paint" can't be said for wizards of 4th edition. With an edition design goal of trying to keep classes from being dramatically stronger or weaker than each other, the "[[Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards]]" trope was dropped, which meant wizards were no longer the "do everything" class. However, despite the agony that many wizards-lovers felt at a first glance at the class, the truth is that a lot of former wizardly glory did remain behind the scenes - many "utilitarian" spells were remade into Rituals in 4th edition. Whilst this technically meant anyone with the right Feat could now cast spells like Magic Mouth or Arcane Lock, wizards got that feat for free and were able to learn more Rituals than anyone else. Plus, there were whole new Rituals that allowed people to do things like raise permanent flying islands or construct castles with a wave of their hand, stuff that was never really covered in past editions.

Most startlingly, wizards in this edition forsook not only the traditional Schools of Magic, but also the very idea of [[Vancian Casting]]. [[Wizards of the Coast]], in a short booklet they published about their class design process, explained that the idea of wizards who could cast 1 spell a day and then hid in the back of the group always sounded kind of boring to them. So, they rewrote the entire format for spell-usage, and then found this could be used to give every class some neat things to do in combat. 4e divided spells into At-Will (can be cast whenever the caster wants), Encounter (spells that can be cast once, and then you need to take a five minute breather before you can cast them again), Daily (cast once, and then you need 6 hours of rest to use again) and Utility (non-offensive spells that can be cast Encounter, Daily or even At-Will). Furthermore, "spells per day" and "spells known" were no longer interlinked; like a 3e [[Sorcerer (Dungeons & Dragons)|sorcerer]], so long as a wizard had the "spells per day" slot to burn, it could cast any of its spells as often as it liked.

One other thing that wizards did retain, just altered for the new powers format, was their spellbook. Unlike other classes, who only learned 1 new power whenever they scored a new Utility or Daily power, a wizard got to learn 2 powers. By studying their spellbook during a long rest, a wizard could switch around its memorized spells as it saw fit, allowing it to retain the spirit of its traditional versatility.
As stated above, 4e wizards forsook the traditional 8 schools - you could still build a thematic spellcaster, you just needed to pick the spells you wanted without worrying about mechanical drawbacks for doing so, and sourcebooks & [[Dragon Magazine]] articles provided plenty of fleshing out past the initially Evoker-heavy presentation of the PHB. But wizards in 4e still had their "subclasses" - but what defined them now was their choice of Implements, a feature called "Arcane Implement Mastery". Hearkening back to those long-marginalized trappings of wizardry, 4e wizards picked a specific kind of Implement to master, and from this they gained specialized abilities. The PHB presented Wizards with the Implements of: Orb of Imposition, Staff of Defense, and Wand of Accuracy. Arcane Power added the Orb of Deception, the Tome of Binding and the Tome of Readiness. Obviously, you need to be ''wielding'' a mastered Implement to gain its associated powers!

* Orb of Imposition: Once per encounter, you can either impose a penalty on a "save ends" ongoing spell equal to your Wisdom modifier, or you can extend the duration of a wizard at-will spell that lasts "until the end of your current turn" so that it ends at the end of your next turn. Invoking either power is a free action.
* Staff of Defense: You gain +1 AC when wielding a staff. Additionally, once per encounter, you can boost your AC against one attack (after its damage has been rolled) by an amount equal to your Constitution modifier as an immediate interrupt.
* Wand of Accuracy: Once per encounter, add your Dexterity modifier to an attack roll as a free action.
* Orb of Deception: Once per encounter, if you miss an attack with a Wizard power that has the Illusion keyword, you can instead attack another target with the same spell, this time gaining an attack roll bonus equal to your Charisma modifier. A viable target is one within 3 squares of the original target and which was not targeted by the original attack.
* Tome of Binding: Once per encounter, you can use a free action as part of using an Arcane power with the Summoning keyword to grant all creatures summoned by that power a bonus to their damage rolls equal to your Constitution modifier.
* Tome of Readiness: Choose a Wizard Encounter Attack power of your level or lower that you don't already know. This power is now "stored" and can be used in place of a memorized Wizard Encounter Attack power of the same level or higher whenever you are in battle, though it can only be used once per encounter. You can change which power you have "stored" whenever you reach a level that lets you learn a new encounter power. Basically, you have +1 extra encounter attack spell which you can only use 1/encounter, but which increases your normal encounter powers per day limit.

Essentials added multiple subclasses to the Wizard, in the form of the [[Mage]], the [[Bladesinger]], the [[Sha'ir]] and the [[Witch]]. The original wizard would be formally renamed as the "[[Arcanist]] subclass in the article "Class Compendium: The Arcanist" in [[Dragon Magazine]] #401.

Truthfully, the "4e wizards are just [[Evoker]]s!" meme is not truly accurate. Yes, they do have a lot of blasting spells; most of the wizard's traditional "non-violent problem-solving spells" wound up as Rituals for balance reasons. But, even in the first player's handbook, the wizard's spell-list is full of spells from other schools. Attack spells in the PHB include Conjuration (of the "conjure an effect" variety, not the "summon monster" variety), Enchantment and Necromancy spells, whilst the Utility spells are full of migrants from the Transmutation and Abjuration schools - which you should honestly expect because there were very few offensive Transmutation/Abjuration spells in past editions. Heck, the PHB even features Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, one of the most iconic "offensive Abjuration" spells! Further spells would then be released in other sourcebooks to further fuel your non-Evoker options; [[Dragon Magazine]] provided its share, including illusions, enchantments, non-minion necromancy, and pyromancy, but Arcane Power in particular brought back the idea of Summons, as well as plenty of new spells for illusionists and, to a lesser extent, enchanters. In fact, whilst the sample wizard builds in the PHB were the school-neutral "Control Wizard" and "War Wizard", Arcane Power provided sample builds in the form of the "Illusion Wizard" and "Summons Wizard", which should give you an idea of just how thoroughly those schools got an update in that sourcebook.

In addition to articles that provided new wizard spells indirectly - such as #372's "Secrets of the City Entombed", which provided [[Necromancer]] spells for the [[Avenger]], [[Bard]], [[Cleric]], [[Shaman]], [[Swordmage]], [[Warlock]] and Wizard, there were a number of issues of "Class Acts" articles that directly expanded the wizard's arsenal:
* #364: [[Illusionist]]s: Like the name says, a straight-up conversion of some classic illusion type spells, even with the trusty illusory wall, spectral hound and phantasmal terrain spells.
* #381: Wizards of the Feywild: [[Enchanter|Enchantment]] and [[Illusionist|Illusion]] spells, with a few added variations of the "Magic Missile" theme because, y'know, [[Elf|elven archers]]?
* #383: [[Evoker]]s: Despite its name, technically more of an [[Elementalist]], with a number of heroic tier spells based on blasting foes with elemental magics.
* #385: [[Conjurer|Summoners]]: Adds a new assortment of Summoning powers for your [[Conjurer]], with some updated mechanics from those in Arcane Power. This article reintroduces the old-school idea that if you don't directly control your summon, it goes badly for you; these summoned [[fiend]]s and [[elemental]]s (and a [[couatl]] summon, for some reason) have the ability to operate more independently than those summons in Arcane Power, but there are drawbacks (like taking damage) to just letting them do their own thing.
* #388: Pryomancers: Another [[Elementalist]]/[[Evoker]] fusion, padding out the spell-list with more fiery spells, some fire spell-buffing feats, and adding a new [[Paragon Path]], the Master of Flames, which is open to any arcane class.