D&D: Five Wizard Spells For All Occasions
It’s that time once again friends, let’s open up our spellbooks and take a look at the best spells for Wizards.
Wizards are perhaps the iconic magic user of the bunch when it comes to Dungeons and Dragons. They are the OG mages, who have been wielding D&D’s Vancian magic since its very inception (and tangent, Jack Vance, whose novels inspired the magic system D&D uses is also secretly the source of Vecna’s name through the magic of anagrams). Wizards and D&D go together like spells and spellbooks. And with the widest selection of spells, and the ability to add them all to your book, how do you go about choosing the best spells? Well you might try starting with these.
Shield
This spell should be in every Wizard’s arsenal. It does everything you’d want a defensive spell to do – when used right it can basically negate a single attack (and shore up your defenses for a round), or shut down magic missile in its tracks. It’s something that’s active, so it makes the player using it an active part in their character’s survival, and it just feels cool to use. You can envision raising up a magical shield and blunting the force of an attack. It’s a spell that tells its own little story every time you cast it, and it’s a worthy addition to every Wizard’s spellbooks.
Expeditious Retreat
In D&D, especially if you’re playing with a battlemap and grid, mobility is just as key as anything else. Careful positioning can mean the difference between life and death. And when you’ve only got 1d6 hit points to throw around, being able to move twice in a turn is pretty grand. Ensure you’ve always got that extra bit of range for your spells – or that you’re just out of an enemy’s reach, all from a single spell. It’s not often that you run across a buff that’s both offensive and defensive, but this one is such a powerful enabler, and it’s only 1st level.
Suggestion
This is the spell you want Charm Person to be. Every magic user who fancies themselves a manipulator of minds finds themselves pining for 3rd level when they can finally cast Suggestion. This is the Jedi Mind trick spell, the one that lets you say a short Suggestion that your target will carry out to the best of their abilities. There are more powerful spells that do the same thing or worse, but this is the first one to really nail what you want to do.
Fireball
Speaking of nailing things – Fireball is about as iconic as it gets. This is the most powerful attack spell (for its level) in the game. Alongside Lightning Bolt, which hits fewer targets but rolls as many dice, Fireball stretches all the way back through the Editions, and lets you roll enough d6s to singe any opponent. It’s powerful enough that you’ll almost never regret casting it, and for that reason alone it makes the list.
Polymorph
Finally we come back to another spell that cuts both ways. Use it on your fighter to turn them into a T. Rex or other beastie, or target an enemy and make them something harmless like a goldfish for the duration of a fight. Banishment might let you just be rid of an enemy, but Polymorph makes you a friend to your party. With Wizards, the key is flexibility, and it doesn’t get much more flexible than Polymorph.
These are just our candidates for best wizard spells. What are your choices? Let us know in the comments!
