Wizard Guide - D&D 2024 (5.5)

Build a spellbook for the campaign in front of you

The 2024 Wizard is an Intelligence-based full caster that builds a spellbook and prepares its daily spells from that book. The class rewards planning, but that planning starts with the actual adventure rather than a universal spell ranking. Your spellbook is the long-term collection, while your prepared list is the short-term answer to tomorrow's problems.

Wizard at a glance

Start with Intelligence, then give serious attention to Constitution and Dexterity. The first improves your spellcasting; the other two make a fragile character more likely to keep concentration and stay standing. Your Background and species can change the details, so use the character's actual proficiencies and campaign role instead of treating one ability array as mandatory.

The Wizard's starting equipment includes two daggers, an Arcane Focus in the form of a quarterstaff, a robe, spellbook, Scholar's Pack, and 5 GP, or the listed gold alternative. A spellbook can also serve as a Spellcasting Focus. Those details make the character's gear part of the fiction: keep the book accessible, decide what it looks like, and have a plan for replacing it if the campaign puts it at risk.

Set ability scores for the job you expect to do

The Wizard gains the Ability Score Improvement feat or another qualifying feat at levels 4, 8, 12, and 16. Increasing Intelligence is often the cleanest early choice, but it is not automatic. A character losing Concentration every encounter or struggling to act before a dangerous enemy has a concrete reason to address Constitution or Dexterity first. Use the best feats for Wizard guide for the detailed feat comparison.

The spellbook and prepared list

At level 1, your spellbook contains six level 1 Wizard spells. You add two eligible Wizard spells to it whenever you gain a Wizard level after 1, and you can copy eligible Wizard spells you find during play. That makes the book a meaningful record of the character's research rather than a disposable list of daily choices.

Copying a newly found level 1+ Wizard spell takes 2 hours and 50 GP for each level of the spell. Copying a spell you already know into another book takes 1 hour and 10 GP per spell level. A backup book is a practical campaign decision, especially when the party expects travel, theft, fire, or water hazards.

Your prepared list is drawn from that book. At the beginning of the class, you prepare four level 1+ spells; the number grows on the Wizard Features table. After a Long Rest, you can replace any prepared spells with other spells from the book. Ritual Adept also lets you cast a Ritual-tagged spell from the book without preparing it, provided you read from the book while casting.

Hot Take: A spellbook full of options is only useful if you make preparation part of your table routine. Before a Long Rest, ask what the party expects to do next, what problem went unanswered today, and which concentration spell you are willing to protect. That small conversation does more for a Wizard than chasing a generic "best spells" list.

For detailed spell choices and their level-by-level use, use the D&D 2024 Wizard spell guide. The important class-level decision is to keep a mix of reliable combat magic, exploration tools, and a few spells that solve the campaign's current problems.

Core features and level breakpoints

Arcane Recovery

When you finish a Short Rest, Arcane Recovery restores expended spell slots with a combined level no higher than half your Wizard level, rounded up. It cannot restore a slot of level 6 or higher, and it recharges after a Long Rest. Plan this around the slots you have actually spent; it is not based on Intelligence and it is not an unlimited recovery engine.

Scholar and Memorize Spell

Scholar grants Expertise in one proficient skill from Arcana, History, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, or Religion. Pick the skill that will create real scenes for your character, not just the skill with the most impressive label.

Memorize Spell is a rest-time adjustment. After a Short Rest, it can replace one prepared level 1+ Wizard spell with another from your spellbook. After a Long Rest, it can instead replace one of those spells with an eligible spell of the same level. It is not a Bonus Action, and it does not replace the broader preparation change available after a Long Rest.

High-level Wizard features

Spell Mastery keeps one action-cast level 1 spell and one action-cast level 2 spell prepared and lets you cast each at its lowest level without a spell slot. Signature Spells keeps two level 3 spells prepared and lets you cast each once at level 5 without a slot before a Short or Long Rest. Both features reward choosing spells that fit your usual turn, but neither makes every spell in the book free.

Choose a Wizard subclass

The Player's Handbook supplies four schools. Arcana Unleashed supplies four more, and Heroes of Faerun supplies Bladesinger. Every option below is in the approved five-book corpus; Eberron - Forge of the Artificer and Ravenloft: The Horror Within add no Wizard subclass to that inventory.

Abjurer

Protect the party from hostile magic and absorb damage that would otherwise reach you or an ally.

At level 3, Abjuration Savant adds school spells to the spellbook and Arcane Ward creates a protective pool when you cast an Abjuration spell with a slot.

The ward pays off when you regularly cast protective or disruptive Abjuration spells. At later levels, Projected Ward lets you spend your Reaction to protect an ally, while Spell Breaker and Spell Resistance make the school increasingly useful against enemy casters. Its protective focus is less direct than an Evoker's damage plan, but it is firmly supported by the Player's Handbook.

Bladesinger

Combine a melee weapon with Wizard preparation, mobility, and defensive concentration support.

Bladesong begins at level 3. It requires no armor or Shield and improves AC, Speed, Acrobatics, weapon attacks, and concentration saves while active. Training in War and Song adds compatible martial weapon proficiency and a useful skill.

At level 6, Extra Attack can replace one attack with an action-cast Wizard cantrip, and the later defensive and bonus-attack features reward staying in the Bladesong loop. A Bladesinger still has Wizard durability and must respect Bladesong's armor, shield, and two-handed-weapon limits. The tradition is a Heroes of Faerun option, so confirm setting access and tone with the DM.

Conjurer

Reposition creatures and make summons more durable.

Benign Transposition lets you teleport or exchange places with a willing Medium or smaller creature. Conjuration Savant expands the spellbook with school spells.

Durable Summons, Focused Conjuration, and Splintered Summons make the school more appealing as levels rise, but each payoff asks you to use Conjuration spells and manage summoned creatures. This is an Arcana Unleashed option; do not assume it is in a Player's Handbook-only game.

Diviner

Use foreknowledge and information magic to influence crucial rolls and anticipate threats.

Portent gives you two recorded d20 rolls after a Long Rest that can replace a visible creature's D20 Test before the roll.

Expert Divination can recover a lower-level spell slot after you cast a level 2+ Divination spell, while The Third Eye and Greater Portent broaden the school's information and roll control. Portent is powerful because timing matters, not because it answers every encounter. The Player's Handbook subclass suits a player who tracks the party's turning points and communicates before replacing a roll.

Enchanter

Shape social scenes and targeted control through charm and Enchantment spells.

Enchanting Conversationalist improves one social skill with Intelligence, while Hypnotic Presence can charm and incapacitate a nearby creature under its stated limits.

Split Enchantment supports higher-level targeting, while Instinctive Charm and Alter Memories give the school defensive and social consequences beyond the initial charm. Charm magic can create social consequences and has less value against immune or unsuitable targets. This is an Arcana Unleashed option, so make its place in the campaign clear with the DM.

Evoker

Deliver elemental damage while creating safer space for allies inside your area effects.

Potent Cantrip gives damaging cantrips a partial result when their target avoids the full effect; later Sculpt Spells protects chosen creatures from an Evocation spell's saving throw and half-damage result.

Empowered Evocation improves a damage roll, and Overchannel gives a qualifying damage spell maximum damage at a meaningful cost if you press it again before resting. Evoker works best for a player who wants clear combat turns and still needs to manage spell slots, allies' positions, and concentration. It is a Player's Handbook subclass.

Illusionist

Use deception, range, and creative terrain solutions instead of relying only on damage.

Improved Illusions changes your Illusion spellcasting and upgrades Minor Illusion's flexibility. Illusion Savant also adds school spells to the spellbook.

Phantasmal Creatures, Illusory Self, and Illusory Reality provide later tools, but illusions still depend on the fiction being understood at the table. Explain the intended effect, ask the DM how the scene responds, and do not assume every imagined effect has automatic mechanical force. It is a Player's Handbook subclass.

Necromancer

Explore life, death, and Undead support with a spellbook that offers an Undead familiar and Necrotic resilience.

Necromancy Spellbook grants Necrotic Resistance, adds Find Familiar, allows special Undead familiar forms, and supports Undead with a Necromancy spell cast using a slot.

Grave Power and Undead Thralls deepen the Undead support plan, while Harvest Undead and Death's Master make the level 10 and 14 choices more consequential. Undead allies can slow combat and change a campaign's tone. This Arcana Unleashed option benefits from an explicit conversation about creature management and the setting's reaction to necromancy.

Transmuter

Share adaptable defenses and reshape your own body or the world around you.

Transmuter's Stone offers its bearer Constitution saving throw proficiency plus a chosen defensive or movement benefit. Wondrous Alteration also makes Alter Self a reliable part of the subclass package.

Empowered Transmutation, Potent Stone, Shape-Shifter, and Master Transmuter make the school a flexible support and utility package rather than a single defensive item. The Stone is more valuable when you plan who will carry it and what the next encounter needs. This is an Arcana Unleashed option, not an automatic Player's Handbook choice.

Class Feats

Use the best feats for Wizard guide when a feat choice is on the table.

Class Spells

Use the Wizard spell guide for spell selection. If you are weighing different casting styles, compare the Sorcerer guide and Warlock guide as distinct class choices, not as multiclass packages. Start with the D&D 2024 class guide hub to compare every class.