Community

(not a rhetorical question )

Let me give you a bit of context:

I played 3e for several years, and while I liked playing all the classes, I naturally gravitated towards the magic users: clerics, sorcerers, wizards... there was something about playing a character who was mystical that was a ton of fun.

When playing 3e characters, I would spend a significant amount of my magic just doing interesting things out of combat: using mage hand for simple tasks, using Alter Self liberally to change into other people, basically "wasting" magic to create a character that was magically frivolous. Illusion magic in general was tons of fun: most of the time, the only real limit was your creativity.

Long story short, I'm played in one 4e game, and am currently playing in another. In one, I played a Paladin, and that was fun as expected: the paladin abilities synergized well with trying to defend your party from foes, and keep your allies on their feet. It was fun to play a character that was about protecting others and doing good in the world, and all the abilities and powers were directly in line with that idea.

In this new campaign, I'm playing a wizard, but I find myself frustrated. I feel like I'm just playing the Paladin again, except with slightly fewer hit points, and a few more AoE attacks. I tried to specialize in rituals, but I've really only had occasion to cast two or three in seven levels (Tenser's disk to carry some friends across traps that I teleported across, Magic Circle to seal a teleportation circle while we rested nearby).

I've made the most of mage hand, prestidigitation, and ghost sound, but after a while there aren't that many surprises there. I find it really difficult to play a "magical" character, since every character feature is about combat, and the rituals require fairly exacting circumstances to use.

I feel like I'm playing Diablo II. Sure, every character has a different *style* of killing people, but that's all we're built to do.

Anyway, enough griping. How do *you* play a magical character?

I guess I'm just a little dissapointed that the only avenues of "wizardness" out there are my cantrips.

After reading some other threads out there, I found one about somebody who had a similar problem with druids. One of the posters in there (Warweaver) said:

"Of course no one really hits on the fact that this also means class titles like "Druid" are exercises in futility. With the obsession over Roles in 4e, it's no accident that you can say "primal controller" and get the exact same definition (even the primal is unnecessary really, as power sources are nearly fluff - so far)."

I think my frustration is coming from the fact I signed up to play a wizard, not a controller. =[

Clearly, a wizard is a controller, but I guess my frustration is that all aspects of the character seem to derive from the "role" of the character, rather than the inspiration.

These class names aren't (well, weren't) just slapped on because they liked the sound of the words, but for the archetypes they invoke from fantasy literature and media. Playing a 4e wizard doesn't feel like I'm playing a wizard - I feel like I'm playing a controller.

I know I'm not doing a good job defining it, but these classes all "feel" very similar in play, rather than being unique. That's probably just a mental holdover from 3e, and maybe I'll eventually get past it, but it's awkward and frustrating as is.

A wizard is as magical as you want him to be. In combat, it's clear what his magic (abilities) can and can't do, and spells work pretty much the same, every time. Even in non-combat (roleplaying) encounters, his magic is set.

Outside of comabt or roleplaying of course, there's less definition. At this point, his magic is just flavor for the story. So, he can float around two or three inches off the ground. Maybe he can whisk small objects to his hand at will. What wizard can't light pipes and candles with little more than a thought? The use for cantrip-type magic is limited only by your imagination; these are basically 'little wishes' (an idea from an early Dragon Magazine).

This is the typical image of a truly magical wizard; no reason not to engage that imagery when it's the story that matters, not the rules. The magic is still there (always has been); just don't let the new rules stifle your imagination.

The following actions can be fluffed to be magical.

Skills(Mage Hand-esque helpers)
Action Point Spending(Arcane Energy Surge)
Healing Surges(Arcane Energy Repair)
Second Wind(Arcane Force Field)
Running(Hovering)
Shifting(Wind Buffering Movement)
Getting Up From Prone(Hovering)
Becoming Bloodied(Break In Arcane Energy Cloaking Character)
Dying(Burst of Power leaving body or loss of glowy effects)
-Moving-(Hovering)

Basically, your character is as magical as you want to make them.