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Everyone,

At last I am ready to post some of the research I have been talking about with regard to the wizard. Some of the comments and numbers Squirrelloid has shown in the Char-Op forums have been invaluable guides, but they largely confirmed what I already suspected. I'd also like to give a hat-tip to Tony Vargas who inspired this title with his infamous Article "Bards DO Suck" which was the first attempt at a serious look at the problems of the 3.0E bard in what was then a new system.

Rather than to hold everyone in suspense, I have concluded that Wizards do in fact Suck. By "Suck" I mean they are sub-optimal and substandard at tactical control both as the term is commonly defined and as Wotc defines it. This is a very strong statement, but unfortunately the data backs me up. Let's start by reviewing some of the relevant data.

Average Monster Stats/Powers:

Level 1:
AC: 15 Reflex Def: 13 Fort Def: 13 Will Def: 12 Average Hit Points: 29

Level 6:
AC: 20 Reflex Def: 17 Fort Def: 19 Will Def: 17 Average Hit Points: 89

Level 11:
AC: 26 Reflex Def: 22 Fort Def: 23 Will Def: 22 Average Hit Points: 176

Level 16:
AC: 31 Reflex Def: 28 Fort Def: 30 Will Def: 28 Average Hit Points: 256

Level 21:
AC: 35 Reflex Def: 33 Fort Def: 34 Will Def: 33 Average Hit Points: 283

Level 26:
AC: 42 Reflex Def: 39 Fort Def: 40 Will Def: 37 Average Hit Points: 466

The above is a list of average Monster Attributes in the Monster manual (excluding minions which are a special case...but they too have defenses in line with the numbers posted above for their level). I have not adjusted it or normalized it by level (as Squirreloid has elsewhere). Even so some things become immediately clear:

1. Defenses increase about 1 per level. Note that PC defenses and attacks only improve by 1 every 2 levels. That means that every other level, you have to find an extra +1 to hit somewhere in order to keep up. Fortunately that isn't too hard until late epic levels. As I indicated Squirilloid has already shown this in Char-Op under "The Mathematics of Optimization", but basically if you start with a 16 stat in your primary attack stat, and improve that stat each chance you get, AND get level appropriate weapons and/or impliments, then your chance to hit your typcial defense will be about 50%. For the rest of this article we will assume that a "base" 16 character hits a level appropriate challenge 50% of the time. It's a simplification I admit, but it's one that's close to reality and makes the analysis much easier.

2. Monster hit points increase at a vastly accelerated pace when compared with PC hit points. Remember that after first level, a PC hit point gain is flat (modified only slightly by feats and constitution stat gains). However, monster seem to increase their hit points by a factor of five (or more) every ten levels. What this means is after low (1-3) levels, it is disadvantagous for the party to trade hit points with monsters. In fact I suspect that this has caused many early TPKs. I call this the "Padded Sumo" effect.

Now let's look at wizard damage. I will assume for the moment, that we are talking about a wizard that starts with an 18 Int (subtract one from the damage if the wizard starts with a 16 Int). I will assume that the wizard is improving his Int every chance he gets. I am also looking at damage only regardless of other spell or type of spell (except at-wills).

Best Wizard Spell Damage (at-will, single target, Area of Effect):

Level 1: 9 13 11
Level 6: 9 13 15
Level 11: 10 18 16
Level 16: 11 18 26
Level 21: 15 34 26
Level 26: 15 34 29

Just one look at the numbers reveals the obvious. The wizard damage doesn't keep up with monster hit points. It doesn't even come close. Basically once you've hit paragon level, your best damaging powers (which you can do once per encounter at best) do only 10% of the damage needed to defeat the enemy if you hit at all Once you are reduced to at-wills, you almost may as well shoot spitballs at a monster for all the damage you can do. Basically, your best attack will do 5% to defeat the monster once per encounter. The moral of the story here should be obvious: Trying to control the battlefield by damaging monsters either solo or in an area is sadly and badly suboptimal. Unfortunately this is the sort of 'control' that Wotc seems to want the wizard to have.

That means that the best wizards aren't ones that worry about damage (against Wotc's advice I mght add) but instead worry about status effects. Those status effects revolve around saving throws which a creature gets to throw off at the end of his turn (usually, there are specific exceptions). Unfortunately, the average time that any creature is under a status effect is less than one round. This is fairly easy to show mathematically.

A normal monster makes a saving throw if he rolls a 10 or more (55%) on a d20. That means the expected rounds a monster is affected is an infinite sum that looks like this:

0.45*1 round+0.20*2round+0.09*3round+...... It works out to be less than one round.

That means your normal wizard even if he places a great status condition on a creature (like stun) can't keep it on him reliably. It's worse with leaders who get +2 to all saves, and really bad for Solos who get +5.

So basically if you build a wizard "straight" as Wotc recommends, you don't do enough damage to be useful in combat and your status effects don't last long enough to be useful either.

Finally, as Icing to put the proverbial cherry on top, let's compare the Wizard to the nearly "controller-like" class in the PHB: The Cleric.

Cleric Class Features:
[LIST=1]

Armor: Cloth, Leather, Hide, Chain

Weapons: Simple Melee, Simple Ranged

Impliment: Holy Symbol

Defense: +2 Will

Initial Hit Points: 12+Constitution

Hit Points per Level: 5

Healing Surges: 7+Con Mod

Ritual Casting*

Healer's Lore

Channel Divinity

Healing Word


Wizard Class Features:
[LIST=1]

Armor: Cloth

Weapons: Dagger, Staff

Impliment: Orb OR Staff OR Wand

Defense Bonus: +2 Will

Initial Hit Points: 10+Constitution

Hit Points Per Level: 4

Healing Surges: 6+Con Mod

Ritual Casting*

Spellbook

Cantrips

Arcane Impliment Mastery


Clerical Skills (One and pick three):
[LIST=1]

Religion (req)

Arcana

Diplomacy

Heal

History

Insight


Wizard Skills (One and pick three):
[LIST=1]

Religion

Arcana (req)

Diplomacy

History

Insight

Nature

Dungeoneering


Cleric Prime Stat: Wisdom
Wizard Prime Stat: Intelligence

* Cleric gets two free rituals one of which must be Gentle Repose. Wizard gets three at first and two more at 5th, 11th, 15th, 21st, and 25th level.

Let's go ahead and cancel out common stuff on both sides of the ledger. The skills between a cleric and wizard are largely the same and both classes get the same number (and there is a lot of overlap). Likewise, the impliments themselves work the same way in both classes (both add attack and damage to relavent powers). [We will cover Implement mastery in a moment.] Both classes get the same Will defense bonus so cancel that out. Both get ritual casting (although the wizard does get more free rituals). That largely cancels out too.

So what's left:

Armor: The cleric wins this one hands down. It's not worth disputing.

Weapons: The cleric wins this one hands down too, but for the controller type, it's a small thing at best (nearly zero value).

Hit Points at all levels: Cleric, no question

Healing Surges: Cleric, no question

Healer's lore vs Spell book: Cleric comes out ahead on this one too. Healer's lore gets to add the best Clerical Modifier to all "heal" powers (which includes one of his class encounter powers) this is actually useful in combat. Spellbook? If the wizard had more useful spells, it might be different but as it is, twice zero for spells is still zero. The Spellbook while not worthless isn't as good as it sounds either.

Channel Divinity vs Cantrips: As a cleric once per encounter you can either get a +1 to attack or saving throw (and very few things give you bonuses to saving throws) or get a nice little power that's great against undead and acually pretends to scale with undead hit points per level (doing radiant damage). Cantrips? With the possible exception of Mage-Hand as a blocker (almost certain to be errataed), cantrips are pure fluff. There is nothing (with the one exception I've mentioned) you can do with a cantrip you can't do with mundane gear and skills. Cleric comes out ahead on this one hands down.

Healing Word vs Arcane Impliment Mastery: Healing word is OK especially if your ally can't spend the necessary healing surge on his own, but Arcane Impliement is mastery if and only if you picked Orb as your impliment. That's because the wizard is the only one that can get a scaling (by Wisdom) penalty to an effect save per encounter per target. So the wizard finally comes out ahead if he has a high wisdom and uses an Orb. That's pretty damned specific.

OK, so far the Cleric seems so much better than the Wizard, but that's not all there is to the story, right? Surely the Wizard makes up for his lack elsewhere with the wonderful spells he can throw, right? Unforunately, wrong. First of all the Cleric and Wizard get the same number of spells per day (all classes do). Secondly the Wizard spells aren't all that much better than their clerical counterparts.

First of all let's look at damage comparing a Str-Wis Cleric (the standard) with At-Wills, AoE, and Single Target damaging spells (and compare to the chart I've already shown for the wizard). I will make the same assumptions vis a vis Wisdom that I've made with Int vis a vis the Wizard. I will assume that strength is a secondary for the cleric (wis -2) with a Cha mod of +1. In short a very 'default' cleric build.

Best Clerical Spell Damage (at will, single target, Area of Effect):

Level 1: 9 15 9
Level 6: 9 15 9
Level 11: 10 15 16
Level 16: 11 20 28
Level 21: 16 23 35
Level 26: 17 34 35

Well there you go. The cleric doesn't exactly set the world on fire either with his damage (no one will mistake him for a striker), but notice that even in the wizard's own supposed speciality (Area of Effect spells), the Cleric does more damage than the wizard after all but the lowest levels. More to the point, the cleric also heals and buffs the party during combat helping other party members do their job better. Something the wizard can not do. So the Cleric acts as a controller AND acts as a leader too.

Oh, but what about status effects? Turns out that the clerical list is full of status effects. Clerics don't get a spell as sweet as sleep but check out Rune of Binding especially when combined with the Demi-God Epic Path. Such a cleric (free to any cleric) can hold Orcus himself in such a thing indefinately (which in 4E means five minutes). At lower levels cause fear is pretty sweet too even for a low Cha cleric.

So when another class that isn't a controller (cleric) does the controller's job better than the decidated controller (wizard), it's time to call it a day and conclude...all together now.....

Wizards. DO. Suck.

-Polaris

"I see a lot of things completely left out... Status effects, various choices, how about radiant damage vulnerability/resistance compared to the wizard's ability to select multiple energy types. How about most rituals being arcane, and the wizard starting with one more, and more than likely ending up with more, due to his prechosen Arcana skill. How about the wizard having better implements? What about ongoing damage? What about utility powers? Did you take in to account most clerics' need to spread their abilities thin to cover both weapon and implement based abilities? If this were a court of law, I have poked enough holes in your statement to give reasonable doubt, so I rest my case." ^-^

One thing I'd like to point out is AoE damage. Yes, Cleric AoEs are hard hitting (and tend to have really handy secondary effects), but Wizards get more of them.

So, if you consider a battle situation, the Cleric can throw down his daily AoE which will hit hard, but is unlikely to be able to throw down multiple Encounters and Dailies like the Wizard. In other words, given a few rounds to work with the Wizard may more easily dish out more AoE damage.


Other than that I do pretty much agree with you. Wizards and their CC were so great in 3.5 that I think WotC maybe went a bit too hard on them. Most of the debuffs either do not last long enough or aren't significantly helpful enough to warrant having a Wizard in the party. Something like a Cleric would probably be more helpful.

Asuril wrote:

One thing I'd like to point out is AoE damage. Yes, Cleric AoEs are hard hitting (and tend to have really handy secondary effects), but Wizards get more of them.

I'd add to this, that one of the nice things about AoE's is taking out swaths of minions. With minions, the damage doesn't matter; it's all about attack bonus, size of the area, and how many times you can do it per encounter. I haven't crunched the numbers, but it seems like the wizard is better than the cleric in those areas.

makeshiftwings wrote:

I'd add to this, that one of the nice things about AoE's is taking out swaths of minions. With minions, the damage doesn't matter; it's all about attack bonus, size of the area, and how many times you can do it per encounter. I haven't crunched the numbers, but it seems like the wizard is better than the cleric in those areas.

Not significantly and only at lower levels. At higher levels a surprisingly large number of clerical spells (both encounter and daily) are AoEs. Not only that but ALL classes get AoE attacks. If your DM is relying on minions to make the wizard feel useful, then there is a problem with the wizard.

-Polaris