THE WIZARD

By ASH LAW

Wizard Overview

The wizard is in many ways the most complex of the classes from the 13^th Age core rule book. At the start of each new day you can memorize a different set of spells, so the only real things that permanently change as a wizard levels up are their feats. Wizards however do tend to have a standard set of most-likely spells, so for these builds I’m laying those out for these builds.

The wizard’s class features are cantrips (minor yet useful magic), cyclic magic (powerful magic that can be used repeatedly in battle), overworld advantage (daily spells become recharge when in the overworld), and ritual casting (cast spells as hour-long rituals for more unusual effects).

Also of note are utility spells, which are stand-ins for a host of useful effects from saving wizards from falls to talking to magic items.

Explorer Wizard

Download the Explorer Wizard character sheets here.

This wizard is built to be all about having as much utility as possible-with a spell for every occasion. Play this wizard if you like solving problems with magic, and enjoy improvising new uses for spells.

Memorizing two acid arrows a day gives this wizard a powerful attack, and magic missile grants the wizard a reliable offence, giving the explorer wizard a good core of combat spells for when things go bad.

Talents

Cantrip Mastery

Use cantrips at-will, and do unusual things with them.

High Arcana

Memorize daily spells twice, and use counter-magic to resist unfriendly spellcasters. With the feat for utility spell this gives you four uses of the spell per day if memorized using two spell slots.

Vance’s Polysyllabic Verbalizations

Change the names of spells to get extra effects from them.

Race

High elves can perform a highblood teleport, very useful to a wizard exploring dangerous places.

Attributes

Intelligence is the single most important attribute for this character, but not to the exclusion of all else: Str 8 (-1) Con 14 (+2) Dex 14 (+2) Int 18 (+4) Wis 12 (+1) Cha 12 (+1).

1^st level

Attributes: Str 8 (-1) Con 14 (+2) Dex 14 (+2) Int 18 (+4) Wis 12 (+1) Cha 12 (+1).

Racial Power: highblood teleport

Talents: cantrip mastery, high arcana, vance’s polysyllabic verbalizations

Feats: utility spell

Most likely memorized spells: counter-magic 1^st level: utility spell (x4), acid arrow, charm person, magic missile

2^nd level

Most likely spells (counter-magic 1^st level: utility spell (x4), acid arrow (x2), charm person, magic missile), new feat (magic missile).

3^rd level

Most likely spells (counter-magic 1^st level: blur, charm person, magic missile / 3^rd level: utility spell (x4), acid arrow (x2)), new feat (precise shot).

4^th level

+1 to three attributes (Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence), most likely spells (counter-magic 1^st level: blur, charm person / 3^rd level: utility spell (x4), acid arrow (x2), magic missile, sleep), new feat (linguist).

5^th level

Most likely spells (counter-magic 1^st level: blur / 3^rd level: hold monster, sleep, charm person, magic missile / 5^th level: utility spell (x4), acid arrow (x2)), new feat (magic missile).

6^th level

Most likely spells (counter-magic 3^rd level: hold monster, sleep / 5^th level: utility spell (x6), acid arrow (x2), magic missile, charm person, invisibility, dimension door), new feat (utility spell).

7^th level

+1 to three attributes (Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence), most likely spells (counter-magic 3^rd level: sleep / 5^th level: dimension door, fireball, invisibility, charm person / 7^th level: utility spell (x6), acid arrow (x2), magic missile), new feat (linguist).

8^th level

Most likely spells (counter-magic 5^th level: dimension door, fireball, invisibility / 7^th level: utility spell (x6), acid arrow (x2), magic missile, charm person, blink, flight), new feat (magic missile).

9^th level

Most likely spells (counter-magic 5^th level: invisibility / 7^th level: blink, flight, haste, fireball, dimension door / 9^th level: utility spell (x6), acid arrow (x2), magic missile, charm person), new feat (further backgrounding).

10^th level

+1 to three attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence), most likely spells (counter-magic 7^th level: dimension door, fireball, invisibility / 9^th level: utility spell (x6), acid arrow (x2), magic missile, charm person, teleport (x2), blink), new feat (further backgrounding).